236 research outputs found
Application of the Limit Cycle Model to Star Formation Histories in Spiral Galaxies: Variation among Morphological Types
We propose a limit-cycle scenario of star formation history for any
morphological type of spiral galaxies. It is known observationally that the
early-type spiral sample has a wider range of the present star formation rate
(SFR) than the late-type sample. This tendency is understood in the framework
of the limit-cycle model of the interstellar medium (ISM), in which the SFR
cyclically changes in accordance with the temporal variation of the mass
fraction of the three ISM components. When the limit-cycle model of the ISM is
applied, the amplitude of variation of the SFR is expected to change with the
supernova (SN) rate. Observational evidence indicates that the early-type
spiral galaxies show smaller rates of present SN than late-type ones. Combining
this evidence with the limit-cycle model of the ISM, we predict that the
early-type spiral galaxies show larger amplitudes in their SFR variation than
the late-types. Indeed, this prediction is consistent with the observed wider
range of the SFR in the early-type sample than in the late-type sample. Thus,
in the framework of the limit-cycle model of the ISM, we are able to interpret
the difference in the amplitude of SFR variation among the morphological
classes of spiral galaxies.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX, to appear in A
Small Structures via Thermal Instability of Partially Ionized Plasma. I. Condensation Mode
(Shortened) Thermal instability of partially ionized plasma is investigated
by linear perturbation analysis. According to the previous studies under the
one fluid approach, the thermal instability is suppressed due to the magnetic
pressure. However, the previous studies did not precisely consider the effect
of the ion-neutral friction, since they did not treat the flow as two fluid
which is composed of ions and neutrals. Then, we revisit the effect of the
ion-neutral friction of the two fluid to the growth of the thermal instability.
According to our study, (1) The instability which is characterized by the mean
molecular weight of neutrals is suppressed via the ion-neutral friction only
when the magnetic field and the friction are sufficiently strong. The
suppression owing to the friction occurs even along the field line. If the
magnetic field and the friction are not so strong, the instability is not
stabilized. (2) The effect of the friction and the magnetic field is mainly
reduction of the growth rate of the thermal instability of weakly ionized
plasma. (3) The effect of friction does not affect the critical wavelength
lambdaF for the thermal instability. This yields that lambdaF of the weakly
ionized plasma is not enlarged even when the magnetic field exists. We insist
that the thermal instability of the weakly ionized plasma in the magnetic field
can grow up even at the small length scale where the instability under the
assumption of the one fluid plasma can not grow owing to the stabilization by
the magnetic field. (4) The wavelength of the maximum growth rate of the
instability shifts shortward according to the decrement of the growth rate,
because the friction is effective at rather larger scale. Therefore, smaller
structures are expected to appear than those without the ion-neutral friction.Comment: To appear in Ap
On the Decelerating Shock Instability of Plane-Parallel Slab with Finite Thickness
Dynamical stability of the shock compressed layer with finite thickness is
investigated. It is characterized by self-gravity, structure, and shock
condition at the surfaces of the compressed layer. At one side of the shocked
layer, its surface condition is determined via the ram pressure, while at the
other side the thermal pressure supports its structure. When the ram pressure
dominates the thermal pressure, we expect deceleration of the shocked layer.
Especially, in this paper, we examine how the stratification of the
decelerating layer has an effect on its dynamical stability. Performing the
linear perturbation analysis, a {\it more general} dispersion relation than the
previous one obtained by one of the authors is derived. It gives us an
interesting information about the stability of the decelerating layer.
Importantly, the DSI (Decelerating Shock Instability) and the gravitational
instability are always incompatible. We also consider the evolution effect of
the shocked layer. In the early stages of its evolution, only DSI occurs. On
the contrary, in the late stages, it is possible for the shocked layer to be
unstable for the DSI (in smaller scale) and the gravitational instability (in
larger scale). Furthermore, we find there is a stable range of wavenumbers
against both the DSI and the gravitational instability between respective
unstable wavenumber ranges. These stable modes suggest the ineffectiveness of
DSI for the fragmentation of the decelerating slab.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. The Astrophysical Journal Vol.532 in pres
Is Thermal Instability Significant in Turbulent Galactic Gas?
We investigate numerically the role of thermal instability (TI) as a
generator of density structures in the interstellar medium (ISM), both by
itself and in the context of a globally turbulent medium. Simulations of the
instability alone show that the condenstion process which forms a dense phase
(``clouds'') is highly dynamical, and that the boundaries of the clouds are
accretion shocks, rather than static density discontinuities. The density
histograms (PDFs) of these runs exhibit either bimodal shapes or a single peak
at low densities plus a slope change at high densities. Final static situations
may be established, but the equilibrium is very fragile: small density
fluctuations in the warm phase require large variations in the density of the
cold phase, probably inducing shocks into the clouds. This result suggests that
such configurations are highly unlikely. Simulations including turbulent
forcing show that large- scale forcing is incapable of erasing the signature of
the TI in the density PDFs, but small-scale, stellar-like forcing causes
erasure of the signature of the instability. However, these simulations do not
reach stationary regimes, TI driving an ever-increasing star formation rate.
Simulations including magnetic fields, self-gravity and the Coriolis force show
no significant difference between the PDFs of stable and unstable cases, and
reach stationary regimes, suggesting that the combination of the stellar
forcing and the extra effective pressure provided by the magnetic field and the
Coriolis force overwhelm TI as a density-structure generator in the ISM. We
emphasize that a multi-modal temperature PDF is not necessarily an indication
of a multi-phase medium, which must contain clearly distinct thermal
equilibrium phases.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to Ap
Pion decay constant in quenched QCD with Kogut-Susskind quarks
We present a non-perturbative calculation for the pion decay constant with
quenched Kogut-Susskind quarks. Numerical simulations are carried out at and 6.2 with various operators extending over all flavors. The
renormalization correction is applied for each flavor by computing
non-perturbative renormalization constants, and it is compared with a
perturbative calculation. We also study the behavior of in the
continuum limits for both non-perturbative and perturbative calculations. The
results in the continuum limit is also discussed.Comment: LATTICE99(matrix elements) 3 pages, 4 eps figure
I=2 Pion Scattering Length with Wilson Fermions
We present results for I=2 pion scattering length with the Wilson fermions in
the quenched approximation. The finite size method presented by L\"uscher is
employed, and calculations are carried out at , 6.1, and 6.3. In the
continuum limit, we obtain a result in reasonable agreement with the
experimental value.Comment: LATTICE99(matrixelement), 3 pages, 4 eps figure
Phase transitions in biological membranes
Native membranes of biological cells display melting transitions of their
lipids at a temperature of 10-20 degrees below body temperature. Such
transitions can be observed in various bacterial cells, in nerves, in cancer
cells, but also in lung surfactant. It seems as if the presence of transitions
slightly below physiological temperature is a generic property of most cells.
They are important because they influence many physical properties of the
membranes. At the transition temperature, membranes display a larger
permeability that is accompanied by ion-channel-like phenomena even in the
complete absence of proteins. Membranes are softer, which implies that
phenomena such as endocytosis and exocytosis are facilitated. Mechanical signal
propagation phenomena related to nerve pulses are strongly enhanced. The
position of transitions can be affected by changes in temperature, pressure, pH
and salt concentration or by the presence of anesthetics. Thus, even at
physiological temperature, these transitions are of relevance. There position
and thereby the physical properties of the membrane can be controlled by
changes in the intensive thermodynamic variables. Here, we review some of the
experimental findings and the thermodynamics that describes the control of the
membrane function.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure
The Minimum Stellar Mass in Early Galaxies
The conditions for the fragmentation of the baryonic component during merging
of dark matter halos in the early Universe are studied. We assume that the
baryonic component undergoes a shock compression. The characteristic masses of
protostellar molecular clouds and the minimum masses of protostars formed in
these clouds decrease with increasing halo mass. This may indicate that the
initial stellar mass function in more massive galaxies was shifted towards
lower masses during the initial stages of their formation. This would result in
an increase of the number of stars per unit halo mass, i.e., the efficiency of
star formation.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure
Chemical Evolution of the Galaxy Based on the Oscillatory Star Formation History
We model the star formation history (SFH) and the chemical evolution of the
Galactic disk by combining an infall model and a limit-cycle model of the
interstellar medium (ISM). Recent observations have shown that the SFH of the
Galactic disk violently variates or oscillates. We model the oscillatory SFH
based on the limit-cycle behavior of the fractional masses of three components
of the ISM. The observed period of the oscillation ( Gyr) is reproduced
within the natural parameter range. This means that we can interpret the
oscillatory SFH as the limit-cycle behavior of the ISM. We then test the
chemical evolution of stars and gas in the framework of the limit-cycle model,
since the oscillatory behavior of the SFH may cause an oscillatory evolution of
the metallicity. We find however that the oscillatory behavior of metallicity
is not prominent because the metallicity reflects the past integrated SFH. This
indicates that the metallicity cannot be used to distinguish an oscillatory SFH
from one without oscillations.Comment: 21 pages LaTeX, to appear in Ap
Effect of Dust Extinction on Estimating Star Formation Rate of Galaxies: Lyman Continuum Extinction
We re-examine the effect of Lyman continuum ( \AA)
extinction (LCE) by dust in H {\sc ii} regions in detail and discuss how it
affects the estimation of the global star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies. To
clarify the first issue, we establish two independent methods for estimating a
parameter of LCE (), which is defined as the fraction of Lyman continuum
photons contributing to hydrogen ionization in an H {\sc ii} region. One of
those methods determines from the set of Lyman continuum flux, electron
density and metallicity. In the framework of this method, as the metallicity
and/or the Lyman photon flux increase, is found to decrease. The other
method determines from the ratio of infrared flux to Lyman continuum flux.
Importantly, we show that f \la 0.5 via both methods in many H {\sc ii}
regions of the Galaxy. Thus, it establishes that dust in such H {\sc ii}
regions absorbs significant amount of Lyman continuum photons directly. To
examine the second issue, we approximate to a function of only the
dust-to-gas mass ratio (i.e., metallicity), assuming a parameter fit for the
Galactic H {\sc ii} regions. We find that a characteristic , which is
defined as averaged over a galaxy-wide scale, is 0.3 for the nearby spiral
galaxies. This relatively small indicates that a typical increment
factor due to LCE for estimating the global SFR () is large () for the nearby spiral galaxies. Therefore, we conclude that the effect of
LCE is not negligible relative to other uncertainties of estimating the SFR of
galaxies.Comment: 18 papges, 11 figures, accepted by Ap
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