44,364 research outputs found
Measurement of the LCG2 and glite file catalogue's performance
When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) begins operation at CERN in 2007 it will produce data in volumes never before seen. Physicists around the world will manage, distribute and analyse petabytes of this data using the middleware provided by the LHC Computing Grid. One of the critical factors in the smooth running of this system is the performance of the file catalogues which allow users to access their files with a logical filename without knowing their physical location. This paper presents a detailed study comparing the performance and respective merits and shortcomings of two of the main catalogues: the LCG File Catalogue and the gLite FiReMan catalogue
WMAP Constraints on a Quintessence Model
We use the results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) for
the locations of peaks and troughs of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
power spectrum, together with constraints from large-scale structure, to study
a quintessence model in which the pure exponential potential is modified by a
polynomial factor. Our analysis, in the cosmological
parameters space shows that this quintessence model is favoured compared to
CDM for and relatively high values of early
quintessence; for , quintessence and CDM give similar results,
except for high values of early quintessence, in which case CDM is
favoured.Comment: 3 pages. Talk presented by N. M. C. Santos at the Tenth Marcel
Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity, Rio de Janeiro, July 200
Supernovae constraints on dark energy and modified gravity models
We use the Type Ia Supernova gold sample to constrain the parameters of dark
energy models namely the Cardassian, Dvali-Turner (DT) and generalized
Chaplygin gas (GCG) models. In our best fit analysis for these dark energy
proposals we consider flat and the non-flat priors. For all models, we find
that relaxing the flatness condition implies that data favors a positive
curvature; moreover, the GCG model is nearly flat, as required by Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) observations.Comment: 6 pages, Latex file + 9 eps figures + (jpconf.cls,jpconf11.clo), to
appear in the Proceedings of the Fourth Meeting on Constrained Dynamics and
Quantum Gravity (QG05), Cala Gonone (Italy) September 12-16 200
On the 2:1 Orbital Resonance in the HD 82943 Planetary System
We present an analysis of the HD 82943 planetary system based on a radial
velocity data set that combines new measurements obtained with the Keck
telescope and the CORALIE measurements published in graphical form. We examine
simultaneously the goodness of fit and the dynamical properties of the best-fit
double-Keplerian model as a function of the poorly constrained eccentricity and
argument of periapse of the outer planet's orbit. The fit with the minimum
chi_{nu}^2 is dynamically unstable if the orbits are assumed to be coplanar.
However, the minimum is relatively shallow, and there is a wide range of fits
outside the minimum with reasonable chi_{nu}^2. For an assumed coplanar
inclination i = 30 deg. (sin i = 0.5), only good fits with both of the lowest
order, eccentricity-type mean-motion resonance variables at the 2:1
commensurability, theta_1 and theta_2, librating about 0 deg. are stable. For
sin i = 1, there are also some good fits with only theta_1 (involving the inner
planet's periapse longitude) librating that are stable for at least 10^8 years.
The libration semiamplitudes are about 6 deg. for theta_1 and 10 deg. for
theta_2 for the stable good fit with the smallest libration amplitudes of both
theta_1 and theta_2. We do not find any good fits that are non-resonant and
stable. Thus the two planets in the HD 82943 system are almost certainly in 2:1
mean-motion resonance, with at least theta_1 librating, and the observations
may even be consistent with small-amplitude librations of both theta_1 and
theta_2.Comment: 24 pages, including 10 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
Exoplanets: Gaia and the importance of ground based spectroscopy follow-up
The search for extrasolar planets has developed rapidly and, today, more than
1700 planets have been found orbiting stars. Thanks to Gaia, we will collect
high-accuracy astrometric orbits of thousands of new low-mass celestial
objects, such as extra-solar planets and brown dwarfs. These measurements in
combination with spectroscopy and with present day and future extrasolar planet
search programs (like HARPS, ESPRESSO) will have a crucial contribution to
several aspects of planetary astrophysics (formation theories, dynamical
evolution, etc.). Moreover, Gaia will have a strong contribution on the stellar
chemical and kinematic characterisation studies. In this paper we present a
short overview of the importance of Gaia in the context of exoplanet research.
As preparatory work for Gaia, we will then present a study where we derived
stellar parameters for a sample of field giant stars
Abundance ratios of volatile vs. refractory elements in planet-harbouring stars: hints of pollution?
We present the [X/H] trends as function of the elemental condensation
temperature Tc in 88 planet host stars and in a volume-limited comparison
sample of 33 dwarfs without detected planetary companions. We gathered
homogeneous abundance results for many volatile and refractory elements
spanning a wide range of Tc, from a few dozens to several hundreds kelvin. We
investigate possible anomalous trends of planet hosts with respect to
comparison sample stars in order to detect evidence of possible pollution
events. No significant differences are found in the behaviour of stars with and
without planets. This result is in agreement with a ``primordial'' origin of
the metal excess in planet host stars. However, a subgroup of 5 planet host and
1 comparison sample stars stands out for having particularly high [X/H] vs. Tc
slopes.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. Figures with
higher resolution are available at www.iac.es/proyect/abuntes
Can stellar activity make a planet seem misaligned?
Several studies have shown that the occultation of stellar active regions by
the transiting planet can generate anomalies in the high-precision transit
light curves, and these anomalies may lead to an inaccurate estimate of the
planetary parameters (e.g., the planet radius). Since the physics and geometry
behind the transit light curve and the Rossiter- McLaughlin effect
(spectroscopic transit) are the same, the Rossiter-McLaughlin observations are
expected to be affected by the occultation of stellar active regions in a
similar way. In this paper we perform a fundamental test on the spin-orbit
angles as derived by Rossiter-McLaughlin measurements, and we examine the
impact of the occultation of stellar active regions by the transiting planet on
the spin-orbit angle estimations. Our results show that the inaccurate
estimation on the spin-orbit angle due to stellar activity can be quite
significant (up to 30 degrees), particularly for the edge-on, aligned, and
small transiting planets. Therefore, our results suggest that the aligned
transiting planets are the ones that can be easily misinterpreted as misaligned
owing to the stellar activity. In other words, the biases introduced by
ignoring stellar activity are unlikely to be the culprit for the highly
misaligned systems.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Impact of micro-telluric lines on precise radial velocities and its correction
Context: In the near future, new instruments such as ESPRESSO will arrive,
allowing us to reach a precision in radial-velocity measurements on the order
of 10 cm/s. At this level of precision, several noise sources that until now
have been outweighed by photon noise will start to contribute significantly to
the error budget. The telluric lines that are not neglected by the masks for
the radial velocity computation, here called micro-telluric lines, are one such
noise source. Aims: In this work we investigate the impact of micro-telluric
lines in the radial velocities calculations. We also investigate how to correct
the effect of these atmospheric lines on radial velocities. Methods: The work
presented here follows two parallel lines. First, we calculated the impact of
the micro-telluric lines by multiplying a synthetic solar-like stellar spectrum
by synthetic atmospheric spectra and evaluated the effect created by the
presence of the telluric lines. Then, we divided HARPS spectra by synthetic
atmospheric spectra to correct for its presence on real data and calculated the
radial velocity on the corrected spectra. When doing so, one considers two
atmospheric models for the synthetic atmospheric spectra: the LBLRTM and TAPAS.
Results: We find that the micro-telluric lines can induce an impact on the
radial velocities calculation that can already be close to the current
precision achieved with HARPS, and so its effect should not be neglected,
especially for future instruments such as ESPRESSO. Moreover, we find that the
micro-telluric lines' impact depends on factors, such as the radial velocity of
the star, airmass, relative humidity, and the barycentric Earth radial velocity
projected along the line of sight at the time of the observation.Comment: Accepted in A&
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