No Arabic abstract
Context. Observations of molecular gas have played a key role in developing the current understanding of the late stages of stellar evolution. Aims. The survey Planetary nebulae AND their cO Reservoir with APEX (PANDORA) was designed to study the circumstellar shells of evolved stars with the aim to estimate their physical parameters. Methods. Millimetre carbon monoxide (CO) emission is the most useful probe of the warm molecular component ejected by low- to intermediate-mass stars. CO is the second-most abundant molecule in the Universe, and the millimeter transitions are easily excited, thus making it particularly useful to study the mass, structure, and kinematics of the molecular gas. We present a large survey of the CO (J = 3 - 2) line using the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) telescope in a sample of 93 proto-planetary nebulae and planetary nebulae. Results. CO (J = 3 - 2) was detected in 21 of the 93 objects. Conclusions. CO (J = 3 - 2) was detected in all 4 observed pPNe (100%), 15 of the 75 PNe (20%), one of the 4 wide binaries (25%), and in 1 of the 10 close binaries (10%). Using the CO (J = 3 - 2) line, we estimated the column density and mass of each source.
Gaia and its complementary spectroscopic surveys combined will yield the most comprehensive database of kinematic and chemical information of stars in the Milky Way. The Gaia FGK benchmark stars play a central role in this matter as they are calibration pillars for the atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances for various surveys. The spectroscopic analyses of the benchmark stars are done by combining different methods, and the results will be affected by the systematic uncertainties inherent in each method. In this paper we explore some of these systematic uncertainties. We determined line abundances of Ca, Cr, Mn and Co for four benchmark stars using six different methods. We changed the default input parameters of the different codes in a systematic way and found in some cases significant differences between the results. Since there is no consensus on the correct values for many of these default parameters, we urge the community to raise discussions towards standard input parameters that could alleviate the difference in abundances obtained by different methods. In this work we provide quantitative estimates of uncertainties in elemental abundances due to the effect of differing technical assumptions in spectrum modelling.
We observed the CO(3-2) emission of the emission-line regions HubbleI, HubbleV, HubbleX, Holmberg 18, and the stellar emission-line object S28 in NGC6822 with the ESO Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) 12m telescope as part of its science verification. The very low system temperature of 130-180K enabled us to achieve detections in 4 single pointings and in a high spatial resolution 70x70 map of HubbleV. We compare the spectra with HI observations, obtained with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, of the same regions. In combination with previous multi-line CO observations, we perform a preliminary investigation of the physical conditions in HubbleV using a simple LTE model. We estimate the mass of the HubbleV region and the H_2/I_CO(3-2) conversion factor. Also, we show that HubbleV is located very near the line-width versus size relation traced by the Milky Way and LMC molecular clouds.
The edges of ionized (HII) regions are important sites for the formation of (high-mass) stars. Indeed, at least 30% of the galactic high mass star formation is observed there. The radiative and compressive impact of the HII region could induce the star formation at the border following different mechanisms such as the Collect & Collapse (C&C) or the Radiation Driven Implosion (RDI) models and change their properties. We study the properties of two zones located in the Photo Dissociation Region (PDR) of the Galactic HII region RCW120 and discussed them as a function of the physical conditions and young star contents found in both clumps. Using the APEX telescope, we mapped two regions of size 1.5$times$1.5 toward the most massive clump of RCW120 hosting young massive sources and toward a clump showing a protrusion inside the HII region and hosting more evolved low-mass sources. The $^{12}$CO($J=3-2$), $^{13}$CO($J=3-2$) and C$^{18}$O($J=3-2$) lines are used to derive the properties and dynamics of these clumps. We discuss their relation with the hosted star-formation. The increase of velocity dispersion and $T_{ex}$ are found toward the center of the maps, where star-formation is observed with Herschel. Furthermore, both regions show supersonic Mach number. No strong evidences have been found concerning the impact of far ultraviolet (FUV) radiation on C$^{18}$O photodissociation. The fragmentation time needed for the C&C to be at work is equivalent to the dynamical age of RCW120 and the properties of region B are in agreement with bright-rimmed clouds. It strengthens the fact that, together with evidences of compression, C&C might be at work at the edges of RCW120. Additionally, the clump located at the eastern part of the PDR is a good candidate of pre-existing clump where star-formation may be induced by the RDI mechanism.
The Pandoras Box Problem, originally formalized by Weitzman in 1979, models selection from set of random, alternative options, when evaluation is costly. This includes, for example, the problem of hiring a skilled worker, where only one hire can be made, but the evaluation of each candidate is an expensive procedure. Weitzman showed that the Pandoras Box Problem admits an elegant, simple solution, where the options are considered in decreasing order of reservation value,i.e., the value that reduces to zero the expected marginal gain for opening the box. We study for the first time this problem when order - or precedence - constraints are imposed between the boxes. We show that, despite the difficulty of defining reservation values for the boxes which take into account both in-depth and in-breath exploration of the various options, greedy optimal strategies exist and can be efficiently computed for tree-like order constraints. We also prove that finding approximately optimal adaptive search strategies is NP-hard when certain matroid constraints are used to further restrict the set of boxes which may be opened, or when the order constraints are given as reachability constraints on a DAG. We complement the above result by giving approximate adaptive search strategies based on a connection between optimal adaptive strategies and non-adaptive strategies with bounded adaptivity gap for a carefully relaxed version of the problem.
In this paper we give a progress report on the Herschel imaging and spectroscopic observations of planetary nebulae that are carried out as part of the MESS guaranteed time key program. We present and discuss imaging and temperature maps of NGC 6720, NGC 650, and NGC 6853, as well as PACS and SPIRE spectroscopy of NGC 7027.