40,083 research outputs found
Effect of distribution of stickers along backbone on temperature-dependent structural properties in associative polymer solutions
Effect of distribution of stickers along the backbone on structural
properties in associating polymer solutions is studied using self-consistent
field lattice model. Only two inhomogeneous morphologies, i.e.,
microfluctuation homogenous (MFH) and micelle morphologies, are observed. If
the system is cooled, the solvent content within the aggregates decreases. When
the spacing of stickers along the backbone is increased the
temperature-dependent range of aggregation in MFH morphology and half-width of
specific heat peak for homogenous solutions-MFH transition increase, and the
symmetry of the peak decreases. However, with increasing spacing of stickers,
the above three corresponding quantities related to micelles behave
differently. It is demonstrated that the broad nature of the observed
transitions can be ascribed to the structural changes which accompany the
replacement of solvents in aggregates by polymer, which is consistent with the
experimental conclusion. It is found that different effect of spacing of
stickers on the two transitions can be interpreted in terms of intrachain and
interchain associations.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1202.459
Evolution of binary stars and its implications for evolutionary population synthesis
Most stars are members of binaries, and the evolution of a star in a close
binary system differs from that of an ioslated star due to the proximity of its
companion star. The components in a binary system interact in many ways and
binary evolution leads to the formation of many peculiar stars, including blue
stragglers and hot subdwarfs. We will discuss binary evolution and the
formation of blue stragglers and hot subdwarfs, and show that those hot objects
are important in the study of evolutionary population synthesis (EPS), and
conclude that binary interactions should be included in the study of EPS.
Indeed, binary interactions make a stellar population younger (hotter), and the
far-ultraviolet (UV) excess in elliptical galaxies is shown to be most likely
resulted from binary interactions. This has major implications for
understanding the evolution of the far-UV excess and elliptical galaxies in
general. In particular, it implies that the far-UV excess is not a sign of age,
as had been postulated prviously and predicts that it should not be strongly
dependent on the metallicity of the population, but exists universally from
dwarf ellipticals to giant ellipticals.Comment: Oral talk on IAUS 262, Brazi
Thermal and non-thermal emission in the Cygnus X region
Radio continuum observations detect non-thermal synchrotron and thermal
bremsstrahlung radiation. Separation of the two different emission components
is crucial to study the properties of diffuse interstellar medium. The Cygnus X
region is one of the most complex areas in the radio sky which contains a
number of massive stars and HII regions on the diffuse thermal and non-thermal
background. More supernova remnants are expected to be discovered. We aim to
develop a method which can properly separate the non-thermal and thermal radio
continuum emission and apply it to the Cygnus X region. The result can be used
to study the properties of different emission components and search for new
supernova remnants in the complex. Multi-frequency radio continuum data from
large-scale surveys are used to develop a new component separation method.
Spectral analysis is done pixel by pixel for the non-thermal synchrotron
emission with a realistic spectral index distribution and a fixed spectral
index of beta = -2.1 for the thermal bremsstrahlung emission. With the new
method, we separate the non-thermal and thermal components of the Cygnus X
region at an angular resolution of 9.5arcmin. The thermal emission component is
found to comprise 75% of the total continuum emission at 6cm. Thermal diffuse
emission, rather than the discrete HII regions, is found to be the major
contributor to the entire thermal budget. A smooth non-thermal emission
background of 100 mK Tb is found. We successfully make the large-extent known
supernova remnants and the HII regions embedded in the complex standing out,
but no new large SNRs brighter than Sigma_1GHz = 3.7 x 10^-21 W m^-2 Hz^-1
sr^-1 are found.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted by A&A. The quality of the figures is
reduced due to file size limit of the websit
Shotgun Lipidomics Identifies a Paired Rule for the Presence of Isomeric Ether Phospholipid Molecular Species
Ether phospholipids are abundant membrane constituents present in electrically active tissues (e.g., heart and the brain) that play important roles in cellular function. Alterations of ether phospholipid molecular species contents are associated with a number of genetic disorders and human diseases.Herein, the power of shotgun lipidomics, in combination with high mass accuracy/high resolution mass spectrometry, was explored to identify a paired rule for the presence of isomeric ether phospholipid molecular species in cellular lipidomes. The rule predicts that if an ether phospholipid A'-B is present in a lipidome, its isomeric counterpart B'-A is also present (where the ' represents an ether linkage). The biochemical basis of this rule results from the fact that the enzymes which participate in either the sequential oxidation of aliphatic alcohols to fatty acids, or the reduction of long chain fatty acids to aliphatic alcohols (metabolic precursors of ether lipid synthesis), are not entirely selective with respect to acyl chain length or degree of unsaturation. Moreover, the enzymatic selectivity for the incorporation of different aliphatic chains into the obligatory precursor of ether lipids (i.e., 1-O-alkyl-glycero-3-phosphate) is also limited.This intrinsic amplification of the number of lipid molecular species present in biological membranes predicted by this rule and demonstrated in this study greatly expands the number of ether lipid molecular species present in cellular lipidomes. Application of this rule to mass spectrometric analyses provides predictive clues to the presence of specific molecular species and greatly expands the number of identifiable and quantifiable ether lipid species present in biological samples. Through appropriate alterations in the database, use of the paired rule increases the number of identifiable metabolites in metabolic networks, thereby facilitating identification of biomarkers presaging disease states
Birthrates and delay times of Type Ia supernovae
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) play an important role in diverse areas of
astrophysics, from the chemical evolution of galaxies to observational
cosmology. However, the nature of the progenitors of SNe Ia is still unclear.
In this paper, according to a detailed binary population synthesis study, we
obtained SN Ia birthrates and delay times from different progenitor models, and
compared them with observations. We find that the Galactic SN Ia birthrate from
the double-degenerate (DD) model is close to those inferred from observations,
while the birthrate from the single-degenerate (SD) model accounts for only
about 1/2-2/3 of the observations. If a single starburst is assumed, the
distribution of the delay times of SNe Ia from the SD model is a weak
bimodality, where the WD + He channel contributes to the SNe Ia with delay
times shorter than 100Myr, and the WD + MS and WD + RG channels to those with
age longer than 1Gyr.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, accepted by Science in China Series G (Dec.30,
2009
Momentum Distribution of Near-Zero-Energy Photoelectrons in the Strong-Field Tunneling Ionization in the Long Wavelength Limit
We investigate the ionization dynamics of Argon atoms irradiated by an
ultrashort intense laser of a wavelength up to 3100 nm, addressing the momentum
distribution of the photoelectrons with near-zero-energy. We find a surprising
accumulation in the momentum distribution corresponding to meV energy and a
\textquotedblleft V"-like structure at the slightly larger transverse momenta.
Semiclassical simulations indicate the crucial role of the Coulomb attraction
between the escaping electron and the remaining ion at extremely large
distance. Tracing back classical trajectories, we find the tunneling electrons
born in a certain window of the field phase and transverse velocity are
responsible for the striking accumulation. Our theoretical results are
consistent with recent meV-resolved high-precision measurements.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
- …