Electron-capture supernovae exploding within their progenitor wind

The most massive stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), so called super-AGB stars, are thought to produce supernovae (SNe) triggered by electron captures in their degenerate O+Ne+Mg cores. Super-AGB stars are expected to have slow winds with high mass-loss rates, so their wind density is high. The explosions of super-AGB stars are therefore presumed to occur in this dense wind. We provide the first synthetic light curves (LCs) for such events by exploding realistic electron-capture supernova (ecSN) progenitors within their super-AGB winds. We find that the early LC, i.e. before the recombination wave reaches the bottom of the H-rich envelope of SN ejecta (the plateau phase), is not affected by the dense wind. However, after the plateau phase, the luminosity remains higher when the super-AGB wind is taken into account. We compare our results to the historical LC of SN 1054, the progenitor of the Crab Nebula, and show that the explosion of an ecSN within an ordinary super-AGB wind can explain the LC features. We conclude that SN 1054 could have been a Type IIn SN without any extra extreme mass loss which was previously suggested to be necessary to account for its early high luminosity. We also show that our LCs match Type IIn SNe with an early plateau phase (`Type IIn-P') and suggest that they are ecSNe within super-AGB winds. Although some ecSNe can be bright in the optical spectral range due to the large progenitor radius, their X-ray luminosity from the interaction does not necessarily get as bright as other Type IIn SNe whose optical luminosities are also powered by the interaction. Thus, we suggest that optically-bright X-ray-faint Type IIn SNe can emerge from ecSNe. Optically-faint Type IIn SNe, such as SN 2008S, can also originate from ecSNe if their H-rich envelope masses are small. Some of them can be observed as `Type IIn-b' SNe due to the small H-rich envelope mass.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics, abstract abridge

Synthetic Light Curves of Shocked Dense Circumstellar Shells

We numerically investigate light curves (LCs) of shocked circumstellar shells which are suggested to reproduce the observed LC of superluminous SN 2006gy analytically. In the previous analytical model, the effects of the recombination and the bolometric correction on LCs are not taken into account. To see the effects, we perform numerical radiation hydrodynamic calculations of shocked shells by using STELLA, which can numerically treat multigroup radiation transfer with realistic opacities. We show that the effects of the recombination and the bolometric correction are significant and the analytical model should be compare to the bolometric LC instead of a single band LC. We find that shocked circumstellar shells have a rapid LC decline initially because of the adiabatic expansion rather than the luminosity increase and the shocked shells fail to explain the LC properties of SN 2006gy. However, our synthetic LCs are qualitatively similar to those of superluminous SN 2003ma and SN 1988Z and they may be related to shocked circumstellar shells.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Dimethyl 11,13-dimethyl-16-[1,2-bis­(methoxy­carbon­yl)ethen­yl]-12-oxo-16,17-dioxa-18-aza­hexa­cyclo­[7.5.1.11,4.16,9.110,14.05,15]octa­deca-2,7-diene-2,3-dicarboxyl­ate

The title compound, C27H29NO11, is a product of the tandem ‘domino’ Diels–Alder reaction. The mol­ecule comprises a fused hexa­cyclic system containing four five-membered rings (two dihydro­furan and two tetra­hydro­furan) in the usual envelope conformations and two six-membered rings (tetra­hydro­pyridinone and piperidine) adopting slightly flattened boat and chair conformations, respectively. The dispositions of the carboxyl­ate substituents relative to each other are determined by both steric reasons and inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonding and attractive anti­parallel C=O⋯C=O inter­actions [C⋯O = 2.995 (2) Å]

Supernovae from Red Supergiants with Extensive Mass Loss

We calculate multicolor light curves (LCs) of supernovae (SNe) from red supergiants (RSGs) exploded within dense circumstellar medium (CSM). Multicolor LCs are calculated by using a multi-group radiation hydrodynamics code STELLA. If CSM is dense enough, the shock breakout signal is delayed and smeared by CSM and kinetic energy of SN ejecta is efficiently converted to thermal energy which is eventually released as radiation. We find that explosions of RSGs are affected by CSM in early epochs when mass-loss rate just before the explosions is higher than 10^{-4} Msun/yr. Their characteristic features are that the LC has a luminous round peak followed by a flat LC, that multicolor LCs are simultaneously bright in ultraviolet and optical at the peak, and that photospheric velocity is very low at these epochs. We calculate LCs for various CSM conditions and explosion properties, i.e., mass-loss rates, radii of CSM, density slopes of CSM, explosion energies of SN ejecta, and SN progenitors inside, to see their influence on LCs. We compare our model LCs to those of ultraviolet-bright Type IIP SN 2009kf and show that the mass-loss rate of the progenitor of SN 2009kf just before the explosion is likely to be higher than 10^{-4} Msun/yr. Combined with the fact that SN 2009kf is likely to be an energetic explosion and has large 56Ni production, which implies that the progenitor of SN 2009kf is a massive RSG, our results indicate that there could be some mechanism to induce extensive mass loss in massive RSGs just before their explosions.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables, accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the unit of Lbol in Table 3 corrected in v

MIP/Aquaporin 0 Represents a Direct Transcriptional Target of PITX3 in the Developing Lens

The PITX3 bicoid-type homeodomain transcription factor plays an important role in lens development in vertebrates. PITX3 deficiency results in a spectrum of phenotypes from isolated cataracts to microphthalmia in humans, and lens degeneration in mice and zebrafish. While identification of downstream targets of PITX3 is vital for understanding the mechanisms of normal ocular development and human disease, these targets remain largely unknown. To isolate genes that are directly regulated by PITX3, we performed a search for genomic sequences that contain evolutionarily conserved bicoid/PITX3 binding sites and are located in the proximity of known genes. Two bicoid sites that are conserved from zebrafish to human were identified within the human promoter of the major intrinsic protein of lens fiber, MIP/AQP0. MIP/AQP0 deficiency was previously shown to be associated with lens defects in humans and mice. We demonstrate by both chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assay that PITX3 binds to MIP/AQP0 promoter region in vivo and is able to interact with both bicoid sites in vitro. In addition, we show that wild-type PITX3 is able to activate the MIP/AQP0 promoter via interaction with the proximal bicoid site in cotransfection experiments and that the introduction of mutations disrupting binding to this site abolishes this activation. Furthermore, mutant forms of PITX3 fail to produce the same levels of transactivation as wild-type when cotransfected with the MIP/AQP0 reporter. Finally, knockdown of pitx3 in zebrafish affects formation of a DNA-protein complex associated with mip1 promoter sequences; and examination of expression in pitx3 morphant and control zebrafish revealed a delay in and reduction of mip1 expression in pitx3-deficient embryos. Therefore, our data suggest that PITX3 is involved in direct regulation of MIP/AQP0 expression and that the alteration of MIP/AQP0 expression is likely to contribute to the lens phenotype in cataract patients with PITX3 mutations

Cryostructuring of Polymeric Systems: 67 Properties and Microstructure of Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Cryogels Formed in the Presence of Phenol or Bis-Phenols Introduced into the Aqueous Polymeric Solutions Prior to Their Freeze–Thaw Processing

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) physical cryogels that contained the additives of o-, m-, and p-bis-phenols or phenol were prepared, and their physico-chemical characteristics and macroporous morphology and the solute release dynamics were evaluated. These phenolic additives caused changes in the viscosity of initial PVA solutions before their freeze–thaw processing and facilitated the growth in the rigidity of the resultant cryogels, while their heat endurance decreased. The magnitude of the effects depended on the interposition of phenolic hydroxyls in the molecules of the used additives and was stipulated by their H-bonding with PVA OH-groups. Subsequent rinsing of such “primary” cryogels with pure water led to the lowering of their rigidity. The average size of macropores inside these heterophase gels also depended on the additive type. It was found also that the release of phenolic substances from the additive-containing cryogels occurred via virtually a free diffusion mechanism; therefore, drug delivery systems such as PVA cryogels loaded with either pyrocatechol, resorcinol, hydroquinone, or phenol, upon the in vitro agar diffusion tests, exhibited antibacterial activity typical of these phenols. The promising biomedical potential of the studied nanocomposite gel materials is supposed