2,881 research outputs found
Multiple Stellar Populations in the Globular Cluster omega Centauri as Tracers of a Merger Event
The discovery of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, which is being tidally
disrupted by and merging with the Milky Way, supports the view that the halo of
the Galaxy has been built up at least partially by the accretion of similar
dwarf systems. The Sagittarius dwarf contains several distinct populations of
stars, and includes M54 as its nucleus, which is the second most massive
globular cluster associated with the Milky Way. The most massive globular
cluster is omega Centauri, and here we report that omega Centauri also has
several distinct stellar populations, as traced by red-giant-branch stars. The
most metal-rich red-giant-branch stars are about 2 Gyr younger than the
dominant metal-poor component, indicating that omega Centauri was enriched over
this timescale. The presence of more than one epoch of star formation in a
globular cluster is quite surprising, and suggests that omega Centauri was once
part of a more massive system that merged with the Milky Way, as the
Sagittarius dwarf galaxy is in the process of doing now. Mergers probably were
much more frequent in the early history of the Galaxy and omega Centauri
appears to be a relict of this era.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Latex+nature.sty (included), To appear in
November 4th issue of Natur
Structure, magnetic and transport properties of Ti-substituted La0.7Sr0.3MnO3
Ti-substituted perovskites, La0.7Sr0.3Mn1-xTixO3, with x between 0 to 0.20,
were investigated by neutron diffraction, magnetization, electric resistivity,
and magnetoresistance (MR) measurements. All samples show a rhombohedral
structure (space group R3c) from 10 K to room temperature. At room temperature,
the cell parameters a, c and the unit cell volume increase with increasing Ti
content. However, at 10 K, the cell parameter a has a maximum value for x =
0.10, and decreases for x greater than 0.10, while the unit cell volume remains
nearly constant for x greater than 0.10. The average (Mn,Ti)-O bond length
increases up to x=0.15, and the (Mn,Ti)-O-(Mn,Ti) bond angle decreases with
increasing Ti content to its minimum value at x=0.15 at room temperature. Below
the Curie temperature T_C, the resistance exhibits metallic behavior for the x
_ 0.05 samples. A metal (semiconductor) to insulator transition is observed for
the x_ 0.10 samples. A peak in resistivity appears below T_C for all samples,
and shifts to a lower temperature as x increases. The substitution of Mn by Ti
decreases the 2p-3d hybridization between O and Mn ions, reduces the bandwidth
W, and increases the electron-phonon coupling. Therefore, the TC shifts to a
lower temperature and the resistivity increases with increasing Ti content. A
field-induced shift of the resistivity maximum occurs at x less than or equal
to 0.10. The maximum MR effect is about 70% for La0.7Sr0.3Mn0.8Ti0.2O3. The
separation of TC and the resistivity maximum temperature Tmax enhances the MR
effect in these compounds due to the weak coupling between the magnetic
ordering and the resistivity as compared with La0.7Sr0.3MnO3.Comment: zip fil
Geophysical imaging of ophiolite structure in the United Arab Emirates
The Oman-United Arab Emirates ophiolite has been used extensively to document the geological processes that form oceanic crust. The geometry of the ophiolite, its extension into the Gulf of Oman, and the nature of the crust that underlies it are, however, unknown. Here, we show the ophiolite forms a high velocity, high density, >15 km thick east-dipping body that during emplacement flexed down a previously rifted continental margin thereby contributing to subsidence of flanking sedimentary basins. The western limit of the ophiolite is defined onshore by the Semail thrust while the eastern limit extends several km offshore, where it is defined seismically by a ~40–45°, east-dipping, normal fault. The fault is interpreted as the southwestern margin of an incipient suture zone that separates the Arabian plate from in situ Gulf of Oman oceanic crust and mantle presently subducting northwards beneath the Eurasian plate along the Makran trench
HS 2134+0400 - new very metal-poor galaxy, a representative of void population?
We present the SAO 6m telescope spectroscopy of a blue compact galaxy (BCG)
HS 2134+0400 discovered in frame of the dedicated Hamburg/SAO survey for Low
Metallicity BCGs (HSS-LM). Its very low abundance of oxygen (12+log(O/H) =
7.44), as well as other heavy elements (S, N, Ne, Ar), assigns this dwarf
galaxy to the group of BCGs with the lowest metal content. There are only eight
that low metallicity among several thousand known BCGs in the nearby Universe.
The abundance ratios for the heavy elements (S/O, Ne/O, N/O, and Ar/O) are well
consistent with the typical values of other very metal-poor BCGs. The global
environment of HS 2134+0400 is atypical of the majority of BCGs. The object
falls within the Pegasus void, the large volume with the very low density of
galaxies with the normal (M_B* = -19.6) or high luminosity. Since we found in
voids a dozen more the very metal-poor galaxies, we discuss the hypothesis that
such objects can be representative of a substantial fraction of the void dwarf
galaxy population.Comment: 6 pages, including 2 tables and 2 postscript figures. Submitted to
Astronomy Letter
A national survey of medical education fellowships
Purpose: The purpose of our study was to determine the prevalence, focus, time commitment, graduation requirements and programme evaluation methods of medical education fellowships throughout the United States. Medical education fellowships are defined as a single cohort of medical teaching faculty who participate in an extended faculty development programme. Methods: A 26-item online questionnaire was distributed to all US medical schools (n=127) in 2005 and 2006. The questionnaire asked each school if it had a medical education fellowship and the characteristics of the fellowship programme. Results: Almost half (n=55) of the participating schools (n=120, response rate 94.5 %) reported having fellowships. Duration (10–584 hours) and length (<1 month–48 months) varied; most focused on teaching skills, scholarly dissemination and curriculum design, and required the completion of a scholarly project. A majority collected participant satisfaction; few used other programme evaluation strategies. Conclusions: The number of medical education fellowships increased rapidly during the 1990s and 2000s. Across the US, programmes are similar in participant characteristics and curricular focus but unique in completion requirements. Fellowships collect limited programme evaluation data, indicating a need for better outcome data. These results provide benchmark data for those implementing or revising existing medical education fellowships
Pre-galactic metal enrichment - The chemical signatures of the first stars
The emergence of the first sources of light at redshifts of z ~ 10-30
signaled the transition from the simple initial state of the Universe to one of
increasing complexity. We review recent progress in our understanding of the
formation of the first stars and galaxies, starting with cosmological initial
conditions, primordial gas cooling, and subsequent collapse and fragmentation.
We emphasize the important open question of how the pristine gas was enriched
with heavy chemical elements in the wake of the first supernovae. We conclude
by discussing how the chemical abundance patterns conceivably allow us to probe
the properties of the first stars and subsequent stellar generations, and allow
us to test models of early metal enrichment.Comment: 52 pages, 20 figures, clarifications, references added, accepted for
publication in the Reviews of Modern Physic
Ordering and Fluctuation of Orbital and Lattice Distortion in Perovskite Manganese Oxides
Roles of orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in strongly correlated
systems are investigated to understand electronic properties of perovskite Mn
oxides such as La_{1-x}Sr_{x}MnO_{3}. An extended double-exchange model
containing Coulomb interaction, doubly degenerate orbitals and Jahn-Teller
coupling is derived under full polarization of spins with two-dimensional
anisotropy. Quantum fluctuation effects of Coulomb interaction and orbital
degrees of freedom are investigated by using the quantum Monte Carlo method. In
undoped states, it is crucial to consider both the Coulomb interaction and the
Jahn-Teller coupling in reproducing characteristic hierarchy of energy scales
among charge, orbital-lattice and spin degrees of freedom in experiments. Our
numerical results quantitatively reproduce the charge gap amplitude as well as
the stabilization energy and the amplitude of the cooperative Jahn-Teller
distortion in undoped compounds. Upon doping of carriers, in the absence of the
Jahn-Teller distortion, critical enhancement of both charge compressibility and
orbital correlation length is found with decreasing doping concentration. These
are discussed as origins of strong incoherence in charge dynamics. With the
Jahn-Teller coupling in the doped region, collapse of the Jahn-Teller
distortion and instability to phase separation are obtained and favorably
compared with experiments. These provide a possible way to understand the
complicated properties of lightly doped manganites.Comment: 22 pages RevTeX including 25 PS figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.B,
replaced version; two figures are replaced by Fig.17 with minor changes in
the tex
Simulation of High Conversion Efficiency and Open-circuit Voltages Of {\alpha}-si/poly-silicon Solar Cell
The P+ {\alpha}-Si /N+ polycrystalline solar cell is molded using the AMPS-1D
device simulator to explore the new high efficiency thin film poly-silicon
solar cell. In order to analyze the characteristics of this device and the
thickness of N+ poly-silicon, we consider the impurity concentration in the N+
poly-silicon layer and the work function of transparent conductive oxide (TCO)
in front contact in the calculation. The thickness of N+ poly-silicon has
little impact on the device when the thickness varies from 20 {\mu}m to 300
{\mu}m. The effects of impurity concentration in polycrystalline are analyzed.
The conclusion is drawn that the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of P+ {\alpha}-Si
/N+ polycrystalline solar cell is very high, reaching 752 mV, and the
conversion efficiency reaches 9.44%. Therefore, based on the above optimum
parameters the study on the device formed by P+ {\alpha}-Si/N+ poly-silicon is
significant in exploring the high efficiency poly-silicon solar cell.Comment: 8 pages 6figures, 1 table
A Universal Vertical Stellar Density Distribution Law for the Galaxy
We reduced the observational logarithmic space densities in the vertical
direction up to 8 kpc from the galactic plane, for stars with absolute
magnitudes (5,6], (6,7] and [5,10] in the fields #0952+5245 and SA114, to a
single exponential density law. One of three parameters in the quadratic
expression of the density law corresponds to the local space density for stars
with absolute magnitudes in question. There is no need of any definition for
scaleheights or population types. We confirm with the arguments of non-discrete
thin and thick discs for our Galaxy and propose a single structure up to
several kiloparsecs from the galactic plane. The logarithmic space densities
evaluated by this law for the ELAIS field fit to the observational ones.
Whereas, there are considerable offsets for the logarithmic space densities
produced by two sets of classical galactic model parameters from the
observational ones, for the same field.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure and 10 tables, accepted for publication in
Astrophysics & Space Scienc
On the Fermi Liquid to Polaron Crossover II: Double Exchange and the Physics of "Colossal" Magnetoresistance
We use the dynamical mean field method to study a model of electrons
Jahn-Teller coupled to localized classical oscillators and ferromagnetically
coupled to ``core spins'', which, we argue, contains the essential physics of
the ``colossal magnetoresistance'' manganites . We
determine the different regimes of the model and present results for the
temperature and frequency dependence of the conductivity, the electron spectral
function and the root mean square lattice parameter fluctuations. We compare
our results to data, and give a qualitative discussion of important physics not
included in the calculation. Extensive use is made of results from a companion
paper titled: ``On the Fermi Liquid to Polaron Crossover I: General Results''.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures. Depends on previous paper titled "On the Fermi
Liquid to Poalron Crossover I: General Result
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