Variable Winds and Dust Formation in R Coronae Borealis Stars

We have observed P-Cygni and asymmetric, blue-shifted absorption profiles in the He I 10830 lines of twelve R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars over short (1 month) and long (3 year) timescales to look for variations linked to their dust-formation episodes. In almost all cases, the strengths and terminal velocities of the line vary significantly and are correlated with dust formation events. Strong absorption features with blue-shifted velocities ~400 km/s appear during declines in visible brightness and persist for about 100 days after recovery to maximum brightness. Small residual winds of somewhat lower velocity are present outside of the decline and recovery periods. The correlations support models in which recently formed dust near the star is propelled outward at high speed by radiation pressure and drags the gas along with it.Comment: AJ in press, 21 pages, 3 figure

Phenotypic clines in the intertidal snail Littorina obtusata: The role of water temperature and predator effluent as inducers of phenotypic plasticity and associated trade-offs in shell form

I examined variability in the shell form of 25 Littorina obtusata populations from Massachusetts to northern Maine. I chose this scale because the history of one of L. obtusata\u27s principal predators, the crab Carcinus maenas, has changed dramatically in the past 100 years. Before 1900, Carcinus did not occur north of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but by 1950 it had reached Canadian border. Moreover, in summer water temperatures during average 6-8&\sp\circ&C colder at northern locations. Shell thickness and mass increased and body mass decreased with increasing latitude. to test whether these patterns reflect plasticity in response to predators, snails from two northern and two southern populations were raised in the laboratory with and without Carcinus effluent. Snails raised with Carcinus produced thicker shells than conspecifics raised without Carcinus. This response was accompanied by reduced body size and body growth. Another experiment examined whether geographic differences in water temperature induce changes in shell form. Snails reciprocally transplanted between a northern (Maine) and southern (Massachusetts) exhibited substantial plasticity in shell form. Southern snails transplanted north produced significantly thinner, lighter, shells than snails raised at their native shore, while northern snails transplanted south produced thicker, heavier shells than snails raised at the native shore. In addition, snails producing thicker, heavier shells exhibited reduced body mass and growth. Although patterns in final phenotypes exhibited cogradient variation, growth in both shell thickness and mass exhibited countergradient gradient variation. Most examples of countergradient variation are associated with temperature differences suggesting that differences in water temperature are responsible for this pattern. A third experiment involved reciprocally transplanting snails between the same two sites (temperature effect) and raising them with and without Carcinus effluent. In general, Carcinus effluent and warmer water temperatures induced thicker, heavier shells and reduced body mass and growth. Overall, it appears that predator effluent and water temperature have similar effects on shell form. My work on phenotypic plasticity encourages a more pluralistic view of phenotypic variation. Moreover, my results suggest that phenotypic plasticity is a ubiquitous strategy in adapting to different environments and that its evolution may be driven by life history trade-offs

Do Hydrogen-Deficient Carbon Stars Have Winds?

We present high resolution spectra of the five known hydrogen-deficient carbon (HdC) stars in the vicinity of the 10830 angstrom line of neutral helium. In R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars the He I line is known to be strong and broad, often with a P Cygni profile, and must be formed in the powerful winds of those stars. RCB stars have similar chemical abundances as HdC stars and also share greatly enhanced O-18 abundances with them, indicating a common origin for these two classes of stars, which has been suggested to be white dwarf mergers. A narrow He I absorption line may be present in the hotter HdC stars, but no line is seen in the cooler stars, and no evidence for a wind is found in any of them. The presence of wind lines in the RCB stars is strongly correlated with dust formation episodes so the absence of wind lines in the HdC stars, which do not make dust, is as expected.NSFScience and Technology FacilitiesCouncilthe National Research CouncilCONICYTAustralian Research CouncilMinistﾴerio da Ciﾴencia e TecnologiaSECYTMcDonald Observator

Is Betelgeuse the Outcome of a Past Merger?

We explore the possibility that the star alpha Orionis (Betelgeuse) is the outcome of a merger that occurred in a low mass ratio (q = M2/M1 = 0.07 - 0.25) binary system some time in the past hundreds of thousands of years. To that goal, we present a simple analytical model to approximate the perturbed internal structure of a post-merger object following the coalescence of a secondary in the mass range 1-4 Msun into the envelope of a 15-17 Msun primary. We then compute the long-term evolution of post-merger objects for a grid of initial conditions and make predictions about their surface properties for evolutionary stages that are consistent with the observed location of Betelgeuse in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We find that if a merger occurred after the end of the primary's main-sequence phase, while it was expanding toward becoming a red supergiant star and typically with radius ~200 - 300 Rsun, then it's envelope is spun-up to values which remain in a range consistent with the Betelgeuse observations for thousands of years of evolution. We argue that the best scenario that can explain both the fast rotation of Betelgeuse and its observed large space velocity is one where a binary was dynamically ejected by its parent cluster a few million years ago and then subsequently merged. An alternative scenario in which the progenitor of Betelgeuse was spun up by accretion in a binary and released by the supernova explosion of the companion requires a finely tuned set of conditions but cannot be ruled out.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Postoperative low dose CT assessment of interbody fusion two years after thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery

The relationship between radiologic union and clinical outcomes in thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery is not clear, as apparent non-union of a spinal fusion does not always correspond to a poor clinical result. The aim of this study was to evaluate for the first time the interbody fusion rates using low dose CT scans at minimum 24 months after thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery, and to explore the relationship between fusion scores and; (i) rod diameter, (ii) graft type, (iii) fusion level, (iv) implant failure, and (v) lateral position in the disc space. The study found that moderate fusion scores on the Sucato scale secure successful clinical outcomes in thoracoscopic scoliosis surgery

The relationship between IR, optical, and UV extinction

An analysis is presented for the variability of absolute IR, optical, and UV extinction, A(sub lambda), derived through the ratio of total-to-selective extinction, R, for 31 lines of sight for which reliable UV extinction parameters were derived. These data sample a wide range of environments and are characterized by 2.5 is less than or equal to R is less than or equal to 6.0. It was found that there is a strong linear dependence between extinction expressed as A(sub lambda)/A(sub V) and 1/R for 1.25 micron is less than or equal to lambda is less than or equal to 0.12 micron. Differences in the general shape of extinction curves are largely due to variations in shape of optical/near-UV extinction corresponding to changes in R, with A(sub lambda)/A(sub V) decreasing for increasing R. From a least-squares fit of the observed R-dependence as a function of wavelength for 0.8/micron is less than or greater than 1/lambda is less than or equal to 8.3/micron, an analytic expression was generated from which IR, optical, and UV extinction curves of the form A(sub lambda)/A(sub V) can be reproduced with reasonable accuracy from a knowledge of R. It was also found that the absolute bump strength normalized to A(sub V) shows a general decrease with increasing R, suggesting that some fraction of bump grains may be selectively incorporated into coagulated grains. Finally, it was found that absolute extinction normalized by suitably chosen color indices results in a minimization of the R-dependence of portions of the UV curve, allowing A(sub lambda) to be estimated for these wavelengths independent of R

What is the Shell Around R Coronae Borealis?

The hydrogen-deficient, carbon-rich R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars are known for being prolific producers of dust which causes their large iconic declines in brightness. Several RCB stars, including R CrB, itself, have large extended dust shells seen in the far-infrared. The origin of these shells is uncertain but they may give us clues to the evolution of the RCB stars. The shells could form in three possible ways. 1) they are fossil Planetary Nebula (PN) shells, which would exist if RCB stars are the result of a final, helium-shell flash, 2) they are material left over from a white-dwarf merger event which formed the RCB stars, or 3) they are material lost from the star during the RCB phase. Arecibo 21-cm observations establish an upper limit on the column density of H I in the R CrB shell implying a maximum shell mass of $\lesssim$0.3 M$_{\odot}$. A low-mass fossil PN shell is still a possible source of the shell although it may not contain enough dust. The mass of gas lost during a white-dwarf merger event will not condense enough dust to produce the observed shell, assuming a reasonable gas-to-dust ratio. The third scenario where the shell around R CrB has been produced during the star's RCB phase seems most likely to produce the observed mass of dust and the observed size of the shell. But this means that R CrB has been in its RCB phase for $\sim$10$^{4}$ yr.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in A

An analysis of the shapes of interstellar extinction curves. VII Milky Way spectrophotometric optical-through-ultraviolet extinction and its R-dependence

We produce a set of 72 NIR-through-UV extinction curves by combining new Hubble Space Telescope/STIS optical spectrophotometry with existing International Ultraviolet Explorer spectrophotometry (yielding gapless coverage from 1150 to 10000 ?) and NIR photometry. These curves are used to determine a new, internally consistent NIR-through-UV Milky Way mean curve and to characterize how the shapes of the extinction curves depend on R(V). We emphasize that while this dependence captures much of the curve variability, considerable variation remains that is independent of R(V). We use the optical spectrophotometry to verify the presence of structure at intermediate wavelength scales in the curves. The fact that the optical-through-UV portions of the curves are sampled at relatively high resolution makes them very useful for determining how extinction affects different broadband systems, and we provide several examples. Finally, we compare our results to previous investigations