5,081 research outputs found
The Rapidly Fading Afterglow from the Gamma-Ray Burst of 1999 May 6
We report on the discovery of the radio afterglow from the gamma-ray burst
(GRB) of 1999 May 6 (GRB 990506) using the Very Large Array (VLA). The radio
afterglow was detected at early times (1.5 days), but began to fade rapidly
sometime between 1 and 5 days after the burst. If we attribute the radio
emission to the forward shock from an expanding fireball, then this rapid onset
of the decay in the radio predicts that the corresponding optical transient
began to decay between 1 and 5 minutes after the burst. This could explain why
no optical transient for GRB 990506 was detected in spite of numerous searches.
The cause of the unusually rapid onset of the decay for the afterglow is
probably the result of an isotropically energetic fireball expanding into a low
density circumburst environment. At the location of the radio afterglow we find
a faint (R ~ 24 mag) host galaxy with a double morphology.Comment: in press at ApJ Letters, 13 page LaTeX document includes 2 postscript
figure
Testing the binary hypothesis for the formation and shaping of planetary nebulae
There is no quantitative theory to explain why a high 80% of all planetary
nebulae are non-spherical. The Binary Hypothesis states that a companion to the
progenitor of a central star of planetary nebula is required to shape the
nebula and even for a planetary nebula to be formed at all. A way to test this
hypothesis is to estimate the binary fraction of central stars of planetary
nebulae and to compare it with that of the main sequence population.
Preliminary results from photometric variability and the infrared excess
techniques indicate that the binary fraction of central stars of planetary
nebulae is higher than that of the main sequence, implying that PNe could
preferentially form via a binary channel. This article briefly reviews these
results and current studies aiming to refine the binary fraction.Comment: EUROWD12 Proceeding
Planetary nebulae : getting closer to an unbiased binary fraction
Why 80% of planetary nebulae are not spherical is not yet understood. The
Binary Hypothesis states that a companion to the progenitor of the central star
of a planetary nebula is required to shape the nebula and even for a planetary
nebula to be formed at all. A way to test this hypothesis is to estimate the
binary fraction of central stars of planetary nebula and to compare it with the
main sequence population. Preliminary results from photometric variability and
infrared excess techniques indicate that the binary fraction of central stars
of planetary nebulae is higher than that of the putative main sequence
progenitor population, implying that PNe could be preferentially formed via a
binary channel. This article briefly reviews these results and future studies
aiming to refine the binary fraction.Comment: SF2A 2012 proceeding
A Survey of Local Group Galaxies Currently Forming Stars. I. UBVRI Photometry of Stars in M31 and M33
We present UBVRI photometry obtained from Mosaic images of M31 and M33 using
the KPNO 4-m telescope. The survey covers 2.2 sq degrees of M31, and 0.8 sq
degrees of M33, chosen so as to include all of the regions currently active in
forming massive stars. The catalog contains 371,781 and 146,622 stars in M31
and M33, respectively, where every star has a counterpart (at least) in B, V,
and R. We compare our photometry to previous studies. We provide cross
references to the stars confirmed as members by spectroscopy, and compare the
location of these to the complete set in color-magnitude diagrams. While
follow-up spectroscopy is needed for many projects, we demonstrate the success
of our photometry in being able to distinguish M31/M33 members from foreground
Galactic stars. We also present the results of newly obtained spectroscopy,
which identifies 34 newly confirmed members, including B-A supergiants, the
earliest O star known in M31, and two new Luminous Blue Variable candidates
whose spectra are similar to that of P Cygni.Comment: Accepted by the Astronomical Journal. A version with higher
resolution figures can be found at:
http://www.lowell.edu/users/massey/M3133.pdf.g
Macroscopic Strings and "Quirks" at Colliders
We consider extensions of the standard model containing additional heavy
particles ("quirks") charged under a new unbroken non-abelian gauge group as
well as the standard model. We assume that the quirk mass m is in the
phenomenologically interesting range 100 GeV--TeV, and that the new gauge group
gets strong at a scale Lambda < m. In this case breaking of strings is
exponentially suppressed, and quirk production results in strings that are long
compared to 1/Lambda. The existence of these long stable strings leads to
highly exotic events at colliders. For 100 eV < Lambda < keV the strings are
macroscopic, giving rise to events with two separated quirk tracks with
measurable curvature toward each other due to the string interaction. For keV <
Lambda < MeV the typical strings are mesoscopic: too small to resolve in the
detector, but large compared to atomic scales. In this case, the bound state
appears as a single particle, but its mass is the invariant mass of a quirk
pair, which has an event-by-event distribution. For MeV < Lambda < m the
strings are microscopic, and the quirks annihilate promptly within the
detector. For colored quirks, this can lead to hadronic fireball events with
10^3 hadrons with energy of order GeV emitted in conjunction with hard decay
products from the final annihilation.Comment: Added discussion of photon-jet decay, fixed minor typo
The Dwarf Spheroidal Companions to M31: Variable Stars in Andromeda VI
We have surveyed Andromeda VI, a dwarf spheroidal galaxy companion to M31,
for variable stars using F450W and F555W observations obtained with the Hubble
Space Telescope. A total of 118 variables were found, with 111 being RR Lyrae,
6 anomalous Cepheids, and 1 variable we were unable to classify. We find that
the Andromeda VI anomalous Cepheids have properties consistent with those of
anomalous Cepheids in other dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We revise the existing
period-luminosity relations for these variables. Further, using these and other
available data, we show that there is no clear difference between fundamental
and first-overtone anomalous Cepheids in a period-amplitude diagram at shorter
periods, unlike the RR Lyrae. For the Andromeda VI RR Lyrae, we find that they
lie close to the Oosterhoff type I Galactic globular clusters in the
period-amplitude diagram, although the mean period of the RRab stars, =
0.588 d, is slightly longer than the typical Oosterhoff type I cluster. The
mean V magnitude of the RR Lyrae in Andromeda VI is 25.29+/-0.03, resulting in
a distance 815+/-25 kpc on the Lee, Demarque, & Zinn distance scale. This is
consistent with the distance derived from the I magnitude of the tip of the red
giant branch. Similarly, the properties of the RR Lyrae indicate a mean
abundance for Andromeda VI which is consistent with that derived from the mean
red giant branch color.Comment: 23 pages, including 13 figures and 6 tables, emulateapj5/apjfonts
style. Accepted by the Astronomical Journal. We recommend the interested
reader to download the preprint with full-resolution figures, which can be
found at http://www.noao.edu/noao/staff/pritzl/M31dwarfs.htm
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