Michael E. Brown

Bio: Michael E. Brown is an academic researcher from University of Dundee. The author has contributed to research in topics: Solar System & Population. The author has an hindex of 76, co-authored 534 publications receiving 21650 citations. Previous affiliations of Michael E. Brown include Iowa State University & University of Michigan.

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

Abstract: (Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pachon in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

Abstract: A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.

LSST: From Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

Abstract: We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the solar system, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a large, wide-field ground-based system designed to obtain repeated images covering the sky visible from Cerro Pachon in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg2 field of view, a 3.2-gigapixel camera, and six filters (ugrizy) covering the wavelength range 320–1050 nm. The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. About 90% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode that will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg2 region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 yr of operations and will yield a co-added map to r ~ 27.5. These data will result in databases including about 32 trillion observations of 20 billion galaxies and a similar number of stars, and they will serve the majority of the primary science programs. The remaining 10% of the observing time will be allocated to special projects such as Very Deep and Very Fast time domain surveys, whose details are currently under discussion. We illustrate how the LSST science drivers led to these choices of system parameters, and we describe the expected data products and their characteristics.

The Size Distribution of Trans-Neptunian Bodies*

Abstract: We search 0.02 deg 2 of the invariable plane for trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) 25 AU or more distant using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. With 22 ks per pointing, the search is more than 50% complete for m606W � 29:2. Three new objects are discovered, the faintest with mean magnitude m ¼ 28:3 (diameter � 25 km), which is 3 mag fainter than any previously well-measured solar system body. Each new discovery is verified with a follow-up 18 ks observation with the ACS, and the detection efficiency is verified with implanted objects. The three detections are a factor of � 25 less than would be expected under extrapolation of the power-law differential sky density for brighter objects, � (m) � dN=dmd� / 10 � m with � � 0:63. Analysis of the ACS data and recent TNO surveys from the literature reveals departures from this power law at both the bright and faint ends. Division of the TNO sample by distance and inclination into ‘‘classical Kuiper belt’’ (CKB) and ‘‘Excited’’ samples reveals that � (m) differs for the two populations at 96% confidence, and both samples show departures from power-law behavior. A double power-law � (m) adequately fits all data. Implications of these departures include the following: (1) The total mass of the ‘‘classical’’ Kuiper belt is � 0.010 M� , only a few times Pluto’s mass, and is predominantly in the form of � 100 km bodies (barring a secondary peak in the mass distribution at sub‐10 km sizes). The mass of Excited objects is perhaps a few times larger. (2) The Excited class has a shallower bright-end magnitude (and, presumably, size) distribution; the largest objects, including Pluto, make up tens of percent of the total mass whereas the largest CKB objects are only � 2% of its mass. (3) The derived size distributions predict that the largest Excited body should be roughly the mass of Pluto, and the largest CKB body should have mR � 20—hence, Pluto is feasibly considered to have originated from the same physical process as the Excited TNOs. (4) The observed deficit of small TNOs occurs in the size regime where present-day collisions are expected to be disruptive, suggesting extensive depletion by collisions. The Excited and CKB size distributions are qualitatively similar to some numerical models of growth and erosion, with both accretion and erosion appearing to have proceeded to more advanced stages in the Excited class than in the CKB. (5) The lack of detections of distant TNOs implies that if a mass of TNOs comparable to the CKB is present near the invariable plane beyond 50 AU, that distant population must be composed primarily of bodies smaller than � 40 km. (6) There are too few small CKB objects for this population to be the reservoir of Jupiter-family comet precursors without a significant upturn in the population at diameters under 20 km. With optimistic model parameters and extrapolations, the Excited population could be the source reservoir. Implications of these discoveries for the formation and evolution of the outer solar system are discussed.

Binarity in Brown Dwarfs: T Dwarf Binaries Discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2

Abstract: We present the discovery of two T dwarf binaries, 2MASS 1225-2739AB and 2MASS 1534-2952AB, identified in a sample of 10 T dwarfs imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Companionship is established by the uniquely red F814W-F1042M colors of the binary components, caused by heavily pressure-broadened K I absorption centered at 7665 and 7699 A. The separations of the two binary systems are 0."282 ± 0."005 and 0."065 ± 0."007, implying projected separations of 3.17 ± 0.14 and 1.0 ± 0.3 AU, respectively. These close separations are similar to those found in previous brown dwarf binary searches and permit orbital mapping over the coming decade. 2MASS 1225-2739AB has a substantially fainter secondary, with ΔM_(F814W) = 1.59 ± 0.04 and ΔM_(F1042M) = 1.05 ± 0.03; this system is likely composed of a T6 primary and T8 secondary with mass ratio 0.7-0.8. The observed binary fraction of our HST sample, 20^(+17%)_(-1), is consistent with results obtained for late-type M and L field dwarfs and implies a bias-corrected binary fraction of 9^(+15%)_(-4) for α ≳ 1 AU and q ≳ 0.4, significantly lower than the binary fractions of F-G and early-type M dwarf stars. Neither of the T binaries have separations α ≳ 10 AU, consistent with results from other brown dwarf binary searches. Using the statistical models of Weinberg, Shapiro, & Wasserman, we conclude that tidal disruption by passing stars or giant molecular clouds, which limits the extent of wide stellar binaries, plays no role in eliminating wide brown dwarf binaries, implying either disruption very early in the formation process (ages ≾ 1-10 Myr) or a formation mechanism that precludes such systems. We find that the maximum binary separation in the brown dwarf regime appears to scale as M^2_(total), a possible clue to the physical mechanism that restricts wide substellar systems.

Using Multivariate Statistics

Abstract: Thank you for downloading using multivariate statistics. As you may know, people have look hundreds times for their favorite novels like this using multivariate statistics, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some harmful bugs inside their laptop. using multivariate statistics is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can download it instantly. Our books collection saves in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Merely said, the using multivariate statistics is universally compatible with any devices to read.

The Theory of Island Biogeography

Abstract: Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

Galactic stellar and substellar initial mass function

Abstract: We review recent determinations of the present-day mass function (PDMF) and initial mass function (IMF) in various components of the Galaxy—disk, spheroid, young, and globular clusters—and in conditions characteristic of early star formation. As a general feature, the IMF is found to depend weakly on the environment and to be well described by a power-law form forM , and a lognormal form below, except possibly for m!1 early star formation conditions. The disk IMF for single objects has a characteristic mass around M , m!0.08 c and a variance in logarithmic mass , whereas the IMF for multiple systems hasM , and . j!0.7 m!0.2 j!0.6 c The extension of the single MF into the brown dwarf regime is in good agreement with present estimates of L- and T-dwarf densities and yields a disk brown dwarf number density comparable to the stellar one, n!n! BD " pc !3 .T he IMF of young clusters is found to be consistent with the disk fi eld IMF, providing the same correction 0.1 for unresolved binaries, confirming the fact that young star clusters and disk field stars represent the same stellar population. Dynamical effects, yielding depletion of the lowest mass objects, are found to become consequential for ages!130 Myr. The spheroid IMF relies on much less robust grounds. The large metallicity spread in the local subdwarf photometric sample, in particular, remains puzzling. Recent observations suggest that there is a continuous kinematic shear between the thick-disk population, present in local samples, and the genuine spheroid one. This enables us to derive only an upper limit for the spheroid mass density and IMF. Within all the uncertainties, the latter is found to be similar to the one derived for globular clusters and is well represented also by a lognormal form with a characteristic mass slightly larger than for the disk, M , ,e xcluding as ignif icant population of m!0.2-0.3 c brown dwarfs in globular clusters and in the spheroid. The IMF characteristic of early star formation at large redshift remains undetermined, but different observational constraints suggest that it does not extend below!1M , .T hese results suggest a characteristic mass for star formation that decreases with time, from conditions prevailing at large redshift to conditions characteristic of the spheroid (or thick disk) to present-day conditions.Theseconclusions,however, remain speculative, given the large uncertainties in the spheroid and early star IMF determinations. These IMFs allow a reasonably robust determination of the Galactic present-day and initial stellar and brown dwarf contents. They also have important galactic implications beyond the Milky Way in yielding more accurate mass-to-light ratio determinations. The mass-to-light ratios obtained with the disk and the spheroid IMF yield values 1.8-1.4 times smaller than for a Salpeter IMF, respectively, in agreement with various recent dynamical determinations. This general IMF determination is examined in the context of star formation theory. None of the theories based on a Jeans-type mechanism, where fragmentation is due only to gravity, can fulfill all the observational constraints on star formation and predict a large number of substellar objects. On the other hand, recent numerical simulations of compressible turbulence, in particular in super-Alfvenic conditions, seem to reproduce both qualitatively and quantitatively the stellar and substellar IMF and thus provide an appealing theoretical foundation. In this picture, star formation is induced by the dissipation of large-scale turbulence to smaller scales through radiative MHD shocks, producing filamentary structures. These shocks produce local nonequilibrium structures with large density contrasts, which collapse eventually in gravitationally bound objects under the combined influence of turbulence and gravity. The concept of a single Jeans mass is replaced by a distribution of local Jeans masses, representative of the lognormal probability density function of the turbulent gas. Objects below the mean thermal Jeans mass still have a possibility to collapse, although with a decreasing probability.

Biogenesis, Secretion, and Intercellular Interactions of Exosomes and Other Extracellular Vesicles

Abstract: In the 1980s, exosomes were described as vesicles of endosomal origin secreted from reticulocytes. Interest increased around these extracellular vesicles, as they appeared to participate in several cellular processes. Exosomes bear proteins, lipids, and RNAs, mediating intercellular communication between different cell types in the body, and thus affecting normal and pathological conditions. Only recently, scientists acknowledged the difficulty of separating exosomes from other types of extracellular vesicles, which precludes a clear attribution of a particular function to the different types of secreted vesicles. To shed light into this complex but expanding field of science, this review focuses on the definition of exosomes and other secreted extracellular vesicles. Their biogenesis, their secretion, and their subsequent fate are discussed, as their functions rely on these important processes.