104 research outputs found
Dust absorption and scattering in the silicon K-edge
The composition and properties of interstellar silicate dust are not well
understood. In X-rays, interstellar dust can be studied in detail by making use
of the fine structure features in the Si K-edge. The features in the Si K-edge
offer a range of possibilities to study silicon-bearing dust, such as
investigating the crystallinity, abundance, and the chemical composition along
a given line of sight. We present newly acquired laboratory measurements of the
silicon K-edge of several silicate-compounds that complement our measurements
from our earlier pilot study. The resulting dust extinction profiles serve as
templates for the interstellar extinction that we observe. The extinction
profiles were used to model the interstellar dust in the dense environments of
the Galaxy. The laboratory measurements, taken at the Soleil synchrotron
facility in Paris, were adapted for astrophysical data analysis and implemented
in the SPEX spectral fitting program. The models were used to fit the spectra
of nine low-mass X-ray binaries located in the Galactic center neighborhood in
order to determine the dust properties along those lines of sight. Most lines
of sight can be fit well by amorphous olivine. We also established upper limits
on the amount of crystalline material that the modeling allows. We obtained
values of the total silicon abundance, silicon dust abundance, and depletion
along each of the sightlines. We find a possible gradient of
dex/kpc for the total silicon abundance versus the Galactocentric distance. We
do not find a relation between the depletion and the extinction along the line
of sight.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Investigating the interstellar dust through the Fe K-edge
The chemical and physical properties of interstellar dust in the densest
regions of the Galaxy are still not well understood. X-rays provide a powerful
probe since they can penetrate gas and dust over a wide range of column
densities (up to ). The interaction (scattering and
absorption) with the medium imprints spectral signatures that reflect the
individual atoms which constitute the gas, molecule, or solid. In this work we
investigate the ability of high resolution X-ray spectroscopy to probe the
properties of cosmic grains containing iron. Although iron is heavily depleted
into interstellar dust, the nature of the Fe-bearing grains is still largely
uncertain. In our analysis we use iron K-edge synchrotron data of minerals
likely present in the ISM dust taken at the European Synchrotron Radiation
Facility. We explore the prospects of determining the chemical composition and
the size of astrophysical dust in the Galactic centre and in molecular clouds
with future X-ray missions. The energy resolution and the effective area of the
present X-ray telescopes are not sufficient to detect and study the Fe K-edge,
even for bright X-ray sources. From the analysis of the extinction cross
sections of our dust models implemented in the spectral fitting program SPEX,
the Fe K-edge is promising for investigating both the chemistry and the size
distribution of the interstellar dust. We find that the chemical composition
regulates the X-ray absorption fine structures in the post edge region, whereas
the scattering feature in the pre-edge is sensitive to the mean grain size.
Finally, we note that the Fe K-edge is insensitive to other dust properties,
such as the porosity and the geometry of the dust.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
The Galactic IMF: origin in the combined mass distribution functions of dust grains and gas clouds
We present here a theoretical model to account for the stellar IMF as a
result of the composite behaviour of the gas and dust distribution functions.
Each of these has previously been modelled and the models tested against
observations. The model presented here implies a relation between the
characteristic size of the dust grains and the characteristic final mass of the
stars formed within the clouds containing the grains, folded with the relation
between the mass of a gas cloud and the characteristic mass of the stars formed
within it. The physical effects of dust grain size are due to equilibrium
relations between the efficiency of grains in cooling the clouds, which is a
falling function of grain size, and the efficiency of grains in catalyzing the
production of molecular hydrogen, which is a rising function of grain size. We
show that folding in the effects of grain distribution can yield a reasonable
quantitative account of the IMF, while gas cloud mass function alone cannot do
so.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, MNRAS accepted for publicatio
Clustering of vacancy defects in high-purity semi-insulating SiC
Positron lifetime spectroscopy was used to study native vacancy defects in
semi-insulating silicon carbide. The material is shown to contain (i) vacancy
clusters consisting of 4--5 missing atoms and (ii) Si vacancy related
negatively charged defects. The total open volume bound to the clusters
anticorrelates with the electrical resistivity both in as-grown and annealed
material. Our results suggest that Si vacancy related complexes compensate
electrically the as-grown material, but migrate to increase the size of the
clusters during annealing, leading to loss of resistivity.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Geometric Approach to Lyapunov Analysis in Hamiltonian Dynamics
As is widely recognized in Lyapunov analysis, linearized Hamilton's equations
of motion have two marginal directions for which the Lyapunov exponents vanish.
Those directions are the tangent one to a Hamiltonian flow and the gradient one
of the Hamiltonian function. To separate out these two directions and to apply
Lyapunov analysis effectively in directions for which Lyapunov exponents are
not trivial, a geometric method is proposed for natural Hamiltonian systems, in
particular. In this geometric method, Hamiltonian flows of a natural
Hamiltonian system are regarded as geodesic flows on the cotangent bundle of a
Riemannian manifold with a suitable metric. Stability/instability of the
geodesic flows is then analyzed by linearized equations of motion which are
related to the Jacobi equations on the Riemannian manifold. On some geometric
setting on the cotangent bundle, it is shown that along a geodesic flow in
question, there exist Lyapunov vectors such that two of them are in the two
marginal directions and the others orthogonal to the marginal directions. It is
also pointed out that Lyapunov vectors with such properties can not be obtained
in general by the usual method which uses linearized Hamilton's equations of
motion. Furthermore, it is observed from numerical calculation for a model
system that Lyapunov exponents calculated in both methods, geometric and usual,
coincide with each other, independently of the choice of the methods.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, REVTeX
A survey for nanodiamond features in the 3 micron spectra of Herbig Ae/Be stars
We have carried out a survey of 60 Herbig Ae/Be stars in the 3 micron
wavelength region in search for the rare spectral features at 3.43 and 3.53
micron. These features have been attributed to the presence of large, hot,
hydrogen-terminated nanodiamonds. Only two Herbig Ae/Be stars, HD 97048 and
Elias 3-1 are known to display both these features. We have obtained
medium-resolution spectra (R ~2500) with the ESO near-IR instrument ISAAC in
the 3.15-3.65 micron range. In our sample, no new examples of sources with
prominent nanodiamond features in their 3 micron spectra were discovered
(detection rate less than 4%). We report tentative 3.53 micron detections in
V921 Sco (=CD-42.11721), HD 163296 and T CrA. The sources which display the
nanodiamond features are not exceptional in the group of Herbig stars with
respect to disk properties, stellar characteristics, or disk and stellar
activity. Moreover, the nanodiamond sources are very different from each other
in terms of these parameters. We do not find evidence for a recent supernova in
the vicinity of any of the nanodiamond sources. We have analyzed the PAH 3.3
micron feature and the Pfund delta hydrogen emission line, two other spectral
features which occur in the 3 micron wavelength range. We reinforce the
conclusion of previous authors that flared-disk systems display significantly
more PAH emission than self-shadowed-disk sources. The Pf delta line detection
rate is higher in self-shadowed-disk sources than in the flared-disk systems.
We discuss the possible origin and paucity of the (nano)diamond features in
Herbig stars. Different creation mechanisms have been proposed in the
literature, amongst others in-situ and supernova-induced formation. Our data
set is inconclusive in proving or disproving either formation mechanism.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables; accepted for publication in A&A
(acceptance date 16/06/2006
A Detailed Analysis of the Dust Formation Zone of IRC+10216 Derived from Mid-IR Bands of C2H2 and HCN
A spectral survey of IRC+10216 has been carried out in the range 11 to 14 um
with a spectral resolution of about 4 km s^-1. We have identified a forest of
lines in six bands of C2H2 involving the vibrational states from the ground to
3nu5 and in two bands of HCN, involving the vibrational states from the ground
up to 2nu2. Some of these transitions are observed also in H13CCH and H13CN. We
have estimated the kinetic, vibrational, and rotational temperatures, and the
abundances and column densities of C2H2 and HCN between 1 and 300 R* (1.5E16
cm) by fitting about 300 of these ro-vibrational lines. The envelope can be
divided into three regions with approximate boundaries at 0.019 arcsec (the
stellar photosphere), 0.1 arcsec (the inner dust formation zone), and 0.4
arcsec (outer dust formation zone). Most of the lines might require a large
microturbulence broadening. The derived abundances of C2H2 and HCN increase by
factors of 10 and 4, respectively, from the innermost envelope outwards. The
derived column densities for both C2H2 and HCN are 1.6E19 cm^-2. Vibrational
states up to 3000 K above ground are populated, suggesting pumping by
near-infrared radiation from the star and innermost envelope. Low rotational
levels can be considered under LTE while those with J>20-30 are not
thermalized. A few lines require special analysis to deal with effects like
overlap with lines of other molecules.Comment: 8 pages, 16 figures, 2 machine-readable tables, accepted in the
Astrophysical Journa
Interstellar oxygen along the line of sight of Cygnus X-2
Interstellar dust permeates our Galaxy and plays an important role in many
physical processes in the diffuse and dense regions of the interstellar medium.
High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy, coupled with modelling based on laboratory
dust measurements, provides a unique probe to investigate the interstellar dust
properties along our line of sight towards Galactic X-ray sources. Here, we
focus on the oxygen content of the interstellar medium through its absorption
features in the X-ray spectra. To model the dust features, we perform a
laboratory experiment using the electron microscope facility located at the
University of Cadiz in Spain, where we acquire new laboratory data in the
oxygen K-edge. We study 18 dust samples of silicates and oxides with different
chemical compositions. The laboratory measurements are adopted for our
astronomical data analysis. We carry out a case study on the X-ray spectrum of
the bright low-mass X-ray binary Cygnus X-2, observed by XMM-Newton. We
determine different temperature phases of the ISM, and parameterize oxygen in
both gas (neutral and ionised) and dust form. We find Solar abundances of
oxygen along the line of sight towards the source. Due to both the relatively
low depletion of oxygen into dust form and the shape of the oxygen cross
section profiles, it is challenging to determine the precise chemistry of
interstellar dust. However, silicates provide an acceptable fit. Finally, we
discuss the systematic discrepancies in the atomic (gaseous phase) data of the
oxygen edge spectral region using different X-ray atomic databases, and also
consider future prospects for studying the ISM with the Arcus concept mission.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 15 pages, 11 figure
The dusty AGB star RS CrB: first mid-infrared interferometric observations with the Keck Telescopes
We report interferometric observations of the semi-regular variable star RS
CrB, a red giant with strong silicate emission features. The data were among
the first long baseline mid-infrared stellar fringes obtained between the Keck
telescopes, using parts of the new nulling beam combiner. The light was
dispersed by a low-resolution spectrometer, allowing simultaneous measurement
of the source visibility and intensity spectra from 8 to 12 microns. The
interferometric observations allow a non-ambiguous determination of the dust
shell spatial scale and relative flux contribution. Using a simple
spherically-symmetric model, in which a geometrically thin shell surrounds the
stellar photosphere, we find that ~30% to ~70% of the overall mid-infrared flux
- depending on the wavelength - originates from 7-8 stellar radii. The derived
shell opacity profile shows a broad peak around 11 microns (tau ~ 0.06),
characteristic of Mg-rich silicate dust particles.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
The X-ray side of the absorption by interstellar dust in the Milky Way
X-ray spectroscopy of interstellar dust (ID), seen in absorption against spectra of bright background sources, is a powerful tool to investigate and provide novel information on the chemistry of dust grains. For example, sharp and deep absorption features of Mg, Si, O and Fe, which are the building blocks of silicates, fall in the X-ray band. Therefore X-ray spectroscopy can also successfully study the nature of the iron inclusion in dust. The shift and the structure of a given absorption feature is indeed different for different absorbing dust grains. High-quality data have already revealed that Mg-rich silicates are favored with respect to the Fe-rich population and that Fe is most likely in metallic form. The modeling of spectra of present and future X-ray facilities will take now advantage of our new laboratory measurements, from several species, of the absorption features which are key for a complete understanding of the ID chemistry
- …