3,899 research outputs found
New records of ichneumon wasps (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) from Malta
Recently some Maltese Hymenoptera were donated to the Hungarian Natural History Museum
(HNHM) and some other material was sent to the Natural History Museum in London (BMNH)
for identification by the second author. Amongst these specimens were six ichneumon wasp species
new to the fauna of Malta.
Ichneumonidae taxonomy and nomenclature follow Yu et al. (2012), and host records were
traced through this resource. Identifications were based on keys provided by Szépligeti (1905),
Schmiedeknecht (1909), Bajári (1960), Townes et al. (1965), Bajári & Móczár (1969), Townes
(1969; 1970a; 1970b; 1971), Horstmann (1976), Gauld & Mitchell (1977), Fitton et al. (1988),
Wahl (1993), and Tolkanitz (2007). The voucher specimens are deposited in the Hymenoptera
Collection of HNHM, Budapest, Hungary (those indicated by a HNHM id. number below), and
some duplicate specimens in D. Mifsud’s private insect collection (CDM) in Malta.peer-reviewe
Unsupervised spike detection and sorting with wavelets and superparamagnetic clustering
This study introduces a new method for detecting and sorting spikes from multiunit recordings. The method combines the wavelet transform, which localizes distinctive spike features, with superparamagnetic clustering,
which allows automatic classification of the data without assumptions such as low variance or gaussian distributions. Moreover, an improved method for setting amplitude thresholds for spike detection is proposed. We describe several criteria for implementation that render the algorithm unsupervised and fast. The algorithm is compared to other conventional methods using several simulated data sets whose characteristics closely resemble those of in vivo recordings. For these data sets, we found that
the proposed algorithm outperformed conventional methods
Constraining the Axion Portal with B -> K l+ l-
We investigate the bounds on axionlike states from flavor-changing neutral
current b->s decays, assuming the axion couples to the standard model through
mixing with the Higgs sector. Such GeV-scale axions have received renewed
attention in connection with observed cosmic ray excesses. We find that
existing B->K l+ l- data impose stringent bounds on the axion decay constant in
the multi-TeV range, relevant for constraining the "axion portal" model of dark
matter. Such bounds also constrain light Higgs scenarios in the next-to-minimal
supersymmetric standard model. These bounds can be improved by dedicated
searches in B-factory data and at LHCb.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; v2: to match version to appear in PR
The ages, metallicities and star formation histories of early-type galaxies in SDSS
We use the spectra of ~ 22,000 early-type galaxies, selected from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey, to infer the ages, metallicities and star formation
histories of these galaxies. We find clear evidence of "downsizing", i.e.
galaxies with larger velocity dispersion have older stellar populations. In
particular, most early-type galaxies with velocity dispersion exceeding 200 km
s-1 formed more than 90% of their current stellar mass at redshift z > 2.5.
Therefore, star formation was suppressed around this redshift. We also show
that chemical enrichment was rapid, lasting 1-2 Gyr and find evidence that
[Fe/H] is sub-solar. We study the robustness of these results by comparing
three different approaches: using (i) Lick absorption line indices; (ii)
fitting a single-burst stellar population model to the whole spectrum
(lines+continuum); and (iii) reconstructing the star formation and metallicity
histories in multiple age-bins, providing a method to measure mass-weighted
ages and metallicities. We find good agreement between the luminosity-weighted
ages and metallicities computed with these three methods.Comment: Submitted to Ap
Breaking Cosmological Degeneracies in Galaxy Cluster Surveys with a Physical Model of Cluster Structure
Forthcoming large galaxy cluster surveys will yield tight constraints on
cosmological models. It has been shown that in an idealized survey, containing
> 10,000 clusters, statistical errors on dark energy and other cosmological
parameters will be at the percent level. It has also been shown that through
"self-calibration", parameters describing the mass-observable relation and
cosmology can be simultaneously determined, though at a loss in accuracy by
about an order of magnitude. Here we examine the utility of an alternative
approach of self-calibration, in which a parametrized ab-initio physical model
is used to compute cluster structure and the resulting mass-observable
relations. As an example, we use a modified-entropy ("pre-heating") model of
the intracluster medium, with the history and magnitude of entropy injection as
unknown input parameters. Using a Fisher matrix approach, we evaluate the
expected simultaneous statistical errors on cosmological and cluster model
parameters. We study two types of surveys, in which a comparable number of
clusters are identified either through their X-ray emission or through their
integrated Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. We find that compared to a
phenomenological parametrization of the mass-observable relation, using our
physical model yields significantly tighter constraints in both surveys, and
offers substantially improved synergy when the two surveys are combined. These
results suggest that parametrized physical models of cluster structure will be
useful when extracting cosmological constraints from SZ and X-ray cluster
surveys. (abridged)Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, accepted to Ap
Strange Cepheids and RR Lyrae
Strange modes can occur in radiative classical Cepheids and RR Lyrae models.
These are vibrational modes that are trapped near the surface as a result of a
'potential barrier' caused by the sharp hydrogen partial ionization region.
Typically the modal number of the strange mode falls between the 7th and 12th
overtone, depending on the astrophysical parameters of the equilibrium stellar
models (L, M, \Teff, X, Z). Interestingly these modes can be linearly unstable
outside the usual instability strip, in which case they should be observable as
new kinds of variable stars, 'strange Cepheids' or 'strange RR Lyrae' stars.
The present paper reexamines the linear stability properties of the strange
modes by taking into account the effects of an isothermal atmosphere, and of
turbulent convection. It is found that the linear vibrational instability of
the strange modes is resistant to both of these effects. Nonlinear hydrodynamic
calculations indicate that the pulsation amplitude of these modes is likely to
saturate at the millimagnitude level. These modes should therefore be
detectable albeit not without effort.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Ap
The photon polarization in B -> X gamma in the standard model
The standard model prediction for the decay amplitude
with a right-handed photon is believed to be tiny, suppressed by ,
compared to the amplitude with a left-handed photon. We show that this
suppression is fictitious: in inclusive decays, the ratio of these two
amplitudes is only suppressed by , and in exclusive decays by
. The suppression is not stronger in decays
than it is in . We estimate that the time dependent CP
asymmetries in , , , and
are of order 0.1 and that they have significant
uncertainties.Comment: Clarifications in the exclusive section, references adde
Evidence for Low-Dimensional Chaos in Semiregular Variable Stars
An analysis of the photometric observations of the light curves of the five
large amplitude, irregularly pulsating stars R UMi, RS Cyg, V CVn, UX Dra and
SX Her is presented. First, multi-periodicity is eliminated for these
pulsations, i.e. they are not caused by the excitation of a small number of
pulsation modes with constant amplitudes. Next, on the basis of energetics we
also eliminate stochasticity as a cause, leaving low dimensional chaos as the
only alternative. We then use a global flow reconstruction technique in an
attempt to extract quantitative information from the light curves, and to
uncover common physical features in this class of irregular variable stars that
straddle the RV Tau to the Mira variables. Evidence is presented that the
pulsational behavior of R UMi, RS Cyg, V CVn and UX Dra takes place in a
4-dimensional dynamical phase space, suggesting that two vibrational modes are
involved in the pulsation. A linear stability analysis of the fixed points of
the maps further indicates the existence of a two-mode resonance, similar to
the one we had uncovered earlier in R Sct: The irregular pulsations are the
result of a continual energy exchange between two strongly nonadiabatic modes,
a lower frequency pulsation mode and an overtone that are in a close 2:1
resonance. The evidence is particularly convincing for R UMi, RS Cyg and V CVn,
but much weaker for UX Dra. In contrast, the pulsations of SX Her appear to be
more complex and may require a 6D space.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, accepted in ApJ - paper with clearer figures is
available at http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~buchler/publications/u12.ps.gz (1Mb
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