7,536 research outputs found
The intermediate age open cluster NGC 2660
We present CCD UBVI photometry of the intermediate old open cluster NGC2660,
covering from the red giants region to about seven magnitudes below the main
sequence turn-off. Using the synthetic Colour - Magnitude Diagram method, we
estimate in a self-consistent way values for distance modulus ((m-M)0 ~= 12.2),
reddening (E(B-V) ~= 0.40), metallicity ([Fe/H] about solar), and age (age ~ 1
Gyr). A 30% population of binary stars turns out to be probably present.Comment: 12 pages, 8 (encapsulated) figures, to be published on MNRA
Non-equilibrium fluctuations in a driven stochastic Lorentz gas
We study the stationary state of a one-dimensional kinetic model where a
probe particle is driven by an external field E and collides, elastically or
inelastically, with a bath of particles at temperature T. We focus on the
stationary distribution of the velocity of the particle, and of two estimates
of the total entropy production \Delta s_tot. One is the entropy production of
the medium \Delta s_m, which is equal to the energy exchanged with the
scatterers, divided by a parameter \theta, coinciding with the particle
temperature at E=0. The other is the work W done by the external field, again
rescaled by \theta. At small E, a good collapse of the two distributions is
found: in this case the two quantities also verify the Fluctuation Relation
(FR), indicating that both are good approximations of \Delta s_tot.
Differently, for large values of E, the fluctuations of W violate the FR, while
\Delta s_m still verifies it.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
The Role of Opacities in Stellar Pulsation
We examine the role of opacities in stellar pulsation with reference to
Cepheids and RR Lyraes, and examine the effect of augmented opacities on the
theoretical pulsation light curves in key temperature ranges. The temperature
ranges are provided by recent experimental and theoretical work that have
suggested that the iron opacities have been considerably underestimated. For
Cepheids, we find that the augmented opacities have noticeable effects in
certain period ranges (around ) even though there is a
degeneracy with mixing length. We also find significant effects in theoretical
models of B-star pulsators.Comment: 6 pages, 3 Figures, Proceeding for the "Workshop on Astrophysical
Opacities
The parallel lives of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies
We compare all the available observational data on the redshift evolution of
the total stellar mass and star formation rate density in the Universe with the
mass and accretion rate density evolution of supermassive black holes,
estimated from the hard X-ray selected luminosity function of quasars and
active galactic nuclei. We find that on average black hole mass must have been
higher at higher redshift for given spheroid stellar mass. Moreover, we find
negative redshift evolution of the disk/irregulars to spheroid mass ratio. The
total accretion efficiency is constrained to be between 0.06 and 0.12,
depending on the exact value of the local SMBH mass density, and on the
critical accretion rate below which radiatively inefficient accretion may take
place.Comment: 5 pages, 2 color figures. To appear in the proceedings of
"Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology - Einstein's Legacy" (Eds.: B.
Aschenbach, V. Burwitz, G. Hasinger, and B. Leibundgut), 7 - 11 November
2005, Munich, German
Driven low density granular mixtures
We study the steady state properties of a 2D granular mixture in the presence
of energy driving by employing simple analytical estimates and Direct
Simulation Monte Carlo. We adopt two different driving mechanisms: a) a
homogeneous heat bath with friction and b) a vibrating boundary (thermal or
harmonic) in the presence of gravity. The main findings are: the appearance of
two different granular temperatures, one for each species; the existence of
overpopulated tails in the velocity distribution functions and of non trivial
spatial correlations indicating the spontaneous formation of cluster
aggregates. In the case of a fluid subject to gravity and to a vibrating
boundary, both densities and temperatures display non uniform profiles along
the direction normal to the wall, in particular the temperature profiles are
different for the two species while the temperature ratio is almost constant
with the height. Finally, we obtained the velocity distributions at different
heights and verified the non gaussianity of the resulting distributions.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, submitted for publicatio
Interface pinning and slow ordering kinetics on infinitely ramified fractal structures
We investigate the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) equation for a non
conserved order parameter on an infinitely ramified (deterministic) fractal
lattice employing two alternative methods: the auxiliary field approach and a
numerical method of integration of the equations of evolution. In the first
case the domain size evolves with time as , where is
the anomalous random walk exponent associated with the fractal and differs from
the normal value 2, which characterizes all Euclidean lattices. Such a power
law growth is identical to the one observed in the study of the spherical model
on the same lattice, but fails to describe the asymptotic behavior of the
numerical solutions of the TDGL equation for a scalar order parameter. In fact,
the simulations performed on a two dimensional Sierpinski Carpet indicate that,
after an initial stage dominated by a curvature reduction mechanism \`a la
Allen-Cahn, the system enters in a regime where the domain walls between
competing phases are pinned by lattice defects.
The lack of translational invariance determines a rough free energy
landscape, the existence of many metastable minima and the suppression of the
marginally stable modes, which in translationally invariant systems lead to
power law growth and self similar patterns. On fractal structures as the
temperature vanishes the evolution is frozen, since only thermally activated
processes can sustain the growth of pinned domains.Comment: 16 pages+14 figure
High resolution spectroscopic analysis of seven giants in the bulge globular cluster NGC 6723
Globular clusters associated with the Galactic bulge are important tracers of
stellar populations in the inner Galaxy. High resolution analysis of stars in
these clusters allows us to characterize them in terms of kinematics,
metallicity, and individual abundances, and to compare these fingerprints with
those characterizing field populations. We present iron and element ratios for
seven red giant stars in the globular cluster NGC~6723, based on high
resolution spectroscopy. High resolution spectra () of seven K
giants belonging to NGC 6723 were obtained with the FEROS spectrograph at the
MPG/ESO 2.2m telescope. Photospheric parameters were derived from FeI
and FeII transitions. Abundance ratios were obtained from line-to-line spectrum
synthesis calculations on clean selected features. An intermediate metallicity
of [Fe/H] dex and a heliocentric radial velocity of
were found for NGC 6723. Alpha-element
abundances present enhancements of dex,
dex, dex, and
dex. Similar overabundance is found for the iron-peak Ti with
dex. Odd-Z elements Na and Al present abundances of
dex and dex, respectively. Finally,
the s-element Ba is also enhanced by dex. The enhancement
levels of NGC 6723 are comparable to those of other metal-intermediate bulge
globular clusters. In turn, these enhancement levels are compatible with the
abundance profiles displayed by bulge field stars at that metallicity. This
hints at a possible similar chemical evolution with globular clusters and the
metal-poor of the bulge going through an early prompt chemical enrichment
Production of TeV gamma-radiation in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole in the giant radiogalaxy M87
Although the giant radiogalaxy M 87 harbors many distinct regions of
broad-band nonthermal emission, the recently reported fast variability of TeV
gamma rays from M 87 on a timescale of days strongly constrains the range of
speculations concerning the possible sites and scenarios of particle
acceleration responsible for the observed TeV emission. A natural production
site of this radiation is the immediate vicinity of the central supermassive
mass black hole (BH). Because of the low bolometric luminosity, the nucleus of
M 87 is effectively transparent for gamma rays up to energy of 10 TeV, which
makes this source an ideal laboratory for study of particle acceleration
processes close to the BH event horizon. We critically analyse different
possible radiation mechanisms in this region, and argue that the observed very
high-energy gamma ray emission can be explained by the inverse Compton emission
of ultrarelativistic electron-positron pairs produced through the development
of an electromagnetic cascade in the BH magnetosphere. We demonstrate, through
detailed numerical calculations of acceleration and radiation of electrons in
the magnetospheric vacuum gap, that this ``pulsar magnetosphere like'' scenario
can satisfactorily explain the main properties of TeV gamma-ray emission of M
87.Comment: 11 pages, ApJ, in prin
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