7,995 research outputs found
Iron line profiles including emission from within the innermost stable orbit of a black hole accretion disc
Reynolds & Begelman (1997) have recently proposed a model in which the broad
and extremely redshifted iron line seen during a deep minimum of the light
curve of the Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-6-30-15 originates from matter spiralling
into a Schwarzschild black hole, contrary to previous claims that the black
hole may be spinning rapidly (Iwasawa et al 1996; Dabrowski et al 1997). Here
we calculate in detail the X-ray spectrum produced by their model using the
full reflected continuum emission, including absorption features. This
calculation takes into account the doppler and relativistic effects. For the
range of parameters we consider, we find that the spectrum should show a large
photoelectric absorption edge of iron, which is not seen in the data. The
absorption edge is a consequence of the line emitting matter within the
innermost stable orbit being highly ionized, and is largely independent of the
parameters chosen for their model. If we restrict our attention to the 3-10 keV
band we may effectively remove this absorption edge by fitting a steeper power
law, but this results in a significant underprediction of the 0.4-0.5 keV flux.
We conclude that the data on MCG-6-30-15 are more consistent with the Kerr than
the Schwarzschild model.Comment: 5 pages with 5 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Non-thermal X-rays, a high abundance ridge and fossil bubbles in the core of the Perseus cluster of galaxies
Using a deep Chandra observation of the Perseus cluster of galaxies, we find
a high-abundance shell 250 arcsec (93 kpc) from the central nucleus. This ridge
lies at the edge of the Perseus radio mini-halo. In addition we identify two
Halpha filaments pointing towards this shell. We hypothesise that this ridge is
the edge of a fossil radio bubble, formed by entrained enriched material lifted
from the core of the cluster. There is a temperature jump outside the shell,
but the pressure is continuous indicating a cold front. A non-thermal component
is mapped over the core of the cluster with a morphology similar to the
mini-halo. Its total luminosity is 4.8x10^43 erg/s, extending in radius to ~75
kpc. Assuming the non-thermal emission is the result of inverse Compton
scattering of the CMB and infrared emission from NGC 1275, we map the magnetic
field over the core of the cluster.Comment: 8 pages, colour, accepted by MNRA
On the soft X-ray spectrum of cooling flows
Strong evidence for cooling flows has been found in low resolution X-ray
imaging and spectra of many clusters of galaxies. However high resolution X-ray
spectra of several clusters from the Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) on
XMM-Newton now show a soft X-ray spectrum inconsistent with a simple cooling
flow. The main problem is a lack of the emission lines expected from gas
cooling below 1--2 keV. Lines from gas at about 2--3 keV are observed, even in
a high temperature cluster such as A 1835, indicating that gas is cooling down
to about 2--3 keV, but is not found at lower temperatures. Here we discuss
several solutions to the problem; heating, mixing, differential absorption and
inhomogeneous metallicity. Continuous or sporadic heating creates further
problems, including the targetting of the heat at the cooler gas and also the
high total energy required. So far there is no clear observational evidence for
widespread heating, or shocks, in cluster cores, except in radio lobes which
occupy only part of the volume. The implied ages of cooling flows are short, at
about 1 Gyr. Mixing. or absorption, of the cooling gas are other possibilities.
Alternatively, if the metals in the intracluster medium are not uniformly
spread but are clumped, then little line emission is expected from the gas
cooling below 1 keV. The low metallicity part cools without line emission
whereas the strengths of the soft X-ray lines from the metal-rich gas depend on
the mass fraction of that gas and not on the abundance, since soft X-ray line
emission dominates the cooling function below 2 keV.Comment: 5 pages, with 2 figures, submitted to MNRA
Models of the hard X-ray spectrum of AM Herculis and implications for the accretion rate
Phenomenological fits to the hard X-ray spectrum of AM Herculis left unexplained the high equivalent width (0.8 + or - 0.1 keV) of Fe K alpha emission. A purely thermal origin implies a much steeper spectrum than was observed. With Monte Carlo calculations, scattering and fluorescent line production in a cold or partially ionized accretion column of hard X-rays emitted at the base were investigated. The strength of the iron emission and the flat spectral continuum can be explained by the effects of fluorescence and absorption within the accretion column and the surface of the white dwarf on a thermal X-ray spectrum. Thomson optical depths across the column in the range 0.2 to 0.7 are acceptable. The accretion rate and gravitational power can be deduced from the optical depth across the column, if the column size is known, and, together with the observed hard X-ray and polarized light luminosities, imply a lower limit for the luminosity in the UV to soft X-ray range, for which the observations give model-dependent values. Estimates of the column size differ by a factor of 40. Small spot sizes and low luminosities would be consistent with the soft component being the expected reprocessed bremsstrahlung and cyclotron radiation, although the constraint of matching the spectrum confines one to solutions with fluxes exceeding 20% the Eddington limits
Constraints on turbulent velocity broadening for a sample of clusters, groups and elliptical galaxies using XMM-Newton
Using the width of emission lines in XMM-Newton Reflection Grating
Spectrometer spectra, we place direct constraints on the turbulent velocities
of the X-ray emitting medium in the cores of 62 galaxy clusters, groups and
elliptical galaxies. We find five objects where we can place an upper limit on
the line-of-sight broadening of 500 km/s (90 per cent confidence level), using
a single thermal component model. Two other objects are lower than this limit
when two thermal components are used. Half of the objects examined have an
upper limit on the velocity broadening of less than 700 km/s. To look for
objects which have significant turbulent broadening, we use Chandra spectral
maps to compute the expected broadening caused by the spatial extent of the
source. Comparing these with our observed results, we find that Klemola 44 has
extra broadening at the level of 1500 km/s. RX J1347.5-1145 shows weak evidence
for turbulent velocities at 800 km/s. In addition we obtain limits on
turbulence for Zw3146, Abell 496, Abell 1795, Abell 2204 and HCG 62 of less
than 200 km/s. After subtraction of the spatial contribution and including a 50
km/s systematic uncertainty, we find at least 15 sources with less than 20 per
cent of the thermal energy density in turbulence.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figures, accepted by MNRAS. Includes minor edits to
proo
Spin-orbit coupling induced by a mass gradient
The existence of a spin-orbit coupling (SOC) induced by the gradient of the
effective mass in low-dimensional heterostructures is revealed. In structurally
asymmetric quasi-two-dimensional semiconductor heterostructures the presence of
a mass gradient across the interfaces results in a SOC which competes with the
SOC created by the electric field in the valence band. However, in graded
quantum wells subjected to an external electric field, the mass-gradient
induced SOC can be finite even when the electric field in the valence band
vanishes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl
Chandra observations of Abell 2199
We present results from an analysis of two Chandra observations of the rich,
nearby galaxy cluster Abell 2199. We find evidence (having corrected for
projection effects) for radial gradients in temperature and metallicity in the
X-ray emitting gas: the temperature drops from kT~4.2 keV at R=200 kpc to 1.6
keV within R=5 kpc of the centre. The metallicity rises from ~0.3 solar at
R=200 kpc to ~0.7 solar at R=30 kpc before dropping to 0.3 solar within the
central 5 kpc. We find evidence for structure in the surface brightness
distribution associated with the central radio source 3C338. No evidence is
found for the gas having a large spread in temperature at any particular
location despite the cooling time being short (<10**9yr) within the central ~15
kpc. Heating and mass cooling rates are calculated for various assumptions
about the state of the gas.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures. Accepted by MNRAS. Minor changes following
referee's comment
Hydrogen Two-Photon Continuum Emission from the Horseshoe Filament in NGC 1275
Far ultraviolet emission has been detected from a knot of Halpha emission in
the Horseshoe filament, far out in the NGC 1275 nebula. The flux detected
relative to the brightness of the Halpha line in the same spatial region is
very close to that expected from Hydrogen two-photon continuum emission in the
particle heating model of Ferland et al. (2009) if reddening internal to the
filaments is taken into account. We find no need to invoke other sources of far
ultraviolet emission such as hot stars or emission lines from CIV in
intermediate temperature gas to explain these data.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
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