2,993 research outputs found
How rapidly do neutron stars spin at birth? Constaints from archival X-ray observations of extragalactic supernovae
Traditionally, studies aimed at inferring the distribution of birth periods of neutron stars are based on radio surveys. Here we propose an independent method to constrain the pulsar spin periods at birth based on their X-ray luminosities. In particular, the observed luminosity distribution of supernovae (SNe) poses a constraint on the initial rotational energy of the embedded pulsars, via the correlation found for radio pulsars, and under the assumption that this relation continues to hold beyond the observed range. We have extracted X-ray luminosities (or limits) for a large sample of historical SNe observed with Chandra, XMM and Swift, which have been firmly classified as core-collapse SNe. We have then compared these observational limits with the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the pulsar X-ray luminosity distribution for a range of values of the birth parameters. We find that a pulsar population dominated by millisecond periods at birth is ruled out by the data
A multi-epoch spectroscopic study of the BAL quasar APM 08279+5255: I. C IV absorption variability
Broad Absorption Lines indicate gas outflows with velocities from thousands
km/s to about 0.2 the speed of light, which may be present in all quasars and
may play a major role in the evolution of the host galaxy. The variability of
absorption patterns can provide informations on changes of the density and
velocity distributions of the absorbing gas and its ionization status. We
collected 23 photometrical and spectro-photometrical observations at the 1.82m
Telescope of the Asiago Observatory since 2003, plus other 5 spectra from the
literature. We analysed the evolution in time of the equivalent width of the
broad absorption feature and two narrow absorption systems, the correlation
among them and with the R band magnitude. We performed a structure function
analysis of the equivalent width variations. We present an unprecedented
monitoring of a broad absorption line quasar based on 28 epochs in 14 years.
The shape of broad absorption feature shows a relative stability, while its
equivalent width slowly declines until it sharply increases during 2011. In the
same time the R magnitude stays almost constant until it sharply increases
during 2011. The equivalent width of the narrow absorption redwards of the
systemic redshift only shows a decline. The broad absorption behaviour suggests
changes of the ionisation status as the main cause of variability. We show for
the first time a correlation of this variability with the R band flux. The
different behaviour of the narrow absorption system might be due to
recombination time delay. The structure function of the absorption variability
has a slope comparable with typical optical variability of quasars. This is
consistent with variations of the 200 A ionising flux originating in the inner
part of the accretion disk.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, to appear on Astronomy & Astrophysic
Spectral variability on primitive asteroids of the Themis and Beagle families: space weathering effects or parent body heterogeneity?
Themis is an old and statistically robust asteroid family populating the
outer main belt, and resulting from a catastrophic collision that took place
2.51.0 Gyr ago. Within the old Themis family a young sub-family, Beagle,
formed less than 10 Myr ago, has been identified. We present the results of a
spectroscopic survey in the visible and near infrared range of 22 Themis and 8
Beagle families members. The Themis members investigated exhibit a wide range
of spectral behaviors, while the younger Beagle family members look spectrally
bluer with a smaller spectral slope variability. The best meteorite spectral
analogues found for both Themis and Beagle families members are carbonaceous
chondrites having experienced different degrees of aqueous alteration,
prevalently CM2 but also CV3 and CI, and some of them are chondrite samples
being unusual or heated. We extended the spectral analysis including the data
available in the literature on Themis and Beagle families members, and we
looked for correlations between spectral behavior and physical parameters using
the albedo and size values derived from the WISE data. The analysis of this
larger sample confirm the spectral diversity within the Themis family and that
Beagle members tend to be bluer and to have an higher albedo. The differences
between the two family may be partially explained by space weathering
processes, which act on these primitive surfaces in a similar way than on
S-type asteroids, i.e. producing reddening and darkening. However we see
several Themis members having albedos and spectral slopes similar to the young
Beagle members. Alternative scenarios are proposed including heterogeneity in
the parent body having a compositional gradient with depth, and/or the survival
of projectile fragments having a different composition than the parent body.Comment: Manuscript pages: 40; Figures: 15 ; Tables: 4 Icarus (2016),in pres
CIV and CIII] reverberation mapping of the luminous quasar PG 1247+267
So far the masses of about 50 active galactic nuclei have been measured
through the reverberation mapping technique (RM). Most measurements have been
performed for objects of moderate luminosity and redshift, based on H,
which is also used to calibrate the scaling relation which allows single-epoch
(SE) mass determination based on AGN luminosity and the width of different
emission lines. The SE mass obtained from CIV line shows a
large spread around mean values, due to complex structure and gas dynamics of
the relevant emission region. Direct RM measures of CIV exist for only 6 AGNs
of low luminosity and redshift, and only one luminous quasar (Kaspi et al
2007). We have collected since 2003 photometric and spectroscopic observations
of PG1247+267, the most luminous quasar ever analyzed for RM. We provide light
curves for the continuum and for CIV and
CIII], and measures of the reverberation time lags based on the
SPEAR method (Zu et al. 2011). The sizes of the line emission regions are in a
ratio , similar to the case of Seyfert galaxies,
indicating for the first time a similar ionization stratification in a luminous
quasar and low luminosity nuclei. Due to relatively small broad line region
size and relatively narrow line widths, we estimate a small mass and an
anomalously high Eddington ratio. We discuss the possibility that either the
shape of the emission region or an amplification of the luminosity caused by
gravitational lensing may be in part responsible of the result.Comment: 10 pagese, 6 figures, 3 tables, Accepted for publication in Ap
Are the therapeutic strategies in anorexia of ageing effective on nutritional status? A systematic review with meta-analysis
BACKGROUND:
Anorexia of ageing (AA) may be considered as a risk factor for frailty and has an important impact on quality of life, morbidity and mortality.
METHODS:
A systematic review and a meta-analysis were performed to summarise the results from several trials on the effectiveness of treatments in AA, as associated with depression, sensory impairment of taste and smell, decreased appetite or early satiety, and disability. Eligible studies were required to report baseline and follow-up values, the mean change (â-change) from baseline, and/or the mean difference among intervention groups versus control group, concerning food intake (kcal/daily) and/or nutritional outcomes, such as body weight, body mass index, albumin and Mini Nutritional Assessment.
RESULTS:
The systematic review included 20 papers based on different therapeutic approaches concerning food intake and/or nutritional outcomes. The results of the meta-analysis indicate that the interventions for AA have an important impact on body weight [+1.59 kg; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.48-+1.71 kg; P < 0.001) and on energy intake (+56.09 kcal; 95% CI = -54.05 to +166.25 kcal; P = 0.32). Regarding secondary outcomes, it was not possible to meta-analyse the limited amount of data availab le.
CONCLUSIONS:
The different variants of AA need to be defined because diverse therapeutic approaches are available. A more precise definition of the functional impairments associated with AA may allow a more correct decision about the most appropriate therapy to be prescribed. Moreover, this may allow for a more effective performance of the different therapeutic approaches once they are better targeted to the different scenarios of AA
Dna methylation dysfunction in chronic kidney disease
Renal disease is the common denominator of a number of underlying disease conditions, whose prevalence has been dramatically increasing over the last two decades. Two aspects are particularly relevant to the subject of this review: (I) most cases are gathered under the umbrella of chronic kidney disease since they requireâpredictably for several lustrumsâcontinuous clinical monitoring and treatment to slow down disease progression and prevent complications; (II) cardiovascular disease is a terrible burden in this population of patients, in that it claims many lives yearly, while only a scant minority reach the renal disease end stage. Why indeed a review on DNA methylation and renal disease? As we hope to convince you, the present evidence supports the role of the existence of various derangements of the epigenetic control of gene expression in renal disease, which hold the potential to improve our ability, in the future, to more effectively act toward disease progression, predict outcomes and offer novel therapeutic approaches
UVES/VLT high resolution absorption spectroscopy of the GRB080330 afterglow: a study of the GRB host galaxy and intervening absorbers
We study the Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) environment and intervening absorbers by
analyzing the optical absorption features produced by gas surrounding the GRB
or along its line of sight. We analyzed high resolution spectroscopic
observations (R=40000, S/N=3 - 6) of the optical afterglow of GRB080330, taken
with UVES at the VLT ~ 1.5 hours after the GRB trigger. The spectrum
illustrates the complexity of the ISM of the GRB host galaxy at z = 1.51 which
has at least four components in the main absorption system. We detect strong
FeII, SiII, and NiII excited absorption lines associated with the bluemost
component only. In addition to the host galaxy, at least two more absorbers
lying along the line of sight to the afterglow have been detected in the
redshift range 0.8 < z < 1.1, each exhibiting MgII absorption. For the bluemost
component in the host galaxy, we derive information about its distance from the
site of the GRB explosion. We do so by assuming that the excited absorption
lines are produced by indirect UV pumping, and compare the data with a time
dependent photo-excitation code. The distance of this component is found to be
280+40-50 pc, which is lower than found for other GRBs (1 - 6 kpc). We identify
two additional MgII absorbers, one of them with a rest frame equivalent width
larger than 1A. The distance between the GRB and the absorber measured in this
paper confirms that the power of the GRB radiation can influence the conditions
of the interstellar medium up to a distance of at least several hundred pc. For
the intervening absorbers, we confirm the trend that on average one strong
intervening system is found per afterglow, as has been noted in studies
exhibiting an excess of strong MgII absorbers along GRB sightlines compared to
quasars.Comment: 8 Pages, 7 ps figures, A&A in pres
Population Synthesis of Isolated Neutron Stars with magneto-rotational evolution II: from radio-pulsars to magnetars
Population synthesis studies constitute a powerful method to reconstruct the
birth distribution of periods and magnetic fields of the pulsar population.
When this method is applied to populations in different wavelengths, it can
break the degeneracy in the inferred properties of initial distributions that
arises from single-band studies. In this context, we extend previous works to
include -ray thermal emitting pulsars within the same evolutionary model as
radio-pulsars. We find that the cumulative distribution of the number of X-ray
pulsars can be well reproduced by several models that, simultaneously,
reproduce the characteristics of the radio-pulsar distribution. However, even
considering the most favourable magneto-thermal evolution models with fast
field decay, log-normal distributions of the initial magnetic field
over-predict the number of visible sources with periods longer than 12 s. We
then show that the problem can be solved with different distributions of
magnetic field, such as a truncated log-normal distribution, or a binormal
distribution with two distinct populations. We use the observational lack of
isolated NSs with spin periods P>12 s to establish an upper limit to the
fraction of magnetars born with B > 10^{15} G (less than 1\%). As future
detections keep increasing the magnetar and high-B pulsar statistics, our
approach can be used to establish a severe constraint on the maximum magnetic
field at birth of NSs.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, 5 table
Extinction properties of the X-ray bright/optically faint afterglow of GRB 020405
We present an optical-to-X-ray spectral analysis of the afterglow of GRB
020405. The optical spectral energy distribution not corrected for the
extragalactic extinction is significantly below the X-ray extrapolation of the
single powerlaw spectral model suggested by multiwavelength studies. We
investigate whether considerable extinction could explain the observed spectral
``mismatch'' by testing several types of extinction curves. For the first time
we test extinction curves computed with time-dependent numerical simulations of
dust grains destruction by the burst radiation. We find that an extinction law
weakly depen dent on wavelength can reconcile the unabsorbed optical and X-ray
data with the expected synchrotron spectrum. A gray extinction law can be
provided by a dust grain size distribution biased toward large grains.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication on A&
X-ray flares and the duration of engine activity in gamma-ray bursts
The detection of bright X-ray flares superimposed on the regular afterglow
decay in Swift gamma-ray bursts has triggered theoretical speculations on their
origin. We study the temporal properties of flares due to internal dissipation
and external shock mechanisms. We first show that at least a sizable fraction
of the flares cannot be related to external shock mechanisms, since external
shock flares evolve on much longer time scales than observed. We then study
flares from internal dissipation, showing that the temporal properties allow us
to distinguish the emission of slow early shells from that of late faster
shells. We show that, due to the rapid evolution of the detected flares, it is
most likely that the flares are produced by relatively fast shells ejected by
the central engine shortly before they are observed. This implies that the
central engine must be active for, in some cases, as long as one day. We
finally discuss the constraints and implications that this observation has on
the properties and physics of the inner engine, and we elaborate on possible
future observational tests on the flare sample to further understand their
origin and physics.Comment: 5 pages, MNRAS in press. Minor chenges to text following referee
suggestion
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