Gerald Stonehill, Patricia Bagnall, Tunku Varadarajan, Jon Ashworth, Helen Johnstone, G. Richards, Nick Nuttall, Virginia Bottomley, Fred Redwood, Andrew Pierce, Adrian Lee, John Midwinter, Richard Hobson, Ivo Tennant, Darcy Beamer-Downie, Gavin Lumsden, James Landale, Political Reporter, Philip Howard, Carol Midgley, Ian Murray, Joanna Bale, Lucy Hawking, Carl Mortished, Michael Evans, Defence Editor, Alexandra Frean and Mark Henderson, Jeremy Whittle, Ruth Gledhill and Peter Foster, Tom Walker, Kevin Eason, Patrick Moore, Robin Hodgson, Deputy Chairman, Robert Sheehan, Bridge Correspondent, Bernard Levin, Timon Day, Timon Day and Sarah Cunningham, Pat Gibson, Paul Hoggard, Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent, Thrasy Petropoulos, Mark Seddon is Editor of Tribune, Terence Feely, Debra Craine, Matthew Barbour, Raymond Keene Chess Correspondent, Tony Mooney, Robin Marris, Dalya Alberge Arts Correspondent, Peter Waymark, Daniel Johnson, Mike Morrison, Jon Davey, Michael Clark, Anthony G. Phillips, Victoria Fletcher, Jasper Gerard, H. J. Fisher, Steven Downes, Michael J. Hendrie Astronomy Correspondent, John Wadham, Director, Paul Durman, Susan Karlin, Simon de Bruxelles, Celia Brayfield, Maggie Brown, Raymond Keene, Helen Ford, Claudia Joseph, Matt Dickinson, Emily Davison, Frances Gibb, Legal Correspondent, Paul Wilkinson, Stefano Hatfield, David Orr, Andrew Drummond, Richard Evans, Bronwen Maddox, Cathy Harris, David Powell, Athletics Correspondent, Damian Whitworth, Peter Porter, Roger Boyes, John Stern, Ian Murray Medical Correspondent, Alan Hamilton and Adrian Lee, R. W. Johnson, John Allison, Nick Szczepanik, Dominic Kennedy, Adrian Lee and Stephen Farrell, Patricia Leon, James Pringle, Chris Parker, Brian MacArthur, Jason Nissé, Mel Webb, David Davies, President, Matthew Parris, Richard Evans Racing Correspondent, Chris McGrath, Michael Hornsby, John Rolls, Co-ordinator, Caitlin Moran, Peter Riddell, Ben MacIntyre, Michael Gove, Eric A. Ash, C. Fairfax, Director, Alasdair Murray Economics Correspondent, David Sinclair, Martin Waller, Michael Horsnell, Chris Ayres, Christopher Irvine, Nigel Hawkes Science Editor, Marianne Curphey Insurance Correspondent, Benedict Nightingale, Tom Rhodes, Stephen Dalton, Jack Bailey, Lucy Salisburry, Phillippa Atkinson, Michael Evans, Alasdair Murray, Robert Whymant, Nick Foulkes, Richard Miles Banking Correspondent, Edward Gorman Sailing Correspondent, Richard Ford, Alasdair Murray, Economics Correspondent, Lisa Verrico, Richard Clifford, Virginia Matthews,
... are being voiced on the level of earnings inflaton. Robin Marris has examined the statiics and finds ...
1998 - Gale Group | TDA
Fedor Bezrukov, Dmitry Gorbunov,
... and directly explored in particle physics experiments. The inflaton mixes with the Standard Model Higgs boson via ... electroweak scale are present in the model. The inflaton-to-Higgs coupling is responsible for both reheating in the Early Universe and the inflaton production in particle collisions. We find the allowed range of the light inflaton mass, 270 MeV<~m_chi<~1.8 GeV, and discuss the ways to find the inflaton. The most promising are two-body kaon and ... orders 10^{-9} and 10^{-6}, respectively. The inflaton is unstable with the lifetime 10^{-9}--10^{- ...
Tópico(s): Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
2010 - Springer Nature | Journal of High Energy Physics
Phil Yates, Sean Hand, DJM, Anatol Lieven, Heather Allen, Patricia Davies, Edward Gorman Ireland Correspondent, Rob Hughes, Simon Barnes, Elizabeth Ringe, Bill Frost, Andrew Longmore, Neil Bennett, Steve Hill, Lena M. Jeger, Jonathan Prynn and Arthur Leathley, Dolores Garland, Philip Howard, Rene Riley-Adams, Hilary Finch, Christopher Fenton, Jeremy Kingston, Graham Zellick, V. Black, Rupert Woollcombe, Carl Mortished, Michael McCarthy, Kate Muir and Richard Beeston, Jonathan Henty, Gerald Davies, Joe Joseph, T. Godfrey, Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent, Stewart Tendler Crime Correspondent, Peter Ball, David Townley, Louise Taylor, Richard Evans, Racing Correspondent, Libby Purves, Jeremy Laurance Health Services Correspondent, Rodney Milnes, Nicholas Watt, Michael Hamlyn, Janet Bush, Keith Pike, Charles Bremner, Sarah Bagnall, David Watt, John O'leary, Julia Watson, Robert Cockburn, Philip Le Brocq, Adam Lebor, George Brock, Nicholas Harling, David Miller, Lin Jenkins, Barry Millington, Philip Webster, Chief Political Correspondent, Jonathan Prynn, Chris Anthony, John Russell Taylor, Raymond Keene, Chess Correspondent, Craig Brown, Philip Webster, and John Lewis, Ben Preston Education Reporter, David Pascall, Roger Boyes, Ian Ross, Brian Beel, David Hands Rugby Correspondent, William Wolff, Adam Fresco, Christopher Thomas, William Rees-Mogg, Howard Camm, Philip Webster Chief Political Correspondent, Wyndham Thomas, Srikumar Sen Boxing Correspondent, Matthew Parris, Alan Lee, Peter Riddell, Ben MacIntyre, Tony Dawe, David Sinclair, Tony Dawe and Jack Crossley, Philip Pangalos, Melinda Wittstock, Kate Bassett, Peter Field, John Lewis, Keith Power, Benedict Nightingale, Derek Harris, Hartley Shawcross, Michael Henderson, Anne McElvoy, J. A. Bound, St. John R. B. Marston, Jean Lawrence, C. E. Bechhofer Roberts and C. S. Forester, John Taylor (Parliamentary Secretary), Christopher Irvine, W. J. Warren,
... be better placed to compete successfully and avoid inflaton. Optimism about the British economy among directions is ...
1993 - Gale Group | TDA
Yuri Shtanov, Jennie Traschen, Robert Brandenberger,
... of scalar particle production after inflation by an inflaton field which is oscillating rapidly relative to the ... the chaotic inflation scenario with quartic and quadratic inflaton potentials. Particles produced are described by a quantum ... field \ensuremath{\chi}, which is coupled to the inflaton via linear and quadratic couplings. The particle production ... place in the presence of the quickly oscillating inflaton field. We have found that in the region ... particle production. In the case of the quartic inflaton potential V(cphi)=\ensuremath{\lambda}${\mathit{cphi}}^{4}$, ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
1995 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields
Shinji Tsujikawa, Kei-ichi Maeda, Takashi Torii,
We investigate preheating of an inflaton field $\ensuremath{\varphi}$ coupled nonminimally to a spacetime curvature by the method of Hartree approximations. In the case of a self-coupling inflaton potential $V(\ensuremath{\varphi})=\ensuremath{\lambda}{\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{ ... ways. First, since the initial value of the inflaton field for reheating becomes smaller with the increase of $|\ensuremath{\xi}|,$ the evolution of the inflaton quanta is delayed for fixed $\ensuremath{\lambda}.$ Second, the oscillation of the inflaton field is modified and the nonadiabatic change around $\ ...
Tópico(s): Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect
2000 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields
Fedor Bezrukov, Dmitry Gorbunov,
... chaotic inflationary model with quartic potential and light inflaton [1] taking into account recent results from cosmology ( ... minimal (yet small) coupling to gravity of the inflaton becomes essential to fit the observational data. The inflaton has mass above 300 MeV and can be ... B-meson two-body decays to kaon and inflaton. The inflaton lifetime depends on the model parameters, resulting in various inflaton signatures: either a missing energy, or a displaced ... decay. We also discuss the implementation of the inflaton model to the νMSM, where the inflaton can ...
Tópico(s): Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
2013 - Springer Nature | Journal of High Energy Physics
Matthew M. Glenz, Leonard Parker,
We examine the spectrum of inflaton fluctuations resulting from any given long period of exponential inflation. Infrared and ultraviolet divergences in the inflaton dispersion summed over all modes do not appear ... of the metric that is created by the inflaton fluctuations that have left the Hubble sphere during ... at reentry after inflation has ended. When the inflaton dispersion spectrum is renormalized during the expansion, we show (for the case of the quadratic inflaton potential) that the density perturbation spectrum approaches a ...
Tópico(s): Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
2009 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D, Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology
... before the epoch of Dark Matter. Typically the inflaton decays while it oscillates around the minimum of its potential. If the inflaton decay is not complete or sufficient then the remaining energy density of the inflaton after reheating must be fine tuned to give ... An essential feature here, is that Dark Matter-Inflaton particle is produced at low energies without fine ... uses the same coupling g as for the inflaton decay. Once the field phi becomes non-relativistic ... two parameters are the coupling $g$ between the inflaton phi and a scalar filed varphi and the ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
2011 - Elsevier BV | Astroparticle Physics
... models which entails a linear coupling of the inflaton to gravity. Imposing a lower bound on the parameter cR, involved in the coupling between the inflaton and the Ricci scalar curvature, inflation can be attained even for subplanckian values of the inflaton while the corresponding effective theory respects the perturbative ... potential due to a possible coupling of the inflaton to bosons or fermions. We find ranges of ... ratio r=(2-4)x10^-3, and an inflaton mass close to 3x10^13 GeV. In the ... in the fourth order term, which mixes the inflaton with the accompanying non-inflaton field in the ...
Tópico(s): Geophysics and Gravity Measurements
2015 - Institute of Physics | Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
... where the Higgs field is identified as the inflaton. Since the inflaton quartic coupling is very small, once quantum corrections ... and Yukawa interactions are taken into account, the inflaton effective potential most likely becomes unstable. In order ... need to impose stability conditions on the effective inflaton potential, which lead to not only non-trivial ... of the $$B-L$$ Higgs field as the inflaton. The stability conditions for the inflaton effective potential fix the mass ratio amongst the $$ ... gauge boson, the right-handed neutrinos and the inflaton. This mass ratio also correlates with the inflationary ...
Tópico(s): Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
2017 - Springer Science+Business Media | The European Physical Journal C
... abundance is generated in a context where the inflaton is the only mediator between the visible and ... Due to the relatively large mass of the inflaton field, such a portal leads to an extremely ... sectors are populated by the decay of the inflaton, a heavy dark matter particle thermally decouples within ... whose decay width is naturally suppressed by the inflaton propagator, decays into the visible sector after it ... in the visible sector. We show that an inflaton mass of $\mathcal{O}({10}^{13})\text{ }\text{ }\ ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
2019 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Md Riajul Haque, Debaprasad Maity, R. Mondal,
... its possible implication on dark matter (DM) and inflaton phenomenology. We studied the reheating through various possible channels of inflaton going into massless scalars (bosonic reheating) and fermions ( ... of state (EoS), which is directly related to inflaton potential. Particularly, the universal gravitational decay of inflaton is observed to play a very crucial role ... the reheating process for a large range of inflaton decay parameters. For our study, we consider typical ... further establish the intriguing connection among those different inflaton decay channels and the CMB power spectrum that ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
2023 - Springer Nature | Journal of High Energy Physics
Basabendu Barman, Anish Ghoshal, Bohdan Grza̧dkowski, Anna Socha,
... of future gravitational wave (GW) detectors in probing inflaton couplings with visible sector particles that can either ... quantum production from vacuum in presence of classical inflaton background field, we find that the spectral energy ... primordial GW generated during inflation becomes sensitive to inflaton-matter coupling. We conclude, obeying bounds from Big ... Nucleosysthesis and Cosmic Microwave Background, that, e.g., inflaton-scalar couplings of the order of $\sim\mathcal{ ... size of the inflationary scale, nature of the inflaton-matter interaction and shape of the potential during ...
Tópico(s): Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
2023 - Springer Nature | Journal of High Energy Physics
Avirup Ghosh, S. Mukhopadhyay,
... the standard model (SM) fields couple to the inflaton, the DM particles necessarily undergo self-scatterings, as ... which proceed through $s-$channel or $t-$channel inflaton exchange. We compute the momentum distribution of the ... the cosmological evolution. We observe that if the inflaton dominantly couples to the SM Higgs boson through a renormalizable interaction, then reheating temperatures and inflaton masses at the TeV scale lead to a ... effect from the scattering processes, with the DM-inflaton coupling constrained by the DM density. The scattering ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
2022 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Francisco J. Cao, H. J. de Vega, N. Sánchez,
Quantum fast-roll initial conditions for the inflaton which are different from the classical fast-roll conditions and from the quantum slow-roll conditions can lead to inflation that lasts long ... These quantum fast-roll initial conditions for the inflaton allow for kinetic energies of the same order of the potential energies and nonperturbative inflaton modes with nonzero wave numbers. Their evolution starts ... to assemble the quantum excited modes of the inflaton in a homogeneous (zero mode) condensate, and the ...
Tópico(s): Stochastic processes and financial applications
2008 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D, Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology
... a variety of models the motion of the inflaton may trigger the production of some non‐inflaton particles during inflation, for example via parametric resonance ... the possibility of slowing the motion of the inflaton on a steep potential. In this review we ... that interactions between the produced particles and the inflaton condensate can lead to a qualitatively new mechanism ... simple prototype model for the interaction between the inflaton, ϕ , and iso‐inflaton, χ . Such interactions are quite natural in a ...
Tópico(s): Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
2010 - Hindawi Publishing Corporation | Advances in Astronomy
Larissa Lorenz, Jérôme Martin, Jun’ichi Yokoyama,
... inflation can be addressed by averaging the quantum inflaton field over Hubble-patch--sized domains. The averaged ... term. We solve the Langevin equation for an inflaton field with a Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) kinetic ... some distance within the (compact) extra dimensions. The inflaton's accessible range of field values therefore is ... argue that in a consistent stochastic approach the inflaton's PDF must vanish for geometrically forbidden field ... As a toy model, we consider a DBI inflaton between two absorbing walls and use the method ...
Tópico(s): Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
2010 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D, Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology
Rouzbeh Allahverdi, Andrea Ferrantelli, J. García-Bellido, Anupam Mazumdar,
... Supersymmetric Standard Model is one of the few inflaton candidates that can naturally explain population of the ... after inflation. After the end of inflation, the inflaton oscillates coherently about the minimum of its potential, ... leads to an extremely efficient transfer of the inflaton energy to (s)quarks via {\it instant} preheating. Around 20% of the inflaton energy density is drained during every inflaton oscillation. However, all of the Standard Model degrees ... it do not} thermalize immediately, since the large inflaton vacuum expectation value breaks the electroweak symmetry. After ...
Tópico(s): Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
2011 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D, Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology
Sjoerd Hardeman, Johannes M. Oberreuter, Gonzalo A. Palma, Koenraad Schalm, Ted van der Aalst,
... hidden sectors that are gravitationally coupled to the inflaton. If the hidden sector breaks supersymmetry independently, its ... cannot be stabilized during cosmological evolution of the inflaton. We show that both the subsequent dynamical mixing ... lightest mode of the hidden sector with the inflaton. Generically, either the true η deviates considerably from the naïve η implied by the inflaton sector alone, or one has to consider a ... the hidden sector is much larger than the inflaton mass and if the inflaton mass is much ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
2011 - Springer Nature | Journal of High Energy Physics
D. Boyanovsky, H. J. de Vega, N. Sánchez,
... theory. We find that the form of the inflaton potential consistent with Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) ... M}_{\mathrm{Pl}}})$, where $\ensuremath{\phi}$ is the inflaton field, $M$ is the inflation energy scale, and $ ... Hubble radius until the end of inflation. The inflaton field scales as $\ensuremath{\phi}=\sqrt{N}{M}_{\ ... A Ginzburg-Landau realization of the slow-roll inflaton potential reveals that the Hubble parameter, inflaton mass and nonlinear couplings are of the seesaw ... ensuremath{\ll}{M}_{\mathrm{Pl}}^{4}$ for general inflaton potentials allowing amplitudes of the inflaton field $\ensuremath{\ ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
2006 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D, Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology
... characterise the primordial perturbations produced due to both inflaton and curvaton fluctuations in models where the curvaton ... a quadratic, cosine or hyperbolic potential, and the inflaton potential is characterised by the usual slow-roll ... the primordial density field, in contrast with adiabatic inflaton field perturbations which produce negligible non-Gaussianity for ... fNL, which may be scale-dependent when the inflaton perturbations dominate the power spectrum. We show how ... ratio can be used to constrain curvaton and inflaton parameters. We find a consistency relation between the ...
Tópico(s): Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
2012 - Institute of Physics | Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Fedor Bezrukov, Dmitry Gorbunov,
... Dark Matter (DM) in the model with light inflaton $χ$, which serves as a messenger of scale invariance breaking. In this model the inflaton, in addition to providing reheating to the Standard ... this mechanism to work, the mass of the inflaton is bound to be light (0.1-1 ... the model. For particle physics experiments these are: inflaton lifetime ($10^{-5}-10^{-12}$ s), partial decay width of B-meson to kaon and inflaton ($10^{-6}-10^{-4}$) and inflaton branching ratios into light SM particles like it ...
Tópico(s): Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
2014 - Elsevier BV | Physics Letters B
D. Boyanovsky, M. D’Attanasio, H. J. de Vega, R. Holman, D. S. Lee,
... consider the case of a scalar field, the inflaton, coupled to both lighter scalars and fermions, and study the relaxation of the inflaton via particle production in both the linear and ... thermalization. We find that particle production when the inflaton starts in the nonlinear region is typically a ... efficient way of transferring energy out of the inflaton zero mode and into the quanta of the ... the evolution of the expectation value of the inflaton field coupled to the evolution of the quantum ... very early on in the evolution of the inflaton. We discuss the issue of thermalization and estimate ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
1995 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields
Luis E. Ibáñez, Fernando Marchesano, Irene Valenzuela,
... 10^{13}$ GeV, which is identified with the inflaton mass scale and is just enough to stabilise ... be realised in string theory with the (complex) inflaton/Higgs identified with a continuous Wilson line or ... and MSSM Higgs sector. In this case the inflaton/Higgs fields correspond to D7-brane positions along ... by closed string $G_3$ fluxes, and the inflaton potential can be computed directly from the DBI+ ... amount to a field dependent rescaling of the inflaton fields, leading to a linear potential in the ... evolution of the two components of the Higgs/inflaton and compute the slow-roll parameters for purely ...
Tópico(s): Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
2015 - Springer Nature | Journal of High Energy Physics
Lev Kofman, Andrei Linde, Alexei A. Starobinsky,
... occurs due to particle production by the oscillating inflaton field. In this paper we briefly describe the ... if the initial amplitude of oscillations of the inflaton field is large enough. We investigate a simple model of a massive inflaton field $\ensuremath{\varphi}$ coupled to another scalar field $\ ... is neglected. Quantum fields interacting with the oscillating inflaton field experience a series of kicks which, because ... reaction increases the frequency of oscillations of the inflaton field, which makes the process even more efficient ...
Tópico(s): Geophysics and Gravity Measurements
1997 - American Physical Society | Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields
Yohei Ema, Ryusuke Jinno, Kyohei Mukaida, Kazunori Nakayama,
... phi^4/4$ for several cases: real scalar inflaton, complex scalar inflaton and Abelian Higgs inflaton. We point out that the preheating proceeds much more violently than previously thought. If the inflaton is a complex scalar, the phase degree of ... at the first stage of preheating. If the inflaton is a Higgs field, the longitudinal gauge boson ... like feature in the time dependence of the inflaton field, which may be understood as a consequence ... strong that almost all the energy of the inflaton is carried away within one oscillation for $\xi^ ...
Tópico(s): Relativity and Gravitational Theory
2017 - Institute of Physics | Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Marcos A. G. García, Mathias Pierre,
... self-interactions, the post-inflationary evolution of the inflaton field is driven into the non-linear regime ... of its fluctuations. The once spatially homogeneous coherent inflaton is converted into a collection of inflaton particles with non-vanishing momentum. Fragmentation significantly alters the energy transfer rate to the inflaton's offspring during the reheating epoch. In this ... production rates, and determine the evolution of the inflaton and radiation energy densities, including the corresponding reheating ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
2023 - Institute of Physics | Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Anish Ghoshal, Gaetano Lambiase, Supratik Pal, Arnab Paul, Shiladitya Porey,
... that can successfully produce dark matter (DM) from inflaton decay process, satisfying all the constraints from Cosmic ... thermal production of fermionic DM from the decaying inflaton field during the reheating era. To this end, ... terms proportional to linear, quadratic, and quartic in inflaton; whereas in Model II, the potential contains only even power of inflaton and the highest term is sextic in inflaton. For both the models, we find out possible ... abundance for DM, that can be produced from inflaton via reheating, to match with the present-day ...
Tópico(s): Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
2022 - Springer Nature | Journal of High Energy Physics
Aqeel Ahmed, Bohdan Grza̧dkowski, Anna Socha,
... radiation and dark matter assuming a time-dependent inflaton decay rate during the reheating period. It is shown that the time dependence of the inflaton decay rate can substantially modify the reheating dynamics. As an illustration, a leading interaction between the inflaton $\phi$ and the Higgs doublet ${\boldsymbol h}$ of ... mass which generates vacuum-expectation-value due to inflaton oscillations and breaks the Standard Model gauge symmetry. This leads to a time-dependent inflaton decay rate during the reheating period, and consequently, ...
Tópico(s): Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
2022 - Elsevier BV | Physics Letters B
... constraints on the first two derivatives of the inflaton potential in slow roll models. We discuss how ... trivial constraint on the third derivative of the inflaton potential. We find a lower bound on the third derivative of the inflaton potential V'''/V > -0.2. We also show that unless the third derivative of the inflaton potential is unreasonably large, then one predicts the ...
Tópico(s): Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows
2002 - Oxford University Press | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society