1,247 research outputs found
The enormous outer Galaxy HII region CTB 102
We present new radio recombination line observations of the previously
unstudied HII region CTB 102. Line parameters are extracted and physical
parameters describing the gas are calculated. We estimate the distance to CTB
102 to be 4.3 kpc. Through comparisons with HI and 1.42 GHz radio continuum
data, we estimate the size of CTB 102 to be 100-130 pc, making it one of the
largest HII regions known, comparable to the W4 complex. A stellar wind blown
bubble model is presented as the best explanation for the observed morphology,
size and velocities.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication by The Astrophysical
Journa
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Safeguarding the Far Future: A Broad Legal Intervention for Existential Risk Mitigation in Response to the LHC Controversy
Legal interventions can assist in mitigating existential risks (‘x-risks’) traceable to anthropogenic processes, and examining events from the past can plausibly assist in the configuration of such interventions. To that effect, this thesis considers how a controversy from the past involving particle accelerators and the alleged risk of humanity’s premature extinction (the ‘LHC Controversy’) can be used as a drafting guide for the law’s response to certain risks within the x-risk landscape.
The research aim is to examine how the LHC Controversy can inspire the design of a broad legal intervention for x-risk mitigation. Exploring what can be learnt from the LHC Controversy in this way enables the thesis to contribute to the field of x-risk mitigation. Addressing the main aim involves an investigation of the x-risk landscape and different legal and non-legal aspects characterising the LHC Controversy.
It is argued that the LHC Controversy reveals the value of a broad legal intervention which targets the reliability of scientific work assessing a relevant x-risk. The legal mechanism advanced in this thesis (‘the LHC-inspired intervention’) is disconnected from probabilities of risk and the adjudication of competing scientific theories.
The LHC-inspired intervention entails evaluation of interconnected deficiency factors which can give credence to a concern that the underlying x-risk assessment is not, at present, as reliable as it should be. Broadly speaking, these deficiency factors require analysis of (i) the humans and organisations who consider the relevant x-risk and (ii) the possibility that they have based their conclusion(s) on flawed information or an incomplete state of knowledge or understanding
Genuine Counterfactual Communication with a Nanophotonic Processor
In standard communication information is carried by particles or waves.
Counterintuitively, in counterfactual communication particles and information
can travel in opposite directions. The quantum Zeno effect allows Bob to
transmit a message to Alice by encoding information in particles he never
interacts with. The first suggested protocol not only required thousands of
ideal optical components, but also resulted in a so-called "weak trace" of the
particles having travelled from Bob to Alice, calling the scalability and
counterfactuality of previous proposals and experiments into question. Here we
overcome these challenges, implementing a new protocol in a programmable
nanophotonic processor, based on reconfigurable silicon-on-insulator waveguides
that operate at telecom wavelengths. This, together with our telecom
single-photon source and highly-efficient superconducting nanowire
single-photon detectors, provides a versatile and stable platform for a
high-fidelity implementation of genuinely trace-free counterfactual
communication, allowing us to actively tune the number of steps in the Zeno
measurement, and achieve a bit error probability below 1%, with neither
post-selection nor a weak trace. Our demonstration shows how our programmable
nanophotonic processor could be applied to more complex counterfactual tasks
and quantum information protocols.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Sequential and Spontaneous Star Formation Around the Mid-Infrared Halo HII Region KR 140
We use 2MASS and MSX infrared observations, along with new molecular line
(CO) observations, to examine the distribution of young stellar objects (YSOs)
in the molecular cloud surrounding the halo HII region KR 140 in order to
determine if the ongoing star-formation activity in this region is dominated by
sequential star formation within the photodissociation region (PDR) surrounding
the HII region. We find that KR 140 has an extensive population of YSOs that
have spontaneously formed due to processes not related to the expansion of the
HII region. Much of the YSO population in the molecular cloud is concentrated
along a dense filamentary molecular structure, traced by C18O, that has not
been erased by the formation of the exciting O star. Some of the previously
observed submillimetre clumps surrounding the HII region are shown to be sites
of recent intermediate and low-mass star formation while other massive starless
clumps clearly associated with the PDR may be the next sites of sequential star
formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 8 pages, 10 figure
On instantons as Kaluza-Klein modes of M5-branes
Instantons and W-bosons in 5d maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory
arise from a circle compactification of the 6d (2,0) theory as Kaluza-Klein
modes and winding self-dual strings, respectively. We study an index which
counts BPS instantons with electric charges in Coulomb and symmetric phases. We
first prove the existence of unique threshold bound state of (noncommutative)
U(1) instantons for any instanton number, and also show that charged instantons
in the Coulomb phase correctly give the degeneracy of SU(2) self-dual strings.
By studying SU(N) self-dual strings in the Coulomb phase, we find novel
momentum-carrying degrees on the worldsheet. The total number of these degrees
equals the anomaly coefficient of SU(N) (2,0) theory. We finally show that our
index can be used to study the symmetric phase of this theory, and provide an
interpretation as the superconformal index of the sigma model on instanton
moduli space.Comment: 54 pages, 2 figures. v2: references added, figure improved, added
comments on self-dual string anomaly, added new materials on the symmetric
phase index, other minor correction
The New ‘Hidden Abode’: Reflections on Value and Labour in the New Economy
In a pivotal section of Capital, volume 1, Marx (1976: 279) notes that, in order to understand the capitalist production of value, we must descend into the ‘hidden abode of production’: the site of the labour process conducted within an employment relationship. In this paper we argue that by remaining wedded to an analysis of labour that is confined to the employment relationship, Labour Process Theory (LPT) has missed a fundamental shift in the location of value production in contemporary capitalism. We examine this shift through the work of Autonomist Marxists like Hardt and Negri, Lazaratto and Arvidsson, who offer theoretical leverage to prize open a new ‘hidden abode’ outside employment, for example in the ‘production of organization’ and in consumption. Although they can open up this new ‘hidden abode’, without LPT's fine-grained analysis of control/resistance, indeterminacy and structured antagonism, these theorists risk succumbing to empirically naive claims about the ‘new economy’. Through developing an expanded conception of a ‘new hidden abode’ of production, the paper demarcates an analytical space in which both LPT and Autonomist Marxism can expand and develop their understanding of labour and value production in today's economy. </jats:p
IRAS03063+5735: A Bowshock Nebula Powered by an Early B Star
Mid-infrared images from the Spitzer Space Telescope Galactic Legacy Infrared
MidPlane Survey Extraordinaire program reveal that the infrared source IRAS
03063+5735 is a bowshock nebula produced by an early B star, 2MASS
03101044+5747035. We present new optical spectra of this star, classify it as a
B1.5 V, and determine a probable association with a molecular cloud complex at
V_LSR=-38 -- -42 km/s in the outer Galaxy near l=140.59 degr, b=-0.250 degr. On
the basis of spectroscopic parallax, we estimate a distance of 4.0 +/-1 kpc to
both the bowshock nebula and the molecular complex. One plausible scenario is
that this a high-velocity runaway star impinging upon a molecular cloud. We
identify the HII region and stellar cluster associated with IRAS 03064+5638 at
a projected distance of 64 pc as one plausible birth site. The
spectrophotometric distance and linkage to a molecular feature provides another
piece of data helping to secure the ill-determined rotation curve in the outer
Galaxy. As a by-product of spectral typing this star, we present empirical
spectral diagnostic diagrams suitable for approximate spectral classification
of O and B stars using He lines in the little-used yellow-red portion of the
optical spectrum.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa
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