9,050 research outputs found
High-resolution VLA observations of FR0 radio galaxies: properties and nature of compact radio sources
We present the results of Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations
to study the properties of FR0 radio galaxies, the compact radio sources
associated with early-type galaxies which represent the bulk of the local
radio-loud AGN population. We obtained A-array observations at 1.5, 4.5, and
7.5 GHz for 18 FR0s from the FR0CAT sample: these are sources at ,
unresolved in the FIRST images and spectroscopically classified as low
excitation galaxies (LEG). Although we reach an angular resolution of 0.3
arcsec, the majority of the 18 FR0s is still unresolved. Only four objects show
extended emission. Six have steep radio spectra, 11 are flat cores, while one
shows an inverted spectrum. We find that 1) the ratio between core and total
emission in FR0s is 30 times higher than in FRI and 2) FR0s share the
same properties with FRIs from the nuclear and host point of view. FR0s differ
from FRIs only for the paucity of extended radio emission. Different scenarios
were investigated: 1) the possibility that all FR0s are young sources
eventually evolving into extended sources is ruled out by the distribution of
radio sizes; 2) similarly, a time-dependent scenario, where a variation of
accretion or jet launching prevents the formation of large-scales radio
structures, appears to be rather implausible due to the large abundance of
sub-kpc objects 3) a scenario in which FR0s are produced by mildly relativistic
jets is consistent with the data but requires observations of a larger sample
to be properly tested.Comment: accepted for publication on MNRAS (12 pages, 8 figures
Month of birth influences survival up to age 105+: first results from the age validation study of German semi-supercentenarians
Using data from Germany, we examine if month of birth influences survival up to age 105. Since age reporting at the highest ages is notoriously unreliable we draw on age-validated information from a huge age validation project of 1487 alleged German semi-supercentenarians aged 105+. We use month of birth as an exogenous indicator for seasonal changes in the environment around the time of birth. We find that the seasonal distribution of birth dates changes with age. For 925 age-validated semi-supercentenarians the seasonality is more pronounced than at the time of their births (1880-1900). Among the December-born the relative risk of survival from birth to age 105+ is 16 per cent higher than the average, among the June-born, 23 per cent lower. The month-of-birth pattern in the survival risks of the German semi-supercentenarians resembles closely the month-of-birth pattern in remaining life expectancy at age 50 in Denmark.
Stochastic Properties of Static Friction
The onset of frictional motion is mediated by rupture-like slip fronts, which
nucleate locally and propagate eventually along the entire interface causing
global sliding. The static friction coefficient is a macroscopic measure of the
applied force at this particular instant when the frictional interface loses
stability. However, experimental studies are known to present important scatter
in the measurement of static friction; the origin of which remains unexplained.
Here, we study the nucleation of local slip at interfaces with slip-weakening
friction of random strength and analyze the resulting variability in the
measured global strength. Using numerical simulations that solve the
elastodynamic equations, we observe that multiple slip patches nucleate
simultaneously, many of which are stable and grow only slowly, but one reaches
a critical length and starts propagating dynamically. We show that a
theoretical criterion based on a static equilibrium solution predicts
quantitatively well the onset of frictional sliding. We develop a Monte-Carlo
model by adapting the theoretical criterion and pre-computing modal convolution
terms, which enables us to run efficiently a large number of samples and to
study variability in global strength distribution caused by the stochastic
properties of local frictional strength. The results demonstrate that an
increasing spatial correlation length on the interface, representing geometric
imperfections and roughness, causes lower global static friction. Conversely,
smaller correlation length increases the macroscopic strength while its
variability decreases. We further show that randomness in local friction
properties is insufficient for the existence of systematic precursory slip
events. Random or systematic non-uniformity in the driving force, such as
potential energy or stress drop, is required for arrested slip fronts. Our
model and observations..
Spine-sheath layer radiative interplay in subparsec-scale jets and the TeV emission from M87
Simple one-zone homogeneous synchrotron self-Compton models have severe
difficulties in explaining the TeV emission observed in the radiogalaxy M87.
Also the site of the TeV emission region is uncertain: it could be the
unresolved jet close to the nucleus, analogously to what proposed for blazars,
or an active knot, called HST-1, tens of parsec away. We explore the
possibility that the TeV emission of M87 is produced in the misaligned subpc
scale jet. We base our modelling on a structured jet, with a fast spine
surrounded by a slower layer. In this context the main site responsible for the
emission of the TeV radiation is the layer, while the (debeamed) spine accounts
for the emission from the radio to the GeV band: therefore we expect a more
complex correlation with the TeV component than that expected in one-zone
scenarios, in which both components are produced by the same region. Observed
from small angles, the spine would dominate the emission, with an overall
Spectral Energy Distribution close to those of BL Lac objects with a
synchrotron peak located at low energy (LBLs).Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
X-ray study of a sample of FR0 radio galaxies: unveiling the nature of the central engine
FR0s are compact radio sources that represent the bulk of the Radio-Loud (RL)
AGN population, but they are still poorly understood. Pilot studies on these
sources have been already performed at radio and optical wavelengths: here we
present the first X-ray study of a sample of 19 FR0 radio galaxies selected
from the SDSS/NVSS/FIRST sample of Best & Heckman (2012), with redshift
0.15, radio size 10 kpc and optically classified as low-excitation
galaxies (LEG). The X-ray spectra are modeled with a power-law component
absorbed by Galactic column density with, in some cases, a contribution from
thermal extended gas. The X-ray photons are likely produced by the jet as
attested by the observed correlation between X-ray (2-10 keV) and radio (5 GHz)
luminosities, similar to FRIs. The estimated Eddington-scaled luminosities
indicate a low accretion rate. Overall, we find that the X-ray properties of
FR0s are indistinguishable from those of FRIs, thus adding another similarity
between AGN associated with compact and extended radio sources. A comparison
between FR0s and low luminosity BL Lacs, rules out important beaming effects in
the X-ray emission of the compact radio galaxies. FR0s have different X-ray
properties with respect to young radio sources (e.g. GPS/CSS sources),
generally characterized by higher X-ray luminosities and more complex spectra.
In conclusion, the paucity of extended radio emission in FR0s is probably
related to the intrinsic properties of their jets that prevent the formation of
extended structures, and/or to intermittent activity of their engines.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (18 pages, 4 figures
The role of elasticity in slab bending
International audiencePrevious studies showed that plate rheology exerts a dominant control on the shape and velocity of subducting plates. Here, we perform a systematic investigation of the role of elasticity in slab bending, using fully dynamic 2-D models where an elastic, viscoelastic, or viscoelastoplastic plate subducts freely into a purely viscous mantle. We derive a scaling relationship between the bending radius of viscoelastic slabs and the Deborah number, De, which is the ratio of Maxwell time over deformation time. We show that De controls the ratio of elastically stored energy over viscously dissipated energy and find that at De>10-2, substantially less energy is required to bend a viscoelastic slab to the same shape as a purely viscous slab with the same intrinsic viscosity. Elastically stored energy at higher De favors retreating modes of subduction via unbending, while trench advance only occurs for some cases with De 1, where most zones have low De 0.1. Slabs with De<10-2 either have very low viscosities or they may be yielding, in which case our De estimates may be underestimated by up to an order of magnitude, potentially pointing towards a significant role of elasticity in ∼60% of the subduction zones. In support of such a role of elasticity in subduction, we find that increasing De correlates with increasing proportion of larger seismic events in both instrumental and historic catalogues
Revisiting Multi-Step Nonlinearity Compensation with Machine Learning
For the efficient compensation of fiber nonlinearity, one of the guiding
principles appears to be: fewer steps are better and more efficient. We
challenge this assumption and show that carefully designed multi-step
approaches can lead to better performance-complexity trade-offs than their
few-step counterparts.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, This is a preprint of a paper submitted to the
2019 European Conference on Optical Communicatio
Entanglement detection in hybrid optomechanical systems
We study a device formed by a Bose Einstein condensate (BEC) coupled to the
field of a cavity with a moving end-mirror and find a working point such that
the mirror-light entanglement is reproduced by the BEC-light quantum
correlations. This provides an experimentally viable tool for inferring
mirror-light entanglement with only a limited set of assumptions. We prove the
existence of tripartite entanglement in the hybrid device, persisting up to
temperatures of a few milli-Kelvin, and discuss a scheme to detect it.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, published versio
Social interactions modulate the virulence of avian malaria infection
There is an increasing understanding of the context-dependent nature of parasite virulence. Variation in parasite virulence can occur when infected individuals compete with conspecifics that vary in infection status; virulence may be higher when competing with uninfected competitors. In vertebrates with social hierarchies, we propose that these competition-mediated costs of infection may also vary with social status. Dominant individuals have greater competitive ability than competing subordinates, and consequently may pay a lower prevalence-mediated cost of infection. In this study we investigated whether costs of malarial infection were affected by the occurrence of the parasite in competitors and social status in domestic canaries (Serinus canaria). We predicted that infected subordinates competing with non-infected dominants would pay higher costs than infected subordinates competing with infected dominants. We also predicted that these occurrence-mediated costs of infection would be ameliorated in infected dominant birds. We found that social status and the occurrence of parasites in competitors significantly interacted to change haematocrit in infected birds. Namely, subordinate and dominant infected birds differed in haematocrit depending on the infection status of their competitors. However, in contrast to our prediction, dominants fared better with infected subordinates, whereas subordinates fared better with uninfected dominants. Moreover, we found additional effects of parasite occurrence on mortality in canaries. Ultimately, we provide evidence for costs of parasitism mediated by social rank and the occurrence of parasites in competitors in a vertebrate species. This has important implications for our understanding of the evolutionary processes that shape parasite virulence and group living
The microscopic theory of fission
Fission-fragment properties have been calculated for thermal neutron-induced
fission on a target, using constrained
Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations with a finite-range effective interaction.
A quantitative criterion based on the interaction energy between the nascent
fragments is introduced to define the scission configurations. The validity of
this criterion is benchmarked against experimental measurements of the kinetic
energies and of multiplicities of neutrons emitted by the fragments.Comment: 8 page, 4 figures, to be published in Proceedings of the 4th
International Workshop on Fission and Fission Product Spectroscop
- …