87 research outputs found
Monitoring Observations of the Jupiter-Family Comet 17P/Holmes during 2014 Perihelion Passage
We performed a monitoring observation of a Jupiter-Family comet, 17P/Holmes,
during its 2014 perihelion passage to investigate its secular change in
activity. The comet has drawn the attention of astronomers since its historic
outburst in 2007, and this occasion was its first perihelion passage since
then. We analyzed the obtained data using aperture photometry package and
derived the Afrho parameter, a proxy for the dust production rate. We found
that Afrho showed asymmetric properties with respect to the perihelion passage:
it increased moderately from 100 cm at the heliocentric distance r_h=2.6-3.1 AU
to a maximal value of 185 cm at r_h = 2.2 AU (near the perihelion) during the
inbound orbit, while dropping rapidly to 35 cm at r_h = 3.2 AU during the
outbound orbit. We applied a model for characterizing dust production rates as
a function of r_h and found that the fractional active area of the cometary
nucleus had dropped from 20%-40% in 2008-2011 (around the aphelion) to
0.1%-0.3% in 2014-2015 (around the perihelion). This result suggests that a
dust mantle would have developed rapidly in only one orbital revolution around
the sun. Although a minor eruption was observed on UT 2015 January 26 at r_h =
3.0 AU, the areas excavated by the 2007 outburst would be covered with a layer
of dust (<~ 10 cm depth) which would be enough to insulate the subsurface ice
and to keep the nucleus in a state of low activity.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, ApJ accepted on December 29, 201
Dust from Comet 209P/LINEAR during its 2014 Return: Parent Body of a New Meteor Shower, the May Camelopardalids
We report a new observation of the Jupiter-family comet 209P/LINEAR during
its 2014 return. The comet is recognized as a dust source of a new meteor
shower, the May Camelopardalids. 209P/LINEAR was apparently inactive at a
heliocentric distance rh = 1.6 au and showed weak activity at rh < 1.4 au. We
found an active region of <0.001% of the entire nuclear surface during the
comet's dormant phase. An edge-on image suggests that particles up to 1 cm in
size (with an uncertainty of factor 3-5) were ejected following a differential
power-law size distribution with index q=-3.25+-0.10. We derived a mass loss
rate of 2-10 kg/s during the active phase and a total mass of ~5x10^7 kg during
the 2014 return. The ejection terminal velocity of millimeter- to
centimeter-sized particles was 1-4 m/s, which is comparable to the escape
velocity from the nucleus (1.4 m/s). These results imply that such large
meteoric particles marginally escaped from the highly dormant comet nucleus via
the gas drag force only within a few months of the perihelion passage.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, accepted on 2014 December 11 for publication in
the Astrophysical Journal Letter
The Japanese space gravitational wave antenna; DECIGO
DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future
Japanese space gravitational wave antenna. DECIGO is expected to open a new window of
observation for gravitational wave astronomy especially between 0.1 Hz and 10 Hz, revealing
various mysteries of the universe such as dark energy, formation mechanism of supermassive
black holes, and inflation of the universe. The pre-conceptual design of DECIGO consists of
three drag-free spacecraft, whose relative displacements are measured by a differential Fabry–
Perot Michelson interferometer. We plan to launch two missions, DECIGO pathfinder and pre-
DECIGO first and finally DECIGO in 2024
Unexpected mass acquisition of Dirac fermions at the quantum phase transition of a topological insulator
The three-dimensional (3D) topological insulator is a novel quantum state of
matter where an insulating bulk hosts a linearly-dispersing surface state,
which can be viewed as a sea of massless Dirac fermions protected by the
time-reversal symmetry (TRS). Breaking the TRS by a magnetic order leads to the
opening of a gap in the surface state and consequently the Dirac fermions
become massive. It has been proposed theoretically that such a mass acquisition
is necessary for realizing novel topological phenomena, but achieving a
sufficiently large mass is an experimental challenge. Here we report an
unexpected discovery that the surface Dirac fermions in a solid-solution system
TlBi(S1-xSex)2 acquires a mass without explicitly breaking the TRS. We found
that this system goes through a quantum phase transition from the topological
to the non-topological phase, and by tracing the evolution of the electronic
states using the angle-resolved photoemission, we observed that the massless
Dirac state in TlBiSe2 switches to a massive state before it disappears in the
non-topological phase. This result suggests the existence of a condensed-matter
version of the "Higgs mechanism" where particles acquire a mass through
spontaneous symmetry breaking.Comment: Main Manuscript: 16 pages, 3 figures; Supplementary Information: 8
pages, 8 figure
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