Anatomy of helical relativistic jets: The case of S5 0836+710

Helical structures are common in extragalactic jets. They are usually attributed in the literature to periodical phenomena in the source (e.g., precession). In this work, we use VLBI data of the radio-jet in the quasar S5 0836+710 and hypothesize that the ridge-line of helical jets like this corresponds to a pressure maximum in the jet and assume that the helically twisted pressure maximum is the result of a helical wave pattern. For our study, we use observations of the jet in S5 0836+710 at different frequencies and epochs. The results show that the structures observed are physical and not generated artificially by the observing arrays. Our hypothesis that the observed intensity ridge-line can correspond to a helically twisted pressure maximum is confirmed by our observational tests. This interpretation allows us to explain jet misalignment between parsec and kiloparsec scales when the viewing angle is small, and also brings us to the conclusion that high-frequency observations may show only a small region of the jet flow concentrated around the maximum pressure ridge-line observed at low frequencies. Our work provides a potential explanation for the apparent transversal superluminal speeds observed in several extragalactic jets by means of transversal shift of an apparent core position with time.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

INTRODUCTION After fourteen years of pioneering systematic work spanning from 1996 to 2010, carried out in the territory of Santa Catarina State, SC, within the Brazilian Southern region, framed in the socalled Atlantic Slope of the Southern Cone of South America (Agudo-Padrón, 2008a), a basic list of continental (land and freshwater) and marine mollusc species was compiled. Besides constant interactions and consultations with numerous national and international specialists, such a list was mostly based on available literature and/or analyses of voucher specimens deposited in collections belonging to research centers or environmental education institutes. To date (up to the first semester of 2010), this list comprises a total of 878 taxa (species and subspecies, including 695 marine and 183 continental forms), and these numbers are likely to increase as field surveys ensue. In the present study, results obtained from the author’s active participation in three recent regional field sampling expeditions dealing with marine and continental mollusc taxa, are reported. I. Official State program for listing and control of invasive exotic species Starting from November 2009, and for the first time in the history of Santa Catarina State, the presence of invasive allochthonous mollusc species in Santa Catarina State was studied and discussed through the organisation of seminars by the Official Foundation for the Environment of the State of Santa Catarina (Fundação do Meio Ambiente – FATMA) jointly with the Hórus Institute for Development and Environmental Conservation (Instituto Hórus de Desenvolvimento e Conservação Ambiental), with the main goal to compile the Official State List of Species. To date, the occurrence of a total of twenty allochthonous (exotic) forms of mollusc species has been confirmed, 14 Gastropoda and 6 Bivalvia [namely, 11 terrestrial gastropods, 5 freshwater taxa (3 gastropods and 2 bivalves) and 4 marine bivalves]. Taking into account the contributions of Agudo & Bleicker (2006a), Agudo-Padrón (2008b) and Agudo-Padrón & Lenhard (2010), the slug Pallifera sp. - the taxonomic determination of which is still in process (Thomé et al., 2006) - was included within such a list. Of these twenty Mollusca and environmental conservation in Santa Catarina State (SC, Southern Brazil): current situation

Available knowledge of malacofauna (mollusc species) conservation in the territory of Santa Catarina State,SC, central Southern Brazil region, is shortly analyzed and discussed herein. Present data originate from theauthor's active participation in three recent regional unpublished events dealing with biodiversity conservationin the State, carried out to cope the sensitive lack of population studies which is the main difficulty to face inorder to provide accurate and detailed evaluations on biodiversity and its conservation status

Current knowledge on population studies on five continental molluscs (Mollusca, Gastropoda et Bivalvia) of Santa Catarina State (SC, Central Southern Brazil region)

Although still very scarce, available knowledge on population studies on continental (land and freshwater)molluscs in the territory of Santa Catarina State is shortly analyzed and discussed. Based on the IUCN“Restricted Distribution” criterion, a total of 54 nominal species, including 31 terrestrial gastropods, 15freshwater gastropods and 8 limnic bivalves, were considered strong candidates as threatened taxa. Out of allthese endangered species, only 5 limnic forms (2 gastropods and 3 bivalves) were previously analysed, in someway, at population level

The redshift and broad band spectral energy distribution of NRAO 150

Context. NRAO 150 is one of the brightest radio and mm AGN sources on the northern sky. It has been revealed as an interesting source where to study extreme relativistic jet phenomena. However, its cosmological distance has not been reported so far, because of its optical faintness produced by strong Galactic extinction. Aims. Aiming at measuring the redshift of NRAO 150, and hence to start making possible quantitative studies from the source. Methods. We have conducted spectroscopic and photometric observations of the source in the near-IR, as well as in the optical. Results. All such observations have been successful in detecting the source. The near-IR spectroscopic observations reveal strong H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ emission lines from which the cosmological redshift of NRAO 150 ($z=1.517\pm0.002$) has been determined for the first time. We classify the source as a flat-spectrum radio-loud quasar, for which we estimate a large super-massive black-hole mass $\sim5\times 10^{9} \mathrm{M_\odot}$. After extinction correction, the new near-IR and optical data have revealed a high-luminosity continuum-emission excess in the optical (peaking at $\sim2000$\,\AA, rest frame) that we attribute to thermal emission from the accretion disk for which we estimate a high accretion rate, $\sim30$\,% of the Eddington limit. Conclusions. Comparison of these source properties, and its broad-band spectral-energy distribution, with those of Fermi blazars allow us to predict that NRAO 150 is among the most powerful blazars, and hence a high luminosity -although not detected yet- $\gamma$-ray emitter.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Interaction effects and transport properties of Pt capped Co nanoparticles

We studied the magnetic and transport properties of Co nanoparticles (NPs) being capped with varying amounts of Pt. Beside field and temperature dependent magnetization measurements we performed delta-M measurements to study the magnetic interactions between the Co NPs. We observe a transition from demagnetizing towards magnetizing interactions between the particles for an increasing amount of Pt capping. Resistivity measurements show a crossover from giant magnetoresistance towards anisotropic magnetoresistance

Relative localization for aerial manipulation with PL-SLAM

The final publication is available at link.springer.comThis chapter explains a precise SLAM technique, PL-SLAM, that allows to simultaneously process points and lines and tackle situations where point-only based methods are prone to fail, like poorly textured scenes or motion blurred images where feature points are vanished out. The method is remarkably robust against image noise, and that it outperforms state-of-the-art methods for point based contour alignment. The method can run in real-time and in a low cost hardware.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft