4,506 research outputs found
Ongoing Mass Transfer in the Interacting Galaxy Pair NGC 1409/10
I present two-band HST STIS imaging, and WIYN spectral mapping, of ongoing
mass transfer in the interacting galaxy pair NGC 1409/10 (where NGC 1410 is the
Seyfert galaxy also catalogued as III Zw 55). Archival snapshot WFPC2 imaging
from the survey by Malkan et al. showed a dust feature stretching between the
galaxies, apparently being captured by NGC 1409. The new images allow estimates
of the mass being transferred and rate of transfer. An absorption lane
typically 0.25" (100 pc) wide with a representative optical depth tau_B = 0.2
cuts across the spiral structure of NGC 1410, crosses the 7-kpc projected space
between the nuclei, wraps in front of and, at the limits of detection, behind
NGC 1409, and becomes a denser (tau_B = 0.4) polar feature around the core of
NGC 1409. Combination of extinction data in two passbands allows a crude
three-dimensional recovery of the dust structure, supporting the front/back
geometry derived from colors and extinction estimates. The whole feature
contains of order solar masses in dust, implying about 2x10^7 solar
masses of gas, requiring a mass transfer rate averaging ~1 solar mass per year
unless we are particularly unlucky in viewing angle. Curiously, this
demonstrable case of mass transfer seems to be independent of the occurrence of
a Seyfert nucleus, since the Seyfert galaxy in this pair is the donor of the
material. Likewise, the recipient shows no signs of recent star formation from
incoming gas, although NGC 1410 has numerous luminous young star clusters and
widespread H-alpha emission.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for the Astronomical Journal, March
200
Electronic Phase Separation Transition as the Origin of the Superconductivity and the Pseudogap Phase of Cuprates
We propose a new phase of matter, an electronic phase separation transition
that starts near the upper pseudogap and segregates the holes into high and low
density domains. The Cahn-Hilliard approach is used to follow quantitatively
this second order transition. The resulting grain boundary potential confines
the charge in domains and favors the development of intragrain superconducting
amplitudes. The zero resistivity transition arises only when the intergrain
Josephson coupling is of the order of the thermal energy and phase
locking among the superconducting grains takes place. We show that this
approach explains the pseudogap and superconducting phases in a natural way and
reproduces some recent scanning tunneling microscopy dataComment: 4 pages and 5 eps fig
Avaliação de diferentes métodos para estimativa de áreas marginais de cursos d'água na bacia do rio Ji-Paraná (RO).
Brazilian legislation considers river margins as environmental preservation areas that should not be used for agricultural production or other commercial activities. For small areas, were detailed cartographic data is available, the definition of these areas are simpler tasks however, Country wide estimates of protected area is still a mater of debate. For large area estimates, two mains uncertainties occur. The lack of detailed cartographic data at suitable scales under-represents the river channels and thus, makes it difficult to estimate total river length. Also, marginal preservation areas are a function of channel width, an information often lacking but crucial for the correct estimation of protected areas in large river basins. Here, three methods for estimating marginal preservation areas are applied to the Ji-Paraná river basin (RO, Brazil) in order to evaluate the importance of channel width. The first considers a constant width along the entire river network for estimating preserved area. The second divides the basin according to the location of fluviometric stations and prescribes different widths for each sub-basin while the third estimates channel width based on an area:width relationship. Total protected area for the three methods ranges from 2% to 21% of basin area, making it clear that channel width should be taken into account when estimating protected areas for large regions and that the methods and assumption used in defining such areas should be clearly stated in order to avoid precipitated conclusions
Métodos para estimativa de áreas de preservação permanente nas margens dos cursos d'água em grandes bacias: avaliação para a bacia do Rio Ji-Paraná, RO.
O Código Florestal brasileiro, juntamente com a resolução Conama no 303/2002, definiu áreas do território nacional classificadas como de preservação permanente (APP). Essas áreas englobam margens dos cursos e corpos d'água, terrenos com declividade acentuada, bordas de chapadas, topos de morro, entre outras feições. No entanto, a escassez de dados cartográficos em escala adequada e de abrangência nacional dificultam ou até impossibilitam as estimativas do alcance territorial da legislação ambiental brasileira. Um exemplo é a delimitação das APPs nas margens dos rios, que, para identificação correta, requer, além da localização, informações sobre a largura dos cursos d'água na época de cheias, dados raramente disponíveis. Este trabalho utilizou dados provenientes da Agência Nacional de Águas (ANA) para estimar as APPs das margens dos rios pertencentes à bacia do Rio Ji-Paraná, RO, identificados na escala 1:1.000.000, levando-se em consideração as larguras dos cursos d'água. Dados de todas as dez estações fluviométricas presentes na bacia com medidas de cota e perfil transversal da calha foram utilizados para estimar a largura máxima do canal de duas maneiras distintas. A primeira delimitou as sub-bacias definidas pelas estações fluviométricas e considerou que todos os cursos d'água pertencentes à sub-bacia apresentavam a mesma largura observada em seu ponto final. A segunda utilizou a relação empírica obtida entre a área de drenagem e a largura da calha nas nove estações para definir a largura de todos os trechos dos cursos d'água da bacia. Por fim, as APPs nas margens dos rios foram delimitadas seguindo os critérios estabelecidos na resolução Conama no 303/2002. A título de comparação, foram também delimitadas as APPs utilizando larguras constantes de 100 m, 200 m e 500 m de faixa marginal para toda a bacia. Entre os diferentes métodos utilizados, a APP nas margens dos rios variou de 1.541 km2 a 15.876 km2 (2,04% a 21,04% da área da bacia, respectivamente). A grande variação na delimitação das áreas marginais deixa claro que estimativas efetuadas para grandes regiões estarão sempre sujeitas a incertezas, de acordo com os métodos utilizados, e que, portanto, é imprescindível o detalhamento dos procedimentos efetuados para esclarecer as vantagens e limitações a que tais estimativas estão sujeitas.bitstream/item/31009/1/BPD-9.pd
Delimitação das áreas de proteção permanente da bacia hidrográfica do Ji-Paraná.
Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (SIG) são importantes ferramentas para o monitoramento de bacias hidrográficas, indispensáveis na tomada de decisões voltadas para práticas de manejo em conformidade com a legislação ambiental. O objetivo deste trabalho foi empregar a ferramenta de SIG na montagem do banco de dados de hidrografia, como largura e perfil da calha dos rios inseridos na bacia hidrográfica do rio Ji-Paraná, Estado de Rondônia, e, a partir dela, gerar um mapa com a delimitação das Áreas de Preservação Permanente (APPs) nas margens dos cursos d?água. Para tal, foi utilizada a rede hidrográfica da Agência Nacional de Águas (ANA) na escala 1:1.000.000, juntamente com informações de cota e largura de rios de diversas estações fluviométricas. A delimitação das sub-bacias foi realizada utilizando dados do sensor Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) disponibilizados pela National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Como resultados, foram delimitadas as APPs nas margens dos cursos d?água, diferenciando a largura da faixa de proteção de acordo com a largura dos rios, conforme a Resolução Conama
A Multiwavelength Study on the Fate of Ionizing Radiation in Local Starbursts
The fate of ionizing radiation is vital for understanding cosmic ionization,
energy budgets in the interstellar and intergalactic medium, and star formation
rate indicators. The low observed escape fractions of ionizing radiation have
not been adequately explained, and there is evidence that some starbursts have
high escape fractions. We examine the spectral energy distributions of a sample
of local star-forming galaxies, containing thirteen local starburst galaxies
and ten of their ordinary star-forming counterparts, to determine if there
exist significant differences in the fate of ionizing radiation in these
galaxies. We find that the galaxy-to-galaxy variations in the SEDs is much
larger than any systematic differences between starbursts and non-starbursts.
For example, we find no significant differences in the total absorption of
ionizing radiation by dust, traced by the 24um, 70um, and 160um MIPS bands of
the Spitzer Space Telescope, although the dust in starburst galaxies appears to
be hotter than that of non-starburst galaxies. We also observe no excess
ultraviolet flux in the GALEX bands that could indicate a high escape fraction
of ionizing photons in starburst galaxies. The small H-alpha fractions of the
diffuse, warm ionized medium in starburst galaxies are apparently due to
temporarily boosted H-alpha luminosity within the star-forming regions
themselves, with an independent, constant WIM luminosity. This independence of
the WIM and starburst luminosities contrasts with WIM behavior in non-starburst
galaxies and underscores our poor understanding of radiation transfer in both
ordinary and starburst galaxies.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted to ApJ 10/11/1
NGC 2782: a merger remnant with young stars in its gaseous tidal tail
We have searched for young star-forming regions around the merger remnant NGC
2782. By using GALEX FUV and NUV imaging and HI data we found seven UV sources,
located at distances greater than 26 kpc from the center of NGC 2782, and
coinciding with its western HI tidal tail. These regions were resolved in
several smaller systems when Gemini/GMOS r-band images were used. We compared
the observed colors to stellar population synthesis models and we found that
these objects have ages of ~1 to 11 Myr and masses ranging from 10^3.9 to
10^4.6 Msun. By using Gemini/GMOS spectroscopic data we confirm memberships and
derive high metallicities for three of the young regions in the tail
(12+log(O/H)=8.74\pm0.20, 8.81\pm0.20 and 8.78\pm0.20). These metallicities are
similar to the value presented by the nuclear region of NGC 2782 and also
similar to the value presented for an object located close to the main body of
NGC 2782. The high metallicities measured for the star-forming regions in the
gaseous tidal tail of NGC 2782 could be explained if they were formed out of
highly enriched gas which was once expelled from the center of the merging
galaxies when the system collided. An additional possibility is that the tail
has been a nursery of a few generations of young stellar systems which
ultimately polluted this medium with metals, further enriching the already
pre-enriched gas ejected to the tail when the galaxies collided.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Vacuum Polarization for a Massless Spin-1/2 Field in the Global Monopole Spacetime at Nonzero Temperature
In this paper we present the effects produced by the temperature in the
renormalized vacuum expectation value of the zero-zero component of the
energy-momentum tensor associated with massless left-handed spinor field in the
pointlike global monopole spacetime. In order to develop this calculation we
had to obtain the Euclidean thermal Green function in this background. Because
the expression obtained for the thermal energy density cannot be expressed in a
closed form, its explicit dependence on the temperature is not completely
evident. So, in order to obtain concrete information about its thermal
behavior, we develop a numerical analysis of our result in the high-temperature
limit for specific values of the parameter which codify the presence
of the monopole.Comment: 22 pages, LaTex format, 5 figure
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