The inner scale of the plasma turbulence towards PSR J1644−4559

By measuring the decaying shape of the scatter-broadened pulse from the bright distant pulsar PSR J1644−4559, we probe waves scattered at relatively high angles by very small spatial scales in the interstellar plasma, which allows us to test for a wavenumber cutoff in the plasma density spectrum. Under the hypothesis that the density spectrum is due to plasma turbulence, we can thus investigate the (inner) scale at which the turbulence is dissipated. We report observations carried out with the Parkes radio telescope at 660 MHz from which we find strong evidence for an inner scale in the range 70–100 km, assuming an isotropic Kolmogorov spectrum. By identifying the inner scale with the ion inertial scale, we can also estimate the mean electron density of the scattering region to be 5–10 cm⁻³. This is comparable with the electron density of H  ii region G339.1−0.4, which lies in front of the pulsar, and so confirms that this region dominates the scattering. We conclude that the plasma inside the region is characterized by fully developed turbulence with an outer scale in the range 1–20 pc and an inner scale of 70–100 km. The shape of the rising edge of the pulse constrains the distribution of the strongly scattering plasma to be spread over about 20 per cent of the 4.6 kpc path from the pulsar, but with similarly high electron densities in two or more thin layers, their thicknesses can only be 10–20 pc.     

Study of the dependence of the star formation rate in the nuclear regions of 39 Kazarian galaxies on their integral parameters

A statistical study of the dependence of the star formation rate in the nuclear regions of 39 Kazarian galaxies on the integral parameters of these galaxies is carried out on the basis of spectra from SDSS DR6. The value of SFR/kpc² for our sample lies in the range 0.013÷2.04M _⨀ year⁻¹kpc⁻² (with the maximum value of 2.04 corresponding to the Kaz 98 (merger)). It is found that the surface density of the rate of star formation correlates positively with the bar structure parameter and EW(Hα), and that, for spiral galaxies of early morphological types, SFR/kpc² is greater than for the later types. It is shown that the color B-R for the galaxies and the color (u − g) _nucl for the nuclear region correlate positively with the total absorption A(Hα) in the Ha line for the nuclear region. The average value of A(Hα) for our samples is found to be A(Hα)=1.3±0.09 magnitudes. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 211–224 (May 2009).     

GPS观测研究青藏东北缘的水平变形特征

推导了利用位移场计算主应变、面膨胀、最大剪应变的公式,通过2次重复GPS观测结果,计算了新青藏高原东北缘在1999～2001年间的水平主应变、面膨胀、最大剪应变等水平变形特征量的分布,并分析了在观测后发生的德令哈6．6级地震活动与变形场特征量之间的分布关系。采用力学理论对该地区的地质构造运动、局部形变特征与地震活动的关系进行了讨论。得出了一些有意义的结论和认识。     

经济欠发达地区县域旅游规划的若干思考--以安徽庐江县为例

文章论述了各种尺度的旅游规划在全国掀起新一轮高潮的情况下,许多经济欠发达地区争相把旅游业作为区域经济的增长极,试图以此改善自身经济状况。然而,在经济欠发达县域旅游规划中的一些特有问题很值得关注,如:小范围的行政界线对旅游规划的制约作用、客源市场分析方法的独特性以及薄弱的经济基础与旅游开发资金投入之间的矛盾等问题。文章以安徽庐江县为例对上述问题进行了分析,并提出了相应对策。     

X‐rays from young stars: A summary of highlights from the XMM‐Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST)

The XMM‐Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST) is a survey of the nearest large star‐forming region, the Taurus Molecular Cloud (TMC), making use of all instruments on board the XMM‐Newton X‐ray observatory. The survey, presently still growing, has provided unprecedented spectroscopic results from nearly every observed T Tauri star, and from ≈50% of the studied brown dwarfs and protostars. The survey includes the first coherent statistical sample of high‐resolution spectra of T Tauri stars, and is accompanied by an U ‐band/ultraviolet imaging photometric survey of the TMC. XEST led to the discovery of new, systematic X‐ray features not possible before with smaller samples, in particular the X‐ray soft excess in classical T Tauri stars and the Two‐Absorber X‐ray (TAX) spectra of jet‐driving T Tauri stars. This paper summarizes highlights from XEST and reviews the key role of this large project. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

High-mass star forming regions: An ALMA view

The advent of ALMA is bound to improve our knowledge of OB star formation dramatically. Here, we present an overview of this topic outlining how high angular resolution and sensitivity may contribute to shed light on the structure of high-mass star forming regions and hence on the process itself of massive star formation. The impact of this new generation instrument will range from establishing the mass function of pre-stellar cores inside IR-dark clouds, to investigating the kinematics of the gas from which OB stars are built up, to assessing or ruling out the existence of circumstellar accretion disks in these objects.     

A Spitzer survey of young stellar objects in the Rosette Molecular Cloud

We present results from a survey of the Rosette Molecular Cloud (RMC) using both the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope . We have mapped a region of active star formation covering an area approximately 1° by 1.5° including several previously known clusters. Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) fitted to our data combined with that from Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) are used to identify young stellar objects (YSOs) with infrared (IR) excesses. We find that roughly 50 per cent of the sources are forming in clustered environments and identify seven clusters of IR excess sources including four that were previously unknown. We investigate evidence for triggering of star formation due to the ionization front, identified in Brackett-α emission, associated with the young open cluster NGC 2244. Although the position of several of the clusters of IR excess sources are coincident with the ionization front, the bulk of the youngest YSOs are located far from the ionization front, in clusters located along the mid-plane of the cloud. We conclude that although triggering from the H  ii nebula is a possible origin for some of the recent star formation, the majority of the active star formation is occurring in already dense regions of the cloud not compressed by the expansion of the H  ii region.     

Decameter Type III-Like Bursts

We report the first observations of Type III-like bursts at frequencies 10 – 30 MHz. More than 1000 such bursts during 2002 – 2004 have been analyzed. The frequency drift of these bursts is several times that of decameter Type III bursts. A typical duration of the Type III-like bursts is 1 – 2 s. These bursts are mainly observed when the source active region is located within a few days from the central meridian. The drift rate of the Type III-like bursts can take a large value by considering the velocity of Type III electrons and the group velocity of generated electromagnetic waves.     

Investigation of the linear polarization in infrared absorption bands

We consider the effects of the grain size, shape, structure, and chemical composition as well as the angle between the grain rotation axis and the incident ray on the full widths at half maximum (FWHM) of the polarization bands in the two deepest infrared absorption bands observed in the spectra of protostars, the water-ice band centered at 3.1 μm and the silicate band centered at 9.7 μm, using a core—mantle confocal spheroid model with various axial ratios a/b and relative volumes of the core material. We have found that the observed polarization bands with FWHM_p < 0.3 μm in the water-ice absorption band can be explained only by oblate and prolate particles with r _v ≤ 0.35 μm and the polarization bands with FWHM_p ≈ 0.3 μm can be explained only by particles with r _v ≈ 0.35 μm. Broad silicate absorption bands (FWHM ≈ 3 μm) with broad polarization bands (FWHM_p ≈ 2.7 μm) can be explained by particles with r _v ≈ 0.35 μm. Narrow silicate absorption bands (FWHM ≤ 3 μm) with any FWHM of the polarization bands can be explained by a mixture of particles of two types of olivine. Narrow polarization bands (FWHM_p ≈ 2 μm) with broad absorption bands can be explained only by very small particles, r _v ≤ 0.1 μm. We have found the relationships between the effective polarization and extinction cross sections and estimated the ranges of observed polarizabilities that can be explained by particles of given shape and orientation in each of the bands independently. Independent studies of the observational data for each of the bands are shown to give a wider choice of particle model parameters.