On the low detection efficiency of disk water megamasers in Seyfert 2 AGN

Disk megamasers are a unique tool to study active galactic nuclei (AGN) sub-pc environment, and precisely measure some of their fundamental parameters. While the majority of disk megamasers are hosted in heavily obscured (i.e., Seyfert 2, Sy2) AGN, the converse is not true, and disk megamasers are very rarely found even in obscured AGN. The very low detection rate of such systems in Sy2 AGN could be due to the geometry of the maser beaming, which requires a strict edge-on condition. We explore some other fundamental factors which could play a role in a volume-limited survey of disk megamasers in Sy2 galaxies, most importantly the radio luminosity.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 336, 2017 "Astrophysical Masers: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe

Metodologie innovative per il supporto alla progettazione e all’analisi delle prestazioni di impianti ad energia solare a concentrazione ed eolici off-shore utilizzando immagini satellitari ottiche e SAR

In questo lavoro presentiamo delle nuove metodologie, sviluppate nell’ambito del progetto SATENERG (Servizi sATellitari per le ENergie Rinnovabili di nuova Generazione) finanziato dall’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, sia per il supporto alla progettazione/pianificazione che per il monitoraggio quasi in tempo reale e l’analisi delle prestazioni degli impianti ad energia rinnovabile di nuova generazione (CSP, CPV ed eolici off-shore) utilizzando immagini satellitari. In particolare per quanto riguarda gli impianti solari a concentrazione (CSP e CPV), abbiamo sviluppato un metodo per ricavare l’irradianza solare incidente al suolo (in particolare la sua componente diretta normale rispetto ai raggi solari, fondamentale per questo tipo di impianti) da immagini ottiche satellitari. Ciò, unito ad un modello di funzionamento di tali impianti e degli inverter, ci ha resi in grado di poter sviluppare un servizio di supporto nella progettazione e pianificazione di nuove costruzioni di impianti CSP e CPV (analizzando serie storiche di dati satellitari) ed anche un servizio di monitoraggio e analisi delle prestazioni per quelli già esistenti (usando invece immagini satellitari quasi in tempo reale). In maniera simile, usando immagini SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), abbiamo sviluppato un metodo per ricavare l’intensità e la direzione del vento in aree marine da remoto che ci ha permesso, utilizzando anche un modello di impianto eolico off-shore (turbina e inverter), di sviluppare sia un servizio di supporto alla progettazione/pianificazione che un servizio di monitoraggio quasi in tempo reale della produzione di un impianto eolico off-shore. Le prime applicazioni di queste nuove metodologie hanno già portato ad avere ottimi risultati in vari casi di prova sia per quanto concerne il monitoraggio dell’irradianza diretta su piano normale, in cui l’irradianza misurata e quella ricavata da dato satellitare non si sono discostate più del 10%, sia per quanto riguarda il calcolo dell’intensità e direzione del vento da immagini SAR, in cui l’errore rispetto al dato misurato è rimasto al di sotto del 15%, fornendo quindi una buona base per il monitoraggio della energia AC prodotta dagli impianti.In this work we present new methodologies aimed to support both planning and near-real-time monitoring of new generation solar and wind energy plants (CSP, CPV and wind off-shore) using satellite imagery. Such methodologies are currently being developed in the scope of SATENERG, a project funded by ASI (Italian Space Agency). In particular, for what concerns the concentrating solar energy plants (CSP and CPV) we developed a method to calculate solar irradiance at ground (and its direct normal component, that has primary importance in this type of plants) starting from satellite optical images. Then, using also detailed opto-electronic models of the plants and inverters, we are able to calculate the producible energy, which can be used to support either the design of potential plants (using historical series of satellite images) or the monitoring and performance analysis of existing plants (using near-real- time satellite imagery). Producible energy and other interesting parameters, like production efficiency, return on investment etc., are delivered through dedicated web services. In a similar way, we developed also a method to calculate the intensity and the direction of off-shore wind from satellite SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images that permitted us, together with detailed models of wind turbine and inverters, to develop a new service in support to both planning and near-real-time monitoring activities of off-shore wind plants. The first applications of these methods gave successful results in several test cases: we obtained a maximum error of 10% for satellite retrieved direct normal solar irradiance and a maximum error of 15% for wind direction and intensity calculated from SAR images (with respect to in-situ measured data)

Obscured and Compton-thick AGN in NuSTAR hard X-ray surveys

This Thesis focuses on NuSTAR hard X-ray surveys of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). One of the major goals of the NuSTAR mission is to study with unprecedented detail the obscured and heavily obscured (Compton-thick, CT) populations of AGN, significantly contributing to the diffuse cosmic X-ray background (CXB),and major actors within the evolutionary cycle of galaxies. In the first part, a survey of a small sample (∼ a dozen) of local (z < 0.03) heavily obscured AGN, selected by their water megamaser emission at ∼22.23 GHz, is presented. Thanks to the NuSTAR hard X-ray spectral coverage (extending between ∼3−80 keV), a robust estimate of the CT fraction is obtained. Building up on this result and combining X-ray and radio measurements, a toy model of the dusty megamaser disk within the classical dusty torus is proposed. A spin-off of the megamaser project is related to a well-known local obscured AGN (Mrk1210) and devoted to studying its long-term (∼17 yrs) X-ray variability with NuSTAR, from which some constraints on the AGN environment can be drawn. Finally, the search and study of CT AGN is pushed to higher redshifts, fully exploiting the NuSTAR X-ray capabilities in terms of sensitivity. The hunt for faint and distant heavily obscured AGN is performed exploiting the combined NuSTAR, XMM-Newton and Chandra coverages of the UKIDSS-UDS field. The deep NuSTAR survey strategy is presented, along with the modeling of the NuSTAR background in order to optimize the detection of faint sources. A broadband X-ray spectroscopic analysis of all the detected sources is performed, and combined with the standard hardness ratio (HR) diagnostic, in order to select all the possible CT candidates. Such CT candidates are then analyzed again with appropriate X-ray spectral models specifically developed to deal with CT absorbers

A comprehensive X-ray view of the active nucleus in NGC 4258

(Abridged) We present a detailed broadband X-ray spectrum of NGC 4258, with the goal of precisely measuring the coronal luminosity and accretion flow properties of the AGN, and track any possible variation across two decades of observations. We collect archival XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift/BAT and NuSTAR spectroscopic observations spanning 15 years, and fit them with a suite of state of the art models, including a warped disk model which is suspected to provide the well known obscuration observed in the X-rays. We complement this information with archival results from the literature. Clear spectral variability is observed among the different epochs. The obscuring column density shows possibly periodic fluctuations on a timescale of 10 years, while the intrinsic luminosity displays a long term decrease of a factor of three in a time span of 15 years (from $L_{2-10~\text{keV}} \sim 10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the early 2000s, to $L_{2-10~\text{keV}} \sim 3 \times 10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in 2016). The average absorption-corrected X-ray luminosity $L_{2-10~\text{keV}}$, combined with archival determinations of the bolometric luminosity, implies a bolometric correction $k_{\rm bol} \sim 20$, intriguingly typical for Seyferts powered by accretion through geometrically thin, radiatively efficient disks. Moreover, the X-ray photon index $\Gamma$ is consistent with the typical value of the broader AGN population. However, the accretion rate in Eddington units is very low, well within the expected RIAF regime. Our results suggest that NGC 4258 is a genuinely low-luminosity Seyfert II, with no strong indications in its X-ray emission for a hot, RIAF-like accretion flow.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 14 pages, 6 figures, 3 table

The NuSTAR Extragalactic Surveys: unveiling rare, buried AGNs and detecting the contributors to the peak of the Cosmic X-ray Background

We report on the results of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detection by NuSTAR performed in three extragalactic survey fields (COSMOS, UDS, ECDFS) in three hard bands, namely H1 (8-16 keV), H2 (16-24 keV) and VH (35-55 keV). The aggregated area of the surveys is $\sim 2.7$ deg$^2$. While a large number of sources is detected in the H1 band (72 at the $97\%$ level of reliability), the H2 band directly probing close to the peak of the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB) returns four significant detections, and two tentative, although not significant, detections are found in the VH band. All the sources detected above 16 keV are also detected at lower energies. We compute the integral number counts for sources in such bands, which show broad consistency with population synthesis models of the CXB. We furthermore identify two Compton-thick AGNs, one in the COSMOS field, associated with a hard and faint Chandra source, and one in the UDS field, never detected in the X-ray band before. Both sources are at the same redshift $z \sim 1.25$, which shifts their Compton-hump into the H1 band, and were previously missed in the usually employed NuSTAR bands, confirming the potential of using the H1 band to discover obscured AGNs at $z > 1$ in deep surveys.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Biological application of Compressed Sensing Tomography in the Scanning Electron Microscope

The three-dimensional tomographic reconstruction of a biological sample, namely collagen fibrils in human dermal tissue, was obtained from a set of projection-images acquired in the Scanning Electron Microscope. A tailored strategy for the transmission imaging mode was implemented in the microscope and proved effective in acquiring the projections needed for the tomographic reconstruction. Suitable projection alignment and Compressed Sensing formulation were used to overcome the limitations arising from the experimental acquisition strategy and to improve the reconstruction of the sample. The undetermined problem of structure reconstruction from a set of projections, limited in number and angular range, was indeed supported by exploiting the sparsity of the object projected in the electron microscopy images. In particular, the proposed system was able to preserve the reconstruction accuracy even in presence of a significant reduction of experimental projections

A Hardware-in-the-Loop Evaluation of the Impact of the V2X Channel on the Traffic-Safety Versus Efficiency Trade-offs

Vehicles are increasingly becoming connected and short-range wireless communications promise to introduce a radical change in the drivers' behaviors. Among the main use cases, the intersection management is surely one of those that could mostly impact on both traffic safety and efficiency. In this work, we consider an intersection collision warning application and exploit an hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform to verify the impact on the risk of accidents as well as the average time to travel a given distance. Besides including real ITS-G5 compliant message exchanges, the platform also includes a channel emulator with real signals. Results show that the risk of collisions can be drastically reduced, with an overall trade-off between safety and traffic efficiency. At the same time, it is shown that the presence of real channel conditions cannot guarantee the same condition of zero-risk as with ideal channel propagation, remarking the importance of channel conditions and signal processing