4,465 research outputs found
A nonpolynomial Schroedinger equation for resonantly absorbing gratings
We derive a nonlinear Schroedinger equation with a radical term, in the form
of the square root of (1-|V|^2), as an asymptotic model of the optical medium
built as a periodic set of thin layers of two-level atoms, resonantly
interacting with the electromagnetic field and inducing the Bragg reflection. A
family of bright solitons is found, which splits into stable and unstable
parts, exactly obeying the Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion. The soliton with the
largest amplitude, which is |V| = 1, is found in an explicit analytical form.
It is a "quasi-peakon", with a discontinuity of the third derivative at the
center. Families of exact cnoidal waves, built as periodic chains of
quasi-peakons, are found too. The ultimate solution belonging to the family of
dark solitons, with the background level |V| = 1, is a dark compacton, also
obtained in an explicit analytical form. Those bright solitons which are
unstable destroy themselves (if perturbed) attaining the critical amplitude,
|V| = 1. The dynamics of the wave field around this critical point is studied
analytically, revealing a switch of the system into an unstable phase.
Collisions between bright solitons are investigated too. The collisions between
fast solitons are quasi-elastic, while slowly moving ones merge into breathers,
which may persist or perish (in the latter case, also by attaining |V| = 1).Comment: Physical Review A, in pres
Two new intermediate polars with a soft X-ray component
Aims. We analyze the first X-ray observations with XMM-Newton of 1RXS J070407.9+262501 and 1RXS 180340.0+401214, in
order to characterize their broad-band temporal and spectral properties, also in the UV/optical domain, and to confirm them as intermediate polars.
Methods. For both objects, we performed a timing analysis of the X-ray and UV/optical light curves to detect the white dwarf spin pulsations and study their energy dependence. For 1RXS 180340.0+401214 we also analyzed optical spectroscopic data to determine the orbital period. X-ray spectra were analyzed in the 0.2â10.0 keV range to characterize the emission properties of both sources.
Results. We find that the X-ray light curves of both systems are energy dependent and are dominated, below 3â5 keV, by strong pulsations at the white dwarf rotational periods (480 s for 1RXS J070407.9+262501 and 1520.5 s for 1RXS 180340.0+401214). In 1RXS 180340.0+401214 we also detect an X-ray beat variability at 1697 s which, together with our new optical spectroscopy, favours an orbital period of 4.4 h that is longer than previously estimated. Both systems show complex spectra with a hard (temperature up to 40 keV) optically thin and a soft (kT ⌠85â100 eV) optically thick components heavily absorbed by material partially covering the X-ray sources.
Conclusions. Our observations confirm the two systems as intermediate polars and also add them as new members of the growing group of âsoftâ systems which show the presence of a soft X-ray blackbody component. Differences in the temperatures of the blackbodies are qualitatively explained in terms of reprocessing over different sizes of the white dwarf spot. We suggest that systems showing cooler soft X-ray blackbody components also possess white dwarfs irradiated by cyclotron radiation
Fluctuation relations and rare realizations of transport observables
Fluctuation relations establish rigorous identities for the nonequilibrium
averages of observables. Starting from a general transport master equation with
time-dependent rates, we employ the stochastic path integral approach to study
statistical fluctuations around such averages. We show how under nonequilibrium
conditions, rare realizations of transport observables are crucial and imply
massive fluctuations that may completely mask such identities. Quantitative
estimates for these fluctuations are provided. We illustrate our results on the
paradigmatic example of a mesoscopic RC circuit.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor changes, published versio
Sequencing the potato genome: outline and first results to come from the elucidation of the sequence of the world's third most important food crop
Potato is a member of the Solanaceae, a plant family that includes several other economically important species, such as tomato, eggplant, petunia, tobacco and pepper. The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium (PGSC) aims to elucidate the complete genome sequence of potato, the third most important food crop in the world. The PGSC is a collaboration between 13 research groups from China, India, Poland, Russia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, USA, New Zealand and the UK. The potato genome consists of 12 chromosomes and has a (haploid) length of approximately 840 million base pairs, making it a medium-sized plant genome. The sequencing project builds on a diploid potato genomic bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone library of 78000 clones, which has been fingerprinted and aligned into ~7000 physical map contigs. In addition, the BAC-ends have been sequenced and are publicly available. Approximately 30000 BACs are anchored to the Ultra High Density genetic map of potato, composed of 10000 unique AFLPTM markers. From this integrated genetic-physical map, between 50 to 150 seed BACs have currently been identified for every chromosome. Fluorescent in situ hybridization experiments on selected BAC clones confirm these anchor points. The seed clones provide the starting point for a BAC-by-BAC sequencing strategy. This strategy is being complemented by whole genome shotgun sequencing approaches using both 454 GS FLX and Illumina GA2 instruments. Assembly and annotation of the sequence data will be performed using publicly available and tailor-made tools. The availability of the annotated data will help to characterize germplasm collections based on allelic variance and to assist potato breeders to more fully exploit the genetic potential of potat
Searching High Redshift Large-Scale Structures: Photometry of Four Fields Around Quasar Pairs at z~1
We have studied the photometric properties of four fields around the
high-redshift quasar pairs QP1310+0007, QP1355-0032, QP0110-0219, and
QP0114-3140 at z ~ 1 with the aim of identifying large-scale structures- galaxy
clusters or groups- around them. This sample was observed with GMOS in Gemini
North and South telescopes in the g', r', i', and z' bands, and our photometry
is complete to a limiting magnitude of i' ~ 24 mag (corresponding to ~ M*_i' +
2 at the redshift of the pairs). Our analysis reveals that QP0110-0219 shows
very strong and QP1310+0007 and QP1355-0032 show some evidence for the presence
of rich galaxy clusters in direct vicinity of the pairs. On the other hand,
QP0114-3140 could be an isolated pair in a poor environment. This work suggest
that z ~ 1 quasar pairs are excellent tracers of high density environments and
this same technique may be useful to find clusters at higher redshifts.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures, ApJ accepted. Added one figure and 3 references.
Some paragraphs was rewritten in sections 1, 3, 5, and 6, as suggested by
refere
GEMS: Galaxy Evolution from Morphologies and SEDs
GEMS, Galaxy Evolution from Morphologies and SEDs, is a large-area (800
arcmin2) two-color (F606W and F850LP) imaging survey with the Advanced Camera
for Surveys on HST. Centered on the Chandra Deep Field South, it covers an area
of ~28'x28', or about 120 Hubble Deep Field areas, to a depth of
m_AB(F606W)=28.3 (5sigma and m_AB(F850LP)=27.1 (5sigma) for compact sources. In
its central ~1/4, GEMS incorporates ACS imaging from the GOODS project.
Focusing on the redshift range 0.2<=z<=1.1, GEMS provides morphologies and
structural parameters for nearly 10,000 galaxies where redshift estimates,
luminosities and SEDs exist from COMBO-17. At the same time, GEMS contains
detectable host galaxy images for several hundred faint AGN. This paper
provides an overview of the science goals, the experiment design, the data
reduction and the science analysis plan for GEMS.Comment: 24 pages, TeX with 6 eps Figures; to appear in ApJ Supplement. Low
resolution figures only. Full resolution at
http://zwicky.as.arizona.edu/~rix/Misc/GEMS.ps.g
Multicolor photometry of ten Seyfert 1 galaxies
We present BVI photometry of ten Seyfert 1 galaxies and narrow band H-alpha
images for six of these objects as well. The results indicate that the
luminosity sample distribution has an amplitude of almost 4 magnitudes with an
average of M_B=-20.7. The observed morphologies are confined to early type
galaxies. A barred structure is found in only 2 objects. Despite that early
morphological types are dominant in this sample, integrated (B-V) colors are
very blue. For instance, the SO galaxies show, on average, a (B-V)=0.78. This
effect seems to be caused by the luminosity contribution of the active nucleus
and/or the disk to the total luminosity of the galaxy. In the B band, the
contribution of the active galactic nucleus to the total luminosity of the
galaxy varies from 3% to almost 60% and the bulge to disk luminosity ratio
(L_bulge/L_disk) ranges from 0.6 to 22. Signs of tidal interactions seems to be
a common characteristic since they are observed in 6 of the objects and one of
them seems to be located in a poor cluster not yet identified in the
literature. H_alpha extended emission is rare, with only 1 galaxy showing clear
evidence of it. Luminosity profile decomposition shows that the model Gauss +
bulge + disk properly reproduces the surface brightness of the galaxies.
However, in order to account for the luminosity profile, most of the disk
galaxies needs the inner truncated exponential form with a central cutoff
radius ranging from 3 to 10 kpc. This is interpreted in terms of reddened
regions that are well identified in the B-V color maps. These regions present
very similar colors among them, with (B-V)~1.2. This fact could be associated
to the presence of dust confined in the inner regions of the galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, 25 figures. Accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysic
A New Gauge for Computing Effective Potentials in Spontaneously Broken Gauge Theories
A new class of renormalizable gauges is introduced that is particularly well
suited to compute effective potentials in spontaneously broken gauge theories.
It allows one to keep free gauge parameters when computing the effective
potential from vacuum graphs or tadpoles without encountering mixed propagators
of would-be-Goldstone bosons and longitudinal modes of the gauge field. As an
illustrative example several quantities are computed within the Abelian Higgs
model, which is renormalized at the two-loop level. The zero temperature
effective potential in the new gauge is compared to that in gauge at
the one-loop level and found to be not only easier to compute but also to have
a more convenient analytical structure. To demonstrate renormalizability of the
gauge for the non-Abelian case, the renormalization of an SU(2)-Higgs model
with completely broken gauge group and of an SO(3)-Higgs model with an unbroken
SO(2) subgroup is outlined and renormalization constants are given at the
one-loop level.Comment: 24 pages, figures produced by LaTeX, plain LaTeX, THU-93/16.
(Completely revised. Essential changes. New stuff added. To appear in
Phys.Rev.D.
A fixed point formula for the index of multi-centered N=2 black holes
We propose a formula for computing the (moduli-dependent) contribution of
multi-centered solutions to the total BPS index in terms of the
(moduli-independent) indices associated to single-centered solutions. The main
tool in our analysis is the computation of the refined index Tr(-y)^{2J_3} of
configurational degrees of freedom of multi-centered BPS black hole solutions
in N=2 supergravity by localization methods. When the charges carried by the
centers do not allow for scaling solutions (i.e. solutions where a subset of
the centers can come arbitrarily close to each other), the phase space of
classical BPS solutions is compact and the refined index localizes to a finite
set of isolated fixed points under rotations, corresponding to collinear
solutions. When the charges allow for scaling solutions, the phase space is
non-compact but appears to admit a compactification with finite volume and
additional non-isolated fixed points. We give a prescription for determining
the contributions of these fixed submanifolds by means of a `minimal
modification hypothesis', which we prove in the special case of dipole halo
configurations.Comment: 61 pages, 3 figure
Twistors and Black Holes
Motivated by black hole physics in N=2, D=4 supergravity, we study the
geometry of quaternionic-Kahler manifolds M obtained by the c-map construction
from projective special Kahler manifolds M_s. Improving on earlier treatments,
we compute the Kahler potentials on the twistor space Z and Swann space S in
the complex coordinates adapted to the Heisenberg symmetries. The results bear
a simple relation to the Hesse potential \Sigma of the special Kahler manifold
M_s, and hence to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy for BPS black holes. We
explicitly construct the ``covariant c-map'' and the ``twistor map'', which
relate real coordinates on M x CP^1 (resp. M x R^4/Z_2) to complex coordinates
on Z (resp. S). As applications, we solve for the general BPS geodesic motion
on M, and provide explicit integral formulae for the quaternionic Penrose
transform relating elements of H^1(Z,O(-k)) to massless fields on M annihilated
by first or second order differential operators. Finally, we compute the exact
radial wave function (in the supergravity approximation) for BPS black holes
with fixed electric and magnetic charges.Comment: 47 pages, v2: typos corrected, reference added, v3: minor change
- âŠ