Search results for "Astrophysics and Astronomy"
showing 10 items of 152 documents
Prospects for discovering supersymmetric long-lived particles with MoEDAL
2020
We present a study on the possibility of searching for long-lived supersymmetric partners with the MoEDAL experiment at the LHC. MoEDAL is sensitive to highly ionising objects such as magnetic monopoles or massive (meta)stable electrically charged particles. We focus on prospects of directly detecting long-lived sleptons in a phenomenologically realistic model which involves an intermediate neutral long-lived particle in the decay chain. This scenario is not yet excluded by the current data from ATLAS or CMS, and is compatible with astrophysical constraints. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we compare the sensitivities of MoEDAL versus ATLAS in scenarios where MoEDAL could provide discovery re…
Robust constraint on Lorentz violation using Fermi-LAT gamma-ray burst data
2018
Models of quantum gravity suggest that the vacuum should be regarded as a medium with quantum structure that may have non-trivial effects on photon propagation, including the violation of Lorentz invariance. Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are sensitive probes of Lorentz invariance, via studies of energy-dependent timing shifts in their rapidly-varying photon emissions. In this paper we analyze the Fermi-LAT measurements of high-energy gamma rays from GRBs with known redshifts, allowing for the possibility of energy-dependent variations in emission times at the sources as well as a possible non-trivial refractive index in vacuo for photons. We use st…
High magnetic fields for fundamental physics
2018
Various fundamental-physics experiments such as measurement of the birefringence of the vacuum, searches for ultralight dark matter (e.g., axions), and precision spectroscopy of complex systems (including exotic atoms containing antimatter constituents) are enabled by high-field magnets. We give an overview of current and future experiments and discuss the state-of-the-art DC- and pulsed-magnet technologies and prospects for future developments.
Infrated photometry of NGC 1893
2008
The independence of the star formation processes with respect to the environmental conditions is controversial. In particular it is not clear whether star formation in the outer Galaxy, where the environmental conditions are, theoretically, less conducive, occurs in the same way as in the inner Galaxy. We investigate the population of NGC 1893, a young cluster (~3-4Myr) in the outer part of the Galaxy (galactic radius >11kpc) in order to explore the effects of environmental conditions on star forming regions. We present the infrared observations obtained with the IRAC camera on board of the Spitzer Space Telescope and analyze the color-color diagrams to establish the membership of stars wit…
Old MS stars in young moving groups
2009
The associations and moving groups of young stars are excellent laboratories to investigate the stellar formation in the solar neighborhood. Past results confirmed that a non-negligible fraction of old main-sequence stars is present in the lists of members of the young stellar kinematic groups. A detailed study on the properties of these samples is needed to separate the young stars from old main-sequence stars with similar space motion, in order to identify the origin of these structures. Our intention is to characterize the sample of stars members of the young moving groups and determine their age distribution to quantify the contamination by old main-sequence stars, in particular, in the…
Zeeman effect in sulfur monoxide (SO)
2017
Magnetic fields play a fundamental role in star formation processes and the best method to evaluate their intensity is to measure the Zeeman effect of atomic and molecular lines. However, a direct measurement of the Zeeman spectral pattern from interstellar molecular species is challenging due to the high sensitivity and high spectral resolution required. So far, the Zeeman effect has been detected unambiguously in star forming regions for very few non-masing species, such as OH and CN. We decided to investigate the suitability of sulfur monoxide (SO), which is one of the most abundant species in star forming regions, for probing the intensity of magnetic fields via the Zeeman effect. We in…
Trans-HCOOH hyperfine structure
2010
Formic acid, HCOOH, is the simplest organic acid and the first that has been identified in the interstellar medium. Its astrophysical relevance has motivated this spectroscopic study. The aim of this investigation is to provide very accurate rest frequencies for the trans isomer of HCOOH as well as to improve the spectroscopic and hyperfine parameters available in the literature for this molecule. The Lamb-dip technique has been exploited in order to record the rotational spectrum of trans-HCOOH at sub-Doppler resolution in the millimeter- and submillimeter-wave frequency ranges and, when possible, to resolve the hyperfine structure due to the hydrogen nuclei. THz measurements have been car…
APOKASC-2 catalog of Kepler evolved stars
2019
We present a catalog of stellar properties for a large sample of 6676 evolved stars with Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment spectroscopic parameters and Kepler asteroseismic data analyzed using five independent techniques. Our data include evolutionary state, surface gravity, mean density, mass, radius, age, and the spectroscopic and asteroseismic measurements used to derive them. We employ a new empirical approach for combining asteroseismic measurements from different methods, calibrating the inferred stellar parameters, and estimating uncertainties. With high statistical significance, we find that asteroseismic parameters inferred from the different pipelines have sys…
UBVRI photometry of NGC 2422
2003
We present UBVRI photometry of the open cluster NGC 2422 (age~10^8^yr) down to a limiting magnitude V=~19. These data are used to derive the Luminosity and Mass Functions and to study the cluster spatial distribution. By considering the color-magnitude diagram data and adopting a representative cluster main sequence, we obtained a list of candidate cluster members based on a photometric criterion. Cone search capability for table J/A+A/404/927/table4 (Astrometric/photometric catalog of candidate members of the open cluster NGC 2422)
HSO line list
2016
Despite the fact that many sulfur-bearing molecules, ranging from simple diatomic species up to astronomical complex molecules, have been detected in the interstellar medium, the sulfur chemistry in space is largely unknown and a depletion in the abundance of S-containing species has been observed in the cold, dense interstellar medium. The chemical form of the missing sulfur has yet to be identified. For these reasons, in view of the fact that there is a large abundance of triatomic species harbouring sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen, we decided to investigate the HSO radical in the laboratory to try its astronomical detection. High-resolution measurements of the rotational spectrum of the HSO…