[en] The interaction between Glipizide and bovine serum albumin (BSA), as well as the effect of some metal ions (Zn²⁺, Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Ni²⁺, V⁵⁺, Cr⁶⁺, Mo⁶⁺) on the BSA–Glipizide system were investigated at different temperatures by fluorescence spectroscopy. Results showed that Glipizide could quench the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA, and the quenching mechanism was a dynamic quenching process. The hydrophobic force played an important role on the conjugation reaction between BSA and Glipizide. The binding constants (K_a) were 1.45×10⁴, 3.09×10⁴, 4.51×10⁴ L/mol at 293, 303 and 310 K, respectively, and the number of binding site (n) in the binary system was approximate to 1. The binding distance (r) was about 2.80 nm and the primary binding for Glipizide was located at the structure domain II A of BSA. The synchronous fluorescence spectra and CD spectra revealed that the microenvironment and the conformation of BSA were changed during the binding reaction. A new method of using BSA as probe to determine the content of Glipizide by fluorescence spectroscopy was established, and it was applied to analysis of Glipizide in tablets with a satisfying result. -- Highlights: • Glipizide could quench the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA strongly. • Hydrophobic force played an important role on the conjugation reaction. • The order of magnitude of binding constants (K_a) was 10⁴. • Synchronous spectra revealed that the conformation of BSA was changed. • CD spectra revealed that the conformation of BSA was also changed

[en] The upper atmospheres of close-in gas giant exoplanets ('hot Jupiters') are subjected to intense heating and tidal forces from their parent stars. The atomic (H) and ionized (H⁺) hydrogen layers are sufficiently rarefied that magnetic pressure may dominate gas pressure for expected planetary magnetic field strength. We examine the structure of the magnetosphere using a 3D isothermal magnetohydrodynamic model that includes a static 'dead zone' near the magnetic equator containing gas confined by the magnetic field, a 'wind zone' outside the magnetic equator in which thermal pressure gradients and the magneto-centrifugal-tidal effect give rise to a transonic outflow, and a region near the poles where sufficiently strong tidal forces may suppress transonic outflow. Using dipole field geometry, we estimate the size of the dead zone to be several to tens of planetary radii for a range of parameters. Tides decrease the size of the dead zone, while allowing the gas density to increase outward where the effective gravity is outward. In the wind zone, the rapid decrease of density beyond the sonic point leads to smaller densities relative to the neighboring dead zone, which is in hydrostatic equilibrium. To understand the appropriate base conditions for the 3D isothermal model, we compute a simple 1D thermal model in which photoelectric heating from the stellar Lyman continuum is balanced by collisionally excited Lyα cooling. This 1D model exhibits a H layer with temperature T ≅ 5000-10,000 K down to a pressure P ∼ 10-100 nbar. Using the 3D isothermal model, we compute maps of the H column density as well as the Lyα transmission spectra for parameters appropriate for HD 209458b. Line-integrated transit depths ≅5%-10% can be achieved for the above base conditions, in agreement with the results of Koskinen et al. A deep, warm H layer results in a higher mass-loss rate relative to that for a more shallow layer, roughly in proportion to the base pressure. Strong magnetic fields have the effect of increasing the transit signal while decreasing the mass loss, due to higher covering fraction and density of the dead zone. Absorption due to bulk fluid velocity is negligible at linewidths ∼>100 km s^-1 from line center. In our model, most of the transit signal arises from magnetically confined gas, some of which may be outside the L1 equipotential. Hence, the presence of gas outside the L1 equipotential does not directly imply mass loss. We verify a posteriori that particle mean free paths and ion-neutral drift are small in the region of interest in the atmosphere, and that flux freezing is a good approximation. We suggest that resonant scattering of Lyα by the magnetosphere may be observable due to the Doppler shift from the planet's orbital motion, and may provide a complementary probe of the magnetosphere. Lastly, we discuss the domain of applicability for the magnetic wind model described in this paper as well as the Roche-lobe overflow model.

[en] Magnetic flux redistribution lies at the heart of the problem of star formation in dense cores of molecular clouds that are magnetized to a realistic level. If all of the magnetic flux of a typical core were to be dragged into the central star, the stellar field strength would be orders of magnitude higher than the observed values. This well-known magnetic flux problem can in principle be resolved through non-ideal MHD effects. Two-dimensional (axisymmetric) calculations have shown that ambipolar diffusion, in particular, can transport magnetic flux outward relative to matter, allowing material to enter the central object without dragging the field lines along. We show through simulations that such axisymmetric protostellar accretion flows are unstable in three dimensions to magnetic interchange instability in the azimuthal direction. The instability is driven by the magnetic flux redistributed from the matter that enters the central object. It typically starts to develop during the transition from the prestellar phase of star formation to the protostellar mass accretion phase. In the latter phase, the magnetic flux is transported outward mainly through advection by strongly magnetized low-density regions that expand against the collapsing inflow. The tussle between the gravity-driven infall and magnetically driven expansion leads to a highly filamentary inner accretion flow that is more disordered than previously envisioned. The efficient outward transport of magnetic flux by advection lowers the field strength at small radii, making the magnetic braking less efficient and the formation of rotationally supported disks easier in principle. However, we find no evidence for such disks in any of our rotating collapse simulations. We conclude that the inner protostellar accretion flow is shaped to a large extent by the flux redistribution-driven magnetic interchange instability. How disks form in such an environment is unclear.

[en] Young stars are strongly magnetized. They interact with circumstellar disks through a shared magnetosphere. The interaction can have powerful effects on both the mass accretion from the disk to the star and the launch of magnetocentrifugal outflows. In this work, we show an extensive set of topological types of axisymmetric magnetospheres of the star-disk system, obtained numerically under the current-free assumption. We find that the topologies fall under a few broad categories, with different degrees of magnetic linkage between the star and the disk. A particularly interesting topology features a saddle point in the stellar corona, which enables to implement, this time in a simplified current-free form, the simultaneous existence of three regions of considerable astrophysical significance, as first proposed for X-winds. These regions are a 'funnel' region of inward-pointing field lines along which matter can flow from the inner part of the disk to the star, a region of outward-pointing open field lines that can drive a magnetocentrifugal wind, and an axial region of open stellar fields that allow stellar wind to escape. The Coronal Saddle point topology and other current-free configurations can serve as a starting point for full MHD simulations of the complex, dynamic, magnetic interaction between the young star and its circumstellar disk.

[en] Stars form in dense cores of molecular clouds that are observed to be significantly magnetized. A dynamically important magnetic field presents a significant obstacle to the formation of protostellar disks. Recent studies have shown that magnetic braking is strong enough to suppress the formation of rotationally supported disks in the ideal MHD limit. Whether non-ideal MHD effects can enable disk formation remains unsettled. We carry out a first study on how disk formation in magnetic clouds is modified by the Hall effect, the least explored of the three non-ideal MHD effects in star formation (the other two being ambipolar diffusion and Ohmic dissipation). For illustrative purposes, we consider a simplified problem of a non-self-gravitating, magnetized envelope collapsing onto a central protostar of fixed mass. We find that the Hall effect can spin up the inner part of the collapsing flow to Keplerian speed, producing a rotationally supported disk. The disk is generated through a Hall-induced magnetic torque. Disk formation occurs even when the envelope is initially non-rotating, provided that the Hall coefficient is large enough. When the magnetic field orientation is flipped, the direction of disk rotation is reversed as well. The implication is that the Hall effect can in principle produce both regularly rotating and counter-rotating disks around protostars. The Hall coefficient expected in dense cores is about one order of magnitude smaller than that needed for efficient spin-up in these models. We conclude that the Hall effect is an important factor to consider in studying the angular momentum evolution of magnetized star formation in general and disk formation in particular.

[en] It is established that the formation of rotationally supported disks during the main accretion phase of star formation is suppressed by a moderately strong magnetic field in the ideal MHD limit. Nonideal MHD effects are expected to weaken the magnetic braking, perhaps allowing the disk to reappear. We concentrate on one such effect, ambipolar diffusion, which enables the field lines to slip relative to the bulk neutral matter. We find that the slippage does not sufficiently weaken the braking to allow rotationally supported disks to form for realistic levels of cloud magnetization and cosmic ray ionization rate; in some cases, the magnetic braking is even enhanced. Only in dense cores with both exceptionally weak fields and unreasonably low ionization rate do such disks start to form in our simulations. We conclude that additional processes, such as Ohmic dissipation or Hall effect, are needed to enable disk formation. Alternatively, the disk may form at late times when the massive envelope that anchors the magnetic brake is dissipated, perhaps by a protostellar wind.

[en] Stars form in dense cores of molecular clouds that are observed to be significantly magnetized. In the simplest case of a laminar (non-turbulent) core with the magnetic field aligned with the rotation axis, both analytic considerations and numerical simulations have shown that the formation of a large, 10² AU scale, rotationally supported protostellar disk is suppressed by magnetic braking in the ideal MHD limit for a realistic level of core magnetization. This theoretical difficulty in forming protostellar disks is termed the ''magnetic braking catastrophe''. A possible resolution to this problem, proposed by Hennebelle and Ciardi and Joos et al., is that misalignment between the magnetic field and rotation axis may weaken the magnetic braking enough to enable disk formation. We evaluate this possibility quantitatively through numerical simulations. We confirm the basic result of Joos et al. that the misalignment is indeed conducive to disk formation. In relatively weakly magnetized cores with dimensionless mass-to-flux ratio ∼> 4, it enabled the formation of rotationally supported disks that would otherwise be suppressed if the magnetic field and rotation axis are aligned. For more strongly magnetized cores, disk formation remains suppressed, however, even for the maximum tilt angle of 90°. If dense cores are as strongly magnetized as indicated by OH Zeeman observations (with a mean dimensionless mass-to-flux ratio ∼2), it would be difficult for the misalignment alone to enable disk formation in the majority of them. We conclude that, while beneficial to disk formation, especially for the relatively weak field case, misalignment does not completely solve the problem of catastrophic magnetic braking in general

[en] Dense, star-forming cores of molecular clouds are observed to be significantly magnetized. A realistic magnetic field of moderate strength has been shown to suppress, through catastrophic magnetic braking, the formation of a rotationally supported disk (RSD) during the protostellar accretion phase of low-mass star formation in the ideal MHD limit. We address, through two-dimensional (axisymmetric) simulations, the question of whether realistic levels of non-ideal effects, computed with a simplified chemical network including dust grains, can weaken the magnetic braking enough to enable an RSD to form. We find that ambipolar diffusion (AD), the dominant non-ideal MHD effect over most of the density range relevant to disk formation, does not enable disk formation, at least in two dimensions. The reason is that AD allows the magnetic flux that would be dragged into the central stellar object in the ideal MHD limit to pile up instead in a small circumstellar region, where the magnetic field strength (and thus the braking efficiency) is greatly enhanced. We also find that, on the scale of tens of AU or more, a realistic level of Ohmic dissipation does not weaken the magnetic braking enough for an RSD to form, either by itself or in combination with AD. The Hall effect, the least explored of these three non-ideal MHD effects, can spin up the material close to the central object to a significant, supersonic rotation speed, even when the core is initially non-rotating, although the spun-up material remains too sub-Keplerian to form an RSD. The problem of catastrophic magnetic braking that prevents disk formation in dense cores magnetized to realistic levels remains unresolved. Possible resolutions of this problem are discussed.

[en] Disk formation in magnetized cloud cores is hindered by magnetic braking. Previous work has shown that for realistic levels of core magnetization, the magnetic field suppresses the formation of rotationally supported disks during the protostellar mass accretion phase of low-mass star formation both in the ideal MHD limit and in the presence of ambipolar diffusion for typical rates of cosmic-ray ionization. Additional effects, such as ohmic dissipation, the Hall effect, and protostellar outflow, are needed to weaken the magnetic braking and enable the formation of persistent, rotationally supported, protostellar disks. In this paper, we first demonstrate that the classic microscopic resistivity is not large enough to enable disk formation by itself. We then experiment with a set of enhanced values for the resistivity in the range η = 10¹⁷-10²² cm² s^-1. We find that a value of order 10¹⁹ cm² s^-1 is needed to enable the formation of a 10² AU scale Keplerian disk; the value depends somewhat on the degree of core magnetization. The required resistivity is a few orders of magnitude larger than the classic microscopic values. Whether it can be achieved naturally during protostellar collapse remains to be determined.

[en] We investigate the physical properties of dense cores formed in turbulent, magnetized, parsec-scale clumps of molecular clouds, using three-dimensional numerical simulations that include protostellar outflow feedback. The dense cores are identified in the simulated density data cube through a clumpfind algorithm. We find that the core velocity dispersion does not show any clear dependence on the core size, in contrast to Larson's linewidth-size relation, but consistent with recent observations. In the absence of a magnetic field, the majority of the cores have supersonic velocity dispersions. A moderately strong magnetic field reduces the dispersion to a subsonic or at most transonic value typically. Most of the cores are out of virial equilibrium, with the external pressure dominating the self-gravity. The implication is that the core evolution is largely controlled by the outflow-driven turbulence. Even an initially weak magnetic field can retard star formation significantly, because the field is amplified by the outflow-driven turbulence to an equipartition strength, with the distorted field component dominating the uniform one. In contrast, for a moderately strong field, the uniform component remains dominant. Such a difference in the magnetic structure is evident in our simulated polarization maps of dust thermal emission; it provides a handle on the field strength. Recent polarization measurements show that the field lines in cluster-forming clumps are spatially well ordered. It is indicative of a moderately strong, dynamically important field which, in combination with outflow feedback, can keep the rate of star formation in embedded clusters at the observationally inferred, relatively slow rate of several percent per free-fall time.