An 80 pc Long Massive Molecular Filament in the Galactic Mid-Plane

The ubiquity of filaments in star forming regions on a range of scales is clear, yet their role in the star formation process remains in question. We suggest that there are distinct classes of filaments which are responsible for their observed diversity in star-forming regions. An example of a massive molecular filament in the Galactic mid-plane formed at the intersection of UV-driven bubbles which displays a coherent velocity structure (< 4 km/s) over 80 pc is presented. We classify such sources as Massive Molecular Filaments (MMFs; M > 10^4 Msun, length > 10 pc, velocity gradient < 5 km/s) and suggest that MMFs are just one of the many different classes of filaments discussed in the literature today. Many MMFs are aligned with the Galactic Plane and may be akin to the dark dust lanes seen in Grand Design Spirals.Comment: To appear in proceedings of the 'Labyrinth of Star Formation' meeting (18-22 June 2012, Chania, Greece), published by Springe

Typical and extreme entropies of long-lived isolated quantum systems

In this paper, we investigate and compare two well-developed definitions of entropy relevant for describing the dynamics of isolated quantum systems: bipartite entanglement entropy and observational entropy. In a model system of interacting particles in a one-dimensional lattice, we numerically solve for the full quantum behavior of the system. We characterize the fluctuations, and find the maximal, minimal, and typical entropy of each type that the system can eventually attain through its evolution. While both entropies are low for some "special" configurations and high for more "generic" ones, there are several fundamental differences in their behavior. Observational entropy behaves in accord with classical Boltzmann entropy (e.g. equilibrium is a condition of near-maximal entropy and uniformly distributed particles, and minimal entropy is a very compact configuration). Entanglement entropy is rather different: minimal entropy "empties out" one partition while maximal entropy apportions the particles between the partitions, and neither is typical. Beyond these qualitative results, we characterize both entropies and their fluctuations in some detail as they depend on temperature, particle number, and box size.Comment: Additional comments are made in the caption of figure 10 (a). Equation 7 and a brief description are added in relation to figure

Synchronization of interconnected networks: the role of connector nodes

In this Letter we identify the general rules that determine the synchronization properties of interconnected networks. We study analytically, numerically and experimentally how the degree of the nodes through which two networks are connected influences the ability of the whole system to synchronize. We show that connecting the high-degree (low-degree) nodes of each network turns out to be the most (least) effective strategy to achieve synchronization. We find the functional relation between synchronizability and size for a given network-of-networks, and report the existence of the optimal connector link weights for the different interconnection strategies. Finally, we perform an electronic experiment with two coupled star networks and conclude that the analytical results are indeed valid in the presence of noise and parameter mismatches.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. Main text: 5 pages, 4 figures. Supplemental material: 8 pages, 3 figure

Spin Seebeck effect in Y-type hexagonal ferrite thin films

Spin Seebeck effect (SSE) has been investigated in thin films of two Y-hexagonal ferrites Ba$_2$Zn$_{2}$Fe$_{12}$O$_{22}$ (Zn2Y) and Ba$_2$Co$_{2}$Fe$_{12}$O$_{22}$ (Co2Y) deposited by a spin-coating method on SrTiO$_3$(111) substrate. The selected hexagonal ferrites are both ferrimagnetic with similar magnetic moments at room temperature and both exhibit easy magnetization plane normal to $c$-axis. Despite that, SSE signal was only observed for Zn2Y, whereas no significant SSE signal was detected for Co2Y. We tentatively explain this different behavior by a presence of two different magnetic ions in Co2Y, whose random distribution over octahedral sites interferes the long range ordering and enhances the Gilbert damping constant. The temperature dependence of SSE for Zn2Y was measured and analyzed with regard to the heat flux and temperature gradient relevant to the SSE signal.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

The missing metals problem. III How many metals are expelled from galaxies?

[Abridged] We revisit the metal budget at z~2. In the first two papers of this series, we already showed that ~30% (to <60% if extrapolating the LF) of the metals are observed in all z~2.5 galaxies detected in current surveys. Here, we extend our analysis to the metals outside galaxies, i.e. in intergalactic medium (IGM), using observational data and analytical calculations. Our results for the two are strikingly similar: (1) Observationally, we find that, besides the small (5%) contribution of DLAs, the forest and sub-DLAs contribute subtantially to make <30--45% of the metal budget, but neither of these appear to be sufficient to close the metal budget. The forest accounts for 15--30% depending on the UV background, and sub-DLAs for >2% to <17% depending on the ionization fraction. Together, the `missing metals' problem is substantially eased. (2) We perform analytical calculations based on the effective yield--mass relation. At z=2, we find that the method predicts that 2$--50% of the metals have been ejected from galaxies into the IGM, consistent with the observations. The metal ejection is predominantly by L<1/3L_B^*(z=2) galaxies, which are responsible for 90% the metal enrichment, while the 50 percentile is at L~1/10L^*_B(z=2). As a consequence, if indeed 50% of the metals have been ejected from galaxies, 3--5 bursts of star formation are required per galaxy prior to z=2. The ratio between the mass of metals outside galaxies to those in stars has changed from z=2 to z=0: it was 2:1 or 1:1 and is now 1:8 or 1:9. This evolution implies that a significant fraction of the IGM metals will cool and fall back into galaxies.Comment: 18pages, MNRAS, in press; small changes to match proofs; extended version with summary tabl

Testing Asteroseismic Radii of Dwarfs and Subgiants with Kepler and Gaia

We test asteroseismic radii of Kepler main-sequence and subgiant stars by deriving their parallaxes which are compared with those of the first Gaia data release. We compute radii based on the asteroseismic scaling relations as well as by fitting observed oscillation frequencies to stellar models for a subset of the sample, and test the impact of using effective temperatures from either spectroscopy or the infrared flux method. An offset of 3%, showing no dependency on any stellar parameters, is found between seismic parallaxes derived from frequency modelling and those from Gaia. For parallaxes based on radii from the scaling relations, a smaller offset is found on average; however, the offset becomes temperature dependent which we interpret as problems with the scaling relations at high stellar temperatures. Using the hotter infrared flux method temperature scale, there is no indication that radii from the scaling relations are inaccurate by more than about 5%. Taking the radii and masses from the modelling of individual frequencies as reference values, we seek to correct the scaling relations for the observed temperature trend. This analysis indicates that the scaling relations systematically overestimate radii and masses at high temperatures, and that they are accurate to within 5% in radius and 13% in mass for main-sequence stars with temperatures below 6400 K. However, further analysis is required to test the validity of the corrections on a star-by-star basis and for more evolved stars.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA