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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Hubble's Law Implies Benford's Law For Distances To Galaxies, Theodore P. Hill, Ronald F. Fox Feb 2016

Hubble's Law Implies Benford's Law For Distances To Galaxies, Theodore P. Hill, Ronald F. Fox

Research Scholars in Residence

A recent article by Alexopoulos and Leontsinis presented empirical evidence that the first digits of the distances from the Earth to galaxies are a reasonably good fit to the probabilities predicted by Benford’s law, the well known logarithmic statistical distribution of significant digits. The purpose of the present article is to give a theoretical explanation, based on Hubble’s law and mathematical properties of Benford’s law, why galaxy distances might be expected to follow Benford’s law. The new galaxy-distance law derived here, which is robust with respect to change of scale and base, to additive and multiplicative computational or observational errors, …


Laboratory Astrophysics: Using Ebit Measurements To Interpret High Resolution Spectra From Celestial Sources, Carey Scott, Joshua Thompson, N. Hell, Greg V. Brown Aug 2011

Laboratory Astrophysics: Using Ebit Measurements To Interpret High Resolution Spectra From Celestial Sources, Carey Scott, Joshua Thompson, N. Hell, Greg V. Brown

STAR Program Research Presentations

Astrophysicists use radiation to investigate the physics controlling a variety of celestial sources, including stellar atmospheres, black holes, and binary systems. By measuring the spectrum of the emitted radiation, astrophysicists can determine a source’s temperature and composition. Accurate atomic data are needed for reliably interpreting these spectra. Here we present an overview of how LLNL’s EBIT facility is used to put the atomic data on sound footing for use by the high energy astrophysics community.


The Cataclysmic Variable Cw 1045+525: A Secondary-Dominated Dwarf Nova?, C. Tappert, J. R. Thorstensen, W. H. Fenton, N. Bennert, L. Schmidtobreick, A. Bianchini Dec 2001

The Cataclysmic Variable Cw 1045+525: A Secondary-Dominated Dwarf Nova?, C. Tappert, J. R. Thorstensen, W. H. Fenton, N. Bennert, L. Schmidtobreick, A. Bianchini

Physics

We present spectroscopic and photometric observations of the cataclysmic variable CW 1045+525. Both the optical spectrum and the photometric lightcurve show a strong contribution of a K5V-M0V secondary. We derive an orbital period d by measuring the radial velocities of the absorption lines of the secondary. The period and spectral type of the secondary suggest a distance of 350-700 pc. There is evidence for additional sources of line- and continuum emission, but no direct evidence of an accretion disc. We discuss several scenarios for the nature of CW 1045+525 on the basis of our results, finding a dwarf nova classification …