18,356 research outputs found
Occurrence and mineral chemistry of high pressure phases, Portrillo basalt, southcentral New Mexico
Inclusions of clinopyroxenite, kaersutiteclinopyroxenite, kaersutite-rich inclusions, wehrlite and olivine-clinopyroxenite together with megacrysts of feldspar, kaersutite and spinel are found loose on the flanks of cinder cones, as inclusions within lava flows and within the cores of volcanic bombs in the Quaternary alkali-olivine basalt of the West Potrillo Mountains, southcentral New Mexico. Based on petrological and geochemical evidence the megacysts are interpreted to be phenocrysts which formed at great depth rather that xenocrysts of larger crystal aggregates. These large crystals are believed to have formed as stable phases at high temperature and pressure and have partially reacted with the basalt to produce subhedral to anhedral crystal boundaries. It can be demonstrated that the mafic and ultramafic crystal aggregates were derived from an alkali-basalt source rock generated in the mantle. The inclusions are believed to represent a cumulus body or bodies injected within the lower crust or upper mantle
SAOLIM, a prototype of a low cost System for Adaptive Optics with Lucky Imaging
A prototype of a low cost Adaptive Optics (AO) system has been developed at
the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC) and tested at the 2.2m
telescope of the Calar Alto observatory. We present here the status of the
project, which includes the image stabilization system and compensation of high
order wavefront aberrations with a membrane deformable mirror. The image
stabilization system consists of magnet driven tip-tilt mirror. The higher
order compensation system comprises of a Shack-Hartmann sensor, a membrane
deformable mirror with 39 actuators and the control computer that allows
operations up to 420Hz in closed loop mode. We have successfully closed the
high order AO loop on natural guide stars. An improvement of 4 times in terms
of FWHM was achieved. The description and the results obtained on the sky are
presented in this paper.Comment: Accepted for publishing in PASP, 11 pages, 14 figures, 6 table
Integrable two-channel p_x+ip_y-wave superfluid model
We present a new two-channel integrable model describing a system of spinless
fermions interacting through a p-wave Feshbach resonance. Unlike the BCS-BEC
crossover of the s-wave case, the p-wave model has a third order quantum phase
transition. The critical point coincides with the deconfinement of a single
molecule within a BEC of bound dipolar molecules. The exact many-body
wavefunction provides a unique perspective of the quantum critical region
suggesting that the size of the condensate wavefunction, that diverges
logarithmically with the chemical potential, could be used as an experimental
indicator of the phase transition.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Rotational properties of the binary and non-binary populations in the Trans-Neptunian belt
We present results for the short-term variability of Binary Trans-Neptunian
Objects (BTNOs). We performed CCD photometric observations using the 3.58 m
Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, the 1.5 m Sierra Nevada Observatory telescope,
and the 1.23 m Centro Astronomico Hispano Aleman telescope at Calar Alto
Observatory. We present results based on five years of observations and report
the short-term variability of six BTNOs. Our sample contains three classical
objects: 2003MW12, or Varda, 2004SB60, or Salacia, and 2002 VT130; one detached
disk object: 2007UK126; and two resonant objects: 2007TY430 and 2000EB173, or
Huya. For each target, possible rotational periods and/or photometric
amplitudes are reported. We also derived some physical properties from their
lightcurves, such as density, primary and secondary sizes, and albedo. We
compiled and analyzed a vast lightcurve database for Trans-Neptunian Objects
(TNOs) including centaurs to determine the lightcurve amplitude and spin
frequency distributions for the binary and non-binary populations. The mean
rotational periods, from the Maxwellian fits to the frequency distributions,
are 8.63+/-0.52 h for the entire sample, 8.37+/-0.58 h for the sample without
the binary population, and 10.11+/-1.19 h for the binary population alone.
Because the centaurs are collisionally more evolved, their rotational periods
might not be so primordial. We computed a mean rotational period, from the
Maxwellian fit, of 8.86+/-0.58 h for the sample without the centaur population,
and of 8.64+/-0.67 h considering a sample without the binary and the centaur
populations. According to this analysis, regular TNOs spin faster than
binaries, which is compatible with the tidal interaction of the binaries.
Finally, we examined possible formation models for several systems studied in
this work and by our team in previous papers.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (June 26th,
2014); minor changes with published version; 21 pages, 17 figures, 7 table
A photometric search for active Main Belt asteroids
It is well known that some Main Belt asteroids show comet-like features. A
representative example is the first known Main Belt comet 133P/(7968)
Elst-Pizarro. If the mechanisms causing this activity are too weak to develop
visually evident comae or tails, the objects stay unnoticed. We are presenting
a novel way to search for active asteroids, based on looking for objects with
deviations from their expected brightnesses in a database. Just by using the
MPCAT-OBS Observation Archive we have found five new candidate objects that
possibly show a type of comet-like activity, and the already known Main Belt
comet 133P/(7968) Elst-Pizarro. Four of the new candidates, (315) Constantia,
(1026) Ingrid, (3646) Aduatiques, and (24684) 1990 EU4, show brightness
deviations independent of the object's heliocentric distance, while (35101)
1991 PL16 shows deviations dependent on its heliocentric distance, which could
be an indication of a thermal triggered mechanism. The method could be
implemented in future sky survey programmes to detect outbursts on Main Belt
objects almost simultaneously with their occurrence.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A on December 20,
201
Locating the critical end point using the linear sigma model coupled to quarks
We use the linear sigma model coupled to quarks to compute the effective
potential beyond the mean field approximation, including the contribution of
the ring diagrams at finite temperature and baryon density. We determine the
model couplings and use them to study the phase diagram in the baryon chemical
potential-temperature plane and to locate the Critical End Point.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, conference paper from ISMD 201
Performance of a high T (sub c) superconducting ultra-low loss microwave stripline filter
Discussed here is the successful fabrication of a five-pole interdigital stripline filter made of the 93 K superconductor (Y1Ba2Cu3O sub y) coated on a silver substrate, with center frequency of 8.5 GHz and an extremely high rejection ratio of 80 dB. The lowest injection loss measured was 0.1 dB at 12 K, with a return loss of better than 16 dB, representing a significant improvement over a similar copper filter, and is comparable to low critical temperature filters. The insertion loss appears to be limited by extrinsic factors, such as tuning mismatch and joint losses, and not by superconducting material losses
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