The VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. II. A Statistical Characterization of Class 0 and Class I Protostellar Disks

We have conducted a survey of 328 protostars in the Orion molecular clouds with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array at 0.87 mm at a resolution of ~0.”1 (40 au), including observations with the Very Large Array at 9 mm toward 148 protostars at a resolution of ~0 08 (32 au). This is the largest multiwavelength survey of protostars at this resolution by an order of magnitude. We use the dust continuum emission at 0.87 and 9 mm to measure the dust disk radii and masses toward the Class 0, Class I, and flat-spectrum protostars, characterizing the evolution of these disk properties in the protostellar phase. The mean dust disk radii for the Class 0, Class I, and flat-spectrum protostars are 44.9^(+5.8)_(−3.4), 37.0^(+4.9)_(−3.0), and 28.5^(+3.7)_(−2.3) au, respectively, and the mean protostellar dust disk masses are 25.9^(+7.7)_(−4.0), 14.9^(+3.8)_(−2.2), 1.6^(+3.5)_(−1.9) M⊕, respectively. The decrease in dust disk masses is expected from disk evolution and accretion, but the decrease in disk radii may point to the initial conditions of star formation not leading to the systematic growth of disk radii or that radial drift is keeping the dust disk sizes small. At least 146 protostellar disks (35% of 379 detected 0.87 mm continuum sources plus 42 nondetections) have disk radii greater than 50 au in our sample. These properties are not found to vary significantly between different regions within Orion. The protostellar dust disk mass distributions are systematically larger than those of Class II disks by a factor of >4, providing evidence that the cores of giant planets may need to at least begin their formation during the protostellar phase

A project and competition to design and build a simple heat exchanger

To address a declining interest in process engineering, a project to design and build a compact heat exchanger was initiated in the second year of a four-year, multidisciplinary degree programme in biotechnology. The heat exchangers had a double-pipe configuration and employed plastic outer pipes and copper inner pipes of various diameters. Designs produced ranged from coiled inner pipes to various multi-pass arrangements and were assessed on the basis of heat transfer achieved per unit mean temperature difference per unit cost. The project, which also formed the basis of a competition, was very well received by students and gave them hands-on experience of engineering design and construction, as well as team work, problem solving, engineering drawing and the use of simple tools. Based on the success of this project, a similar problem based learning approach will be initiated in the third year of the same degree programme and will focus on bioethanol production

Filamentary Star Formation: Observing the Evolution toward Flattened Envelopes

Filamentary structures are ubiquitous from large-scale molecular clouds (few parsecs) to small-scale circumstellar envelopes around Class 0 sources (~1000 AU to ~0.1 pc). In particular, recent observations with the Herschel Space Observatory emphasize the importance of large-scale filaments (few parsecs) and star formation. The small-scale flattened envelopes around Class 0 sources are reminiscent of the large-scale filaments. We propose an observationally derived scenario for filamentary star formation that describes the evolution of filaments as part of the process for formation of cores and circumstellar envelopes. If such a scenario is correct, small-scale filamentary structures (0.1 pc in length) with higher densities embedded in starless cores should exist, although to date almost all the interferometers have failed to observe such structures. We perform synthetic observations of filaments at the prestellar stage by modeling the known Class 0 flattened envelope in L1157 using both the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). We show that with reasonable estimates for the column density through the flattened envelope, the CARMA D-array at 3mm wavelengths is not able to detect such filamentary structure, so previous studies would not have detected them. However, the substructures may be detected with CARMA D+E array at 3 mm and CARMA E array at 1 mm as a result of more appropriate resolution and sensitivity. ALMA is also capable of detecting the substructures and showing the structures in detail compared to the CARMA results with its unprecedented sensitivity. Such detection will confirm the new proposed paradigm of non-spherical star formation.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures. Accepted by Ap

The Failed Pursuit of Religious Expectations: Compulsory Heterosexuality, Compulsory Able-Bodiedness, and Queer/Disabled Existence in The Book of Margery Kempe (ca. 1373- 1440)

The Book of Margery Kempe (ca 1450-1500) details the life of Margery, a medieval woman who seeks to purify herself before God while simultaneously exhibiting nonnormative behavior regarding church expectations of chastity, purity, the body, and conformity. In her story, Margery enacts many unusual forms of worship that toe the line of Church expectations: she bestows healing kisses upon women, spends exclusive time healing a woman who refuses to be attended by men, she strikes up a celibacy pact with her husband, and starves herself as a form of penance. Margery’s motives for such behavior are up for debate. With previous scholarship on Margery in mind, Tobin turns to the work of Robert McRuer regarding compulsory able-bodiedness and the work of Adrienne Rich regarding compulsory heterosexuality as vehicles for the exploration of Margery’s inability to attain the Church ideal of normal behavior at the time, as well as her resistance to deviance. Although compulsory heterosexuality and able-bodiedness originate in a contemporary context and are therefore born of a different socio-cultural conception of the body and sexuality, they open the potential to perceive sexuality and able-bodiedness in medieval texts in new ways. In this essay, Tobin explores how Margery, to free herself from heteronormative and able-bodied expectations perpetuated by the Church, uses the legitimacy of God and Jesus’ divine intervention in her life as an attempt to simultaneously be perceived as normal, while also living as a queer, disabled woman

Constraining the Envelope Structure of L1527 IRS: Infrared Scattered Light Modeling

We model Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the Taurus Class 0 protostar L1527 IRS (IRAS 04368+2557) to provide constraints on its protostellar envelope structure. The nearly edge-on inclination of L1527 IRS, coupled with the highly spatially-resolved near to mid-infrared images of this object and the detailed IRS spectrum, enable us to constrain the outflow cavity geometry quite well, reducing uncertainties in the other derived parameters. The mid-infrared scattered light image shows a bright central source within a dark lane; the aspect ratio of this dark lane is such that it appears highly unlikely to be a disk shadow. In modeling this dark lane, we conclude that L1527 IRS is probably not described by a standard TSC envelope with simple bipolar cavities. We find it necessary to model the dark lane and central source as a modified inner envelope structure. This structure may be due either to a complex wind-envelope interaction or induced by the central binary. To fit the overall SED, we require the central source to have a large near to mid-infrared excess, suggesting substantial disk accretion. Our model reproduces the overall morphology and surface brightness distribution of L1527 IRS fairly well, given the limitations of using axisymmetric models to fit the non-axisymmetric real object, and the derived envelope infall rates are in reasonable agreement with some other investigations. IRAC observations of L1527 IRS taken 12 months apart show variability in total flux and variability in the opposing bipolar cavities, suggesting asymmetric variations in accretion. We also provide model images at high resolution for comparison to future observations with current ground-based instrumentation and future space-based telescopes.Comment: 50 pages, 14 figures 2 tables, accepted by the Astrophysical Journal. The manuscript with full resolution figures can be downloaded from http://astro.lsa.umich.edu/~jjtobin/L1527.pd