11,106 research outputs found
Highly ionized atoms in cooling gas
The ionization of low density gas cooling from a high temperature was calculated. The evolution during the cooling is assumed to be isochoric, isobaric, or a combination of these cases. The calculations are used to predict the column densities and ultraviolet line luminosities of highly ionized atoms in cooling gas. In a model for cooling of a hot galactic corona, it is shown that the observed value of N(N V) can be produced in the cooling gas, while the predicted value of N(Si IV) falls short of the observed value by a factor of about 5. The same model predicts fluxes of ultraviolet emission lines that are a factor of 10 lower than the claimed detections of Feldman, Brune, and Henry. Predictions are made for ultraviolet lines in cooling flows in early-type galaxies and clusters of galaxies. It is shown that the column densities of interest vary over a fairly narrow range, while the emission line luminosities are simply proportional to the mass inflow rate
BATSE Soft Gamma-Ray Observations of GROJ0422+32
We report results of a comprehensive study of the soft gamma-ray (30 keV to
1.7 MeV) emission of GROJ0422+32 during its first known outburst in 1992. These
results were derived from the BATSE earth-occultation database with the JPL
data analysis package, EBOP (Enhanced BATSE Occultation Package). Results
presented here focus primarily on the long-term temporal and spectral
variability of the source emission associated with the outburst. The light
curves with 1-day resolution in six broad energy-bands show the high-energy
flux (>200 keV) led the low-energy flux (<200 keV) by ~5 days in reaching the
primary peak, but lagged the latter by ~7 days in starting the declining phase.
We confirm the "secondary maximum" of the low-energy (<200 keV) flux at TJD
8970-8981, ~120 days after the first maximum. Our data show that the "secondary
maximum" was also prominent in the 200-300 keV band, but became less pronounced
at higher energies. During this 200-day period, the spectrum evolved from a
power-law with photon index of 1.75 on TJD 8839, to a shape that can be
described by a Comptonized model or an exponential power law below 300 keV,
with a variable power-law tail above 300 keV. The spectrum remained roughly in
this two-component shape until ~9 November (TJD 8935) and then returned to the
initial power-law shape with an index of ~2 until the end of the period. The
correlation of the two spectral shapes with the high and low luminosities of
the soft gamma-ray emission is strongly reminiscent of that seen in Cygnus X-1.
We interpret these results in terms of the Advection Dominated Accretion Flow
(ADAF) model with possibly a "jet-like" region that persistently produced the
non-thermal power-law gamma rays observed throughout the event.Comment: 40 pages total, including 10 figures and 2 table
Chandra Observations of SN 2004et and the X-ray Emission of Type IIp Supernovae
We report the X-ray detection of the Type II-plateau supernova SN 2004et in
the spiral galaxy NGC 6946, using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The position
of the X-ray source was found to agree with the optical position within ~0.4
arcsec. Chandra also surveyed the region before the 2004 event, finding no
X-ray emission at the location of the progenitor. For the post-explosion
observations, a total of 202, 151, and 158 photons were detected in three
pointings, each ~29 ks in length, on 2004 October 22, November 6, and December
3, respectively. The spectrum of the first observation is best fit by a thermal
model with a temperature of kT=1.3 keV and a line-of-sight absorption of
N_H=1.0 x 10^{22} cm^{-2}. The inferred unabsorbed luminosity (0.4-8 keV) is
~4x10^{38} erg/s, adopting a distance of 5.5 Mpc. A comparison between hard and
soft counts on the first and third epochs indicates a softening over this time,
although there is an insufficient number of photons to constrain the variation
of temperature and absorption by spectral fitting. We model the emission as
arising from the reverse shock region in the interaction between the supernova
ejecta and the progenitor wind. For a Type IIP supernova with an extended
progenitor, the cool shell formed at the time of shock wave breakout from the
star can affect the initial evolution of the interaction shell and the
absorption of radiation from the reverse shock. The observed spectral softening
might be due to decreasing shell absorption. We find a pre-supernova mass loss
rate of (2-2.5)x 10^{-6} M_{\odot} /yr for a wind velocity of 10 kms, which is
in line with expectations for a Type IIP supernova.Comment: total 19 pages including 7 figures. ApJ, in press. See
http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/rho/preprint/SN2004etms.ps for the paper
including full resolution image
Gamma-Ray Burst Environments and Progenitors
Likely progenitors for the GRBs (gamma-ray bursts) are the mergers of compact
objects or the explosions of massive stars. These two cases have distinctive
environments for the GRB afterglow: the compact object explosions occur in the
ISM (interstellar medium) and those of massive stars occur in the preburst
stellar wind. We calculate the expected afterglow for a burst in a Wolf-Rayet
star wind and compare the results to those for constant, interstellar density.
The optical afterglow for the wind case is generally expected to decline more
steeply than in the constant density case, but this effect may be masked by
variations in electron spectral index, and the two cases have the same
evolution in the cooling regime. Observations of the concurrent radio and
optical/X-ray evolution are especially useful for distinguishing between the
two cases. The different rates of decline of the optical and X-ray afterglows
of GRB 990123 suggest constant density interaction for this case. We have
previously found strong evidence for wind interaction in SN 1998bw/GRB 980425
and here present a wind model for GRB 980519. We thus suggest that there are
both wind type GRB afterglows with massive star progenitors and ISM type
afterglows with compact binary star progenitors. The wind type bursts are
likely to be accompanied by a supernova, but not the ISM type.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, revised version, ApJ Letters, in pres
Moderate Asphericity of the SN 2002ic Circumstellar Envelope
The polarization of SN 2002ic interacting with a dense circumstellar envelope
is calculated in the context of the asymmetric version of a previously proposed
spherical interaction model. The circumstellar envelope is taken to be oblate.
The observed polarization (Wang et al. 2004) can be reproduced for an aspect
ratio of 0.65-0.7 assuming inclination angles >60 degrees. This model predicts
a weak sensitivity of the line profiles to the orientation, in agreement with
the absence of significant variations of the line profiles among SN 2002ic-like
supernovae. We propose a test for distinguishing between the binary and single
star progenitor scenarios based upon the polarization distribution function for
the growing sample of these events.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figs., ApJ, accepte
1.6 GHz VLBI Observations of SN 1979C: almost-free expansion
We report on 1.6 GHz Very-Long-Baseline-Interferometry (VLBI) observations of
supernova SN 1979C made on 18 November 2002. We derive a model-dependent
supernova size. We also present a reanalysis of VLBI observations made by us on
June 1999 and by other authors on February 2005. We conclude that, contrary to
our earlier claim of strong deceleration in the expansion, SN 1979C has been
undergoing almost-free expansion (; ) for over
25 years.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; submitted to A&A on 14 May 2009. Accepted on 7
Jul 200
Time-dependence in Relativistic Collisionless Shocks: Theory of the Variable "Wisps" in the Crab Nebula
We describe results from time-dependent numerical modeling of the
collisionless reverse shock terminating the pulsar wind in the Crab Nebula. We
treat the upstream relativistic wind as composed of ions and electron-positron
plasma embedded in a toroidal magnetic field, flowing radially outward from the
pulsar in a sector around the rotational equator. The relativistic cyclotron
instability of the ion gyrational orbit downstream of the leading shock in the
electron-positron pairs launches outward propagating magnetosonic waves.
Because of the fresh supply of ions crossing the shock, this time-dependent
process achieves a limit-cycle, in which the waves are launched with
periodicity on the order of the ion Larmor time. Compressions in the magnetic
field and pair density associated with these waves, as well as their
propagation speed, semi-quantitatively reproduce the behavior of the wisp and
ring features described in recent observations obtained using the Hubble Space
Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. By selecting the parameters of the
ion orbits to fit the spatial separation of the wisps, we predict the period of
time variability of the wisps that is consistent with the data. When coupled
with a mechanism for non-thermal acceleration of the pairs, the compressions in
the magnetic field and plasma density associated with the optical wisp
structure naturally account for the location of X-ray features in the Crab. We
also discuss the origin of the high energy ions and their acceleration in the
equatorial current sheet of the pulsar wind.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ. High-resolution figures and
mpeg movies available at http://astron.berkeley.edu/~anatoly/wisp
Gem-induced cytoskeleton remodeling increases cellular migration of HTLV-1-infected cells, formation of infected-to-target T-cell conjugates and viral transmission
Efficient HTLV-1 viral transmission occurs through cell-to-cell contacts. The Tax viral transcriptional activator protein facilitates this process. Using a comparative transcriptomic analysis, we recently identified a series of genes up-regulated in HTLV-1 Tax expressing T-lymphocytes. We focused our attention towards genes that are important for cytoskeleton dynamic and thus may possibly modulate cell-to-cell contacts. We first demonstrate that Gem, a member of the small GTP-binding proteins within the Ras superfamily, is expressed both at the RNA and protein levels in Tax-expressing cells and in HTLV-1-infected cell lines. Using a series of ChIP assays, we show that Tax recruits CREB and CREB Binding Protein (CBP) onto a c-AMP Responsive Element (CRE) present in the gem promoter. This CRE sequence is required to drive Tax-activated gem transcription. Since Gem is involved in cytoskeleton remodeling, we investigated its role in infected cells motility. We show that Gem co-localizes with F-actin and is involved both in T-cell spontaneous cell migration as well as chemotaxis in the presence of SDF-1/CXCL12. Importantly, gem knock-down in HTLV-1-infected cells decreases cell migration and conjugate formation. Finally, we demonstrate that Gem plays an important role in cell-to-cell viral transmission
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