Magnetar-like emission from the young pulsar in Kes 75

We report the detection of magnetar-like x-ray bursts from the young pulsar PSR J1846-0258, at the center of the supernova remnant Kes 75. This pulsar, long thought to be exclusively rotation-powered, has an inferred surface dipolar magnetic field of 4.9 x 10(13) gauss, which is higher than those of the vast majority of rotation-powered pulsars, but lower than those of the approximately 12 previously identified magnetars. The bursts were accompanied by a sudden flux increase and an unprecedented change in timing behavior. These phenomena lower the magnetic and rotational thresholds associated with magnetar-like behavior and suggest that in neutron stars there exists a continuum of magnetic activity that increases with inferred magnetic field strength.     

Radio stars

Up to the present time six classes of radio stars have been established. The signals are almost always very faint and drastically variable. Hence their discovery has owed as much to serendipity as to the highly sophisticated equipment and techniques that have been used. When the variations are regular, as with the pulsars, this characteristic can be exploited very successfully in the search for new objects as well as in the detailed study of those that are already known. The detection of the most erratically variable radio stars, the flare stars and the x-ray stars, is primarily a matter of luck and patience. In the case of the novas, one at least knows where and oughly when to look for radio emission. A very sensitive interferometer is clearly the best instrument to use in the initial detection of a radio star. The fact that weak background sources are frequently present makes it essential to prove that the position of a radio source agrees with that of a star to within a few arc seconds. The potential of radio astronomy for the study of radio stars will not be realized until more powerful instruments than those that are available today can be utilized. So far, we have been able to see only the most luminous of the radio stars.     

Transformation of a star into a planet in a millisecond pulsar binary

Millisecond pulsars are thought to be neutron stars that have been spun-up by accretion of matter from a binary companion. Although most are in binary systems, some 30% are solitary, and their origin is therefore mysterious. PSR J1719-1438, a 5.7-millisecond pulsar, was detected in a recent survey with the Parkes 64-meter radio telescope. We show that this pulsar is in a binary system with an orbital period of 2.2 hours. The mass of its companion is near that of Jupiter, but its minimum density of 23 grams per cubic centimeter suggests that it may be an ultralow-mass carbon white dwarf. This system may thus have once been an ultracompact low-mass x-ray binary, where the companion narrowly avoided complete destruction.     

Spin-down of radio millisecond pulsars at genesis

Millisecond pulsars are old neutron stars that have been spun up to high rotational frequencies via accretion of mass from a binary companion star. An important issue for understanding the physics of the early spin evolution of millisecond pulsars is the impact of the expanding magnetosphere during the terminal stages of the mass-transfer process. Here, I report binary stellar evolution calculations that show that the braking torque acting on a neutron star, when the companion star decouples from its Roche lobe, is able to dissipate >50% of the rotational energy of the pulsar. This effect may explain the apparent difference in observed spin distributions between x-ray and radio millisecond pulsars and help account for the noticeable age discrepancy with their young white dwarf companions.     

Observational properties of pulsars

Pulsars are remarkable clocklike celestial sources that are believed to be rotating neutron stars formed in supernova explosions. They are valuable tools for investigations into topics such as neutron star interiors, globular cluster dynamics, the structure of the interstellar medium, and gravitational physics. Searches at radio and x-ray wavelengths over the past 5 years have resulted in a large increase in the number of known pulsars and the discovery of new populations of pulsars, posing challenges to theories of binary and stellar evolution. Recent images at radio, optical, and x-ray wavelengths have revealed structures resulting from the interaction of pulsar winds with the surrounding interstellar medium, giving new insights into the physics of pulsars.     

Interstellar scintillations of pulsar radiation

Time fluctuations in the intensity of pulsed radiation from CP 0834, CP 1133, AP 1237, and CP 1919 have been investigated. Power spectra, modulation indices, frequency distributions, and decorrelation frequencies are consistent with scintillation theory. If it is assumed that these scintillations are due to irregularities in the interstellar medium that travel at a velocity of 20 kilometers per second, the irregularities have a scale size on the order of 10(4) kilometers and a distance from the earth of approximately 70 parsecs. These interstellar scintillations would not have been observed if the apparent angular diameters of the pulsars were larger than 0.3 X 10(-5) second of arc, and they would cause even a point radio source to have an apparent angular diameter of approximately 10(-3) second of arc at 318 megahertz.     

中国境内外来杂草的特点危害及其综合治理对策

中国有外来杂草23科、76属、108种。我国外来杂草的特点表现为来源广泛，以一年生种类为主，近年来入侵的种类较多。外来杂草入侵的原因主要与生境相似度、外来杂草的生态位宽度、繁殖能力以及遗传多样性的改变有关。外来杂草入侵已经对我国各种各样的生态系统和社会经济发展造成明显损害。针对我国外来杂草的危害现状，本文提出了有效治理外来杂草的策略。     

Detection and Characterization of the Cumulene Carbenes H2C5 and H2C6

Two cumulene carbenes, H2C5 and H2C6, were detected in a supersonic molecular beam by Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy. Their rotational and leading centrifugal distortion constants were determined with high accuracy, such that the entire radio spectrum can now be calculated. Like the known carbenes H2C3 and H2C4, both molecules have singlet electronic ground states and linear carbon-chain backbones. They can be produced in sufficiently high concentrations in the laboratory that their electronic spectra, expected to lie in the visible, should be readily detectable by laser spectroscopy. The microwave spectra of other, more exotic isomers may be detectable as well.     

A low-magnetic-field soft gamma repeater

Soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous x-ray pulsars form a rapidly increasing group of x-ray sources exhibiting sporadic emission of short bursts. They are believed to be magnetars, that is, neutron stars powered by extreme magnetic fields, B ~ 10(14) to 10(15) gauss. We report on a soft gamma repeater with low magnetic field, SGR 0418+5729, recently detected after it emitted bursts similar to those of magnetars. X-ray observations show that its dipolar magnetic field cannot be greater than 7.5 × 10(12) gauss, well in the range of ordinary radio pulsars, implying that a high surface dipolar magnetic field is not necessarily required for magnetar-like activity. The magnetar population may thus include objects with a wider range of B-field strengths, ages, and evolutionary stages than observed so far.     

Pulse structure of four pulsars

The pulse structure of the four known pulsars is given. The pulse is about 38 milliseconds for the two pulsars of longest period, and within the pulsewidth three subpulses typically appear. The pulsar of next longest period typically radiates two pulses separated about 23 milliseconds in time. The one short-period pulsar emits single pulses of constant shape. The first subpulses of all pulsars have nearly the same shape. The shape of the first subpulse agrees well with the pulse shape expected from a radio-emitting sphere which is excited by a spherically expanding disturbance, and in which the radio emission, once excited, decays exponentially.     

The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope discovers the pulsar in the young galactic supernova remnant CTA 1

Energetic young pulsars and expanding blast waves [supernova remnants (SNRs)] are the most visible remains after massive stars, ending their lives, explode in core-collapse supernovae. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has unveiled a radio quiet pulsar located near the center of the compact synchrotron nebula inside the supernova remnant CTA 1. The pulsar, discovered through its gamma-ray pulsations, has a period of 316.86 milliseconds and a period derivative of 3.614 x 10(-13) seconds per second. Its characteristic age of 10(4) years is comparable to that estimated for the SNR. We speculate that most unidentified Galactic gamma-ray sources associated with star-forming regions and SNRs are such young pulsars.     

Pulsar test of a variation of the speed of light with frequency

The sharply defined optical and radio pulses from pulsars make possible a test of the variation of the speed of light with frequency, and of the possible existence of a photon mass. The data indicate that the mass of a real photon is less than 10(-44) gram. Detection of extragalactic pulsars could allow a substantial improvement of this limit.     

Opposing effects of native and exotic herbivores on plant invasions

Exotic species are widely assumed to thrive because they lack natural enemies in their new ranges. However, a meta-analysis of 63 manipulative field studies including more than 100 exotic plant species revealed that native herbivores suppressed exotic plants, whereas exotic herbivores facilitated both the abundance and species richness of exotic plants. Both outcomes suggest that plants are especially susceptible to novel, generalist herbivores that they have not been selected to resist. Thus, native herbivores provide biotic resistance to plant invasions, but the widespread replacement of native with exotic herbivores eliminates this ecosystem service, facilitates plant invasions, and triggers an invasional "meltdown."     

入侵我国几种外来杂草的化感作用及利用展望

释放化感物质抑制和排挤本地物种是外来植物成功入侵的重要机制,越来越多的研究证明了这一点.本文介绍了几种重要的入侵植物的化感现象、化感物质,讨论了入侵植物化感物质的应用,指出入侵植物化感作用研究的意义和今后的研究方向.     

Scientific uses of pulsars

The recently discovered celestial sources of pulsed radio energy can be used to test general relativity, to study the solar corona, and to determine the earth's orbit and ephemeris time. The vector positions and transverse velocities of pulsars can be measured with radio interferometers; in combination with pulse-arrival-time data, the distance determination will yield the average interstellar electron density.     

Invasive plants versus their new and old neighbors: a mechanism for exotic invasion

Invading exotic plants are thought to succeed primarily because they have escaped their natural enemies, not because of novel interactions with their new neighbors. However, we find that Centaurea diffusa, a noxious weed in North America, has much stronger negative effects on grass species from North America than on closely related grass species from communities to which Centaurea is native. Centaurea's advantage against North American species appears to be due to differences in the effects of its root exudates and how these root exudates affect competition for resources. Our results may help to explain why some exotic species so successfully invade natural plant communities.     

Discovery of a new gravitational lens system

A new gravitational lens system, the triple radio source MG2016+112, has been discovered. Five emission lines at a redshift of 3.2733+/-0.0014 have been identified in the spectra of two stellar objects of magnitude 22.5 coincident with radio components 3.4 arc seconds apart. The lines are the narrowest ever observed in objects at such a large redshift. The redshift of a 23rd-magnitude extended optical object coincident with the third radio component has not been determined spectroscopically, but its known optical properties are consistent with those of a giant elliptical galaxy with a redshift of about 0.8.     

Peculiar galaxies and radio sources

Pairs of radio sources which are separated by from 2 degrees to 6 degrees on the sky have been investigated. In a number of cases peculiar galaxies have been found approximately midway along a line joining the two radio sources. The central peculiar galaxies belong mainly to a certain class in the recently compiled Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. Among the radio sources so far associated with the peculiar galaxies are at least five known quasars. These quasars are indicated to be not at cosmological distances (that is, red shifts not caused by expansion of the universe) because the central peculiar galaxies are only at distances of 10 to 100 megaparsecs. The absolute magnitudes of these quasars are indicated to be in the range of brightness of normal galaxies and downward. Some of the radio sources which have been found to be associated with peculiar galaxies are galaxies themselves. It is therefore implied that ejection of material took place within or near the parent peculiar galaxies with speeds between 10(2) and 10(4) kilometers per second. After traveling for times of the order of 10(7) to 10(9) years, the luminous matter (galaxies) and radio sources (plasma) have reached their observed separations from the central peculiar galaxy. The large red shifts measured for the quasars would seem to be either (i) gravitational, (ii) collapse velocities of clouds of material falling toward the center of these compact galaxies, or (iii) some as yet unknown cause.     

The Rotation Period of Saturn's Polar Hexagon

The rotation rates of the interiors of the outer planets are normally derived from their periodic radio emissions. However, recent observations of both Jupiter and Saturn have revealed surface features with periods close to those derived for the interiors. In the study reported here, this process is carried one stage further, with the derivation of a rotation rate for the spot associated with Satum's polar hexagon, which is simultaneously within and more accurate than the Saturnian radio period.