A Search for Infrared Emission from Core-Collapse Supernovae at the Transitional Phase

Most of the observational studies of supernova (SN) explosions are limited to early phases (< a few yr after the explosion) of extragalactic SNe and observations of SN remnants (> 100 yr) in our Galaxy or very nearby galaxies. SNe at the epoch between these two, which we call "transitional" phase, have not been explored in detail except for several extragalactic SNe including SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We present theoretical predictions for the infrared (IR) dust emissions by several mechanisms; emission from dust formed in the SN ejecta, light echo by circumstellar and interstellar dust, and emission from shocked circumstellar dust. We search for IR emission from 6 core-collapse SNe at the transitional phase in the nearby galaxies NGC 1313, NGC 6946, and M101 by using the data taken with the AKARI satellite and Spitzer. Among 6 targets, we detect the emission from SN 1978K in NGC 1313. SN 1978K is associated with 1.3 x 10^{-3} Msun of silicate dust. We show that, among several mechanisms, the shocked circumstellar dust is the most probable emission source to explain the IR emission observed for CSM-rich SN 1978K. IR emission from the other 5 objects is not detected. Our current observations are sensitive to IR luminosity of > 10^{38} erg s^{-1}, and the non-detection of SN 1962M excludes the existence of the shocked circumstellar dust for a high gas mass-loss rate of sim 10^{-4} Msun yr^{-1}. Observations of SNe at the transitional phase with future IR satellites will fill the gap of IR observations of SNe with the age of 10-100 years, and give a new opportunity to study the circumstellar and interstellar environments of the progenitor, and possibly dust formation in SNe.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 14 page

Phylogeny and Phylogeography of Myrmica rubra

We investigated the genetic diversification of the mountain ant, Myrmica kotokui, in the Japanese Alps by using molecular phylogenetic analyses. Myrmica kotokui is widely distributed in Japan, and in the central Japanese Alps it is found only between elevations of approximately 1000 to 2000 m. We hypothesized that genetically distinct clades of this ant species might inhabit different mountain ranges in central Japan. To test this hypothesis, we reconstructed a molecular phylogeny using the DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene and the nuclear long-wavelength rhodopsin gene of M. kotokui specimens collected from six mountain ranges in the Japanese Alps. The phylogeny showed four highly differentiated clades. However, the correspondence between the clades and morphological species was a little confusing. Two clades were composed only of M. kotokui specimens, whereas the other two clades were composed of multispecies, suggesting the possibility of multispecies composition of putative M. kotokui. The distribution pattern of these clades did not support our hypothesis of geographical differentiation, because two were distributed across all ranges, and a third was distributed in five of the six ranges. On the other hand, we found a pattern in the altitudinal distribution of the clades: one clade was distributed only at higher elevations, and the others were distributed at lower elevations. Thus, the ant clades do not show geographical segregation by mountain range, but they do show altitudinal differences

Stacked Antiaromatic Porphyrins

Aromaticity is a key concept in organic chemistry. Even though this concept has already been theoretically extrapolated to three dimensions, it usually still remains restricted to planar molecules in organic chemistry textbooks. Stacking of antiaromatic π-systems has been proposed to induce three-dimensional aromaticity as a result of strong frontier orbital interactions. However, experimental evidence to support this prediction still remains elusive so far. Here we report that close stacking of antiaromatic porphyrins diminishes their inherent antiaromaticity in the solid state as well as in solution. The antiaromatic stacking furthermore allows a delocalization of the π-electrons, which enhances the two-photon absorption cross-section values of the antiaromatic porphyrins. This feature enables the dynamic switching of the non-linear optical properties by controlling the arrangement of antiaromatic π-systems on the basis of intermolecular orbital interactions

Three-dimensional aromaticity in an antiaromatic cyclophane

Understanding of interactions among molecules is essential to elucidate the binding of pharmaceuticals on receptors, the mechanism of protein folding and self-assembling of organic molecules. While interactions between two aromatic molecules have been examined extensively, little is known about the interactions between two antiaromatic molecules. Theoretical investigations have predicted that antiaromatic molecules should be stabilized when they stack with each other by attractive intermolecular interactions. Here, we report the synthesis of a cyclophane, in which two antiaromatic porphyrin moieties adopt a stacked face-to-face geometry with a distance shorter than the sum of the van der Waals radii of the atoms involved. The aromaticity in this cyclophane has been examined experimentally and theoretically. This cyclophane exhibits three-dimensional spatial current channels between the two subunits, which corroborates the existence of attractive interactions between two antiaromatic π-systems

Effect of Sheet Vibration on the Theoretical Analysis and Experimentation of Nonwoven Fabric Sheet with Back Air Space

The purpose of this study was to improve the accuracy of the theoretical analysis of sound absorption mechanisms when a back air space is used in nonwoven fabrics. In the case of a nonwoven sheet with a back air space, it can be shown that there is a difference between the experimental results and theoretical analysis results obtained using the Miki model when the area of the nonwoven sheet is large. Therefore, in this study, the accuracy of the theoretical values was improved using the plate vibration model in conjunction with the Miki model. The experimental results showed that when the vibration of the nonwoven sheet was suppressed, the sound absorption coefficient was higher than that of the vibration-prone nonwoven sheet alone. The sound absorption coefficient at the peak frequency was increased by >0.2, especially for 3501BD. Using the support frame, the sound absorption coefficient at the peak frequencies of 3A01A and 3701B was increased to 0.99. In the theoretical analysis of a large-area, vibration-prone nonwoven fabric, in which the vibration of the nonwoven fabric was taken into account, the theoretical values were in agreement with the experimental values, and the accuracy of the theoretical values was improved. Comparing the theoretical values for nonwoven fabrics without high ventilation resistance, the sound absorption coefficient was greater when vibration was not considered. Therefore, it was suggested that the vibration of the nonwoven fabric hinders sound absorption

Synthesis and Properties of <i>meso</i>-Arylated Corrphycenes

A novel synthetic procedure for <i>meso</i>-aryl-substituted corrphycenes has been developed. Suzuki–Miyaura coupling of α,α′-dibromodipyrrin with <i>vic</i>-diborylalkene and <i>o</i>-diborylbenzene afforded ethenylene- and phenylene-bridged bisdipyrrins, respectively, which were transformed to the corresponding corrphycenes upon treatment with palladium acetate. The bridging units significantly affect the macrocyclic π-conjugation circuits, thus changing the aromatic characters and absorption features of corrphycenes

Python code.

(IPYNB)</p

Summary of evaluation metrics with unifying the scale of each touchdown time in the present study model.

Summary of evaluation metrics with unifying the scale of each touchdown time in the present study model.</p

The data underlying the findings in this study.

(CSV)</p