1,306 research outputs found
Double Blue Straggler sequences in GCs: the case of NGC 362
We used high-quality images acquired with the WFC3 on board the HST to probe
the blue straggler star (BSS) population of the Galactic globular cluster NGC
362. We have found two distinct sequences of BSS: this is the second case,
after M 30, where such a feature has been observed. Indeed the BSS location,
their extension in magnitude and color and their radial distribution within the
cluster nicely resemble those observed in M 30, thus suggesting that the same
interpretative scenario can be applied: the red BSS sub-population is generated
by mass transfer binaries, the blue one by collisions. The discovery of four
new W UMa stars, three of which lying along the red-BSS sequence, further
supports this scenario. We also found that the inner portion of the density
profile deviates from a King model and is well reproduced by either a mild
power-law (\alpha -0.2) or a double King profile. This feature supports the
hypothesis that the cluster is currently undergoing the core collapse phase.
Moreover, the BSS radial distribution shows a central peak and monotonically
decreases outward without any evidence of an external rising branch. This
evidence is a further indication of the advanced dynamical age of NGC 362: in
fact, together with M 30, NGC 362 belongs to the family of dynamically old
clusters (Family III) in the "dynamical clock" classification proposed by
Ferraro et al. (2012). The observational evidence presented here strengthens
the possible connection between the existence of a double BSS sequence and a
quite advanced dynamical status of the parent cluster.Comment: Accepted for publication by ApJ; 39 pages, 16 figures, 1 tabl
The Transition from Inspiral to Plunge for a Compact Body in a Circular Equatorial Orbit Around a Massive, Spinning Black Hole
There are three regimes of gravitational-radiation-reaction-induced inspiral
for a compact body with mass mu, in a circular, equatorial orbit around a Kerr
black hole with mass M>>mu: (i) The "adiabatic inspiral regime", in which the
body gradually descends through a sequence of circular, geodesic orbits. (ii) A
"transition regime", near the innermost stable circular orbit (isco). (iii) The
"plunge regime", in which the body travels on a geodesic from slightly below
the isco into the hole's horizon. This paper gives an analytic treatment of the
transition regime and shows that, with some luck, gravitational waves from the
transition might be measurable by the space-based LISA mission.Comment: 8 Pages and 3 Figures; RevTeX; submitted to Physical Review
Merging White Dwarf/Black Hole Binaries and Gamma-Ray Bursts
The merger of compact binaries, especially black holes and neutron stars, is
frequently invoked to explain gamma-ray bursts (GRB's). In this paper, we
present three dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of the relatively
neglected mergers of white dwarfs and black holes. During the merger, the white
dwarf is tidally disrupted and sheared into an accretion disk. Nuclear
reactions are followed and the energy release is negligible. Peak accretion
rates are ~0.05 Msun/s (less for lower mass white dwarfs) lasting for
approximately a minute. Many of the disk parameters can be explained by a
simple analytic model which we derive and compare to our simulations. This
model can be used to predict accretion rates for white dwarf and black hole (or
neutron star) masses which are not simulated in this paper. Although the
mergers studied here create disks with larger radii, and longer accretion times
than those from the merger of double neutron stars, a larger fraction of the
merging star's mass becomes part of the disk. Thus the merger of a white dwarf
and a black hole could produce a long duration GRB. The event rate of these
mergers may be as high as 1/Myr per galaxy.Comment: 17 pages text + 9 figures, minor corrections to text and tables,
added references, accepted by Ap
Loss cone: past, present and future
The capture and subsequent in--spiral of compact stellar remnants by central
massive black holes, is one of the more interesting likely sources of
gravitational radiation detectable by LISA. The relevant stellar population
includes stellar mass black holes, and possibly intermediate mass black holes,
generally on initially eccentric orbits. Predicted detectable rates of capture
are highly uncertain, but may be high enough that source confusion is an issue.
Foreground events with relatively high signal-to-noise ratio may provide
important tests of general relativity. I review the rate estimates in the
literature, and the apparent discrepancy between different authors' estimates,
and discuss some of the relevant uncertainties and physical processes. The
white dwarf mergers rate are uncertain by a factor of few; the neutron star
merger rate is completely uncertain and likely to be small; the black hole
merger rate is likely to be dominant for detectable mergers and is uncertain by
at least two orders of magnitude, largely due to unknown physical conditions
and processes. The primary difference in rate estimates is due to different
initial conditions and less directly due to different estimates of key physical
processes, assumed in different model scenarios for in-spiral and capture.Comment: 7 pages, revtex twocolumn, Special LISA Issue Classical and Quantum
Gravity in pres
Monitoring tat peptide binding to TAR RNA by solid-state (31)P–(19)F REDOR NMR
Complexes of the HIV transactivation response element (TAR) RNA with the viral regulatory protein tat are of special interest due in particular to the plasticity of the RNA at this binding site and to the potential for therapeutic targeting of the interaction. We performed REDOR solid-state NMR experiments on lyophilized samples of a 29 nt HIV-1 TAR construct to measure conformational changes in the tat-binding site concomitant with binding of a short peptide comprising the residues of the tat basic binding domain. Peptide binding was observed to produce a nearly 4 Å decrease in the separation between phosphorothioate and 2′F labels incorporated at A27 in the upper helix and U23 in the bulge, respectively, consistent with distance changes observed in previous solution NMR studies, and with models showing significant rearrangement in position of bulge residue U23 in the bound-form RNA. In addition to providing long-range constraints on free TAR and the TAR–tat complex, these results suggest that in RNAs known to undergo large deformations upon ligand binding, (31)P–(19)F REDOR measurements can also serve as an assay for complex formation in solid-state samples. To our knowledge, these experiments provide the first example of a solid-state NMR distance measurement in an RNA–peptide complex
Prospects for gravitational-wave observations of neutron-star tidal disruption in neutron-star/black-hole binaries
For an inspiraling neutron-star/black-hole binary (NS/BH), we estimate the
gravity-wave frequency f_td at the onset of NS tidal disruption. We model the
NS as a tidally distorted, homogeneous, Newtonian ellipsoid on a circular,
equatorial geodesic around a Kerr BH. We find that f_td depends strongly on the
NS radius R, and estimate that LIGO-II (ca. 2006-2008) might measure R to 15%
precision at 140 Mpc (about 1 event/yr under current estimates). This suggests
that LIGO-II might extract valuable information about the NS equation of state
from tidal-disruption waves.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 2 EPS figures. Revised slightly, corrected typo
Transition from inspiral to plunge for eccentric equatorial Kerr orbits
Ori and Thorne have discussed the duration and observability (with LISA) of
the transition from circular, equatorial inspiral to plunge for stellar-mass
objects into supermassive () Kerr black holes. We
extend their computation to eccentric Kerr equatorial orbits. Even with orbital
parameters near-exactly determined, we find that there is no universal length
for the transition; rather, the length of the transition depends sensitively --
essentially randomly -- on initial conditions. Still, Ori and Thorne's
zero-eccentricity results are essentially an upper bound on the length of
eccentric transitions involving similar bodies (e.g., fixed). Hence the
implications for observations are no better: if the massive body is
, the captured body has mass , and the process occurs at
distance from LISA, then , with the precise constant depending on
the black hole spin. For low-mass bodies () for which the
event rate is at least vaguely understood, we expect little chance (probably
[much] less than 10%, depending strongly on the astrophysical assumptions) of
LISA detecting a transition event with during its run; however, even a
small infusion of higher-mass bodies or a slight improvement in LISA's noise
curve could potentially produce transition events during LISA's
lifetime.Comment: Submitted to PR
Developing a novel dual-injection FDG-PET imaging methodology to study the functional neuroanatomy of gait
\ua9 2024Gait is an excellent indicator of physical, emotional, and mental health. Previous studies have shown that gait impairments in ageing are common, but the neural basis of these impairments are unclear. Existing methodologies are suboptimal and novel paradigms capable of capturing neural activation related to real walking are needed. In this study, we used a hybrid PET/MR system and measured glucose metabolism related to both walking and standing with a dual-injection paradigm in a single study session. For this study, 15 healthy older adults (10 females, age range: 60.5-70.7 years) with normal cognition were recruited from the community. Each participant received an intravenous injection of [18F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) before engaging in two distinct tasks, a static postural control task (standing) and a walking task. After each task, participants were imaged. To discern independent neural functions related to walking compared to standing, we applied a bespoke dose correction to remove the residual 18F signal of the first scan (PETSTAND) from the second scan (PETWALK) and proportional scaling to the global mean, cerebellum, or white matter (WM). Whole-brain differences in walking-elicited neural activity measured with FDG-PET were assessed using a one-sample t-test. In this study, we show that a dual-injection paradigm in healthy older adults is feasible with biologically valid findings. Our results with a dose correction and scaling to the global mean showed that walking, compared to standing, increased glucose consumption in the cuneus (Z = 7.03), the temporal gyrus (Z = 6.91) and the orbital frontal cortex (Z = 6.71). Subcortically, we observed increased glucose metabolism in the supraspinal locomotor network including the thalamus (Z = 6.55), cerebellar vermis and the brainstem (pedunculopontine/mesencephalic locomotor region). Exploratory analyses using proportional scaling to the cerebellum and WM returned similar findings. Here, we have established the feasibility and tolerability of a novel method capable of capturing neural activations related to actual walking and extended previous knowledge including the recruitment of brain regions involved in sensory processing. Our paradigm could be used to explore pathological alterations in various gait disorders
Hom-quantum groups I: quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebras
We introduce a Hom-type generalization of quantum groups, called
quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebras. They are non-associative and non-coassociative
analogues of Drinfel'd's quasi-triangular bialgebras, in which the
non-(co)associativity is controlled by a twisting map. A family of
quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebras can be constructed from any quasi-triangular
bialgebra, such as Drinfel'd's quantum enveloping algebras. Each
quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebra comes with a solution of the quantum
Hom-Yang-Baxter equation, which is a non-associative version of the quantum
Yang-Baxter equation. Solutions of the Hom-Yang-Baxter equation can be obtained
from modules of suitable quasi-triangular Hom-bialgebras.Comment: 21 page
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