3,081 research outputs found
Transition from spot to faculae domination -- An alternate explanation for the dearth of intermediate \textit{Kepler} rotation periods
The study of stellar activity cycles is crucial to understand the underlying
dynamo and how it causes activity signatures such as dark spots and bright
faculae. We study the appearance of activity signatures in contemporaneous
photometric and chromospheric time series. Lomb-Scargle periodograms are used
to search for cycle periods present in both time series. To emphasize the
signature of the activity cycle we account for rotation-induced scatter in both
data sets by fitting a quasi-periodic Gaussian process model to each observing
season. After subtracting the rotational variability, cycle amplitudes and the
phase difference between the two time series are obtained by fitting both time
series simultaneously using the same cycle period. We find cycle periods in 27
of the 30 stars in our sample. The phase difference between the two time series
reveals that the variability in fast rotating active stars is usually in
anti-phase, while the variability of slowly rotating inactive stars is in
phase. The photometric cycle amplitudes are on average six times larger for the
active stars. The phase and amplitude information demonstrates that active
stars are dominated by dark spots, whereas less active stars are dominated by
bright faculae. We find the transition from spot to faculae domination at the
Vaughan-Preston gap, and around a Rossby number equal to one. We conclude that
faculae are the dominant ingredient of stellar activity cycles at ages >2.55
Gyr. The data further suggest that the Vaughan-Preston gap can not explain the
previously detected dearth of Kepler rotation periods between 15-25 days.
Nevertheless, our results led us to propose an explanation for the rotation
period dearth to be due to the non-detection of periodicity caused by the
cancellation of dark spots and bright faculae at 800 Myr.Comment: 12+15 pages, 10+2 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Probing the Noncommutative Standard Model at Hadron Colliders
We study collider signals for the noncommutative extension of the standard
model using the Seiberg-Witten maps for SU(3)_C x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y to first
order in the noncommutativity parameters theta_munu. In particular, we
investigate the ensitivity of Z-gamma-production at the Tevatron and the LHC to
the components of theta_munu. We discuss the range of validity of this
approximation and estimate exclusion limits from a Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: 18 pages LaTeX, 23 figures. Slightly expanded introduction and
additional references. Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Strong Limit on a Variable Proton-to-Electron Mass Ratio from Molecules in the Distant Universe
The Standard Model of particle physics assumes that the so-called fundamental
constants are universal and unchanging. Absorption lines arising in molecular
clouds along quasar sightlines offer a precise test for variations in the
proton-to-electron mass ratio, mu, over cosmological time and distance scales.
The inversion transitions of ammonia are particularly sensitive to mu compared
to molecular rotational transitions. Comparing the available ammonia spectra
observed towards the quasar B0218+357 with new, high-quality rotational
spectra, we present the first detailed measurement of mu with this technique,
limiting relative deviations from the laboratory value to |dmu/mu| <
1.8x10^{-6} (95% confidence level) at approximately half the Universe's current
age - the strongest astrophysical constraint to date. Higher-quality ammonia
observations will reduce both the statistical and systematic uncertainties in
these measurements.Comment: Science, 20th June 2008. 22 pages, 5 figures (12 EPS files), 2
tables, including Supporting Online Material; v2: Corrected reference for
laboratory mu-variation bound
Collisions of Slow Highly Charged Ions with Surfaces
Progress in the study of collisions of multiply charged ions with surfaces is
reviewed with the help of a few recent examples. They range from fundamental
quasi-one electron processes to highly complex ablation and material
modification processes. Open questions and possible future directions will be
discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures, review pape
Airborne Measurements of Gravity Wave Breaking at the Tropopause
2000 FLORIDA AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC,
2000
Astrophysical Probes of Fundamental Physics
I review the theoretical motivation for varying fundamental couplings and
discuss how these measurements can be used to constrain a number of fundamental
physics scenarios that would otherwise be inacessible to experiment. As a case
study I will focus on the relation between varying couplings and dark energy,
and explain how varying coupling measurements can be used to probe the nature
of dark energy, with important advantages over the standard methods. Assuming
that the current observational evidence for varying and is
correct, a several-sigma detection of dynamical dark energy is feasible within
a few years, using currently operational ground-based facilities. With
forthcoming instruments like CODEX, a high-accuracy reconstruction of the
equation of state may be possible all the way up to redshift .Comment: Invited Review talk at the ESO Precision Spectroscopy in Astrophysics
conference, to appear in the proceeding
The Sun is less active than other solar-like stars
Magnetic activity of the Sun and other stars causes their brightness to vary.
We investigate how typical the Sun's variability is compared to other
solar-like stars, i.e. those with near-solar effective temperatures and
rotation periods. By combining four years of photometric observations from the
Kepler space telescope with astrometric data from the Gaia spacecraft, we
measure photometric variabilities of 369 solar-like stars. Most of the
solar-like stars with well-determined rotation periods show higher variability
than the Sun and are therefore considerably more active. These stars appear
nearly identical to the Sun, except for their higher variability. Their
existence raises the question of whether the Sun can also experience epochs of
such high variability.Comment: Accepted for publication in Science. 3 (main) + 10 (supplementary)
figure
Contribution of the magnetic resonance to the third harmonic generation from a fishnet metamaterial
We investigate experimentally and theoretically the third harmonic generated
by a double-layer fishnet metamaterial. To unambiguously disclose most notably
the influence of the magnetic resonance, the generated third harmonic was
measured as a function of the angle of incidence. It is shown experimentally
and numerically that when the magnetic resonance is excited by pump beam, the
angular dependence of the third harmonic signal has a local maximum at an
incidence angle of {\theta} \simeq 20{\deg}. This maximum is shown to be a
fingerprint of the antisymmetric distribution of currents in the gold layers.
An analytical model based on the nonlinear dynamics of the electrons inside the
gold shows excellent agreement with experimental and numerical results. This
clearly indicates the difference in the third harmonic angular pattern at
electric and magnetic resonances of the metamaterial.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
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