Evidence from the Very Long Baseline Array that J1502SE/SW are Double Hotspots, not a Supermassive Binary Black Hole

SDSS J150243.09+111557.3 is a merging system at z = 0.39 that hosts two confirmed AGN, one unobscured and one dust-obscured, offset by several kiloparsecs. Deane et al. recently reported evidence from the European VLBI Network (EVN) that the dust-obscured AGN exhibits two flat-spectrum radio sources, J1502SE/SW, offset by 26 mas (140 pc), with each source being energized by its own supermassive black hole (BH). This intriguing interpretation of a close binary BH was reached after ruling out a double-hotspot scenario, wherein both hotspots are energized by a single, central BH, a configuration occuring in the well-studied Compact Symmetric Objects. When observed with sufficient sensitivity and resolution, an object with double hotspots should have an edge-brightened structure. We report evidence from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) for just such a structure in an image of the obscured AGN with higher sensitivity and resolution than the EVN images. We thus conclude that a double-hotspot scenario should be reconsidered as a viable interpretation for J1502SE/SW, and suggest further VLBA tests of that scenario. A double-hotspot scenario could have broad implications for feedback in obscured AGNs. We also report a VLBA detection of high-brightness-temperature emssion from the unobscured AGN that is offset several kiloparsecs from J1502SE/SW.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, accepted by ApJL on 2014 July 2

Potential distribution surrounding a photo- emitting plate in a dilute plasma

Potential distribution in photo-emitting plate in dilute plasma

Geographic and Seasonal Distributions of CO Transport Pathways and Their Roles in Determining CO Centers in the Upper Troposphere

Past studies have identified a variety of pathways by which carbon monoxide (CO) may be transported from the surface to the tropical upper troposphere (UT); however, the relative roles that these transport pathways play in determining the distribution and seasonality of CO in the tropical UT remain unclear. We have developed a method to automate the identification of two pathways ('local convection' and 'advection within the lower troposphere (LT) followed by convective vertical transport') involved in CO transport from the surface to the UT. This method is based on the joint application of instantaneous along-track, co-located, A-Train satellite measurements. Using this method, we find that the locations and seasonality of the UT CO maxima in the tropics were strongly correlated with the frequency of local convective transport during 2007. We also find that the 'local convection' pathway (convective transport that occurred within a fire region) typically transported significantly more CO to the UT than the 'LT advection -> convection' pathway (advection of CO within the LT from a fire region to a convective region prior to convective transport). To leading order, the seasonality of CO concentrations in the tropical UT reflected the seasonality of the 'local convection' transport pathway during 2007. The UT CO maxima occurred over Central Africa during boreal spring and over South America during austral spring. Occurrence of the 'local convection' transport pathway in these two regions also peaked during these seasons. During boreal winter and summer, surface CO emission and convection were located in opposite hemispheres, which limited the effectiveness of transport to the UT. During these seasons, CO transport from the surface to the UT typically occurred via the 'LT advection -> convection' pathway.NASA Aura Science Team NNX09AD85GJackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at AustinNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of TechnologyGeological Science

Beyond relativistic mean-field studies of low-lying states in neutron-deficient krypton isotopes

Neutron-deficient krypton isotopes are of particular interest due to the coexistence of oblate and prolate shapes in low-lying states and the transition of ground-state from one dominate shape to another as a function of neutron number. A detailed interpretation of these phenomena in neutron-deficient Kr isotopes requires the use of a method going beyond a mean-field approach that permits to determine spectra and transition probabilities. The aim of this work is to provide a systematic calculation of low-lying state in the even-even 68-86Kr isotopes and to understand the shape coexistence phenomenon and the onset of large collectivity around N=40 from beyond relativistic mean-field studies. The starting point of our method is a set of relativistic mean-field+BCS wave functions generated with a constraint on triaxial deformations (beta, gamma). The excitation energies and electric multipole transition strengths of low-lying states are calculated by solving a five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian (5DCH) with parameters determined by the mean-field wave functions. To examine the role of triaxiality, a configuration mixing of both particle number (PN) and angular momentum (AM) projected axially deformed states is also carried out within the exact generator coordinate method (GCM) based on the same energy density functional. The energy surfaces, the excitation energies of 0^+_2, 2^+_1, 2^+_2 states, as well as the E0 and E2 transition strengths are compared with the results of similar 5DCH calculations but with parameters determined by the non-relativistic mean-field wave functions, as well as with the available data...Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Global modeling of secondary organic aerosol formation from aromatic hydrocarbons: high- vs low-yield pathways

Formation of SOA from the aromatic species toluene, xylene, and, for the first time, benzene, is added to a global chemical transport model. A simple mechanism is presented that accounts for competition between low and high-yield pathways of SOA formation, wherein secondary gas-phase products react further with either nitrogen oxide (NO) or hydroperoxy radical (HO2) to yield semi- or non-volatile products, respectively. Aromatic species yield more SOA when they react with OH in regions where the [NO]/[HO2] ratios are lower. The SOA yield thus depends upon the distribution of aromatic emissions, with biomass burning emissions being in areas with lower [NO]/[HO2] ratios, and the reactivity of the aromatic with respect to OH, as a lower initial reactivity allows transport away from industrial source regions, where [NO]/[HO2] ratios are higher, to more remote regions, where this ratio is lower and, hence, the ultimate yield of SOA is higher. As a result, benzene is estimated to be the most important aromatic species with regards to formation of SOA, with a total production nearly equal that of toluene and xylene combined. In total, while only 39% percent of the aromatic species react via the low-NOx pathway, 72% of the aromatic SOA is formed via this mechanism. Predicted SOA concentrations from aromatics in the Eastern United States and Eastern Europe are actually largest during the summer, when the [NO]/[HO2] ratio is lower. Global production of SOA from aromatic sources is estimated at 3.5 Tg/yr, resulting in a global burden of 0.08 Tg, twice as large as previous estimates. The contribution of these largely anthropogenic sources to global SOA is still small relative to biogenic sources, which are estimated to comprise 90% of the global SOA burden, about half of which comes from isoprene. Compared to recent observations, it would appear there are additional pathways beyond those accounted for here for production of anthropogenic SOA. However, owing to differences in spatial distributions of sources and seasons of peak production, there are still regions in which aromatic SOA produced via the mechanisms identified here are predicted to contribute substantially to, and even dominate, the local SOA concentrations, such as outflow regions from North America and South East Asia during the wintertime, though total SOA concentrations there are small (~0.1 μg/m^³)

Kinetic Equation for a Plasma and Its Application to High-frequency Conductivity

Kinetic equation for inhomogenious nonisotropic plasma and application to high frequency conductivit

Dielectric spectroscopy study of thermally-aged extruded model power cables

“Model” extruded power cables, having a much reduced geometry but using the same extrusion techniques and materials as full-sized cables, have been examined using dielectric spectroscopy techniques to study their thermal ageing effects. Cables insulated with homo-polymer XLPE and co-polymer of XLPE with micron-sized ethylene-butyl-acrylate (EBA) islands were studied by both frequency-domain and time-domain dielectric spectroscopy techniques after accelerated thermal ageing under 135°C for 60 days. In the frequency domain, a frequency response analyzer (FRA) was used to measure the frequency range from 10-4Hz to 1Hz at temperatures from 20°C to 80°C. In the time domain, a special charging/discharging current measurement system was developed to measure the frequencies from 10-1Hz to 102Hz. These techniques were chosen to cope with the extremely low dielectric losses of the model cables. The results are compared with those from new model power cables that were degassed at 80°C for 5 days. Thermal ageing was found to increase the low-frequency conductivity, permittivity and the discharging current. Both homo- and co-polymer cables have substantial increase of dielectric loss after ageing

Estimating Form Factors of Bs→Ds(∗)B_s\rightarrow D_s^{(*)} and their Applications to Semi-leptonic and Non-leptonic Decays

$B_s^0\rightarrow D_s^{-}$ and $B_s^0\rightarrow D_s^{*-}$ weak transition form factors are estimated for the whole physical region with a method based on an instantaneous approximated Mandelstam formulation of transition matrix elements and the instantaneous Bethe-Salpeter equation. We apply the estimated form factors to branching ratios, CP asymmetries and polarization fractions of non-leptonic decays within the factorization approximation. And we study the non-factorizable effects and annihilation contributions with the perturbative QCD approach. The branching ratios of semi-leptonic $B_s^0\rightarrow D_s^{(*)-}l^+\nu_l$ decays are also evaluated. We show that the calculated decay rates agree well with the available experimental data. The longitudinal polarization fraction of $B_s\rightarrow D_s^*V(A)$ decays are $\sim0.8$ when $V(A)$ denotes a light meson, and are $\sim0.5$ when $V(A)$ denotes a $D_q$ ($q=d,s$) meson.Comment: Final version published in J Phys. G 39 (2012) 045002 (Title also changed