Spectra from the shocked nebulae revealing turbulence near the Galactic Centre

The spectra emitted from clouds near the Galactic Centre are investigated calculating the UV-optical-IR lines using the physical parameters and the element abundances constrained by the fit of mid-IR observations. The characteristic line ratios are compared with those observed in active galaxies. We have found that the physical conditions in the nebulae near the GC are different from those of starburst galaxies and AGN, namely, gas velocities and densities as well as the photoionization fluxes are relatively low. The geometrical thickness of the emitting nebulae is particularly small suggesting that matter is strongly fragmented by instabilities leading to an underlying shock-generated turbulence.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 4 Tables. MNRAS, accepte

Proximity effect in ultrathin Pb/Ag multilayers within the Cooper limit

We report on transport and tunneling measurements performed on ultra-thin Pb/Ag (strong coupled superconductor/normal metal) multilayers evaporated by quench condensation. The critical temperature and energy gap of the heterostructures oscillate with addition of each layer, demonstrating the validity of the Cooper limit model in the case of multilayers. We observe excellent agreement with a simple theory for samples with layer thickness larger than 30\AA . Samples with single layers thinner than 30\AA deviate from the Cooper limit theory. We suggest that this is due to the "inverse proximity effect" where the normal metal electrons improve screening in the superconducting ultrathin layer and thus enhance the critical temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Using Early Data to Illuminate the Pioneer Anomaly

Analysis of the radio tracking data from the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft at distances between about 20 - 70 AU from the Sun has consistently indicated the presence of an unmodeled, small, constant, Doppler blue shift drift of order 6 \times 10^{-9} Hz/s. After accounting for systematics, this drift can be interpreted as a constant acceleration of a_P= (8.74 \pm 1.33) \times 10^{-8} cm/s^2 directed towards the Sun, or perhaps as a time acceleration of a_t = (2.92 \pm 0.44)\times 10^{-18} s/s^2. Although it is suspected that there is a systematic origin to this anomaly, none has been unambiguously demonstrated. We review the current status of the anomaly, and then point out how the analysis of early data, which was never analyzed in detail, could allow a more clear understanding of the origin of the anomaly, be it a systematic or a manifestation of unsuspected physics.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, additional materia

Binarity at the L/T brown dwarf transition

Current atmospheric models cannot reproduce some of the characteristics of the transition between the L dwarfs with cloudy atmospheres and the T dwarfs with dust-depleted photospheres. It has been proposed that a majority of the L/T transition brown dwarfs could actually be a combinaison of a cloudy L dwarf and a clear T dwarf. Indeed binarity seems to occur more frequently among L/T transition brown dwarfs. We aim to refine the statistical significance of the seemingly higher frequency of binaries. Co-eval binaries would also be interesting test-beds for evolutionary models. We obtained high-resolution imaging for six mid-L to late-T dwarfs, with photometric distances between 8 and 33pc, using the adaptive optics systems NACO at the VLT, and the Lick system, both with the laser guide star. We resolve none of our targets. Combining our data with published results, we obtain a frequency of resolved L/T transition brown dwarfs of (31+21-15)%, compared to (21+10-7)% and (14+14-7)% for mid-L and T dwarfs (90% of confidence level). These fractions do not significantly support, nor contradict, the hypothesis of a larger binary fraction in the L/T transition. None of our targets has companions with effective temperatures as low as 360-1000K at separations larger than 0.5".Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by A&

Lucky Imaging survey for southern M dwarf binaries

While M dwarfs are the most abundant stars in the Milky Way, there is still large uncertainty about their basic physical properties (mass, luminosity, radius, etc.) as well as their formation environment. Precise knowledge of multiplicity characteristics and how they change in this transitional mass region, between Sun-like stars on the one side and very low mass stars and brown dwarfs on the other, provide constraints on low mass star and brown dwarf formation. In the largest M dwarf binary survey to date, we search for companions to active, and thus preferentially young, M dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood. We study their binary/multiple properties, such as the multiplicity frequency and distributions of mass ratio and separation, and identify short period visual binaries, for which orbital parameters and hence dynamical mass estimates can be derived in the near future. The observations are carried out in the SDSS i' and z' band using the Lucky Imaging camera AstraLux Sur at the ESO 3.5 m New Technology Telescope. In the first part of the survey, we observed 124 M dwarfs of integrated spectral types M0-M6 and identified 34 new and 17 previously known companions to 44 stars. We derived relative astrometry and component photometry for these systems. More than half of the binaries have separations smaller than 1 arcsec and would have been missed in a simply seeing-limited survey. Correcting our sample for selection effects yields a multiplicity fraction of 32+/-6% for 108 M dwarfs within 52 pc and with angular separations of 0.1-6.0 arcsec, corresponding to projected separation 3-180 AU at median distance 30 pc. Compared to early-type M dwarfs (M>0.3M_Sun), later type (and hence lower mass) M dwarf binaries appear to have closer separations, and more similar masses.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Minor corrections and changes. Revised to match accepted A&A versio

Signal Propagation in Feedforward Neuronal Networks with Unreliable Synapses

In this paper, we systematically investigate both the synfire propagation and firing rate propagation in feedforward neuronal network coupled in an all-to-all fashion. In contrast to most earlier work, where only reliable synaptic connections are considered, we mainly examine the effects of unreliable synapses on both types of neural activity propagation in this work. We first study networks composed of purely excitatory neurons. Our results show that both the successful transmission probability and excitatory synaptic strength largely influence the propagation of these two types of neural activities, and better tuning of these synaptic parameters makes the considered network support stable signal propagation. It is also found that noise has significant but different impacts on these two types of propagation. The additive Gaussian white noise has the tendency to reduce the precision of the synfire activity, whereas noise with appropriate intensity can enhance the performance of firing rate propagation. Further simulations indicate that the propagation dynamics of the considered neuronal network is not simply determined by the average amount of received neurotransmitter for each neuron in a time instant, but also largely influenced by the stochastic effect of neurotransmitter release. Second, we compare our results with those obtained in corresponding feedforward neuronal networks connected with reliable synapses but in a random coupling fashion. We confirm that some differences can be observed in these two different feedforward neuronal network models. Finally, we study the signal propagation in feedforward neuronal networks consisting of both excitatory and inhibitory neurons, and demonstrate that inhibition also plays an important role in signal propagation in the considered networks.Comment: 33pages, 16 figures; Journal of Computational Neuroscience (published

X-ray scattering intensities of water at extreme pressure and temperature

We have calculated the coherent x-ray scattering intensity of several phases of water at 1500 and 2000 K under high pressure, using ab initio Density Functional Theory (DFT). Our calculations span the molecular liquid, ice VII, and superionic solid phases, including the recently predicted symmetrically hydrogen bonded region of the superionic phase. We show that wide angle x-ray scattering intensity could be used to determine phase boundaries between these high pressure phases, and we compare the results for ice VII and superionic water. We compute simulated spectra and provide new atomic scattering form factors for water at extreme conditions, which take into account frequently neglected changes in ionic charge and electron delocalization. We show that our modifed atomic form factors allow for a nearly exact comaprison to the total x-ray scattering intensities calculated from DFT. Finally, we analyze the effect our new form factors have on determination of the oxygen-oxygen radial distribution function