14,530 research outputs found
Helioseismology and the solar age
The problem of measuring the solar age by means of helioseismology hasbeen
recently revisited by Guenther & Demarque (1997) and by Weiss & Schlattl
(1998). Different best values for and different assessment of
the uncertainty resulted from these two works. We show that depending on the
way seismic data are used, one may obtain the value
Gy, close to the age of the oldest meteorites, Gy, like in
the first paper, or above 5 Gy like in the second paper. The discrepancy in the
seismic estimates of the solar age may be eliminated by assuming higher than
the standard metal abundance and/or an upward revision of the opacities in the
solar radiative interior.We argue that the most accurate and robust seismic
measure of the solar age are the small frequency separations,
, for spherical harmonic degrees
and radial orders .The seismic age inferred by
minimization of the sum of squared differences between the model and the solar
small separations is , a number consistent with
meteoritic data.Our analysis supports earlier suggestions of using small
frequency separations as stellar age indicators.Comment: 8 pages + 4 ps figures included, LaTeX file with l-aa.sty, submitted
to Astronomy and Astrophysic
Stellar archeology of the nearby LINER galaxies NGC 4579 and NGC 4736
Stellar archeology of nearby LINER galaxies may reveal if there is a stellar
young population that may be responsible for the LINER phenomenon. We show
results for the classical LINER galaxies NGC 4579 and NGC 4736 and find no
evidence of such populations.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the IAU
Symposium no. 26
ALMA observations of the debris disk around the young Solar Analog HD 107146
We present ALMA continuum observations at a wavelength of 1.25 mm of the
debris disk surrounding the 100 Myr old solar analog HD 107146. The
continuum emission extends from about 30 to 150 AU from the central star with a
decrease in the surface brightness at intermediate radii. We analyze the ALMA
interferometric visibilities using debris disk models with radial profiles for
the dust surface density parametrized as i) a single power-law, ii) a single
power-law with a gap, and iii) a double power-law. We find that models with a
gap of radial width AU at a distance of AU from the central
star, as well as double power-law models with a dip in the dust surface density
at AU provide significantly better fits to the ALMA data than single
power-law models. We discuss possible scenarios for the origin of the HD 107146
debris disk using models of planetesimal belts in which the formation of
Pluto-sized objects trigger disruptive collisions of large bodies, as well as
models which consider the interaction of a planetary system with a planetesimal
belt and spatial variation of the dust opacity across the disk. If future
observations with higher angular resolution and sensitivity confirm the
fully-depleted gap structure discussed here, a planet with a mass of
approximately a few Earth masses in a nearly circular orbit at AU
from the central star would be a possible explanation for the presence of the
gap.Comment: (38 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Metronomic Chemotherapy with Vinorelbine Produces Clinical Benefit and Low Toxicity in Frail Elderly Patients Affected by Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. The treatment choice for advanced stage of lung cancer may depend on histotype, performance status (PS), age, and comorbidities. In the present study, we focused on the effect of metronomic vinorelbine treatment in elderly patients with advanced unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods. From January 2016 to December 2016, 44 patients affected by non-small cell lung cancer referred to our oncology day hospital were progressively analyzed. The patients were treated with oral vinorelbine 30 mg x 3/wk or 40 mg x 3/wk meaning one day on and one day off. The patients were older than 60, stage IIIB or IV, ECOG PS ≥ 1, and have at least one important comorbidity (renal, hepatic, or cardiovascular disease). The schedule was based on ECOG-PS and comorbidities. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). PFS was used to compare patients based on different scheduled dosage (30 or 40 mg x3/weekly) and age (more or less than 75 years old) as exploratory analysis. We also evaluated as secondary endpoint toxicity according to Common Toxicity Criteria Version 2.0. Results. Vinorelbine showed a good safety profile at different doses taken orally and was effective in controlling cancer progression. The median overall survival (OS) was 12 months. The disease control rate (DCR) achieved 63%. The median PFS was 9 months. A significant difference in PFS was detected comparing patients aged below with those over 75, and the HR value was 0.72 (p<0.05). Not significant was the difference between groups with different schedules. Conclusions. This study confirmed the safety profile of metronomic vinorelbine and its applicability for patients unfit for standard chemotherapies and adds the possibility of considering this type of schedule not only for very elderly patients
Mapping low and high density clouds in astrophysical nebulae by imaging forbidden line emission
Emission line ratios have been essential for determining physical parameters
such as gas temperature and density in astrophysical gaseous nebulae. With the
advent of panoramic spectroscopic devices, images of regions with emission
lines related to these physical parameters can, in principle, also be produced.
We show that, with observations from modern instruments, it is possible to
transform images taken from density sensitive forbidden lines into images of
emission from high and low-density clouds by applying a transformation matrix.
In order to achieve this, images of the pairs of density sensitive lines as
well as the adjacent continuum have to be observed and combined. We have
computed the critical densities for a series of pairs of lines in the infrared,
optical, ultraviolet and X-rays bands, and calculated the pair line intensity
ratios in the high and low-density limit using a 4 and 5 level atom
approximation. In order to illustrate the method we applied it to GMOS-IFU data
of two galactic nuclei. We conclude that this method provides new information
of astrophysical interest, especially for mapping low and high-density clouds;
for this reason we call it "the ld/hd imaging method".Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication on MNRA
PCA Tomography and its application to nearby galactic nuclei
With the development of modern technologies such as IFUs, it is possible to
obtain data cubes in which one produces images with spectral resolution. To
extract information from them can be quite complex, and hence the development
of new methods of data analysis is desirable. We briefly describe a method of
analysis of data cubes (data from single field observations, containing two
spatial and one spectral dimension) that uses Principal Component Analysis
(PCA) to express the data in the form of reduced dimensionality, facilitating
efficient information extraction from very large data sets. We applied the
method, for illustration purpose, to the central region of the low ionization
nuclear emission region (LINER) galaxy NGC 4736, and demonstrate that it has a
type 1 active nucleus, not known before. Furthermore, we show that it is
displaced from the centre of its stellar bulge.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, to be published in the Proceedings of the
IAU Symposium no. 26
On the gas content of transitional disks: a VLT/X-Shooter study of accretion and winds
Transitional disks (TDs) are thought to be a late evolutionary stage of
protoplanetary disks with dust depleted inner regions. The mechanism
responsible for this depletion is still under debate. To constrain the models
it is mandatory to have a good understanding of the properties of the gas
content of the inner disk. Using X-Shooter broad band -UV to NIR- medium
resolution spectroscopy we derive the stellar, accretion, and wind properties
of a sample of 22 TDs. The analysis of these properties allows us to put strong
constraints on the gas content in a region very close to the star (<0.2 AU)
which is not accessible with any other observational technique. We fit the
spectra with a self-consistent procedure to derive simultaneously SpT,Av,and
mass accretion rates (Macc) of the targets. From forbidden emission lines we
derive the wind properties of the targets. Comparing our findings to values for
cTTs, we find that Macc and wind properties of 80% of the TDs in our sample,
which is strongly biased towards strongly accreting objects, are comparable to
those of cTTs. Thus, there are (at least) some TDs with Macc compatible with
those of cTTs, irrespective of the size of the dust inner hole.Only in 2 cases
Macc are much lower, while the wind properties are similar. We do not see any
strong trend of Macc with the size of the dust depleted cavity, nor with the
presence of a dusty optically thick disk close to the star. In the TDs in our
sample there is a gas rich inner disk with density similar to that of cTTs
disks. At least for some TDs, the process responsible of the inner disk
clearing should allow for a transfer of gas from the outer disk to the inner
region. This should proceed at a rate that does not depend on the physical
mechanism producing the gap seen in the dust emission and results in a gas
density in the inner disk similar to that of unperturbed disks around stars of
similar mass.Comment: Accepted on Astronomy & Astrophysics. Abstract shortened to fit arXiv
constraint
Geoneutrinos and reactor antineutrinos at SNO+
In the heart of the Creighton Mine near Sudbury (Canada), the SNO+ detector
is foreseen to observe almost in equal proportion electron antineutrinos
produced by U and Th in the Earth and by nuclear reactors. SNO+ will be the
first long baseline experiment to measure a reactor signal dominated by CANDU
cores (55\% of the total reactor signal), which generally burn natural
uranium. Approximately 18\% of the total geoneutrino signal is generated by the
U and Th present in the rocks of the Huronian Supergroup-Sudbury Basin: the
60\% uncertainty on the signal produced by this lithologic unit plays a crucial
role on the discrimination power on the mantle signal as well as on the
geoneutrino spectral shape reconstruction, which can in principle provide a
direct measurement of the Th/U ratio in the Earth.Comment: 7 pages including 2 figures and 1 table, in XIV International
Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP 2015) IOP
Publishing , published on Journal of Physics: Conference Series 718 (2016)
06200
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