140 research outputs found
Long term Arecibo monitoring of the water megamaser in MG J0414+0534
We monitored the 22 GHz maser line in the lensed quasar MG J0414+0534 at
z=2.64 with the 300-m Arecibo telescope for almost two years to detect possible
additional maser components and to measure a potential velocity drift of the
lines. The main maser line profile is complex and can be resolved into a number
of broad features with line widths of 30-160 km/s. A new maser component was
tentatively detected in October 2008 at a velocity of +470 km/s. After
correcting for the estimated lens magnification, we find that the H2O isotropic
luminosity of the maser in MG J0414+0534 is about 26,000 solar luminosities,
making this source the most luminous ever discovered. Both the main line peak
and continuum flux densities are surprisingly stable throughout the period of
the observations. An upper limit on the velocity drift of the main peak of the
line has been estimated from our observations and is of the order of 2 km/s per
year. We discuss the results of the monitoring in terms of the possible nature
of the maser emission, associated with an accretion disk or a radio jet. This
is the first time that such a study is performed in a water maser source at
high redshift, potentially allowing us to study the parsec-scale environment
around a powerful radio source at cosmological distances.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the IAU Symposium
287, 2012, "Cosmic masers: from OH to H0
Constraining the mass density of free-floating black holes using razor-thin lensing arcs
Strong lensing of active galactic nuclei in the radio can result in
razor-thin arcs, with a thickness of less than a milli-arcsecond, if observed
at the resolution achievable with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI).
Such razor-thin arcs provide a unique window on the coarseness of the matter
distribution between source and observer. In this paper, we investigate to what
extent such razor-thin arcs can constrain the number density and mass function
of `free-floating' black holes, defined as black holes that do not, or no
longer, reside at the centre of a galaxy. These can be either primordial in
origin or arise as by-products of the evolution of super-massive black holes in
galactic nuclei. When sufficiently close to the line of sight, free-floating
black holes cause kink-like distortions in the arcs, which are detectable by
eye in the VLBI images as long as the black hole mass exceeds Solar
masses. Using a crude estimate for the detectability of such distortions, we
analytically compute constraints on the matter density of free-floating black
holes resulting from null-detections of distortions along a realistic, fiducial
arc, and find them to be comparable to those from quasar milli-lensing. We also
use predictions from a large hydrodynamical simulation for the demographics of
free-floating black holes that are not primordial in origin, and show that
their predicted mass density is roughly four orders of magnitude below the
constraints achievable with a single razor-thin arc.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, comments welcom
SHARP -- VII. New constraints on the dark matter free-streaming properties and substructure abundance from gravitationally lensed quasars
We present an analysis of seven strongly gravitationally lensed quasars and
the corresponding constraints on the properties of dark matter. Our results are
derived by modelling the lensed image positions and flux-ratios using a
combination of smooth macro models and a population of low-mass haloes within
the mass range 10^6 to 10^9 Msun. Our lens models explicitly include
higher-order complexity in the form of stellar discs and luminous satellites,
as well as low-mass haloes located along the observed lines of sight for the
first time. Assuming a Cold Dark Matter (CDM) cosmology, we infer an average
total mass fraction in substructure of f_sub = 0.012^{+0.007}_{-0.004} (68 per
cent confidence limits), which is in agreement with the predictions from CDM
hydrodynamical simulations to within 1 sigma. This result is closer to the
predictions than those from previous studies that did not include line-of-sight
haloes. Under the assumption of a thermal relic dark matter model, we derive a
lower limit on the particle relic mass of m th > 5.58 keV (95 per cent
confidence limits), which is consistent with a value of m_th > 5.3 keV from the
recent analysis of the Ly-alpha forest. We also identify two main sources of
possible systematic errors and conclude that deeper investigations in the
complex structure of lens galaxies as well as the size of the background
sources should be a priority for this field.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Examining the Relationship Between Countermovement and Squat Jump Measures Amongst Elite Development Female Football and Rugby Players
A novel approach to visibility-space modelling of interferometric gravitational lens observations at high angular resolution
We present a new gravitational lens modelling technique designed to model
high-resolution interferometric observations with large numbers of visibilities
without the need to pre-average the data in time or frequency. We demonstrate
the accuracy of the method using validation tests on mock observations. Using
small data sets with visibilities, we first compare our approach
with the more traditional direct Fourier transform (DFT) implementation and
direct linear solver. Our tests indicate that our source inversion is
indistinguishable from that of the DFT. Our method also infers lens parameters
to within 1 to 2 per cent of both the ground truth and DFT, given sufficiently
high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). When the SNR is as low as 5, both approaches
lead to errors of several tens of per cent in the lens parameters and a
severely disrupted source structure, indicating that this is an issue related
to the data quality rather than the modelling technique of choice. We then
analyze a large data set with visibilities and a SNR matching real
global Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations of the gravitational lens
system MG J0751+2716. The size of the data is such that it cannot be modelled
with traditional implementations. Using our novel technique, we find that we
can infer the lens parameters and the source brightness distribution,
respectively, with an RMS error of 0.25 and 0.97 per cent relative to the
ground truth.Comment: Submitted to MNRA
Heat kernel of integrable billiards in a magnetic field
We present analytical methods to calculate the magnetic response of
non-interacting electrons constrained to a domain with boundaries and submitted
to a uniform magnetic field. Two different methods of calculation are
considered - one involving the large energy asymptotic expansion of the
resolvent (Stewartson-Waechter method) is applicable to the case of separable
systems, and another based on the small time asymptotic behaviour of the heat
kernel (Balian-Bloch method). Both methods are in agreement with each other but
differ from the result obtained previously by Robnik. Finally, the Balian-Bloch
multiple scattering expansion is studied and the extension of our results to
other geometries is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, Revte
A search for disk-galaxy lenses in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We present the first automated spectroscopic search for disk-galaxy lenses,
using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database. We follow up eight gravitational
lens candidates, selected among a sample of ~40000 candidate massive disk
galaxies, using a combination of ground-based imaging and long-slit
spectroscopy. We confirm two gravitational lens systems: one probable disk
galaxy, and one probable S0 galaxy. The remaining systems are four promising
disk-galaxy lens candidates, as well as two probable gravitational lenses whose
lens galaxy might be an S0 galaxy. The redshifts of the lenses are z_lens ~
0.1. The redshift range of the background sources is z_source ~ 0.3 - 0.7. The
systems presented here are (confirmed or candidate) galaxy-galaxy lensing
systems, that is, systems where the multiple images are faint and extended,
allowing an accurate determination of the lens galaxy mass and light
distributions without contamination from the background galaxy. Moreover, the
low redshift of the (confirmed or candidates) lens galaxies is favorable for
measuring rotation points to complement the lensing study. We estimate the
rest-frame total mass-to-light ratio within the Einstein radius for the two
confirmed lenses: we find M_tot/L_I = 5.4 +- 1.5 within 3.9 +- 0.9 kpc for SDSS
J081230.30+543650.9, and M_tot/L_I = 1.5 +- 0.9 within 1.4 +- 0.8 kpc for SDSS
J145543.55+530441.2 (all in solar units). Hubble Space Telescope or Adaptive
Optics imaging is needed to further study the systems.Comment: ApJ, accepte
Client and therapist views of contextual factors related to termination from psychotherapy: A comparison between unilateral and mutual terminators
Contextual variables potentially influencing premature termination were examined. Clients (n = 83) and therapists (n = 35) provided parallel data on early working alliance, psychotherapy termination decision (unilateral vs. mutual), clients’ reasons for termination, and barriers to treatment participation. When clients unilaterally ended therapy, therapists were only partially aware of either the extent of clients’ perceived improvements or their dissatisfaction. When termination was mutually determined, there were no differences between client and therapist ratings of termination reasons. Although working alliance and barriers to treatment participation were rated as lower in the context of unilateral termination by clients and therapists, all clients rated the early alliance and barriers to treatment more highly than did therapists. Results have implications for understanding premature termination and suggest future research examining the utility of therapist feedback regarding contextual variables in terms of retaining clients in therapy
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Recent Major Improvements to the ALS Sector 5 MacromolecularCrystallography Beamlines
Although the Advanced Light Source (ALS) was initially conceived primarily as a low energy (1.9GeV) 3rd generation source of VUV and soft x-ray radiation it was realized very early in the development of the facility that a multipole wiggler source coupled with high quality, (brightness preserving), optics would result in a beamline whose performance across the optimal energy range (5-15keV) for macromolecular crystallography (MX) would be comparable to, or even exceed, that of many existing crystallography beamlines at higher energy facilities. Hence, starting in 1996, a suite of three beamlines, branching off a single wiggler source, was constructed, which together formed the ALS Macromolecular Crystallography Facility. From the outset this facility was designed to cater equally to the needs of both academic and industrial users with a heavy emphasis placed on the development and introduction of high throughput crystallographic tools, techniques, and facilities--such as large area CCD detectors, robotic sample handling and automounting facilities, a service crystallography program, and a tightly integrated, centralized, and highly automated beamline control environment for users. This facility was immediately successful, with the primary Multiwavelength Anomalous Diffraction beamline (5.0.2) in particular rapidly becoming one of the foremost crystallographic facilities in the US--responsible for structures such as the 70S ribosome. This success in-turn triggered enormous growth of the ALS macromolecular crystallography community and spurred the development of five additional ALS MX beamlines all utilizing the newly developed superconducting bending magnets ('superbends') as sources. However in the years since the original Sector 5.0 beamlines were built the performance demands of macromolecular crystallography users have become ever more exacting; with growing emphasis placed on studying larger complexes, more difficult structures, weakly diffracting or smaller crystals, and on more rapidly screening larger numbers of candidate crystals; all of these requirements translate directly into a pressing need for increased flux, a tighter beam focus and faster detectors. With these growing demands in mind a major program of beamline and detector upgrades was initiated in 2004 with the goal of dramatically enhancing all aspects of beamline performance. Approximately $3 million in funding from diverse sources including NIH, LBL, the ALS, and the industrial and academic members of the beamline Participating Research Team (PRT), has been employed to develop and install new high performance beamline optics and to purchase the latest generation of CCD detectors. This project, which reached fruition in early 2007, has now fulfilled all of its original goals--boosting the flux on all three beamlines by up to 20-fold--with a commensurate reduction in exposure and data acquisition times for users. The performance of the Sector 5.0 beamlines is now comparable to that of the latest generation ALS superbend beamlines and, in the case of beamline 5.0.2, even surpasses it by a considerable margin. Indeed, the present performance of this beamline is now, once again, comparable to that envisioned for many MX beamlines planned or under construction on newer or higher energy machines
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