Nearby quasar remnants and ultra-high energy cosmic rays

As recently suggested, nearby quasar remnants are plausible sites of black-hole based compact dynamos that could be capable of accelerating ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). In such a model, UHECRs would originate at the nuclei of nearby dead quasars, those in which the putative underlying supermassive black holes are suitably spun-up. Based on galactic optical luminosity, morphological type, and redshift, we have compiled a small sample of nearby objects selected to be highly luminous, bulge-dominated galaxies, likely quasar remnants. The sky coordinates of these galaxies were then correlated with the arrival directions of cosmic rays detected at energies $> 40$ EeV. An apparently significant correlation appears in our data. This correlation appears at closer angular scales than those expected when taking into account the deflection caused by typically assumed IGM or galactic magnetic fields over a charged particle trajectory. Possible scenarios producing this effect are discussed, as is the astrophysics of the quasar remnant candidates. We suggest that quasar remnants be also taken into account in the forthcoming detailed search for correlations using data from the Auger Observatory.Comment: 2 figures, 4 tables, 11 pages. Final version to appear in Physical Review

Mixed Hodge polynomials of character varieties

We calculate the E-polynomials of certain twisted GL(n,C)-character varieties M_n of Riemann surfaces by counting points over finite fields using the character table of the finite group of Lie-type GL(n,F_q) and a theorem proved in the appendix by N. Katz. We deduce from this calculation several geometric results, for example, the value of the topological Euler characteristic of the associated PGL(n,C)-character variety. The calculation also leads to several conjectures about the cohomology of M_n: an explicit conjecture for its mixed Hodge polynomial; a conjectured curious Hard Lefschetz theorem and a conjecture relating the pure part to absolutely indecomposable representations of a certain quiver. We prove these conjectures for n = 2.Comment: with an appendix by Nicholas M. Katz; 57 pages. revised version: New definition for homogeneous weight in Definition 4.1.6, subsequent arguments modified. Some other minor changes. To appear in Invent. Mat

Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies

Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade. Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models, and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies, such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope results. I. The shadow of the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way

Galaxie

ASPECTS OF PSEUDORANK ESTIMATION METHODS BASED ON THE EIGENVALUES OF PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF RANDOM MATRICES

Contains fulltext : 112304.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

ASPECTS OF PSEUDORANK ESTIMATION METHODS BASED ON AN ESTIMATE OF THE SIZE OF THE MEASUREMENT ERROR

Contains fulltext : 112303.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

GENERALIZED RANK ANNIHILATION METHOD .2. BIAS AND VARIANCE IN THE ESTIMATED EIGENVALUES (VOL 8, PG 181, 1994)

Contains fulltext : 112309.pdf ( ) (Open Access

Uncertainty estimation for multivariate regression coefficients

Five methods are compared for assessing the uncertainty in multivariate regression coefficients, namely, an approximate variance expression and four resampling methods (jack-knife, bootstrapping objects, bootstrapping residuals, and noise addition). The comparison is carried out for simulated as well as real near-infrared data. The calibration methods considered are ordinary least squares (simulated data), partial least squares regression, and principal component regression (real data). The results suggest that the approximate variance expression is a viable alternative to resampling