Early light curves for Type Ia supernova explosion models

Upcoming high-cadence transient survey programmes will produce a wealth of observational data for Type Ia supernovae. These data sets will contain numerous events detected very early in their evolution, shortly after explosion. Here, we present synthetic light curves, calculated with the radiation hydrodynamical approach Stella for a number of different explosion models, specifically focusing on these first few days after explosion. We show that overall the early light curve evolution is similar for most of the investigated models. Characteristic imprints are induced by radioactive material located close to the surface. However, these are very similar to the signatures expected from ejecta-CSM or ejecta-companion interaction. Apart from the pure deflagration explosion models, none of our synthetic light curves exhibit the commonly assumed power-law rise. We demonstrate that this can lead to substantial errors in the determination of the time of explosion. In summary, we illustrate with our calculations that even with very early data an identification of specific explosion scenarios is challenging, if only photometric observations are available.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Einfluß unterschiedlicher Anbauarten – mineralisch, organisch, biologisch-dynamisch – auf Kartoffeln: Inhaltsstoffe, Sensorik, Festigkeitskennwerte und bildschaffende Methoden

Grundsätzlich sprachen die Kartoffeln der Sorte ´Granola´ sehr schwach auf die eingesetzten Versuchsfaktoren an, sodaß die Unterschiede selten statistisch abgesichert werden konnten. Bei denjenigen Inhaltsstoffen, die deutlicher auf den Anbaufaktor Düngermenge ansprachen, reagierten die Knollen der mineralisch gedüngten Varianten eindeutig stärker (Abnahme der Trockenmasse, der Saccharose-, Stärke- und Clorid-Gehalte, Zunahme der Glukose-, Fruktose-, Fluorid- und Asche-Gehalte) als die Vergleichsvarianten. Ein Grund hierfür könnte die schnellere Verfügbarkeit des mineralischen Düngers gewesen sein. Die biologisch-dynamisch gedüngten Knollen zeigten nur bei drei Parametern dieselbe Reaktion auf die Intensivierung der Düngung wie die organisch gedüngten auf (Zunahme der Chlorid- und Asche-Gehalte, gleichbleibende Fluorid-Gehalte). Bei vier Merkmalen reagierten die biologisch-dynamischen Knollen überhaupt nicht oder sehr gering, wogegen die organisch gedüngten Kartoffeln eine Abnahme im Trockenmasse- und Saccharosegehalt bzw. keine gerichteten Tendenzen in den Glukose- und Fruktosegehalten aufwiesen. Die Festigkeitskennwerte der mineralisch gedüngten Kartoffeln wurde, im Vergleich zu den beiden anderen Varianten, schwächer bewertet. Die sensorischen Untersuchungen ergaben keine Bevorzugung einzelner Varianten, jedoch, besonders bei der minera-lischen Variante, eine tendenzielle Abnahme der sensorischen Qualität mit zunehmender Düngung. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen zur „Vitalqualität“ mit Hilfe bildschaf-fender Methoden bestätigte die prinzipielle Eignung dieser Methode für ergänzende Qualitätsuntersuchungen. Eine abschließende Beurteilung der Qualität der unterschiedlichen Anbauvarianten wird erst in Verbindung der bisherigen Daten mit noch zur Analyse anstehenden Parametern (Nitrat, Aminosäuren, Ascorbinsäure, Kalium) möglich sein. Des weiteren wird in laufenden Sortenversuchen geprüft, ob andere Sorten stärker auf die verschiedenen Versuchsfaktoren reagieren

Quantitative spectral analysis of the sdB star HD 188112: a helium-core white dwarf progenitor

HD 188112 is a bright (V = 10.2 mag) hot subdwarf B (sdB) star with a mass too low to ignite core helium burning and is therefore considered as a pre-extremely low mass (ELM) white dwarf (WD). ELM WDs (M $\le$ 0.3 Msun) are He-core objects produced by the evolution of compact binary systems. We present in this paper a detailed abundance analysis of HD 188112 based on high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) near and far-ultraviolet spectroscopy. We also constrain the mass of the star's companion. We use hybrid non-LTE model atmospheres to fit the observed spectral lines and derive the abundances of more than a dozen elements as well as the rotational broadening of metallic lines. We confirm the previous binary system parameters by combining radial velocities measured in our UV spectra with the already published ones. The system has a period of 0.60658584 days and a WD companion with M $\geq$ 0.70 Msun. By assuming a tidally locked rotation, combined with the projected rotational velocity (v sin i = 7.9 $\pm$ 0.3 km s$^{-1}$) we constrain the companion mass to be between 0.9 and 1.3 Msun. We further discuss the future evolution of the system as a potential progenitor of a (underluminous) type Ia supernova. We measure abundances for Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, and Zn, as well as for the trans-iron elements Ga, Sn, and Pb. In addition, we derive upper limits for the C, N, O elements and find HD 188112 to be strongly depleted in carbon. We find evidence of non-LTE effects on the line strength of some ionic species such as Si II and Ni II. The metallic abundances indicate that the star is metal-poor, with an abundance pattern most likely produced by diffusion effects.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Quality Comparison of Mineral, Organic and Biodynamic Cultivation of Potatoes: Contents, Strength Criteria, Sensory Investigations and Picture-Creating Methods

Nutritional quality of food can be characterized by the content of beneficial and harmful substances. For today’s consumers the most important criteria for buying potatoes are taste, quality and shelf-life. Biodynamic preparations are used by about 20% of all organic farms in Germany. These preparations do not primarily serve to increase the yield but are said to support the production of high quality food, having balanced nutrient contents and improved shelf-life characteristics. Since 1993 investigations have been carried out to evaluate the effect of mineral fertilization and organic manuring at varied intensities, combined with application of biodynamic preparations, on some of these parameters. The potatoes of the variety ´Granola´ responded rather slightly to the factors of the trial, hence statistical differences could be confirmed only in few cases. Tubers deriving from the mineral fertilized plots showed the strongest response to elevated fertilization (decrease in dry matter, sucrose, chloride content and density, and an increase in glucose, fructose, fluoride and ash content). Only in three parameters tubers from the biodynamic plots responded in the same way as the organic ones to elevated fertilization (increase in the chloride and ash contents, stagnating fluoride contents). In four parameters, no or only a weak response of the biodynamic tubers has been found, whereas organic potatoes showed decreasing dry matter and sucrose contents, but no distinctive tendency in the parameters glucose and fructose. The parameter strength criteria has been assessed as the weakest in mineral fertilized potatoes. The sensory investigations did not allow to differentiate between the three cropping systems but there was a tendency of worsening sensoric quality at increased fertilization, particularly in the tubers of the mineral plots. The results of the determination of vital quality following picture-creating methods confirmed the applicability of this assay for additional quality determinations. A final assessment of the quality according to the different cropping systems cannot be made at this point of time. Therefore, further parameters (nitrate, potassium, amino acids, ascorbic acid) will be analyzed which might allow a final assessment in combination with the present data. Furthermore, current trials might reveal if other varieties respond stronger to the relevant factors

Strongly lensed SNe Ia in the era of LSST: observing cadence for lens discoveries and time-delay measurements

The upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will detect many strongly lensed Type Ia supernovae (LSNe Ia) for time-delay cosmography. This will provide an independent and direct way for measuring the Hubble constant $H_0$, which is necessary to address the current $4.4 \sigma$ tension in $H_0$ between the local distance ladder and the early Universe measurements. We present a detailed analysis of different observing strategies for the LSST, and quantify their impact on time-delay measurement between multiple images of LSNe Ia. For this, we produced microlensed mock-LSST light curves for which we estimated the time delay between different images. We find that using only LSST data for time-delay cosmography is not ideal. Instead, we advocate using LSST as a discovery machine for LSNe Ia, enabling time delay measurements from follow-up observations from other instruments in order to increase the number of systems by a factor of 2 to 16 depending on the observing strategy. Furthermore, we find that LSST observing strategies, which provide a good sampling frequency (the mean inter-night gap is around two days) and high cumulative season length (ten seasons with a season length of around 170 days per season), are favored. Rolling cadences subdivide the survey and focus on different parts in different years; these observing strategies trade the number of seasons for better sampling frequency. In our investigation, this leads to half the number of systems in comparison to the best observing strategy. Therefore rolling cadences are disfavored because the gain from the increased sampling frequency cannot compensate for the shortened cumulative season length. We anticipate that the sample of lensed SNe Ia from our preferred LSST cadence strategies with rapid follow-up observations would yield an independent percent-level constraint on $H_0$.Comment: 25 pages, 22 figures; accepted for publication in A&

Quality dating: a well-defined protocol implemented at ETH for high-precision 14c-dates tested on late glacial wood

Advances in accelerator mass spectrometry have resulted in an unprecedented amount of new high-precision radiocarbon (14C) -dates, some of which will redefine the international 14C calibration curves (IntCal and SHCal). Often these datasets are unaccompanied by detailed quality insurances in place at the laboratory, questioning whether the 14C structure is real, a result of a laboratory variation or measurement-scatter. A handful of intercomparison studies attempt to elucidate laboratory offsets but may fail to identify measurement-scatter and are often financially constrained. Here we introduce a protocol, called Quality Dating, implemented at ETH-Zürich to ensure reproducible and accurate high-precision 14C-dates. The protocol highlights the importance of the continuous measurements and evaluation of blanks, standards, references and replicates. This protocol is tested on an absolutely dated German Late Glacial tree-ring chronology, part of which is intercompared with the Curt Engelhorn-Center for Archaeometry, Mannheim, Germany (CEZA). The combined dataset contains 170 highly resolved, highly precise 14C-dates that supplement three decadal dates spanning 280 cal. years in IntCal, and provides detailed 14C structure for this interval

Maki Parameter and Upper critical Field of the Heavy-Fermion Superconductor UBe13

We have performed low-temperature specific-heat measurements in magnetic fields for a single crystal UBe13. It has been observed that our sample exhibits a superconducting transition at an intermediate temperature between previously reported values for two variant samples called H type and L type. The specific heat C(T) of our sample shows a T^3 behavior in the temperature range below 0.7 Tc, which is similar to the behavior of the H-type sample, suggesting the existence of point nodes in the superconducting gap function. We have obtained the upper-critical-field curves Hc2 for the [001], [110], and [111] crystal axes, which show no anisotropy at least down to the lowest measured temperature of 0.5 K. We have also derived the Maki parameter kappa2, and it has been revealed that the kappa2 steeply decreases isotropically upon cooling just below Tc. Paramagnetic effects and the symmetry of Cooper pairing of UBe13 are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Update on the correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with nearby extragalactic matter

Data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory through 31 August 2007 showed evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min energy threshold, \nobreak{$6\times 10^{19}$eV}. The anisotropy was measured by the fraction of arrival directions that are less than $3.1^\circ$ from the position of an active galactic nucleus within 75 Mpc (using the V\'eron-Cetty and V\'eron $12^{\rm th}$ catalog). An updated measurement of this fraction is reported here using the arrival directions of cosmic rays recorded above the same energy threshold through 31 December 2009. The number of arrival directions has increased from 27 to 69, allowing a more precise measurement. The correlating fraction is $(38^{+7}_{-6})$, compared with $21$ expected for isotropic cosmic rays. This is down from the early estimate of $(69^{+11}_{-13})$. The enlarged set of arrival directions is examined also in relation to other populations of nearby extragalactic objects: galaxies in the 2 Microns All Sky Survey and active galactic nuclei detected in hard X-rays by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. A celestial region around the position of the radiogalaxy Cen A has the largest excess of arrival directions relative to isotropic expectations. The 2-point autocorrelation function is shown for the enlarged set of arrival directions and compared to the isotropic expectation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics on 31 August 201

The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems

We review the formation and evolution of compact binary stars consisting of white dwarfs (WDs), neutron stars (NSs), and black holes (BHs). Binary NSs and BHs are thought to be the primary astrophysical sources of gravitational waves (GWs) within the frequency band of ground-based detectors, while compact binaries of WDs are important sources of GWs at lower frequencies to be covered by space interferometers (LISA). Major uncertainties in the current understanding of properties of NSs and BHs most relevant to the GW studies are discussed, including the treatment of the natal kicks which compact stellar remnants acquire during the core collapse of massive stars and the common envelope phase of binary evolution. We discuss the coalescence rates of binary NSs and BHs and prospects for their detections, the formation and evolution of binary WDs and their observational manifestations. Special attention is given to AM CVn-stars -- compact binaries in which the Roche lobe is filled by another WD or a low-mass partially degenerate helium-star, as these stars are thought to be the best LISA verification binary GW sources.Comment: 105 pages, 18 figure

Anisotropy and chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using arrival directions measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Collaboration has reported evidence for anisotropy in the distribution of arrival directions of the cosmic rays with energies $E>E_{th}=5.5\times 10^{19}$ eV. These show a correlation with the distribution of nearby extragalactic objects, including an apparent excess around the direction of Centaurus A. If the particles responsible for these excesses at $E>E_{th}$ are heavy nuclei with charge $Z$, the proton component of the sources should lead to excesses in the same regions at energies $E/Z$. We here report the lack of anisotropies in these directions at energies above $E_{th}/Z$ (for illustrative values of $Z=6,\ 13,\ 26$). If the anisotropies above $E_{th}$ are due to nuclei with charge $Z$, and under reasonable assumptions about the acceleration process, these observations imply stringent constraints on the allowed proton fraction at the lower energies