ﻻ يوجد ملخص باللغة العربية
We predict the survival time of initially bound star clusters in the solar neighbourhood taking into account: (1) stellar evolution, (2) tidal stripping, (3) shocking by spiral arms and (4) encounters with giant molecular clouds. We find that the predicted dissolution time is t_dis= 1.7 (M_i/10^4 M_sun)^0.67 Gyr for clusters in the mass range of 10^2 < M_i < 10^5 M_sun, where M_i is the initial mass of the cluster.. The resulting predicted shape of the logarithmic age distribution agrees very well with the empirical one, derived from a complete sample of clusters in the solar neighbourhood within 600 pc. The required scaling factor implies a star formation rate of 400 M_sun/Myr within 600 pc from the Sun or a surface formation rate of 3.5 10^-10 M_sun/(yr pc^2) for stars in bound clusters with an initial mass in the range of 10^2 to 3 10^4 M_sun.
It is shown that, contrary to an existing claim, the near equality between the lifetime of the sun and the timescale of biological evolution on earth does not necessarily imply that extraterrestrial civilizations are exceedingly rare. Furthermore, on
We perform a comprehensive analysis of the spectral statistics of the molecular resonances in $^{166}$Er and $^{168}$Er observed in recent ultracold collision experiments [Frisch et al., Nature {bf 507}, 475 (2014)] with the aim of determining the ch
Period-luminosity sequences have been shown to exist among the Semi-Regular Variables (SRVs) of the Magellanic Clouds (Wood et al, 1999), the Bulge of the Milky Way galaxy (Glass & Schultheis, 2003) and elsewhere. It would clearly be useful to have a
Recently, new solar model atmospheres have been developed to replace classical 1D LTE hydrostatic models and used to for example derive the solar chemical composition. We aim to test various models against key observational constraints. In particular
Cryogenic cluster beam experiments have provided crucial insights into the evolution of the metallic state from the atom to the bulk. Surprisingly, one of the most fundamental metallic properties, the ability of a metal to efficiently screen electric