14,802 research outputs found
Water Vapor in the Inner 25 AU of a Young Disk around a Low-Mass Protostar
Water is one of the key molecules in the physical and chemical evolution of
star- and planet-forming regions. We here report the first spatially resolved
observation of thermal emission of (an isotopologue of) water with the Plateau
de Bure Interferometer toward the deeply embedded Class 0 protostar NGC
1333-IRAS4B. The observations of the H2-18-O 3_13-2_20 transition at 203.4 GHz
resolve the emission of water toward this source with an extent of about 0.2"
corresponding to the inner 25 AU (radius). The H2-18-O emission reveals a
tentative velocity gradient perpendicular to the extent of the protostellar
outflow/jet probed by observations of CO rotational transitions and water
masers. The line is narrow, about 1 km/s (FWHM), significantly less than what
would be expected for emission from an infalling envelope or accretion shock,
but consistent with emission from a disk seen at a low inclination angle. The
water column density inferred from these data suggests that the water emitting
gas is a thin warm layer containing about 25 M_Earth of material, 0.03% of the
total disk mass traced by continuum observations.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 12 pages, 3 figure
Chemical tracers of episodic accretion in low-mass protostars
Aims: Accretion rates in low-mass protostars can be highly variable in time.
Each accretion burst is accompanied by a temporary increase in luminosity,
heating up the circumstellar envelope and altering the chemical composition of
the gas and dust. This paper aims to study such chemical effects and discusses
the feasibility of using molecular spectroscopy as a tracer of episodic
accretion rates and timescales.
Methods: We simulate a strong accretion burst in a diverse sample of 25
spherical envelope models by increasing the luminosity to 100 times the
observed value. Using a comprehensive gas-grain network, we follow the chemical
evolution during the burst and for up to 10^5 yr after the system returns to
quiescence. The resulting abundance profiles are fed into a line radiative
transfer code to simulate rotational spectra of C18O, HCO+, H13CO+, and N2H+ at
a series of time steps. We compare these spectra to observations taken from the
literature and to previously unpublished data of HCO+ and N2H+ 6-5 from the
Herschel Space Observatory.
Results: The bursts are strong enough to evaporate CO throughout the
envelope, which in turn enhances the abundance of HCO+ and reduces that of
N2H+. After the burst, it takes 10^3-10^4 yr for CO to refreeze and for HCO+
and N2H+ to return to normal. The chemical effects of the burst remain visible
in the rotational spectra for as long as 10^5 yr after the burst has ended,
highlighting the importance of considering luminosity variations when analyzing
molecular line observations in protostars. The spherical models are currently
not accurate enough to derive robust timescales from single-dish observations.
As follow-up work, we suggest that the models be calibrated against spatially
resolved observations in order to identify the best tracers to be used for
statistically significant source samples.Comment: Accepted by A&A; 12 pages, 7 figure
Reflection positive affine actions and stochastic processes
In this note we continue our investigations of the representation theoretic
aspects of reflection positivity, also called Osterwalder--Schrader positivity.
We explain how this concept relates to affine isometric actions on real Hilbert
spaces and how this is connected with Gaussian processes with stationary
increments
Observations of nitrogen isotope fractionation in deeply embedded protostars
(Abridged) The terrestrial planets, comets, and meteorites are significantly
enriched in 15N compared to the Sun and Jupiter. While the solar and jovian
nitrogen isotope ratio is believed to represent the composition of the
protosolar nebula, a still unidentified process has caused 15N-enrichment in
the solids. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the variations,
including chemical fractionation. However, observational results that constrain
the fractionation models are scarce. While there is evidence of 15N-enrichment
in prestellar cores, it is unclear how the signature evolves into the
protostellar phases. Our aim is to measure the 14N/15N ratio around three
nearby, embedded low-to-intermediate-mass protostars. Isotopologues of HCN and
HNC were used to probe the 14N/15N ratio. A selection of H13CN, HC15N, HN13C,
and H15NC transitions was observed with the APEX telescope. The 14N/15N ratios
were derived from the integrated intensities assuming a standard 12C/13C ratio.
The assumption of optically thin emission was verified using radiative transfer
modeling and hyperfine structure fitting. Two sources, IRAS 16293A and R CrA
IRS7B, show 15N-enrichment by a factor of around 1.5-2.5 in both HCN and HNC
with respect to the solar composition. Solar composition cannot be excluded for
the third source, OMC-3 MMS6. Furthermore, there are indications of a trend
toward increasing 14N/15N ratios with increasing outer envelope temperature.
The enhanced 15N abundances in HCN and HNC found in two Class~0 sources
(14N/15N of 160-290) and the tentative trend toward a temperature-dependent
14N/15N ratio are consistent with the chemical fractionation scenario, but
14N/15N ratios from additional tracers are indispensable for testing the
models. Spatially resolved observations are needed to distinguish between
chemical fractionation and isotope-selective photochemistry.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 16 pages, 13
figure
Analyzing human resource competency development through the lens of adult learning theory: a qualitative case study on change management competency in a global U.S.-based firm.
HR as a profession has sought to be more strategic in order to address the increasing complexities of the business world, but many find that, in general, it is not happening in practice. Academic research has sought to define a set of competencies to guide the work and development of HR professionals; specifically, managing organizational change is one of the recommended core competencies. The extant literature suggests that there is a gap in the formal learning higher education offerings for HR professionals to be able to develop the set of knowledge, skills, and abilities required to be proficient in organizational change management. A case study design was used to explore how HR managers within one organization defined change management competency and had developed their knowledge, skills and abilities through the lens of adult learning theory. The results of the research suggest that informal learning is the primary type of learning experience for developing the competency of change management. Recommendations for further research and practice are provided to better align research and practice for organizational change management as competency for HR professionals
Molecule sublimation as a tracer of protostellar accretion: Evidence for accretion bursts from high angular resolution C18O images
The accretion histories of embedded protostars are an integral part of
descriptions of their physical and chemical evolution. In particular, are the
accretion rates smoothly declining from the earlier toward later stages or in
fact characterized by variations such as intermittent bursts? We aim to
characterize the impact of possible accretion variations in a sample of
embedded protostars by measuring the size of the inner regions of their
envelopes where CO is sublimated and relate those to their temperature profiles
dictated by their current luminosities. Using observations from the
Submillimeter Array we measure the extents of the emission from the C18O
isotopologue toward 16 deeply embedded protostars. We compare these
measurements to the predicted extent of the emission given the current
luminosities of the sources through dust and line radiative transfer
calculations. Eight out of sixteen sources show more extended C18O emission
than predicted by the models. The modeling shows that the likely culprit for
these signatures is sublimation due to increases in luminosities of the sources
by about a factor five or more during the recent 10,000 years - the time it
takes for CO to freeze-out again on dust grains. For four of those sources the
increase would have had to have been a factor 10 or more. The compact emission
seen toward the other half of the sample suggests that C18O only sublimates
when the temperature exceeds 30 K - as one would expect if CO is mixed with H2O
in the grain ice-mantles. The small-number statistics from this survey suggest
that protostars undergo significant bursts about once every 20,000 years. This
also illustrates the importance of taking the physical evolutionary histories
into account for descriptions of the chemical structures of embedded
protostars.Comment: Accepted by A&A; 11 pages, 5 figure
Mass-Selection and the Evolution of the Morphology-Density Relation from z=0.8 to z=0
We examined the morphology-density relations for galaxy samples selected by
luminosity and by mass in each of five massive X-ray clusters from z=0.023 to
0.83 for 674 spectroscopically-confirmed members. Rest-frame optical colors and
visual morphologies were obtained primarily from Hubble Space Telescope images.
Morphology-density relations (MDR) are derived in each cluster from a complete,
luminosity-selected sample of 452 galaxies with a magnitude limit M_V <
M^{*}_{V} + 1. The change in the early-type fraction with redshift matches
previous work for massive clusters of galaxies. We performed a similar
analysis, deriving MDRs for complete, mass-selected samples of 441 galaxies
with a mass-limit of 10^{10.6} M_{\sun}. Our mass limit includes faint objects,
the equivalent of =~1 mag below L^{*} for the red cluster galaxies, and
encompasses =~70% of the stellar mass in cluster galaxies. The MDRs in the
mass-selected sample at densities of Sigma > 50 galaxies Mpc^{-2} are similar
to those in the luminosity-selected sample but show larger early-type
fractions. However, the trend with redshift in the fraction of elliptical and
S0 galaxies with masses > 10^{10.6} M_{\sun} differs significantly between the
mass- and luminosity-selected samples. The clear trend seen in the early-type
fraction from z=0 to z=~ 0.8 is not found in mass-selected samples. The
early-type galaxy fraction changes much less, and is consistent with being
constant at 92% +/- 4% at \Sigma> 500 galaxies Mpc^{-2} and 83 +/- 3% at 50 <
\Sigma < 500 galaxies Mpc^{-2}. This suggests that galaxies of mass lower than
> 10^{10.6} M_{\sun} play a significant role in the evolution of the early-type
fraction in luminosity-selected samples. (Abstract abridged)Comment: 18 pages in emulate ApJ format, with 10 color figures, Accepted to
ApJ. Version updated to reflect published version, includes new references
and a correction to table
A cold complex chemistry toward the low-mass protostar B1-b: evidence for complex molecule production in ices
Gas-phase complex organic molecules have been detected toward a range of
high- and low-mass star-forming regions at abundances which cannot be explained
by any known gas-phase chemistry. Recent laboratory experiments show that UV
irradiation of CH3OH-rich ices may be an important mechanism for producing
complex molecules and releasing them into the gas-phase. To test this ice
formation scenario we mapped the B1-b dust core and nearby protostar in CH3OH
gas using the IRAM 30m telescope to identify locations of efficient non-thermal
ice desorption. We find three CH3OH abundance peaks tracing two outflows and a
quiescent region on the side of the core facing the protostar. The CH3OH gas
has a rotational temperature of ~10 K at all locations. The quiescent CH3OH
abundance peak and one outflow position were searched for complex molecules.
Narrow, 0.6-0.8 km s-1 wide, HCOOCH3 and CH3CHO lines originating in cold gas
are clearly detected, CH3OCH3 is tentatively detected and C2H5OH and HOCH2CHO
are undetected toward the quiescent core, while no complex molecular lines were
found toward the outflow. The core abundances with respect to CH3OH are ~2.3%
and 1.1% for HCOOCH3 and CH3CHO, respectively, and the upper limits are
0.7-1.1%, which is similar to most other low-mass sources. The observed complex
molecule characteristics toward B1-b and the pre-dominance of HCO-bearing
species suggest a cold ice (below 25 K, the sublimation temperature of CO)
formation pathway followed by non-thermal desorption through e.g. UV photons
traveling through outflow cavities. The observed complex gas composition
together with the lack of any evidence of warm gas-phase chemistry provide
clear evidence of efficient complex molecule formation in cold interstellar
ices.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The Possible z=0.83 Precursors of z=0 M* Early-type Cluster Galaxies
We examine the distribution of stellar masses of galaxies in MS 1054-03 and
RX J0152.7-1357, two X-ray selected clusters of galaxies at z=0.83. Our stellar
mass estimates, from spectral energy distribution fitting, reproduce the
dynamical masses as measured from velocity dispersions and half-light radii
with a scatter of 0.2 dex in the mass for early-type galaxies. When we restrict
our sample of members to high stellar masses, > 1e11.1 Msun (M* in the
Schechter mass function for cluster galaxies), we find that the fraction of
early-type galaxies is 79 +/- 6% at z=0.83 and 87 +/- 6% at z=0.023 for the
Coma cluster, consistent with no evolution. Previous work with
luminosity-selected samples finds that the early-type fraction in rich clusters
declines from =~80% at z=0 to =~60% at z=0.8. The observed evolution in the
early-type fraction from luminosity-selected samples must predominately occur
among sub-M* galaxies. As M* for field and group galaxies, especially
late-types, is below M* for clusters galaxies, infall could explain most of the
recent early-type fraction growth. Future surveys could determine the
morphological distributions of lower mass systems which will confirm or refute
this explanation.Comment: 5 pages in emulate ApJ format with three color figures. Accepted for
publication in ApJ Letters, v642n2. Updated to correct grammatical and
typographic errors found by the journa
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