24 research outputs found
Atomic X-ray Spectroscopy of Accreting Black Holes
Current astrophysical research suggests that the most persistently luminous
objects in the Universe are powered by the flow of matter through accretion
disks onto black holes. Accretion disk systems are observed to emit copious
radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, each energy band providing
access to rather distinct regimes of physical conditions and geometric scale.
X-ray emission probes the innermost regions of the accretion disk, where
relativistic effects prevail. While this has been known for decades, it also
has been acknowledged that inferring physical conditions in the relativistic
regime from the behavior of the X-ray continuum is problematic and not
satisfactorily constraining. With the discovery in the 1990s of iron X-ray
lines bearing signatures of relativistic distortion came the hope that such
emission would more firmly constrain models of disk accretion near black holes,
as well as provide observational criteria by which to test general relativity
in the strong field limit. Here we provide an introduction to this phenomenon.
While the presentation is intended to be primarily tutorial in nature, we aim
also to acquaint the reader with trends in current research. To achieve these
ends, we present the basic applications of general relativity that pertain to
X-ray spectroscopic observations of black hole accretion disk systems, focusing
on the Schwarzschild and Kerr solutions to the Einstein field equations. To
this we add treatments of the fundamental concepts associated with the
theoretical and modeling aspects of accretion disks, as well as relevant topics
from observational and theoretical X-ray spectroscopy.Comment: 63 pages, 21 figures, Einstein Centennial Review Article, Canadian
Journal of Physics, in pres
Low Frequency Flickering of TT Arietis:Hard and Soft X-ray Emission Region
Using archival ASCA observations of TT Arietis, X-ray energy spectra and
power spectra of the intensity time series are presented for the first time.
The energy spectra are well-fitted by a two continuum plasma emission model
with temperatures around 1 keV and 10 keV. A coherent feature at about 0.643
mHz appeared in the power spectra during the observation.Comment: 9 pages in PostScript including figures, accepted for publication in
Astrophysics and Space Science, available at
http://astroa.physics.metu.edu.tr/preprints.htm
Genetic, abiotic and social influences on sex differentiation in cichlid fishes and the evolution of sequential hermaphroditism
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73799/1/j.1467-2979.2005.00184.x.pd
Maintenance of Skilled Performance with Age: A Descriptive Examination of Professional Golfers
Progress in understanding error-field physics in NSTX spherical torus plasmas
The low-aspect ratio, low magnetic field and wide range of plasma beta of NSTX plasmas provide new insight into the origins and effects of magnetic field errors. An extensive array of magnetic sensors has been used to analyse error fields, to measure error-field amplification and to detect resistive wall modes (RWMs) in real time. The measured normalized error-field threshold for the onset of locked modes shows a linear scaling with plasma density, a weak to inverse dependence on toroidal field and a positive scaling with magnetic shear. These results extrapolate to a favourable error-field threshold for ITER. For these low-beta locked-mode plasmas, perturbed equilibrium calculations find that the plasma response must be included to explain the empirically determined optimal correction of NSTX error fields. In high-beta NSTX plasmas exceeding the n = 1 no-wall stability limit where the RWM is stabilized by plasma rotation, active suppression of n = 1 amplified error fields and the correction of recently discovered intrinsic n = 3 error fields have led to sustained high rotation and record durations free of low-frequency core MHD activity. For sustained rotational stabilization of the n = 1 RWM, both the rotation threshold and the magnitude of the amplification are important. At fixed normalized dissipation, kinetic damping models predict rotation thresholds for RWM stabilization to scale nearly linearly with particle orbit frequency. Studies for NSTX find that orbit frequencies computed in general geometry can deviate significantly from those computed in the high-aspect ratio and circular plasma cross-section limit, and these differences can strongly influence the predicted RWM stability. The measured and predicted RWM stability is found to be very sensitive to the E
7 B rotation profile near the plasma edge, and the measured critical rotation for the RWM is approximately a factor of two higher than predicted by the MARS-F code using the semi-kinetic damping model
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Progress in Understanding Error-field Physics in NSTX Spherical Torus Plasmas
The low aspect ratio, low magnetic field, and wide range of plasma beta of NSTX plasmas provide new insight into the origins and effects of magnetic field errors. An extensive array of magnetic sensors has been used to analyze error fields, to measure error field amplification, and to detect resistive wall modes in real time. The measured normalized error-field threshold for the onset of locked modes shows a linear scaling with plasma density, a weak to inverse dependence on toroidal field, and a positive scaling with magnetic shear. These results extrapolate to a favorable error field threshold for ITER. For these low-beta locked-mode plasmas, perturbed equilibrium calculations find that the plasma response must be included to explain the empirically determined optimal correction of NSTX error fields. In high-beta NSTX plasmas exceeding the n=1 no-wall stability limit where the RWM is stabilized by plasma rotation, active suppression of n=1 amplified error fields and the correction of recently discovered intrinsic n=3 error fields have led to sustained high rotation and record durations free of low-frequency core MHD activity. For sustained rotational stabilization of the n=1 RWM, both the rotation threshold and magnitude of the amplification are important. At fixed normalized dissipation, kinetic damping models predict rotation thresholds for RWM stabilization to scale nearly linearly with particle orbit frequency. Studies for NSTX find that orbit frequencies computed in general geometry can deviate significantly from those computed in the high aspect ratio and circular plasma cross-section limit, and these differences can strongly influence the predicted RWM stability. The measured and predicted RWM stability is found to be very sensitive to the E Ă— B rotation profile near the plasma edge, and the measured critical rotation for the RWM is approximately a factor of two higher than predicted by the MARS-F code using the semi-kinetic damping model