2,004 research outputs found
Broad Band Optical Polarimetric Study of IC 1805
We present the BVR broad band polarimetric observations of 51 stars belonging
to the young open cluster IC 1805. Along with the photometric data from the
literature we have modeled and subtracted the foreground dust contribution from
the maximum polarization (P_{max}) and colour excess (E_{B-V}). The mean value
of the P_max for intracluster medium and the foreground are found to be 5.008
+/-0.005 % and 4.865 +/-0.022 % respectively. Moreover, the mean value of the
wavelength of maximum polarization (lambda_{max}) for intracluster medium is
0.541 +/- 0.003 micro m, which is quite similar as the general interstellar
medium (ISM). The resulting intracluster dust component is found to have
negligible polarization efficiency as compared to interstellar dust. Some of
the observed stars in IC 1805 have shown the indication of intrinsic
polarization in their measurements.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
A Novel Technique to Enhance the Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks through Software Realization
In the most of the real world scenarios, wireless sensor networks are used. Some of the major tasks of these types of networks is to sense some information and sending it to monitoring system or tracking some activity etc. In such applications, the sensor nodes are deployed in large area and in considerably large numbers [1]-[3]. Each of these node will be having constrained resources whether it might be energy, memory or processing capability. Energy is the major resource constraint in these types of networks. Hence enough care to be taken in all aspects such that energy can be used very efficiently. Different Activities which will be taking place in a sensor node are sensing, radio operations and receiving and computing. Among all these operations, radio consumes maximum power. Hence there is a need of reducing the power consumption in such radio operations. In the proposed work a software module is developed which will reduce the number of transmissions done to the base station. The work compares the consecutively sensed data and if these data are same then the old data then the old data will be retained. In other case the newly sensed data will be sent to the sink node. This technique reduces the number of data transmissions in a significant way. With the reduced number of transmissions, the energy saved in each node will be more, which will increase the lifetime of the entire network
Continued Radio Monitoring of the Gamma Ray Burst 991208
We present radio observations of the afterglow of the bright gamma-ray burst
GRB 991208 at frequencies of 1.4, 4.9 and 8.5 GHz, taken between two weeks and
300 days after the burst. The well-sampled radio light curve at 8.5 GHz shows
that the peak flux density peaked about 10 days after the burst and decayed
thereafter as a power-law t^-1.07. This decay rate is more shallow than the
optical afterglow with t^-2.2, which was measured during the first week. These
late-time data are combined with extensive optical, millimeter and centimeter
measurements and fitted to the standard relativistic blast wave model. In
agreement with previous findings, we find that an isotropic explosion in a
constant density or wind-blown medium cannot explain these broadband data
without modifying the assumption of a single power-law slope for the electron
energy distribution. A jet-like expansion provides a reasonable fit to the
data. In this case, the flatter radio light curve compared to the optical may
be due to emission from an underlying host galaxy, or due to the blastwave
making a transition to non-relativistic expansion. The model that best
represents the data is a free-form model in which it is assumed that the
broadband emission originates from a synchrotron spectrum, while the
time-evolution of the break frequencies and peak flux density are solved for
explicitly. Although the decay indices for most of the synchrotron parameters
are similar to the jet model, the evolution of the cooling break is unusually
rapid, and therefore requires some non-standard evolution in the shock.
(abridged)Comment: ApJ, in pres
Jet break time -- flux density relationship and constraints on physical parameters of GRB afterglows
We derive a relation between the flux density at the light-curve
break of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow and the break time . The
break is due to the transition from the spherical-like to jet-like evolution of
the afterglow, when the Lorentz factor of the jet equals the inverse of the
initial half-opening angle, i.e., . We show that this
relation indeed behaves as among GRBs for the
slow-cooling case, where is the power-law index of electron distribution. A
statistical analysis of the optical jet breaks of nine GRBs gives , which is consistent with the shock acceleration theory. The value of
derived in this way is different from the observed temporal index
() of the late-time light curve after ,
which suffers several uncertainties from the unclear hydrodynamics of the
sideways expansion and exhibits a large dispersion. Our results not only
confirm that the remnants of GRBs are standard candles, but also provide the
first evidence that the physical parameters of relativistic shocks are
universal, with the favored values and .Comment: 11 pages including 3 color figure
Optical observations of the bright long duration peculiar GRB 021004 afterglow
The CCD magnitudes in Johnson and Cousins and photometric
passbands are determined for the bright long duration GRB 021004 afterglow from
2002 October 4 to 16 starting 3 hours after the ray burst.
Light curves of the afterglow emission in ,, and passbands are
obtained by combining these measurements with other published data. The
earliest optical emission appears to originate in a revese shock. Flux decay of
the afterglow shows a very uncommon variation relative to other well-observed
GRBs. Rapid light variations, especially during early times (
days) is superposed on an underlying broken power law decay typical of a jetted
afterglow. The flux decay constants at early and late times derived from least
square fits to the light curve are and respectively,
with a jet break at around 7 day. Comparison with a standard fireball model
indicates a total extinction of mag in the direction of the
burst. Our low-resolution spectra corrected for this extinction provide a
spectral slope . This value and the flux decay constants
agree well with the electron energy index used in the model. The
derived jet opening angle of about implies a total emitted
gamma-ray energy erg at a cosmological distance
of about 20 Gpc. Multiwavelength observations indicate association of this GRB
with a star forming region, supporting the case for collapsar origin of long
duration GRBs.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, BASI, 31, 1
Off-street sex workers and victim-orientated policymaking at the local level: Denial of agency and consequences of victimhood
Red Giant stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud clusters
We present deep J,H,Ks photometry and accurate Color Magnitude Diagrams down
to K ~18.5, for a sample of 13 globular clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
This data set combined with the previous sample of 6 clusters published by our
group gives the opportunity to study the properties of giant stars in clusters
with different ages (ranging from ~80 Myr up to ~3.5 Gyr). Quantitative
estimates of star population ratios (by number and luminosity) in the
Asymptotic Giant Branch, the Red Giant Branch and the He-clump, have been
obtained and compared with theoretical models in the framework of probing the
so-called phase transitions. The AGB contribution to the total luminosity
starts to be significant at ~200 Myr and reaches its maximum at ~5-600 Myr,
when the RGB Phase Transition is starting. At ~900 Myr the full developing of
an extended and well populated RGB has been completed. Both the occurrence of
the AGB and RGB Phase Transitions are sharp events, lasting a few hundreds Myr
only. These empirical results agree very well with the theoretical predictions
of simple stellar population models based on canonical tracks and the
fuel-consumption approach.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures, accepted to Ap
On the Iron content of NGC 1978 in the LMC: a metal rich, chemically homogeneous cluster
We present a detailed abundance analysis of giant stars in NGC 1978, a
massive, intermediate-age stellar cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud,
characterized by a high ellipticity and suspected to have a metallicity spread.
We analyzed 11 giants, all cluster members, by using high resolution spectra
acquired with the UVES/FLAMES spectrograph at the ESO-Very Large Telescope. We
find an iron content of [Fe/H]=-0.38 dex with very low (0.07 dex) dispersion,
and a mean heliocentric radial velocity Vr=293.1 (with an error of 0.9 km/s)
and a velocity dispersion (3.1 km/s), thus excluding the presence of a
significant metallicity, as well as velocity, spread within the cluster.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication by Apj
Hubble Space Telescope and Ground-Based Optical and Ultraviolet Observations of GRB010222
We report on Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 optical and STIS near ultraviolet
MAMA observations, and ground-based optical observations of GRB010222, spanning
15 hrs to 71 days. The observations are well-described by a relativistic
blast-wave model with a hard electron-energy distribution, p = 1.57, and a jet
transition at t_j=0.93 days. These values are slightly larger than previously
found as a result of a correction for the contribution from the host galaxy to
the late-time ground-based observations and the larger temporal baseline
provided by the Hubble Space Telescope observations. The host galaxy is found
to contain a very compact core (size <0.25 arcsec) which coincides with the
position of the optical transient. The STIS near ultraviolet MAMA observations
allow for an investigation of the extinction properties along the line of sight
to GRB010222. We find that the far ultraviolet curvature component (c_4) is
rather large. In combination with the low optical extinction A_V =0.11 mag,
when compared to the Hydrogen column inferred from X-ray observations, we
suggest that this is evidence for dust destruction.Comment: ApJ, in pres
A VLA Search for Water Masers in Six HII Regions: Tracers of Triggered Low-Mass Star Formation
We present a search for water maser emission at 22 GHz associated with young
low-mass protostars in six HII regions -- M16, M20, NGC 2264, NGC 6357, S125,
and S140. The survey was conducted with the NRAO Very Large Array from 2000 to
2002. For several of these HII regions, ours are the first high-resolution
observations of water masers. We detected 16 water masers: eight in M16, four
in M20, three in S140, and one in NGC 2264. All but one of these were
previously undetected. No maser emission was detected from NGC 6357 or S125.
There are two principle results to our study. (1) The distribution of water
masers in M16 and M20 does not appear to be random but instead is concentrated
in a layer of compressed gas within a few tenths of a parsec of the ionization
front. (2) Significantly fewer masers are seen in the observed fields than
expected based on other indications of ongoing star formation, indicating that
the maser-exciting lifetime of protostars is much shorter in HII regions than
in regions of isolated star formation. Both of these results confirm
predictions of a scenario in which star formation is first triggered by shocks
driven in advance of ionization fronts, and then truncated approximately 10^5
years later when the region is overrun by the ionization front.Comment: 30 pages, 20 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication by ApJ. Full
resolution figures and PS and PDF versions with full-res figures available at
http://eagle.la.asu.edu/healy/preprints/hhc0
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