3,403 research outputs found
Recovery of the Historical SN1957D in X-rays with Chandra
SN1957D, located in one of the spiral arms of M83, is one of the small number
of extragalactic supernovae that has remained detectable at radio and optical
wavelengths during the decades after its explosion. Here we report the first
detection of SN1957D in X-rays, as part of a 729 ks observation of M83 with
\chandra. The X-ray luminosity (0.3 - 8 keV) is 1.7 (+2.4,-0.3) 10**37 ergs/s.
The spectrum is hard and highly self-absorbed compared to most sources in M83
and to other young supernova remnants, suggesting that the system is dominated
at X-ray wavelengths by an energetic pulsar and its pulsar wind nebula. The
high column density may be due to absorption within the SN ejecta. HST WFC3
images resolve the supernova remnant from the surrounding emission and the
local star field. Photometry of stars around SN1957D, using WFC3 images,
indicates an age of less than 10**7 years and a main sequence turnoff mass more
than 17 solar masses. New spectra obtained with Gemini-South show that the
optical spectrum continues to be dominated by broad [O III] emission lines, the
signature of fast-moving SN ejecta. The width of the broad lines has remained
about 2700 km/s (FWHM). The [O III] flux dropped precipitously between 1989 and
1991, but continued monitoring shows the flux has been almost constant since.
In contrast, radio observations over the period 1990-2011 show a decline rate
inf the flux proportional to t**-4, far steeper than the rate observed earlier,
suggesting that the primary shock has overrun the edge of a pre-SN wind.Comment: 28 pages, including 3 tables and 7 figures, accepted for publication
in Ap
Soft capacitor fibers using conductive polymers for electronic textiles
A novel, highly flexible, conductive polymer-based fiber with high electric
capacitance is reported. In its crossection the fiber features a periodic
sequence of hundreds of conductive and isolating plastic layers positioned
around metallic electrodes. The fiber is fabricated using fiber drawing method,
where a multi-material macroscopic preform is drawn into a sub-millimeter
capacitor fiber in a single fabrication step. Several kilometres of fibers can
be obtained from a single preform with fiber diameters ranging between 500um
-1000um. A typical measured capacitance of our fibers is 60-100 nF/m and it is
independent of the fiber diameter. For comparison, a coaxial cable of the
comparable dimensions would have only ~0.06nF/m capacitance. Analysis of the
fiber frequency response shows that in its simplest interrogation mode the
capacitor fiber has a transverse resistance of 5 kOhm/L, which is inversely
proportional to the fiber length L and is independent of the fiber diameter.
Softness of the fiber materials, absence of liquid electrolyte in the fiber
structure, ease of scalability to large production volumes, and high
capacitance of our fibers make them interesting for various smart textile
applications ranging from distributed sensing to energy storage
Galactic and Extragalactic Samples of Supernova Remnants: How They Are Identified and What They Tell Us
Supernova remnants (SNRs) arise from the interaction between the ejecta of a
supernova (SN) explosion and the surrounding circumstellar and interstellar
medium. Some SNRs, mostly nearby SNRs, can be studied in great detail. However,
to understand SNRs as a whole, large samples of SNRs must be assembled and
studied. Here, we describe the radio, optical, and X-ray techniques which have
been used to identify and characterize almost 300 Galactic SNRs and more than
1200 extragalactic SNRs. We then discuss which types of SNRs are being found
and which are not. We examine the degree to which the luminosity functions,
surface-brightness distributions and multi-wavelength comparisons of the
samples can be interpreted to determine the class properties of SNRs and
describe efforts to establish the type of SN explosion associated with a SNR.
We conclude that in order to better understand the class properties of SNRs, it
is more important to study (and obtain additional data on) the SNRs in galaxies
with extant samples at multiple wavelength bands than it is to obtain samples
of SNRs in other galaxiesComment: Final 2016 draft of a chapter in "Handbook of Supernovae" edited by
Athem W. Alsabti and Paul Murdin. Final version available at
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20794-0_90-
Discovery of Fast-Moving X-Ray--Emitting Ejecta Knots in the Oxygen-Rich Supernova Remnant Puppis A
We report on the discovery of fast-moving X-ray--emitting ejecta knots in the
Galactic Oxygen-rich supernova remnant Puppis A from XMM-Newton observations.
We find an X-ray knotty feature positionally coincident with an O-rich
fast-moving optical filament with blue-shifted line emission located in the
northeast of Puppis A. We extract spectra from northern and southern regions of
the feature. Applying a one-component non-equilibrium ionization model for the
two spectra, we find high metal abundances relative to the solar values in both
spectra. This fact clearly shows that the feature originates from metal-rich
ejecta. In addition, we find that line emission in the two regions is
blue-shifted. The Doppler velocities derived in the two regions are different
with each other, suggesting that the knotty feature consists of two knots that
are close to each other along the line of sight. Since fast-moving O-rich
optical knots/filaments are believed to be recoiled metal-rich ejecta, expelled
to the opposite direction against the high-velocity central compact object, we
propose that the ejecta knots disclosed here are also part of the recoiled
material.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure
The Chandra Local Volume Survey: The X-ray Point Source Catalog of NGC 300
We present the source catalog of a new Chandra ACIS-I observation of NGC 300
obtained as part of the Chandra Local Volume Survey. Our 63 ks exposure covers
~88% of the D25 isophote (R~6.3 kpc) and yields a catalog of 95 X-ray point
sources detected at high significance to a limiting unabsorbed 0.35-8 keV
luminosity of ~10^36 erg s^-1. Sources were cross-correlated with a previous
XMM-Newton catalog, and we find 75 "X-ray transient candidate" sources that
were detected by one observatory, but not the other. We derive an X-ray scale
length of 1.7+/-0.2 kpc and a recent star formation rate of 0.12 Msun yr^-1, in
excellent agreement with optical observations. Deep, multi-color imaging from
the Hubble Space Telescope, covering ~32% of our Chandra field, was used to
search for optical counterparts to the X-ray sources, and we have developed a
new source classification scheme to determine which sources are likely X-ray
binaries, supernova remnants, and background AGN candidates. Finally, we
present the X-ray luminosity functions (XLFs) at different X-ray energies, and
we find the total NGC 300 X-ray point source population to be consistent with
other late-type galaxies hosting young stellar populations (<50 Myr). We find
XLF of sources associated with older stellar populations has a steeper slope
than the XLF of X-ray sources coinciding with young stellar populations,
consistent with theoretical predictions.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures. Accepted to Ap
UBVI Surface Photometry of the Spiral Galaxy NGC 300 in the Sculptor Group
We present UBVI surface photometry for 20.'5 X 20.'5 area of a late-type
spiral galaxy NGC 300. In order to understand the morphological properties and
luminosity distribution characteristics of NGC 300, we have derived isophotal
maps, surface brightness profiles, ellipticity profiles, position angle
profiles, and color profiles. By merging the I-band data of our surface
brightness measurements with those of Boeker et al. (2002) based on Hubble
Space Telescope observations, we have made combined I-band surface brightness
profiles for the region of 0."02 < r < 500" and decomposed the profiles into
three components: a nucleus, a bulge, and an exponential disk.Comment: 16 pages(cjaa209.sty), Accepted by the Chinese J. Astron. Astrophys.,
Fig 2 and 8 are degraded to reduce spac
Development of a Mesoamerican intra-genepool genetic map for quantitative trait loci detection in a drought tolerant × susceptible common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cross
Drought is a major constraint to common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) production, especially in developing countries where irrigation for the crop is infrequent. The Mesoamerican genepool is the most widely grown subdivision of common beans that include small red, small cream and black seeded varieties. The objective of this study was to develop a reliable genetic map for a Mesoamerican × Mesoamerican drought tolerant × susceptible cross and to use this map to analyze the inheritance of yield traits under drought and fully irrigated conditions over 3 years of experiments. The source of drought tolerance used in the cross was the cream-seeded advanced line BAT477 crossed with the small red variety DOR364 and the population was made up of recombinant inbred lines in the F5 generation. Quantitative trait loci were detected by composite interval mapping for the traits of overall seed yield, yield per day, 100 seed weight, days to flowering and days to maturity for each field environment consisting of two treatments (irrigated and rainfed) and lattice design experiments with three repetitions for a total of six environments. The genetic map based on amplified fragment length polymorphism and random amplified polymorphic DNA markers was anchored with 60 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and had a total map length of 1,087.5 cM across 11 linkage groups covering the whole common bean genome with saturation of one marker every 5.9 cM. Gaps for the genetic map existed on linkage groups b03, b09 and b11 but overall there were only nine gaps larger than 15 cM. All traits were inherited quantitatively, with the greatest number for seed weight followed by yield per day, yield per se, days to flowering and days to maturity. The relevance of these results for breeding common beans is discussed in particular in the light of crop improvement for drought tolerance in the Mesoamerican genepool
CFGP: a web-based, comparative fungal genomics platform
Since the completion of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome sequencing project in 1996, the genomes of over 80 fungal species have been sequenced or are currently being sequenced. Resulting data provide opportunities for studying and comparing fungal biology and evolution at the genome level. To support such studies, the Comparative Fungal Genomics Platform (CFGP; http://cfgp.snu.ac.kr), a web-based multifunctional informatics workbench, was developed. The CFGP comprises three layers, including the basal layer, middleware and the user interface. The data warehouse in the basal layer contains standardized genome sequences of 65 fungal species. The middleware processes queries via six analysis tools, including BLAST, ClustalW, InterProScan, SignalP 3.0, PSORT II and a newly developed tool named BLASTMatrix. The BLASTMatrix permits the identification and visualization of genes homologous to a query across multiple species. The Data-driven User Interface (DUI) of the CFGP was built on a new concept of pre-collecting data and post-executing analysis instead of the ‘fill-in-the-form-and-press-SUBMIT’ user interfaces utilized by most bioinformatics sites. A tool termed Favorite, which supports the management of encapsulated sequence data and provides a personalized data repository to users, is another novel feature in the DUI
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