Visible-IR Colors and Lightcurve Analysis of Two Bright TNOs: 1999 TC36 and 1998 SN165

We report on observations of two bright Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) - 1999 TC36 and 1998 SN165}- during two observational campaigns, as part of the Meudon Multicolor Survey of Outer Solar System Objects. V-J color was measured for 1999 TC36 (V-J=2.34+/-0.18), which combined with previous measured colors in the visible, indicate a red reflectivity spectrum at all wavelengths. Photometric V-band lightcurves were taken for both objects over a time span of around 8 hours. We have determined a possible rotational period of P=10.1+/-0.8 h for 1998 SN165, making it the seventh TNO with an estimated period. From its lightcurve variation of Dm=0.151(+0.022/-0.030), we have inferred an asymmetry ratio of a/b >=1.148(+0.024/-0.031). For 1999 TC36, we did not detect any rotational period or periodic signal variation within the uncertainties, but the analysis of its lightcurve hints to a slight systematic magnitude decrease.Comment: Accepted for publication in New Astronomy (13 pages, inc. 4 figures

Comparing supernova remnants around strongly magnetized and canonical pulsars

The origin of the strong magnetic fields measured in magnetars is one of the main uncertainties in the neutron star field. On the other hand, the recent discovery of a large number of such strongly magnetized neutron stars, is calling for more investigation on their formation. The first proposed model for the formation of such strong magnetic fields in magnetars was through alpha-dynamo effects on the rapidly rotating core of a massive star. Other scenarios involve highly magnetic massive progenitors that conserve their strong magnetic moment into the core after the explosion, or a common envelope phase of a massive binary system. In this work, we do a complete re-analysis of the archival X-ray emission of the Supernova Remnants (SNR) surrounding magnetars, and compare our results with all other bright X-ray emitting SNRs, which are associated with Compact Central Objects (CCOs; which are proposed to have magnetar-like B-fields buried in the crust by strong accretion soon after their formation), high-B pulsars and normal pulsars. We find that emission lines in SNRs hosting highly magnetic neutron stars do not differ significantly in elements or ionization state from those observed in other SNRs, neither averaging on the whole remnants, nor studying different parts of their total spatial extent. Furthermore, we find no significant evidence that the total X-ray luminosities of SNRs hosting magnetars, are on average larger than that of typical young X-ray SNRs. Although biased by a small number of objects, we found that for a similar age, there is the same percentage of magnetars showing a detectable SNR than for the normal pulsar population.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

The largest oxigen bearing organic molecule repository

We present the first detection of complex aldehydes and isomers in three typical molecular clouds located within 200pc of the center of our Galaxy. We find very large abundances of these complex organic molecules (COMs) in the central molecular zone (CMZ), which we attribute to the ejection of COMs from grain mantles by shocks. The relative abundances of the different COMs with respect to that of CH3OH are strikingly similar for the three sources, located in very different environments in the CMZ. The similar relative abundances point toward a unique grain mantle composition in the CMZ. Studying the Galactic center clouds and objects in the Galactic disk having large abundances of COMs, we find that more saturated molecules are more abundant than the non-saturated ones. We also find differences between the relative abundance between COMs in the CMZ and the Galactic disk, suggesting different chemical histories of the grain mantles between the two regions in the Galaxy for the complex aldehydes. Different possibilities for the grain chemistry on the icy mantles in the GC clouds are briefly discussed. Cosmic rays can play an important role in the grain chemistry. With these new detections, the molecular clouds in the Galactic center appear to be one of the best laboratories for studying the formation of COMs in the Galaxy.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Ap

Proper Motions of Young Stellar Outflows in the Mid-Infrared with Spitzer. II. HH 377/Cep E

We have used multiple mid-infrared observations at 4.5 micron obtained with the Infrared Array Camera, of the compact (~1.4 arcmin) young stellar bipolar outflow Cep E to measure the proper motion of its brightest condensations. The images span a period of ~6 yr and have been reprocessed to achieve a higher angular resolution (~0.8 arcsec) than their normal beam (2 arcsec). We found that for a distance of 730 pc, the tangential velocities of the North and South outflow lobes are 62+/-29 and 94+/-6 km/s respectively, and moving away from the central source roughly along the major axis of the flow. A simple 3D hydrodynamical simulation of the H2 gas in a precessing outflow supports this idea. Observations and model confirm that the molecular Hydrogen gas, traced by the pure rotational transitions, moves at highly supersonic velocities without being dissociated. This suggests either a very efficient mechanism to reform H2 molecules along these shocks or the presence of some other mechanism (e.g. strong magnetic field) that shields the H2 gas.Comment: Accepted for publication in New Journal of Physics (Special Issue article

α\alpha-vacuum and inflationary bispectrum

In this paper, we discuss the non-Guassianity originated from the $\alpha$-vacuum on the CMB anisotropy. For $\alpha$-vacuum, there exist correlation between points in the acausal two patches of de Sitter spactime. Such kind of correlation can lead to large local form non-Guassianity in $\alpha$-vacuum. For the single field slow-roll inflationary scenario, the spacetime is in a quasi-de Sitter phase during the inflation. We will show that the $\alpha$-vacuum in this case will lead to non-Gaussianity with distinguished feature, of a large local form and a very different shape.Comment: 39 pages, 8 figures, references added, minor changes, accepted by Phys.Rev.

Long-range correlations and trends in Colombian seismic time series

We study long-range correlations and trends in time series extracted from the data of seismic events occurred from 1973 to 2011 in a rectangular region that contains mainly all the continental part of Colombia. The long-range correlations are detected by the calculation of the Hurst exponents for the time series of interevent intervals, separation distances, depth differences and magnitude differences. By using a modification of the classical $R/S$ method that has been developed to detect short-range correlations in time series, we find the existence of persistence for all the time series considered except for magnitude differences. We find also, by using the $DFA$ until the third order, that the studied time series are not influenced by trends. Additionally, an analysis of the Hurst exponent as a function of the number of events in the time and the maximum window size is presented.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 figures added, types corrected, accepted to be published in Physica

Universality of low-energy scattering in (2+1) dimensions

We prove that, in (2+1) dimensions, the S-wave phase shift, $\delta_0(k)$, k being the c.m. momentum, vanishes as either $\delta_0 \to {c\over \ln (k/m)} or \delta_0 \to O(k^2)$ as $k\to 0$. The constant $c$ is universal and $c=\pi/2$. This result is established first in the framework of the Schr\"odinger equation for a large class of potentials, second for a massive field theory from proved analyticity and unitarity, and, finally, we look at perturbation theory in $\phi_3^4$ and study its relation to our non-perturbative result. The remarkable fact here is that in n-th order the perturbative amplitude diverges like $(\ln k)^n$ as $k\to 0$, while the full amplitude vanishes as $(\ln k)^{-1}$. We show how these two facts can be reconciled.Comment: 23 pages, Late

Proposal for witnessing non-classical light with the human eye

We give a complete proposal showing how to detect the non-classical nature of photonic states with naked eyes as detectors. The enabling technology is a sub-Poissonian photonic state that is obtained from single photons, displacement operations in phase space and basic non-photon-number-resolving detectors. We present a detailed statistical analysis of our proposal including imperfect photon creation and detection and a realistic model of the human eye. We conclude that a few tens of hours are sufficient to certify non-classical light with the human eye with a p-value of 10%.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted versio