3,863 research outputs found
Polynuclear hydrocarbons in sediments and clams in the vicinity of a refinery outfall
The objectives of this study were:
1) to determine whether substances present in refinery process water are found in adjacent sediments and bivalves
2) to determine the concentrations of compounds detected
3) to identify compounds that may have adverse effects on marine animals or their human consumers
Polynuclear hydrocarbons in sediments and clams in the vicinity of a refinery outfall
The objectives of this study were: 1) to determine whether certain organic substances (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons) present in a refinery process water are found in adjacent sediments and bivalves; and 2) to determine the concentrations of the compounds detected
Evidence of a Supermassive Black Hole in the Galaxy NGC 1023 from the Nuclear Stellar Dynamics
We analyze the nuclear stellar dynamics of the SB0 galaxy NGC 1023, utilizing
observational data both from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph aboard
the Hubble Space Telescope and from the ground. The stellar kinematics measured
from these long-slit spectra show rapid rotation (V = 70 km/s at a distance of
0.1 arcsec = 4.9 pc from the nucleus) and increasing velocity dispersion toward
the nucleus (where sigma = 295 +/- 30 km/s). We model the observed stellar
kinematics assuming an axisymmetric mass distribution with both two and three
integrals of motion. Both modeling techniques point to the presence of a
central dark compact mass (which presumably is a supermassive black hole) with
confidence > 99%. The isotropic two-integral models yield a best-fitting black
hole mass of (6.0 +/- 1.4) x 10^7 M_sun and mass-to-light ratio (M/L_V) of 5.38
+/- 0.08, and the goodness-of-fit (chi^2) is insensitive to reasonable values
for the galaxy's inclination. The three-integral models, which
non-parametrically fit the observed line-of-sight velocity distribution as a
function of position in the galaxy, suggest a black hole mass of (3.9 +/- 0.4)
x 10^7 M_sun and M/L_V of 5.56 +/- 0.02 (internal errors), and the edge-on
models are vastly superior fits over models at other inclinations. The internal
dynamics in NGC 1023 as suggested by our best-fit three-integral model shows
that the velocity distribution function at the nucleus is tangentially
anisotropic, suggesting the presence of a nuclear stellar disk. The nuclear
line of sight velocity distribution has enhanced wings at velocities >= 600
km/s from systemic, suggesting that perhaps we have detected a group of stars
very close to the central dark mass.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, accepted in the Astrophysical Journa
Derivative pricing under the possibility of long memory in the supOU stochastic volatility model
We consider the supOU stochastic volatility model which is able to exhibit
long-range dependence. For this model we give conditions for the discounted
stock price to be a martingale, calculate the characteristic function, give a
strip where it is analytic and discuss the use of Fourier pricing techniques.
Finally, we present a concrete specification with polynomially decaying
autocorrelations and calibrate it to observed market prices of plain vanilla
options
Planetary nebulae and stellar kinematics in the flattened elliptical galaxy NGC 1344
We present photometric and kinematic information obtained by measuring 197
planetary nebulae (PNs) discovered in the flattened Fornax elliptical galaxy
NGC 1344 (also known as NGC 1340) with an on-band, off-band, grism + on-band
filter technique. We build the PN luminosity function (PNLF) and use it to
derive a distance modulus m-M=31.4, slightly smaller than, but in good
agreement with, the surface brightness fluctuation distance. The PNLF also
provides an estimate of the specific PN formation rate: 6x10^-12 PNs per year
per solar luminosity. Combining the positional information from the on-band
image with PN positions measured on the grism + on-band image, we can measure
the radial velocities of 195 PNs, some of them distant more than 3 effective
radii from the center of NGC 1344. We complement this data set with stellar
kinematics derived from integrated spectra along the major and minor axes, and
parallel to the major axis of NGC 1344. The line-of-sight velocity dispersion
profile indicates the presence of a dark matter halo around this galaxy.Comment: 45 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Anisotropy effects in a mixed quantum-classical Heisenberg model in two dimensions
We analyse a specific two dimensional mixed spin Heisenberg model with
exchange anisotropy, by means of high temperature expansions and Monte Carlo
simulations. The goal is to describe the magnetic properties of the compound
(NBu_{4})_{2}Mn_{2}[Cu(opba)]_{3}\cdot 6DMSO\cdot H_{2}O which exhibits a
ferromagnetic transition at . Extrapolating our analysis on the
basis of renormalisation group arguments, we find that this transition may
result from a very weak anisotropy effect.Comment: 8 pages, 10 Postscript figure
Stellar kinematics for the central spheroid in the Polar Disk Galaxy NGC4650A
We have obtained high angular resolution, high signal-to-noise spectra of the
Calcium triplet absorption lines on the photometric axes of the stellar
spheroid in the polar disk galaxy NGC4650A. Along the major axis, the observed
rotation and velocity dispersion measurements show the presence of a
kinematically decoupled nucleus, and a flat velocity dispersion profile. The
minor axis kinematics is determined for the first time: along this direction
some rotation is measured, and the velocity dispersion is nearly constant and
slightly increases at larger distances from the center. The new high resolution
kinematic data suggest that the stellar component in NGC4650A resembles a
nearly-exponential oblate spheroid supported by rotation. The main implications
of these results on the previous mass models for NGC4650A are discussed.
Moreover, the new kinematic data set constraints on current models for the
formation scenarios of Polar Ring Galaxies (PRGs), supporting a slow accretion
rather then a secondary strong dissipative event.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Triaxial orbit based galaxy models with an application to the (apparent) decoupled core galaxy NGC 4365
We present a flexible and efficient method to construct triaxial dynamical
models of galaxies with a central black hole, using Schwarzschild's orbital
superposition approach. Our method is general and can deal with realistic
luminosity distributions, which project to surface brightness distributions
that may show position angle twists and ellipticity variations. The models are
fit to measurements of the full line-of-sight velocity distribution (wherever
available). We verify that our method is able to reproduce theoretical
predictions of a three-integral triaxial Abel model. In a companion paper (van
de Ven, de Zeeuw & van den Bosch), we demonstrate that the method recovers the
phase-space distribution function. We apply our method to two-dimensional
observations of the E3 galaxy NGC 4365, obtained with the integral-field
spectrograph SAURON, and study its internal structure, showing that the
observed kinematically decoupled core is not physically distinct from the main
body and the inner region is close to oblate axisymmetric.Comment: 21 Pages, 14 (Colour) Figures, Companion paper is arXiv:0712.0309
Accepted to MNRAS. Full resolution version at
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~bosch/papers/RvdBosch_triaxmethod.pd
Moyal products -- a new perspective on quasi-hermitian quantum mechanics
The rationale for introducing non-hermitian Hamiltonians and other
observables is reviewed and open issues identified. We present a new approach
based on Moyal products to compute the metric for quasi-hermitian systems. This
approach is not only an efficient method of computation, but also suggests a
new perspective on quasi-hermitian quantum mechanics which invites further
exploration. In particular, we present some first results which link the Berry
connection and curvature to non-perturbative properties and the metric.Comment: 14 pages. Submitted to J Phys A special issue on The Physics of
Non-Hermitian Operator
Constraints on H_0 from the Central Velocity Dispersions of Lens Galaxies
We employ Schwarzschild's method of orbit modeling to constrain the mass
profiles of the central lens galaxies in Q0957+561 and PG 1115+080. We combine
the measured central projected stellar velocity dispersions of these galaxies
with the self-similar radial profiles of the rms velocity and of the
Gauss-Hermite moment h_4 observed in nearby galaxies for 0 < R < 2 R_eff. For
Q0957+561, we find a 16% uncertainty in the galaxy mass, and formal 2-sigma
limits on the Hubble constant of H_0 = (61 +13/-15) km/s/Mpc. For PG 1115+080,
we find that none of the viable lens models can be ruled out, so that H_0 is
not yet strongly constrained by this system.Comment: Revised version accepted by ApJ: slightly modified results for both
lens sytems. 18 pages, with 7 inline Postscript figures, LaTeX, aaspp4.sty;
postscript paper w/figs (490 kb) also available at
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~romanow/orbit.post.v2.ps.g
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