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This contribution reviews recent work on a new approach to the cosmological constant problem, which starts from the macroscopic behavior of a conserved relativistic microscopic variable q. First, the statics of the vacuum energy density is discussed and, then, the dynamics in a cosmological context.
The acceleration of the cosmic expansion is a fundamental challenge to standard models of particle physics and cosmology. The new physics of dark energy may lie in the nature of gravity, the quantum vacuum, or extra dimensions. I give a brief overview of the puzzles and possibilities of dark energy, and discuss the confrontation of a wide variety of "beyond Einstein" models with the latest data, showing what we currently know and what we must seek to learn. Next generation experiments using a variety of cosmological probes will deeply explore dark energy, dark matter, and gravitation.
The Pierre Auger Observatory has the capability of detecting neutrino-induced extensive air showers by searching for very inclined showers with a significant electromagnetic component. In order to study the detector response of the surface array of the Pierre Auger Observatory, Monte Carlo simulations of up-going and down-going neutrino showers for all flavors were performed. A set of relevant observables were determined to discriminate these showers from the background of very inclined hadronic showers and the identification efficiency was studied. The acceptance and the expected event rates, based on the assumption of the incoming neutrino flux, were finally calculated.
The apparent position of the origin (core) of extragalactic radio jets shifts with the observing frequency, owing to synchrotron self-absorption and external absorption. One of the largest core shifts was detected by us in the quasar 0850+581 between 2 and 8 GHz. We have followed this up recently by a dedicated VLBA experiment at 5, 8, 15, 24, and 43 GHz. First results from this study enabled estimating the absolute geometry and physical conditions in the parsec-scale jet origin.
We have used VLT FLAMES data to constrain the uncertain physics of rotational mixing in stellar evolution models. We have simulated a population of single stars and find two groups of observed stars that cannot be explained: (1) a group of fast rotating stars which do not show evidence for rotational mixing and (2) a group of slow rotators with strong N enrichment. Binary effects and fossil magnetic fields may be considered to explain those two groups. We suggest that the element boron could be used to distinguish between rotational mixing and the binary scenario. Our single star population simulations quantify the expected amount of boron in fast and slow rotators and allow a comparison with measured nitrogen and boron abundances in B-stars.
The Kepler mission's primary goal is the detection and characterization of Earth-like planets by observing continuously a region of sky for a nominal period of three-and-a-half years. Over 100,000 stars will be monitored, with a small subset of these having a cadence of 1 minute, making asteroseismic studies for many stars possible. The subset of targets will consist of mainly solar-type and planet-hosting stars, and these will be observed for a minimum period of 1 month and a maximum depending on the scientific yield of the individual target. Many oscillation frequencies will be detected in these data, and these will be used to constrain the star's fundamental parameters. I investigate the effect that an increase in a) the length of observation and b) the signal quality, has on the final determination of some stellar global parameters, such as the radius and the age.
We present results from the first extensive study of convection zones in the envelopes of hot massive stars, which are caused by opacity peaks associated with iron and helium ionization. These convective regions can be located very close to the stellar surface. Recent observations of microturbulence in massive stars from the VLT-Flames survey are in good agreement with our predictions concerning the occurrence and the strength of sub-surface convection in hot stars. We argue further that convection close to the surface may trigger clumping at the base of the stellar wind of massive stars.
Conventional astrophysical observations have failed to provide stringent constraints on physical processes operating in the interior of the stars. However, satellite missions now promise a solution to these problems by providing long-term high-quality continuous data which will allow the application of seismic techniques. With this in mind, and using the Sun as our astrophysical laboratory, our aim is to determine if Corot- and Kepler-like asteroseismic data can constrain physical processes like microscopic diffusion. We test to what extent can the observed atmospheric abundances coupled with p-mode frequencies safely distinguish between stellar initial chemical composition and diffusion of these elements. We present some preliminary results of our analysis.
We discuss the results of the radio studies of the X-ray binaries with relativistic jets. We carried out a multi-frequency (1-30 GHz) daily monitoring of the radio flux variability of the microquasars SS433, GRS1915+105, and Cyg X-3 with the RATAN-600 radio telescope during the recent sets from 1 November 2006 to 31 August 2008. From December 2005 radio emission of Cyg X-3 after four years relatively quiescent levels (100-200 mJy) dropped down to $\sim$20 mJy, and then we detected a lot of bright radio flaring events (1-20 Jy) followed the very variable (from 0 to 0.5 crabs) 15-50 keV X-ray emission, which was monitored in the Swift/BAT ASM program. Again from December 2007 to March 2008 we have daily measured almost quiescent fluxes from Cyg X-3 but in April 2008 a bright radio flare with clear synchrotron self-absorption was detected. We detected several bright short-term flares from GRS 1915+105 which could be associated with active soft X-ray events. In intense measurements of SS433 fluxes (often mutually with X-ray and optical observations) we detected massive ejections during powerful flares. We discuss the various spectral and temporal characteristics of the light curves from the microquasars. Monitoring of the flaring radio emission is a good tracer of jet activity X-ray binaries.
The Optical Monitoring Camera on-board INTEGRAL (OMC) provides Johnson V band photometry of any potentially variable source within its field of view. Taking advantage of the INTEGRAL capabilities allowing the simultaneous observation of different kind of objects in the optical, X and gamma rays bands, we have performed a study of the optical counterparts of different high-energy sources. Up to now, OMC has detected the optical counterpart for more than 100 sources from the High Energy Catalog (Ebisawa et al., 2003). The photometrically calibrated light curves produced by OMC can be accessed through our web portal at: http://sdc.laeff.inta.es/omc
The longstanding problem of modeling double-mode behaviour of classical pulsators was solved with the incorporation of turbulent convection into pulsation hydrocodes. However, the reasons for the computed double-mode behaviour were never clearly identified. In our recent papers (Smolec & Moskalik 2008a,b) we showed that the double-mode behaviour results from the neglect of negative buoyancy effects in some of the hydrocodes. If these effects are taken into account, no stable non-resonant double-mode behaviour can be found. In these proceedings we focus our attention on the role of negative buoyancy effects in classical Cepheid models.
This paper has been withdrawn due to a copyright restrictions.
The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) is an ambitious survey to measure the radial velocities, temperatures, surface gravities, metallicities and abundance ratios for up to a million stars using the 1.2-m UK Schmidt Telescope of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), over the period 2003 - 2011. The survey represents a big advance in our understanding of our own Milky Way galaxy. The main data product will be a southern hemisphere survey of about a million stars. Their selection is based exclusively on their I--band colour, so avoiding any colour-induced bias. RAVE is expected to be the largest spectroscopic survey of the Solar neighbourhood in the coming decade, but with a significant fraction of giant stars reaching out to 10 kpc from the Sun. RAVE offers the first truly representative inventory of stellar radial velocities for all major components of the Galaxy. Here we present the first scientific results of this survey as well as its second data release which doubles the number of previously released radial velocities. For the first time, the release also provides atmospheric parameters for a large fraction of the second year data, making it an unprecedented tool to study the formation of the Milky Way. Plans for further data releases are outlined.
We propose the use of heralded photons to detect Gravitational Waves (GWs). Heralded photons are those photons that, produced during a parametric downconversion process, are "labelled" by the detection and counting of coincidences of their correlated or entangled twins and therefore can be discriminated from the background noise, independently of the type of correlation/entanglement used in the setup. Without losing any generality, we illustrate our proposal with a gedankenexperiment, in which the presence of a gravitational wave causes a relative rotation of the reference frames associated to the double-slit and the test polarizer, respectively, of a Walborn's quantum eraser \cite{wal02}. In this thought experiment, the GW is revealed by the detection of heralded photons in the dark fringes of the recovered interference pattern by the quantum eraser. Other types of entanglement, such as momentum-space or energy-time, could be used to obtain heralded photons to be used in the future with high-frequency GW interferometric detectors when enough bright sources of correlated photons will be available.
The Pierre Auger Observatory has been taking data on the highest energy cosmic rays for the equivalent of over a year of full detector aperture. Comments are presented on results published so far.
This paper considers galactic scale Beacons from the point of view of expense to a builder on Earth. For fixed power density in the far field, what is the cost-optimum interstellar Beacon system? Experience shows an optimum tradeoff, depending on transmission frequency and on antenna size and power. This emerges by minimizing the cost of producing a desired effective isotropic radiated power, which in turn determines the maximum range of detectability of a transmitted signal. We derive general relations for cost-optimal aperture and power. For linear dependence of capital cost on transmitter power and antenna area, minimum capital cost occurs when the cost is equally divided between antenna gain and radiated power. For non-linear power law dependence a similar simple division occurs. This is validated in cost data for many systems; industry uses this cost optimum as a rule-of-thumb. Costs of pulsed cost-efficient transmitters are estimated from these relations using current cost parameters ($/W, $/m2) as a basis. Galactic-scale Beacons demand effective isotropic radiated power >1017 W, emitted powers are >1 GW, with antenna areas > km2. We show the scaling and give examples of such Beacons. Thrifty beacon systems would be large and costly, have narrow searchlight beams and short dwell times when the Beacon would be seen by an alien oberver at target areas in the sky. They may revisit an area infrequently and will likely transmit at higher microwave frequencies, ~10 GHz. The natural corridor to broadcast is along the galactic spiral radius or along the spiral galactic arm we are in. Our second paper argues that nearly all SETI searches to date had little chance of seeing such Beacons.
CCD UBVRI photometry is presented for type II SN 2004dj for about 1200 days, starting day 2 past discovery. The photometric behaviour is typical for SNe II-P, although some minor peculiarities are noticed. We compare the photometric data for the host cluster S96 before and after SN 2004dj outburst and do not find any significant changes.
The Tremaine-Weinberg method is a well-known model independent technique for measuring density wave pattern speeds in spiral galaxies. Here we show how it can be applied to the data cubes (maps of surface brightness and velocity) obtained in H-alpha emission using a Fabry-Perot spectrometer. One of the main difficulties, the discontinuity of the H-alpha emission, is resolved using the neighbouring stellar continuum delivered by the data cube. We argue from symmetry that the motions not associated with the density wave should cancel. We show that our pattern speeds are reasonable by computing corotation radii, and comparing them to measured bar lengths. Simulations including star forming gas also add credibility to our results. Nevertheless it will be necessary to compare them with results using the spectra of the stellar components to quantify any systematic deviations from valid pattern speed values.