2,465 research outputs found
A new list of thorium and argon spectral lines in the visible
Aims. We present a new list of thorium and argon emission lines in the
visible obtained by analyzing high-resolution (R=110,000) spectra of a ThAr
hollow cathode lamp. The aim of this new line list is to allow significant
improvements in the quality of wavelength calibration for medium- to
high-resolution astronomical spectrographs. Methods. We use a series of ThAr
lamp exposures obtained with the HARPS instrument (High Accuracy
Radial-velocity Planet Searcher) to detect previously unknown lines, perform a
systematic search for blended lines and correct individual wavelengths by
determining the systematic offset of each line relative to the average
wavelength solution. Results. We give updated wavelengths for more than 8400
lines over the spectral range 3785-6915 A. The typical internal uncertainty on
the line positions is estimated to be ~10 m/s (3.3 parts in 10^8 or 0.18 mA),
which is a factor of 2-10 better than the widely used Los Alamos Atlas of the
Thorium Spectrum (Palmer & Engleman 1983). The absolute accuracy of the global
wavelength scale is the same as in the Los Alamos Atlas. Using this new line
list on HARPS ThAr spectra, we are able to obtain a global wavelength
calibration which is precise at the 20 cm/s level (6.7 parts in 10^10 or 0.0037
mA). Conclusions. Several research fields in astronomy requiring high-precision
wavelength calibration in the visible (e.g. radial velocity planet searches,
variability of fundamental constants) should benefit from using the new line
list.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Evaluating the stability of atmospheric lines with HARPS
Context: In the search for extrasolar systems by radial velocity technique, a
precise wavelength calibration is necessary for high-precision measurements.
The choice of the calibrator is a particularly important question in the
infra-red domain, where the precision and exploits still fall behind the
achievements of the optical.
Aims: We investigate the long-term stability of atmospheric lines as a
precise wavelength reference and analyze their sensitivity to different
atmospheric and observing conditions.
Methods: We use HARPS archive data on three bright stars, Tau Ceti, Mu Arae
and Epsilon Eri, spanning 6 years and containing high-cadence measurements over
several nights. We cross-correlate this data with an O2 mask and evaluate both
radial velocity and bisector variations down to a photon noise of 1 m/s.
Results: We find that the telluric lines in the three data-sets are stable
down to 10 m/s (r.m.s.) over the 6 years. We also show that the radial velocity
variations can be accounted for by simple atmospheric models, yielding a final
precision of 1-2 m/s.
Conclusions: The long-term stability of atmospheric lines was measured as
being of 10 m/s over six years, in spite of atmospheric phenomena. Atmospheric
lines can be used as a wavelength reference for short-time-scales programs,
yielding a precision of 5 m/s "out-of-the box". A higher precision, down to 2
m/s can be reached if the atmospheric phenomena are corrected for by the simple
atmospheric model described, making it a very competitive method even on long
time-scales.Comment: 7 pages, accepted for publication in A&
Refined architecture of the WASP-8 system: a cautionary tale for traditional Rossiter-McLaughlin analysis
Probing the trajectory of a transiting planet across the disk of its star
through the analysis of its Rossiter-McLaughlin effect can be used to measure
the differential rotation of the host star and the true obliquity of the
system. Highly misaligned systems could be particularly conducive to these
mesurements, which is why we reanalysed the HARPS transit spectra of WASP-8b
using the 'Rossiter-McLaughlin effect reloaded' (reloaded RM) technique. This
approach allows us to isolate the local stellar CCF emitted by the
planet-occulted regions. As a result we identified a 35% variation in the
local CCF contrast along the transit chord, which might trace a deepening of
the stellar lines from the equator to the poles. Whatever its origin, such an
effect cannot be detected when analyzing the RV centroids of the
disk-integrated CCFs through a traditional velocimetric analysis of the RM
effect. Consequently it injected a significant bias into the results obtained
by Queloz et al. (2010) for the projected rotational velocity (1.59 km/s) and the sky-projected
obliquity (-123.0). Using our
technique, we measured these values to be =
1.900.05 km/s and = -143.0. We
found no compelling evidence for differential rotation of the star, although
there are hints that WASP-8 is pointing away from us with the stellar poles
rotating about 25% slower than the equator. Measurements at higher accuracy
during ingress/egress will be required to confirm this result. In contrast to
the traditional analysis of the RM effect, the reloaded RM technique directly
extracts the local stellar CCFs, allowing us to analyze their shape and to
measure their RV centroids, unbiased by variations in their contrast or FWHM.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 12 page
Use of combined suspension laryngoscopy, flexible bronchoscopy and high frequency jet ventilation for Y-shaped airway stents delivery
La trachée et les bronches proximales sont de fins conduits subtils, ingénieusement structurés par une partie cartilagineuse antérieure résistante aux variations de pression et une partie membraneuse postérieure souple. Par leurs faibles volumes (espace mort) ils délivrent un grand pourcentage de l'air inspiré aux voies distales, puis au parenchyme pulmonaire, permettant les échanges de gaz.
Cette belle harmonie respiratoire peut être rapidement mise à mal dès qu'un processus atteint ces voies respiratoires proximales, soit en les comprimant, processus sténosant, soit en affaiblissant leur structure, trachéo-bronchomalacie, soit en ouvrant leur paroi sur les structures médiastinales, fistule trachéo/broncho-médiastinales, pleurales ou autres.
Le pronostic vital est alors rapidement engagé au vu de l'absolue nécessité du bon fonctionnement de ces fins conduits, une petite diminution du calibre de leurs fines lumières provoquant une baisse importante de leurs surfaces.
Dans ces situations à haut potentiel de complication majeure les interventions endoscopiques pour restaurer l'intégrité de ces conduits sont alors fort risquées, et il est primordial de pouvoir les effectuer dans un cadre sécurisé au maximum.
La réalisation de ces gestes par la technique décrite dans notre article « Use of combined suspension laryngoscopy, flexible bronchoscopy and high frequency jet ventilation forY-shaped airway stents delivery" permet la sécurité nécessaire à ces situations instable, en effet
-la laryngoscopie en suspension expose les voies proximales en offrant un accès le plus large possible à l'arbre trachéobronchique ce qui permet l insertion de multiples instruments parfois volumineux,
-la Jet ventilation assure une oxygénation et une ventilation adéquate par un fin cathéter placé soit dans le poumon sain, soit en distalité de la lésion
-la bronchoscopie souple, passant au travers d'endroits exigus et courbes permet le déploiement sous vision direct, au millimètre près, de divers dispositifs.
Cette association remplace avantageusement la technique traditionnelle qui insère les stents à l'aveugle, et en apnée, ce qui représente de haut risque de mauvais positionnement des stents avec des conséquences immédiates sur l'oxygénation et la ventilation souvent déjà bien altérées.
Perspective et conclusion : cette technique est utile pour l'insertion des stents en Y, centraux, comme décrit dans notre article, et les indications peuvent être étendues aux stents distaux pour lesquels l'accès n'est parfois pas aisé avec le bronchoscope rigide, et pour d'autres interventions endoscopiques, laser, cryothérapie, radiofréquence ou l'insertion de nouveaux dispositifs
Atmospheric Stellar Parameters from Cross-Correlation Functions
The increasing number of spectra gathered by spectroscopic sky surveys and
transiting exoplanet follow-up has pushed the community to develop automated
tools for atmospheric stellar parameters determination. Here we present a novel
approach that allows the measurement of temperature (),
metallicity () and gravity () within a few seconds
and in a completely automated fashion. Rather than performing comparisons with
spectral libraries, our technique is based on the determination of several
cross-correlation functions (CCFs) obtained by including spectral features with
different sensitivity to the photospheric parameters. We use literature stellar
parameters of high signal-to-noise (), high-resolution HARPS
spectra of FGK Main Sequence stars to calibrate , and as a function of CCFs parameters. Our technique is validated
using low spectra obtained with the same instrument. For FGK
stars we achieve a precision of K, and at , while the precision for observation with
and the overall accuracy are constrained by the
literature values used to calibrate the CCFs. Our approach can be easily
extended to other instruments with similar spectral range and resolution, or to
other spectral range and stars other than FGK dwarfs if a large sample of
reference stars is available for the calibration. Additionally, we provide the
mathematical formulation to convert synthetic equivalent widths to CCF
parameters as an alternative to direct calibration. We have made our tool
publicly available.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. 12 pages, 12 figures. The code to retrieve the
atmospheric stellar parameters from HARPS and HARPS-N spectra is available
"at this url, https://github.com/LucaMalavolta/CCFpams
The Kahler Structure of Supersymmetric Holographic RG Flows
We study the metrics on the families of moduli spaces arising from probing
with a brane the ten and eleven dimensional supergravity solutions
corresponding to renormalisation group flows of supersymmetric large n gauge
theory. In comparing the geometry to the physics of the dual gauge theory, it
is important to identify appropriate coordinates, and starting with the case of
SU(n) gauge theories flowing from N=4 to N=1 via a mass term, we demonstrate
that the metric is Kahler, and solve for the Kahler potential everywhere along
the flow. We show that the asymptotic form of the Kahler potential, and hence
the peculiar conical form of the metric, follows from special properties of the
gauge theory. Furthermore, we find the analogous Kahler structure for the N=4
preserving Coulomb branch flows, and for an N=2 flow. In addition, we establish
similar properties for two eleven dimensional flow geometries recently
presented in the literature, one of which has a deformation of the conifold as
its moduli space. In all of these cases, we notice that the Kahler potential
appears to satisfy a simple universal differential equation. We prove that this
equation arises for all purely Coulomb branch flows dual to both ten and eleven
dimensional geometries, and conjecture that the equation holds much more
generally.Comment: 26 pages. Late
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A new wavelength calibration for echelle spectrographs using Fabry-Perot etalons
The study of Earth-mass extrasolar planets via the radial-velocity technique
and the measurement of the potential cosmological variability of fundamental
constants call for very-high-precision spectroscopy at the level of
\updelta\lambda/\lambda<10^{-9}. Wavelength accuracy is obtained by providing
two fundamental ingredients: 1) an absolute and information-rich wavelength
source and 2) the ability of the spectrograph and its data reduction of
transferring the reference scale (wavelengths) to a measurement scale (detector
pixels) in a repeatable manner. The goal of this work is to improve the
wavelength calibration accuracy of the HARPS spectrograph by combining the
absolute spectral reference provided by the emission lines of a thorium-argon
hollow-cathode lamp (HCL) with the spectrally rich and precise spectral
information of a Fabry-P\'erot-based calibration source. On the basis of
calibration frames acquired each night since the Fabry-P\'erot etalon was
installed on HARPS in 2011, we construct a combined wavelength solution which
fits simultaneously the thorium emission lines and the Fabry-P\'erot lines. The
combined fit is anchored to the absolute thorium wavelengths, which provide the
`zero-point' of the spectrograph, while the Fabry-P\'erot lines are used to
improve the (spectrally) local precision. The obtained wavelength solution is
verified for auto-consistency and tested against a solution obtained using the
HARPS Laser-Frequency Comb (LFC). The combined thorium+Fabry-P\'erot wavelength
solution shows significantly better performances compared to the thorium-only
calibration. The presented techniques will therefore be used in the new HARPS
and HARPS-N pipeline, and will be exported to the ESPRESSO spectrograph.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure
Spectroscopic direct detection of reflected light from extra-solar planets
At optical wavelengths, an exoplanet's signature is essentially reflected
light from the host star - several orders of magnitude fainter. Since it is
superimposed on the star spectrum its detection has been a difficult
observational challenge. However, the development of a new generation of
instruments like ESPRESSO and next generation telescopes like the E-ELT put us
in a privileged position to detect these planets' reflected light as we will
have access to extremely high signal-to-noise ratio spectra. With this work, we
propose an alternative approach for the direct detection of the reflected light
of an exoplanet. We simulated observations with ESPRESSO@VLT and HIRES@E-ELT of
several star+planet systems, encompassing 10h of the most favourable orbital
phases. To the simulated spectra we applied the Cross Correlation Function to
operate in a much higher signal-to-noise ratio domain than when compared with
the spectra. The use of the Cross-Correlation Function permitted us to recover
the simulated the planet signals at a level above 3 \sigma_{noise} significance
on several prototypical (e.g., Neptune type planet with a 2 days orbit with the
VLT at 4.4 \sigma_{noise} significance) and real planetary systems (e.g., 55
Cnc e with the E-ELT at 4.9 \sigma_{noise} significance). Even by using a more
pessimistic approach to the noise level estimation, where systematics in the
spectra increase the noise 2-3 times, the detection of the reflected light from
large close-orbit planets is possible. We have also shown that this kind of
study is currently within reach of current instruments and telescopes (e.g., 51
Peg b with the VLT at 5.2 \sigma_{noise} significance), although at the limit
of their capabilities.Comment: Accepted for Publication on MNRAS: 2013 August 29; Online Article:
http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/09/27/mnras.stt1642; 5
Figures, 11 page
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