Gravitational Collapse and Neutrino Emission of Population III Massive Stars

Pop III stars are the first stars in the universe. They do not contain metals and their formation and evolution may be different from that of stars of later generations. In fact, according to the theory of star formation, Pop III stars might have very massive components ($\sim 100 - 10000M_\odot$). In this paper, we compute the spherically symmetric gravitational collapse of these Pop III massive stars. We solve the general relativistic hydrodynamics and neutrino transfer equations simultaneously, treating neutrino reactions in detail. Unlike supermassive stars ($\gtrsim 10^5 M_\odot$), the stars of concern in this paper become opaque to neutrinos. The collapse is simulated until after an apparent horizon is formed. We confirm that the neutrino transfer plays a crucial role in the dynamics of gravitational collapse, and find also that the $\beta$-equilibration leads to a somewhat unfamiliar evolution of electron fraction. Contrary to the naive expectation, the neutrino spectrum does not become harder for more massive stars. This is mainly because the neutrino cooling is more efficient and the outer core is more massive as the stellar mass increases. Here the outer core is the outer part of the iron core falling supersonically. We also evaluate the flux of relic neutrino from Pop III massive stars. As expected, the detection of these neutrinos is difficult for the currently operating detectors. However, if ever observed, the spectrum will enable us to obtain the information on the formation history of Pop III stars. We investigate 18 models covering the mass range of $300 - 10^4 M_\odot$, making this study the most detailed numerical exploration of spherical gravitational collapse of Pop III massive stars. This will also serve as an important foundation for multi-dimensional investigations.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figs, submitted to Ap

Probing the Equation of State of Nuclear Matter via Neutron Star Asteroseismology

We general relativistically calculate the frequency of fundamental torsional oscillations of neutron star crusts, where we focus on the crystalline properties obtained from macroscopic nuclear models in a way depending on the equation of state of nuclear matter. We find that the calculated frequency is sensitive to the density dependence of the symmetry energy, but almost independent of the incompressibility of symmetric nuclear matter. By identifying the lowest-frequency quasi-periodic oscillation in giant flares observed from soft gamma-ray repeaters as the fundamental torsional mode and allowing for the dependence of the calculated frequency on stellar models, we provide a lower limit of the density derivative of the symmetry energy as $L\simeq 50$ MeV.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Numerical Study on Stellar Core Collapse and Neutrino Emission: Probe into the Spherically Symmetric Black Hole Progenitors with 3 - 30Msun Iron Cores

The existence of various anomalous stars, such as the first stars in the universe or stars produced by stellar mergers, has been recently proposed. Some of these stars will result in black hole formation. In this study, we investigate iron core collapse and black hole formation systematically for the iron-core mass range of 3 - 30Msun, which has not been studied well so far. Models used here are mostly isentropic iron cores that may be produced in merged stars in the present universe but we also employ a model that is meant for a Population III star and is obtained by evolutionary calculation. We solve numerically the general relativistic hydrodynamics and neutrino transfer equations simultaneously, treating neutrino reactions in detail under spherical symmetry. As a result, we find that massive iron cores with ~10Msun unexpectedly produce a bounce owing to the thermal pressure of nucleons before black hole formation. The features of neutrino signals emitted from such massive iron cores differ in time evolution and spectrum from those of ordinary supernovae. Firstly, the neutronization burst is less remarkable or disappears completely for more massive models because the density is lower at the bounce. Secondly, the spectra of neutrinos, except the electron type, are softer owing to the electron-positron pair creation before the bounce. We also study the effects of the initial density profile, finding that the larger the initial density gradient is, the more steeply the neutronization burst declines. Further more, we suggest a way to probe into the black hole progenitors from the neutrino emission and estimate the event number for the currently operating neutrino detectors.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, accepted by Ap

Effects of Selective Logging Methods on Runoff Characteristics in Paired Small Headwater Catchment

AbstractReduction of vegetative cover by forest harvesting generally increases the average surface runoff volume and peak discharge for a given area of land. Forest harvesting in tropical Indonesian rainforest is managed using a selective logging system. The purpose of this study is to find the effect of controlled selective logging technique to reduce the hydrological effect on runoff. This study was conducted in three paired small headwater catchments in natural tropical rainforest area of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Catchment A was an undisturbed catchment for control. Catchment B and C were treated with reduce impact logging technique in selective logging activities. Controlled selective logging activities in the catchment B and C reduced canopy cover to 30% of natural cover. Discharging hydrograph response in the logged catchment produced higher peak discharge as consequences of high surface runoff. The runoff hydrograph parameter in the three catchments showed similar response to rainfall event, and the highest response of peak discharge was in the catchment B which had largest opened area. The average of direct runoff ratio in the catchment A, B and C were 31.35%; 46.12% and 44.83%, respectively. Implementation of reduce impact logging technique was effective to control the impact of logging on the runoff responses

Making Skeletal Muscle from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) proliferate in vitro for long periods without losing pluripotency and can be induced to differentiate into various cell types including skeletal muscle cells (SMCs). Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are generated from a preimplantation-stage embryo. Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are derived from somatic cells of both healthy donors and patients with muscle diseases of any age using reprogramming factors. Currently, there are two kinds of protocols to induce skeletal muscle from hPSCs. One type utilizes overexpression of a potent myogenic master regulator, MyoD, to directly induce skeletal muscle. Stepwise induction of skeletal muscle has also been reported by many research groups, but hiPSC-based cell therapy for muscular dystrophy is still experimental. On the other hand, hiPSCs derived from patients with muscle disease are widely used for disease modeling in vitro. Here, we review the recent literature on derivation of skeletal muscle from human pluripotent stem cells and discuss their application

Engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum as an endotoxin-free platform strain for lactate-based polyester production

The first biosynthetic system for lactate (LA)-based polyesters was previously created in recombinant Escherichia coli (Taguchi et al. 2008). Here, we have begun efforts to upgrade the prototype polymer production system to a practical stage by using metabolically engineered Gram-positive bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum as an endotoxin-free platform. We designed metabolic pathways in C. glutamicum to generate monomer substrates, lactyl-CoA (LA-CoA), and 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA (3HB-CoA), for the copolymerization catalyzed by the LA-polymerizing enzyme (LPE). LA-CoA was synthesized by D-lactate dehydrogenase and propionyl-CoA transferase, while 3HB-CoA was supplied by β-ketothiolase (PhaA) and NADPH-dependent acetoacetyl-CoA reductase (PhaB). The functional expression of these enzymes led to a production of P(LA-co-3HB) with high LA fractions (96.8 mol%). The omission of PhaA and PhaB from this pathway led to a further increase in LA fraction up to 99.3 mol%. The newly engineered C. glutamicum potentially serves as a food-grade and biomedically applicable platform for the production of poly(lactic acid)-like polyester

Virtual screening identifies a novel piperazine-based insect juvenile hormone agonist

Juvenile hormone (JH) agonists constitute a subclass of insect growth regulators and play important roles in insect pest management. In this work, a multi-step virtual screening program was executed to find novel JH agonists. A database of 5 million purchasable compounds was sequentially processed with three computational filters: (i) shape and chemical similarity as compared to known JH-active compounds; (ii) molecular docking simulations against a Drosophila JH receptor, methoprene-tolerant; and (iii) free energy calculation of ligand–receptor binding using a modified MM/PBSA (molecular mechanics/Poisson–Boltzmann surface area) protocol. The 11 candidates that passed the three filters were evaluated in a luciferase reporter assay, leading to the identification of a hit compound that contains a piperazine ring system (EC₅₀=870 nM). This compound is structurally dissimilar to known JH agonists and synthetically easy to access; therefore, it is a promising starting point for further structure optimization

Observing Supernova Neutrino Light Curves with Super-Kamiokande. III. Extraction of Mass and Radius of Neutron Stars from Synthetic Data

Neutrinos are guaranteed to be observable from the next Galactic supernova (SN). Optical light and gravitational waves are also observable, but may be difficult to observe if the location of the SN in the Galaxy or the details of the explosion are unsuitable. The key to observing the next SN is to first use neutrinos to understand various physical quantities and then link them to other signals. In this paper, we present Monte Carlo sampling calculations of neutrino events from Galactic SN explosions observed with Super-Kamiokande. The analytical solution of neutrino emission, which represents the long-term evolution of the neutrino light curve from SNe, is used as a theoretical template. It gives the event rate and event spectrum through inverse beta decay interactions with explicit model parameter dependence. Parameter estimation is performed on these simulated sample data by fitting least squares using the analytical solution. The results show that the mass, radius, and total energy of a remnant neutron star produced by an SN can be determined with an accuracy of ∼ 0.1 M⊙, ∼1 km, and ∼ 10⁵¹ erg, respectively, for a Galactic SN at 8 kpc