| 1. |
- Tinetti, Giovanna, et al.
(författare)
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The EChO science case
- 2015
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Ingår i: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 40:2-3, s. 329-391
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The discovery of almost two thousand exoplanets has revealed an unexpectedly diverse planet population. We see gas giants in few-day orbits, whole multi-planet systems within the orbit of Mercury, and new populations of planets with masses between that of the Earth and Neptune-all unknown in the Solar System. Observations to date have shown that our Solar System is certainly not representative of the general population of planets in our Milky Way. The key science questions that urgently need addressing are therefore: What are exoplanets made of? Why are planets as they are? How do planetary systems work and what causes the exceptional diversity observed as compared to the Solar System? The EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory) space mission was conceived to take up the challenge to explain this diversity in terms of formation, evolution, internal structure and planet and atmospheric composition. This requires in-depth spectroscopic knowledge of the atmospheres of a large and well-defined planet sample for which precise physical, chemical and dynamical information can be obtained. In order to fulfil this ambitious scientific program, EChO was designed as a dedicated survey mission for transit and eclipse spectroscopy capable of observing a large, diverse and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. The transit and eclipse spectroscopy method, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allows us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of at least 10(-4) relative to the star. This can only be achieved in conjunction with a carefully designed stable payload and satellite platform. It is also necessary to provide broad instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect as many molecular species as possible, to probe the thermal structure of the planetary atmospheres and to correct for the contaminating effects of the stellar photosphere. This requires wavelength coverage of at least 0.55 to 11 mu m with a goal of covering from 0.4 to 16 mu m. Only modest spectral resolving power is needed, with R similar to 300 for wavelengths less than 5 mu m and R similar to 30 for wavelengths greater than this. The transit spectroscopy technique means that no spatial resolution is required. A telescope collecting area of about 1 m(2) is sufficiently large to achieve the necessary spectro-photometric precision: for the Phase A study a 1.13 m(2) telescope, diffraction limited at 3 mu m has been adopted. Placing the satellite at L2 provides a cold and stable thermal environment as well as a large field of regard to allow efficient time-critical observation of targets randomly distributed over the sky. EChO has been conceived to achieve a single goal: exoplanet spectroscopy. The spectral coverage and signal-to-noise to be achieved by EChO, thanks to its high stability and dedicated design, would be a game changer by allowing atmospheric composition to be measured with unparalleled exactness: at least a factor 10 more precise and a factor 10 to 1000 more accurate than current observations. This would enable the detection of molecular abundances three orders of magnitude lower than currently possible and a fourfold increase from the handful of molecules detected to date. Combining these data with estimates of planetary bulk compositions from accurate measurements of their radii and masses would allow degeneracies associated with planetary interior modelling to be broken, giving unique insight into the interior structure and elemental abundances of these alien worlds. EChO would allow scientists to study exoplanets both as a population and as individuals. The mission can target super-Earths, Neptune-like, and Jupiter-like planets, in the very hot to temperate zones (planet temperatures of 300-3000 K) of F to M-type host stars. The EChO core science would be delivered by a three-tier survey. The EChO Chemical Census: This is a broad survey of a few-hundred exoplanets, which allows us to explore the spectroscopic and chemical diversity of the exoplanet population as a whole. The EChO Origin: This is a deep survey of a subsample of tens of exoplanets for which significantly higher signal to noise and spectral resolution spectra can be obtained to explain the origin of the exoplanet diversity (such as formation mechanisms, chemical processes, atmospheric escape). The EChO Rosetta Stones: This is an ultra-high accuracy survey targeting a subsample of select exoplanets. These will be the bright "benchmark" cases for which a large number of measurements would be taken to explore temporal variations, and to obtain two and three dimensional spatial information on the atmospheric conditions through eclipse-mapping techniques. If EChO were launched today, the exoplanets currently observed are sufficient to provide a large and diverse sample. The Chemical Census survey would consist of > 160 exoplanets with a range of planetary sizes, temperatures, orbital parameters and stellar host properties. Additionally, over the next 10 years, several new ground- and space-based transit photometric surveys and missions will come on-line (e.g. NGTS, CHEOPS, TESS, PLATO), which will specifically focus on finding bright, nearby systems. The current rapid rate of discovery would allow the target list to be further optimised in the years prior to EChO's launch and enable the atmospheric characterisation of hundreds of planets.
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| 2. |
- de Jong, R. S., et al.
(författare)
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4MOST : Project overview and information for the First Call for Proposals
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Messenger. - : European Southern Observatory. - 0722-6691. ; 175, s. 3-11
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We introduce the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), a new high-multiplex, wide-field spectroscopic survey facility under development for the four-metre-class Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at Paranal. Its key specifications are: a large field of view (FoV) of 4.2 square degrees and a high multiplex capability, with 1624 fibres feeding two low-resolution spectrographs (R = λ/Δλ ~ 6500), and 812 fibres transferring light to the high-resolution spectrograph (R ~ 20 000). After a description of the instrument and its expected performance, a short overview is given of its operational scheme and planned 4MOST Consortium science; these aspects are covered in more detail in other articles in this edition of The Messenger. Finally, the processes, schedules, and policies concerning the selection of ESO Community Surveys are presented, commencing with a singular opportunity to submit Letters of Intent for Public Surveys during the first five years of 4MOST operations.
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| 3. |
- Marconi, Alessandro, et al.
(författare)
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ELT-HIRES, the high resolution spectrograph for the ELT : Phase A study and path to construction
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII. - : SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. - 9781510636828 - 9781510636811
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- HIRES is the high-resolution spectrograph of the European Extremely Large Telescope at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. It consists of three fibre-fed spectrographs providing a wavelength coverage of 0.4-1.8 µm (goal 0.35-2.4 µm) at a spectral resolution of 100,000. The fibre-feeding allows HIRES to have several, interchangeable observing modes including a SCAO module and a small diffraction-limited IFU in the NIR. Therefore, it will be able to operate both in seeing- and diffraction-limited modes. Its modularity will ensure that HIRES can be placed entirely on the Nasmyth platform, if enough mass and volume is available, or part on the Nasmyth and part in the Coud`e room. ELT-HIRES has a wide range of science cases spanning nearly all areas of research in astrophysics and even fundamental physics. Among the top science cases there are the detection of biosignatures from exoplanet atmospheres, finding the fingerprints of the first generation of stars (PopIII), tests on the stability of Nature’s fundamental couplings, and the direct detection of the cosmic acceleration. The HIRES consortium is composed of more than 30 institutes from 14 countries, forming a team of more than 200 scientists and engineers.
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| 4. |
- Dubernet, M. L., et al.
(författare)
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The virtual atomic and molecular data centre (VAMDC) consortium
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Physics B. - : IOP Publishing. - 0953-4075 .- 1361-6455. ; 49:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Centre (VAMDC) Consortium is a worldwide consortium which federates atomic and molecular databases through an e-science infrastructure and an organisation to support this activity. About 90% of the inter-connected databases handle data that are used for the interpretation of astronomical spectra and for modelling in many fields of astrophysics. Recently the VAMDC Consortium has connected databases from the radiation damage and the plasma communities, as well as promoting the publication of data from Indian institutes. This paper describes how the VAMDC Consortium is organised for the optimal distribution of atomic and molecular data for scientific research. It is noted that the VAMDC Consortium strongly advocates that authors of research papers using data cite the original experimental and theoretical papers as well as the relevant databases.
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| 5. |
- Adlarson, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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ABC effect and resonance structure in the double-pionic fusion to He-3
- 2015
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Ingår i: Physical Review C. Nuclear Physics. - 0556-2813 .- 1089-490X. ; 91:1, s. 015201-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Exclusive and kinematically complete measurements of the double pionic fusion to He-3 have been performed in the energy region of the so-called ABC effect, which denotes a pronounced low-mass enhancement in the pi pi-invariant mass spectrum. The experiments were carried out with the WASA detector setup at COSY (the cooler synchrotron at Forschungszentrum Julich). Similar to the observations in the basic pn -> d pi(0)pi(0) reaction and in the dd -> He-4 pi(0)pi(0) reaction, the data reveal a correlation between the ABC effect and a resonance-like energy dependence in the total cross section. Differential cross sections are well described by the hypothesis of d* resonance formation during the reaction process in addition to the conventional t-channel Delta Delta mechanism. The deduced d* resonance width can be understood from collision broadening due to Fermi motion of the nucleons in initial and final nuclei.
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| 6. |
- Adlarson, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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Charge symmetry breaking in dd -> He-4 pi(0) with WASA-at-COSY
- 2014
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Ingår i: Physics Letters B. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-2693 .- 1873-2445. ; 739, s. 44-49
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Charge symmetry breaking (CSB) observables are a suitable experimental tool to examine effects induced by quark masses on the nuclear level. Previous high precision data from TRIUMF and IUCF are currently used to develop a consistent description of CSB within the framework of chiral perturbation theory. In this work the experimental studies on the reaction dd -> He-4 pi(0) have been extended towards higher excess energies in order to provide information on the contribution of p-waves in the final state. For this, an exclusive measurement has been carried out at a beam momentum of p(d) = 1.2GeV/c using the WASA-at-COSY facility. The total cross section amounts to sigma(tot) =(118 +/- 18(stat) +/- 13(sys) +/- 8(ext)) p band first data on the differential cross section are consistent with s-wave pion production.
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| 7. |
- Adlarson, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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Cross section ratio and angular distributions of the reaction p + d -> He-3 + eta at 48.8MeV and 59.8MeV excess energy
- 2014
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Ingår i: European Physical Journal A. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6001 .- 1434-601X. ; 50:6, s. 100-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present new data for angular distributions and on the cross section ratio of the p+d -> He-3+eta reaction at excess energies of Q - 48.8MeV and Q - 59.8 MeV. The data have been obtained at the WASA-at-COSY experiment (Forschungszentrum Julich) using a proton beam and a deuterium pellet target. While the shape of obtained angular distributions show only a slow variation with the energy, the new results indicate a distinct and unexpected total cross section fluctuation between Q = 20MeV and Q = 60 MeV, which might indicate the variation of the production mechanism within this energy interval.
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| 8. |
- Adlarson, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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Investigation of the dd -> (3)Hen pi(0) reaction with the FZ Julich WASA-at-COSY facility
- 2013
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Ingår i: Physical Review C. Nuclear Physics. - 0556-2813 .- 1089-490X. ; 88:1, s. 014004-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An exclusive measurement of the dd -> (3)Hen pi(0) reaction was carried out at a beam momentum of p(d) = 1.2 GeV/c using the WASA-at-COSY facility. Information on the total cross section as well as differential distributions was obtained. The data are described by a phenomenological approach based on a combination of a quasifree model and a partial wave expansion for the three-body reaction. The total cross section is found to be sigma(tot) = ( 2.89 +/- 0.01(stat) +/- 0.06(sys) +/- 0.29(norm)) mu b. The contribution of the quasifree processes ( with the beam or target neutron being a spectator) accounts for 38% of the total cross section and dominates the differential distributions in specific regions of phase space. The remaining part of the cross section can be described by a partial wave decomposition indicating the significance of p-wave contributions in the final state.
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| 9. |
- Adlarson, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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Measurement of the pn -> pp pi(0)pi(-) reaction in search for the recently observed resonance structure in d pi(0)pi(0) and d pi(+)pi(-) systems
- 2013
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Ingår i: Physical Review C. Nuclear Physics. - 0556-2813 .- 1089-490X. ; 88:5, s. 055208-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Exclusive measurements of the quasifree pn -> pp pi(0)pi(-) reaction have been performed by means of pd collisions at T-p = 1.2 GeV using the wide angle shower apparatus (WASA) detector setup at the cooler synchrotron COSY (Institut fur Kernphysik, Julich). Total and differential cross sections have been obtained covering the energy region root s = (2.35-2.46) GeV, which includes the region of the ABC effect and its associated resonance structure. NoABCeffect, i.e., low-mass enhancement is found in the pi(0)pi(-) -invariant mass spectrum, in agreement with the constraint from Bose statistics that the isovector pion pair can not be in relative s wave. At the upper end of the covered energy region t-channel processes for Roper, Delta(1600) and Delta Delta excitations provide a reasonable description of the data, but at low energies the measured cross sections are much larger than predicted by such processes. Adding a resonance amplitude for the resonance at m = 2.37 GeV with Gamma = 70 MeV and I (J(P)) = 0(3(+)) observed recently in pn -> d pi(0)pi(0) and pn -> d pi(+)pi(-) reactions leads to an agreement with the data also at low energies.
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| 10. |
- Adlarson, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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Neutron-proton scattering in the context of the d*(2380) resonance
- 2014
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Ingår i: Physical Review C. Nuclear Physics. - 0556-2813 .- 1089-490X. ; 90:3, s. 035204-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- New data on quasifree polarized neutron-proton scattering in the region of the recently observed d* resonance structure are obtained by exclusive and kinematically complete high-statistics measurements with WASA at COSY. This paper details the determination of the beam polarization, checks of the quasifree character of the scattering process, on all obtained Ay angular distributions and on the new partial-wave analysis, which includes the new data producing a resonance pole in D-3(3)-(3)G(3) coupled partial waves at (2380 +/- 10 - i40 +/- 5) MeV-in accordance with the d* dibaryon resonance hypothesis. The effect of the new partial-wave solution on the description of total and differential cross-section data as well as specific combinations of spin-correlation and spin-transfer observables available from COSY-ANKE measurements at T-d = 2.27 GeV is discussed.
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