1,258 research outputs found
Synthesis of Polysaccharide Macrobolaforms
International audienceNeutral polysaccharides are very abundant renewable natural products that have been identified as alternative substrates for use in the field of polymer commmodities. Unfortunately beside other obstacles such as hydrophilicity, polysaccharides can display very low shape factors (molecular length/width) as compared to common synthetic polymers. This shape factor is often unsuited for creating the molecular entanglements, necessary for material physical cohesion for applications in the field of plastic material. In order to overcome this drawback various strategies have been applied to extend the length of these macromolecules, from controlled chemical cross-linking to macromolecular fractionation. Due to the very large number of chemically similar hydroxyl functions present on the macromolecular polymer backbone, selective chemical intermolecular-linking of hydroxyl groups is almost impossible to control, and very rapidly leads to unsuited tri-dimensional networks. Taking advantage of the unique chemical nature of one of the extremities (the reducing end) we developed several techniques of selective dimerisation of oligo-and polysaccharide, using diamine and dicarboxylic linkers. These dimerisations resulted in saccharidic bolaforms with improved shape factor by doubling of the molecular length. In the case of large polysaccharides the obtained macrobolaforms displayed interesting improved mechanical properties. Preliminary investigations of the structure/property relationships of these macrobolaforms show an improvement of mechanical behaviour, which was linked to the shape factor improvement and also to the ability to form oriented structures during material extrusion + dimerisation of polysaccharide
The M 31 double nucleus probed with OASIS and HST. A natural m=1 mode?
We present observations with the adaptive optics assisted integral field
spectrograph OASIS of the M 31 double nucleus at a spatial resolution better
than 0.5 arcsec FWHM. These data are used to derive the two-dimensional stellar
kinematics within the central 2 arcsec. Archival WFPC2/HST images are revisited
to perform a photometric decomposition of the nuclear region. We also present
STIS/HST kinematics obtained from the archive. The luminosity distribution of
the central region is well separated into the respective contributions of the
bulge, the nucleus including P1 and P2, and the so-called UV peak. We then show
that the axis joining P1 and P2, the two local surface brightness maxima, does
not coincide with the kinematic major-axis, which is also the major-axis of the
nuclear isophotes (excluding P1). We also confirm that the velocity dispersion
peak is offset by ~ 0.2 arcsec from the UV peak, assumed to mark the location
of the supermassive black hole. The newly reduced STIS/HST velocity and
dispersion profiles are then compared to OASIS and other published kinematics.
We find significant offsets with previously published data. Simple parametric
models are then built to successfully reconcile all the available kinematics.
We finally interpret the observations using new N-body simulations. The nearly
keplerian nuclear disk of M31 is subject to a natural m=1 mode, with a very
slow pattern speed (3 km/s/pc for M_BH = 7 10^7~\Msun), that can be maintained
during more than a thousand dynamical times. The resulting morphology and
kinematics of the mode can reproduce the M~31 nuclear-disk photometry and mean
stellar velocity, including the observed asymmetries. It requires a central
mass concentration and a cold disk system representing between 20 and 40% of
its mass. Abridged..Comment: 21 pages. accepted for publication in A&
The counterrotating core and the black hole mass of IC1459
The E3 giant elliptical galaxy IC1459 is the prototypical galaxy with a fast
counterrotating stellar core. We obtained one HST/STIS long-slit spectrum along
the major axis of this galaxy and CTIO spectra along five position angles. We
present self-consistent three-integral axisymmetric models of the stellar
kinematics, obtained with Schwarzschild's numerical orbit superposition method.
We study the dynamics of the kinematically decoupled core (KDC) in IC1459 and
we find it consists of stars that are well-separated from the rest of the
galaxy in phase space. The stars in the KDC counterrotate in a disk on orbits
that are close to circular. We estimate that the KDC mass is ~0.5% of the total
galaxy mass or ~3*10^9 Msun. We estimate the central black hole mass M_BH of
IC1459 independently from both its stellar and its gaseous kinematics. Some
complications probably explain why we find rather discrepant BH masses with the
different methods. The stellar kinematics suggest that M_BH = (2.6 +/-
1.1)*10^9 Msun (3 sigma error). The gas kinematics suggests that M_BH ~
3.5*10^8 Msun if the gas is assumed to rotate at the circular velocity in a
thin disk. If the observed velocity dispersion of the gas is assumed to be
gravitational, then M_BH could be as high as ~1.0*10^9 Msun. These different
estimates bracket the value M_BH = (1.1 +/- 0.3)*10^9 Msun predicted by the
M_BH-sigma relation. It will be an important goal for future studies to assess
the reliability of black hole mass determinations with either technique. This
is essential if one wants to interpret the correlation between the BH mass and
other global galaxy parameters (e.g. velocity dispersion) and in particular the
scatter in these correlations (believed to be only ~0.3 dex). [Abridged]Comment: 51 pages, LaTeX with 19 PostScript figures. Revised version, with
three new figures and data tables. To appear in The Astrophysical Journal,
578, 2002 October 2
SAURON Observations of Disks in Early-Type Galaxies
We briefly describe the SAURON project, aimed at determining the intrinsic
shape and internal dynamics of spheroids. We focus here on the ability of
SAURON to identify gaseous and stellar disks and to measure their morphology
and kinematics. We illustrate some of our results with complete maps of
NGC3377, NGC3623, and NGC4365.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures (newpasp.sty). To appear in ASP Conf. Series
"Galaxy Disks and Disk Galaxies", eds. J.G. Funes S.J. & E.M. Corsini.
Version with full resolution images available at
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~bureau/pub_list.htm
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