ALBERT

Beschreibung: We describe a modified version of the nbody6 code for simulating star clusters which greatly improves computational efficiency while sacrificing little in the way of accuracy. The distant force calculator is replaced by a GPU-enabled Barnes-Hut code, and integration is done with a standard leap frog scheme. Short-range forces continue to use the CPU-based fourth-order Hermite predictor-corrector scheme of nbody6. Our code outperforms nbody6 for systems with more than 3 × 105 particles and runs more than a factor 2 faster for systems of 106 particles with similar energy conservation. Our code should be useful for simulating realistic dense stellar clusters, such as globular clusters or galactic nuclei.

Beschreibung: An innovative method of combustion–calcination of a nitrate–ethanol solution to produce magnetic Co0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles was developed. The calcination temperature and the volume of ethanol were two pivotal elements that determine the properties of the Co0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles in this study. When the volume of ethanol used was increased from 20 ml to 40 ml, the crystallinity of the Co0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles increased; further increase of the volume of ethanol decreased the crystallinity. The smallest nanoparticle was obtained using 20 ml ethanol. As the calcination temperature increased from 400 °C to 700 °C, the saturation magnetization of the Co0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles increased from 12.8 emu g−1 to 30.8 emu g−1. Co0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles fabricated using 20 ml ethanol at 400 °C were used to study the removal of methyl blue (MB) by adsorption. Experimental data revealed that the adsorption was best described by pseudo-second kinetics. The adsorption isotherm applied the Temkin model, which indicated the presence of a single and multilayer associative mechanism in the adsorption of MB on the Co0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles. The effect of pH and recycling on the adsorption was measured. At pH values ≥5, the adsorption was high. After eight cycles of use and recycling, the relative removal rate of MB by the Co0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles was 75% of the initial adsorption value.

Beschreibung: Inspired by the inertial amplification mechanism and bandgap characteristic of periodic structures, a type of scissor-like elastic metamaterial is studied for low-frequency vibration attenuation in this paper. Firstly, the 1DOF (degree of freedom) scissor-like chain consisting of masses, trusses, and springs is investigated. The formation of inertial amplification is illustrated, that is, input horizontal movements are converted into larger vertical movements of vertex masses by a scissor-like structure. The resonance and anti-resonance phenomena in transmission curves are explained. Especially, the optimal configuration for low-frequency attenuation is obtained by analytical expressions of the dispersion relation. Then, a 2DOF spring–mass–truss chain is considered to open a bandgap below the vibration attenuation range of the 1DOF chain. The relative movement of masses at different frequencies is explored to understand the bandgap generation. The influence of parameters including the mass ratio, tensile stiffness ratio, shear stiffness ratio, and angle on bandgap boundaries is discussed. Finally, the spatial propagation of a wavelet packet is presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed structure in terms of minimizing a broadband excitation transmission. The transmitted component of a wavelet packet through three units of the proposed structure is only 3.8%, which is 22.8% of that through the classic 1D local resonance metamaterial.

Beschreibung: Kilovoltage cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-based image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) is used for daily delivery of radiation therapy, especially for stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), which imposes particularly high demands for setup accuracy. The clinical applications of CBCTs are constrained, however, by poor soft tissue contrast, image artifacts, and instability of Hounsfield unit (HU) values. Here, we propose a new deep learning-based method to generate synthetic CTs (sCT) from thoracic CBCTs. A deep-learning model which integrates histogram matching (HM) into a cycle-consistent adversarial network (Cycle-GAN) framework, called HM-Cycle-GAN, was trained to learn mapping between thoracic CBCTs and paired planning CTs. Perceptual supervision was adopted to minimize blurring of tissue interfaces. An informative maximizing loss was calculated by feeding CBCT into the HM-Cycle-GAN to evaluate the image histogram matching between the planning CTs and the sCTs. The proposed algorithm was evaluated using data from 20 SBRT patients who each received 5 fractions and therefore 5 thoracic CBCTs. To reduce the effect of anatomy mismatch, original CBCT images were pre-processed via deformable image registrations with the planning CT before being used in model training and result assessment. We used planning CTs as ground truth for the derived sCTs from the correspondent co-registered CBCTs. The mean absolute error (MAE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and normalized cross-correlation (NCC) indices were adapted as evaluation metrics of the proposed algorithm. Assessments were done using Cycle-GAN as the benchmark. The average MAE, PSNR, and NCC of the sCTs generated by our method were 66.2 HU, 30.3 dB, and 0.95, respectively, over all CBCT fractions. Superior image quality and reduced noise and artifact severity were seen using the proposed method compared to the results from the standard Cycle-GAN method. Our method could therefore improve the accuracy of IGRT and corrected CBCTs could help improve online adaptive RT by offering better contouring accuracy and dose calculation.

Beschreibung: The influence of deep cryogenic treatment on the erosive wear performance of Stainless Steel-316L (SS-316L) used in hydropower plants is studied. For this purpose, several SS-316L samples were held at deep cryogenic temperatures (−196 °C) for different soaking periods (12, 24, 36 h). The erosive wear tests were conducted on a self-fabricated slurry erosion test rig and the same was evaluated by weighing the cumulative mass loss (CML) of samples for every 30 min post erosion. From experimental analysis, it was found that the erosive wear was found to be minimum and the hardness reaches to maximum value after 24 h of the soaking period which could be attributed to the significant microstructural changes such as the transformation of γ-austenite phase into (δ-ferrite+α′-martensite) along with precipitation of numerous carbides after deep cryogenic treatments.

Beschreibung: A first principles study, was performed for a 2D, three atom thick monolayer of the Transition Metal Dichalcogenide (TMD) alloy Mo(S1-XTeX)2 adsorbed on an Al-terminated (0001)-sapphire surface. Bulk composition dependent binding energies and band-gaps, and a partial phase diagram, were calculated, using the cluster expansion method. Although the 3D Mo(S1-XTeX)2 alloy system has a phase diagram that is dominated by S-rich/Te-rich phase separation, the 2D system adsorbed on sapphire is dominated by S:Te-ordering. Five ground-state phases are predicted; all have P1 symmetry, and all disorder via contiuous (2’nd order) transitions. These results indicate that synthesis on the sapphire substrate is favorable for band-gap engineering, in which a continuous single phase solid solution allows continuous band-gap tuning, as a function of bulk composition. Whereas, bulk TMD-synthesis followed by exfoliation favors the formation of two-phase mixtures.

Beschreibung: This paper presents the effect of the variations of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) modification in shape memory polymer hybrid composites concerning their mechanical, thermomechanical, and shape memory characterizations. The process of fabrication includes preparation of the MWCNT/epoxy hybrid nanocomposites by shear mixing, ultrasonication, magnetic stirring, and subsequent molding by hand layup method. The appropriate post-processing was performed for the curing and cutting to prepare the samples for the mechanical and thermomechanical characterizations as per the ASTM standards. An enhancement in the thermomechanical properties was noticed due to the incorporation of the MWCNT. These observations were also validated with improvement in the interfacial bonding between the carbon fiber and the modified matrix, as shown in the morphological fractography. The tensile strengths were improved by 18%, 39%, and 26% with the incorporation of 0.4%, 0.6%, and 0.8% modified MWCNT nanocomposites as compared to pure unmodified SMPC. However, the shape recovery of all the configurations of the shape memory polymer hybrid composites was not compromised on polymer-modified remaining almost unchanged at 94%.

Beschreibung: In this study, a femtosecond laser with a repetition frequency of 0–400 kHz was used to join soda lime glass and 304 stainless steel. The effects of single-pulse power, repetition frequency, welding speed, and defocusing on the weld quality were investigated. The joining mechanism and fracture surface morphologies were studied using scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction analysis. The results show that no new phases were formed between the glass and stainless steel, and that the joining mechanism consisted mainly of mechanical mixing between the two materials. Using a suitable combination of process parameters, a good weld with a strength of 8.79 MPa was obtained. The weld strength was influenced mainly by the amount of glass that adhered to the stainless steel, the bonding strength between the glass base material and the remelted glass, and the wetting of the stainless steel by the molten glass.

Beschreibung: Point vortex systems that include vortices with constant coordinate functions are largely unexplored, even though they have reasonable physical interpretations in the geophysical context. Here, we investigate the dynamical aspects of the restricted three-vortex problem when one of the point vortices is assumed to be fixed at a location in the plane. The motion of the passive tracer is explored from a rotating frame of reference within which the free vortex with non-zero circulation remains stationary. By using basic dynamical system theory, it is shown that the vortex motion is always bounded, and any configuration of the three vortices must go through at least one collinear state. The present analysis reveals that any non-relative equilibrium solution of the vortex system either has periodic inter-vortex distances or it will asymptotically converge to a relative equilibrium configuration. The initial conditions required for different types of motion are explained in detail by exploiting the Hamiltonian structure of the problem. The underlying effects of a fixed vortex on the motion of vortices are also explored.

Beschreibung: A subset of Type Ic supernovae (SNe Ic), broad-lined SNe Ic (SNe Ic-bl), show unusually high kinetic energies (∼1052 erg) that cannot be explained by the energy supplied by neutrinos alone. Many SNe Ic-bl have been observed in coincidence with long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) that suggests a connection between SNe and GRBs. A small fraction of core-collapse supernovae form a rapidly rotating and strongly magnetized protoneutron star (PNS), a proto-magnetar. Jets from such magnetars can provide the high kinetic energies observed in SNe Ic-bl and also provide the connection to GRBs. In this work, we use the jetted outflow produced in a 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic CCSN simulation from a consistently formed proto-magnetar as the central engine for full-star explosion simulations. We extract a range of central engine parameters and find that the extracted engine energy is in the range of 6.231 × 1051−1.725 × 1052 erg, the engine time-scale in the range of 0.479−1.159 s and the engine half-opening angle in the range of ∼9°−19°. Using these as central engines, we perform 2D special relativistic (SR) hydrodynamic (HD) and radiation transfer simulations to calculate the corresponding light curves and spectra. We find that these central engine parameters successfully produce SNe Ic-bl that demonstrates that jets from proto-magnetars can be viable engines for SNe Ic-bl. We also find that only the central engines with smaller opening angles (∼11°) form a GRB implying that GRB formation is likely associated with narrower jet outflows and Ic-bl’s without GRBs may be associated with wider outflows.

Beschreibung: The SPIDER experiment, part of the neutral beam test facility at Consorzio RFX (Padua, Italy), is the prototype of the negative ion source for the ITER neutral beam injectors; the source is coupled to a 100 kV three-grid acceleration system. A beam emission spectroscopy (BES) diagnostic was installed in SPIDER to study and optimize the energy distribution, aim, uniformity and divergence of the H−/D− beam extracted from the source. The diagnostic is based on analysis of the Doppler shifted Hα /Dα light emitted in the interaction between the beam particles and the H 2/D 2 molecules of the background. In 2019 the BES diagnostic in SPIDER was installed and calibrated, allowing us to characterize the first hydrogen beams extracted from the SPIDER source, in cesium-free conditions. The number of active beamlets of which the beam was composed was reduced from 1280 to 80, affecting the BES diagnostic capabilities. This paper presents the BES diagnostic setup and discusses the first collected results. Under limited extracted current density (∼10 A m−2) and ion energy (⩽35 keV), no significant vertical beam deflection caused by the magnetic filter field in the source was detected. In some cases the beamlets were observed to be elongated in the horizontal direction; beamlet divergence values down to 20 mrad and 30 mrad e-folding were measured in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively; the intensity of the Doppler shifted radiation was found to be strongly correlated to the beam current and to the beam divergence. The progressive compensation of beamlet deflections (caused by electron suppression filter fields), with increasing voltage in the extraction gap, was studied.

Beschreibung: Since much attention has been paid to the targeted drug delivery system, using the molecular dynamics simulation, the present work has been devoted to clarify the potential of the silicon carbide nanotubes (SiCNTs) as a new carrier for the three common anti-cancer drugs temozolomide, carmustine, and cisplatin. Three zigzag single-walled nanotubes with different diameters, i.e. SiC(18,0), SiC(20,0), and SiC(22,0), in pure and decorated with the hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups are selected to assess the effect of the functional groups as well as the diameter effect on the drug encapsulation process. The effects of binding energy, probability of finding the drugs along the nanotube length, mean square displacement, and body temperate as well as the zeta potential for the stability of the drug delivery system in the blood stream are evaluated. The results showed that the cisplatin does not encapsulate into the selected SiCNTs. However, the pure nanotubes show a high stability in the blood stream but the magnitude of their interaction energies with the temozolomide and carmustine drugs is less than −10 kcal mol−1, which does not guarantee that the drug will remain bonded to the nanotubes in the blood stream. Also the presence of the carboxyl functional group on the nanotube surface not only has no significant effect on the interaction energies but also decreases the stability of the drug delivery system. Decorating the edge nanotubes with the hydroxyl group causes the interaction between temozolomide and SiCNTs into chemisorption (−10 to −40 kcal mol−1) while the variation in binding energy of the carmustine is not remarkable. Finally, the zeta-potential results showed that the edge nanotubes decorated with the hydroxyl group due to a high stability in the blood stream as well as the strong interaction with the drugs temozolomide and carmustine is an appropriate carrier for the targeted drug delivery.

Beschreibung: Nephrops (Nephrops norvegicus) is an economically valuable target species in the North Sea. Although individual Nephrops populations are scattered, the crustacean is managed regionally by the European Union (EU). The spatial competition for fisheries in the North Sea is growing especially due to expanding offshore wind farms (OWF) and newly implemented marine protected areas (MPA). Moreover, the Brexit affects the availability of EU fishing quotas and adds to the overall uncertainty EU fishers face. We compare landings and catches to scientifically advised quantities and perform an overlap analysis of fishing grounds with current and future OWFs and MPAs. Furthermore, we explore the German Nephrops fleet using high-resolution spatial fishing effort and catch data. Our results confirm earlier studies showing that Nephrops stocks have been fished above scientific advice. Present OWFs and MPAs marginally overlap with Nephrops fishing grounds, whereas German fishing grounds are covered up to 45% in future scenarios. Co-use strategies with OWFs could mitigate the loss of fishing opportunities. Decreased cod quotas due to Brexit and worse stock conditions, lowers Germany's capability to swap Nephrops quotas with the UK. We support the call for a new management strategy of individual Nephrops populations and the promotion of selective fishing gears.

Beschreibung: Assessment of zooplankton abundance, distribution, community composition, and temporal variability is critical to understanding the effects of climate variability and change on lower trophic level production and availability for consumption by larger consumers. Zooplankton sampling is performed across the Canadian continental shelf system by Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Atlantic Zone Monitoring Programme (AZMP). Sampling includes semi-monthly to monthly collection of zooplankton using vertical net tows (VNTs) deployed from near-bottom to surface at stations on the central Scotian Shelf (Stn 2, 150 m depth) and Newfoundland Shelf (Stn 27, 175 m depth), and by Continuous Plankton Recorders (CPRs) in the near-surface layers along routes over the Scotian and Newfoundland shelves (0–10 m depth). Here, we compare abundance metrics for 11 copepod taxa collected using both gear types in both regions between 1999 and 2015. Seasonal cycles of VNT and CPR abundance were similar for near-surface residents. VNT: CPR abundance ratios varied year-round for vertical migrants, as ontogenetic migrants shifted their vertical distribution, and as diel migrants changed their migratory behaviour. For some taxa, differences in annual average VNT: CPR abundance ratios between regions suggest differences in vertical distribution, while for others differences in inter-annual variability for VNT and CPR abundances suggest differences in the dynamics of the near- and sub-surface components of the populations.

Beschreibung: Mo/alumina cermet-based selective coatings are of great interest for concentrated solar-thermal power systems, in particular, parabolic trough collectors. We report on the sputter deposition of high-performance multilayer Mo/alumina cermet coatings on stainless steel with a solar absorptance of 94% and a thermal emittance of 8% (at 400 °C), and excellent thermal stability. The selective coatings were deposited in a 0.95 m3 sputtering chamber in order to correlate the deposition parameters, such as presence of residual gases, deposition power, and sputtering method (DC or RF), with the coating composition and the resulting optical properties. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy have been applied to quantitatively describe the effect of residual oxygen on the distribution of oxidation states of Mo in the metallic infrared reflector layer, the high and low metallic volume fraction cermet layers, as well as the composition of the alumina top layer. The results provide strategies to obtain optimal selective coatings under conditions where residual oxygen cannot be avoided, which are essential for a successful transition from a laboratory to pre-industrial scale of vacuum deposition systems.

Beschreibung: Mitigating bycatch of non-target fish species is a common objective in fisheries management that may be supported by the gathering of data from fishery observer programs and quantitative analysis of bycatch risk factors. We build three GLM models based on Chinese tuna longline fishery observer data in terms of analysis of total bycatch rate (TB rate), total bycatch ratio (TB ratio), and species-specific bycatch rate, respectively. The positive log-linear models assumed a Gaussian observation error model and a linear combination of categorical independent variables, including area, year, month, depth, and bycatch species. Results show that distributions of TB rate and TB ratio followed different trends and a latitudinal decrease was observed from both the northern and southern hemisphere of the equator. Comprehensively, the Pacific is a better place to fish compared to the Indian and Atlantic Oceans in terms of relatively lower TB rate and TB ratio. Fishing in open oceans can somehow avoid a high TB ratio than fishing in coastal waters. As a result, we recommend area 2SW, 2SE, 2 NW, 14SW, 14SE, and 14 NW as appropriate fishing ground for Albacore (Thunnus alalunga) while area 11N,  11S, 18SW, and 18SE to be appropriate fishing ground for fishing bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus). Setting fishing gears deeper than 500 m would also help to get a low TB rate and TB ratio.

Beschreibung: The generation of a large cold plasma jet while maintaining the reproducibility and homogeneity of the discharge is one of the major challenges encountered by the plasma community to efficiently apply this technology in the industry. Here, we report on the discharge in a recently developed device called the plasma candle (PC), wherein a stable plasma jet with a diameter of 20 mm can be generated at atmospheric pressure and temperature. Unlike the discharge morphology previously reported for conventional plasma jet devices, the unique configuration of PC device resulted in distinctive discharge patterns. Homogenous discharge was generated in the electrode gap and followed by a swirling discharge toward the tube nozzle. Fast photography and electrical measurements revealed that filament propagation and its morphology form the visually observable swirl discharge. Detailed analysis indicated that residual helium metastable species (Hem) and their penning ionization play an essential role in the discharge mode and its transition, which was verified by changing the feeding gas and the frequency of the applied voltage. For instance, it is found that only filamentary discharge was observed along the entire tube at frequencies less than 3 kHz, at which the time between consecutive discharges was long enough for Hem decay. Consequently, the homogenous discharge pattern was recovered by increasing the pre-ionization levels by adding a trace of impurities (N2, O2 or H2O) to the feeding gas. However, the level of these impurities must be carefully adjusted to achieve a homogenous discharge without negatively affecting the jet properties. A trivial change in the gas impurity, in the range of adsorption and desorption of water from the gas tubing, is sufficient to cause a noticeable change and instability in the discharge mode. This finding is critical to predicting the production of reactive species and plasma-surface interaction for different applications.

Beschreibung: Two-dimensional (2D) materials, due to their unique electronic, optical and structural properties, have attracted extensive attention of researchers in the world. However, most of 2D materials have low optical absorption efficiencies in the visible and near-infrared regimes, which leads to the weak light–matter interaction and limits their further applications in optoelectronic devices. Thus, enhancing the light–matter interaction of various 2D materials in the visible and near-infrared regimes, has been a key topic for many optoelectronic equipment and related applications. In this topical review, we summarized the recent developments of the 2D materials-based optical absorbers in the visible and near infrared regimes, focusing mainly on the methods and relevant physical mechanisms of several typical perfect absorbers, such as narrowband perfect absorbers, dual-band perfect absorbers, and broadband perfect absorbers. Finally, several prospective research directions from our perspectives are presented at the end.

Beschreibung: Summary The M=8.1, April 1st, 2014 Iquique earthquake, which broke part of the northern Chile seismic gap, was preceded by a strong foreshock sequence starting early January 2014. The reported analysis of the continuous records of the nearby GPS stations from the IPOC North Chili array lead to contradictory results concerning the existence and location of slow slip events (SSE) on the interplate contact. Resolving this controversy is an important issue, as although many SSEs are reported in subduction zones, only a few were found to be precursory to large earthquakes. Here we show that the records of a long base tiltmeter installed near Iquique, when corrected for coseismic steps, long term drift, tidal signals, and oceanic and atmospheric loading, show significant residual signals. These can be modelled with a sequence of four SSEs located close to Iquique. Their signature was already reported on some GPS stations, but their source was then characterized with a very low resolution in time and space, leading to contradicting models. With the tilt records, we can rule out the previously proposed models with a single large SSE closer to the mainshock. Combining tilt with GPS records greatly improves the resolution of GPS alone, and one could locate their sources 100 to 180 km south-southeast to the mainshock epicenter, with moment magnitudes between 5.8 and 6.2, at the edge of the main aftershock asperities. These moderate SSEs thus did not directly trigger the mainshock, but contributed to trigger the main foreshock and the main aftershock. Only the sensitivity and resolution of the tiltmeter, added to the GPS records, allowed us to describe with unprecedented accuracy this precursory process as a cascade of cross-triggered, short term aseismic slip events and earthquakes on the interplate contact. This three months of precursory activation appears to be the final acceleration burst of a weaker, longer term SSE which started mid-2013, already reported, with a moment release history which we could quantify. From the methodological point of view, our study takes advantage of an interesting complementarity of tilt and GPS measurements, due to their different dependence in distance to the source of strain, which turns out to be very efficient for resolving location and moment of strain sources, even when both instruments are close to each other. It finally demonstrates the efficient removal of sequences of small or even undetected coseismic steps from high resolution tilt record signal in order to retrieve the purely aseismic signal, a presently impossible task for high time resolution GPS records due to low signal to noise.

Beschreibung: Qualitative Network Models (QNMs), Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs), and Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) have been proposed as methods to formalize conceptual models of social–ecological systems and project system responses to management interventions or environmental change. To explore how these different methods might influence conclusions about system dynamics, we assembled conceptual models representing three different coastal systems, adapted them to the network approaches, and evaluated outcomes under scenarios representing increased fishing effort and environmental warming. The sign of projected change was the same across the three network models for 31–60% of system variables on average. Pairwise agreement between network models was higher, ranging from 33 to 92%; average levels of similarity were comparable between network pairs. Agreement measures based on both the sign and strength of change were substantially worse for all model comparisons. These general patterns were similar across systems and scenarios. Different outcomes between models led to different inferences regarding trade-offs under the scenarios. We recommend deployment of all three methods, when feasible, to better characterize structural uncertainty and leverage insights gained under one framework to inform the others. Improvements in precision will require model refinement through data integration and model validation.

Beschreibung: Energy absorption for AZ31 magnesium Alloy was investigated with Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar using single stress wave so as to avoid multiple stress wave loading. The stress wave amplitude, which was in elastic stress range and propagated along the AZ31 magnesium bar, was reduced with increasing propagating distance, and with increasing stress wave amplitude, the stress wave amplitude reduction along the magnesium bar was increased losing more energy as compared with that of the stress wave with lower amplitude. The drastically decreased stress wave amplitude could be explained based on dislocations movements, which was similar to the established theory of damping for the explanation of the energy loss during cyclic loading. However, it was not the case for LY12 aluminum alloy: the stress wave amplitude changed slightly without drastic energy loss regardless of the variation of stress wave amplitude.

Beschreibung: Broadband sound energy enhancement is essential in practical scenarios, such as acoustic positioning and acoustic communication. In this paper, a dual anisotropic metamaterial composed of an inner Mie resonator and an outer acoustic grating is proposed, aiming to achieve enhanced broadband monopole emission and acoustic energy harvesting (AEH) via the coupling of the first and second monopole resonances. Considering thermo-viscous dissipation, numerical simulations and experimental results demonstrate that the dual anisotropic metamaterial can realize omnidirectional enhanced broadband monopole emission at 795 Hz–1511 Hz, the maximum sound pressure level (SPL) gain is 16.4 dB and the SPL gain fluctuation is 3 dB. Furthermore, simulation results reveal that the broadband AEH can be achieved by the dual anisotropic metamaterial, the fluctuation of the SPL gain at 794 Hz–1537 Hz is 3 dB and the maximum is 14.7 dB. Based on the results, the dual anisotropic metamaterial is expected to show significant potentials in acoustic positioning and acoustic communication.

Beschreibung: Purpose. To investigate indirect radiation-induced changes in airways as precursors to atelectasis post radiation therapy (RT). Methods. Three Wisconsin Miniature Swine (WMS TM ) underwent a research course of 60 Gy in 5 fractions delivered to a targeted airway/vessel in the inferior left lung. The right lung received a max point dose

Beschreibung: MnBi 2 n Te 3 n + 1 (MBT) is the first intrinsic magnetic topological insulator and is promising to host emergent phenomena such as quantum anomalous Hall effect. They can be made ferromagnetic by having n   ⩾   4 or with Sb doping. We studied the magnetic dynamics in a few selected ferromagnetic (FM) MBT compounds, including MnBi8Te13 and Sb doped MnBi 2 n Te 3 n + 1 ( n = 2 , 3 ) using AC susceptibility and magneto-optical imaging. Slow relaxation behavior is observed in all three compounds, suggesting its universality among FM MBT. We attribute the origin of the relaxation behavior to the irreversible domain movements since they only appear below the saturation fields when ferromagnetic domains form. The very soft ferromagnetic domain nature is revealed by the low-field fine-structured domains and high-field sea-urchin-shaped remanent-state domains imaged via our magneto-optical measurements. Finally, we ascribe the rare ‘double-peak’ behavior observed in the AC susceptibility under small DC bias fields to the very soft ferromagnetic domain formations.

Beschreibung: The DMASS sample is a photometric sample from the DES Year 1 data set designed to replicate the properties of the CMASS sample from BOSS, in support of a joint analysis of DES and BOSS beyond the small overlapping area. In this paper, we present the measurement of galaxy-galaxy lensing using the DMASS sample as gravitational lenses in the DES Y1 imaging data. We test a number of potential systematics that can bias the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, including those from shear estimation, photometric redshifts, and observing conditions. After careful systematic tests, we obtain a highly significant detection of the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, with total S/N = 25.7. With the measured signal, we assess the feasibility of using DMASS as gravitational lenses equivalent to CMASS, by estimating the galaxy-matter cross-correlation coefficient rcc. By jointly fitting the galaxy-galaxy lensing measurement with the galaxy clustering measurement from CMASS, we obtain $r_{ m cc}=1.09^{+0.12}_{-0.11}$ for the scale cut of 4h−1 Mpc and $r_{ m cc}=1.06^{+0.13}_{-0.12}$ for 12h−1 Mpc in fixed cosmology. By adding the angular galaxy clustering of DMASS, we obtain rcc = 1.06 ± 0.10 for the scale cut of 4h−1 Mpc and rcc = 1.03 ± 0.11 for 12h−1 Mpc. The resulting values of rcc indicate that the lensing signal of DMASS is statistically consistent with the one that would have been measured if CMASS had populated the DES region within the given statistical uncertainty. The measurement of galaxy-galaxy lensing presented in this paper will serve as part of the data vector for the forthcoming cosmology analysis in preparation.

Beschreibung: Although many studies have been done and advanced progress has been made in understanding partial discharge (PD) behavior in the void, this is not the case firinception of PD, especially its stochastic nature. The statistical behaviors of PD inception voltage (PDIV) and inception time delay (PDTD) inside the void were investigated in this study through repeated tests to observe the stochastic nature of PD inception. The results show that the PDIV and PDTD of the void are highly dispersed and obey Weibull and exponential distributions, respectively. The significant dispersion of PDIV can be attributed to the statistical time delay of PD inception. The lengthy inception delay is attributable to a lack of free electrons. The exponential distribution of PDTD indicates that free-electron generation is completely random; further, the stochastic nature of void PD inception is determined by the supply of free electrons. The test method (voltage rise rate, test time, and test time interval), void parameters (size, material, and surface condition), and background radiation determine PD inception by affecting the volume ionization or surface-emission process providing free electrons. Enhanced background ionization or significant increase in test voltage and test time allow for the effective detection of void defects during PD tests. This work contributes to an empirical understanding of the physical process of PD inception in voids and improving existing PD testing technologies.

Beschreibung: The anisotropic droplet formulation is generalized from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic surfaces. An experimental method to calibrate the ellipsoidal droplet volume on both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces is presented. A broad range of contact angles (CAs) is produced on the copper and stainless-steel surfaces using femtosecond laser patterning. The effects of line spacing between the laser scanning on the formation of anisotropic CAs are discussed. The comparative study of the evolution of anisotropic CAs and droplet’s spreading dynamics are studied on both surfaces. According to the triple contact line (TCL) theory, CAs are determined by the TCL between droplet and surface rather than the contact area. We presented the mathematical formalism and the experimental validity of the TCL theory on ellipsoidal droplets over a broad range of CAs, from as low as 37°–172°. This work experimentally validated the TCL theory over a broad range of CAs with good confidence.

Beschreibung: The question of what determines the width of Kuiper belt analogues (exoKuiper belts) is an open one. If solved, this understanding would provide valuable insights into the architecture, dynamics, and formation of exoplanetary systems. Recent observations by ALMA have revealed an apparent paradox in this field, the presence of radially narrow belts in protoplanetary discs that are likely the birthplaces of planetesimals, and exoKuiper belts nearly four times as wide in mature systems. If the parent planetesimals of this type of debris disc indeed form in these narrow protoplanetary rings via streaming instability where dust is trapped, we propose that this width dichotomy could naturally arise if these dust traps form planetesimals whilst migrating radially, e.g. as caused by a migrating planet. Using the dust evolution software dustpy, we find that if the initial protoplanetary disc and trap conditions favour planetesimal formation, dust can still effectively accumulate and form planetesimals as the trap moves. This leads to a positive correlation between the inward radial speed and final planetesimal belt width, forming belts up to ∼100au over 10 Myr of evolution. We show that although planetesimal formation is most efficient in low-viscosity (α = 10−4) discs with steep dust traps to trigger the streaming instability, the large widths of most observed planetesimal belts constrain α to values ≥4 × 10−4 at tens of au, otherwise the traps cannot migrate far enough. Additionally, the large spread in the widths and radii of exoKuiper belts could be due to different trap migration speeds (or protoplanetary disc lifetimes) and different starting locations, respectively. Our work serves as a first step to link exoKuiper belts and rings in protoplanetary discs.

Beschreibung: We have carried out relativistic three-dimensional simulations of high-power radio sources propagating i,nto asymmetric cluster environments. We offset the environment by 0 or 1 core radii (equal to 144 kpc), and incline the jets by 0, 15, or 45° away from the environment centre. The different environment encountered by each radio lobe provides a unique opportunity to study the effect of environment on otherwise identical jets. We find that the jets become unstable towards the end of the simulations, even with a Lorentz factor of 5; they nevertheless develop typical Fanaroff–Riley class II radio morphology. The jets propagating into denser environments have consistently shorter lobe lengths and brighter hotspots, while the axial ratio of the two lobes is similar. We reproduce the recently reported observational anticorrelation between lobe length asymmetry and environment asymmetry, corroborating the notion that observed large-scale radio lobe asymmetry can be driven by differences in the underlying environment.

Beschreibung: In this work, we present a self-energy model based on the complex absorbing potential (CAP) method to calculate the transmission function through an extended molecule using scattering theory. Once the CAP mimics an infinite environment at the ends of a finite system, it can be used as a model for self-energy with a low computational cost. Moreover, the matrixes required for the transport calculation can be obtained from an ab initio calculation of some extended molecules in a single step using an adjustable model, thus taking into account changes in the electronic structure of the system. This approach was applied to study electron transport across a biphenyl molecular system for different torsion angles under an external applied electric field. The results obtained are in good agreement with the available theoretical and experimental results in the literature and provide an efficient approach, with a low computational cost method, for the interpretation of electrical transport at the molecular level.

Beschreibung: The radio quasar luminosity function exhibits an upturn around $L_{6 m :GHz}=10^{23}$ W Hz−1 that is well-modelled by a star-forming host galaxy population. This distribution leads some authors to cite star formation as the main radio emission mechanism in so-called radio-quiet quasars (RQQs). Understanding the origin of RQQ radio emission is crucial for our understanding of quasar feedback mechanisms – responsible for the regulation of star formation in the host galaxy – and for understanding galaxy evolution as a whole. By observing RQQs that have been magnified by strong gravitational lensing, we have direct access to the RQQ population out to cosmic noon, where evidence for twin mini-jets has recently been found in a sub-$mu$Jy RQQ. Here we present radio observations of two lensed RQQs using the VLA at 5 GHz, the latest objects to be observed in a sample of quadruply-imaged RQQs above −30°. In SDSS J1004+4112 we find strong evidence for AGN-related radio emission in the variability of the source. In PG 1115+080 we find tentative evidence for AGN-related emission, determined by comparing the radio luminosity with modelled dust components. If confirmed in the case of PG 1115+080, which lies on the radio–FIR correlation, the result would reinforce the need for caution when applying the correlation to rule out jet activity and when assuming no AGN heating of FIR-emitting dust when calculating star formation rates. Our programme so far has shown that the two of the faintest radio sources ever imaged show strong evidence for AGN-dominated radio emission.

Beschreibung: The advantages of high entropy alloy with good comprehensive properties provide a potential opportunity to explore and develop new alloys suitable for human implantation. In this experiment, TiTaNbZrMo high entropy alloy was designed and prepared by alloy design and first principle. The calculation results predict that the phase composition of each high entropy alloy is BCC structure, and the designed high entropy alloy has structural stability; the non-equal atomic ratio TiNbTaZrMo high-entropy alloy has higher ductility than the equal atomic ratio TiNbTaZrMo high-entropy alloy; the B/G, Poisson’s ratio υ and (C 12-C 44) values of Ti30(NbTaZr)60Mo10 alloy are the largest, indicating that the toughness of this alloy is the best, and the Young’s modulus value is the smallest. The experimental results show that the yield strength of Ti30(NbTaZr)60Mo10 alloy is 1132 MPa, the plastic strain is 33%, and the wear resistance and corrosion resistance are good. The potential of Ti30(NbTaZr)60Mo10 in biological field is proved by calculation and experimental test, which provides an important basis for its industrial application in biomedical alloy.

Beschreibung: The increase in detector sensitivity and availability in the past three decades has allowed us to derive knowledge of the meteoroid flux and impact energy into the Earth’s atmosphere. We present the multi-instrument detected 2018 December 22 fireball over Western Pyrenees, and compare several techniques aiming to obtain a reliable method to be used when measuring impacts of similar scale. From trajectory data alone, we found a bulk density of 3.5 g cm−3 to be the most likely value for the Pyrenean meteoroid. This allowed to further constrain the dynamic mass, which translated into a kinetic energy of 1 ton TNT (4.184 × 109 J). For the second energy derivation, via the fireball’s corrected optical radiation, we obtained a more accurate empirical relation measuring well-studied bolides. The result approximates to 1.1 ton TNT, which is notably close to the nominal dynamic result, and agrees with the lower margin of the seismic-based energy estimation, yet way lower than the infrasound estimate. Based on the relation derived in this study, we consider the nominal estimate from both the dynamic and photometric methods to be the most accurate value of deposited energy (1 ton TNT). We show that the combination of these two methods can be used to infer the meteoroid density. Among the methods presented in this paper, we found that the optical energy is the most reliable predictor of impact energy near the ton TNT-scale.

Beschreibung: The repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source, FRB 20201124A, was found to be highly active in 2021 March and April. We observed the source with the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope at 1.36 GHz on 2021 April 9 and detected 20 bursts. A downward drift in frequency over time is clearly seen from the majority of bursts in our sample. A structure-maximizing dispersion measure (DM) search on the multicomponent bursts in our sample yields a DM of 411.6 ± 0.6 pc cm−3. We find that the rotation measure (RM) of the bursts varies around their weighted mean value of −601 rad m−2 with a standard deviation of 11.1 rad m−2. This RM magnitude is 10 times larger than the expected Galactic contribution along this line of sight (LoS). We estimate an LoS magnetic field strength of 4–6 µG, assuming that the entire host galaxy DM contributes to the RM. Further polarization measurements will help determine FRB 20201124A’s RM stability. The bursts are highly linearly polarized, with some showing signs of circular polarization, the first for a repeating FRB. Their polarization position angles (PAs) are flat across the burst envelopes and vary between bursts. We argue that the varying polarization fractions and PAs of FRB 20201124A are similar to known magnetospheric emission from pulsars, while the observed circular polarization, combined with the RM variability, is hard to explain with Faraday conversion. The high linear polarization fractions, flat PAs, and downward drift from FRB 20201124A bursts are similar to previous repeating sources, while the observed circular polarization is a newly seen behaviour among repeaters.

Beschreibung: We study differential rotation in late-stage shell convection in a 3D hydrodynamic simulation of a rapidly rotating 16 M⊙ helium star with a particular focus on the convective oxygen shell. We find that the oxygen shell develops a quasi-stationary pattern of differential rotation that is neither described by uniform angular velocity as assumed in current stellar evolution models of supernova progenitors, nor by uniform specific angular momentum. Instead, the oxygen shell develops a positive angular velocity gradient with faster rotation at the equator than at the pole by tens of percent. We show that the angular momentum transport inside the convection zone is not adequately captured by a diffusive mixing-length flux proportional to the angular velocity or angular momentum gradient. Zonal flow averages reveal stable large-scale meridional flow and an entropy deficit near the equator that mirrors the patterns in the angular velocity. The structure of the flow is reminiscent of simulations of stellar surface convection zones and the differential rotation of the Sun, suggesting that similar effects are involved; future simulations will need to address in more detail how the interplay of buoyancy, inertial forces, and turbulent stresses shapes differential rotation during late-stage convection in massive stars. If convective regions develop positive angular velocity gradients, angular momentum could be shuffled out of the core region more efficiently, potentially making the formation of millisecond magnetars more difficult. Our findings have implications for neutron star birth spin periods and supernova explosion scenarios that involve rapid core rotation.

Beschreibung: We develop a sophisticated model of FRB observations, accounting for the intrinsic cosmological gas distribution and host galaxy contributions, and give the most detailed account yet of observational biases due to burst width, dispersion measure, and the exact telescope beamshape. Our results offer a significant increase in both accuracy and precision beyond those previously obtained. Using results from ASKAP and Parkes, we present our best-fit FRB population parameters in a companion paper. Here, we consider in detail the expected and fitted distributions in redshift, dispersion measure, and signal-to-noise. We estimate that the unlocalised ASKAP FRBs arise from z 〈 0.5, with between a third and a half within z 〈 0.1. Our predicted source-counts (‘logN–logS’) distribution confirms previous indications of a steepening index near the Parkes detection threshold of 1 Jy ms. We find no evidence for a minimum FRB energy, and rule out Emin 〉 1039.0 erg at 90 per cent C.L. Importantly, we find that above a certain DM, observational biases cause the Macquart (DM–z) relation to become inverted, implying that the highest-DM events detected in the unlocalised Parkes and ASKAP samples are unlikely to be the most distant. More localized FRBs will be required to quantitatively estimate this effect, though its cause is a well-understood observational bias. Works assuming a 1–1 DM–z relation may therefore derive erroneous results. Our analysis of errors suggests that limiting factors in our analysis are understanding of FRB spectral behaviour, sensitivity response of search experiments, and the treatment of the repeating population and luminosity function.

Beschreibung: We present a multi-wavelength investigation of the H ii region G347.600+00.211, located at a distance of 7.9 kpc. We analyse the gas and dust properties aiming to disentangle the origin of the region as well as its role in the formation of new stars. G347.600+00.211 is very conspicuous at 1420 MHz and infrared wavelengths, showing an incomplete shell-like structure with two distinct zones of very intense emission. The infrared bubble S8 is part of the shell structure. The spatial distribution of the molecular gas shows the presence of six clouds located around the ionized region and showing a good morphological correlation with the 8 μm emission. Cold dust is coincident with the dense gas shown in the CO measurements. As for the origin of the region, we found that the massive cluster [DBS2003]179 and two Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars are located at the same distance than the ionized gas. Based on a stellar density analysis, we inferred that one of the WR stars, 1181-81L, is also a probable member of the cluster. Both the cluster and the WR stars are not only within the ring–like structure, but are also located near the two spots of very heightened emission, suggesting they may be responsible for this bright emission. Finally, as expanding H ii regions are hypothesised to trigger star formation, we used different infrared point source catalogues to search for young stellar object candidates (cYSOs). A total of 33 cYSOs and 4 CH ii regions were identified projected on to the photo–dissociation regions and molecular clouds.

Beschreibung: We explore, using numerical simulations, the influence of mass and distance on the evolution of triple black hole systems. Following in the direction of Burrau’s famous 3,4,5 problem, black holes are initially placed at the vertices of Pythagorean triangles. Numerical integration of orbits was conducted using relativistic corrections (post-Newtonian) up to the 2.5th order with ARCcode. As a descriptor of the evolution of the systems, the lifetimes, the number of two-body encounters and the number of mergers were all analysed. We found that as the mass unit of the black holes increased there was strong positive correlation with the fraction of mergers (0.9868), strong negative correlation with the average number of two-body encounters (-0.9016) and the average lifetimes of the triple systems decayed exponentially (determination coefficient of 0.9986). Around the mass unit range of 105.5M⊙-105.6M⊙, there was a transition from escape dominated dynamics to merger dominated dynamics. However, in the mass unit range of 106 M⊙ − 109M⊙ with 1 pc distance unit, we find that 25 per cent of cases resulted in the escape of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) which may be a cause for wandering SMBH’s found in some galaxies/galactic merger remnants.

Beschreibung: We present methods for emulating the matter power spectrum by combining information from cosmological N-body simulations at different resolutions. An emulator allows estimation of simulation output by interpolating across the parameter space of a limited number of simulations. We present the first implementation in cosmology of multi-fidelity emulation, where many low-resolution simulations are combined with a few high-resolution simulations to achieve an increased emulation accuracy. The power spectrum’s dependence on cosmology is learned from the low-resolution simulations, which are in turn calibrated using high-resolution simulations. We show that our multi-fidelity emulator predicts high-fidelity counterparts to percent-level relative accuracy when using only 3 high-fidelity simulations and outperforms a single-fidelity emulator that uses 11 simulations, although we do not attempt to produce a converged emulator with high absolute accuracy. With a fixed number of high-fidelity training simulations, we show that our multi-fidelity emulator is ≃ 100 times better than a single-fidelity emulator at k ≤ 2 hMpc−1, and ≃ 20 times better at 3 ≤ k 〈 6.4 hMpc−1. Multi-fidelity emulation is fast to train, using only a simple modification to standard Gaussian processes. Our proposed emulator shows a new way to predict non-linear scales by fusing simulations from different fidelities.

Beschreibung: To assess the number of life-bearing worlds in astrophysical environments, it is necessary to take the intertwined processes of abiogenesis (birth), extinction (death), and transfer of life (migration) into account. We construct a mathematical model that incorporates this trio of mechanisms and accordingly derive the probability distribution function and other statistical properties (e.g. mean) for the number of worlds with biospheres. We show that a given astrophysical setting may become eventually saturated with life if the rate of successful transfers of organisms is higher than the extinction rate of biospheres. Based on the available data, we suggest that this criterion might be fulfilled for star-forming clusters (and perhaps the Galactic bulge under optimal circumstances), thereby indicating that such regions could constitute promising abodes for hosting and detecting life.

Beschreibung: We present a search for disturbed, candidate ram pressure stripping galaxies across more than 50 spectroscopically selected SDSS groups and clusters. Forty-eight ram pressure candidates are visually identified in these systems using high quality UNIONS imaging from the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope, covering ∼6200 deg2 and ∼2800 deg2 in the u- and r-bands respectively. Ram pressure candidates are found in groups and clusters spanning a wide range in halo mass and include ∼30 ram pressure candidates in the group regime (Mh 〈 1014). The observed frequency of ram pressure candidates shows substantial scatter with group/cluster mass, but on average is larger in clusters (Mh ≥ 1014 M⊙) than groups (Mh 〈 1014 M⊙) by a factor of ∼2. We find that ram pressure candidates are most commonly low-mass galaxies and have enhanced star formation rates relative to star-forming field galaxies. The enhancement in star formation is largely independent of galaxy mass and strongest for galaxies in clusters. As a result of the large survey footprint and excellent image quality from UNIONS, we are able to identify disturbed galaxies, potentially affected by ram pressure stripping, across a wide range of host environment.

Beschreibung: Summary On 2020 December 29, the Mw 6.4 Petrinja earthquake hit the Kupa Valley region and set a record for the largest earthquake in northwestern (NW) Croatia. The coseismic surface displacements are well obtained on three pairs of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) images from Sentinel-1 satellites. The interferograms exhibit coseismic ground deformation with a maximum line-of-sight (LOS) displacement of 0.4 m. Based on the coseismic deformation field, we investigate both the fault geometry and the coseismic slip distribution. The results show a dextral event with a peak slip of 3.50 m at a depth of 3.47 km. The shallow depth and unusually large coseismic slip correspond to obvious ground deformation and serious damage in the epicentral zone. The 2020 earthquake highlights an unmapped, steeply dipping strike-slip fault, which possibly enabled a potential ‘curve cut-off’ process on the bending segment of the Pokupsko fault in the context of ∼N-S compression in NW Croatia. The large coseismic slip and high stress drop associated with the Mw 6.4 Petrinja earthquake are likely products of the geometrically complex fault zones and immature seismotectonic environment in NW Croatia.

Beschreibung: Summary Objective assessment of seismic hazard and understanding of the Himalayan arc's tectonics requires detailed information on the crustal structure and geometry of the underthrusting Indian Plate beneath the Himalaya. Here, we present high-resolution three-dimensional P- wave velocity (Vp) and P-to-S wave velocity ratio (Vp/Vs) images of the Kumaun-Garhwal Himalaya, a proposed potential region for the future great earthquake. We generate these images by inverting arrival times of 515 local earthquakes recorded by 41 broadband stations during November 2006-June 2008. The tomographic images show a heterogeneous structure in the upper-mid crust. These images, along with available geophysical and geological information, indicate the presence of quartz-rich felsic rocks in the uppermost crust; and the occurrence of saline-rich aqueous fluid/partial melt in the upper-mid crust. We propose that the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), having a flat-ramp-flat geometry, lies at the base of these fluid zones. The small and moderate-to-strong magnitude earthquakes are mainly confined to the fluid-rich zones along the MHT and quartz-rich rocks in the upper crust. Such an interpretation implies that the earthquake occurrence in the Kumaun-Garhwal Himalaya is largely controlled by the geometry of the MHT and crustal lithology.

Beschreibung: Summary We have studied the active and recent tectonics of New Guinea, using earthquake source modelling, analysis of gravity anomalies, seismic reflection profiles, and thermal and mechanical models. Our aim is to investigate the behaviour and evolution of a young continental deformation belt, and to explore the effects of lateral variations in foreland rheology on the deformation. We find that along-strike gradients in the lithosphere thickness of the southern foreland have resulted in correlated changes in seismogenic thickness, likely due to the effects on the temperature structure of the crust. The resulting variation in the strength of the foreland means that in the east, the foreland is broken through on thrust faults, whereas in the west it is relatively intact. The lack of correlation between the elevation of the mountain belt and the seismogenic thickness of the foreland is likely to be due to the time taken to thicken the crust in the mountains following changes in the rheology of the underthrusting foreland, as the thinned passive margin of northern Australia is consumed. The along-strike variation in whether the force exerted between the mountains and the lowlands is able to break the foreland crust enables us to estimate the effective coefficient of friction on foreland faults to be in the range of 0.01-0.28. We use force-balance calculations to show that the recent tectonic re-organisation in western New Guinea is likely to be due to the development of increasing curvature in the Banda Arc, and that the impingement of continental material on the subduction zone may explain the unusually low force it exerts on western New Guinea.

Beschreibung: In our recent papers a non-standard quasi-molecular mechanism was suggested and applied to treat the cosmological recombination. It was assumed that, in the pre-recombination stage of evolution of the Universe, an electron combined with two neighbouring protons and created a hydrogen molecular ion, $H_2^+$ in a highly excited state, which then descended into the lower-lying state or dissociated. In this work, we implement a quantitative analysis of this quasi-molecular mechanism of recombination; namely, we elaborate the scheme of calculation for a free–bound radiative transition. We show that the quasi-molecular mechanism played a significant role in the pre-recombination and recombination stages of evolution of the early Universe, and hence must be included into the consideration of the description of a thermal history of the Universe. Together with the earlier developed treatment of bound-bound radiative transitions in $H_2^+$, the elaborated scheme of calculation can be used for the design of a rapid and complete cosmological recombination code.

Beschreibung: We present a comprehensive study of three large long-duration flares detected on an active M-dwarf binary EQ Peg using the Soft X-Ray Telescope of the AstroSat observatory. The peak X-ray luminosities of the flares in the 0.3–7 keV band are found to be within ∼5–10 ×  1030 $ m {erg}~ m {s}^{-1}$. The e-folding rise- and decay-times of the flares are derived to be in the range of 3.4–11 and 1.6–24 ks, respectively. Spectral analysis indicates the presence of three temperature corona with the first two plasma temperatures remain constant during all the flares and the post-flare observation at ∼3 and ∼9 MK. The flare temperature peaked at 26, 16, and 17 MK, which are 2, 1.3, and 1.4 times more than the minimum value, respectively. The peak emission measures are found to be 3.9–7.1 ×  1053 cm−3, whereas the abundances peaked at 0.16–0.26 times the solar abundances. Using quasi-static loop modelling, we derive loop-lengths for all the flares as 2.5±0.5 ×  1011, 2.0 ± 0.5 ×  1011, and 2.5 ± 0.9 ×  1011 cm, respectively. The density of the flaring plasma is estimated to be 4.2 ± 0.8 ×  1010, 3.0 ± 0.7 ×  1010, 2.2 ± 0.8 ×  1010 cm−3 for flares F1, F2, and F3, respectively. Whereas the magnetic field for all three flares is estimated to be

Beschreibung: We present light curve analyses of two newly identified detached eclipsing binaries, HD 96609 and HD 303734, in the region of the richly populated open cluster NGC 3532. HD 96609 is composed of two main sequence stars (B9-A0V + A2V) with masses and radii of M1 = 2.66 ± 0.02M⊙, M2 = 1.84 ± 0.01M⊙, R1 = 2.740 ± 0.006R⊙, R2 = 1.697 ± 0.005R⊙. The positions of the components on log M − log R plane suggests log(age/yr) 8.55, corresponding 350 ± 40 Myr of age, which agrees with the 300 ± 100 Myr age of NGC 3532 estimated in previous studies. We find the distance of HD 96609 as 460 ± 17 pc, which is consistent with the $484^{+35}_{-30}$ pc distance of NGC 3532, estimated from GAIA parallaxes. HD 303734 is an interesting totally eclipsing binary with a quite shallow secondary eclipse. Using photometric properties of the system in conjunction with theoretical calibrations, we estimate that HD 303734 consists of A6V + K3V components. HD 96609 and HD 303734 are the second and third eclipsing binaries discovered in the region of NGC 3532, after the first one, GV Car.

Beschreibung: We use the k-nearest neighbor probability distribution function (kNN-PDF, Banerjee & Abel 2021) to assess convergence in a scale-free N-body simulation. Compared to our previous two-point analysis, the kNN-PDF allows us to quantify our results in the language of haloes and numbers of particles, while also incorporating non-Gaussian information. We find good convergence for 32 particles and greater at densities typical of haloes, while 16 particles and fewer appears unconverged. Halving the softening length extends convergence to higher densities, but not to fewer particles. Our analysis is less sensitive to voids, but we analyse a limited range of underdensities and find evidence for convergence at 16 particles and greater even in sparse voids.

Beschreibung: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are carbon-based molecules resulting from the union of aromatic rings and related species, which are likely responsible for strong infrared emission features. In this work, using a sample of 50 Seyfert galaxies (DL 〈 100 Mpc) we compare the circumnuclear (inner kpc) PAH emission of AGN to that of a control sample of star-forming galaxies (22 luminous infrared galaxies and 30 H ii galaxies), and investigate the differences between central and extended PAH emission. Using Spitzer/InfraRed Spectrograph spectral data of Seyfert and star-forming galaxies and newly developed PAH diagnostic model grids, derived from theoretical spectra, we compare the predicted and observed PAH ratios. We find that star-forming galaxies and AGN-dominated systems are located in different regions of the PAH diagnostic diagrams. This suggests that not only are the size and charge of the PAH molecules different, but also the nature and hardness of the radiation field that excite them. We find tentative evidence that PAH ratios in AGN-dominated systems are consistent with emission from larger PAH molecules (Nc 〉 300–400) as well as neutral species. By subtracting the spectrum of the central source from the total, we compare the PAH emission in the central versus extended region of a small sample of AGN. In contrast to the findings for the central regions of AGN-dominated systems, the PAH ratios measured in the extended regions of both type 1 and type 2 Seyfert galaxies can be explained assuming similar PAH molecular size distribution and ionized fractions of molecules to those seen in central regions of star-forming galaxies (100 〈 Nc 〈 300).

Beschreibung: High cadence, high quality observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) clearly show continuum variations with lags, relative to the shortest observed variable UV continuum, that increase with wavelength (‘lag spectra’). These have been attributed to the irradiation and heating of the central accretion disk by the central X-ray emitting corona. An alternative explanation, connecting the observed lag-spectra to line and continuum emission from gas in the broad line region (BLR), has also been proposed. In this paper I show the clear spectral signature of the time-dependent diffuse gas emission in the lag-spectrum of 6 AGN. I also show a new lag-luminosity relationship for 9 objects which is a scaled down version of the well known τ(Hβ)-L5100 relationship in AGN. The shape of the lag-spectrum, and its normalization, are entirely consistent with diffuse emission from radiation pressure supported clouds in a BLR with a covering factor of about 0.2. While some contributions to the continuum lag from the irradiated disk cannot be excluded, there is no need for this explanation.

Beschreibung: The physical properties of the accretion flow and of the X-ray emitting plasma, in supermassive black holes accreting at extreme Eddington rates, are still very unclear. Here we present the analysis of simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of the hyper-Eddington Seyfert 1 galaxy IRAS 04416+1215, carried out in 2020. The main goal of these observations is to investigate the properties of the X-ray corona, as well as the structure of the accretion flow and of the circumnuclear environment, in this regime of extreme accretion. IRAS 04416+1215 has one of the highest Eddington ratio (λEdd ≃ 472) in the local Universe. It shows an interesting spectral shape, very similar to the standard Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy’s spectra, with the presence of multi-phase absorption structure composed of three phases, whose estimate of the minimum and maximum distances suggests two different interpretations, one consistent with the three X-ray winds being co-spatial, and possibly driven by magnetohydrodynamical processes, the other consistent with the multi-phase winds being also multi-scale. The X-ray spectrum of IRAS 04416+1215 also has a prominent soft excess component and a hard X-ray emission dominated by a reflection component. Moreover, our detailed spectral analysis shows that IRAS 04416+1215 has the lowest coronal temperature measured so far by NuSTAR (kTe = 3 − 22 keV, depending on the model). This is consistent with a hybrid coronal plasma, in which the primary continuum emission is driven by pair production due to high-energy tail of the energy distribution of non-thermal electrons.

Beschreibung: As good models for developing techniques, Haloarchaea are using as cell factories to produce a considerable concentration of bioplastics, polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), and polyhydroxyvalerate (PHV). In this study, low-cost carbon sources by Sudan Black staining was applied for screening haloarchaea a hypersaline environment (southern coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia). The growth of the selected isolate and PHB-production under different carbon sources, temperature, pH values and NaCl concentrations were investigated. The biopolymer was extracted and quantitatively measured. The biopolymer was qualitatively identified by Fourier-transform infra-red analysis (FTIR) and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The potential Haloarcula sp strain NRS20 (MZ520352) could significantly accumulate PHB under nutrient-limiting conditions using different carbon sources including starch, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), sucrose, glucose and glycerol with 23.83%, 14%, 11%, 12% and 8% of PHB/CDW respectively under 25% NaCl (w/v), pH 7, at 37 °C. The results of FTIR pattern indicated that the significant peak at 1709.22 cm−1 confirmed the presence of the ester carbonyl-group (C=O) which is typical of PHB. HPLC analysis indicated that produced PHB was detected at 7.5 min with intensity exceeding the standard PHB at 8.0 min. Few potential species of haloarchaea were reported for economical PHB-production, here, Haloarcula sp strain NRS20 showed high content of PHB, exhibited a promising PHB-producer using inexpensive sources of carbon.

Beschreibung: High mass proto-stars create Ultra-Compact H ii regions (UCHII) at the stage of evolution when most of the accretion is finished but the star is still heavily embedded in molecular material. The morphologies of UCHII regions reflect the interactions of stellar winds, stellar motions, and density structure in the molecular cloud; they are complex and it has been very difficult to interpret them. We here present data obtained with TEXES on the NASA IRTF of the [Nei,ii] emission line in the proto-cluster of young OB stars in W33 Main. The data cube has a spatial resolution of ∼1.4 arcsec and true velocity resolution ∼5 km s-1; with Aλ ∼ 0.02AV it is relatively unaffected by extinction. We have run 3D hydrodynamic and line profile simulations, using PLUTO and RADMC-3D, of the gas structures created by multiple windy stars moving relative to each other through the ambient cloud. By iterative comparison of the data cube and the simulations, we arrive at models that reproduce the different morphology and kinematic structure of each UCHII region in W33 Main. The results indicate that each sub-source probably holds multiple exciting stars, permitting an improved view of the stellar population, and finds the stellar trajectories, which may determine the dynamical development of the proto-cluster.