Black Holes in the Early Universe

The existence of massive black holes was postulated in the sixties, when the first quasars were discovered. In the late nineties their reality was proven beyond doubt, in the Milky way and a handful nearby galaxies. Since then, enormous theoretical and observational efforts have been made to understand the astrophysics of massive black holes. We have discovered that some of the most massive black holes known, weighing billions of solar masses, powered luminous quasars within the first billion years of the Universe. The first massive black holes must therefore have formed around the time the first stars and galaxies formed. Dynamical evidence also indicates that black holes with masses of millions to billions of solar masses ordinarily dwell in the centers of today's galaxies. Massive black holes populate galaxy centers today, and shone as quasars in the past; the quiescent black holes that we detect now in nearby bulges are the dormant remnants of this fiery past. In this review we report on basic, but critical, questions regarding the cosmological significance of massive black holes. What physical mechanisms lead to the formation of the first massive black holes? How massive were the initial massive black hole seeds? When and where did they form? How is the growth of black holes linked to that of their host galaxy? Answers to most of these questions are work in progress, in the spirit of these Reports on Progress in Physics.Comment: Reports on Progress in Physics, in pres

Use of zinc phosphate cement as a luting agent for Denzir™ copings: an in vitro study

BACKGROUND: The clinical success rate with zinc phosphate cemented Procera crowns is high. The objective with this study was to determine whether CADCAM processed and zinc phosphate cemented Denzir copings would perform as well as zinc phosphate cemented Procera copings when tested in vitro in tension. METHODS: Twelve Procera copings and twenty-four Denzir copings were made. After the copings had been made, twelve of the Denzir copings were sandblasted on their internal surfaces. All copings were then cemented with zinc phosphate cement to carbon steel dies and transferred to water or artificial saliva. Two weeks after cementation, half of the samples were tested. The remaining samples were tested after one year in the storage medium. All tests were done in tension and evaluated with an ANOVA. RESULTS: Sandblasted and un-sandblasted Denzir copings performed as well as Procera copings. Storage in water or artificial saliva up to one year did not decrease the force needed to dislodge any of the coping groups. Three copings fractured during testing and one coping developed a crack during testing. The three complete fractures occurred in Procera copings, while the partly cracked coping was a Denzir coping. CONCLUSION: No significant differences existed between the different material groups, and the retentive force increased rather than decreased with time. Fewer fractures occurred in Denzir copings, explained by the higher fracture toughness of the Denzir material. Based on good clinical results with zinc phosphate cemented Procera crowns, we foresee that zinc phosphate cement luted Denzir copings are likely to perform well clinically

Capsaicin ameliorate pulmonary fibrosis via antioxidant Nrf-2/ PPAR- γ pathway activation and inflammatory TGF-β1/ NF-κB/COX II pathway inhibition

Bleomycin is an effective antibiotic with a significant anticancer properties, but its use is limited due to its potential to induce dose-dependent pulmonary fibrosis. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the therapeutic potential of Capsaicin as an additional treatment to enhance patient tolerance to Bleomycin compared to the antifibrotic drug Pirfenidone. Pulmonary fibrosis was induced in rats through by a single intratracheal Bleomycin administration in day zero, followed by either Capsaicin or Pirfenidone treatment for 7 days. After the animals were sacrificed, their lungs were dissected and examined using various stains for macroscopic and histopathological evaluation. Additionally, the study assessed various antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antifibrotic parameters were assessed. Rats exposed to Bleomycin exhibited visible signs of fibrosis, histopathological alterations, increased collagen deposition, and elevated mucin content. Bleomycin also led to heightened increased inflammatory cells infiltration in the bronchoalveolar lavage, elevated fibrosis biomarkers such as hydroxyproline, alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β1), increased inflammatory markers including tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interlukine-6 (Il-6), interlukine-1β (Il-1β) nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), and Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β1),. Furthermore, it reduced the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-γ), increased oxidative stress biomarkers like nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), myeloperoxidase (MPO) and protein carbonyl. Bleomycin also decreased the expression of nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (Nrf-2), reduced glutathione (GSH), total antioxidant capacity, and the activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Treating the animals with Capsaicin and Pirfenidone following Bleomycin exposure resulted in improved lung macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, reduced collagen deposition (collagen I and collagen III) and mucin content, decreased inflammatory cell infiltration, lowered levels of hydroxyproline, α-SMA, and TGF-β1, decreased TNF-α, Il-6, Il-1β, NF-κB, and COX-2, increased PPAR-γ and Nrf-2 expression, and improvement improved in all oxidative stress biomarkers. In summary, Capsaicin demonstrates significant antifibrotic activity against Bleomycin-induced lung injury that may be attributed, at least in part, to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of Capsaicin mediated by upregulation of PPAR-γ and Nrf-2 expression and decreasing. TGF-β1, NF-κB and COX II proteins concentrations

The SLUGGS survey: probing the supermassive blackhole connection with bulges and haloes using red and blue globular cluster systems

Understanding whether the bulge or the halo provides the primary link to the growth of supermassive black holes has strong implications for galaxy evolution and supermassive black hole formation itself. In this paper, we approach this issue by investigating extragalactic globular cluster (GC) systems, which can be used to probe the physics of both the bulge and the halo of the host galaxy. We study the relation between the supermassive black hole masses (MBH) and the GC system velocity dispersions (σGC) using an updated and improved sample of 21 galaxies. We exploit the dichotomy of GC system colours, to test if the blue and red GCs correlate differently with black hole mass. This may be expected if they trace the potentially different formation history of the halo and of the bulge of the host galaxy, respectively. We find that MBH correlates with the total GC system velocity dispersion, although not as strongly as claimed by recent work of Sadoun & Colin. We also examine the MBH-σGC relation for barred/barless and core/non-core galaxies, finding no significant difference, and for the first time we quantify the impact of radial gradients in the GC system velocity dispersion profile on the MBH-σGC relation. We additionally predict MBH in 13 galaxies, including dwarf elliptical galaxies and the cD galaxy NGC 3311. We conclude that our current results cannot discriminate between the bulge/halo scenarios. Although there is a hint that the red GC velocity dispersion might correlate better with MBH than the blue GC velocity dispersion, the number statistics are still too low to be certain

Galaxy bulges and their massive black holes: a review

With references to both key and oft-forgotten pioneering works, this article starts by presenting a review into how we came to believe in the existence of massive black holes at the centres of galaxies. It then presents the historical development of the near-linear (black hole)-(host spheroid) mass relation, before explaining why this has recently been dramatically revised. Past disagreement over the slope of the (black hole)-(velocity dispersion) relation is also explained, and the discovery of sub-structure within the (black hole)-(velocity dispersion) diagram is discussed. As the search for the fundamental connection between massive black holes and their host galaxies continues, the competing array of additional black hole mass scaling relations for samples of predominantly inactive galaxies are presented.Comment: Invited (15 Feb. 2014) review article (submitted 16 Nov. 2014). 590 references, 9 figures, 25 pages in emulateApJ format. To appear in "Galactic Bulges", E. Laurikainen, R.F. Peletier, and D.A. Gadotti (eds.), Springer Publishin

Kinematics and simulations of the stellar stream in the halo of the Umbrella Galaxy

We study the dynamics of faint stellar substructures around the Umbrella Galaxy, NGC 4651, which hosts a dramatic system of streams and shells formed through the tidal disruption of a nucleated dwarf elliptical galaxy. We elucidate the basic characteristics of the system (colours, luminosities, stellar masses) using multiband Subaru/Suprime-Cam images. The implied stellar mass ratio of the ongoing merger event is ∼1:50. We identify candidate kinematic tracers (globular clusters, planetary nebulae, H ii regions) and follow up a subset with Keck/DEIMOS (DEep Imaging Multi-object Spectrograph) spectroscopy to obtain velocities. We find that 15 of the tracers are likely associated with halo substructures, including the probable stream progenitor nucleus. These objects delineate a kinematically cold feature in position–velocity phase space. We model the stream using single test particle orbits, plus a rescaled pre-existing N-body simulation. We infer a very eccentric orbit with a period of ∼0.35 Gyr and turning points at ∼2–4 and ∼40 kpc, implying a recent passage of the satellite through the disc, which may have provoked the visible disturbances in the host galaxy. This work confirms that the kinematics of low surface brightness substructures can be recovered and modelled using discrete tracers – a breakthrough that opens up a fresh avenue for unravelling the detailed physics of minor merging

Substructure and Tidal Streams in the Andromeda Galaxy and its Satellites

Tidal streams from existing and destroyed satellite galaxies populate the outer regions of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). This inhomogeneous debris can be studied without many of the obstacles that plague Milky Way research. We review the history of tidal stream research in M31, and in its main satellite galaxies. We highlight the numerous tidal streams observed around M31, some of which reside at projected distances of up to 120 kpc from the center of this galaxy. Most notable is the Giant Stellar Stream, a signature of the most recent significant accretion event in the M31 system. This event involved an early-type progenitor of ~10^9 solar masses that came within a few kpc of M31's center roughly a gigayear ago; almost all of the inner halo debris (within 50 kpc) in M31 can be tied either directly or indirectly to this event. We draw attention to the fact that most of M31's outer halo globular clusters lie preferentially on tidal streams and discuss the potential this offers to use these systems as probes of the accretion history. Tidal features observed around M33, M32, NGC 205 and NGC 147 are also reviewed. We conclude by discussing future prospects for this field.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures. Book chapter in Tidal Streams in the Local Group and Beyond, eds. Heidi Newberg and Jeff Carli

The nature and origin of substructure in the outskirts of M31-II. Detailed star formation histories

While wide-field surveys of M31 have revealed much substructure at large radii, understanding the nature and origin of this material is not straightforward from morphology alone. Using deep HST/ACS data, we have derived further constraints in the form of quantitative star formation histories (SFHs) for 14 inner halo fields which sample diverse substructures. In agreement with our previous analysis of colour-magnitude diagram morphologies, we find the resultant behaviours can be broadly separated into two categories. The SFHs of 'disc-like' fields indicate that most of their mass has formed since z~1, with one quarter of the mass formed in the last 5 Gyr. We find 'stream-like' fields to be on average 1.5 Gyr older, with <10 percent of their stellar mass formed within the last 5 Gyr. These fields are also characterised by an age--metallicity relation showing rapid chemical enrichment to solar metallicity by z=1, suggestive of an early-type progenitor. We confirm a significant burst of star formation 2 Gyr ago, discovered in our previous work, in all the fields studied here. The presence of these young stars in our most remote fields suggests that they have not formed in situ but have been kicked-out from through disc heating in the recent past.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures (+12 figures in appendix). MNRAS, in pres

Path integral solutions for Klein-Gordon particle with position-dependent mass in deformed Hulthén potential

The Green's function for a Klein-Gordon particle with position-dependent mass under the action of vector plus scalar q-deformed Hulthén potentials is evaluated by exact path integration. From the singularities of the latter Green's function, the bound states are extracted. For $q\geq 1$ , the analytic expression of the energy spectrum and the normalized wave functions for the l states are obtained within the framework of an approximation to the centrifugal term. Particular cases of these potentials are also discussed briefly and it is found that the obtained results are in good agreement with those obtained in the literature