Narrow Results

Regions that currently are or have been subject to a strong process of star formation are good candidates to be intense γ-ray and neutrino emitters. They may even perhaps be sites where ultra high energy cosmic rays are produced. Outside the Galaxy, the more powerful sites of star formation are found within very active galaxies such as starbursts (SGs) and Luminous or Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs or ULIRGs). Some general characteristic of these objects are herein reviewed from the point of view of their possible status as high energy emitters. Revised estimations of the high energy gamma-ray yield of Arp 220 are presented.

Progress has been made in understanding the origin of spiral galaxies, but elliptical galaxy formation continues to pose many problems. At the centres of ellipticals, one finds supermassive black holes which are occasionally fed by gas accretion from their surroundings and are visible as active galactic nuclei. Negative feedback, due to the outflow from the central black hole during its active phase, terminates the gas supply to the spheroid, thereby resulting in an old stellar population. A contemporaneous phase of positive feedback when the protogalaxy is forming could result in the highly efficient phase of early star formation required by the recent data.

This paper presents a brief review of new perspectives in the field of protostellar outflows concentrating on scales above those associated with the launch region (L > 10 AU). The formation and propagation of protostellar or Young Stellar Object (YSO) jets and collimated outflows has been intensively studied over the last 30 years with enormous progress being made in both theory and observations. As both the resolution and integration of observational platforms increases new features are revealed which have shifted the emphasis of research efforts. In this paper we review results in two different domains of YSO outflows research which focus on these new perspectives. We first review attempts to model jets as intrinsically heterogeneous (clumpy) systems. The role of sub-radial clumps (r_c < r_j) within a jet are explored and these models are differentiated from the classic paradigm of pulsed jets. In the second section we look at YSO jets in a global, environmental context. The ability of YSO jets and outflows to generate and/or sustain turbulence in star forming environments has been suggested as a major source of feedback in young clusters. Until recently this suggestion has been untested via direct simulations. We review new work on star formation outflow feedback and discuss issues for future studies.

The generally-accepted scheme distinguishes two main classes of supernovae (SNe): Ia resulting from the old stellar population (deflagration of a white dwarf in close binary systems), and SNe of type II and Ib/c whose ancestors are young massive stars (died in a core-collapse explosion). Concerning the latter, there are suggestions that the SNe II are connected to early B stars, and SNe Ib/c to isolated O or Wolf–Rayet (W–R) stars. However, little or no effort was made to further separate SNe Ib from Ic. We have used assumed SN rates for different SN types in spiral galaxies in an attempt to perform this task. If the isolated progenitor hypothesis is correct, our analysis indicates that SNe Ib result from stars of main-sequence mass , while the progenitors of SNe Ic are more massive stars with . Alternatively, if the majority of SNe Ib/c appear in close binary systems (CBs) then they would result from the same progenitor population as most of the SNe II, i.e. early B stars with initial masses of order . Future observations of SNe at high-redshift (z) and their rate will provide us with unique information on SN progenitors and the star-formation history of galaxies. At higher-z (deeper in the cosmic past), we expect to see the lack of type Ia events, i.e. the dominance of core-collapse SNe. Better understanding of the stripped-envelope SNe (Ib/c), and their potential use as distance indicators at high-z, would therefore be of great practical importance.

It is likely that all stars are born in clusters, but most clusters are not bound and disperse. None of the many protoclusters in our Galaxy are likely to develop into long-lived bound clusters. The super star clusters (SSCs) seen in starburst galaxies are more massive and compact and have better chances of survival. The birth and early development of SSCs takes place deep in molecular clouds, and during this crucial stage the embedded clusters are invisible to optical or UV observations but are studied via the radio-infrared supernebulae (RISN) they excite. We review observations of embedded clusters and identify RISN within 10 Mpc whose exciting clusters have ≈ 10⁶ M_⊙ or more in volumes of a few pc³ and which are likely to not only survive as bound clusters, but to evolve into objects as massive and compact as Galactic globulars. These clusters are distinguished by very high star formation efficiency η, at least a factor of 10 higher than the few percent seen in the Galaxy, probably due to the violent disturbances their host galaxies have undergone. We review recent observations of the kinematics of the ionized gas in RISN showing outflows through low-density channels in the ambient molecular cloud; this may protect the cloud from feedback by the embedded H II region.

High energy transients make up a diverse and exotic class of objects, from terrestrial lightning to $\gamma$-ray bursts at cosmological distances. In this review, we provide a detailed look at some of the more exciting transients observed over the last few years by Swift and other high energy missions.

In this paper, we investigate the influence of nonisothermal processes on the evolution of the cloud's envelope around a newborn protostar. For this purpose, we study the evolution of a spherical cloud harboring a central hydrostatic newborn protostar. This model includes thermal effects due to heating of the cosmic rays and cooling of the gas and gas–dust energy transfer. We have ignored the effects of the magnetic field and rotation. The semianalytical Adomian decomposition method (ADM) is used to solve the system of nonlinear dynamical equations for different initial conditions. In this paper, the ADM allows us to follow the time evolution of the cloud's envelope and its mass accretion rate onto the newborn protostar. We find that the mass accretion rates of the envelope are increasing functions of time and highly depend on the choice of initial conditions. Moreover, we find that the nonisothermal processes affect the evolution of the mass accretion rates compared with the isothermal processes for different initial conditions.

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry (BLASTPol) was a suborbital experiment designed to map magnetic fields in order to study their role in star formation processes. BLASTPol made detailed polarization maps of a number of molecular clouds during its successful flights from Antarctica in 2010 and 2012. We present the next-generation BLASTPol instrument (BLAST-TNG) that will build off the success of the previous experiment and continue its role as a unique instrument and a test bed for new technologies. With a 16-fold increase in mapping speed, BLAST-TNG will make larger and deeper maps. Major improvements include a 2.5-m carbon fiber mirror that is 40% wider than the BLASTPol mirror and ~3000 polarization sensitive detectors. BLAST-TNG will observe in three bands at 250, 350, and 500 μm. The telescope will serve as a pathfinder project for microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) technology, as applied to feedhorn-coupled submillimeter detector arrays. The liquid helium cooled cryostat will have a 28-day hold time and will utilize a closed-cycle ³He refrigerator to cool the detector arrays to 270 mK. This will enable a detailed mapping of more targets with higher polarization resolution than any other submillimeter experiment to date. BLAST-TNG will also be the first balloon-borne telescope to offer shared risk observing time to the community. This paper outlines the motivation for the project and the instrumental design.

Our knowledge of the gas phase chemistry of the interstellar medium in our galaxy and many others owes a major debt to the many laboratory and theoretical scientists who studied critical classes of ion–neutral and neutral–neutral reactions to improve our understanding of interstellar chemistry. Of the different types of apparatuses utilized, the CRESU (in English: reaction kinetics in uniform supersonic flow) has played the dominant role, especially but not solely at temperatures near 10 K, a temperature that pertains to the coldest regions of interstellar clouds. In these cold sources, many of the gas phase molecules are very unsaturated organic species, known to astronomers as “carbon chains”. In addition to these ultracold regions, interstellar clouds are also the birthplaces of new stars and planets, and the chemistry in these regions, which is very different from that of colder regions, leads to the synthesis of terrestrial-like organic molecules that may predate the formation of life. In this chapter, we interweave the story of CRESU experiments with that of gas phase astrochemistry, involving both the historical context and our current state of knowledge. We end with a hint of what the future might bring.

An overview of some developments in astrochemistry over the last 40 years is given, with special emphasis on topics that Alex Dalgarno has opened up (which is nearly all of astrochemistry!). The development of astrochemistry into an integral part of modern astrophysics is illustrated with recent examples. The bright future of astrochemistry is discussed in the light of new observational facilities and the need for continued studies of basic molecular processes under interstellar conditions is emphasized.

In 1986 Alex Dalgarno published a paper entitled Is Interstellar Chemistry Useful?¹ By the middle 1970s, and perhaps even earlier, Alex had hoped that astronomical molecules would prove to: possess significant diagnostic utility; control many of the environments in which they exist; stimulate a wide variety of physicists and chemists who are at least as fascinated by the mechanisms forming and removing the molecules as by astronomy. His own research efforts have contributed greatly to the realization of that hope. This paper contains a few examples of: how molecules are used to diagnose large-scale dynamics in astronomical sources including star forming regions and supernovae; the ways in which molecular processes control the evolution of astronomical objects such as dense cores destined to become stars and very evolved giant stars; theoretical and laboratory investigations that elucidate the processes producing and removing astronomical molecules and allow their detection.

In this paper, I will review the the recent progresses in understanding the nonlinear evolution of gravitationally unstable gaseous discs. Gaseous accretion discs are a fundamental ingredient in the modeling on very diverse physical systems, spanning from the large scale discs that provide the fueling for supermassive black holes (SMBH) in the nuclei of active galaxies (AGN) to the smaller scale discs surrounding young stars, which are thought to be the site where planet formation occurs. Gravitational instabilities (GI) might play an important role in determining the structure and the evolution of such discs in many cases. The advances in numerical techniques have recently made possible to run complex simulations of the non-linear behaviour of such collective phenomena, leading to a deeper understanding of important related aspects, such as fragmentation and angular momentum transport. I will also present one specific example that shows the importance of gravitational instabilities in a system of considerable astrophysical relevance: high-redshift proto-galaxies, where GI might lead to the formation of the seeds of SMBHs.

High energy transients make up a diverse and exotic class of objects, from terrestrial lightning to γ-ray bursts at cosmological distances. In this review, we provide a detailed look at some of the more exciting transients observed over the last few years by Swift and other high energy missions.

Relativity Theory (RT) incorporates serious inconsistencies:- (1) embracing the function of transverse e.m. (TEM) waves as perfect messengers but denying the presence of a Maxwell’s equations aether lest it might invalidate that perfection, despite it being essential for their existence; (2) assuming the physical absurdity that the external physical properties (mass, magnetic moment) of fundamental particles can be developed in zero volume (“spatially infinitesimal singularities”), despite powerful evidence that they are of finite size. It thereby overlooks that if two electromagnetically defined objects are of finite size the force communication between them is progressively velocity-limited, falling to zero at c [Heaviside 1889]. So this is what happens in electromagnetic accelerators, not massincrease. For more than a century these defects have hampered progress in understanding the physics of the mass property of particles, thus compelling it to be regarded as ‘intrinsic’ to those specific infinitesimal points in space. A rewarding substitute, Continuum Theory (CT), outlined here, (A) implements Maxwell’s aether as a massless all-pervasive quasi-superfluid elastic continuum of (negative) electric charge, and (B) follows others [Clerk Maxwell, both Thompsons, Larmor, Milner] in seeing mass-bearing fundamental particles as vortical constructs of aether in motion, not as dichotomously different from it. To encompass that motion, these cannot be infinitesimal singularities. Electron-positron scattering provides guidance as to that size. For oppositely-charged particles, one sort contains more aether and the other less, so particle-pair creation is ‘easy’, and abundantly observed, but has been attributed to ‘finding’. This electron-positron relationship defines mean aether density as >1030 coulomb.cm-3, thus constituting the near-irrotational reference frame of our directional devices. Its inherent self-repulsion also offers an unfathomable force capability should the means for displacing its local density exist; that, we show, is the nature of gravitational action and brings gravitation into the electromagnetic family of forces. Under (B) the particle mass is measured by the aether-sucking capability of its vortex, positiveonly gravitation being because the outward-diminishing force developed by each makes mutual convergence at any given point the statistically prevalent expectation. This activity maintains a radial aether (charge) density gradient - the Gravity-Electric (G-E) Field - around and within any gravitationally retained assemblage. So Newton’s is an incomplete description of gravitation; the corresponding G-E field is an inseparable facet of the action. The effect on c of that charge density gradient yields gravitational lensing. We find that G-E field action on plasma is astronomically ubiquitous. This strictly radial outward force on ions has the property of increasing the orbital angular momentum of material, by moving it outwards, but at constant tangential velocity. Spiral galaxies no longer require Cold Dark Matter (CDM) to explain this. The force (maybe 30 V.m-1 at solar surface) has comprehensive relevance to the high orbital a.m. achieved during solar planet formation, to their prograde spins and to exoplanet observations. The growth of high-mass stars is impossible if radiation pressure rules, whereas G-E field repulsion is low during dust-opaque infall, driving their prodigious mass loss rates when infall ceases and the star establishes an ionized environment. Its biggest force-effect (~1012 V.m-1) is developed at neutron stars, where it is likely the force of supernova explosions, and leads to a fertile model for pulsars and the acceleration of 1019 eV extreme-energy cosmic rays. Our only directly observed measure of the G-E field is recorded at about 1 V.m-1 in the ionosphere-to-Earth electric potential. And temporary local changes of ionosphere electron density, monitored by radio and satellite, have been discovered to act as earthquake precursors, presumably, we suggest, by recording change of G-E field and gravitational potential at Earth surface when its elastic deformation occurs, even when this is deep below electrically conducting ocean water. The paper concludes by noting experimental evidence of the irrelevance of the Lorentz transformations in CT and with a discussion of CT’s competence in such matters as perihelion advance and Sagnac effect, widely regarded as exclusively RT attributes. Finally we broach the notion that the aether is the site of inertia. This could explain the established equality of gravitational and inertial masses. In an accompanying paper we explore the cosmological and other aspects of ‘making particles out of aether’. This link undermines the expectation of fully distinct dynamical behaviour by particles and aether which motivated the Michelson-Morley experiment.