1,264 research outputs found
Amicable pairs : a survey
In 1750, Euler [20, 21] published an extensive paper on amicable pairs, by which he added fifty-nine new amicable pairs to the three amicable pairs known thus far. In 1972, Lee and Madachy [45] published a historical survey of amicable pairs, with a list of the 1108 amicable pairs then known. In 1995, Pedersen [48] started to create and maintain an Internet site with lists of all the known amicable pairs. The current (February 2003) number of amicable pairs in these lists exceeds four million. The purpose of this paper is to update the 1972 paper of Lee and Madachy, in order to document the developments which have led to the explosion of known amicable pairs in the past thirty years. We hope that this may stimulate research in the direction of finding a proof that the number of amicable pairs is infinite
Water maser detections in southern candidates to post-AGB stars and Planetary Nebulae
We intended to study the incidence and characteristics of water masers in the
envelopes of stars in the post-AGB and PN evolutionary stages.
We have used the 64-m antenna in Parkes (Australia) to search for water maser
emission at 22 GHz, towards a sample of 74 sources with IRAS colours
characteristic of post-AGB stars and PNe, at declination . In our
sample, 39% of the sources are PNe or PNe candidates, and 50% are post-AGB
stars or post-AGB candidates.
We have detected four new water masers, all of them in optically obscured
sources: three in PNe candidates (IRAS 12405-6219, IRAS 15103-5754, and IRAS
16333-4807); and one in a post-AGB candidate (IRAS 13500-6106). The PN
candidate IRAS 15103-5754 has water fountain characteristics, and it could be
the first PN of this class found.
We confirm the tendency suggested in Paper I that the presence of water
masers in the post-AGB phase is favoured in obscured sources with massive
envelopes. We propose an evolutionary scenario for water masers in the post-AGB
and PNe stages, in which ``water fountain'' masers could develop during
post-AGB and early PN stages. Later PNe would show lower velocity maser
emission, both along jets and close to the central objects, with only the
central masers remaining in more evolved PNe.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
FIC/FEM formulation with matrix stabilizing terms for incompressible flows at low and high Reynolds numbers
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00466-006-0060-yWe present a general formulation for incompressible fluid flow analysis using the finite element method. The necessary stabilization for dealing with convective effects and the incompressibility condition are introduced via the Finite Calculus method using a matrix form of the stabilization parameters. This allows to model a wide range of fluid flow problems for low and high Reynolds numbers flows without introducing a turbulence model. Examples of application to the analysis of incompressible flows with moderate and large Reynolds numbers are presented.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Negative time delay for wave reflection from a one-dimensional semi-harmonic well
It is reported that the phase time of particles which are reflected by a
one-dimensional semi-harmonic well includes a time delay term which is negative
for definite intervals of the incoming energy. In this interval, the absolute
value of the negative time delay becomes larger as the incident energy becomes
smaller. The model is a rectangular well with zero potential energy at its
right and a harmonic-like interaction at its left.Comment: 6 pages, 5 eps figures. Talk presented at the XXX Workshop on
Geometric Methods in Physics, Bialowieza, Poland, 201
Near-IR variability properties of a selected sample of AGB stars
We present the results of a near-infrared monitoring programme of a selected
sample of stars, initially suspected to be Mira variables and OH/IR stars,
covering more than a decade of observations. The objects monitored cover the
typical range of IRAS colours shown by O-rich stars on the Asymptotic Giant
Branch and show a surprisingly large diversity of variability properties. 16
objects are confirmed as large-amplitude variables. Periods between 360 and
1800 days and typical amplitudes from 1 to 2 magnitudes could be determined for
nine of them. In three light curves we find a systematic decrease of the mean
brightness, two light curves show pronounced asymmetry. One source, IRAS
07222-2005, shows infrared colours typical of Mira variables but pulsates with
a much longer period (approx. 1200 days) than a normal Mira. Two objects are
ither close to (IRAS 03293+6010) or probably in (IRAS 18299-1705) the post-AGB
phase. In IRAS 16029-3041 we found a systematic increase of the H-K colour of
approximately 1 magnitude, which we interpret as evidence of a recent episode
of enhanced mass loss. IRAS 18576+0341, a heavily obscured Luminous Blue
Variable was also monitored. The star showed a continued decrease of brightness
over a period of 7 years (1995 - 2002).Comment: 9 pages + 3 appendix, 36 figures, photometry table, accepted in
Astronomy & Astrophysic
Near-IR spectroscopy of planetary nebulae precursors
We present near-IR spectroscopy of a sample of 30 IRAS sources recently
identified as late AGB stars, post-AGB stars or early
PNe. The spectra obtained are centered at various wavelengths covering the
molecular hydrogen v=1-0 S(1) and v=2-1 S(1) emission lines, the recombination
lines of hydrogen Br-gamma, Pf-gamma and Br-alpha, and the CO[v=2-0] first
overtone bandhead at 2.294 microns. As a result of these observations we have
increased from 4 to 13 the total number of proto-PNe detected in molecular
hydrogen. When the molecular hydrogen is fluorescence-excited the detection
rate is found to be directly correlated with the evolutionary stage of the
central star, rather than with the nebular morphology. In contrast,
shocked-excited molecular hydrogen is detected only in strongly bipolar
proto-PNe, sometimes even at an early stage in the post-AGB phase. The strong
correlation of shocked-excited molecular hydrogen emission with bipolarity
found confirms the result previously reported by Kastner et al. (1996) in
evolved PNe. However, our results show that this correlation does not exist in
the case of fluorescence-excited molecular hydrogen.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
From pre- to young Planetary Nebulae: radio continuum variability
Searching for variability, we have observed a sample of hot post-AGB stars
and young Planetary Nebulae candidates with the Very Large Array at 4.8, 8.4,
and 22.4 GHz. The sources had been previously detected in the radio continuum,
which is a proof that the central stars have started ionising their
circumstellar envelopes and an increase in radio flux with time can be expected
as a result of the progression of the ionisation front. Such a behaviour has
been found in IRAS 18062+2410, whose radio modelling has allowed us to
determine that its ionised mass has increased from 10^{-4} to 3.3 10^{-4} M_sun
in 8 years and its envelope has become optically thin at lower frequencies.
Different temporal behaviours have been found for three other sources. IRAS
17423-1755 has shown a possibly periodic pattern and an inversion of its radio
spectral index, as expected from a varying stellar wind. We estimate that the
radio flux arises from a very compact region around the central star (10^{15}
cm) with an electron density of 2 10^6 cm^{-3}. IRAS 22568+6141 and 17516-2525
have decreased their radio flux densities of about 10% per year over 4 years.
While a linear increase of the flux density with time points out to the
progression of the ionisation front in the envelope, decreases as well as
quasi-periodic patterns may indicate the presence of unstable stellar
winds/jets or thick dusty envelopes absorbing ionising photons.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication on MNRA
Type I and III IFNs produced by the nasal epithelia and dimmed inflammation are features of alpacas resolving MERS-CoV infection
While MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus) provokes a lethal disease in humans, camelids, the main virus reservoir, are asymptomatic carriers, suggesting a crucial role for innate immune responses in controlling the infection. Experimentally infected camelids clear infectious virus within one week and mount an effective adaptive immune response. Here, transcription of immune response genes was monitored in the respiratory tract of MERS-CoV infected alpacas. Concomitant to the peak of infection, occurring at 2 days post inoculation (dpi), type I and III interferons (IFNs) were maximally transcribed only in the nasal mucosa of alpacas, while interferon stimulated genes (ISGs) were induced along the whole respiratory tract. Simultaneous to mild focal infiltration of leukocytes in nasal mucosa and submucosa, upregulation of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL10 and dampened transcription of pro-inflammatory genes under NF-κB control were observed. In the lung, early (1 dpi) transcription of chemokines (CCL2 and CCL3) correlated with a transient accumulation of mainly mononuclear leukocytes. A tight regulation of IFNs in lungs with expression of ISGs and controlled inflammatory responses, might contribute to virus clearance without causing tissue damage. Thus, the nasal mucosa, the main target of MERS-CoV in camelids, seems central in driving an efficient innate immune response based on triggering ISGs as well as the dual anti-inflammatory effects of type III IFNs and IL10.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
A Fast bipolar H2 outflow from IRAS 16342-3814: an old star reliving its youth
Some evolved stars in the pre-planetary nebula phase produce
highly-collimated molecular outflows that resemble the accretion-driven jets
and outflows from pre-main sequence stars. We show that IRAS 16342-3814 (the
Water Fountain Nebula) is such an object and present K-band integral field
spectroscopy revealing a fast (> 150 km/s) bipolar H2 outflow. The H2 emission
is shock excited and may arise in fast-moving clumps, accelerated by the
previously observed precessing jet. The total luminosity in H2 is 0.37
L which is comparable with that of accretion-powered outflows from
Class 0 protostars. We also detect CO overtone bandhead emission in the
scattered continuum, indicating hot molecular gas close to the centre, a
feature also observed in a number of protostars with active jets. It seems
likely that the jet and outflow in IRAS 16342-3814 are powered by accretion
onto a binary companion.Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Societ
A search for diffuse bands in the circumstellar envelopes of post-AGB stars
In this work we present the results of a systematic search for diffuse bands
(DBs, hereafter) in the circumstellar envelopes of a carefully selected sample
of post-AGB stars. We concentrated on the analysis of 9 of the DBs most
commonly found in the interstellar medium. The strength of these features is
determined using high resolution optical spectroscopy and the results obtained
are compared with literature data on field stars affected only by interstellar
reddening. Based on the weak features observed in the subsample of post-AGB
stars dominated by circumstellar reddening we conclude that the carrier(s) of
these DBs must not be present in the circumstellar environment of these
sources, or at least not under the excitation conditions in which DBs are
formed. The conclusion is applicable to all the post-AGB stars studied,
irrespective of the dominant chemistry or the spectral type of the star
considered. A detailed radial velocity analysis of the features observed in
individual sources confirms this result, as the Doppler shifts measured are
found to be consistent with an interstellar origin.Comment: Accepted for A&
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