6,332 research outputs found
Warm Cores around Regions of Low-Mass Star Formation
Warm cores (or hot corinos) around low-mass protostellar objects show a rich
chemistry with strong spatial variations. This chemistry is generally
attributed to the sublimation of icy mantles on dust grains initiated by the
warming effect of the stellar radiation. We have used a model of the chemistry
in warm cores in which the sublimation process is based on extensive laboratory
data; these data indicate that sublimation from mixed ices occurs in several
well-defined temperature bands. We have determined the position of these bands
for the slow warming by a solar-mass star. The resulting chemistry is dominated
by the sublimation process and by subsequent gas-phase reactions; strong
spatial and temporal variations in certain molecular species are found to
occur, and our results are, in general, consistent with observational results
for the well-studied source IRAS 16293-2422. The model used is similar to one
that describes the chemistry of hot cores. We infer that the chemistry of both
hot cores and warm cores may be described by the same model (suitably adjusted
for different physical parameters).Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by MNRA
Toll-like receptor-mediated signaling cascade as a regulator of the inflammation network during alcoholic liver disease
Chronic abuse of alcohol leads to various histological abnormalities in the liver. These are conditions collectively known as alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Currently, ALD is considered to be one of the major causes of death worldwide. An impaired intestinal barrier with related endotoxemia is among the various pathogenetic factors. This is mainly characterized by circulating levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), considered critical for the onset of intra-hepatic inflammation. This in turn promotes hepatocellular damage and fibrosis in ALD. Elevated levels of LPS exert their effects by binding to Toll-like receptors (TLRs) which are expressed by all liver-resident cells. The activation of TLR signaling triggers an overproduction and release of some cytokines, which promote an autocatalytic cascade of other proinflammatory signals. In this review, we provide an overview of the mechanisms that sustain LPS-mediated activation of TLR signaling, reporting current experimental and clinical evidence of its role during inflammation in ALD
Universal behavior of two-dimensional bosonic gases at Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions
We study the universal critical behavior of two-dimensional (2D) lattice
bosonic gases at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition, which
separates the low-temperature superfluid phase from the high-temperature normal
phase. For this purpose, we perform quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the
hard-core Bose-Hubbard (BH) model at zero chemical potential. We determine the
critical temperature by using a matching method that relates finite-size data
for the BH model with corresponding data computed in the classical XY model. In
this approach, the neglected scaling corrections decay as inverse powers of the
lattice size L, and not as powers of 1/lnL, as in more standard approaches,
making the estimate of the critical temperature much more reliable. Then, we
consider the BH model in the presence of a trapping harmonic potential, and
verify the universality of the trap-size dependence at the BKT critical point.
This issue is relevant for experiments with quasi-2D trapped cold atoms.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figs, final versio
Near-arcsecond resolution observations of the hot corino of the solar type protostar IRAS 16293-2422
Complex organic molecules have previously been discovered in solar type
protostars, raising the questions of where and how they form in the envelope.
Possible formation mechanisms include grain mantle evaporation, interaction of
the outflow with its surroundings or the impact of UV/X-rays inside the
cavities. In this Letter we present the first interferometric observations of
two complex molecules, CH3CN and HCOOCH3, towards the solar type protostar
IRAS16293-2422. The images show that the emission originates from two compact
regions centered on the two components of the binary system. We discuss how
these results favor the grain mantle evaporation scenario and we investigate
the implications of these observations for the chemical composition and
physical and dynamical state of the two components.Comment: 5 pages (apjemulate), 2 figures; accepted by ApJ
The census of complex organic molecules in the solar type protostar IRAS16293-2422
Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) are considered crucial molecules, since they
are connected with organic chemistry, at the basis of the terrestrial life.
More pragmatically, they are molecules in principle difficult to synthetize in
the harsh interstellar environments and, therefore, a crucial test for
astrochemical models. Current models assume that several COMs are synthesised
on the lukewarm grain surfaces (30-40 K), and released in the gas
phase at dust temperatures 100 K. However, recent detections of COMs
in 20 K gas demonstrate that we still need important pieces to
complete the puzzle of the COMs formation. We present here a complete census of
the oxygen and nitrogen bearing COMs, previously detected in different ISM
regions, towards the solar type protostar IRAS16293-2422. The census was
obtained from the millimeter-submillimeter unbiased spectral survey TIMASSS.
Six COMs, out of the 29 searched for, were detected: methyl cyanide, ketene,
acetaldehyde, formamide, dimethyl ether, and methyl formate. The multifrequency
analysis of the last five COMs provides clear evidence that they are present in
the cold (30 K) envelope of IRAS16293-2422, with abundances 0.03-2
. Our data do not allow to support the hypothesis that the
COMs abundance increases with increasing dust temperature in the cold envelope,
as expected if COMs were predominately formed on the lukewarm grain surfaces.
Finally, when considering also other ISM sources, we find a strong correlation
over five orders of magnitude, between the methyl formate and dimethyl ether
and methyl formate and formamide abundances, which may point to a link between
these two couples of species, in cold and warm gas
First detection of triply-deuterated methanol
We report the first detection of triply-deuterated methanol, with 12 observed
transitions, towards the low-mass protostar IRAS 16293-2422, as well as
multifrequency observations of 13CH3OH, used to derive the column density of
the main isotopomer CH3OH. The derived fractionation ratio [CD3OH]/[CH3OH]
averaged on a 10'' beam is 1.4%. Together with previous CH2DOH and CHD2OH
observations, the present CD3OH observations are consistent with a formation of
methanol on grain surfaces, if the atomic D/H ratio is 0.1 to 0.3 in the
accreting gas. Such a high atomic ratio can be reached in the frame of
gas-phase chemical models including all deuterated isotopomers of H3+.Comment: Accepted by A&
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
The Foggy Disks Surrounding Herbig Ae Stars: a Theoretical Study of the H2O Line Spectra
Water is a key species in many astrophysical environments, but it is
particularly important in proto-planetary disks. So far,observations of water
in these objects have been scarce, but the situation should soon change thanks
to the Herschel satellite. We report here a theoretical study of the water line
spectrum of a proto-planetary disk surrounding Ae stars. We show that several
lines will be observable with the HIFI instrument onboard the Herschel Space
Observatory. We predict that some maser lines could also be observable with
ground telescopes and we discuss how the predictions depend not only on the
adopted physical and chemical model but also on the set of collisional
coefficients used and on the H2 ortho to para ratio through its effect on
collisional excitation. This makes the water lines observations a powerful, but
dangerous -if misused- diagnostic tool.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
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