Formation of galactic subsystems in light of the magnesium abundance in field stars: The thin disk     

V. A. Marsakov  T. V. Borkova 《Astronomy Letters》2006,32(6):376-392

Data from our compiled catalog of spectroscopically determined magnesium abundances in stars with accurate parallaxes are used to select thin-disk dwarfs and subgiants according to kinematic criteria. We analyze the relations between the relative magnesium abundances in stars, [Mg/Fe], and their metallicities, Galactic orbital elements, and ages. The [Mg/Fe] ratios in the thin disk at any metallicity in the range ?1.0 dex <[Fe/H] < ?0.4 dex are shown to be smaller than those in the thick disk, implying that the thin-disk stars are, on average, younger than the thick-disk stars. The relative magnesium abundances in such metal-poor thin-disk stars have been found to systematically decrease with increasing stellar orbital radii in such a way that magnesium overabundances ([Mg/Fe] > 0.2 dex) are essentially observed only in the stars whose orbits lie almost entirely within the solar circle. At the same time, the range of metallicities in magnesium-poor stars is displaced from ?0.5 dex < [Fe/H] < +0.3 dex to ?0.7 dex < [Fe/H] < +0.2 dex as their orbital radii increase. This behavior suggests that, first, the star formation rate decreases with increasing Galactocentric distance and, second, there was no star formation for some time outside the solar circle, while this process was continuous within the solar circle. The decrease in the star formation rate with increasing Galactocentric distance is responsible for the existence of a negative radial metallicity gradient (grad _R[Fe/H] = ?0.05 ± 0.01 kpc^?1) in the disk, which shows a tendency to increase with decreasing age. At the same time, the relative magnesium abundance exhibits no radial gradient. We have confirmed the existence of a steep negative vertical metallicity gradient (grad _Z[Fe/H] = ?0.29 ± 0.06 kpc^?1) and detected a significant positive vertical gradient in relative magnesium abundance (grad _Z[Mg/Fe] = 0.13 ± 0.02 kpc^?1); both gradients increase appreciably in absolute value with decreasing age. We have found that there is not only an age-metallicity relation, but also an age-magnesium abundance relation, in the thin disk. We surmise that the thin disk has a multicomponent structure, but the existence of a negative trend in the star formation rate along the Galactocentric radius does not allow the stars of its various components to be identified in the immediate solar neighborhood.  相似文献   

The Siberian Solar Radio Telescope: the current state of the instrument,observations, and data   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Grechnev  V.V.  Lesovoi  S.V.  Smolkov  G. Ya.  Krissinel  B.B.  Zandanov  V.G.  Altyntsev  A.T.  Kardapolova  N.N.  Sergeev  R.Y.  Uralov  A.M.  Maksimov  V.P.  Lubyshev  B.I. 《Solar physics》2003,216(1-2):239-272

The Siberian Solar Radio Telescope (SSRT) is one of the world's largest solar radio heliographs. It commenced operation in 1983, and since then has undergone several upgrades. The operating frequency of the SSRT is 5.7 GHz. Since 1992 the instrument has had the capability to make one-dimensional scans with a high time resolution of 56 ms and an angular resolution of 15 arc sec. Making one of these scans now takes 14 ms. In 1996 the capability was added to make full, two-dimensional images of the solar disk. The SSRT is now capable of obtaining images with an angular resolution of 21 arc sec every 2 min. In this paper we describe the main features and operation of the instrument, particularly emphasizing issues pertaining to the imaging process and factors limiting data quality. Some of the data processing and analysis techniques are discussed. We present examples of full-disk solar images of the quiet Sun, recorded near solar activity minimum, and images of specific structures: plages, coronal bright points, filaments and prominences, and coronal holes. We also present some observations of dynamic phenomena, such as eruptive prominences and solar flares, which illustrate the high-time-resolution observations that can be done with this instrument. We compare SSRT observations at 5.7 GHz, including computed `light curves', both morphologically and quantatively, with observations made in other spectral domains, such as 17 GHz radio images, Hα filtergrams and magnetograms, extreme-ultraviolet and X-ray observations, and dynamic radio spectra.  相似文献   

HCN fluorescence on Titan     

Roger V. Yelle  Caitlin A. Griffith 《Icarus》2003,166(1):107-115

The HCN emission features near 3 μm recently detected by Geballe et al. (2003, Astrophys. J. 583, L39) are analyzed with a model for fluorescence of sunlight in the ν₃ band of HCN. The emission spectrum is consistent with current knowledge of the atmospheric temperature profile and the HCN distribution inferred from millimeter-wave observations. The spectrum is insensitive to the abundance of HCN in the thermosphere and the thousand-fold enhancement relative to photochemical models suggested by Geballe et al. (2003, Astrophys. J. 583, L39) is not required to explain the observations. We find that the spectrum can be matched with temperatures from 130 to 200 K, with slightly better fits at high temperature, contrary to the temperature determination of 130±10 K of Geballe et al. (2003, Astrophys. J. 583, L39). The HCN emission spectrum is sensitive to the collisional de-excitation probability, P₁₀, for the ν₃ state and we determine a value of 10⁻⁵ with an accuracy of about a factor of two. Analysis of absorption lines in the C₂H₂ν₃ band near 3 μm, detected in the same spectrum, indicate a C₂H₂ mole fraction near 0.01 μbar of 10⁻⁵ for P₁₀=10⁻⁴. The derived mole fraction, however, is dependent upon the value adopted for P₁₀ and lower values are required if P₁₀ at Titan temperatures is less than its room temperature value.  相似文献   

A high-resolution radio study of neutral gas in the starburst galaxy NGC 520     

R. J. Beswick  A. Pedlar  M. S. Clemens  P. Alexander 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,346(2):424-432

We present subarcsec angular resolution observations of the neutral gas in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 520. The central kpc region of NGC 520 contains an area of significantly enhanced star formation. The radio continuum structure of this region resolves into ∼10 continuum components. By comparing the flux densities of the brightest of these components at 1.4 GHz with published 15-GHz data we infer that these components detected at 1.4 and 1.6 GHz are related to the starburst and are most likely to be collections of several supernova remnants within the beam. None of these components is consistent with emission from an active galactic nuclei. Both neutral hydrogen (H  i ) and hydroxyl (OH) absorption lines are observed against the continuum emission, along with a weak OH maser feature probably related to the star formation activity in this galaxy. Strong H  i absorption  ( N _H∼ 10²² atoms cm⁻²)  traces a velocity gradient of 0.5 km s⁻¹ pc⁻¹ across the central kpc of NGC 520. The H  i absorption velocity structure is consistent with the velocity gradients observed in both the OH absorption and in CO emission observations. The neutral gas velocity structure observed within the central kpc of NGC 520 is attributed to a kpc-scale ring or disc. It is also noted that the velocity gradients observed for these neutral gas components appear to differ with the velocity gradients observed from optical ionized emission lines. This apparent disagreement is discussed and attributed to the extinction of the optical emission from the actual centre of this source hence implying that optical ionized emission lines are only detected from regions with significantly different radii to those sampled by the observations presented here.  相似文献   

The X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet flux evolution of SS Cygni throughout outburst     

Peter J. Wheatley  Christopher W. Mauche  Janet A. Mattei 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,345(1):49-61

We present the most complete multiwavelength coverage of any dwarf nova outburst: simultaneous optical, Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations of SS Cygni throughout a narrow asymmetric outburst. Our data show that the high-energy outburst begins in the X-ray waveband 0.9–1.4 d after the beginning of the optical rise and 0.6 d before the extreme-ultraviolet rise. The X-ray flux drops suddenly, immediately before the extreme-ultraviolet flux rise, supporting the view that both components arise in the boundary layer between the accretion disc and white dwarf surface. The early rise of the X-ray flux shows that the propagation time of the outburst heating wave may have been previously overestimated.
The transitions between X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet dominated emission are accompanied by intense variability in the X-ray flux, with time-scales of minutes. As detailed by Mauche & Robinson, dwarf nova oscillations are detected throughout the extreme-ultraviolet outburst, but we find they are absent from the X-ray light curve.
X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet luminosities imply accretion rates of  3 × 10¹⁵ g s⁻¹  in quiescence,  1 × 10¹⁶ g s⁻¹  when the boundary layer becomes optically thick, and  ∼10¹⁸ g s⁻¹  at the peak of the outburst. The quiescent accretion rate is two and a half orders of magnitude higher than predicted by the standard disc instability model, and we suggest this may be because the inner accretion disc in SS Cyg is in a permanent outburst state.  相似文献   

A Quantitative Method to Optimise Magnetic Field Line Fitting of Observed Coronal Loops     

Carcedo  L.  Brown  D.S.  Hood  A.W.  Neukirch  T.  Wiegelmann  T. 《Solar physics》2003,218(1-2):29-40

Many authors use magnetic-field models to extrapolate the field in the solar corona from magnetic data in the photosphere. The accuracy of such extrapolations is usually judged qualitatively by eye, where a less judgemental quantitative approach would be more desirable. In this paper, a robust method for obtaining the best fit between a theoretical magnetic field and intensity observations of coronal loops on the solar disk will be presented. The method will be applied to Yohkoh data using a linear force-free field as an illustration. Any other theoretical model for the magnetic field can be used, provided there is enough freedom in the model to optimize the fit.  相似文献   

The evolution of binary fractions in globular clusters     

N. Ivanova  K. Belczynski  J. M. Fregeau  F. A. Rasio 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,358(2):572-584

We study the evolution of binary stars in globular clusters using a new Monte Carlo approach combining a population synthesis code ( startrack ) and a simple treatment of dynamical interactions in the dense cluster core using a new tool for computing three- and four-body interactions ( fewbody ). We find that the combination of stellar evolution and dynamical interactions (binary–single and binary–binary) leads to a rapid depletion of the binary population in the cluster core. The maximum binary fraction today in the core of a typical dense cluster such as 47 Tuc, assuming an initial binary fraction of 100 per cent, is only ∼ 5–10 per cent. We show that this is in good agreement with recent Hubble Space Telescope observations of close binaries in the core of 47 Tuc, provided that a realistic distribution of binary periods is used to interpret the results. Our findings also have important consequences for the dynamical modelling of globular clusters, suggesting that 'realistic models' should incorporate much larger initial binary fractions than has usually been the case in the past.  相似文献   

The depolarization properties of powerful extragalactic radio sources as a function of cosmic epoch     

J. A. Goodlet  C. R. Kaiser 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,359(4):1456-1468

We use the observed polarization properties of a sample of 26 powerful radio galaxies and radio-loud quasars to constrain the conditions in the Faraday screens local to the sources. We adopt the cosmological redshift, low-frequency radio luminosity and physical size of the large-scale radio structures as our 'fundamental' parameters. We find no correlation of the radio spectral index with any of the fundamental parameters. The observed rotation measure is also independent of these parameters, suggesting that most of the Faraday rotation occurs in the Galactic foreground. The difference between the rotation measures of the two lobes of an individual source, as well as the dispersion of the rotation measure, shows significant correlations with the source redshift, but not with the radio luminosity or source size. This is evidence that the small-scale structure observed in the rotation measure is caused by a Faraday screen local to the sources. The observed asymmetries between the lobes of our sources show no significant trends with each other or other source properties. Finally, we show that the commonly used model for the depolarization of synchrotron radio emission by foreground Faraday screens is inconsistent with our observations. We apply alternative models to our data and show that they require a strong increase of the dispersion of the rotation measure inside the Faraday screens with cosmological redshift. Correcting our observations with these models for redshift effects, we find a strong correlation of the depolarization measure with redshift and a significantly weaker correlation with radio luminosity. We do not find any (anti-)correlation of depolarization measure with source size. All our results are consistent with a decrease in the order of the magnetic field structure of the Faraday screen local to the sources for increasing cosmological redshift.  相似文献   

The continuum and narrow-line region of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 766     

A. Rodríguez-Ardila †  M. Contini  S. M. Viegas 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2005,357(1):220-234

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Biological and granulometric controls on sedimentary organic matter of an intertidal mudflat     

Lawrence M. Mayer  Peter T. Rahaim  William Guerin  Stephen A. Macko  Les Watling  Franz E. Anderson 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》1985,20(4):491-503

A variety of measures of organic matter concentration and quality were made on samples collected from the top few mm of intertidal mudflat sediment over the course of a year, in order to assess the relative importance of biological and sedimentological influences on sedimentary organic matter. Winter and summer were times of relatively fine-grained sediment accumulation, caused by biological deposition or stabilization processes and resulting in higher organic matter concentrations. Stable carbon isotope and Br:C ratios indicated a planktonic source of bulk organic matter. Ratios of organic carbon to specific surface area of the sediments were consistent with an organic monolayer coverage of sediment grains. Correction for changing grain size during the year showed no change in the organic concentration per unit surface area, in spite of organic matter inputs by in situ primary production, buildup of heterotroph biomass and mucus coatings, and biodeposition of organic-rich seston. There were also no indications of changes in bulk organic quality, measured as hydrolyzable carbohydrates and amino acids, in response to these biological processes. It is concluded that biological processes on a seasonal time scale affect the bulk organic matter of these sediments via a modulation of grain size rather than creation or decay of organic matter.  相似文献