1,151 research outputs found
Statistical properties of the GALEX spectroscopic stellar sample
The GALEX General Data Release 4/5 includes 174 spectroscopic tiles, obtained
from slitless grism observations, for a total of more than 60,000 ultraviolet
spectra. We have determined statistical properties of the sample of GALEX
stars. We have defined a suitable system of spectroscopic indices, which
measure the main mid-UV features at the GALEX low spectral resolution and we
have employed it to determine the atmospheric parameters of of stars in the
range 4500<Teff<9000 K. Our preliminary results indicate that the sample is
formed by a majority of main sequence F- and G-type stars, with metallicity
[M/H]>-1 dex.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space
Science, UV universe special issu
Kaon oscillations in the Standard Model and Beyond using Nf=2 dynamical quarks
We compute non-perturbatively the B-parameters of the complete basis of
four-fermion operators needed to study the Kaon oscillations in the SM and in
its supersymmetric extension. We perform numerical simulations with two
dynamical maximally twisted sea quarks at three values of the lattice spacing
on configurations generated by the ETMC. Unwanted operator mixings and O(a)
discretization effects are removed by discretizing the valence quarks with a
suitable Osterwalder-Seiler variant of the Twisted Mass action. Operators are
renormalized non-perturbatively in the RI/MOM scheme. Our preliminary result
for BK(RGI) is 0.73(3)(3).Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, proceedings of the XXVII Int'l Symposyum
on Lattice Field Theory (LAT2009), July 26-31 2009, Peking University,
Beijing (China
The moment of truth for WIMP Dark Matter
We know that dark matter constitutes 85% of all the matter in the Universe,
but we do not know of what it is made. Amongst the many Dark Matter candidates
proposed, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) occupy a special place,
as they arise naturally from well motivated extensions of the standard model of
particle physics. With the advent of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and a
new generation of astroparticle experiments, the moment of truth has come for
WIMPs: either we will discover them in the next five to ten years, or we will
witness the inevitable decline of WIMP paradigm.Comment: To appear in Nature (Nov 18, 2010
Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxy Formation
The formation of supermassive black holes (SMBH) is intimately related to
galaxy formation, although precisely how remains a mystery. I speculate that
formation of, and feedback from, SMBH may alleviate problems that have arisen
in our understanding of the cores of dark halos of galaxies.Comment: Talk at conference on Matter in the Universe, March 2001, ISSI Ber
Towards Closing the Window on Strongly Interacting Dark Matter: Far-Reaching Constraints from Earth's Heat Flow
We point out a new and largely model-independent constraint on the dark
matter scattering cross section with nucleons, applying when this quantity is
larger than for typical weakly interacting dark matter candidates. When the
dark matter capture rate in Earth is efficient, the rate of energy deposition
by dark matter self-annihilation products would grossly exceed the measured
heat flow of Earth. This improves the spin-independent cross section
constraints by many orders of magnitude, and closes the window between
astrophysical constraints (at very large cross sections) and underground
detector constraints (at small cross sections). In the applicable mass range,
from about 1 to about 10^{10} GeV, the scattering cross section of dark matter
with nucleons is then bounded from above by the latter constraints, and hence
must be truly weak, as usually assumed.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; minor updates to match published versio
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Assessment of transcript reconstruction methods for RNA-seq
We evaluated 25 protocol variants of 14 independent computational methods for exon identification, transcript reconstruction and expression-level quantification from RNA-seq data. Our results show that most algorithms are able to identify discrete transcript components with high success rates but that assembly of complete isoform structures poses a major challenge even when all constituent elements are identified. Expression-level estimates also varied widely across methods, even when based on similar transcript models. Consequently, the complexity of higher eukaryotic genomes imposes severe limitations on transcript recall and splice product discrimination that are likely to remain limiting factors for the analysis of current-generation RNA-seq data.This work was supported by European Molecular Biology Laboratory, US National Institutes of Health/NHGRI grants U54HG004555 and U54HG004557, Wellcome Trust grant WT098051, and grants BIO2011-26205 and CSD2007-00050 from the Ministerio de EducaciĂłn y Ciencia
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