Dusty Sources at the Galactic Center: The N- and Q-band view with VISIR

We present mid-infrared N- and Q-band photometry of the Galactic Center from images obtained with the mid-infrared camera VISIR at the ESO VLT in May 2004. The high resolution and sensitivity possible with VISIR enables us to investigate a total of over 60 point-like sources, an unprecedented number for the Galactic Center at these wavelengths. Combining these data with previous results at shorter wavelengths (Viehmann et al. 2005) enables us to construct SEDs covering the H- to Q-band regions of the spectrum, i.e. 1.6 to 19.5 $\mu$m. We find that the SEDs of certain types of Galactic Center sources show characteristic features. We can clearly distinguish between luminous Northern Arm bow-shock sources, lower luminosity bow-shock sources, hot stars, and cool stars. This characterization may help clarify the status of presently unclassified sources.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

The enigma of GCIRS 3 - Constraining the properties of the mid-infrared reference star of the central parsec of the Milky Way with optical long baseline interferometry

GCIRS3 is the most prominent MIR source in the central pc of the Galaxy. NIR spectroscopy failed to solve the enigma of its nature. The properties of extreme individual objects of the central stellar cluster contribute to our knowledge of star and dust formation close to a supermassive black hole. We initiated an interferometric experiment to understand IRS3 and investigate its properties as spectroscopic and interferometric reference star at 10um. VISIR imaging separates a compact source from diffuse, surrounding emission. The VLTI/MIDI instrument was used to measure visibilities at 10mas resolution of that compact 10um source, still unresolved by a single VLT. Photometry data were added to enable simple SED- and full radiative transfer-models of the data. The luminosity and size estimates show that IRS3 is probably a cool carbon star enshrouded by a complex dust distribution. Dust temperatures were derived. The coinciding interpretation of multiple datasets confirm dust emission at several spatial scales. The IF data resolve the innermost area of dust formation. Despite observed deep silicate absorption towards IRS3 we favor a carbon rich chemistry of the circumstellar dust shell. The silicate absorption most probably takes place in the outer diffuse dust, which is mostly ignored by MIDI measurements. This indicates physically and chemically distinct conditions of the local dust, changing with the distance to IRS3. We have demonstrated that optical long baseline interferometry at infrared wavelengths is an indispensable tool to investigate sources at the Galactic Center. Our findings suggest further studies of the composition of interstellar dust and the shape of the 10um silicate feature at this outstanding region.Comment: accepted by A&A, now in press; 19 pages, 22 figures, 5 table

VLTI observations of IRS~3: The brightest compact MIR source at the Galactic Centre

The dust enshrouded star IRS~3 in the central light year of our galaxy was partially resolved in a recent VLTI experiment. The presented observation is the first step in investigating both IRS~3 in particular and the stellar population of the Galactic Centre in general with the VLTI at highest angular resolution. We will outline which scientific issues can be addressed by a complete MIDI dataset on IRS~3 in the mid infrared.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published in: The ESO Messenge

Some Non-Existence Results on Divisible Difference Sets

In this paper, we shall prove several non-existence results for divisible difference sets, using three approaches: (i) character sum arguments similar to the work of Turyn [25] for ordinary difference sets, (ii) involution arguments, and (iii) multipliers in conjunction with results on ordinary difference sets. Among other results, we show that an abelian affine difference set of odd order s (s not a perfect square) in G can exist only if the Sylow 2-subgroup of G is cyclic. We also obtain a non-existence result for non-cyclic (n, n, n, 1) relative difference sets of odd order n

A Note on Intersection Numbers of Difference Sets

We present a condition on the intersection numbers of difference sets which follows from a result of Jungnickel and Pott [3]. We apply this condition to rule out several putative (non-abelian) difference sets and to correct erroneous proofs of Lander [4] for the nonexistence of (352, 27, 2)- and (122, 37, 12)-difference sets

A Note on Intersection Numbers of Difference Sets

We present a condition on the intersection numbers of difference sets which follows from a result of Jungnickel and Pott [3]. We apply this condition to rule out several putative (non-abelian) difference sets and to correct erroneous proofs of Lander [4] for the nonexistence of (352, 27, 2)- and (122, 37, 12)-difference sets