The University of Texas
Spectroscopic studies of extreme-ionization galaxies (EIGs) are critical to our understanding of exotic systems throughout cosmic time. These EIGs exhibit spectral features requiring >54.42 eV photons: the energy needed to fully ionize helium into He2+ and emit He II recombination lines. They are likely key contributors to reionization, and they can also probe exotic stellar populations or accretion onto massive black holes. To facilitate the use of EIGs as probes of high ionization, we focus on ratios constructed from strong rest-frame UV/optical emission lines, specifically [O III] 5008, H-beta, [Ne III] 3870, [O II] 3727,3729, and [Ne V] 3427. These lines probe the relative intensity at energies of 35.12, 13.62, 40.96, 13.62 eV, and 97.12, respectively, covering a wider range of ionization than traced by other common rest-frame UV/optical techniques. We use ratios of these lines ([Ne V]/[Ne III] = Ne53 and [Ne III]/[O II]), which are closely separated in wavelength, and mitigates effects of dust attenuation and uncertainties in flux calibration. We make predictions from photoionization models constructed from Cloudy that use a broad range of stellar populations and black hole accretion models to explore the sensitivity of these line ratios to changes in the ionizing spectrum. We compare our models to observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope of galaxies with strong high-ionization emission lines at z ~ 0, z ~ 2, and z ~ 7. We show that the Ne53 ratio can separate galaxies with ionization from 'normal' stellar populations from those with AGN and even 'exotic' Population III models. We introduce new selection methods to identify galaxies with photoionization driven by Population III stars or intermediate-mass black hole accretion disks that could be identified in upcoming high-redshift spectroscopic surveys.
A periodically kicked ring of a Bose-Einstein condensate is considered as a nonlinear generalization of the quantum kicked rotor. For weak interactions between atoms, periodic motion (anti-resonance) becomes quasiperiodic (quantum beating) but remains stable. There exists a critical strength of interactions beyond which quasiperiodic motion becomes chaotic, resulting in an instability of the condensate manifested by exponential growth in the number of noncondensed atoms. Similar behavior is observed for dynamically localized states (essentially quasiperiodic motions), where stability remains for weak interactions but is destroyed by strong interactions.
Star clusters form in dense, hierarchically collapsing gas clouds. Bulk kinetic energy is transformed to turbulence with stars forming from cores fed by filaments. In the most compact regions, stellar feedback is least effective in removing the gas and stars may form very efficiently. These are also the regions where, in high-mass clusters, ejecta from some kind of high-mass stars are effectively captured during the formation phase of some of the low mass stars and effectively channeled into the latter to form multiple populations. Star formation epochs in star clusters are generally set by gas flows that determine the abundance of gas in the cluster. We argue that there is likely only one star formation epoch after which clusters remain essentially clear of gas by cluster winds. Collisional dynamics is important in this phase leading to core collapse, expansion and eventual dispersion of every cluster. We review recent developments in the field with a focus on theoretical work.
Measurement error in multinomial data is a well-known and well-studied inferential problem that is encountered in many fields, including engineering, biomedical and omics research, ecology, finance, official statistics, and social sciences. Methods developed to accommodate measurement error in multinomial data are typically equipped to handle false negatives or false positives, but not both. We provide a unified framework for accommodating both forms of measurement error using a Bayesian hierarchical approach. We demonstrate the proposed method's performance on simulated data and apply it to acoustic bat monitoring and official crime data.
We use \Pab\ (1282~nm) observations from the Hubble Space Telescope (\HST\HST) G141 grism to study the star-formation and dust attenuation properties of a sample of 29 low-redshift (z < 0.287) galaxies in the CANDELS Lyα\alpha Emission at Reionization (CLEAR) survey. We first compare the nebular attenuation from \Pab/\Ha\Pab/\Ha with the stellar attenuation inferred from the spectral energy distribution, finding that the galaxies in our sample are consistent with an average ratio of the continuum attenuation to the nebular gas of 0.44, but with a large amount of excess scatter beyond the observational uncertainties. Much of this scatter is linked to a large variation between the nebular dust attenuation as measured by (space-based) \Pab\Pab to (ground-based) \Ha\Ha to that from (ground-based) \Ha/\Hb\Ha/\Hb. This implies there are important differences between attenuation measured from grism-based / wide-aperture \Pab\Pab fluxes and the ground-based / slit-measured Balmer decrement. We next compare star-formation rates (SFRs) from \Pab\Pab to those from dust-corrected UV. We perform a survival analysis to infer a census of \Pab\ emission implied by both detections and non-detections. We find evidence that galaxies with lower stellar mass have more scatter in their ratio of \Pab\ to attenuation-corrected UV SFRs. When considering our \Pab\ detection limits, this observation supports the idea that lower mass galaxies experience "burstier" star-formation histories. Together, these results show that \Pab\ is a valuable tracer of a galaxy's SFR, probing different timescales of star-formation and potentially revealing star-formation that is otherwise missed by UV and optical tracers.
We report the masses, sizes, and orbital properties of 86 planets orbiting 55 stars observed by NASA's K2 Mission with follow-up Doppler measurements by the HIRES spectrometer at the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Automated Planet Finder at Lick Observatory. Eighty-one of the planets were discovered from their transits in the K2 photometry, while five were found based on subsequent Doppler measurements of transiting planet host stars. The sizes of the transiting planets range from Earth-size to larger than Jupiter (1-3 REarth is typical), while the orbital periods range from less than a day to a few months. For 32 of the planets, the Doppler signal was detected with significance greater than 5-sigma (51 were detected with >3-sigma significance). An important characteristic of this catalog is the use of uniform analysis procedures to determine stellar and planetary properties. This includes the transit search and fitting procedures applied to the K2 photometry, the Doppler fitting techniques applied to the radial velocities, and the spectral modeling to determine bulk stellar parameters. Such a uniform treatment will make the catalog useful for statistical studies of the masses, densities, and system architectures of exoplanetary systems. This work also serves as a data release for all previously unpublished RVs and associated stellar activity indicators obtained by our team for these systems, along with derived stellar and planet parameters.
Generative models have been very successful over the years and have received significant attention for synthetic data generation. As deep learning models are getting more and more complex, they require large amounts of data to perform accurately. In medical image analysis, such generative models play a crucial role as the available data is limited due to challenges related to data privacy, lack of data diversity, or uneven data distributions. In this paper, we present a method to generate brain tumor MRI images using generative adversarial networks. We have utilized StyleGAN2 with ADA methodology to generate high-quality brain MRI with tumors while using a significantly smaller amount of training data when compared to the existing approaches. We use three pre-trained models for transfer learning. Results demonstrate that the proposed method can learn the distributions of brain tumors. Furthermore, the model can generate high-quality synthetic brain MRI with a tumor that can limit the small sample size issues. The approach can addresses the limited data availability by generating realistic-looking brain MRI with tumors. The code is available at: ~\url{this https URL}.
We investigate the possibility of realizing quantum anomalous Hall effect in graphene. We show that a bulk energy gap can be opened in the presence of both Rashba spin-orbit coupling and an exchange field. We calculate the Berry curvature distribution and find a non-zero Chern number for the valence bands and demonstrate the existence of gapless edge states. Inspired by this finding, we also study, by first principles method, a concrete example of graphene with Fe atoms adsorbed on top, obtaining the same result.
Star clusters form in dense, hierarchically collapsing gas clouds. Bulk kinetic energy is transformed to turbulence with stars forming from cores fed by filaments. In the most compact regions, stellar feedback is least effective in removing the gas and stars may form very efficiently. These are also the regions where, in high-mass clusters, ejecta from some kind of high-mass stars are effectively captured during the formation phase of some of the low mass stars and effectively channeled into the latter to form multiple populations. Star formation epochs in star clusters are generally set by gas flows that determine the abundance of gas in the cluster. We argue that there is likely only one star formation epoch after which clusters remain essentially clear of gas by cluster winds. Collisional dynamics is important in this phase leading to core collapse, expansion and eventual dispersion of every cluster. We review recent developments in the field with a focus on theoretical work.
We confirm the planetary nature of (1) TOI-5916 b and (2) TOI-6158 b, two Exoplanets Transiting M-dwarf Stars (GEMS), both discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Both systems were confirmed with ground-based photometry (Red Buttes Observatory and Swope, respectively) and radial velocity data from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder. Their radii are R1=11.80.51+0.52 RR_{1}=11.8^{+0.52}_{-0.51}\text{ }R_{\oplus} and R2=10.41.11+2.70 RR_{2}=10.4^{+2.70}_{-1.11}\text{ }R_{\oplus} and masses are M1=219±28 MM_{1}=219\pm28\text{ }M_{\oplus} and M2=13518+19 MM_{2}=135^{+19}_{-18}\text{ }M_{\oplus}. Both planets have Saturn-like densities (ρ1=0.730.13+0.14g cm3\rho_{1} = 0.73^{+0.14}_{-0.13}\,\text{g cm}^{-3}, ρ2=0.660.23+0.41g cm3\rho_{2} = 0.66^{+0.41}_{-0.23}\,\text{g cm}^{-3}), which appears to be a growing trend among GEMS systems and, more generally, warm Jupiters. In confirming both of these exoplanets, we add to the growing evidence for a population of Saturn-density planets among the GEMS systems. We also find evidence for a preliminary trend in which GEMS exhibit systematically closer orbits compared to FGK giants.
This paper presents the detailed abundances and r-process classifications of 126 newly identified metal-poor stars as part of an ongoing collaboration, the R-Process Alliance. The stars were identified as metal-poor candidates from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) and were followed-up at high spectral resolution (R~31,500) with the 3.5~m telescope at Apache Point Observatory. The atmospheric parameters were determined spectroscopically from Fe I lines, taking into account <3D> non-LTE corrections and using differential abundances with respect to a set of standards. Of the 126 new stars, 124 have [Fe/H]<-1.5, 105 have [Fe/H]<-2.0, and 4 have [Fe/H]<-3.0. Nine new carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars have been discovered, 3 of which are enhanced in r-process elements. Abundances of neutron-capture elements reveal 60 new r-I stars (with +0.3<=[Eu/Fe]<=+1.0 and [Ba/Eu]<0) and 4 new r-II stars (with [Eu/Fe]>+1.0). Nineteen stars are found to exhibit a `limited-r' signature ([Sr/Ba]>+0.5, [Ba/Eu]<0). For the r-II stars, the second- and third-peak main r-process patterns are consistent with the r-process signature in other metal-poor stars and the Sun. The abundances of the light, alpha, and Fe-peak elements match those of typical Milky Way halo stars, except for one r-I star which has high Na and low Mg, characteristic of globular cluster stars. Parallaxes and proper motions from the second Gaia data release yield UVW space velocities for these stars which are consistent with membership in the Milky Way halo. Intriguingly, all r-II and the majority of r-I stars have retrograde orbits, which may indicate an accretion origin.
The determination of exoplanet properties and occurrence rates using Kepler data critically depends on our knowledge of the fundamental properties (such as temperature, radius and mass) of the observed stars. We present revised stellar properties for 197,096 Kepler targets observed between Quarters 1-17 (Q1-17), which were used for the final transiting planet search run by the Kepler Mission (Data Release 25, DR25). Similar to the Q1--16 catalog by Huber et al. the classifications are based on conditioning published atmospheric parameters on a grid of Dartmouth isochrones, with significant improvements in the adopted methodology and over 29,000 new sources for temperatures, surface gravities or metallicities. In addition to fundamental stellar properties the new catalog also includes distances and extinctions, and we provide posterior samples for each stellar parameter of each star. Typical uncertainties are ~27% in radius, ~17% in mass, and ~51% in density, which is somewhat smaller than previous catalogs due to the larger number of improved logg constraints and the inclusion of isochrone weighting when deriving stellar posterior distributions. On average, the catalog includes a significantly larger number of evolved solar-type stars, with an increase of 43.5% in the number of subgiants. We discuss the overall changes of radii and masses of Kepler targets as a function of spectral type, with particular focus on exoplanet host stars.
Emerging applications involving device-to-device communication among wearable electronics require Gbps throughput, which can be achieved by utilizing millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency bands. When many such communicating devices are indoors in close proximity, like in a train car or airplane cabin, interference can be a serious impairment. This paper uses stochastic geometry to analyze the performance of mmWave networks with a finite number of interferers in a finite network region. Prior work considered either lower carrier frequencies with different antenna and channel assumptions, or a network with an infinite spatial extent. In this paper, human users not only carry potentially interfering devices, but also act to block interfering signals. Using a sequence of simplifying assumptions, accurate expressions for coverage and rate are developed that capture the effects of key antenna characteristics like directivity and gain, and are a function of the finite area and number of users. The assumptions are validated through a combination of analysis and simulation. The main conclusions are that mmWave frequencies can provide Gbps throughput even with omni-directional transceiver antennas, and larger, more directive antenna arrays give better system performance.
Approximately half of the extrasolar planets (exoplanets) with radii less than four Earth radii are in orbits with short periods. Despite their sheer abundance, the compositions of such planets are largely unknown. The available evidence suggests that they range in composition from small, high-density rocky planets to low-density planets consisting of rocky cores surrounded by thick hydrogen and helium gas envelopes. Understanding the transition from the gaseous planets to Earth-like rocky worlds is important to estimate the number of potentially habitable planets in our Galaxy and provide constraints on planet formation theories. Here we report the abundances of heavy elements (that is, the metallicities) of more than 400 stars hosting 600 exoplanet candidates, and find that the exoplanets can be categorized into three populations defined by statistically distinct (~ 4.5{\sigma}) metallicity regions. We interpret these regions as reflecting the formation regimes of terrestrial-like planets (radii less than 1.7 Earth radii), gas dwarf planets with rocky cores and hydrogen-helium envelopes (radii between 1.7 and 3.9 Earth radii) and ice or gas giant planets (radii greater than 3.9 Earth radii). These transitions correspond well with those inferred from dynamical mass estimates, implying that host star metallicity, which is a proxy for the initial solid inventory of the protoplanetary disk, is a key ingredient regulating the structure of planetary systems.
The Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy Imager (ETSI) amalgamates a low resolution slitless prism spectrometer with custom multi-band filters to simultaneously image 15 spectral bandpasses between 430 nm and 975 nm with an average spectral resolution of R=λ/δλ20R = \lambda/\delta\lambda \sim 20. ETSI requires only moderate telescope apertures (2\sim2 m) and is capable of characterizing an exoplanet atmosphere in as little as a single transit, enabling selection of the most interesting targets for further characterization with other ground and space-based observatories and is also well suited to multi-band observations of other variable and transient objects. This enables a new technique, common-path multi-band imaging (CMI), used to observe transmission spectra of exoplanets transiting bright (V&lt;14 magnitude) stars. ETSI is capable of near photon-limited observations, with a systematic noise floor on par with the Hubble Space Telescope and below the Earth's atmospheric amplitude scintillation noise limit. We report the as-built instrument optical and optomechanical design, detectors, control system, telescope hardware and software interfaces, and data reduction pipeline. A summary of ETSI's science capabilities and initial results are also included.
We provide updates to the Kepler planet candidate sample based upon nearly two years of high-precision photometry (i.e., Q1-Q8). From an initial list of nearly 13,400 Threshold Crossing Events (TCEs), 480 new host stars are identified from their flux time series as consistent with hosting transiting planets. Potential transit signals are subjected to further analysis using the pixel-level data, which allows background eclipsing binaries to be identified through small image position shifts during transit. We also re-evaluate Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) 1-1609, which were identified early in the mission, using substantially more data to test for background false positives and to find additional multiple systems. Combining the new and previous KOI samples, we provide updated parameters for 2,738 Kepler planet candidates distributed across 2,017 host stars. From the combined Kepler planet candidates, 472 are new from the Q1-Q8 data examined in this study. The new Kepler planet candidates represent ~40% of the sample with Rp~1 Rearth and represent ~40% of the low equilibrium temperature (Teq<300 K) sample. We review the known biases in the current sample of Kepler planet candidates relevant to evaluating planet population statistics with the current Kepler planet candidate sample.
Studying barred galaxies at early epochs can shed light on the early evolution of stellar bars, their impact on secular evolution and the star formation activity of young galaxies, and the origins of present-day barred galaxies like the Milky Way. We analyze data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey to explore the impact of rest-frame wavelength and spatial resolution on detecting and characterizing some of the youngest barred galaxies known to date. We apply both visual classification and ellipse-fitting to JWST F115W, F200W, and F444W images of the barred galaxy CEERS-30155 at zz\sim2.136, an epoch when the universe was only \sim22%\% of its current age. We find that the stellar bar in CEERS-30155 is not visible in the F115W image, which traces rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) light at zz\sim2, a rest-frame wavelength highly obscured by dust. The stellar bar is visible in the F200W image, but is most prominent in the F444W image, likely due to the F444W image tracing rest-frame near-infrared (NIR) light at zz\sim2. Rest-frame NIR light is not obscured by dust and traces low-mass, long-lived stars that dominate the stellar mass in galaxies. However, ellipse fits of the F444W image only robustly detect stellar bars whose semimajor axis are at least one PSF (\sim 0.16" or \sim 1.4 kpc at zz\sim2). At zz\sim2, stellar bars smaller than 1.5 kpc will be more robustly detected in the sharper F200W image (PSF \sim 0.08" or \sim0.7 kpc at zz\sim2), provided that the rest-frame optical light it traces is not overly impacted by dust and can still unveil the bar structure. Using a combination of both JWST F200W and F444W images can improve the detection of barred galaxies at zz\sim2 to 4. At even higher redshifts (z > 4), the Giant Magellan Telescope will be a cornerstone facility to explore young barred galaxies.
Trumpler 5 is a moderately old, dust-obscured metal-poor open cluster. In this study, high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopic data of seven giant stars from the Trumpler 5 cluster were analyzed to derive chemical abundances for 20 elements and 12C/13C^{12}C/^{13}C ratios. Color-magnitude diagram (CMD) analysis of BV and Gaia photometry has also been performed for a comprehensive study of the cluster. Thanks to the methodology employed, some targets are studied for the first time. Additionally, it provides a detailed color-magnitude diagram analysis using photometric and spectroscopic data. We gathered high-resolution spectra for seven Trumpler 5 red giants in the near-infrared H and K wavelength domains, using the Immersion Grating INfrared Spectrometer (IGRINS). We introduced a method to initially estimate the stellar surface gravity (log g) by using calibrated equivalent widths of the Ti II line at 15873 {\AA} from a large sample. We performed standard spectroscopic analyses to refine the model atmospheric parameters of our targets and determined the chemical abundances primarily through spectrum synthesis. We also performed color-magnitude diagram analyses to extract differential reddening correction to compare cluster parameters both with and without corrections. We derived stellar parameters for seven members of Trumpler 5 with our method and the results are consistent with both the literature and other methods. We also inferred elemental abundances for more than 20 species, along with the 12C/13C^{12}C/^{13}C ratios. The elemental abundances are in good agreement with the literature values for similar targets. Through CMD analysis, we found the reddening value, E(B-V)\simeq0.76 and estimated the age of the cluster to be approximately 2.50 Gyr.
11 Oct 2004
Direct numerical simulations of turbulent Hall dynamos are presented. The evolution of an initially weak and small scale magnetic field in a system maintained in a stationary turbulent regime by a stirring force at a macroscopic scale is studied to explore the conditions for exponential growth of the magnetic energy. Scaling of the dynamo efficiency with the Reynolds numbers is studied, and the resulting total energy spectra are found to be compatible with a Kolmogorov type law. A faster growth of large scale magnetic fields is observed at intermediate intensities of the Hall effect.
Analysis of observational studies increasingly confronts the challenge of determining which of a possibly high-dimensional set of available covariates are required to satisfy the assumption of ignorable treatment assignment for estimation of causal effects. We propose a Bayesian nonparametric approach that simultaneously 1) prioritizes inclusion of adjustment variables in accordance with existing principles of confounder selection; 2) estimates causal effects in a manner that permits complex relationships among confounders, exposures, and outcomes; and 3) provides causal estimates that account for uncertainty in the nature of confounding. The proposal relies on specification of multiple Bayesian Additive Regression Trees models, linked together with a common prior distribution that accrues posterior selection probability to covariates on the basis of association with both the exposure and the outcome of interest. A set of extensive simulation studies demonstrates that the proposed method performs well relative to similarly-motivated methodologies in a variety of scenarios. We deploy the method to investigate the causal effect of emissions from coal-fired power plants on ambient air pollution concentrations, where the prospect of confounding due to local and regional meteorological factors introduces uncertainty around the confounding role of a high-dimensional set of measured variables. Ultimately, we show that the proposed method produces more efficient and more consistent results across adjacent years than alternative methods, lending strength to the evidence of the causal relationship between SO2 emissions and ambient particulate pollution.
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