36,774 research outputs found
The observed spiral structure of the Milky Way
The spiral structure of the Milky Way is not yet well determined. The keys to
understanding this structure are to increase the number of reliable spiral
tracers and to determine their distances as accurately as possible. HII
regions, giant molecular clouds (GMCs), and 6.7-GHz methanol masers are closely
related to high mass star formation, and hence they are excellent spiral
tracers. We update the catalogs of Galactic HII regions, GMCs, and 6.7-GHz
methanol masers, and then outline the spiral structure of the Milky Way. We
collected data for more than 2500 known HII regions, 1300 GMCs, and 900 6.7-GHz
methanol masers. If the photometric or trigonometric distance was not yet
available, we determined the kinematic distance using a Galaxy rotation curve
with the current IAU standard, = 8.5 kpc and = 220 km
s, and the most recent updated values of = 8.3 kpc and
= 239 km s, after we modified the velocities of tracers with the adopted
solar motions. With the weight factors based on the excitation parameters of
HII regions or the masses of GMCs, we get the distributions of these spiral
tracers. The distribution of tracers shows at least four segments of arms in
the first Galactic quadrant, and three segments in the fourth quadrant. The
Perseus Arm and the Local Arm are also delineated by many bright HII regions.
The arm segments traced by massive star forming regions and GMCs are able to
match the HI arms in the outer Galaxy. We found that the models of three-arm
and four-arm logarithmic spirals are able to connect most spiral tracers. A
model of polynomial-logarithmic spirals is also proposed, which not only
delineates the tracer distribution, but also matches the observed tangential
directions.Comment: 22 Pages, 16 Figures, 7 Tables, updated to match the published
versio
Heat conduction in 2D strongly-coupled dusty plasmas
We perform non-equilibrium simulations to study heat conduction in
two-dimensional strongly coupled dusty plasmas. Temperature gradients are
established by heating one part of the otherwise equilibrium system to a higher
temperature. Heat conductivity is measured directly from the stationary
temperature profile and heat flux. Particular attention is paid to the
influence of damping effect on the heat conduction. It is found that the heat
conductivity increases with the decrease of the damping rate, while its
magnitude agrees with previous experimental measurement.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, presented in SCCS2008 conferenc
Open clusters: their kinematics and metellicities
We review our work on Galactic open clusters in recent years, and introduce
our proposed large program for the LOCS (LAMOST Open Cluster Survey). First,
based on the most complete open clusters sample with metallicity, age and
distance data as well as kinematic information, some preliminary statistical
analysis regarding the spatial and metallicity distributions is presented. In
particular, a radial abundance gradient of - 0.058 0.006 dex kpc
was derived, and by dividing clusters into age groups we show that the disk
abundance gradient was steeper in the past. Secondly, proper motions,
membership probabilities, and velocity dispersions of stars in the regions of
two very young open clusters are derived. Both clusters show clear evidence of
mass segregation, which provides support for the ``primordial'' mass
segregation scenarios. Based on the great advantages of the forthcoming LAMOST
facility, we have proposed a detailed open cluster survey with LAMOST (the
LOCS). The aim, feasibility, and the present development of the LOCS are
briefly summarized.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Proceeding of IAU Symposium No.248:
"A Giant Step:from Milli- to Micro-arcsecond Astrometry
Chemical evolution and depletion pattern in Damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems
In this paper we point out a previously unnoticed anticorrelation between the
observed abundance ratio [X/Zn] (where Zn is assumed to be undepleted and X
stands for the refractories Fe, Cr and Ni) and metal column density
([Zn/H]+log(N{HI})) in DLAs. We suggest that this trend is an unambiguous sign
of dust depletion, since metal column density is a measure of the amount of
dust along the line of sight. Assuming that DLAs are (proto-)galactic disks and
using detailed chemical evolution models with metallicity dependent yields we
study chemical evolution and dust depletion patterns for alpha and iron-peak
elements in DLAs. When observational constraints on the metal column density of
DLAs are taken into account (as suggested in Boisse et al. 1998) we find that
our models reproduce fairly well the observed mild redshift evolution of the
abundances of 8 elements (Al, Si, S, Cr, Mn, Fe, Zn and Ni) as well as the
observed scatter at a given redshift. By considering the aforementioned
dependence of abundance ratios on metal column density, we further explore the
general dust depletion pattern in DLAs, comparing to our model results and to a
solar reference pattern. We suggest that further measurements of the key
elements, i.e. Zn, S and Mn, will help to gain more insight into the nature of
DLAs. In any case, the presently uncertain nucleosynthesis of Zn in massive
stars (on which a large part of these conclusions is based) should be carefully
scrutinised.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics, in pres
Necessary and sufficient conditions for local creation of quantum discord
We show that a local channel cannot create quantum discord (QD) for zero QD
states of size if and only if either it is a completely decohering
channel or it is a nontrivial isotropic channel. For the qubit case this
propertiy is additionally characteristic to the completely decohering channel
or the commutativity-preserving unital channel. In particular, the exact forms
of the completely decohering channel and the commutativity-preserving unital
qubit channel are proposed. Consequently, our results confirm and improve the
conjecture proposed by X. Hu et al. for the case of and improve the
result proposed by A. Streltsov et al. for the qubit case. Furthermore, it is
shown that a local channel nullifies QD in any state if and only if it is a
completely decohering channel. Based on our results, some protocols of quantum
information processing issues associated with QD, especially for the qubit
case, would be experimentally accessible.Comment: 8 page
A Sino-German 6cm polarisation survey of the Galactic plane IX. HII regions
Large-scale radio continuum surveys provide data to get insights into the
physical properties of radio sources. HII regions are prominent radio sources
produced by thermal emission of ionised gas around young massive stars. We
identify and analyse HII regions in the Sino-German 6cm polarisation survey of
the Galactic plane. Objects with flat radio continuum spectra together with
infrared and/or Halpha emission were identified as HII regions. For HII regions
with small apparent sizes, we cross-matched the 6cm small-diameter source
catalogue with the radio HII region catalogue compiled by Paladini and the
infrared HII region catalogue based on the WISE data. Extended HII regions were
identified by eye by overlaying the Paladini and the WISE HII regions onto the
6cm survey images for coincidences. The TT-plot method was employed for
spectral index verification. A total of 401 HII regions were identified and
their flux densities were determined with the Sino-German 6cm survey data. In
the surveyed area, 76 pairs of sources are found to be duplicated in the
Paladini HII region catalogue, mainly due to the non-distinction of previous
observations with different angular resolutions, and 78 objects in their
catalogue are misclassified as HII regions, being actually planetary nebulae,
supernova remnants or extragalactic sources that have steep spectra. More than
30 HII regions and HII region candidates from our 6cm survey data, especially
extended ones, do not have counterparts in the WISE HII region catalogue, of
which 9 are identified for the first time. Based on the newly derived radio
continuum spectra and the evidence of infrared emission, the previously
identified SNRs G11.1-1.0, G20.4+0.1 and G16.4-0.5 are believed to be HII
regions.Comment: version after some minor corrections and language editing, full Table
2 - 5 will appear in CDS, accepted for publication in A&
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