1,623 research outputs found
The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. Catalog of stellar proper motions in the OGLE-II Galactic bulge fields
We present a proper motion (\mu) catalogue of 5,080,236 stars in 49 Optical
Gravitational Lensing Experiment II (OGLE-II) Galactic bulge (GB) fields,
covering a range of -11 deg. <l< 11 deg. and -6 deg. <b<3 deg., the total area
close to 11 square degrees. The proper motion measurements are based on 138 -
555 I-band images taken during four observing seasons: 1997-2000. The catalogue
stars are in the magnitude range 11 < I < 18 mag. In particular, the catalogue
includes Red Clump Giants (RCGs) and Red Giants in the GB, and main sequence
stars in the Galactic disc. The proper motions up to \mu = 500 mas/yr were
measured with the mean accuracy of 0.8-3.5 mas/yr, depending on the brightness
of a star. This catalogue may be useful for studying the kinematic of stars in
the GB and the Galactic disk.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures, MNRAS in pres
RAPTOR observations of delayed explosive activity in the high-redshift gamma-ray burst GRB 060206
The RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) system at Los Alamos
National Laboratory observed GRB 060206 starting 48.1 minutes after gamma-ray
emission triggered the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on-board the Swift
satellite. The afterglow light curve measured by RAPTOR shows a spectacular
re-brightening by ~1 mag about 1 h after the trigger and peaks at R ~ 16.4 mag.
Shortly after the onset of the explosive re-brightening the OT doubled its flux
on a time-scale of about 4 minutes. The total R-band fluence received from GRB
060206 during this episode is 2.3e-9 erg/cm2. In the rest frame of the burst (z
= 4.045) this yields an isotropic equivalent energy release of ~0.7e50 erg in
just a narrow UV band 130 +/- 22 nm. We discuss the implications of RAPTOR
observations for untriggered searches for fast optical transients and studies
of GRB environments at high redshift.Comment: Submitted to ApJ Letter
The Instrument Set for Generating Fast Adiabatic Passage
The design and construction of a high-performance, low-cost, and easy to assemble adiabatic extension set for homebuilt and commercial spectrometers is described. Described apparatus set was designed for the fast adiabatic passage generation and is based on direct digital synthesizer DDS. This solution gives generator high signal to noise ratio, phase stability even during frequency change which is only possible in expansive commercial high-end hardware. Critical synchronization and timing issues are considered and solutions are discussed. Different experimental conditions and techniques for the measurements are briefly discussed. The proposed system is very flexible and might be used for the measurement of low-frequency nuclear magnetic resonance
NADH-generating substrates reduce peroxyl radical toxicity in RL-34 cells
There is general agreement that oxidative stress may induce apoptotic and
necrotic cell death. Recently it has been shown that NADH can be considered
an important antioxidant as it reacts with peroxyl and alkoxyl radicals under in
vitro conditions. Therefore, in the present study we hypothesized that an increase
in intracellular NADH using specific substrates will protect RL-34 cells
against cytotoxicity of 2’-azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH),
which is a peroxyl radical generating compound. Cells treated for 24 hours
with 6.0 mM AAPH were severely damaged: mitochondria were vacuolated,
and the level of free radicals significantly increased. Both apoptotic and necrotic
cells were detected (11.1% and 11.4%, respectively) even after 5 hours of
treatment. Pretreatment of the cells with substrates which increase the intracellular
level of NADH, such as lactate, beta-hydroxybutyrate, and ethanol,
distinctly inhibited AAPH-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and
cell death. On the other hand, acetoacetate (AcA), which decrease the intracellular
level of NADH, had opposite effects. Interestingly, NADH-generating substrates
augment, while AcA reduced superoxide radical formation induced by
AAPH. These results may suggest that although NADH generating substrates
may exert some deleterious effects within a cell by inducing reductive stress, they
diminish alkoxyl or peroxyl radical cytotoxicity. The protection is associated with
a decrease in ROS formation measured by dichlorofluorescein, but with an increase
in superoxide radical formation
Star-galaxy separation in the AKARI NEP Deep Field
Context: It is crucial to develop a method for classifying objects detected
in deep surveys at infrared wavelengths. We specifically need a method to
separate galaxies from stars using only the infrared information to study the
properties of galaxies, e.g., to estimate the angular correlation function,
without introducing any additional bias. Aims. We aim to separate stars and
galaxies in the data from the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Deep survey
collected in nine AKARI / IRC bands from 2 to 24 {\mu}m that cover the near-
and mid-infrared wavelengths (hereafter NIR and MIR). We plan to estimate the
correlation function for NIR and MIR galaxies from a sample selected according
to our criteria in future research. Methods: We used support vector machines
(SVM) to study the distribution of stars and galaxies in the AKARIs multicolor
space. We defined the training samples of these objects by calculating their
infrared stellarity parameter (sgc). We created the most efficient classifier
and then tested it on the whole sample. We confirmed the developed separation
with auxiliary optical data obtained by the Subaru telescope and by creating
Euclidean normalized number count plots. Results: We obtain a 90% accuracy in
pinpointing galaxies and 98% accuracy for stars in infrared multicolor space
with the infrared SVM classifier. The source counts and comparison with the
optical data (with a consistency of 65% for selecting stars and 96% for
galaxies) confirm that our star/galaxy separation methods are reliable.
Conclusions: The infrared classifier derived with the SVM method based on
infrared sgc- selected training samples proves to be very efficient and
accurate in selecting stars and galaxies in deep surveys at infrared
wavelengths carried out without any previous target object selection.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
The quest for companions to post-common envelope binaries. II. NSVS14256825 and HS0705+6700
We report new mid-eclipse times of the two close binaries NSVS14256825 and
HS0705+6700, harboring an sdB primary and a low-mass main-sequence secondary.
Both objects display clear variations in the measured orbital period, which can
be explained by the action of a third object orbiting the binary. If this
interpretation is correct, the third object in NSVS14256825 is a giant planet
with a mass of roughly 12 M_Jup. For HS0705+6700, we provide evidence that
strengthens the case for the suggested periodic nature of the eclipse time
variation and reduces the uncertainties in the parameters of the brown dwarf
implied by that model. The derived period is 8.4 yr and the mass is 31 M_Jup,
if the orbit is coplanar with the binary. This research is part of the
PlanetFinders project, an ongoing collaboration between professional
astronomers and student groups at high schools.Comment: Accepted by Astron. and Astrophy
Limits on I-band microvariability of the Galactic Bulge Miras
We search for microvariability in a sample of 485 Mira variables with high
quality I-band light curves from the second generation Optical Gravitational
Lensing Experiment (OGLE-II). Rapid variations with amplitudes in the ~0.2-1.1
mag range lasting hours to days were discovered in Hipparcos data by de Laverny
et al. (1998). Our search is primarily sensitive to events with time-scales of
about 1 day, but retains a few percent efficiency (per object) for detecting
unresolved microvariability events as short as 2 hours. We do not detect any
candidate events. Assuming that the distribution of the event time profiles is
identical to that from the Hipparcos light curves we derive the 95% confidence
level upper limit of 0.038 per year per star for the rate of such events (1 per
26 years per average object of the ensemble). The high event rates of the order
of 1 per year per star implied by the Hipparcos study in the H_P band are
excluded with high confidence by the OGLE-II data in the I band. Our
non-detection could still be explained by much redder spectral response of the
I filter compared to the H_P band or by population differences between the
bulge and the solar neighborhood. In any case, the OGLE-II I-band data provide
the first limit on the rate of the postulated microvariability events in Mira
stars and offer new quantitative constraints on their properties. Similar
limits are obtained for other pulse shapes and a range of the assumed
time-scales and size-frequency distributions.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
High-pressure Raman scattering in bulk HfS2: comparison of density functional theory methods in layered MS2 compounds (M = Hf, Mo) under compression
We report high-pressure Raman-scattering measurements on the transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) compound HfS2. The aim of this work is twofold: (i) to investigate the high-pressure behavior of the zone-center optical phonon modes of HfS2 and experimentally determine the linear pressure coefficients and mode Grüneisen parameters of this material; (ii) to test the validity of different density functional theory (DFT) approaches in order to predict the lattice-dynamical properties of HfS2 under pressure. For this purpose, the experimental results are compared with the results of DFT calculations performed with different functionals, with and without Van der Waals (vdW) interaction. We find that DFT calculations within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) properly describe the high-pressure lattice dynamics of HfS2 when vdW interactions are taken into account. In contrast, we show that DFT within the local density approximation (LDA), which is widely used to predict structural and vibrational properties at ambient conditions in 2D compounds, fails to reproduce the behavior of HfS2 under compression. Similar conclusions are reached in the case of MoS2. This suggests that large errors may be introduced if the compressibility and Grüneisen parameters of bulk TMDCs are calculated with bare DFT-LDA. Therefore, the validity of different approaches to calculate the structural and vibrational properties of bulk and few-layered vdW materials under compression should be carefully assessed
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