Towards two-body strong decay behavior of higher ρ\rho and ρ3\rho_3 mesons

In this work, we systematically study the two-body strong decay of the $\rho/\rho_3$ states, which are observed and grouped into the $\rho/\rho_3$ meson family. By performing the phenomenological analysis, the underlying properties of these states are obtained and tested. What is more important is that abundant information of their two-body strong decays is predicted, which will be helpful to further and experimentally study these states.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables. Accepted by Phys. Rev.

Chandra Observation of a Weak Shock in the Galaxy Cluster A2556

Based on a 21.5 ks \chandra\ observation of A2556, we identify an edge on the surface brightness profile (SBP) at about 160$h_{71}^{-1}$ kpc northeast of the cluster center, and it corresponds to a shock front whose Mach number $\mathcal{M}$ is calculated to be $1.25_{-0.03}^{+0.02}$. No prominent substructure, such as sub-cluster, is found in either optical or X-ray band that can be associated with the edge, suggesting that the conventional super-sonic motion mechanism may not work in this case. As an alternative solution, we propose that the nonlinear steepening of acoustic wave, which is induced by the turbulence of the ICM at the core of the cluster, can be used to explain the origin of the shock front. Although nonlinear steepening weak shock is expected to occur frequently in clusters, why it is rarely observed still remains a question that requires further investigation, including both deeper X-ray observation and extensive theoretical studies.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Ap

Exploring the Cosmic Reionization Epoch in Frequency Space: An Improved Approach to Remove the Foreground in 21 cm Tomography

Aiming to correctly restore the redshifted 21 cm signals emitted by the neutral hydrogen during the cosmic reionization processes, we re-examine the separation approaches based on the quadratic polynomial fitting technique in frequency space to investigate whether they works satisfactorily with complex foreground, by quantitatively evaluate the quality of restored 21 cm signals in terms of sample statistics. We construct the foreground model to characterize both spatial and spectral substructures of the real sky, and use it to simulate the observed radio spectra. By comparing between different separation approaches through statistical analysis of restored 21 cm spectra and corresponding power spectra, as well as their constraints on the mean halo bias $b$ and average ionization fraction $x_e$ of the reionization processes, at $z=8$ and the noise level of 60 mK we find that, although the complex foreground can be well approximated with quadratic polynomial expansion, a significant part of Mpc-scale components of the 21 cm signals (75% for $\gtrsim 6h^{-1}$ Mpc scales and 34% for $\gtrsim 1h^{-1}$ Mpc scales) is lost because it tends to be mis-identified as part of the foreground when single-narrow-segment separation approach is applied. The best restoration of the 21 cm signals and the tightest determination of $b$ and $x_e$ can be obtained with the three-narrow-segment fitting technique as proposed in this paper. Similar results can be obtained at other redshifts.Comment: 33 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Research of the active reflector antenna using laser angle metrology system

Active reflector is one of the key technologies for constructing large telescopes, especially for the millimeter/sub-millimeter radio telescopes. This article introduces a new efficient laser angle metrology system for the active reflector antenna of the large radio telescopes, with a plenty of active reflector experiments mainly about the detecting precisions and the maintaining of the surface shape in real time, on the 65-meter radio telescope prototype constructed by Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology (NIAOT). The test results indicate that the accuracy of the surface shape segmenting and maintaining is up to micron dimension, and the time-response can be of the order of minutes. Therefore, it is proved to be workable for the sub-millimeter radio telescopes.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figure

Bt Crops Producing Cry1Ac, Cry2Ab and Cry1F Do Not Harm the Green Lacewing, Chrysoperla rufilabris

The biological control function provided by natural enemies is regarded as a protection goal that should not be harmed by the application of any new pest management tool. Plants producing Cry proteins from the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), have become a major tactic for controlling pest Lepidoptera on cotton and maize and risk assessment studies are needed to ensure they do not harm important natural enemies. However, using Cry protein susceptible hosts as prey often compromises such studies. To avoid this problem we utilized pest Lepidoptera, cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) and fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), that were resistant to Cry1Ac produced in Bt broccoli (T. ni), Cry1Ac/Cry2Ab produced in Bt cotton (T. ni), and Cry1F produced in Bt maize (S. frugiperda). Larvae of these species were fed Bt plants or non-Bt plants and then exposed to predaceous larvae of the green lacewingChrysoperla rufilabris. Fitness parameters (larval survival, development time, fecundity and egg hatch) of C. rufilabris were assessed over two generations. There were no differences in any of the fitness parameters regardless if C. rufilabris consumed prey (T. ni or S. frugiperda) that had consumed Bt or non-Bt plants. Additional studies confirmed that the prey contained bioactive Cry proteins when they were consumed by the predator. These studies confirm that Cry1Ac, Cry2Ab and Cry1F do not pose a hazard to the important predator C. rufilabris. This study also demonstrates the power of using resistant hosts when assessing the risk of genetically modified plants on non-target organisms