Interfacial instabilities driven by self-gravity: first numerical results     

R.M. Hueckstaedt  J.H. HunterJr 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2001,327(4):1097-1102

The evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) is driven by a variety of phenomena, including turbulence, shearing flows, magnetic fields and the thermal properties of the gas. Among the most important forces at work is self-gravity, which ultimately drives protostellar collapse. As part of an ongoing study of instabilities in the ISM, Hunter, Whitaker & Lovelace have discovered another process driven by self-gravity: the instability of an interface of discontinuous density. Theory predicts that this self-gravity driven interfacial instability persists in the static limit and in the absence of a constant background acceleration. Disturbances to a density interface are found to grow on a time-scale of the order of the free-fall time, even when the perturbation wavelength is much less than the Jeans length. Here we present the first numerical simulations of this instability. The theoretical growth rate is confirmed and the non-linear morphology displayed. The self-gravity interfacial instability is shown to be fundamentally different from the Rayleigh–Taylor instability, although both exhibit similar morphologies under the condition of a high density contrast, such as is commonly found in the ISM. Such instabilities are a possible mechanism by which observed features, such as the pillars of gas seen near the boundaries of interstellar clouds, are formed.  相似文献   

Orbital evolution of Uranus’s new outer satellites     

M. A. Vashkov’yak 《Astronomy Letters》2001,27(6):404-409

Data on three recently discovered satellites of Uranus are used to determine basic evolutional parameters of their orbits: the extreme eccentricities and inclinations, as well as the circulation periods of the pericenter arguments and of the longitudes of the ascending nodes. The evolution is mainly investigated by analytically solving Hill’s double-averaged problem for the Uranus-Sun-satellite system, in which Uranus’s orbital eccentricity e _U and inclination i _U to the ecliptic are assumed to be zero. For the real model of Uranus’s evolving orbit with e _U≠0 and i _U≠0, we refine the evolutional parameters of the satellite orbits by numerically integrating the averaged system. Having analyzed the configuration and dynamics of the orbits of Uranus’s five outer satellites, we have revealed the possibility of their mutual crossings and obtained approximate temporal estimates.  相似文献   

川西地区近期大地垂直形变场演化与地壳运动特征     

王双绪 《大地测量与地球动力学》1992,(2)

本文利用四川西部地区近二十年来的水准资料,分析了该区近期大地垂直形变场演化状况。指出了川西地区自八十年代后期以来继承性构造运动增强,断裂控制区域升、降差异运动加剧的地壳运动特征;同时,鲜水河断裂带之乾宁-康定一带已形成闭锁区。  相似文献   

The properties of spiral galaxies: confronting hierarchical galaxy formation models with observations     

Eric F. Bell  Carlton M. Baugh  Shaun Cole  Carlos S. Frenk  Cedric G. Lacey 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,343(2):367-384

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Problems, Connections and Expectations of Asteroseismology: a Summary of the Workshop     

Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2003,284(1):277-294

The workshop took place at the beginning of what promises tobe a golden age of asteroseismology.Ground-based instrumentation is finally reaching a level of stabilitywhich allows detailed investigations of solar-like oscillations in atleast bright, slowly rotating main-sequence stars.Very extensive results are expected from the coming space missions,including data on a broad range of stars from the Eddington mission.The observational situation is therefore extremely promising.To make full use of these promises, major efforts are requiredtowards the efficient utilization of the data, through the developmentof techniques for the analysis and interpretation of the data.A broad range of topics related to these issues is discussed in the presentproceedings. Here I review some of the relevant problems,relate the asteroseismic investigations to broader areas of astrophysics and consider briefly the basis for our great expectations for the developmentof the field.  相似文献   

Chemical enrichment in the early galaxy     

Birgitta NordstrÖm 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2003,284(2):779-782

New, precise abundance data for a large number of elements in a growing sample of extremely metal-poor stars are accumulating from the new 8-m telescopes. Combined with theoretical models, these results advance our understanding of the first generations of stars, whose nucleosynthesis products are fossilised in the oldest stars we see today and thus give clues to the earliest phases of evolution in the Galaxy. In particular, the heaviest elements give us insight into the different neutron capture mechanisms and the stellar sites where such elements could be produced. They also afford an independent way to determine the age of the Galaxy, by radioactive chronology. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

Photometric redshifts in the Hubble Deep Fields: evolution of extinction and the star formation rate     

Michael Rowan-Robinson 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,345(3):819-833

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The K-band Hubble diagram of submillimetre galaxies and hyperluminous galaxies     

Stephen Serjeant  Duncan Farrah  James Geach  Toshinobu Takagi  Aprajita Verma  Ali Kaviani  Matt Fox 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,346(4):L51-L56

We present the K -band Hubble diagrams ( K – z relations) of submillimetre-selected galaxies and hyperluminous galaxies (HLIRGs). We report the discovery of a remarkably tight K – z relation of HLIRGs, indistinguishable from that of the most luminous radio galaxies. Like radio galaxies, the HLIRG K – z relation at   z ≲ 3  is consistent with a passively evolving ∼3 L _* instantaneous starburst starting from a redshift of   z ∼ 10  . In contrast, many submillimetre-selected galaxies are ≳2 mag fainter, and the population has a much larger dispersion. We argue that dust obscuration and/or a larger mass range may be responsible for this scatter. The galaxies so far proved to be hyperluminous may have been biased towards higher AGN bolometric contributions than submillimetre-selected galaxies due to the 60-μm selection of some, so the location on the K – z relation may be related to the presence of the most massive active galactic nucleus. Alternatively, a particular host galaxy mass range may be responsible for both extreme star formation and the most massive active nuclei.  相似文献   

Direct Determination of Galaxy Luminosity Functions in Clusters     

D. Christlein  A. Zabludoff 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2003,285(1):197-201

We present R-band galaxy luminosity functions (GLFs) from aspectroscopic sample of six nearby rich galaxy clusters. In addition to individual cluster GLFs, extending to, in one case, M _R=–14, we also present composite GLFs for cluster and field galaxies toM _R=–17. All six cluster samples are consistent with the composite GLF, but there is evidence that the GLF of the quiescent population in clusters is not universal. Furthermore, the GLF of quiescent galaxies is significantly steeper in clusters than in the field. The overall GLF in clusters is consistent with that of field galaxies, except for the luminous tip, which is enhanced in clusters versus the field. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

WIYN Open Cluster Study – XVI. Optical/infrared photometry and comparisons with theoretical isochrones     

Aaron J. Grocholski  Ata Sarajedini 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,345(3):1015-1029

We present combined optical/near-infrared photometry ( BVIK ) for six open clusters – M35, M37, NGC 1817, NGC 2477, NGC 2420 and M67. The open clusters span an age range from 150 Myr to 4 Gyr and have metal abundances from  [Fe/H]=−0.27  to +0.09 dex. We have utilized these data to test the robustness of theoretical main sequences constructed by several groups as denoted by the following designations – Padova, Baraffe, Y², Geneva and Siess. The comparisons of the models with the observations have been performed in the  [ M_V , ( B − V )₀], [ M_V , ( V − I )₀]  and  [ M_V , ( V − K )₀]  colour–magnitude diagrams as well as the distance-independent  [( V − K )₀, ( B − V )₀]  and  [( V − K )₀, ( V − I )₀]  two-colour diagrams. We conclude that none of the theoretical models reproduces the observational data in a consistent manner over the magnitude and colour range of the unevolved main sequence. In particular, there are significant zero-point and shape differences between the models and the observations. We speculate that the crux of the problem lies in the precise mismatch between theoretical and observational colour–temperature relations. These results underscore the importance of pursuing the study of stellar structure and stellar modelling with even greater intensity.  相似文献