7,153 research outputs found
The hunt for the Milky Way's accreted disc
The Milky Way is expected to host an accreted disc of stars and dark matter.
This forms as massive >1:10 mergers are preferentially dragged towards the disc
plane by dynamical friction and then tidally shredded. The accreted disc likely
contributes only a tiny fraction of the Milky Way's thin and thick stellar
disc. However, it is interesting because: (i) its associated `dark disc' has
important implications for experiments hoping to detect a dark matter particle
in the laboratory; and (ii) the presence or absence of such a disc constrains
the merger history of our Galaxy. In this work, we develop a chemo-dynamical
template to hunt for the accreted disc. We apply our template to the
high-resolution spectroscopic sample from Ruchti et al. (2011), finding at
present no evidence for accreted stars. Our results are consistent with a
quiescent Milky Way with no >1:10 mergers since the disc formed and a
correspondingly light `dark disc'. However, we caution that while our method
can robustly identify accreted stars, our incomplete stellar sample makes it
more challenging to definitively rule them out. Larger unbiased stellar samples
will be required for this.Comment: 14 pages; 8 figures; 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Athlete learning in Olympic sport
High-performance sport impacts athletes beyond the physical. Coaches and coaching practice are particularly influential in shaping this learning and development. This article examines the learning identified through an inductive content analysis of eight former Olympic athletes’ career narratives. Three phases of learning could be identified across the cohort: ‘Growing into high-performance sport’, ‘Making sense of high-performance sport’, and ‘(Re)shaping high-performance sport’. A cultural perspective of learning, in particular the metaphor of ‘becoming’, is employed to interpret the Olympians’ learning experiences. The findings of this research indicate that athlete learning is bound by particular high-performance sporting contexts and career phases, yet impacted by the athletes’ individual backgrounds and dispositions. Further, data indicate that athletes’ personal development reflexively intertwines with athletic performance and performance enhancement. Implications for coaches are to: (1) involve athletes in co-constructing their sporting cultures and training contexts; and (2) provide possibilities and support for athletes to develop personally
unveiling systematic biases in the 1d lte excitation-ionization balance of fe for fgk stars: A novel approach to determination of stellar parameters
We present a comprehensive analysis of different techniques available for the spectroscopic analysis of FGK stars and provide a recommended methodology which efficiently estimates accurate stellar atmospheric parameters for large samples of stars. Our analysis includes a simultaneous equivalent width analysis of Fe I and Fe II spectral lines, and for the first time, utilizes on-the-fly non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) corrections of individual Fe I lines. We further investigate several temperature scales, finding that estimates from Balmer line measurements provide the most accurate effective temperatures at all metallicities. We apply our analysis to a large sample of both dwarf and giant stars selected from the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) survey. We then show that the difference between parameters determined by our method and that by the standard 1D LTE excitation-ionization balance of Fe reveals substantial systematic biases: up to 400 K in effective temperature, 1.0 dex in surface gravity and 0.4 dex in metallicity for stars with [Fe/H] -2.5. This has large implications for the study of the stellar populations in the Milky Wa
A conditional glutamatergic synaptic vesicle marker for Drosophila
Glutamate is a principal neurotransmitter used extensively by the nervous systems of all vertebrate and invertebrate animals. It is primarily an excitatory neurotransmitter that has been implicated in nervous system development, as well as a myriad of brain functions from the simple transmission of information between neurons to more complex aspects of nervous system function including synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. Identification of glutamatergic neurons and their sites of glutamate release are thus essential for understanding the mechanisms of neural circuit function and how information is processed to generate behavior. Here, we describe and characterize smFLAG-vGlut, a conditional marker of glutamatergic synaptic vesicles for the Drosophila model system. smFLAG-vGlut is validated for functionality, conditional expression, and specificity for glutamatergic neurons and synaptic vesicles. The utility of smFLAG-vGlut is demonstrated by glutamatergic neurotransmitter phenotyping of 26 different central complex neuron types of which nine were established to be glutamatergic. This illumination of glutamate neurotransmitter usage will enhance the modeling of central complex neural circuitry and thereby our understanding of information processing by this region of the fly brain. The use of smFLAG for glutamatergic neurotransmitter phenotyping and identification of glutamate release sites can be extended to any Drosophila neuron(s) represented by a binary transcription system driver
Non-local Thermodynamic Equilibrium Stellar Spectroscopy with 1D and 〈3D〉 Models. II. Chemical Properties of the Galactic Metal-poor Disk and the Halo
From exploratory studies and theoretical expectations it is known that simplifying approximations in spectroscopic analysis (local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), 1D) lead to systematic biases of stellar parameters and abundances. These biases depend strongly on surface gravity, temperature and, in particular, for LTE versus non-LTE (NLTE), on metallicity of the stars. Here we analyze the [Mg/Fe] and [Fe/H] plane of a sample of 326 stars, comparing LTE and NLTE results obtained using 1D hydrostatic models and averaged models. We show that compared to the NLTE benchmark, the other three methods display increasing biases toward lower metallicities, resulting in false trends of [Mg/Fe] against [Fe/H], which have profound implications for interpretations by chemical evolution models. In our best NLTE model, the halo and disk stars show a clearer behavior in the [Mg/Fe]–[Fe/H] plane, from the knee in abundance space down to the lowest metallicities. Our sample has a large fraction of thick disk stars and this population extends down to at least [Fe/H] ~ −1.6 dex, further than previously proven. The thick disk stars display a constant [Mg/Fe] ≈ 0.3 dex, with a small intrinsic dispersion in [Mg/Fe] that suggests that a fast SN Ia channel is not relevant for the disk formation. The halo stars reach higher [Mg/Fe] ratios and display a net trend of [Mg/Fe] at low metallicities, paired with a large dispersion in [Mg/Fe]. These indicate the diverse origin of halo stars from accreted low-mass systems to stochastic/inhomogeneous chemical evolution in the Galactic halo
Old puzzle, new insights: a lithium rich giant quietly burning helium in its core
About 1% of giant stars have been shown to have large surface Li abundances,
which is unexpected according to standard stellar evolution models. Several
scenarios for lithium production have been proposed, but it is still unclear
why these Li-rich giants exist. A missing piece in this puzzle is the knowledge
of the exact stage of evolution of these stars. Using low-and-high-resolution
spectroscopic observations, we have undertaken a survey of lithium-rich giants
in the Kepler field. In this letter, we report the finding of the first
confirmed Li-rich core-helium-burning giant, as revealed by asteroseismic
analysis. The evolutionary timescales constrained by its mass suggest that
Li-production most likely took place through non-canonical mixing at the
RGB-tip, possibly during the helium flash.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted in ApJ Letter
Stellar science from a blue wavelength range - A possible design for the blue arm of 4MOST
From stellar spectra, a variety of physical properties of stars can be
derived. In particular, the chemical composition of stellar atmospheres can be
inferred from absorption line analyses. These provide key information on large
scales, such as the formation of our Galaxy, down to the small-scale
nucleosynthesis processes that take place in stars and supernovae. By extending
the observed wavelength range toward bluer wavelengths, we optimize such
studies to also include critical absorption lines in metal-poor stars, and
allow for studies of heavy elements (Z>38) whose formation processes remain
poorly constrained. In this context, spectrographs optimized for observing blue
wavelength ranges are essential, since many absorption lines at redder
wavelengths are too weak to be detected in metal-poor stars. This means that
some elements cannot be studied in the visual-redder regions, and important
scientific tracers and science cases are lost. The present era of large public
surveys will target millions of stars. Here we describe the requirements
driving the design of the forthcoming survey instrument 4MOST, a multi-object
spectrograph commissioned for the ESO VISTA 4m-telescope. We focus here on
high-density, wide-area survey of stars and the science that can be achieved
with high-resolution stellar spectroscopy. Scientific and technical
requirements that governed the design are described along with a thorough line
blending analysis. For the high-resolution spectrograph, we find that a
sampling of >2.5 (pixels per resolving element), spectral resolution of 18000
or higher, and a wavelength range covering 393-436 nm, is the most
well-balanced solution for the instrument. A spectrograph with these
characteristics will enable accurate abundance analysis (+/-0.1 dex) in the
blue and allow us to confront the outlined scientific questions. (abridged)Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A
A High-resolution Scintillating Fiber Tracker With Silicon Photomultiplier Array Readout
We present prototype modules for a tracking detector consisting of multiple
layers of 0.25 mm diameter scintillating fibers that are read out by linear
arrays of silicon photomultipliers. The module production process is described
and measurements of the key properties for both the fibers and the readout
devices are shown. Five modules have been subjected to a 12 GeV/c proton/pion
testbeam at CERN. A spatial resolution of 0.05 mm and light yields exceeding 20
detected photons per minimum ionizing particle have been achieved, at a
tracking efficiency of more than 98.5%. Possible techniques for further
improvement of the spatial resolution are discussed.Comment: 31 pages, 27 figures, pre-print version of an article published in
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A, Vol. 62
The Dark Matter Density in the Solar Neighborhood reconsidered
Both the gas flaring and the dip in the rotation curve, which was recently
reconfirmed with precise measurements using the VERA VLBI array in Japan,
suggest doughnut-like substructure in the dark matter (DM) halo. A global fit
to all available data shows that the data are indeed best described by an NFW
DM profile complemented by two doughnut-like DM substructures with radii of 4.2
and 12.4 kpc, which coincide with the local dust ring and the Monocerus ring of
stars, respectively. Both regions have been suggested as regions with tidal
streams from "shredded" satellites. If real, the radial extensions of these
nearby ringlike structures enhance the local dark matter density by a factor of
four to about 1.3 GeV/cm.
It is shown that i) this higher DM density is perfectly consistent with the
local gravitational potential determining the surface density and the local
matter density (Oort limit), ii) previous determinations of the surface density
were biased by the assumption of a smoothly varying DM halo and iii) the
s-shaped gas flaring is explained. Such a possible enhancement of the local DM
density is of great interest for direct DM searches and would change the
directional dependence for indirect DM searches.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, extended version, accepted for publication in
JCA
The RAVE Survey: Constraining the Local Galactic Escape Speed
We report new constraints on the local escape speed of our Galaxy. Our
analysis is based on a sample of high velocity stars from the RAVE survey and
two previously published datasets. We use cosmological simulations of disk
galaxy formation to motivate our assumptions on the shape of the velocity
distribution, allowing for a significantly more precise measurement of the
escape velocity compared to previous studies. We find that the escape velocity
lies within the range 498\kms < \ve < 608 \kms (90 per cent confidence), with
a median likelihood of 544\kms. The fact that \ve^2 is significantly
greater than 2\vc^2 (where \vc=220\kms is the local circular velocity)
implies that there must be a significant amount of mass exterior to the Solar
circle, i.e. this convincingly demonstrates the presence of a dark halo in the
Galaxy. For a simple isothermal halo, one can calculate that the minimum radial
extent is kpc. We use our constraints on \ve to determine the mass
of the Milky Way halo for three halo profiles. For example, an adiabatically
contracted NFW halo model results in a virial mass of
and virial radius of
kpc (90 per cent confidence). For this model the circular
velocity at the virial radius is 142^{+31}_{-21}\kms. Although our halo
masses are model dependent, we find that they are in good agreement with each
other.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, MNRAS (accepted). v2 incorporates minor cosmetic
revisions which have no effect on the results or conclusion
- …