11,572 research outputs found
LANDSAT language at our reach. First Swedish satellite. Civilization detectors
Information on the use of LANDSAT data by Argentina is presented. Details on a Swedish satellite to be completed in 1984 and to be called VIKING are reported. Attempts to contact other civilizations in space by the use of radiotelescopes are discussed
Explosion of white dwarfs harboring hybrid CONe cores
Recently, it has been found that off-centre carbon burning in a subset of
intermediate-mass stars does not propagate all the way to the center, resulting
in a class of hybrid CONe cores. Here, we consider the possibility that stars
hosting these hybrid CONe cores might belong to a close binary system and,
eventually, become white dwarfs accreting from a non-degenerate companion at
rates leading to a supernova explosion. We have computed the hydrodynamical
phase of the explosion of Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs harboring hybrid
cores, assuming that the explosion starts at the center, either as a detonation
(as may be expected in some degenerate merging scenarios) or as a deflagration
(that afterwards transitions into a delayed detonation). We assume these hybrid
cores are made of a central CO volume, of mass M(CO), surrounded by an ONe
shell. We show that, in case of a pure detonation, a medium-sized CO-rich
region, M(CO)<0.4 Msun, results in the ejection of a small fraction of the
mantle while leaving a massive bound remnant. Part of this remnant is made of
the products of the detonation, Fe-group nuclei, but they are buried in its
inner regions, unless convection is activated during the ensuing cooling and
shrinking phase of the remnant. In contrast, and somehow paradoxically, delayed
detonations do not leave remnants but for the minimum M(CO) we have explored,
M(CO)=0.2 Msun, and even in this case the remnant is as small as 0.13 Msun. The
ejecta produced by these delayed detonations are characterized by slightly
smaller masses of 56Ni and substantially smaller kinetic energies than obtained
for a delayed detonation of a 'normal' CO white dwarf. The optical emission
expected from these explosions would hardly match the observational properties
of typical Type Ia supernovae, although they make interesting candidates for
the subluminous class of SN2002cx-like or SNIax.Comment: Accepted for Astronomy and Astrophysics, 11 pages, 4 figure
Wavelength de-multiplexing properties of a single aperture flanked by periodic arrays of indentations
In this paper we explore the transmission properties of single subwavelength
apertures perforated in thin metallic films flanked by asymmetric
configurations of periodic arrays of indentations. It is shown how the
corrugation in the input side can be used to transmit selectively only two
different wavelengths. Also, by tuning the geometrical parameters defining the
corrugation of the output side, these two chosen wavelengths can emerge from
the structure as two very narrow beams propagating at well-defined directions.
This new ability of structured metals can be used as a base to build
micron-sized wavelength de-multiplexers.Comment: Accepted for publication in Photonics and Nanostructure
The impact of chemical differentiation of white dwarfs on thermonuclear supernovae
Gravitational settling of 22Ne in cooling white dwarfs can affect the outcome
of thermonuclear supernovae. We investigate how the supernova energetics and
nucleosynthesis are in turn influenced by this process. We use realistic
chemical profiles derived from state-of-the-art white dwarf cooling sequences.
The cooling sequences provide a link between the white dwarf chemical structure
and the age of the supernova progenitor system. The cooling sequence of a 1
M_sun white dwarf was computed until freezing using an up-to-date stellar
evolutionary code. We computed explosions of both Chandrasekhar mass and
sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs, assuming spherical symmetry and neglecting
convective mixing during the pre-supernova carbon simmering phase to maximize
the effects of chemical separation. Neither gravitational settling of 22Ne nor
chemical differentiation of 12C and 16O have an appreciable impact on the
properties of Type Ia supernovae, unless there is a direct dependence of the
flame properties (density of transition from deflagration to detonation) on the
chemical composition. At a fixed transition density, the maximum variation in
the supernova magnitude obtained from progenitors of different ages is ~0.06
magnitudes, and even assuming an unrealistically large diffusion coefficient of
22Ne it would be less than ~0.09 mag. However, if the transition density
depends on the chemical composition (all other things being equal) the oldest
SNIa can be as much as 0.4 magnitudes brighter than the youngest ones (in our
models the age difference is 7.4 Gyr). In addition, our results show that 22Ne
sedimentation cannot be invoked to account for the formation of a central core
of stable neutron-rich Fe-group nuclei in the ejecta of sub-Chandrasekhar
models, as required by observations of Type Ia supernovae.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, accepted for Astronomy and
Astrophysics. Revised version with corrected typo
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