271 research outputs found
Effect of randomness and anisotropy on Turing patterns in reaction-diffusion systems
We study the effect of randomness and anisotropy on Turing patterns in
reaction-diffusion systems. For this purpose, the Gierer-Meinhardt model of
pattern formation is considered. The cases we study are: (i)randomness in the
underlying lattice structure, (ii)the case in which there is a probablity p
that at a lattice site both reaction and diffusion occur, otherwise there is
only diffusion and lastly, the effect of (iii) anisotropic and (iv) random
diffusion coefficients on the formation of Turing patterns. The general
conclusion is that the Turing mechanism of pattern formation is fairly robust
in the presence of randomness and anisotropy.Comment: 11 pages LaTeX, 14 postscript figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Submillimeter mapping and analysis of cold dust condensations in the Orion M42 star forming complex
We present here the continuum submillimeter maps of the molecular cloud
around the M42 Nebula in the Orion region. These have been obtained in four
wavelength bands (200, 260, 360 and 580 microns) with the ProNaOS two meter
balloon-borne telescope. The area covered is 7 parsecs wide (50 arcmin at a
distance of 470 pc) with a spatial resolution of about 0.4 parsec. Thanks to
the high sensitivity to faint surface brightness gradients, we have found
several cold condensations with temperatures ranging from 12 to 17 K, within 3
parsecs of the dense ridge. The statistical analysis of the temperature and
spectral index spatial distribution shows an evidence of an inverse correlation
between these two parameters. Being invisible in the IRAS 100 micron survey,
some cold clouds are likely to be the seeds for future star formation activity
going on in the complex. We estimate their masses and we show that two of them
have masses higher than their Jeans masses, and may be gravitationally
unstable.Comment: 4 figures, The Astrophysical Journal, Main Journal, in pres
A map of OMC-1 in CO 9-8
The distribution of 12C16O J=9-8 (1.037 THz) emission has been mapped in
OMC-1 at 35 points with 84" resolution. This is the first map of this source in
this transition and only the second velocity-resolved ground-based observation
of a line in the terahertz frequency band. There is emission present at all
points in the map, a region roughly 4' by 6' in size, with peak antenna
temperature dropping only near the edges. Away from the Orion KL outflow, the
velocity structure suggests that most of the emission comes from the OMC-1
photon-dominated region, with a typical linewidthof 3-6 km/s. Large velocity
gradient modeling of the emission in J=9-8 and six lower transitions suggests
that the lines originate in regions with temperatures around 120 K and
densities of at least 10^(3.5) cm^(-3) near theta^(1) C Ori and at the Orion
Bar, and from 70 K gas at around 10^(4) cm^(-3) southeast and west of the bar.
These observations are among the first made with the 0.8 m Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory Receiver Lab Telescope, a new instrument designed to
observe at frequencies above 1 THz from an extremely high and dry site in
northern Chile.Comment: Minor changes to references, text to match ApJ versio
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Far-infrared CO line emission of protostars in NGC 1333
Using the Long Wavelength Spectrometer aboard ISO, we have observed three very young sources (Class 0 or I) in the molecular cloud NGC1333. We discuss in this contribution the FIR CO line emission observed towards the sources themselves and conclude that both a rather warm (~ 1500 K) and dense (~ 105 cm-3) gas or a colder (~ 300 K) and much denser (â„ 108 cm-3) gas are consistent with the data. Based on this analysis only we cannot distinguish between the two cases and therefore assess whether the observed emission originates in a shock associated with the outflow or in the innermost, dense and warm regions of the envelopes that surround these sources
Dynamical effects induced by long range activation in a nonequilibrium reaction-diffusion system
We both show experimentally and numerically that the time scales separation
introduced by long range activation can induce oscillations and excitability in
nonequilibrium reaction-diffusion systems that would otherwise only exhibit
bistability. Namely, we show that the Chlorite-Tetrathionate reaction, where
autocatalytic species diffuses faster than the substrates, the spatial
bistability domain in the nonequilibrium phase diagram is extended with
oscillatory and excitability domains. A simple model and a more realistic model
qualitatively account for the observed behavior. The latter model provides
quantitative agreement with the experiments.Comment: 19 pages + 9 figure
CO(1-0), CO(2-1) and Neutral Gas in NGC 6946: Molecular Gas in a Late-Type, Gas Rich, Spiral Galaxy
We present "On The Fly" maps of the CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) emission covering a
10' X 10' region of the NGC 6946. Using our CO maps and archival VLA HI
observations we create a total gas surface density map, Sigma_gas, for NGC
6946. The predominantly molecular inner gas disk transitions smoothly into an
atomic outer gas disk, with equivalent atomic and molecular gas surface
densities at R = 3.5' (6 kpc). We estimate that the total H2 mass is 3 X 10^9
Mo, roughly 1/3 of the interstellar hydrogen gas mass, and about 2% of the
dynamical mass of the galaxy at our assumed distance of 6 Mpc. The value of the
CO(2-1)/CO(1-0) line ratio ranges from 0.35 to 2; 50% of the map is covered by
very high ratio, >1, gas. The very high ratios are predominantly from interarm
regions and appear to indicate the presence of wide-spread optically thin gas.
Star formation tracers are better correlated with the total neutral gas disk
than with the molecular gas by itself implying SFR is proportional to
Sigma_gas. Using the 100 FIR and 21 cm continuum from NGC 6946 as star
formation tracers, we arrive at a gas consumption timescale of 2.8 Gyr, which
is relatively uniform across the disk. The high star formation rate at the
nucleus appears to be due to a large accumulation of molecular gas rather than
a large increase in the star formation efficiency. The mid-plane gas pressure
in the outer (R > 10 kpc) HI arms of NGC 6946 is close to the value at the
radial limit (10 kpc) of our observed CO disk. If the mid-plane gas pressure is
a factor for the formation of molecular clouds, these outer HI gas arms should
contain molecular gas which we do not see because they are beyond our detection
limit
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Water line emission in low-mass protostars
Using the Long Wavelength Specrometer aboard ISO, we have detected far infrared rotational H2O emission lines in five low-mass young stellar objects in a survey of seven such sources. The total H2O fluxes are well correlated with the 1.3 mm continuum fluxes, but - surprisingly - not with the SiO millimeter emission originating in the outflows, suggesting that the water emission arises in the circumstellar envelopes rather than in the outflows. In two of the sources, NGC1333-IRAS4 and IRAS16293-2422, we measured about ten H2O lines, and used their fluxes to put stringent constraints on the physical conditions (temperature, density and column density) of the emitting gas. Simple LVG modelling implies that the emission originates in a very small ( ~ 200 AU), dense (â„ 107) cm-3) and warm ( ~ 100 K) region, with a column density larger than about 1016 cm-2. The detected H2O emission may be well accounted for by thermal emission from a collapsing envelope, and we derive constraints on the accretion rate and central mass of NGC1333-IRAS4. We also discuss an alternative scenario in which the H2O emission arises in an extremely dense shock very close to the central object, perhaps caused by the interaction of the outflow with the inner regions of the circumstellar envelope
Nitrogen hydrides in the cold envelope of IRAS16293-2422
Nitrogen is the fifth most abundant element in the Universe, yet the
gas-phase chemistry of N-bearing species remains poorly understood. Nitrogen
hydrides are key molecules of nitrogen chemistry. Their abundance ratios place
strong constraints on the production pathways and reaction rates of
nitrogen-bearing molecules. We observed the class 0 protostar IRAS16293-2422
with the heterodyne instrument HIFI, covering most of the frequency range from
0.48 to 1.78~THz at high spectral resolution. The hyperfine structure of the
amidogen radical o-NH2 is resolved and seen in absorption against the continuum
of the protostar. Several transitions of ammonia from 1.2 to 1.8~THz are also
seen in absorption. These lines trace the low-density envelope of the
protostar. Column densities and abundances are estimated for each hydride. We
find that NH:NH2:NH3=5:1:300. {Dark clouds chemical models predict steady-state
abundances of NH2 and NH3 in reasonable agreement with the present
observations, whilst that of NH is underpredicted by more than one order of
magnitude, even using updated kinetic rates. Additional modelling of the
nitrogen gas-phase chemistry in dark-cloud conditions is necessary before
having recourse to heterogen processes
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