The X-ray spectrum of Fe XVII revisited with a multi-ion model

The theoretical intensities of the soft X-ray Fe XVII lines arising from 2l-3l' transitions are reexamined using a three-ion collisional-radiative model that includes the contributions to line formation of radiative recombination (RR), dielectronic recombination (DR), resonant excitation (RE), and inner-shell collisional ionization (CI), in addition to the usual contribution of collisional excitation (CE). These additional processes enhance mostly the 2p-3s lines and not the 2p-3d lines. Under coronal equilibrium conditions, in the electron temperature range of 400 to 600 eV where the Fe XVII line emissivities peak, the combined effect of the additional processes is to enhance the 2p-3s lines at 16.78, 17.05, and 17.10 A, by ~ 25%, 30%, and 55%, respectively, compared with their traditional, single-ion CE values. The weak 2p-3d line at 15.45 A is also enhanced by up to 20%, while the other 2p-3d lines are almost unaffected. The effects of DR and RE are found to be dominant in this temperature range (400 - 600 eV), while that of CI is 3% at the most, and the contribution of RR is less than 1%. At lower temperatures, where the Fe XVII / Fe XVIII abundance ratio is high, the RE effect dominates. However, as the temperature rises and the Fe XVIII abundance increases, the DR effect takes over. The newly calculated line powers can reproduce most of the often observed high values of the (I17.05 + I17.10) / I15.01 intensity ratio. The importance of ionization and recombination processes to the line strengths also helps to explain why laboratory measurements in which CE is essentially the sole mechanism agree well with single-ion calculations, but do not reproduce the astrophysically observed ratios.Comment: Submitted to Ap

Non-Sobolev modelling of radiation pressure driven flows in Active Galactic Nuclei

We present a new general scheme for calculating the structure and dynamics of radiation pressure driven, photoionized flows. The new method goes one step beyond the Sobolev approximation. It involves a numerical solution of the radiative transfer in absorption lines including the effects of differential expansion and line interactions such as line locking and blanketing. We also present a new scheme for calculating the radiation pressure due to trapped line photons in finite, differentially expanding flows. We compare our results for the radiation pressure force with those obtained using the Sobolev approximation and show the limitations of the latter. In particular, we demonstrate that the Sobolev method gives a poor approximation near discontinuity surfaces and its neglect of line blanketing can lead to erroneous results in high velocity flows. We combine the newly calculated radiation pressure force with self-consistent photoionization and thermal calculations to study the dynamics and spectral features of broad absorption line flows and highly ionized gas flows in AGN. A comparison with Sobolev-type calculations shows that the latter over estimates the flow's terminal velocity and, conversely, under estimates its opacity. We also show that line locking on broad emission lines can have a significant effect on the dynamics and spectral features of AGN flows.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures; includes an erratum on page 12 which corrects an erroneous reference to the work of Elitzur & Ferland (1986

Chiral molecule candidates for trapped ion spectroscopy by ab-initio calculations: from state preparation to parity violation

Parity non-conservation (PNC) due to the weak interaction is predicted to give rise to enantiomer dependent vibrational constants in chiral molecules, but the phenomenon has so far eluded experimental observation. The enhanced sensitivity of molecules to physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), has led to substantial advances in molecular precision spectroscopy, and these may be applied to PNC searches as well. Specifically, trapped molecular ion experiments leverage the universality of trapping charged particles to optimize the molecular ion species studied toward BSM searches, but in searches for PNC only a few chiral molecular ion candidates have been proposed so far. Importantly, viable candidates need to be internally cold and their internal state populations should be detectable with high quantum efficiency. To this end, we focus on molecular ions that can be created by near threshold resonant two-photon ionization and detected via state-selective photo-dissociation. Such candidates need to be stable in both charged and neutral chiral versions to be amenable to these methods. Here, we present a collection of suitable chiral molecular ion candidates we have found, including CHDBrI$^+$ and CHCaBrI$^+$, that fulfill these conditions according to our \textit{ab-initio} calculations. We find that organo-metallic species have a low ionization energy as neutrals and relatively high dissociation thresholds. Finally, we compute the magnitude of the PNC values for vibrational transitions for some of these candidates. An experimental demonstration of state preparation and readout for these candidates will be an important milestone toward measuring PNC in chiral molecules for the first time.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures and supplementary informatio

Broad Band Photometric Reverberation Mapping of NGC 4395

We present results of broad band photometric reverberation mapping (RM) to measure the radius of the broad line region, and subsequently the black hole mass (M$_{\rm BH}$), in the nearby, low luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN) NGC 4395. Using the Wise Observatory's 1m telescope equipped with the SDSS g$'$, r$'$ and i$'$ broad band filters, we monitored NGC 4395 for 9 consecutive nights and obtained 3 light curves each with over 250 data points. The g$'$ and r$'$ bands include time variable contributions from H$\beta$ and H$\alpha$ (respectively) plus continuum. The i$'$ band is free of broad lines and covers exclusively continuum. We show that by looking for a peak in the difference between the cross-correlation and the auto-correlation functions for all combinations of filters, we can get a reliable estimate of the time lag necessary to compute M$_{\rm BH}$. We measure the time lag for H$\alpha$ to be $3.6 \pm 0.8$ hours, comparable to previous studies using the line resolved spectroscopic RM method. We argue that this lag implies a black hole mass of M$_{\rm BH} = (4.9 \pm 2.6) \times 10^{4}$ \Msun

High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy and imaging of the nuclear outflow of the starburst galaxy NGC 253

Aims: Using XMM-Newton data, we have aimed to study the nuclear outflow of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 in X-rays with respect to its morphology and to spectral variations along the outflow. Methods: We analysed XMM-Newton RGS spectra, RGS brightness profiles in cross-dispersion direction, narrow band RGS and EPIC images and EPIC PN brightness profiles of the nuclear region and of the outflow of NGC 253. Results: We detect a diversity of emission lines along the outflow of NGC 253. This includes the He-like ions of Si, Mg, Ne and O and their corresponding ions in the next higher ionisation state. Additionally transitions from Fe XVII and Fe XVIII are prominent. The derived temperatures from line ratios along the outflow range from 0.21+/-0.01 to 0.79+/-0.06 keV and the ratio of Fe XVII lines indicates a predominantly collisionally ionised plasma. Additionally we see indications of a recombining or underionized plasma in the Fe XVII line ratio. Derived electron densities are 0.106+/-0.018 cm^-3 for the nuclear region and 0.025+/-0.003 cm^-3 for the outflow region closest to the centre. The RGS image in the O VIII line energy clearly shows the morphology of an outflow extending out to ~750 pc along the south-east minor axis, while the north-west part of the outflow is not seen in O VIII due to the heavy absorption by the galactic disc. This is the first time that the hot wind fluid has been detected directly. The limb brightening seen in Chandra and XMM-Newton EPIC observations is only seen in the energy range containing the Fe XVII lines (550-750 eV). In all other energy ranges between 400 and 2000 eV no clear evidence of limb brightening could be detected.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication on A&A, v2: typos corrected, electron densities and table with emission line flux added, discussion improve

Correction: The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA Database

Correction: The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA Databas

Complex cytogenetic rearrangements at the DURS1 locus in syndromic Duane retraction syndrome

Key Clinical Message A patient with syndromic Duane retraction syndrome harbors a chromosome 811.1q13.2 inversion and 8p11.1-q12.3 marker chromosome containing subregions with differing mosaicism and allele frequencies. This case highlights the potential requirement for multiple genetic methods to gain insight into genotype–phenotype correlation, and ultimately into molecular mechanisms that underlie human disease

Insights into the demographic history of african pygmies from complete mitochondrial genomes

Pygmy populations are among the few hunter-gatherers currently living in sub-Saharan Africa and are mainly represented by two groups, Eastern and Western, according to their current geographical distribution. They are scattered across the Central African belt and surrounded by Bantu-speaking farmers, with whom they have complex social and economic interactions. To investigate the demographic history of Pygmy groups, a population approach was applied to the analysis of 205 complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from ten central African populations. No sharing of maternal lineages was observed between the two Pygmy groups, with haplogroup L1c being characteristic of the Western group but most of Eastern Pygmy lineages falling into subclades of L0a, L2a, and L5. Demographic inferences based on Bayesian coalescent simulations point to an early split among the maternal ancestors of Pygmies and those of Bantu-speaking farmers (similar to 70,000 years ago [ya]). Evidence for population growth in the ancestors of Bantu-speaking farmers has been observed, starting similar to 65,000 ya, well before the diffusion of Bantu languages. Subsequently, the effective population size of the ancestors of Pygmies remained constant over time and similar to 27,000 ya, coincident with the Last Glacial Maximum, Eastern and Western Pygmies diverged, with evidence of subsequent migration only among the Western group and the Bantu-speaking farmers. Western Pygmies show signs of a recent bottleneck 4,000-650 ya, coincident with the diffusion of Bantu Languages, whereas Eastern Pygmies seem to have experienced a more ancient decrease in population size (20,000-4,000 ya). In conclusion, the results of this first attempt at analyzing complete mtDNA sequences at the population level in sub-Saharan Africa not only support previous findings but also offer new insights into the demographic history of Pygmy populations, shedding new light on the ancient peopling of the African continent.Direccion General de Investigacion, Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Spain [CGL2007-61016]; Direccio General de Recerca, Generalitat de Catalunya [2009SGR1101]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Great Slump : Mrk 926 reveals discrete and varying Balmer line satellite components during a drastic phase of decline

This work has been supported by the DFG grants KO857/35-1 and CH71/34-3. K. H. acknowledges support from STFC grant ST/M001296/1. D. C. acknowledges support from ISF grant 2398/19.Aims. Mrk 926 is known to be a highly variable active galactic nucleus. Furthermore, it is known to show very broad line profiles. We intended to study the continuum and line profile variations of this object with high temporal resolution in order to determine its broad-line region structure and to derive its black hole mass. Methods. We carried out a high-cadence spectroscopic variability campaign of Mrk 926 with the 10m HET telescope, aided by photometric V-band data taken with the C18 telescope at the Wise Observatory, over a period of about five months. We extracted spectroscopic continuum and line light curves, and computed cross-correlation functions (CCFs) as well as velocity-resolved CCFs with respect to the combined spectroscopic and photometric V-band light curve. Results. The continuum luminosity of Mrk 926 showed a drastic decrease during our campaign. The luminosity dropped to less than 50% of its original luminosity within only 2.5 months. Furthermore, the spectra of Mrk 926 show complex and very broad Balmer line profiles, including outer Balmer satellites ranging from ±5000 to ±13 000 km s−1. The integrated Hα, Hβ, and He Iλ5876 line light curves are delayed relative to the continuum light curve. The Hα and Hβ lines show two velocity-delay structures in the central part of their line profile (within ±5000 km s−1), at ∼10 and ∼57 light-days and at ∼5 and ∼48 light-days, respectively. These structures might be interpreted as the upper and lower halves of an ellipse in the velocity-delay plane, which might be the signature of a line-emitting ring, inclined by ∼50° to the line of sight and orbiting the black hole at radii, R, of 33.5 and 26.5 light-days. We determined continuum luminosities, log(λ Lλ/erg s−1), of 43.68–44.13, which are in good agreement with the established RBLR − LAGN relation. Adopting delays of 33.5 and 26.5 days for Hα and Hβ, respectively, we derive a black hole mass of (1.1 ± 0.2)×108 M⊙; this indicates a low Eddington ratio, which decreased from 8 to 3 percent during our campaign. The Balmer satellite components show a higher correlation coefficient with respect to the continuum than the central line profile, and their response to the continuum variations is on the order of only 3 − 5 days. We attribute this to the central line segment and the Balmer satellites having different, spatially distinct regions of origin.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe