Water Vapor in the Inner 25 AU of a Young Disk around a Low-Mass Protostar

Water is one of the key molecules in the physical and chemical evolution of star- and planet-forming regions. We here report the first spatially resolved observation of thermal emission of (an isotopologue of) water with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer toward the deeply embedded Class 0 protostar NGC 1333-IRAS4B. The observations of the H2-18-O 3_13-2_20 transition at 203.4 GHz resolve the emission of water toward this source with an extent of about 0.2" corresponding to the inner 25 AU (radius). The H2-18-O emission reveals a tentative velocity gradient perpendicular to the extent of the protostellar outflow/jet probed by observations of CO rotational transitions and water masers. The line is narrow, about 1 km/s (FWHM), significantly less than what would be expected for emission from an infalling envelope or accretion shock, but consistent with emission from a disk seen at a low inclination angle. The water column density inferred from these data suggests that the water emitting gas is a thin warm layer containing about 25 M_Earth of material, 0.03% of the total disk mass traced by continuum observations.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 12 pages, 3 figure

Wavelets in mathematical physics: q-oscillators

We construct representations of a q-oscillator algebra by operators on Fock space on positive matrices. They emerge from a multiresolution scaling construction used in wavelet analysis. The representations of the Cuntz Algebra arising from this multiresolution analysis are contained as a special case in the Fock Space construction.Comment: (03/11/03):18 pages; LaTeX2e, "article" document class with "letterpaper" option An outline was added under the abstract (p.1), paragraphs added to Introduction (p.2), mat'l added to Proofs in Theorems 1 and 6 (pgs.5&17), material added to text for the conclusion (p.17), one add'l reference added [12]. (04/22/03):"number 1" replace with "term C" (p.9), single sentences reformed into a one paragraph (p.13), QED symbol moved up one paragraph and last paragraph labeled as "Concluding Remarks.

Wormwholes: A Commentary On K.F. Schaffer\u27s Genes, Behavior, And Developmental Emergentism

Although Caenorhabditis elegans was chosen and modified to be an organism that would facilitate a reductionist program for neurogenetics, recent research has provided evidence for properties that are emergent from the neurons. While neurogenetic advances have been made using C. elegans which may be useful in explaining human neurobiology, there are severe limitations on C. elegans to explain any significant human behavior

The Star Formation Epoch of the Most Massive Early-Type Galaxies

We present new Keck spectroscopy of early-type galaxies in three galaxy clusters at z~0.5. We focus on the fundamental plane (FP) relation, and combine the kinematics with structural parameters determined from HST images. The galaxies obey clear FP relations, which are offset from the FP of the nearby Coma cluster due to passive evolution of the stellar populations. The z~0.5 data are combined with published data for 11 additional clusters at 0.18<z<1.28, to determine the evolution of the mean M/L(B) ratio of cluster galaxies with masses M>10^11 M_sun, as implied by the FP. We find dlog(M/L(B))/dz = -0.555+-0.042, stronger evolution than was previously inferred from smaller samples. The observed evolution depends on the luminosity-weighted mean age of the stars in the galaxies, the initial mass function (IMF), selection effects due to progenitor bias, and other parameters. Assuming a normal IMF but allowing for various other sources of uncertainty we find z* = 2.01+-0.20 for the luminosity-weighted mean star formation epoch. The main uncertainty is the slope of the IMF in the range 1-2 Solar masses: we find z* = 4.0 for a top-heavy IMF with slope x=0. The M/L(B) ratios of the cluster galaxies are compared to those of recently published samples of field early-type galaxies at 0.32<z<1.14. Assuming that progenitor bias and the IMF do not depend on environment we find that the present-day age of stars in massive field galaxies is 4.1 +- 2.0 % (~0.4 Gyr) less than that of stars in massive cluster galaxies, consistent with most, but not all, previous studies of local and distant early-type galaxies. This relatively small age difference is surprising in the context of expectations from ``standard'' hierarchical galaxy formation models. [ABRIDGED]Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. Minor corrections to match published versio

Benchmarking two-photon absorption with CC3 quadratic response theory, and comparison with density-functional response theory

We present a detailed study of the effects of electron correlation on two-photon absorption calculated by coupled cluster quadratic response theory. The hierarchy of coupled cluster models CCS, CC2, CCSD, and CC3 has been used to investigate the effects of electron correlation on the two-photon absorption cross sections of formaldehyde (CH2O), diacetylene (C4H2), and water (H2O). In particular, the effects of triple excitations on two-photon transition cross sections are determined for the first time. In addition, we present a detailed comparison of the coupled cluster results with those obtained from Hartree-Fock and density-functional response theories. We have investigated the local-density approximation, the pure Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr (BLYP) functional, the hybrid Becke-3-parameter-Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP), and the Coulomb-attenuated B3LYP (CAM-B3LYP) functionals. Our results show that the CAM-B3LYP functional, when used in conjuction with a one-particle basis-set containing diffuse functions, has much promise; however, care must still be exercised for diffuse Rydberg-type states.</p

Probing the inner 200 AU of low-mass protostars with the Submillimeter Array: Dust and organic molecules in NGC1333-IRAS2A

The Submillimeter Array has opened a new window to study the innermost warm and dense regions of the envelopes and disks around deeply embedded protostars. This paper presents high-angular resolution (< 2'') submillimeter observations of the class 0 young stellar object NGC1333-IRAS2A. Dust continuum emission and lines of complex organic molecules such as CH3OCH3 and CH3OCHO, high excitation CH3OH transitions, deuterated methanol CH3OD as well as lines of CO, HCN, H13CN, SO and SO2 are detected on < 200 AU scales. The observations are interpreted using detailed radiative transfer models of the physical and chemical structure, consistent with both single-dish and interferometer data. The continuum emission is explained by an extended envelope and a compact but resolved component, presumably a circumstellar disk with a diameter of 200-300 AU and a mass of a few times 0.01-0.1 M_sun. If related to the rotation of the envelope, then the size of this disk suggests a centrifugal barrier of 200-300 AU, which implies that the temperature in the envelope does not increase above 100 K. Its large size also suggests that the build-up of disks proceeds rapidly throughout the early protostellar stages. The smaller (< 100 AU) disks found around other deeply embedded protostars may be a result of tidal truncation. The high-resolution observations of SO can be explained with a simple constant abundance, ~1E-9, constrained through single-dish observations, whereas those of H13CN and the organic species require high abundances, increased by one to two orders of magnitude, or an additional compact source of emission at small scales. The compact molecular emission could originate in a hot core region of the inner envelope, but a more likely reservoir is the circumstellar disk.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 24 pages, 5 figure