19 research outputs found
Interstellar Turbulence II: Implications and Effects
Interstellar turbulence has implications for the dispersal and mixing of the
elements, cloud chemistry, cosmic ray scattering, and radio wave propagation
through the ionized medium. This review discusses the observations and theory
of these effects. Metallicity fluctuations are summarized, and the theory of
turbulent transport of passive tracers is reviewed. Modeling methods, turbulent
concentration of dust grains, and the turbulent washout of radial abundance
gradients are discussed. Interstellar chemistry is affected by turbulent
transport of various species between environments with different physical
properties and by turbulent heating in shocks, vortical dissipation regions,
and local regions of enhanced ambipolar diffusion. Cosmic rays are scattered
and accelerated in turbulent magnetic waves and shocks, and they generate
turbulence on the scale of their gyroradii. Radio wave scintillation is an
important diagnostic for small scale turbulence in the ionized medium, giving
information about the power spectrum and amplitude of fluctuations. The theory
of diffraction and refraction is reviewed, as are the main observations and
scintillation regions.Comment: 46 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Annual Reviews of Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Cosmic rays and molecular clouds
This paper deals with the cosmic-ray penetration into molecular clouds and
with the related gamma--ray emission. High energy cosmic rays interact with the
dense gas and produce neutral pions which in turn decay into two gamma rays.
This makes molecular clouds potential sources of gamma rays, especially if they
are located in the vicinity of a powerful accelerator that injects cosmic rays
in the interstellar medium. The amplitude and duration in time of the
cosmic--ray overdensity around a given source depend on how quickly cosmic rays
diffuse in the turbulent galactic magnetic field. For these reasons, gamma-ray
observations of molecular clouds can be used both to locate the sources of
cosmic rays and to constrain the properties of cosmic-ray diffusion in the
Galaxy.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the San Cugat Forum on Astrophysics
2012, 27 pages, 10 figure
Diffuse Gamma Rays: Galactic and Extragalactic Diffuse Emission
"Diffuse" gamma rays consist of several components: truly diffuse emission
from the interstellar medium, the extragalactic background, whose origin is not
firmly established yet, and the contribution from unresolved and faint Galactic
point sources. One approach to unravel these components is to study the diffuse
emission from the interstellar medium, which traces the interactions of high
energy particles with interstellar gas and radiation fields. Because of its
origin such emission is potentially able to reveal much about the sources and
propagation of cosmic rays. The extragalactic background, if reliably
determined, can be used in cosmological and blazar studies. Studying the
derived "average" spectrum of faint Galactic sources may be able to give a clue
to the nature of the emitting objects.Comment: 32 pages, 28 figures, kapproc.cls. Chapter to the book "Cosmic
Gamma-Ray Sources," to be published by Kluwer ASSL Series, Edited by K. S.
Cheng and G. E. Romero. More details can be found at
http://www.gamma.mpe-garching.mpg.de/~aws/aws.htm
The effects of the Islamic revolution and the gulf war on Iran's economy
The Islamic revolution, followed by the eight-year Gulf war, has caused severe disruption and extensive changes in the structure of the Iranian economy. This thesis is concerned with an analytical study of Iran’s economy In the period from the Shah's western-style modernisation to the Islamic revolution and the war with Iraq. Thus, the thesis provides first, an overview of the economic development and industrialisation activity under the Shah, which glides a yardstick for understanding the post-revolutionary economy. Secondly, the thesis examines the concept of Islamic economics as articulated by the prominent contemporary Shi'i figures that continue to influence the post-revolutionary economic policies. Thirdly, the major part of the thesis devotes considerable attention to the study and evaluation of the post-revolutionary economy, focusing on agriculture, industry, foreign and domestic trade. Islamic balancing, public finance, the oil sector and the oil war. The latter was a determining factor in the continuation of the Gulf war. The appraisal and the overall picture of the post-revolutionary economy makes bleak reading. The negative Impact of the revolution and the war has left Iran with a shattered infrastructure and a moribund industrial base. Unprecedented destruction of wealth, both in human and non-human terms, has further exacerbated the pre-revolutionary economic problems. The politico-religious government has not been able to address the country's economic Ills effectively, partly owing to self -imposed constraints. A lack of active and structured economic policies has adversely affected all sectors of the economy, in particular, agriculture. While facing the daunting task of post-war reconstruction, Iran, more than ever before, is dependent on trading oil in exchange for basic commodities and consumer goods
Cosmic Ray Anomalies from the MSSM?
The recent positron excess in cosmic rays (CR) observed by the PAMELA
satellite may be a signal for dark matter (DM) annihilation. When these
measurements are combined with those from FERMI on the total () flux
and from PAMELA itself on the ratio, these and other results are
difficult to reconcile with traditional models of DM, including the
conventional mSUGRA version of Supersymmetry even if boosts as large as
are allowed. In this paper, we combine the results of a previously
obtained scan over a more general 19-parameter subspace of the MSSM with a
corresponding scan over astrophysical parameters that describe the propagation
of CR. We then ascertain whether or not a good fit to this CR data can be
obtained with relatively small boost factors while simultaneously satisfying
the additional constraints arising from gamma ray data. We find that a specific
subclass of MSSM models where the LSP is mostly pure bino and annihilates
almost exclusively into pairs comes very close to satisfying these
requirements. The lightest in this set of models is found to be
relatively close in mass to the LSP and is in some cases the nLSP. These models
lead to a significant improvement in the overall fit to the data by an amount
dof in comparison to the best fit without Supersymmetry
while employing boosts . The implications of these models for future
experiments are discussed.Comment: 57 pages, 31 figures, references adde
Cosmic-ray propagation and interactions in the Galaxy
Key Words energetic particles, gamma rays, interstellar medium, magnetic fields, plasmas This draft was made on January 18, 2007. We survey the theory and experimental tests for the propagation of cosmic rays in the Galaxy up to energies of 10 15 eV. A guide to the previous reviews and essential literature is given, followed by an exposition of basic principles. The basic ideas of cosmic-ray propagation are described, and the physical origin of its processes are explained. The various techniques for computing the observational consequences of the theory are described and contrasted. These include analytical and numerical techniques. We present the comparison of models with data including direct and indirect – especially gamma-ray – observations, and indicate what we can learn about cosmic-ray propagation. Some particular important topics including electrons and antiparticles are chosen for discussion