19,799 research outputs found
Methanol detection in M82
We present a multilevel study of the emission of methanol, detected for the
first time in this galaxy, and discuss the origin of its emission. The high
observed methanol abundance of a few 10^-9 can only be explained if injection
of methanol from dust grains is taken into account. While the overall
[CH3OH]/[NH3] ratio is much larger than observed towards other starbursts, the
dense high excitation component shows a similar value to that found in NGC 253
and Maffei 2. Our observations suggest the molecular material in M 82 to be
formed by dense warm cores, shielded from the UV radiation and similar to the
molecular clouds in other starbursts, surrounded by a less dense
photodissociated halo. The dense warm cores are likely the location of recent
and future star formation within M 82.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letter
Photodissociation chemistry footprints in the Starburst galaxy NGC 253
We report the first detection of PDR molecular tracers, namely HOC+, and CO+,
and confirm the detection of the also PDR tracer HCO towards the starburst
galaxy NGC 253, claimed to be mainly dominated by shock heating and in an
earlier stage of evolution than M 82, the prototypical extragalactic PDR. Our
CO+ detection suffers from significant blending to a group of transitions of
13CH3OH, tentatively detected for the first time in the extragalactic
interstellar medium. These species are efficiently formed in the highly UV
irradiated outer layers of molecular clouds, as observed in the late stage
nuclear starburst in M 82. The molecular abundance ratios we derive for these
molecules are very similar to those found in M 82. This strongly supports the
idea that these molecules are tracing the PDR component associated with the
starburst in the nuclear region of NGC 253. A comparison with the predictions
of chemical models for PDRs shows that the observed molecular ratios are
tracing the outer layers of UV illuminated clouds up to two magnitudes of
visual extinction. Chemical models, which include grain formation and
photodissociation of HNCO, support the scenario of a photo-dominated chemistry
as an explanation to the abundances of the observed species. From this
comparison we conclude that the molecular clouds in NGC 253 are more massive
and with larger column densities than those in M 82, as expected from the
evolutionary stage of the starbursts in both galaxies.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures, Published in Ap
Dynamical variables in Gauge-Translational Gravity
Assuming that the natural gauge group of gravity is given by the group of
isometries of a given space, for a maximally symmetric space we derive a model
in which gravity is essentially a gauge theory of translations. Starting from
first principles we verify that a nonlinear realization of the symmetry
provides the general structure of this gauge theory, leading to a simple choice
of dynamical variables of the gravity field corresponding, at first order, to a
diagonal matrix, whereas the non-diagonal elements contribute only to higher
orders.Comment: 15 page
A Study of the Dynamics of Dust from the Kuiper Belt: Spatial Distribution and Spectral Energy Distribution
The dust produced in the Kuiper Belt (KB) spreads throughout the Solar System
forming a dust disk. We numerically model the orbital evolution of KB dust and
estimate its equilibrium spatial distribution and its brightness and spectral
energy distributions (SED), assuming greybody absorption and emission by the
dust grains. We show that the planets modify the KB disk SED, so potentially we
can infer the presence of planets in spatially unresolved debris disks by
studying the shape of their SEDs. We point out that there are inherent
uncertainties in the prediction of structure in the dust disk, owing to the
chaotic dynamics of dust orbital evolution imposed by resonant gravitational
perturbations of the planets.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures in jpg, accepted to A
Simulating Nonholonomic Dynamics
This paper develops different discretization schemes for nonholonomic
mechanical systems through a discrete geometric approach. The proposed methods
are designed to account for the special geometric structure of the nonholonomic
motion. Two different families of nonholonomic integrators are developed and
examined numerically: the geometric nonholonomic integrator (GNI) and the
reduced d'Alembert-Pontryagin integrator (RDP). As a result, the paper provides
a general tool for engineering applications, i.e. for automatic derivation of
numerically accurate and stable dynamics integration schemes applicable to a
variety of robotic vehicle models
Localised projective measurement of a relativistic quantum field in non-inertial frames
We propose a scheme to study the effect of motion on measurements of a
quantum field carried out by a finite-size detector. We introduce a model of
projective detection of a localised field mode in an arbitrary reference frame.
We apply it to extract vacuum entanglement by a pair of counter-accelerating
detectors and to estimate the Unruh temperature of a single accelerated
detector. The introduced method allows us to directly relate the observed
effects with the instantaneous proper acceleration of the detector.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. v2 Significant increase in the detail level
regarding the motivation of the detector mode
Tracing high density gas in M 82 and NGC 4038
We present the first detection of CS in the Antennae galaxies towards the NGC
4038 nucleus, as well as the first detections of two high-J (5-4 and 7-6) CS
lines in the center of M 82. The CS(7-6) line in M 82 shows a profile that is
surprisingly different to those of other low-J CS transitions we observed. This
implies the presence of a separate, denser and warmer molecular gas component.
The derived physical properties and the likely location of the CS(7-6) emission
suggests an association with the supershell in the centre of M 82.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, ApJ Letter - ACCEPTE
Linear perturbations for the vacuum axisymmetric Einstein equations
In axial symmetry, there is a gauge for Einstein equations such that the
total mass of the spacetime can be written as a conserved, positive definite,
integral on the spacelike slices. This property is expected to play an
important role in the global evolution. In this gauge the equations reduce to a
coupled hyperbolic-elliptic system which is formally singular at the axis. Due
to the rather peculiar properties of the system, the local in time existence
has proved to resist analysis by standard methods. To analyze the principal
part of the equations, which may represent the main source of the difficulties,
we study linear perturbation around the flat Minkowski solution in this gauge.
In this article we solve this linearized system explicitly in terms of integral
transformations in a remarkable simple form. This representation is well suited
to obtain useful estimates to apply in the non-linear case.Comment: 13 pages. We suppressed the statements about decay at infinity. The
proofs of these statements were incomplete. The complete proofs will require
extensive technical analysis. We will studied this in a subsequent work. We
also have rewritten the introduction and slighted changed the titl
Abundant Z-cyanomethanimine in the interstellar medium: paving the way to the synthesis of adenine
We report the first detection in the interstellar medium of the Z-isomer of
cyanomethanimine (HNCHCN), an HCN dimer proposed as precursor of adenine. We
identified six transitions of Z-cyanomethanimine, along with five transitions
of E-cyanomethanimine, using IRAM 30m observations towards the Galactic Center
quiescent molecular cloud G+0.693. The Z-isomer has a column density of
(2.00.6)10 cm and an abundance of
1.510. The relative abundance ratio between the isomers is
[Z/E]6. This value cannot be explained by the two chemical formation
routes previously proposed (gas-phase and grain surface), which predicts
abundances ratios between 0.9 and 1.5. The observed [Z/E] ratio is in good
agreement with thermodynamic equilibrium at the gas kinetic temperature
(130210 K). Since isomerization is not possible in the ISM, the two species
may be formed at high temperature. New chemical models, including surface
chemistry on dust grains and gas-phase reactions, should be explored to explain
our findings. Whatever the formation mechanism, the high abundance of Z-HNCHCN
shows that precursors of adenine are efficiently formed in the ISM.Comment: Accepted in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letter
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