7,905 research outputs found
Particle acceleration close to the supermassive black hole horizon: the case of M87
The radio galaxy M87 has recently been found to be a rapidly variable TeV
emitting source. We analyze the implications of the observed TeV
characteristics and show that it proves challenging to account for them within
conventional acceleration and emission models. We discuss a new pulsar-type
scenario for the origin of variable, very high energy (VHE) emission close to
the central supermassive black hole and show that magneto-centrifugally
accelerated electrons could efficiently Compton upscatter sub-mm ADAF disk
photons to the TeV regime, leading to VHE characteristics close to the observed
ones. This suggests, conversely, that VHE observations of highly under-luminous
AGNs could provide an important diagnostic tool for probing the conditions
prevalent in the inner accretion disk of these sources.Comment: 5 pages, one figure (typos corrected); based on presentation at "High
Energy Phenomena in Relativistic Outflows", Dublin, Sept. 2007; accepted for
publication in International Journal of Modern Physics
Average persistence in random walks
We study the first passage time properties of an integrated Brownian curve
both in homogeneous and disordered environments. In a disordered medium we
relate the scaling properties of this center of mass persistence of a random
walker to the average persistence, the latter being the probability P_pr(t)
that the expectation value of the walker's position after time t has not
returned to the initial value. The average persistence is then connected to the
statistics of extreme events of homogeneous random walks which can be computed
exactly for moderate system sizes. As a result we obtain a logarithmic
dependence P_pr(t)~{ln(t)}^theta' with a new exponent theta'=0.191+/-0.002. We
note on a complete correspondence between the average persistence of random
walks and the magnetization autocorrelation function of the transverse-field
Ising chain, in the homogeneous and disordered case.Comment: 6 pages LaTeX, 3 postscript figures include
Helical motion and the origin of QPO in blazar-type sources
Recent observations and analysis of blazar sources provide strong evidence
for (i) the presence of significant periodicities in their lightcurves and (ii)
the occurrence of helical trajectories in their radio jets. In scenarios, where
the periodicity is caused by differential Doppler boosting effects along a
helical jet path, both of these facts may be naturally tied together. Here we
discuss four possible driving mechanisms for the occurrence of helical
trajectories: orbital motion in a binary system, Newtonian-driven jet
precession, internal jet rotation and motion along a global helical magnetic
field. We point out that for non-ballistic helical motion the observed period
may appear strongly shortened due to classical travel time effects. Finally,
the possible relevance of the above mentioned driving mechanisms is discussed
for Mkn~501, OJ 287 and AO 0235+16.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure; presented at the 5th Microquasar Workshop,
Beijing, June 2004. Accepted for publication in the Chinese Journal of
Astronomy and Astrophysic
Disorder driven phase transitions of the large q-state Potts model in 3d
Phase transitions induced by varying the strength of disorder in the large-q
state Potts model in 3d are studied by analytical and numerical methods. By
switching on the disorder the transition stays of first order, but different
thermodynamical quantities display essential singularities. Only for strong
enough disorder the transition will be soften into a second-order one, in which
case the ordered phase becomes non-homogeneous at large scales, while the
non-correlated sites percolate the sample. In the critical regime the critical
exponents are found universal: \beta/\nu=0.60(2) and \nu=0.73(1).Comment: 4 pages; 3 figure
Fluctuation Dissipation Ratio in Three-Dimensional Spin Glasses
We present an analysis of the data on aging in the three-dimensional Edwards
Anderson spin glass model with nearest neighbor interactions, which is well
suited for the comparison with a recently developed dynamical mean field
theory. We measure the parameter describing the violation of the
relation among correlation and response function implied by the fluctuation
dissipation theorem.Comment: LaTeX 10 pages + 4 figures (appended as uuencoded compressed
tar-file), THP81-9
On the Stability of the Mean-Field Glass Broken Phase under Non-Hamiltonian Perturbations
We study the dynamics of the SK model modified by a small non-hamiltonian
perturbation. We study aging, and we find that on the time scales investigated
by our numerical simulations it survives a small perturbation (and is destroyed
by a large one). If we assume we are observing a transient behavior the scaling
of correlation times versus the asymmetry strength is not compatible with the
one expected for the spherical model. We discuss the slow power law decay of
observable quantities to equilibrium, and we show that for small perturbations
power like decay is preserved. We also discuss the asymptotically large time
region on small lattices.Comment: 34 page
Neutral pion production in solar flares
The Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) on SMM has detected more than 130 flares with emission approx 300 keV. More than 10 of these flares were detected at photon energies 10 MeV. Although the majority of the emission at 10 MeV must be from electron bremsstrahlung, at least two of the flares have spectral properties 40 MeV that require gamma rays from the decay of neutral pions. It is found that pion production can occur early in the impulsive phase as defined by hard X-rays near 100 keV. It is also found in one of these flares that a significant portion of this high-energy emission is produced well after the impulsive phase. This extended production phase, most clearly observed at high energies, may be a signature of the acceleration process which produces solar energetic particles (SEP's) in space
Long term variability of the blazar PKS 2155-304
International audienceTime variability of the photon flux is a known feature of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and in particular of blazars. The high frequency peaked BL Lac (HBL) object PKS 2155-304 is one of the brightest sources in the TeV band and has been monitored regularly with different instruments and in particular with the H.E.S.S. experiment above 200 GeV for more than 11 years. These data together with the observations of other instruments and monitoring programs like SMARTS (optical), Swift-XRT/RXTE/XMM-Newton (X-ray) and Fermi-LAT (100 MeV < E < 300 GeV) are used to characterize the variability of this object in the quiescent state over a wide energy range. Variability studies are made by looking at the lognormality of the light curves and at the fractional root mean square (rms) variability F var in several energy bands. Lognormality is found in every energy range and the evolution of F var with the energy shows a similar increase both in X-rays and in TeV bands
Dynamical simulation of spin-glass and chiral-glass orderings in three-dimensional Heisenberg spin glasses
Spin-glass and chiral-glass orderings in three-dimensional Heisenberg spin
glasses are studied with and without randaom magnetic anisotropy by dynamical
Monte Carlo simulations. In isotropic case, clear evidence of a
finite-temperature chiral-glass transition is presented. While the spin
autocorrelation exhibits only an interrupted aging, the chirality
autocorrelation persists to exhibit a pronounced aging effect reminisecnt of
the one observed in the mean-field model. In anisotropic case, asymptotic
mixing of the spin and the chirality is observed in the off-equilibrium
dynamics.Comment: 4 pages including 5 figures, LaTex, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
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