119317094
A Wrinkle in Coleman - De Luccia
The decay of a false vacuum in a quantum field theory with the conventional 1 2 (∂μφ) 2 kinetic term was first studied by Coleman[1] via the semiclassical approximation. The effects of gravitation were later included[2]. This work found application in the string landscape, where vacuum decay offers the mechanism by which the multitude of string vacua can be sampled [3]. However, the action appropriate in an open string context has a richer structure than that considered in [1, 2]. We will show that this structure can radically modify the lifetime of certain vacua. To exemplify these modifications, in this letter we consider the case where open string moduli explore the string landscape. Branes and the charges they carry are a crucial part of stable compactifications, and the dynamics of such objects under any process of vacuum selection warrants careful study. In the context of D3 branes probing a type IIB compactification[4] with warp factor 1/f(φ) and potential V (φ)[5], the relevant action is of the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) type. Using this action we will discover two novel features: that the dominant instanton may have a “wrinkle” (see Fig. 2), and that raising the potential barrier can increase the tunneling rate. The net result is that as the barrier height reaches the string scale, the decay rate becomes orders of magnitude faster than the CDL prediction. This effect can be traced to the fact that nucleated bubbles of true vacuum can have parametrically lower domain wall tensions than those arising from the CDL theory. We assume the reader is familiar with the original work by Coleman and De Luccia, which we follow closely.
119640576
Thermal derivation of the Coleman-De Luccia tunneling prescription
We derive the rate for transitions between de Sitter vacua by treating the field theory on the static patch as a thermal system. This reproduces the Coleman-De Luccia formalism for calculating the rate, but leads to a modified interpretation of the bounce solution and a different prediction for the evolution of the system after tunneling. The bounce is seen to correspond to a sequence of configurations interpolating between initial and final configurations on either side of the tunneling barrier, all of which are restricted to the static patch. The final configuration, which gives the initial data on the static patch for evolution after tunneling, is obtained from one-half of a slice through the center of the bounce, while the other half gives the configuration before tunneling. The formalism makes no statement about the fields beyond the horizon. This approach resolves several puzzling aspects and interpretational issues concerning the Coleman-De Luccia and Hawking-Moss bounces. We work in the limit where the backreaction of matter on metric can be ignored, but argue that the qualitative aspects remain in the more general case. The extension to tunneling between anti-de Sitter vacua is discussed.
116941208
Brane tunneling and virtual brane-antibrane pairs
We survey barrier penetration by quantum tunneling for four cases: nonrelativistic point particles, scalar fields, relativistic point particles, and DBI branes. We examine two novel features that arise for DBI brane tunneling: the rate can sometimes increase as the barrier gets higher; and the instanton "wrinkles". We show that these features can be understood as the effect of the quantum sea of virtual brane-antibrane pairs. This sea exponentially augments the decay rate, with possible cosmological consequences.
118384535
Digging supplementary buried channels: investigating the notch architecture within the CCD pixels on ESA's Gaia satellite
The European Space Agency (ESA) Gaia satellite has 106 CCD image sensors which will suffer from increased charge transfer inefficiency (CT I) as a result of radiation damage. To aid the mitigation at low signal levels, the CCD design includes Supplementary Buried Channels (SBCs, otherwise known as ‘notches’) within each C CD column. We present the largest published sample of Gaia CCD SBC Full Well Capacity (FWC) laboratory measurements and simulations based on 13 devices. We find that Gaia CCDs manufactured post-2004 have SBCs with FWCs in the upper half of each CCD that are systematically smaller by two orders of magnitude (650 electrons) compared to those manufactured pre-2004 (thousands of electrons). Gaia’s faint star ( 13 6 G 6 20 mag) astrometric performance predictions by Prod’homme et al. and Holl et al. use pre-2004 SBC FWCs as inputs to their simulations. However, all the CCDs already integrated onto the satellite for the 2013 launch are post2004. SBC FWC measurements are not available for one of our fiv e post-2004 CCDs but the fact it meets Gaia’s image location requirements suggests it has SBC FWCs simi lar to pre2004. It is too late to measure the SBC FWCs onboard the satellite and it is not possible to theoretically predict them. Gaia’s faint star astrometric performance predictions depend o n knowledge of the onboard SBC FWCs but as these are currently unavailable, it is not known how representative of the whole focal plane the current predictions are. Therefore, we suggest Gaia’s initial in-orbit calibrations should include measureme nt of the onboard SBC FWCs. We present a potential method to do this. Faint star astrometric performance predictions based on onboard SBC FWCs at the start of the mission would allow satellite operating conditions or CTI software mitigation to be further optimised to improve the scientific return of Gaia.
119348064
New Results for Three Nearby OB Associations
Abstract: We have developed a new procedure to identify moving groups, and have applied it to carry out a census of the nearby OB associations based on Hipparcos parallaxes and proper motions (see de Bruijne et al. and de Zeeuw et al. elsewhere in this volume). Here we present three illustrative cases. For list, while for Collinder 121 the Hipparcos data change the whole appearance of the association. Finally, we report the discovery of a new association in the field of Cepheus OB2.
7260362
1 STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF NEARBY OB ASSOCIATIONS
We present the rst results of a comprehensive census of the stellar content of the nearby OB associations based on Hipparcos positions, proper motions and parallaxes for 12842 candidate member stars distributed over 21 elds on the sky. We use a new method to identify moving groups in these elds (see de Bruijne et al., these proceedings). Previously, astrometric membership in nearly all the nearby OB associations was known only for stars with spectral types earlier than B5. The Hipparcos measurements now allow us to identify members down to late F. This census provides a rm basis for studies of galactic and extragalactic star forming regions.
16825830
The primordial binary population. I: A near-infrared adaptive optics search for close visual companions to A star members of Scorpius OB2
We present the results of a near-infrared adaptive optics survey with the aim to detect close companions to Hipparcos members in the three subgroups of the nearby OB association Sco OB2: Upper Scorpius (US), Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL) and Lower Centaurus Crux (LCC). We have targeted 199 A-type and late B-type stars in the K S band, and a subset also in the J and H band. We find 151 stellar components other than the target stars. A brightness criterion is used to separate these components into 77 background stars and 74 candidate physical companion stars. Out of these 74 candidate companions, 41 have not been reported before (14 in US; 13 in UCL; 14 in LCC). The angular separation between primaries and observed companion stars ranges from 0.22 to 12.4. At the mean distance of Sco OB2 (130 pc) this corresponds to a projected separation of 28.6 AU to 1612 AU. Absolute magnitudes are derived for all primaries and observed companions using the parallax and interstellar extinction for each star individually. For each object we derive the mass from K S , assuming an age of 5 Myr for the US subgroup, and 20 Myr for the UCL and LCC subgroups. Companion star masses range from 0.10 M ○. to 3.0 M ○. . The mass ratio distribution follows f(q) = q -Γ with r = 0.33, which excludes random pairing. No close (ρ ≤ 3.75) companion stars or background stars are found in the magnitude range 12 mag 14 mag are observed. If these components are very low-mass companion stars, a gap in the companion mass distribution might be present. The small number of close low-mass companion stars could support the embryo-ejection formation scenario for brown dwarfs. Our findings are compared with and complementary to visual, spectroscopic, and astrometric data on binarity in Sco OB2. We find an overall companion star fraction of 0.52 in this association. This is a lower limit since the data from the observations and from literature are hampered by observational biases and selection effects. This paper is the first step toward our goal to derive the primordial binary population in Sco OB2.
14670599
Improved Methods for Identifying Moving Groups
We present a new procedure for the identification of moving groups. It is a combination of two independent member selection methods. One is a modern implementation of a classical convergent point method for proper motion data. The other objectively identifies moving groups in velocity space using proper motions and parallaxes. We briefly describe both methods, and illustrate their power by applying them to Hipparcos measurements of a field containing the Upper Scorpius subgroup of the Scorpio-Centaurus association (Sco OB2). We show how our membership selection procedure not only improves the list of previously known B and A-type members, but also identifies many new members, including a significant number of F stars. We apply our procedure to other nearby OB associations elsewhere in these proceedings (Hoogerwerf et al.; de Zeeuw et al.).