4,569 research outputs found
SWAS and Arecibo observations of H2O and OH in a diffuse cloud along the line-of-sight to W51
Observations of W51 with the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS)
have yielded the first detection of water vapor in a diffuse molecular cloud.
The water vapor lies in a foreground cloud that gives rise to an absorption
feature at an LSR velocity of 6 km/s. The inferred H2O column density is
2.5E+13 cm-2. Observations with the Arecibo radio telescope of hydroxyl
molecules at ten positions in W51 imply an OH column density of 8E+13 cm-2 in
the same diffuse cloud. The observed H2O/OH ratio of ~ 0.3 is significantly
larger than an upper limit derived previously from ultraviolet observations of
the similar diffuse molecular cloud lying in front of HD 154368. The observed
variation in H2O/OH likely points to the presence in one or both of these
clouds of a warm (T > 400) gas component in which neutral-neutral reactions are
important sources of OH and/or H2O.Comment: 15 pages (AASTeX) including 4 (eps) figures. To appear in the
Astrophysical Journa
The Ratio of Ortho- to Para-H2 in Photodissociation Regions
We discuss the ratio of ortho- to para-H2 in photodissociation regions
(PDRs). We draw attention to an apparent confusion in the literature between
the ortho-to-para ratio of molecules in FUV-pumped vibrationally excited
states, and the H2 ortho-to-para abundance ratio. These ratios are not the same
because the process of FUV-pumping of fluorescent H2 emission in PDRs occurs
via optically thick absorption lines. Thus, gas with an equilibrium ratio of
ortho- to para-H2 equal to 3 will yield FUV-pumped vibrationally excited
ortho-to-para ratios smaller than 3, because the ortho-H2 pumping rates are
preferentially reduced by optical depth effects. Indeed, if the ortho and para
pumping lines are on the ``square root'' part of the curve-of-growth, then the
expected ratio of ortho and para vibrational line strengths is the square root
of 3, ~ 1.7, close to the typically observed value. Thus, contrary to what has
sometimes been stated in the literature, most previous measurements of the
ratio of ortho- to para-H2 in vibrationally excited states are entirely
consistent with a total ortho-to-para ratio of 3, the equilibrium value for
temperatures greater than 200 K. We present an analysis and several detailed
models which illustrate the relationship between the total ratios of ortho- to
para-H2 and the vibrationally excited ortho-to-para ratios in PDRs. Recent
Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) measurements of pure rotational and
vibrational H2 emissions from the PDR in the star-forming region S140 provide
strong observational support for our conclusions.Comment: 23 pages (including 5 figures), LaTeX, uses aaspp4.sty, accepted for
publication in Ap
Herschel/HIFI observations of O-rich AGB stars : molecular inventory
Spectra, taken with the heterodyne instrument, HIFI, aboard the Herschel
Space Observatory, of O-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars which form
part of the guaranteed time key program HIFISTARS are presented. The aim of
this program is to study the dynamical structure, mass-loss driving mechanism,
and chemistry of the outflows from AGB stars as a function of chemical
composition and initial mass.
We used the HIFI instrument to observe nine AGB stars, mainly in the H2O and
high rotational CO lines We investigate the correlation between line
luminosity, line ratio and mass-loss rate, line width and excitation energy.
A total of nine different molecules, along with some of their isotopologues
have been identified, covering a wide range of excitation temperature. Maser
emission is detected in both the ortho- and para-H2O molecules. The line
luminosities of ground state lines of ortho- and para-H2O, the high-J CO and
NH3 lines show a clear correlation with mass-loss rate. The line ratios of H2O
and NH3 relative to CO J=6-5 correlate with the mass-loss rate while ratios of
higher CO lines to the 6-5 is independent of it. In most cases, the expansion
velocity derived from the observed line width of highly excited transitions
formed relatively close to the stellar photosphere is lower than that of lower
excitation transitions, formed farther out, pointing to an accelerated outflow.
In some objects, the vibrationally excited H2O and SiO which probe the
acceleration zone suggests the wind reaches its terminal velocity already in
the innermost part of the envelope, i.e., the acceleration is rapid.
Interestingly, for R Dor we find indications of a deceleration of the outflow
in the region where the material has already escaped from the star.Comment: 6 Figures in the main paper + 12 further figures in the appendix (to
be printed in electronic form) Accepted for publication by A&
Effects of the low frequencies of noise on On-Off intermittency
A bifurcating system subject to multiplicative noise can exhibit on-off
intermittency close to the instability threshold. For a canonical system, we
discuss the dependence of this intermittency on the Power Spectrum Density
(PSD) of the noise. Our study is based on the calculation of the Probability
Density Function (PDF) of the unstable variable. We derive analytical results
for some particular types of noises and interpret them in the framework of
on-off intermittency. Besides, we perform a cumulant expansion for a random
noise with arbitrary power spectrum density and show that the intermittent
regime is controlled by the ratio between the departure from the threshold and
the value of the PSD of the noise at zero frequency. Our results are in
agreement with numerical simulations performed with two types of random
perturbations: colored Gaussian noise and deterministic fluctuations of a
chaotic variable. Extensions of this study to another, more complex, system are
presented and the underlying mechanisms are discussed.Comment: 13pages, 13 figure
Influence of turbulent advection on a phytoplankton ecosystem with nonuniform carrying capacity
In this work we study a plankton ecosystem model in a turbulent flow. The plankton model we consider contains logistic growth with a spatially varying background carrying capacity and the flow dynamics are generated using the two-dimensional (2D) Navier-Stokes equations. We characterize the system in terms of a dimensionless parameter, γ TB / TF, which is the ratio of the ecosystem biological time scales TB and the flow time scales TF. We integrate this system numerically for different values of γ until the mean plankton reaches a statistically stationary state and examine how the steady-state mean and variance of plankton depends on γ. Overall we find that advection in the presence of a nonuniform background carrying capacity can lead to very different plankton distributions depending on the time scale ratio γ. For small γ the plankton distribution is very similar to the background carrying capacity field and has a mean concentration close to the mean carrying capacity. As γ increases the plankton concentration is more influenced by the advection processes. In the largest γ cases there is a homogenization of the plankton concentration and the mean plankton concentration approaches the harmonic mean, 1/K -1. We derive asymptotic approximations for the cases of small and large γ. We also look at the dependence of the power spectra exponent, β, on γ where the power spectrum of plankton is k-β. We find that the power spectra exponent closely obeys β=1+2/γ as predicted by earlier studies using simple models of chaotic advection
ISO observations of far-infrared rotational emission lines of water vapor toward the supergiant star VY Canis Majoris
We report the detection of numerous far-infrared emission lines of water
vapor toward the supergiant star VY Canis Majoris. A 29.5 - 45 micron grating
scan of VY CMa, obtained using the Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) of the
Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) at a spectral resolving power of approximately
2000, reveals at least 41 spectral features due to water vapor that together
radiate a total luminosity ~ 25 solar luminosities. In addition to pure
rotational transitions within the ground vibrational state, these features
include rotational transitions within the (010) excited vibrational state. The
spectrum also shows the doublet Pi 1/2 (J=5/2) <-- doublet Pi 3/2 (J=3/2) OH
feature near 34.6 micron in absorption. Additional SWS observations of VY CMa
were carried out in the instrument's Fabry-Perot mode for three water
transitions: the 7(25)-6(16) line at 29.8367 micron, the 4(41)-3(12) line
31.7721 micron, and the 4(32)-3(03) line at 40.6909 micron. The higher spectral
resolving power of approximately 30,000 thereby obtained permits the line
profiles to be resolved spectrally for the first time and reveals the "P Cygni"
profiles that are characteristic of emission from an outflowing envelope.Comment: 11 pages (inc. 2 figures), LaTeX, uses aaspp4.sty, accepted for
publication in ApJ Letter
The density of anthropogenic features explains seasonal and behaviour-based functional responses in selection of linear features by a social predator
Anthropogenic linear features facilitate access and travel efficiency for predators, and can influence predator distribution and encounter rates with prey. We used GPS collar data from eight wolf packs and characteristics of seismic lines to investigate whether ease-of-travel or access to areas presumed to be preferred by prey best explained seasonal selection patterns of wolves near seismic lines, and whether the density of anthropogenic features led to functional responses in habitat selection. At a broad scale, wolves showed evidence of habitat-driven functional responses by exhibiting greater selection for areas near low-vegetation height seismic lines in areas with low densities of anthropogenic features. We highlight the importance of considering landscape heterogeneity and habitat characteristics, and the functional response in habitat selection when investigating seasonal behaviour-based selection patterns. Our results support behaviour in line with search for primary prey during summer and fall, and ease-of-travel during spring, while patterns of selection during winter aligned best with ease-of-travel for the less-industrialized foothills landscape, and with search for primary prey in the more-industrialized boreal landscape. These results highlight that time-sensitive restoration actions on anthropogenic features can affect the probability of overlap between predators and threatened prey within different landscapes
On the Corrections to Dashen's Theorem
The electromagnetic corrections to the masses of the pseudoscalar mesons
and are considered. We calculate in chiral perturbation theory the
contributions which arise from resonances within a photon loop at order . Within this approach we find rather moderate deviations to Dashen's
theorem.Comment: 14 pages, sligthly enlarged version; a numerical error is corrected
and the embedding of the figures is improved. The complete paper, including
figures, is also available via anonymous ftp at
ftp://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/ , or via www at
http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/cgi-bin/preprints/; to be published in
Phys.Rev.
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