570 research outputs found
Test anxiety, working memory, and cognitive performance: Supportive effects of sequential demands
Substantial evidence suggests that test anxiety is associated with poor performance in complex tasks. Based on the differentiation of coordinative and sequential demands on working memory (Mayr & Kliegl, 1993), two studies examined the effects of sequential demands on the relationship between test anxiety and cognitive performance. Both studies found that high sequential demands had beneficial effects on the speed and accuracy of the performance of test-anxious participants. It is suggested that the more frequent memory updates associated with high sequential demands may represent external processing aids that compensate for the restricted memory capacity of individuals with high test anxiet
Circumstellar Disks revealed by / Flux Variation Gradients
The variability of young stellar objects (YSO) changes their brightness and
color preventing a proper classification in traditional color-color and color
magnitude diagrams. We have explored the feasibility of the flux variation
gradient (FVG) method for YSOs, using and band monitoring data of the
star forming region RCW\,38 obtained at the University Observatory Bochum in
Chile. Simultaneous multi-epoch flux measurements follow a linear relation
for almost all YSOs with large variability
amplitude. The slope gives the mean color temperature of
the varying component. Because is hotter than the dust sublimation
temperature, we have tentatively assigned it to stellar variations. If the
gradient does not meet the origin of the flux-flux diagram, an additional non-
or less-varying component may be required. If the variability amplitude is
larger at the shorter wavelength, e.g. , this component is cooler
than the star (e.g. a circumstellar disk); vice versa, if , the
component is hotter like a scattering halo or even a companion star. We here
present examples of two YSOs, where the FVG implies the presence of a
circumstellar disk; this finding is consistent with additional data at and
. One YSO shows a clear -band excess in the color-color diagram,
while the significance of a -excess in the other YSO depends on the
measurement epoch. Disentangling the contributions of star and disk it turns
out that the two YSOs have huge variability amplitudes (\,mag). The
FVG analysis is a powerful complementary tool to analyze the varying
components of YSOs and worth further exploration of monitoring data at other
wavelengths.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Power-law tail distributions and nonergodicity
We establish an explicit correspondence between ergodicity breaking in a
system described by power-law tail distributions and the divergence of the
moments of these distributions.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, corrected typo
The broad-line region and dust torus size of the Seyfert 1 galaxy PGC50427
We present the results of a three years monitoring campaigns of the type-1 active galactic nucleus (AGN) PGC50427. Through the use of
Photometric Reverberation Mapping with broad and narrow band filters, we
determine the size of the broad-line emitting region by measuring the time
delay between the variability of the continuum and the H emission line.
The H emission line responds to blue continuum variations with an
average rest frame lag of days. Using single epoch spectroscopy
we determined a broad-line H velocity width of 1020 km s and in
combination with the rest frame lag and adoption a geometric scaling factor , we calculate a black hole mass of . Using the flux variation gradient method, we separate the host
galaxy contribution from that of the AGN to calculate the rest frame 5100\AA~
luminosity at the time of our monitoring campaign. The rest frame lag and the
host-subtracted luminosity permit us to derive the position of PGC50427 in the
BLR size -- AGN luminosity diagram, which is remarkably close to the
theoretically expected relation of . The simultaneous
optical and NIR ( and ) observations allow us to determine the size
of the dust torus through the use of dust reverberation mapping method. We find
that the hot dust emission () lags the optical variations with an
average rest frame lag of days. The dust reverberation radius
and the nuclear NIR luminosity permit us to derive the position of PGC50427 on
the known diagram. The simultaneus observations for the
broad-line region and dust thermal emission demonstrate that the innermost dust
torus is located outside the BLR in PGC50427, supporting the unified scheme for
AGNs. (Abstract shortened, see the manuscript.)Comment: 11 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Speckle Control with a remapped-pupil PIAA-coronagraph
The PIAA is a now well demonstrated high contrast technique that uses an
intermediate remapping of the pupil for high contrast coronagraphy
(apodization), before restoring it to recover classical imaging capabilities.
This paper presents the first demonstration of complete speckle control loop
with one such PIAA coronagraph. We show the presence of a complete set of
remapping optics (the so-called PIAA and matching inverse PIAA) is transparent
to the wavefront control algorithm. Simple focal plane based wavefront control
algorithms can thus be employed, without the need to model remapping effects.
Using the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme AO (SCExAO) instrument built for the
Subaru Telescope, we show that a complete PIAA-coronagraph is compatible with a
simple implementation of a speckle nulling technique, and demonstrate the
benefit of the PIAA for high contrast imaging at small angular separation.Comment: 6 figures, submitted to PAS
Wide-Field Infrared Imaging Polarimetry of the NGC 6334 Region: A Nest of Infrared Reflection Nebulae
We report the detection of eighteen infrared reflection nebulae (IRNe) in the
, , & linear polarimetric observations of the NGC 6334 massive
star-formation complex, of which 16 IRNe are new discoveries. Our images cover
180 square arcminutes, one of the widest near-infrared polarization data
in star-formation regions so far. These IRNe are most likely associated with
embedded young OB stars at different evolutionary phases, showing a variety of
sizes, morphologies, and polarization properties, which can be divided into
four categories. We argue the different nebula characteristics to be a possible
evolutionary sequence of circumstellar structures around young massive stars.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
First Results from Pan-STARRS1: Faint, High Proper Motion White Dwarfs in the Medium-Deep Fields
The Pan-STARRS1 survey has obtained multi-epoch imaging in five bands
(Pan-STARRS1 gps, rps, ips, zps, and yps) on twelve "Medium Deep Fields", each
of which spans a 3.3 degree circle. For the period between Apr 2009 and Apr
2011 these fields were observed 50-200 times. Using a reduced proper motion
diagram, we have extracted a list of 47 white dwarf (WD) candidates whose
Pan-STARRS1 astrometry indicates a non-zero proper motion at the 6-sigma level,
with a typical 1-sigma proper motion uncertainty of 10 mas/yr. We also used
astrometry from SDSS (when available) and USNO-B to assess our proper motion
fits. None of the WD candidates exhibits evidence of statistically significant
parallaxes, with a typical 1-sigma uncertainty of 8 mas. Twelve of these
candidates are known WDs, including the high proper motion (1.7"/yr) WD LHS
291. We confirm three more objects as WDs through optical spectroscopy. Based
on the Pan-STARRS1 colors, ten of the stars are likely to be cool WDs with 4170
K Teff 5000 K and cooling ages <9 Gyr. We classify these objects as likely
thick disk WDs based on their kinematics. Our current sample represents only a
small fraction of the Pan-STARRS1 data. With continued coverage from the Medium
Deep Field Survey and the 3pi survey, Pan-STARRS1 should find many more high
proper motion WDs that are part of the old thick disk and halo.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap
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