Structure of the Contact Region and its Application to the Reflexion of a Plane Shock Wave from a Heat Conducting Wall

A study of the structure of the contact region has been made taking into account the effects of viscosity, heat conduction and radiative heat transfer. Analytical solutions for the temperature, velocity and pressure distributions in a uniformly moving contact region have been obtained under the optically thick-gas approximation when the thermal conductivity and absorption coefficients are given by power laws. Applying the analysis of the contact region to the situation when a plane shock is reflected from a plane heat-conducting wall it has been shown that the reflected shock is attenuated due to the combined effects of molecular heat conduction and radiative heat conduction

GRB000301C with peculiar afterglow emission

The CCD magnitudes in Johnson V and Cousins R and I photometric passbands are determined for GRB 000301C afterglow starting ~ 1.5 day after the gamma-ray burst. In fact we provide the earliest optical observations for this burst. Light curves of the afterglow emissions in U, B, V, R, I, J and K' passbands are obtained by combining the present measurements with the published data. Flux decay shows a very uncommon variation relative to other well observed GRBs. Overall, there is a steepening of the optical and near-infrared flux decay caused by a geometric and sideways expanding jet. This is superimposed by a short term variability especially during early time (Delta t < 8 days). The cause of variability is not well understood, though it has occurred simultaneously with similar amplitude in all the filters. We derive the early and late time flux decay constants using jet model. The late time flux decay is the steepest amongst the GRB OTs observed so far with alpha ~ 3. Steepening in the flux decay seems to have started simultaneously around Delta t ~ 7.6 day in all passbands. The value of spectral index in the optical-near IR region is ~ -1.0. Redshift determination with z=2.0335 indicates cosmological origin of the GRB having a luminosity distance of 16.6 Gpc. Thus it becomes the second farthest amongst the GRBs with known distances. An indirect estimate of the fluence > 20 keV indicates, if isotropic,> =10^53 ergs of release of energy. The enormous amount of released energy will be reduced, if the radiation is beamed which is the case for this event. Using a jet break time of 7.6 days, we infer a jet opening angle of ~ 0.15 radian. This means the energy released is reduced by a factor of ~ 90 relative to the isotropic value.Comment: LaTeX file, 11 pages including 4 figures, uses psfig.sty, Bull. Astron. Society of India(accepted, Sept, 2000 issue

The effect of asymmetric disorder on the diffusion in arbitrary networks

Considering diffusion in the presence of asymmetric disorder, an exact relationship between the strength of weak disorder and the electric resistance of the corresponding resistor network is revealed, which is valid in arbitrary networks. This implies that the dynamics are stable against weak asymmetric disorder if the resistance exponent $\zeta$ of the network is negative. In the case of $\zeta>0$, numerical analyses of the mean first-passage time $\tau$ on various fractal lattices show that the logarithmic scaling of $\tau$ with the distance $l$, $\ln\tau\sim l^{\psi}$, is a general rule, characterized by a new dynamical exponent $\psi$ of the underlying lattice.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Search For A Permanent Electric Dipole Moment Using Atomic Indium

We propose indium (In) as a possible candidate for observing the permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) arising from the violations of parity (P) and time-reversal (T) symmetries. This atom has been laser cooled and therefore the measurement of its EDM has the potential of improving on the current best EDM limit for a paramagnetic atom which comes from thallium. We report the results of our calculations of the EDM enhancement factor due to the electron EDM and the ratio of the atomic EDM to the electron-nucleus scalar-pseudoscalar (S-PS) interaction coupling constant in In in the framework of the relativistic coupled cluster theory. It might be possible to get new limits for the electron EDM and the S-PS CP violating coupling constant by combining the results of our calculations with the measured value of the EDM of In when it is available. These limits could have important implications for the standard model (SM) of particle physics.Comment: 5 pages, 1 fig, Rapid Communicatio

Optical observations of the bright long duration peculiar GRB 021004 afterglow

The CCD magnitudes in Johnson $B,V$ and Cousins $R$ and $I$ photometric passbands are determined for the bright long duration GRB 021004 afterglow from 2002 October 4 to 16 starting $\sim$ 3 hours after the $\gamma-$ray burst. Light curves of the afterglow emission in $B$,$V$,$R$ and $I$ passbands are obtained by combining these measurements with other published data. The earliest optical emission appears to originate in a revese shock. Flux decay of the afterglow shows a very uncommon variation relative to other well-observed GRBs. Rapid light variations, especially during early times ($\Delta t < 2$ days) is superposed on an underlying broken power law decay typical of a jetted afterglow. The flux decay constants at early and late times derived from least square fits to the light curve are $0.99\pm0.05$ and $2.0\pm0.2$ respectively, with a jet break at around 7 day. Comparison with a standard fireball model indicates a total extinction of $E(B-V)=0.20$ mag in the direction of the burst. Our low-resolution spectra corrected for this extinction provide a spectral slope $\beta = 0.6\pm0.02$. This value and the flux decay constants agree well with the electron energy index $p\sim 2.27$ used in the model. The derived jet opening angle of about $7^{\circ}$ implies a total emitted gamma-ray energy $E_{\gamma} = 3.5\times10^{50}$ erg at a cosmological distance of about 20 Gpc. Multiwavelength observations indicate association of this GRB with a star forming region, supporting the case for collapsar origin of long duration GRBs.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, BASI, 31, 1

Multiwavelength Study of NGC 281 Region

We present a multiwavelength study of the NGC 281 complex which contains the young cluster IC 1590 at the center, using deep wide-field optical UBVI_c photometry, slitless spectroscopy along with archival data sets in the near-infrared (NIR) and X-ray. The extent of IC 1590 is estimated to be ~6.5 pc. The cluster region shows a relatively small amount of differential reddening. The majority of the identified young stellar objects (YSOs) are low mass PMS stars having age <1-2 Myr and mass 0.5-3.5 M_\odot. The slope (\Gamma) of the mass function for IC 1590, in the mass range 2 < M/M_\odot \le 54, is found to be -1.11+-0.15. The slope of the K-band luminosity function (0.37+-0.07) is similar to the average value (~0.4) reported for young clusters. The distribution of gas and dust obtained from the IRAS, CO and radio maps indicates clumpy structures around the central cluster. The radial distribution of the young stellar objects, their ages, \Delta(H-K) NIR-excess, and the fraction of classical T Tauri stars suggest triggered star formation at the periphery of the cluster region. However, deeper optical, NIR and MIR observations are needed to have a conclusive view of star formation scenario in the region. The properties of the Class 0/I and Class II sources detected by using the Spitzer mid-infrared observations indicate that a majority of the Class II sources are X-ray emitting stars, whereas X-ray emission is absent from the Class 0/I sources. The spatial distribution of Class 0/I and Class II sources reveals the presence of three sub-clusters in the NGC 281 West region.Comment: 29 pages, 21 figures and 11 tables, Accepted for the publication in PAS