Aiming at Secession

This study addresses the issue of sub-national units’ activism in the international arena, using the case of the Iraqi Kurdistan federal region. The prevailing view in the literature is that the increasing involvement of sub-state entities in international relations is caused by globalization and growing economic interdependence. We argue that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been extremely active in the international arena, primarily, to secure a favorable international image and gain support for recognition in pursuit of a secessionist agenda.  To prove our argument, we generated data through interviews with KRG officials, politicians and Kurdish intellectuals and used secondary data, such as official documents, newspaper reports, statistics and public speeches. Our findings suggest that the KRG has methodically acted to garner international support for its secessionist plans. This conclusion may add to the theory of federalism and paradiplomacy by suggesting that strong political motives may be also the underlying causes of sub-state units’ engagement in international relations, not only globalization and economic interdependence.

ALMA detection of a tentative nearly edge-on rotating disk around the nearby AGB star R~Doradus

A spectral scan of the circumstellar environment of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star R~Doradus was taken with ALMA in cycle 2 at frequencies between 335 and 362 GHz and with a spatial resolution of $\sim$150 milliarcseconds. Many molecular lines show a spatial offset between the blue and red shifted emission in the innermost regions of the wind. The position-velocity diagrams of this feature, in combination with previous SPHERE data and theoretical work point towards the presence of a compact differentially rotating disk, orientated nearly edge-on. We model the $^{\rm 28}$SiO ($v=1,~J=8\to7$) emission with a disk model. We estimate the disk mass and angular momentum to be $3 \times 10^{-6}$ Solar masses and $5 \times 10^{40}\ {\rm m^2 kg/s}$. The latter presents an `angular momentum problem' that may be solved by assuming that the disk is the result of wind-companion interactions with a companion of at least 2.5 earth masses, located at 6 AU, the tentatively determined location of the disk's inner rim. An isolated clump of emission is detected to the south-east with a velocity that is high compared to the previously determined terminal velocity of the wind. Its position and mean velocity suggest that it may be associated with a companion planet, located at the disk's inner rim.Comment: 11 pages, 7 Figure

ALMA detection of a tentative nearly edge-on rotating disk around the nearby AGB star R Doradus

© 2018 ESO. A spectral scan of the circumstellar environment of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star R Doradus was taken with ALMA in cycle 2 at frequencies between 335 and 362 GHz and with a spatial resolution of ∼150 milliarcseconds. Many molecular lines show a spatial offset between the blue and red shifted emission in the innermost regions of the wind. The position-velocity diagrams of this feature, in combination with previous SPHERE data and theoretical work point towards the presence of a compact differentially rotating disk, orientated nearly edge-on. We model the 28 SiO (v = 1, J = 8 → 7) emission with a disk model. We estimate the disk mass and angular momentum to be 3 × 10 -6 M · and 5 × 10 40 m 2 kg s -1 . The latter presents an "angular momentum problem" that may be solved by assuming that the disk is the result of wind-companion interactions with a companion of at least 2.5 earth masses, located at 6 AU, the tentatively determined location of the disk's inner rim. An isolated clump of emission is detected to the south-east with a velocity that is high compared to the previously determined terminal velocity of the wind. Its position and mean velocity suggest that it may be associated with a companion planet, located at the disk's inner rim.status: publishe

ATOMIUM: The astounding complexity of the near circumstellar environment of the M-type AGB star R Hydrae: I. Morpho-kinematical interpretation of CO and SiO emission

Evolved low- to intermediate-mass stars are known to shed their gaseous envelope into a large, dusty, molecule-rich circumstellar nebula which typically develops a high degree of structural complexity. Most of the large-scale, spatially correlated structures in the nebula are thought to originate from the interaction of the stellar wind with a companion. As part of the ATOMIUM large programme, we observed the M-type asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star R Hydrae with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The morphology of the inner wind of R Hya, which has a known companion at similar to 3500 au, was determined from maps of CO and SiO obtained at high angular resolution. A map of the CO emission reveals a multi-layered structure consisting of a large elliptical feature at an angular scale of similar to 10 '' that is oriented along the north-south axis. The wind morphology within the elliptical feature is dominated by two hollow bubbles. The bubbles are on opposite sides of the AGB star and lie along an axis with a position angle of similar to 115 degrees. Both bubbles are offset from the central star, and their appearance in the SiO channel maps indicates that they might be shock waves travelling through the AGB wind. An estimate of the dynamical age of the bubbles yields an age of the order of 100 yr, which is in agreement with the previously proposed elapsed time since the star last underwent a thermal pulse. When the CO and SiO emission is examined on subarcsecond angular scales, there is evidence for an inclined, differentially rotating equatorial density enhancement, strongly suggesting the presence of a second nearby companion. The position angle of the major axis of this disc is similar to 70 degrees in the plane of the sky. We tentatively estimate that a lower limit on the mass of the nearby companion is similar to 0.65 M-circle dot on the basis of the highest measured speeds in the disc and the location of its inner rim at similar to 6 au from the AGB star