Bending crystals: Emergence of fractal dislocation structures

We provide a minimal continuum model for mesoscale plasticity, explaining the cellular dislocation structures observed in deformed crystals. Our dislocation density tensor evolves from random, smooth initial conditions to form self-similar structures strikingly similar to those seen experimentally - reproducing both the fractal morphologies and some features of the scaling of cell sizes and misorientations analyzed experimentally. Our model provides a framework for understanding emergent dislocation structures on the mesoscale, a bridge across a computationally demanding mesoscale gap in the multiscale modeling program, and a new example of self-similar structure formation in non-equilibrium systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 5 movies (They can be found at http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/Plasticity/SelfSimilarity.html .) In press at Phys. Rev. Let

Spectral properties of the narrow-line region in Seyfert galaxies selected from the SDSS-DR7

Although the properties of the narrow-line region (NLR) of active galactic nuclei(AGN) have been deeply studied by many authors in the past three decades, many questions are still open. The main goal of this work is to explore the NLR of Seyfert galaxies by collecting a large statistical spectroscopic sample of Seyfert 2 and Intermediate-type Seyfert galaxies having a high signal-to-noise ratio in order to take advantage of a high number of emission-lines to be accurately measured. 2153 Seyfert 2 and 521 Intermediate-type Seyfert spectra were selected from Sloan Digital Sky Survey - Data Release 7 (SDSS-DR7) with a diagnostic diagram based on the oxygen emission-line ratios. All the emission-lines, broad components included, were measured by means of a self-developed code, after the subtraction of the stellar component. Physical parameters, such as internal reddening, ionization parameter, temperature, density, gas and stellar velocity dispersion were determined for each object. Furthermore, we estimated mass and radius of the NLR, kinetic energy of the ionized gas, and black-hole accretion rate. From the emission-line analysis and the estimated physical properties, it appears that the NLR is similar in Seyfert 2 and Intermediate-Seyfert galaxies. The only differences, lower extinction, gas kinematics in general not dominated by the host galaxy gravitational potential and higher percentage of [O III]5007 blue asymmetries in Intermediate-Seyfert can be ascribed to an effect of inclination of our line of sight with respect to the torus axis.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Optical Emission Lines and the X-Ray Properties of Type 1 Seyfert Galaxies

In this contribution we report on the study of the optical emission lines and X-ray spectra of a sample of Type 1 AGNs, collected at the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database and observed by the XMM Newton satellite. Exploiting the different instruments carried onboard XMM, we identify the spectral components of the soft and hard energy bands (in the range from 0.3 keV up to 10 keV). The properties of the X-ray continuum and of the Fe Kalpha line feature are investigated in relation to the optical broad emission line profiles and intensity ratios. The resulting picture of emission, absorption and reflection processes is interpreted by means of a BLR structural model that was developed on the basis of independent optical and radio observations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the VIII Serbian Conference on Spectral Line Shapes in Astrophysics, accepted for publication on Baltic Astronomy. Corrected typos in V

The Relation between Nuclear Activity and Stellar Mass in Galaxies

The existence of correlations between nuclear properties of galaxies, such as the mass of their central black holes, and larger scale features, like the bulge mass and luminosity, represent a fundamental constraint on galaxy evolution. Although the actual reasons for these relations have not yet been identified, it is widely believed that they could stem from a connection between the processes that lead to black hole growth and stellar mass assembly. The problem of understanding how the processes of nuclear activity and star formation can affect each other became known to the literature as the Starburst-AGN connection. Despite years of investigation, the physical mechanisms which lie at the basis of this relation are known only in part. In this work, we analyze the problem of star formation and nuclear activity in a large sample of galaxies. We study the relations between the properties of the nuclear environments and of their host galaxies. We find that the mass of the stellar component within the galaxies of our sample is a critical parameter, that we have to consider in an evolutionary sequence, which provides further insight in the connection between AGN and star formation processes.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication on MNRAS. Reference to the mass derivation procedure correcte

Optical counterparts of undetermined type γ\gamma-ray Active Galactic Nuclei with blazar-like Spectral Energy Distributions

During its first four years of scientific observations, the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) detected 3033 $\gamma$-ray sources above a 4$\sigma$ significance level. Although most of the extra-Galactic sources are active galactic nuclei (AGN) of the blazar class, other families of AGNs are observed too, while a still high fraction of detections ($\sim 30\%$) remains with uncertain association or classification. According to the currently accepted interpretation, the AGN $\gamma$-ray emission arises from inverse Compton (IC) scattering of low energy photons by relativistic particles confined in a jet that, in the case of blazars, is oriented very close to our line of sight. Taking advantage of data from radio and X-ray wavelengths, which we expect to be produced together with $\gamma$-rays, providing a much better source localization potential, we focused our attention on a sample of $\gamma$-ray Blazar Candidates of Undetermined Type (BCUs), starting a campaign of optical spectroscopic observations. The main aims of our investigation include a census of the AGN families that contribute to $\gamma$-ray emission and a study of their redshift distribution, with the subsequent implications on the intrinsic source power. We furthermore analyze which $\gamma$-ray properties can better constrain the nature of the source, thus helping in the study of objects not yet associated with a reliable low frequency counterpart. In this communication we report on the instruments and techniques used to identify the optical counterparts of $\gamma$-ray sources, we give an overview on the status of our work, and we discuss the implications of a large scale study of $\gamma$-ray emitting AGNs.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of the 10th Serbian Conference on Spectral Line Shapes in Astrophysics. JOAA, accepte

A spectroscopic analysis of a sample of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We revisited the spectroscopic characteristics of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) by analysing a homogeneous sample of 296 NLS1s at redshift between 0.028 and 0.345, extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-DR7) public archive. We confirm that NLS1s are mostly characterized by Balmer lines with Lorentzian profiles, lower black hole masses and higher Eddington ratios than classic broad-line Seyfert 1 (BLS1s), but they also appear to be active galactic nuclei (AGNs) contiguous with BLS1s and sharing with them common properties. Strong Fe II emission does not seem to be a distinctive property of NLS1s, as low values of Fe II/H$\beta$ are equally observed in these AGNs. Our data indicate that Fe II and Ca II kinematics are consistent with the one of H$\beta$. On the contrary, O I $\lambda$8446 seems to be systematically narrower and it is likely emitted by gas of the broad-line region more distant from the ionizing source and showing different physical properties. Finally, almost all NLS1s of our sample show radial motions of the narrow-line region highly-ionised gas. The mechanism responsible for this effect is not yet clear, but there are hints that very fast outflows require high continuum luminosities (> $10^{44}$ erg/s) or high Eddington ratios (log(L$_{\rm bol}$/L$_{\rm Edd}$) > -0.1).Comment: 27 pages, 31 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA