938 research outputs found
AFM of metallic nano-particles and nano-structures in heavily irradiated NaCl
AFM investigations are reported for heavily, electron irradiated NaCl crystals in ultra high vacuum (UHV) in the non-contact mode with an UHV AFM/STM Omicron system. To avoid chemical reactions between the radiolytic Na and oxygen and water, the irradiated samples were cleaved and prepared for the experiments in UHV. At the surface of freshly cleaved samples, we have observed sodium nano-precipitates with shapes, which depend on the irradiation dose and the volume fraction of the radiolytic Na. It appears that the nano-structures consist of (i) isolated nano-particles, (ii) more or less random aggregates of these particles, (iii) fractally shaped networks and (iv) ââfabricsââ consisting of bundles of Quasi-1D arrays forming polymeric networks of nano-particles. Almost independent of the concentration of the metallic Na in the samples the size of the individual nano-particles is in the range 1â3 nm. Our new AFM results are fully in line with our CESR and previous Raman scattering results.
Performance study of ground-based infrared Bracewell interferometers - Application to the detection of exozodiacal dust disks with GENIE
Nulling interferometry, a powerful technique for high-resolution imaging of
the close neighbourhood of bright astrophysical objets, is currently considered
for future space missions such as Darwin or the Terrestrial Planet Finder
Interferometer (TPF-I), both aiming at Earth-like planet detection and
characterization. Ground-based nulling interferometers are being studied for
both technology demonstration and scientific preparation of the Darwin/TPF-I
missions through a systematic survey of circumstellar dust disks around nearby
stars. In this paper, we investigate the influence of atmospheric turbulence on
the performance of ground-based nulling instruments, and deduce the major
design guidelines for such instruments. End-to-end numerical simulations allow
us to estimate the performance of the main subsystems and thereby the actual
sensitivity of the nuller to faint exozodiacal disks. Particular attention is
also given to the important question of stellar leakage calibration. This study
is illustrated in the context of GENIE, the Ground-based European Nulling
Interferometer Experiment, to be installed at the VLTI and working in the L'
band. We estimate that this instrument will detect exozodiacal clouds as faint
as about 50 times the Solar zodiacal cloud, thereby placing strong constraints
on the acceptable targets for Darwin/TPF-I.Comment: A&A, accepte
The signature of 44Ti in Cassiopeia A revealed by IBIS/ISGRI on INTEGRAL
We report the detection of both the 67.9 and 78.4 keV 44Sc gamma-ray lines in
Cassiopeia A with the INTEGRAL IBIS/ISGRI instrument. Besides the robustness
provided by spectro-imaging observations, the main improvements compared to
previous measurements are a clear separation of the two 44Sc lines together
with an improved significance of the detection of the hard X-ray continuum up
to 100 keV. These allow us to refine the determination of the 44Ti yield and to
constrain the nature of the nonthermal continuum emission. By combining
COMPTEL, BeppoSAX/PDS and ISGRI measurements, we find a line flux of (2.5 +/-
0.3)*10(-5) cm(-2) s(-1) leading to a synthesized 44Ti mass of 1.6
(+0.6-0.3)*10(-4) solar mass. This high value suggests that Cas A is peculiar
in comparison to other young supernova remnants, from which so far no line
emission from 44Ti decay has been unambiguously detected.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ
A Redshift Survey of Nearby Galaxy Groups: the Shape of the Mass Density Profile
We constrain the mass profile and orbital structure of nearby groups and
clusters of galaxies. Our method yields the joint probability distribution of
the density slope n, the velocity anisotropy beta, and the turnover radius r0
for these systems. The measurement technique does not use results from N-body
simulations as priors. We incorporate 2419 new redshifts in the fields of 41
systems of galaxies with z < 0.04. The new groups have median velocity
dispersion sigma=360 km/s. We also use 851 archived redshifts in the fields of
8 nearly relaxed clusters with z < 0.1. Within R < 2 r200, the data are
consistent with a single power law matter density distribution with slope n =
1.8-2.2 for systems with sigma < 470 km/s, and n = 1.6-2.0 for those with sigma
> 470 km/s (95% confidence). We show that a simple, scale-free phase space
distribution function f(E,L^2) ~ (-E)^(alpha-1/2) L^(-2 \beta) is consistent
with the data as long as the matter density has a cusp. Using this DF, matter
density profiles with constant density cores (n=0) are ruled out with better
than 99.7% confidence.Comment: 22 pages; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Years of RXTE Monitoring of Anomalous X-ray Pulsar 4U 0142+61: Long-Term Variability
We report on 10 years of monitoring of the 8.7-s Anomalous X-ray Pulsar 4U
0142+61 using the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). This pulsar exhibited
stable rotation from 2000 March until 2006 February: the RMS phase residual for
a spin-down model which includes nu, nudot, and nuddot is 2.3%. We report a
possible phase-coherent timing solution valid over a 10-yr span extending back
to March 1996. A glitch may have occured between 1998 and 2000, but is not
required by the existing timing data. The pulse profile has been evolving since
2000. In particular, the dip of emission between its two peaks got shallower
between 2002 and 2006, as if the profile were evolving back to its pre-2000
morphology, following an earlier event, which possibly also included the glitch
suggested by the timing data. These profile variations are seen in the 2-4 keV
band but not in 6-8 keV. We also detect a slow increase in the pulsed flux
between 2002 May and 2004 December, such that it has risen by 36+/-3% over 2.6
years in the 2-10 keV band. The pulsed flux variability and the narrow-band
pulse profile changes present interesting challenges to aspects of the magnetar
model.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Ap
Radiolysis of NaCl at high and low temperatures: development of size distribution of bubbles and colloids
New experimental results are presented on low temperature irradiation (18 °C) of rock-salt samples which had been exposed to initial doses up to 320 GRad at 100 °C. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) shows that the latent heat of melting (LHM) of sodium colloids decreases during subsequent low-temperature irradiation, whereas the stored energy (SE) increases slowly, indicating that the process of radiolysis continues. The decrease of the LHM is due to dissolution of large colloids, because the intensities of the melting peaks decrease during the second stage irradiation at low temperature. The model is formulated to describe the nucleation kinetics and the evolution of the size distribution of chlorine precipitates and sodium colloids in NaCl under high dose irradiation. It is shown that the mechanism of dissolution of large Na colloids during low temperature irradiation can be related to melting of sodium colloids.
The first multi-wavelength campaign of AXP 4U 0142+61 from radio to hard X-rays
For the first time a quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength campaign has been
performed on an Anomalous X-ray Pulsar from the radio to the hard X-ray band.
4U 0142+61 was an INTEGRAL target for 1 Ms in July 2005. During these
observations it was also observed in the X-ray band with Swift and RXTE, in the
optical and NIR with Gemini North and in the radio with the WSRT. In this paper
we present the source-energy distribution. The spectral results obtained in the
individual wave bands do not connect smoothly; apparently components of
different origin contribute to the total spectrum. Remarkable is that the
INTEGRAL hard X-ray spectrum (power-law index 0.79 +/- 0.10) is now measured up
to an energy of ~230 keV with no indication of a spectral break. Extrapolation
of the INTEGRAL power-law spectrum to lower energies passes orders of magnitude
underneath the NIR and optical fluxes, as well as the low ~30 microJy (2 sigma)
upper limit in the radio band.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. To be published in the proceedings of the
conference "Isolated Neutron Stars: from the Interior to the Surface" (April
24-28, 2006, London, UK), eds. S. Zane, R. Turolla and D. Pag
Kinematics and Mass Profile of AWM 7
We have measured 492 redshifts (311 new) in the direction of the poor cluster
AWM~7 and have identified 179 cluster members (73 new). We use two independent
methods to derive a self-consistent mass profile, under the assumptions that
the absorption-line galaxies are virialized and that they trace an underlying
Navarro, Frenk & White (1997) dark matter profile: (1) we fit such an NFW
profile to the radial distribution of galaxy positions and to the velocity
dispersion profile; (2) we apply the virial mass estimator to the cluster. With
these assumptions, the two independent mass estimates agree to \sim 15% within
1.7 h^{-1} Mpc, the radial extent of our data; we find an enclosed mass \sim
(3+-0.5)\times 10^{14} h^{-1} M_\odot. The largest potential source of
systematic error is the inclusion of young emission-line galaxies in the mass
estimate.
We investigate the behavior of the surface term correction to the virial mass
estimator under several assumptions about the velocity anisotropy profile,
still within the context of the NFW model, and remark on the sensitivity of
derived mass profiles to outliers. We find that one must have data out to a
large radius in order to determine the mass robustly, and that the surface term
correction is unreliable at small radii.Comment: LaTeX, 5 tables, 7 figures, appeared as 2000 AJ 119 44; typos and Eq.
9 corrected; results are unaffecte
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