The evolution of rotating stars

First, we review the main physical effects to be considered in the building of evolutionary models of rotating stars on the Upper Main-Sequence (MS). The internal rotation law evolves as a result of contraction and expansion, meridional circulation, diffusion processes and mass loss. In turn, differential rotation and mixing exert a feedback on circulation and diffusion, so that a consistent treatment is necessary. We review recent results on the evolution of internal rotation and the surface rotational velocities for stars on the Upper MS, for red giants, supergiants and W-R stars. A fast rotation is enhancing the mass loss by stellar winds and reciprocally high mass loss is removing a lot of angular momentum. The problem of the ``break-up'' or $\Omega$-limit is critically examined in connection with the origin of Be and LBV stars. The effects of rotation on the tracks in the HR diagram, the lifetimes, the isochrones, the blue to red supergiant ratios, the formation of W-R stars, the chemical abundances in massive stars as well as in red giants and AGB stars, are reviewed in relation to recent observations for stars in the Galaxy and Magellanic Clouds. The effects of rotation on the final stages and on the chemical yields are examined, as well as the constraints placed by the periods of pulsars. On the whole, this review points out that stellar evolution is not only a function of mass M and metallicity Z, but of angular velocity $\Omega$ as well.Comment: 78 pages, 7 figures, review for Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 38 (2000

Star forming dwarf galaxies

Star forming dwarf galaxies (SFDGs) have a high gas content and low metallicities, reminiscent of the basic entities in hierarchical galaxy formation scenarios. In the young universe they probably also played a major role in the cosmic reionization. Their abundant presence in the local volume and their youthful character make them ideal objects for detailed studies of the initial stellar mass function (IMF), fundamental star formation processes and its feedback to the interstellar medium. Occasionally we witness SFDGs involved in extreme starbursts, giving rise to strongly elevated production of super star clusters and global superwinds, mechanisms yet to be explored in more detail. SFDGs is the initial state of all dwarf galaxies and the relation to the environment provides us with a key to how different types of dwarf galaxies are emerging. In this review we will put the emphasis on the exotic starburst phase, as it seems less important for present day galaxy evolution but perhaps fundamental in the initial phase of galaxy formation.Comment: To appear in JENAM Symposium "Dwarf Galaxies: Keys to Galaxy Formation and Evolution", P. Papaderos, G. Hensler, S. Recchi (eds.). Lisbon, September 2010, Springer Verlag, in pres

A surge of light at the birth of a supernova.

It is difficult to establish the properties of massive stars that explode as supernovae. The electromagnetic emission during the first minutes to hours after the emergence of the shock from the stellar surface conveys important information about the final evolution and structure of the exploding star. However, the unpredictable nature of supernova events hinders the detection of this brief initial phase. Here we report the serendipitous discovery of a newly born, normal type IIb supernova (SN 2016gkg), which reveals a rapid brightening at optical wavelengths of about 40 magnitudes per day. The very frequent sampling of the observations allowed us to study in detail the outermost structure of the progenitor of the supernova and the physics of the emergence of the shock. We develop hydrodynamical models of the explosion that naturally account for the complete evolution of the supernova over distinct phases regulated by different physical processes. This result suggests that it is appropriate to decouple the treatment of the shock propagation from the unknown mechanism that triggers the explosion

Physical conditions and chemical abundances in photoionized nebulae from optical spectra

This chapter presents a review on the latest advances in the computation of physical conditions and chemical abundances of elements present in photoionized gas H II regions and planetary nebulae). The arrival of highly sensitive spectrographs attached to large telescopes and the development of more sophisticated and detailed atomic data calculations and ionization correction factors have helped to raise the number of ionic species studied in photoionized nebulae in the last years, as well as to reduce the uncertainties in the computed abundances. Special attention will be given to the detection of very faint lines such as heavy-element recombination lines of C, N and O in H II regions and planetary nebulae, and collisionally excited lines of neutron-capture elements (Z >30) in planetary nebulae.Comment: Book Chapter. 31 pages. 6 Figures. Accepted for publication in the book "Reviews in Frontiers of Modern Astrophysics: From Space Debris to Cosmology" (eds Kabath, Jones and Skarka; publisher Springer Nature) funded by the European Union Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership grant "Per Aspera Ad Astra Simul" 2017-1-CZ01-KA203-03556

A mildly relativistic radio jet from the otherwise normal type Ic supernova 2007gr

Original article can be found at: http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html Copyright Nature Publishing Group.Type Ic supernovae have drawn attention since 1998 owing to their sparse association with long duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs). Although the GRB central engine generates ultra-relativistic jets, no relativistic outflows have yet been found in type Ib/c supernovae explosions. Here, radio observations reveal a mildly relativistic expansion in a nearby type Ic supernova, SN 2007gr.Peer reviewe

Peculiar motions of the gas at the centre of the barred galaxy UGC 4056

We derive the circular velocity curves of the gaseous and stellar discs of UGC 4056, a giant barred galaxy with an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We analyse UGC 4056 using the 2D spectroscopy obtained within the framework of the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey. Using images and the colour index g - r from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we determined the tilt of the galaxy, which allows us to conclude that the galaxy rotates clockwise with trailing spiral arms. We found that the gas motion at the central part of the UGC 4056 shows peculiar features. The rotation velocity of the gaseous disc shows a bump within around three kiloparsecs while the rotation velocity of the stellar disc falls smoothly to zero with decreasing galactocentric distance. We demonstrate that the peculiar radial velocities in the central part of the galaxy may be caused by the inflow of the gas towards the nucleus of the galaxy. The unusual motion of the gas takes place at the region with the AGN-like radiation and can be explained by the gas response to the bar potential.© ESO 2019We are grateful to the referee for his/her constructive comments. I.A.Z. thanks the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics for funding through its visitor's program. L.S.P., E.K.G., and I.A.Z. acknowledge support within the framework of Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB 881) on >The Milky Way System> (especially subproject A5), which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). L.S.P. and I.A.Z. thank for the hospitality of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut at Heidelberg University, where part of this investigation was carried out. I.A.Z. acknowledges the support of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine by the grant 417Kt and the support of the Volkswagen Foundation under the Trilateral Partnerships grant No. 90411. P.B. acknowledges the support of the Volkswagen Foundation under the Trilateral Partnerships grant 90411 and the support by the National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Science (NAOC/CAS) through the Silk Road Project, through the Thousand Talents (Qianren) program and the Presidents International Fellowship for Visiting Scientists and the National Science Foundation of China under grant No. 11673032. This work benefited from support by the International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland, through its International Team program ref. no. 393 >The Evolution of Rich Stellar Populations & BH Binaries> (2017-18). P.B. acknowledges the special support by the NASU under the Main Astronomical Observatory GRID/GPU computing cluster project. This work was partly funded by the subsidy allocated to Kazan Federal University for the state assignment in the sphere of scientific activities (L.S.P.). J.M.V. acknowledges support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the >Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa> award for the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709), and from grant AYA2016-79724C4-4-P cofunded by FEDER. We acknowledge the usage of the HyperLeda database (http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr).Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the US Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS web site is www.sdss.org. SDSS-IV is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU)/University of Tokyo, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut fur Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut fur Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatories of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observatario Nacional/MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, United Kingdom Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University

The formation and assembly of a typical star-forming galaxy at redshift z\~3

Recent studies of galaxies ~2–3 Gyr after the Big Bang have revealed large, rotating disks, similar to those of galaxies today^(1,2). The existence of well-ordered rotation in galaxies during this peak epoch of cosmic star formation indicates that gas accretion is likely to be the dominant mode by which galaxies grow, because major mergers of galaxies would completely disrupt the observed velocity fields. But poor spatial resolution and sensitivity have hampered this interpretation; such studies have been limited to the largest and most luminous galaxies, which may have fundamentally different modes of assembly from those of more typical galaxies (which are thought to grow into the spheroidal components at the centres of galaxies similar to the Milky Way). Here we report observations of a typical star-forming galaxy at z = 3.07, with a linear resolution of ~100 parsecs. We find a well-ordered compact source in which molecular gas is being converted efficiently into stars, likely to be assembling a spheroidal bulge similar to those seen in spiral galaxies at the present day. The presence of undisrupted rotation may indicate that galaxies such as the Milky Way gain much of their mass by accretion rather than major mergers