Mid-infrared, spatially resolved spectroscopy of the nucleus of the Circinus galaxy

High spatial resolution spectroscopy at 8–13 μm with T-ReCS on Gemini-S has revealed striking variations in the mid-infrared emission and absorption in the nucleus of the Circinus galaxy (hereafter Circinus) on subarcsecond scales. The core of Circinus is compact and obscured by a substantial column of cool silicate dust. Weak extended emission to the east and west coincides with the coronal line region and arises from featureless dust grains which are probably heated by line emission in the coronal emission zone. The extended emission on the east side of the nucleus displays a much deeper silicate absorption than that on the west, indicating significant columns of cool material along the line of sight and corresponding to an additional extinction of   A_V ∼ 25 mag  . Emission bands from aromatic hydrocarbons are not subject to this additional extinction, are relatively weak in the core and in the coronal line region, and are much more spatially extended than the continuum dust emission; they presumably arise in the circumnuclear star-forming regions. These data are interpreted in terms of an inclined disc-like structure around the nucleus extending over tens of parsecs and possibly related to the inner disc found from observations of water masers by Greenhill et al..     

Rotational evolution of protoneutron stars with hyperons: spin up or not?

We study the evolution of a rigidly rotating protoneutron star (PNS) with hyperons and nucleons or solely nucleons in its core due to the escape of trapped neutrinos. As the neutrinos escape, the core nucleonic neutron star (NS) expands and the stellar rotation slows. After the neutrinos escape, the range of the spin periods is narrower than the initial one, but the distribution is still nearly uniform. A PNS with hyperons, at the late stage of its evolution, keeps shrinking and spinning up until all the trapped neutrinos escape. Consequently, the distribution of the stellar initial spin periods is skewed towards shorter periods. If the hyperonic star is metastable, its rotational frequency accelerates distinguishedly before it collapses to a black hole.     

天文定位中几何精度衰减因子最小值分析

天文定位是一种重要的导航定位方法,被广泛应用于大地天文测量、天文航海等领域。该方法中观测恒星的选择会影响最终的定位精度,目前缺少针对同时测定经纬度天文定位算法中最优选星问题的研究。随着观测仪器自动化水平的提高,观测数据的获取变得更加高效,这就要求研究最优的选星方案以达到最高的定位精度。本文借鉴卫星导航中几何精度衰减因子GDOP的概念,研究了天顶距法中恒星的数量以及分布对定位精度的影响,最后通过仿真试验和实测数据验证得到结论:在天顶距观测误差的统计特性一定时,GDOP能够用来描述恒星的分布对定位结果影响的优劣,且观测的恒星方位角均匀分布时定位误差最小。考虑到不同高度的恒星天顶距大气折射改正残差不同,在实际测量中应尽量采用等天顶距且方位角均匀分布的恒星。     

金沙江水电站工程区典型单体滑坡风险评价探讨

在对金沙江流域内的部分大型水电站工程区内的滑坡分析基础上,以两个滑坡为例,针对水电站工程区讨论了单体滑坡的风险评价方法。选取滑坡稳定性,规模和可能造成的涌浪高度3个指标进行危险性评价;并且定性地将大坝的易损性确定为高、中、低三个等级。在此基础上,对研究区的牛滚函滑坡和东岳庙滑坡进行了危险性分析和易损性评价,得出这两个单体滑坡的风险分析结果：牛滚函滑坡为低度风险,东岳庙滑坡为中度风险。研究成果为水电站工程区滑坡减灾防灾与风险管理提供了科学依据。     

Membership and Segregation Effects in the Young Open Cluster NGC 6530

From photographic plate data of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory with a time baseline of 87 years, proper motions and membership probabilities of 364 stars in the open cluster NGC 6530 region are reduced. On the basis of membership determination, luminosity function and segregation effect of the cluster are discussed with details. Spatial mass segregation is obviously present in NGC 6530 while there is no clear evidence for a velocity-mass (or velocity-luminosity) dependence. The observed spatial mass segregation for NGC 6530 might be due to a combination of initial conditions and relaxation process.     

Photo—gravitational effects in the two—body problem

The effect of the radiation-pressure in the problem of the two bodies is analysed. It is found that such an effect is the same as that of reducing the stellar mass, m, by the factor p (0 ≤ p ≤ 1). The case p < 0 leads to stellar instability and, consequently, it is not considered here. The problem of the mass determination from spectroscopic observations is reviewed and an iterative method is recommended.     

The analysis of indexed astronomical time series – VI. Covariances of amplitude ratios and phase differences estimated from multicolour photometry of a pulsating star

One of the tools used to identify the pulsation modes of stars is a comparison of the amplitudes and phases as observed photometrically at different wavelengths. Proper application of the method requires that the errors on the measured quantities, and the correlations between them, be known (or at least estimated). It is assumed that contemporaneous measurements of the light intensity of a pulsating star are obtained in several wavebands. It is also assumed that the measurements are regularly spaced in time, although there may be missing observations. The amplitude and phase of the pulsation are estimated separately for each of the wavebands, and amplitude ratios and phase differences are calculated. A general scheme for estimating the covariance matrix of the amplitude ratios and phase differences is described. The first step is to fit a time series to the residuals after pre-whitening the observations by the best-fitting sinusoid. The residuals are then cross-correlated to study the interdependence between the errors in the different wavebands. Once the multivariate time-series structure can be modelled, the covariance matrix can be found by bootstrapping. An illustrative application is described in detail.