23,550 research outputs found
New VLT observations of the Fermi pulsar PSR J1048-5832
PSR J1048-5832 is a Vela-like (P=123.6 ms; tau~20.3 kyr) gamma-ray pulsar
detected by Fermi, at a distance of ~2.7 kpc and with a rotational energy loss
rate dot{E}_{SD} ~2 x 10^{36} erg/s. The PSR J1048-5832 field has been observed
with the VLT in the V and R bands. We used these data to determine the colour
of the object detected closest to the Chandra position (Star D) and confirm
that it is not associated with the pulsar. For the estimated extinction along
the line of sight, inferred from a re-analysis of the Chandra and XMM-Newton
spectra, the fluxes of Star D (V~26.7; R~25.8) imply a -0.13 < (V-R)_0 < 0.6.
This means that the PSR J1048-5832 spectrum would be unusually red compared to
the Vela pulsar.Moreover, the ratio between the unabsorbed optical and X-ray
flux of PSR J1048-5832 would be much higher than for other young pulsars. Thus,
we conclude that Star D is not the PSR J1048-5832 counterpart. We compared the
derived R and V-band upper limits (R>26.4; V>27.6) with the extrapolation of
the X and gamma-ray spectra and constrained the pulsar spectrum at
low-energies. In particular, the VLT upper limits suggest that the pulsar
spectrum could be consistent with a single power-law, stretching from the
gamma-rays to the optical.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication on Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society Main Journa
Analytic Kerr black hole lensing for equatorial observers in the strong deflection limit
In this paper we present an analytical treatment of gravitational lensing by
Kerr black holes in the limit of very large deflection angles, restricting to
observers in the equatorial plane. We accomplish our objective starting from
the Schwarzschild black hole and adding corrections up to second order in the
black hole spin. This is sufficient to provide a full description of all
caustics and the inversion of lens mapping for sources near them. On the basis
of these formulae we argue that relativistic images of Low Mass X-ray Binaries
around Sgr A* are very likely to be seen by future X-ray interferometry
missions.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, published on Phys. Rev.
Conformations Of A Model Protein Revealed By An Aggregating Cuᴵᴵ Porphyrin: Sensing The Difference
Aggregated t-CuP binds to poly-L-glutamate through supramolecular interactions, revealing itself to be an extremely sensitive probe for the major conformations of the polymeric scaffold
Target motion estimation via a multistatic FSR
The focus of this paper is on the estimation of the kinematic parameters of moving targets
via a MIMO Forward Scatter Radar (FSR) system. A sub-optimum estimation technique is considered
that exploits the information concerning the time instants at which the target crosses the individual
baselines to retrieve the motion parameters. The accuracy of such technique is firstly investigated
from a theoretical point of view and then the effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated
by applying it to live MIMO FSR data. Shown results prove the practical applicability of the proposed
technique
A Characterization of Bispecial Sturmian Words
A finite Sturmian word w over the alphabet {a,b} is left special (resp. right
special) if aw and bw (resp. wa and wb) are both Sturmian words. A bispecial
Sturmian word is a Sturmian word that is both left and right special. We show
as a main result that bispecial Sturmian words are exactly the maximal internal
factors of Christoffel words, that are words coding the digital approximations
of segments in the Euclidean plane. This result is an extension of the known
relation between central words and primitive Christoffel words. Our
characterization allows us to give an enumerative formula for bispecial
Sturmian words. We also investigate the minimal forbidden words for the set of
Sturmian words.Comment: Accepted to MFCS 201
Unifying Einstein and Palatini gravities
We consider a novel class of gravity theories where the connection is
related to the conformally scaled metric with
a scaling that depends on the scalar curvature only. We call them
C-theories and show that the Einstein and Palatini gravities can be obtained as
special limits. In addition, C-theories include completely new physically
distinct gravity theories even when . With nonlinear ,
C-theories interpolate and extrapolate the Einstein and Palatini cases and may
avoid some of their conceptual and observational problems. We further show that
C-theories have a scalar-tensor formulation, which in some special cases
reduces to simple Brans-Dicke-type gravity. If matter fields couple to the
connection, the conservation laws in C-theories are modified. The stability of
perturbations about flat space is determined by a simple condition on the
lagrangian.Comment: 17 pages, no figure
La riforma monetaria dell’aġlabita Ibrāhīm II
Gli studi sulla ḫarrūba siciliana hanno ricevuto grande impulso nel secolo
scorso dai contributi di P. Balog e di F. D’Angelo1. Questa precedente
letteratura fornisce ancor oggi un imprescindibile punto di partenza e di
supporto a chiunque desideri approfondire una frazione argentea, attestata
esclusivamente in Sicilia, la cui origine e la cui evoluzione presentano però
ancora numerosi punti oscuri. La mia ricerca, si prefigge appunto di
sottoporre all’attenzione degli studiosi un evento poco documentato che
potrebbe, a mio avviso, averne generato l’introduzione sul mercato, dapprima
africano e poi siciliano.
Lo spunto per queste mie considerazioni è nato dall’esame di un esemplare
di frazione argentea battuta dall’aglabita Ibrāhīm II venuto alla luce, qualche
anno fa, ad Agrigento. Concludendo, qualora le mie ipotesi risultassero fondate, il
frammento agrigentino e tutte le altre piccole frazioni argentee di Ibrāhīm II
altro non sarebbero che gli intriganti darāhim al-‘āširiyya menzionati da Ibn
‘Iḏārī: una minuscola moneta in grado di sfidare, almeno in Sicilia, i
rivolgimenti politici, il passare dei secoli e la damnatio memoriae a cui fu invece
condannato il suo ostinato ed “empio” promotore
Structural Properties of the Disordered Spherical and other Mean Field Spin Models
We extend the approach of Aizenman, Sims and Starr for the SK-type models to
their spherical versions. Such an extension has already been performed for
diluted spin glasses. The factorization property of the optimal structures
found by Guerra for the SK model, which holds for diluted models as well, is
verified also in the case of spherical systems, with the due modifications.
Hence we show that there are some common structural features in various mean
field spin models. These similarities seem to be quite paradigmatic, and we
summarize the various techniques typically used to prove the structural
analogies and to tackle the computation of the free energy per spin in the
thermodynamic limit.Comment: 24 page
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