4,120 research outputs found
Internal gamma gamma-opacity in Active Galactic Nuclei and the consequences for the TeV observations of M87 and Cen A
Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (LLAGNs) possess the characteristic
features of more luminous Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) but exhibit a much
lower nuclear Halpha luminosity than their more luminous counterparts. M87 (NGC
4486) and Centaurus A (NGC 5128, CenA) are well-studied nearby LLAGNs. As an
additional feature they show gamma-radiation up to TeV (10^{12}eV) energies,
but the origin of this radiation is not resolved. The coincident observation of
a radio and TeV flare in M87 suggests that the TeV radiation is produced within
around 50-100 gravitational radii of the central supermassive black hole,
depending on the assumed value of the mass of the black hole. Strong radiation
fields can be produced in the central region of an (LL)AGN, e.g., by the
accretion flow around the black hole, the jet plasma, or stars closely orbiting
the black hole. These radiation fields can lead to the absorption of emitted
TeV photons, and in fact high optical depths of such fields can make TeV
detection from inner regions impossible. In this paper we consider the
accretion flow around the black hole as the most prominent source for such a
radiation field and we accordingly calculate the probability for absorption of
TeV photons produced near the black holes in M87 and CenA assuming a low
luminosity Shakura-Sunyaev Disk (SSD). We find that the results are very
different for between the two LLAGNs. While the inner region of M87 is
transparent for TeV radiation up to 15TeV, the optical depth in CenA is >> 1,
leading to an absorption of TeV photons that might be produced near the central
black hole. These results imply either that the TeV gamma production sites and
processes are different for both sources, or that LLAGN black holes do not
accrete (at least only) in form of a low luminosity SSD.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap
Innate and adaptive immunity in human epilepsies
Inflammatory mechanisms have been increasingly implicated in the origin of seizures and epilepsy. These mechanisms are involved in the genesis of encephalitides in which seizures are a common complaint. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests different inflammatory responses in the brains of patients with epilepsy depending on the etiology. In general, activation of both innate and adaptive immunity plays a role in refractory forms of epilepsy. Epilepsies in which seizures develop after infiltration of cells of the adaptive immune system in the central nervous system (CNS) include a broad range of epileptic disorders with different (known or unknown) etiologies. Infiltration of lymphocytes is observed in autoimmune epilepsies, especially the classical paraneoplastic encephalitides with antibodies against intracellular tumor antigens. The presence of lymphocytes in the CNS also has been found in focal cerebral dysplasia type 2 and in cortical tubers. Various autoantibodies have been shown to be associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and hippocampal sclerosis of unknown etiology, which may be due to the presence of viral DNA. During the last decade, an increasing number of antineuronal autoantibodies directed against membranous epitopes have been discovered and are associated with various neurologic syndromes, including limbic encephalitis. A major challenge in epilepsy is to define biomarkers, which would allow the recognition of patient populations who might benefit from immune-modulatory therapies. Some peripheral inflammatory markers appear to be differentially expressed in patients with medically controlled and medic
WONOEP appraisal: New genetic approaches to study epilepsy
New genetic investigation techniques, including next-generation sequencing, epigenetic profiling, cell lineage mapping, targeted genetic manipulation of specific neuronal cell types, stem cell reprogramming, and optogenetic manipulations within epileptic networks are progressively unraveling the mysteries of epileptogenesis and ictogenesis. These techniques have opened new avenues to discover the molecular basis of epileptogenesis and to study the physiologic effects of mutations in epilepsy associated genes on a multilayer level, from cells to circuits. This manuscript reviews recently published applications of these new genetic technologies in the study of epilepsy, as well as work presented by the authors at the genetic session of the XII Workshop on the Neurobiology of Epilepsy (WONOEP 2013) in Quebec, Canada. Next-generation sequencing is providing investigators with an unbiased means to assess the molecular causes of sporadic forms of epilepsy and has revealed the complexity and genetic heterogeneity of sporadic epilepsy disorders. To assess the functional impact of mutations in these newly identified genes on specific neuronal cell types during brain development, new modeling strategies in animals, including conditional genetics in mice and in utero knock-down approaches, are enabling functional validation with exquisite cell-type and temporal specificity. In addition, optogenetics, using cell-type–specific Cre recombinase driver lines, is enabling investigators to dissect networks involved in epilepsy. In addition, genetically encoded cell-type labeling is providing new means to assess the role of the nonneuronal components of epileptic networks such as glial cells. Furthermore, beyond its role in revealing coding variants involved in epileptogenesis, next-generation sequencing can be used to assess the epigenetic modifications that lead to sustained network hyperexcitability in epilepsy, including methylation changes in gene promoters and noncoding ribonucleic acid (RNA) involved in modifying gene expression following seizures. In addition, genetically based bioluminescent reporters are providing new opportunities to assess neuronal activity and neurotransmitter levels both in vitro and in vivo in the context of epilepsy. Finally, genetically rederived neurons generated from patient induced pluripotent stem cells and genetically modified zebrafish have become high-throughput means to investigate disease mechanisms and potential new therapies. Genetics has changed the field of epilepsy research considerably, and is paving the way for better diagnosis and therapies for patients with epilepsy
WONOEP appraisal: New genetic approaches to study epilepsy
New genetic investigation techniques, including next-generation sequencing, epigenetic profiling, cell lineage mapping, targeted genetic manipulation of specific neuronal cell types, stem cell reprogramming, and optogenetic manipulations within epileptic networks are progressively unraveling the mysteries of epileptogenesis and ictogenesis. These techniques have opened new avenues to discover the molecular basis of epileptogenesis and to study the physiologic effects of mutations in epilepsy associated genes on a multilayer level, from cells to circuits. This manuscript reviews recently published applications of these new genetic technologies in the study of epilepsy, as well as work presented by the authors at the genetic session of the XII Workshop on the Neurobiology of Epilepsy (WONOEP 2013) in Quebec, Canada. Next-generation sequencing is providing investigators with an unbiased means to assess the molecular causes of sporadic forms of epilepsy and has revealed the complexity and genetic heterogeneity of sporadic epilepsy disorders. To assess the functional impact of mutations in these newly identified genes on specific neuronal cell types during brain development, new modeling strategies in animals, including conditional genetics in mice and in utero knock-down approaches, are enabling functional validation with exquisite cell-type and temporal specificity. In addition, optogenetics, using cell-type–specific Cre recombinase driver lines, is enabling investigators to dissect networks involved in epilepsy. In addition, genetically encoded cell-type labeling is providing new means to assess the role of the nonneuronal components of epileptic networks such as glial cells. Furthermore, beyond its role in revealing coding variants involved in epileptogenesis, next-generation sequencing can be used to assess the epigenetic modifications that lead to sustained network hyperexcitability in epilepsy, including methylation changes in gene promoters and noncoding ribonucleic acid (RNA) involved in modifying gene expression following seizures. In addition, genetically based bioluminescent reporters are providing new opportunities to assess neuronal activity and neurotransmitter levels both in vitro and in vivo in the context of epilepsy. Finally, genetically rederived neurons generated from patient induced pluripotent stem cells and genetically modified zebrafish have become high-throughput means to investigate disease mechanisms and potential new therapies. Genetics has changed the field of epilepsy research considerably, and is paving the way for better diagnosis and therapies for patients with epilepsy
IceCube Science
We discuss the status of the kilometer-scale neutrino detector IceCube and
its low energy upgrade Deep Core and review its scientific potential for
particle physics. We subsequently appraise IceCube's potential for revealing
the enigmatic sources of cosmic rays. After all, this aspiration set the scale
of the instrument. While only a smoking gun is missing for the case that the
Galactic component of the cosmic ray spectrum originates in supernova remnants,
the origin of the extragalactic component remains as inscrutable as ever. We
speculate on the role of the nearby active galaxies Centaurus A and M87.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures; Talk at Discrete 08, Valencia, Spai
GraphCombEx: A Software Tool for Exploration of Combinatorial Optimisation Properties of Large Graphs
We present a prototype of a software tool for exploration of multiple
combinatorial optimisation problems in large real-world and synthetic complex
networks. Our tool, called GraphCombEx (an acronym of Graph Combinatorial
Explorer), provides a unified framework for scalable computation and
presentation of high-quality suboptimal solutions and bounds for a number of
widely studied combinatorial optimisation problems. Efficient representation
and applicability to large-scale graphs and complex networks are particularly
considered in its design. The problems currently supported include maximum
clique, graph colouring, maximum independent set, minimum vertex clique
covering, minimum dominating set, as well as the longest simple cycle problem.
Suboptimal solutions and intervals for optimal objective values are estimated
using scalable heuristics. The tool is designed with extensibility in mind,
with the view of further problems and both new fast and high-performance
heuristics to be added in the future. GraphCombEx has already been successfully
used as a support tool in a number of recent research studies using
combinatorial optimisation to analyse complex networks, indicating its promise
as a research software tool
Nonlocal Effects of Partial Measurements and Quantum Erasure
Partial measurement turns the initial superposition not into a definite
outcome but into a greater probability for it. The probability can approach
100%, yet the measurement can undergo complete quantum erasure. In the EPR
setting, we prove that i) every partial measurement nonlocally creates the same
partial change in the distant particle; and ii) every erasure inflicts the same
erasure on the distant particle's state. This enables an EPR experiment where
the nonlocal effect does not vanish after a single measurement but keeps
"traveling" back and forth between particles. We study an experiment in which
two distant particles are subjected to interferometry with a partial "which
path" measurement. Such a measurement causes a variable amount of correlation
between the particles. A new inequality is formulated for same-angle
polarizations, extending Bell's inequality for different angles. The resulting
nonlocality proof is highly visualizable, as it rests entirely on the
interference effect. Partial measurement also gives rise to a new form of
entanglement, where the particles manifest correlations of multiple
polarization directions. Another novelty in that the measurement to be erased
is fully observable, in contrast to prevailing erasure techniques where it can
never be observed. Some profound conceptual implications of our experiment are
briefly pointed out.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev. A 63 (2001). 19 pages, 12 figures,
RevTeX 3.
Removing the Microlensing Blending-Parallax Degeneracy Using Source Variability
Microlensing event MACHO 97-SMC-1 is one of the rare microlensing events for
which the source is a variable star, simply because most variable stars are
systematically eliminated from microlensing studies. Using observational data
for this event, we show that the intrinsic variability of a microlensed star is
a powerful tool to constrain the nature of the lens by breaking the degeneracy
between the microlens parallax and the blended light. We also present a
statistical test for discriminating the location of the lens based on the
\chi^2 contours of the vector \Lambda, the inverse of the projected velocity.
We find that while SMC self lensing is somewhat favored over halo lensing,
neither location can be ruled out with good confidence.Comment: 15 text pages + 2 tables + 7 figures. Published in the Astrophysical
Journa
First bounds on the high-energy emission from isolated Wolf-Rayet binary systems
High-energy gamma-ray emission is theoretically expected to arise in tight
binary star systems (with high mass loss and high velocity winds), although the
evidence of this relationship has proven to be elusive so far. Here we present
the first bounds on this putative emission from isolated Wolf-Rayet (WR) star
binaries, WR 147 and WR 146, obtained from observations with the MAGIC
telescope.Comment: (Authors are the MAGIC Collaboration.) Manuscript in press at The
Astrophysical Journal Letter
Implementation of the Random Forest Method for the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope MAGIC
The paper describes an application of the tree classification method Random
Forest (RF), as used in the analysis of data from the ground-based gamma
telescope MAGIC. In such telescopes, cosmic gamma-rays are observed and have to
be discriminated against a dominating background of hadronic cosmic-ray
particles. We describe the application of RF for this gamma/hadron separation.
The RF method often shows superior performance in comparison with traditional
semi-empirical techniques. Critical issues of the method and its implementation
are discussed. An application of the RF method for estimation of a continuous
parameter from related variables, rather than discrete classes, is also
discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
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