5,159 research outputs found
Main-Belt Asteroids in the K2 Engineering Field of View
Unlike NASA's original Kepler Discovery Mission, the renewed K2 Mission will
stare at the plane of the Ecliptic, observing each field for approximately 75
days. This will bring new opportunities and challenges, in particular the
presence of a large number of main-belt asteroids that will contaminate the
photometry. The large pixel size makes K2 data susceptible to the effect of
apparent minor planet encounters. Here we investigate the effects of asteroid
encounters on photometric precision using a sub-sample of the K2 Engineering
data taken in February, 2014. We show examples of asteroid contamination to
facilitate their recognition and distinguish these events from other error
sources. We conclude that main-belt asteroids will have considerable effects on
K2 photometry of a large number of photometric targets during the Mission, that
will have to be taken into account. These results will be readily applicable
for future space photometric missions applying large-format CCDs, such as TESS
and PLATO.Comment: accepted for publication in AJ, 6 page
Nova Cygni 2001/2 = V2275 Cyg
We present an analysis of low- and medium resolution spectra of the very fast
nova, Nova Cygni 2001/2 (V2275 Cyg) obtained at nine epochs in August,
September and October, 2001. The expansion velocity from hydrogen Balmer lines
is found to be 2100 km/s, although early H-alpha profile showed a weak feature
at -3500 km/s, too. The overall appearance of the optical spectrum is dominated
by broad lines of H, He and N, therefore, the star belongs to the ``He/N''
subclass of novae defined by Williams (1992). Interstellar lines and bands, as
well as BV photometry taken from the literature yielded to a fairly high
reddening of E(B-V)=1.0+/-0.1 mag. The visual light curve was used to deduce
M_V by the maximum magnitude versus rate of decline relationship. The resulting
parameters are: t_0=2452141.4(+0.1)(-0.5), t_2=2.9+/-0.5 days, t_3=7+/-1 days,
M_V=-9.7+/-0.7 mag. Adopting these parameters, the star lies between 3 kpc and
8 kpc from the Sun.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&
N=4 central charge superspace at work for supergravity coupled to an arbitrary number of abelian vector multiplets
We present the description in central charge superspace of N=4 supergravity
with antisymmetric tensor coupled to an arbitrary number of abelian vector
multiplets. All the gauge vectors of the coupled system are treated on the same
footing as gauge fields corresponding to translations along additional bosonic
coordinates. It is the geometry of the antisymmetric tensor which singles out
which combinations of these vectors belong to the supergravity multiplet and
which are the additional coupled ones. Moreover, basic properties of
Chapline-Manton coupling mechanism, as well as the SO(6,n)/SO(6)*SO(n) sigma
model of the Yang-Mills scalars are found as arising from superspace geometry.Comment: 18 page
Eclipsing binaries in the MACHO database: New periods and classifications for 3031 systems in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Eclipsing binaries offer a unique opportunity to determine fundamental
physical parameters of stars using the constraints on the geometry of the
systems. Here we present a reanalysis of publicly available two-color
observations of about 6800 stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, obtained by the
MACHO project between 1992 and 2000 and classified as eclipsing variable stars.
Of these, less than half are genuine eclipsing binaries. We determined new
periods and classified the stars, 3031 in total, using the Fourier parameters
of the phased light curves. The period distribution is clearly bimodal,
reflecting refer to the separate groups of more massive blue main sequence
objects and low mass red giants. The latter resemble contact binaries and obey
a period-luminosity relation. Using evolutionary models, we identified
foreground stars. The presented database has been cleaned of artifacts and
misclassified variables, thus allowing searches for apsidal motion, tertiary
components, pulsating stars in binary systems and secular variations with
time-scales of several years.Comment: 11 figures, 9 pages, accepted for publication in Ap
Gossip on Weighted Networks
We investigate how suitable a weighted network is for gossip spreading. The
proposed model is based on the gossip spreading model introduced by Lind et.al.
on unweighted networks. Weight represents "friendship." Potential spreader
prefers not to spread if the victim of gossip is a "close friend". Gossip
spreading is related to the triangles and cascades of triangles. It gives more
insight about the structure of a network.
We analyze gossip spreading on real weighted networks of human interactions.
6 co-occurrence and 7 social pattern networks are investigated. Gossip
propagation is found to be a good parameter to distinguish co-occurrence and
social pattern networks. As a comparison some miscellaneous networks and
computer generated networks based on ER, BA, WS models are also investigated.
They are found to be quite different than the human interaction networks.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Pitfalls during biomechanical testing — Evaluation of different fixation methods for measuring tendons endurance properties
The goal of the study was to find a proper technique to fix tendon grafts into an INSTRON loading machine. From 8 human cadavers, 40 grafts were collected. We removed the bone-patella tendon-bone grafts, the semitendinosus and gracilis tendons, the quadriceps tendon-bone grafts, the Achilles tendons, and the peroneus longus tendons from each lower extremity. We tested the tendon grafts with five different types of fixation devices: surgical thread (Premicron 3), general mounting clamp, wire mesh, cement fixation, and a modified clamp for an INSTRON loading machine. The mean failure load in case of surgical thread fixation was (381N ± 26N). The results with the general clamp were (527N ± 45N). The wire meshes were more promising (750N ± 21N), but did not reach the outcomes we desired. Easy slippages of the ends of the tendons from the cement encasements were observed (253N ± 18N). We then began to use Shi’s clamp that could produce 977N ± 416N peak force. We combined Shi’s clamp with freezing of the graft and the rupture of the tendon itself demonstrated an average force of 2198 N ± 773N. We determined that our modified frozen clamp fixed the specimens against high tensile forces
AAOmega spectroscopy of 29 351 stars in fields centered on ten Galactic globular clusters
Galactic globular clusters have been pivotal in our understanding of many
astrophysical phenomena. Here we publish the extracted stellar parameters from
a recent large spectroscopic survey of ten globular clusters. A brief review of
the project is also presented. Stellar parameters have been extracted from
individual stellar spectra using both a modified version of the Radial Velocity
Experiment (RAVE) pipeline and a pipeline based on the parameter estimation
method of RAVE. We publish here all parameters extracted from both pipelines.
We calibrate the metallicity and convert this to [Fe/H] for each star and,
furthermore, we compare the velocities and velocity dispersions of the Galactic
stars in each field to the Besan\c{c}on Galaxy model. We find that the model
does not correspond well with the data, indicating that the model is probably
of little use for comparisons with pencil beam survey data such as this.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A. Data
described in tables will be available on CDS (at
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/530/A31) once publishe
Conditions for one-dimensional supersonic flow of quantum gases
One can use transsonic Bose-Einstein condensates of alkali atoms to establish
the laboratory analog of the event horizon and to measure the acoustic version
of Hawking radiation. We determine the conditions for supersonic flow and the
Hawking temperature for realistic condensates on waveguides where an external
potential plays the role of a supersonic nozzle. The transition to supersonic
speed occurs at the potential maximum and the Hawking temperature is entirely
determined by the curvature of the potential
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