5,179 research outputs found

    Near Infrared Spectroscopy of High Redshift Active Galactic Nuclei. II. Disappearing Narrow Line Regions and the Role of Accretion

    Full text link
    We present new near infrared spectroscopic measurements for 29 luminous high-z quasars and use the data to discuss the size and other properties of the NLRs in those sources. The high resolution spectra have been used to carefully model the Fe II blends and to provide reliable [O III], Fe II and Hb measurements. We find that about 2/3 of all high luminosity sources show strong [O III] lines while the remaining objects show no or very weak such line. While weak [O III] emitters are also found among lower luminosity AGN, we argue that the implications for very high luminosity objects are different. In particular, we suggest that the averaging of these two populations in other works gave rise to claims of a Baldwin relationship in [O III] which is not confirmed by our data. We also argue that earlier proposed relations of the type R_NLR \propto L_[O III]^{1/2}, where R_NLR is the NLR radius, are theoretically sound yet they must break down for R_NLR exceeding a few kpc. This suggests that the NLR properties in luminous sources are different from those observed in nearby AGN. In particular, we suggest that some sources lost their very large, dynamically unbound NLR while others are in a phase of violent star-forming events that produce a large quantity of high density gas in the central kpc. This gas is ionized and excited by the central radiation source and its spectroscopic properties may be different from those observed in nearby, lower luminosity NLRs. We also discuss the dependence of EW(Hb) and Fe II/Hb on L, M_BH, and accretion rate for a large sample of AGNs. The strongest dependence of the two quantities is on the accretion rate and the Fe II/Hb correlation is probably due to the EW(Hb) dependence on accretion rate. We show the most extreme values measured so far of Fe II/Hb and address its correlation with EW([O III]).Comment: 10 pages (emulateapj), 9 figures. Accepted by Ap

    A persistent and dynamic East Greenland Ice Sheet over the past 7.5 million years

    Get PDF
    Climate models show that ice-sheet melt will dominate sea-level rise over the coming centuries, but our understanding of ice-sheet variations before the last interglacial 125,000 years ago remains fragmentary. This is because terrestrial deposits of ancient glacial and interglacial periods1,2,3 are overrun and eroded by more recent glacial advances, and are therefore usually rare, isolated and poorly dated4. In contrast, material shed almost continuously from continents is preserved as marine sediment that can be analysed to infer the time-varying state of major ice sheets. Here we show that the East Greenland Ice Sheet existed over the past 7.5 million years, as indicated by beryllium and aluminium isotopes (10Be and 26Al) in quartz sand removed by deep, ongoing glacial erosion on land and deposited offshore in the marine sedimentary record5,6. During the early Pleistocene epoch, ice cover in East Greenland was dynamic; in contrast, East Greenland was mostly ice-covered during the mid-to-late Pleistocene. The isotope record we present is consistent with distinct signatures of changes in ice sheet behaviour coincident with major climate transitions. Although our data are continuous, they are from low-deposition-rate sites and sourced only from East Greenland. Consequently, the signal of extensive deglaciation during short, intense interglacials could be missed or blurred, and we cannot distinguish between a remnant ice sheet in the East Greenland highlands and a diminished continent-wide ice sheet. A clearer constraint on the behaviour of the ice sheet during past and, ultimately, future interglacial warmth could be produced by 10Be and 26Al records from a coring site with a higher deposition rate. Nonetheless, our analysis challenges the possibility of complete and extended deglaciation over the past several million years

    Anomalous Hall Effect in three ferromagnets: EuFe4Sb12, Yb14MnSb11, and Eu8Ga16Ge30

    Full text link
    The Hall resistivity (Rho_xy), resistivity (Rho_xx), and magnetization of three metallic ferromagnets are investigated as a function of magnetic field and temperature. The three ferromagnets, EuFe4Sb12 (Tc = 84 K), Yb14MnSb11 (Tc = 53 K), and Eu8Ga16Ge30 (Tc = 36 K) are Zintl compounds with carrier concentrations between 1 x 10^21 cm^-3 and 3.5 x 10^21 cm^-3. The relative decrease in Rho_xx below Tc [Rho_xx(Tc)/Rho_xx(2 K)] is 28, 6.5, and 1.3 for EuFe4Sb12, Yb14MnSb11, and Eu8Ga16Ge30 respectively. The low carrier concentrations coupled with low magnetic anisotropies allow a relatively clean separation between the anomalous (Rho_'xy), and normal contributions to the measured Hall resistivity. For each compound the anomalous contribution in the zero field limit is fit to alpha Rho_xx + sigma_xy rho_xx^2 for temperatures T < Tc. The anomalous Hall conductivity, sigma_xy, is -220 +- 5 (Ohm^-1 cm^-1), -14.7 +- 1 (Ohm^-1 cm^-1), and 28 +- 3 (Ohm^-1 cm^-1) for EuFe4Sb12, Yb14MnSb11, and Eu8Ga16Ge30 respectively and is independent of temperature for T < Tc if the change in spontaneous magnetization (order parameter) with temperature is taken into account. These data are consistent with recent theories of the anomalous Hall effect that suggest that even for stochiometric ferromagnetic crystals, such as those studied in this article, the intrinsic Hall conductivity is finite at T = 0, and is a ground state property that can be calculated from the electronic structure.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures Submitted to PR

    A Spectropolarimetric Atlas of Seyfert 1 Galaxies

    Get PDF
    We present optical spectropolarimetry of the nuclei of 36 Seyfert 1 galaxies, obtained with the William Herschel and the Anglo-Australian Telescopes from 1996 to 1999. In 20 of these, the optical emission from the active nucleus is intrinsically polarized. We have measured a significant level of polarization in a further 7 objects but these may be heavily contaminated by Galactic interstellar polarization. The intrinsically polarized Seyfert 1s exhibit a variety of characteristics, with the average polarization ranging from < 0.5 to 5 per cent and many showing variations in both the degree and position angle of polarization across the broad H alpha emission line. We identify a small group of Seyfert 1s that exhibit polarization properties similar to those of Seyfert 2 galaxies in which polarized broad-lines have been discovered. These objects represent direct observational evidence that a Seyfert 2-like far-field polar scattering region is also present in Seyfert 1s. Several other objects have features that can be explained in terms of equatorial scattering of line emission from a rotating disk. We propose that much of the diversity in the polarization properties of Seyfert galaxies can be understood in terms of a model involving both equatorial and polar scattering, the relative importance of the two geometries as sources of polarized light being determined principally by the inclination of the system axis to the line-of-sight.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (28 pages, 25 figures
    • …
    corecore