4,292 research outputs found
Photoelectric cross-sections of gas and dust in protoplanetary disks
We provide simple polynomial fits to the X-ray photoelectric cross-sections
(0.03 < E < 10keV) for mixtures of gas and dust found in protoplanetary disks.
Using the solar elemental abundances of Asplund et al. (2009) we treat the gas
and dust components separately, facilitating the further exploration
evolutionary processes such as grain settling and gain growth. We find that
blanketing due to advanced grain-growth (a_max > 1 micron) can reduce the X-ray
opacity of dust appreciably at E_X ~ 1keV, coincident with the peak of typical
T Tauri X-ray spectra. However, the reduction of dust opacity by dust settling,
which is known to occur in protoplanetary disks, is probably a more significant
effect. The absorption of 1-10keV X-rays is dominated by gas opacity once the
dust abundance has been reduced to about 1% of its diffuse interstellar value.
The gas disk establishes a floor to the opacity at which point X-ray transport
becomes insensitive to further dust evolution. Our choice of fitting function
follows that of Morrison & McCammon (1983), providing a degree of
backward-compatibility.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures. To be published in in Ap
Towards a New Standard Model for Black Hole Accretion
We briefly review recent developments in black hole accretion disk theory,
emphasizing the vital role played by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stresses in
transporting angular momentum. The apparent universality of accretion-related
outflow phenomena is a strong indicator that large-scale MHD torques facilitate
vertical transport of angular momentum. This leads to an enhanced overall rate
of angular momentum transport and allows accretion of matter to proceed at an
interesting rate. Furthermore, we argue that when vertical transport is
important, the radial structure of the accretion disk is modified at small
radii and this affects the disk emission spectrum. We present a simple model
demonstrating how energetic, magnetically-driven outflows modify the emergent
disk emission spectrum with respect to that predicted by standard accretion
disk theory. A comparison of the predicted spectra against observations of
quasar spectral energy distributions suggests that mass accretion rates
inferred using the standard disk model may severely underestimate their true
values.Comment: To appear in the Fifth Stromlo Symposium Proceedings special issue of
ApS
Characterization of the Crab Pulsar's Timing Noise
We present a power spectral analysis of the Crab pulsar's timing noise,
mainly using radio measurements from Jodrell Bank taken over the period
1982-1989. The power spectral analysis is complicated by nonuniform data
sampling and the presence of a steep red power spectrum that can distort power
spectra measurement by causing severe power ``leakage''. We develop a simple
windowing method for computing red noise power spectra of uniformly sampled
data sets and test it on Monte Carlo generated sample realizations of red
power-law noise. We generalize time-domain methods of generating power-law red
noise with even integer spectral indices to the case of noninteger spectral
indices. The Jodrell Bank pulse phase residuals are dense and smooth enough
that an interpolation onto a uniform time series is possible. A windowed power
spectrum is computed revealing a periodic or nearly periodic component with a
period of about 568 days and a 1/f^3 power-law noise component with a noise
strength of 1.24 +/- 0.067 10^{-16} cycles^2/sec^2 over the analysis frequency
range 0.003 - 0.1 cycles/day. This result deviates from past analyses which
characterized the pulse phase timing residuals as either 1/f^4 power-law noise
or a quasiperiodic process. The analysis was checked using the Deeter
polynomial method of power spectrum estimation that was developed for the case
of nonuniform sampling, but has lower spectral resolution. The timing noise is
consistent with a torque noise spectrum rising with analysis frequency as f
implying blue torque noise, a result not predicted by current models of pulsar
timing noise. If the periodic or nearly periodic component is due to a binary
companion, we find a companion mass > 3.2 Earth masses.Comment: 53 pages, 9 figures, submitted to MNRAS, abstract condense
Accurate measurement of scattering and absorption loss in microphotonic devices
We present a simple measurement and analysis technique to determine the fraction of optical loss due to both radiation (scattering) and linear absorption in microphotonic components. The method is generally applicable to optical materials in which both nonlinear and linear absorption are present and requires only limited knowledge of absolute optical power levels, material parameters, and the structure geometry. The technique is applied to high-quality-factor (Q=1×10^6 to Q=5×10^6) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) microdisk resonators. It is determined that linear absorption can account for more than half of the total optical loss in the high-Q regime of these devices
Cavity Q, mode volume, and lasing threshold in small diameter AlGaAs microdisks with embedded quantum dots
The quality factor (Q), mode volume (Veff), and room-temperature lasing
threshold of microdisk cavities with embedded quantum dots (QDs) are
investigated. Finite element method simulations of standing wave modes within
the microdisk reveal that Veff can be as small as 2(lambda/n)^3 while
maintaining radiation-limited Qs in excess of 10^5. Microdisks of diameter D=2
microns are fabricated in an AlGaAs material containing a single layer of InAs
QDs with peak emission at lambda = 1317 nm. For devices with Veff ~2
(lambda/n)^3, Qs as high as 1.2 x 10^5 are measured passively in the 1.4 micron
band, using an optical fiber taper waveguide. Optical pumping yields laser
emission in the 1.3 micron band, with room temperature, continuous-wave
thresholds as low as 1 microWatt of absorbed pump power. Out-coupling of the
laser emission is also shown to be significantly enhanced through the use of
optical fiber tapers, with laser differential efficiency as high as xi~16% and
out-coupling efficiency in excess of 28%.Comment: 6 figure
Photometric Properties of Kiso Ultraviolet-Excess Galaxies in the Lynx-Ursa Major Region
We have performed a systematic study of several regions in the sky where the
number of galaxies exhibiting star formation (SF) activity is greater than
average. We used Kiso ultraviolet-excess galaxies (KUGs) as our SF-enhanced
sample. By statistically comparing the KUG and non-KUG distributions, we
discovered four KUG-rich regions with a size of . One of these regions corresponds spatially to a filament of length
Mpc in the Lynx-Ursa Major region (). We call this ``the Lynx-Ursa
Major (LUM) filament''. We obtained surface photometry of 11 of
the KUGs in the LUM filament and used these to investigate the integrated
colors, distribution of SF regions, morphologies, and local environments. We
found that these KUGs consist of distorted spiral galaxies and compact galaxies
with blue colors. Their star formation occurs in the entire disk, and is not
confined to just the central regions. The colors of the SF regions imply that
active star formation in the spiral galaxies occurred yr ago,
while that of the compact objects occurred yr ago. Though the
photometric characteristics of these KUGs are similar to those of interacting
galaxies or mergers, most of these KUGs do not show direct evidence of merger
processes.Comment: 39 pages LaTeX, using aasms4.sty, 20 figures, ApJS accepted. The
Title of the previous one was truncated by the author's mistake, and is
corrected. Main body of the paper is unchange
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