| 1. |
- Birney, Ewan, et al.
(author)
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Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1% of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project
- 2007
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 447:7146, s. 799-816
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the generation and analysis of functional data from multiple, diverse experiments performed on a targeted 1% of the human genome as part of the pilot phase of the ENCODE Project. These data have been further integrated and augmented by a number of evolutionary and computational analyses. Together, our results advance the collective knowledge about human genome function in several major areas. First, our studies provide convincing evidence that the genome is pervasively transcribed, such that the majority of its bases can be found in primary transcripts, including non-protein-coding transcripts, and those that extensively overlap one another. Second, systematic examination of transcriptional regulation has yielded new understanding about transcription start sites, including their relationship to specific regulatory sequences and features of chromatin accessibility and histone modification. Third, a more sophisticated view of chromatin structure has emerged, including its inter-relationship with DNA replication and transcriptional regulation. Finally, integration of these new sources of information, in particular with respect to mammalian evolution based on inter- and intra-species sequence comparisons, has yielded new mechanistic and evolutionary insights concerning the functional landscape of the human genome. Together, these studies are defining a path for pursuit of a more comprehensive characterization of human genome function.
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| 2. |
- Church, Ross P., et al.
(author)
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Detailed models of the binary pulsars J1141-6545 and B2303+46
- 2006
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In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2966 .- 0035-8711. ; 372:2, s. 715-727
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have modelled the formation of the eccentric double-degenerate binaries J1141-6545 and B2303+46 using the Henyey-type full stellar evolution code STARS and the population synthesis code BSE. We find that the outcome depends strongly on the common envelope (CE) evolution efficiency parameter alpha(CE) and show that both systems can be modelled with a single value of alpha(CE). The final orbit of the system depends critically on the order of Roche lobe filling events. The phase space of progenitors and the different evolutionary pathways followed by binary stars that form eccentric double-degenerate binaries in the two codes are compared. We show that the pathways are similar between the codes and that the distribution of progenitors in mass and separation phase space is qualitatively the same, thus validating the use of BSE-like population synthesis for simulations of this type. The phase space of initial parameters is very different to that obtained using ad hoc arguments about the evolution, which shows that such arguments are insufficient to model evolutionary pathways of this complexity. There are some differences associated with the prescription adopted for CE evolution but these are not qualitatively significant. We investigate the dependence of the formation mechanism on wind mass loss and the CE efficiency parameter alpha(CE), showing that it depends strongly on the latter but rather less on the former.
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| 3. |
- Church, Ross P., et al.
(author)
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Mass transfer in eccentric binaries: the new oil-on-water smoothed particle hydrodynamics technique
- 2009
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In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2966 .- 0035-8711. ; 395:2, s. 1127-1134
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- To measure the onset of mass transfer in eccentric binaries, we have developed a two-phase smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique. Mass transfer is important in the evolution of close binaries, and a key issue is to determine the separation at which mass transfer begins. The circular case is well understood and can be treated through the use of the Roche formalism. To treat the eccentric case, we use a newly developed two-phase system. The body of the donor star is made up from high-mass water particles, whilst the atmosphere is modelled with low-mass oil particles. Both sets of particles take part fully in SPH interactions. To test the technique, we model circular mass-transfer binaries containing a 0.6 M-circle dot donor star and a 1 M-circle dot white dwarf; such binaries are thought to form cataclysmic variable ( CV) systems. We find that we can reproduce a reasonable CV mass-transfer rate, and that our extended atmosphere gives a separation that is too large by approximately 16 per cent, although its pressure scale height is considerably exaggerated. We use the technique to measure the semimajor axis required for the onset of mass transfer in binaries with a mass ratio of q = 0.6 and a range of eccentricities. Comparing to the value obtained by considering the instantaneous Roche lobe at pericentre, we find that the radius of the star required for mass transfer to begin decreases systematically with increasing eccentricity.
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| 4. |
- Dale, James E., et al.
(author)
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Red giant stellar collisions in the Galactic Centre
- 2009
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In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2966 .- 0035-8711. ; 393:3, s. 1016-1033
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We show that collisions with stellar-mass black holes can partially explain the absence of bright giant stars in the Galactic Centre, first noted by Genzel et al. We show that the missing objects are low-mass giants and asymptotic giant branch stars in the range 1-3 M-circle dot. Using detailed stellar evolution calculations, we find that to prevent these objects from evolving to become visible in the depleted K bands, we require that they suffer collisions on the red giant branch, and we calculate the fractional envelope mass losses required. Using a combination of smoothed particle hydrodynamic calculations, restricted three-body analysis and Monte Carlo simulations, we compute the expected collision rates between giants and black holes, and between giants and main-sequence stars in the Galactic Centre. We show that collisions can plausibly explain the missing giants in the 10.5 < K < 12 band. However, depleting the brighter (K < 10.5) objects out to the required radius would require a large population of black hole impactors which would in turn deplete the 10.5 < K < 12 giants in a region much larger than is observed. We conclude that collisions with stellar-mass black holes cannot account for the depletion of the very brightest giants, and we use our results to place limits on the population of stellar-mass black holes in the Galactic Centre.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Malmberg, Daniel, et al.
(author)
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Close encounters in young stellar clusters: implications for planetary systems in the solar neighbourhood
- 2007
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In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2966 .- 0035-8711. ; 378:3, s. 1207-1216
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The stars that populate the solar neighbourhood were formed in stellar clusters. Through N-body simulations of these clusters, we measure the rate of close encounters between stars. By monitoring the interaction histories of each star, we investigate the singleton fraction in the solar neighbourhood. A singleton is a star which formed as a single star, has never experienced any close encounters with other stars or binaries, or undergone an exchange encounter with a binary. We find that, of the stars which formed as single stars, a significant fraction is not singletons once the clusters have dispersed. If some of these stars had planetary systems, with properties similar to those of the Solar System, the planets' orbits may have been perturbed by the effects of close encounters with other stars or the effects of a companion star within a binary. Such perturbations can lead to strong planet-planet interactions which eject several planets, leaving the remaining planets on eccentric orbits. Some of the single stars exchange into binaries. Most of these binaries are broken up via subsequent interactions within the cluster, but some remain intact beyond the lifetime of the cluster. The properties of these binaries are similar to those of the observed binary systems containing extrasolar planets. Thus, dynamical processes in young stellar clusters will alter significantly any population of Solar System-like planetary systems. In addition, beginning with a population of planetary systems exactly resembling the Solar System around single stars, dynamical encounters in young stellar clusters may produce at least some of the extrasolar planetary systems observed in the solar neighbourhood.
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| 7. |
- Malmberg, Daniel, et al.
(author)
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The Singleton Fraction of Stars Formed in Stellar Clusters
- 2008
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In: Extreme Solar Systems (Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series). - 9781583816660 - 9781583816677 ; 398, s. 75-76
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Most stars form in some sort of stellar cluster or association. In such clusters the number density of stars can be very high. Thus, single stars in such clusters may undergo frequent close encounters with other stars and exchange encounters with binary systems. The perturbation caused by the other star in a close encounter or by the companion star in a binary can have significant effects on the evolution of any planetary system around the initially single star. If the planetary system which formed around the single star was originally solar-system-like, planet-planet interactions, induced by the perturbation from other stars, may change it significantly and leave it more like some of the planetary systems which are observed around other stars. Only if the host star of an initially solar-system-like planetary system never undergoes any encounters with other stars and is never exchanged into a binary may the planetary system remain solar-system like. We define such a star to be a SINGLETON.
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| 8. |
- Svensson, Karl M., et al.
(author)
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The nature of hypervelocity stars as inferred from their Galactic trajectories
- 2008
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In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2966 .- 1745-3925 .- 1745-3933. ; 383:1, s. 15-19
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have computed the Galactic trajectories of 12 hypervelocity stars (HVSs) under the assumption that they originated in the Galactic Centre. We show that eight of these 12 stars are bound to the Galaxy. We consider the subsequent trajectories of the bound stars to compute their characteristic orbital period, which is 2 Gyr. All eight bound stars are moving away from the centre of the Galaxy, which implies that the stars' lifetimes are less than 2 Gyr. We thus infer that the observed HVSs are massive main-sequence stars, rather than blue horizontal branch stars. The observations suggest that blue HVSs are ejected from the Galactic Centre roughly every 15 Myr. This is consistent with the observed population of blue stars in extremely tight orbits round the central supermassive black hole (SMBH), the so-called S-stars, if we assume that the HVSs are produced by the breakup of binaries. One of the stars in such a binary is ejected at high velocities to form a HVS; the other remains bound to the SMBH as an S-star. We further show that the one high-velocity system observed to be moving towards the Galactic Centre, SDSS J172226.55+594155.9, could not have originated in the Galactic Centre; rather, we identify it as a halo object.
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