659 research outputs found
Cold and Calculating
This nonfiction essay investigates the relationship between eye contact and power in different situations. It brings up the idea that animals and humans are less different than often thought to be, and how body language is transcendent. It uses this underlying theme to investigate the authorâs changing relationship with her father
The use of the wavelet cluster analysis for asteroid family determination
The asteroid family determination has been analysis method dependent for a longtime. A new cluster analysis based on the wavelet transform has allowed an automatic definition of families with a degree of significance versus randomness. Actually this method is rather general and can be applied to any kind of structural analysis. We will rather concentrate on the main features of the method. The analysis has been performed on the set of 4100 asteroid proper elements computed by Milani and Knezevic (see Milani and Knezevic 1990). Twenty one families have been found and influence of the chosen metric has been tested. The results have beem compared to Zappala et al.'s ones (see Zappala et al 1990) obtained by the use of a completely different method applied to the same set of data. For the first time, a good overlapping has been found between both method results, not only for the big well known families but also for the smallest ones
A catalogue of velocities in the cluster of galaxies Abell 85
We present a catalogue of velocities for 551 galaxies (and give the
coordinates of 39 stars misclassified as galaxies in our photometric plate
catalogue) in a region covering about 100'100' (0.940.94 Mpc
for an average redshift of 0.0555, assuming H=50 km s
Mpc) in the direction of the rich cluster Abell 85. This catalogue
includes previously published redshifts by Beers et al. (1991) and Malumuth et
al. (1992), together with our 367 new measurements. A total of 305 galaxies
have velocities in the interval 13350-20000 km s, and will be considered
as members of the cluster. Abell 85 therefore becomes one of the clusters with
the highest number of measured redshifts; its optical properties are being
investigated in a companion paper.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&AS, Table 4 available in electronic
form onl
A multiscale regularized restoration algorithm for XMM-Newton data
We introduce a new multiscale restoration algorithm for images with few
photons counts and its use for denoising XMM data. We use a thresholding of the
wavelet space so as to remove the noise contribution at each scale while
preserving the multiscale information of the signal. Contrary to other
algorithms the signal restoration process is the same whatever the signal to
noise ratio is. Thresholds according to a Poisson noise process are indeed
computed analytically at each scale thanks to the use of the unnormalized Haar
wavelet transform. Promising preliminary results are obtained on X-ray data for
Abell 2163 with the computation of a temperature map.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of `Galaxy Clusters and the High
Redshift Universe Observed in X-rays', XXIth Moriond Astrophysics Meeting
(March 2001), Eds. Doris Neumann et a
Hydrogen-Air-Steam Combustion Regimes In Large Volumes
Dangerous pressure waves can be generated by the combustion of H2-air-steam mixtures if ordinary deflagrations accelerate to high speed or undergo deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT). The purpose of this paper is to estimate the potentially dangerous mixtures in large volumes. There is a limited experimental data base for flame acceleration and DDT of EL-airsteam mixtures in smaller geometries. There is concern about the possible explosive combustion in the Space Shuttle main engine exhaust duct at Vandenberg AFB. There are no relevant experimental data or valid theories at this large scale (duct width, W, ~ 10 m) to predict flame acceleration and DDT. We have estimated potentially dangerous mixtures by extrapolating correlations used at smaller scale based on the detonation cell width, X. In square ducts DDTs are possible if W/X \u3e 1. We delineate three combustion regions: nonflammable, weakly flammable, and strongly flammable and potentially detonable. The nonflammable region is the region outside the flammability limit where self-sustaining combustion cannot occur. Flammability limits are independent of scale in large volumes. The strongly flammable region, where dangerous flame acceleration or DDT is possible, is bounded by mixtures with X = 10 m. We estimate detonations are possible when there is less than 45% steam. The weakly flammable region, which lies between the other two, should support only slow combustion, where no significant pressure waves should be generated
Unveiling hidden structures in the Coma cluster
We have assembled a large data-set of 613 galaxy redshifts in the Coma
cluster, the largest presently available for a cluster of galaxies. We have
defined a sample of cluster members complete to b, using a
membership criterion based on the galaxy velocity, when available, or on the
galaxy magnitude and colour, otherwise. Such a data set allows us to define
nearly complete samples within a region of 1~\Mpc\ radius, with a sufficient
number of galaxies per sample to make statistical analyses possible. Using this
sample and the {\em ROSAT} PSPC X--ray image of the cluster, we have
re-analyzed the structure and kinematics of Coma, by applying the wavelet and
adaptive kernel techniques. A striking coincidence of features is found in the
distributions of galaxies and hot intracluster gas. The two central dominant
galaxies, NGC4874 and NGC4889, are surrounded by two galaxy groups, mostly
populated with galaxies brighter than b and well separated in
velocity space. On the contrary, the fainter galaxies tend to form a single
smooth structure with a central peak coinciding in position with a secondary
peak detected in X--rays, and located between the two dominant galaxies; we
suggest to identify this structure with the main body of the Coma cluster. A
continuous velocity gradient is found in the central distribution of these
faint galaxies, a probable signature of tidal interactions rather than
rotation. There is evidence for a bound population of bright galaxies around
other brightest cluster members. Altogether, the Coma cluster structure seems
to be better traced by the faint galaxy population, the bright galaxies being
located in subclusters. We discuss this evidence in terms of an ongoing
accretion of groups onto the cluster.Comment: to appear in A&A, 19 pages, uuencoded gzipped postscript fil
On the galaxy luminosity function in the central regions of the Coma cluster
We have obtained new redshifts for 265 objects in the central
48~~25~arcmin region of the Coma cluster. When supplemented with
literature data, our redshift sample is 95~\% complete up to a magnitude
b=18.0 (the magnitudes are taken from the photometric sample of Godwin
et al. 1983). Using redshift-confirmed membership for 205 galaxies, and the
location in the colour-magnitude diagram for another 91 galaxies, we have built
a sample of cluster members which is complete up to b=20.0. We show
that the Coma cluster luminosity function cannot be adequately fitted by a
single Schechter (1976) function, because of a dip in the magnitude
distribution at b17. The superposition of an Erlang (or a Gauss)
and a Schechter function provides a significantly better fit. We compare the
luminosity function of Coma to those of other clusters, and of the field.
Luminosity functions for rich clusters look similar, with a maximum at , while the Virgo and the field luminosity
functions show a nearly monotonic behaviour. These differences may be produced
by physical processes related to the environment which affect the luminosities
of a certain class of cluster galaxies.Comment: 7 pages, uuencoded postscript file (figures included) Accepted for
publication on A&
A Population of Compact Elliptical Galaxies Detected with the Virtual Observatory
Compact elliptical galaxies are characterized by small sizes and high stellar
densities. They are thought to form through tidal stripping of massive
progenitors. However, only a handful of them were known, preventing us from
understanding the role played by this mechanism in galaxy evolution. We present
a population of 21 compact elliptical galaxies gathered with the Virtual
Observatory. Follow-up spectroscopy and data mining, using high-resolution
images and large databases, show that all the galaxies exhibit old metal-rich
stellar populations different from those of dwarf elliptical galaxies of
similar masses but similar to those of more massive early-type galaxies,
supporting the tidal stripping scenario. Their internal properties are
reproduced by numerical simulations, which result in compact dynamically hot
remnants resembling the galaxies in our sample.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Science in press, published in Science
Express on 1/Oct/2009. Full resolution figures in the supplementary online
material are available from the Science Magazine web-sit
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