Moderately Luminous type II Supernovae

Core-collapse Supernovae (CC-SNe) descend from progenitors more massive than about 8 Msun. Because of the young age of the progenitors, the ejecta may eventually interact with the circumstellar medium (CSM) via highly energetic processes detectable in the radio, X-ray, ultraviolet (UV) and, sometimes, in the optical domains. In this paper we present ultraviolet, optical and near infrared observations of five type II SNe, namely SNe 2009dd, 2007pk, 2010aj, 1995ad, and 1996W. Together with few other SNe they form a group of moderately luminous type II events. We collected photometry and spectroscopy with several telescopes in order to construct well-sampled light curves and spectral evolutions from the photospheric to the nebular phases. Both photometry and spectroscopy indicate a degree of heterogeneity in this sample. The light curves have luminous peak magnitudes ($-16.95<M_{B}<-18.70$). The ejected masses of ^56\ni for three SNe span a wide range of values ($2.8\times10^{-2}$Msun$<$M(\ni)$<1.4\times10^{-1}$Msun), while for a fourth (SN2010aj) we could determine a stringent upper limit ($7\times10^{-3}$Msun). Clues of interaction, such as the presence of high velocity (HV) features of the Balmer lines, are visible in the photospheric spectra of SNe 2009dd and 1996W. For SN2007pk we observe a spectral transition from a type IIn to a standard type II SN. Modelling the observations of SNe 2009dd, 2010aj and 1995ad with radiation hydrodynamics codes, we infer kinetic plus thermal energies of about 0.2-0.5 foe, initial radii of 2-5$\times10^{13}$ cm and ejected masses of $\sim$5.0-9.5 Msun. These values suggest moderate-mass, super-asymptotic giant branch (SAGB) or red super-giants (RSG) stars as SN precursors, in analogy with other luminous type IIP SNe 2007od and 2009bw.Comment: 28 pages, 27 fig, accepted by A&A, 3 pages of online material, abstract abridged. revised significantly with respect to the previous versio

Compact Nuclei in Moderately Redshifted Galaxies

The Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 is being used to obtain high-resolution images in the V and I bands for several thousand distant galaxies as part of the Medium Deep Survey (MDS). An important scientific aim of the MDS is to identify possible AGN candidates from these images in order to measure the faint end of the AGN luminosity function as well as to study the host galaxies of AGNs and nuclear starburst systems. We are able to identify candidate objects based on morphology. Candidates are selected by fitting bulge+disk models and bulge+disk+point source nuclei models to HST imaged galaxies and determining the best model fit to the galaxy light profile. We present results from a sample of MDS galaxies with I less than 21.5 mag that have been searched for AGN/starburst nuclei in this manner. We identify 84 candidates with unresolved nuclei in a sample of 825 galaxies. For the expected range of galaxy redshifts, all normal bulges are resolved. Most of the candidates are found in galaxies displaying exponential disks with some containing an additional bulge component. 5% of the hosts are dominated by an r^-1/4 bulge. The V-I color distribution of the nuclei is consistent with a dominant population of Seyfert-type nuclei combined with an additional population of starbursts. Our results suggest that 10% +/- 1% of field galaxies at z less than 0.6 may contain AGN/starburst nuclei that are 1 to 5 magnitudes fainter than the host galaxies.Comment: 12 pages AASTeX manuscript, 3 separate Postscript figures, to be published in ApJ Letter

Moderately close Neumann inclusions for the Poisson equation

open2siWe investigate the behavior of the solution of a mixed problem for the Poisson equation in a domain with two moderately close holes. If ϱ1 and ϱ2 are two positive parameters, we define a perforated domain Ω(ϱ1,ϱ2) by making two small perforations in an open set: the size of the perforations is ϱ1ϱ2, while the distance of the cavities is proportional to ϱ1. Then, if r∗ is small enough, we analyze the behavior of the solution for (ϱ1,ϱ2) close to the degenerate pair (0,r∗).openDalla Riva M., Musolino P.Dalla Riva, M.; Musolino, P

Characterization of Microlensing Planets with Moderately Wide Separations

In future high-cadence microlensing surveys, planets can be detected through a new channel of an independent event produced by the planet itself. The two populations of planets to be detected through this channel are wide-separation planets and free-floating planets. Although they appear as similar short time-scale events, the two populations of planets are widely different in nature and thus distinguishing them is important. In this paper, we investigate the lensing properties of events produced by planets with moderately wide separations from host stars. We find that the lensing behavior of these events is well described by the Chang-Refsdal lensing and the shear caused by the primary not only produces a caustic but also makes the magnification contour elongated along the primary-planet axis. The elongated magnification contour implies that the light curves of these planetary events are generally asymmetric and thus the asymmetry can be used to distinguish the events from those produced by free-floating planets. The asymmetry can be noticed from the overall shape of the light curve and thus can hardly be missed unlike the very short-duration central perturbation caused by the caustic. In addition, the asymmetry occurs regardless of the event magnification and thus the bound nature of the planet can be identified for majority of these events. The close approximation of the lensing light curve to that of the Chang-Refsdal lensing implies that the analysis of the light curve yields only the information about the projected separation between the host star and the planet.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Quantum Critical Scaling in a Moderately Doped Antiferromagnet

Using high temperature expansions for the equal time correlator $S(q)$ and static susceptibility $\chi(q)$ for the t-J model, we present evidence for quantum critical (QC), $z\!=\!1$, behavior at intermediate temperatures in a broad range of $t/J$ ratio, doping, and temperatures. We find that the dynamical susceptibility is very close to the universal scaling function computable for the asymptotic QC regime, and that the dominant energy scale is temperature. Our results are in excellent agreement with measurements of the spin-echo decay rate, $1/T_{\rm 2G}$, in La$_2$CuO$_4$, and provide qualitative understanding of both $1/T_1$ and $1/T_{\rm 2G}$ nuclear relaxation rates in doped cuprates.Comment: 11 pages, REVTeX v3.0, PostScript file for 3 figures is attached, UIUC-P-93-07-068. In this revised version, we calculate the scaling functions and thus present new and more direct evidence in favor of our original conclusion

The gluon splitting function at moderately small x

It is widely believed that at small x, the BFKL resummed gluon splitting function should grow as a power of 1/x. But in several recent calculations it has been found to decrease for moderately small-x before eventually rising. We show that this `dip' structure is a rigorous feature of the P_gg splitting function for sufficiently small alpha_s, the minimum occurring formally at ln 1/x of order 1/sqrt(alpha_s). We calculate the properties of the dip, including corrections of relative order sqrt(alpha_s), and discuss how this expansion in powers of sqrt(alpha_s), which is poorly convergent, can be qualitatively matched to the fully resummed result of a recent calculation, for realistic values of alpha_s. Finally, we note that the dip position, as a function of alpha_s, provides a lower bound in x below which the NNLO fixed-order expansion of the splitting function breaksdown and the resummation of small-x terms is mandatory.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 3 figure