1,553 research outputs found
The Age, Metallicity and Alpha-Element Abundance of Galactic Globular Clusters from Single Stellar Population Models
Establishing the reliability with which stellar population parameters can be
measured is vital to extragalactic astronomy. Galactic GCs provide an excellent
medium in which to test the consistency of Single Stellar Population (SSP)
models as they should be our best analogue to a homogeneous (single) stellar
population. Here we present age, metallicity and -element abundance
measurements for 48 Galactic globular clusters (GCs) as determined from
integrated spectra using Lick indices and SSP models from Thomas, Maraston &
Korn, Lee & Worthey and Vazdekis et al. By comparing our new measurements to
independent determinations we are able to assess the ability of these SSPs to
derive consistent results -- a key requirement before application to
heterogeneous stellar populations like galaxies.
We find that metallicity determinations are extremely robust, showing good
agreement for all models examined here, including a range of enhancement
methods. Ages and -element abundances are accurate for a subset of our
models, with the caveat that the range of these parameters in Galactic GCs is
limited. We are able to show that the application of published Lick index
response functions to models with fixed abundance ratios allows us to measure
reasonable -element abundances from a variety of models. We also
examine the age-metallicity and [/Fe]-metallicity relations predicted
by SSP models, and characterise the possible effects of varied model horizontal
branch morphology on our overall results.Comment: 22 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Negative-Energy Spinors and the Fock Space of Lattice Fermions at Finite Chemical Potential
Recently it was suggested that the problem of species doubling with
Kogut-Susskind lattice fermions entails, at finite chemical potential, a
confusion of particles with antiparticles. What happens instead is that the
familiar correspondence of positive-energy spinors to particles, and of
negative-energy spinors to antiparticles, ceases to hold for the Kogut-Susskind
time derivative. To show this we highlight the role of the spinorial ``energy''
in the Osterwalder-Schrader reconstruction of the Fock space of non-interacting
lattice fermions at zero temperature and nonzero chemical potential. We
consider Kogut-Susskind fermions and, for comparison, fermions with an
asymmetric one-step time derivative.Comment: 14p
The Isgur-Wise function in a relativistic model for system
We use the Dirac equation with a ``(asymptotically free) Coulomb + (Lorentz
scalar) linear '' potential to estimate the light quark wavefunction for mesons in the limit . We use these wavefunctions to
calculate the Isgur-Wise function for orbital and radial
ground states in the phenomenologically interesting range . We find a simple expression for the zero-recoil slope, , where is the energy eigenvalue
of the light quark, which can be identified with the parameter
of the Heavy Quark Effective Theory. This result implies an upper bound of
for the slope . Also, because for a very light quark the size of the meson is determined mainly by the
``confining'' term in the potential , the shape of
is seen to be mostly sensitive to the dimensionless
ratio . We present results for the ranges of
parameters , and
light quark masses and compare to existing
experimental data and other theoretical estimates. Fits to the data give:
,
and [ARGUS
'93]; , and
[CLEO '93]; ${\bar\Lambda_{u,d}}^2/Comment: 22 pages, Latex, 4 figures (not included) available by fax or via
email upon reques
Vanishing of Gravitational Particle Production in the Formation of Cosmic Strings
We consider the gravitationally induced particle production from the quantum
vacuum which is defined by a free, massless and minimally coupled scalar field
during the formation of a gauge cosmic string. Previous discussions of this
topic estimate the power output per unit length along the string to be of the
order of ergs/sec/cm in the s-channel. We find that this production
may be completely suppressed. A similar result is also expected to hold for the
number of produced photons.Comment: 10 pages, Plain LaTex. Minor improvements. To appear in PR
Comparative radial growth of Pinus halepensis Mill. and Pinus brutia in Israël
Comparaison de la croissance en diamètre dans un peuplement mixte de pin d'Alep et de pin Brutia dans huit régions d'Israël
Maximum gradient embeddings and monotone clustering
Let (X,d_X) be an n-point metric space. We show that there exists a
distribution D over non-contractive embeddings into trees f:X-->T such that for
every x in X, the expectation with respect to D of the maximum over y in X of
the ratio d_T(f(x),f(y)) / d_X(x,y) is at most C (log n)^2, where C is a
universal constant. Conversely we show that the above quadratic dependence on
log n cannot be improved in general. Such embeddings, which we call maximum
gradient embeddings, yield a framework for the design of approximation
algorithms for a wide range of clustering problems with monotone costs,
including fault-tolerant versions of k-median and facility location.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures. Final version, minor revision of the previous
one. To appear in "Combinatorica
Effect of arginine on oligomerization and stability of N-acetylglutamate synthase.
N-acetylglutamate synthase (NAGS; E.C.2.3.1.1) catalyzes the formation of N-acetylglutamate (NAG) from acetyl coenzyme A and glutamate. In microorganisms and plants, NAG is the first intermediate of the L-arginine biosynthesis; in animals, NAG is an allosteric activator of carbamylphosphate synthetase I and III. In some bacteria bifunctional N-acetylglutamate synthase-kinase (NAGS-K) catalyzes the first two steps of L-arginine biosynthesis. L-arginine inhibits NAGS in bacteria, fungi, and plants and activates NAGS in mammals. L-arginine increased thermal stability of the NAGS-K from Maricaulis maris (MmNAGS-K) while it destabilized the NAGS-K from Xanthomonas campestris (XcNAGS-K). Analytical gel chromatography and ultracentrifugation indicated tetrameric structure of the MmMNAGS-K in the presence and absence of L-arginine and a tetramer-octamer equilibrium that shifted towards tetramers upon binding of L-arginine for the XcNAGS-K. Analytical gel chromatography of mouse NAGS (mNAGS) indicated either different oligomerization states that are in moderate to slow exchange with each other or deviation from the spherical shape of the mNAGS protein. The partition coefficient of the mNAGS increased in the presence of L-arginine suggesting smaller hydrodynamic radius due to change in either conformation or oligomerization. Different effects of L-arginine on oligomerization of NAGS may have implications for efforts to determine the three-dimensional structure of mammalian NAGS
Limitations to Frechet's Metric Embedding Method
Frechet's classical isometric embedding argument has evolved to become a
major tool in the study of metric spaces. An important example of a Frechet
embedding is Bourgain's embedding. The authors have recently shown that for
every e>0 any n-point metric space contains a subset of size at least n^(1-e)
which embeds into l_2 with distortion O(\log(2/e) /e). The embedding we used is
non-Frechet, and the purpose of this note is to show that this is not
coincidental. Specifically, for every e>0, we construct arbitrarily large
n-point metric spaces, such that the distortion of any Frechet embedding into
l_p on subsets of size at least n^{1/2 + e} is \Omega((\log n)^{1/p}).Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
Interval type-2 fuzzy modelling and stochastic search for real-world inventory management
Real-world systems present a variety of challenges to the modeller, not least of which is the problem of uncertainty inherent in their operation. In this research, an interval type-2 fuzzy model is applied to a real-world problem, the goal being to discover a suitable optimisation configuration to enable a search for an inventory plan using the model. To this end, a series of simulated annealing configurations and the interval type-2 fuzzy model were used to search for appropriate inventory plans for a large-scale real-world problem. A further set of tests were conducted in which the performance of the interval type-2 fuzzy model was compared with a corresponding type-1 fuzzy model. In these tests the results were inconclusive, though, as will be discussed there are many ways in which type-2 fuzzy logic can be exploited to demonstrate its advantages over a type-1 approach. To conclude, in this research we have shown that a combination of interval type-2 fuzzy logic and simulated annealing is a logical choice for inventory management modelling and inventory plan search, and propose that the benefits that a type-2 model offers, can make it preferable to a corresponding type-1 system
The Savvidy ``ferromagnetic vacuum'' in three-dimensional lattice gauge theory
The vacuum effective potential of three-dimensional SU(2) lattice gauge
theory in an applied color-magnetic field is computed over a wide range of
field strengths. The background field is induced by an external current, as in
continuum field theory. Scaling and finite volume effects are analyzed
systematically. The first evidence from lattice simulations is obtained of the
existence of a nontrivial minimum in the effective potential. This supports a
``ferromagnetic'' picture of gluon condensation, proposed by Savvidy on the
basis of a one-loop calculation in (3+1)-dimensional QCD.Comment: 9pp (REVTEX manuscript). Postscript figures appende
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