19 research outputs found
Tentative Evidence for Relativistic Electrons Generated by the Jet of the Young Sun-like Star DG Tau
Synchrotron emission has recently been detected in the jet of a massive
protostar, providing further evidence that certain jet formation
characteristics for young stars are similar to those found for highly
relativistic jets from AGN. We present data at 325 and 610 MHz taken with the
GMRT of the young, low-mass star DG Tau, an analog of the Sun soon after its
birth. This is the first investigation of a low-mass YSO at at such low
frequencies. We detect emission with a synchrotron spectral index in the
proximity of the DG Tau jet and interpret this emission as a prominent bow
shock associated with this outflow. This result provides tentative evidence for
the acceleration of particles to relativistic energies due to the shock impact
of this otherwise very low-power jet against the ambient medium. We calculate
the equipartition magnetic field strength (0.11 mG) and particle energy
(4x10^40 erg), which are the minimum requirements to account for the
synchrotron emission of the DG Tau bow shock. These results suggest the
possibility of low energy cosmic rays being generated by young Sun-like stars.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Observations of chemical differentiation in clumpy molecular clouds
We have extensively mapped a sample of dense molecular clouds (L1512, TMC-1C,
L1262, Per 7, L1389, L1251E) in lines of HC3N, CH3OH, SO and C^{18}O. We
demonstrate that a high degree of chemical differentiation is present in all of
the observed clouds. We analyse the molecular maps for each cloud,
demonstrating a systematic chemical differentiation across the sample, which we
relate to the evolutionary state of the cloud. We relate our observations to
the cloud physical, kinematical and evolutionary properties, and also compare
them to the predictions of simple chemical models. The implications of this
work for understanding the origin of the clumpy structures and chemical
differentiation observed in dense clouds are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Higher quality figures appear in the published
journal articl
A submillimetre survey of the kinematics of the Perseus molecular cloud: I. data
We present submillimetre observations of the J = 3-2 rotational transition of
12CO, 13CO and C18O across over 600 sq arcmin of the Perseus molecular cloud,
undertaken with HARP, a new array spectrograph on the James Clerk Maxwell
Telescope. The data encompass four regions of the cloud, containing the largest
clusters of dust continuum condensations: NGC 1333, IC348, L1448 and L1455. A
new procedure to remove striping artefacts from the raw HARP data is
introduced. We compare the maps to those of the dust continuum emission mapped
with SCUBA (Hatchell et al. 2005) and the positions of starless and
protostellar cores (Hatchell et al. 2007a). No straightforward correlation is
found between the masses of each region derived from the HARP CO and SCUBA
data, underlining the care that must be exercised when comparing masses of the
same object derived from different tracers. From the 13CO/C18O line ratio the
relative abundance of the two species ([13CO]/[C18O] ~ 7) and their opacities
(typically tau is 0.02-0.22 and 0.15-1.52 for the C18O and 13CO gas
respectively) are calculated. C18O is optically thin nearly everywhere,
increasing in opacity towards star-forming cores but not beyond tau(C18O)~0.9.
Assuming the 12CO gas is optically thick we compute its excitation temperature
(around 8-30 K), which has little correlation with estimates of the dust
temperature.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA
The James Clerk Maxwell telescope Legacy Survey of the Gould Belt: a molecular line study of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud
CO, 13CO, and C18O J = 3-2 observations are presented of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud. The 13CO and C18O emission is dominated by the Oph A clump, and the Oph B1, B2, C, E, F, and J regions. The optically thin(ner) C18O line is used as a column density tracer, from which the gravitational binding energy is estimated to be 4.5 × 1039 J (2282 M⊙ km2 s-2). The turbulent kinetic energy is 6.3 × 1038 J (320 M⊙ km2 s-2), or seven times less than this, and therefore the Oph cloud as a whole is gravitationally bound. 30 protostars were searched for high-velocity gas, with 8 showing outflows, and 20 more having evidence of high-velocity gas along their lines of sight. The total outflow kinetic energy is 1.3 × 1038 J (67 M⊙ km2 s-2), corresponding to 21 per cent of the cloud's turbulent kinetic energy. Although turbulent injection by outflows is significant, but does not appear to be the dominant source of turbulence in the cloud. 105 dense molecular clumplets were identified, which had radii ˜0.01-0.05 pc, virial masses ˜0.1-12 M⊙, luminosities ˜0.001-0.1 K km s-1 pc-2, and excitation temperatures ˜10-50 K. These are consistent with the standard Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC) based size-linewidth relationships, showing that the scaling laws extend down to size scales of hundredths of a parsec, and to subsolar-mass condensations. There is however no compelling evidence that the majority of clumplets are undergoing free-fall collapse, nor that they are pressure confined
Radio continuum observations of Class I protostellar disks in Taurus: constraining the greybody tail at centimetre wavelengths
We present deep 1.8 cm (16 GHz) radio continuum imaging of seven young
stellar objects in the Taurus molecular cloud. These objects have previously
been extensively studied in the sub-mm to NIR range and their SEDs modelled to
provide reliable physical and geometrical parametres.We use this new data to
constrain the properties of the long-wavelength tail of the greybody spectrum,
which is expected to be dominated by emission from large dust grains in the
protostellar disk. We find spectra consistent with the opacity indices expected
for such a population, with an average opacity index of beta = 0.26+/-0.22
indicating grain growth within the disks. We use spectra fitted jointly to
radio and sub-mm data to separate the contributions from thermal dust and radio
emission at 1.8 cm and derive disk masses directly from the cm-wave dust
contribution. We find that disk masses derived from these flux densities under
assumptions consistent with the literature are systematically higher than those
calculated from sub-mm data, and meet the criteria for giant planet formation
in a number of cases.Comment: submitted MNRA
AMI-LA radio continuum observations of Spitzer c2d small clouds and cores: Serpens region
We present deep radio continuum observations of the cores identified as
deeply embedded young stellar objects in the Serpens molecular cloud by the
Spitzer c2d programme at a wavelength of 1.8cm with the Arcminute Microkelvin
Imager Large Array (AMI-LA). These observations have a resolution of ~30arcsec
and an average sensitivity of 19microJy/beam. The targets are predominantly
Class I sources, and we find the detection rate for Class I objects in this
sample to be low (18%) compared to that of Class 0 objects (67%), consistent
with previous works. For detected objects we examine correlations of radio
luminosity with bolometric luminosity and envelope mass and find that these
data support correlations found by previous samples, but do not show any
indiction of the evolutionary divide hinted at by similar data from the Perseus
molecular cloud when comparing radio luminosity with envelope mass. We conclude
that envelope mass provides a better indicator for radio luminosity than
bolometric luminosity, based on the distribution of deviations from the two
correlations. Combining these new data with archival 3.6cm flux densities we
also examine the spectral indices of these objects and find an average spectral
index of 0.53+/-1.14, consistent with the canonical value for a partially
optically thick spherical or collimated stellar wind. However, we caution that
possible inter-epoch variability limits the usefulness of this value, and such
variability is supported by our identification of a possible flare in the radio
history of Serpens SMM 1.Comment: accepted MNRA
AMI radio continuum observations of young stellar objects with known outflows
We present 16 GHz (1.9 cm) deep radio continuum observations made with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) of a sample of low-mass young stars driving jets. We combine these new data with archival information from an extensive literature search to examine spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for each source and calculate both the radio and sub-mm spectral indices in two different scenarios: (1) fixing the dust temperature (Td) according to evolutionary class; and (2) allowing Td to vary. We use the results of this analysis to place constraints on the physical mechanisms responsible for the radio emission. From AMI data alone, as well as from model fitting to the full SED in both scenarios, we find that 80 per cent of the objects in this sample have spectral indices consistent with freefree emission. We find an average spectral index in both Td scenarios, consistent with freefree emission. We examine correlations of the radio luminosity with bolometric luminosity, envelope mass and outflow force, and find that these data are consistent with the strong correlation with envelope mass seen in lower luminosity samples. We examine the errors associated with determining the radio luminosity and find that the dominant source of error is the uncertainty on the opacity index, beta. We examine the SEDs for variability in these young objects, and find evidence for possible radio flare events in the histories of L1551 IRS 5 and Serpens SMM 1
Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome
The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead