A Structural Comparison of Ordered and Non-Ordered Ion Doped Silicate Bioactive Glasses

One of the key benefits of sol-gel-derived glasses is the presence of a mesoporous structure and the resulting increase in surface area. This enhancement in textural properties has a significant e ect on the physicochemical properties of the materials. In this context the aim of this study was to investigate how sol-gel synthesis parameters can influence the textural and structural properties of mesoporous silicate glasses. We report the synthesis and characterization of metal ion doped sol-gel derived glasses with di erent dopants in the presence or absence of a surfactant (Pluronic P123) used as structure-directing templating agent. Characterization was done by several methods. Using a structure directing agent led to larger surface areas and highly ordered mesoporous structures. The chemical structure of the non-ordered glasses was modified to a larger extent than the one of the ordered glasses due to increased incorporation of dopant ions into the glass network. The results will help to further understand how the properties of sol-gel glasses can be controlled by incorporation of metal dopants, in conjunction with control over the textural properties, and will be important to optimize the properties of sol-gel glasses for specific applications, e.g., drug delivery, bone regeneration, wound healing, and antibacterial materials.European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 643050, project “HyMedPoly

Cosmic magnetic fields and dark energy in extended electromagnetism

We discuss an extended version of electromagnetism in which the usual gauge fixing term is promoted into a physical contribution that introduces a new scalar state in the theory. This new state can be generated from vacuum quantum fluctuations during an inflationary era and, on super-Hubble scales, gives rise to an effective cosmological constant. The value of such a cosmological constant coincides with the one inferred from observations as long as inflation took place at the electroweak scale. On the other hand, the new state also generates an effective electric charge density on sub-Hubble scales that produces both vorticity and magnetic fields with coherent lengths as large as the present Hubble horizon.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of Spanish Relativity Meeting 2010, Granada, Spain, 6-10 September 201

Metastability of non-reversible mean-field Potts model with three spins

We examine a non-reversible, mean-field Potts model with three spins on a set with $N\uparrow\infty$ points. Without an external field, there are three critical temperatures and five different metastable regimes. The analysis can be extended by a perturbative argument to the case of small external fields. We illustrate the case of large external fields with some phenomena which are not present in the absence of external field.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figure

On the chemical ladder of esters. Detection and formation of ethyl formate in the W51 e2 hot molecular core

The detection of organic molecules with increasing complexity and potential biological relevance is opening the possibility to understand the formation of the building blocks of life in the interstellar medium. One of the families of molecules with astrobiological interest are the esters, whose simplest member, methyl formate, is rather abundant in star-forming regions. The next step in the chemical complexity of esters is ethyl formate, C$_2$H$_5$OCHO. Only two detections of this species have been reported so far, which strongly limits our understanding of how complex molecules are formed in the interstellar medium. We have searched for ethyl formate towards the W51 e2 hot molecular core, one of the most chemically rich sources in the Galaxy and one of the most promising regions to study prebiotic chemistry, especially after the recent discovery of the P$-$O bond, key in the formation of DNA. We have analyzed a spectral line survey towards the W51 e2 hot molecular core, which covers 44 GHz in the 1, 2 and 3 mm bands, carried out with the IRAM 30m telescope. We report the detection of the trans and gauche conformers of ethyl formate. A Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium analysis indicates that the excitation temperature is 78$\pm$10 K and that the two conformers have similar source-averaged column densities of (2.0$\pm$0.3)$\times$10$^{16}$ cm$^{-2}$ and an abundance of $\sim$10$^{-8}$. We compare the observed molecular abundances of ethyl formate with different competing chemical models based on grain surface and gas-phase chemistry. We propose that grain-surface chemistry may have a dominant role in the formation of ethyl formate (and other complex organic molecules) in hot molecular cores, rather than reactions in the gas phase.Comment: Accepted in A&A; 11 pages, 6 figures, 7 Table

First ALMA maps of HCO, an important precursor of complex organic molecules, towards IRAS 16293-2422

The formyl radical HCO has been proposed as the basic precursor of many complex organic molecules such as methanol (CH$_3$OH) or glycolaldehyde (CH$_2$OHCHO). Using ALMA, we have mapped, for the first time at high angular resolution ($\sim$1$^{\prime\prime}$, $\sim$140 au), HCO towards the Solar-type protostellar binary IRAS 16293$-$2422, where numerous complex organic molecules have been previously detected. We also detected several lines of the chemically related species H$_2$CO, CH$_3$OH and CH$_2$OHCHO. The observations revealed compact HCO emission arising from the two protostars. The line profiles also show redshifted absorption produced by foreground material of the circumbinary envelope that is infalling towards the protostars. Additionally, IRAM 30m single-dish data revealed a more extended HCO component arising from the common circumbinary envelope. The comparison between the observed molecular abundances and our chemical model suggests that whereas the extended HCO from the envelope can be formed via gas-phase reactions during the cold collapse of the natal core, the HCO in the hot corinos surrounding the protostars is predominantly formed by the hydrogenation of CO on the surface of dust grains and subsequent thermal desorption during the protostellar phase. The derived abundance of HCO in the dust grains is high enough to produce efficiently more complex species such as H$_2$CO, CH$_3$OH, and CH$_2$OHCHO by surface chemistry. We found that the main formation route of CH$_2$OHCHO is the reaction between HCO and CH$_2$OH.Comment: Accepted in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; 19 pages, 12 figures, 7 table

Dissecting a hot molecular core: The case of G31.41+0.31

We made a detailed observational analysis of a well known hot molecular core lying in the high-mass star-forming region G31.41+0.31. This core is believed to contain deeply embedded massive stars and presents a velocity gradient that has been interpreted either as rotation or as expansion, depending on the authors. Our aim was to shed light on this question and possibly prepare the ground for higher resolution ALMA observations which could directly detect circumstellar disks around the embedded massive stars. Observations at sub-arcsecond resolution were performed with the Submillimeter Array in methyl cyanide, a typical hot molecular core tracer, and 12CO and 13CO, well known outflow tracers. We also obtained sensitive continuum maps at 1.3 mm. Our findings confirm the existence of a sharp velocity gradient across the core, but cannot confirm the existence of a bipolar outflow perpendicular to it. The improved angular resolution and sampling of the uv plane allow us to attain higher quality channel maps of the CH3CN lines with respect to previous studies and thus significantly improve our knowledge of the structure and kinematics of the hot molecular core. While no conclusive argument can rule out any of the two interpretations (rotation or expansion) proposed to explain the velocity gradient observed in the core, in our opinion the observational evidence collected so far indicates the rotating toroid as the most likely scenario. The outflow hypothesis appears less plausible, because the dynamical time scale is too short compared to that needed to form species such as CH3CN, and the mass loss and momentum rates estimated from our measurements appear too high.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in pres

Chemical Segregation in Hot Cores With Disk Candidates: An investigation with ALMA

In the study of high-mass star formation, hot cores are empirically defined stages where chemically rich emission is detected toward a massive YSO. It is unknown whether the physical origin of this emission is a disk, inner envelope, or outflow cavity wall and whether the hot core stage is common to all massive stars. We investigate the chemical make up of several hot molecular cores to determine physical and chemical structure. We use high spectral and spatial resolution Cycle 0 ALMA observations to determine how this stage fits into the formation sequence of a high mass star. We observed the G35.20-0.74N and G35.03+0.35 hot cores at 350 GHz. We analyzed spectra and maps from four continuum peaks (A, B1, B2 and B3) in G35.20, separated by 1000-2000 AU, and one continuum peak in G35.03. We made all possible line identifications across 8 GHz of spectral windows of molecular emission lines and determined column densities and temperatures for as many as 35 species assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium. In comparing the spectra of the four peaks, we find each has a distinct chemical composition expressed in over 400 different transitions. In G35.20, B1 and B2 contain oxygen- and sulfur-bearing organic and inorganic species but few nitrogen-bearing species whereas A and B3 are strong sources of O, S, and N-bearing species (especially those with the CN-bond). CH$_2$DCN is clearly detected in A and B3 with D/H ratios of 8 and 13$\%$, respectively, but is much weaker at B1 and undetected at B2. No deuterated species are detected in G35.03, but similar molecular abundances to G35.20 were found in other species. We also find co-spatial emission of HNCO and NH$_2$CHO in both sources indicating a strong chemical link between the two species. The chemical segregation between N-bearing organic species and others in G35.20 suggests the presence of multiple protostars, surrounded by a disk or torus.Comment: 14 pages with 13 figures main text, 54 pages appendi

The hyperyoung HII region in G24.78+0.08 A1

Context. G24.78+0.08 A1 is a 20 Msun star surrounded by a hypercompact (HC) HII region, driving a CO bipolar outflow, and located at the center of a massive rotating toroid undergoing infall towards the HC region. Recent water maser observations suggest that the HC region is expanding and accretion onto the star is halted. Aims. This study aims to confirm the expansion scenario proposed for the HC region on the basis of recent H2O maser observations. Methods. We carried out continuum VLA observations at 1.3cm and 7mm with the A array plus Pie Town configuration to map the HC region towards G24 A1. Results. The emission of the HC region has been resolved and shows a ring shape structure. The profiles of the emission obtained by taking slices at different angles passing through the barycenter of the HC region confirm the shell structure of the emission. The ratio between the inner and the outer radius of the shell, Ri/Ro, derived fitting the normalized brightness temperature profile passing through the peak of the 7mm emission, is 0.9, which indicates that the shell is thin. The deconvolved outer radius estimated from the fit is 590 AU. These results imply that the HC region in G24 A1 cannot be described in terms of a classical, homogeneous HII region but is instead an ionized shell. This gives support to the model of an expanding wind-driven, ionized shell suggested by the kinematics and distribution of the H2O masers associated with the HC region. According to this model, the HC region is expanding on very short times scales, 21-66 yr.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication by A&A Lette

On the kinematics of massive star forming regions: the case of IRAS 17233-3606

Direct observations of accretion disks around high-mass young stellar objects would help to discriminate between different models of formation of massive stars. However, given the complexity of massive star forming regions, such studies are still limited in number. Additionally, there is still no general consensus on the molecular tracers to be used for such investigations. Because of its close distance and high luminosity, IRAS 17233-3606 is a potential good laboratory to search for traces of rotation in the inner gas around the protostar(s). Therefore, we selected the source for a detailed analysis of its molecular emission at 230 GHz with the SMA. We systematically investigated the velocity fields of transitions in the SMA spectra which are not affected by overlap with other transitions, and searched for coherent velocity gradients to compare them to the distribution of outflows in the region. Beside CO emission we also used high-angular H2 images to trace the outflow motions driven by the IRAS 17233-3606 cluster. We find linear velocity gradients in many transitions of the same molecular species and in several molecules. We report the first detection of HNCO in molecular outflows from massive YSOs. We discuss the CH3CN velocity gradient taking into account various scenarios: rotation, presence of multiple unresolved sources with different velocities, and outflow(s). Although other interpretations cannot be ruled out, we propose that the CH3CN emission might be affected by the outflows of the region. Higher angular observations are needed to discriminate between the different scenarios. The present observations, with the possible association of CH3CN with outflows in a few thousands AU around the YSOs' cluster, (i) question the choice of the tracer to probe rotating structures, and (ii) show the importance of the use of H2 images for detailed studies of kinematics.Comment: accepted for publication in A&