2,760 research outputs found
Scalar Field Dark Matter: non-spherical collapse and late time behavior
We show the evolution of non-spherically symmetric balls of a
self-gravitating scalar field in the Newtonian regime or equivalently an ideal
self-gravitating condensed Bose gas. In order to do so, we use a finite
differencing approximation of the Shcr\"odinger-Poisson (SP) system of
equations with axial symmetry in cylindrical coordinates. Our results indicate:
1) that spherically symmetric ground state equilibrium configurations are
stable against non-spherical perturbations and 2) that such configurations of
the SP system are late-time attractors for non-spherically symmetric initial
profiles of the scalar field, which is a generalization of such behavior for
spherically symmetric initial profiles. Our system and the boundary conditions
used, work as a model of scalar field dark matter collapse after the turnaround
point. In such case, we have found that the scalar field overdensities tolerate
non-spherical contributions to the profile of the initial fluctuation.Comment: 8 revtex pages, 10 eps figures. Accepted for publication in PR
WISE morphological study of Wolf-Rayet nebulae
We present a morphological study of nebulae around Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars
using archival narrow-band optical and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
(WISE) infrared images. The comparison among WISE images in different bands and
optical images proves to be a very efficient procedure to identify the nebular
emission from WR nebulae, and to disentangle it from that of the ISM material
along the line of sight. In particular, WR nebulae are clearly detected in the
WISE W4 band at 22 m. Analysis of available mid-IR Spitzer spectra shows
that the emission in this band is dominated by thermal emission from dust
spatially coincident with the thin nebular shell or most likely with the
leading edge of the nebula. The WR nebulae in our sample present different
morphologies that we classified into well defined WR bubbles (bubble -type nebulae), clumpy and/or disrupted shells (clumpy/disrupted -type nebulae), and material mixed with the diffuse medium (mixed -type nebulae). The variety of morphologies presented by WR nebulae shows a
loose correlation with the central star spectral type, implying that the
nebular and stellar evolutions are not simple and may proceed according to
different sequences and time-lapses. We report the discovery of an obscured
shell around WR35 only detected in the infrared.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, plus 23 appendix figures; to appear in Astronomy
and Astrophysic
Thermochromism of Model Organic Aerosol Matter
Laboratory experiments show that the optical absorptivity of model organic matter is not an intrinsic property, but a strong function of relative humidity, temperature, and insolation. Suites of representative polyfunctional C_(x)H_(y)O_(z) oligomers in water develop intense visible absorptions upon addition of inert electrolytes. The resulting mixtures reach mass absorption cross sections σ(532 nm) ~ 0.1 m^(2)/gC in a few hours, absorb up to 9 times more solar radiation than the starting material, can be half-bleached by noon sunlight in ~ 1 h, and can be repeatedly recycled without carbon loss. Visible absorptions red-shift and evolve increasingly faster in subsequent thermal aging cycles. Thermochromism and its strong direct dependences on ionic strength and temperature are ascribed to the dehydration of >CH−C(OH)C═C< unsaturations by a polar E1 mechanism, and bleaching to photoinduced retrohydration. These transformations are deemed to underlie the daily cycles of aerosol absorption observed in the field, and may introduce a key feedback in the earth’s radiative balance
Pillars of creation amongst destruction: Star formation in molecular clouds near R136 in 30 Doradus
New sensitive CO(2-1) observations of the 30 Doradus region in the Large
Magellanic Cloud are presented. We identify a chain of three newly discovered
molecular clouds we name KN1, KN2 and KN3 lying within 2--14 pc in projection
from the young massive cluster R136 in 30 Doradus. Excited H 2.12m
emission is spatially coincident with the molecular clouds, but ionized
Br emission is not. We interpret these observations as the tails of
pillar-like structures whose ionized heads are pointing towards R136. Based on
infrared photometry, we identify a new generation of stars forming within this
structure.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (includes 13 pages, 8 figures). For
higher resolution figures please see
http://www.das.uchile.cl/~vkalari/staplervk.pd
Electronic structure of silicon-based nanostructures
We have developed an unifying tight-binding Hamiltonian that can account for
the electronic properties of recently proposed Si-based nanostructures, namely,
Si graphene-like sheets and Si nanotubes. We considered the and
models up to first- and second-nearest neighbors, respectively. Our
results show that the Si graphene-like sheets considered here are metals or
zero-gap semiconductors, and that the corresponding Si nanotubes follow the
so-called Hamada's rule [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 68}, 1579 1992]. Comparison to a
recent {\it ab initio} calculation is made.Comment: 12 pages, 6 Figure
Influence of the molecular architecture on the secondary relaxations of Poly(styrene-co-methylmethacrylate) copolymers
The processes of adsorption of grafted copolymers onto negatively charged surfaces were studied using a dissipative quartz crystal microbalance (D-QCM) and ellipsometry. The control parameters in the study of the adsorption are the existence or absence on the molecular architecture of grafted polyethyleneglycol (PEG) chains with different lengths and the chemical nature of the main chain, poly(allylamine) (PAH) or poly(L-lysine) (PLL). It was found out that the adsorption kinetics of the polymers showed a complex behavior. The total adsorbed amount depends on the architecture of the polymer chains (length of the PEG chains), on the polymer concentration and on the chemical nature of the main chain. The comparison of the thicknesses of the adsorbed layers obtained from D-QCM and from ellipsometry allowed calculation of the water content of the layers that is intimately related to the grafting length. The analysis of D-QCM results also provides information about the shear modulus of the layers, whose values have been found to be typical of a rubber-like polymer system. It is shown that the adsorption of polymers with a charged backbone is not driven exclusively by the electrostatic interactions, but the entropic contributions as a result of the trapping of water in the layer structure are of fundamental importance
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