The age-metallicity relationship in the Fornax spheroidal dwarf galaxy

We produce a comprehensive field star age-metallicity relationship (AMR) from the earliest epoch until ~ 1 Gyr ago for three fields in the Fornax dSph galaxy by using VI photometric data obtained with FORS1 at the VLT. We find that the innermost one does not contains dominant very old stars (age > 12 Gyr), whereas the relatively outer field does not account for representative star field populations younger than ~ 3 Gyr. When focusing on the most prominent stellar populations, we find that the derived AMRs are engraved by the evidence of a outside-in star formation process. The studied fields show bimodal metallicity distributions peaked at [Fe/H] = (-0.95 +- 0.15) dex and (-1.15 or -1.25 +- 0.05) dex, respectively, but only during the first half of the entire galaxy lifetime. Furthermore, the more metal-rich population appears to be more numerous in the outer fields, while in the innermost Fornax field the contribution of both metallicity populations seems to be similar. We also find that the metallicity spread ~ 6 Gyr ago is remarkable large, while the intrinsic metallicity dispersion at ~ 1-2 Gyr results smaller than that for the relatively older generations of stars. We interpret these outcomes as a result of a possible merger of two galaxies that would have triggered a star formation bursting process that peaked between ~ 6 and 9 Gyr ago, depending on the position of the field in the galaxy.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS, in pres

Generalized binary arrays from quasi-orthogonal cocycles

Generalized perfect binary arrays (GPBAs) were used by Jedwab to construct perfect binary arrays. A non-trivial GPBA can exist only if its energy is 2 or a multiple of 4. This paper introduces generalized optimal binary arrays (GOBAs) with even energy not divisible by 4, as analogs of GPBAs. We give a procedure to construct GOBAs based on a characterization of the arrays in terms of 2-cocycles. As a further application, we determine negaperiodic Golay pairs arising from generalized optimal binary sequences of small length.Junta de Andalucía FQM-01

On quasi-orthogonal cocycles

We introduce the notion of quasi-orthogonal cocycle. This is motivated in part by the maximal determinant problem for square {±1}-matrices of size congruent to 2 modulo 4. Quasi-orthogonal cocycles are analogous to the orthogonal cocycles of algebraic design theory. Equivalences with new and known combinatorial objects afforded by this analogy, such as quasi-Hadamard groups, relative quasi-difference sets, and certain partially balanced incomplete block designs, are proved.Junta de Andalucía FQM-01

Representative galaxy age-metallicity relationships

The ongoing surveys of galaxies and those for the next generation of telescopes will demand the execution of high-CPU consuming machine codes for recovering detailed star formation histories (SFHs) and hence age-metallicity relationships (AMRs). We present here an expeditive method which provides quick-look AMRs on the basis of representative ages and metallicities obtained from colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) analyses. We have tested its perfomance by generating synthetic CMDs for a wide variety of galaxy SFHs. The representative AMRs turn out to be reliable down to a magnitude limit with a photometric completeness factor higher than $\sim$ 85 per cent, and trace the chemical evolution history for any stellar population (represented by a mean age and an intrinsic age spread) with a total mass within ~ 40 per cent of the more massive stellar population in the galaxy.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Effects of electron inertia in collisionless magnetic reconnection

We present a study of collisionless magnetic reconnection within the framework of full two-fluid MHD for a completely ionized hydrogen plasma, retaining the effects of the Hall current, electron pressure and electron inertia. We performed 2.5D simulations using a pseudo-spectral code with no dissipative effects. We check that the ideal invariants of the problem are conserved down to round-off errors. Our results show that the change in the topology of the magnetic field lines is exclusively due to the presence of electron inertia. The computed reconnection rates remain a fair fraction of the Alfv\'en velocity, which therefore qualifies as fast reconnection