What Powers the 12 μm Luminosities in AGNs: Spitzer/IRS Spectroscopic Study of the 12 μm Seyfert Sample

We present a mid-IR study of the 12 μm Seyfert sample, using 5-35 μm low-resolution spectroscopy from Spitzer/IRS. Sources in this sample display a wide variety of spectral shapes. We perform an analysis of the continuum emission, the strength of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) emission, as well as fine-structure lines, in order to study the mid-IR properties of the local Seyfert galaxies. We find that the equivalent widths of PAHs decrease with increasing dust temperature. We also propose a method to estimate the AGN contribution to the integrated 12 μm emission of the galaxy

Dynamical System of Scalar Field from 2-Dimension to 3-D and its Cosmological Implication

We give the three-dimensional dynamical autonomous systems for most of the popular scalar field dark energy models including (phantom) quintessence, (phantom) tachyon, k-essence and general non-canonical scalar field models, change the dynamical variables from variables $(x, y, \lambda)$ to observable related variables $(w_{\phi}, \Omega_{\phi}, \lambda)$, and show the intimate relationships between those scalar fields that the three-dimensional system of k-essence can reduce to (phantom) tachyon, general non-canonical scalar field can reduce to (phantom) quintessence and k-essence can also reduce to (phantom) quintessence for some special cases. For the applications of the three-dimensional dynamical systems, we investigate several special cases and give the exactly dynamical solutions in detail. In the end of this paper, we argue that, it is more convenient and also has more physical meaning to express the differential equations of dynamical systems in $(w_{\phi}, \Omega_{\phi}, \lambda)$ instead of variables $(x, y, \lambda)$ and to investigate the dynamical system in 3-Dimension instead of 2-Dimension. We also raise a question about the possibility of the chaotic behavior in the spatially flat single scalar field FRW cosmological models in the presence of ordinary matter.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures,some references added. Minor changes according to the suggestions from referee

Large Misalignment between Stellar Bar and Dust Pattern in NGC 3488 Revealed by Spitzer and SDSS

A large position angle misalignment between the stellar bar and the distribution of dust in the late-type barred spiral NGC 3488 was discovered, using mid-infrared images from the Spitzer Space Telescope and optical images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The angle between the bar and dust patterns was measured to be 25+-2deg, larger than most of the misalignments found previously in barred systems based on Ha or HI/CO observations. The stellar bar is bright at optical and 3.6um, while the dust pattern is more prominent in the 8um band but also shows up in the SDSS u and g-band images, suggesting a rich interstellar medium environment harboring ongoing star formation. This angular misalignment is unlikely to have been caused by spontaneous bar formation. We suggest that the stellar bar and the dust pattern may have different formation histories, and that the large misalignment was triggered by a tidal interaction with a small companion. A statistical analysis of a large sample of nearby galaxies with archival Spitzer data indicates that bar structure such as that seen in NGC 3488 is quite rare in the local Universe.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in New Astronom

A New Type of Crumb Rubber Asphalt Mixture: A Dry Process Design and Performance Evaluation

To obtain a crumb rubber asphalt mixture with excellent performance, this study combined trans-polyoctenamer rubber (TOR), crumb rubber, and other additives to establish a new type of crumb rubber (CRT). The objective of this study was to design and evaluate the road performance of the new type of crumb rubber asphalt mixture (CRTAM) with a skeleton dense texture through a dry process. First, the skeleton intrusion compact volume method was used to optimize the grading of coarse and fine aggregates, and the design of the CRTAM gradation was carried out through the same and unequal volume replacement grading method. Then, three types of road performance were analyzed: high-temperature stability, low-temperature crack resistance, and water stability. The results showed that 2% and 2.5% CRT met a low-temperature index with equal volume substitution, and the six gradations obtained by unequal volume replacement with 2% CRT complied with the requirements of a skeleton dense texture. When the substitution ratio was 1.5 and 0.5, the high-temperature performance was better. In addition, when the substitution ratio was 0.5, the flexural strain energy density was the highest and the low-temperature performance was the best. Including considerations of economic benefits, it is recommended that the CRT content be 2% and the substitution ratio be 0.5