Massive stars and the energy balance of the interstellar medium. II. The 35 solar mass star and a solution to the "missing wind problem"

We continue our numerical analysis of the morphological and energetic influence of massive stars on their ambient interstellar medium for a 35 solar mass star that evolves from the main sequence through red supergiant and Wolf-Rayet phases, until it ultimately explodes as a supernova. We find that structure formation in the circumstellar gas during the early main-sequence evolution occurs as in the 60 solar mass case but is much less pronounced because of the lower mechanical wind luminosity of the star. Since on the other hand the shell-like structure of the HII region is largely preserved, effects that rely on this symmetry become more important. At the end of the stellar lifetime 1% of the energy released as Lyman continuum radiation and stellar wind has been transferred to the circumstellar gas. From this fraction 10% is kinetic energy of bulk motion, 36% is thermal energy, and the remaining 54% is ionization energy of hydrogen. The sweeping up of the slow red supergiant wind by the fast Wolf-Rayet wind produces remarkable morphological structures and emission signatures, which are compared with existing observations of the Wolf-Rayet bubble S308. Our model reproduces the correct order of magnitude of observed X-ray luminosity, the temperature of the emitting plasma as well as the limb brightening of the intensity profile. This is remarkable, because current analytical and numerical models of Wolf-Rayet bubbles fail to consistently explain these features. A key result is that almost the entire X-ray emission in this stage comes from the shell of red supergiant wind swept up by the shocked Wolf-Rayet wind rather than from the shocked Wolf-Rayet wind itself as hitherto assumed and modeled. This offers a possible solution to what is called the ``missing wind problem'' of Wolf-Rayet bubbles.Comment: 52 pages, 20 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

BCS pairing in a trapped dipolar Fermi gase

We present a detailed study of the BCS pairing transition in a trapped polarized dipolar Fermi gas. In the case of a shallow nearly spherical trap, we find the decrease of the transition temperature as a function of the trap aspect ratio and predict the existence of the optimal trap geometry. The latter corresponds to the highest critical temperature of the BCS transition for a given number of particles. We also derive the phase diagram for an ultracold trapped dipolar Fermi gases in the situation, where the trap frequencies can be of the order of the critical temperature of the BCS transition in the homogeneous case, and find the critical value of the dipole-dipole interaction energy, below which the BCS transition ceases to exist. The critical dipole strength is obtained as a function of the trap aspect ratio. Alternatively, for a given dipole strength there is a critical value of the trap anisotropy for the BCS state to appear. The order parameter calculated at criticality, exhibits nover non-monotonic behavior resulted from the combined effect of the confining potential and anisotropic character of the interparticle dipole-dipole interation.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Burbot Early Life History Strategies in the Great Lakes

Burbot Lota lota exhibit four previously known reproductive strategies in the Great Lakes region. In this paper we review those strategies and provide evidence for a fifth one—delayed deepwater spawning. The four known, shallow‐water strategies are as follows: (1) spawning by self‐sustaining, landlocked populations, (2) spawning in tributaries in winter and the exit of larvae to a Great Lake, (3) spawning by residents in a spawning stream with access to a Great Lake, and (4) spawning on unconsolidated and rocky areas in shallow water in winter in the lake proper. Resident, landlocked populations exist in some Michigan and Wisconsin rivers (e.g., the Muskegon River in Michigan). The evidence for winter tributary spawning is the appearance of newly hatched Burbot in the St. Marys and Bark rivers during April–June. Evidence for Burbot juveniles leaving spawning streams is U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tributory mouth trap data. The evidence for winter nearshore spawning comes from power plant monthly entrainment studies (Mansfield et al. 1983). Our proposed fifth strategy is spring and summer spawning at deep reefs, where there is probably cobble or boulder habitat. Our evidence comes from midlake reefs in Lake Michigan and offshore areas of Lake Huron: (1) we collected adult Burbot at midlake reefs in Lake Michigan, (2) we collected many Burbot larvae (many of which were newly hatched) from Lakes Michigan and Huron in June–August, and (3) we collected a Burbot egg in a PONAR grab in mid‐July from 73 m in southern Lake Huron. An important question remains, namely, which life history strategy provides the highest recruitment success for this species. It may be that adaptability ensures the survival of this important, top‐predator fish during periods of crisis (e.g., encounters with dams, Sea Lamprey Petromyzon marinus predation).Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141895/1/tafs1733.pd

Halpha Morphologies and Environmental Effects in Virgo Cluster Spiral Galaxies

We describe the various Halpha morphologies of Virgo Cluster and isolated spiral galaxies, and associate the Halpha morphologies with the types of environmental interactions which have altered the cluster galaxies. The spatial distributions of Halpha and R-band emission are used to divide the star formation morphologies of the 52 Virgo Cluster spirals into several categories: normal (37%), anemic (6%), enhanced (6%), and (spatially) truncated (52%). Truncated galaxies are further subdivided based on their inner star formation rates into truncated/normal (37%), truncated/compact (6%), truncated/anemic (8%), and truncated/enhanced (2%). The fraction of anemic galaxies is relatively small (6-13%) in both environments, suggesting that starvation is not a major factor in the reduced star formation rates of Virgo spirals. The majority of Virgo spiral galaxies have their Halpha disks truncated (52%), whereas truncated Halpha disks are rarer in isolated galaxies (12%). Most of the Halpha-truncated galaxies have relatively undisturbed stellar disks and normal-to-slightly enhanced inner disk star formation rates, suggesting that ICM-ISM stripping is the main mechanism causing the reduced star formation rates of Virgo spirals. In other galaxies, the Halpha morphologies are more consistent with a tidal origin or perhaps outer cluster HI accretion. These results indicate that most Virgo spiral galaxies experience ICM-ISM stripping, many experience significant tidal effects, and many experience both. (abridged).Comment: Accepted by Astrophysical Journal. 16 pages, 15 figures, including 9 in low-resolution jpg format. Higher resolution postscript versions of these figures are available from http://www1.union.edu/~koopmanr/radfig.htm

The Recent Evolution of the Dwarf Starburst Galaxy NGC 625 from Hubble Space Telescope Imaging

New HST/WFPC2 imaging of the dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 625 is presented. These data, 80% complete to V and I magnitudes of 26.0 and 25.3, respectively, allow us to study the recent star formation history of NGC 625. We derive a tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) distance modulus of 27.95+/-0.07, corresponding to a distance of 3.89+/-0.22 Mpc, and a location on the far side of the Sculptor Group. NGC 625 has a well-defined radial stellar population gradient, evidenced by a central concentration of young MS stars and an RGB/AGB ratio that increases with galactocentric distance. The prominent AGB is very red, and RGB stars are detected far from the central star forming regions. Using H Alpha and H Beta narrow band imaging and previous optical spectroscopy we identify substantial and varying internal extinction (A_V = 0.0 to 0.6 mag) associated with the central active star formation regions. To better understand the effects of internal extinction on the analysis of young stellar populations, synthetic models are presented which, for the first time, examine and account for this effect. Using the luminous blue helium burning stars, we construct a simple model of the recent (< 100 Myr) star formation in which an elevated but declining star formation rate has been present over this entire period. This is at odds with the presence of spectroscopic W-R features in the major star formation region which imply a short duration (<= 5 Myr) for the recent starburst. This suggests that starbursts displaying W-R features are not necessarily all of a short duration. Finally, we speculate on the possible causes of the present burst of star formation in this apparently isolated galaxy, and compare it to other nearby, well-studied dwarf starburst systems.Comment: 56 pages, including 15 figures (2 in color). Scheduled to appear in AJ, December, 2003. Full-resolution version may be obtained at http://www.astro.umn.edu/~Cannon/n625.p

The physics of dipolar bosonic quantum gases

This article reviews the recent theoretical and experimental advances in the study of ultracold gases made of bosonic particles interacting via the long-range, anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction, in addition to the short-range and isotropic contact interaction usually at work in ultracold gases. The specific properties emerging from the dipolar interaction are emphasized, from the mean-field regime valid for dilute Bose-Einstein condensates, to the strongly correlated regimes reached for dipolar bosons in optical lattices.Comment: Review article, 71 pages, 35 figures, 350 references. Submitted to Reports on Progress in Physic

Local-Group tests of dark-matter Concordance Cosmology: Towards a new paradigm for structure formation

(abridged) Predictions of the Concordance Cosmological Model (CCM) of the structures in the environment of large spiral galaxies are compared with observed properties of Local Group galaxies. Five new most probably irreconcilable problems are uncovered. However, the Local Group properties provide hints that may lead to a solution of the above problems The DoS and bulge--satellite correlation suggest that dissipational events forming bulges are related to the processes forming phase-space correlated satellite populations. Such events are well known to occur since in galaxy encounters energy and angular momentum are expelled in the form of tidal tails, which can fragment to form populations of tidal-dwarf galaxies (TDGs) and associated star clusters. If Local Group satellite galaxies are to be interpreted as TDGs then the sub-structure predictions of CCM are internally in conflict. All findings thus suggest that the CCM does not account for the Local Group observations and that therefore existing as well as new viable alternatives have to be further explored. These are discussed and natural solutions for the above problems emerge.Comment: A and A, in press, 25 pages, 9 figures; new version contains minor text adjustments for conformity with the published version and additional minor changes resulting from reader's feedback. The speculation on a dark force has been added. Also, the Fritz Zwicky Paradox is now included to agree with the published versio

Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies

Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade. Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models, and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies, such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc