We present a comprehensive analysis of different techniques available for the spectroscopic analysis of FGK stars and provide a recommended methodology which efficiently estimates accurate stellar ...atmospheric parameters for large samples of stars. Our analysis includes a simultaneous equivalent width analysis of Fe i and Fe ii spectral lines, and for the first time, utilizes on-the-fly non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) corrections of individual Fe i lines. We further investigate several temperature scales, finding that estimates from Balmer line measurements provide the most accurate effective temperatures at all metallicities. We apply our analysis to a large sample of both dwarf and giant stars selected from the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) survey. We then show that the difference between parameters determined by our method and that by the standard 1D LTE excitation-ionization balance of Fe reveals substantial systematic biases: up to 400 K in effective temperature, 1.0 dex in surface gravity and 0.4 dex in metallicity for stars with Fe/H ∼ −2.5. This has large implications for the study of the stellar populations in the Milky Way.
We report new constraints on the local escape speed of our Galaxy. Our analysis is based on a sample of high-velocity stars from the RAVE survey and two previously published data sets. We use ...cosmological simulations of disc galaxy formation to motivate our assumptions on the shape of the velocity distribution, allowing for a significantly more precise measurement of the escape velocity compared to previous studies. We find that the escape velocity lies within the range 498 < vesc < 608 km s−1 (90 per cent confidence), with a median likelihood of 544 km s−1. The fact that v2esc is significantly greater than 2v2circ (where vcirc= 220 km s−1 is the local circular velocity) implies that there must be a significant amount of mass exterior to the solar circle, that is, this convincingly demonstrates the presence of a dark halo in the Galaxy. We use our constraints on vesc to determine the mass of the Milky Way halo for three halo profiles. For example, an adiabatically contracted NFW halo model results in a virial mass of 1.42+1.14−0.54× 1012 M⊙ and virial radius of (90 per cent confidence). For this model the circular velocity at the virial radius is 142+31−21 km s−1. Although our halo masses are model dependent, we find that they are in good agreement with each other.
About 1% of giant stars have been shown to have large surface Li abundances, which is unexpected according to standard stellar evolution models. Several scenarios for lithium production have been ...proposed, but it is still unclear why these Li-rich giants exist. A missing piece in this puzzle is the knowledge of the exact stage of evolution of these stars. Using low- and-high-resolution spectroscopic observations, we have undertaken a survey of lithium-rich giants in the Kepler field. In this Letter, we report the finding of the first confirmed Li-rich core-helium-burning giant, as revealed by asteroseismic analysis. The evolutionary timescales constrained by its mass suggest that Li production most likely took place through non-canonical mixing at the RGB tip, possibly during the helium flash.
Peripheral mechanoreceptor-based treatments such as acupuncture and chiropractic manipulation have shown success in modulating the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system originating in the ventral tegmental ...area (VTA) of the midbrain and projecting to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of the striatum. We have previously shown that mechanoreceptor activation via whole-body vibration (WBV) ameliorates neuronal and behavioral effects of chronic ethanol exposure. In this study, we employ a similar paradigm to assess the efficacy of WBV as a preventative measure of neuronal and behavioral effects of morphine withdrawal in a Wistar rat model. We demonstrate that concurrent administration of WBV at 80 Hz with morphine over a 5-day period significantly reduced adaptations in VTA GABA neuronal activity and NAc DA release and modulated expression of δ-opioid receptors (DORs) on NAc cholinergic interneurons (CINs) during withdrawal. We also observed a reduction in behavior typically associated with opioid withdrawal. WBV represents a promising adjunct to current intervention for opioid use disorder (OUD) and should be examined translationally in humans.
We present part 2 of the sixth and final Data Release (DR6) of the Radial Velocity Experiment (Rave), a magnitude-limited ( ) spectroscopic survey of Galactic stars randomly selected in Earth's ...southern hemisphere. The Rave medium-resolution spectra (R ∼ 7500) cover the Ca triplet region (8410-8795 ) and span the complete time frame from the start of Rave observations on 2003 April 12 to their completion on 2013 April 4. In the second of two publications, we present the data products derived from 518,387 observations of 451,783 unique stars using a suite of advanced reduction pipelines focusing on stellar atmospheric parameters, in particular purely spectroscopically derived stellar atmospheric parameters ( , , and the overall metallicity), enhanced stellar atmospheric parameters inferred via a Bayesian pipeline using Gaia DR2 astrometric priors, and asteroseismically calibrated stellar atmospheric parameters for giant stars based on asteroseismic observations for 699 K2 stars. In addition, we provide abundances of the elements Fe, Al, and Ni, as well as an overall /Fe ratio obtained using a new pipeline based on the GAUGUIN optimization method that is able to deal with variable signal-to-noise ratios. The Rave DR6 catalogs are cross-matched with relevant astrometric and photometric catalogs, and are complemented by orbital parameters and effective temperatures based on the infrared flux method. The data can be accessed via the Rave website (http://rave-survey.org) or the Vizier database.
The Radial Velocity Experiment (Rave) is a magnitude-limited (9 < I < 12) spectroscopic survey of Galactic stars randomly selected in Earth's southern hemisphere. The Rave medium-resolution spectra ...(R ∼ 7500) cover the Ca-triplet region (8410-8795 ). The sixth and final data release (DR6) is based on 518,387 observations of 451,783 unique stars. Rave observations were taken between 2003 April 12 and 2013 April 4. Here we present the genesis, setup, and data reduction of Rave as well as wavelength-calibrated and flux-normalized spectra and error spectra for all observations in Rave DR6. Furthermore, we present derived spectral classification and radial velocities for the Rave targets, complemented by cross-matches with Gaia DR2 and other relevant catalogs. A comparison between internal error estimates, variances derived from stars with more than one observing epoch, and a comparison with radial velocities of Gaia DR2 reveals consistently that 68% of the objects have a velocity accuracy better than 1.4 km s-1, while 95% of the objects have radial velocities better than 4.0 km s-1. Stellar atmospheric parameters, abundances and distances are presented in a subsequent publication. The data can be accessed via the Rave website (http://rave-survey.org) or the Vizier database.
The design of the CMS phase II upgrade for the HL-LHC uses SiPMs for the Barrel Timing Layer (BTL) and the Behind HCAL detector (BH or CEH). In both sub-detectors the SiPMs will see a 1 MeV ...equivalent dose of around 1014 n/cm2. To lower the noise in the SiPMs the design is to keep the SiPMs at a low temperature of −30 °C. Different samples from two manufactures of SiPMs were irradiated to a total dose of resp. 2 ×1012, 5 ×1013 at the TRIGA reactor at the JSI in Slovenia. The noise in SiPMs is dominated by trap assisted tunneling which is a result of the high internal electric field in SiPMs. We therefore studied the noise behavior from ＋10 °C to −40 °C from standard high internal field and specially designed low field SiPMs from FBK-irst and Hamamatsu. After the initial characterization before annealing the noise decrease in SiPMs was also studied using accelerated annealing.
•Noise increase in SiPMs vs 1 MeV equivalent neutron irradiation.•Temperature dependence of the noise in SiPMs after radiation damage.•Annealing after irradiation.
We report the discovery of eight lithium-rich field giants found in a high-resolution spectroscopic sample of over 700 metal-poor stars (Fe/H < -0.5) selected from the Radial Velocity Experiment ...survey. The majority of the Li-rich giants in our sample are very metal-poor (Fe/H -1.9), and have a Li abundance (in the form of 7Li), A(Li) = log (n(Li)/n(H)) + 12, between 2.30 and 3.63, well above the typical upper red giant branch (RGB) limit, A(Li) < 0.5, while two stars, with A(Li) ~ 1.7-1.8, show similar lithium abundances to normal giants at the same gravity. We further included two metal-poor, Li-rich globular cluster giants in our sample, namely the previously discovered M3-IV101 and newly discovered (in this work) M68-A96. This comprises the largest sample of metal-poor Li-rich giants to date. We performed a detailed abundance analysis of all stars, finding that the majority of our sample stars have elemental abundances similar to that of Li-normal halo giants. Although the evolutionary phase of each Li-rich giant cannot be definitively determined, the Li-rich phase is likely connected to extra mixing at the RGB bump or early asymptotic giant branch that triggers cool bottom processing in which the bottom of the outer convective envelope is connected to the H-burning shell in the star. The surface of a star becomes Li-enhanced as 7Be (which burns to 7Li) is transported to the stellar surface via the Cameron-Fowler mechanism. We discuss and discriminate among several models for the extra mixing that can cause Li production, given the detailed abundances of the Li-rich giants in our sample.
We present chemical elemental abundances for 36,561 stars observed by the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE), an ambitious spectroscopic survey of our Galaxy at Galactic latitudes |b| > 25? and with ...magnitudes in the range 9 DENIS <13. RAVE spectra cover the Ca-triplet region at 8410-8795 A with resolving power R ~ 7500. This first data release of the RAVE chemical catalog is complementary to the third RAVE data release of radial velocities and stellar parameters, and it contains chemical abundances for the elements Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe, and Ni, with a mean error of ~0.2 dex, as judged from accuracy tests performed on synthetic and real spectra. Abundances are estimated through a dedicated processing pipeline in which the curve of growth of individual lines is obtained from a library of absorption line equivalent widths to construct a model spectrum that is then matched to the observed spectrum via a Delta *y2 minimization technique. We plan to extend this pipeline to include estimates for other elements, such as oxygen and sulfur, in future data releases.
PDF
