2,487 research outputs found
Failure of hydrogenation in protecting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from fragmentation
A recent study of soft X-ray absorption in native and hydrogenated coronene
cations, CH , led to the conclusion that additional
hydrogen atoms protect (interstellar) Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH)
molecules from fragmentation [Reitsma et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 053002
(2014)]. The present experiment with collisions between fast (30-200 eV) He
atoms and pyrene (CH, , 6, and 16) and simulations
without reference to the excitation method suggests the opposite. We find that
the absolute carbon-backbone fragmentation cross section does not decrease but
increases with the degree of hydrogenation for pyrene molecules.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Statistical vibrational autodetachment and radiative cooling rates of para-benzoquinone
We report measurements of the statistical vibrational autodetachment (VAD, also called thermionic emission) and radiative cooling rates of isolated para-benzoquinone (pBQ, C6H4O2) radical anions using the cryogenic electrostatic ion storage ring facility DESIREE. The results are interpreted using master equation simulations with rate coefficients calculated using statistical detailed balance theory. The VAD rate is determined by measuring the time-dependent yield of neutral pBQ due to spontaneous electron emission from a highly-excited ensemble of anions formed in an electron-attachment ion source. Competition with radiative cooling quenches the VAD rate after a critical time of τc = 11.00(5) ms. Master equation simulations which reproduce the VAD yield provide an estimate of the initial effective vibrational temperature of the ions of 1100(20) K, and provide insight into the anion formation scenario. A second measurement of the radiative cooling rate of pBQ− stored for up to 0.5 s was achieved using time-dependent photodetachment action spectroscopy across the 2Au ← 2B2g and 2B2u ← 2B2g transitions. The rate at which hot-band contributions fade from the action spectrum is quantified by non-negative matrix factorisation. This is found to be commensurate with the average vibrational energy extracted from the simulations, with 1/e lifetimes of 0.16(3) s and 0.1602(7) s, respectively. Implications for astrochemistry are discussed
The Mass-Radius Relationship for Very Low Mass Stars: Four New Discoveries from the HATSouth Survey
We report the discovery of four transiting F-M binary systems with companions
between 0.1-0.2 Msun in mass by the HATSouth survey. These systems have been
characterised via a global analysis of the HATSouth discovery data, combined
with high-resolution radial velocities and accurate transit photometry
observations. We determined the masses and radii of the component stars using a
combination of two methods: isochrone fitting of spectroscopic primary star
parameters, and equating spectroscopic primary star rotation velocity with
spin-orbit synchronisation. These new very low mass companions are HATS550-016B
(0.110 -0.006/+0.005 Msun, 0.147 -0.004/+0.003 Rsun), HATS551-019B (0.17
-0.01/+0.01 Msun, 0.18 -0.01/+0.01 Rsun), HATS551-021B (0.132 -0.005/+0.014
Msun, 0.154 -0.008/+0.006 Rsun), HATS553-001B (0.20 -0.02/+0.01 Msun, 0.22
-0.01/+0.01 Rsun). We examine our sample in the context of the radius anomaly
for fully-convective low mass stars. Combining our sample with the 13 other
well-studied very low mass stars, we find a tentative 5% systematic deviation
between the measured radii and theoretical isochrone models.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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