2,920 research outputs found
The effects of stellar winds on the magnetospheres and potential habitability of exoplanets
Context: The principle definition of habitability for exoplanets is whether
they can sustain liquid water on their surfaces, i.e. that they orbit within
the habitable zone. However, the planet's magnetosphere should also be
considered, since without it, an exoplanet's atmosphere may be eroded away by
stellar winds. Aims: The aim of this paper is to investigate magnetospheric
protection of a planet from the effects of stellar winds from solar-mass stars.
Methods: We study hypothetical Earth-like exoplanets orbiting in the host
star's habitable zone for a sample of 124 solar-mass stars. These are targets
that have been observed by the Bcool collaboration. Using two wind models, we
calculate the magnetospheric extent of each exoplanet. These wind models are
computationally inexpensive and allow the community to quickly estimate the
magnetospheric size of magnetised Earth-analogues orbiting cool stars. Results:
Most of the simulated planets in our sample can maintain a magnetosphere of ~5
Earth radii or larger. This suggests that magnetised Earth analogues in the
habitable zones of solar analogues are able to protect their atmospheres and is
in contrast to planets around young active M dwarfs. In general, we find that
Earth-analogues around solar-type stars, of age 1.5 Gyr or older, can maintain
at least a Paleoarchean Earth sized magnetosphere. Our results indicate that
planets around 0.6 - 0.8 solar-mass stars on the low activity side of the
Vaughan-Preston gap are the optimum observing targets for habitable Earth
analogues.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysic
Complex magnetism of lanthanide intermetallics unravelled
We explain a profound complexity of magnetic interactions of some
technologically relevant gadolinium intermetallics using an ab-initio
electronic structure theory which includes disordered local moments and strong
-electron correlations. The theory correctly finds GdZn and GdCd to be
simple ferromagnets and predicts a remarkably large increase of Curie
temperature with pressure of +1.5 K kbar for GdCd confirmed by our
experimental measurements of +1.6 K kbar. Moreover we find the origin of
a ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic competition in GdMg manifested by
non-collinear, canted magnetic order at low temperatures. Replacing 35\% of the
Mg atoms with Zn removes this transition in excellent agreement with
longstanding experimental data.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
The solar wind in time – II. 3D stellar wind structure and radio emission
In this work, we simulate the evolution of the solar wind along its main-sequence lifetime and compute its thermal radio emission. To study the evolution of the solar wind, we use a sample of solar mass stars at different ages. All these stars have observationally reconstructed magnetic maps, which are incorporated in our 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of their winds. We show that angular-momentum loss and mass-loss rates decrease steadily on evolutionary time-scales, although they can vary in a magnetic cycle time-scale. Stellar winds are known to emit radiation in the form of thermal bremsstrahlung in the radio spectrum. To calculate the expected radio fluxes from these winds, we solve the radiative transfer equation numerically from first principles. We compute continuum spectra across the frequency range 100 MHz to 100 GHz and find maximum radio flux densities ranging from 0.05 to 2.2 μJy. At a frequency of 1 GHz and a normalized distance of d = 10 pc, the radio flux density follows 0.24 (Ω/Ω☉)0.9 (d/[10pc])-2μJy, where Ω is the rotation rate. This means that the best candidates for stellar wind observations in the radio regime are faster rotators within distances of 10 pc, such as κ1 Ceti (0.73 μJy) and χ1 Ori (2.2 μJy). These flux predictions provide a guide to observing solar-type stars across the frequency range 0.1-100 GHz in the future using the next generation of radio telescopes, such as ngVLA and Square Kilometre Array
Erratum: The solar wind in time II: 3D stellar wind structure and radio emission
This is an erratum to the paper ‘The solar wind in time - II: 3D stellar wind structure and radio emission’, which was published in MNRAS, 483(1), 873, 2019 (Ó Fionnagáin et al. 2019)
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Myosin-I nomenclature.
We suggest that the vertebrate myosin-I field adopt a common nomenclature system based on the names adopted by the Human Genome Organization (HUGO). At present, the myosin-I nomenclature is very confusing; not only are several systems in use, but several different genes have been given the same name. Despite their faults, we believe that the names adopted by the HUGO nomenclature group for genome annotation are the best compromise, and we recommend universal adoption
High-Mass X-ray Binaries and the Spiral Structure of the Host Galaxy
We investigate the manifestation of the spiral structure in the distribution
of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) over the host galaxy. We construct the
simple kinematic model. It shows that the HMXBs should be displaced relative to
the spiral structure observed in such traditional star formation rate
indicators as the Halpha and FIR emissions because of their finite lifetimes.
Using Chandra observations of M51, we have studied the distribution of X-ray
sources relative to the spiral arms of this galaxy observed in Halpha. Based on
K-band data and background source number counts, we have separated the
contributions from high-mass and low-mass X-ray binaries and active galactic
nuclei. In agreement with model predictions, the distribution of HMXBs is wider
than that of bright HII regions concentrated in the region of ongoing star
formation. However, the statistical significance of this result is low, as is
the significance of the concentration of the total population of X-ray sources
to the spiral arms. We also predict the distribution of HMXBs in our Galaxy in
Galactic longitude. The distribution depends on the mean HMXB age and can
differ significantly from the distributions of such young objects as
ultracompact HII regions.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures; Astronomy Letters, Vol. 33, No. 5, 2007, pp.
299-30
Estimating the p-mode frequencies of the solar twin 18 Sco
Solar twins have been a focus of attention for more than a decade, because
their structure is extremely close to that of the Sun. Today, thanks to
high-precision spectrometers, it is possible to use asteroseismology to probe
their interiors. Our goal is to use time series obtained from the HARPS
spectrometer to extract the oscillation frequencies of 18 Sco, the brightest
solar twin. We used the tools of spectral analysis to estimate these
quantities. We estimate 52 frequencies using an MCMC algorithm. After
examination of their probability densities and comparison with results from
direct MAP optimization, we obtain a minimal set of 21 reliable modes. The
identification of each pulsation mode is straightforwardly accomplished by
comparing to the well-established solar pulsation modes. We also derived some
basic seismic indicators using these values. These results offer a good basis
to start a detailed seismic analysis of 18 Sco using stellar models.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, to be published in A&
Modeling the dynamics of glacial cycles
This article is concerned with the dynamics of glacial cycles observed in the geological record of the Pleistocene Epoch. It focuses on a conceptual model proposed by Maasch and Saltzman [J. Geophys. Res.,95, D2 (1990), pp. 1955-1963], which is based on physical arguments and emphasizes the role of atmospheric CO2 in the generation and persistence of periodic orbits (limit cycles). The model consists of three ordinary differential equations with four parameters for the anomalies of the total global ice mass, the atmospheric CO2 concentration, and the volume of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). In this article, it is shown that a simplified two-dimensional symmetric version displays many of the essential features of the full model, including equilibrium states, limit cycles, their basic bifurcations, and a Bogdanov-Takens point that serves as an organizing center for the local and global dynamics. Also, symmetry breaking splits the Bogdanov-Takens point into two, with different local dynamics in their neighborhoods
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