Adaptive-wall wind-tunnel research at NASA-Ames Research Center

Adaptive wall wind tunnel research is summarized. Small scale two and three dimensional wind tunnel experiments and numerical experiments with a three dimensional adaptive wall simulator are included. A NACA 0012 airfoil was tested in a 25 by 13 cm slotted wall test section. Airflow through the test section walls was controlled by adjusting the pressures in segmented plenums. Interference free conditions were successfully attained in subsonic and transonic flows. For the three dimensional experiment, the 25 by 13 cm wind tunnel was modified to permit cross stream wall adjustments. The test model was a semispan wing mounted to one sidewall. Wall interference was substantially reduced at several angles of attack at Mach 0.60. A wing on wall configuration was also modeled in the numerical experiments. These flow simulations showed that free air conditions can be approximated by adjusting boundary conditions at only the floor and ceiling of the test section. No sidewall control was necessary. Typical results from these experiments are discussed

OH Maser sources in W49N: probing differential anisotropic scattering with Zeeman pairs

Our analysis of a VLBA 12-hour synthesis observations of the OH masers in W49N has provided detailed high angular-resolution images of the maser sources, at 1612, 1665 and 1667 MHz. The images, of several dozens of spots, reveal anisotropic scatter broadening; with typical sizes of a few tens of milli-arc-seconds and axial ratios between 1.5 to 3. The image position angles oriented perpendicular to the galactic plane are interpreted in terms of elongation of electron-density irregularities parallel to the galactic plane, due to a similarly aligned local magnetic field. However, we find the apparent angular sizes on the average a factor of 2.5 less than those reported by Desai et al., indicating significantly less scattering than inferred earlier. The average position angle of the scattered broadened images is also seen to deviate significantly (by about 10 degrees) from that implied by the magnetic field in the Galactic plane. More intriguingly, for a few Zeeman pairs in our set, we find significant differences in the scatter broadened images for the two hands of polarization, even when apparent velocity separation is less than 0.1 km/s. Here we present the details of our observations and analysis, and discuss the interesting implications of our results for the intervening anisotropic magneto-ionic medium, as well as a comparison with the expectations based on earlier work.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to the Proceedings of the IAU Symposium 287: "Cosmic masers - from OH to H0

CO observations and investigation of triggered star formation towards N10 infrared bubble and surroundings

We studied the environment of the dust bubble N10 in molecular emission. Infrared bubbles, first detected by the GLIMPSE survey at 8.0 $\mu$m, are ideal regions to investigate the effect of the expansion of the HII region on its surroundings eventual triggered star formation at its borders. In this work, we present a multi-wavelength study of N10. This bubble is especially interesting as infrared studies of the young stellar content suggest a scenario of ongoing star formation, possibly triggered, on the edge of the HII region. We carried out observations of $^{12}$CO(1-0) and $^{13}$CO(1-0) emission at PMO 13.7-m towards N10. We also analyzed the IR and sub-mm emission on this region and compare those different tracers to obtain a detailed view of the interaction between the expanding HII region and the molecular gas. We also estimated the parameters of the denser cold dust condensation and of the ionized gas inside the shell. Bright CO emission was detected and two molecular clumps were identified, from which we have derived physical parameters. We also estimate the parameters for the densest cold dust condensation and for the ionized gas inside the shell. The comparison between the dynamical age of this region and the fragmentation time scale favors the "Radiation-Driven Implosion" mechanism of star formation. N10 reveals to be specially interesting case with gas structures in a narrow frontier between HII region and surrounding molecular material, and with a range of ages of YSOs situated in region indicating triggered star formation.Comment: Version 2 - Submmited to ApJ (under review

Microscopic mass estimations

The quest to build a mass formula which have in it the most relevant microscopic contributions is analyzed. Inspired in the successful Duflo-Zuker mass description, the challenges to describe the shell closures in a more transparent but equally powerful formalism are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Journal of Physics G, Focus issue on Open Problems in Nuclear Structure Theor