539 research outputs found
An Observed Lack of Substructure in Starless Cores
In this paper we present the results of a high resolution (5") CARMA and SZA
survey of the 3mm continuum emission from 11 of the brightest (at 1.1mm)
starless cores in the Perseus molecular cloud. We detect 2 of the 11 cores,
both of which are composed of single structures, and the median 3 sigma upper
limit for the non-detections is 0.2 M_sun in a 5" beam. These results are
consisent with, and as stringent as, the low detection rate of compact 3mm
continuum emission in dense cores in Perseus reported by Olmi et al. (2005).
From the non-detection of multiple components in any of the eleven cores we
conclude that starless core mass functions derived from bolometer maps at
resolutions from 10"-30" (e.g. with MAMBO, SCUBA or Bolocam) are unlikely to be
significantly biased by the blending of lower mass cores with small
separations. These observations provide additional evidence that the majority
of starless cores in Perseus have inner density profiles shallower than r^-2.Comment: 9 pages, including 3 figures and 3 tables. Accepted to Ap
Abundant cyanopolyynes as a probe of infall in the Serpens South cluster-forming region
We have detected bright HC7N J = 21-20 emission toward multiple locations in
the Serpens South cluster-forming region using the K-Band Focal Plane Array at
the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. HC7N is seen primarily toward cold
filamentary structures that have yet to form stars, largely avoiding the dense
gas associated with small protostellar groups and the main central cluster of
Serpens South. Where detected, the HC7N abundances are similar to those found
in other nearby star forming regions. Toward some HC7N `clumps', we find
consistent variations in the line centroids relative to NH3 (1,1) emission, as
well as systematic increases in the HC7N non-thermal line widths, which we
argue reveal infall motions onto dense filaments within Serpens South with
minimum mass accretion rates of M ~ 2-5 M_sun Myr^-1. The relative abundance of
NH3 to HC7N suggests that the HC7N is tracing gas that has been at densities n
~ 10^4 cm^-3, for timescales t < 1-2 x 10^5 yr. Since HC7N emission peaks are
rarely co-located with those of either NH3 or continuum, it is likely that
Serpens South is not particularly remarkable in its abundance of HC7N, but
instead the serendipitous mapping of HC7N simultaneously with NH3 has allowed
us to detect HC7N at low abundances in regions where it otherwise may not have
been looked for. This result extends the known star-forming regions containing
significant HC7N emission from typically quiescent regions, like the Taurus
molecular cloud, to more complex, active environments.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, accepted to MNRAS. Version with full resolution
figures available at http://www.dunlap.utoronto.ca/~friesen/Friesen_HC7N.pd
TMC-1C: an accreting starless core
We have mapped the starless core TMC-1C in a variety of molecular lines with
the IRAM 30m telescope. High density tracers show clear signs of
self-absorption and sub-sonic infall asymmetries are present in N2H+ (1-0) and
DCO+ (2-1) lines. The inward velocity profile in N2H+ (1-0) is extended over a
region of about 7,000 AU in radius around the dust continuum peak, which is the
most extended ``infalling'' region observed in a starless core with this
tracer. The kinetic temperature (~12 K) measured from C17O and C18O suggests
that their emission comes from a shell outside the colder interior traced by
the mm continuum dust. The C18O (2-1) excitation temperature drops from 12 K to
~10 K away from the center. This is consistent with a volume density drop of
the gas traced by the C18O lines, from ~4x10^4 cm^-3 towards the dust peak to
~6x10^3 cm^-3 at a projected distance from the dust peak of 80" (or 11,000 AU).
The column density implied by the gas and dust show similar N2H+ and CO
depletion factors (f_D < 6). This can be explained with a simple scenario in
which: (i) the TMC-1C core is embedded in a relatively dense environment (H2
~10^4 cm^-3), where CO is mostly in the gas phase and the N2H+ abundance had
time to reach equilibrium values; (ii) the surrounding material (rich in CO and
N2H+) is accreting onto the dense core nucleus; (iii) TMC-1C is older than
3x10^5 yr, to account for the observed abundance of N2H+ across the core
(~10^-10 w.r.t. H2); and (iv) the core nucleus is either much younger (~10^4
yr) or ``undepleted'' material from the surrounding envelope has fallen towards
it in the past 10,000 yr.Comment: 29 pages, including 5 tables and 15 figure
Parameterizing the interstellar dust temperature
The temperature of interstellar dust particles is of great importance to
astronomers. It plays a crucial role in the thermodynamics of interstellar
clouds, because of the gas-dust collisional coupling. It is also a key
parameter in astrochemical studies that governs the rate at which molecules
form on dust. In 3D (magneto)hydrodynamic simulations often a simple expression
for the dust temperature is adopted, because of computational constraints,
while astrochemical modelers tend to keep the dust temperature constant over a
large range of parameter space. Our aim is to provide an easy-to-use parametric
expression for the dust temperature as a function of visual extinction () and to shed light on the critical dependencies of the dust temperature on
the grain composition. We obtain an expression for the dust temperature by
semi-analytically solving the dust thermal balance for different types of
grains and compare to a collection of recent observational measurements. We
also explore the effect of ices on the dust temperature. Our results show that
a mixed carbonaceous-silicate type dust with a high carbon volume fraction
matches the observations best. We find that ice formation allows the dust to be
warmer by up to 15% at high optical depths ( mag) in the
interstellar medium. Our parametric expression for the dust temperature is
presented as , where is in units of the Draine (1978) UV fieldComment: 16 pages, 17 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A.
Version 2: the omission of factor 0.921 in equation 4 is correcte
Pulmonary vasoconstrictor action of KCNQ potassium channel blockers
KCNQ channels have been widely studied in the nervous system, heart and inner ear, where they have important physiological functions. Recent reports indicate that KCNQ channels may also be expressed in portal vein where they are suggested to influence spontaneous contractile activity. The biophysical properties of K+ currents mediated by KCNQ channels resemble a current underlying the resting K+ conductance and resting potential of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. We therefore investigated a possible role of KCNQ channels in regulating the function of pulmonary arteries by determining the ability of the selective KCNQ channel blockers, linopirdine and XE991, to promote pulmonary vasoconstriction. Linopirdine and XE991 both contracted rat and mouse pulmonary arteries but had little effect on mesenteric arteries. In each case the maximum contraction was almost as large as the response to 50 mM K+. Linopirdine had an EC50 of around 1 μM and XE991 was almost 10-fold more potent. Neither removal of the endothelium nor exposure to phentolamine or α,β-methylene ATP, to block α1-adrenoceptors or P2X receptors, respectively, affected the contraction. Contraction was abolished in Ca2+-free solution and in the presence of 1 μM nifedipine or 10 μM levcromakalim
Background discrimination capabilities of a heat and ionization germanium cryogenic detector
The discrimination capabilities of a 70 g heat and ionization Ge bolometer
are studied. This first prototype has been used by the EDELWEISS Dark Matter
experiment, installed in the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane, for direct
detection of WIMPs. Gamma and neutron calibrations demonstrate that this type
of detector is able to reject more than 99.6% of the background while retaining
95% of the signal, provided that the background events distribution is not
biased towards the surface of the Ge crystal. However, the 1.17 kg.day of data
taken in a relatively important radioactive environment show an extra
population slightly overlapping the signal. This background is likely due to
interactions of low energy photons or electrons near the surface of the
crystal, and is somewhat reduced by applying a higher charge-collecting inverse
bias voltage (-6 V instead of -2 V) to the Ge diode. Despite this
contamination, more than 98% of the background can be rejected while retaining
50% of the signal. This yields a conservative upper limit of 0.7
event.day^{-1}.kg^{-1}.keV^{-1}_{recoil} at 90% confidence level in the 15-45
keV recoil energy interval; the present sensitivity appears to be limited by
the fast ambient neutrons. Upgrades in progress on the installation are
summarized.Comment: Submitted to Astroparticle Physics, 14 page
Crosstalk between G-protein and Ca2+ pathways switches intracellular cAMP levels
Cyclic adenosine monophosphate and cyclic guanosine monophosphate are universal intracellular messengers whose concentrations are regulated by molecular networks comprised of different isoforms of the synthases adenylate cyclase or guanylate cyclase and the phosphodiesterases which degrade these compounds. In this paper, we employ a systems biology approach to develop mathematical models of these networks that, for the first time, take into account the different biochemical properties of the isoforms involved. To investigate the mechanisms underlying the joint regulation of cAMP and cGMP, we apply our models to analyse the regulation of cilia beat frequency in Paramecium by Ca(2+). Based on our analysis of these models, we propose that the diversity of isoform combinations that occurs in living cells provides an explanation for the huge variety of intracellular processes that are dependent on these networks. The inclusion of both G-protein receptor and Ca(2+)-dependent regulation of AC in our models allows us to propose a new explanation for the switching properties of G-protein subunits involved in nucleotide regulation. Analysis of the models suggests that, depending on whether the G-protein subunit is bound to AC, Ca(2+) can either activate or inhibit AC in a concentration-dependent manner. The resulting analysis provides an explanation for previous experimental results that showed that alterations in Ca(2+) concentrations can either increase or decrease cilia beat frequency over particular Ca(2+) concentration ranges
The TF Limit for Rapidly Rotating Bose Gases in Anharmonic Traps
Starting from the full many body Hamiltonian we derive the leading order
energy and density asymptotics for the ground state of a dilute, rotating Bose
gas in an anharmonic trap in the ` Thomas Fermi' (TF) limit when the
Gross-Pitaevskii coupling parameter and/or the rotation velocity tend to
infinity. Although the many-body wave function is expected to have a
complicated phase, the leading order contribution to the energy can be computed
by minimizing a simple functional of the density alone
Event categories in the EDELWEISS WIMP search experiment
Four categories of events have been identified in the EDELWEISS-I dark matter
experiment using germanium cryogenic detectors measuring simultaneously charge
and heat signals. These categories of events are interpreted as electron and
nuclear interactions occurring in the volume of the detector, and electron and
nuclear interactions occurring close to the surface of the detectors(10-20 mu-m
of the surface). We discuss the hypothesis that low energy surface nuclear
recoils,which seem to have been unnoticed by previous WIMP searches, may
provide an interpretation of the anomalous events recorded by the UKDMC and
Saclay NaI experiments. The present analysis points to the necessity of taking
into account surface nuclear and electron recoil interactions for a reliable
estimate of background rejection factors.Comment: 11 pages, submitted to Phys. Lett.
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