Zur Metallhäufigkeit in ω Centauri

Radiation pressure during the high-luminosity collapse phase of cluster evolution may, under certain circumstances, lead to the ejection of interstellar grains. For the most luminous clusters such ejection might produce significant depletion of heavy elements. It is suggested that the metal abundance dispersion that has recently been detected among the giant stars in ω Centauri (which is the brightest known galactic globular cluster) might be accounted for by such radiation pressure induced heavy element depletion.     

On the ratio of the total to selective absorption

The ratio of total to selective absorbtion,R, has been found to remain constant as dust is processed in clouds from low to high density, through Hii regions and open clusters, and returned to the interstellar medium.R has the same value in dense dust clouds as it has in Hii regions of different ages. Variations inR values obtained from stars in Hii regions may be due to errors in special type classification. Globular cluster diameters show no tendency to increase with distance from the Sun whenR=3.2 is used. Large grains evidently do not exist in the interstellar medium. There is no evidence for neutral extinction in the Galaxy at large.     

The formation of comets in wind-driven shells around protostars

It is shown that the dense, turbulent, decelerating shells produced by protostellar flows around young stars are a probable site for rapid grain growth by coalescing collisions. The growth of grains occurs in a thin dust layer at the leading edge of the gas shell until a critical grain size on the order of 1−10 μm is reached. Grains larger than this decouple from the turbulence and eventually reach sizes of ≈100 μm. These large grains form a thin dust shell with low-velocity dispersion, in which ultimately local gravitational instability takes place. This causes the accumulation of comet-sized aggregations of dust, assuming that the dust velocity dispersion is on the order of 10⁻² m sec⁻¹. It is proposed that the mechanism could lead to a high space density of comets in molecular clouds. The efficient formation of “giant” grains, and even comet nuclei, in the regions around young stars has important implications both for cometary astronomy and for understanding the dynamical and chemical evolution of molecular clouds and the interstellar medium.     

On the ionization of interstellar magnesium

It has been shown that two concentric ionization zones of interstellar magnesium must exist around each star: internal, with a radius coinciding with that of the zone of hydrogen ionizationS _H; and external, with a radius greater thanS _H, by one order. Unlike interstellar hydrogen, interstellar magnesium is ionized throughout the Galaxy. It also transpires that the ionizing radiation of ordinary hot stars cannot provide for the observed high degree of ionization of interstellar magnesium. The discrepance can be eliminated by assuming the existence of circumstellar clouds or additional ionization sources of interstellar magnesium (X-ray background radiation, high-energy particles, etc.). Stars of the B5 and B0 class play the main role in the formation of ionization zones of interstellar magnesium; the contribution of O class stars is negligible (<1%).     

Protoplanetary dust clouds in disks of Herbig Ae/Be stars

The very large brightness decrease of late-type Herbig Ae/Be stars is believed to be caused by obscuring dust clouds orbiting in the outer parts of their circumstellar disks. The distances of the dust clouds to the central stars have been estimated using the wavelength at maximum flux of the excess near-IR radiation, Wien's displacement law, and a formula derived by Rowan-Robinson (1980). The critical masses of these clouds were calculated employing Chandrasekhar's (1943) formula. The minimum size of the dust grains in the obscuring clouds was estimated using Aumannet al.'s (1984) formula they had applied to the star Lyr. However, it can be about ten times smaller if the dust grains are situated at the back of the cloud. The average size of these grains has been determined by assuming a size distribution similar to that in the asteroidal belt (Dohnanyi, 1969) and in the interstellar medium (Mathiset al., 1977). Their number density was determined by means of the extinction power of the dust cloud at theV pass-band. The results of our calculations show that above parameters are similar to those in our solar system. Therefore, we believe that most probably (a) the formation of planetesimals in the circumstellar disks of Herbig Ae/Be stars is on-going; and (b) the obscuring clouds will, in the long run, become planet-like objects.Paper presented at the Conference onPlanetary Systems: Formation, Evolution, and Detection held 7–10 December, 1992 at CalTech, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.     

Dust metamorphosis in the galaxy

Summary Cosmic dust grains play an important role for the thermal, dynamical, and chemical structure of the interstellar medium. This is especially true for the star formation process and the late stages of stellar evolution. Dust grains determine the spectral appearance of protostars, very young stellar objects with disk-like structures as well as of evolved stars with circumstellar envelopes.In this review, we will demonstrate that solid particles in interstellar space are both agent and subject of galactic evolution. We will especially discuss the different dust populations in circumstellar envelopes, the diffuse interstellar medium, and the molecular clouds with strong emphasis on the evolutionary aspects and the metamorphosis of these populations.     

Cloudy circumstellar dust shells around young variable stars

A number of variable stars of the Orion population has been identified with IRAS point sources by us. This finding supports the conclusion that the prominent Algol-like minima in the lightcurves of these stars originate from obscurations by dust clouds in a circumstellar shell. The discussion of the existingUBVR data leads to the remarkable conclusion that the extinction properties of the grain populations contained in individual dust clouds moving in one and the same circumstellar shell are quite different.From the multicolour photometric data of the different Algol-like minima we derived individual values of the reddening parameterR = A _v /E(B - V). It covers a remarkable wide range of values from that one typical of the interstellar extinction law up to 7. In the case of SV Cep one of the grain populations produces a virtually neutral extinction. The large values ofR speak in favour of larger than normal (interstellar) dust grains, which may have grown by coagulation processes. The cloudy circumstellar dust shell provides a natural explanation for the observed infrared excess. The properties derived from the optical light variations are fully compatible with the properties deduced from the infrared radiation. The irregularity of the light variations indicates that many clouds are involved and may sometimes superimpose themselves.Paper presented at the Conference onPlanetary Systems: Formation, Evolution, and Detection held 7–10 December, 1992 at CalTech, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.     

Growth of interstellar grains by coagulation

A discussion is given of the spontaneous coagulation of interstellar grains due to their natural Brownian motion. It is shown that the predicted present day size of such grains, assuming such a mechanism being operative, is in reasonable agreement with observations for three different environments that have been considered: namely, normal interstellar gas clouds, molecular clouds and the atmospheres of cool stars.     

Forced diffusion: A mechanism to create dust clouds

Photodesorption from dust grains by an anisotropic radiation field will lead to much greater momentum transfer than that associated with radiation pressure. This can cause the segregation of dust to the centres of moderately dense interstellar clouds.     

The distribution of interstellar matter in IC 5146

The very young star cluster IC 5146 is studied using star counts, with a view to determining the distribution of interstellar matter in a region where star formation recently occurred. IC 5146 is embedded in a dark nebula which is very dense near its centre. The total mass of interstellar dust in the nebula is found to be about 4.5M _⊙. Comparison of radio and optical observations of the region indicates that gas and dust are not separated to any great degree by radiation from the embedded stars. A gas/dust ratio of about 150/1 by mass is found. This ratio varies with the dust grain model used.     

Stars of extragalactic origin in the solar neighborhood

For 77 main-sequence F–G stars in the solar neighborhood with published iron, magnesium, and europium abundances determined from high-dispersion spectra and with the ages estimated from theoretical isochrones, we calculated the spatial velocities using Hipparcos data and the Galactic orbital elements. A comparison with the orbital elements of the globular clusters that are known to have been accreted by our Galaxy in the past reveals stars of extragalactic origin. We show that the abundance ratios of r-and α-elements in all the accreted stars differ sharply from those in the stars that are genetically associated with the Galaxy. According to current theoretical models, europium is produced mainly in low-mass type-II supernovae (SNe II), while magnesium is synthesized in large quantities in high-mass SN II progenitors. Since all the old accreted stars of our sample exhibit a significant Eu overabundance relative to Mg, we conclude that the maximum masses of the SN II progenitors outside the Galaxy were much lower than those inside it. On the other hand, only a small number of young accreted stars exhibit low negative ratios [Eu/Mg]<0. This can be explained by the delay of primordial star formation and the explosions of high-mass SNe II in a relatively small part of extragalactic space. We provide evidence that the interstellar medium was weakly mixed at the early evolutionary stages of the Galaxy formed from a single protogalactic cloud, and that the maximum mass of the SN II progenitors increased in it with time simultaneously with the increase in mean metallicity.     

Diffuse matter and cosmogony of stellar systems in researches by G.A. Shajn

The main topic of long-term researches by G.A. Shajn is the nature of diffuse matter, its distribution in the Galaxy and extragalactic systems, interaction with the interstellar medium and hot stars,and the formation of emission and reflection nebulae and stars. Based on the analysis of experimental data, mainly photographic observations of nebulae in the Milky Way and extragalactic systems, he made conclusions and suggested well-founded hypotheses on a wide range of considered problems, including those related to cosmogony. The structure of nebulae, and their masses and sizes give reasons behind the conclusion that most of them are formed not in the process of ejection of matter from the stars, but rather they are objects which are born and evolve, and quite often are comprised of giant conglomerates of gas, dust and stars. The distribution of OB-type stars and nebulae in spiral branches points to their genetic relation and the fundamental role of the interstellar medium as the source of their formation. The structural features of nebulae are determined by the action of magnetohydrodynamic forces. Magnetic fields in a galaxy control the motion of diffuse gas-dust matter and ensure the maintenance of its spiral structure. These ideas continue being developed in modern directions of astrophysics.     

A pressure dependence for bound and unbound clusters

Hierarchical structure in gas and young stars produces clusters in high-density regions where the individual stellar orbits rapidly mix. For a fixed density at the onset of gas collapse (e.g. determined by changes in the ionization equilibrium and grain properties), the efficiency of star formation is automatically high in the high-density regions of giant molecular clouds. Thus, bound cluster formation follows somewhat trivially from hierarchical structure. The density where the efficiency is high enough to produce a bound cluster depends on the dispersion of the density probability distribution function (pdf), decreasing for higher dispersions and making bound cluster formation more likely. Similarly, the mass fraction of star formation in the form of bound clusters increases with the pdf dispersion. Because this dispersion is related to the turbulent Mach number, and also to the interstellar medium pressure and star-formation rate per unit volume, it follows that high-pressure or highly active regions tend to produce bound clusters, while low-pressure and inactive regions tend to produce stars in unbound associations.     

Effects of charged dust grains

Dust grains expelled by radiation pressure of stars are charged to potentials in the range 30–40 V in Hi clouds. These grains may be responsible for the following phenomena which are otherwise hardly explicable. (1) A considerable fraction of electrons knocked-out by charged grains of high speeds have energies around 15 eV and produce singly ionized ions but not doubly ionized ones in accord with an ultraviolet observation of interstellar atoms and ions. (2) Transverse momentum transferred to grains by Coulomb scattering of ambient electrons and protons is greater than that by multiple scattering of cosmic ray protons, thus the former being more effective for the grain alignment than the latter. (3) At a shock front charge separation due to a large inertial mass of grains produces an electric field, thus accelerating charged particles and causing a drift of interstellar matter.     

On the diffuse radiation of the Galaxy in far UV according to the investigations by S. Hayakawa,K. Yamashita and S. Yoshioka

It has been found that certain optical properties of interstellar grains obtained by Hayakawaet al. (1969) from their study of the diffuse radiation of the Galaxy in far UV are not in reality consistent with the more accurate theoretical calculations of diffuse radiation for the model of the Galaxy used by Hayakawaet al. in their work. A more complex model of the Galaxy may be required for interpretation of observations in far UV.Receipt delayed by postal strike in Great Britain.     

Cold Dust and Very Cold Excess Emission in the Galaxy

We provide insight in the origin of the far-IR to mm emission from galaxies by presenting a decomposition of the Galaxy emission where we separate the contributions from dust in the atomic gas and dust associated with quiescent molecular gas as a function of Galacto-centric distance. This decomposition leaves a puzzling very cold emission excess with a brightness independent of Galactic longitude that might be pointing at interstellar matter in the outer Galaxy not traced by H I nor CO emission. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The galactic evolution of lithium

Measurements of lithium in stars of different galactic populations such as young open clusters ( Per, Pleiades, Praesepe, Coma, Hyades), very young stellar associations (Taurus-Auriga, Chamaeleon, Ophiuchus clouds), intermediate and old open clusters (NGC 752, M 67, NGC 188), old disc stars and halo stars give us the observational framework from which the galactic evolution of lithium has to be inferred. This element is produced mainly via three mechanisms: primordial nucleosynthesis, spallation reactions in the interstellar medium and thermonuclear reactions in some particular stellar evolutionary stages (novae, red giants). The complicated nucleosynthesis and the fact that astration of lithium in stars is not well understood, makes a direct interpretation of the lithium evolutionary abundance curve difficult. The constraints set by recent lithium measurements in very old open clusters and metal-deficient stars on galactic lithium production mechanisms are discussed. Current problems in the determination of the primordial lithium abundance are briefly reviewed.     

Diffuse interstellar band formation in dense clouds

Measurements of the strengths of the diffuse interstellar bands at 4430, 5780 and 5797 Å show that the bands tend to be week with respect to extinction in dense interstellar clouds. Data on 10 stars in the ? Ophiuchi cloud complex show further that the diffuse band-producing efficiency of the grains decreases systematically with increasing grain size. It is concluded that the diffuse bands are not formed in the mantles which accrete on the grains in interstellar clouds, but that they could be produced in the cores of grains or in some molecular species.     

Zum Dichteverhältnis zwischen interstellarem Staub und Gas

The density ratio between interstellar dust and gas is investigated using the colour excesses of the stars of Habing's list [17] and published 21 cm data. Generally there does not exist a correlation between the amount of neutral hydrogen in the line of sight and the interstellar extinction. In the contrary the scattering of the data is considerable. The influences falsifying the density ratio are discussed whereby the cooling of the interstellar clouds reaching large distances from the galactic plane was considered schematically. From the discussion of the results it follows that at present a reliable determination of the interstellar density ratio between dust and gas is impossible. The necessity of direct observations of the interstellar H₂ but also the determination of the kinetic temperature of the HI in separate regions are pointed out.