OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPIC OBSERVATIONS OF GAMMA-RAY BLAZAR CANDIDATES. VI. FURTHER OBSERVATIONS FROM TNG, WHT, OAN, SOAR, AND MAGELLAN TELESCOPES

Indexación: Web of ScienceBlazars, one of the most extreme classes of active galaxies, constitute so far the largest known population of.-ray sources, and their number is continuously growing in the Fermi catalogs. However, in the latest release of the Fermi catalog there is still a large fraction of sources that are classified as blazar candidates of uncertain type (BCUs) for which optical spectroscopic observations are necessary to confirm their nature and their associations. In addition, about one-third of the gamma-ray point sources listed in the Third Fermi-LAT Source Catalog (3FGL) are still unassociated and lacking an assigned lower-energy counterpart. Since 2012 we have been carrying out an optical spectroscopic campaign to observe blazar candidates to confirm their nature. In this paper, the sixth of the series, we present optical spectroscopic observations for 30 gamma-ray blazar candidates from different observing programs we carried out with the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, William Herschel Telescope, Observatorio Astronomico Nacional, Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope, and Magellan. Telescopes. We found that 21 out of 30 sources investigated are BL Lac objects, while the remaining targets are classified as flat-spectrum radio quasars showing the typical broad emission lines of normal quasi-stellar objects. We conclude that our selection of gamma-ray blazar. candidates based on their multifrequency properties continues to be a successful way to discover potential low-energy counterparts of the Fermi. unidentified gamma-ray sources and to confirm the nature of BCUs.http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/0004-6256/151/4/95/met

Mechanisms Underlying Robustness and Tunability in a Plant Immune Signaling Network

SummaryThe plant immune signaling network needs to be robust against attack from fast-evolving pathogens and tunable to optimize immune responses. We investigated the basis of robustness and tunability in the signaling network controlling pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) in Arabidopsis. A dynamic network model containing four major signaling sectors, the jasmonate, ethylene, phytoalexin-deficient 4, and salicylate sectors, which together govern up to 80% of the PTI levels, was built using data for dynamic sector activities and PTI levels under exhaustive combinatorial sector perturbations. Our regularized multiple regression model had a high level of predictive power and captured known and unexpected signal flows in the network. The sole inhibitory sector in the model, the ethylene sector, contributed centrally to network robustness via its inhibition of the jasmonate sector. The model’s multiple input sites linked specific signal input patterns varying in strength and timing to different network response patterns, indicating a mechanism enabling tunability

Spatio-temporal expression patterns of Arabidopsis thaliana and Medicago truncatula defensin-like genes

Plant genomes contain several hundred defensin-like (DEFL) genes that encode short cysteine-rich proteins resembling defensins, which are well known antimicrobial polypeptides. Little is known about the expression patterns or functions of many DEFLs because most were discovered recently and hence are not well represented on standard microarrays. We designed a custom Affymetrix chip consisting of probe sets for 317 and 684 DEFLs from Arabidopsis thaliana and Medicago truncatula, respectively for cataloging DEFL expression in a variety of plant organs at different developmental stages and during symbiotic and pathogenic associations. The microarray analysis provided evidence for the transcription of 71% and 90% of the DEFLs identified in Arabidopsis and Medicago, respectively, including many of the recently annotated DEFL genes that previously lacked expression information. Both model plants contain a subset of DEFLs specifically expressed in seeds or fruits. A few DEFLs, including some plant defensins, were significantly up-regulated in Arabidopsis leaves inoculated with Alternaria brassicicola or Pseudomonas syringae pathogens. Among these, some were dependent on jasmonic acid signaling or were associated with specific types of immune responses. There were notable differences in DEFL gene expression patterns between Arabidopsis and Medicago, as the majority of Arabidopsis DEFLs were expressed in inflorescences, while only a few exhibited root-enhanced expression. By contrast, Medicago DEFLs were most prominently expressed in nitrogen-fixing root nodules. Thus, our data document salient differences in DEFL temporal and spatial expression between Arabidopsis and Medicago, suggesting distinct signaling routes and distinct roles for these proteins in the two plant species

Recent Topics on Very High Energy Gamma-ray Astronomy

With the advent of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes in late 1980's, ground-based observation of TeV gamma-rays came into reality after struggling trials by pioneers for twenty years, and the number of gamma-ray sources detected at TeV energies has increased to be over seventy now. In this review, recent findings from ground-based very-high-energy gamma-ray observations are summarized (as of 2008 March), and up-to-date problems in this research field are presented.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Advances in Cosmic Ray Science, March 17-19, 2008, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan; to be published in Journal of the Physical Society of Japan (supplement

Coupled-Cluster Approach to Electron Correlations in the Two-Dimensional Hubbard Model

We have studied electron correlations in the doped two-dimensional (2D) Hubbard model by using the coupled-cluster method (CCM) to investigate whether or not the method can be applied to correct the independent particle approximations actually used in ab-initio band calculations. The double excitation version of the CCM, implemented using the approximate coupled pair (ACP) method, account for most of the correlation energies of the 2D Hubbard model in the weak ($U/t \simeq 1$) and the intermediate $U/t$ regions ($U/t \simeq 4$). The error is always less than 1% there. The ACP approximation gets less accurate for large $U/t$ ($U/t \simeq 8$) and/or near half-filling. Further incorporation of electron correlation effects is necessary in this region. The accuracy does not depend on the system size and the gap between the lowest unoccupied level and the highest occupied level due to the finite size effect. Hence, the CCM may be favorably applied to ab-initio band calculations on metals as well as semiconductors and insulators.Comment: RevTeX3.0, 4 pages, 4 figure

π\piNN coupling and two-pion photoproduction on the nucleon

Effects of non-resonant photoproductions arising from two different $\pi NN$ couplings are investigated in the $\gamma N\to\pi\pi N$ reaction. We find that the pseudoscalar (PS) $\pi NN$ coupling is generally preferable to the pseudovector (PV) $\pi NN$ coupling and particularly the total cross sections are successfully described by the model with the PS $\pi NN$ coupling. In order to see the difference between the two couplings, we also show the results of invariant mass spectra and helicity-dependent cross sections in various isospin channels calculated with the PS and PV couplings.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, minor changes and version to be published in Phys.Rev.

Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations of the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant

We present an analysis of the gamma-ray measurements by the Large Area Telescope(LAT) onboard the \textit{Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope} in the region of the supernova remnant(SNR) Cygnus Loop(G74.0$-$8.5). We detect significant gamma-ray emission associated with the SNR in the energy band 0.2--100 GeV. The gamma-ray spectrum shows a break in the range 2--3 GeV. The gamma-ray luminosity is $\sim$ $1 \times 10^{33}$erg s$^{-1}$ between 1--100 GeV, much lower than those of other GeV-emitting SNRs. The morphology is best represented by a ring shape, with inner/outer radii 0$^\circ$.7 $\pm$ 0$^\circ$.1 and 1$^\circ$.6 $\pm$ 0$^\circ$.1. Given the association among X-ray rims, \halpha filaments and gamma-ray emission, we argue that gamma rays originate in interactions between particles accelerated in the SNR and interstellar gas or radiation fields adjacent to the shock regions. The decay of neutral pions produced in nucleon-nucleon interactions between accelerated hadrons and interstellar gas provides a reasonable explanation for the gamma-ray spectrum.Comment: accepted by ApJ, 34 pages, 6 figure

Effects of non-uniform interstellar magnetic field on synchrotron X-ray and inverse-Compton gamma-ray morphology of SNRs

Observations of SNRs in X-ray and gamma-ray bands promise to contribute with important information in our understanding on the nature of galactic cosmic rays. The analysis of SNRs images collected in different energy bands requires the support of theoretical modeling of synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) emission. We develop a numerical code (REMLIGHT) to synthesize, from MHD simulations, the synchrotron radio, X-ray and IC gamma-ray emission from SNRs expanding in non-uniform interstellar medium (ISM) and/or non-uniform interstellar magnetic field (ISMF). As a first application, the code is used to investigate the effects of non-uniform ISMF on the SNR morphology in the non-thermal X-ray and gamma-ray bands. We perform 3D MHD simulations of a spherical SNR shock expanding through a magnetized ISM with a gradient of ambient magnetic field strength. The model includes an approximate treatment of upstream magnetic field amplification and the effect of shock modification due to back reaction of accelerated cosmic rays. From the simulations, we synthesize the synchrotron radio, X-ray and IC gamma-ray emission with REMLIGHT, making different assumptions about the details of acceleration and injection of relativistic electrons. A gradient of the ambient magnetic field strength induces asymmetric morphologies in radio, X-ray and gamma-ray bands independently from the model of electron injection if the gradient has a component perpendicular to the line-of-sight. The degree of asymmetry of the remnant morphology depends on the details of the electron injection and acceleration and is different in the radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray bands. The non-thermal X-ray morphology is the most sensitive to the gradient, showing the highest degree of asymmetry. The IC gamma-ray emission is weakly sensitive to the non-uniform ISMF, the degree of asymmetry of the SNR morphology being the lowest in this band.Comment: 16 pages, 13 Figures; accepted for publication on A&A. Version with full resolution images can be found at http://www.astropa.unipa.it/~orlando/PREPRINTS/sorlando_15505.pd