1,021 research outputs found
The radio SNR G65.1+0.6 and its associated pulsar J1957+2831
New images of the radio Supernova Remnant (SNR) G65.1+0.6 are presented,
based on the 408 MHz and 1420 MHz continuum emission and the HI-line emission
data of the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS). A large shell-like structure
seen in the 2695 MHz Effelsberg map appears to have nonthermal spectral index.
HI observations show structures associated with the SNR G65.1+0.6 in the radial
velocity range of -20 to -26 kms and suggest a distance of 9.2 kpc for the
SNR. The estimated Sedov age for G65.1+0.6 is 4 - 14 x10E4 yr. The pulsar (PSR)
J1957+2831 is possibly associated with G65.1+0.6, with consistent distance and
kinematic age estimate, but different characteristic age than the SNR. The
EGRET source 3EG J1958+2909 and gamma-ray source 2CG 065+00 are also near the
eastern edge of the SNR but do not agree in position with the pulsar and are
likely not associated with the SNR. The SNR's flux densities at 408 MHz
(8.6+-0.8 Jy), 1420 MHz (4.9+-0.5 Jy) and 2695 MHz (3.3+-0.5 Jy) have been
corrected for flux densities from compact sources within the SNR. The
integrated flux density based spectral index between 1420 MHz and 408 MHz is
0.45+-0.11 and agrees with the T-T plot spectral index of 0.34+-0.20. The
nearby SNR DA495 has a T-T plot spectral index of 0.50+-0.01.Comment: 7pages, 5 pictures and tables, will appear in A&
Ab initio study of spin-dependent transport in carbon nanotubes with iron and vanadium adatoms
We present an ab initio study of spin dependent transport in armchair carbon
nanotubes with transition metal adsorbates, iron or vanadium. We neglect the
effect of tube curvature and model the nanotube by graphene with periodic
boundary conditions. A density functional theory based nonequilibrium Green's
function method is used to compute the electronic structure and zero-bias
conductance. The presence of the adsorbate causes a strong scattering of
electrons of one spin type only. The scattering is shown to be due to coupling
of the two armchair band states to the metal 3d orbitals with matching symmetry
causing Fano resonances appearing as dips in the transmission function. The
spin type (majority/minority) being scattered depends on the adsorbate and is
explained in terms of d-state filling. The results are qualitatively reproduced
using a simple tight-binding model, which is then used to investigate the
dependence of the transmission on the nanotube width. We find a decrease in the
width of the transmission dip as the tube-size increases.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
Effect of Lake Basaka expansion on the sustainability of Matahara SE in the Awash River Basin, Ethiopia
Matahara Sugar Estate (MSE) establishment nearly 40 years ago is experiencing effects of a rising GW table and salinity in some fields, and as the result the yield of certain fields is decreasing and a significant area of cultivated lands are abandoning The problem is believed to be the result of the expansion of saline Lake Basaka towards the plantation field. The objective of this study was to determine the extent of expansion of the Lake (area & shape) in the past 35 years period from Landsat images and assess its negative effects on the nearby sugarcane plantations’ GW dynamics & soil salinity. The result indicates that the lake expanded approximately 34 km 2 in the past 35 years. The GW table is very shallow in the Abadir extension areas and north section where the GW salinity is under severe condition
Radio spectral properties and the magnetic field of the SNR S147
(Abridged) S147 is a large faint shell-type supernova remnant (SNR). Its
remarkable spectral break at cm-wavelengths is an important physical property
to characterize the SNR evolution. However, the spectral break is based on
radio observations with limited precision. We made new radio continuum and
polarization observations of S147 at 11cm and at 6cm with the Effelsberg 100-m
telescope and the Urumqi 25-m telescope, respectively. These new data were
combined with published lower frequency data from the Effelsberg 100-m
telescope and very high frequency data from WMAP to investigate the spectral
turnover and polarization properties of S147. S147 consists of numerous
filaments embedded in diffuse emission. We found that the integrated flux
densities of S147 are 34.8+/-4.0 Jy at 11cm and 15.4+/-3.0Jy at 6cm. These new
measurements confirm the known spectral turnover at ~1.5GHz, which can be
entirely attributed to the diffuse emission component. The spectral index above
the turnover is -1.35+/-0.20. The filamentary emission component has a constant
spectral index over the entire wavelength range up to 40.7GHz of -0.35+/-0.15.
The weak polarized emission of S147 is at the same level as the ambient diffuse
Galactic polarization. The rotation measure of the eastern filamentary shell is
about -70 rad/m2. The filamentary and diffuse emission components of S147 have
different physical properties, which make S147 outstanding among shell type
SNRs.The weak polarization of S147 at 11cm and at 6cm can be attributed to a
section of the S147 shell showing a tangential magnetic field direction.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysics, the resolution of some figures have been reduced. For high
resolution version, see
ftp://ftp.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/outgoing/p098wre/xiao-etal.pdf,revised following
the language edito
Evidence for a Variable Ultrafast Outflow in the Newly Discovered Ultraluminous Pulsar NGC 300 ULX-1
Ultraluminous pulsars are a definite proof that persistent super-Eddington
accretion occurs in nature. They support the scenario according to which most
Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) are super-Eddington accretors of stellar
mass rather than sub-Eddington intermediate mass black holes. An important
prediction of theories of supercritical accretion is the existence of powerful
outflows of moderately ionized gas at mildly relativistic speeds. In practice,
the spectral resolution of X-ray gratings such as RGS onboard XMM-Newton is
required to resolve their observational signatures in ULXs. Using RGS, outflows
have been discovered in the spectra of 3 ULXs (none of which are currently
known to be pulsars). Most recently, the fourth ultraluminous pulsar was
discovered in NGC 300. Here we report detection of an ultrafast outflow (UFO)
in the X-ray spectrum of the object, with a significance of more than
3{\sigma}, during one of the two simultaneous observations of the source by
XMM-Newton and NuSTAR in December 2016. The outflow has a projected velocity of
65000 km/s (0.22c) and a high ionisation factor with a log value of 3.9. This
is the first direct evidence for a UFO in a neutron star ULX and also the first
time that this its evidence in a ULX spectrum is seen in both soft and hard
X-ray data simultaneously. We find no evidence of the UFO during the other
observation of the object, which could be explained by either clumpy nature of
the absorber or a slight change in our viewing angle of the accretion flow.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Accepted to MNRA
Radio properties of the low surface brightness SNR G65.2+5.7
Many physical properties of this SNR such as spectrum and polarization can
only be investigated by radio observations. The 11 cm and 6\
cm continuum and polarization observations of SNR G65.2+5.7 were made with the
Effelsberg 100-m and the Urumqi 25-m telescopes, respectively, to investigate
the integrated spectrum, the spectral index distribution, and the magnetic
field properties. 21 cm archival data from the Effelsberg 100-m
telescope have been also used. The integrated flux densities of G65.2+5.7 at
cm and cm are Jy and 16.81.8 Jy,
respectively. The power-law spectrum () is well fitted by
from 83 MHz to 4.8 GHz. Spatial spectral variations are
small. Along the northern shell strong depolarizion is observed at both
wavelengths. The southern filamentary shell of SNR G65.2+5.7 is polarized up to
54% at cm. There is significant depolarization at cm
and confusion with diffuse polarized Galactic emission. Using equipartition
principle, we estimated the magnetic field strength for the southern
filamentary shell about 20 G (filling factor 1) to 50 G (filling
factor 0.1). A faint HI shell may be associated with the SNR. Despite its
unusual strong X-ray and optical emission and its very low surface brightness,
the radio properties of SNR G65.2+5.7 are found to be typical for evolved shell
type SNRs. SNR G65.2+5.7 may be expanding in a preblown cavity as indicated by
a deficit of HI gas and a possible HI-shell.Comment: 11pages,13figures,accepted by A&A, revised following the language
editor. For high resolution version, please go to
ftp://ftp.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/outgoing/p098wre/xiao-etal-g65.pd
A low-luminosity soft state in the short period black hole X-ray binary Swift J1753.5-0127
We present results from the spectral fitting of the candidate black hole
X-ray binary Swift J1753.5-0127 in an accretion state previously unseen in this
source. We fit the 0.7-78 keV spectrum with a number of models, however the
preferred model is one of a multi-temperature disk with an inner disk
temperature keV scattered into a steep
power-law with photon index and an additional
hard power law tail (). We report on the emergence of a
strong disk-dominated component in the X-ray spectrum and we conclude that the
source has entered the soft state for the first time in its ~10 year prolonged
outburst. Using reasonable estimates for the distance to the source ( kpc)
and black hole mass (), we find the unabsorbed luminosity (0.1-100
keV) to be % of the Eddington luminosity, making this one of the
lowest luminosity soft states recorded in X-ray binaries. We also find that the
accretion disk extended towards the compact object during its transition from
hard to soft, with the inner radius estimated to be
or ~, dependent on the boundary
condition chosen, assuming the above distance and mass, a spectral hardening
factor and a binary inclination .Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Beyond active site residues:overall structural dynamics control catalysis in flavin-containing and heme-containing monooxygenases
Monooxygenases (MOs) face the challenging reaction of an organic target, oxygen and a cofactor – most commonly heme or flavin. To correctly choreograph the substrates spatially and temporally, MOs evolved a variety of strategies, which involve structural flexibility. Besides classical domain and loop movements, flavin-containing MOs feature conformational changes of their flavin prosthetic group and their nicotinamide cofactor. With similar mechanisms emerging in various subclasses, their generality and involvement in selectivity are intriguing questions. Cytochrome P450 MOs are often inherently plastic and large movements of individual segments throughout the entire structure occur. As these complicated and often unpredictable movements are largely responsible for substrate uptake, engineering strategies for these enzymes were mostly successful when randomly mutating residues across the entire structure
Radio Spectrum and Distance of the SNR HB9
New images are presented of the supernova remnant (SNR) HB9 based on 408 MHz
and 1420 MHz continuum emission and HI-line emission data of the Canadian
Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS) by the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory
(DRAO). Two methods of spectral index analysis for HB9 are presented and
compared: one removes compact sources at both frequencies but is limited to the
resolution of the 408 MHz image; the other removes compact sources only in the
1420 MHz image so is effective at higher spatial resolution. The second allows
more detailed spectral index variation studies than the first. The two T-T plot
methods and new integrated flux densities give spectral index
(S_{\nu}\propto\nu^{-alpha}) for the whole of HB9 of 0.48+-0.03; and
0.47+-0.06, respectively. These are lower than previous spectral index for HB9
(alpha=0.61). Spatial variations of spectral index are derived using the second
method and yield a steeper spectral index for interior regions than for the
rim. This can be explained by a standard curved interstellar electron energy
spectrum combined with lower interior magnetic field compared to that near the
outer shock, which results in a larger proportion of steep spectrum emission
for lines-of-sight through the central body of the SNR. HI observations show
structures probably associated with the SNR in the radial velocity range -3 to
-9 km/s and suggest a distance of 0.8+-0.4 kpc for the SNR. This is consistent
with the distance to the radio pulsar 0458+46, offset from the center of HB9 by
23'. However the pulsar spindown and kinematic ages are significantly greater
than estimates of the SNR age: the Sedov age for HB9 is 6600 yr and the
evaporative cloud model yields ages of 4000-7,000 yr.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, accepted by A&
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