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An approach is presented to modify the work function of solution-processed sol-gel derived zinc oxide (ZnO) over an exceptionally wide range of more than 2.3 eV. This approach relies on the formation of dense and homogeneous self-assembled monolayers based on phosphonic acids with different dipole moments. This allows us to apply ZnO as charge selective bottom electrodes in either regular or inverted solar cell structures, using poly(3-hexylthiophene): phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester as the active layer. These devices compete with or even surpass the performance of the reference on indium tin oxide/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate. Our findings highlight the potential of properly modified ZnO as electron or hole extracting electrodes in hybrid optoelectronic devices. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
The structure of bulk liquid water was recently probed by x-ray scattering below the temperature limit of homogeneous nucleation (T-H) of similar to 232 K [J. A. Sellberg et al., Nature 510, 381-384 (2014)]. Here, we utilize a similar approach to study the structure of bulk liquid water below T-H using oxygen K-edge x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES). Based on previous XES experiments [T. Tokushima et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 460, 387-400 (2008)] at higher temperatures, we expected the ratio of the 1b(1)' and 1b(1)" peaks associated with the lone-pair orbital in water to change strongly upon deep supercooling as the coordination of the hydrogen (H-) bonds becomes tetrahedral. In contrast, we observed only minor changes in the lone-pair spectral region, challenging an interpretation in terms of two interconverting species. A number of alternative hypotheses to explain the results are put forward and discussed. Although the spectra can be explained by various contributions from these hypotheses, we here emphasize the interpretation that the line shape of each component changes dramatically when approaching lower temperatures, where, in particular, the peak assigned to the proposed disordered component would become more symmetrical as vibrational interference becomes more important. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
In this review I briefly summarize our knowledge of the X-ray emission from single WN, WC, and WO stars. These stars have relatively modest X-ray luminosities, typically not exceeding 1L⊙. The analysis of X-ray spectra usually reveals thermal plasma with temperatures reaching a few x10 MK. X-ray variability is detected in some WN stars. At present we don't fully understand how X-ray radiation in produced in WR stars, albeit there are some promising research avenues, such as the presence of CIRs in the winds of some stars. To fully understand WR stars we need to unravel mechanisms of X-ray production in their winds.
Using a code that employs a self-consistent method for computing the effects of photoionization on circumstellar gas dynamics, we model the formation of wind-driven nebulae around massive Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars. Our algorithm incorporates a simplified model of the photo-ionization source, computes the fractional ionization of hydrogen due to the photoionizing flux and recombination, and determines self-consistently the energy balance due to ionization, photo-heating and radiative cooling. We take into account changes in stellar properties and mass-loss over the star's evolution. Our multi-dimensional simulations clearly reveal the presence of strong ionization front instabilities. Using various X-ray emission models, and abundances consistent with those derived for W-R nebulae, we compute the X-ray flux and spectra from our wind bubble models. We show the evolution of the X-ray spectral features with time over the evolution of the star, taking the absorption of the X-rays by the ionized bubble into account. Our simulated X-ray spectra compare reasonably well with observed spectra of Wolf-Rayet bubbles. They suggest that X-ray nebulae around massive stars may not be easily detectable, consistent with observations.∗
WR Time Series Photometry
(2015)
We take a comprehensive look at Wolf Rayet photometric variability using the MOST satellite. This sample, consisting of 6 WR stars and 6 WC stars defies all typical photometric analysis. We do, however, confirm the presence of unusual periodic signals resembling sawtooth waves which are present in 11 out of 12 stars in this sample.
For some years now, spectroscopic measurements of massive stars in the amateur domain have been fulfilling professional requirements. Various groups in the northern and southern hemispheres have been established, running successful professional-amateur (ProAm) collaborative campaigns, e.g., on WR, O and B type stars. Today high quality data (echelle and long-slit) are regularly delivered and corresponding results published. Night-to-night long-term observations over months to years open a new opportunity for massive-star research. We introduce recent and ongoing sample campaigns (e.g. ∊ Aur, WR 134, ζ Pup), show respective results and highlight the vast amount of data collected in various data bases. Ultimately it is in the time-dependent domain where amateurs can shine most.
Context. Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars have a severe impact on their environments owing to their strong ionizing radiation fields and powerful stellar winds. Since these winds are considered to be driven by radiation pressure, it is theoretically expected that the degree of the wind mass-loss depends on the initial metallicity of WR stars.
Aims. Following our comprehensive studies of WR stars in the Milky Way, M31, and the LMC, we derive stellar parameters and mass-loss rates for all seven putatively single WN stars known in the SMC. Based on these data, we discuss the impact of a low-metallicity environment on the mass loss and evolution of WR stars.
Methods. The quantitative analysis of the WN stars is performed with the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) model atmosphere code. The physical properties of our program stars are obtained from fitting synthetic spectra to multi-band observations.
Results. In all SMC WN stars, a considerable surface hydrogen abundance is detectable. The majority of these objects have stellar temperatures exceeding 75 kK, while their luminosities range from 10(5.5) to 10(6.1) L-circle dot. The WN stars in the SMC exhibit on average lower mass-loss rates and weaker winds than their counterparts in the Milky Way, M31, and the LMC.
Conclusions. By comparing the mass-loss rates derived for WN stars in different Local Group galaxies, we conclude that a clear dependence of the wind mass-loss on the initial metallicity is evident, supporting the current paradigm that WR winds are driven by radiation. A metallicity effect on the evolution of massive stars is obvious from the HRD positions of the SMC WN stars at high temperatures and high luminosities. Standard evolution tracks are not able to reproduce these parameters and the observed surface hydrogen abundances. Homogeneous evolution might provide a better explanation for their evolutionary past.
In this review, I discuss the suitability of massive star progenitors, evolved in isolation or in interacting binaries, for the production of observed supernovae (SNe) IIb, Ib, Ic. These SN types can be explained through variations in composition. The critical need of non-thermal effects to produce He I lines favours low-mass He-rich ejecta (in which ^56 Ni can be more easily mixed with He) for the production of SNe IIb/Ib, which thus may arise preferentially from moderate-mass donors in interacting binaries. SNe Ic may instead arise from higher mass progenitors, He-poor or not, because their larger CO cores prevent efficient non-thermal excitation of He i lines. However, current single star evolution models tend to produce Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars at death that have a final mass of > 10 M⊙. Single WR star explosion models produce ejecta that are too massive to match the observed light curve widths and rise times of SNe IIb/Ib/Ic, unless their kinetic energy is systematically and far greater than the canonical value of 10^56 erg. Future work is needed to evaluate the energy/mass degeneracy in light curve properties. Alternatively, a greater mass loss during the WR phase, perhaps in the form of eruptions, as evidenced in SNe Ibn, may reduce the final WR mass. If viable, such explosions would nonetheless favour a SN Ic, not a Ib.
Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, as they are advanced stages of the life of massive stars, provide a good test for various physical processes involved in the modelling of massive stars, such as rotation and mass loss. In this paper, we show the outputs of the latest grids of single massive stars computed with the Geneva stellar evolution code, and compare them with some observations. We present a short discussion on the shortcomings of single stars models and we also briefly discuss the impact of binarity on the WR populations.
Wolf-Rayet Stars
(2015)
Nearly 150 years ago, the French astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet described stars with very conspicuous spectra that are dominated by bright and broad emission lines. Meanwhile termed Wolf-Rayet Stars after their discoverers, those objects turned out to represent important stages in the life of massive stars.
As the first conference in a long time that was specifically dedicated to Wolf-Rayet stars, an international workshop was held in Potsdam, Germany, from 1.-5. June 2015. About 100 participants, comprising most of the leading experts in the field as well as as many young scientists, gathered for one week of extensive scientific exchange and discussions. Considerable progress has been reported throughout, e.g. on finding such stars, modeling and analyzing their spectra, understanding their evolutionary context, and studying their circumstellar nebulae. While some major questions regarding Wolf-Rayet stars still remain open 150 years after their discovery, it is clear today that these objects are not just interesting stars as such, but also keystones in the evolution of galaxies.
These proceedings summarize the talks and posters presented at the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet workshop. Moreover, they also include the questions, comments, and discussions emerging after each talk, thereby giving a rare overview not only about the research, but also about the current debates and unknowns in the field. The Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) included Alceste Bonanos (Athens), Paul Crowther (Sheffield), John Eldridge (Auckland), Wolf-Rainer Hamann (Potsdam, Chair), John Hillier (Pittsburgh), Claus Leitherer (Baltimore), Philip Massey (Flagstaff), George Meynet (Geneva), Tony Moffat (Montreal), Nicole St-Louis (Montreal), and Dany Vanbeveren (Brussels).
I review our current understanding of the interaction between a Wolf-Rayet star's fast wind and the surrounding medium, and discuss to what extent the predictions of numerical simulations coincide with multiwavelength observations of Wolf-Rayet nebulae. Through a series of examples, I illustrate how changing the input physics affects the results of the numerical simulations. Finally, I discuss how numerical simulations together with multiwavelength observations of these objects allow us to unpick the previous mass-loss history of massive stars.
An overview of the known Wolf-Rayet (WR) population of the Milky Way is presented, including a brief overview of historical catalogues and recent advances based on infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations resulting in the current census of 642 (vl.13 online catalogue). The observed distribution of WR stars is considered with respect to known star clusters, given that ≤20% of WR stars in the disk are located in clusters. WN stars outnumber WC stars at all galactocentric radii, while early-type WC stars are strongly biased against the inner Milky Way. Finally, recent estimates of the global WR population in the Milky Way are reassessed, with 1,200±100 estimated, such that the current census may be 50% complete. A characteristic WR lifetime of 0.25 Myr is inferred for an initial mass threshold of 25 M⊙.
A significant number of the central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) are hydrogen-deficient, showing a chemical composition of helium, carbon, and oxygen. Most of them exhibit Wolf-Rayet-like emission line spectra, similar to those of the massive WC Pop I stars, and are therefore classified as of spectral type [WC]. In the last years, CSPNe of other Wolf-Rayet spectral subtypes have been identified, namely PB 8, which is of spectral type [WN/C], and IC 4663 and Abell 48, which are of spectral type [WN]. We review spectral analyses of Wolf-Rayet type central stars of different evolutionary stages and discuss the results in the context of stellar evolution. Especially we consider the question of a common evolutionary channel for [WC] stars. The constraints on the formation of [WN] or [WC/N] subtype stars will also be addressed.
The emission-line dominated spectra of Wolf-Rayet stars are formed in expanding layers of their atmosphere, i.e. in their strong stellar wind. Adequate modeling of such spectra has to face a couple of difficulties. Because of the supersonic motion, the radiative transfer is preferably formulated in the co-moving frame. The strong deviations from local thermodynamical equilibrium (LTE) require to solve the equations of statistical equilibrium for the population numbers, accounting for many hundred atomic energy levels and thousands of line transitions. Moreover, millions of lines from iron-group elements must be taken into account for their blanketing effect. Model atmospheres of the described kind can reproduce the observed WR spectra satisfyingly, and have been widely applied for corresponding spectral analyses.
We study the vertical extent of propeller structures in Saturn's rings (i) by extending the model of Spahn and Sremcevic (Spahn, F., Sremcevic, M. [2000]. Astron. Astrophys., 358, 368-372) to include the vertical direction and (ii) by performing N-body box simulations of a perturbing moonlet embedded into the rings. We find that the gravitational interaction of ring particles with a non-inclined moonlet does not induce considerable vertical excursions of ring particles, but causes a considerable thermal motion in the ring plane. We expect ring particle collisions to partly convert the lateral induced thermal motion into vertical excursions of ring particles in the course of a quasi-thermalization. The N-body box simulations lead to maximal propeller heights of about 0.6-0.8 Hill radii of the embedded perturbing moonlet. Moonlet sizes estimated by this relation are in good agreement with size estimates from radial propeller scalings for the propellers Bleriot and Earhart. For large propellers, the extended hydrodynamical propeller model predicts an exponential propeller height relaxation, confirmed by N-body box simulations of non-self gravitating ring particles. Exponential cooling constants, calculated from the hydrodynamical propeller model agree fairly well with values from fits to the tail of the azimuthal height decay of the N-body box simulations. From exponential cooling constants, determined from shadows cast by the propeller Earhart and imaged by the Cassini spacecraft, we estimate collision frequencies of about 6 collisions per particle per orbit in the propeller gap region and about 11 collisions per particle per orbit in the propeller wake region. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
We present results from VERITAS observations of the BL Lac object PG 1553+113 spanning the years 2010, 2011, and 2012. The time-averaged spectrum, measured between 160 and 560 GeV, is well described by a power law with a spectral index of 4.33 +/- 0.09. The time-averaged integral flux above 200 GeV measured for this period was (1.69 +/- 0.06) x 10(-11) photons cm(-2) s(-1), corresponding to 6.9% of the Crab Nebula flux. We also present the combined gamma-ray spectrum from the Fermi Large Area Telescope and VERITAS covering an energy range from 100 MeV to 560 GeV. The data are well fit by a power law with an exponential cutoff at 101.9 +/- 3.2 GeV. The origin of the cutoff could be intrinsic to PG 1553+113 or be due to the gamma-ray opacity of our universe through pair production off the extragalactic background light (EBL). Given lower limits to the redshift of z > 0.395 based on optical/UV observations of PG 1553+113, the cutoff would be dominated by EBL absorption. Conversely, the small statistical uncertainties of the VERITAS energy spectrum have allowed us to provide a robust upper limit on the redshift of PG 1553+113 of z <= 0.62. A strongly elevated mean flux of (2.50 +/- 0.14) x10(-11) photons cm(-2) s(-1) (10.3% of the Crab Nebula flux) was observed during 2012, with the daily flux reaching as high as (4.44 +/- 0.71) x10(-11) photons cm(-2) s(-1) (18.3% of the Crab Nebula flux) on MJD 56048. The light curve measured during the 2012 observing season is marginally inconsistent with a steady flux, giving a chi(2) probability for a steady flux of 0.03%.
Many chemical reactions in biological cells occur at very low concentrations of constituent molecules. Thus, transcriptional gene-regulation is often controlled by poorly expressed transcription-factors, such as E. coli lac repressor with few tens of copies. Here we study the effects of inherent concentration fluctuations of substrate-molecules on the seminal Michaelis-Menten scheme of biochemical reactions. We present a universal correction to the Michaelis-Menten equation for the reaction-rates. The relevance and validity of this correction for enzymatic reactions and intracellular gene-regulation is demonstrated. Our analytical theory and simulation results confirm that the proposed variance-corrected Michaelis-Menten equation predicts the rate of reactions with remarkable accuracy even in the presence of large non-equilibrium concentration fluctuations. The major advantage of our approach is that it involves only the mean and variance of the substrate-molecule concentration. Our theory is therefore accessible to experiments and not specific to the exact source of the concentration fluctuations.
Many chemical reactions in biological cells occur at very low concentrations of constituent molecules. Thus, transcriptional gene-regulation is often controlled by poorly expressed transcription-factors, such as E.coli lac repressor with few tens of copies. Here we study the effects of inherent concentration fluctuations of substrate-molecules on the seminal Michaelis-Menten scheme of biochemical reactions. We present a universal correction to the Michaelis-Menten equation for the reaction-rates. The relevance and validity of this correction for enzymatic reactions and intracellular gene-regulation is demonstrated. Our analytical theory and simulation results confirm that the proposed variance-corrected Michaelis-Menten equation predicts the rate of reactions with remarkable accuracy even in the presence of large non-equilibrium concentration fluctuations. The major advantage of our approach is that it involves only the mean and variance of the substrate-molecule concentration. Our theory is therefore accessible to experiments and not specific to the exact source of the concentration fluctuations.
Many chemical reactions in biological cells occur at very low concentrations of constituent molecules. Thus, transcriptional gene-regulation is often controlled by poorly expressed transcription-factors, such as E.coli lac repressor with few tens of copies. Here we study the effects of inherent concentration fluctuations of substrate-molecules on the seminal Michaelis-Menten scheme of biochemical reactions. We present a universal correction to the Michaelis-Menten equation for the reaction-rates. The relevance and validity of this correction for enzymatic reactions and intracellular gene-regulation is demonstrated. Our analytical theory and simulation results confirm that the proposed variance-corrected Michaelis-Menten equation predicts the rate of reactions with remarkable accuracy even in the presence of large non-equilibrium concentration fluctuations. The major advantage of our approach is that it involves only the mean and variance of the substrate-molecule concentration. Our theory is therefore accessible to experiments and not specific to the exact source of the concentration fluctuations.
Vacuum space charge induced kinetic energy shifts of O 1s and Ru 3d core levels in femtosecond soft X-ray photoemission spectra (PES) have been studied at a free electron laser (FEL) for an oxygen layer on Ru(0001). We fully reproduced the measurements by simulating the in-vacuum expansion of the photoelectrons and demonstrate the space charge contribution of the high-order harmonics in the FEL beam. Employing the same analysis for 400 nm pump-X-ray probe PES, we can disentangle the delay dependent Ru 3d energy shifts into effects induced by space charge and by lattice heating from the femtosecond pump pulse. (C) 2015 Author(s).