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A fundamental assumption in our understanding of disks is that when the Toomre Q ≫ 1, the disk is stable against fragmentation into self-gravitating objects (and so cannot form planets via direct collapse). But if disks are turbulent, this neglects a spectrum of stochastic density fluctuations that can produce rare, high-density mass concentrations. Here, we use a recently developed analytic framework to predict the statistics of these fluctuations, i.e., the rate of fragmentation and mass spectrum of fragments formed in a turbulent Keplerian disk. Turbulent disks are never completely stable: we calculate the (always finite) probability of forming self-gravitating structures via stochastic turbulent density fluctuations in such disks. Modest sub-sonic turbulence above Mach number can produce a few stochastic fragmentation or “direct collapse” events over ∼Myr timescales, even if Q ≫ 1 and cooling is slow (tcool ≫ torbit). In transsonic turbulence this extends to Q ∼ 100. We derive the true Q-criterion needed to suppress such events, which scales exponentially with Mach number. We specify to turbulence driven by magneto-rotational instability, convection, or spiral waves and derive equivalent criteria in terms of Q and the cooling time. Cooling times ≳ 50 tdyn may be required to completely suppress fragmentation. These gravo-turbulent events produce mass spectra peaked near ∼(QMdisk/M*)2Mdisk (rocky-to-giant planet masses, increasing with distance from the star). We apply this to protoplanetary disk models and show that even minimum-mass solar nebulae could experience stochastic collapse events, provided a source of turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study archival HST [S II] 6716+30 and Hα images of the HH 34 outflow, taken in 1998.71 and in 2007.83. The ~9 yr time baseline and the high angular resolution of these observations allow us to carry out a detailed proper-motion study. We determine the proper motions of the substructure of the HH 34S bow shock (from the [S II] and Hα frames) and of the aligned knots within ~30" from the outflow source (only from the [S II] frames). We find that the present-day motions of the knots along the HH 34 jet are approximately ballistic, and that these motions directly imply the formation of a major mass concentration in ~900 yr, at a position similar to the one of the present-day HH 34S bow shock. In other words, we find that the knots along the HH 34 jet will merge to form a more massive structure, possibly resembling HH 34S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-standing problem is identifying the elusive progenitors of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), which can roughly be split into Chandraksekhar and sub-Chandrasekhar-mass events. An important difference between these two cases is the nucleosynthetic yield, which is altered by the increased neutron excess in Chandrasekhar progenitors due to their pre-explosion simmering and high central density. Based on these arguments, we show that the chemical composition of the most metal-rich star in the Ursa Minor dwarf galaxy, COS 171, is dominated by nucleosynthesis from a low-metallicity, low-mass, sub-Chandrasekhar-mass SN Ia. Key diagnostic abundance ratios include Mn/Fe and Ni/Fe, which could not have been produced by a Chandrasekhar-mass SN Ia. Large deficiencies of Ni/Fe, Cu/Fe and Zn/Fe also suggest the absence of alpha-rich freeze-out nucleosynthesis, favoring low-mass white dwarf progenitors of SNe Ia, near 0.95 M⊙, from comparisons to numerical detonation models. We also compare Mn/Fe and Ni/Fe ratios to the recent yields predicted by Shen et al., finding consistent results. To explain the [Fe/H] at −1.35 dex for COS 171 would require dilution of the SN Ia ejecta with ∼104M⊙ of material, which is expected for an SN remnant expanding into a warm interstellar medium with n ∼ 1 cm−3. In the future, finding more stars with the unique chemical signatures we highlight here will be important for constraining the rate and environments of sub-Chandrasekhar SNe Ia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macroscopic concepts pertaining to the Unruh effect are elaborated and used to clarify its physical manifestations. Based on a description of the motion of accelerated, spatially extended laboratories in Minkowski space in terms of Poincaré transformations, it is shown that, from a macroscopic perspective, an accelerated observer will not register with his measuring instruments any global thermal effects of acceleration in the inertial (Minkowskian) vacuum state. As is explained, this result is not in conflict with the well-known fact that microscopic probes used as thermometers respond non-trivially to acceleration if coupled to the vacuum. But this response cannot be interpreted as the effect of some exchange of thermal energy with a gas surrounding the observer; in fact, it is induced by the measuring process itself. It is also shown that genuine equilibrium states in a uniformly accelerated laboratory cannot be spatially homogeneous. In particular, these states coincide with the homogeneous inertial vacuum at sufficiently large distances from the horizon of the observer and consequently have the same (zero) temperature there. The analysis is carried out in the theory of a free massless scalar field; however the conclusion that the Unruh effect is not of a macroscopic thermal origin is generally valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We performed mapping observations of the Class I protostellar binary system L1551 NE in the C18O (J = 3–2), 13CO (J = 3–2), CS (J = 7–6), and SO (JN = 78–67) lines with the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE). The ASTE C18O data were combined with our previous SMA C18O data, which show a r ∼ 300 AU scale Keplerian disk around the protostellar binary system. The C18O maps show a ∼20,000 AU scale protostellar envelope surrounding the central Keplerian circumbinary disk. The envelope exhibits a northeast (blue) to southwest (red) velocity gradient along the minor axis, which can be interpreted as a dispersing gas motion with an outward velocity of 0.3 km s−1, while no rotational motion in the envelope is seen. In addition to the envelope, two ≲4000 AU scale, high-velocity (≳1.3 km s−1) redshifted 13CO and CS emission components are found ∼40″ southwest and ∼20″ west of the protostellar binary. These redshifted components are most likely outflow components driven from the neighboring protostellar source L1551 IRS 5, and are colliding with the envelope in L1551 NE. The net momentum, kinetic, and internal energies of the L1551 IRS 5 outflow components are comparable to those of the L1551 NE envelope, and the interactions between the outflows and the envelope are likely to cause the dissipation of the envelope and thus suppression of further growth of the mass and mass ratio of the central protostellar binary in L1551 NE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]