Nuclear Activity in Circumnuclear Ring Galaxies

We have analyzed the frequency and properties of the nuclear activity in a sample of galaxies with circumnuclear rings and spirals (CNRs). This sample was compared with a control sample of galaxies with very similar global properties but without circumnuclear rings. We discuss the relevance of the results in regard to the AGN feeding processes and present the following results: (i) bright companion galaxies seem not to be important for the appearance of CNRs, which appear to be more related to intrinsic properties of the host galaxies or to minor merger processes; (ii) the proportion of strong bars in galaxies with an AGN and a CNR is somewhat higher than the expected ratio of strongly barred AGN galaxies from the results of Ho and co-workers; (iii) the incidence of Seyfert activity coeval with CNRs is clearly larger than the rate expected from the morphological distribution of the host galaxies; (iv) the rate of Sy 2 to Sy 1 type galaxies with CNRs is about three times larger than the expected ratio for galaxies without CNRs and is opposite to that predicted by the geometric paradigm of the classical unified model for AGNs, although it does support the hy-pothesis that Sy 2 activity is linked to circumnuclear star formation. The possible selection effects of the sample are discussed, and we conclude that the detected trends are strong enough to justify high quality observations of as large as possible sets of galaxies with circumnuclear rings and their matched control samples.Comment: Submitted to International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysic

XMM-Newton EPIC and OM observation of Nova Centauri 1986 (V842 Cen)

We report the results from the temporal and spectral analysis of an XMM-Newton observation of Nova Centauri 1986 (V842 Cen). We detect a period at 3.51$\pm$0.4 h in the EPIC data and at 4.0$\pm$0.8 h in the OM data. The X-ray spectrum is consistent with the emission from an absorbed thin thermal plasma with a temperature distribution given by an isobaric cooling flow. The maximum temperature of the cooling flow model is $kT_{max}=43_{-12}^{+23}$ keV. Such a high temperature can be reached in a shocked region and, given the periodicity detected, most likely arises in a magnetically-channelled accretion flow characteristic of intermediate polars. The pulsed fraction of the 3.51 h modulation decreases with energy as observed in the X-ray light curves of magnetic CVs, possibly due either to occultation of the accretion column by the white dwarf body or phase-dependent to absorption. We do not find the 57 s white dwarf spin period, with a pulse amplitude of 4 mmag, reported by Woudt et al. (2009) either in the Optical Monitor (OM) data, which are sensitive to pulse amplitudes $\gtrsim$ 0.03 magnitudes, or the EPIC data, sensitive to pulse fractions $p \gtrsim$ 14 $\pm$2%.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; MNRAS, accepte

Hyperonic crystallization in hadronic matter

Published in Hadrons, Nuclei and Applications, World Scientific, Singapore, Proc.of the Conference Bologna2000. Structure of the Nucleus at the Dawn of the Century, G. Bonsignori, M. Bruno, A. Ventura, D. Vretenar Editors, pag. 319.Comment: 4 pages, 2figure

Magnetic transitions in Pr2NiO4 single crystal

The magnetic properties of a stoichiometric Pr2NiO4 single crystal have been examined by means of the temperature dependence of the complex ac susceptibility and the isothermal magnetization in fields up to 200 kOe at T=4.2 K. Three separate phases have been identified and their anisotropic character has been analyzed. A collinear antiferromagnetic phase appears first between TN = 325 K and Tc1 = 115 K, where the Pr ions are polarized by an internal magnetic field. At Tc1 a first modification of the magnetic structure occurs in parallel with a structural phase transition (Bmab to P42/ncm). This magnetic transition has a first‐order character and involves both the out‐of‐plane and the in‐plane spin components (magnetic modes gx and gxcyfz, respectively). A second magnetic transition having also a first‐order character is also clearly identified at Tc2 = 90 K which corresponds to a spin reorientation process (gxcyfz to cxgyaz magnetic modes). It should be noted as well that the out‐of‐phase component of χac shows a peak around 30 K which reflects the coexistence of both magnetic configurations in a wide temperature interval. Finally, two field‐induced transitions have been observed at 4.2 K when the field is directed along the c axis. We propose that the high‐field anomaly arises from a metamagnetic transition of the weak ferromagnetic component, similarly to La2CuO4

Nonminimal supersymmetric standard model with lepton number violation

We carry out a detailed analysis of the nonminimal supersymmetric standard model with lepton number violation. The model contains a unique trilinear lepton number violating term in the superpotential which can give rise to neutrino masses at the tree level. We search for the gauged discrete symmetries realized by cyclic groups which preserve the structure of the associated trilinear superpotential of this model, and which satisfy the constraints of the anomaly cancellation. The implications of this trilinear lepton number violating term in the superpotential and the associated soft supersymmetry breaking term on the phenomenology of the light neutrino masses and mixing is studied in detail. We evaluate the tree and loop level contributions to the neutrino mass matrix in this model. We search for possible suppression mechanism which could explain large hierarchies and maximal mixing angles.Comment: Latex file, 43 pages, 2 figure

Performances of multi-gap timing RPCs for relativistic ions in the range Z=1-6

We present the performance of Multi-gap timing RPCs under irradiation by fully stripped relativistic ions (gamma*beta=2.7, Z=1-6). A time resolution of 80 ps at high efficiency has been obtained by just using standard `off the shelf' 4-gap timing RPCs from the new HADES ToF wall. The resolution worsened to 100 ps for ~ 1 kHz/cm2 proton flux and for ~ 100 Hz/cm2 Carbon flux. The chambers were operated at a standard field of E=100 kV/cm and showed a high stability during the experiment, supporting the fact that RPCs are a convenient choice when accommodating a very broad range of ionizing particles is needed. The data provides insight in the region of very highly ionizing particles (up to x 36 mips) and can be used to constrain the existing avalanche and Space-Charge models far from the usual `mip valley'. The implications of these results for the general case of detection based on secondary processes (n, gamma) resulting in highly ionizing particles with characteristic energy distributions will be discussed, together with the nature of the time-charge correlation curve.Comment: 31 pages, 19 figures, submitted to JINS

Magnetic properties and critical behavior of disordered Fe_{1-x}Ru_x alloys: a Monte Carlo approach

We study the critical behavior of a quenched random-exchange Ising model with competing interactions on a bcc lattice. This model was introduced in the study of the magnetic behavior of Fe_{1-x}Ru_x alloys for ruthenium concentrations x=0%, x=4%, x=6%, and x=8%. Our study is carried out within a Monte Carlo approach, with the aid of a re-weighting multiple histogram technique. By means of a finite-size scaling analysis of several thermodynamic quantities, taking into account up to the leading irrelevant scaling field term, we find estimates of the critical exponents \alpha, \beta, \gamma, and \nu, and of the critical temperatures of the model. Our results for x=0% are in excellent agreement with those for the three-dimensional pure Ising model in the literature. We also show that our critical exponent estimates for the disordered cases are consistent with those reported for the transition line between paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases of both randomly dilute and $\pm J$ Ising models. We compare the behavior of the magnetization as a function of temperature with that obtained by Paduani and Branco (2008), qualitatively confirming the mean-field result. However, the comparison of the critical temperatures obtained in this work with experimental measurements suggest that the model (initially obtained in a mean-field approach) needs to be modified

Jet Bundles in Quantum Field Theory: The BRST-BV method

The geometric interpretation of the Batalin-Vilkovisky antibracket as the Schouten bracket of functional multivectors is examined in detail. The identification is achieved by the process of repeated contraction of even functional multivectors with fermionic functional 1-forms. The classical master equation may then be considered as a generalisation of the Jacobi identity for Poisson brackets, and the cohomology of a nilpotent even functional multivector is identified with the BRST cohomology. As an example, the BRST-BV formulation of gauge fixing in theories with gauge symmetries is reformulated in the jet bundle formalism. (Hopefully this version will be TeXable)Comment: 26 page