48,616 research outputs found
3D simulations of pillars formation around HII regions: the importance of shock curvature
Radiative feedback from massive stars is a key process to understand how HII
regions may enhance or inhibit star formation in pillars and globules at the
interface with molecular clouds. We aim to contribute to model the interactions
between ionization and gas clouds to better understand the processes at work.
We study in detail the impact of modulations on the cloud-HII region interface
and density modulations inside the cloud. We run three-dimensional
hydrodynamical simulations based on Euler equations coupled with gravity using
the HERACLES code. We implement a method to solve ionization/recombination
equations and we take into account typical heating and cooling processes at
work in the interstellar medium and due to ionization/recombination physics. UV
radiation creates a dense shell compressed between an ionization front and a
shock ahead. Interface modulations produce a curved shock that collapses on
itself leading to stable growing pillar-like structures. The narrower the
initial interface modulation, the longer the resulting pillar. We interpret
pillars resulting from density modulations in terms of the ability of these
density modula- tions to curve the shock ahead the ionization front. The shock
curvature is a key process to understand the formation of structures at the
edge of HII regions. Interface and density modulations at the edge of the cloud
have a direct impact on the morphology of the dense shell during its formation.
Deeper in the cloud, structures have less influence due to the high densities
reached by the shell during its expansion.Comment: Accepted by A&A 03/11/201
A single-board preprocessor and pulse generator
The Aeronomy Lab. of NOAA has designed and built a single board, programmable radar controller for use with VHF ST (stratosphere troposphere) radars. The controller consists of a coherent integrator preprocessor and a radar pulse generator, both of which are described, as well as interfaces to an antenna beam switch and a receiver bandwidth switch. The controller occupies a single slot in a Data General Nova of Eclipse computer. The integrator and pulse generator take advantage of high density, dual port FIFO chips such as the 512 x 9 Mostek MK 4501. These FIFOs have separate input and output ports and independent read and write cycles with cycle times of less than 200 ns, making them very fast and easy to interface. A simple block diagram of the coherent integrator is shown. The integrator is designed to handle inputs from one receiver (2 channels) with 1 sec sample spacing. The pulse generator is based on controllers designed by R. F. Woodman for the Arecibo and SOUSY radars us a recirculating memory scheme
Weak lensing evidence for a filament between A222/A223
We present a weak lensing analysis and comparison to optical and X-ray maps
of the close pair of massive clusters A222/223. Indications for a filamentary
connection between the clusters are found and discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Proc. IAU Colloquium 195: Outskirts
of Galaxy Clusters - Intense Life in the Suburbs. Version with higher
resolution available at
http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~dietrich/torino_proc.ps.g
Intrinsic galaxy shapes and alignments II: Modelling the intrinsic alignment contamination of weak lensing surveys
Intrinsic galaxy alignments constitute the major astrophysical systematic of
forthcoming weak gravitational lensing surveys but also yield unique insights
into galaxy formation and evolution. We build analytic models for the
distribution of galaxy shapes based on halo properties extracted from the
Millennium Simulation, differentiating between early- and late-type galaxies as
well as central galaxies and satellites. The resulting ellipticity correlations
are investigated for their physical properties and compared to a suite of
current observations. The best-faring model is then used to predict the
intrinsic alignment contamination of planned weak lensing surveys. We find that
late-type galaxy models generally have weak intrinsic ellipticity correlations,
marginally increasing towards smaller galaxy separation and higher redshift.
The signal for early-type models at fixed halo mass strongly increases by three
orders of magnitude over two decades in galaxy separation, and by one order of
magnitude from z=0 to z=2. The intrinsic alignment strength also depends
strongly on halo mass, but not on galaxy luminosity at fixed mass, or galaxy
number density in the environment. We identify models that are in good
agreement with all observational data, except that all models over-predict
alignments of faint early-type galaxies. The best model yields an intrinsic
alignment contamination of a Euclid-like survey between 0.5-10% at z>0.6 and on
angular scales larger than a few arcminutes. Cutting 20% of red foreground
galaxies using observer-frame colours can suppress this contamination by up to
a factor of two.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures; minor changes to match version published in
MNRA
Specific protein-protein binding in many-component mixtures of proteins
Proteins must bind to specific other proteins in vivo in order to function.
The proteins must bind only to one or a few other proteins of the of order a
thousand proteins typically present in vivo. Using a simple model of a protein,
specific binding in many component mixtures is studied. It is found to be a
demanding function in the sense that it demands that the binding sites of the
proteins be encoded by long sequences of bits, and the requirement for specific
binding then strongly constrains these sequences. This is quantified by the
capacity of proteins of a given size (sequence length), which is the maximum
number of specific-binding interactions possible in a mixture. This calculation
of the maximum number possible is in the same spirit as the work of Shannon and
others on the maximum rate of communication through noisy channels.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures (changes for v2 mainly notational - to be more in
line with notation in information theory literature
Effects of dark matter annihilation on the first stars
We study the evolution of the first stars in the universe (Population III)
from the early pre-Main Sequence until the end of helium burning in the
presence of WIMP dark matter annihilation inside the stellar structure. The two
different mechanisms that can provide this energy source are the contemporary
contraction of baryons and dark matter, and the capture of WIMPs by scattering
off the gas with subsequent accumulation inside the star. We find that the
first mechanism can generate an equilibrium phase, previously known as a "dark
star", which is transient and present in the very early stages of pre-MS
evolution. The mechanism of scattering and capture acts later, and can support
the star virtually forever, depending on environmental characteristic of the
dark matter halo and on the specific WIMP model.Comment: Proceedings of the IAU Symposium 255, "Low-Metallicity Star
Formation: From the First Stars to Dwarf Galaxies"; L.K. Hunt, S. Madden and
R. Schneider ed
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