Explicit minimal Scherk saddle towers of arbitrary even genera in R3\R^3

Starting from works by Scherk (1835) and by Enneper-Weierstra\ss \ (1863), new minimal surfaces with Scherk ends were found only in 1988 by Karcher (see \cite{Karcher1,Karcher}). In the singly periodic case, Karcher's examples of positive genera had been unique until Traizet obtained new ones in 1996 (see \cite{Traizet}). However, Traizet's construction is implicit and excludes {\it towers}, namely the desingularisation of more than two concurrent planes. Then, new explicit towers were found only in 2006 by Martin and Ramos Batista (see \cite{Martin}), all of them with genus one. For genus two, the first such towers were constructed in 2010 (see \cite{Valerio2}). Back to 2009, implicit towers of arbitrary genera were found in \cite{HMM}. In our present work we obtain {\it explicit} minimal Scherk saddle towers, for any given genus $2k$, $k\ge3$

Weak decays of medium and heavy Lambda-hypernuclei

We have made a new evaluation of the Lambda decay width in nuclear matter within the Propagator Method. Through the Local Density Approximation it is possible to obtain results in finite nuclei. We have also studied the dependence of the widths on the N-N and Lambda-N short range correlations. Using reasonable values for the parameters that control these correlations, as well as realistic nuclear densities and Lambda wave functions, we reproduce, for the first time, the experimental non-mesonic widths in a wide range of mass numbers (from medium to heavy hypernuclei).Comment: 22 pages, including 5 figure

WISE morphological study of Wolf-Rayet nebulae

We present a morphological study of nebulae around Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars using archival narrow-band optical and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) infrared images. The comparison among WISE images in different bands and optical images proves to be a very efficient procedure to identify the nebular emission from WR nebulae, and to disentangle it from that of the ISM material along the line of sight. In particular, WR nebulae are clearly detected in the WISE W4 band at 22 $\mu$m. Analysis of available mid-IR Spitzer spectra shows that the emission in this band is dominated by thermal emission from dust spatially coincident with the thin nebular shell or most likely with the leading edge of the nebula. The WR nebulae in our sample present different morphologies that we classified into well defined WR bubbles (bubble ${\cal B}$-type nebulae), clumpy and/or disrupted shells (clumpy/disrupted ${\cal C}$-type nebulae), and material mixed with the diffuse medium (mixed ${\cal M}$-type nebulae). The variety of morphologies presented by WR nebulae shows a loose correlation with the central star spectral type, implying that the nebular and stellar evolutions are not simple and may proceed according to different sequences and time-lapses. We report the discovery of an obscured shell around WR35 only detected in the infrared.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, plus 23 appendix figures; to appear in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Hidden IR structures in NGC 40: signpost of an ancient born-again event

We present the analysis of infrared (IR) observations of the planetary nebula NGC 40 together with spectral analysis of its [WC]-type central star HD 826. Spitzer IRS observations were used to produce spectral maps centred at polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) bands and ionic transitions to compare their spatial distribution. The ionic lines show a clumpy distribution of material around the main cavity of NGC 40, with the emission from [Ar II] being the most extended, whilst the PAHs show a rather smooth spatial distribution. Analysis of ratio maps shows the presence of a toroidal structure mainly seen in PAH emission, but also detected in a Herschel PACS 70 mic image. We argue that the toroidal structure absorbs the UV flux from HD 826, preventing the nebula to exhibit lines of high-excitation levels as suggested by previous authors. We discuss the origin of this structure and the results from the spectral analysis of HD 826 under the scenario of a late thermal pulse.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures; Accepted to MNRA