2,170 research outputs found
Main-Belt Asteroids in the K2 Engineering Field of View
Unlike NASA's original Kepler Discovery Mission, the renewed K2 Mission will
stare at the plane of the Ecliptic, observing each field for approximately 75
days. This will bring new opportunities and challenges, in particular the
presence of a large number of main-belt asteroids that will contaminate the
photometry. The large pixel size makes K2 data susceptible to the effect of
apparent minor planet encounters. Here we investigate the effects of asteroid
encounters on photometric precision using a sub-sample of the K2 Engineering
data taken in February, 2014. We show examples of asteroid contamination to
facilitate their recognition and distinguish these events from other error
sources. We conclude that main-belt asteroids will have considerable effects on
K2 photometry of a large number of photometric targets during the Mission, that
will have to be taken into account. These results will be readily applicable
for future space photometric missions applying large-format CCDs, such as TESS
and PLATO.Comment: accepted for publication in AJ, 6 page
Medium-resolution echelle spectroscopy of pulsating variables and exoplanet host stars with sub-meter telescopes
Here we present two of our interesting results obtained over the last 18
months from spectroscopic monitoring of binary pulsating stars and exoplanet
host stars. Our investigations are very promising by demonstrating that modern
fiber-fed spectrographs open a whole new chapter in the life of small national
and university observatories.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures. To be published in the proceedings of the
workshop on "Observing techniques, instrumentation and science for
metre-class telescopes", Sep. 2013, Tatranska Lomnica, Slovaki
Phase transition and selection in a four-species cyclic Lotka-Volterra model
We study a four species ecological system with cyclic dominance whose
individuals are distributed on a square lattice. Randomly chosen individuals
migrate to one of the neighboring sites if it is empty or invade this site if
occupied by their prey. The cyclic dominance maintains the coexistence of all
the four species if the concentration of vacant sites is lower than a threshold
value. Above the treshold, a symmetry breaking ordering occurs via growing
domains containing only two neutral species inside. These two neutral species
can protect each other from the external invaders (predators) and extend their
common territory. According to our Monte Carlo simulations the observed phase
transition is equivalent to those found in spreading models with two equivalent
absorbing states although the present model has continuous sets of absorbing
states with different portions of the two neutral species. The selection
mechanism yielding symmetric phases is related to the domain growth process
whith wide boundaries where the four species coexist.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Defensive alliances in spatial models of cyclical population interactions
As a generalization of the 3-strategy Rock-Scissors-Paper game dynamics in
space, cyclical interaction models of six mutating species are studied on a
square lattice, in which each species is supposed to have two dominant, two
subordinated and a neutral interacting partner. Depending on their interaction
topologies, these systems can be classified into four (isomorphic) groups
exhibiting significantly different behaviors as a function of mutation rate. On
three out of four cases three (or four) species form defensive alliances which
maintain themselves in a self-organizing polydomain structure via cyclic
invasions. Varying the mutation rate this mechanism results in an ordering
phenomenon analogous to that of magnetic Ising model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
A Unified Framework for the Pareto Law and Matthew Effect using Scale-Free Networks
We investigate the accumulated wealth distribution by adopting evolutionary
games taking place on scale-free networks. The system self-organizes to a
critical Pareto distribution (1897) of wealth with (which is in agreement with that of U.S. or Japan). Particularly, the
agent's personal wealth is proportional to its number of contacts
(connectivity), and this leads to the phenomenon that the rich gets richer and
the poor gets relatively poorer, which is consistent with the Matthew Effect
present in society, economy, science and so on. Though our model is simple, it
provides a good representation of cooperation and profit accumulation behavior
in economy, and it combines the network theory with econophysics.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure
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