14,496 research outputs found
Chemical composition of stellar populations in Omega Centauri
We derive abundances of Fe, Na, O, and s-elements from GIRAFFE@VLT spectra
for more than 200 red giant stars in the Milky Way satellite Omega Centauri.
Our preliminary results are that: (i) we confirm that Omega Centauri exibiths
large star-to-star metallicity variations ( 1.4 dex); (ii) the
metallicity distribution reveals the presence of at least five stellar
populations with different [Fe/H]; (iii) a clear Na-O anticorrelation is
clearly observed for the metal-poor and metal-intermediate populations while
apparently the anticorrelation disappears for the most metal-rich populations.
Interestingly the Na level grows with iron.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of IAU Symp. 268
"Light elements in the Universe" (C. Charbonnel, M. Tosi, F. Primas, C.
Chiappini, eds., Cambridge Univ. Press
Thermal and non-thermal signatures of the Unruh effect in Casimir-Polder forces
We show that Casimir-Polder forces between two relativistic uniformly
accelerated atoms exhibit a transition from the short distance thermal-like
behavior predicted by the Unruh effect, to a long distance non-thermal
behavior, associated with the breakdown of a local inertial description of the
system. This phenomenology extends the Unruh thermal response detected by a
single accelerated observer to an accelerated spatially extended system of two
particles, and we identify the characteristic length scale for this crossover
with the inverse of the proper acceleration of the two atoms. Our results are
derived separating at fourth order in perturbation theory the contributions of
vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction field to the Casimir-Polder
interaction between two atoms moving in two generic stationary trajectories
separated by a constant distance, and linearly coupled to a scalar field. The
field can be assumed in its vacuum state or at finite temperature, resulting in
a general method for the computation of Casimir-Polder forces in stationary
regimes.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Revised versio
Constraints on the slope of the dark halo mass function by microlensing observables
We investigate the dark halo lens mass function (MF) for a wide class of
spheroidal non singular isothermal models comparing observed and observable
microlensing quantities for MACHO observations towards LMC and taking into
account the detection efficiency. We evaluate the microlensing observable
quantities, i.e. observable optical depth, number of events and mean duration,
for models with homogenous power - law MF changing the upper and lower mass
limits and the flattening of the dark halo. By applying the simple technique of
the inverse problem method we are then able to get some interesting constraints
on the slope of the MF and on the dark halo mass fraction f made out
by MACHOs consistently with previous results.Comment: 10 LaTex pages, 2 postscript figures, accepted on 21/5/2001 for
pubblication on A&A; title changed, completely revised version : a new
definition of observable optical depth is used and all the MACHO results from
5.7 years of observations are used to constrain the slope of the dark halo
mass functio
Detecting planets around stars in nearby galaxies
The only way to detect planets around stars at distances of several kpc is by
(photometric or astrometric) microlensing observations. In this paper, we show
that the capability of photometric microlensing extends to the detection of
signals caused by planets around stars in nearby galaxies (e.g. M31) and that
there is no other method that can achieve this. Due to the large crowding,
microlensing experiments towards M31 can only observe the high-magnification
part of a lensing light curve. Therefore, the dominating channel for
microlensing signals by planets is in distortions near the peak of
high-magnification events as discussed by Griest and Safizadeh. We calculate
the probability to detect planetary anomalies for microlensing experiments
towards M31 and find that jupiter-like planets around stars in M31 can be
detected. Though the characterization of the planet(s) involved in this signal
will be difficult, the absence of such signals can yield strong constraints on
the abundance of jupiter-like planets.Comment: 16 LaTex Pages, including 1 Postscript Figures, submitted to A&A;
title changed, one more author added, completely revised version: central
point is detecting planet in nearby galaxies and one more technique is taken
into consideratio
Charge and Magnetic Flux Correlations in Chern-Simons Theory with Fermions
Charge and magnetic flux bearing operators are introduced in Chern-Simons
theory both in its pure form and when it is coupled to fermions. The magnetic
flux creation operator turns out to be the Wilson line. The euclidean
correlation functions of these operators are shown to be local and are
evaluated exactly in the pure case and through an expansion in the inverse
fermion mass whenever these are present. Physical states only occur in the
presence of fermions and consist of composite charge-magnetic flux carrying
states which are in general anyonic. The large distance behavior of the
correlation functions indicates the condensation of charge and magnetic flux.Comment: Latex, 17 page
Inverse cascades and resonant triads in rotating and stratified turbulence
Kraichnanâs seminal ideas on inverse cascades yielded new tools to study common phenomena in geophysical turbulent flows. In the atmosphere and the oceans, rotation and stratification result in a flow that can be approximated as two-dimensional at very large scales but which requires considering three-dimensional effects to fully describe turbulent transport processes and non-linear phenomena. Motions can thus be classified into two classes: fast modes consisting of inertia-gravity waves and slow quasi-geostrophic modes for which the Coriolis force and horizontal pressure gradients are close to balance. In this paper, we review previous results on the strength of the inverse cascade in rotating and stratified flows and then present new results on the effect of varying the strength of rotation and stratification (measured by the inverse Prandtl ratio N/f, of the Coriolis frequency to the Brunt-VĂ€isĂ€la frequency) on the amplitude of the waves and on the flow quasi-geostrophic behavior. We show that the inverse cascade is more efficient in the range of N/f for which resonant triads do not exist, /2â€N/fâ€21/2â€N/fâ€2. We then use the spatio-temporal spectrum to show that in this range slow modes dominate the dynamics, while the strength of the waves (and their relevance in the flow dynamics) is weaker.Fil: Oks, D.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de FĂsica; ArgentinaFil: Mininni, Pablo Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Oficina de CoordinaciĂłn Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de FĂsica de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de FĂsica de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Marino, R.. Universite Lyon 2; FranciaFil: Pouquet, A.. State University of Colorado Boulder; Estados Unido
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