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Recent experiments on hydrogels subjected to large elongations have shown elastic instabilities resulting in the formation of geometrically intricate fringe and fingering deformation patterns. In this paper, we present a robust numerical framework addressing the challenges that emerge in the simulation of this complex material response from the onset of instability to the post-bifurcation behavior. We observe that the numerical difficulties stem from the non-convexity of the strain energy density in the near-incompressible, large-deformation regime, which is responsible for the coexistence of multiple equilibrium paths with vastly-different, sinuous deformation patterns immediately after bifurcation. We show that these numerical challenges can be overcome by using sufficiently-high order of interpolation in the finite element approximation, an arc-length-based nonlinear solution procedure that follows the entire equilibrium path of the system, and an implementation enabling parallel, large-scale simulations. The resulting computational approach provides the ability to conduct highly-resolved, truly quasi-static simulations of complex elastic instabilities. We present numerical results illustrating the ability of the path-following approach to describe the full evolution of fringe and fingering instabilities observed experimentally in recent experiments of confined cylindrical specimens of soft hydrogels subject to tension. Importantly, we observe that the robustness of the static solution procedure enables complete access to the multiplicity of solutions occurring immediately after the onset of bifurcation, as well as to the settled post-bifurcation states.

We present the catalog of ∼31,500 extragalactic H i line sources detected by the completed Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey out to z < 0.06, including both high signal-to-noise ratio (>6.5) detections and ones of lower quality that coincide in both position and recessional velocity with galaxies of known redshift. We review the observing technique, data reduction pipeline, and catalog construction process, focusing on details of particular relevance to understanding the catalog's compiled parameters. We further describe and make available the digital H i line spectra associated with the cataloged sources. In addition to the extragalactic H i line detections, we report nine confirmed OH megamasers (OHMs) and 10 OHM candidates at 0.16 < z < 0.22 whose OH line signals are redshifted into the ALFALFA frequency band. Because of complexities in data collection and processing associated with the use of a feed-horn array on a complex single-dish antenna in the terrestrial radio frequency interference environment, we also present a list of suggestions and caveats for consideration by users of the ALFALFA extragalactic catalog for future scientific investigations.© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved., The authors acknowledge the work of the entire ALFALFA collaboration who have contributed to the many aspects of the survey over the years. The ALFALFA team at Cornell has been supported by NSF grants AST-0607007, AST-1107390, and AST-1714828 and grants from the Brinson Foundation. Participation of the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team has been made possible by NSF grants AST-0724918, AST-0725267, AST-0725380, AST-0902211, AST-0903394, AST-1211005, AST-1637339, AST-1637271, AST-1637299, AST-1637262, and AST-1637276. EAKA is supported by the WISE research program, which is financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). BRK acknowledges the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). The NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. MGJ acknowledges support from grant AYA2015-65973-C3-1-R (MINECO/FEDER, UE). We thank Dmitry Makarov for comments and suggestions on cross-identifications. This work is based on observations made with the Arecibo Observatory. The Arecibo Observatory has been operated by SRI International under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (AST-1100968) and in alliance with Ana G. Mendez-Universidad Metropolitana and the Universities Space Research Association. We thank the staff of the Arecibo Observatory, especially Phil Perillat, Ganesh Rajagopalan, Arun Venkataraman, Hector Hernandez, and the telescope operations group for their outstanding support of the ALFALFA survey program. We acknowledge the use of NASA's SkyView facility (http://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov), located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Digitized Sky Surveys were produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under U.S. Government grant NAG W-2166. The images of these surveys are based on photographic data obtained using the Oschin Schmidt Telescope on Palomar Mountain and the UK Schmidt Telescope. The plates were processed into the present compressed digital form with the permission of these institutions. The Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-II) was made by the California Institute of Technology with funds from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Sloan Foundation, the Samuel Oschin Foundation, and the Eastman Kodak Corporation. This research used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

We carried out deep searches for CO line emission in the outer disk of M33, at R>7 kpc, and examined the dynamical conditions that can explain variations in the mass distribution of the molecular cloud throughout the disk of M33. We used the IRAM-30~m telescope to search for CO lines in the outer disk toward 12 faint mid-infrared (MIR) selected sources and in an area of the southern outer disk hosting MA1, a bright HII region. We detect narrow CO lines at the location of two MIR sources at galactocentric distances of about 8 kpc that are associated with low-mass young stellar clusters, and at four locations in the proximity of MA1. The paucity of CO lines at the location of weak MIR-selected sources probably arises because most of them are not star-forming sites in M33, but background sources. Although very uncertain, the total molecular mass of the detected clouds around MA1 is lower than expected given the stellar mass of the cluster, because dispersal of the molecular gas is taking place as the HII region expands. The mean mass of the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in M33 decreases radially by a factor 2 from the center out to 4 kpc, then it stays constant until it drops at R>7 kpc. We suggest that GMCs become more massive toward the center because of the fast rotation of the disk, which drives mass growth by coalescence of smaller condensations as they cross the arms. The analysis of both HI and CO spectral data gives the consistent result that corotation of the two main arms in this galaxy is at a radius of 4.7+-0.3 kpc, and spiral shock waves become subsonic beyond 3.9 kpc. Perturbations are quenched beyond 6.5 kpc, where CO lines have been detected only around sporadic condensations associated with UV and MIR emission., 15 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

Laser-diode self-mixing interferometry is a noncontact technique widely used both in industries and laboratories. In this paper, we propose to extend the self-mixing approach to low-coherence sources such as superluminescent diodes. In particular, we present a fiber-based common-path interferometer exploiting a single-mode-pigtailed superluminescent diode. The developed measuring system has been demonstrated to be able to directly measure the flow in pipes. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that flow measurements have been performed by a single-arm self-mixing pigtailed superluminescent-diode. The measuring system exploits the Doppler interference pattern produced by the light back-reflected from the inner facet of the pipe wall and the light back-diffused by the moving particles. Then, the use of a low-coherence source allows to measure the velocity of the scattering particles in a fixed and well-defined region located close to the pipe wall, thus providing good robustness to variations of scatterers concentration and allowing to easily estimate the flow under the laminar flow assumption. Experimental results demonstrated a high linearity (Pearson coefficient of about 99 $\%$ ) and sensitivity of about 16.62 $\pm$ 1.1 cm $^{-3}$ , with flows ranging from 1 to 15 cm $^3$ /s and scatterers volume concentration ranging from 0.015 to 0.36 $\%$ .

We study the correlation between far-infared/submm dust emission and atomic gas column density in order to derive the properties of the high Galactic latitude, low density, Milky Way cirrus in the foreground of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Dust emission maps from 60 to 850 um are obtained from SPIRE observations carried out within the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey, complemented by IRAS-IRIS and Planck-HFI maps. Data from the Arecibo legacy Fast ALFA Survey is used to derive atomic gas column densities for two broad velocity components, low and intermediate velocity clouds. Dust emissivities are derived for each gas component and each far-infared/submm band. For the low velocity clouds, we measure an average emissivity 0.79 +/- 0.08 times 1E-20 MJy sr^-1 cm^2 at 250 um. After fitting a modified blackbody to the available bands, we estimated a dust absorption cross-section 0.49 +/- 0.13 times 1E-25 cm^2 H^-1 at 250 um (with dust temperature T = 20.4 +/- 1.5 K and spectral index beta = 1.53 +/- 0.17). The results are in excellent agreement with those obtained by Planck over a much larger coverage of the high Galactic latitude cirrus (50% of the sky vs 0.2% in our work). For dust associated with intermediate velocity gas, we confirm earlier Planck results and find a higher temperature and lower emissivity and cross-section. After subtracting the modelled components, we find regions at scales smaller than 20' where the residuals deviate significantly from the average, cosmic-infrared-background dominated, scatter. These large residuals are most likely due to local variations in the cirrus dust properties (and/or the dust/atomic-gas correlation) or to high-latitude molecular clouds with average N_H2, Comment: 25 pages, 19 figures, A&A accepted

We present the analysis of the HI content of a sample of early-type galaxies (ETGs) in low-density environments (LDEs) using the data set provided by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey. We compare their properties to the sample in the Virgo cluster that we studied in a previous paper (di Serego Alighieri et al. 2007, Paper I). We have selected a sample of 62 nearby ETGs (V< 3000 km/s) in an area of the sky where the ALFALFA data are already available (8h -17). In both cases it is 10 times higher than that of the Virgo cluster. The presence of gas can be related to a recent star formation activity: 60% of all ETGs with HI have optical emission line ratios typical of star-forming galaxies and blue colours suggesting the presence of young stellar populations, especially in the dwarf subsample. We show that the HI detection rate of ETGs depends both on the environment and mass. The fraction of early-type systems with neutral hydrogen is higher in more massive objects when compared to early-type dwarfs. The ETGs in LDEs seem to have more heterogeneous properties than their Virgo cluster counterparts, since they are able to retain a cold interstellar gas component and to support star formation activity even at recent epochs., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We present $^{12}$CO(1-0) and $^{12}$CO(2-1) observations of a sample of 20 star-forming dwarfs selected from the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey, with oxygen abundances ranging from 12 + log(O/H) ~ 8.1 to 8.8. CO emission is observed in ten galaxies and marginally detected in another one. CO fluxes correlate with the FIR 250 $\mu$m emission, and the dwarfs follow the same linear relation that holds for more massive spiral galaxies extended to a wider dynamical range. We compare different methods to estimate H2 molecular masses, namely a metallicity-dependent CO-to-H2 conversion factor and one dependent on H-band luminosity. The molecular-to-stellar mass ratio remains nearly constant at stellar masses, Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

An important contribution to charge transport in amorphous-chalcogenide materials used for manufacturing memory devices is due to the trap-to-trap transitions. Here the physics of the phenomenon is worked out as a combination of energy and space transitions, and its probability is expressed in closed form in terms of microscopic parameters. The results are useful for setting up the macroscopic master equation to be used in Monte Carlo analysis or TCAD codes.

Aims. We study the dust content of a large optical input sample of 910 early-type galaxies (ETG) in the Virgo cluster, extending also to the dwarf ETG, and examine the results in relation with those on the other cold ISM components. Methods. We searched for far-infrared emission in all galaxies of the input sample using the 250 micron image of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS). This image covers a large fraction of the cluster. For the detected ETG we measured fluxes in 5 bands from 100 to 500 micron, and estimated the dust mass and temperature with modified black-body fits. Results. Dust is detected above the completeness limit of 25.4 mJy at 250 micron in 46 ETG, 43 of which are in the optically complete part of the input sample. In addition dust is present at fainter levels in another 6 ETG. We detect dust in the 4 ETG with synchrotron emission, including M 87. Dust appears to be much more concentrated than stars and more luminous ETG have higher dust temperatures. Dust detection rates down to the 25.4 mJy limit are 17% for ellipticals, about 40% for lenticulars (S0 + S0a) and around 3% for dwarf ETG. Dust mass does not correlate clearly with stellar mass and is often much more than that expected for a passive galaxy in a closed-box model. The dust-to-stars mass ratio anticorrelates with galaxy luminosity, and for some dwarf ETG reaches values as high as for dusty late-type galaxies. In the Virgo cluster slow rotators appear more likely to contain dust than fast ones. Comparing the dust results with those on HI from ALFALFA, there are only 8 ETG detected both in dust and in HI in the HeViCS area; 39 have dust but only an upper limit on HI, and 8 have HI but only an upper limit on dust. The locations of these galaxies in the cluster are different, with the dusty ETG concentrated in the densest regions, while the HI rich ETG are at the periphery., Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics; modified to reflect the on-line forthcoming version on the A&A web site

Modelling the formation of the maximal emission regions in Herbig-Haro flows, the socalled ‘knots,’ remains a main challenge in the investigation of the YSO’s outflows. Recent HST images of optical regions reveal their wide morphological variety. Knotty structures and arc-like regions coexist, suggesting that several mechanisms could be responsible for the global scenario. Arc-like emissions are probably due to other mini-working surfaces or non-axially symmetric interaction of the kinking jet matter with the external medium, while knots seen in [SII] are mostly axially symmetric objects and may have a different origin. In this paper we show that a pattern of regularly spaced, knotty emission regions forms in stationary jets, with emissivity and kinematic features consistent with observations. To this purpose, numerical simulations of non-equilibrium, radiative, hydrodynamical jets in axial symmetric geometry have been performed.

Charge transport in amorphous-chalcogenide materials used for manufacturing memory devices is determined by two mechanisms: hopping of trapped electrons and motion of band electrons. Electron-electron interaction is investigated here as one of the mechanisms mainly responsible for the trap-to-band transitions. The problem is tackled using a fully quantum-mechanical approach by numerically solving the two-particle, time-dependent Schroedinger equation. The results show that the detrapping probability increases with the current density, this supporting the interpretation by which successive electron-electron scattering events may play a major role in the determining the snap-back of the I(V) characteristic in this kind of materials.

We present infrared colours (in the 25-500 mic spectral range) and UV to radio continuum spectral energy distributions of a sample of 51 nearby galaxies observed with SPIRE on Herschel. The observed sample includes all morphological classes, from quiescent ellipticals to active starbursts. Active galaxies have warmer colour temperatures than normal spirals. In ellipticals hosting a radio galaxy, the far-infrared (FIR) emission is dominated bynthe synchrotron nuclear emission. The colour temperature of the cold dust is higher in quiescent E-S0a than in star-forming systems probably because of the different nature of their dust heating sources (evolved stellar populations, X-ray, fast electrons) and dust grain properties. In contrast to the colour temperature of the warm dust, the f350/f500 index sensitive to the cold dust decreases with star formation and increases with metallicity, suggesting an overabundance of cold dust or an emissivity parameter beta, Accepted for publication on A&A, Herschel special issue

The origin of the far-infrared emission from the nearby radio galaxy M87 remains a matter of debate. Some studies find evidence of a far-infrared excess due to thermal dust emission, whereas others propose that the far-infrared emission can be explained by synchrotron emission without the need for an additional dust emission component. We present Herschel PACS and SPIRE observations of M87, taken as part of the science demonstration phase observations of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey. We compare these data with a synchrotron model based on mid-infrared, far-infrared, submm and radio data from the literature to investigate the origin of the far-infrared emission. Both the integrated SED and the Herschel surface brightness maps are adequately explained by synchrotron emission. At odds with previous claims, we find no evidence of a diffuse dust component in M87, which is not unexpected in the harsh X-ray environment of this radio galaxy sitting at the core of the Virgo Cluster., Letter accepted for publication in A&A (Herschel special issue)

We present the dust properties of a small sample of Virgo cluster dwarf galaxies drawn from the science demonstration phase data set of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey. These galaxies have low metallicities (7.8 < 12 + log(O/H) < 8.3) and star-formation rates < 10^{-1} M_{sun}/yr. We measure the spectral energy distribution (SED) from 100 to 500 um and derive dust temperatures and dust masses. The SEDs are fitted by a cool component of temperature T < 20 K, implying dust masses around 10^{5} M_{sun} and dust-to-gas ratios D within the range 10^{-3}-10^{-2}. The completion of the full survey will yield a larger set of galaxies, which will provide more stringent constraints on the dust content of star-forming dwarf galaxies., Letter accepted for publication in A&A (Herschel special issue)

We present JHK and 3.8-micron photometry of 26 galaxies in the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) Normal Galaxy Key Project (KP) sample and of seven normal ellipticals with the aim of investigating the origin of the 4-micron emission. The majority of the KP galaxies, and all the ellipticals, have K-L ~1.0, corresponding to a flat or rising 4-micron continuum, consistent with significant emission from hot dust at 600-1000K. K-L is anticorrelated with ISO flux ratio F_{6.75}/F_{15}, weakly correlated with line ratio [OI]/[CII], but not with [CII]/FIR or IRAS ratio F_{60}/F_{100}. Photodissociation-region models for these galaxies show that the hot dust responsible for red K-L resides in regions of high pressure and intense far-ultraviolet radiation field. Taken together, these results suggest that star formation in normal star-forming galaxies can assume two basic forms: an ``active'', relatively rare, mode characterized by hot dust, suppressed Aromatic Features in Emission (AFEs), high pressure, and intense radiation field; and the more common ``passive'' mode that occurs under more quiescent physical conditions, with AFEs, and without hot dust. The occurrence of these modes appears to only weakly depend on the star-formation rate per unit area. Passive star formation over large scales makes up the bulk of star-forming activity locally, while the ``active'' regime may dominate at high redshifts.

We map the neutral atomic gas content of M33 using high resolution VLA and GBT observations and fit a tilted ring model to determine the orientation of the extended gaseous disk and its rotation curve. The disk of M33 warps from 8 kpc outwards without substantial change of its inclination with respect to the line of sight. Rotational velocities rise steeply with radius in the inner disk, reaching 100 km/s in 4 kpc, then the rotation curve becomes more perturbed and flatter with velocities as high as 120-130 km/s out to 23 kpc. We derive the stellar mass surface density map of M33's optical disk, via pixel -SED fitting methods based on population synthesis models, which highlights variations in the mass-to-light ratio. The stellar mass surface further out is estimated from deep images of outer disk fields. Stellar and gas maps are then used in the dynamical analysis of the rotation curve to constrain the dark matter distribution which is relevant at all radii. A dark matter halo with a Navarro-Frenk-White density profile in a LCDM cosmology, provides the best fit to the rotation curve for a dark halo concentration C=10 and a total halo mass of 4.3 10^{11}Msun. This imples a baryonic fraction of order 0.02 and the evolutionary history of this galaxy should account for loss of a large fraction of its original baryonic content., 19 pages, 18 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A (replacement for corrected references to two papers)

We present near-infrared (NIR) color maps of a sample of 41 disk galaxies in the Pisces-Perseus su- percluster. The sample objects, mainly members of the Pisces cluster, are a subset of larger sample imaged in the H band. For most objects we present J H and J K images and elliptically-averaged radial color proles; for some objects this is done only for the H K color. We compute global colors, hybrid NIR-optical colors, and estimate the colors of the structural components. The J K (global) color correlates weakly with absolute luminosity and morphological type. We observe no trend with the presence of bars and AGNs, nor with position within the cluster. The NIR disk colors are slightly bluer than the global ones, with the possible exception of those in the earliest spiral types. Finally, NIR color gradients in the images and in the radial color proles are examined. NIR disk color gradients are small and prevalently negative; the few positive values are perhaps associated with the reddest disks.

The Matsubara summation method over the imaginary frequencies of finite temperature propagators sheds direct light on the bosonic or fermionic nature of the excitations they refer to. This feature is here pointed out in the case of collisions between particles and particle-hole excitations, in a parallel with a standard perturbative approach.

We extend our published work on the neutral hydrogen content of early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster using the catalogue of detected sources from the ALFALFA survey, by showing the 21cm spectra of all the detected galaxies and discussing a deeper analysis of the ALFALFA datacubes, searching for lower S/N sources. A view of the multiphase interstellar medium of M86 is also presented, by comparing images of the cold, warm and hot phases., To appear in the Proceedings of the Conference "The Evolution of Galaxies through the Neutral Hydrogen Window", R. Minchin & E. Momjian eds

The properties of the self-energy of single-particle states in different many-body systems are studied as a function of the excitation energy ω and of the temperature T of the system. Two cases are considered: the coupling to uncorrelated and to correlated particle-hole excitations.

We report Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the 21 cm continuum and H I line emission of the neutral wind in the prototypical molecular outflow source L1551. The intermediate-velocity gas observed with the VLA has a velocity with respect to the ambient cloud in the range 10-50 km s-1. Although the blueshifted flow appears weaker than the red one, the maps are indicative of a bipolar morphology confined inside the large-scale CO bipolar lobes. This morphology strongly suggests that the atomic wind is driving the bipolar CO outflow. We fit to the H I line profiles, at four different positions along the redshifted flow axis, a model of a decelerating conical wind that entrains ambient cloud material in a mixing layer at the walls of the cone. This model has a velocity at the axis v0 = 200 km s-1, a mass-loss rate * 9 × 10-7 M☉ yr-1, and a momentum rate 2 × 10-4 M☉ yr-1 km s-1. This is sufficient to drive the observed molecular flow, provided an age ≥8 × 104 yr. We find that the continuum emission spectrum of IRS 5, on scales of 10'', is similar to those of H II regions. This can be explained if most of the emission comes from material ionized by UV radiation from shock fronts due to the interaction of the stellar wind against the ambient cloud. The momentum rate required to produce the extended centimeter emission agrees well with the wind obtained by fitting the line profiles. Finally, the location of a background extragalactic continuum source in the red lobe allows us to probe the physical conditions of the neutral wind. We find that the most probable H I spin temperature in the wind is in the range 25-50 K, in agreement with predictions of the thermal structure of such winds.

There are many indications which testify to the fact that the atomic nucleus can be viewed as a spherical little ball, which can also become football-shaped and plate-shaped, filled of a superfluid Fermi liquid resulting from the condensation of Cooper pairs build out of pairs of nucleons coupled to angular momentum zero. While the transition between the normal and the superfluid phases is not expected to be, in the case of the atomic nucleus, sharp as in the case of systems with an infinitely large number of particles, the analogies which can be drawn between the behaviour of the N→∞ systems and of the atomic nucleus are found to be very much to the point, once the effects of fluctuations are taken into account. In this paper we concentrate our attention on the consequences broken symmetry has on the energy level spectrum of superfluid atomic nuclei, and on its similarities and differences with respect to the N→∞ system. Results from both theory and experiment emphasize the common origin and conceptual affinity of some of the basic phenomena associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking, like the existence of zero frequency modes. Because the atomic nucleus can be viewed as the paradigm of finite many-body fermion systems, these results may also be of relevance in the study of other finite quantal systems like metal clusters, fullerenes, quantum dots, etc.

Aims: We are using the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey (ALFALFA), which is covering 17% of the sky at 21 cm, to study the HI content of Early-Type galaxies (ETG) in an unbiased way. The aim is to get an overall picture of the hot, warm and cold ISM of ETG, as a function of galaxy mass and environment, to understand its origin and fate, and to relate it to the formation and evolution history of these objects. Methods: This paper deals with the first part of our study, which is devoted to the 8-16 deg. declination strip in the Virgo cluster. In this sky region, using the Virgo Cluster Catalogue (VCC), we have defined an optical sample of 939 ETG, 457 of which are brighter than the VCC completeness limit at B_T=18.0. We have correlated this optical sample with the catalogue of detected HI sources from ALFALFA. Results: Out of the 389 ETG from the VCC with B_T, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics; 6 pages, 3 figures

The optical expansion parallax of NGC 6543 has been detected and measured using two epochs of HST images separated by a time baseline of only three years. We have utilized three separate methods of deriving the angular expansion of bright fiducials, the results of which are in excellent agreement. We combine our angular expansion estimates with spectroscopically obtained expansion velocities to derive a distance to NGC 6543 of 1001$\pm$269 pc. The deduced kinematic age of the inner bright core of the nebula is 1039$\pm$259 years; however, the kinematic age of the polar caps that surround the core is larger - perhaps the result of deceleration or earlier mass ejection. The morphology and expansion patterns of NGC 6543 provide insight into a complex history of axisymmetric, interacting stellar mass ejections.

The damping of nuclear motion in hot nuclei is discussed within the framework of the thermal Green's functions theory. The connection between the self-energy of single-particle states and giant dipole resonances (GDR) is pointed out. It is shown that the T -dependence of the GDR intrinsic damping width can essentially be neglected, within the temperature range of physical interest.

The recently initiated Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey aims to map 7000 square degrees of the high galactic latitude sky visible from Arecibo, providing a HI line spectral database covering the redshift range between -1600 km/s and 18,000 km/s with 5 km/s resolution. Exploiting Arecibo's large collecting area and small beam size, ALFALFA is specifically designed to probe the faint end of the HI mass function in the local universe and will provide a census of HI in the surveyed sky area to faint flux limits, making it especially useful in synergy with wide area surveys conducted at other wavelengths. ALFALFA will also provide the basis for studies of the dynamics of galaxies within the Local and nearby superclusters, will allow measurement of the HI diameter function, and enable a first wide-area blind search for local HI tidal features, HI absorbers at z < 0.06 and OH megamasers in the redshift range 0.16 < z < 0.25. Although completion of the survey will require some five years, public access to the ALFALFA data and data products will be provided in a timely manner, thus allowing its application for studies beyond those targeted by the ALFALFA collaboration. ALFALFA adopts a two-pass, minimum intrusion, drift scan observing technique which samples the same region of sky at two separate epochs to aid in the discrimination of cosmic signals from noise and terrestrial interference. Survey simulations, which take into account large scale structure in the mass distribution and incorporate experience with the ALFA system gained from tests conducted during its commissioning phase, suggest that ALFALFA will detect on the order of 20,000 extragalactic HI line sources out to z=0.06, including several hundred with HI masses of less than 10^{7.5} msun., 37 pages, including 11 figures; to appear in Astron. J.; see http://egg.astro.cornell.edu/alfalfa/pubs.php Authors' list contains 40 names: see paper for full detail

The damping width γ ↓ GDR of the giant dipole resonance, due to its coupling to doorway states, is studied within the framework of the thermal Green's functions theory. It is found that γ ↓ GDR reflects the temperature dependence of the single-particle damping width but, as a consequence of the cancellation effects between self-energy and vertex contributions, the coefficient of such a dependence is so small that it can essentially be neglected, within the temperature range of physical interest.

The aim of this work is to show that, though 3D effects should be invoked to explain the less regular arc-like regions, the internal knotty emissions may be explained through a roughly axisymmetric pattern of oblique shocks.To this purpose, numerical simulations of non-equilibrium, radiative, hydrodynamical jets in axisymmetric geometry have been performed. After showing that the internal reflecting waves, travelling in the beam of a stellar jet, steepen into oblique shocks, we verify that the optical emission arising from the shocked regions is in good agreement with observations.Since the optical emission strongly depends on the physical and chemical parameters, (namely temperature and electron densities inside the emitting regions), special care is devoted to solving the energy transport equation.

The calculated damping width of single-particle states is found to depend linearly with the temperature of excited nuclei, while the damping width of giant resonances seems to be independent of temperature. This result is understood in terms of the correlation existing between the particle and the hole participating in the vibration.

We discuss some of the ingredients necessary in the study of the excitation of the Giant Dipole Resonance in very hot nuclei.

We investigate the dust-to-gas mass ratio and the environmental effects on the various components of the interstellar medium for a spatially resolved sample of Virgo spirals. We have used the IRAM-30m telescope to map over their full extent NGC 4189, NGC 4298, NGC 4388, and NGC 4299 in the 12CO(1-0) and the 12CO(2-1) lines. We observed the same lines in selected regions of NGC 4351, NGC 4294, and NGC 4424. The CO observations are combined with Herschel maps in 5 bands between 100-500 {\mu}m from the HeViCS survey, and with HI data from the VIVA survey, to obtain spatially resolved dust and gas distributions. We studied the environmental dependencies by adding to our sample eight galaxies with 12CO(1-0) maps from the literature. We estimate the integrated mass of molecular hydrogen for the galaxies observed in the CO lines. We find molecular-to-total gas mass fractions between 0.04 \leq fmol \leq 0.65, with the lowest values for the dimmest galaxy in the B-band. The integrated dust-to-gas ratio ranges between 0.011 and 0.004. For the 12 mapped galaxies we derive the radial distributions of the atomic gas, molecular gas, and dust. We also study the effect of different CO-to-H2 conversion factors. Both the molecular gas and the dust distributions show steeper radial profiles for HI-deficient galaxies and the average dust-to-gas ratio for these galaxies increases or stays radially constant. On scales of \sim 3 kpc, we find a strong correlation between the molecular gas and the 250 micron surface brightness that is tighter than average for non-deficient galaxies. The correlation becomes linear if we consider the total gas surface mass density. However, the inclusion of atomic hydrogen does not improve the statistical significance of the correlation. The environment can modify the distributions of molecules and dust within a galaxy, although these components are more tightly bound than the atomic gas., Comment: 17pp, 14 fig., accepted for publications in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Based on single cross-scan data of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey, we report the first detections of dust in cluster early-type dwarf galaxies: VCC 209, VCC 781 and VCC 951. All three galaxies have dust masses M d ≈ 105 − 106 M⊙ and average dust temperatures ≈ 16–20 K. Since these three early-type dwarfs reside in densely crowded regions close to the center of the Virgo cluster, and several Hi-detected dwarfs in the outskirts of Virgo were not detected by Herschel(implying a dust content < 104 M⊙), this might imply that dust in dwarfs is more closely related to the molecular gas, which is more centrally peaked in a galaxy’s potential well and therefore, not easily removed by any stripping mechanism. We conclude that the removal of interstellar dust from these early-type dwarfs appears to be less efficient than the removal of the Hi gas.

We investigate the dust properties of a small sample of Virgo cluster dwarf galaxies drawn from the science demonstration phase data set of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS). These galaxies have low metallicities (\(7.8\

We present V and I photometry of seven fields in the outskirts of M33 to search for stellar structures in correspondence of neutral hydrogen (Hi) clouds recently discovered in a 21-cm survey of this galaxy [2]. We analyse the stellar population out to 2 ∘ from the centre of M33 by means of V, I colour magnitude diagrams reaching the red clump (RC). We detect intermediate-age (1–10 Gyr) stars out to a deprojected radius of 30 kpc ( ∼ 20 scale lengths), but we do not find evidence for a clear correlation between the Hi complexes and the stellar substructures.

We investigate the nature of 24micron sources in M33 which have weak or no associated Halpha emission. Both bright evolved stars and embedded star forming regions are visible as compact infrared sources in the 8 and 24micron maps of M33 and contribute to the more diffuse and faint emission in these bands. Can we distinguish the two populations? We carry out deep CO J=2-1 and J=1-0 line searches at the location of compact mid-IR sources to unveil an ongoing star formation process. We use different assumptions to estimate cloud masses from pointed observations and analyze if SED and mid-IR colours can be used to discriminate between evolved stars and star forming regions. Molecular emission has been detected at the location of several sources at the level of 0.3 K km/s or higher in at least one of the CO rotational lines. Even though there are no giant molecular clouds beyond 4kpc in M33, our deep observations have revealed that clouds of smaller mass are very common. Sources which are known to be evolved variable stars show weaker or undetectable CO lines. Evolved stars occupy a well defined region of the IRAC color-color diagrams. Star forming regions are scattered throughout a larger area even though the bulk of the distribution has different IRAC colors than evolved variable stars. We estimate that about half of the 24 micron sources without an Halpha counterpart are genuine embedded star forming regions. Sources with faint but compact Halpha emission have an incomplete Initial Mass Function (IMF) at the high-mass end and are compatible with a population of young clusters with a stochastically sampled, universal IMF., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

We present Subaru/Suprime-Cam deep V and I imaging of seven fields in the outer regions of M33. Our aim is to search for stellar structures corresponding to extended HI clouds found in a recent 21-cm survey of the galaxy. Three fields probe a large HI complex to the southeastern (SE) side of the galaxy. An additional three fields cover the northwestern (NW) side of the galaxy along the HI warp. A final target field was chosen further north, at a projected distance of approximately 25 kpc, to study part of the large stellar plume recently discovered around M33. We analyse the stellar population at R > 10 kpc by means of V, I colour magnitude diagrams reaching the red clump. Evolved stellar populations are found in all fields out to 120' (~ 30 kpc), while a diffuse population of young stars (~ 200 Myr) is detected out to a galactocentric radius of 15 kpc. The mean metallicity in the southern fields remains approximately constant at [M/H] = -0.7 beyond the edge of the optical disc, from 40' out to 80'. Along the northern fields probing the outer \hi disc, we also find a metallicity of [M/H] = -0.7 between 35' and 70' from the centre, which decreases to [M/H] = -1.0 at larger angular radii out to 120'. In the northernmost field, outside the disc extent, the stellar population of the large stellar feature possibly related to a M33-M31 interaction is on average more metal-poor ([M/H] = -1.3) and older (> 6 Gyr). An exponential disc with a large scale-length (~ 7 kpc) fits well the average distribution of stars detected in both the SE and NW regions from a galactocentric distance of 11 kpc out to 30 kpc. The stellar distribution at large radii is disturbed and, although there is no clear correlation between the stellar substructures and the location of the HI clouds, this gives evidence for tidal interaction or accretion events., 13 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publications in Astronomy and Astrophysics; minor revisions of the text

Using Herschel data from the Open Time Key Project the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS), we investigated the relationship between the metallicity gradients expressed by metal abundances in the gas phase as traced by the chemical composition of HII regions, and in the solid phase, as traced by the dust-to-gas mass ratio. We derived the radial gradient of the dust-to-gas mass ratio for all galaxies observed by HeViCS whose metallicity gradients are available in the literature. They are all late type Sbc galaxies, namely NGC4254, NGC4303, NGC4321, and NGC4501. We examined different dependencies on metallicity of the CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor (\xco), used to transform the $^{12}$CO observations into the amount of molecular hydrogen. We found that in these galaxies the dust-to-gas mass ratio radial profile is extremely sensitive to choice of the \xco\ value, since the molecular gas is the dominant component in the inner parts. We found that for three galaxies of our sample, namely NGC4254, NGC4321, and NGC4501, the slopes of the oxygen and of the dust-to-gas radial gradients agree up to $\sim$0.6-0.7R$_{25}$ using \xco\ values in the range 1/3-1/2 Galactic \xco. For NGC4303 a lower value of \xco$\sim0.1\times$ 10$^{20}$ is necessary. We suggest that such low \xco\ values might be due to a metallicity dependence of \xco (from close to linear for NGC4254, NGC4321, and NGC4501 to superlinear for NGC4303), especially in the radial regions R$_G, Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, A&A accepted

The origin of the far-infrared emission from the nearby radio galaxy M87 remains a matter of debate. Some studies find evidence of a far-infrared excess due to thermal dust emission, whereas others propose that the far-infrared emission can be explained by synchrotron emission without the need for an additional dust emission component. We observed M87 with PACS and SPIRE as part of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS). We compare the new Herschel data with a synchrotron model based on infrared, submm and radio data to investigate the origin of the far-infrared emission. We find that both the integrated SED and the Herschel surface brightness maps are adequately explained by synchrotron emission. At odds with previous claims, we find no evidence of a diffuse dust component in M87., 4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings IAU Symposium 275 (Jets at all scales)

By combining Herschel-SPIRE observations obtained as part of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey with 21 cm HI data from the literature, we investigate the role of the cluster environment on the dust content of Virgo spiral galaxies.We show for the first time that the extent of the dust disk is significantly reduced in HI-deficient galaxies, following remarkably well the observed 'truncation' of the HI disk. The ratio of the submillimetre-to- optical diameter correlates with the HI-deficiency, suggesting that the cluster environment is able to strip dust as well as gas. These results provide important insights not only into the evolution of cluster galaxies but also into the metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium., Comment: Letter accepted for publication in A&A (Herschel special issue)

In the Local Group spiral galaxy M33, we investigate the correlation between the star formation rate (SFR) surface density, Sigma_SFR, and the gas density Sigma_gas (molecular, atomic, and total). We also explore whether there are other physical quantities, such as the hydrostatic pressure and dust optical depth, which establish a good correlation with Sigma_SFR. We use the Ha, far-ultraviolet (FUV), and bolometric emission maps to infer the SFR locally at different spatial scales, and in radial bins using azimuthally averaged values. Most of the local analysis is done using the highest spatial resolution allowed by gas surveys, 180 pc. The Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) law, Sigma_SFR \propto (Sigma_gas)^n is analyzed by three statistical methods. At all spatial scales, with Ha emission as a SFR tracer, the KS indices n are always steeper than those derived with the FUV and bolometric emissions. We attribute this to the lack of Ha emission in low luminosity regions where most stars form in small clusters with an incomplete initial mass function at their high mass end. For azimuthally averaged values the depletion timescale for the molecular gas is constant, and the KS index is n_H2 = 1.1 +- 0.1. Locally, at a spatial resolution of 180 pc, the correlation between Sigma_SFR and Sigma_gas is generally poor, even though it is tighter with the molecular and total gas than with the atomic gas alone. Considering only positions where the CO J=1-0 line is above the 2-sigma detection threshold and taking into account uncertainties in Sigma_H2 and Sigma_SFR, we obtain a steeper KS index than obtained with radial averages: n_H2 = 2.22 +- 0.07 (for FUV and bolometric SFR tracers), flatter than that relative to the total gas (n_Htot = 2.59 +- 0.05). [abridged], 14 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

Neutral hydrogen clouds are found in the Milky Way and Andromeda halo both as large complexes and smaller isolated clouds. Here we present a search for Hi clouds in the halo of M33, the third spiral galaxy of the Local Group. We have used two complementary data sets: a 3^o x 3^o map of the area provided by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey and deeper pointed observations carried out with the Arecibo telescope in two fields that permit sampling of the north eastern and south-western edges of the HI disc. The total amount of Hi around M33 detected by our survey is $\sim 10^7$ M$_{\odot}$. At least 50% of this mass is made of HI clouds that are related both in space and velocity to the galaxy. We discuss several scenarios for the origin of these clouds focusing on the two most interesting ones: $(a)$ dark-matter dominated gaseous satellites, $(b)$ debris from filaments flowing into M33 from the intergalactic medium or generated by a previous interaction with M31. Both scenarios seem to fit with the observed cloud properties. Some structures are found at anomalous velocities, particularly an extended HI complex previously detected by Thilker et al. (2002). Even though the ALFALFA observations seem to indicate that this cloud is possibly connected to M33 by a faint gas bridge, we cannot firmly establish its extragalactic nature or its relation to M33. Taking into account that the clouds associated with M33 are likely to be highly ionised by the extragalactic UV radiation, we predict that the total gas mass associated with them is > 5 x 10^7 M$_{\odot}$. If the gas is steadily falling towards the M33 disc it can provide the fuel needed to sustain a current star formation rate of 0.5 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$., 16 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

Spiral galaxies appear to be dynamical systems whose disks are still forming at the current epoch and which continue to accrete mass. The presence of extraplanar gas in spirals indicates that galactic halos can contain at least part of the material needed to fuel the star formation activity in their disks. Here we present the analysis of the ALFALFA survey data in the region of M33 aimed at searching high velocity clouds around this Local Group galaxy. We find a varied population of HI clouds with masses ranging between 4 x 10^4 and few times 10^6 M_sun. We also detect an extended HI complex at anomalous velocities, whose extragalactic nature cannot be firmly established. We estimate that the total amount of neutral hydrogen mass associated to these clouds is around 10^7 M_sun., Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Conference Proceedings "The Evolution of Galaxies through the Neutral Hydrogen Window",eds. R. Minchin & E. Momjian

We present the results of a study of the sodium ionization and excitation in the winds of low-luminosity, pre-main-sequence stars. Line profiles for the Nal doublet at 5990,5986 Aare discussed and compared with the observations for those T Tauri stars with P-Cygni profiles. We find that the observed shape of the lines put significative constraints on the rate of mass-loss ( M ≥ 3 x 10 -8 M ⊙ / yr ).

In the present study we introduced a simple test to assess the orientation error of an inertial sensors system for human movement analysis, both in static and dynamic conditions. In particular, the test was intended to quantify the sensitivity of the orientation error to direction and velocity of rotation. The test procedure was performed on a 5 MT9B sensors Xsens acquisition system, and revealed that the system orientation error, expressed by Euler angles decomposition, was sensitive both to direction and to velocity, being higher for fast movements: for mean rotation velocities of 180 degrees/s and 360 degrees/s, the worst case orientation error was 5.4 degrees and 11.6 degrees, respectively. The test can be suggested therefore as a useful tool to verify the user specific system accuracy without requiring any special equipment. In addition, the test provides further error information concerning direction and velocity of the movement which are not supplied by the producer, since they depend on the specific field of application.

We investigate the scaling relations of bulge and disk structural parameters for a sample of 108 disk galaxies.Structural parameters are obtained from 2D bulge/disk decomposition of H-band images.Bulges are modelled with a generalized exponential (Sersic) with variable shape index n. We find that bulge effective scalelength and luminosity increase with increasing n, but disk properties are independent of bulge shape. As Hubble type T increases, bulges become less luminous and their mean effective surface brightness gets fainter; disks shows a similar, but much weaker, trend. When bulge parameters are compared with disk ones, they are tightly correlated for n=1 bulges. The correlations gradually worsen with increasing n such that n=4 bulges appear virtually independent of their disks. The Kormendy relation, surf. brightness vs. effect. radius, is shown to depend on bulge shape; the two parameters are tightly correlated in n=4 bulges, and increasingly less so as n decreases; disks are well correlated .Bulge-to-disk size ratios are independent of Hubble type, but smaller for exponential bulges. Strongly barred SB galaxies with exponential bulges are more luminous than their unbarred counterparts. Exponential bulges appear to be closely related to their underlying disks, while bulges with higher n values are less so. We interpret our results as being most consistent with a secular evolutionary scenario, in which dissipative processes in the disk are responsible for building up the bulges in most spirals., 18 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, A&A in press

We describe the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS) and the first data obtained as part of the Science Demonstration Phase (SDP). The data cover a central 4x4 sq deg region of the cluster. We use SPIRE and PACS photometry data to produce 100, 160, 250, 350 and 500 micron luminosity functions (LFs) for optically bright galaxies that are selected at 500 micron and detected in all bands. We compare these LFs with those previously derived using IRAS, BLAST and Herschel-ATLAS data. The Virgo Cluster LFs do not have the large numbers of faint galaxies or examples of very luminous galaxies seen previously in surveys covering less dense environments., Letter accepted for publication in A&A (Herschel special issue)

The formation of Cooper pairs resulting from the exchange of vibrations between pairs of fermions moving in time reversal states close to the Fermi surface in a semi-infinite system of nuclear matter (slab model) with parameters adjusted so as to mimic real nuclei, leads to pairing gaps which account for a substantial fraction of the experimental value throughout the mass table. The predictions are in qualitative agreement with detailed calculations carried out for finite nuclei and testify to the central role the surface of nuclei plays in the phenomenon of nuclear superfluidity.