Response of the warm absorber cloud to a variable nuclear flux in active galactic nuclei

Recent modeling of the warm absorber in active galactic nuclei has proved the usefulness of constant total (gas plus radiation) pressure models, which are highly stratified in temperature and density. We explore the consistency of those models when the typical variation of the flux from the central source is taken into account. We perform a variability study of the warm absorber response, based on timescales and our photoionization code TITAN. We show that the ionization and recombination timescales are much shorter than the dynamical timescale. Clouds very close to the central black hole will maintain their equilibrium since the characteristic variability timescales of the nuclear source are longer than cloud timescales. For more distant clouds, the density structure has no time to vary, in response to the variations of the temperature or ionization structure, and such clouds will show the departure from the constant pressure equilibrium. We explore the impact of this departure on the observed properties of the transmitted spectrum and soft X-ray variability: (i) non uniform velocities, of the order of sound speed, appear due to pressure gradients, up to typical values of 100 km/s. These velocities lead to the broadening of lines. This broadening is usually observed and very difficult to explain otherwise. (ii) Energy-dependent fractional variability amplitude in soft X-ray range has a broader hump around ~ 1-2 keV, and (iv) the plot of the equivalent hydrogen column density vs. ionization parameter is steeper than for equilibrium clouds. The results have the character of a preliminary study and should be supplemented in the future with full time-dependent radiation transfer and dynamical computations.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysic

Accelerating Universes with Scaling Dark Matter

Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes with a presently large fraction of the energy density stored in an $X$-component with $w_X<-1/3$, are considered. We find all the critical points of the system for constant equations of state in that range. We consider further several background quantities that can distinguish the models with different $w_X$ values. Using a simple toy model with a varying equation of state, we show that even a large variation of $w_X$ at small redshifts is very difficult to observe with $d_L(z)$ measurements up to $z\sim 1$. Therefore, it will require accurate measurements in the range $1<z<2$ and independent accurate knowledge of $\Omega_{m,0}$ (and/or $\Omega_{X,0}$) in order to resolve a variable $w_X$ from a constant $w_X$.Comment: submitted to IJMPD (uses Latex, 12 pages, 6 Figures) Minor corrections, Figures 4, 6 revised. Conclusions unchange

Evidence for new α-particle groups in nature

Alpha-particle spectra from a monazite are presented which show evidence for unreported groups at 6.52, 7.09, 9.02 and 9.07 MeV

Jump-robust estimation of realized volatility in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme

With the increased availability of high-frequency financial market data in recentyears, the extraction of “realized” volatility (from intraday squared returns) has led to numerous theoretical developments and empirical applications for a wide range of equity and commodity markets. This paper documents the measure of realized volatility in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) with respect to the presence of microstructure noise and jumps in the estimation procedure. In order to include jumps in the modeling of CO2 intraday volatility returns, we use the bipower variation measure as well as the more recent median realized volatility estimator. To deal with microstructure noise effects we apply Awartani et al’s ZT test to the price series of CO2 intraday futures for both bipower variation and median realized volatility and identify 20-minute returns as the optimal sampling frequency. Subsequently, the empirical analysis of both bipower variation and median realized volatility measures for CO2 prices reveals the presence of around 5% of “significant” jumps, especially during the “panicto- cash” period of October 2008 in the EU ETS, and a lower range of estimates .around OE0I 0:15 for bipower variation and OE0I 0:10 for median realized volatility/ compared with the “naive” estimator .around OE0I 0:23/

The puzzle of the soft X-ray excess in AGN: absorption or reflection?

The 2-10 keV continuum of AGN is generally well represented by a single power law. However, at smaller energies the continuum displays an excess with respect to the extrapolation of this power law, called the ''soft X-ray excess''. Until now this soft X-ray excess was attributed, either to reflection of the hard X-ray source by the accretion disk, or to the presence of an additional comptonizing medium, giving a steep spectrum. An alternative solution proposed by Gierlinski and Done (2004) is that a single power law well represents both the soft and the hard X-ray emission and the impression of the soft X-ray excess is due to absorption of a primary power law by a relativistic wind. We examine the advantages and drawbacks of reflection versus absorption models, and we conclude that the observed spectra can be well modeled, either by absorption (for a strong excess), or by reflection (for a weak excess). However the physical conditions required by the absorption models do not seem very realistic: we would prefer an ''hybrid model''.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, abstracts SF2A-2005, published by EDP-Sciences Conference Serie

On the accuracy of the ALI method for solving the radiative transfer equation

We solve the integral equation describing the propagation of light in an isothermal plane-parallel atmosphere of optical thickness $\tau^*$, adopting a uniform thermalization parameter $\epsilon$. The solution given by the ALI method, widely used in the field of stellar atmospheres modelling, is compared to the exact solution. Graphs are given that illustrate the accuracy of the ALI solution as a function of the parameters $\epsilon$, $\tau^*$ and optical depth variable $\tau$.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, A&A, accepted 30 July 2003, minor correction

A Number-Theoretic Error-Correcting Code

In this paper we describe a new error-correcting code (ECC) inspired by the Naccache-Stern cryptosystem. While by far less efficient than Turbo codes, the proposed ECC happens to be more efficient than some established ECCs for certain sets of parameters. The new ECC adds an appendix to the message. The appendix is the modular product of small primes representing the message bits. The receiver recomputes the product and detects transmission errors using modular division and lattice reduction