4,107 research outputs found
Interstellar water chemistry: from laboratory to observations
Water is observed throughout the universe, from diffuse interstellar clouds
to protoplanetary disks around young stars, and from comets in our own solar
system and exoplanetary atmospheres to galaxies at high redshifts. This review
summarizes the spectroscopy and excitation of water in interstellar space as
well as the basic chemical processes that form and destroy water under
interstellar conditions. Three major routes to water formation are identified:
low temperature ion-molecule chemistry, high-temperature neutral-neutral
chemistry and gas-ice chemistry. The rate coefficients of several important
processes entering the networks are discussed in detail; several of them have
been determined only in the last decade through laboratory experiments and
theoretical calculations. Astronomical examples of each of the different
chemical routes are presented using data from powerful new telescopes, in
particular the Herschel Space Observatory. Basic chemical physics studies
remain critically important to analyze astronomical data.Comment: Authors' manuscript 138 pages, 34 figures, 4 tables, published in a
Thematic Issue "Astrochemistry" in Chemical Reviews (December 2013), volume
113, 9043-9085 following peer review by the American Chemical Society. The
published paper is available as open access at
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cr400317
LIINUS/SERPIL: a design study for interferometric imaging spectroscopy at the LBT
LIINUS/SERPIL is a design study to augment LBTs interferometric beam combiner
camera LINC-NIRVANA with imaging spectroscopy. The FWHM of the interferometric
main beam at 1.5 micron will be about 10 mas, offering unique imaging and
spectroscopic capabilities well beyond the angular resolution of current 8-10m
telescopes. At 10 mas angular scale, e.g., one resolution element at the
distance of the Galactic Center corresponds to the average diameter of the
Pluto orbit (79 AU), hence the size of the solar system. Taking advantage of
the LBT interferometric beam with an equivalent maximum diameter of 23 m,
LIINUS/SERPIL is an ideal precursor instrument for (imaging) spectrographs at
extremely large full aperture telescopes. LIINUS/SERPIL will be built upon the
LINC-NIRVANA hardware and LIINUS/SERPIL could potentially be developed on a
rather short timescale. The study investigates several concepts for the optical
as well as for the mechanical design. We present the scientific promises of
such an instrument together with the current status of the design study.Comment: 12 pages, SPIE conference proceeding, Orlando, 200
Sensitivity of the deuteron form factor to nucleon resonances
The sensitivity of the deuteron form factor to contributions from the excited states of the nucleon is explored using a simple model of the nucleon-nucleon interaction which employs a tower of charged nucleon resonances. The model is manifestly covariant, analytically solvable, and gauge invariant. The consequences of this model are studied in the simplest possible framework. We assume that all particles have spin zero and that the tower has only three charged members, which consist of the proton, the Roper, and a higher state in the vicinity of the . Nucleon-nucleon S-wave phase shifts and the deuteron form factor are calculated using this three member tower, and the results are compared to similar calculations using the proton ground state only. We conclude that the deuteron form factor is insensitive to the presence of excited states of the proton unless those states are of sufficiently low mass to produce strong inelasticities in scattering channels
Electron-attachment rates for carbon-rich molecules in protoplanetary atmospheres: the role of chemical differences
The formation of anionic species in the interstellar medium from interaction
of linear molecules containing carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen as atomic
components (polyynes) with free electrons in the environment is modelled via a
quantum treatment of the collision dynamics. The ensuing integral cross
sections are employed to obtain the corresponding attachment rates over a broad
range of temperatures for the electrons. The calculations unequivocally show
that a parametrization form often employed for such rates yields a broad range
of values that turn out to be specific for each molecular species considered,
thus excluding using a unique set for the whole class of polyynes.Comment: accepted to be published on MNRA
Electron attachment rates for PAH anions in the ISM and dark molecular clouds: dependence on their chemical properties
CONTEXT: The attachment of free electrons to polycondensed aromatic ring
molecules (PAHs) is studied for the variety of these molecules with different
numbers of condensed rings and over a broad range of electron temperatures,
using a multichannel quantum scattering approach. The calculations of the
relevant cross sections are used in turn to model the corresponding attachment
rates for each of the systems under study, and these rates are parametrized as
a function of temperature using a commonly employed expression for two-body
processes in the interstellar medium (ISM). AIM: The scope of this work is to
use first principles to establish the influence of chemical properties on the
efficiency of the electron-attachment process for PAHs. METHODS: Quantum
multichannel scattering methods are employed to generate the relevant cross
sections, hence the attachment rates, using integral elastic cross sections
computed over a broad range of relevant energies, from threshold up to 1000 K
and linking the attachment to low-energy resonant collisions. RESULTS: The
rates obtained for the present molecules are found to markedly vary within the
test ensemble of the present work and to be lower than the earlier values used
for the entire class of PAHs anions, when modelling their evolutions in ISM
environments. The effects of such differences on the evolutions of chemical
networks that include both PAH and PAH- species are analysed in some detail and
related to previous calculations.Comment: accepted to be published on A&
Reoperation After Cholecystectomy. The Role of the Cystic Duct Stump
The so-called “Postcholecystectomy Syndrome” may be due to various pathological biliary causes. The
aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of the cystic duct stump syndrome and if so, how often a
long (>1.5 cm) cystic duct stump was an indication for reoperation on the bile ducts after cholecystectomy
in our patients. Three hundred and twenty two patients underwent a second operation on the bile
ducts after cholecystectomy in the last ten years. In 35 patients (10.8%) a striking finding was a long
cystic duct stump (>1.5 cm). In 24 of these patients, a pathological finding, in addition to the long cystic
duct stump, was found on exploration. Out of these 24 patients there were 14 with common bile duct
stones; 6 with stenosis of the sphincter of Oddi; 3 with chronic pancreatitis and in one patient hepatitis
was the cause of the symptoms. From the remaining 11 patients 8 had a stone in a partial gall bladder or
cystic duct stump. One patient had a fistula between the cystic duct stump and duodenum and one a
suture granuloma. There was only one patient where a 1.5 cm long cystic duct stump remnant was the
only pathological finding. Four years after reoperation this patient is still suffering from the same
intermittent gastrointestinal symptoms. We conclude that the cystic duct stump is hardly ever a cause for
recurrent symptoms in itself. Total excision of the cystic duct does not eliminate the existence of
postcholecystectomy symptoms
A Variational Approach to the Spinless Relativistic Coulomb Problem
By application of a straightforward variational procedure we derive a simple,
analytic upper bound on the ground-state energy eigenvalue of a
semirelativistic Hamiltonian for (one or two) spinless particles which
experience some Coulomb-type interaction.Comment: 7 pages, HEPHY-PUB 606/9
Relativistic Coulomb Problem: Analytic Upper Bounds on Energy Levels
The spinless relativistic Coulomb problem is the bound-state problem for the
spinless Salpeter equation (a standard approximation to the Bethe--Salpeter
formalism as well as the most simple generalization of the nonrelativistic
Schr\"odinger formalism towards incorporation of relativistic effects) with the
Coulomb interaction potential (the static limit of the exchange of some
massless bosons, as present in unbroken gauge theories). The nonlocal nature of
the Hamiltonian encountered here, however, renders extremely difficult to
obtain rigorous analytic statements on the corresponding solutions. In view of
this rather unsatisfactory state of affairs, we derive (sets of) analytic upper
bounds on the involved energy eigenvalues.Comment: 12 pages, LaTe
Rotational modulation of X-ray emission in Orion Nebula young stars
We investigate the spatial distribution of X-ray emitting plasma in a sample
of young Orion Nebula Cluster stars by modulation of their X-ray light-curves
due to stellar rotation. The study, part of the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project
(COUP), is made possible by the exceptional length of the observation: 10 days
of ACIS integration during a time span of 13 days, yielding a total of 1616
detected sources in the 17x17 arcmin field of view. We here focus on a
subsample of 233 X-ray-bright stars with known rotational periods. We search
for X-ray modulation using the Lomb Normalized Periodogram method.
X-ray modulation related to the rotation period is detected in at least 23
stars with periods between 2 and 12 days and relative amplitudes ranging from
20% to 70%. In 16 cases, the X-ray modulation period is similar to the stellar
rotation period while in seven cases it is about half that value, possibly due
to the presence of X-ray emitting structures at opposite stellar longitudes.
These results constitute the largest sample of low mass stars in which X-ray
rotational modulation has been observed. The detection of rotational modulation
indicates that the X-ray emitting regions are distributed inhomogeneneously in
longitude and do not extend to distances significantly larger than the stellar
radius. Modulation is observed in stars with saturated activity levels
(L_X/L_bol ~ 10^(-3)) showing that saturation is not due to the filling of the
stellar surface with X-ray emitting regions.Comment: 41 pages, 15 figures, ApJS in press. Figure 15 (34 panels) is an
on-line only figure and is not included. A pdf file which includes figure 15
as well as full resolution versions of figure 10 and 11 is available at:
http://www.astropa.unipa.it/~ettoref/COUP_RotMod.pd
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