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- ItemCold, Old, and Metal-poor: New Stellar Substructures in the Milky Way's Dwarf Spheroidals(London : Institute of Physics Publ., 2019) Lora, Veronica; Grebel, Eva K.; Schmeja, Stefan; Koch, AndreasDwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSph) orbiting the Milky Way are complex objects often with complicated star formation histories and internal dynamics. In this work, we search for stellar substructures in four of the classical dSph satellites of the Milky Way: Sextans, Carina, Leo I, and Leo II. We apply two methods to search for stellar substructure: the minimum spanning tree method, which helps us find and quantify spatially connected structures, and the "brute-force" method, which is able to find elongated stellar substructures. We detected the previously known substructure in Sextans and also found a new stellar substructure within Sextans. Furthermore, we identified a new stellar substructure close to the core radius of the Carina dwarf galaxy. We report a detection of one substructure in Leo I and two in Leo II, but we note that we are dealing with a low number of stars in the samples used. Such old stellar substructures in dSphs could help us shed light on the nature of the dark matter halos, within which such structures form, evolve, and survive.
- ItemStructure and mass segregation in Galactic stellar clusters(Oxford : Oxford Univ. Press, 2017) Dib, Sami; Schmeja, Stefan; Parker, Richard J.We quantify the structure of a very large number of Galactic open clusters and look for evidence of mass segregation for themostmassive stars in the clusters.We characterize the structure and mass segregation ratios of 1276 clusters in the Milky Way Stellar Cluster (MWSC) catalogue containing each at least 40 stars and that are located at a distance of up to ≈2 kpc from the Sun. We use an approach based on the calculation of the minimum spanning tree of the clusters, and for each one of them, we calculate the structure parameter Q and the mass segregation ratio ΓMSR. Our findings indicate that most clusters possess a Q parameter that falls in the range 0.7-0.8 and are thus neither strongly concentrated nor do they show significant substructure. Only 27 per cent can be considered centrally concentrated with Q values > 0.8. Of the 1276 clusters, only 14 per cent show indication of significant mass segregation (ΓMSR > 1.5). Furthermore, no correlation is found between the structure of the clusters or the degree of mass segregation with their position in the Galaxy. A comparison of the measured Q values for the young open clusters in the MWSC to N-body numerical simulations that follow the evolution of the Q parameter over the first 10 Myr of the clusters life suggests that the young clusters found in the MWSC catalogue initially possessed local mean volume densities of ρ* ≈ 10-100 M⊙ pc-3.
- ItemMassive stars reveal variations of the stellar initial mass function in the Milky Way stellar clusters(Oxford : Oxford Univ. Press, 2016) Dib, Sami; Schmeja, Stefan; Hony, SachaWe investigate whether the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal, or whether it varies significantly among young stellar clusters in the MilkyWay.We propose a method to uncover the range of variation of the parameters that describe the shape of the IMF for the population of young Galactic clusters.These parameters are the slopes in the low and high stellar mass regimes, γ and Γ, respectively, and the characteristic mass, Mch. The method relies exclusively on the high-mass content of the clusters, but is able to yield information on the distributions of parameters that describe the IMF over the entire stellar mass range. This is achieved by comparing the fractions of single and lonely massive O stars in a recent catalogue of the Milky Way clusters with a library of simulated clusters built with various distribution functions of the IMF parameters. The synthetic clusters are corrected for the effects of the binary population, stellar evolution, sample incompleteness, and ejected O stars. Our findings indicate that broad distributions of the IMF parameters are required in order to reproduce the fractions of single and lonely O stars in Galactic clusters. They also do not lend support to the existence of a cluster mass-maximum stellar mass relation. We propose a probabilistic formulation of the IMF whereby the parameters of the IMF are described by Gaussian distribution functions centred around γ = 0.91, Γ = 1.37, and Mch = 0.41 M⊙, and with dispersions of σγ = 0.25, σΓ = 0.60, and σMch = 0.27 M⊙ around these values.
- ItemIon-Acoustic Instabilities in a Multi-Ion Plasma(New York, NY [u.a.] : Hindawi, 2013) Abraham, Noble P.; Sebastian, Sijo; Sreekala, G.; Jayapal, R.; Anilkumar, C. P.; Chandu, VenugopalWe have, in this paper, studied the stability of the ion-acoustic wave in a plasma composed of hydrogen, positively and negatively charged oxygen ions, and electrons, which approximates very well the plasma environment around a comet. Modelling each cometary component (H+, O+, and O−) by a ring distribution, we find that ion-acoustic waves can be generated at frequencies comparable to the hydrogen ion plasma frequency. The dispersion relation has been solved both analytically and numerically. We find that the ratio of the ring speed (u⊥s) to the thermal spread (vts) modifies the dispersion characteristics of the ion-acoustic wave. The contrasting behaviour of the phase velocity of the ion-acoustic wave in the presence of O− ions for u⊥s > vts (and vice versa) can be used to detect the presence of negatively charged oxygen ions and also their thermalization.
- ItemIdentifying the energy release site in a solar microflare with a jet(Les Ulis : EDP Sciences, 2023) Battaglia, Andrea Francesco; Wang, Wen; Saqri, Jonas; Podladchikova, Tatiana; Veronig, Astrid M.; Collier, Hannah; Dickson, Ewan C. M.; Podladchikova, Olena; Monstein, Christian; Warmuth, Alexander; Schuller, Frédéric; Harra, Louise; Krucker, SämContext. One of the main science questions of the Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe missions deals with understanding how electrons in the lower solar corona are accelerated and how they subsequently access interplanetary space. Aims. We aim to investigate the electron acceleration and energy release sites as well as the manner in which accelerated electrons access the interplanetary space in the case of the SOL2021-02-18T18:05 event, a GOES A8 class microflare associated with a coronal jet. Methods. This study takes advantage of three different vantage points, Solar Orbiter, STEREO-A, and Earth, with observations drawn from eight different instruments, ranging from radio to X-ray. Multi-wavelength timing analysis combined with UV/EUV imagery and X-ray spectroscopy by Solar Orbiter/STIX (Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays) is used to investigate the origin of the observed emission during different flare phases. Results. The event under investigation satisfies the classical picture of the onset time of the acceleration of electrons coinciding with the jet and the radio type III bursts. This microflare features prominent hard X-ray (HXR) nonthermal emission down to at least 10 keV and a spectrum that is much harder than usual for a microflare with γ = 2.9 ± 0.3. From Eartha's vantage point, the microflare is seen near the limb, revealing the coronal energy release site above the flare loop in EUV, which, from STIX spectroscopic analysis, turns out to be hot (i.e., at roughly the same temperature of the flare). Moreover, this region is moving toward higher altitudes over time (∼30akmas-1). During the flare, the same region spatially coincides with the origin of the coronal jet. Three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic reconstructions of the propagating jet highlight that the ejected plasma moves along a curved trajectory. Conclusions. Within the framework of the interchange reconnection model, we conclude that the energy release site observed above-The-loop corresponds to the electron acceleration site, corroborating that interchange reconnection is a viable candidate for particle acceleration in the low corona on field lines open to interplanetary space.