21,315 research outputs found
ISM composition through X-ray spectroscopy of LMXBs
The diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) is an integral part of the evolution of
the entire Galaxy. Metals are produced by stars and their abundances are the
direct testimony of the history of stellar evolution. However, the interstellar
dust composition is not well known and the total abundances are yet to be
accurately determined. We probe ISM dust composition, total abundances, and
abundance gradients through the study of interstellar absorption features in
the high-resolution X-ray spectra of Galactic low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs).
We use high-quality grating spectra of nine LMXBs taken with XMM-Newton. We
measure the column densities of O, Ne, Mg, and Fe with an empirical model and
estimate the Galactic abundance gradients. The column densities of the neutral
gas species are in agreement with those found in the literature. Solids are a
significant reservoir of metals like oxygen and iron. Respectively, 15-25 % and
65-90 % of the total amount of O I and Fe I is found in dust. The dust amount
and mixture seem to be consistent along all the lines-of-sight (LOS). Our
estimates of abundance gradients and predictions of local interstellar
abundances are in agreement with those measured at longer wavelengths. Our work
shows that X-ray spectroscopy is a very powerful method to probe the ISM. For
instance, on a large scale the ISM appears to be chemically homogeneous showing
similar gas ionization ratios and dust mixtures. The agreement between the
abundances of the ISM and the stellar objects suggests that the local Galaxy is
also chemically homogeneous.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables, accepted to A&
Type II Supernovae as Standardized Candles
We present evidence for a correlation between expansion velocities of the
ejecta of Type II plateau supernovae and their bolometric luminosities during
the plateau phase. This correlation permits one to standardize the candles and
decrease the scatter in the Hubble diagram from ~1 mag to a level of 0.4 and
0.3 mag in the V and I bands, respectively. When we restrict the sample to the
eight objects which are well in the Hubble flow (cz > 3,000 km/s) the scatter
drops even further to only 0.2 mag (or 9% in distance), which is comparable to
the precision yielded by Type Ia supernovae and far better than the ``expanding
photosphere method'' applied to Type II supernovae. Using SN 1987A to calibrate
the Hubble diagrams we get Ho=55+/-12.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted by ApJ
HST Survey of Clusters in Nearby Galaxies. II. Statistical Analysis of Cluster Populations
We present a statistical system that can be used in the study of cluster
populations. The basis of our approach is the construction of synthetic cluster
color-magnitude-radius diagrams (CMRDs), which we compare with the observed
data using a maximum likelihood calculation. This approach permits a relatively
easy incorporation of incompleteness (a function of not only magnitude and
color, but also radius), photometry errors and biases, and a variety of other
complex effects into the calculation, instead of the more common procedure of
attempting to correct for those effects.
We then apply this procedure to our NGC 3627 data from Paper I. We find that
we are able to successfully model the observed CMRD and constrain a number of
parameters of the cluster population. We measure a power law mass function
slope of alpha = -1.50 +/- 0.07, and a distribution of core radii centered at
r_c = 1.53 +/- 0.15 pc. Although the extinction distribution is less
constrained, we measured a value for the mean extinction consistent with that
determined in Paper I from the Cepheids.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures accepted for publication by A
Selection Effects, Biases, and Constraints in the Calan/Tololo Supernova Survey
We use Monte Carlo simulations of the Calan/Tololo photographic supernova
survey to show that a simple model of the survey's selection effects accounts
for the observed distributions of recession velocity, apparent magnitude,
angular offset, and projected radial distance between the supernova and the
host galaxy nucleus for this sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). The model
includes biases due to the flux-limited nature of the survey, the different
light curve morphologies displayed by different SNe Ia, and the difficulty of
finding events projected near the central regions of the host galaxies. From
these simulations we estimate the bias in the zero-point and slope of the
absolute magnitude-decline rate relation used in SNe Ia distance measurements.
For an assumed intrinsic scatter of 0.15 mag about this relation, these
selection effects decrease the zero-point by 0.04 mag. The slope of the
relation is not significantly biased. We conclude that despite selection
effects in the survey, the shape and zero-point of the relation determined from
the Calan/Tololo sample are quite reliable. We estimate the degree of
incompleteness of the survey as a function of decline rate and estimate a
corrected luminosity function for SNe Ia in which the frequency of SNe appears
to increase with decline rate (the fainter SNe are more common). Finally, we
compute the integrated detection efficiency of the survey in order to infer the
rate of SNe Ia from the 31 events found. For a value of Ho=65 km/sec/Mpc we
obtain a SN Ia rate of 0.21(+0.30)(-0.13) SNu. This is in good agreement with
the value 0.16+/-0.05 SNu recently determined by Capellaro et al. (1997).Comment: 36 pages, 19 figures as extra files, to appear in the A
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