39,779 research outputs found
Non-equilibrium chemistry and dust formation in AGB stars as probed by SiO line emission
We have performed high spatial resolution observations of SiO line emission
for a sample of 11 AGB stars using the ATCA, VLA and SMA interferometers.
Detailed radiative transfer modelling suggests that there are steep chemical
gradients of SiO in their circumstellar envelopes. The emerging picture is one
where the radial SiO abundance distribution starts at an initial high
abundance, in the case of M-stars consistent with LTE chemistry, that
drastically decreases at a radius of ~1E15 cm. This is consistent with a
scenario where SiO freezes out onto dust grains. The region of the wind with
low abundance is much more extended, typically ~1E16 cm, and limited by
photodissociation. The surpisingly high SiO abundances found in carbon stars
requires non-equilibrium chemical processes.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure. To be published in the proceedings of the
conference "Why Galaxies Care about AGB Stars", held in Vienna, August 7-11,
2006; F. Kerschbaum, C. Charbonnel, B. Wing eds, ASP Conf.Ser. in pres
Plant canopy shape and the influences on UV exposures to the canopy
The solar spectra at selected sites over hemispherical, conical and pinnacle plant canopy models has been evaluated with a dosimetric technique. The irradiance at the sites varies by up to a factor of 0.31 compared to the irradiance on a horizontal plane. The biologically effective (UVBE) exposures evaluated with the dosimetric technique at sites over the plant canopy are up to 19% of that on a horizontal plane. Compared to a spectroradiometer, the technique provides a more practicable method of measuring the UVBE exposures at multiple sites over a plant canopy. Usage of a dosimeter at one site to provide the exposures at that site for different sun angles introduces an error of more than 50%. Knowledge of the spectra allowed the UV and UVBE exposures to be calculated at each site along with the exposures to the entire canopies. These were dependent on the sun angle and the canopy shape. For plant damage, the UVBE was a maximum of about 1.4 mJ cm-2/min. Compared to the hemispherical canopy, the UVBE exposure for generalised plant damage was 45% less for the pinnacle canopy and 23% less for the conical canopy. The canopy exposures could not be determined from measurements of the ambient exposure
Minimizing Unsatisfaction in Colourful Neighbourhoods
Colouring sparse graphs under various restrictions is a theoretical problem
of significant practical relevance. Here we consider the problem of maximizing
the number of different colours available at the nodes and their
neighbourhoods, given a predetermined number of colours. In the analytical
framework of a tree approximation, carried out at both zero and finite
temperatures, solutions obtained by population dynamics give rise to estimates
of the threshold connectivity for the incomplete to complete transition, which
are consistent with those of existing algorithms. The nature of the transition
as well as the validity of the tree approximation are investigated.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures, substantially revised with additional
explanatio
20 cm VLA Radio-Continuum Study of M31 - Images and Point Source Catalogues
We present a series of new high-sensitivity and high-resolution
radio-continuum images of M31 at \lambda=20 cm (\nu=1.4 GHz). These new images
were produced by merging archived 20 cm radio-continuum observations from the
Very Large Array (VLA) telescope. Images presented here are sensitive to rms=60
\mu Jy and feature high angular resolution (<10"). A complete sample of
discrete radio sources have been catalogued and analysed across 17 individual
VLA projects. We identified a total of 864 unique discrete radio sources across
the field of M31. One of the most prominent regions in M31 is the ring feature
for which we estimated total integrated flux of 706 mJy at \lambda=20 cm. We
compare here, detected sources to those listed in Gelfand et al. (2004) at
\lambda=92 cm and find 118 sources in common to both surveys. The majority
(61%) of these sources exhibit a spectral index of \alpha <-0.6 indicating that
their emission is predominantly non-thermal in nature. That is more typical for
background objects.Comment: 28 pages, 25 figures, accepted for publication in the Serbian
Astronomical Journa
Phase preparation by atom counting of Bose-Einstein condensates in mixed states
We study the build up of quantum coherence between two Bose-Einstein
condensates which are initially in mixed states. We consider in detail the two
cases where each condensate is initially in a thermal or a Poisson distribution
of atom number. Although initially there is no relative phase between the
condensates, a sequence of spatial atom detections produces an interference
pattern with arbitrary but fixed relative phase. The visibility of this
interference pattern is close to one for the Poisson distribution of two
condensates with equal counting rates but it becomes a stochastic variable in
the thermal case, where the visibility will vary from run to run around an
average visibility of In both cases, the variance of the phase
distribution is inversely proportional to the number of atom detections in the
regime where this number is large compared to one but small compared with the
total number of atoms in the condensates.Comment: 9 pages, 6 PostScript figure, submitted to PR
The surface accessibility of α-bungarotoxin monitored by a novel paramagnetic probe
The surface accessibility of {alpha}-bungarotoxin has been investigated by using Gd2L7, a newly designed paramagnetic NMR probe. Signal attenuations induced by Gd2L7 on {alpha}-bungarotoxin C{alpha}H peaks of 1H-13C HSQC spectra have been analyzed and compared with the ones previously obtained in the presence of GdDTPA-BMA. In spite of the different molecular size and shape, for the two probes a common pathway of approach to the {alpha}-bungarotoxin surface can be observed with an equally enhanced access of both GdDTPA-BMA and Gd2L7 towards the protein surface side where the binding site is located. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that protein backbone flexibility and surface hydration contribute to the observed preferential approach of both gadolinium complexes specifically to the part of the {alpha}-bungarotoxin surface which is involved in the interaction with its physiological target, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
Asymptotic corrections to the eigenvalue density of the GUE and LUE
We obtain correction terms to the large N asymptotic expansions of the
eigenvalue density for the Gaussian unitary and Laguerre unitary ensembles of
random N by N matrices, both in the bulk of the spectrum and near the spectral
edge. This is achieved by using the well known orthogonal polynomial expression
for the kernel to construct a double contour integral representation for the
density, to which we apply the saddle point method. The main correction to the
bulk density is oscillatory in N and depends on the distribution function of
the limiting density, while the corrections to the Airy kernel at the soft edge
are again expressed in terms of the Airy function and its first derivative. We
demonstrate numerically that these expansions are very accurate. A matching is
exhibited between the asymptotic expansion of the bulk density, expanded about
the edge, and the asymptotic expansion of the edge density, expanded into the
bulk.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
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