5,026 research outputs found
On the population of remnant FRII radio galaxies and implications for radio source dynamics
The purpose of this work is two-fold: (1) to quantify the occurrence of
ultra-steep spectrum remnant FRII radio galaxies in a 74 MHz flux limited
sample, and (2) perform Monte-Carlo simulations of the population of active and
remnant FRII radio galaxies to confront models of remnant lobe evolution, and
provide guidance for further investigation of remnant radio galaxies. We find
that fewer than 2 of FRII radio galaxies with S Jy are
candidate ultra-steep spectrum remnants, where we define ultra-steep spectrum
as . Our Monte-Carlo simulations
demonstrate that models involving Sedov-like expansion in the remnant phase,
resulting in rapid adiabatic energy losses, are consistent with this upper
limit, and predict the existence of nearly twice as many remnants with normal
(not ultra-steep) spectra in the observed frequency range as there are
ultra-steep spectrum remnants. This model also predicts an ultra-steep remnant
fraction approaching 10 at redshifts . Importantly, this model
implies the lobes remain over-pressured with respect to the ambient medium well
after their active lifetime, in contrast with existing observational evidence
that many FRII radio galaxy lobes reach pressure equilibrium with the external
medium whilst still in the active phase. The predicted age distribution of
remnants is a steeply decreasing function of age. In other words young remnants
are expected to be much more common than old remnants in flux limited samples.
For this reason, incorporating higher frequency data GHz will be of
great benefit to future studies of the remnant population.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 4 table
What triggers a radio AGN? The intriguing case of PKSB 1718-649
We present new Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of the
young (< 10^2 years) radio galaxy PKS B1718-649. We study the morphology and
the kinematics of the neutral hydrogen (HI) disk (M(HI) = 1.1x 10^10 M(sun),
radius ~ 30 kpc). In particular, we focus on the analysis of the cold gas in
relation to the triggering of the nuclear activity. The asymmetries at the
edges of the disk date the last interaction with a companion to more than 1 Gyr
ago. The tilted-ring model of the HI disk shows that this event may have formed
the disk as we see it now, but that it may have not been responsible for
triggering the AGN. The long timescales of the interaction are incompatible
with the short ones of the radio activity. In absorption, we identify two
clouds with radial motions which may represent a population that could be
involved in the triggering of the radio activity. We argue that PKS B1718-649
may belong to a family of young low-excitation radio AGN where, rather than
through a gas rich merger, the active nuclei (AGN) are triggered by local
mechanisms such as accretion of small gas clouds.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, Accepted to A&
Mapping the neutral atomic hydrogen gas outflow in the restarted radio galaxy 3C 236
The energetic feedback that is generated by radio jets in active galactic
nuclei (AGNs) has been suggested to be able to produce fast outflows of atomic
hydrogen (HI) gas that can be studied in absorption at high spatial resolution.
We have used the Very Large Array (VLA) and a global
very-long-baseline-interferometry (VLBI) array to locate and study in detail
the HI outflow discovered with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT)
in the re-started radio galaxy 3C 236. We confirm, from the VLA data, the
presence of a blue-shifted wing of the HI with a width of
. This HI outflow is partially recovered by the
VLBI observation. In particular, we detect four clouds with masses of
with VLBI that do not follow the regular
rotation of most of the HI. Three of these clouds are located, in projection,
against the nuclear region on scales of , while the
fourth is co-spatial to the south-east lobe at a projected distance of
. Their velocities are between and
blue-shifted with respect to the velocity of the
disk-related HI. These findings suggest that the outflow is at least partly
formed by clouds, as predicted by some numerical simulations and originates
already in the inner (few tens of pc) region of the radio galaxy. Our results
indicate that all of the outflow could consist of many clouds with perhaps
comparable properties as the ones detected, distributed also at larger radii
from the nucleus where the lower brightness of the lobe does not allow us to
detect them. However, we cannot rule out the presence of a diffuse component of
the outflow. The fact that 3C 236 is a low excitation radio galaxy, makes it
less likely that the optical AGN is able to produce strong radiative winds
leaving the radio jet as the main driver for the HI outflow.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
BeppoSAX observations of low power radio galaxies: possible detection of obscured nuclei
We present the first results of BeppoSAX observations of a small sample of
low brightness FRI radio galaxies. The flux of all the targets is consistent
with a thermal spectrum, as due to the presence of hot intracluster gas or
galactic corona. Moreover in three sources a non thermal absorbed spectrum can
be present in the MECS spectrum at energies larger than 7 keV, while for a
fourth object a high energy flux has been detected in the PDS instrument at
energies larger than 15 keV. This component could be related to the inner AGN
surrounded by an obscuring torus.Comment: 4 pages, LateX, 3 figures (included). Uses espcrc2.sty (included). To
appear in: "The Active X-ray Sky: Results from BeppoSAX and Rossi-XTE", Rome,
Italy, 21-24 October, 1997, Eds.: L. Scarsi, H. Bradt, P. Giommi and F. Fior
Moderately naturalistic metaphysics
The present paper discusses different approaches to metaphysics and defends a specific, non-deflationary approach that nevertheless qualifies as scientifically-grounded and, consequently, as acceptable from the naturalistic viewpoint. By critically assessing some recent work on science and metaphysics, we argue that such a sophisticated form of naturalism, which preserves the autonomy of metaphysics as an a priori enterprise yet pays due attention to the indications coming from our best science, is not only workable but recommended.Peer reviewe
Method for evaluating the durability of aircraft piston engines
A significant issue in aircraft engines is quantifying residual life to overhaul. The algorithm described in this paper calculates with a good level of reliability the residual life of a petrol piston engine. The method was tested on small, latest-generation, naturally-aspirated aircraft and racing piston engines, and has been effective in several experiments. This method is implemented directly on the electronic control system of the engine with very few lines of C-code. The method can also be used in many industrial engines. This innovative method assumes that only two main factors (power level and wear) affect engine durability or time between overhauls. These two factors are considered as separate and combined with worst case criteria. The wear is assumed to follow a logarithmic law and a formula similar to the Miner’s law for material fatigue is used, making it possible to calculate the power-level curve with knowledge of only two points. The wear-curve is also related to elapsed engine cycles. The algorithm is very simple and can be implemented with just a few lines of software code accessing data collected from existing sensors. The system is currently used to evaluate actual residual life of racing engines
Tidal Remnants and Intergalactic HII Regions
We report the discovery of two small intergalactic HII regions in the loose
group of galaxies around the field elliptical NGC 1490. The HII regions are
located at least 100 kpc from any optical galaxy but are associated with a
number of large HI clouds that are lying along an arc 500 kpc in length and
that have no optical counterpart on the Digital Sky Survey. The sum of the HI
masses of the clouds is almost 10^10 M_sun and the largest HI cloud is about
100 kpc in size. Deep optical imaging reveals a very low surface brightness
counterpart to this largest HI cloud, making this one of the HI richest optical
galaxies known (M_HI/L_V~200). Spectroscopy of the HII regions indicates that
the abundance in these HII regions is only slightly sub-solar, excluding a
primordial origin of the HI clouds. The HI clouds are perhaps remnants
resulting from the tidal disruption of a reasonably sized galaxy, probably
quite some time ago, by the loose group to which NGC1490 belongs.
Alternatively, they are remnants of the merger that created the field
elliptical NGC1490. The isolated HII regions show that star formation on a very
small scale can occur in intergalactic space in gas drawn from galaxies by
tidal interactions. Many such intergalactic small star formation regions may
exist near tidally interacting galaxies.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the IAU Symposium #217, Recycling
Intergalactic and Interstellar Matter, eds. P.-A. Duc, J. Braine, and E.
Brinks, 6 pages with low resolution figures. The full paper with high
resolution images can be downloaded from
http://www.astron.nl/~morganti/Papers/cloud.ps.g
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