415 research outputs found
The distinction between star clusters and associations
In Galactic studies a distinction is made between (open) star clusters and
associations. For barely resolved objects at a distance of several Mpc this
distinction is not trivial to make. Here we provide an objective definition by
comparing the age of the stars to the crossing time of nearby stellar
agglomerates. We find that a satisfactory separation can be made where this
ratio equals unity. Stellar agglomerates for which the age of the stars exceeds
the crossing time are bound, and are referred to as star clusters.
Alternatively, those for which the crossing time exceeds the stellar age are
unbound and are referred to as associations. This definition is useful whenever
reliable measurements for the mass, radius and age are available.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, accepted for MNRAS Letter
High Performance Direct Gravitational N-body Simulations on Graphics Processing Units -- II: An implementation in CUDA
We present the results of gravitational direct -body simulations using the
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) on a commercial NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX designed
for gaming computers. The force evaluation of the -body problem is
implemented in ``Compute Unified Device Architecture'' (CUDA) using the GPU to
speed-up the calculations. We tested the implementation on three different
-body codes: two direct -body integration codes, using the 4th order
predictor-corrector Hermite integrator with block time-steps, and one
Barnes-Hut treecode, which uses a 2nd order leapfrog integration scheme. The
integration of the equations of motions for all codes is performed on the host
CPU.
We find that for particles the GPU outperforms the GRAPE-6Af, if
some softening in the force calculation is accepted. Without softening and for
very small integration time steps the GRAPE still outperforms the GPU. We
conclude that modern GPUs offer an attractive alternative to GRAPE-6Af special
purpose hardware. Using the same time-step criterion, the total energy of the
-body system was conserved better than to one in on the GPU, only
about an order of magnitude worse than obtained with GRAPE-6Af. For N \apgt
10^5 the 8800GTX outperforms the host CPU by a factor of about 100 and runs at
about the same speed as the GRAPE-6Af.Comment: Accepted for publication in New Astronom
Mutation supply and the repeatability of selection for antibiotic resistance
Whether evolution can be predicted is a key question in evolutionary biology.
Here we set out to better understand the repeatability of evolution. We
explored experimentally the effect of mutation supply and the strength of
selective pressure on the repeatability of selection from standing genetic
variation. Different sizes of mutant libraries of an antibiotic resistance
gene, TEM-1 -lactamase in Escherichia coli, were subjected to different
antibiotic concentrations. We determined whether populations went extinct or
survived, and sequenced the TEM gene of the surviving populations. The
distribution of mutations per allele in our mutant libraries- generated by
error-prone PCR- followed a Poisson distribution. Extinction patterns could be
explained by a simple stochastic model that assumed the sampling of beneficial
mutations was key for survival. In most surviving populations, alleles
containing at least one known large-effect beneficial mutation were present.
These genotype data also support a model which only invokes sampling effects to
describe the occurrence of alleles containing large-effect driver mutations.
Hence, evolution is largely predictable given cursory knowledge of mutational
fitness effects, the mutation rate and population size. There were no clear
trends in the repeatability of selected mutants when we considered all
mutations present. However, when only known large-effect mutations were
considered, the outcome of selection is less repeatable for large libraries, in
contrast to expectations. Furthermore, we show experimentally that alleles
carrying multiple mutations selected from large libraries confer higher
resistance levels relative to alleles with only a known large-effect mutation,
suggesting that the scarcity of high-resistance alleles carrying multiple
mutations may contribute to the decrease in repeatability at large library
sizes.Comment: 31pages, 9 figure
Young massive star clusters
Young massive clusters are dense aggregates of young stars that form the
fundamental building blocks of galaxies. Several examples exist in the Milky
Way Galaxy and the Local Group, but they are particularly abundant in starburst
and interacting galaxies. The few young massive clusters that are close enough
to resolve are of prime interest for studying the stellar mass function and the
ecological interplay between stellar evolution and stellar dynamics. The
distant unresolved clusters may be effectively used to study the star-cluster
mass function, and they provide excellent constraints on the formation
mechanisms of young cluster populations. Young massive clusters are expected to
be the nurseries for many unusual objects, including a wide range of exotic
stars and binaries. So far only a few such objects have been found in young
massive clusters, although their older cousins, the globular clusters, are
unusually rich in stellar exotica. In this review we focus on star clusters
younger than Myr, more than a few current crossing times old, and
more massive than \Msun, irrespective of cluster size or
environment. We describe the global properties of the currently known young
massive star clusters in the Local Group and beyond, and discuss the state of
the art in observations and dynamical modeling of these systems. In order to
make this review readable by observers, theorists, and computational
astrophysicists, we also review the cross-disciplinary terminology.Comment: Only 88 pages. To be published in ARAA. Final version to be submitted
on Friday 12 Februar
Mass segregation in young star clusters: can it be detected from the integrated photometric properties?
We consider the effect of mass segregation on the observable integrated
properties of star clusters. The measurable properties depend on a combination
of the dynamical age of the cluster and the physical age of the stars in the
cluster. To investigate all possible combinations of these two quantities we
propose an analytical model for the mass function of segregated star clusters
that agrees with the results of N-body simulations, in which any combination
can be specified. For a realistic degree of mass segregation and a fixed
density profile we find with increasing age an increase in the measured core
radii and a central surface brightness that decreases in all filters more
rapidly than what is expected from stellar evolution alone. Within a Gyr the
measured core radius increases by a factor of two and the central surface
density in all filters of a segregated cluster will be overestimated by a
similar factor when not taking into account mass segregation in the conversion
from light to mass. We find that the colour of mass segregated clusters
decreases with radius by about 0.1-0.2 mag, which could be observable. From
recent observations of partially resolved extra-galactic clusters a decreasing
half-light radius with increasing wavelength was observed, which was attributed
to mass segregation. These observations can not be reproduced by our models. We
find that the differences between measured radii in different filters are
always smaller than 5%.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRAS Main Journa
A Neutron Star with a Massive Progenitor in Westerlund 1
We report the discovery of an X-ray pulsar in the young, massive Galactic
star cluster Westerlund 1. We detected a coherent signal from the brightest
X-ray source in the cluster, CXO J164710.2-455216, during two Chandra
observations on 2005 May 22 and June 18. The period of the pulsar is 10.6107(1)
s. We place an upper limit to the period derivative of Pdot<2e-10 s/s, which
implies that the spin-down luminosity is Edot<3e33 erg/s. The X-ray luminosity
of the pulsar is L_X = 3(+10,-2)e33 (D/5 kpc)^2 erg/s, and the spectrum can be
described by a kT = 0.61+/-0.02 keV blackbody with a radius of R_bb =
0.27+/-0.03 (D/5 kpc}) km. Deep infrared observations reveal no counterpart
with K1 Msun. Taken together,
the properties of the pulsar indicate that it is a magnetar. The rarity of slow
X-ray pulsars and the position of CXO J164710.2-455216 only 1.6' from the core
of Westerlund 1 indicates that it is a member of the cluster with >99.97%
confidence. Westerlund 1 contains 07V stars with initial masses M_i=35 Msun and
>50 post-main-sequence stars that indicate the cluster is 4+/-1 Myr old.
Therefore, the progenitor to this pulsar had an initial mass M_i>40 Msun. This
is the most secure result among a handful of observational limits to the masses
of the progenitors to neutron stars.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Final version to match ApJL (added one figure
since v2
N-Body Simulations of Compact Young Clusters near the Galactic Center
We investigate the dynamical evolution of compact young star clusters (CYCs)
near the Galactic center (GC) using Aarseth's Nbody6 codes. The relatively
small number of stars in the cluster (5,000-20,000) makes real-number N-body
simulations for these clusters feasible on current workstations. Using
Fokker-Planck (F-P) models, Kim, Morris, & Lee (1999) have made a survey of
cluster lifetimes for various initial conditions, and have found that clusters
with a mass <~ 2x10^4 Msun evaporate in ~10 Myr. These results were, however,
to be confirmed by N-body simulations because some extreme cluster conditions,
such as strong tidal forces and a large stellar mass range participating in the
dynamical evolution, might violate assumptions made in F-P models. Here we find
that, in most cases, the CYC lifetimes of previous F-P calculations are 5-30%
shorter than those from the present N-body simulations. The comparison of
projected number density profiles and stellar mass functions between N-body
simulations and HST/NICMOS observations by Figer et al. (1999) suggests that
the current tidal radius of the Arches cluster is ~1.0 pc, and the following
parameters for the initial conditions of that cluster: total mass of 2x10^4
Msun and mass function slope for intermediate-to-massive stars of 1.75 (the
Salpeter function has 2.35). We also find that the lower stellar mass limit,
the presence of primordial binaries, the amount of initial mass segregation,
and the choice of initial density profile (King or Plummer models) do not
significantly affect the dynamical evolution of CYCs.Comment: 20 pages including 6 figures, To appear in ApJ, Dec 20 issu
A Viral Protein Mediates Superinfection Exclusion at the Whole-Organism Level but Is Not Required for Exclusion at the Cellular Level
Superinfection exclusion (SIE), the ability of an established virus infection to interfere with a secondary infection by the same or a closely related virus, has been described for different viruses, including important pathogens of humans, animals, and plants. Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), a positive-sense RNA virus, represents a valuable model system for studying SIE due to the existence of several phylogenetically distinct strains. Furthermore, CTV allows SIE to be examined at the whole-organism level. Previously, we demonstrated that SIE by CTV is a virus-controlled function that requires the viral protein p33. In this study, we show that p33 mediates SIE at the whole-organism level, while it is not required for exclusion at the cellular level. Primary infection of a host with a fluorescent protein-tagged CTV variant lacking p33 did not interfere with the establishment of a secondary infection by the same virus labeled with a different fluorescent protein. However, cellular coinfection by both viruses was rare. The obtained observations, along with estimates of the cellular multiplicity of infection (MOI) and MOI model selection, suggested that low levels of cellular coinfection appear to be best explained by exclusion at the cellular level. Based on these results, we propose that SIE by CTV is operated at two levels-the cellular and the whole-organism levels-by two distinct mechanisms that could function independently. This novel aspect of viral SIE highlights the intriguing complexity of this phenomenon, further understanding of which may open up new avenues to manage virus diseases.Peer reviewe
Estimation of the in vivo recombination rate for a plant RNA virus
[EN] Phylogenomic evidence suggested that recombination is an important evolutionary force for potyviruses, one of the larger families of plant RNA viruses. However, mixed-genotype potyvirus infections are marked by low levels of cellular coinfection, precluding template switching and recombination events between virus genotypes during genomic RNA replication. To reconcile these conflicting observations, we evaluated the in vivo recombination rate (r(g)) of Tobacco etch virus (TEV; genus Potyvirus, family Potyviridae) by coinfecting plants with pairs of genotypes marked with engineered restriction sites as neutral markers. The recombination rate was then estimated using two different approaches: (i) a classical approach that assumed recombination between marked genotypes can occur in the whole virus population, rendering an estimate of r(g)=7.762x10(-8) recombination events per nucleotide site per generation, and (ii) an alternative method that assumed recombination between marked genotypes can occur only in coinfected cells, rendering a much higher estimate of r(g)=3.427x10(-8) recombination events per nucleotide site per generation. This last estimate is similar to the TEV mutation rate, suggesting that recombination should be at least as important as point mutation in creating variability. Finally, we compared our mutation and recombination rate estimates to those reported for animal RNA viruses. Our analysis suggested that high recombination rates may be an unavoidable consequence of selection for fast replication at the cost of low fidelity.We thank Francisca de la Iglesia and Angels Prosper for excellent technical assistance, Jose A. Dare's for methodological advice, Jose M. Cuevas for critical reading of the manuscript, and other lab members for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the Spanish Secretaria de Estado de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion (grants BFU2009-06993 and BFU2012-30805). N. T. was supported,by a pre-doctoral fellowship from the former Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion.Tromas, N.; Zwart, MP.; Poulain, M.; Elena Fito, SF. (2014). Estimation of the in vivo recombination rate for a plant RNA virus. Journal of General Virology. 95:724-732. https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.060822-0S7247329
Onset of virus systemic infection in plants is determined by speed of cell-to-cell movement and number of primary infection foci
The cornerstone of today's plant virology consists of deciphering the molecular and mechanistic basis of host-pathogen interactions. Among these interactions, the onset of systemic infection is a fundamental variable in studying both within-and between-host infection dynamics, with implications in epidemiology. Here, we developed a mechanistic model using probabilistic and spatio-temporal concepts to explain dynamic signatures of virus systemic infection. The model dealt with the inherent characteristic of plant viruses to use two different and sequential stages for their within-host propagation: cell-to-cell movement from the initial infected cell and systemic spread by reaching the vascular system. We identified the speed of cell-to-cell movement and the number of primary infection foci in the inoculated leaf as the key factors governing this dynamic process. Our results allowed us to quantitatively understand the timing of the onset of systemic infection, describing this global process as a consequence of local spread of viral populations. Finally, we considered the significance of our predictions for the evolution of plant RNA viruses.This work was supported by the grant no. BFU2012-30805 from Spain Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) to S. F. E. G. R. was supported by an EMBO long-term fellowship co-funded by Marie Curie actions (ALTF-1177-2011) and an AXA post-doctoral fellowship, and M.P.Z. by a Juan de la Cierva post-doctoral contract (JCI-2011-10379) from MINECO.Rodrigo Tarrega, G.; Zwart, MP.; Elena Fito, SF. (2014). Onset of virus systemic infection in plants is determined by speed of cell-to-cell movement and number of primary infection foci. Interface. 11(98):1-8. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2014.0555S181198Waigmann, E., Ueki, S., Trutnyeva, K., & Citovsky, V. (2004). 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