No Arabic abstract
Diffuse emission in the mid-infrared shows a wealth of structure, that lends itself to high-resolution structure analysis of the interstellar gas. A large part of the emission comes from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, excited by nearby ultra-violet sources. Can the observed diffuse emission structure be interpreted as column density structure? We discuss this question with the help of a set of model molecular clouds bathed in the radiation field of a nearby O-star. The correlation strength between column density and ``observed flux density strongly depends on the absolute volume density range in the region. Shadowing and irradiation effects may completely alter the appearance of an object. Irradiation introduces additional small-scale structure and it can generate structures resembling shells around HII-regions in objects that do not possess any shell-like structures whatsoever. Nevertheless, structural information about the underlying interstellar medium can be retrieved. In the more diffuse regime ($n({HI})lesssim 100$cm$^{-3}$), flux density maps may be used to trace the 3D density structure of the cloud via density gradients. Thus, while caution definitely is in order, mid-infrared surveys such as GLIMPSE will provide quantitative insight into the turbulent structure of the interstellar medium.
Observations of star-forming galaxies in the distant Universe (z > 2) are starting to confirm the importance of massive stars in shaping galaxy emission and evolution. Inevitably, these distant stellar populations are unresolved, and the limited data available must be interpreted in the context of stellar population synthesis models. With the imminent launch of JWST and the prospect of spectral observations of galaxies within a gigayear of the Big Bang, the uncertainties in modelling of massive stars are becoming increasingly important to our interpretation of the high redshift Universe. In turn, these observations of distant stellar populations will provide ever stronger tests against which to gauge the success of, and flaws in, current massive star models.
This review focuses on the current status of lattice calculations of three observables which are both phenomenologically and experimentally relevant and have been scrutinized recently. These three observables are the nucleon electromagnetic form factors, the momentum fraction, <x>, and the nucleon axial coupling, gA.
The effect of magnetic fields on the frequencies of toroidal oscillations of neutron stars is derived to lowest order. Interpreting the fine structure in the QPO power spectrum of magnetars following giant flares reported by Strohmayer and Watts (2006) to be Zeeman splitting of degenerate toroidal modes, we estimate a crustal magnetic field of order 10^{15} Gauss or more. We suggest that residual m, -m symmetry following such splitting might allow beating of individual frequency components that is slow enough to be observed.
Combining insights from both the effective field theory of quantum gravity and black hole thermodynamics, we derive two novel consistency relations to be satisfied by any quantum theory of gravity. First, we show that a particular combination of the number of massless (light) fields in the theory must take integer values. Second, we show that, once the massless spectrum is fixed, the Wilson coefficient of the Kretschmann scalar in the low-energy effective theory is fully determined by the logarithm of a single natural number.
Laboratory experiments can shed light on theories of new physics introduced in order to explain cosmological mysteries, including the nature of dark energy and dark matter. In this article I will focus on one particular example of this, the chameleon model. The chameleon is an example of a theory which could modify gravity on cosmological distance scales, but its non-linear behavior means that it can also be tested with suitably designed laboratory experiments. The aim of this overview is to present recent theoretical developments to the experimental community.