5,077 research outputs found
Jet stability, dynamics and energy transport
Relativistic jets carry energy and particles from compact to very large
scales compared with their initial radius. This is possible due to their
remarkable collimation despite their intrinsic unstable nature. In this
contribution, I review the state-of-the-art of our knowledge on instabilities
growing in those jets and several stabilising mechanisms that may give an
answer to the question of the stability of jets. In particular, during the last
years we have learned that the limit imposed by the speed of light sets a
maximum amplitude to the instabilities, contrary to the case of classical jets.
On top of this stabilising mechanism, the fast growth of unstable modes with
small wavelengths prevents the total disruption and entrainment of jets. I also
review several non-linear processes that can have an effect on the collimation
of extragalactic and microquasar jets. Within those, I remark possible causes
for the decollimation and decelleration of FRI jets, as opposed to the
collimated FRII's. Finally, I give a summary of the main reasons why jets can
propagate through such long distances.Comment: For the proceedings of High Energy Phenomena in Relativistic Outflows
III (HEPRO III, IJMPD, accepted). 12 page
GMRT detection of a new wide-angle tail (WAT) radio source associated with the galaxy PGC 1519010
We report the serendipitous detection of a Wide-Angle-Tail (WAT) radio galaxy
at 240 and 610 MHz, using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). This WAT
is hosted by a cD galaxy PGC 1519010 whose photometric redshift given in the
SDSS DR6 catalog is close to the spectroscopic redshifts (0.105, 0.106 and
0.107) of three galaxies found within 4' of the cD. Using the SDSS DR6 we have
identified a total of 37 galaxies within 15' of the cD, whose photometric
redshifts are between 0.08 and 0.14. This strongly suggests that the cD is
associated with a group of galaxies whose conspicuous feature is a north-south
chain of galaxies (filament) extending to at least 2.6 Mpc. The All-Sky
Survey shows a faint, diffuse X-ray source in this direction, which probably
marks the hot intra-cluster gas in the potential well of this group.
We combine the radio structural information for this WAT with the galaxy
clustering in that region to check its overall consistency with the models of
WAT formation. The bending of the jet before and after its disruption forming
the radio plume, are found to be correlated in this WAT, as seen from the
contrasting morphological patterns on the two sides of the core. Probable
constraints imposed by this on the models of WAT formation are pointed out. We
also briefly report on the other interesting radio sources found in the
proximity of the WAT. These include a highly asymmetric double radio source and
an ultra-steep spectrum radio source for which no optical counterpart is
detected in the SDSS.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Astrophysics and Astronom
Pattern of drug use in the management of psoriasis in a tertiary care hospital: a prospective study
Background: Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease, characterized by chronic and recurrent scaly plaques with itching. The treatment modalities for psoriasis include topical, systemic, and phototherapy (PT). The pattern of therapy may vary depending upon the type, severity, and duration of the disease. As there are few reports in the Indian literature regarding the pattern of drug use in psoriasis and evaluating the efficacy and patient compliance to treatment, the present study was conducted.Methods: This was a prospective, observational study conducted on121 newly diagnosed and untreated patients with psoriasis, who attended Dermatology outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. The severity of the disease was assessed by baseline psoriasis area severity index (PASI) score. Most of the patients were treated with topical therapy consisting of glucocorticoids (GC) monotherapy or combination with, salicylic acid, calcitriol and coal tar. Systemic therapy and PT were considered only for severe cases of psoriasis with baseline PASI score >4. The patients were monitored every 2 weeks for 3 months.Results: The topical medications induced effective resolution of lesions in most of the patients, along with adequate symptomatic relief. The response to GC monotherapy was found significant (90.47%; p4. Regular follow-up is required not only to monitor the treatment response, but also to ensure good patient compliance by proper counseling
Was the Cosmic Web of Protogalactic Material Permeated by Lobes of Radio Galaxies During the Quasar Era?
Evidence for extended active lifetimes (> 10^8 yr) for radio galaxies implies
that many large radio lobes were produced during the `quasar era', 1.5 < z < 3,
when the comoving density of radio sources was 2 -- 3 dex higher than the
present level. However, inverse Compton losses against the intense microwave
background substantially reduce the ages and numbers of sources that are
detected in flux-limited surveys. The realization that the galaxy forming
material in those epochs was concentrated in filaments occupying a small
fraction of the total volume then leads to the conclusion that radio lobes
permeated much of the volume occupied by the protogalactic material during that
era. The sustained overpressure in these extended lobes is likely to have
played an important role in triggering the high inferred rate of galaxy
formation at z > 1.5 and in the magnetization of the cosmic network of
filaments.Comment: 5 pages, 0 figures, submitted to ApJ Letters; uses emulateapj
CeRuSn: heavy fermions emerging from a Kondo-insulating state
The combination of low-temperature specific-heat and
nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) measurements reveals important information of
the ground-state properties of CeRuSn, which has been proposed as a
rare example of a tetragonal Kondo-insulator (KI). The NMR
spin-latticerelaxation rate deviates from the Korringa law below 100 K
signaling the onset of an energy gap K. This gap is
stable against magnetic fields up to 10 T. Below 10 K, however, unusual
low-energy excitations of in-gap states are observed, which depend strongly on
the field H. The specific heat C detects these excitations in the form of an
enhanced Sommerfeld coefficient : In zero field,
increases steeply below 5 K, reaching a maximum at 0.1 K, and then saturates at
J/molK. This maximum is shifted to higher temperatures with
increasing field suggesting a residual density of states at the Fermi level
developing a spin gap . A simple model, based on two narrow
quasiparticle bands located at the Fermi level - which cross the Fermi level in
zero field at 0.022 states/meV f.u. - can account qualitatively as well as
quantitatively for the measured observables. In particular, it is demonstrated
that fitting our data of both specific heat and NMR to the model, incorporating
a Ce magnetic moment of , leads to
the prediction of the field dependence of the gap. Our measurements rule out
the presence of a quantum critical point as the origin for the enhanced
in CeRuSn and suggest that this arises rather from correlated,
residual in-gap states at the Fermi level. This work provides a fundamental
route for future investigations into the phenomenon of narrow-gap formation in
the strongly correlated class of systemComment: 11 pages, 13 figure
Photon Channelling in Foams
Experiments by Gittings, Bandyopadhyay, and Durian [Europhys. Lett.\
\textbf{65}, 414 (2004)] demonstrate that light possesses a higher probability
to propagate in the liquid phase of a foam due to total reflection. The authors
term this observation photon channelling which we investigate in this article
theoretically. We first derive a central relation in the work of Gitting {\em
et al.} without any free parameters. It links the photon's path-length fraction
in the liquid phase to the liquid fraction . We then construct
two-dimensional Voronoi foams, replace the cell edges by channels to represent
the liquid films and simulate photon paths according to the laws of ray optics
using transmission and reflection coefficients from Fresnel's formulas. In an
exact honeycomb foam, the photons show superdiffusive behavior. It becomes
diffusive as soon as disorder is introduced into the foams. The dependence of
the diffusion constant on channel width and refractive index is explained by a
one-dimensional random-walk model. It contains a photon channelling state that
is crucial for the understanding of the numerical results. At the end, we
shortly comment on the observation that photon channelling only occurs in a
finite range of .Comment: 9 pages, minor change
Anti-Kaon Induced Reactions on the Nucleon
Using a previously established effective Lagrangian model we describe
anti-kaon induced reactions on the nucleon. The dominantly contributing
channels in the cm-energy region from threshold up to 1.72 GeV are included (K
N, \pi \Sigma, \pi \Lambda). We solve the Bethe-Salpeter equation in an unitary
-matrix approximation.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, minor typos corrected, accepted for publication
in Phys. Rev.
Understanding BL Lac objects Structural & kinematic mode changes in the BL Lac object PKS 0735+178
Context. We present evidence that parsec-scale jets in BL Lac objects may be
significantly distinct in kinematics from their counterparts in quasars. We
argued this previously for the BL lac sources 1803+784 and 0716+714, report
here a similar pattern for another well-known BL Lac object, PKS 0735+178,
whose nuclear jet is found to exhibit kinematics atypical of quasars. Aims. A
detailed study of the jet components' motion reveals that the standard AGN
paradigm of apparent superluminal motion does not always describe the
kinematics in BL Lac objects. We study 0735+178 here to augment and improve the
understanding of the peculiar motions in the jets of BL Lac objects as a class.
Methods. We analyzed 15 GHz VLBA (Very Long Baseline Array) observations
(2cm/MOJAVE survey) performed at 23 epochs between 1995.27 and 2008.91.
Results. We found a drastic structural mode change in the VLBI jet of 0735+178,
between 2000.4 and 2001.8 when its twice sharply bent trajectory turned into a
linear shape.We further found that this jet had undergone a similar transition
sometime between December 1981 and June 1983. A mode change, occurring in the
reverse direction (between mid-1992 and mid-1995) has already been reported in
the literature. These structural mode changes are found to be reflected in
changed kinematical behavior of the nuclear jet, manifested as an apparent
superluminal motion and stationarity of the radio knots. In addition, we found
the individual mode changes to correlate in time with the maxima in the optical
light curve. The last two transitions occurred before a (modest) radio flare.
The behavior of this pc-scale jet appears to favor a scenario involving
non-ballistic motions of the radio knots, produced by the precession of a
continuous jet within the ambient medium.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (Abstract reduced for astro-ph
Plasmon dispersion in semimetallic armchair graphene nanoribbons
The dispersion relations for plasmons in intrinsic and extrinsic semimetallic
armchair graphene nanoribbons (acGNR) are calculated in the random phase
approximation using the orthogonal p_z-orbital tight binding method. Our model
predicts new plasmons for acGNR of odd atomic widths N=5,11,17,... Our model
further predicts plasmons in acGNR of even atomic width N=2,8,14,... related to
those found using a Dirac continuum model, but with different quantitative
dispersion characteristics. We find that the dispersion of all plasmons in
semimetallic acGNR depends strongly on the localization of the p_z electronic
wavefunctions. We also find that overlap integrals for acGNR behave in a more
complex way than predicted by the Dirac continuum model, suggesting that these
plasmons will experience a small damping for all q not equal to 0. Plasmons in
extrinsic semimetallic acGNR with the chemical potential in the lowest
(highest) conduction (valence) band are found to have dispersion
characteristics nearly identical to their intrinsic counterparts, with
negligible differencs in dispersion arising from the slight differences in
overlap integrals for the interband and intraband transitions.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
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