33,756 research outputs found
Report of IAU Commission 30 on Radial Velocities (2006-2009)
Brief summaries are given on the following subjects: Radial velocities and
exoplanets (Toward Earth-mass planets; Retired A stars and their planets;
Current status and prospects); Toward higher radial velocity precision; Radial
velocities and asteroseismology; Radial velocities in Galactic and
extragalactic clusters; Radial velocities for field giants; Galactic structure
-- Large surveys (The Geneva-Copenhagen Survey; Sloan Digital Sky Survey;
RAVE); Working groups (WG on radial velocity standards; WG on stellar radial
velocity bibliography; WG on the catalogue of orbital elements of spectroscopic
binaries [SB9]).Comment: 11 pages, to appear in the IAU Transactions Vol. XXVIIA, Reports on
Astronomy 2006-2009, ed. Karel van der Hucht. Editor: G. Torre
Radiation from a uniformly accelerated charge in the outskirts of a wormhole throat
Using traversable wormholes as theoretical background, we revisit a deep
question of general relativity: Does a uniformly accelerated charged particle
radiate? We particularize to the recently proposed gravitational \v{C}erenkov
radiation, that happens when the spatial part of the Ricci tensor is negative.
If , the matter threading the gravitational
field violates the weak energy condition. In this case, the effective
refractive index for light is bigger than 1, i.e. particles propagates, in that
medium, faster than photons. This leads to a violation of the equivalence
principle.Comment: 6 pages revtex, 1 eps figure. To be published in Modern Physics
Letters
Revisiting the luminosity function of single halo white dwarfs
White dwarfs are the fossils left by the evolution of low-and
intermediate-mass stars, and have very long evolutionary timescales. This
allows us to use them to explore the properties of old populations, like the
Galactic halo. We present a population synthesis study of the luminosity
function of halo white dwarfs, aimed at investigating which information can be
derived from the currently available observed data. We employ an up-to-date
population synthesis code based on Monte Carlo techniques, that incorporates
the most recent and reliable cooling sequences for metal poor progenitors as
well as an accurate modeling of the observational biases. We find that because
the observed sample of halo white dwarfs is restricted to the brightest stars
only the hot branch of the white dwarf luminosity function can be used for such
purposes, and that its shape function is almost insensitive to the most
relevant inputs, like the adopted cooling sequences, the initial mass function,
the density profile of the stellar spheroid, or the adopted fraction of
unresolved binaries. Moreover, since the cut-off of the observed luminosity has
not been yet determined only lower limits to the age of the halo population can
be placed. We conclude that the current observed sample of the halo white dwarf
population is still too small to obtain definite conclusions about the
properties of the stellar halo, and the recently computed white dwarf cooling
sequences which incorporate residual hydrogen burning should be assessed using
metal-poor globular clusters.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Spin-torque driven magnetic vortex self-oscillations in perpendicular magnetic fields
We have employed complete micromagnetic simulations to analyze dc current
driven self-oscillations of a vortex core in a spin-valve nanopillar in a
perpendicular field by including the coupled effect of the spin-torque and the
magnetostatic field computed self-consistently for the entire spin-valve. The
vortex in the thicker nanomagnet moves along a quasi-elliptical trajectory that
expands with applied current, resulting in blue-shifting of the frequency,
while the magnetization of the thinner nanomagnet is non-uniform due to the
bias current. The simulations explain the experimental magnetoresistance-field
hysteresis loop and yield good agreement with the measured frequency vs.
current behavior of this spin-torque vortex oscillator.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to be appear on AP
Noether's Symmetry Theorem for Variational and Optimal Control Problems with Time Delay
We extend the DuBois-Reymond necessary optimality condition and Noether's
symmetry theorem to the time delay variational setting. Both Lagrangian and
Hamiltonian versions of Noether's theorem are proved, covering problems of the
calculus of variations and optimal control with delays.Comment: This is a preprint of a paper whose final and definite form will
appear in the international journal Numerical Algebra, Control and
Optimization (NACO). Paper accepted for publication 15-March-201
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