We present the first detailed study of the large, ~30 pc diameter, inner-Galaxy HII region W 39. Radio recombination line observations combined with HI absorption spectra and Galactic rotation models show that the region lies at V(LSR) = +65.4+/-0.5
km/s corresponding to a near kinematic distance of 4.5+/-0.2 kpc. Analysis of radio continuum emission shows that the HII region is being powered by a cluster of OB stars with a combined hydrogen-ionizing luminosity of log(Q) >=50, and that there are three compact HII regions located on the periphery of W 39, each with log(Q)~48.5 (single O7 - O9 V star equivalent). In the infrared, W 39 has a hierarchical bubble morphology, and is a likely site of sequential star formation involving massive stars. Kinematic models of the expansion of W 39 yield timescales of order Myr consistent with a scenario where the formation of the smaller HII regions has been triggered by the expansion of W 39. Using Spitzer GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL data we show that star-formation activity is not distributed uniformly around the periphery of W 39 but is concentrated in two areas that include the compact HII regions as well as a number of intermediate-mass Class I and Class II YSOs.
The branching fractions of D_s meson decays serve to normalize many measurements of processes involving charm quarks. Using 298 /pb of e+ e- collisions recorded at a center of mass energy of 4.17 GeV, we determine absolute branching fractions for eig
ht D_s decays with a double tag technique. In particular we determine the branching fraction B(D_s -> K- K+ pi+) = (5.50 +- 0.23 +- 0.16)%, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic respectively. We also provide partial branching fractions for kinematic subsets of the K- K+ pi+ decay mode.
