The Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) project explores the acceleration, transport, and loss of relativistic electrons in the radiation belts and the dynamics for geospace ...storms. This project consists of three research teams for satellite observation, ground-based network observation, and integrated data analysis/simulation. This synergetic approach is essential for obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the relativistic electron generation/loss processes of the radiation belts as well as geospace storms through cross-energy/cross-regional couplings, in which different plasma/particle populations and regions are strongly coupled with each other. This paper gives an overview of the ERG project and presents the initial results from the ERG (Arase) satellite.
HH 211-mms is one of the youngest Class 0 protostellar systems in Perseus, at a distance of ∼235 pc. We have mapped its central region at up to ∼7 au (0 03) resolution. A dusty disk is seen deeply ...embedded in a flattened envelope, with an intensity jump in the dust continuum at ∼350 GHz. It is nearly edge-on and is almost exactly perpendicular to the jet axis. It has a size of ∼30 au along the major axis. It is geometrically thick, indicating that the (sub)millimeter light-emitting grains have yet to settle to the midplane. Its inner part is expected to have transformed into a Keplerian rotating disk with a radius of ∼10 au. A rotating disk atmosphere and a compact rotating bipolar outflow are detected in SO NJ = 89 − 78. The outflow fans out from the inner disk surfaces and is rotating in the same direction as the flattened envelope, and hence could trace a disk wind carrying away angular momentum from the inner disk. From the rotation of the disk atmosphere, the protostellar mass is estimated to be 50 MJup. Together with results from the literature, our result favors a model where the disk radius grows linearly with the protostellar mass, as predicted by models of pre-stellar dense core evolution that asymptotes to an r−1 radial profile for both the column density and angular velocity.
ABSTRACT We present observations of the 1.3 mm continuum emission toward hub-N and hub-S of the infrared dark cloud G14.225-0.506 carried out with the Submillimeter Array, together with observations ...of the dust emission at 870 and 350 m obtained with APEX and CSO telescopes. The large-scale dust emission of both hubs consists of a single peaked clump elongated in the direction of the associated filament. At small scales, the SMA images reveal that both hubs fragment into several dust condensations. The fragmentation level was assessed under the same conditions and we found that hub-N presents 4 fragments while hub-S is more fragmented, with 13 fragments identified. We studied the density structure by means of a simultaneous fit of the radial intensity profile at 870 and 350 m and the spectral energy distribution adopting a Plummer-like function to describe the density structure. The parameters inferred from the model are remarkably similar in both hubs, suggesting that density structure could not be responsible for determining the fragmentation level. We estimated several physical parameters, such as the level of turbulence and the magnetic field strength, and we found no significant differences between these hubs. The Jeans analysis indicates that the observed fragmentation is more consistent with thermal Jeans fragmentation compared with a scenario in which turbulent support is included. The lower fragmentation level observed in hub-N could be explained in terms of stronger UV radiation effects from a nearby H ii region, evolutionary effects, and/or stronger magnetic fields at small scales, a scenario that should be further investigated.
Abstract
Massive star-forming regions exhibit an extremely rich and diverse chemistry, which in principle provides a wealth of molecular probes, as well as laboratories for interstellar prebiotic ...chemistry. Since the chemical structure of these sources displays substantial spatial variation among species on small scales (≲10
4
au), high-angular-resolution observations are needed to connect chemical structures to local environments and inform astrochemical models of massive star formation. To address this, we present ALMA 1.3 mm observations toward OB cluster-forming region G10.6-0.4 (hereafter “G10.6”) at a resolution of 014 (700 au). We find highly structured emission from complex organic molecules (COMs) throughout the central 20,000 au, including two hot molecular cores and several shells or filaments. We present spatially resolved maps of rotational temperature and column density for a large sample of COMs and warm gas tracers. These maps reveal a range of gas substructure in both O- and N-bearing species. We identify several spatial correlations that can be explained by existing models for the formation of COMs, including NH
2
CHO/HNCO and CH
3
OCHO/CH
3
OCH
3
, but also observe unexpected distributions and correlations that suggest that our current understanding of COM formation is far from complete. Importantly, complex chemistry is observed throughout G10.6, rather than being confined to hot cores. The COM composition appears to be different in the cores compared to the more extended structures, which illustrates the importance of high-spatial-resolution observations of molecular gas in elucidating the physical and chemical processes associated with massive star formation.
Adjunctive dexamethasone reduces mortality from tuberculous meningitis (TBM) but not disability, which is associated with brain infarction. We hypothesised that aspirin prevents TBM-related brain ...infarction through its anti-thrombotic, anti-inflammatory, and pro-resolution properties. We conducted a randomised controlled trial in HIV-uninfected adults with TBM of daily aspirin 81 mg or 1000 mg, or placebo, added to the first 60 days of anti-tuberculosis drugs and dexamethasone (NCT02237365). The primary safety endpoint was gastro-intestinal or cerebral bleeding by 60 days; the primary efficacy endpoint was new brain infarction confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging or death by 60 days. Secondary endpoints included 8-month survival and neuro-disability; the number of grade 3 and 4 and serious adverse events; and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) inflammatory lipid mediator profiles. 41 participants were randomised to placebo, 39 to aspirin 81 mg/day, and 40 to aspirin 1000 mg/day between October 2014 and May 2016. TBM was proven microbiologically in 92/120 (76.7%) and baseline brain imaging revealed ≥1 infarct in 40/114 (35.1%) participants. The primary safety outcome occurred in 5/36 (13.9%) given placebo, and in 8/35 (22.9%) and 8/40 (20.0%) given 81 mg and 1000 mg aspirin, respectively (p=0.59). The primary efficacy outcome occurred in 11/38 (28.9%) given placebo, 8/36 (22.2%) given aspirin 81 mg, and 6/38 (15.8%) given 1000 mg aspirin (p=0.40). Planned subgroup analysis showed a significant interaction between aspirin treatment effect and diagnostic category (P
= 0.01) and suggested a potential reduction in new infarcts and deaths by day 60 in the aspirin treated participants with microbiologically confirmed TBM (11/32 (34.4%) events in placebo vs. 4/27 (14.8%) in aspirin 81 mg vs. 3/28 (10.7%) in aspirin 1000 mg; p=0.06). CSF analysis demonstrated aspirin dose-dependent inhibition of thromboxane A
and upregulation of pro-resolving CSF protectins. The addition of aspirin to dexamethasone may improve outcomes from TBM and warrants investigation in a large phase 3 trial.
Abstract We present the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of linearly polarized 1.1 mm continuum emission at ∼0.″14 (55 au) resolution and CO ( J = 2−1) emission at ∼1.″5 (590 ...au) resolution toward one prestellar (MMS 4), four Class 0 (MMS 1, MMS 3, MMS 5, and MMS 6), one Class I (MMS 7), and one flat-spectrum (MMS 2) sources in the Orion Molecular Cloud 3 region. The dust disk-like structures and clear CO outflows are detected toward all sources except for MMS 4. The diameters of these disk-like structures, ranging from 16 to 97 au, are estimated based on the deconvolved full width half maximum (FWHM) values obtained from the multi-Gaussian fitting. Polarized emissions are detected toward MMS 2, MMS 5, MMS 6, and MMS 7, while no polarized emission is detected toward MMS 1, MMS 3, and MMS 4. MMS 2, MMS 5, and MMS 7 show organized polarization vectors aligned with the minor axes of the disk-like structures, with mean polarization fractions ranging from 0.6% to 1.2%. The strongest millimeter source, MMS 6, exhibits complex polarization orientations and a remarkably high polarization fraction of ∼10% around the Stokes I peak, and 15%–20% on the arm-like structure, as reported by Takahashi et al. (2019). The origins of the polarized emission, such as self-scattering and dust alignment due to the magnetic field or radiative torque, are discussed for individual sources. Some disk-like sources exhibit a polarized intensity peak shift toward the nearside of the disk, which supports that the polarized emission originates from self-scattering.
We present combined Submillimeter Array (SMA)+Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE) images of the Class I protobinary L1551 IRS 5 in the CS (J = 7-6) line, the submillimeter images of ...L1551 IRS 5 with the most complete spatial sampling ever achieved (0".9-36"). The SMA image of L1551 IRS 5 in the 343 GHz dust-continuum emission is also presented, which shows an elongated feature along the northwest to southeast direction (~160 AU x 80 AU), perpendicular to the associated radio jets. The combined SMA+ASTE images show that the high-velocity (gap1.5 km s super(-1)) CS emission traces the structure of the dust component and shows a velocity gradient along the major axis, which is reproduced by a geometrically thin Keplerian-disk model with a central stellar mass of ~0.5 M sub(middot in circle). The low-velocity (lap1.3 km s super(-1)) CS emission shows an extended (~1000 AU) feature that exhibits slight south (blueshifted) to north (redshifted) emission offsets, which is modeled with a rotating and infalling envelope with a conserved angular momentum. The rotational motion of the envelope connects smoothly to the inner Keplerian rotation at a radius of ~64 AU. The infalling velocity of the envelope is ~three times lower than the free-fall velocity toward the central stellar mass of 0.5 M sub(middot in circle). These results demonstrate transition from the infalling envelope to the Keplerian disk, consistent with the latest theoretical studies of disk formation. We suggest that sizable (r ~ 50-200 AU) Keplerian disks are already formed when the protostars are still deeply embedded in the envelopes.
Dust polarization orientations in molecular clouds often tend to be close to tangential to the Stokes I dust continuum emission contours. The magnetic field and the emission gradient orientations, ...therefore, show some correlation. A method is proposed, which-in the framework of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)-connects the measured angle between magnetic field and emission gradient orientations to the total field strength. The approach is based on the assumption that a change in emission intensity (gradient) is a measure for the resulting direction of motion in the MHD force equation. In particular, this new method leads to maps of position-dependent magnetic field strength estimates. When evaluating the field curvature and the gravity direction locally on a map, the method can be generalized to arbitrary cloud shapes. The technique is applied to high-resolution (~0".7) Submillimeter Array polarization data of the collapsing core W51 e2. A tentative ~7.7 mG field strength is found when averaging over the entire core. The analysis further reveals some structures and an azimuthally averaged radial profile ~r super(-1/2) for the field strength. Maximum values close to the center are around 19 mG. The currently available observations lack higher resolution data to probe the innermost part of the core where the largest field strength is expected from the method. Application regime and limitations of the method are discussed. As a further important outcome of this technique, the local significance of the magnetic field force compared to the other forces can be quantified in a model-independent way, from measured angles only. Finally, the method can potentially also be expanded and applied to other objects (besides molecular clouds) with measurements that reveal the field morphology, as, e.g., Faraday rotation measurements in galaxies.
Abstract
Theoretical and numerical works indicate that a strong magnetic field should suppress fragmentation in dense cores. However, this has never been tested observationally in a relatively large ...sample of fragmenting massive dense cores. Here, we use the polarization data obtained in the Submillimeter Array Legacy Survey of Zhang et al. to build a sample of 18 massive dense cores where both fragmentation and magnetic field properties are studied in a uniform way. We measured the fragmentation level,
N
mm
, within the field of view common to all regions of ∼0.15 pc, with a mass sensitivity of ∼0.5
M
☉
, and a spatial resolution of ∼1000 au. In order to obtain the magnetic field strength using the Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi method, we estimated the dispersion of the polarization position angles, the velocity dispersion of the H
13
CO
+
(4–3) gas, and the density of each core, all averaged within 0.15 pc. A strong correlation is found between
N
mm
and the average density of the parental core, although with significant scatter. When large-scale systematic motions are separated from the velocity dispersion and only the small-scale (turbulent) contribution is taken into account, a tentative correlation is found between
N
mm
and the mass-to-flux ratio, as suggested by numerical and theoretical works.
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