The WHAM Northern Sky Survey and the Nature of the Warm Ionized Medium in the Galaxy

The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) has completed a velocity-resolved map of diffuse H-alpha emission of the entire northern sky, providing the first comprehensive picture of both the distribution and kinematics of diffuse ionized gas in the Galaxy. WHAM continues to advance our understanding of the physical conditions of the warm ionized medium through observations of other optical emission lines throughout the Galactic disk and halo. We discuss some highlights from the survey, including an optical window into the inner Galaxy and the relationship between HI and HII in the diffuse ISM.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. To be published in "How does the Galaxy work?", eds. E.J. Alfaro, E. Perez & J. Franco, Kluwer, held 23-27 June 2003 in Granada, Spain. Higher resolution version available at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~madsen/prof/pubs.htm

A pressure swing approach to selective CO2 sequestration using functionalized hypercrosslinked polymers

Functionalized hypercrosslinked polymers (HCPs) with surface areas between 213 and 1124 m2/g based on a range of monomers containing different chemical moieties were evaluated for CO2 capture using a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) methodology under humid conditions and elevated temperatures. The networks demonstrated rapid CO2 uptake reaching maximum uptakes in under 60 s. The most promising networks demonstrating the best selectivity and highest uptakes were applied to a pressure swing setup using simulated flue gas streams. The carbazole, triphenylmethanol and triphenylamine networks were found to be capable of converting a dilute CO2 stream (>20%) into a concentrated stream (>85%) after only two pressure swing cycles from 20 bar (adsorption) to 1 bar (desorption). This work demonstrates the ease with which readily synthesized functional porous materials can be successfully applied to a pressure swing methodology and used to separate CO2 from N2 from industrially applicable simulated gas streams under more realistic conditions

A pressure swing approach to selective CO2 sequestration using functionalised hypercrosslinked polymers

Functionalised hypercrosslinked polymers (HCPs) with surface areas between 213 – 1124 m^2/g based on a range of monomers containing different chemical moieties are evaluated for CO2 capture using a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) methodology under humid conditions and elevated temperatures. The networks demonstrated rapid CO2 uptake reaching maximum uptakes in under 60 seconds. The most promising networks demonstrating the best selectivity and highest uptakes were applied to a pressure swing setup using simulated flue gas streams. The carbazole, triphenylmethanol and triphenylamine networks were found to be capable of converting a dilute CO2 stream (> 20 %) into a concentrated stream (> 85 %) after only two pressure swing cycles from 20 bar (adsorption) to 1 bar (desorption). This work demonstrates the ease by which readily synthesised functional porous materials can be successfully applied to a pressure swing methodology and used to separate CO2 from N2 from industrially applicable simulated gas streams under more realistic conditions

A general assessment of environmental and biological features of Windermere and their susceptibility to change

Bassenthwaite (Lake) is one of the larger Cumbrian lakes, certainly one of the most distinctive, and of considerable conservation and amenity value. Although its shores lack sizeable settlements, its main inflow receives sewage effluent from a major tourist centre (Keswick) and is subject to episodic floods. These influences, the growing development of leisure activities at the lake (e.g. sailing, time-share units), and recent road-construction, have led to past appraisals of ecological impacts and lake management. The lake has not been the subject of intense and long-term ecological study, but much scattered information exists that is relevant to future management decisions. In the present Report, commissioned by North West Water, such information - published and unpublished - is surveyed. Especial attention is given to evidence bearing on susceptibility to change, affecting the lake environment and its biota or species of conservation interest. Extensive use has been made of the results of a recent (1986-7) seasonal survey by the FBA

Natural Orbitals and BEC in traps, a diffusion Monte Carlo analysis

We investigate the properties of hard core Bosons in harmonic traps over a wide range of densities. Bose-Einstein condensation is formulated using the one-body Density Matrix (OBDM) which is equally valid at low and high densities. The OBDM is calculated using diffusion Monte Carlo methods and it is diagonalized to obtain the "natural" single particle orbitals and their occupation, including the condensate fraction. At low Boson density, $na^3 < 10^{-5}$, where $n = N/V$ and $a$ is the hard core diameter, the condensate is localized at the center of the trap. As $na^3$ increases, the condensate moves to the edges of the trap. At high density it is localized at the edges of the trap. At $na^3 \leq 10^{-4}$ the Gross-Pitaevskii theory of the condensate describes the whole system within 1%. At $na^3 \approx 10^{-3}$ corrections are 3% to the GP energy but 30% to the Bogoliubov prediction of the condensate depletion. At $na^3 \gtrsim 10^{-2}$, mean field theory fails. At $na^3 \gtrsim 0.1$, the Bosons behave more like a liquid $^4$He droplet than a trapped Boson gas.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, submitted Phys. Rev.

The 3D Structure of N132D in the LMC: A Late-Stage Young Supernova Remnant

We have used the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) on the 2.3m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory to map the [O III] 5007{\AA} dynamics of the young oxygen-rich supernova remnant N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud. From the resultant data cube, we have been able to reconstruct the full 3D structure of the system of [O III] filaments. The majority of the ejecta form a ring of ~12pc in diameter inclined at an angle of 25 degrees to the line of sight. We conclude that SNR N132D is approaching the end of the reverse shock phase before entering the fully thermalized Sedov phase of evolution. We speculate that the ring of oxygen-rich material comes from ejecta in the equatorial plane of a bipolar explosion, and that the overall shape of the SNR is strongly influenced by the pre-supernova mass loss from the progenitor star. We find tantalizing evidence of a polar jet associated with a very fast oxygen-rich knot, and clear evidence that the central star has interacted with one or more dense clouds in the surrounding ISM.Comment: Accepted for Publication in Astrophysics & Space Science, 18pp, 8 figure

Magnetic fields in cosmic particle acceleration sources

We review here some magnetic phenomena in astrophysical particle accelerators associated with collisionless shocks in supernova remnants, radio galaxies and clusters of galaxies. A specific feature is that the accelerated particles can play an important role in magnetic field evolution in the objects. We discuss a number of CR-driven, magnetic field amplification processes that are likely to operate when diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) becomes efficient and nonlinear. The turbulent magnetic fields produced by these processes determine the maximum energies of accelerated particles and result in specific features in the observed photon radiation of the sources. Equally important, magnetic field amplification by the CR currents and pressure anisotropies may affect the shocked gas temperatures and compression, both in the shock precursor and in the downstream flow, if the shock is an efficient CR accelerator. Strong fluctuations of the magnetic field on scales above the radiation formation length in the shock vicinity result in intermittent structures observable in synchrotron emission images. Resonant and non-resonant CR streaming instabilities in the shock precursor can generate mesoscale magnetic fields with scale-sizes comparable to supernova remnants and even superbubbles. This opens the possibility that magnetic fields in the earliest galaxies were produced by the first generation Population III supernova remnants and by clustered supernovae in star forming regions.Comment: 30 pages, Space Science Review

Stellar structure and compact objects before 1940: Towards relativistic astrophysics

Since the mid-1920s, different strands of research used stars as "physics laboratories" for investigating the nature of matter under extreme densities and pressures, impossible to realize on Earth. To trace this process this paper is following the evolution of the concept of a dense core in stars, which was important both for an understanding of stellar evolution and as a testing ground for the fast-evolving field of nuclear physics. In spite of the divide between physicists and astrophysicists, some key actors working in the cross-fertilized soil of overlapping but different scientific cultures formulated models and tentative theories that gradually evolved into more realistic and structured astrophysical objects. These investigations culminated in the first contact with general relativity in 1939, when J. Robert Oppenheimer and his students George Volkoff and Hartland Snyder systematically applied the theory to the dense core of a collapsing neutron star. This pioneering application of Einstein's theory to an astrophysical compact object can be regarded as a milestone in the path eventually leading to the emergence of relativistic astrophysics in the early 1960s.Comment: 83 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the European Physical Journal