We show that many observations of W44, a supernova remnant in the Galactic plane at a distance of about 2500 pc, are remarkably consistent with the simplest realistic model. The model remnant is evolving in a smooth ambient medium of fairly high density, about 6 cm~3 on average, with a substantial density gradient. At the observed time it has an age of about 20,000 yr, consistent with the age of the associated pulsar, and a radius of 11È13 pc. Over most of the outer surface, radiative cooling has become important in the postshock gas ; on the denser end there has been sufficient compression of the cooled gas to develop a very thin dense half-shell of about 450 supported against further compression by M _ , nonthermal pressure. The half-shell has an expansion velocity of about 150 km s~1 and is bounded on the outer surface by a radiative shock with that speed. The deep interior of the remnant has a substantial and fairly uniform pressure, as expected from even highly idealized adiabatic models ; our model, however, is never adiabatic. Thermal conduction, while the remnant is young and hot, reduces the need for expansion cooling and prevents formation of the intensely vacuous cavity characteristic of adiabatic evolution. It radically alters the interior structure from what one might expect from familiarity with the Sedov solution. At the time of observation, the temperature in the center is about 6 ] 106 K, the density about 1 cm~3. The temperature decreases gradually away from the center, while the density rises. Farther out, where cooling is becoming important, the pressure drops precipitously, and the temperature in the denser gas there is quite low. We provide several analytic tools for the assembly of models of this type. We review the early evolution and shell formation analyses and their generalizations to evolution in a density gradient. We also calculate the density and temperature that should be present in the hot interior of a remnant with thermal conduction. We supply the van der Laan mechanism in a particularly useful form for the calculation of radio continuum from radiative remnants. Finally, we estimate the optical emission that should be present from Ñuorescence of UV light, emitted by the forming shell and the radiative shock and absorbed in the cold shell and the ambient medium, and the associated 63 km [O I] emission. Both are in agreement with the intensity and spatial structures found in recent observations. Neither requires interaction with a dense molecular cloud for its generation. We calculate the gamma rays that should be emitted by cosmic-ray electrons and ions in the shell, interacting with the cold material, and Ðnd each capable of generating about 25% of the Ñux reported by EGRET for the vicinity.

The ROTSE-I experiment has generated CCD photometry for the entire Northern sky in two epochs nightly since March 1998. These sky patrol data are a powerful resource for studies of astrophysical transients. As a demonstration project, we present first results of a search for periodic variable stars derived from ROTSE-I observations. Variable identification, period determination, and type classification are conducted via automatic algorithms. In a set of nine ROTSE-I sky patrol fields covering ∼2000 square degrees we identify 1781 periodic variable stars with mean magnitudes between m v =10.0 and m v =15.5. About 90% of these objects are newly identified as variable. Examples of many familiar types are presented. All classifications for this study have been manually confirmed. The selection criteria for this analysis have been conservatively defined, and are known to be biased against some variable classes. This preliminary study includes only 5.6% of the total ROTSE-I sky coverage, suggesting that the full ROTSE-I variable catalog will include more than 32,000 periodic variable stars.

We show that many observations of W44, a supernova remnant in the galactic plane at a distance of about 2500 pc, are remarkably consistent with the simplest realistic model. The model remnant is evolving in a smooth ambient medium of fairly high density, about 6 cm −3 on average, with a substantial density gradient. At the observed time it has an age of about 20,000 years, consistent with the age of the associated pulsar, and a radius of 11 to 13 pc. Over most of the outer surface, radiative cooling has become important in the post shock gas; on the denser end there has been sufficient compression of the cooled gas to develop a very thin dense half shell of about 450 M⊙ , supported against further compression by nonthermal pressure. The half shell has an expansion velocity of about 150 km s −1 , and is bounded on the outer surface by a radiative shock with that speed.The deep interior of the remnant has a substantial and fairly uniform pressure, as expected from even highly idealized adiabatic models; our model, however, is never adiabatic. Thermal conduction, while the remnant is young and hot, reduces the need for expansion cooling, and prevents formation of the intensely vacuous cavity characteristic of adiabatic evolution. It radically alters the interior structure from what one might expect from familiarity with the Sedov solution. At the time of observation, the temperature in the center is about 6×10 6 K, the density about 1 cm −3 . The temperature decreases gradually away from the center, while the density rises. Farther out where cooling is becoming important, the pressure drops precipitously and the temperature in the denser gas there is quite low. Our model is similar to but more comprehensive than the recent one by Harrus et al. (1997). Because their model lacked thermal conduction, ours is more successful in providing the thermal x-rays from the hot interior, including a better match to the spectrum, but neither provides the sharpness of the central peaking without further complications.By using a 2d hydrocode to follow the evolution in a density gradient, we are able to verify that the spatial and velocity structure of the HI shell are a good match to the observations, without the complications suggested by Koo and Heiles (1995), and to demonstrate that the remnant's asymmetry does not substantially affect the distribution of x-ray emitting material. A 1d hydrocode model is then used to explore the effects of nonequilibrium ionization on the x-ray spectrum and intensity. We calculate the radio continuum emission expected from the compression of the ambient magnetic field and cosmic rays into the dense shell (the van der Laan mechanism, 1962a) and find it to be roughly consistent with observation, though the required density of ambient cosmic ray electrons is about 4 times greater than that estimated for the solar neighborhood. We estimate the optical emission that should be present from fluorescence of UV, emitted by the forming shell and the radiative shock and absorbed in the cold shell and the am...

The Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) seeks to measure simultaneous and early afterglow optical emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). A search for optical counterparts to six GRBs with localization errors of 1 deg2 or better produced no detections. The earliest limiting sensitivity is mROTSE>13.1 at 10.85 s (5 s exposure) after the gamma-ray rise, and the best limit is mROTSE>16.0 at 62 minutes (897 s exposure). These are the most stringent limits obtained for the GRB optical counterpart brightness in the first hour after the burst. Consideration of the gamma-ray fluence and peak flux for these bursts and for GRB 990123 indicates that there is not a strong positive correlation between optical flux and gamma-ray emission.

Abstract. We describe a modeling approach to help students learn expert problem solving. Models are used to present and hierarchically organize the syllabus content and apply it to problem solving, but students do not develop and validate their own Models through guided discovery. Instead, students classify problems under the appropriate instructor-generated Model by selecting a system to consider and describing the interactions that are relevant to that system. We believe that this explicit System, Interactions and Model (S.I.M.) problem modeling strategy represents a key simplification and clarification of the widely disseminated modeling approach originated by Hestenes and collaborators. Our narrower focus allows modeling physics to be integrated into (as opposed to replacing) a typical introductory college mechanics course, while preserving the emphasis on understanding systems and interactions that is the essence of modeling. We have employed the approach in a three-week review course for MIT freshmen who received a D in the fall mechanics course with very encouraging results.