Sulphur-bearing molecules in AGB stars I: The occurrence of hydrogen sulfide

Through a survey of (sub-)millimetre emission lines of various sulphur-bearing molecules, we aim to determine which molecules are the primary carriers of sulphur in different types of AGB stars. In this paper, the first in a series, we investigate the occurrence of H$_2$S in AGB circumstellar envelopes and determine its abundance, where possible. We have surveyed 20 AGB stars with a range of mass-loss rates and of different chemical types using the APEX telescope to search for rotational transition lines of five key sulphur-bearing molecules: CS, SiS, SO, SO$_2$ and H$_2$S. Here we present our results for H$_2$S, including detections, non-detections and detailed radiative transfer modelling of the detected lines. We compare results based on different descriptions of the molecular excitation of H$_2$S and different abundance distributions, including those derived from chemical modelling results. We detected H$_2$S towards five AGB stars, all of which have high mass-loss rates of $\dot{M}\geq 5\times 10^{-6}M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ and are oxygen-rich. H$_2$S was not detected towards the carbon or S-type stars that fall in a similar mass-loss range. For the stars in our sample with detections, we find peak o-H$_2$S abundances relative to H$_2$ between $4\times 10^{-7}$ and $2.5\times 10^{-5}$. Overall, we conclude that H$_2$S can play a significant role in oxygen-rich AGB stars with higher mass-loss rates, but is unlikely to play a key role in stars of other chemical types or the lower mass-loss rate oxygen-rich stars. For two sources, V1300 Aql and GX Mon, H$_2$S is most likely the dominant sulphur-bearing molecule in the circumstellar envelope.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted in A&

The Relation between Dynamical Mass-to-light Ratio and Color for Massive Quiescent Galaxies out to z ~ 2 and Comparison with Stellar Population Synthesis Models

Article / Letter to editorSterrewach

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Satellite galaxies undergo little structural change during their quenching phase

At fixed stellar mass, satellite galaxies show higher passive fractions than centrals, suggesting that environment is directly quenching their star formation. Here, we investigate whether satellite quenching is accompanied by changes in stellar spin (quantified by the ratio of the rotational to dispersion velocity V/$\sigma$) for a sample of massive ($M_{*}>$10$^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$) satellite galaxies extracted from the SAMI Galaxy Survey. These systems are carefully matched to a control sample of main sequence, high $V/\sigma$ central galaxies. As expected, at fixed stellar mass and ellipticity, satellites have lower star formation rate (SFR) and spin than the control centrals. However, most of the difference is in SFR, whereas the spin decreases significantly only for satellites that have already reached the red sequence. We perform a similar analysis for galaxies in the EAGLE hydro-dynamical simulation and recover differences in both SFR and spin similar to those observed in SAMI. However, when EAGLE satellites are matched to their `true' central progenitors, the change in spin is further reduced and galaxies mainly show a decrease in SFR during their satellite phase. The difference in spin observed between satellites and centrals at $z\sim$0 is primarily due to the fact that satellites do not grow their angular momentum as fast as centrals after accreting into bigger halos, not to a reduction of $V/\sigma$ due to environmental effects. Our findings highlight the effect of progenitor bias in our understanding of galaxy transformation and they suggest that satellites undergo little structural change before and during their quenching phase.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Glueball calculations in large-N_c gauge theory

We use the light-front Hamiltonian of transverse lattice gauge theory to compute from first principles the glueball spectrum and light-front wavefunctions in the leading order of the 1/N_c colour expansion. We find 0^{++}, 2^{++}, and 1^{+-} glueballs having masses consistent with N_c=3 data available from Euclidean lattice path integral methods. The wavefunctions exhibit a light-front constituent gluon structure.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, uses macro boxedeps.tex, minor corrections in revised versio

Determining the effects of clumping and porosity on the chemistry in a non-uniform AGB outflow

(abridged) In the inner regions of AGB outflows, several molecules have been detected with abundances much higher than those predicted from thermodynamic equilibrium (TE) chemical models. The presence of the majority of these species can be explained by shock-induced non-TE chemical models, where shocks caused by the pulsating star take the chemistry out of TE in the inner region. Moreover, a non-uniform density structure has been detected in several AGB outflows. A detailed parameter study on the quantitative effects of a non-homogeneous outflow has so far not been performed. We implement a porosity formalism for treating the increased leakage of light associated with radiation transport through a clumpy, porous medium. The effects from the altered UV radiation field penetration on the chemistry, accounting also for the increased reaction rates of two-body processes in the overdense clumps, are examined. We present a parameter study of the effect of clumping and porosity on the chemistry throughout the outflow. Both the higher density within the clumps and the increased UV radiation field penetration have an important impact on the chemistry, as they both alter the chemical pathways. The increased amount of UV radiation in the inner region leads to photodissociation of parent species, releasing the otherwise deficient elements. We find an increased abundance in the inner region of all species not expected to be present assuming TE chemistry, such as HCN in O-rich outflows, H$_2$O in C-rich outflows, and NH$_3$ in both. Outflows whose clumps have a large overdensity and that are very porous to the interstellar UV radiation field yield abundances comparable to those observed in O- and C-rich outflows for most of the unexpected species investigated. The inner wind abundances of H$_2$O in C-rich outflows and of NH$_3$ in O- and C-rich outflows are however underpredicted.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figures, 15 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

A cross-sectional study of psychological complaints and quality of life in severely injured patients

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence of psychological complaints and the relationship of these complaints with the quality of life (QOL) and accident- and patient-related factors among severely injured patients after the rehabilitation phase. Methods: Patients of 18 years or older with an injury severity score above 15 were included 15-53 months after their accident. Accident and patient characteristics were obtained from questionnaires and the trauma registry. Several questionnaires (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Impact of Events Scale, and Cognitive Failure Questionnaire) were used to determine the symptoms of psychological problems (anxiety or depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, or subjective cognitive complaints, respectively). The World Health Organization Quality of Life-Bref was used to determine QOL. A reference group of the Dutch general population was used for comparison of QOL scores. Results: The participation rate was 62 % (n = 173). At the time of the study, 30.1 % (n = 52) of the investigated patients had psychological complaints. No relation between psychological complaints and somatic severity or type of injury was found. Patients who were employed before the accident or resumed working reported less psychological complaints. Use of any medication before the accident and treatment for pre-accidental psychological problems were positively related to psychological complaints afterwards. QOL of severely injured patients was impaired in comparison with the general Dutch population, but only for those with psychological complaints. Conclusions: Psychological complaints seem to be an important and underestimated factor for a decreased QOL among severely injured patients

Stellar Kinematics of z ~ 2 Galaxies and the Inside-out Growth of Quiescent Galaxies

Using stellar kinematics measurements, we investigate the growth of massive, quiescent galaxies from z ~{} 2 to today. We present X-Shooter spectra from the UV to NIR and dynamical mass measurements of five quiescent massive ({gt}10$^{11}$ M $_{⊙}$) galaxies at z ~{} 2. This triples the sample of z {gt} 1.5 galaxies with well-constrained ({$delta$}{$σ$} {lt} 100 km s$^{-1}$) velocity dispersion measurements. From spectral population synthesis modeling we find that these galaxies have stellar ages that range from 0.5 to 2 Gyr, with no signs of ongoing star formation. We measure velocity dispersions (290-450 km s$^{-1}$) from stellar absorption lines and find that they are 1.6-2.1 times higher than those of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at the same mass. Sizes are measured using GALFIT from Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 H $_{160}$ and UDS K-band images. The dynamical masses correspond well to the spectral energy distribution based stellar masses, with dynamical masses that are ~{}15% higher. We find that M $_{*}$/M $_{dyn}$ may decrease slightly with time, which could reflect the increase of the dark matter fraction within an increasing effective radius. We combine different stellar kinematic studies from the literature and examine the structural evolution from z ~{} 2 to z ~{} 0: we confirm that at fixed dynamical mass, the effective radius increases by a factor of ~{}2.8, and the velocity dispersion decreases by a factor of ~{}1.7. The mass density within one effective radius decreases by a factor of ~{}20, while within a fixed physical radius (1 kpc) it decreases only mildly (factor of ~{}2). When we allow for an evolving mass limit by selecting a population of galaxies at fixed number density, a stronger size growth with time is found (factor of ~{}4), velocity dispersion decreases by a factor of ~{}1.4, and interestingly, the mass density within 1 kpc is consistent with no evolution. This finding suggests that massive quiescent galaxies at z ~{} 2 grow inside out, consistent with the expectations from minor mergers

A Stellar Velocity Dispersion for a Strongly-lensed, Intermediate-mass Quiescent Galaxy at z=2.8

Galaxie

The oncological outcomes of isolated limb perfusion and neo-adjuvant radiotherapy in soft tissue sarcoma patients:A nationwide multicenter study

Introduction: Patients with locally extensive high-grade extremity soft tissue sarcomas (eSTS) are often presented in multidisciplinary teams to decide between ablative surgery (amputation) or limb-salvage surgery supplemented with either neo-adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) or induction isolated limb perfusion (ILP). In The Netherlands, ILP typically aims to reduce the size of tumors that would otherwise be considered irresectable, whereas neo-adjuvant RT aims mainly at improving local control and reducing morbidity of required marginal margins. This study presents a 15-year nationwide cohort to describe the oncological outcomes of both pre-operative treatment strategies. Methods: All consecutive patients with locally extensive primary high-grade eSTS surgically treated between 2000 and 2015 at five tertiary sarcoma centers that received neo-adjuvant ILP or RT were included. 169 patients met the inclusion criteria (89 ILP, 80 RT). Median follow-up was 7.3 years. Results: Limb salvage was achieved in 84% of cases in the ILP group (80% for patients with amputation indication) and 96% of cases in the RT group. 5-Year overall survival was 47% in the ILP group, 69% in the RT group. 5-Year local recurrence rate was 14% in the ILP group, 10% in the RT group. Distant metastasis rate was 55% in the ILP group, 36% in the RT group. Conclusion: We find oncological outcomes and limb salvage rates in line with existing literature for both treatment modalities. Whether the tumor was locally advanced with an indication for induction therapy to prevent amputation or morbid surgery appeared to be the main determinant in choosing between neo-adjuvant ILP or RT