1,376 research outputs found
Populating the Galaxy with low-mass X-ray binaries
We perform binary population synthesis calculations to investigate the
incidence of low-mass X-ray binaries and their birth rate in the Galaxy. We use
a binary evolution algorithm that models all the relevant processes including
tidal circularization and synchronization. Parameters in the evolution
algorithm that are uncertain and may affect X-ray binary formation are allowed
to vary during the investigation. We agree with previous studies that under
standard assumptions of binary evolution the formation rate and number of
black-hole low-mass X-ray binaries predicted by the model are more than an
order of magnitude less than what is indicated by observations. We find that
the common-envelope process cannot be manipulated to produce significant
numbers of black-hole low-mass X-ray binaries. However, by simply reducing the
mass-loss rate from helium stars adopted in the standard model, to a rate that
agrees with the latest data, we produce a good match to the observations.
Including low-mass X-ray binaries that evolve from intermediate-mass systems
also leads to favourable results. We stress that constraints on the X-ray
binary population provided by observations are used here merely as a guide as
surveys suffer from incompleteness and much uncertainty is involved in the
interpretation of results.Comment: 17 pages and 9 figures; accepted by MNRA
The long and the short of it: modelling double neutron star and collapsar Galactic dynamics
The work presented here examines populations of double compact binary systems
and tidally enhanced collapsars. We make use of BINPOP and BINKIN, two
components of a recently developed population synthesis package. Results focus
on correlations of both binary and spatial evolutionary population
characteristics. Pulsar and long duration gamma-ray burst observations are used
in concert with our models to draw the conclusions that: double neutron star
binaries can merge rapidly on timescales of a few million years (much less than
that found for the observed double neutron star population), common envelope
evolution within these models is a very important phase in double neutron star
formation, and observations of long gamma-ray burst projected distances are
more centrally concentrated than our simulated coalescing double neutron star
and collapsar Galactic populations. Better agreement is found with dwarf galaxy
models although the outcome is strongly linked to the assumed birth radial
distribution. The birth rate of the double neutron star population in our
models range from 4-160 Myr^-1 and the merger rate ranges from 3-150 Myr^-1.
The upper and lower limits of the rates results from including electron capture
supernova kicks to neutron stars and decreasing the common envelope efficiency
respectively. Our double black hole merger rates suggest that black holes
should receive an asymmetric kick at birth.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS, 18 pages, 12 figures, 5 table
A study of the activation peptides of trypsinogen as indicators of severity in acute pancreatitis
Imperial Users onl
Pruned Continuous Haar Transform of 2D Polygonal Patterns with Application to VLSI Layouts
We introduce an algorithm for the efficient computation of the continuous
Haar transform of 2D patterns that can be described by polygons. These patterns
are ubiquitous in VLSI processes where they are used to describe design and
mask layouts. There, speed is of paramount importance due to the magnitude of
the problems to be solved and hence very fast algorithms are needed. We show
that by techniques borrowed from computational geometry we are not only able to
compute the continuous Haar transform directly, but also to do it quickly. This
is achieved by massively pruning the transform tree and thus dramatically
decreasing the computational load when the number of vertices is small, as is
the case for VLSI layouts. We call this new algorithm the pruned continuous
Haar transform. We implement this algorithm and show that for patterns found in
VLSI layouts the proposed algorithm was in the worst case as fast as its
discrete counterpart and up to 12 times faster.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, 1 algorith
The Hadamard circulant conjecture
It is shown that if is a circulant Hadamard 4n\ti 4n then . This
proves the Hadamard circulant conjecture.Comment: This is post publication revision of on-line Bull. London Math. Soc.
version which changes subsection 3.
"Two Senses of Moral Verdict and Moral Overridingness"
I distinguish two different senses in which philosophers speak of moral verdicts, senses that in turn invite two different senses of moral overridingness. Although one of these senses, that upon which moral verdicts are taken to reflect decisive reasons from a distinctively moral standpoint, currently dominates the moral overridingness debate, my focus is the other sense, upon which moral verdicts are taken to reflect decisive reasons that are distinctively moral. I demonstrate that the recent tendency to emphasize the now dominant sense to the exclusion of the alternative, couple with the failure to disambiguate the two senses, has fundamentally skewed central debates in moral theory
Communication System For Firefighters
Currently firefighters use two-way radios to communicate on the job, and they are forced to write reports based on their memory because there is not an easy way to record the communications between two-way radios. Firefighters need a system to automatically document what happened while they were responding to a call. To save them a significant amount of time when creating reports, our solution is to implement an application that allows firefighters to take pictures, record video and communicate in real time with their team of on-site responders. The proposed system will use a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) hosted on the fire truck itself to act as an access point (AP) to which the firefighters can connect. This AP will also save communication between firefighters to a local storage location. Upon return to the fire station, the AP will route all of the information stored locally to a larger database. For now, Wi-Fi will be our communication medium, with a prediction that our technology can eventually be extended to include radio signal
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