6,479 research outputs found
The Expansion in Width for Domain Walls in Nematic Liquid Crystals in External Magnetic Field
The improved expansion in width is applied to curved domain walls in uniaxial
nematic liquid crystals in external magnetic field. In the present paper we
concentrate on the case of equal elastic constants. We obtain approximate form
of the director field up to second order in magnetic coherence length.Comment: 18 pages, Latex 2.09, no figure
Tracking the Orbital and Super-orbital Periods of SMC X-1
The High Mass X-ray Binary (HMXB) SMC X-1 demonstrates an orbital variation
of 3.89 days and a super-orbital variation with an average length of 55 days.
As we show here, however, the length of the super-orbital cycle varies by
almost a factor of two, even across adjacent cycles. To study both the orbital
and super-orbital variation we utilize lightcurves from the Rossi X-ray Timing
Explorer All Sky Monitor (RXTE-ASM). We employ the orbital ephemeris from
Wojdowski et al. (1998) to obtain the average orbital profile, and we show that
this profile exhibits complex modulation during non-eclipse phases.
Additionally, a very interesting ``bounceback'' in X-ray count rate is seen
during mid-orbital eclipse phases, with a softening of the emission during
these periods. This bounceback has not been previously identified in pointed
observations. We then define a super-orbital ephemeris (the phase of the
super-orbital cycle as a function of date) based on the ASM lightcurve and
analyze the trend and distribution of super-orbital cycle lengths. SMC X-1
exhibits a bimodal distribution of these lengths, similar to what has been
observed in other systems (e.g., Her X-1), but with more dramatic changes in
cycle length. There is some hint, but not conclusive evidence, for a dependence
of the super-orbital cycle length upon the underlying orbital period, as has
been observed previously for Her X-1 and Cyg X-2. Using our super-orbital
ephemeris we are also able to create an average super-orbital profile over the
71 observed cycles, for which we witness overall hardening of the spectrum
during low count rate times. We combine the orbital and super-orbital
ephemerides to study the correlation between the orbital and super-orbital
variations in the system.Comment: 10 pages, using emulateapj style. To be published in the
Astrophysical Journa
Three-particle templates for boosted Higgs
We explore the ability of three-particle templates to distinguish color
neutral objects from QCD background. This method is particularly useful to
identify the standard model Higgs, as well as other massive neutral particles.
Simple cut-based analysis in the overlap distributions of the signal and
background is shown to provide a significant rejection power. By combining with
other discriminating variables, such as planar flow, and several variables that
depend on the partonic template, three-particle templates are used to
characterize the influence of gluon emission and color flow in collider events.
The performance of the method is discussed for the case of a highly boosted
Higgs in association with a leptonically-decaying W boson.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures. v2: Acknowledgments added, typos fixed. v3:
added comparison to filtering method, minor correction and acknowledgment
added. The version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Discovery limits for Techni-Omega production in Collisions
In a strongly-interacting electroweak sector with an isosinglet vector state,
such as the techni-omega, , the direct coupling
implies that an can be produced by fusion in
collisions. This is a unique feature for high energy or
colliders operating in an mode. We consider the processes and , both of which proceed via
an intermediate . We find that at a 1.5 TeV linear collider
operating in an mode with an integrated luminosity of 200 fb,
we can discover an for a broad range of masses and widths.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on
High Energy Physics, Vancouver, July 1998, 5 pages, Latex, 7 postscript
figure
Discovery of Extremely Embedded X-ray Sources in the R Coronae Australis Star Forming Core
With the XMM-Newton and Chandra observatories, we detected two extremely
embedded X-ray sources in the R Corona Australis (R CrA) star forming core,
near IRS 7. These sources, designated as XB and XA, have X-ray absorption
columns of ~3e23 cm-2 equivalent to AV ~180 mag. They are associated with the
VLA centimeter radio sources 10E and 10W, respectively. XA is the counterpart
of the near-infrared source IRS 7, whereas XB has no K-band counterpart above
19.4 mag. This indicates that XB is younger than typical Class I protostars,
probably a Class 0 protostar or in an intermediate phase between Class 0 and
Class I. The X-ray luminosity of XB varied between 29<log LX <31.2 ergs s-1 on
timescales of 3-30 months. XB also showed a monotonic increase in X-ray
brightness by a factor of two in 30 ksec during an XMM-Newton observation. The
XMM-Newton spectra indicate emission from a hot plasma with kT ~3-4 keV and
also show fluorescent emission from cold iron. Though the X-ray spectrum from
XB is similar to flare spectra from Class I protostars in luminosity and
temperature, the light curve does not resemble the lightcurves of magnetically
generated X-ray flares because the variability timescale of XB is too long and
because variations in X-ray count rate were not accompanied by variations in
spectral hardness. The short-term variation of XB may be caused by the partial
blocking of the X-ray plasma, while the month-long flux enhancement may be
driven by mass accretion.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, To be published in ApJ in April 200
The ultracool dwarf DENIS-P J104814.7-395606. Chromospheres and coronae at the low-mass end of the main-sequence
We have obtained an XMM-Newton observation and a broad-band spectrum from the
ultraviolet to the near infrared with X-Shooter for one of the nearest M9
dwarfs, DENIS-P J1048-3956 (4pc). We integrate these data by a compilation of
activity parameters for ultracool dwarfs from the literature with the aim to
advance our understanding of these objects by comparing them to early-M type
dwarf stars and the Sun.
Our deep XMM-Newton observation has led to the first X-ray detection of
DENIS-P J1048-3956 (log Lx = 25.1) as well as the first measurement of its V
band brightness (V = 17.35mag). Flux-flux relations between X-ray and
chromospheric activity indicators are here for the first time extended into the
regime of the ultracool dwarfs. The approximate agreement of DENIS-P J1048-3956
and other ultracool dwarfs with flux-flux relations for early-M dwarfs suggests
that the same heating mechanisms work in the atmospheres of ultracool dwarfs,
albeit weaker as judged from their lower fluxes. The observed Balmer decrements
of DENIS-P J1048-3956 are compatible with optically thick plasma in LTE at low,
nearly photospheric temperature or optically thin LTE plasma at 20000K.
Describing the decrements with CaseB recombination requires different emitting
regions for Halpha and the higher Balmer lines. The high observed Halpha/Hbeta
flux ratio is also poorly fitted by the optically thin models. We derive a
similarly high value for the Halpha/Hbeta ratio of vB10 and LHS2065 and
conclude that this may be a characteristic of ultracool dwarfs. We add DENIS-P
J1048-3956 to the list of ultracool dwarfs detected in both the radio and the
X-ray band. The Benz-Guedel relation between radio and X-ray luminosity of
late-type stars is well-known to be violated by ultracool dwarfs. We speculate
on the presence of two types of ultracool dwarfs with distinct radio and X-ray
behavior.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
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