Light echoes from ancient supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud

The light from historical supernovae could in principle still be visible as scattered-light echoes centuries after the explosion. The detection of light echoes could allow us to pinpoint the supernova event both in position and age and, most importantly, permit the acquisition of spectra to determine the 'type' of the supernova centuries after the direct light from the explosion first reached Earth. Although echoes have been discovered around some nearby extragalactic supernovae, targeted searches have not found any echoes in the regions of historical Galactic supernovae. Here we report three faint variable-surface-brightness complexes with high apparent proper motions pointing back to three of the six smallest (and probably youngest) previously catalogued supernova remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which are believed to have been thermonuclear (type Ia) supernovae. Using the distance and apparent proper motions of these echo arcs, we estimate ages of 610 and 410 years for two of them.     

Pulsar spins from an instability in the accretion shock of supernovae

Rotation-powered radio pulsars are born with inferred initial rotation periods of order 300 ms (some as short as 20 ms) in core-collapse supernovae. In the traditional picture, this fast rotation is the result of conservation of angular momentum during the collapse of a rotating stellar core. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that pulsar spin is directly correlated with the rotation of the progenitor star. So far, however, stellar theory has not been able to explain the distribution of pulsar spins, suggesting that the birth rotation is either too slow or too fast. Here we report a robust instability of the stalled accretion shock in core-collapse supernovae that is able to generate a strong rotational flow in the vicinity of the accreting proto-neutron star. Sufficient angular momentum is deposited on the proto-neutron star to generate a final spin period consistent with observations, even beginning with spherically symmetrical initial conditions. This provides a new mechanism for the generation of neutron star spin and weakens, if not breaks, the assumed correlation between the rotational periods of supernova progenitor cores and pulsar spin.     

核心坍缩超新星中心黑洞超吸积在星系尺度上的贡献

核心坍缩超新星(Core-Collapse Supernova,CCSN)是大质量恒星演化末期的爆发现象,产生了宇宙中大多数的中子星和恒星级黑洞等致密天体.爆发可能伴随着强磁场中子星或黑洞超吸积引发的剧烈长时标伽马射线暴.CCSN还被认为是宇宙重元素的主要来源之一.本综述介绍了我们近期对CCSN中心黑洞超吸积过程的系列研究成果,主要包括研究了大质量星系中心附近伽马射线暴余辉阶段,因大量暗物质粒子湮灭电子注入而引发的光变和能谱的形态变化,探讨了其作为暗物质探测手段的可能性;研究了坍缩星框架下,中微子主导吸积流外流对核合成的贡献,及对太阳临近空间、(活动)星系等化学组分和演化的影响;最后,从数值模拟角度讨论了CCSN起源的致密天体质量分布,给出了低质量间隙可能起源于CCSN爆发能量分布的结论.     

Pulsational pair instability as an explanation for the most luminous supernovae

The extremely luminous supernova SN 2006gy (ref. 1) challenges the traditional view that the collapse of a stellar core is the only mechanism by which a massive star makes a supernova, because it seems too luminous by more than a factor of ten. Here we report that the brightest supernovae in the modern Universe arise from collisions between shells of matter ejected by massive stars that undergo an interior instability arising from the production of electron-positron pairs. This 'pair instability' leads to explosive burning that is insufficient to unbind the star, but ejects many solar masses of the envelope. After the first explosion, the remaining core contracts and searches for a stable burning state. When the next explosion occurs, several solar masses of material are again ejected, which collide with the earlier ejecta. This collision can radiate 10(50) erg of light, about a factor of ten more than an ordinary supernova. Our model is in good agreement with the observed light curve for SN 2006gy and also shows that some massive stars can produce more than one supernova-like outburst.     

Type II supernovae as a significant source of interstellar dust

Large amounts of dust (>10(8)M(o)) have recently been discovered in high-redshift quasars and galaxies corresponding to a time when the Universe was less than one-tenth of its present age. The stellar winds produced by stars in the late stages of their evolution (on the asymptotic giant branch of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram) are thought to be the main source of dust in galaxies, but they cannot produce that dust on a short enough timescale (&<1 Gyr) to explain the results in the high-redshift galaxies. Supernova explosions of massive stars (type II) are also a potential source, with models predicting 0.2-4M(o) of dust. As massive stars evolve rapidly, on timescales of a few Myr, these supernovae could be responsible for the high-redshift dust. Observations of supernova remnants in the Milky Way, however, have hitherto revealed only 10(-7)-10(-3)M(o) each, which is insufficient to explain the high-redshift data. Here we report the detection of approximately 2-4M(o) of cold dust in the youngest known Galactic supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A. This observation implies that supernovae are at least as important as stellar winds in producing dust in our Galaxy and would have been the dominant source of dust at high redshifts.     

First-generation black-hole-forming supernovae and the metal abundance pattern of a very iron-poor star

It has been proposed theoretically that the first generation of stars in the Universe (population III) would be as massive as 100 solar masses (100 M(O)), because of inefficient cooling of the precursor gas clouds. Recently, the most iron-deficient (but still carbon-rich) low-mass star--HE0107-5240--was discovered. If this is a population III star that gained its metals (elements heavier than helium) after its formation, it would challenge the theoretical picture of the formation of the first stars. Here we report that the patterns of elemental abundance in HE0107-5240 (and other extremely metal-poor stars) are in good accord with the nucleosynthesis that occurs in stars with masses of 20-130 M(O) when they become supernovae if, during the explosions, the ejecta undergo substantial mixing and fallback to form massive black holes. Such supernovae have been observed. The abundance patterns are not, however, consistent with enrichment by supernovae from stars in the range 130-300 M(O). We accordingly infer that the first-generation supernovae came mostly from explosions of approximately 20-130 M(O) stars; some of these produced iron-poor but carbon- and oxygen-rich ejecta. Low-mass second-generation stars, like HE0107-5240, could form because the carbon and oxygen provided pathways for the gas to cool.     

生命起源中的对称性破缺

生命起源中的对称性破缺——生物分子手性均一性,是生命科学中的长期未解之谜。自然界中组成蛋白质的20种氨基酸(除甘氨酸无不对称碳原子外)全部是L型,组成RNA,DNA中的核糖却全部是D型。对蛋白质和核酸的手性、分子构型(D和L)和旋光(+和-,右旋光和左旋光)概念作了阐明。对当前国际上最著名的两大学说—β粒子极化和手性分子的相互作用与萨拉姆假说以及国内外的研究工作,结合科研组10几年来的实验研究和理论观点作了较为全面的评述。     

Infrared diffuse interstellar bands in the Galactic Centre region

The spectrum of any star viewed through a sufficient quantity of diffuse interstellar material reveals a number of absorption features collectively called 'diffuse interstellar bands' (DIBs). The first DIBs were reported about 90 years ago, and currently well over 500 are known. None of them has been convincingly identified with any specific element or molecule, although recent studies suggest that the DIB carriers are polyatomic molecules containing carbon. Most of the DIBs currently known are at visible and very near-infrared wavelengths, with only two previously known at wavelengths beyond one micrometre (10,000 ?ngstr?ms), the longer of which is at 1.318?micrometres (ref. 6). Here we report 13 diffuse interstellar bands in the 1.5-1.8 micrometre interval on high-extinction sightlines towards stars in the Galactic Centre. We argue that they originate almost entirely in the Galactic Centre region, a considerably warmer and harsher environment than where DIBs have been observed previously. The relative strengths of these DIBs towards the Galactic Centre and the Cygnus OB2 diffuse cloud are consistent with their strengths scaling mainly with the extinction by diffuse material.     

Quasicrystalline valence bands in decagonal AlNiCo

Quasicrystals are metallic alloys that possess perfect long-range structural order, in spite of the fact that their rotational symmetries are incompatible with long-range periodicity. The exotic structural properties of this class of materials are accompanied by physical properties that are unexpected for metallic alloys. Considerable progress in resolving the geometric structures of quasicrystals has been made using X-ray and neutron diffraction, and concepts such as the quasi-unit-cell model have provided theoretical insights. But the basic properties of the valence electronic states--whether they are extended as in periodic crystals or localized as in amorphous materials--are still largely unresolved. Here we investigate the electronic bandstructure of quasicrystals through angle-resolved photoemission experiments on decagonal Al71.8Ni14.8Co13.4. We find that the s-p and d states exhibit band-like behaviour with the symmetry of the quasiperiodic lattice, and that the Fermi level is crossed by dispersing d-bands. The observation of free-electron-like bands, distributed in momentum space according to the surface diffraction pattern, suggests that the electronic states are not dominated by localization.     

Dilatant shear bands in solidifying metals

Compacted granular materials expand in response to shear, and can exhibit different behaviour from that of the solids, liquids and gases of which they are composed. Application of the physics of granular materials has increased the understanding of avalanches, geological faults, flow in hoppers and silos, and soil mechanics. During the equiaxed solidification of metallic alloys, there exists a range of solid fractions where the microstructure consists of a geometrically crowded disordered assembly of crystals saturated with liquid. It is therefore natural to ask if such a microstructure deforms as a granular material and what relevance this might have to solidification processing. Here we show that partially solidified alloys can exhibit the characteristics of a cohesionless granular material, including Reynolds' dilatancy and strain localization in dilatant shear bands 7-18 mean crystals wide. We show that this behaviour is important in defect formation during high pressure die casting of Al and Mg alloys, a global industry that contributes over $7.3 billion to the USA's economy alone and is used in the manufacture of products that include mobile-phone covers and steering wheels. More broadly, these findings highlight the potential to apply the principles and modelling approaches developed in granular mechanics to the field of solidification processing, and also indicate the possible benefits that might be gained from exploring and exploiting further synergies between these fields.     

Origin of the algae

Eukaryotic algae are traditionally separated into three broad divisions: the rhodophytes, the chromophytes and the chlorophytes. The evolutionary relationships between these groups, their links with other eukaryotes and with other photosynthetic groups, such as euglenophytes and cryptophytes, have been the subject of much debate and speculation. Here we analyse partial sequences of the large (28S) cytoplasmic ribosomal RNA from ten new species of protists belonging to various groups of unicellular algae. By combining them with the homologous sequences from 14 other unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes, we show that rhodophytes, chromophytes and chlorophytes emerge as three distinct groups late among eukaryotes, that is, close to the metazoa-metaphytes radiation. This implies a relatively late occurrence of eukaryotic photosynthetic symbiosis. We also provide details of intra- and inter-phyla relationships.     

铁矿石中全铁的分析方法改进

该文介绍了无汞测铁技术应用于铁矿石中全铁的测定新方法。用甲基橙作SnCl2还原Fe3＋的指示剂,再用K2Cr2O7标准溶液滴定亚铁。     

生命起源中的RNA World(核糖核酸世界)

RNA World(核糖核酸世界)是随着核酶的发现而提出的，它解决了长期困扰生命起源研究的主要难题之一——鸡一蛋悖论。1987年RNA World提出以后，立即成为科学热点之一；随后的研究取得了重要的实验证据支持生命起源中RNA World的存在。虽然仍然有一些难题，RNA World仍然是目前科学界最广泛接受的生命起源理论之一。本文认为，RNA World理论是堪与1938年A．Opar1n的现代生命起源理论及1953年Stanley Miller的放电实验相提并论的重大进展。研究RNA World的过程中．出现了一系列对分子生物学有普遍意义的重要新概念及新方法。本文强调应加强对生命起源等基本科学问题的关注。     

Topological flat bands in twisted trilayer graphene

Twisted trilayer graphene(TLG)may be the simplest realistic system so far,which has flat bands with nontrivial topology.Here,we give a comprehensive calculation...     

论生物手性的起源

在综述生物大分子手性起源的各种理论的基础上，提出了手性起源的三步理论，