SUPERNOVA 2009kf: AN ULTRAVIOLET BRIGHT TYPE IIP SUPERNOVA DISCOVERED WITH PAN-STARRS 1 AND GALEX

We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of a luminous Type IIP Supernova (SN) 2009kf discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) survey and also detected by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The SN shows a plateau in its optical and bolometric light curves, lasting approximately 70 days in the rest frame, with an absolute magnitude of M-V = - 18.4 mag. The P-Cygni profiles of hydrogen indicate expansion velocities of 9000 km s(-1) at 61 days after discovery which is extremely high for a Type IIP SN. SN 2009kf is also remarkably bright in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) and shows a slow evolution 10-20 days after optical discovery. The NUV and optical luminosity at these epochs can be modeled with a blackbody with a hot effective temperature (T similar to 16,000 K) and a large radius (R similar to 1 x 10(15) cm). The bright bolometric and NUV luminosity, the light curve peak and plateau duration, the high velocities, and temperatures suggest that 2009kf is a Type IIP SN powered by a larger than normal explosion energy. Recently discovered high-z SNe (0.7

John P. Mackintosh, Devolution and the Union

This article provides a discussion of the political thinking of John P. Mackintosh (1929–1978) around the debate over Scottish devolution, and the constitutional reform of the UK, during the 1960s and 1970s. The article explores Mackintosh's ‘Union State’ vision of the UK and connects this to his interest in, and study of, the Northern Ireland experience of devolution from 1921 to 1972. It also considers the significance of Mackintosh's confrontations with Scottish nationalism and suggests that his unionism was representative of a more authentic and rooted tradition than is usually acknowledged. The article offers an evaluation of Mackintosh's legacy and considers the extent to which the questions he posed, and the lines of argument he advanced, have retained their relevance and interest in the new context of partial devolution in the UK, and in the current period of renewed constitutional speculation and debate over the future of the Union and the UK.

Epistolarum Familiarium Liber Unus in The Complete Works of John Milton: Volume XI (672pp.)

This edition of Milton’s Epistolarum Familiarium Liber Unus and of his Uncollected Letters, will appear as 672 pp. of The Complete Works of John Milton Volume XI, eds. Gordon Campbell and Edward Jones (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2016). A diplomatic Latin text and a new facing English translation are complemented by a detailed Introduction and commentary that situate Milton’s Latin letters in relation to the classical, pedagogical and essentially humanist contexts at the heart of their composition. Now the art of epistolography advocated and exemplified by Cicero and Quintilian and embraced by Renaissance pedagogical manuals is read through a humanist filter whereby, via the precedent (and very title) of Epistolae Familiares, the Miltonic Liber is shown to engage with a neo-Latin re-invention of the classical epistola that had come to birth in quattrocento Italy in the letters of Petrarch and his contemporaries. At the same time the Epistolae are seen as offering fresh insight into Milton’s views on education, philology, his relations with Italian literati, his blindness, the poetic dimension of his Latin prose, and especially his verbal ingenuity as the ‘words’ of Latin ‘Letters’ become a self-conscious showcasing of etymological punning on the ‘letters’ of Latin ‘words’. The edition also announces several new discoveries, most notably its uncovering and collation of a manuscript of Henry Oldenburg’s transcription (in his Liber Epistolaris held in Royal Society, London) of Milton’s Ep. Fam. 25 (to Richard Jones). Oldenburg’s transcription (from the original sent to his pupil Jones) is an important find, given the loss of all but two of the manuscripts of Milton’s original Latin letters included in the 1674 volume. The edition also presents new evidence in regard to Milton’s relationships with the Italian philologist Benedetto Buonmattei, the Greek humanist Leonard Philaras, the radical pastor Jean Labadie (and the French church of London), and the elusive Peter Heimbach.

The velocity distribution of solar photospheric magnetic bright points.

We use high spatial resolution observations and numerical simulations to study the velocity distribution of solar photospheric magnetic bright points. The observations were obtained with the Rapid Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere instrument at the Dunn Solar Telescope, while the numerical simulations were undertaken with the MURaM code for average magnetic fields of 200 G and 400 G. We implemented an automated bright point detection and tracking algorithm on the data set and studied the subsequent velocity characteristics of over 6000 structures, finding an average velocity of approximately 1 km s(-1), with maximum values of 7 km s(-1). Furthermore, merging magnetic bright points were found to have considerably higher velocities, and significantly longer lifetimes, than isolated structures. By implementing a new and novel technique, we were able to estimate the background magnetic flux of our observational data, which is consistent with a field strength of 400 G.

The birth place of the type Ic supernova 2007gr

We report our attempts to locate the progenitor of the peculiar Type Ic SN 2007gr in Hubble Space Telescope (HST) preexplosion images of the host galaxy, NGC 1058. Aligning adaptive optics Altair/NIRI imaging of SN 2007gr from the Gemini ( North) Telescope with the preexplosion HST WFPC2 images, we identify the supernova (SN) position on the HST frames with an accuracy of 20 mas. Although nothing is detected at the SN position, we show that it lies on the edge of a bright source 134 +/- 23 mas (6.9 pc) from its nominal center. On the basis of its luminosity, we suggest that this object is possibly an unresolved, compact, and coeval cluster and that the SN progenitor was a cluster member, although we note that model profile fitting favors a single bright star. We find two solutions for the age of this assumed cluster: 7 -/+ 0.5 Myr and 20 - 30 Myr, with turnoff masses of 28 +/- M-circle dot and 12 - 9 M-circle dot, respectively. Preexplosion ground-based K- band images marginally favor the younger cluster 4 age/higher turnoff mass. Assuming the SN progenitor was a cluster member, the turnoff mass provides the best estimate for its initial mass. More detailed observations, after the SN has faded, should determine whether the progenitor was indeed part of a cluster and, if so, allow an age estimate to within similar to 2 Myr, thereby favoring either a high-mass single star or lower-mass interacting binary progenitor.

Bright quasi-phase-matched soft-x-ray harmonic radiation from argon ions

Selective enhancement (> 10(3)) of harmonics extending to the water window (similar to 4 nm) generated in an argon gas filled straight bore capillary waveguide is demonstrated. This enhancement is in good agreement with modeling which indicates that multimode quasi-phase-matching is achieved by rapid axial intensity modulations caused by beating between the fundamental and higher-order capillary modes. Substantial pulse energies (> 10 nJ per pulse per harmonic order) at wavelengths beyond the carbon K edge (similar to 4.37 nm, similar to 284 eV) up to similar to 360 eV are observed from argon ions for the first time.

Generation of bright, extreme-ultraviolet harmonic radiation from a krypton fluoride laser

We present results of experiments studying the efficiency of high harmonic generation from a gas target using the TITANIA krypton fluoride laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The variation of harmonic yield for the 7th to 13th harmonics (355-191 Angstrom) is studied as a function of the backing pressure of a solenoid valve gas jet and of the axial position of the laser focus relative to the centre of the gas jet nozzle. Harmonic energies up to 1 mu J were produced in helium and neon targets from laser energies of approximately 200 mJ. This corresponds to absolute conversion efficiencies of up to 5 x 10(-6).