The Event Horizon of M87

The 6 billion solar mass supermassive black hole at the center of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 powers a relativistic jet. Observations at millimeter wavelengths with the Event Horizon Telescope have localized the emission from the base of this jet to angular scales comparable to the putative black hole horizon. The jet might be powered directly by an accretion disk or by electromagnetic extraction of the rotational energy of the black hole. However, even the latter mechanism requires a confining thick accretion disk to maintain the required magnetic flux near the black hole. Therefore, regardless of the jet mechanism, the observed jet power in M87 implies a certain minimum mass accretion rate. If the central compact object in M87 were not a black hole but had a surface, this accretion would result in considerable thermal near-infrared and optical emission from the surface. Current flux limits on the nucleus of M87 strongly constrain any such surface emission. This rules out the presence of a surface and thereby provides indirect evidence for an event horizon.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Ap

First Season QUIET Observations: Measurements of Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Power Spectra at 43 GHz in the Multipole Range 25 ≤ ℓ ≤ 475

The Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) employs coherent receivers at 43 GHz and 94 GHz, operating on the Chajnantor plateau in the Atacama Desert in Chile, to measure the anisotropy in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). QUIET primarily targets the B modes from primordial gravitational waves. The combination of these frequencies gives sensitivity to foreground contributions from diffuse Galactic synchrotron radiation. Between 2008 October and 2010 December, over 10,000 hr of data were collected, first with the 19 element 43 GHz array (3458 hr) and then with the 90 element 94 GHz array. Each array observes the same four fields, selected for low foregrounds, together covering ≈1000 deg^2. This paper reports initial results from the 43 GHz receiver, which has an array sensitivity to CMB fluctuations of 69 μK√s. The data were extensively studied with a large suite of null tests before the power spectra, determined with two independent pipelines, were examined. Analysis choices, including data selection, were modified until the null tests passed. Cross-correlating maps with different telescope pointings is used to eliminate a bias. This paper reports the EE, BB, and EB power spectra in the multipole range ℓ = 25-475. With the exception of the lowest multipole bin for one of the fields, where a polarized foreground, consistent with Galactic synchrotron radiation, is detected with 3σ significance, the E-mode spectrum is consistent with the ΛCDM model, confirming the only previous detection of the first acoustic peak. The B-mode spectrum is consistent with zero, leading to a measurement of the tensor-to-scalar ratio of r = 0.35^(+1.06)_(–0.87). The combination of a new time-stream "double-demodulation" technique, side-fed Dragonian optics, natural sky rotation, and frequent boresight rotation leads to the lowest level of systematic contamination in the B-mode power so far reported, below the level of r = 0.1

Polarization Observations with the Cosmic Background Imager

We describe polarization observations of the CMBR with the Cosmic Background Imager, a 13 element interferometer which operates in the 26-36 GHz band from Llano de Chajnantour in northern Chile. The array consists of 90-cm Cassegrain antennas mounted on a steerable platform which can be rotated about the optical axis to facilitate polarization observations. The CBI employs single mode circularly polarized receivers which sample multipoles from ℓ~400 to ℓ~4250. The instrumental polarization of the CBI was calibrated with 3C279, a bright polarized point source which was monitored with the VLA

Recovery and creative practices in people with severe mental illness: evaluating well-being and social inclusion

Purpose: This mixed (quantitative-qualitative) study evaluates the impact of an artistic workshop on a group of people with severe mental illness. This study focuses on the impact of creative practices on well-being and social inclusion outcomes. Method: After participating in a creative workshop, 31 people diagnosed with a severe mental illness completed pre/post-intervention measures, namely, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale and the Social Inclusion questionnaire. It was applied in two-way repeated measures analysis of variance. The statistic Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallies were applied for non-parametric data to measure pre/post-test effects and workshop experience effects respectively. In addition to quantitative measures, one observer participated in each workshop that ran in parallel in order to deepen and triangulate quantitative outcomes. Results: The qualitative and quantitative results show that social inclusion improved in a significant way with an important size effect. Psychological wellbeing increased significantly with a low size effect. Conclusions: In accordance with these results, creative practices with people diagnosed with severe mental illness are recommended. In order to increase the impact of these interventions, it is recommended to utilize public space away from clinical environments and to include people without severe mental illness in creative activities together with severe mental illness patients

Imaging an Event Horizon: Mitigation of Source Variability of Sagittarius A*

The black hole in the center of the Galaxy, associated with the compact source Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), is predicted to cast a shadow upon the emission of the surrounding plasma flow, which encodes the influence of general relativity in the strong-field regime. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) network with a goal of imaging nearby supermassive black holes (in particular Sgr A* and M87) with angular resolution sufficient to observe strong gravity effects near the event horizon. General relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations show that radio emission from Sgr A* exhibits vari- ability on timescales of minutes, much shorter than the duration of a typical VLBI imaging experiment, which usually takes several hours. A changing source structure during the observations, however, violates one of the basic assumptions needed for aperture synthesis in radio interferometry imaging to work. By simulating realistic EHT observations of a model movie of Sgr A*, we demonstrate that an image of the average quiescent emission, featuring the characteristic black hole shadow and photon ring predicted by general relativity, can nonetheless be obtained by observing over multiple days and subsequent processing of the visibilities (scaling, averaging, and smoothing) before imaging. Moreover, it is shown that this procedure can be combined with an existing method to mitigate the effects of interstellar scattering. Taken together, these techniques allow the black hole shadow in the Galactic center to be recovered on the reconstructed image.Comment: 10 pages, 12figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Using VLBI to Probe the Orion-KL Outflow on AU Scales

We present the first contemporaneous 43GHz and 86GHz VLBI images of the v=1 J=2-1 and J=1-0 SiO masers in the Orion-KL nebula. Both maser species exhibit the same general morphology of earlier J=1-0 maser images which appear to trace the edges of a bi-polar conical outflow. Surprisingly, the J=2-1 masers form further from the central protostar than the J=1-0 masers, a fact not readily explained by current SiO maser pumping models. The average magnitude of offsets between corresponding regions of the two masing transitions is approximately 14% of the total radial extent of the SiO maser emission. This offset indicates that each transition must trace different physical conditions.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Approaching the event horizon: 1.3mm VLBI of SgrA*

Advances in VLBI instrumentation now allow wideband recording that significantly increases the sensitivity of short wavelength VLBI observations. Observations of the super-massive black hole candidate at the center of the Milky Way, SgrA*, with short wavelength VLBI reduces the scattering effects of the intervening interstellar medium, allowing observations with angular resolution comparable to the apparent size of the event horizon of the putative black hole. Observations in April 2007 at a wavelength of 1.3mm on a three station VLBI array have now confirmed structure in SgrA* on scales of just a few Schwarzschild radii. When modeled as a circular Gaussian, the fitted diameter of SgrA* is 37 micro arcsec (+16,-10; 3-sigma), which is smaller than the expected apparent size of the event horizon of the Galactic Center black hole. These observations demonstrate that mm/sub-mm VLBI is poised to open a new window onto the study of black hole physics via high angular resolution observations of the Galactic Center.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings for "The Universe under the Microscope" (AHAR 2008), held in Bad Honnef (Germany) in April 2008, to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series by Institute of Physics Publishing, R. Schoedel, A. Eckart, S. Pfalzner, and E. Ros (eds.

The Role of SIRT1 in Skeletal Muscle Function and Repair of Older Mice

Background Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a NAD+ sensitive deacetylase that has been linked to longevity and has been suggested to confer beneficial effects that counter aging-associated deterioration. Muscle repair is dependent upon satellite cell function, which is reported to be reduced with aging; however, it is not known if this is linked to an aging-suppression of SIRT1. This study tested the hypothesis that Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) overexpression would increase the extent of muscle repair and muscle function in older mice. Methods We examined satellite cell dependent repair in tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius, and soleus muscles of 13 young wild-type mice (20–30 weeks) and 49 older (80+ weeks) mice that were controls (n = 13), overexpressed SIRT1 in skeletal muscle (n = 14), and had a skeletal muscle SIRT1 knockout (n = 12) or a satellite cell SIRT1 knockout (n = 10). Acute muscle injury was induced by injection of cardiotoxin (CTX), and phosphate-buffered saline was used as a vector control. Plantarflexor muscle force and fatigue were evaluated before or 21 days after CTX injection. Satellite cell proliferation and mitochondrial function were also evaluated in undamaged muscles. Results Maximal muscle force was significantly lower in control muscles of older satellite cell knockout SIRT1 mice compared to young adult wild-type (YWT) mice (P \u3c 0.001). Mean contraction force at 40 Hz stimulation was significantly greater after recovery from CTX injury in older mice that overexpressed muscle SIRT1 than age-matched SIRT1 knockout mice (P \u3c 0.05). SIRT1 muscle knockout models (P \u3c 0.05) had greater levels of p53 (P \u3c 0.05 MKO, P \u3c 0.001 OE) in CTX-damaged tissues as compared to YWT CTX mice. SIRT1 overexpression with co-expression of p53 was associated with increased fatigue resistance and increased force potentiation during repeated contractions as compared to wild-type or SIRT1 knockout models (P \u3c 0.001). Muscle structure and mitochondrial function were not different between the groups, but proliferation of satellite cells was significantly greater in older mice with SIRT1 muscle knockout (P \u3c 0.05), but not older SIRT1 satellite cell knockout models, in vitro, although this effect was attenuated in vivo after 21 days of recovery. Conclusions The data suggest skeletal muscle structure, function, and recovery after CTX-induced injury are not significantly influenced by gain or loss of SIRT1 abundance alone in skeletal muscle; however, muscle function is impaired by ablation of SIRT1 in satellite cells. SIRT1 appears to interact with p53 to improve muscle fatigue resistance after repair from muscle injury