2,224 research outputs found
Forbidden Line Emission in the Eccentric Spectroscopic Binaries DQ Tauri and UZ Tauri E Monitored over an Orbital Period
We present echelle spectroscopy of the close pre-main-sequence binary star
systems DQ Tau and UZ Tau-E. Over a 16 day time interval we acquired 14 nights
of spectra for DQ Tau and 12 nights of spectra for UZ Tau-E. This represents
the entire phase of DQ Tau, and 63 percent of the phase of UZ Tau-E. As
expected, photospheric lines such as Li I 6707 clearly split into two
components as the primary and secondary orbit one another, as did the permitted
line He I 5876. Unlike the photospheric features, the forbidden lines of [O I]
6300 and [O I] 5577, retain the same shape throughout the orbit. Therefore
these lines must originate outside of the immediate vicinity of the two stars
and any circumstellar disks that participate in the orbital motion of the
stars.Comment: 14 pages including 6 figures, aastex preprint, accepted to
Astronomical Journa
A Survey of Irradiated Pillars, Globules, and Jets in the Carina Nebul
We present wide-field, deep narrowband H, Br, H, [S II],
[O III], and broadband I and K-band images of the Carina star formation region.
The new images provide a large-scale overview of all the H and Br
emission present in over a square degree centered on this signature star
forming complex. By comparing these images with archival HST and Spitzer images
we observe how intense UV radiation from O and B stars affects star formation
in molecular clouds. We use the images to locate new candidate outflows and
identify the principal shock waves and irradiated interfaces within dozens of
distinct areas of star-forming activity. Shocked molecular gas in jets traces
the parts of the flow that are most shielded from the intense UV radiation.
Combining the H and optical images gives a more complete view of the jets,
which are sometimes only visible in H. The Carina region hosts several
compact young clusters, and the gas within these clusters is affected by
radiation from both the cluster stars and the massive stars nearby. The Carina
Nebula is ideal for studying the physics of young H II regions and PDR's, as it
contains multiple examples of walls and irradiated pillars at various stages of
development. Some of the pillars have detached from their host molecular clouds
to form proplyds. Fluorescent H outlines the interfaces between the ionized
and molecular gas, and after removing continuum, we detect spatial offsets
between the Br and H emission along the irradiated interfaces.
These spatial offsets can be used to test current models of PDRs once synthetic
maps of these lines become available.Comment: Accepted in the Astronomical Journa
Suppression of SIV-specific CD4+ T cells by infant but not adult macaque regulatory T cells: implications for SIV disease progression.
The impact of regulatory T cells (T reg cells) on the course of HIV and SIV disease is unknown. T reg cells could suppress protective antiviral responses and accelerate disease progression. Alternatively, these cells might block T cell activation and thereby limit viral replication as well as activation-associated immunopathology. Given the higher frequency of T reg cells known to be present during human fetal ontogeny, such influences may be most important in the context of perinatal infection. We found that infant macaques had higher fractions of CD4(+)CD25(+)CD127(low)FoxP3(+) T reg cells in the peripheral blood and in lymphoid tissues, and that these T reg cells showed greater in vitro suppressive activity on a per cell basis. Infant and adult macaques were infected with SIVmac251 to test the influence of the T reg cell compartment on SIV-specific immune responses. After infection with SIV, most (three out of four) infant macaques had persistently high viral loads, weak and transient SIV-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell responses, and rapid disease progression. T reg cells in the infant but not in the adult directly suppressed SIV-specific CD4(+) T cell responses, which were detectable only after depletion of T reg cells. In the case of both the infant and the adult macaque, T reg cells were not able to directly suppress SIV-specific CD8(+) T cell responses and had no apparent effect on T cell activation. In aggregate, these observations suggest that the T reg cell compartment of the infant macaque facilitates rapid disease progression, at least in part by incapacitating SIV-specific CD4(+) T cell responses
Laboratory Experiments, Numerical Simulations, and Astronomical Observations of Deflected Supersonic Jets: Application to HH 110
Collimated supersonic flows in laboratory experiments behave in a similar
manner to astrophysical jets provided that radiation, viscosity, and thermal
conductivity are unimportant in the laboratory jets, and that the experimental
and astrophysical jets share similar dimensionless parameters such as the Mach
number and the ratio of the density between the jet and the ambient medium.
Laboratory jets can be studied for a variety of initial conditions, arbitrary
viewing angles, and different times, attributes especially helpful for
interpreting astronomical images where the viewing angle and initial conditions
are fixed and the time domain is limited. Experiments are also a powerful way
to test numerical fluid codes in a parameter range where the codes must perform
well. In this paper we combine images from a series of laboratory experiments
of deflected supersonic jets with numerical simulations and new spectral
observations of an astrophysical example, the young stellar jet HH 110. The
experiments provide key insights into how deflected jets evolve in 3-D,
particularly within working surfaces where multiple subsonic shells and
filaments form, and along the interface where shocked jet material penetrates
into and destroys the obstacle along its path. The experiments also underscore
the importance of the viewing angle in determining what an observer will see.
The simulations match the experiments so well that we can use the simulated
velocity maps to compare the dynamics in the experiment with those implied by
the astronomical spectra. The experiments support a model where the observed
shock structures in HH 110 form as a result of a pulsed driving source rather
than from weak shocks that may arise in the supersonic shear layer between the
Mach disk and bow shock of the jet's working surface.Comment: Full resolution figures available at
http://sparky.rice.edu/~hartigan/pub.html To appear in Ap
Chandra observation of Cepheus A: The diffuse emission of HH 168 resolved
X-ray emission from massive stellar outflows has been detected in several
cases. We present a Chandra observation of HH 168 and show that the soft X-ray
emission from a plasma of 0.55 keV within HH 168 is diffuse. The X-ray emission
is observed on two different scales: Three individual, yet extended, regions
are embedded within a complex of low X-ray surface brightness. Compared to the
bow shock the emission is displaced against the outflow direction. We show that
there is no significant contribution from young stellar objects (YSOs) and
discuss several shock scenarios that can produce the observed signatures. We
establish that the X-ray emission of HH 168 is excited by internal shocks in
contrast to simple models, which expect the bow shock to be the most X-ray
luminous.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&
On the structure and stability of magnetic tower jets
Modern theoretical models of astrophysical jets combine accretion, rotation,
and magnetic fields to launch and collimate supersonic flows from a central
source. Near the source, magnetic field strengths must be large enough to
collimate the jet requiring that the Poynting flux exceeds the kinetic-energy
flux. The extent to which the Poynting flux dominates kinetic energy flux at
large distances from the engine distinguishes two classes of models. In
magneto-centrifugal launch (MCL) models, magnetic fields dominate only at
scales engine radii, after which the jets become
hydrodynamically dominated (HD). By contrast, in Poynting flux dominated (PFD)
magnetic tower models, the field dominates even out to much larger scales. To
compare the large distance propagation differences of these two paradigms, we
perform 3-D ideal MHD AMR simulations of both HD and PFD stellar jets formed
via the same energy flux. We also compare how thermal energy losses and
rotation of the jet base affects the stability in these jets. For the
conditions described, we show that PFD and HD exhibit observationally
distinguishable features: PFD jets are lighter, slower, and less stable than HD
jets. Unlike HD jets, PFD jets develop current-driven instabilities that are
exacerbated as cooling and rotation increase, resulting in jets that are
clumpier than those in the HD limit. Our PFD jet simulations also resemble the
magnetic towers that have been recently created in laboratory astrophysical jet
experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, published in ApJ: ApJ, 757, 6
Herbig-Haro flows in B335
We have observed optical (Halpha and [SII]) and near-IR (S(1) line of H2)
deep fields and taken optical spectra using the 2.56m NOT, as well as a near-UV
deep field (U band) using the 3.58m NTT. In addition we present new SPITZER
(IRAC and MIPS) mid-IR observations. We use previous Halpha and S(1)
observations taken 15 and 9 years earlier to make proper motion maps. We then
investigate the shock physics by matching our spectra with planar shock models.
We discover six new HH objects in B335. From proper motions we find an
optically bright, roughly E-W oriented group with high space velocities
(200-280 km/s) and a near-IR bright, slower group (15-75 km/s) moving to the
ESE. We also find a system of at least 15 H2 knots in the western lobe. This
(WNW) counterflow suggests the possibility of a binary outflow source, giving
rise to two outflow axes with slightly different orientations. We find that the
E-W flow is symmetrical with evidence for two outbursts. We make the first
detection of [OI] 6300/63 in HH119 B and Hbeta in HH119 A and B and find their
extinctions to be AV~1.4 and 4.4, respectively. HH119 A is found to expand much
faster than expected from linear expansion with distance from the outflow
source. Using planar shock models we find shock velocities of ~60 km/s (A) and
~35 km/s (B and C). This agrees with A being of higher excitation than B and C.
In our U image we detect three of the HH objects and propose that the emission
arise from the [OII] 3728 line and the blue continuum. New SPITZER observations
show most of the HH objects at 4.5 micron and a E-W elongated hour-glass shaped
structure at the outflow source. Even at 24 micron it is not clear whether most
of the light is direct or reflected.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, accepted in A&
Astrophysical jets: observations, numerical simulations, and laboratory experiments
This paper provides summaries of ten talks on astrophysical jets given at the HEDP/HEDLA-08 International Conference in St. Louis. The talks are topically divided into the areas of observation, numerical modeling, and laboratory experiment. One essential feature of jets, namely, their filamentary (i.e., collimated) nature, can be reproduced in both numerical models and laboratory experiments. Another essential feature of jets, their scalability, is evident from the large number of astrophysical situations where jets occur. This scalability is the reason why laboratory experiments simulating jets are possible and why the same theoretical models can be used for both observed astrophysical jets and laboratory simulations
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