The Atomic Physics Underlying the Spectroscopic Analysis of Massive Stars and Supernovae

We have developed a radiative transfer code, CMFGEN, which allows us to model the spectra of massive stars and supernovae. Using CMFGEN we can derive fundamental parameters such as effective temperatures and surface gravities, derive abundances, and place constraints on stellar wind properties. The last of these is important since all massive stars are losing mass via a stellar wind that is driven from the star by radiation pressure, and this mass loss can substantially influence the spectral appearance and evolution of the star. Recently we have extended CMFGEN to allow us to undertake time-dependent radiative transfer calculations of supernovae. Such calculations will be used to place constraints on the supernova progenitor, to place constraints on the supernova explosion and nucleosynthesis, and to derive distances using a physical approach called the "Expanding Photosphere Method". We describe the assumptions underlying the code and the atomic processes involved. A crucial ingredient in the code is the atomic data. For the modeling we require accurate transition wavelengths, oscillator strengths, photoionization cross-sections, collision strengths, autoionization rates, and charge exchange rates for virtually all species up to, and including, cobalt. Presently, the available atomic data varies substantially in both quantity and quality.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

A long in situ section of the lower ocean crust: results of {ODP} Leg 176 drilling at the Southwest Indian Ridge

Ocean Drilling Program Leg 176 deepened Hole 735B in gabbroic lower ocean crust by 1 km to 1.5 km. The section has the physical properties of seismic layer 3, and a total magnetization sufficient by itself to account for the overlying lineated sea-surface magnetic anomaly. The rocks from Hole 735B are principally olivine gabbro, with evidence for two principal and many secondary intrusive events. There are innumerable late small ferrogabbro intrusions, often associated with shear zones that cross-cut the olivine gabbros. The ferrogabbros dramatically increase upward in the section. Whereas there are many small patches of ferrogabbro representing late iron- and titanium-rich melt trapped intragranularly in olivine gabbro, most late melt was redistributed prior to complete solidification by compaction and deformation. This, rather than in situ upward differentiation of a large magma body, produced the principal igneous stratigraphy. The computed bulk composition of the hole is too evolved to mass balance mid-ocean ridge basalt back to a primary magma, and there must be a significant mass of missing primitive cumulates. These could lie either below the hole or out of the section. Possibly the gabbros were emplaced by along-axis intrusion of moderately differentiated melts into the near-transform environment. Alteration occurred in three stages. High-temperature granulite- to amphibolite-facies alteration is most important, coinciding with brittle-ductile deformation beneath the ridge. Minor greenschist-facies alteration occurred under largely static conditions, likely during block uplift at the ridge transform intersection. Late post-uplift low-temperature alteration produced locally abundant smectite, often in previously unaltered areas. The most important features of the high- and low-temperature alteration are their respective associations with ductile and cataclastic deformation, and an overall decrease downhole with hydrothermal alteration generally =<5% in the bottom kilometer. Hole 735B provides evidence for a strongly heterogeneous lower ocean crust, and for the inherent interplay of deformation, alteration and igneous processes at slow-spreading ridges. It is strikingly different from gabbros sampled from fast-spreading ridges and at most well-described ophiolite complexes. We attribute this to the remarkable diversity of tectonic environments where crustal accretion occurs in the oceans and to the low probability of a section of old slow-spread crust formed near a major large-offset transform being emplaced on-land compared to sections of young crust from small ocean basins

Climatic influences on the behavioural ecology of Chanter's mountain reedbuck in Kenya

The effects of rainfall and temperature on the behavioural ecology of Chanler's mountain reedbuck (Redunca fulvorufula fulvorufula Rothschild) were examined on ranchland near Gilgil, Kenya. Ambient temperature was shown to be the proximate determinant of diurnal activity and rumination patterns. Mountain reedbuck were active during early morning and late afternoon, but rested and abandoned rumination when temperatures peaked at midday. There was close synchrony in levels of activity, rumination and use of cover and shade between males and females. Seasonal variations in time budgets were strongly influenced by rainfall patterns. Analyses revealed a one-month lag between rainfall and both peak grass growth and a decrease in rumination frequency. The proportion of time allocated to feeding decreased one month later, and was coincident with an increase in the proportion of grass in the diet. Reedbuck may therefore be prevented from exploiting high-quality new grass, possibly by gut-fill or induced imbalances in rumen pH. It is suggested that the unexpectedly high levels of browse in the diet is an adaptive response to low rainfall during the preceding two months