Photovoltaic effect in ferroelectric ceramics

The ceramic structure was simulated in a form that is more tractable to correlation between experiment and theory. Single crystals (of barium titanate) were fabricated in a simple corrugated structure in which the pedestals of the corrugation simulated the grain while the intervening cuts could be filled with materials simulating the grain boundaries. The observed photovoltages were extremely small (100 mv)

Chemical evolution in the early phases of massive star formation II: Deuteration

The chemical evolution in high-mass star-forming regions is still poorly constrained. Studying the evolution of deuterated molecules allows to differentiate between subsequent stages of high-mass star formation regions due to the strong temperature dependence of deuterium isotopic fractionation. We observed a sample of 59 sources including 19 infrared dark clouds, 20 high-mass protostellar objects, 11 hot molecular cores and 9 ultra-compact HII regions in the (3-2) transitions of the four deuterated molecules, DCN, DNC, DCO+ and N2D+ as well as their non-deuterated counterpart. The overall detection fraction of DCN, DNC and DCO+ is high and exceeds 50% for most of the stages. N2D+ was only detected in a few infrared dark clouds and high-mass protostellar objects. It can be related to problems in the bandpass at the frequency of the transition and to low abundances in the more evolved, warmer stages. We find median D/H ratios of ~0.02 for DCN, ~0.005 for DNC, ~0.0025 for DCO+ and ~0.02 for N2D+. While the D/H ratios of DNC, DCO+ and N2D+ decrease with time, DCN/HCN peaks at the hot molecular core stage. We only found weak correlations of the D/H ratios for N2D+ with the luminosity of the central source and the FWHM of the line, and no correlation with the H2 column density. In combination with a previously observed set of 14 other molecules (Paper I) we fitted the calculated column densities with an elaborate 1D physico-chemical model with time-dependent D-chemistry including ortho- and para-H2 states. Good overall fits to the observed data have been obtained the model. It is one of the first times that observations and modeling have been combined to derive chemically based best-fit models for the evolution of high-mass star formation including deuteration.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures, accepted at A&

Chemical evolution in the early phases of massive star formation. I

Understanding the chemical evolution of young (high-mass) star-forming regions is a central topic in star formation research. Chemistry is employed as a unique tool 1) to investigate the underlying physical processes and 2) to characterize the evolution of the chemical composition. We observed a sample of 59 high-mass star-forming regions at different evolutionary stages varying from the early starless phase of infrared dark clouds to high-mass protostellar objects to hot molecular cores and, finally, ultra-compact HII regions at 1mm and 3mm with the IRAM 30m telescope. We determined their large-scale chemical abundances and found that the chemical composition evolves along with the evolutionary stages. On average, the molecular abundances increase with time. We modeled the chemical evolution, using a 1D physical model where density and temperature vary from stage to stage coupled with an advanced gas-grain chemical model and derived the best-fit chi^2 values of all relevant parameters. A satisfying overall agreement between observed and modeled column densities for most of the molecules was obtained. With the best-fit model we also derived a chemical age for each stage, which gives the timescales for the transformation between two consecutive stages. The best-fit chemical ages are ~10,000 years for the IRDC stage, ~60,000 years for the HMPO stage, ~40,000 years for the HMC stage, and ~10,000 years for the UCHII stage. The total chemical timescale for the entire evolutionary sequence of the high-mass star formation process is on the order of 10^5 years, which is consistent with theoretical estimates. Furthermore, based on the approach of a multiple-line survey of unresolved data, we were able to constrain an intuitive and reasonable physical and chemical model. The results of this study can be used as chemical templates for the different evolutionary stages in high-mass star formation.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures, 21 tables, accepted by A&A; typos adde

Dogs increase recovery of passerine carcasses in dense vegetation

Wildlife managers use carcass searches to assess mortality resulting from biological (e.g., diseases) and physical (e.g., structure collisions) sources. Carcass searches may occur over large areas and need to be completed rapidly because of scavenging and decomposition. However, small carcasses are often missed when dense vegetation is searched. We placed carcasses of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in dense cover of residual and newly grown vegetation and compared searching efficiency of humans and canines. Dogs received no special training in searching for passerine carcasses. In 36 trials conducted in 5 x 40-m plots, human searchers found 45% (SD=19) of the carcasses compared to 92% (SD=13) for dogs (P=0.005). The ratio of recovered to missed carcasses was approximately 12:l for dogs and 1 :I for humans. The improvement in searching efficiency using dogs was similar (P=0.58) between residual cover (searched in April) and new growth cover (searched in August). A greater rate of searching efficiency is obtained per unit of time by using dogs. Greater efficiency improves quantitative and qualitative assessments of avian mortality in the field

Long-term Variability of H2_2CO Masers in Star-forming Regions

We present results of a multi-epoch monitoring program on variability of 6$\,$cm formaldehyde (H$_2$CO) masers in the massive star forming region NGC$\,$7538$\,$IRS$\,$1 from 2008 to 2015 conducted with the GBT, WSRT, and VLA. We found that the similar variability behaviors of the two formaldehyde maser velocity components in NGC$\,$7538$\,$IRS$\,$1 (which was pointed out by Araya and collaborators in 2007) have continued. The possibility that the variability is caused by changes in the maser amplification path in regions with similar morphology and kinematics is discussed. We also observed 12.2$\,$GHz methanol and 22.2$\,$GHz water masers toward NGC$\,$7538$\,$IRS$\,$1. The brightest maser components of CH$_3$OH and H$_2$O species show a decrease in flux density as a function of time. The brightest H$_2$CO maser component also shows a decrease in flux density and has a similar LSR velocity to the brightest H$_2$O and 12.2$\,$GHz CH$_3$OH masers. The line parameters of radio recombination lines and the 20.17 and 20.97$\,$GHz CH$_3$OH transitions in NGC$\,$7538$\,$IRS$\,$1 are also reported. In addition, we observed five other 6$\,$cm formaldehyde maser regions. We found no evidence of significant variability of the 6$\,$cm masers in these regions with respect to previous observations, the only possible exception being the maser in G29.96$-$0.02. All six sources were also observed in the H$_2^{13}$CO isotopologue transition of the 6$\,$cm H$_2$CO line; H$_2^{13}$CO absorption was detected in five of the sources. Estimated column density ratios [H$_2^{12}$CO]/[H$_2^{13}$CO] are reported.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figure

Gas-phase CO depletion and N2H+ abundances in starless cores

Seven isolated, nearby low-mass starless molecular cloud cores have been observed as part of the Herschel key program Earliest Phases of Star formation (EPoS). By applying a ray-tracing technique to the obtained continuum emission and complementary (sub)mm emission maps, we derive the physical structure (density, dust temperature) of these cloud cores. We present observations of the 12CO, 13CO, and C18O (2-1) and N2H+ (1-0) transitions towards the same cores. Based on the density and temperature profiles, we apply time-dependent chemical and line-radiative transfer modeling and compare the modeled to the observed molecular emission profiles. CO is frozen onto the grains in the center of all cores in our sample. The level of CO depletion increases with hydrogen density and ranges from 46% up to more than 95% in the core centers in the core centers in the three cores with the highest hydrogen density. The average hydrogen density at which 50% of CO is frozen onto the grains is 1.1+-0.4 10^5 cm^-3. At about this density, the cores typically have the highest relative abundance of N2H+. The cores with higher central densities show depletion of N2H+ at levels of 13% to 55%. The chemical ages for the individual species are on average 2+-1 10^5 yr for 13CO, 6+-3 10^4 yr for C18O, and 9+-2 10^4 yr for N2H+. Chemical modeling indirectly suggests that the gas and dust temperatures decouple in the envelopes and that the dust grains are not yet significantly coagulated. We observationally confirm chemical models of CO-freezeout and nitrogen chemistry. We find clear correlations between the hydrogen density and CO depletion and the emergence of N2H+. The chemical ages indicate a core lifetime of less than 1 Myr.Comment: 24 pages, 25 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Influence of the Soret effect on convection of binary fluids

Convection in horizontal layers of binary fluids heated from below and in particular the influence of the Soret effect on the bifurcation properties of extended stationary and traveling patterns that occur for negative Soret coupling is investigated theoretically. The fixed points corresponding to these two convection structures are determined for realistic boundary conditions with a many mode Galerkin scheme for temperature and concentration and an accurate one mode truncation of the velocity field. This solution procedure yields the stable and unstable solutions for all stationary and traveling patterns so that complete phase diagrams for the different convection types in typical binary liquid mixtures can easily be computed. Also the transition from weakly to strongly nonlinear states can be analyzed in detail. An investigation of the concentration current and of the relevance of its constituents shows the way for a simplification of the mode representation of temperature and concentration field as well as for an analytically manageable few mode description.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figure

Herschel observations of gamma-ray burst host galaxies: implications for the topology of the dusty interstellar medium

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are indisputably related to star formation, and their vast luminosity in gamma rays pin-points regions of star formation independent of galaxy mass. As such, GRBs provide a unique tool for studying star forming galaxies out to high-z independent of luminosity. Most of our understanding of the properties of GRB hosts (GRBHs) comes from optical and near-infrared (NIR) follow-up observations, and we therefore have relatively little knowledge of the fraction of dust-enshrouded star formation that resides within GRBHs. Currently ~20% of GRBs show evidence of significant amounts of dust along the line of sight to the afterglow through the host galaxy, and these GRBs tend to reside within redder and more massive galaxies than GRBs with optically bright afterglows. In this paper we present Herschel observations of five GRBHs with evidence of being dust-rich, targeted to understand the dust attenuation properties within GRBs better. Despite the sensitivity of our Herschel observations, only one galaxy in our sample was detected (GRBH 070306), for which we measure a total star formation rate (SFR) of ~100Mstar/yr, and which had a relatively high stellar mass (log[Mstar]=10.34+0.09/-0.04). Nevertheless, when considering a larger sample of GRBHs observed with Herschel, it is clear that stellar mass is not the only factor contributing to a Herschel detection, and significant dust extinction along the GRB sightline (A_{V,GRB}>1.5~mag) appears to be a considerably better tracer of GRBHs with high dust mass. This suggests that the extinguishing dust along the GRB line of sight lies predominantly within the host galaxy ISM, and thus those GRBs with A_{V,GRB}>1~mag but with no host galaxy Herschel detections are likely to have been predominantly extinguished by dust within an intervening dense cloud.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in A&