Evidence of grain growth in the disk of the bipolar proto-planetary nebula M 1--92

We investigate the dust size and dust shell structure of the bipolar proto-planetary nebula M 1--92 by means of radiative transfer modeling. Our models consists of a disk and bipolar lobes that are surrounded by an AGB shell, each component having different dust characteristics. The upper limit of the grain size $a_\mathrm{max}$ in the lobes is estimated to be $0.5 \mu$m from the polarization value in the bipolar lobe. The $a_\mathrm{max}$ value of the disk is constrained with the disk mass (0.2 M_{\sun}), which was estimated from a previous CO emission line observation. We find a good model with $a_\mathrm{max}=1000.0 \mu$m, which provides an approximated disk mass of 0.15 M_{\sun}. Even taking into account uncertainties such as the gas-to-dust mass ratio, a significantly larger dust of $a_\mathrm{max}>100.0 \mu$m, comparing to the dust in the lobe, is expected. We also estimated the disk inner radius, the disk outer radius, and the envelope mass to be 30 $R_\star$(=9 AU), 4500 AU, and 4 M_{\sun}, respectively, where $v_\mathrm{exp}$ is the expansion velocity. If the dust existing in the lobes in large separations from the central star undergoes little dust processing, the dust sizes preserves the ones in the dust formation. Submicron-sized grains are found in many objects besides M 1--92, suggesting that the size does not depend much on the object properties, such as initial mass of the central star and chemical composition of the stellar system. On the other hand, the grain sizes in the disk do. Evidence of large grains has been reported in many bipolar PPNs, including M 1--92. This result suggests that disks play an important role in grain growth.Comment: 8 pages with 3 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

The interface between the stellar wind and interstellar medium around R Cassiopeiae revealed by far-infrared imaging

The circumstellar dust shells of intermediate initial-mass (about 1 to 8 solar masses) evolved stars are generated by copious mass loss during the asymptotic giant branch phase. The density structure of their circumstellar shell is the direct evidence of mass loss processes, from which we can investigate the nature of mass loss. We used the AKARI Infrared Astronomy Satellite and the Spitzer Space Telescope to obtain the surface brightness maps of an evolved star R Cas at far-infrared wavelengths, since the temperature of dust decreases as the distance from the star increases and one needs to probe dust at lower temperatures, i.e., at longer wavelengths. The observed shell structure and the star's known proper motion suggest that the structure represents the interface regions between the dusty wind and the interstellar medium. The deconvolved structures are fitted with the analytic bow shock structure to determine the inclination angle of the bow shock cone. Our data show that (1) the bow shock cone of 1 - 5 x 10^-5 solar masses (dust mass) is inclined at 68 degrees with respect to the plane of the sky, and (2) the dust temperature in the bow shock cone is raised to more than 20 K by collisional shock interaction in addition to the ambient interstellar radiation field. By comparison between the apex vector of the bow shock and space motion vector of the star we infer that there is a flow of interstellar medium local to R Cas whose flow velocity is at least 55.6 km/s, consistent with an environment conducive to dust heating by shock interactions.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Spatial Distributions of Multiple Dust Components in the PPN/PN Dust Shells

We investigate spatial distributions of specific dust components in the circumstellar shells of a proto-planetary nebula candidate, HD 179821, and a planetary nebula, BD$+30^{\circ}$3639, by means of spectral imaging. With high-resolution ground-based images and ISO spectra in the mid-infrared, we can derive ``dust feature only'' maps by subtracting synthesized continuum maps from the observed images at the feature wavelength. Such spatially detailed information will help to develop models for the evolution of dust grains around evolved stars.Comment: 4 pages + 7 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference, "Post-AGB Objects (proto-planetary nebulae) as a Phase of Stellar Evolution", Torun, Poland, July 5-7, 2000, eds. R. Szczerba, R. Tylenda, and S.K. Gorny. Figures have been degraded to minimize the total file siz

Theoretical framework of entangled-photon generation from biexcitons in nano-to-bulk crossover regime with planar geometry

We have constructed a theoretical framework of the biexciton-resonant hyperparametric scattering for the pursuit of high-power and high-quality generation of entangled photon pairs. Our framework is applicable to nano-to-bulk crossover regime where the center-of-mass motion of excitons and biexcitons is confined. Material surroundings and the polarization correlation of generated photons can be considered. We have analyzed the entangled-photon generation from CuCl film, by which ultraviolet entangled-photon pairs are generated, and from dielectric microcavity embedding a CuCl layer. We have revealed that in the nano-to-bulk crossover regime we generally get a high performance from the viewpoint of statistical accuracy, and the generation efficiency can be enhanced by the optical cavity with maintaining the high performance. The nano-to-bulk crossover regime has a variety of degrees of freedom to tune the entangled-photon generation, and the scattering spectra explicitly reflect quantized exciton-photon coupled modes in the finite structure.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Near-infrared observations of water-ice in OH/IR stars

A search for the near-infrared water-ice absorption band was made in a number of very red OH/IR stars which are known to exhibit the 10um silicate absorption. As a by-product, accurate positions of these highly reddened objects are obtained. We derived a dust mass loss rate for each object by modelling the spectral energy distribution and the gas mass loss rate by solving the equation of motion for the dust drag wind. The derived mass loss rates show a strong correlation with the silicate optical depth as well as that of the water-ice. The stars have a high mass loss rate (> 1.0E-4 Msun/yr) with an average gas-to-dust mass ratio of 110. In objects which show the 3.1um water-ice absorption, the near-IR slope is much steeper than those with no water-ice. Comparison between our calculated mass loss rates and those derived from OH and CO observations indicates that these stars have recently increased their mass loss rates.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures : accepted for publication in A&

Caracterização sazonal do efeito de atrazina e 2,4-D sobre microrganismos de solos da microbacia do córrego do Espraiado, Ribeirão Preto-SP.

Com o objetivo de estudar o efeito sazonal de atrazina e 2,4-D sobre os microrganismos do solo e se isolar aqueles com potencial para degradar os herbicidas, foram coletadas mensalmente, durante o ano de 1996, amostras de solo de 9 pontos a profundidade de 0-20 cm em area de cana-de-acucar da microbacia do Espraiado, regiao de Ribeirao Preto. Os solos variaram de argiloso a arenoso. Suspensoes de solo, (5 g/50 ml), recem coletadas foram tratadas com atrazina (1 mg/ml) e 2,4-D (0,5 mg/ml) e incubadas a 30oC por 21 dias, juntamente com a testemunha. A populacao microbiana foi monitorada semanalmente por plaqueamento, contagem, fotografia e isolamento de colonias. Os resultados mostraram variacao sazonal significativa no comportamento quali e quantitativo da populacao microbiana. O crescimento dos microrganismos nas amostras de fevereiro a maio foi fortemente inibido por 2,4-D. No mes de junho, a atrazina inibiu o crescimento, ao passo que em agosto, 2,4-D passou a exercer forte efeito estimulante, com populacoes de ate 15 vezes maior que a testemunha. Em outubro, ambos herbicidas estimularam de maneira geral o crescimento. O tipo de solo apresentou pequena influencia. Os tratamentos promoveram crescimento diferenciado de populacoes homogeneas tipicas e caracteristicas para cada um dos herbicidas com a predominancia de bacterias para ambos, apesar de tambem serem detectados fungos e leveduras. Atrazina e 2,4-D na maioria das vezes agiram antagonicamente, sendo o 2,4-D inibidor mais potente sobre a populacao de solos arenosos, quando a inibiu. O tratamento com os herbicidas reduziu o grau de biodiversidade sendo comumente encontrado um unico tipo celular nas placas, distinto para atrazina e 2,4-D

Sharp lines in the absorption edge of EuTe and Pb0.1_{0.1}Eu0.9_{0.9}Te in high magnetic fields

The optical absorption spectra in the region of the \fd transition energies of epitaxial layers of of EuTe and \PbEuTe, grown by molecular beam epitaxy, were studied using circularly polarized light, in the Faraday configuration. Under \sigmam polarization a sharp symmetric absorption line (full width at half-maximum 0.041 eV) emerges at the low energy side of the band-edge absorption, for magnetic fields intensities greater than 6 T. The absorption line shows a huge red shift (35 meV/T) with increasing magnetic fields. The peak position of the absorption line as a function of magnetic field is dominated by the {\em d-f} exchange interaction of the excited electron and the \Euion spins in the lattice. The {\em d-f} exchange interaction energy was estimated to be $J_{df}S=0.15\pm 0.01$ eV. In \PbEuTe the same absorption line is detected, but it is broader, due to alloy disorder, indicating that the excitation is localized within a finite radius. From a comparison of the absorption spectra in EuTe and \PbEuTe the characteristic radius of the excitation is estimated to be $\sim 10$\AA.Comment: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter (2004, at press

Adsorptividade de solos da microbacia do Córrego do Espraiado, Ribeirão Preto: riboflavina como modelo de adsorção.

Em area onde foram desenvolvidos estudos sobre os efeitos dos herbicidas atrazina e 2,4-D sobre a populacao microbiana dos solos da microbacia do Espraiado, Ribeirao Preto-SP, foi tambem pesquisado o uso de riboflavina, composto organico facilmente detectavel por espectrofotometria a baixas concentracoes, como modelo de estudos de adsorcao de solos. Os solos empregados neste trabalho foram provenientes de 9 pontos selecionados da microbacia para estudos microbiologicos e se agruparam em argilosos e arenosos, com teores de materia organica de 0,15 a 3,50%. Os resultados de adsorcao mostraram que a riboflavina foi adsorvida pelos diferentes solos, em proporcoes variadas dependente do solo. As isotermas de adsorcao revelaram isotermas do tipo L, como as observadas para os herbicidas triazinicos, como a atrazina. Os valores experimentais, para amostras coletadas de 0-20 cm aplicados a equacao de Freundlich, mostraram correlacao variando de 0.93 a 0,99, e valores de K de 0,47 a 63,43 e 1/n de 0,42 a 1,42. Os valores de Kd para riboflavina em diferentes amostras variaram de 0,61 +- 0,26 (amostra de solo arenoso) a 56,1 +- 13,7 (amostra de solo argiloso) enquanto o Koc variou de 230 +- 32 (solo arenoso) a 4671 +- 780 (solo argiloso). Amostras de solos argilosos coletadas a 80-90 cm, com menor teor de materia organica, tiveram valores de Koc maiores, enquanto em solo arenoso foram semelhantes. Valores de Kd, Koc e constantes da equacao e Freundlich encontrados para riboflavina sao comparaveis aqueles de uma gama de herbicidas puplicados na literatura, tornando riboflavina um modelo pratico e conveniente para o estudo de adsorptividade de herbicidas em solos