Importance of Prolate Neutrino Radiation in Core-Collapse Supernovae: The Reason for the Prolate Geometry of SN1987A?

We have carried out 2-D simulations of core-collapse supernova explosions. The local neutrino radiation field is assumed to have its maximum value either at the symmetry (polar) axis or on the equatorial plane. These lead to the prolate and oblate explosions, respectively. We find that the gain of the explosion energy in the prolate explosion evolves more predominately than that in the oblate one when the total neutrino luminosity is given. Namely, the prolate explosion is more energetic than the oblate one. One of the authors (Shimizu et al. 2001) showed for the first time that globally anisotropic neutrino radiation produces more powerful explosion than the spherical neutrino radiation does. In our previous study (Madokoro et al. 2003), we improved the numerical code of Shimizu et al. and demonstrated that the globally anisotropic neutrino radiation yields more energetic explosion than spatially-fluctuated neutrino radiation does. Together with the result of this paper, we conclude that the globally anisotropic (prolate) neutrino radiation is the most effective way of increasing the explosion energy among various types of explosions investigated in these studies. We discuss the reason for this. Our result is suggestive of the fact that the expanding materials of SN1987A is observed to have a prolate geometry.Comment: 15 pages, including 7 figures, to appear in PAS

Global Anisotropy Versus Small-Scale Fluctuations in Neutrino Flux in Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions

Effects of small-scale fluctuations in the neutrino radiation on core-collapse supernova explosions are examined. Through a parameter study with a fixed radiation field of neutrinos, we find substantial differences between the results of globally anisotropic neutrino radiation and those with fluctuations. As the number of modes of fluctuations increases, the shock positions, entropy distributions, and explosion energies approach those of spherical explosion. We conclude that global anisotropy of the neutrino radiation is the most effective mechanism of increasing the explosion energy when the total neutrino luminosity is given. This supports the previous statement on the explosion mechanism by Shimizu and coworkers.Comment: 14 pages, including 12 figures. To be published in the Astrophysical Journa

Core-Collapse Supernovae Induced by Anisotropic Neutrino Radiation

We demonstrate the important role of anisotropic neutrino radiation on the mechanism of core-collapse supernova explosions. Through a new parameter study with a fixed radiation field of neutrinos, we show that prolate explosions caused by globally anisotropic neutrino radiation is the most effective mechanism of increasing the explosion energy when the total neutrino luminosity is given. This is suggestive of the fact that the expanding materials of SN 1987A has a prolate geometry.Comment: in Proceedings of Int. conf. in hohour of the 60th birthday of Marcel Arnould, The Future Astronuclear Physics, From microscopic puzzles to macroscopic nightmares, Eds. H.M.J. Boffin et al., EAS Publication Series, EDP Sciences, in press (2004

Edge-sensitive Semiconducting Behaviour in Low-defect Narrow Graphene Nanoribbons

Low-defect graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) derived from the unzipping of carbon nanotubes have exhibited large energy band gaps (transport gaps), despite having widths in the order of ∼100 nm. Here, we report on the unique semiconducting behaviour of very narrow, low-defect GNRs, with widths of less than 20 nm. Narrow GNRs are highly resistive, and additional annealing is required to reduce their resistivity. The GNRs display ambipolar rather than evident semiconducting behaviour (p- and n-types), exhibiting normalized Ion/Ioff as great as ∼106 (close to those in a few nm-order-width GNRs) and which are very sensitive to the atmosphere and the termination of the GNRs’ edges by foreign atoms (hydrogen for n-type and oxygen for p-type). It is also revealed that the activation energy (Ea ∼35 meV) estimated from the temperature dependence of the minimum conductance is smaller than those in ∼100 nm width GNRs. The observed sharp conductance peak on back-gate voltage (Vbg) dependence and its strong correlation with the Ea value suggest the presence of possible resonant tunnelling through shallow impurity levels with the small Ea introduced by the edge terminations by foreign atoms, which provides the observed unique behaviour, including the high Ion/Ioff. An energy band gap as large as ∼215 meV is also confirmed from the Ioff voltage region on Vbg. These narrow GNRs must open the door to large-scale graphene integration circuits based on CMOS-like behaviour

Sp1 elements in SULT2B1b promoter and 5′-untranslated region of mRNA: Sp1/Sp2 induction and augmentation by histone deacetylase inhibition

AbstractThe steroid/sterol sulfotransferase gene (SULT2B1) encodes for two isozymes of which one (SULT2B1b) sulfonates cholesterol and is selectively expressed in skin. The human SULT2B1 gene contains neither a TATAAA nor a CCAAT motif upstream of the coding region for SULT2B1b; however, this area is GC-rich. Of five Sp1 elements identified two had regulatory activity utilizing immortalized human keratinocytes: one element is located above the ostensible transcription initiation site, whereas the other is located within the 5′-untranslated region of the SULT2B1b mRNA. Sp1 and Sp2 transcription factors identified by supershift analyses induced reporter gene activity, an effect markedly augmented by histone deacetylase inhibition