714 research outputs found
Approximate Fixed Point Theorems in Banach Spaces with Applications in Game Theory
In this paper some new approximate fixed point theorems for multifunctions in Banach spaces are presented and a method is developed indicating how to use approximate fixed point theorems in proving the existence of approximate Nash equilibria for non-cooperative games.Nash equilibrium;noncooperative games
Approximate fixed point theorems in Banach spaces with applications in game theory
In this paper some new approximate fixed point theorems for multifunctions in Banach spaces are presented and a method is developed indicating how to use approximate fixed point theorems in proving the existence of approximate Nash equilibria for non-cooperative games
Ultraviolet Observations of Super-Chandrasekhar Mass Type Ia Supernova Candidates with Swift UVOT
Among Type Ia supernovae (SNe~Ia) exist a class of overluminous objects whose
ejecta mass is inferred to be larger than the canonical Chandrasekhar mass. We
present and discuss the UV/optical photometric light curves, colors, absolute
magnitudes, and spectra of three candidate Super-Chandrasekhar mass
SNe--2009dc, 2011aa, and 2012dn--observed with the Swift Ultraviolet/Optical
Telescope. The light curves are at the broad end for SNe Ia, with the light
curves of SN~2011aa being amongst the broadest ever observed. We find all three
to have very blue colors which may provide a means of excluding these
overluminous SNe from cosmological analysis, though there is some overlap with
the bluest of "normal" SNe Ia. All three are overluminous in their UV absolute
magnitudes compared to normal and broad SNe Ia, but SNe 2011aa and 2012dn are
not optically overluminous compared to normal SNe Ia. The integrated luminosity
curves of SNe 2011aa and 2012dn in the UVOT range (1600-6000 Angstroms) are
only half as bright as SN~2009dc, implying a smaller 56Ni yield. While not
enough to strongly affect the bolometric flux, the early time mid-UV flux makes
a significant contribution at early times. The strong spectral features in the
mid-UV spectra of SNe 2009dc and 2012dn suggest a higher temperature and lower
opacity to be the cause of the UV excess rather than a hot, smooth blackbody
from shock interaction. Further work is needed to determine the ejecta and 56Ni
masses of SNe 2011aa and 2012dn and fully explain their high UV luminosities.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal Data available on the Swift supernova website
http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/swift/sne/swift_sn.htm
The SkyMapper Transient Survey
The SkyMapper 1.3 m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory has now begun
regular operations. Alongside the Southern Sky Survey, a comprehensive digital
survey of the entire southern sky, SkyMapper will carry out a search for
supernovae and other transients. The search strategy, covering a total
footprint area of ~2000 deg2 with a cadence of days, is optimised for
discovery and follow-up of low-redshift type Ia supernovae to constrain cosmic
expansion and peculiar velocities. We describe the search operations and
infrastructure, including a parallelised software pipeline to discover variable
objects in difference imaging; simulations of the performance of the survey
over its lifetime; public access to discovered transients; and some first
results from the Science Verification data.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures; submitted to PAS
A New Channel for the Detection of Planetary Systems Through Microlensing: II. Repeating Events
In the companion paper we began the task of systematically studying the
detection of planets in wide orbits () via microlensing surveys.
In this paper we continue, focusing on repeating events. We find that, if all
planetary systems are similar to our own Solar System, reasonable extensions of
the present observing strategies would allow us to detect 3-6 repeating events
per year along the direction to the Bulge. Indeed, if planetary systems with
multiple planets are common, then future monitoring programs which lead to the
discovery of thousands of stellar-lens events will likely discover events in
which several different planets within a single system serve as lenses, with
light curves exhibiting multiple repetitions. In this paper we discuss
observing strategies to maximize the discovery of all wide-orbit planet-lens
events. We also compare the likely detection rates of planets in wide orbits to
those of planets located in the zone for resonant lensing. We find that,
depending on the values of the planet masses and stellar radii of the lensed
sources (which determine whether or not finite source size is important), and
also on the sensitivity of the photometry used by observers, the detection of
planets in wide orbits may be the primary route to the discovery of planets via
microlensing. We also discuss how the combination of resonant and wide-orbit
events can help us to learn about the distribution of planetary system
properties (S 6.1). In addition, by determining the fraction of short-duration
events due to planets, we indirectly derive information about the fraction of
all short-duration events that may be due to low-mass MACHOs (S 6.2).Comment: 51 pages, 7 figures. To be published in the Astrophysical Journal, 20
February 1999. This completes the introduction to the discovery of planets in
wide orbits begun in astro-ph/9808075, also to appear in ApJ on 20 February
199
A New Channel for the Detection of Planetary Systems Through Microlensing: I. Isolated Events Due to Planet Lenses
We propose and evaluate the feasibility of a new strategy to search for
planets via microlensing. This new strategy is designed to detect planets in
"wide" orbits, i.e., with orbital separation, greater than .
Planets in wide orbits may provide the dominant channel for the microlensing
discovery of planets, particularly low-mass (e.g., Earth-mass) planets. This
paper concentrates on events in which a single planet serves as a lens, leading
to an isolated event of short duration. We point out that a distribution of
events due to lensing by stars with wide-orbit planets is necessarily
accompanied by a distribution of shorter- duration events. The fraction of
events in the latter distribution is proportional to the average value of
, where is the ratio between \pl and stellar masses. The position
of the peak or peaks also provides a measure of the mass ratios typical of
planetary systems. We study detection strategies that can optimize our ability
to discover isolated short-duration events due to lensing by planets, and find
that monitoring employing sensitive photometry is particularly useful. If
planetary systems similar to our own are common, even modest changes in
detection strategy should lead to the discovery of a few isolated events of
short duration every year. We therefore also address the issue of the
contamination due to stellar populations of any microlensing signal due to
low-mass MACHOs. We describe how, even for isolated events of short duration,
it will be possible to test the hypothesis that the lens was a planet instead
of a low-mass MACHO, if the central star of the planetary system contributes a
measurable fraction of the baseline flux.Comment: 37 pages, 6 figure. To be published in the Astrophysical Journal.
This is part one of a series of papers on microlensing by planetary systems
containing wide-orbit planets; the series represents a reorganization and
extension of astro-ph/971101
Very high energy observations of the BL Lac objects 3C 66A and OJ 287
Using the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE), we
have observed the BL Lac objects 3C 66A and OJ 287. These are members of the
class of low-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (LBLs) and are two of the three
LBLs predicted by Costamante and Ghisellini to be potential sources of very
high energy (>100 GeV) gamma-ray emission. The third candidate, BL Lacertae,
has recently been detected by the MAGIC collaboration. Our observations have
not produced detections; we calculate a 99% CL upper limit of flux from 3C 66A
of 0.15 Crab flux units and from OJ 287 our limit is 0.52 Crab. These limits
assume a Crab-like energy spectrum with an effective energy threshold of 185
GeV.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures, Accepted for publication in Astroparticle
Physic
Type Ia supernova Hubble diagram with near-infrared and optical observations
We main goal of this paper is to test whether the NIR peak magnitudes of SNe
Ia could be accurately estimated with only a single observation obtained close
to maximum light, provided the time of B band maximum and the optical stretch
parameter are known. We obtained multi-epoch UBVRI and single-epoch J and H
photometric observations of 16 SNe Ia in the redshift range z=0.037-0.183,
doubling the leverage of the current SN Ia NIR Hubble diagram and the number of
SNe beyond redshift 0.04. This sample was analyzed together with 102 NIR and
458 optical light curves (LCs) of normal SNe Ia from the literature. The
analysis of 45 well-sampled NIR LCs shows that a single template accurately
describes them if its time axis is stretched with the optical stretch
parameter. This allows us to estimate the NIR peak magnitudes even with one
observation obtained within 10 days from B-band maximum. We find that the NIR
Hubble residuals show weak correlation with DM_15 and E(B-V), and for the first
time we report a possible dependence on the J_max-H_max color. The intrinsic
NIR luminosity scatter of SNe Ia is estimated to be around 0.10 mag, which is
smaller than what can be derived for a similarly heterogeneous sample at
optical wavelengths. In conclusion, we find that SNe Ia are at least as good
standard candles in the NIR as in the optical. We showed that it is feasible to
extended the NIR SN Ia Hubble diagram to z=0.2 with very modest sampling of the
NIR LCs, if complemented by well-sampled optical LCs. Our results suggest that
the most efficient way to extend the NIR Hubble diagram to high redshift would
be to obtain a single observation close to the NIR maximum. (abridged)Comment: 39 pages, 15 figures, accepted by A&
Very high-energy observations of the two high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects 1ES 1218+304 and H 1426+428
We present results of very-high-energy gamma-ray observations (E > 160 GeV)
of two high-frequency-peaked BL Lac (HBL) objects, 1ES 1218+304 and H 1426+428,
with the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE). Both
sources are very-high-energy gamma-ray emitters above 100 GeV, detected using
ground-based Cherenkov telescopes. STACEE observations of 1ES 1218+304 and H
1426+428 did not produce detections; we present 99% CL flux upper limits for
both sources, assuming spectral indices measured mostly at higher energies
Correlated variability in the blazar 3C 454.3
The blazar 3C 454.3 was revealed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to be
in an exceptionally high flux state in July 2008. Accordingly, we performed a
multi-wavelength monitoring campaign on this blazar using IR and optical
observations from the SMARTS telescopes, optical, UV and X-ray data from the
Swift satellite, and public-release gamma-ray data from Fermi. We find an
excellent correlation between the IR, optical, UV and gamma-ray light curves,
with a time lag of less than one day. The amplitude of the infrared variability
is comparable to that in gamma-rays, and larger than at optical or UV
wavelengths. The X-ray flux is not strongly correlated with either the
gamma-rays or longer wavelength data. These variability characteristics find a
natural explanation in the external Compton model, in which electrons with
Lorentz factor gamma~10^(3-4) radiate synchrotron emission in the
infrared-optical and also scatter accretion disk or emission line photons to
gamma-ray energies, while much cooler electrons (gamma~10^(1-2)) produce X-rays
by scattering synchrotron or other ambient photons.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ Letter
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