Galactic structure towards the Open Clusters NGC 188 and NGC 3680

We present the first comparisons of a newly developed Galactic Structure and Kinematic Model to magnitude and color counts, as well as relative proper motions, in the fields of the open clusters NGC 188 [(l, b)= (122.8 deg, +22.4 deg)] and NGC 3680 [(l,b)= (286.8 deg, +16.9 deg)]. In addition to determining the reddening toward these two clusters, it is shown that starcounts at intermediate Galactic latitudes in the range 11< V< 17 allow us to constrain the model scale-height for disk subgiants. We obtain a mean value of 250 +/- 32 pc, in agreement with previous determinations of the scale-height for red-giants. We are also able to constrain the scale-height of main-sequence stars, and the distance of the sun from the Galactic plane, ruling out the possibility of a value of +40 pc, in favor of a smaller value. Comparisons with the observed proper-motion histograms indicate that the velocity dispersion of disk main-sequence stars must increase with distance from the Galactic plane in order to match the observed proper-motion dispersion. The required increase is consistent with the values predicted by dynamical models, and provides a clear observational evidence in favor of such gradients. The shape of the observed proper-motion distribution is well fitted within the Poisson uncertainties. This implies that corrections to absolute proper motion (and, therefore, space velocities) for open clusters may be obtained using our model when no inertial reference frame is available. Using this approach, the derived tangential motions for NGC 188 and NGC 3680 are presented.Comment: Tex type, 29 pages, 9 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Characterisation of an Electrostatic Vibration Harvester

Harvesting energy from ambient vibration is proposed as an alternative to storage based power supplies for autonomous systems. The system presented converts the mechanical energy of a vibration into electrical energy by means of a variable capacitor, which is polarized by an electret. A lumped element model is used to study the generator and design a prototype. The device has been micromachined in silicon, based on a two-wafer process. The prototype was successfully tested, both using an external polarization source and an electret.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/EDA-Publishing

Thermoreversible gelation of cellulose acetate solutions studied by differential scanning calorimetry

Thermoreversible gels of cellulose acetate can be obtained by cooling concentrated cellulose acetate solutions in solvent-nonsolvent mixtures of dioxane and water. Upon heating the gels, endothermic effects were observed with differential scanning calorimetry. The heat effects are ascribed to the melting of a crystalline phase consisting of cellulose triacetate units. The endothermic peaks appear only after long aging periods of up to several days. Melting points generally decrease and heats of melting increase with increasing polymer concentration and with increasing nonsolvent content. The maximum degree of crystallinity is estimated as 8%. The kinetic effects of varying the water content in the solvent mixture are discussed

No evidence for a dark matter disk within 4 kpc from the Galactic plane

We estimated the dynamical surface mass density (Sigma) at the solar Galactocentric distance between 2 and 4 kpc from the Galactic plane, as inferred from the observed kinematics of the thick disk. We find Sigma(z=2 kpc)=57.6+-5.8 Mo pc^-2, and it shows only a tiny increase in the z-range considered by our investigation. We compared our results with the expectations for the visible mass, adopting the most recent estimates in the literature for contributions of the Galactic stellar disk and interstellar medium, and proposed models of the dark matter distribution. Our results match the expectation for the visible mass alone, never differing from it by more than 0.8 $Mo pc^-2 at any z, and thus we find little evidence for any dark component. We assume that the dark halo could be undetectable with our method, but the dark disk, recently proposed as a natural expectation of the LambdaCDM models, should be detected. Given the good agreement with the visible mass alone, models including a dark disk are less likely, but within errors its existence cannot be excluded. In any case, these results put constraints on its properties: thinner models (scale height lower than 4 kpc) reconcile better with our results and, for any scale height, the lower-density models are preferred. We believe that successfully predicting the stellar thick disk properties and a dark disk in agreement with our observations could be a challenging theoretical task.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Observations of Binary Stars with the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument. III. Measures below the Diffraction Limit of the WIYN Telescope

In this paper, we study the ability of CCD- and electron-multiplying-CCD-based speckle imaging to obtain reliable astrometry and photometry of binary stars below the diffraction limit of the WIYN 3.5 m Telescope. We present a total of 120 measures of binary stars, 75 of which are below the diffraction limit. The measures are divided into two groups that have different measurement accuracy and precision. The first group is composed of standard speckle observations, that is, a sequence of speckle images taken in a single filter, while the second group consists of paired observations where the two observations are taken on the same observing run and in different filters. The more recent paired observations were taken simultaneously with the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument, which is a two-channel speckle imaging system. In comparing our results to the ephemeris positions of binaries with known orbits, we find that paired observations provide the opportunity to identify cases of systematic error in separation below the diffraction limit and after removing these from consideration, we obtain a linear measurement uncertainty of 3-4 mas. However, if observations are unpaired or if two observations taken in the same filter are paired, it becomes harder to identify cases of systematic error, presumably because the largest source of this error is residual atmospheric dispersion, which is color dependent. When observations are unpaired, we find that it is unwise to report separations below approximately 20 mas, as these are most susceptible to this effect. Using the final results obtained, we are able to update two older orbits in the literature and present preliminary orbits for three systems that were discovered by Hipparcos