291 research outputs found
A key to room-temperature ferromagnetism in Fe-doped ZnO: Cu
Successful synthesis of room-temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors,
ZnFeO, is reported. The essential ingredient in achieving
room-temperature ferromagnetism in bulk ZnFeO was found to be
additional Cu doping. A transition temperature as high as 550 K was obtained in
ZnFeCuO; the saturation magnetization at room
temperature reached a value of per Fe. Large
magnetoresistance was also observed below K.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; to appear in Appl. Phys. Let
Improving the Prospects for Detecting Extrasolar Planets in Gravitational Microlensing in 2002
Gravitational microlensing events of high magnification have been shown to be
promising targets for detecting extrasolar planets. However, only a few events
of high magnification have been found using conventional survey techniques.
Here we demonstrate that high magnification events can be readily found in
microlensing surveys using a strategy that combines high frequency sampling of
target fields with online difference imaging analysis. We present 10
microlensing events with peak magnifications greater than 40 that were detected
in real-time towards the Galactic Bulge during 2001 by MOA. We show that Earth
mass planets can be detected in future events such as these through intensive
follow-up observations around the event peaks. We report this result with
urgency as a similar number of such events are expected in 2002.Comment: 11 pages, 3 embedded ps figures including 2 colour, revised version
accepted by MNRA
Study by MOA of extra-solar planets in gravitational microlensing events of high magnification
A search for extra-solar planets was carried out in three gravitational
microlensing events of high magnification, MACHO 98-BLG-35, MACHO 99-LMC-2, and
OGLE 00-BUL-12. Photometry was derived from observational images by the MOA and
OGLE groups using an image subtraction technique. For MACHO 98-BLG-35,
additional photometry derived from the MPS and PLANET groups was included.
Planetary modeling of the three events was carried out in a super-cluster
computing environment. The estimated probability for explaining the data on
MACHO 98-BLG-35 without a planet is <1%. The best planetary model has a planet
of mass ~(0.4-1.5) X 10^-5 M_Earth at a projected radius of either ~1.5 or ~2.3
AU. We show how multi-planet models can be applied to the data. We calculated
exclusion regions for the three events and found that Jupiter-mass planets can
be excluded with projected radii from as wide as about 30 AU to as close as
around 0.5 AU for MACHO 98-BLG-35 and OGLE 00-BUL-12. For MACHO 99-LMC-2, the
exclusion region extends out to around 10 AU and constitutes the first limit
placed on a planetary companion to an extragalactic star. We derive a
particularly high peak magnification of ~160 for OGLE 00-BUL-12. We discuss the
detectability of planets with masses as low as Mercury in this and similar
events.Comment: 14 pages, 16 embedded postscript figures, 3 PNG figures, revised
version accepted by MNRA
On Planetary Companions to the MACHO-98-BLG-35 Microlens Star
We present observations of microlensing event MACHO-98-BLG-35 which reached a
peak magnification factor of almost 80. These observations by the Microlensing
Planet Search (MPS) and the MOA Collaborations place strong constraints on the
possible planetary system of the lens star and show intriguing evidence for a
low mass planet with a mass fraction . A giant planet with is excluded from 95%
of the region between 0.4 and 2.5 from the lens star, where is the
Einstein ring radius of the lens. This exclusion region is more extensive than
the generic "lensing zone" which is . For smaller mass planets,
we can exclude 57% of the "lensing zone" for and 14% of
the lensing zone for . The mass fraction corresponds to an Earth mass planet for a lensing star of mass \sim
0.3 \msun. A number of similar events will provide statistically significant
constraints on the prevalence of Earth mass planets. In order to put our limits
in more familiar terms, we have compared our results to those expected for a
Solar System clone averaging over possible lens system distances and
orientations. We find that such a system is ruled out at the 90% confidence
level. A copy of the Solar System with Jupiter replaced by a second Saturn mass
planet can be ruled out at 70% confidence. Our low mass planetary signal (few
Earth masses to Neptune mass) is significant at the confidence
level. If this planetary interpretation is correct, the MACHO-98-BLG-35 lens
system constitutes the first detection of a low mass planet orbiting an
ordinary star without gas giant planets.Comment: ApJ, April 1, 2000; 27 pages including 8 color postscript figure
Probing the atmosphere of a solar-like star by galactic microlensing at high magnification
We report a measurement of limb darkening of a solar-like star in the very
high magnification microlensing event MOA 2002-BLG-33. A 15 hour deviation from
the light curve profile expected for a single lens was monitored intensively in
V and I passbands by five telescopes spanning the globe. Our modelling of the
light curve showed the lens to be a close binary system whose centre-of-mass
passed almost directly in front of the source star. The source star was
identified as an F8-G2 main sequence turn-off star. The measured stellar
profiles agree with current stellar atmosphere theory to within ~4% in two
passbands. The effective angular resolution of the measurements is <1
micro-arcsec. These are the first limb darkening measurements obtained by
microlensing for a Solar-like star.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letters. 5 pages, 2 embedded colour
ps figures plus 1 jpg figure. Version with all figures embedded available
from: http://www.roe.ac.uk/~iab/moa33paper
Gravitational Microlensing Evidence for a Planet Orbiting a Binary Star System
The study of extra-solar planetary systems has emerged as a new discipline of
observational astronomy in the past few years with the discovery of a number of
extra-solar planets. The properties of most of these extra-solar planets were
not anticipated by theoretical work on the formation of planetary systems. Here
we report observations and light curve modeling of gravitational microlensing
event MACHO-97-BLG-41, which indicates that the lens system consists of a
planet orbiting a binary star system. According to this model, the mass ratio
of the binary star system is 3.8:1 and the stars are most likely to be a late K
dwarf and an M dwarf with a separation of about 1.8 AU. A planet of about 3
Jupiter masses orbits this system at a distance of about 7 AU. If our
interpretation of this light curve is correct, it represents the first
discovery of a planet orbiting a binary star system and the first detection of
a Jovian planet via the gravitational microlensing technique. It suggests that
giant planets may be common in short period binary star systems.Comment: 11 pages, with 1 color and 2 b/w Figures included (published version
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De novo assembly of the cattle reference genome with single-molecule sequencing.
BackgroundMajor advances in selection progress for cattle have been made following the introduction of genomic tools over the past 10-12 years. These tools depend upon the Bos taurus reference genome (UMD3.1.1), which was created using now-outdated technologies and is hindered by a variety of deficiencies and inaccuracies.ResultsWe present the new reference genome for cattle, ARS-UCD1.2, based on the same animal as the original to facilitate transfer and interpretation of results obtained from the earlier version, but applying a combination of modern technologies in a de novo assembly to increase continuity, accuracy, and completeness. The assembly includes 2.7 Gb and is >250Ă more continuous than the original assembly, with contig N50 >25 Mb and L50 of 32. We also greatly expanded supporting RNA-based data for annotation that identifies 30,396 total genes (21,039 protein coding). The new reference assembly is accessible in annotated form for public use.ConclusionsWe demonstrate that improved continuity of assembled sequence warrants the adoption of ARS-UCD1.2 as the new cattle reference genome and that increased assembly accuracy will benefit future research on this species
The first circumbinary planet found by microlensing: OGLE-2007-BLG-349L(AB)c
We present the analysis of the first circumbinary planet microlensing event, OGLE-2007-BLG-349. This event has a strong planetary signal that is best fit with a mass ratio of q â 3.4 Ă 10-4, but there is an additional signal due to an additional lens mass, either another planet or another star. We find acceptable light-curve fits with two classes of models: two-planet models (with a single host star) and circumbinary planet models. The light curve also reveals a significant microlensing parallax effect, which constrains the mass of the lens system to be M L â 0.7 Mâ. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images resolve the lens and source stars from their neighbors and indicate excess flux due to the star(s) in the lens system. This is consistent with the predicted flux from the circumbinary models, where the lens mass is shared between two stars, but there is not enough flux to be consistent with the two-planet, one-star models. So, only the circumbinary models are consistent with the HST data. They indicate a planet of mass m c = 80 ± 13 Mâ, orbiting a pair of M dwarfs with masses of M A = 0.41 ± 0.07 and M B = 0.30 ± 0.07, which makes this the lowest-mass circumbinary planet system known. The ratio of the separation between the planet and the center of mass to the separation of the two stars is âŒ40, so unlike most of the circumbinary planets found by Kepler, the planet does not orbit near the stability limit
Localized D-dimensional global k-defects
We explicitly demonstrate the existence of static global defect solutions of
arbitrary dimensionality whose energy does not diverge at spatial infinity, by
considering maximally symmetric solutions described by an action with
non-standard kinetic terms in a D+1 dimensional Minkowski space-time. We
analytically determine the defect profile both at small and large distances
from the defect centre. We verify the stability of such solutions and discuss
possible implications of our findings, in particular for dark matter and charge
fractionalization in graphene.Comment: 6 pages, published versio
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