Correcting systematic effects in a large set of photometric light curves     

O. Tamuz  T. Mazeh  S. Zucker † 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,356(4):1466-1470

We suggest a new algorithm to remove systematic effects in a large set of light curves obtained by a photometric survey. The algorithm can remove systematic effects, such as those associated with atmospheric extinction, detector efficiency, or point spread function changes over the detector. The algorithm works without any prior knowledge of the effects, as long as they linearly appear in many stars of the sample. The approach, which was originally developed to remove atmospheric extinction effects, is based on a lower rank approximation of matrices, an approach which has already been suggested and used in chemometrics, for example. The proposed algorithm is especially useful in cases where the uncertainties of the measurements are unequal. For equal uncertainties, the algorithm reduces to the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) algorithm. We present a simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and we point out its potential, in the search for transit candidates in particular.  相似文献   

The evolution of binary fractions in globular clusters     

N. Ivanova  K. Belczynski  J. M. Fregeau  F. A. Rasio 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,358(2):572-584

We study the evolution of binary stars in globular clusters using a new Monte Carlo approach combining a population synthesis code ( startrack ) and a simple treatment of dynamical interactions in the dense cluster core using a new tool for computing three- and four-body interactions ( fewbody ). We find that the combination of stellar evolution and dynamical interactions (binary–single and binary–binary) leads to a rapid depletion of the binary population in the cluster core. The maximum binary fraction today in the core of a typical dense cluster such as 47 Tuc, assuming an initial binary fraction of 100 per cent, is only ∼ 5–10 per cent. We show that this is in good agreement with recent Hubble Space Telescope observations of close binaries in the core of 47 Tuc, provided that a realistic distribution of binary periods is used to interpret the results. Our findings also have important consequences for the dynamical modelling of globular clusters, suggesting that 'realistic models' should incorporate much larger initial binary fractions than has usually been the case in the past.  相似文献   

The depolarization properties of powerful extragalactic radio sources as a function of cosmic epoch     

J. A. Goodlet  C. R. Kaiser 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,359(4):1456-1468

We use the observed polarization properties of a sample of 26 powerful radio galaxies and radio-loud quasars to constrain the conditions in the Faraday screens local to the sources. We adopt the cosmological redshift, low-frequency radio luminosity and physical size of the large-scale radio structures as our 'fundamental' parameters. We find no correlation of the radio spectral index with any of the fundamental parameters. The observed rotation measure is also independent of these parameters, suggesting that most of the Faraday rotation occurs in the Galactic foreground. The difference between the rotation measures of the two lobes of an individual source, as well as the dispersion of the rotation measure, shows significant correlations with the source redshift, but not with the radio luminosity or source size. This is evidence that the small-scale structure observed in the rotation measure is caused by a Faraday screen local to the sources. The observed asymmetries between the lobes of our sources show no significant trends with each other or other source properties. Finally, we show that the commonly used model for the depolarization of synchrotron radio emission by foreground Faraday screens is inconsistent with our observations. We apply alternative models to our data and show that they require a strong increase of the dispersion of the rotation measure inside the Faraday screens with cosmological redshift. Correcting our observations with these models for redshift effects, we find a strong correlation of the depolarization measure with redshift and a significantly weaker correlation with radio luminosity. We do not find any (anti-)correlation of depolarization measure with source size. All our results are consistent with a decrease in the order of the magnetic field structure of the Faraday screen local to the sources for increasing cosmological redshift.  相似文献   

The continuum and narrow-line region of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 766     

A. Rodríguez-Ardila †  M. Contini  S. M. Viegas 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,357(1):220-234

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Growth of linear perturbations before the era of the first galaxies     

S. Naoz  R. Barkana 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,362(3):1047-1053

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Effect of metamorphism and partial melting of host rocks on zircons     

L. N. GUPTA  W. JOHANNES 《Journal of Metamorphic Geology》1985,3(3):311-323

Abstract Zircons have been studied from different layers of migmatites (from Arvika, western Sweden and Nelaug, southern Norway) and from a paragneiss (from Arvika) associated with one of the migmatites. The main purpose of the investigation is to establish whether or not information about zircons can help in the elucidation of the parentage and rock-forming processes of migmatites.
The elongation ratio of zircons from all layers is small and characteristic of sedimentary zircons. Further, the absence of characteristic colours and the growth trends of the zircons (indicated by the reduced major axes) observed in the various samples both support a sedimentary parentage for these rocks. The zircons of all layers exhibit secondary growth (overgrowth, outgrowth and multiple growth) due to metamorphism. Compared with the zircons from the paragneiss, those of the migmatite layers are more clouded and less rounded, some of them becoming opaque or even skeletal; this is especially true of the zircons from the leucosomes. These observations indicate an alteration of the original sedimentary zircons in the migmatite, especially in the leucosomes, in response to the migmatization process, previously interpreted as partial melting.  相似文献   

WR 143: a Wolf–Rayet binary     

Watson P. Varricatt  Nagarhalli M. Ashok 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2006,365(1):127-133

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Gravitational cooling and density profile near caustics in collisionless dark matter haloes     

Roya Mohayaee  Sergei F. Shandarin 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2006,366(4):1217-1229

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The induced turbulence effect on propagation of radio emission in pulsar magnetospheres     

Qinghuan Luo  D. B. Melrose 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2006,371(3):1395-1404

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An efficient technique for pre-selecting low-redshift damped Lyα systems     

Sara L. Ellison 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2006,368(1):335-340

The number of z ∼ 1 damped Lyα systems (DLAs, log  N (H  i ) ≥ 20.3) per unit redshift is approximately 0.1, making them relatively rare objects. Large, blind QSO surveys for low-redshift DLAs are therefore an expensive prospect for space-borne ultraviolet telescopes. Increasing the efficiency of these surveys by pre-selecting DLA candidates based on the equivalent widths (EWs) of metal absorption lines has previously been a successful strategy. However, the success rate of DLA identification is still only ∼35 per cent when simple EW cut-offs are applied, the majority of systems having 19.0 < log  N (H  i ) < 20.3. Here, we propose a new way to pre-select DLA candidates. Our technique requires high-to-moderate-resolution spectroscopy of the Mg  ii λ2796 transition, which is easily accessible from the ground for 0.2 ≲ z ≲ 2.4. We define the D -index, the ratio of the line equivalent width to velocity spread, and measure this quantity for 19 DLAs and eight sub-DLAs in archival spectra obtained with echelle spectrographs. For the majority of absorbers, there is a clear distinction between the D -index of DLAs compared with sub-DLAs (Kolmogorov–Smirnov probability = 0.8 per cent). Based on this pilot data sample, we find that the D -index can select DLAs with a success rate of up to 90 per cent, an increase in selection efficiency by a factor of 2.5 compared with a simple EW cut. We test the applicability of the D -index at lower resolution and find that it remains a good discriminant of DLAs for full width at half-maximum (FWHM) ≲ 1.5 Å. However, the recommended D -index cut-off between DLAs and sub-DLAs decreases with poorer resolution and we tabulate the appropriate D -index values that should be used with spectra of different resolutions.  相似文献