1,218 research outputs found
Observational evidence of the formation of cyanopolyynes in CRL618 through the polimerization of HCN
The abundance ratio of consecutive members of the cyanopolyynes family has
been explored in CRL618 using data acquired in a complete line survey covering
the frequency range 81-356 GHz. The Jup range explored for the different
molecules is the following: 1 to 4 for HCN and HNC, 9 to 39 for HC3N, 31 to 133
for HC5N, and 72 to 85 for HC7N (not detected beyond Jup=85). The lowest
vibrationally excited state of HC7N (nu_15 at 62 cm^-1) has been tentatively
detected. Data analysis has been performed by extending our previous
geometrical and radiative transfer model of the slowly expanding envelope (SEE)
surrounding the compact central continuum source of CRL 618, that was
established from the study of rotational lines in several vibrationally excited
states of HC_3N. The new lines analyzed here require to model the high velocity
wind (HVW) component and the colder circumstellar gas, remnant of the AGB phase
of CRL618. The derived HC3N/HC5N and HC5N/HC7N abundance ratios from this set
of uniformly calibrated lines are between 3 and 6 in the different regions,
similar to standard values in the CSM and ISM, and consistent with previous
estimates obtained from ISO observations and chemical models. However, the
abundance ratios of HC3N, HC5N and HC7N with respect to HCN are at least two
orders of magnitude larger than those typical for AGB C-rich stars, such as
IRC+10216. This fact indicates that, in the short transition toward the
Planetary Nebula phase, HCN is quickly reprocessed into longer cyanopolyyne
chains. A similar behavior was previously found in this object for the
polyacetylenic chains (C(2n)H2).Comment: 8 figures, accepted in ApJ main journa
Elastic and Raman scattering of 9.0 and 11.4 MeV photons from Au, Dy and In
Monoenergetic photons between 8.8 and 11.4 MeV were scattered elastically and
in elastically (Raman) from natural targets of Au, Dy and In.15 new cross
sections were measured. Evidence is presented for a slight deformation in the
197Au nucleus, generally believed to be spherical. It is predicted, on the
basis of these measurements, that the Giant Dipole Resonance of Dy is very
similar to that of 160Gd. A narrow isolated resonance at 9.0 MeV is observed in
In.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure
Approximated maximum likelihood estimation in multifractal random walks
We present an approximated maximum likelihood method for the multifractal
random walk processes of [E. Bacry et al., Phys. Rev. E 64, 026103 (2001)]. The
likelihood is computed using a Laplace approximation and a truncation in the
dependency structure for the latent volatility. The procedure is implemented as
a package in the R computer language. Its performance is tested on synthetic
data and compared to an inference approach based on the generalized method of
moments. The method is applied to estimate parameters for various financial
stock indices.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
Shedding light on the formation of the pre-biotic molecule formamide with ASAI
Formamide (NH2CHO) has been proposed as a pre-biotic precursor with a key
role in the emergence of life on Earth. While this molecule has been observed
in space, most of its detections correspond to high-mass star-forming regions.
Motivated by this lack of investigation in the low-mass regime, we searched for
formamide, as well as isocyanic acid (HNCO), in 10 low- and intermediate-mass
pre-stellar and protostellar objects. The present work is part of the IRAM
Large Programme ASAI (Astrochemical Surveys At IRAM), which makes use of
unbiased broadband spectral surveys at millimetre wavelengths. We detected HNCO
in all the sources and NH2CHO in five of them. We derived their abundances and
analysed them together with those reported in the literature for high-mass
sources. For those sources with formamide detection, we found a tight and
almost linear correlation between HNCO and NH2CHO abundances, with their ratio
being roughly constant -between 3 and 10- across 6 orders of magnitude in
luminosity. This suggests the two species are chemically related. The sources
without formamide detection, which are also the coldest and devoid of hot
corinos, fall well off the correlation, displaying a much larger amount of HNCO
relative to NH2CHO. Our results suggest that, while HNCO can be formed in the
gas phase during the cold stages of star formation, NH2CHO forms most
efficiently on the mantles of dust grains at these temperatures, where it
remains frozen until the temperature rises enough to sublimate the icy grain
mantles. We propose hydrogenation of HNCO as a likely formation route leading
to NH2CHO.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures. Accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Societ
Hubble Space Telescope Survey of Interstellar ^12CO/^13CO in the Solar Neighborhood
We examine 20 diffuse and translucent Galactic sight lines and extract the
column densities of the ^12CO and ^13CO isotopologues from their ultraviolet
A--X absorption bands detected in archival Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
data with lambda/Deltalambda geq 46,000. Five more targets with Goddard
High-Resolution Spectrograph data are added to the sample that more than
doubles the number of sight lines with published Hubble Space Telescope
observations of ^13CO. Most sight lines have 12-to-13 isotopic ratios that are
not significantly different from the local value of 70 for ^12C/^13C, which is
based on mm-wave observations of rotational lines in emission from CO and H_2CO
inside dense molecular clouds, as well as on results from optical measurements
of CH^+. Five of the 25 sight lines are found to be fractionated toward lower
12-to-13 values, while three sight lines in the sample are fractionated toward
higher ratios, signaling the predominance of either isotopic charge exchange or
selective photodissociation, respectively. There are no obvious trends of the
^12CO-to-^13CO ratio with physical conditions such as gas temperature or
density, yet ^12CO/^13CO does vary in a complicated manner with the column
density of either CO isotopologue, owing to varying levels of competition
between isotopic charge exchange and selective photodissociation in the
fractionation of CO. Finally, rotational temperatures of H_2 show that all
sight lines with detected amounts of ^13CO pass through gas that is on average
colder by 20 K than the gas without ^13CO. This colder gas is also sampled by
CN and C_2 molecules, the latter indicating gas kinetic temperatures of only 28
K, enough to facilitate an efficient charge exchange reaction that lowers the
value of ^12CO/^13CO.Comment: 1-column emulateapj, 23 pages, 9 figure
Lognormal scale invariant random measures
In this article, we consider the continuous analog of the celebrated
Mandelbrot star equation with lognormal weights. Mandelbrot introduced this
equation to characterize the law of multiplicative cascades. We show existence
and uniqueness of measures satisfying the aforementioned continuous equation;
these measures fall under the scope of the Gaussian multiplicative chaos theory
developed by J.P. Kahane in 1985 (or possibly extensions of this theory). As a
by product, we also obtain an explicit characterization of the covariance
structure of these measures. We also prove that qualitative properties such as
long-range independence or isotropy can be read off the equation.Comment: 31 pages; Probability Theory and Related Fields (2012) electronic
versio
Exact and explicit probability densities for one-sided Levy stable distributions
We study functions g_{\alpha}(x) which are one-sided, heavy-tailed Levy
stable probability distributions of index \alpha, 0< \alpha <1, of fundamental
importance in random systems, for anomalous diffusion and fractional kinetics.
We furnish exact and explicit expression for g_{\alpha}(x), 0 \leq x < \infty,
satisfying \int_{0}^{\infty} exp(-p x) g_{\alpha}(x) dx = exp(-p^{\alpha}),
p>0, for all \alpha = l/k < 1, with k and l positive integers. We reproduce all
the known results given by k\leq 4 and present many new exact solutions for k >
4, all expressed in terms of known functions. This will allow a 'fine-tuning'
of \alpha in order to adapt g_{\alpha}(x) to a given experimental situation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures and 1 tabl
Exact asymptotics of the freezing transition of a logarithmically correlated random energy model
We consider a logarithmically correlated random energy model, namely a model
for directed polymers on a Cayley tree, which was introduced by Derrida and
Spohn. We prove asymptotic properties of a generating function of the partition
function of the model by studying a discrete time analogy of the KPP-equation -
thus translating Bramson's work on the KPP-equation into a discrete time case.
We also discuss connections to extreme value statistics of a branching random
walk and a rescaled multiplicative cascade measure beyond the critical point
Complex organics in IRAS 4A revisited with ALMA and PdBI: Striking contrast between two neighbouring protostellar cores
We used the Atacama Large (sub-)Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the IRAM Plateau
de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) to image, with an angular resolution of 0.5
(120 au) and 1 (235 au), respectively, the emission from 11 different
organic molecules in the protostellar binary NGC1333 IRAS 4A. We clearly
disentangled A1 and A2, the two protostellar cores present. For the first time,
we were able to derive the column densities and fractional abundances
simultaneously for the two objects, allowing us to analyse the chemical
differences between them. Molecular emission from organic molecules is
concentrated exclusively in A2 even though A1 is the strongest continuum
emitter. The protostellar core A2 displays typical hot corino abundances and
its deconvolved size is 70 au. In contrast, the upper limits we placed on
molecular abundances for A1 are extremely low, lying about one order of
magnitude below prestellar values. The difference in the amount of organic
molecules present in A1 and A2 ranges between one and two orders of magnitude.
Our results suggest that the optical depth of dust emission at these
wavelengths is unlikely to be sufficiently high to completely hide a hot corino
in A1 similar in size to that in A2. Thus, the significant contrast in
molecular richness found between the two sources is most probably real. We
estimate that the size of a hypothetical hot corino in A1 should be less than
12 au. Our results favour a scenario in which the protostar in A2 is either
more massive and/or subject to a higher accretion rate than A1, as a result of
inhomogeneous fragmentation of the parental molecular clump. This naturally
explains the smaller current envelope mass in A2 with respect to A1 along with
its molecular richness.Comment: Accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysic
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