11 research outputs found
Narrative Companionship: Philosophy, Gender Stereotypes, and Young Adult Literature
Zuidervaart, L. [Promotor]Musschenga, A.W. [Promotor
Circumstellar interaction in supernovae in dense environments - an observational perspective
In a supernova explosion, the ejecta interacting with the surrounding
circumstellar medium (CSM) give rise to variety of radiation. Since CSM is
created from the mass lost from the progenitor star, it carries footprints of
the late time evolution of the star. This is one of the unique ways to get a
handle on the nature of the progenitor star system. Here, I will focus mainly
on the supernovae (SNe) exploding in dense environments, a.k.a. Type IIn SNe.
Radio and X-ray emission from this class of SNe have revealed important
modifications in their radiation properties, due to the presence of high
density CSM. Forward shock dominance of the X-ray emission, internal free-free
absorption of the radio emission, episodic or non-steady mass loss rate,
asymmetry in the explosion seem to be common properties of this class of SNe.Comment: Fixed minor typos. 31 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in
Space Science Reviews. Chapter in International Space Science Institute
(ISSI) Book on "Supernovae" to be published in Space Science Reviews by
Springe
Origin and evolution of the light nuclides
After a short historical (and highly subjective) introduction to the field, I
discuss our current understanding of the origin and evolution of the light
nuclides D, He-3, He-4, Li-6, Li-7, Be-9, B-10 and B-11. Despite considerable
observational and theoretical progress, important uncertainties still persist
for each and every one of those nuclides. The present-day abundance of D in the
local interstellar medium is currently uncertain, making it difficult to infer
the recent chemical evolution of the solar neighborhood. To account for the
observed quasi-constancy of He-3 abundance from the Big Bang to our days, the
stellar production of that nuclide must be negligible; however, the scarce
observations of its abundance in planetary nebulae seem to contradict this
idea. The observed Be and B evolution as primaries suggests that the source
composition of cosmic rays has remained quasi-constant since the early days of
the Galaxy, a suggestion with far reaching implications for the origin of
cosmic rays; however, the main idea proposed to account for that constancy,
namely that superbubbles are at the source of cosmic rays, encounters some
serious difficulties. The best explanation for the mismatch between primordial
Li and the observed "Spite-plateau" in halo stars appears to be depletion of Li
in stellar envelopes, by some yet poorly understood mechanism. But this
explanation impacts on the level of the recently discovered early ``Li-6
plateau'', which (if confirmed), seriously challenges current ideas of cosmic
ray nucleosynthesis.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figs. Invited Review in "Symposium on the Composition of
Matter", honoring Johannes Geiss on the occasion of his 80th birthday
(Grindelwald, Switzerland, Sept. 2006), to be published in Space Science
Series of ISS