32,309 research outputs found
Molecular shells in IRC+10216: Evidence for non-isotropic and episodic mass loss enhancement
We report high angular-resolution VLA observations of cyanopolyyne molecules
HCN and HCN from the carbon rich circumstellar envelope of IRC+10216.
The observed low-lying rotational transitions trace a much more extended
emitting region than seen in previous observations at higher frequency
transitions. We resolve the hollow quasi-spherical distribution of the
molecular emissions into a number of clumpy shells. These molecular shells
coincide spatially with dust arcs seen in deep optical images of the IRC+10216
envelope, allowing us to study for the first time the kinematics of these
features. We find that the molecular and dust shells represent the same density
enhancements in the envelope separated in time by 120 to 360 yrs.
From the angular size and velocity spread of the shells, we estimate that each
shell typically covers about 10% of the stellar surface at the time of
ejection. The distribution of the shells seems to be random in space. The good
spatial correspondance between HCN and HCN emissions is in qualitative
agreement with a recent chemical model that takes into account the presence of
density-enhanced shells. The broad spatial distribution of the cyanopolyyne
molecules, however, would necessitate further study on their formation.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Dense molecular clumps in the envelope of the yellow hypergiant IRC+10420
The circumstellar envelope of the hypergiant star IRC+10420 has been traced
as far out in SiO J=2-1 as in CO J = 1-0 and CO J = 2-1, in dramatic contrast
with the centrally condensed (thermal) SiO- but extended CO-emitting envelopes
of giant and supergiant stars. Here, we present an observation of the
circumstellar envelope in SiO J=1-0 that, when combined with the previous
observation in {\sioii}, provide more stringent constraints on the density of
the SiO-emitting gas than hitherto possible. The emission in SiO peaks at a
radius of 2\arcsec\ whereas that in SiO J=2-1 emission peaks at a smaller
radius of 1\arcsec, giving rise to their ring-like appearances. The ratio
in brightness temperature between SiO J=1-0 and SiO J=2-1 decreases from a
value well above unity at the innermost measurable radius to about unity at
radius of 2\arcsec, beyond which this ratio remains approximately
constant. Dividing the envelope into three zones as in models for the CO J =
1-0 and CO J = 2-1 emission, we show that the density of the SiO-emitting gas
is comparable with that of the CO-emitting gas in the inner zone, but at least
an order of magnitude higher by comparison in both the middle and outer zones.
The SiO-emitting gas therefore originates from dense clumps, likely associated
with the dust clumps seen in scattered optical light, surrounded by more
diffuse CO-emitting interclump gas. We suggest that SiO molecules are released
from dust grains due to shock interactions between the dense SiO-emitting
clumps and the diffuse CO-emitting interclump gas.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
3-pt Statistics of Cosmological Stochastic Gravitational Waves
We consider the 3-pt function (i.e. the bispectrum or non-Gaussianity) for
stochastic backgrounds of gravitational waves. We estimate the amplitude of
this signal for the primordial inflationary background, gravitational waves
generated during preheating, and for gravitational waves produced by
self-ordering scalar fields following a global phase transition. To assess
detectability, we describe how to extract the 3-pt signal from an idealized
interferometric experiment and compute the signal to noise ratio as a function
of integration time. The 3-pt signal for the stochastic gravitational wave
background generated by inflation is unsurprisingly tiny. For gravitational
radiation generated by purely causal, classical mechanisms we find that, no
matter how non-linear the process is, the 3-pt correlations produced vanish in
direct detection experiments. On the other hand, we show that in scenarios
where the B-mode of the CMB is sourced by gravitational waves generated by a
global phase transition, a strong 3-pt signal among the polarization modes
could also be produced. This may provide another method of distinguishing
inflationary B-modes. To carry out this computation, we have developed a
diagrammatic approach to the calculation of stochastic gravitational waves
sourced by scalar fluids, which has applications beyond the present scenario.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
Multiple Radial Cool Molecular Filaments in NGC 1275
We have extended our previous observation (Lim et al. 2008) of NGC1275
covering a central radius of ~10kpc to the entire main body of cool molecular
gas spanning ~14kpc east and west of center. We find no new features beyond the
region previously mapped, and show that all six spatially-resolved features on
both the eastern and western sides (three on each side) comprise radially
aligned filaments. Such radial filaments can be most naturally explained by a
model in which gas deposited "upstream" in localized regions experiencing an
X-ray cooling flow subsequently free falls along the gravitational potential of
PerA, as we previously showed can explain the observed kinematics of the two
longest filaments. All the detected filaments coincide with locally bright
Halpha features, and have a ratio in CO(2-1) to Halpha luminosity of ~1e-3; we
show that these filaments have lower star formation efficiencies than the
nearly constant value found for molecular gas in nearby normal spiral galaxies.
On the other hand, some at least equally luminous Halpha features, including a
previously identified giant HII region, show no detectable cool molecular gas
with a corresponding ratio at least a factor of ~5 lower; in the giant HII
region, essentially all the pre-existing molecular gas may have been converted
to stars. We demonstrate that all the cool molecular filaments are
gravitationally bound, and without any means of support beyond thermal pressure
should collapse on timescales ~< 1e6yrs. By comparison, as we showed previously
the two longest filaments have much longer dynamical ages of ~1e7yrs. Tidal
shear may help delay their collapse, but more likely turbulent velocities of at
least a few tens km/s or magnetic fields with strengths of at least several
~10uG are required to support these filaments.Comment: 52 pages, 11 figures. Accepted to Ap
Molecular Gas and Star formation in ARP 302
We present the Submillimeter Array observation of the CO J=2-1 transition
towards the northern galaxy, ARP 302N, of the early merging system, ARP 302.
Our high angular resolution observation reveals the extended spatial
distribution of the molecular gas in ARP 302N. We find that the molecular gas
has a very asymmetric distribution with two strong concentrations on either
side of the center together with a weaker one offset by about 8 kpc to the
north. The molecular gas distribution is also found to be consistent with that
from the hot dust as traced by the 24 micro continuum emission observed by the
Spitzer. The line ratio of CO J=2-1/1-0 is found to vary strongly from about
0.7 near the galaxy center to 0.4 in the outer part of the galaxy. Excitation
analysis suggests that the gas density is low, less than 10 cm, over
the entire galaxy. By fitting the SED of ARP 302N in the far infrared we obtain
a dust temperature of =26-36 K and a dust mass of M=2.0--3.6 M. The spectral index of the radio
continuum is around 0.9. The spatial distribution and spectral index of the
radio continuum emission suggests that most of the radio continuum emission is
synchrotron emission from the star forming regions at the nucleus and
ARP302N-cm. The good spatial correspondance between the 3.6 cm radio continuum
emission, the Spitzer 8 & 24 m data and the high resolution CO J=2-1
observation from the SMA shows that there is the asymmetrical star forming
activities in ARP 302N.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A
The shaping effect of collimated fast outflows in the Egg nebula
We present high angular resolution observations of the HCN J=5--4 line
from the Egg nebula, which is the archetype of protoplanetary nebulae. We find
that the HCN emission in the approaching and receding portion of the
envelope traces a clumpy hollow shell, similar to that seen in normal carbon
rich envelopes. Near the systemic velocity, the hollow shell is fragmented into
several large blobs or arcs with missing portions correspond spatially to
locations of previously reported high--velocity outlows in the Egg nebula. This
provides direct evidence for the disruption of the slowly--expanding envelope
ejected during the AGB phase by the collimated fast outflows initiated during
the transition to the protoplanetary nebula phase. We also find that the
intersection of fast molecular outflows previously suggested as the location of
the central post-AGB star is significantly offset from the center of the hollow
shell. From modelling the HCN distribution we could reproduce qualitatively
the spatial kinematics of the HCN J=5--4 emission using a HCN shell
with two pairs of cavities cleared by the collimated high velocity outflows
along the polar direction and in the equatorial plane. We infer a relatively
high abundance of HCN/H 3x10 for an estimated mass--loss
rate of 3x10 M yr in the HCN shell. The high
abundance of HCN and the presence of some weaker J=5--4 emission in the
vicinity of the central post-AGB star suggest an unusually efficient formation
of this molecule in the Egg nebula.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
Cosmology With Many Light Scalar Fields: Stochastic Inflation and Loop Corrections
We explore the consequences of the existence of a very large number of light
scalar degrees of freedom in the early universe. We distinguish between
participator and spectator fields. The former have a small mass, and can
contribute to the inflationary dynamics; the latter are either strictly
massless or have a negligible VEV. In N-flation and generic assisted inflation
scenarios, inflation is a co-operative phenomenon driven by N participator
fields, none of which could drive inflation on their own. We review upper
bounds on N, as a function of the inflationary Hubble scale H. We then consider
stochastic and eternal inflation in models with N participator fields showing
that individual fields may evolve stochastically while the whole ensemble
behaves deterministically, and that a wide range of eternal inflationary
scenarios are possible in this regime. We then compute one-loop quantum
corrections to the inflationary power spectrum. These are largest with N
spectator fields and a single participator field, and the resulting bound on N
is always weaker than those obtained in other ways. We find that loop
corrections to the N-flation power spectrum do not scale with N, and thus place
no upper bound on the number of participator fields. This result also implies
that, at least to leading order, the theory behaves like a composite single
scalar field. In order to perform this calculation, we address a number of
issues associated with loop calculations in the Schwinger-Keldysh "in-in"
formalism.Comment: Typos corrected. Matches published versio
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