3,925 research outputs found

    The Mid-Infrared Extinction Law in the Ophiuchus, Perseus, and Serpens Molecular Clouds

    Get PDF
    We compute the mid-infrared extinction law from 3.6-24 microns in three molecular clouds: Ophiuchus, Perseus, and Serpens, by combining data from the "Cores to Disks" Spitzer Legacy Science program with deep JHKs imaging. Using a new technique, we are able to calculate the line-of-sight extinction law towards each background star in our fields. With these line-of-sight measurements, we create, for the first time, maps of the chi-squared deviation of the data from two extinction law models. Because our chi-squared maps have the same spatial resolution as our extinction maps, we can directly observe the changing extinction law as a function of the total column density. In the Spitzer IRAC bands, 3.6-8 microns, we see evidence for grain growth. Below AKs=0.5A_{K_s} = 0.5, our extinction law is well-fit by the Weingartner & Draine (2001) RV=3.1R_V = 3.1 diffuse interstellar medium dust model. As the extinction increases, our law gradually flattens, and for AKs>=1A_{K_s} >= 1, the data are more consistent with the Weingartner & Draine RV=5.5R_V = 5.5 model that uses larger maximum dust grain sizes. At 24 microns, our extinction law is 2-4 times higher than the values predicted by theoretical dust models, but is more consistent with the observational results of Flaherty et al. (2007). Lastly, from our chi-squared maps we identify a region in Perseus where the IRAC extinction law is anomalously high considering its column density. A steeper near-infrared extinction law than the one we have assumed may partially explain the IRAC extinction law in this region.Comment: 38 pages, 19 figures in pre-print format. Accepted for publication in ApJ. A version with full-resolution figures can be found here: http://peggysue.as.utexas.edu/SIRTF

    Temperature-dependent properties of the magnetic order in single-crystal BiFeO3

    Full text link
    We report neutron diffraction and magnetization studies of the magnetic order in multiferroic BiFeO3. In ferroelectric monodomain single crystals, there are three magnetic cycloidal domains with propagation vectors equivalent by crystallographic symmetry. The cycloid period slowly grows with increasing temperature. The magnetic domain populations do not change with temperature except in the close vicinity of the N{\P}eel temperature, at which, in addition, a small jump in magneti- zation is observed. No evidence for the spin-reorientation transitions proposed in previous Raman and dielectric studies is found. The magnetic cycloid is slightly anharmonic for T=5 K. The an- harmonicity is much smaller than previously reported in NMR studies. At room temperature, a circular cycloid is observed, within errors. We argue that the observed anharmonicity provides important clues for understanding electromagnons in BiFeO3.Comment: In Press at PR
    corecore