646 research outputs found
Star formation activity in the Galactic H II region Sh2-297
We present a multiwavelength study of the Galactic H II region Sh2-297,
located in Canis Major OB1 complex. Optical spectroscopic observations are used
to constrain the spectral type of ionizing star HD 53623 as B0V. The classical
nature of this H II region is affirmed by the low values of electron density
and emission measure, which are calculated to be 756 cm^-3 and 9.15 x 10^5
cm^-6 pc using the radio continuum observations at 610 and 1280 MHz, and VLA
archival data at 1420 MHz. To understand local star formation, we identified
the young stellar object (YSO) candidates in a region of area ~ 7.5' x 7.5'
centered on Sh2-297 using grism slitless spectroscopy (to identify the Halpha
emission line stars), and near infrared (NIR) observations. NIR YSO candidates
are further classified into various evolutionary stages using color-color (CC)
and color-magnitude (CM) diagrams, giving 50 red sources (H-K > 0.6) and 26
Class II-like sources. The mass and age range of the YSOs are estimated to be ~
0.1 - 2 Msolar and 0.5 - 2 Myr using optical (V/V-I) and NIR (J/J-H) CM
diagrams. The mean age of the YSOs is found to be ~ 1 Myr, which is of the
order of dynamical age of 1.07 Myr of the H II region. Using the estimated
range of visual extinction (1.1 - 25 mag) from literature and NIR data for the
region, spectral energy distribution (SED) models have been implemented for
selected YSOs which show masses and ages to be consistent with estimated
values. The spatial distribution of YSOs shows an evolutionary sequence,
suggesting triggered star formation in the region. The star formation seems to
have propagated from the ionizing star towards the cold dark cloud LDN1657A
located west of Sh2-297.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journa
Exploring Foundations of Time-Independent Density Functional Theory for Excited-States
Based on the work of Gorling and that of Levy and Nagy, density-functional
formalism for many Fermionic excited-states is explored through a careful and
rigorous analysis of the excited-state density to external potential mapping.
It is shown that the knowledge of the ground-state density is a must to fix the
mapping from an excited-state density to the external potential. This is the
excited-state counterpart of the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem, where instead of the
ground-state density the density of the excited-state gives the true many-body
wavefunctions of the system. Further, the excited-state Kohn-Sham system is
defined by comparing it's non-interacting kinetic energy with the true kinetic
energy. The theory is demonstrated by studying a large number of atomic
systems.Comment: submitted to J. Chem. Phy
Deep optical survey of the stellar content of Sh2-311 region
The stellar content in and around Sh2-311 region have been studied using the
deep optical observations as well as near-infrared (NIR) data from 2MASS. The
region contains three clusters, viz. NGC 2467, Haffner 18 and Haffner 19. We
have made an attempt to distinguish the stellar content of these individual
regions as well as to re-determine their fundamental parameters such as
distance, reddening, age, onto the basis of a new and more extended optical and
infrared photometric data set. NGC 2467 and Haffner 19 are found to be located
in the Perseus arm at the distances of 5.0 0.4 kpc and 5.7 0.4 kpc,
respectively, whereas Haffner 18 is located at the distance of 11.2 1.0
kpc. The clusters NGC 2467 and Haffner 19 might have formed from the same
molecular cloud, whereas the cluster Haffner 18 is located in the outer
galactic arm, i.e. the Norma-Cygnus arm. We identify 8 class II young stellar
objects (YSOs) using the NIR two colour diagram. We have
estimated the age and mass of the YSOs identified in the present work and those
by Snider et al. (2009) using the colour-magnitude diagram. The
estimated ages and mass range of the majority of the YSOs are 1 Myr
and 0.4 - 3.5 \msun, respectively, indicating that these sources could be
T-Tauri stars or their siblings. Spatial distribution of the YSOs shows that
some of the YSOs are distributed around the H II region Sh2-311, suggesting a
triggered star formation at its periphery.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, 9 table; Accepted for publication in New
Astronom
Young Stellar Population of the Bright-Rimmed Clouds BRC 5, BRC 7 and BRC 39
Bright-rimmed clouds (BRCs), illuminated and shaped by nearby OB stars, are
potential sites of recent/ongoing star formation. Here we present an optical
and infrared photometric study of three BRCs: BRC 5, BRC 7 and BRC 39 to obtain
a census of the young stellar population, thereby inferring the star formation
scenario, in these regions. In each BRC, the Class I sources are found to be
located mostly near the bright rim or inside the cloud, whereas the Class II
sources are preferentially outside, with younger sources closer to the rim.
This provides strong support to sequential star formation triggered by
radiation driven implosion due to the UV radiation. Moreover, each BRC contains
a small group of young stars being revealed at its head, as the next-generation
stars. In particular, the young stars at the heads of BRC 5 and BRC 7 are found
to be intermediate/high mass stars, which, under proper conditions, may
themselves trigger further star birth, thereby propagating star formation out
to long distances.Comment: 30 pages, 7 Figures, 6 Tables, accepted for publication in Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ
Optical and Near-infrared survey of the stellar contents associated with the star-forming Complex Sh2-252
We present the analyses of the stellar contents associated with the HII
region Sh2-252 using UBVRI photometry, slit and slitless spectroscopy along
with the NIR data from 2MASS for an area ~1 degree x 1 degree. We studied the
sub-regions of Sh2-252 which includes four compact-HII (CHII) regions, namely
A, B, C and E and two clusters NGC 2175s and Teutsch 136 (Teu 136). Of the
fifteen spectroscopically observed bright stars, eight have been identified as
massive members of spectral class earlier than B3. From the spectro-photometric
analyses, we derived the average distance of the region as 2.4+/-0.2 kpc and
the reddening of the massive members is found to vary between 0.35 to 2.1 mag.
We found that NGC 2175s and Teu 136, located towards the eastern edge of the
complex are the sub-clusters of Sh2-252. The stellar surface density
distribution in K-band shows clustering associated with the regions A, C, E,
NGC 2175s and Teu 136. We have also identified the candidate ionizing sources
of the CHII regions. 61 H_alpha emission sources are identified using slitless
spectroscopy. The distribution of the H_alpha emission sources and candidate
YSOs with IR excess on the V/(V-I) CMD shows that a majority of them have
approximate ages between 0.1 - 5 Myr and masses in the range of 0.3 - 2.5
M_sun. The CMDs of the candidate YSOs in the individual regions also show an
age spread of 0.1 - 5 Myr for each of them. We calculated the KLFs for the
sub-regions A, C, E, NGC 2175s and Teu 136. Within errors, the KLFs for all the
sub-regions are found to be similar and comparable to that of young clusters of
age < 5 Myr. We also estimated the mass functions (MFs) of the PMS sample of
the individual regions in the mass range of 0.3 - 2.5 M_sun. In general, the
slopes of the MFs of all the sub-regions are found comparable to the Salpeter
value.Comment: published in MNRA
Young stellar population and ongoing star formation in the HII complex Sh2-252
In this paper an extensive survey of the star forming complex Sh2-252 has
been undertaken with an aim to explore its hidden young stellar population as
well as to understand the structure and star formation history. This complex is
composed of five embedded clusters associated with the sub-regions A, C, E, NGC
2175s and Teu 136. Using 2MASS-NIR and Spitzer-IRAC, MIPS photometry we
identified 577 young stellar objects (YSOs), of which, 163 are Class I, 400 are
Class II and 14 are transition disk YSOs. Spatial distribution of the candidate
YSOs shows that they are mostly clustered around the sub-regions in the western
half of the complex, suggesting enhanced star formation activity towards its
west. Using the spectral energy distribution and optical colour-magnitude
diagram based age analyses, we derived probable evolutionary status of the
sub-regions of Sh2-252. Our analysis shows that the region A is the youngest (~
0.5 Myr), the regions B, C and E are of similar evolutionary stage (~ 1-2 Myr)
and the clusters NGC 2175s and Teu 136 are slightly evolved (~ 2-3 Myr).
Morphology of the region in the 1.1 mm map shows a semi-circular shaped
molecular shell composed of several clumps and YSOs bordering the western
ionization front of Sh2-252. Our analyses suggest that next generation star
formation is currently under way along this border and that possibly
fragmentation of the matter collected during the expansion of the HII region as
one of the major processes responsible for such stars. We observed the densest
concentration of YSOs (mostly Class I, ~ 0.5 Myr) at the western outskirts of
the complex, within a molecular clump associated with water and methanol masers
and we suggest that it is indeed a site of cluster formation at a very early
evolutionary stage, sandwiched between the two relatively evolved CHII regions
A and B.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
Pre-main-sequence population in NGC 1893 region: X-ray properties
Continuing the attempt to understand the properties of the stellar content in
the young cluster NGC 1893 we have carried out a comprehensive multi-wavelength
study of the region. The present study focuses on the X-ray properties of
T-Tauri Stars (TTSs) in the NGC 1893 region. We found a correlation between the
X-ray luminosity, , and the stellar mass (in the range 0.22.0 \msun) of
TTSs in the NGC 1893 region, similar to those reported in some other young
clusters, however the value of the power-law slope obtained in the present
study ( 0.9) for NGC 1893 is smaller than those (1.4 - 3.6)
reported in the case of TMC, ONC, IC 348 and Chameleon star forming regions.
However, the slope in the case of Class III sources (Weak line TTSs) is found
to be comparable to that reported in the case of NGC 6611 ( 1.1). It is
found that the presence of circumstellar disks has no influence on the X-ray
emission. The X-ray luminosity for both CTTSs and WTTSs is found to decrease
systematically with age (in the range 0.4 Myr - 5 Myr). The decrease of
the X-ray luminosity of TTSs (slope -0.6) in the case of NGC 1893 seems
to be faster than observed in the case of other star-forming regions (slope
-0.2 to -0.5). There is indication that the sources having relatively large NIR
excess have relatively lower values. TTSs in NGC 1893 do not follow the
well established X-ray activity - rotation relation as in the case of
main-sequence stars.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in New Astronom
Optical limiting properties of Te and Ag<SUB>2</SUB>Te nanowires
We have prepared tellurium (Te) and silver telluride (Ag2Te) nanowires in solution and investigated their nonlinear optical transmission by the open-aperture z-scan technique, using nanosecond laser pulses, at the excitation wavelengths of 532 and 1064 nm. The nonlinearity has contributions from absorption saturation, excited state absorption and nonlinear scattering processes. The saturation intensity and nonlinear absorption coefficient are calculated numerically. Nonlinear absorption in Ag2Te nanowires is found to be one order of magnitude higher than that in Te nanowires. Observation of optical limiting at both excitation wavelengths indicates the potential of these materials to be used as broadband optical limiters
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