752 research outputs found
Dynamical streams in the solar neighbourhood
The true nature of the Hyades and Sirius superclusters is still an open
question. In this contribution, we confront Eggen's hypothesis that they are
cluster remnants with the results of a kinematic analysis of more than 6000 K
and M giants in the solar neighbourhood. This analysis includes new radial
velocity data from a large survey performed with the Coravel spectrometer,
complemented by Hipparcos parallaxes and Tycho-2 proper motions (Famaey et al.
2004). A maximum-likelihood method, based on a bayesian approach, has been
applied to the data, in order to make full use of all the available data
(including less precise parallaxes) and to derive the properties of the
different kinematic subgroups. Two such subgroups can be identified with the
Hyades and Sirius superclusters. Stars belonging to them span a very wide range
of age, which is difficult to account for in Eggen's scenario. These groups are
thus most probably "dynamical streams" related to the dynamical perturbation by
spiral waves rather than to cluster remnants.
In this scenario, the Hyades and Ursa Major clusters just happen to be in the
Hyades and Sirius streams, which are purely dynamical features that have
nothing to do with the remnants of more massive primordial clusters. This
mechanism could be the key to understanding the presence of an old metal-rich
population, and of many exoplanetary systems in our neighbourhood. Moreover, a
strong spiral pattern seems to be needed in order to yield such prominent
streams. Since spiral structure is usually baryonic, this would leave very
little room for dark matter. This may be an indication that the era of the
dark-matter paradigm explaining the dynamics of the Galaxy may come to an end,
and is being superseded by modified gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, to appear in The Three Dimensional Universe with
GAIA, eds M. Perryman & C. Turo
Microlensing Events from Measurements of the Deflection Angle
Microlensing events are now regularly being detected by monitoring the flux
of a large number of potential sources and measuring the combined magnification
of the images. This phenomenon could also be detected directly from the
gravitational deflection, by means of high precision astrometry using
interferometry. Relative astrometry at the level of 10\muas may become
possible in the near future. The gravitational deflection can be measured by
astrometric monitoring of a bright star having a background star within a small
angular separation. This type of monitoring program will be carried out for the
independent reasons of discovering planets from the angular motion they induce
on the nearby star around which they are orbiting, and for measuring
parallaxes, proper motions and orbits of binary stars. We discuss three
applications of the measurement of gravitational deflections by astrometric
monitoring: measuring the mass of the bright stars that are monitored,
measuring the mass of brown dwarfs or giant planets around the bright stars,
and detecting microlensing events by unrelated objects near the line of sight
to the two stars. We discuss the number of stars whose mass could be measured
by this procedure. We also give expressions for the number of expected
microlensing events by unrelated objects, which could be stars, brown dwarfs,
or other compact objects accounting for dark matter in the halo or in the disk.Comment: submitted to ApJ Letter
A latitude-dependent wind model for Mira's cometary head
We present a 3D numerical simulation of the recently discovered cometary
structure produced as Mira travels through the galactic ISM. In our simulation,
we consider that Mira ejects a steady, latitude-dependent wind, which interacts
with a homogeneous, streaming environment. The axisymmetry of the problem is
broken by the lack of alignment between the direction of the relative motion of
the environment and the polar axis of the latitude-dependent wind. With this
model, we are able to produce a cometary head with a ``double bow shock'' which
agrees well with the structure of the head of Mira's comet. We therefore
conclude that a time-dependence in the ejected wind is not required for
reproducing the observed double bow shock.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
The importance of accounting for large deformation in continuum damage models in predicting matrix failure of composites
The work presented in this paper investigates the ability of continuum damage models to accurately predict matrix failure and ply splitting. Two continuum damage model approaches are implemented that use different stress–strain measures. The first approach is based on small-strain increments and the Cauchy stress, while the second approach account for large deformation kinematics through the use of the Green–Lagrange strain and the 2nd Piola–Kirchhoff stress. The investigation consists of numerical benchmarks at three different levels: (1) single element; (2) unidirectional single ply open-hole specimen and (3) open-hole composite laminate coupon. Finally, the numerically predicted failure modes are compared to experimental failure modes at the coupon level. It is shown that it is important to account for large deformation kinematics in the constitutive model, especially when predicting matrix splitting failure modes. It is also shown that continuum damage models that do not account for large deformation kinematics can easily be adapted to ensure that the damage modes and failure strength are predicted accurately
It's a wonderful tail: the mass loss history of Mira
Recent observations of the Mira AB binary system have revealed a surrounding
arc-like structure and a stream of material stretching 2 degrees away in
opposition to the arc. The alignment of the proper motion vector and the
arc-like structure shows the structures to be a bow shock and accompanying
tail. We have successfully hydrodynamically modelled the bow shock and tail as
the interaction between the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) wind launched from
Mira A and the surrounding interstellar medium. Our simulations show that the
wake behind the bow shock is turbulent: this forms periodic density variations
in the tail similar to those observed. We investigate the possiblity of
mass-loss variations, but find that these have limited effect on the tail
structure. The tail is estimated to be approximately 450,000 years old, and is
moving with a velocity close to that of Mira itself. We suggest that the
duration of the high mass-loss phase on the AGB may have been underestimated.
Finally, both the tail curvature and the rebrightening at large distance can be
qualitatively understood if Mira recently entered the Local Bubble. This is
estimated to have occured 17 pc downstream from its current location.Comment: 12 pages, 3 colour figures, accepted by ApJ Part II (Letters
Building the cosmic distance scale: from Hipparcos to Gaia
Hipparcos, the first ever experiment of global astrometry, was launched by
ESA in 1989 and its results published in 1997 (Perryman et al., Astron.
Astrophys. 323, L49, 1997; Perryman & ESA (eds), The Hipparcos and Tycho
catalogues, ESA SP-1200, 1997). A new reduction was later performed using an
improved satellite attitude reconstruction leading to an improved accuracy for
stars brighter than 9th magnitude (van Leeuwen & Fantino, Astron. Astrophys.
439, 791, 2005; van Leeuwen, Astron. Astrophys. 474, 653, 2007).
The Hipparcos Catalogue provided an extended dataset of very accurate
astrometric data (positions, trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions),
enlarging by two orders of magnitude the quantity and quality of distance
determinations and luminosity calibrations. The availability of more than 20000
stars with a trigonometric parallax known to better than 10% opened the way to
a drastic revision of our 3-D knowledge of the solar neighbourhood and to a
renewal of the calibration of many distance indicators and age estimations. The
prospects opened by Gaia, the next ESA cornerstone, planned for launch in June
2013 (Perryman et al., Astron. Astrophys. 369, 339, 2001), are still much more
dramatic: a billion objects with systematic and quasi simultaneous astrometric,
spectrophotometric and spectroscopic observations, about 150 million stars with
expected distances to better than 10%, all over the Galaxy. All stellar
distance indicators, in very large numbers, will be directly measured,
providing a direct calibration of their luminosity and making possible detailed
studies of the impacts of various effects linked to chemical element
abundances, age or cluster membership. With the help of simulations of the data
expected from Gaia, obtained from the mission simulator developed by DPAC, we
will illustrate what Gaia can provide with some selected examples.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, Conference "The Fundamental Cosmic Distance
scale: State of the Art and the Gaia perspective, 3-6 May 2011, INAF,
Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Naples. Accepted for publication in
Astrophysics & Space Scienc
A model of Mira's cometary head/tail entering the Local Bubble
We model the cometary structure around Mira as the interaction of an AGB wind
from Mira A, and a streaming environment. Our simulations introduce the
following new element: we assume that after 200 kyr of evolution in a dense
environment Mira entered the Local Bubble (low density coronal gas). As Mira
enters the bubble, the head of the comet expands quite rapidly, while the tail
remains well collimated for a 100 kyr timescale. The result is a
broad-head/narrow-tail structure that resembles the observed morphology of
Mira's comet. The simulations were carried out with our new adaptive grid code
WALICXE, which is described in detail.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures (4 in color). Accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journa
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