18,299 research outputs found
Application of XFaster power spectrum and likelihood estimator to Planck
We develop the XFaster Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and
polarization anisotropy power spectrum and likelihood technique for the Planck
CMB satellite mission. We give an overview of this estimator and its current
implementation and present the results of applying this algorithm to simulated
Planck data. We show that it can accurately extract the power spectrum of
Planck data for the high-l multipoles range. We compare the XFaster
approximation for the likelihood to other high-l likelihood approximations such
as Gaussian and Offset Lognormal and a low-l pixel-based likelihood. We show
that the XFaster likelihood is not only accurate at high-l, but also performs
well at moderately low multipoles. We also present results for cosmological
parameter Markov Chain Monte Carlo estimation with the XFaster likelihood. As
long as the low-l polarization and temperature power are properly accounted
for, e.g., by adding an adequate low-l likelihood ingredient, the input
parameters are recovered to a high level of accuracy.Comment: 25 pages, 20 figures, updated to reflect published version: slightly
extended account of XFaster technique, added improved plots and minor
corrections. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Efficient atomic self-interaction correction scheme for non-equilibrium quantum transport
Density functional theory calculations of electronic transport based on local
exchange and correlation functionals contain self-interaction errors. These
originate from the interaction of an electron with the potential generated by
itself and may be significant in metal-molecule-metal junctions due to the
localized nature of the molecular orbitals. As a consequence, insulating
molecules in weak contact with metallic electrodes erroneously form highly
conducting junctions, a failure similar to the inability of local functionals
of describing Mott-Hubbard insulators. Here we present a fully self-consistent
and still computationally undemanding self-interaction correction scheme that
overcomes these limitations. The method is implemented in the Green's function
non-equilibrium transport code Smeagol and applied to the prototypical cases of
benzene molecules sandwiched between gold electrodes. The self-interaction
corrected Kohn-Sham highest occupied molecular orbital now reproduces closely
the negative of the molecular ionization potential and is moved away from the
gold Fermi energy. This leads to a drastic reduction of the low bias current in
much better agreement with experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
False Vacuum Transitions - Analytical Solutions and Decay Rate Values
In this work we show a class of oscillating configurations for the evolution
of the domain walls in Euclidean space. The solutions are obtained
analytically. Phase transitions are achieved from the associated fluctuation
determinant, by the decay rates of the false vacuum.Comment: 6 pages, improved to match the final version to appear in EP
TWO-PION EXCHANGE NUCLEAR POTENTIAL - CHIRAL CANCELLATIONS
We show that chiral symmetry is responsible for large cancellations in the
two-pion exchange nucleon-nucleon interaction, which are similar to those
occuring in free pion-nucleon scattering.Comment: REVTEX style, 5 pages, 3 PostScrip figures compressed, tarred and
uuencode
Homogeneous abundance analysis of dwarf, subgiant and giant FGK stars with and without giant planets
We have analyzed high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio optical
spectra of nearby FGK stars with and without detected giant planets in order to
homogeneously measure their photospheric parameters, mass, age, and the
abundances of volatile (C, N, and O) and refractory (Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, V, Mn,
Fe, Ni, Cu, and Ba) elements. Our sample contains 309 stars from the solar
neighborhood (up to the distance of 100 pc), out of which 140 are dwarfs, 29
are subgiants, and 140 are giants. The photospheric parameters are derived from
the equivalent widths of Fe I and Fe II lines. Masses and ages come from the
interpolation in evolutionary tracks and isochrones on the HR diagram. The
abundance determination is based on the equivalent widths of selected atomic
lines of the refractory elements and on the spectral synthesis of C_2, CN, C I,
O I, and Na I features. We apply a set of statistical methods to analyze the
abundances derived for the three subsamples. Our results show that: i) giant
stars systematically exhibit underabundance in [C/Fe] and overabundance in
[N/Fe] and [Na/Fe] in comparison with dwarfs, a result that is normally
attributed to evolution-induced mixing processes in the envelope of evolved
stars; ii) for solar analogs only, the abundance trends with the condensation
temperature of the elements are correlated with age and anticorrelated with the
surface gravity, which is in agreement with recent studies; iii) as in the case
of [Fe/H], dwarf stars with giant planets are systematically enriched in [X/H]
for all the analyzed elements, except for O and Ba (the former due to
limitations of statistics), confirming previous findings in the literature that
not only iron has an important relation with the planetary formation; and iv)
giant planet hosts are also significantly overabundant for the same metallicity
when the elements from Mg to Cu are combined together.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, 8 table
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