23,111 research outputs found
A search for radio pulsars and fast transients in M31 using the WSRT
We present the results of the most sensitive and comprehensive survey yet
undertaken for radio pulsars and fast transients in the Andromeda galaxy (M31)
and its satellites, using the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) at a
central frequency of 328 MHz. We used the WSRT in a special configuration
called 8gr8 (eight-grate) mode, which provides a large instantaneous
field-of-view, about 5 square degrees per pointing, with good sensitivity, long
dwell times (up to 8 hours per pointing), and good spatial resolution (a few
arc minutes) for locating sources. We have searched for both periodicities and
single pulses in our data, aiming to detect bright, persistent radio pulsars
and rotating radio transients (RRATs) of either Galactic or extragalactic
origin. Our searches did not reveal any confirmed periodic signals or bright
single bursts from (potentially) cosmological distances. However, we do report
the detection of several single pulse events, some repeating at the same
dispersion measure, which could potentially originate from neutron stars in
M31. One in particular was seen multiple times, including a burst of six pulses
in 2000 seconds, at a dispersion measure of 54.7 pc cm^-3, which potentially
places the origin of this source outside of our Galaxy. Our results are
compared to a range of hypothetical populations of pulsars and RRATs in M31 and
allow us to constrain the luminosity function of pulsars in M31. They also show
that, unless the pulsar population in M31 is much dimmer than in our Galaxy,
there is no need to invoke any violation of the inverse square law of the
distance for pulsar fluxes.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, 8 tables. Accepted for publication in the main
journal of MNRA
QSO Absorption Line Constraints on Intragroup High-Velocity Clouds
We show that the number statistics of moderate redshift MgII and Lyman limit
absorbers may rule out the hypothesis that high velocity clouds are infalling
intragroup material.Comment: 4 pages, no figures; submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters;
revised version, more general and includes more about Braun and Burton CHVC
Tuning the magnetic anisotropy of single molecules
The magnetism of single atoms and molecules is governed by the atomic scale
environment. In general, the reduced symmetry of the surrounding splits the
states and aligns the magnetic moment along certain favorable directions. Here,
we show that we can reversibly modify the magnetocrystalline anisotropy by
manipulating the environment of single iron(II) porphyrin molecules adsorbed on
Pb(111) with the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. When we decrease the
tip--molecule distance, we first observe a small increase followed by an
exponential decrease of the axial anisotropy on the molecules. This is in
contrast to the monotonous increase observed earlier for the same molecule with
an additional axial Cl ligand. We ascribe the changes in the anisotropy of both
species to a deformation of the molecules in the presence of the attractive
force of the tip, which leads to a change in the level alignment. These
experiments demonstrate the feasibility of a precise tuning of the magnetic
anisotropy of an individual molecule by mechanical control.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures; online at Nano Letters (2015
Centrality dependence of global variables in relativistic heavy ion collisions: Final data analysis in the framework of a statistical model
The global variables like the transverse energy at midrapidity, the charged
particle multiplicity at midrapidity and the total multiplicity of charged
particles are evaluated in the single-freeze-out statistical model for
different centrality bins at RHIC at and 200 GeV. Full
description of decays of hadron resonances is applied in these estimations. The
geometric parameters of the model are obtained from the fit to the final data
on the spectra. The predicted values of the global variables agree
qualitatively well with the experimental data. The centrality independence of
the total number of charged particles per participant pair has been also
reproduced.Comment: Revtex, 12 figures (included), 16 pages. This is the revised final
version accepted for publication in Physical Review C. The main difference
with the first version is that the geometric parameters of the model have
been fitted again with the use of the newer estimates of the statistical
parameters reported in Refs. [20,21] for the case of GeV.
Also because of the editorial reasons the title has been slightly change
Excitations of Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices
In this paper we examine the excitations observable in atoms confined in an
optical lattice around the superfluid-insulator transition. We use increases in
the number variance of atoms, subsequent to tilting the lattice as the primary
diagnostic of excitations in the lattice. We show that this locally determined
quantity should be a robust indicator of coherence changes in the atoms
observed in recent experiments. This was found to hold for commensurate or
non-commensurate fillings of the lattice, implying our results will hold for a
wide range of physical cases. Our results are in good agreement with the
quantitative factors of recent experiments. We do, howevers, find extra
features in the excitation spectra. The variation of the spectra with the
duration of the perturbation also turns out to be an interesting diagnostic of
atom dynamics.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, using Revtex4; changes to version 2: new data and
substantial revision of tex
Effects of Eccentric Muscle Work on Acute and Delayed Torque and Force Generation
Please view abstract in the attached PDF file
Monte Carlo simulation with time step quantification in terms of Langevin dynamics
For the description of thermally activated dynamics in systems of classical
magnetic moments numerical methods are desirable. We consider a simple model
for isolated magnetic particles in a uniform field with an oblique angle to the
easy axis of the particles. For this model, a comparison of the Monte Carlo
method with Langevin dynamics yields new insight in the interpretation of the
Monte Carlo process, leading to the implementation of a new algorithm where the
Monte Carlo step is time-quantified. The numeric results for the characteristic
time of the magnetisation reversal are in excellent agreement with asymptotic
solutions which itself are in agreement with the exact numerical results
obtained from the Fokker-Planck equation for the Neel-Brown model.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, 4 Figures include
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