194 research outputs found
Cómo la libertad entra en la filosofía
Inasmuch as the question about being demands an answer as to
what is the highest being, any ontology must contain an internal or
overt reference to the science of God. I
examine the way in which we can freely pursue ontology and how
philosophers have understood the relation between freedom and
philosophy as a human endeavor
The e+ e- -> P1 P2 gamma processes close to the Phi peak: toward a model-independent analysis
We discuss the general decomposition and possible general parameterizations
of the processes , where , , or , for .
Particular attention is devoted to the amplitude where the two pseudoscalar
mesons are in a state, where we propose a general
parameterization which should help to shed light on the nature of light scalar
mesons.Comment: 12 pages, Late
A simple prescription for simulating and characterizing gravitational arcs
Simple models of gravitational arcs are crucial to simulate large samples of
these objects with full control of the input parameters. These models also
provide crude and automated estimates of the shape and structure of the arcs,
which are necessary when trying to detect and characterize these objects on
massive wide area imaging surveys. We here present and explore the ArcEllipse,
a simple prescription to create objects with shape similar to gravitational
arcs. We also present PaintArcs, which is a code that couples this geometrical
form with a brightness distribution and adds the resulting object to images.
Finally, we introduce ArcFitting, which is a tool that fits ArcEllipses to
images of real gravitational arcs. We validate this fitting technique using
simulated arcs and apply it to CFHTLS and HST images of tangential arcs around
clusters of galaxies. Our simple ArcEllipse model for the arc, associated to a
S\'ersic profile for the source, recovers the total signal in real images
typically within 10%-30%. The ArcEllipse+S\'ersic models also automatically
recover visual estimates of length-to-width ratios of real arcs. Residual maps
between data and model images reveal the incidence of arc substructure. They
may thus be used as a diagnostic for arcs formed by the merging of multiple
images. The incidence of these substructures is the main factor preventing
ArcEllipse models from accurately describing real lensed systems.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&
The first 62 AGN observed with SDSS-IV MaNGA - IV: gas excitation and star-formation rate distributions
We present maps of the ionized gas flux distributions, excitation,
star-formation rate SFR, surface mass density , and obtain total
values of SFR and ionized gas masses {\it M} for 62 Active Galactic Nuclei
(AGN) observed with SDSS-IV MaNGA and compare them with those of a control
sample of 112 non-active galaxies. The most luminous AGN -- with
L(\rm{[OIII]}\lambda 5007) \ge 3.8\times 10^{40}\,\mbox{erg}\,\mbox{s}^{-1},
and those hosted by earlier-type galaxies are dominated by Seyfert excitation
within 0.2 effective radius from the nucleus, surrounded by LINER
excitation or transition regions, while the less luminous and hosted by
later-type galaxies show equally frequent LINER and Seyfert excitation within
. The extent of the region ionized by the AGN follows the
relation -- as in the case of the Broad-Line
Region. The SFR distribution over the region ionized by hot stars is similar
for AGN and controls, while the integrated SFR -- in the range
\,M\,yr is also similar for the late-type
sub-sample, but higher in the AGN for 75\% of the early-type sub-sample. We
thus conclude that there is no signature of AGN quenching star formation in the
body of the galaxy in our sample. We also find that 66\% of the AGN have higher
ionized gas masses than the controls -- in the range
10\,M -- while 75\% of the AGN have higher
within than the control galaxies
The SOAR Gravitational Arc Survey - I: Survey overview and photometric catalogs
We present the first results of the SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research)
Gravitational Arc Survey (SOGRAS). The survey imaged 47 clusters in two
redshift intervals centered at and , targeting the richest
clusters in each interval. Images were obtained in the , and
bands using the SOAR Optical Imager (SOI), with a median seeing of 0.83, 0.76
and 0.71 arcsec, respectively, in these filters. Most of the survey clusters
are located within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 region and all
of them are in the SDSS footprint. Photometric calibration was therefore
performed using SDSS stars located in our SOI fields. We reached for galaxies
in all fields the detection limits of , and for a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) = 3. As a by-product of the image
processing, we generated a source catalogue with 19760 entries, the vast
majority of which are galaxies, where we list their positions, magnitudes and
shape parameters. We compared our galaxy shape measurements to those of local
galaxies and concluded that they were not strongly affected by seeing. From the
catalogue data, we are able to identify a red sequence of galaxies in most
clusters in the lower range. We found 16 gravitational arc candidates
around 8 clusters in our sample. They tend to be bluer than the central
galaxies in the lensing cluster. A preliminary analysis indicates that of the clusters have arcs around them, with a possible indication of a
larger efficiency associated to the high- systems when compared to the
low- ones. Deeper follow-up images with Gemini strengthen the case for the
strong lensing nature of the candidates found in this survey.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures (most of them multi-panel) MNRAS (2013
Deadwood in forest stands close to old-growthness under Mediterranean conditions in the Italian Peninsula
Considering that indicators of old-growth features can vary across the European ecoregions, this paper provides some results to identify the distinctive traits of old-growth forests in the Mediterranean ecoregion. Deadwood occurrence as indicator of naturalness is investigated in some remote forest areas that have developed in absence of anthropogenic disturbance over the past few decades. Eleven study sites across the Italian peninsula were elected and records of deadwood were carried out in 1-ha size plots. Deadwood volume, deadwood types and decay stages were inventoried in the selected sites. The amounts of deadwood indicate a large variability among the investigated forest stands: the total volume ranged between 2 and 143 m3ha-1, with an average of 60 m3ha-1. Lying deadwood is the most abundant component of deadwood in the investigated forests, due to the natural mortality occurring in the stands in relation to the processes established in the last decades. On the contrary, stumps are the less represented type of deadwood in almost all the study areas. All the decay classes are present in each study site. The amount of deadwood in Southern Europe, even if lower than that reported for North and Central European countries, could have a different meaning due to the faster decay occurring in Mediterranean forest ecosystems. For this reason, old-growth features and the characteristics of each indicator should be framed and referred to well-defined climatic and biogeographic contexts. Distinctively, under the conditions here investigated, three main deadwood features prove to characterize forest stands close to old-growthness: a ratio of dead to living wood not lower than 10%; lying deadwood much more abundant than the standing one; large range of deadwood size and decay classes across all the deadwood components
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