We consider the gravitational force exerted on a point-like perturber of mass M travelling within a uniform gaseous, opaque medium at constant velocity V . The perturber irradiates the surrounding gas with luminosity L. The diffusion of the heat released is modelled with a uniform thermal diffusivity χ. Using linear perturbation theory, we show that the force exerted by the perturbed gas on the perturber differs from the force without radiation (or standard dynamical friction). Hot, underdense gas trails the mass, which gives rise to a new force component, the heating force, with direction +V , thus opposed to the standard dynamical friction. In the limit of low Mach numbers, the heating force has expression F heat = γ(γ − 1)GM L/(2χc 2 s ), c s being the sound speed and γ the ratio of specific heats. In the limit of large Mach numbers,where f is a function that diverges logarithmically as r min tends to zero. Remarkably, the force in the low Mach number limit does not depend on the velocity. The equilibrium speed, when it exists, is set by the cancellation of the standard dynamical friction and heating force. In the low Mach number limit, it scales with the luminosity to mass ratio of the perturber. Using the above results suggests that Mars-to Earth-sized planetary embryos heated by accretion in a gaseous protoplanetary disc should have eccentricities and inclinations that amount to a sizeable fraction of the disc's aspect ratio, for conditions thought to prevail at a few astronomical units.

Streptomyces coelicolor is a model for studying bacteria renowned as the foremost source of natural products used clinically. Post-genomic studies have revealed complex patterns of gene expression and links to growth, morphological development and individual genes. However, the underlying regulation remains largely obscure, but undoubtedly involves steps after transcription initiation. Here we identify sites involved in RNA processing and degradation as well as transcription within a nucleotide-resolution map of the transcriptional landscape. This was achieved by combining RNA-sequencing approaches suited to the analysis of GC-rich organisms. Escherichia coli was analysed in parallel to validate the methodology and allow comparison. Previously, sites of RNA processing and degradation had not been mapped on a transcriptome-wide scale for E. coli. Through examples, we show the value of our approach and data sets. This includes the identification of new layers of transcriptional complexity associated with several key regulators of secondary metabolism and morphological development in S. coelicolor and the identification of host-encoded leaderless mRNA and rRNA processing associated with the generation of specialized ribosomes in E. coli. New regulatory small RNAs were identified for both organisms. Overall the results illustrate the diversity in mechanisms used by different bacterial groups to facilitate and regulate gene expression.

Equilibrium or stationary solutions usually proceed through the exact balance between hyperbolic transport terms and source terms. Such equilibrium solutions are affected by truncation errors that prevent any classical numerical scheme from capturing the evolution of small amplitude waves of physical significance. In order to overcome this problem, we compare two commonly adopted strategies: going to very high order and reduce drastically the truncation errors on the equilibrium solution, or design a specific scheme that preserves by construction the equilibrium exactly, the so-called well-balanced approach. We present a modern numerical implementation of these two strategies and compare them in details, using hydrostatic but also dynamical equilibrium solutions of several simple test cases. Finally, we apply our methodology to the simulation of a protoplanetary disc in centrifugal equilibrium around its star and model its interaction with an embedded planet, illustrating in a realistic application the strength of both methods.