Self-shadowing Effects of Slim Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei: Diverse Appearance of the Broad-line Region

Supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) undergo a wide range of accretion rates, which lead to diversity of appearance. We consider the effects of anisotropic radiation from accretion disks on the broad-line region (BLR), from the Shakura-Sunyaev regime to slim disks with super-Eddington accretion rates. The geometrically thick funnel of the inner region of slim disks produces strong self-shadowing effects that lead to very strong anisotropy of the radiation field. We demonstrate that the degree of anisotropy of the radiation fields grows with increasing accretion rate. As a result of this anisotropy, BLR clouds receive different spectral energy distributions depending on their location relative to the disk, resulting in diverse observational appearance of the BLR. We show that the self-shadowing of the inner parts of the disk naturally produces two dynamically distinct regions of the BLR, depending on accretion rate. These two regions manifest themselves as kinematically distinct components of the broad H$\beta$ line profile with different line widths and fluxes, which jointly account for the Lorentzian profile generally observed in narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies. In the time domain, these two components are expected reverberate with different time lags with respect to the varying ionizing continuum, depending on the accretion rate and the viewing angle of the observer. The diverse appearance of the BLR due to the anisotropic ionizing energy source can be tested by reverberation mapping of H$\beta$ and other broad emission lines (e.g., \feii), providing a new tool to diagnose the structure and dynamics of the BLR. Other observational consequences of our model are also explored.Comment: emulatapj style, 15 pages, 6 figures, in pres

Dimensional Regularization and Dimensional Reduction in the Light Cone

We calculate all the 2 to 2 scattering process in Yang-Mills theory in the Light Cone gauge, with the dimensional regulator as the UV regulator. The IR is regulated with a cutoff in $q^+$. It supplements our earlier work, where a Lorentz non-covariant regulator was used and the final results bear some problems in gauge fixing. Supersymmetry relations among various amplitudes are checked using the light cone superfields.Comment: current version accepted by PR

Modular Equations and Distortion Functions

Modular equations occur in number theory, but it is less known that such equations also occur in the study of deformation properties of quasiconformal mappings. The authors study two important plane quasiconformal distortion functions, obtaining monotonicity and convexity properties, and finding sharp bounds for them. Applications are provided that relate to the quasiconformal Schwarz Lemma and to Schottky's Theorem. These results also yield new bounds for singular values of complete elliptic integrals.Comment: 23 page

Dynamical properties of a trapped dipolar Fermi gas at finite temperature

We investigate the dynamical properties of a trapped finite-temperature normal Fermi gas with dipole-dipole interaction. For the free expansion dynamics, we show that the expanded gas always becomes stretched along the direction of the dipole moment. In addition, we present the temperature and interaction dependences of the asymptotical aspect ratio. We further study the collapse dynamics of the system by suddenly increasing the dipolar interaction strength. We show that, in contrast to the anisotropic collapse of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate, a dipolar Fermi gas always collapses isotropically when the system becomes globally unstable. We also explore the interaction and temperature dependences for the frequencies of the low-lying collective excitations.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Single transverse-spin asymmetry in Drell-Yan lepton angular distribution

We calculate a single transverse-spin asymmetry for the Drell-Yan lepton-pair's angular distribution in perturbative QCD. At leading order in the strong coupling constant, the asymmetry is expressed in terms of a twist-3 quark-gluon correlation function T_F^{(V)}(x_1,x_2). In our calculation, the same result was obtained in both light-cone and covariant gauge in QCD, while keeping explicit electromagnetic current conservation for the virtual photon that decays into the lepton pair. We also present a numerical estimate of the asymmetry and compare the result to an existing other prediction.Comment: 15 pages, Revtex, 5 Postscript figures, uses aps.sty, epsfig.st

Orbital correlations in the pseudo-cubic \emph{O} and rhombohedral R{R}-phases of LaMnO3_3

The local and intermediate structure of stoichiometric LaMnO$_3$ has been studied in the pseudocubic and rhombohedral phases at high temperatures (300 to 1150 K). Neutron powder diffraction data were collected and a combined Rietveld and high real space resolution atomic pair distribution function analysis carried out. The nature of the Jahn-Teller (JT) transition around 750 K is confirmed to be orbital order to disorder. In the high temperature orthorhombic ($O$) and rhombohedral ($R$) phases the MnO$_6$ octahedra are still fully distorted locally. The data suggest the presence of local orbitally ordered clusters of diameter $\sim 16$ \AA ($\sim$four MnO$_6$ octahedra) implying strong nearest neighbor JT anti-ferrodistortive coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Le