2,767 research outputs found
Proof of two conjectures of Zuber on fully packed loop configurations
Two conjectures of Zuber [``On the counting of fully packed loops
configurations. Some new conjectures,'' preprint] on the enumeration of
configurations in the fully packed loop model on the square grid with periodic
boundary conditions, which have a prescribed linkage pattern, are proved.
Following an idea of de Gier [``Loops, matchings and alternating-sign
matrices,'' Discrete Math., to appear], the proofs are based on bijections
between such fully packed loop configurations and rhombus tilings, and the
hook-content formula for semistandard tableaux.Comment: 20 pages; AmS-LaTe
Chemical tracers in proto-brown dwarfs: CO, ortho-HCO, para-HCO, HCO, CS observations
We present a study of the CO isotopologues and the high-density tracers
HCO, HCO, and CS in Class 0/I proto-brown dwarfs (proto-BDs). We
have used the IRAM 30m telescope to observe the CO (2-1), CO
(2-1), CO (2-1), CO (2-1), HCO (3-2), HCO (3-2), and
CS (5-4) lines in 7 proto-BDs. The hydrogen column density for the proto-BDs
derived from the CO gas emission is 2-15 times lower than that derived
from the dust continuum emission, indicating CO depletion from the gas-phase.
The mean HCO ortho-to-para ratio is 3 for the proto-BDs and
indicates gas-phase formation for HCO. We have investigated the
correlations in the molecular abundances between the proto-BDs and protostars.
Proto-BDs on average show a factor of 2 higher ortho-to-para HCO
ratio than the protostars. Possible explanations include a difference in the
HCO formation mechanism, spin-selective photo-dissociation,
self-shielding effects, or different emitting regions for the ortho and para
species. There is a tentative trend of a decline in the HCO and HCO
abundances with decreasing bolometric luminosity, while the CS and CO
abundances show no particular difference between the proto-BDs and protostars.
These trends reflect the scaled-down physical structures for the proto-BDs
compared to protostars and differences in the peak emitting regions for these
species. The CO isotopologue is detected in all of the proto-BDs as well
as the more evolved Class Flat/Class II BDs in our sample, and can probe the
quiescent gas at both early and late evolutionary stages.Comment: Accepted in MNRAS. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1809.1016
Chemical tracers in proto-brown dwarfs: CN, HCN, and HNC observations
We present results from a study of nitrogen chemistry in Class 0/I
proto-brown dwarfs (proto-BDs). We have used the IRAM 30 m telescope to observe
the CN (2-1), HCN (3-2), and HNC (3-2) lines in 7 proto-BDs. All proto-BDs show
a large CN/HCN abundance ratio of >20, and a HNC/HCN abundance ratio close to
or larger than unity. The enhanced CN/HCN ratios can be explained by high UV
flux originating from an active accretion zone in the proto-BDs. The larger
than unity HNC/HCN ratio for the proto-BDs is likely caused by a combination of
low temperature and high density. Both CN and HNC show a flat distribution with
CO, indicating that these species can survive in regions where CO is depleted.
We have investigated the correlations in the molecular abundances of these
species for the proto-BDs with Class 0/I protostars. We find tentative trends
of CN (HCN) abundances being about an order of magnitude higher (lower) in the
proto-BDs compared to protostars. HNC for the proto-BDs shows a nearly constant
abundance unlike the large spread of ~2 orders of magnitude seen for the
protostars. Also notable is a rise in the HNC/HCN abundance ratio for the
lowest luminosity objects, suggesting that this ratio is higher under
low-temperature environments. None of the relatively evolved Class Flat/Class
II brown dwarfs in our sample show emission in HNC. The HNC molecule can be
considered as an efficient tracer to search and identify early stage
sub-stellar mass objects.Comment: Accepted in MNRA
Highly deuterated pre-stellar cores in a high-mass star formation region
We have observed the deuterated gas in the high-mass star formation region
IRAS 05345+3157 at high-angular resolution, in order to determine the
morphology and the nature of such gas. We have mapped the N2H+ (1-0) line with
the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, and the N2D+ (3-2) and N2H+ (3-2) lines
with the Submillimeter Array. The N2D+ (3-2) integrated emission is
concentrated in two condensations, with masses of 2-3 and 9 M_sun and diameters
of 0.05 and 0.09 pc, respectively. The high deuterium fractionation (0.1) and
the line parameters in the N2D+ condensations indicate that they are likely
low- to intermediate-mass pre-stellar cores, even though other scenarios are
possible.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
First measurements of 15N fractionation in N2H+ toward high-mass star forming cores
We report on the first measurements of the isotopic ratio 14N/15N in N2H+
toward a statistically significant sample of high-mass star forming cores. The
sources belong to the three main evolutionary categories of the high-mass star
formation process: high-mass starless cores, high-mass protostellar objects,
and ultracompact HII regions. Simultaneous measurements of 14N/15N in CN have
been made. The 14N/15N ratios derived from N2H+ show a large spread (from ~180
up to ~1300), while those derived from CN are in between the value measured in
the terrestrial atmosphere (~270) and that of the proto-Solar nebula (~440) for
the large majority of the sources within the errors. However, this different
spread might be due to the fact that the sources detected in the N2H+
isotopologues are more than those detected in the CN ones. The 14N/15N ratio
does not change significantly with the source evolutionary stage, which
indicates that time seems to be irrelevant for the fractionation of nitrogen.
We also find a possible anticorrelation between the 14N/15N (as derived from
N2H+) and the H/D isotopic ratios. This suggests that 15N enrichment could not
be linked to the parameters that cause D enrichment, in agreement with the
prediction by recent chemical models. These models, however, are not able to
reproduce the observed large spread in 14N/15N, pointing out that some
important routes of nitrogen fractionation could be still missing in the
models.Comment: 2 Figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Tailoring correlations of the local density of states in disordered photonic materials
We present experimental evidence for the different mechanisms driving the
fluctuations of the local density of states (LDOS) in disordered photonic
systems. We establish a clear link between the microscopic structure of the
material and the frequency correlation function of LDOS accessed by a
near-field hyperspectral imaging technique. We show, in particular, that short-
and long-range frequency correlations of LDOS are controlled by different
physical processes (multiple or single scattering processes, respectively) that
can be---to some extent---manipulated independently. We also demonstrate that
the single scattering contribution to LDOS fluctuations is sensitive to
subwavelength features of the material and, in particular, to the correlation
length of its dielectric function. Our work paves a way towards a complete
control of statistical properties of disordered photonic systems, allowing for
designing materials with predefined correlations of LDOS.Comment: 5+9 pages, 5+6 figures. Fixed confusion of references between the
main text and the supplemental material in version
A simple and robust event-detection algorithm for single-cell impedance cytometry
Microfluidic impedance cytometry is emerging as a powerful label-free technique for the characterization of single biological cells. In order to increase the sensitivity and the specificity of the technique, suited digital signal processing methods are required to extract meaningful information from measured impedance data. In this study, a simple and robust event-detection algorithm for impedance cytometry is presented. Since a differential measuring scheme is generally adopted, the signal recorded when a cell passes through the sensing region of the device exhibits a typical odd-symmetric pattern. This feature is exploited twice by the proposed algorithm: first, a preliminary segmentation, based on the correlation of the data stream with the simplest odd-symmetric template, is performed; then, the quality of detected events is established by evaluating their E2O index, that is, a measure of the ratio between their even and odd parts. A thorough performance analysis is reported, showing the robustness of the algorithm with respect to parameter choice and noise level. In terms of sensitivity and positive predictive value, an overall performance of 94.9% and 98.5%, respectively, was achieved on two datasets relevant to microfluidic chips with very different characteristics, considering three noise levels. The present algorithm can foster the role of impedance cytometry in single-cell analysis, which is the new frontier in "Omics.
Protonated CO2 in massive star-forming clumps
Interstellar CO2 is an important reservoir of carbon and oxygen, and one of
the major constituents of the icy mantles of dust grains, but it is not
observable directly in the cold gas because has no permanent dipole moment. Its
protonated form, HOCO+, is believed to be a good proxy for gaseous CO2.
However, it has been detected in only a few star-forming regions so far, so
that its interstellar chemistry is not well understood. We present new
detections of HOCO+ lines in 11 high-mass star-forming clumps. Our observations
increase by more than three times the number of detections in star-forming
regions so far. We have derived beam-averaged abundances relative to H2 in
between 0.3 and 3.8 x 10^{-11}. We have compared these values with the
abundances of H13CO+, a possible gas-phase precursor of HOCO+, and CH3OH, a
product of surface chemistry. We have found a positive correlation with H13CO+,
while with CH3OH there is no correlation. We suggest that the gas-phase
formation route starting from HCO+ plays an important role in the formation of
HOCO+, perhaps more relevant than protonation of CO2 (upon evaporation of this
latter from icy dust mantles).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRA
Deuteration as an evolutionary tracer in massive-star formation
Theory predicts, and observations confirm, that the column density ratio of a
molecule containing D to its counterpart containing H can be used as an
evolutionary tracer in the low-mass star formation process. Since it remains
unclear if the high-mass star formation process is a scaled-up version of the
low-mass one, we investigated whether the relation between deuteration and
evolution can be applied to the high-mass regime. With the IRAM-30m telescope,
we observed rotational transitions of N2D+ and N2H+ and derived the deuterated
fraction in 27 cores within massive star-forming regions understood to
represent different evolutionary stages of the massive-star formation process.
Results. Our results clearly indicate that the abundance of N2D+ is higher at
the pre-stellar/cluster stage, then drops during the formation of the
protostellar object(s) as in the low-mass regime, remaining relatively constant
during the ultra-compact HII region phase. The objects with the highest
fractional abundance of N2D+ are starless cores with properties very similar to
typical pre-stellar cores of lower mass. The abundance of N2D+ is lower in
objects with higher gas temperatures as in the low-mass case but does not seem
to depend on gas turbulence. Our results indicate that the N2D+-to-N2H+ column
density ratio can be used as an evolutionary indicator in both low- and
high-mass star formation, and that the physical conditions influencing the
abundance of deuterated species likely evolve similarly during the processes
that lead to the formation of both low- and high-mass stars.Comment: Accepted by A&AL, 4 pages, 2 figures, 2 appendices (one for Tables,
one for additional figures
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