http://www.hindawi.com The latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation © 2013 , Hindawi Publishing Corporation . All rights reserved. Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:25:26 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/390287/ The evidence for microwave emission from spinning dust grains has been strengthened considerably by its detection in a number of discrete astrophysical objects associated with star formation. These detections, in combination with statistical constraints on its presence on large angular scales in the diffuse ISM, have provided strong observational confirmation of an emission mechanism still referred to as anomalous. This emission has a peaked spectrum with a maximum in the microwave band; the present review discusses the continuum radio emission mechanisms which can contribute to this region of the electromagnetic spectrum, collects published results on the prevalence of anomalous microwave emission in a variety of star formation regions, presents the overall conclusions that may be drawn from the detections so far, and discusses the prospects for future research on the anomalous microwave emission attributed to spinning dust within star forming regions. Anna M. M. Scaife Copyright © 2013 Anna M. M. Scaife. All rights reserved. Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:22:15 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/213105/ There is a general consensus that magnetic fields, accretion disks, and rotating black holes are instrumental in the generation of the most powerful sources of energy in the known universe. Nonetheless, because magnetized accretion onto rotating black holes involves both the complications of nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics that currently cannot fully be treated numerically, and uncertainties about the origin of magnetic fields that at present are part of the input, the space of possible solutions remains less constrained. Consequently, the literature still bears witness to the proliferation of rather different black hole engine models. But the accumulated wealth of observational data is now sufficient to meaningfully distinguish between them. It is in this light that this critical paper compares the recent retrograde framework with standard “spin paradigm” prograde models. David Garofalo Copyright © 2013 David Garofalo. All rights reserved. Sun, 31 Mar 2013 14:31:47 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/352407/ We discuss the first detection of anomalous microwave emission, in the Owens Valley RING5M experiment, and its interpretation in the context of the ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments of the early 1990s. The RING5M experiment was one of the first attempts to constrain the anisotropy power on sub-horizon scales, by observing a set of -size fields around the North Celestial Pole (NCP). Fields were selected close to the NCP to allow continuous integration from the Owens Valley site. The experiment detected significant emission at both 14.5 GHz and 30 GHz, consistent with a mixture of CMB and a flat-spectrum foreground component, which we termed anomalous, as it could be explained neither by thermal dust emission, nor by standard models for synchrotron or free-free emission. A significant spatial correlation was found between the extracted foreground component and structure in the IRAS 100 μm maps. While microwave emission from spinning dust may be the most natural explanation for this correlation, spinning dust is unlikely to account for all of the anomalous emission seen in the RING5M data. Erik M. Leitch and A. C. R. Readhead Copyright © 2013 Erik M. Leitch and A. C. R. Readhead. All rights reserved. Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:00:02 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/680435/ Karel Kudela, Badruddin, and José F. Valdés-Galicia Copyright © 2013 Karel Kudela et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:15:18 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/429303/ Three cases of large-amplitude, small spatial-scale interplanetary particle gradients observed by the anticoincidence shield (ACS) aboard the INTEGRAL spacecraft in 2006 are investigated. The high data rates provided by the INTEGRAL ACS allow an unprecedented ability to probe the fine structure of GCR propagation in the inner Heliosphere. For two of the three cases, calculating perpendicular and parallel cosmic ray diffusion coefficients based on both field and particle data results in parallel diffusion appearing to satisfy a convection gradient current balance, provided that the magnetic scattering of the particles can be described by quasi-linear theory. In the third case, perpendicular diffusion seems to dominate. The likelihood of magnetic flux rope topologies within solar ejecta affecting the local modulation is considered, and its importance in understanding the field-particle interaction for the astrophysics of nonthermal particle phenomena is discussed. John J. Quenby, Tamitha Mulligan, J. Bernard Blake, and Diana N. A. Shaul Copyright © 2013 John J. Quenby et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:12:46 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/780407/ The anomalous microwave emission (AME) has been proved to be an important component of the galactic diffuse emission in the range from 20 to 60 GHz. To discriminate between different models of AME, low frequency microwave data from 10 to 20 GHz are needed. We present here a reanalysis of published and unpublished Tenerife data from 10 to 33 GHz at large angular scales (from 5 to 15 degrees). We cross-correlate the Tenerife data to templates of the main galactic diffuse emissions: synchrotron, free-free, and thermal dust. We find evidence of dust-correlated emission in the Tenerife data that could be explained as spinning dust grain emission. J. F. Macías-Pérez, R. D. Davies, R. Watson, C. M. Gutierrez, and R. Rebolo Copyright © 2013 J. F. Macías-Pérez et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:12:00 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/354259/ The Planck 28.5 GHz maps were searched for potential Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME) regions on the scale of ~3° or smaller, and several new regions of interest were selected. Ancillary data at both lower and higher frequencies were used to construct spectral energy distributions (SEDs), which seem to confirm an excess consistent with spinning dust models. Here we present higher resolution observations of two of these new regions with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Small Array (AMI SA) between 14 and 18 GHz to test for the presence of a compact (~10 arcmin or smaller) component. For AME-G107.1+5.2, dominated by the Hii region S140, we find evidence for the characteristic rising spectrum associated with either the spinning dust mechanism for AME or an ultra- /hypercompact Hii region across the AMI frequency band; however, for AME-G173.6+208 we find no evidence for AME on scales of ~2–10 arcmin. Yvette C. Perrott, Anna M. M. Scaife, Natasha Hurley-Walker, and Keith J. B. Grainge Copyright © 2013 Yvette C. Perrott et al. All rights reserved. Sun, 17 Feb 2013 16:19:13 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/917104/ We present a new redshift (RS) versus photon travel time () test including 171 supernovae RS data points. We extended the Hubble diagram to a range of z = 0,0141–8.1 in the hope that at high RSs, the fitting of the calculated RS/ diagrams to the observed RS data would, as predicted by different cosmological models, set constraints on alternative cosmological models. The Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM), the static universe model, and the case for a slowly expanding flat universe (SEU) are considered. We show that on the basis of the Hubble diagram test, the static and the slowly expanding models are favored. Laszlo A. Marosi Copyright © 2013 Laszlo A. Marosi. All rights reserved. Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:28:59 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/690921/ We analyzed the high-energy gamma and neutron emissions observed by the SONG instrument onboard the CORONAS-F satellite during August 25, 2001, October 28, 2003, November 4, 2003, and January 20, 2005 solar flares. These flares produced neutrons and/or protons recorded near Earth. The SONG response was consistent with detection of the pion-decay gamma emission and neutrons in these events. We supposed that a time profile of the soft X-ray derivative was a good proxy of time behavior of the flare energy release. Then we showed that time intervals of the maximum both of energy release and pion-decay-emission coincided well. We determined the onset time of GLEs 65, 69 on the basis of neutron monitor data using the superposed epoch method. The time of high-energy proton onset on November 4, 2003 was found from the GOES data. The time delay between the high-energy gamma ray observation and the high-energy protons onset time was <5 minutes. This time lag corresponds to the least possible proton propagation time. So, we conclude that in these events both protons interacted in the solar atmosphere and the first protons which arrived to Earth, belonged to one and the same population of the accelerated particles. Viktoria Kurt, Karel Kudela, Boris Yushkov, and Vladimir Galkin Copyright © 2013 Viktoria Kurt et al. All rights reserved. Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:25:27 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/461717/ Selected activities aimed to investigate cosmic ray fluxes and to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms behind, over a long-time period using space research tools in the former USSR/Russia and Slovakia, are reviewed, and some of the results obtained are presented. As the selection is connected with the institutes where the authors are working, it represents only a partial review of this wide topic. Yu. I. Logachev, L. L. Lazutin, and K. Kudela Copyright © 2013 Yu. I. Logachev et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:28:48 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/162478/ I give a summary of the observations of Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME) from HII regions. AME has been detected in, or in the vicinity of, HII regions. Given the difficulties in measuring accurate SEDs over a wide range of frequencies and in complex environments, many of these detections require more data to confirm them as emitting significant AME. The contribution from optically thick free-free emission from UCHII regions may be also be significant in some cases. The AME emissivity, defined as the ratio of the AME brightness to the 100 μm brightness, is comparable to the value observed in high-latitude diffuse cirrus in some regions, but is significantly lower in others. However, this value is dependent on the dust temperature. More data, both at high frequencies (>~5 GHz) and high resolution (~1′ or better) is required to disentangle the emission processes in such complex regions. Clive Dickinson Copyright © 2013 Clive Dickinson. All rights reserved. Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:42:45 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/746020/ Using the Archeops and WMAP data, we perform a study of the anticenter Galactic diffuse emissions—thermal dust, synchrotron, free-free, and anomalous emissions—at degree scales. The high-frequency data are used to infer the thermal dust electromagnetic spectrum and spatial distribution allowing us to precisely subtract this component at lower frequencies. After subtraction of the thermal dust component, a mixture of standard synchrotron and free-free emissions does not account for the residuals at these low frequencies. Including the all-sky 408 MHz Haslam data we find evidence for anomalous emission with a spectral index of −2.5 in units. However, we are not able to provide coclusion regarding the nature of this anomalous emission in this region. For this purpose, data between 408 MHz and 20 GHz covering the same sky region are needed. L. Fauvet, J. F. Macías-Pérez, S. R. Hildebrandt, and F.-X. Désert Copyright © 2013 L. Fauvet et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:05:44 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/462697/ This paper reviews the current status of theoretical modeling of electric dipole radiation from spinning dust grains. The fundamentally simple problem of dust grain rotation appeals to a rich set of concepts of classical and quantum physics, owing to the diversity of processes involved. Rotational excitation and damping rates through various mechanisms are discussed, as well as methods of computing the grain angular momentum distribution function. Assumptions on grain properties are reviewed. The robustness of theoretical predictions now seems mostly limited by the uncertainties regarding the grains themselves, namely, their abundance, dipole moments, and size and shape distribution. Yacine Ali-Haïmoud Copyright © 2013 Yacine Ali-Haïmoud. All rights reserved. Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:24:48 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2013/793072/ The cosmic rays differential intensity inside the heliosphere, for energy below 30 GeV/nuc, depends on solar activity and interplanetary magnetic field polarity. This variation, termed solar modulation, is described using a 2D (radius and colatitude) Monte Carlo approach for solving the Parker transport equation that includes diffusion, convection, magnetic drift, and adiabatic energy loss. Since the whole transport is strongly related to the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) structure, a better understanding of his description is needed in order to reproduce the cosmic rays intensity at the Earth, as well as outside the ecliptic plane. In this work an interplanetary magnetic field model including the standard description on ecliptic region and a polar correction is presented. This treatment of the IMF, implemented in the HelMod Monte Carlo code (version 2.0), was used to determine the effects on the differential intensity of Proton at 1 AU and allowed one to investigate how latitudinal gradients of proton intensities, observed in the inner heliosphere with the Ulysses spacecraft during 1995, can be affected by the modification of the IMF in the polar regions. P. Bobik, G. Boella, M. J. Boschini, C. Consolandi, S. Della Torre, M. Gervasi, D. Grandi, K. Kudela, S. Pensotti, P. G. Rancoita, D. Rozza, and M. Tacconi Copyright © 2013 P. Bobik et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:59:26 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/430694/ Scalar-tensor theories of gravitation attract again a great interest since the discovery of the Chameleon mechanism and of the Galileon models. The former allows reconciling the presence of a scalar field with the constraints from Solar System experiments. The latter leads to inflationary models that do not need ad hoc potentials. Further generalizations lead to a tensor-scalar theory, dubbed the “Fab Four,” with only first and second order derivatives of the fields in the equations of motion that self-tune to a vanishing cosmological constant. This model needs to be confronted with experimental data in order to constrain its large parameter space. We present some results regarding a subset of this theory named “John,” which corresponds to a nonminimal derivative coupling between the scalar field and the Einstein tensor in the action. We show that this coupling gives rise to an inflationary model with very unnatural initial conditions. Thus, we include the term named “George,” namely, a nonminimal, but nonderivative, coupling between the scalar field and Ricci scalar. We find a more natural inflationary model, and, by performing a post-Newtonian analysis, we derive the set of equations that constrain the parameter space with data from experiments in the Solar System. J.-P. Bruneton, M. Rinaldi, A. Kanfon, A. Hees, S. Schlögel, and A. Füzfa Copyright © 2012 J.-P. Bruneton et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:56:33 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/691408/ Cosmogenic isotopes have frequently been employed as proxies of ancient cosmic ray fluxes. On the basis of periodicities of the 10Be time series (using data from both the South and North Poles) and the 14C time series (with data from Intercal-98), we offer evidence of the existence of cosmic ray fluctuations with a periodicity of around 30 years. Results were obtained by using the wavelet transformation spectral technique, signal reconstruction by autoregressive spectral analysis (ARMA), and the Lomb-Scargle periodogram method. This 30-year periodicity seems to be significant in nature because several solar and climatic indexes exhibit the same modulation, which may indicate that the 30-year frequency of cosmic rays is probably a modulator agent for terrestrial phenomena, reflecting the control source, namely, solar activity. Jorge Pérez-Peraza, Víctor Velasco, Igor Ya. Libin, and K. F. Yudakhin Copyright © 2012 Jorge Pérez-Peraza et al. All rights reserved. Wed, 26 Dec 2012 21:10:01 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/898907/ The bipolarity of Supernova 1987A can be understood through its very early light curve from the CTIO 0.4 m telescope and IUE FES and following speckle observations of the “Mystery Spot”. These indicate a beam/jet of light/particles, with initial collimation factors >104 and velocities >0.95 c, involving up to 10−5  interacting with circumstellar material. These can be produced by a model of pulsar emission from polarization currents induced/(modulated faster than c) beyond the pulsar light cylinder by the periodic electromagnetic field (supraluminally induced polarization currents (SLIP)). SLIP accounts for the disruption of supernova progenitors and their anomalous dimming at cosmological distances, jets from Sco X-1 and SS 433, the lack/presence of pulsations from the high-/low-luminosity low-mass X-ray binaries, and long/short gamma-ray bursts, and it predicts that their afterglows are the pulsed optical-/near-infrared emission associated with these pulsars. SLIP may also account for the TeV e+/e− results from PAMELA and ATIC, the WMAP “Haze”/Fermi “Bubbles,” and the r-process. SLIP jets from SNe of the first stars may allow galaxies to form without dark matter and explain the peculiar nongravitational motions between pairs of distant galaxies observed by GALEX. John Middleditch Copyright © 2012 John Middleditch. All rights reserved. Mon, 24 Dec 2012 14:55:40 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/379304/ A new type of solar neutron detector (FIB) was launched on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour on July 16, 2009, and began collecting data at the International Space Station (ISS) on August 25, 2009. This paper summarizes the three years of observations obtained by the solar neutron detector FIB until the end of July 2012. The solar neutron detector FIB can determine both the energy and arrival direction of neutrons. We measured the energy spectra of background neutrons over the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region and elsewhere and found the typical trigger rates to be 20 and 0.22 counts/sec, respectively. It is possible to identify solar neutrons to within a level of 0.028 counts/sec, provided that directional information is applied. Solar neutrons were possibly observed in association with the M-class solar flares that occurred on March 7 (M3.7) and June 7 (M2.5) of 2011. This marked the first time that neutrons had been observed in M-class solar flares. A possible interpretation of the production process is provided. Y. Muraki, K. Koga, T. Goka, H. Matsumoto, T. Obara, O. Okudaira, S. Shibata, and T. Yamamoto Copyright © 2012 Y. Muraki et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:40:56 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/607172/ The cosmic ray modulation in relation to solar activity indices and heliospheric parameters during the period January 1996–October 2011, covering the solar cycle 23 and the ascending phase of solar cycle 24, is studied. The new perspective of this contribution is that the CME-index, obtained from only the CMEs with angular width greater than 30 degrees, gives much better results than in previous works. The proposed model for the calculation of the modulated cosmic ray intensity obtained from the combination of solar indices and heliospheric parameters gives a very satisfactory value of the standard deviation. The best reproduction of the cosmic ray intensity is obtained by taking into account solar and interplanetary indices such as sunspot number, interplanetary magnetic field, CME-index, and heliospheric current sheet tilt. The standard deviation between the observed and calculated values is about 6.63% for the solar cycle 23 and 4.13% for the ascending part of solar cycle 24. Helen Mavromichalaki and Evangelos Paouris Copyright © 2012 Helen Mavromichalaki and Evangelos Paouris. All rights reserved. Wed, 19 Dec 2012 10:39:27 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/853927/ We estimate the frequency spectrum of the diffuse anomalous microwave emission (AME) on the North Celestial Pole (NCP) region of the sky with the Correlated Component Analysis (CCA) component separation method applied to WMAP 7-yr data. The NCP is a suitable region for this analysis because the AME is weakly contaminated by synchrotron and free-free emission. By modeling the AME component as a peaked spectrum we estimate the peak frequency to be  GHz, in agreement with previous analyses which favored < 23 GHz. The ability of our method to correctly recover the position of the peak is verified through simulations. We compare the estimated AME spectrum with theoretical spinning dust models to constrain the hydrogen density . The best results are obtained with densities around 0.2–0.3 cm−3, typical of warm ionised medium (WIM) to warm neutral medium (WNM) conditions. The degeneracy with the gas temperature prevents an accurate determination of , especially for low hydrogen ionization fractions, where densities of a few cm−3 are also allowed. Anna Bonaldi and Sara Ricciardi Copyright © 2012 Anna Bonaldi and Sara Ricciardi. All rights reserved. Tue, 18 Dec 2012 10:44:15 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/923578/ We discuss the importance of the Sun’s large-scale magnetic field to the Sun-Planetary environment. This paper narrows its focus down to the motion and evolution of the photospheric large-scale magnetic field which affects many environments throughout this region. For this purpose we utilize a newly developed Netlogo cellular automata model. The domain of this algorithmic model is the Sun’s photosphere. Within this computational space are placed two types of entities or agents; one may refer to them as bluebirds and cardinals; the former carries outward magnetic flux and the latter carries out inward magnetic flux. One may simply call them blue and red agents. The agents provide a granularity with discrete changes not present in smooth MHD models; they undergo three processes: birth, motion, and death within the photospheric domain. We discuss these processes, as well as how we are able to develop a model that restricts its domain to the photosphere and allows the deeper layers to be considered only through boundary conditions. We show the model’s ability to mimic a number of photospheric magnetic phenomena: the solar cycle (11-year) oscillations, the Waldmeier effect, unipolar magnetic regions (e.g. sectors and coronal holes), Maunder minima, and the march/rush to the poles involving the geometry of magnetic field reversals. We also discuss why the Sun sometimes appears as a magnetic monopole, which of course requires no alteration of Maxwell’s equations. Kenneth H. Schatten Copyright © 2012 Kenneth H. Schatten. All rights reserved. Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:06:43 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/208159/ We review the major progress on the modeling of electric dipole emission from rapidly spinning tiny dust grains, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We begin by summarizing the original model of spinning dust proposed by Draine and Lazarian and recent theoretical results improving the Draine and Lazarian model. The paper is focused on important physical effects that were disregarded in earlier studies for the sake of simplicity and recently accounted for by us, including grain wobbling due to internal relaxation, impulsive excitation by single-ion collisions, the triaxiality of grain shape, charge fluctuations, and the turbulent nature of astrophysical environments. Implications of the spinning dust for constraining the physical properties of ultrasmall dust grains and environmental conditions are discussed. We discuss the alignment of tiny dust grains and the possibility of polarized spinning dust emission. Suggestions for constraining the alignment of tiny grains and polarization of spinning dust are also discussed. Thiem Hoang and A. Lazarian Copyright © 2012 Thiem Hoang and A. Lazarian. All rights reserved. Wed, 12 Dec 2012 10:34:04 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/124931/ Many studies of anomalous microwave emission (AME) have computed an AME emissivity to compare the strength of the AME detected in different regions. Such a value is usually defined as the ratio between the intensity of the AME at 1 cm and the thermal dust emission at 100 μm. However, as studies of Galactic dust emission have shown, the intensity of the thermal dust emission at 100 μm is strongly dependent on the dust temperature, which has severe implications for the AME emissivity defined in this way. In this work, we illustrate and quantify this effect and find that the AME emissivity decreases by a factor of 11.1 between dust temperatures of 20 and 30 K. We, therefore, conclude that computing the AME emissivity relative to the 100 μm emission does not allow for accurate comparisons between the AME observed in different environments. With this in mind, we investigate the use of other tracers of the dust emission with which to compute the AME emissivity and we ultimately conclude that, despite the difficulty in deriving its value, the column density of the dust would be the most suitable quantity with which to compute the AME emissivity. Christopher T. Tibbs, Roberta Paladini, and Clive Dickinson Copyright © 2012 Christopher T. Tibbs et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:50:22 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/607384/ We discuss in this paper the problem of the Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME) in the light of ongoing or future observations to be performed with the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world. High angular resolution observations of the AME will enable astronomers to drastically improve the knowledge of the AME mechanisms as well as the interplay between the different constituents of the interstellar medium in our galaxy. Extragalactic observations of the AME have started as well, and high resolution is even more important in this kind of observations. When cross-correlating with IR-dust emission, high angular resolution is also of fundamental importance in order to obtain unbiased results. The choice of the observational frequency is also of key importance in continuum observation. We calculate a merit function that accounts for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in AME observation given the current state-of-the-art knowledge and technology. We also include in our merit functions the frequency dependence in the case of multifrequency observations. We briefly mention and compare the performance of four of the largest radiotelescopes in the world and hope the observational programs in each of them will be as intense as possible. E. S. Battistelli, E. Carretti, P. de Bernardis, and S. Masi Copyright © 2012 E. S. Battistelli et al. All rights reserved. Sun, 09 Dec 2012 08:45:12 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/834247/ The time variability of the cosmic ray (CR) intensity, recorded by the Climax neutron monitor and covering the period 1953–2004, has been analyzed by the joint application of the wavelet and the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) analyses. Dominant time scales of variability are found at ~11 yr, ~22 yr, ~6 yr and in the range of the quasi-biennial oscillations (QBOs). The combination of the 11 yr cycle and QBOs explains the Gnevychev Gap (GG) phenomenon and many step-like decreases characterizing the CR modulation. The additional scales of variability at ~22 yr and ~6 yr are responsible for other features of the long-term CR trend, such as the intensity flat-topped profile, following the maxima of even-numbered cycles during positive polarity state of the heliosphere (). Comparison with basic time scales of variability derived from the sunspot area (SA) allows the association of the 11 yr cycle and QBOs with solar activity variations, whereas the other two modes with the drift effects govern the CR entrance in the heliosphere. A. Vecchio, M. Laurenza, M. Storini, and V. Carbone Copyright © 2012 A. Vecchio et al. All rights reserved. Sun, 02 Dec 2012 08:47:41 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/351836/ The observational status of the polarisation of the anomalous microwave emission (AME) is reviewed, both for individual compact Galactic regions as well as for the large-scale Galactic emission. There are six Galactic regions with existing polarisation constraints in the relevant range of 10–40 GHz: four dust clouds (Perseus, ρ Ophiuchi, LDN1622, and Pleiades) and two HII regions (LPH96 and the Helix nebula). These constraints are discussed in detail and are complemented by deriving upper limits on the polarisation of the AME for those objects without published WMAP constraints. For the case of large-scale emission, two recent works, based on WMAP data, are reviewed. Currently, the best constraints on the fractional polarisation of the AME, at frequencies near the peak of the emission (i.e., 20–30 GHz), are at the level of % (95.4% confidence level). Finally, we compare these constraints with the predictions of some theoretical AME models and discuss the possible impact of polarised AME on future primordial B-mode experiments. J. A. Rubiño-Martín, C. H. López-Caraballo, R. Génova-Santos, and R. Rebolo Copyright © 2012 J. A. Rubiño-Martín et al. All rights reserved. Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:32:12 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/428757/ Core-collapse supernovae are dramatic explosions marking the catastrophic end of massive stars. The only means to get direct information about the supernova engine is from observations of neutrinos emitted by the forming neutron star, and through gravitational waves which are produced when the hydrodynamic flow or the neutrino flux is not perfectly spherically symmetric. The multidimensionality of the supernova engine, which breaks the sphericity of the central core such as convection, rotation, magnetic fields, and hydrodynamic instabilities of the supernova shock, is attracting great attention as the most important ingredient to understand the long-veiled explosion mechanism. Based on our recent work, we summarize properties of gravitational waves, neutrinos, and explosive nucleosynthesis obtained in a series of our multidimensional hydrodynamic simulations and discuss how the mystery of the central engines can be unraveled by deciphering these multimessengers produced under the thick veils of massive stars. Kei Kotake, Tomoya Takiwaki, Yudai Suwa, Wakana Iwakami Nakano, Shio Kawagoe, Youhei Masada, and Shin-ichiro Fujimoto Copyright © 2012 Kei Kotake et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 02 Oct 2012 08:45:10 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/625126/ Angela Bongiorno, Francesco Shankar, Francesca Civano, Isabelle Gavignaud, and Antonis Georgakakis Copyright © 2012 Angela Bongiorno et al. All rights reserved. Sun, 30 Sep 2012 09:18:56 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/893984/ Nadine Neumayer and C. Jakob Walcher Copyright © 2012 Nadine Neumayer and C. Jakob Walcher. All rights reserved. Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:04:31 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/470631/ J. Javaraiah, J. P. Rozelot, and Luca Bertello Copyright © 2012 J. Javaraiah et al. All rights reserved.