Empirical Isochrones for Low Mass Stars in Nearby Young Associations

Absolute ages of young stars are important for many issues in pre-main sequence stellar and circumstellar evolution but are long recognized as difficult to derive and calibrate. In this paper, we use literature spectral types and photometry to construct empirical isochrones in HR diagrams for low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the eta Cha, epsilon Cha, and TW Hya Associations and the beta Pic and Tuc-Hor Moving Groups. A successful theory of pre-main sequence evolution should match the shapes of the stellar loci for these groups of young stars. However, when comparing the combined empirical isochrones to isochrones predicted from evolutionary models, discrepancies lead to a spectral type (mass) dependence in stellar age estimates. Improved prescriptions for convection and boundary conditions in the latest models of pre-main sequence models lead to a significantly improved correspondence between empirical and model isochrones, with small offsets at low temperatures that may be explained by observational uncertainties or by model limitations. Independent of model predictions, linear fits to combined stellar loci of these regions provide a simple empirical method to order clusters by luminosity with a reduced dependence on spectral type. Age estimates calculated from various sets of modern models that reproduce Li depletion boundary ages of the beta Pic Moving Group also imply a ~4 Myr age for the low mass members of the Upper Sco OB Association, which is younger than the 11 Myr age that has been recently estimated for intermediate mass members.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, 18 page

An Optical Spectroscopic Study of T Tauri Stars. I. Photospheric Properties

Measurements of masses and ages of young stars from their location in the HR diagram are limited by not only the typical observational uncertainties that apply to field stars, but also by large systematic uncertainties related to circumstellar phenomena. In this paper, we analyze flux calibrated optical spectra to measure accurate spectral types and extinctions of 283 nearby T Tauri stars. The primary advances in this paper are (1) the incorporation of a simplistic accretion continuum in optical spectral type and extinction measurements calculated over the full optical wavelength range and (2) the uniform analysis of a large sample of stars. Comparisons between the non-accreting TTS photospheric templates and stellar photosphere models are used to derive conversions from spectral type to temperature. Differences between spectral types can be subtle and difficult to discern, especially when accounting for accretion and extinction. The spectral types measured here are mostly consistent with spectral types measured over the past decade. However, our new spectral types are 1-2 subclasses later than literature spectral types for the original members of the TWA and are discrepant with literature values for some well known Taurus CTTSs. Our extinction measurements are consistent with other optical extinction measurements but are typically 1 mag lower than nIR measurements, likely the result of methodological differences and the presence of nIR excesses in most CTTSs. As an illustration of the impact of accretion, SpT, and extinction uncertainties on the HR diagrams of young clusters, we find that the resulting luminosity spread of stars in the TWA is 15-30%. The luminosity spread in the TWA and previously measured for binary stars in Taurus suggests that for a majority of stars, protostellar accretion rates are not large enough to significantly alter the subsequent evolution.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. 30 pages plus 12 pages of Tables and Reference

Does Corticothalamic Feedback Control Cortical Velocity Tuning?

The thalamus is the major gate to the cortex and its contribution to cortical receptive field properties is well established. Cortical feedback to the thalamus is, in turn, the anatomically dominant input to relay cells, yet its influence on thalamic processing has been difficult to interpret. For an understanding of complex sensory processing, detailed concepts of the corticothalamic interplay need yet to be established. To study corticogeniculate processing in a model, we draw on various physiological and anatomical data concerning the intrinsic dynamics of geniculate relay neurons, the cortical influence on relay modes, lagged and nonlagged neurons, and the structure of visual cortical receptive fields. In extensive computer simulations we elaborate the novel hypothesis that the visual cortex controls via feedback the temporal response properties of geniculate relay cells in a way that alters the tuning of cortical cells for speed.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figure

A full-scale fire program to evaluate new furnishings and textile materials developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A program of experimental fires was carried out to establish the advantages offered by new materials for improved fire safety. Four full-scale bedrooms, differing only in the materials used to furnish them, were built and burned to provide comparative data on the fire hazards produced. Cost and availability differences were not considered. The visual evidence provided by TV and photographic coverage of the four experimental room fires showed clearly that the rooms responded very differently to a common ignition condition. Resistance to the ignition and spread of fire was substantially improved in the rooms furnished completely or partially with the new materials

Constraining the Sub-AU-Scale Distribution of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide Gas around Young Stars with the Keck Interferometer

We present Keck Interferometer observations of T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars with a spatial resolution of a few milliarcseconds and a spectral resolution of ~2000. Our observations span the K-band, and include the Br gamma transition of Hydrogen and the v=2-0 and v=3-1 transitions of carbon monoxide. For several targets we also present data from Keck/NIRSPEC that provide higher spectral resolution, but a seeing-limited spatial resolution, of the same spectral features. We analyze the Br gamma emission in the context of both disk and infall/outflow models, and conclude that the Br gamma emission traces gas at very small stellocentric radii, consistent with the magnetospheric scale. However some Br gamma-emitting gas also seems to be located at radii of >0.1 AU, perhaps tracing the inner regions of magnetically launched outflows. CO emission is detected from several objects, and we generate disk models that reproduce both the KI and NIRSPEC data well. We infer the CO spatial distribution to be coincident with the distribution of continuum emission in most cases. Furthermore the Br gamma emission in these objects is roughly coincident with both the CO and continuum emission. We present potential explanations for the spatial coincidence of continuum, Br gamma, and CO overtone emission, and explore the implications for the low occurrence rate of CO overtone emission in young stars. Finally, we provide additional discussion of V1685 Cyg, which is unusual among our sample in showing large differences in emitting region size and spatial position as a function of wavelength.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Does Corticothalamic Feedback Control Cortical Velocity Tuning?

The thalamus is the major gate to the cortex and its contribution to cortical receptive field properties is well established. Cortical feedback to the thalamus is, in turn, the anatomically dominant input to relay cells, yet its influence on thalamic processing has been difficult to interpret. For an understanding of complex sensory processing, detailed concepts of the corticothalamic interplay need yet to be established. To study corticogeniculate processing in a model, we draw on various physiological and anatomical data concerning the intrinsic dynamics of geniculate relay neurons, the cortical influence on relay modes, lagged and nonlagged neurons, and the structure of visual cortical receptive fields. In extensive computer simulations we elaborate the novel hypothesis that the visual cortex controls via feedback the temporal response properties of geniculate relay cells in a way that alters the tuning of cortical cells for speed

Spatiotemporal adaptation through corticothalamic loops: A hypothesis

The thalamus is the major gate to the cortex and its control over cortical responses is well established. Cortical feedback to the thalamus is, in turn, the anatomically dominant input to relay cells, yet its influence on thalamic processing has been difficult to interpret. For an understanding of complex sensory processing, detailed concepts of the corticothalamic interplay need yet to be established. Drawing on various physiological and anatomical data, we elaborate the novel hypothesis that the visual cortex controls the spatiotemporal structure of cortical receptive fields via feedback to the lateral geniculate nucleus. Furthermore, we present and analyze a model of corticogeniculate loops that implements this control, and exhibit its ability of object segmentation by statistical motion analysis in the visual field