3,767 research outputs found
The characteristics of the IR emission features in the spectra of Herbig Ae stars: Evidence for chemical evolution
Herbig Ae/Be stars are a class of young pre-main sequence stellar objects of
intermediate mass and are known to have varying amounts of natal cloud material
still present in their direct vicinity. We characterise the IR emission bands,
due to fluorescence by PAH molecules, in the spectra of Herbig Ae/Be stars and
link observed variations to spatial aspects of the mid-IR emission. We analysed
two PAH dominated spectra from a sample of 15 Herbig Ae/Be stars observed with
Spitzer and derive profiles of the major PAH bands. The shape and the measured
band characteristics show pronounced variations between the two Spitzer
spectra. Those variations parallel those found between three ISO spectra of
other, well-studied, Herbig Ae/Be stars. The derived profiles are compared to
those from a broad sample of sources. The Spitzer and ISO spectra exhibit
characteristics commonly interpreted respectively as interstellar matter-like
(ISM), non-ISM-like, or a combination of the two. We argue that the PAH
emission detected from the sources exhibiting a combination of ISM-like and
non-ISM-like characteristics indicates the presence of two dissimilar,
spatially separated, PAH families. As the shape of the individual PAH band
profiles reflects the composition of the PAH molecules involved, this
demonstrates that PAHs in subsequent, evolutionary linked stages of star
formation are different from those in the general ISM, implying active
chemistry. None of the detected PAH emission can be associated with the
(unresolved) disk and is thus associated with the circumstellar cloud. This
implies that chemical changes may already occur in the natal cloud and not
necessarily in the disk
Discriminating non-native vowels on the basis of multimodal, auditory or visual information: effects on infants’ looking patterns and discrimination
Herschel PACS and SPIRE spectroscopy of the Photodissociation Regions associated with S 106 and IRAS 23133+6050
Photodissociation regions (PDRs) contain a large fraction of all of the
interstellar matter in galaxies. Classical examples include the boundaries
between ionized regions and molecular clouds in regions of massive star
formation, marking the point where all of the photons energetic enough to
ionize hydrogen have been absorbed. In this paper we determine the physical
properties of the PDRs associated with the star forming regions IRAS 23133+6050
and S 106 and present them in the context of other Galactic PDRs associated
with massive star forming regions. We employ Herschel PACS and SPIRE
spectroscopic observations to construct a full 55-650 {\mu}m spectrum of each
object from which we measure the PDR cooling lines, other fine- structure
lines, CO lines and the total far-infrared flux. These measurements are then
compared to standard PDR models. Subsequently detailed numerical PDR models are
compared to these predictions, yielding additional insights into the dominant
thermal processes in the PDRs and their structures. We find that the PDRs of
each object are very similar, and can be characterized by a two-phase PDR model
with a very dense, highly UV irradiated phase (n 10^6 cm^(-3), G
10^5) interspersed within a lower density, weaker radiation field phase
(n 10^4 cm^(-3), G 10^4). We employed two different numerical
models to investigate the data, firstly we used RADEX models to fit the peak of
the CO ladder, which in conjunction with the properties derived yielded
a temperature of around 300 K. Subsequent numerical modeling with a full PDR
model revealed that the dense phase has a filling factor of around 0.6 in both
objects. The shape of the CO ladder was consistent with these components
with heating dominated by grain photoelectric heating. An extra excitation
component for the highest J lines (J > 20) is required for S 106.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, A&A Accepte
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Size Tracers
We examine the dependence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) band
intensity ratios as a function of the average number of carbon atoms and assess
their effectiveness as tracers for PAH size, utilising the data, models, and
tools provided by the NASA Ames PAH Infrared Spectroscopic Database. To achieve
this, we used spectra from mixtures of PAHs of different ionisation fractions,
following a size distribution. Our work, congruent with earlier findings, shows
that band ratios that include the 3.3 m PAH band provide the best PAH
size tracers for small-to-intermediate sized PAHs. In addition, we find that
band ratios that include the sum of the 15-20 m PAH features
(I) and the 6.2 or 7.7 m bands also serve as good
tracers for PAH size in the case of small-to-intermediate sized PAHs, for
objects under a similar PAH size distribution as with the presented models. For
different PAH size distributions, the application of a scaling factor to the
I/I ratio can provide estimates for the size of the
small-to-intermediate PAH population within sources. Employment of the
I/I and I/I ratios can be
of particular interest for JWST observations limited only to 5-28
m MIRI(-MRS) coverage.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; Accepted for publication in MNRA
Properties of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Northwest Photon Dominated Region of NGC 7023. I. PAH Size, Charge, Composition, and Structure Distribution
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph spectral map of the northwest photon dominated region (PDR) in NGC 7023 was analyzed exclusively using PAH spectra from the NASA Ames PAH IR Spectroscopic Database (www.astrochem.org/pahdb). The 5-15 micron spectrum at each pixel is fitted using a non-negative-least-squares fitting approach. The fits are of good quality, allowing decomposition of the PAH emission into four subclasses: size, charge, composition, and hydrogen adjacency (structure). Maps tracing PAH subclass distributions across the region paint a coherent astrophysical picture. Once past some 20 seconds of arc from HD 200775, the emission is dominated by the more stable, large, symmetric, compact PAH cations with smaller, neutral PAHs taking over along the lines-of-sight toward the more distant molecular cloud. The boundary between the PDR and the denser cloud material shows up as a distinct discontinuity in the breakdown maps. Noteworthy is the requirement for PANH cations to fit the bulk of the 6.2 and 11.0 micron features and the indication of PAH photo-dehydrogenation and fragmentation close to HD 200775. Decomposition of the spectral maps into "principal" subclass template spectra provides additional insight into the behavior of each subclass. However, the general applicability of this computationally more efficient approach is presently undetermined. This is the first time the spectra of individual PAHs are exclusively used to fit the 5-15 micron region and analyze the spatial behavior of the aromatic infrared bands, providing fundamental, new information about astronomical PAH subpopulations including their dependence on, and response to, changes in local conditions
Physiological condition in Magellanic Penguins: Does it matter if you have to walk a long way to your nest?
Colony edges, as opposed to interiors, are often considered less advantageous nesting places in colonial species. For temperate-breeding penguins, inland colony edges should be less desirable than other edges, as there are added costs of walking farther inland, and ambient temperatures are higher. During settlement and incubation, we compared body condition and baseline and stress-induced levels of the hormone corticosterone in male Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) nesting on the sea edge of a colony with those nesting on the inland edge, \u3e800 m from shore. Body condition in both groups was significantly lower during settlement than during incubation, but was similar in both groups within breeding stages. Corticosterone levels were similar between breeding stages and for groups within each breeding stage. While body condition can vary over time, penguins appear to be well buffered to physiological extremes, as they do not show modification of corticosterone levels with variations in nesting conditions
Scalar and vector decomposition of the nucleon self-energy in the relativistic Brueckner approach
We investigate the momentum dependence of the nucleon self-energy in nuclear
matter. We apply the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach and adopt the
Bonn A potential. A strong momentum dependence of the scalar and vector
self-energy components can be observed when a commonly used pseudo-vector
choice for the covariant representation of the T-matrix is applied. This
momentum dependence is dominated by the pion exchange. We discuss the problems
of this choice and its relations to on-shell ambiguities of the T-matrix
representation. Starting from a complete pseudo-vector representation of the
T-matrix, which reproduces correctly the pseudo-vector pion-exchange
contributions at the Hartree-Fock level, we observe a much weaker momentum
dependence of the self-energy. This fixes the range of the inherent uncertainty
in the determination of the scalar and vector self-energy components. Comparing
to other work, we find that extracting the self-energy components by a fit to
the single particle potential leads to even more ambiguous results.Comment: 35 pages RevTex, 7 PS figures, replaced by a revised and extended
versio
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