Stark Broadening and White Dwarfs

White dwarf and pre-white dwarf atmospheres are one of the best examples for the application of Stark broadening research results in astrophysics, due to plasma conditions very favorable for this line broadening mechanism. For example in hot hydrogen-deficient (pre-) white dwarf stars Teff = 75 000 K - 180 000 K and log g = 5.5-8 [cgs]. Even for much cooler DA and DB white dwarfs with typical effective temperatures of 10 000 K - 20 000 K, Stark broadening is usually the dominant broadening mechanism. In this review, Stark broadening in white dwarf spectra is considered and the attention is drawn to the STARK-B database (http://stark-b.obspm.fr/), containing Stark broadening parameters needed for white dwarf spectra analysis and synthesis, as well as to the new search facilities which will provide the collective effort to develop Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Center (VAMDC - http://vamdc.org/)

Global cross sections for Anosov flows

We provide a new criterion for the existence of a global cross section to a volume-preserving Anosov flow. The criterion is expressed in terms of expansion and contraction rates of the flow and is more general than the previous results of similar kind.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Landen inequalities for zero-balanced hypergeometric functions

For zero-balanced Gaussian hypergeometric functions $F(a,b;a+b;x),$ $a,b>0,$ we determine maximal regions of $ab$ plane where well-known Landen identities for the complete elliptic integral of the first kind turn on respective inequalities valid for each $x\in (0,1)$. Thereby an exhausting answer is given to an open problem.Comment: 9 page

Broad spectral line and continuum variabilities in QSO spectra induced by microlensing of diffusive massive substructure

We investigate the variability of the continuum and broad lines in QSO spectra (particularly in the H$\beta$ line and continuum at $\lambda$ 5100 \AA ) caused by microlensing of a diffuse massive structure (like an open star cluster). We modeled the continuum and line emitting region and simulate a lensing event by a star cluster located in an intervening galaxy. Such a type of microlensing event can have a significant influence on magnification and centroid shift of the broad lines and continuum source. We explore relationships between the continuum and broad line flux variability during the microlensing event.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure