11,873 research outputs found
Thermal and Fragmentation Properties of Star-forming Clouds in Low-metallicity Environments
The thermal and chemical evolution of star-forming clouds is studied for
different gas metallicities, Z, using the model of Omukai (2000), updated to
include deuterium chemistry and the effects of cosmic microwave background
(CMB) radiation. HD-line cooling dominates the thermal balance of clouds when Z
\~ 10^{-5}-10^{-3} Z_sun and density ~10^{5} cm^{-3}. Early on, CMB radiation
prevents the gas temperature to fall below T_CMB, although this hardly alters
the cloud thermal evolution in low-metallicity gas. From the derived
temperature evolution, we assess cloud/core fragmentation as a function of
metallicity from linear perturbation theory, which requires that the core
elongation E := (b-a)/a > E_NL ~ 1, where a (b) is the short (long) core axis
length. The fragment mass is given by the thermal Jeans mass at E = E_NL. Given
these assumptions and the initial (gaussian) distribution of E we compute the
fragment mass distribution as a function of metallicity. We find that: (i) For
Z=0, all fragments are very massive, > 10^{3}M_sun, consistently with previous
studies; (ii) for Z>10^{-6} Z_sun a few clumps go through an additional high
density (> 10^{10} cm^{-3}) fragmentation phase driven by dust-cooling, leading
to low-mass fragments; (iii) The mass fraction in low-mass fragments is
initially very small, but at Z ~ 10^{-5}Z_sun it becomes dominant and continues
to grow as Z is increased; (iv) as a result of the two fragmentation modes, a
bimodal mass distribution emerges in 0.01 0.1Z_sun,
the two peaks merge into a singly-peaked mass function which might be regarded
as the precursor of the ordinary Salpeter-like IMF.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figures, ApJ in pres
Quiescent Cores and the Efficiency of Turbulence-Accelerated, Magnetically Regulated Star Formation
The efficiency of star formation, defined as the ratio of the stellar to
total (gas and stellar) mass, is observed to vary from a few percent in regions
of dispersed star formation to about a third in cluster-forming cores. This
difference may reflect the relative importance of magnetic fields and
turbulence in controlling star formation. We investigate the interplay between
supersonic turbulence and magnetic fields using numerical simulations, in a
sheet-like geometry. We demonstrate that star formation with an efficiency of a
few percent can occur over several gravitational collapse times in moderately
magnetically subcritical clouds that are supersonically turbulent. The
turbulence accelerates star formation by reducing the time for dense core
formation. The dense cores produced are predominantly quiescent, with subsonic
internal motions. These cores tend to be moderately supercritical. They have
lifetimes long compared with their local gravitational collapse time. Some of
the cores collapse to form stars, while others disperse away without star
formation. In turbulent clouds that are marginally magnetically supercritical,
the star formation efficiency is higher, but can still be consistent with the
values inferred for nearby embedded clusters. If not regulated by magnetic
fields at all, star formation in a multi-Jeans mass cloud endowed with a strong
initial turbulence proceeds rapidly, with the majority of cloud mass converted
into stars in a gravitational collapse time. The efficiency is formally higher
than the values inferred for nearby cluster-forming cores, indicating that
magnetic fields are dynamically important even for cluster formation.Comment: submitted to Ap
New Regime of MHD Turbulence: Cascade Below Viscous Cutoff
In astrophysical situations, e.g. in the interstellar medium (ISM), neutrals
can provide viscous damping on scales much larger than the magnetic diffusion
scale. Through numerical simulations, we have found that the magnetic field can
have a rich structure below the dissipation cutoff scale. This implies that
magnetic fields in the ISM can have structures on scales much smaller than
parsec scales. Our results show that the magnetic energy contained in a
wavenumber band is independent of the wavenumber and magnetic structures are
intermittent and extremely anisotropic. We discuss the relation between our
results and the formation of the tiny-scale atomic structure (TSAS).Comment: ApJ Letters, accepted (Feb. 10, 2002; ApJ, 566, L...); 10 pages, 3
figure
CLEF 2017 NewsREEL Overview: Offline and Online Evaluation of Stream-based News Recommender Systems
The CLEF NewsREEL challenge allows researchers to evaluate news
recommendation algorithms both online (NewsREEL Live) and offline (News-
REEL Replay). Compared with the previous year NewsREEL challenged participants
with a higher volume of messages and new news portals. In the 2017
edition of the CLEF NewsREEL challenge a wide variety of new approaches have
been implemented ranging from the use of existing machine learning frameworks,
to ensemble methods to the use of deep neural networks. This paper gives an
overview over the implemented approaches and discusses the evaluation results.
In addition, the main results of Living Lab and the Replay task are explained
Dust-cooling--induced Fragmentation of Low-metallicity Clouds
Dynamical collapse and fragmentation of low-metallicity cloud cores is
studied using three-dimensional hydrodynamical calculations, with particular
attention devoted whether the cores fragment in the dust-cooling phase or not.
The cores become elongated in this phase, being unstable to non-spherical
perturbation due to the sudden temperature decrease. In the metallicity range
of 10^{-6}-10^{-5}Z_sun, cores with an initial axis ratio >2 reach a critical
value of the axis ratio (>30) and fragment into multiple small clumps. This
provides a possible mechanism to produce low-mass stars in ultra-metal-poor
environments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, ApJ Letters in pres
Prospects for observing ultra-compact binaries with space-based gravitational wave interferometers and optical telescopes
Space-based gravitational wave interferometers are sensitive to the galactic
population of ultra-compact binaries. An important subset of the ultra-compact
binary population are those stars that can be individually resolved by both
gravitational wave interferometers and electromagnetic telescopes. The aim of
this paper is to quantify the multi-messenger potential of space-based
interferometers with arm-lengths between 1 and 5 Gm. The Fisher Information
Matrix is used to estimate the number of binaries from a model of the Milky Way
which are localized on the sky by the gravitational wave detector to within 1
and 10 square degrees and bright enough to be detected by a magnitude limited
survey. We find, depending on the choice of GW detector characteristics,
limiting magnitude, and observing strategy, that up to several hundred
gravitational wave sources could be detected in electromagnetic follow-up
observations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures Updated to include new results. Submitted to MNRA
Statistics of Velocity from Spectral Data: Modified Velocity Centroids
We address the problem of studying interstellar turbulence using spectral
line data. We find a criterion when the velocity centroids may provide
trustworthy velocity statistics. To enhance the scope of centroids
applications, we construct a measure that we term ``modified velocity
centroids'' (MVCs) and derive an analytical solution that relates the 2D
spectra of the modified centroids with the underlying 3D velocity spectrum. We
test our results using synthetic maps constructed with data obtained through
simulations of compressible magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) turbulence. We show
that the modified velocity centroids (MVCs) are complementary to the the
Velocity Channel Analysis (VCA) technique. Employed together, they make
determining of the velocity spectral index more reliable and for wider variety
of astrophysical situations.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. minor
change
On the rotating wave approximation in the adiabatic limit
I revisit a longstanding question in quantum optics; When is the rotating
wave approximation justified? In terms of the Jaynes-Cummings and Rabi models I
demonstrate that the approximation in general breaks down in the adiabatic
limit regardless of system parameters. This is explicitly shown by comparing
Berry phases of the two models, where it is found that this geometrical phase
is strictly zero in the Rabi model contrary to the non-trivial Berry phase of
the Jaynes-Cummings model. The source of this surprising result is traced back
to different topologies in the two models.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Ambipolar Drift Heating in Turbulent Molecular Clouds
Although thermal pressure is unimportant dynamically in most molecular gas,
the temperature is an important diagnostic of dynamical processes and physical
conditions. This is the first of two papers on thermal equilibrium in molecular
clouds. We present calculations of frictional heating by ion-neutral (or
ambipolar) drift in three-dimensional simulations of turbulent, magnetized
molecular clouds.
We show that ambipolar drift heating is a strong function of position in a
turbulent cloud, and its average value can be significantly larger than the
average cosmic ray heating rate. The volume averaged heating rate per unit
volume due to ambipolar drift, H_AD ~ |JxB|^2 ~ B^4/L_B^2, is found to depend
on the rms Alfvenic Mach number, M_A, and on the average field strength, as
H_AD ~ M_A^2^4. This implies that the typical scale of variation of the
magnetic field, L_B, is inversely proportional to M_A, which we also
demonstrate.Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures include
Development of a coaxial plasma gun for space propulsion final report
Current sheet accelerators and pulsed plasma thrustors for spacecraft propulsio
- …