Proof of two conjectures of Zuber on fully packed loop configurations

Two conjectures of Zuber [``On the counting of fully packed loops configurations. Some new conjectures,'' preprint] on the enumeration of configurations in the fully packed loop model on the square grid with periodic boundary conditions, which have a prescribed linkage pattern, are proved. Following an idea of de Gier [``Loops, matchings and alternating-sign matrices,'' Discrete Math., to appear], the proofs are based on bijections between such fully packed loop configurations and rhombus tilings, and the hook-content formula for semistandard tableaux.Comment: 20 pages; AmS-LaTe

Chemical tracers in proto-brown dwarfs: CO, ortho-H2_{2}CO, para-H2_{2}CO, HCO+^{+}, CS observations

We present a study of the CO isotopologues and the high-density tracers H$_{2}$CO, HCO$^{+}$, and CS in Class 0/I proto-brown dwarfs (proto-BDs). We have used the IRAM 30m telescope to observe the $^{12}$CO (2-1), $^{13}$CO (2-1), C$^{18}$O (2-1), C$^{17}$O (2-1), H$_{2}$CO (3-2), HCO$^{+}$ (3-2), and CS (5-4) lines in 7 proto-BDs. The hydrogen column density for the proto-BDs derived from the CO gas emission is $\sim$2-15 times lower than that derived from the dust continuum emission, indicating CO depletion from the gas-phase. The mean H$_{2}$CO ortho-to-para ratio is $\sim$3 for the proto-BDs and indicates gas-phase formation for H$_{2}$CO. We have investigated the correlations in the molecular abundances between the proto-BDs and protostars. Proto-BDs on average show a factor of $\sim$2 higher ortho-to-para H$_{2}$CO ratio than the protostars. Possible explanations include a difference in the H$_{2}$CO formation mechanism, spin-selective photo-dissociation, self-shielding effects, or different emitting regions for the ortho and para species. There is a tentative trend of a decline in the HCO$^{+}$ and H$_{2}$CO abundances with decreasing bolometric luminosity, while the CS and CO abundances show no particular difference between the proto-BDs and protostars. These trends reflect the scaled-down physical structures for the proto-BDs compared to protostars and differences in the peak emitting regions for these species. The C$^{17}$O isotopologue is detected in all of the proto-BDs as well as the more evolved Class Flat/Class II BDs in our sample, and can probe the quiescent gas at both early and late evolutionary stages.Comment: Accepted in MNRAS. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1809.1016

Chemical tracers in proto-brown dwarfs: CN, HCN, and HNC observations

We present results from a study of nitrogen chemistry in Class 0/I proto-brown dwarfs (proto-BDs). We have used the IRAM 30 m telescope to observe the CN (2-1), HCN (3-2), and HNC (3-2) lines in 7 proto-BDs. All proto-BDs show a large CN/HCN abundance ratio of >20, and a HNC/HCN abundance ratio close to or larger than unity. The enhanced CN/HCN ratios can be explained by high UV flux originating from an active accretion zone in the proto-BDs. The larger than unity HNC/HCN ratio for the proto-BDs is likely caused by a combination of low temperature and high density. Both CN and HNC show a flat distribution with CO, indicating that these species can survive in regions where CO is depleted. We have investigated the correlations in the molecular abundances of these species for the proto-BDs with Class 0/I protostars. We find tentative trends of CN (HCN) abundances being about an order of magnitude higher (lower) in the proto-BDs compared to protostars. HNC for the proto-BDs shows a nearly constant abundance unlike the large spread of ~2 orders of magnitude seen for the protostars. Also notable is a rise in the HNC/HCN abundance ratio for the lowest luminosity objects, suggesting that this ratio is higher under low-temperature environments. None of the relatively evolved Class Flat/Class II brown dwarfs in our sample show emission in HNC. The HNC molecule can be considered as an efficient tracer to search and identify early stage sub-stellar mass objects.Comment: Accepted in MNRA

Highly deuterated pre-stellar cores in a high-mass star formation region

We have observed the deuterated gas in the high-mass star formation region IRAS 05345+3157 at high-angular resolution, in order to determine the morphology and the nature of such gas. We have mapped the N2H+ (1-0) line with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, and the N2D+ (3-2) and N2H+ (3-2) lines with the Submillimeter Array. The N2D+ (3-2) integrated emission is concentrated in two condensations, with masses of 2-3 and 9 M_sun and diameters of 0.05 and 0.09 pc, respectively. The high deuterium fractionation (0.1) and the line parameters in the N2D+ condensations indicate that they are likely low- to intermediate-mass pre-stellar cores, even though other scenarios are possible.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

First measurements of 15N fractionation in N2H+ toward high-mass star forming cores

We report on the first measurements of the isotopic ratio 14N/15N in N2H+ toward a statistically significant sample of high-mass star forming cores. The sources belong to the three main evolutionary categories of the high-mass star formation process: high-mass starless cores, high-mass protostellar objects, and ultracompact HII regions. Simultaneous measurements of 14N/15N in CN have been made. The 14N/15N ratios derived from N2H+ show a large spread (from ~180 up to ~1300), while those derived from CN are in between the value measured in the terrestrial atmosphere (~270) and that of the proto-Solar nebula (~440) for the large majority of the sources within the errors. However, this different spread might be due to the fact that the sources detected in the N2H+ isotopologues are more than those detected in the CN ones. The 14N/15N ratio does not change significantly with the source evolutionary stage, which indicates that time seems to be irrelevant for the fractionation of nitrogen. We also find a possible anticorrelation between the 14N/15N (as derived from N2H+) and the H/D isotopic ratios. This suggests that 15N enrichment could not be linked to the parameters that cause D enrichment, in agreement with the prediction by recent chemical models. These models, however, are not able to reproduce the observed large spread in 14N/15N, pointing out that some important routes of nitrogen fractionation could be still missing in the models.Comment: 2 Figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Tailoring correlations of the local density of states in disordered photonic materials

We present experimental evidence for the different mechanisms driving the fluctuations of the local density of states (LDOS) in disordered photonic systems. We establish a clear link between the microscopic structure of the material and the frequency correlation function of LDOS accessed by a near-field hyperspectral imaging technique. We show, in particular, that short- and long-range frequency correlations of LDOS are controlled by different physical processes (multiple or single scattering processes, respectively) that can be---to some extent---manipulated independently. We also demonstrate that the single scattering contribution to LDOS fluctuations is sensitive to subwavelength features of the material and, in particular, to the correlation length of its dielectric function. Our work paves a way towards a complete control of statistical properties of disordered photonic systems, allowing for designing materials with predefined correlations of LDOS.Comment: 5+9 pages, 5+6 figures. Fixed confusion of references between the main text and the supplemental material in version

A simple and robust event-detection algorithm for single-cell impedance cytometry

Microfluidic impedance cytometry is emerging as a powerful label-free technique for the characterization of single biological cells. In order to increase the sensitivity and the specificity of the technique, suited digital signal processing methods are required to extract meaningful information from measured impedance data. In this study, a simple and robust event-detection algorithm for impedance cytometry is presented. Since a differential measuring scheme is generally adopted, the signal recorded when a cell passes through the sensing region of the device exhibits a typical odd-symmetric pattern. This feature is exploited twice by the proposed algorithm: first, a preliminary segmentation, based on the correlation of the data stream with the simplest odd-symmetric template, is performed; then, the quality of detected events is established by evaluating their E2O index, that is, a measure of the ratio between their even and odd parts. A thorough performance analysis is reported, showing the robustness of the algorithm with respect to parameter choice and noise level. In terms of sensitivity and positive predictive value, an overall performance of 94.9% and 98.5%, respectively, was achieved on two datasets relevant to microfluidic chips with very different characteristics, considering three noise levels. The present algorithm can foster the role of impedance cytometry in single-cell analysis, which is the new frontier in "Omics.

Protonated CO2 in massive star-forming clumps

Interstellar CO2 is an important reservoir of carbon and oxygen, and one of the major constituents of the icy mantles of dust grains, but it is not observable directly in the cold gas because has no permanent dipole moment. Its protonated form, HOCO+, is believed to be a good proxy for gaseous CO2. However, it has been detected in only a few star-forming regions so far, so that its interstellar chemistry is not well understood. We present new detections of HOCO+ lines in 11 high-mass star-forming clumps. Our observations increase by more than three times the number of detections in star-forming regions so far. We have derived beam-averaged abundances relative to H2 in between 0.3 and 3.8 x 10^{-11}. We have compared these values with the abundances of H13CO+, a possible gas-phase precursor of HOCO+, and CH3OH, a product of surface chemistry. We have found a positive correlation with H13CO+, while with CH3OH there is no correlation. We suggest that the gas-phase formation route starting from HCO+ plays an important role in the formation of HOCO+, perhaps more relevant than protonation of CO2 (upon evaporation of this latter from icy dust mantles).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRA

Deuteration as an evolutionary tracer in massive-star formation

Theory predicts, and observations confirm, that the column density ratio of a molecule containing D to its counterpart containing H can be used as an evolutionary tracer in the low-mass star formation process. Since it remains unclear if the high-mass star formation process is a scaled-up version of the low-mass one, we investigated whether the relation between deuteration and evolution can be applied to the high-mass regime. With the IRAM-30m telescope, we observed rotational transitions of N2D+ and N2H+ and derived the deuterated fraction in 27 cores within massive star-forming regions understood to represent different evolutionary stages of the massive-star formation process. Results. Our results clearly indicate that the abundance of N2D+ is higher at the pre-stellar/cluster stage, then drops during the formation of the protostellar object(s) as in the low-mass regime, remaining relatively constant during the ultra-compact HII region phase. The objects with the highest fractional abundance of N2D+ are starless cores with properties very similar to typical pre-stellar cores of lower mass. The abundance of N2D+ is lower in objects with higher gas temperatures as in the low-mass case but does not seem to depend on gas turbulence. Our results indicate that the N2D+-to-N2H+ column density ratio can be used as an evolutionary indicator in both low- and high-mass star formation, and that the physical conditions influencing the abundance of deuterated species likely evolve similarly during the processes that lead to the formation of both low- and high-mass stars.Comment: Accepted by A&AL, 4 pages, 2 figures, 2 appendices (one for Tables, one for additional figures