1,899 research outputs found
Detection of nonthermal emission from the bow shock of a massive runaway star
The environs of massive, early-type stars have been inspected in recent years
in the search for sites where particles can be accelerated up to relativistic
energies. Wind regions of massive binaries that collide have already been
established as sources of high-energy emission; however, there is a different
scenario for massive stars where strong shocks can also be produced: the
bow-shaped region of matter piled up by the action of the stellar strong wind
of a runaway star interacting with the interstellar medium. We study the
bow-shock region produced by a very massive runaway star, BD+43 3654, to look
for nonthermal radio emission as evidence of a relativistic particle
population. We observed the field of BD+43 3654 at two frequencies, 1.42 and
4.86 GHz, with the Very Large Array (VLA), and obtained a spectral index map of
the radio emission. We have detected, for the first time, nonthermal radio
emission from the bow shock of a massive runaway star. After analyzing the
radiative mechanisms that can be at work, we conclude that the region under
study could produce enough relativistic particles whose radiation might be
detectable by forthcoming gamma-ray instruments, like CTA North.Comment: Accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letter
What Do Students Know? Knowledge of Effective Studying Strategies, Academic Achievement, & Self-Efficacy
Managing one’s own learning becomes increasingly important as students move through the educational system, taking on particular importance in college.1 To be successful, students must not only have the capacity for learning, but also engage in particular behaviors to help them learn. The present study investigated students’ knowledge of effective study strategies and whether such knowledge has a relationship with academic achievement, academic self-efficacy, and procrastination
Traces of Thermalization from Transverse Momentum Fluctuations in Nuclear Collisions
Scattering of particles produced in Au+Au collisions at RHIC can wrestle the
system into a state near local thermal equilibrium. I illustrate how
measurements of the centrality dependence of the mean transverse momentum and
its fluctuations can exhibit this thermalization.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figures, final version to appear in PR
Quark coalescence in the mid rapidity region at RHIC
We utilize the ALCOR model for mid-rapidity hadron number predictions at AGS,
SPS and RHIC energies. We present simple fits for the energy dependence of
stopping and quark production.Comment: Talk given at SQM2001, Frankfurt, (LaTeX 8 pages, 5 .ps figs
A Candidate Protoplanet in the Taurus Star Forming Region
HST/NICMOS images of the class I protostar TMR-1 (IRAS04361+2547) reveal a
faint companion with 10.0" = 1400 AU projected separation. The central
protostar is itself resolved as a close binary with 0.31" = 42 AU separation,
surrounded by circumstellar reflection nebulosity. A long narrow filament seems
to connect the protobinary to the faint companion TMR-1C, suggesting a physical
association. If the sources are physically related then we hypothesize that
TMR-1C has been ejected by the protobinary. If TMR-1C has the same age and
distance as the protobinary then current models indicate its flux is consistent
with a young giant planet of several Jovian masses.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, Accepted by Astrophysical Journal Letters,
Related information is available at http://www.extrasolar.co
CO emission and variable CH and CH+ absorption towards HD34078: evidence for a nascent bow shock ?
The runaway star HD34078, initially selected to investigate small scale
structure in a foreground diffuse cloud has been shown to be surrounded by
highly excited H2. We first search for an association between the foreground
cloud and HD34078. Second, we extend previous investigations of temporal
absorption line variations (CH, CH+, H2) in order to better characterize them.
We have mapped the CO(2-1) emission at 12 arcsec resolution around HD34078's
position, using the 30 m IRAM antenna. The follow-up of CH and CH+ absorption
lines has been extended over 5 more years. In parallel, CH absorption towards
the reddened star Zeta Per have been monitored to check the homogeneity of our
measurements. Three more FUSE spectra have been obtained to search for N(H2)
variations. CO observations show a pronounced maximum near HD34078's position,
clearly indicating that the star and diffuse cloud are associated. The optical
spectra confirm the reality of strong, rapid and correlated CH and CH+
fluctuations. On the other hand, N(H2, J=0) has varied by less than 5 % over 4
years. We also discard N(CH) variations towards Zeta Per at scales less than 20
AU. Observational constraints from this work and from 24 micron dust emission
appear to be consistent with H2 excitation but inconsistent with steady-state
bow shock models and rather suggest that the shell of compressed gas
surrounding HD34078, is seen at an early stage of the interaction. The CH and
CH+ time variations as well as their large abundances are likely due to
chemical structure in the shocked gas layer located at the stellar wind/ambient
cloud interface. Finally, the lack of variations for both N(H2, J=0) towards
HD34078 and N(CH) towards Zeta Per suggests that quiescent molecular gas is not
subject to pronounced small-scale structure.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Alignement experience in STAR
The STAR experiment at RHIC uses four layers of silicon strip and silicon drift detectors for secondary vertex reconstruction. An attempt for a direct charm meson measurement put stringent requirements on alignment and calibration. We report on recent alignment and drift velocity calibration work performed on the inner silicon tracking system
An IR Search for Extinguished Supernovae in Starburst Galaxies
IR and Radio band observations of heavily extinguished regions in starburst
galaxies suggest a very high SN rate associated with such regions. Optically
measured supernova (SN) rates may therefore underestimate the total SN rate by
factors of up to 10, due to the high extinction to SNe in starburst regions.
The IR/radio SN rates come from a variety of indirect means, however, which
suffer from model dependence and other problems.
We describe a direct measurement of the SN rate from a regular patrol of
starburst galaxies done with K' band imaging to minimize the effects of
extinction. A collection of K' measurements of core-collapse SNe near maximum
light is presented. Results of a preliminary SN search using the MIRC camera at
the Wyoming IR Observatory (WIRO), and an improved search using the ORCA optics
are described. A monthly patrol of starburst galaxies within 25 Mpc should
yield 1.6 - 9.6 SNe/year. Our MIRC search with low-resolution (2.2" pixels)
failed to find extinguished SNe, limiting the SN rate outside the nucleus (at >
15" radius) to less than 3.8 Supernova Rate Units (SRU or SNe/century/10^10
L(solar); 90% confidence). The MIRC camera had insufficient resolution to
search nuclear starburst regions, where SN activity is concentrated, explaining
why we found no heavily obscured SNe. We conclude that high-resolution, small
field SN searches in starburst nuclei are more productive than low resolution,
large-field searches, even for our large galaxies. With our ORCA
high-resolution optics, we could limit the total SN rate to < 1.3 SRU at 90%
confidence in 3 years of observations, lower than the most pessimistic
estimate.Comment: AJ Submitted 1998 Dec. 13. View figures and download all as one file
at http://panisse.lbl.gov/public/bruce/irs
Strongly coupled matter near phase transition
In the Hartree approximation of Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis (CJT) formalism of
the real scalar field theory, we show that for the strongly coupled scalar
system near phase transition, the shear viscosity over entropy density is
small, however, the bulk viscosity over entropy density is large. The large
bulk viscosity is related to the highly nonconformal equation of state. It is
found that the square of the sound velocity near phase transition is much
smaller than the conformal value 1/3, and the trace anomaly at phase transition
deviates far away from 0. These results agree well with the lattice results of
the complex QCD system near phase transition.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, contributed to the International
Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter 2008, Beijing, China, 6-10 October
200
E-BOSS: an Extensive stellar BOw Shock Survey. I: Methods and First Catalogue
Context: Bow shocks are produced by many astrophysical objects where shock
waves are present. Stellar bow shocks, generated by runaway stars, have been
previously detected in small numbers and well-studied. Along with progress in
model development and improvements in observing instruments, our knowledge of
the emission produced by these objects and its origin can now be more clearly
understood. Aims: We produce a stellar bow-shock catalogue by applying uniform
search criteria and a systematic search process. This catalogue is a starting
point for statistical studies, to help us address fundamental questions such
as, for instance, the conditions under wich a stellar bow shock is detectable.
Methods: By using the newest infrared data releases, we carried out a search
for bow shocks produced by early-type runaway stars. We first explored whether
a set of known IRAS bow shock candidates are visible in the most recently
available IR data, which has much higher resolution and sensitivity. We then
carried out a selection of runaway stars from the latest, large runaway
catalogue available. In this first release, we focused on OB stars and searched
for bow-shaped features in the vicinity of these stars. Results: We provide a
bow-shock candidate survey that gathers a total of 28 members which we call the
Extensive stellar BOw Shock Survey (E-BOSS). We derive the main bow-shock
parameters, and present some preliminary statistical results on the detected
objects. Conclusions: Our analysis of the initial sample and the newly detected
objects yields a bow-shock detectability around OB stars of 10 per cent.
The detections do not seem to depend particularly on either stellar mass, age
or position. The extension of the E-BOSS sample, with upcoming IR data, and by
considering, for example, other spectral types as well, will allow us to
perform a more detailed study of the findings.Comment: A&A accepted (25-NOV-2011), 15 pages, 4 tables, 11 figure
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