On Core Collapse Supernovae in Normal and in Seyfert Galaxies

This paper estimates the relative frequency of different types of core-collapse supernovae, in terms of the ratio f between the number of type Ib--Ic and of type II supernovae. We estimate f independently for all normal and Seyfert galaxies whose radial velocity is <=14000 km/s, and which had at least one supernova event recorded in the Asiago catalogue from January 1986 to August 2000. We find that the ratio f is approx. 0.23+/-0.05 in normal galaxies. This value is consistent with constant star formation rate and with a Salpeter Initial Mass Function and average binary rate approx. 50 %. On the contrary, Seyfert galaxies exceed the ratio f in normal galaxies by a factor approx. 4 at a confidence level >= 2 sigma. A caveat is that the numbers for Seyferts are still small (6 type Ib-Ic and 6 type II supernovae discovered as yet). Assumed real, this excess of type Ib and Ic with respect to type II supernovae, may indicate a burst of star formation of young age (<= 20 Myr), a high incidence of binary systems in the inner regions (r <= 0.4 R25) of Seyfert galaxies, or a top-loaded mass function.Comment: Accepted for Publication in MNRA

Pre-MS depletion, accretion and primordial 7Li

We reconsider the role of pre-main sequence (pre-MS) Li depletion on the basis of new observational and theoretical evidence: i) new observations of Halpha emissions in young clusters show that mass accretion could be continuing till the first stages of the MS, ii) theoretical implications from helioseismology suggest large overshooting values below the bottom of the convective envelopes. We argue here that a significant pre-MS 7Li destruction, caused by efficient overshoot mixing, could be followed by a matter accretion after 7Li depletion has ceased on MS thus restoring Li almost to the pristine value. As a test case we show that a halo dwarf of 0.85 Msun with an extended overshooting envelope starting with an initial abundance of A(Li) = 2.74 would burn Li completely, but an accretion rate of the type 1e-8xe^{-t/3e6} Msun yr$^{-1}$ would restore Li to end with an A(Li) = 2.31. A self-regulating process is required to produce similar final values in a range of different stellar masses to explain the PopII Spite plateau. However, this framework could explain why open cluster stars have lower Li abundances than the pre-solar nebula, the absence of Li in the most metal poor dwarfs and a number of other features which lack of a satisfactory explanation.Comment: To be published in Memorie della Societ\`a Astronomica Italiana Supplementi Vol. 22, Proceedings of Lithium in the cosmos, Iocco F., Bonifacio P., Vangioni E., ed

Relaxation to magnetohydrodynamics equilibria via collision brackets

Metriplectic dynamics is applied to compute equilibria of fluid dynamical systems. The result is a relaxation method in which Hamiltonian dynamics (symplectic structure) is combined with dissipative mechanisms (metric structure) that relaxes the system to the desired equilibrium point. The specific metric operator, which is considered in this work, is formally analogous to the Landau collision operator. These ideas are illustrated by means of case studies. The considered physical models are the Euler equations in vorticity form, the Grad-Shafranov equation, and force-free MHD equilibria.Comment: Conference Proceeding (Theory of Fusions Plasmas, 2018), 9 pages, 8 figure

The role of the synchrotron component in the mid infrared spectrum of M 87

We study in detail the mid-infrared Spitzer-IRS spectrum of M 87 in the range 5 to 20 micron. Thanks to the high sensitivity of our Spitzer-IRS spectra we can disentangle the stellar and nuclear components of this active galaxy. To this end we have properly subtracted from the M 87 spectrum, the contribution of the underlying stellar continuum, derived from passive Virgo galaxies in our sample. The residual is a clear power-law, without any additional thermal component, with a zero point consistent with that obtained by high spatial resolution, ground based observations. The residual is independent of the adopted passive template. This indicates that the 10 micron silicate emission shown in spectra of M 87 can be entirely accounted for by the underlying old stellar population, leaving little room for a possible torus contribution. The MIR power-law has a slope alpha ~ 0.77-0.82 (S$_\nu\propto\nu^{-\alpha}$), consistent with optically thin synchrotron emission.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ main journa

Mid-infrared colour gradients and the colour-magnitude relation in Virgo early-type galaxies

We make use of Spitzer imaging between 4 and 16 micron and near-infrared data at 2.2 micron to investigate the nature and distribution of the mid-infrared emission in a sample of early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster. These data allow us to conclude, with some confidence, that the emission at 16 micron in passive ETGs is stellar in origin, consistent with previous work concluding that the excess mid-infrared emission comes from the dusty envelopes around evolved AGB stars. There is little evidence for the mid-infrared emission of an unresolved central component, as might arise in the presence of a dusty torus associated with a low-luminosity AGN. We nonetheless find that the 16 micron emission is more centrally peaked than the near-infrared emission, implying a radial stellar population gradient. By comparing with independent evidence from studies at optical wavelengths, we conclude that a metallicity that falls with increasing radius is the principal driver of the observed gradient. We also plot the mid-infrared colour-magnitude diagram and combine with similar work on the Coma cluster to define the colour-magnitude relation for absolute K-band magnitudes from -26 to -19. Because a correlation between mass and age would produce a relation with a gradient in the opposite sense to that observed, we conclude that the relation reflects the fact that passive ETGs of lower mass also have a lower average metallicity. The colour-magnitude relation is thus driven by metallicity effects. In contrast to what is found in Coma, we do not find any objects with anomalously bright 16 micron emission relative to the colour-magnitude relation. Although there is little overlap in the mass ranges probed in the two clusters, this may suggest that observable ``rejuvenation'' episodes are limited to intermediate mass objects.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

SPITZER IRS spectra of Virgo early type galaxies: detection of stellar silicate emission

We present high signal to noise ratio Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph observations of 17 Virgo early-type galaxies. The galaxies were selected from those that define the colour-magnitude relation of the cluster, with the aim of detecting the silicate emission of their dusty, mass-losing evolved stars. To flux calibrate these extended sources we have devised a new procedure that allows us to obtain the intrinsic spectral energy distribution and to disentangle resolved and unresolved emission within the same object. We have found that thirteen objects of the sample (76%) are passively evolving galaxies with a pronounced broad silicate feature which is spatially extended and likely of stellar origin, in agreement with model predictions. The other 4 objects (24%) are characterized by different levels of activity. In NGC 4486 (M 87) the line emission and the broad silicate emission are evidently unresolved and, given also the typical shape of the continuum, they likely originate in the nuclear torus. NGC 4636 shows emission lines superimposed on extended (i.e. stellar) silicate emission, thus pushing the percentage of galaxies with silicate emission to 82%. Finally, NGC 4550 and NGC 4435 are characterized by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and line emission, arising from a central unresolved region. A more detailed analysis of our sample, with updated models, will be presented in a forthcoming paper.Comment: 6 pages; ApJ Letters, accepte

The boundary Riemann solver coming from the real vanishing viscosity approximation

We study a family of initial boundary value problems associated to mixed hyperbolic-parabolic systems: v^{\epsilon} _t + A (v^{\epsilon}, \epsilon v^{\epsilon}_x ) v^{\epsilon}_x = \epsilon B (v^{\epsilon} ) v^{\epsilon}_{xx} The conservative case is, in particular, included in the previous formulation. We suppose that the solutions $v^{\epsilon}$ to these problems converge to a unique limit. Also, it is assumed smallness of the total variation and other technical hypotheses and it is provided a complete characterization of the limit. The most interesting points are the following two. First, the boundary characteristic case is considered, i.e. one eigenvalue of $A$ can be $0$. Second, we take into account the possibility that $B$ is not invertible. To deal with this case, we take as hypotheses conditions that were introduced by Kawashima and Shizuta relying on physically meaningful examples. We also introduce a new condition of block linear degeneracy. We prove that, if it is not satisfied, then pathological behaviours may occur.Comment: 84 pages, 6 figures. Text changes in Sections 1 and 3.2.3. Added Section 3.1.2. Minor changes in other section

On the Determination of Star Formation Rates in Evolving Galaxy Populations

The redshift dependence of the luminosity density in certain wavebands (e.g. UV and H-alpha) can be used to infer the history of star formation in the populations of galaxies producing this luminosity. This history is a useful datum in studies of galaxy evolution. It is therefore important to understand the errors that attend the inference of star formation rate densities from luminosity densities. This paper explores the self-consistency of star formation rate diagnostics by reproducing commonly used observational procedures in a model with known galaxy populations, evolutionary histories and spectral emission properties. The study reveals a number of potential sources of error in the diagnostic processes arising from the differential evolution of different galaxy types. We argue that multi-wavelength observations can help to reduce these errors.Comment: 13 pages (including 5 encapsulated postscript figures), aastex, accepted for publication in Ap

Low Star Formation Rates for z=1 Early-Type Galaxies in the Very Deep GOODS-MIPS Imaging: Implications for their Optical/Near-Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions

We measure the obscured star formation in z~1 early-type galaxies. This constrains the influence of star formation on their optical/near-IR colors, which, we found, are redder than predicted by the model by Bruzual & Charlot (2003). From deep ACS imaging we construct a sample of 95 morphologically selected early-type galaxies in the HDF-N and CDF-S with spectroscopic redshifts in the range 0.85<z<1.15. We measure their 24 micron fluxes from the deep GOODS-MIPS imaging and derive the IR luminosities and star formation rates. The fraction of galaxies with >2 sigma detections (~25 muJy} is 17(-4,+9)%. Of the 15 galaxies with significant detections at least six have an AGN. Stacking the MIPS images of the galaxies without significant detections and adding the detected galaxies without AGN we find an upper limit on the mean star formation rate (SFR) of 5.2+/-3.0 Msol yr^-1, and on the mean specific SFR of 4.6+/-2.2 * 10^-11 yr^-1. Under the assumption that the average SFR will decline at the same rate as the cosmic average, the in situ growth in stellar mass of the early-type galaxy population is less than 14+/-7% between z=1 and the present. We show that the typically low IR luminosity and SFR imply that the effect of obscured star formation (or AGN) on their rest-frame optical/near-IR SEDs is negligible for ~90% of the galaxies in our sample. Hence, their optical/near-IR colors are most likely dominated by evolved stellar populations. This implies that the colors predicted by the Bruzual & Charlot (2003) model for stellar populations with ages similar to those of z~1 early-type galaxies (~1-3 Gyr) are most likely too blue, and that stellar masses of evolved, high-redshift galaxies can be overestimated by up to a factor of ~2.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Some Results on the Boundary Control of Systems of Conservation Laws

This note is concerned with the study of the initial boundary value problem for systems of conservation laws from the point of view of control theory, where the initial data is fixed and the boundary data are regarded as control functions. We first consider the problem of controllability at a fixed time for genuinely nonlinear Temple class systems, and present a description of the set of attainable configurations of the corresponding solutions in terms of suitable Oleinik-type estimates. We next present a result concerning the asymptotic stabilization near a constant state for general $n\times n$ systems. Finally we show with an example that in general one cannot achieve exact controllability to a constant state in finite time.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, conferenc