Irish on the move

Trends in emigration from Ireland over time are reviewed. "During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries overseas migration to the United States and seasonal harvest migration to Britain were the main types of movement, but over the past 100 years the Irish have developed a special affinity for settling in British towns. Although the outflow was halted for a time during the 1970s, when return migration took over, the 1980s have seen a renewal of the exodus. This time, however, the character of the flow has changed from predominantly low-skill construction and factory workers to embrace better-educated emigrants, including many graduates. This shift reflects Ireland's changing position in the international market for labour."     

Solar flares: The impulsive phase

Only during the previous solar cycle have systematic observations begun to be made with the sensitivity and time resolution, and the continuous coverage required to catch the impulsive phase and measure the rapid variations present in many wavelength ranges. Observations in X-rays, gamma-rays, UV, H, and radio wavelengths all reveal rapid variations during the impulsive phase and have contributed to our understanding of the different phenomena involved. Results have been obtained from several spacecraft, from rocket and balloon flights, and from ground-based observations. These are reviewed in the context of a simple single loop flare model with a view to showing what results are consistent with this model and what the major problems are in our understanding of the impulsive phase. New instrumentation planned for observations during the present Cycle 22 will provide a concerted attack on the impulsive phase as part of the Max '91 program.     

Core-envelope models for massive fluid spheres

The solution of equation of state corresponding to equality =₃ gives non-terminating solutions for isothermal neutron star cores. Hence, for this equality, core-envelope models have been developed by taking another equation of state, corresponding to the condition ₃, in the envelope. Various static, pulsational, and rotational parameters pertaining to neutron star models are calculated. These models are gravitationally bound and stable for radial perturbations and slow rotations.     

Variable pulse profile and the accretion geometry in GX 1+4

We suggest that the variable pulse profile of GX 1+4 in the low-energy X-ray region results from the superposition of polar and disk components. The anomalous appearance during the spin-down episode can then be explained, if we consider a transition from thin to thick accretion disk configuration which can develop at midly super-Eddington luminosity levels of the source. a close examination of the data suggests that the intrinsic period of the pulsar is 4 min. A switching disk geometry can provide a natural explanation to pulse profile variations in more luminous accreting binary pulsars and also account for the transition between high and low spectral states seen in the case of the Cyg X-1 and low-mass X-ray binary systems.     

Photometry of the bright stars inside and outside associations in the spiral arm S5 of the andromeda galaxy

Photometry of more than 1000 bright stars of 20 associations and some fields in its vicinity is made, usingUBV plates taken with a 2-m Ritchey-Chrétien telescope of the National Observatory at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with limited magnitudes of about 20.6 inU andV, 21.6 inB. The colour-magnitudes of about 20.6 inU andV, 21.6 inB. The colour-magnitude and colour-colour diagrams of 12 associations and 8 fields are constructed and the brightest blue and red stars colour excesses, ages, and integrated luminosities of the associations are determined. The composite diagrams for all association and nonassociation measured stars are constructed too. Inside associations bright stars as well as non-stellar objects occur more often than outside. The brightest stars in S5 are withM _v7 and do not differ considerably from the brightest ones in the spiral arm S4 of M31. Approximately the same are the absolute magnitudes of the brightest stars in our Galaxy and M33. A small difference between the brightest stars of the latter galaxy with those of M31 is possible because the stars in M33 are younger. This is in agreement with the concept that Sc galaxies (for example M33) are younger than Sb ones (for example M31). The same could be the reason for the smaller ratio of blue to red supergiants in M33 than in M31. The age estimations of the associations in S5 together with those in S4 in M31 show that they are older than the associations in M33 which is in agreement with the above mentioned concept.     

Thermosolutal instability of compressible hall plasma in porous medium

The thermosolutal instability of a plasma in porous medium in the presence of a vertical magnetic field is considered to include the effects of compressibility and Hall currents. The effects of stable solute gradient and compressibility are found to be stabilizing and the Hall currents have a destabilizing effect. The system is stable for (C _p/g)<1;C _p, , andg denoting specific heat at constant pressure, uniform temperature gradient, and acceleration due to gravity, respectively. In contrast to the non-oscillatory modes in the absence of magnetic field and stable solute gradient, the presence of magnetic field (and, hence, Hall currents) and stable solute gradient introduce oscillatory modes for (C _p/g)>1. The case of overstability is also studied wherein the necessary conditions for the existence of overstability are obtained.     

Shock chemistry in the molecular clouds associated with SNR IC 443

Several interstellar molecules have been detected toward the highly perturbed B and G clouds associated with the supernova remnant IC 443 via their 3 mm transitions, including N2H+, SiO, SO, CN, HNC, and H13CO+. The (J, K) = (1, 1) and (2, 2) inversion lines of metastable ammonia have also been observed, as well as the J = 3-2 transition of HCO+ at 1.2 mm. Analysis of the (1, 1) and (2, 2) inversion lines of NH3 indicates minimum gas kinetic temperatures of TK = 70 K toward cloud B, and TK = 33 K in cloud G. Modeling of the J = 1-0 and J = 3-2 transitions of HCO+ implies densities greater than 10(5) cm-3 toward both positions. These data clearly show that hot and dense material is present in IC 443, and they suggest the presence of shocks in both regions. A careful analysis of the HCO+ lines indicates that the HCO+ abundance is at most enhanced by factors of a few over that found in cold, quiescent gas. This conclusion contradicts past claims of HCO+ abundance enhancements of several orders of magnitude in the perturbed regions. The N2H+ abundance was also found to be similar to that in cold gas, suggesting that there is no increase in ionization in the clouds. The abundances of SO and CS, as well as CN and NH3, do not appear to differ significantly from those found in cold dark clouds, although chemistry models predict sulfur-containing species to undergo high-temperature enhancements. SiO, however, is found to have an abundance in the perturbed gas 100 times larger than the upper limits observed in the dark cloud TMC 1, a result in agreement with high temperature chemistry models. In addition, the HNC/HCN ratio in both IC 443 B and G was found to be approximately 0.1--far from the ratio of 1 predicted by low-temperature ion-molecule chemistry, but similar to the values observed in clouds where elevated temperatures are present.     

Period distributions in pulsating and binary stars

We analyze the hypothesis of quantization in bands for the angular momenta of binary systems and for the maount of actionA _c in stable and pulsating stars. This parameter isA _c=Mv _eff R _eff, where the effective velocity corresponds to the kinetic energy in the stellar interior and the effective radius corresponds to the potential energyGM ²/R _eff. Analogous parameters can be defined for a pulsating star withm=M where is the rate of the massm participating in the oscillation to the total massM andv _osc,R _osc the effective velocity and oscillation radius.From an elementary dimensional analysis one has thetA _c (energy x time) (period)^1/3 independently ifA _c corresponds to the angular momentum in a binary system, or to the oscillation in a pulsating star or the inner energy and its time-scaleP _eff in a stable star.From evolving stellar models one has that P _effP _eff(solar)1.22 hr a near-invariant for the Main Sequence and for the range of masses 0.6M <M<1.6M .With this one can give scalesn _k=kn ₁ withk integers andn ₁=(P/P ₁)^1/3 withP ₁=P _eff1.22 hr. In these scales proportional toA _c, one sees that the periods in binary and pulsating stars are clustered in discrete unitsn ₁,n ₂,n ₃, etc.This can be seen in pulsating Scuti, Cephei, RR Lyrae, W Virginis, Cephei, semi-regular variables, and Miras and in binary stars as cataclysmic binaries, W Ursa Majoris, Algols, and Lyrae with the corresponding subgroups in all these materials. Phase functions (n _k) in RR Lyrae and Cephei are also associated with discrete levelsn _k.the suggested scenario is that the potential energies and the amounts of actionE _p(t), A_c(t) are indeed time-dependent, but the stars remain more time in determinated most proble states. The Main Sequence itself is an example of this. These most probable states in binary systems, or pulsating or stable stars, must be associated with velocities sub-multiplesc/ _F , given by the velocity of light and the fine structure constant.Additional tests for such a hypothesis are suggested when the sufficient amount of observational data are available. They can made with oscillation velocities in pulsating stars and velocity differences of pairs of galaxies.     

Analysis of Neckel and Chini standard stars in theUBVRI photometric system

This paper studies the list of 60 faint standard stars of Neckel and Chini (1980) in theUBVRI Johnson photometric system. These standards have been used due to the collaboration in the HIPPARCOS project of our department, but this work was made in parallel of this and the results were not used.We have re-reduced the standard stars using our own method of reduction from a large number of selected observations made at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional and at the Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán, both at Calar Alto, Spain, and at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma Island, Spain.The reduction method used is explained and the results are given for the four colours used: (B-V),(U-B), (V-R), and (V-I), together with theV magnitude, that is, we have corrected many standard stars for each colour and magnitude. These results are supported with graphs where residual colour (o magnitude), is plotted against corresponding colour (or magnitude).Finally, our (V-R) and (V-I) results are compared to those of Tayloret al. (1989), with a good correspondence.Observations were made at Observatorio Astronómico Nacional and Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán, at Calar Alto, and in the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos at La Palma. This work was supported, in part, by the Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologia of Spain, under contract PB85-0017.     

Frequency-spectra solutions for multiperiodic variable stars: Analysis and interpretation of artificial data

An accurate and extensive analysis on the present possibility of obtaining definite, unambiguous frequency-spectra solutions for multiperiodic -Scuti stars has been performed using artificial data. Some convenient photometric data sampling techniques have been adopted to produce very realistic light curves, with gaps and noise and subsequently critically analyzed. Useful suggestions about those to adopt in order to detect very low-amplitude components of the signal have been inferred.The results obtained point out the need of extensive devoted series of measurements, spread over a very long time span and also over a wide baseline of observers.