Characterizing and Improving the Reliability of Broadband Internet Access

In this paper, we empirically demonstrate the growing importance of reliability by measuring its effect on user behavior. We present an approach for broadband reliability characterization using data collected by many emerging national initiatives to study broadband and apply it to the data gathered by the Federal Communications Commission's Measuring Broadband America project. Motivated by our findings, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a practical approach for improving the reliability of broadband Internet access with multihoming.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, 6 table

Searching for the missing iron in the core of the Centaurus cluster

We re-analyse a combined 198 ks Chandra observation of NGC4696, the brightest galaxy of the Centaurus cluster. We extract temperature and metallicity profiles from the data, and we confirm the presence of a sharp drop in iron abundance, from ~1.8 Zsolar to ~0.4 Zsolar, within the central 5 kpc of the cluster. We estimate that this abundance drop corresponds to a total "missing" iron mass of 1.4e06 Msolar. We propose that part of this missing iron is locked up in cool (~19 K) far-IR emitting dust, as found by Spitzer and Herschel observations. This can occur if the iron injected by stellar mass loss in the central region is in grains, which remain in that form as the injected dusty cold gas mixes and joins the cold dusty filamentary nebula observed within the same region. The bubbling feedback process observed in the cluster core then drags filaments outward and dumps them at 10-20 kpc radius, where the metallicity is high.Comment: 8 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA

Spin edge helices in a perpendicular magnetic field

We present an exact solution to the problem of the spin edge states in the presence of equal Bychkov-Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit fields in a two-dimensional electron system, restricted by a hard-wall confining potential and exposed to a perpendicular magnetic field. We find that the spectrum of the spin edge states depends critically on the orientation of the sample edges with respect to the crystallographic axes. Such a strikingly different spectral behavior generates new modes of the persistent spin helix-spin edge helices with novel properties, which can be tuned by the applied electric and magnetic fields.Comment: In press in Physical Review Letters; Revised arguments in the introductory part; 3 figure

The effect of supernova heating on cluster properties and constraints on galaxy formation models

Models of galaxy formation should be able to predict the properties of clusters of galaxies, in particular their gas fractions, metallicities, X-ray luminosity-temperature relation, temperature function and mass-deposition-rate function. Fitting these properties places important constaints on galaxy formation on all scales. By following gas processes in detail, our semi-analytic model (based on that of Nulsen & Fabian 1997) is the only such model able to predict all of the above cluster properties. We use realistic gas fractions and gas density profiles, and as required by observations we break the self-similarity of cluster structure by including supernova heating of intracluster gas, the amount of which is indicated by the observed metallicities. We also highlight the importance of the mass-deposition-rate function as an independent and very sensitive probe of cluster structure.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS as a lette

The soft X-ray background: evidence for widespread disruption of the gas halos of galaxy groups

Almost all of the extragalactic X-ray background (XRB) at 0.25 keV can be accounted for by radio-quiet quasars, allowing us to derive an upper limit of 4 \bgunit\ for the remaining background at 0.25 keV. However, the XRB from the gas halos of groups of galaxies, with gas removal due to cooling accounted for, exceeds this upper limit by an order of magnitude if non-gravitational heating is not included. We calculate this using simulations of halo merger trees and realistic gas density profiles, which we require to reproduce the observed gas fractions and abundances of X-ray clusters. In addition, we find that the entire mass range of groups, from $\sim 5\times 10^{12}$ to $\sim 10^{14}$\Ms, contributes to the 0.25 keV background in this case. In a further study, we reduce the luminosities of groups by maximally heating their gas halos while maintaining the same gas fractions. This only reduces the XRB by a factor of 2 or less. We thus argue that most of the gas associated with groups must be outside their virial radii. This conclusion is supported by X-ray studies of individual groups. The properties of both groups and X-ray clusters can be naturally explained by a model in which the gas is given excess specific energies of $\sim 1$ keV/particle by non-gravitational heating. With this excess energy, the gas is gravitationally unbound from groups, but recollapses with the formation of a cluster of temperature \ga 1 keV. This is similar to a model proposed by Pen, but is contrary to the evolution of baryons described by Cen \& Ostriker. (abridged)Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, submitted to MNRA

A volume-limited sample of X-ray galaxy groups and clusters - II. X-ray cavity dynamics

We present the results of our study of a volume-limited sample (z <= 0.071) of 101 X-ray galaxy groups and clusters, in which we explore the X-ray cavity energetics. Out of the 101 sources in our parent sample, X-ray cavities are found in 30 of them, all of which have a central cooling time of less than3 Gyr. New X-ray cavities are detected in three sources. We focus on the subset of sources that have a central cooling time of less than 3 Gyr, whose active galactic nucleus (AGN) duty cycle is approximately 61 percent (30/49). This rises to over 80 percent for a central cooling time of less than 0.5 Gyr. When projection effects and central radio source detection rates are considered, the actual duty cycle is probably much higher. In addition, we show that data quality strongly affects the detection rates of X-ray cavities. After calculating the cooling luminosity and cavity powers of each source with cavities, it is evident that the bubbling process induced by the central AGN has to be, on average, continuous, to offset cooling. We find that the radius of the cavities, r, loosely depends on the ambient gas temperature as T^0.5, above about 1.5 keV, with much more scatter below that temperature. Finally, we show that, at a given location in a group or cluster, larger bubbles travel faster than smaller ones. This means that the bubbles seen at larger distances from cluster cores could be the result of the merging of several smaller bubbles, produced in separate AGN cycles.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 26 pages (including 10 pages of images), 8 figures, 2 tables. Higher resolution images will be available as online materia

The X-ray coronae of the two brightest galaxies in the Coma cluster

We use deep Chandra X-ray Observatory observations to examine the coronae of the two brightest cluster galaxies in the Coma cluster of galaxies, NGC 4874 and NGC 4889. We find that NGC 4889 hosts a central depression in X-ray surface brightness consistent with a cavity or pair of cavities of radius 0.6 kpc. If the central cavity is associated with an AGN outburst and contains relativistic material, its enthalpy should be around 5x10^55 erg. The implied heating power of this cavity would be around an order of magnitude larger than the energy lost by X-ray emission. It would be the smallest and youngest known cavity in a brightest cluster galaxy and the lack of over pressuring implies heating is still gentle. In contrast, NGC 4874 does not show any evidence for cavities, although it hosts a well-known wide-angle-tail radio source which is visible outside the region occupied by the X-ray corona. These two galaxies show that AGN feedback can behave in varied ways in the same cluster environment.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted by MNRA