5,809 research outputs found
Finding RR Lyrae Stars with SkyMapper: an Observational Test
One of the major science goals of the SkyMapper Survey of the Southern
Hemisphere sky is the determination of the shape and extent of the halo of the
Galaxy. In this paper we quantify the likely efficiency and completeness of the
survey as regards the detection of RR Lyrae variable stars, which are excellent
tracers of the halo stellar population. We have accomplished this via
observations of the RR Lyrae-rich globular cluster NGC 3201. We find that for
single epoch uvgri observations followed by two further epochs of g, r imaging,
as per the intended three-epoch survey strategy, we recover known RR Lyraes
with a completeness exceeding 90%. We also investigate boundaries in the
gravity-sensitive single-epoch two-color diagram that yield high completeness
and high efficiency (i.e., minimal contamination by non-RR Lyraes) and the
general usefulness of this diagram in separating populations.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Publications of the
Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA), published by Cambridge University
Pres
Secular interactions between inclined planets and a gaseous disk
In a planetary system, a secular particle resonance occurs at a location
where the precession rate of a test particle (e.g. an asteroid) matches the
frequency of one of the precessional modes of the planetary system. We
investigate the secular interactions of a system of mutually inclined planets
with a gaseous protostellar disk that may contain a secular nodal particle
resonance. We determine the normal modes of some mutually inclined planet-disk
systems. The planets and disk interact gravitationally, and the disk is
internally subject to the effects of gas pressure, self-gravity, and turbulent
viscosity. The behavior of the disk at a secular resonance is radically
different from that of a particle, owing mainly to the effects of gas pressure.
The resonance is typically broadened by gas pressure to the extent that global
effects, including large-scale warps, dominate. The standard resonant torque
formula is invalid in this regime. Secular interactions cause a decay of the
inclination at a rate that depends on the disk properties, including its mass,
turbulent viscosity, and sound speed. For a Jupiter-mass planet embedded within
a minimum-mass solar nebula having typical parameters, dissipation within the
disk is sufficient to stabilize the system against tilt growth caused by
mean-motion resonances.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures, to be published in The Astrophysical Journa
Weber-like interactions and energy conservation
Velocity dependent forces varying as (such as Weber force), here called Weber-like forces, are examined
from the point of view of energy conservation and it is proved that they are
conservative if and only if . As a consequence, it is shown that
gravitational theories employing Weber-like forces cannot be conservative and
also yield both the precession of the perihelion of Mercury as well as the
gravitational deflection of light.Comment: latex, 11 pages, no figure
Predictions of selected flavour observables within the Standard Model
This letter gathers a selection of Standard Model predictions issued from the
metrology of the CKM parameters performed by the CKMfitter group. The selection
includes purely leptonic decays of neutral and charged B, D and K mesons. In
the light of the expected measurements from the LHCb experiment, a special
attention is given to the radiative decay modes of B mesons as well as to the
B-meson mixing observables, in particular the semileptonic charge asymmetries
a^d,s_SL which have been recently investigated by the D0 experiment at
Tevatron. Constraints arising from rare kaon decays are addressed, in light of
both current results and expected performances of future rare kaon experiments.
All results have been obtained with the CKMfitter analysis package, featuring
the frequentist statistical approach and using Rfit to handle theoretical
uncertainties.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. Typos corrected and discussion of
agreement between SM and data update
Photon deflection and precession of the periastron in terms of spatial gravitational fields
We show that a Maxwell-like system of equations for spatial gravitational
fields and (latter being the analogy of a magnetic field),
modified to include an extra term for the field in the expression for
force, leads to the correct values for the photon deflection angle and for the
precession of the periastron
ExELS: an exoplanet legacy science proposal for the ESA Euclid mission. II. Hot exoplanets and sub-stellar systems
The Exoplanet Euclid Legacy Survey (ExELS) proposes to determine the
frequency of cold exoplanets down to Earth mass from host separations of ~1 AU
out to the free-floating regime by detecting microlensing events in Galactic
Bulge. We show that ExELS can also detect large numbers of hot, transiting
exoplanets in the same population. The combined microlensing+transit survey
would allow the first self-consistent estimate of the relative frequencies of
hot and cold sub-stellar companions, reducing biases in comparing "near-field"
radial velocity and transiting exoplanets with "far-field" microlensing
exoplanets. The age of the Bulge and its spread in metallicity further allows
ExELS to better constrain both the variation of companion frequency with
metallicity and statistically explore the strength of star-planet tides.
We conservatively estimate that ExELS will detect ~4100 sub-stellar objects,
with sensitivity typically reaching down to Neptune-mass planets. Of these,
~600 will be detectable in both Euclid's VIS (optical) channel and NISP H-band
imager, with ~90% of detections being hot Jupiters. Likely scenarios predict a
range of 2900-7000 for VIS and 400-1600 for H-band. Twice as many can be
expected in VIS if the cadence can be increased to match the 20-minute H-band
cadence. The separation of planets from brown dwarfs via Doppler boosting or
ellipsoidal variability will be possible in a handful of cases. Radial velocity
confirmation should be possible in some cases, using 30-metre-class telescopes.
We expect secondary eclipses, and reflection and emission from planets to be
detectable in up to ~100 systems in both VIS and NISP-H. Transits of ~500
planetary-radius companions will be characterised with two-colour photometry
and ~40 with four-colour photometry (VIS,YJH), and the albedo of (and emission
from) a large sample of hot Jupiters in the H-band can be explored
statistically.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures, accepted MNRA
Combining Monte Carlo generators with next-to-next-to-leading order calculations: event reweighting for Higgs boson production at the LHC
We study a phenomenological ansatz for merging next-to-next-to-leading order
(NNLO) calculations with Monte Carlo event generators. We reweight them to
match bin-integrated NNLO differential distributions. To test this procedure,
we study the Higgs boson production cross-section at the LHC, for which a fully
differential partonic NNLO calculation is available. We normalize PYTHIA and
MC@NLO Monte Carlo events for Higgs production in the gluon fusion channel to
reproduce the bin integrated NNLO double differential distribution in the
transverse momentum and rapidity of the Higgs boson. These events are used to
compute differential distributions for the photons in the pp \to H \to \gamma
\gamma decay channel, and are compared to predictions from fixed-order
perturbation theory at NNLO. We find agreement between the reweighted
generators and the NNLO result in kinematic regions where we expect a good
description using fixed-order perturbation theory. Kinematic boundaries where
resummation is required are also modeled correctly using this procedure. We
then use these events to compute distributions in the pp \to H \to W^+W^- \to
l^+l^- \nu\bar{\nu} channel, for which an accurate description is needed for
measurements at the LHC. We find that the final state lepton distributions
obtained from PYTHIA are not significantly changed by the reweighting
procedure.Comment: 18 pages, 14 fig
ExELS: an exoplanet legacy science proposal for the ESA Euclid mission. II. Hot exoplanets and sub-stellar systems
The Exoplanet Euclid Legacy Survey (ExELS) proposes to determine the
frequency of cold exoplanets down to Earth mass from host separations of ~1 AU
out to the free-floating regime by detecting microlensing events in Galactic
Bulge. We show that ExELS can also detect large numbers of hot, transiting
exoplanets in the same population. The combined microlensing+transit survey
would allow the first self-consistent estimate of the relative frequencies of
hot and cold sub-stellar companions, reducing biases in comparing "near-field"
radial velocity and transiting exoplanets with "far-field" microlensing
exoplanets. The age of the Bulge and its spread in metallicity further allows
ExELS to better constrain both the variation of companion frequency with
metallicity and statistically explore the strength of star-planet tides.
We conservatively estimate that ExELS will detect ~4100 sub-stellar objects,
with sensitivity typically reaching down to Neptune-mass planets. Of these,
~600 will be detectable in both Euclid's VIS (optical) channel and NISP H-band
imager, with ~90% of detections being hot Jupiters. Likely scenarios predict a
range of 2900-7000 for VIS and 400-1600 for H-band. Twice as many can be
expected in VIS if the cadence can be increased to match the 20-minute H-band
cadence. The separation of planets from brown dwarfs via Doppler boosting or
ellipsoidal variability will be possible in a handful of cases. Radial velocity
confirmation should be possible in some cases, using 30-metre-class telescopes.
We expect secondary eclipses, and reflection and emission from planets to be
detectable in up to ~100 systems in both VIS and NISP-H. Transits of ~500
planetary-radius companions will be characterised with two-colour photometry
and ~40 with four-colour photometry (VIS,YJH), and the albedo of (and emission
from) a large sample of hot Jupiters in the H-band can be explored
statistically.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures, accepted MNRA
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