164 research outputs found
Numerical study of jets produced by conical wire arrays on the Magpie pulsed power generator
The aim of this work is to model the jets produced by conical wire arrays on
the MAGPIE generator, and to design and test new setups to strengthen the link
between laboratory and astrophysical jets. We performed the modelling with
direct three-dimensional magneto-hydro-dynamic numerical simulations using the
code GORGON. We applied our code to the typical MAGPIE setup and we
successfully reproduced the experiments. We found that a minimum resolution of
approximately 100 is required to retrieve the unstable character of the jet. We
investigated the effect of changing the number of wires and found that arrays
with less wires produce more unstable jets, and that this effect has magnetic
origin. Finally, we studied the behaviour of the conical array together with a
conical shield on top of it to reduce the presence of unwanted low density
plasma flows. The resulting jet is shorter and less dense.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science. HEDLA 2010
conference procedings. Final pubblication will be available on Springe
A strategy for the characterization of minute chromosome rearrangements using multiple color fluorescence in situ hybridization with chromosome-specific DNA libraries and YAC clones
The identification of marker chromosomes in clinical and tumor cytogenetics by chromosome banding analysis can create problems. In this study, we present a strategy to define minute chromosomal rearrangements by multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with whole chromosome painting probes derived from chromosome-specific DNA libraries and Alu-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products of various region-specific yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) clones. To demonstrate the usefulness of this strategy for the characterization of chromosome rearrangements unidentifiable by banding techniques, an 8p+ marker chromosome with two extra bands present in the karyotype of a child with multiple anomalies, malformations, and severe mental retardation was investigated. A series of seven-color FISH experiments with sets of fluorochrome-labeled DNA library probes from flow-sorted chromosomes demonstrated that the additional segment on 8p+ was derived from chromosome 6. For a more detailed characterization of the marker chromosome, three-color FISH experiments with library probes specific to chromosomes 6 and 8 were performed in combination with newly established telomeric and subtelomeric YAC clones from 6q25, 6p23, and 8p23. These experiments demonstrated a trisomy 6pter6p22 and a monosomy 8pter8p23 in the patient. The present limitations for a broad application of this strategy and its possible improvements are discusse
BOW SHOCK FRAGMENTATION DRIVEN BY A THERMAL INSTABILITY IN LABORATORY ASTROPHYSICS EXPERIMENTS
The role of radiative cooling during the evolution of a bow shock was studied
in laboratory-astrophysics experiments that are scalable to bow shocks present
in jets from young stellar objects. The laboratory bow shock is formed during
the collision of two counter-streaming, supersonic plasma jets produced by an
opposing pair of radial foil Z-pinches driven by the current pulse from the
MAGPIE pulsed-power generator. The jets have different flow velocities in the
laboratory frame and the experiments are driven over many times the
characteristic cooling time-scale. The initially smooth bow shock rapidly
develops small-scale non-uniformities over temporal and spatial scales that are
consistent with a thermal instability triggered by strong radiative cooling in
the shock. The growth of these perturbations eventually results in a global
fragmentation of the bow shock front. The formation of a thermal instability is
supported by analysis of the plasma cooling function calculated for the
experimental conditions with the radiative packages ABAKO/RAPCAL.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journal on 5th November 201
Probing the X-Ray Binary Populations of the Ring Galaxy NGC 1291
We present Chandra studies of the X-ray binary (XRB) populations in the bulge
and ring regions of the ring galaxy NGC 1291. We detect 169 X-ray point sources
in the galaxy, 75 in the bulge and 71 in the ring, utilizing the four available
Chandra observations totaling an effective exposure of 179 ks. We report
photometric properties of these sources in a point-source catalog. There are
~40% of the bulge sources and ~25% of the ring sources showing >3\sigma
long-term variability in their X-ray count rate. The X-ray colors suggest that
a significant fraction of the bulge (~75%) and ring (~65%) sources are likely
low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). The spectra of the nuclear source indicate
that it is a low-luminosity AGN with moderate obscuration; spectral variability
is observed between individual observations. We construct 0.3-8.0 keV X-ray
luminosity functions (XLFs) for the bulge and ring XRB populations, taking into
account the detection incompleteness and background AGN contamination. We reach
90% completeness limits of ~1.5\times10^{37} and ~2.2\times10^{37} erg/s for
the bulge and ring populations, respectively. Both XLFs can be fit with a
broken power-law model, and the shapes are consistent with those expected for
populations dominated by LMXBs. We perform detailed population synthesis
modeling of the XRB populations in NGC 1291, which suggests that the observed
combined XLF is dominated by an old LMXB population. We compare the bulge and
ring XRB populations, and argue that the ring XRBs are associated with a
younger stellar population than the bulge sources, based on the relative
overdensity of X-ray sources in the ring, the generally harder X-ray color of
the ring sources, the overabundance of luminous sources in the combined XLF,
and the flatter shape of the ring XLF.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
Interaction of a supersonic, radiatively cooled plasma jet with an ambient medium
International audienc
Determination of the inductance of imploding wire array Z-pinches using measurements of load voltage
Diagnosing collisions of magnetized, high energy density plasma flows using a combination of collective Thomson scattering, Faraday rotation, and interferometry
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