Molecular transitions as probes of the physical conditions of extragalactic environments

Ab initio grids of time dependent chemical models, varying in gas density, temperature, cosmic ray ionization rate, and radiation field, are used as input to RADEX calculations. Tables of abundances, column densities, theoretical line intensities, and line ratios for some of the most used dense gas tracers are provided. The degree of correlation as well as degeneracy inherent in molecular ratios is discussed. Comparisons of the theoretical intensities with example observations are also provided. We find that, within the parameters space explored, chemical abundances can be constrained by a well defined set of gas density-gas temperature-cosmic ray ionization rate for the species we investigate here. However, line intensities, as well as, more importantly, line ratios, from different chemical models can be very similar leading to a clear degeneracy. We also find that the gas subjected to a galactic cosmic ray ionization rate will not necessarily have reached steady state by 1 Myr. The species most affected by time dependency effects are HCN and CS, both high density tracers. We use our method to fit an example set of data from two galaxies. We find that (i) molecular line ratios can be easily matched even with erroneous individual line intensities; (ii) no set of species can be matched by a one-component ISM; (iii) a species may be a good tracer of an energetic process but only under specific density and temperature conditions. We show that by taking into consideration the chemistry behind each species and the individual line intensities, many degeneracies that arise by just using molecular line ratios can be avoided. Finally we show that using a species or a ratio as a tracer of an individual energetic process (e.g. cosmic rays, UV) ought to be done with caution.Comment: A&A in press (in press version will be different from this one as tables will be either in appendix or on the journal online site) This is revised version as figure was wron

Four-point boundary connectivities in critical two-dimensional percolation from conformal invariance

We conjecture an exact form for an universal ratio of four-point cluster connectivities in the critical two-dimensional $Q$-color Potts model. We also provide analogous results for the limit $Q\rightarrow 1$ that corresponds to percolation where the observable has a logarithmic singularity. Our conjectures are tested against Monte Carlo simulations showing excellent agreement for $Q=1,2,3$.Comment: 29 pages, 9 Figures. Published version: improved discussion, additional numerical tests and reference

Chemical Tracers of Pre-Brown Dwarf Cores Formed Through Turbulent Fragmentation

A gas-grain time dependent chemical code, UCL\_CHEM, has been used to investigate the possibility of using chemical tracers to differentiate between the possible formation mechanisms of brown dwarfs. In this work, we model the formation of a pre-brown dwarf core through turbulent fragmentation by following the depth-dependent chemistry in a molecular cloud through the step change in density associated with an isothermal shock and the subsequent freefall collapse once a bound core is produced. Trends in the fractional abundance of molecules commonly observed in star forming cores are then explored to find a diagnostic for identifying brown dwarf mass cores formed through turbulence. We find that the cores produced by our models would be bright in CO and NH$_3$ but not in HCO$^+$. This differentiates them from models using purely freefall collapse as such models produce cores that would have detectable transitions from all three molecules.Comment: 7 page, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

Phase separation and interface structure in two dimensions from field theory

We study phase separation in two dimensions in the scaling limit below criticality. The general form of the magnetization profile as the volume goes to infinity is determined exactly within the field theoretical framework which explicitly takes into account the topological nature of the elementary excitations. The result known for the Ising model from its lattice solution is recovered as a particular case. In the asymptotic infrared limit the interface behaves as a simple curve characterized by a gaussian passage probability density. The leading deviation, due to branching, from this behavior is also derived and its coefficient is determined for the Potts model. As a byproduct, for random percolation we obtain the asymptotic density profile of a spanning cluster conditioned to touch only the left half of the boundary.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; published version, references adde

The origin of the molecular emission around the southern hemisphere Re 4 IRS - HH 188 region

We present SEST observations of the molecular environment ahead of the southern Herbig-Haro object 188 (HH188), associated with the low-mass protostar Re4 IRS. We have also used the SuperCosmos Halpha survey to search for Halpha emission associated with the Re4 IRS - HH188 region. The aim of the present work is to study the properties of the molecular gas and to better characterize this southern star forming region. We mapped the HCO+ 3-2 and H13CO+ 1-0 emission around the YSO and took spectra of the CH3OH 2(0)-1(0)A+ and 2(-1)-1(-1)E and SO 6(5)-5(4) towards the central source. Column densities are derived and different scenarios are considered to explain the origin of the molecular emission. HCO+ arises from a relatively compact region around the YSO; however, its peak emission is displaced to the south following the outflow direction. Our chemical analysis indicates that a plausible scenario is that most of the emission arises from the cold, illuminated dense gas ahead of the HH188 object. We have also found that HH188, a high excitation object, seems to be part of a parsec scale and highly collimated HH system. Re4 IRS is probably a binary protostellar system, in the late Class 0 or Class I phase. One of the protostars, invisible in the near-IR, seems to power the HH188 system.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Chiral entanglement in massive quantum field theories in 1+1 dimensions

We determine both analytically and numerically the entanglement between chiral degrees of freedom in the ground state of massive perturbations of 1+1 dimensional conformal field theories quantised on a cylinder. Analytic predictions are obtained from a variational Ansatz for the ground state in terms of smeared conformal boundary states recently proposed by J. Cardy, which is validated by numerical results from the Truncated Conformal Space Approach. We also extend the scope of the Ansatz by resolving ground state degeneracies exploiting the operator product expansion. The chiral entanglement entropy is computed both analytically and numerically as a function of the volume. The excellent agreement between the analytic and numerical results provides further validation for Cardy's Ansatz. The chiral entanglement entropy contains a universal $O(1)$ term $\gamma$ for which an exact analytic result is obtained, and which can distinguish energetically degenerate ground states of gapped systems in 1+1 dimensions.Comment: version 2, references added, minor changes, 31 pages, 12 figures, 6 table