1,801 research outputs found
The X-ray Jet in Centaurus A: Clues on the Jet Structure and Particle Acceleration
We report detailed studies of the X-ray emission from the kpc scale jet in
the nearest active galaxy, Cen A. 41 compact sources were found within the jet,
13 of which were newly identified. We construct the luminosity function for the
detected jet-knots and argue that the remaining emission is most likely to be
truly diffuse, rather than resulting from the pile-up of unresolved faint
knots. The transverse jet profile reveals that the extended emission has the
intensity peak at the jet boundaries. We note that limb-brightened jet
morphologies have been observed previously at radio frequencies in some jet
sources, but never so clearly at higher photon energies. Our result therefore
supports a stratified jet model, consisting of a relativistic outflow including
a boundary layer with a velocity shear. In addition, we found that the X-ray
spectrum of the diffuse component is almost uniform across and along the jet.
We discuss this spectral behavior within a framework of shock and stochastic
particle acceleration processes. We note some evidence for a possible spectral
hardening at the outer sheath of the jet. Due to the limited photon statistics
of the present data, further deep observations of Cen A are required to
determine the reality of this finding, however we note that the existence of
the hard X-ray features at outer jet boundaries would provide an important
challenge to theories for the evolution of ultra-relativistic particles within
the jets.Comment: 27page, 8 figures, ver2, accepted for publication in the Ap
Cosmic ray diffusive acceleration at shock waves with finite upstream and downstream escape boundaries
In the present paper we discuss the modifications introduced into the
first-order Fermi shock acceleration process due to a finite extent of
diffusive regions near the shock or due to boundary conditions leading to an
increased particle escape upstream and/or downstream the shock. In the
considered simple example of the planar shock wave we idealize the escape
phenomenon by imposing a particle escape boundary at some distance from the
shock. Presence of such a boundary (or boundaries) leads to coupled steepening
of the accelerated particle spectrum and decreasing of the acceleration time
scale. It allows for a semi-quantitative evaluation and, in some specific
cases, also for modelling of the observed steep particle spectra as a result of
the first-order Fermi shock acceleration. We also note that the particles close
to the upper energy cut-off are younger than the estimate based on the
respective acceleration time scale. In Appendix A we present a new
time-dependent solution for infinite diffusive regions near the shock allowing
for different constant diffusion coefficients upstream and downstream the
shock.Comment: LaTeX, 14 pages, 4 postscript figures; Solar Physics (accepted
No Tradeoff between Coherence and Sub-Poissonianity for Heisenberg-Limited Lasers
The Heisenberg limit to laser coherence -- the number of
photons in the maximally populated mode of the laser beam -- is the fourth
power of the number of excitations inside the laser. We generalize the previous
proof of this upper bound scaling by dropping the requirement that the beam
photon statistics be Poissonian (i.e., Mandel's ). We then show that the
relation between and sub-Poissonianity () is win-win, not a
tradeoff. For both regular (non-Markovian) pumping with semi-unitary gain
(which allows ), and random (Markovian) pumping with
optimized gain, is maximized when is minimized.Comment: This is a companion letter to the manuscript entitled "Optimized
Laser Models with Heisenberg-Limited Coherence and Sub-Poissonian Beam Photon
Statistics", arxiv:2208.14082. 6 pages, 2 figure
On the Interaction of the PKS B1358-113 Radio Galaxy with the Abell 1836 Cluster
[abridged] Here we present the analysis of multifrequency data gathered for
the FRII radio galaxy PKS B1358-113, hosted in the brightest cluster galaxy of
Abell 1836. The galaxy harbors one of the most massive black holes known to
date and our analysis of the optical data reveals that this black hole is only
weakly active. Based on new Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations and
archival radio data we derive the preferred range for the jet kinetic
luminosity erg s. This is above the values
implied by various scaling relations proposed for radio sources in galaxy
clusters, being instead very close to the maximum jet power allowed for the
given accretion rate. We constrain the radio source lifetime as
Myrs, and the total amount of deposited jet energy \,ergs. The detailed analysis of the X-ray data provides indication for
the presence of a bow-shock driven by the expanding radio lobes into the Abell
1836 cluster environment, with the corresponding Mach number . This,
together with the recently growing evidence that powerful FRII radio galaxies
may not be uncommon in the centers of clusters at higher redshifts, supports
the idea that jet-induced shock heating may indeed play an important role in
shaping the properties of clusters, galaxy groups, and galaxies in formation.
We speculate on a possible bias against detecting jet-driven shocks in poorer
environments, resulting from an inefficient electron heating at the shock
front, combined with a relatively long electron-ion equilibration timescale.Comment: Version accepted to Ap
Optimized Laser Models with Heisenberg-Limited Coherence and Sub-Poissonian Beam Photon Statistics
Recently it has been shown that it is possible for a laser to produce a
stationary beam with a coherence (quantified as the mean photon number at
spectral peak) which scales as the fourth power of the mean number of
excitations stored within the laser, this being quadratically larger than the
standard or Schawlow-Townes limit [1]. Moreover, this was analytically proven
to be the ultimate quantum limit (Heisenberg limit) scaling under defining
conditions for CW lasers, plus a strong assumption about the properties of the
output beam. In Ref. [2], we show that the latter can be replaced by a weaker
assumption, which allows for highly sub-Poissonian output beams, without
changing the upper bound scaling or its achievability. In this Paper, we
provide details of the calculations in Ref. [2], and introduce three new
families of laser models which may be considered as generalizations of those
presented in that work. Each of these families of laser models is parameterized
by a real number, , with corresponding to the original models. The
parameter space of these laser families is numerically investigated in detail,
where we explore the influence of these parameters on both the coherence and
photon statistics of the laser beams. Two distinct regimes for the coherence
may be identified based on the choice of , where for , each family of
models exhibits Heisenberg-limited beam coherence, while for , the
Heisenberg limit is no longer attained. Moreover, in the former regime, we
derive formulae for the beam coherence of each of these three laser families
which agree with the numerics. We find that the optimal parameter is in fact
, not .Comment: This is a companion manuscript to the letter entitled "No Tradeoff
between Coherence and Sub-Poissonianity for Heisenberg-Limited Lasers",
arxiv:2208.14081. 22 pages, 11 figure
Maximum Likelihood Estimation in Gaussian Chain Graph Models under the Alternative Markov Property
The AMP Markov property is a recently proposed alternative Markov property
for chain graphs. In the case of continuous variables with a joint multivariate
Gaussian distribution, it is the AMP rather than the earlier introduced LWF
Markov property that is coherent with data-generation by natural
block-recursive regressions. In this paper, we show that maximum likelihood
estimates in Gaussian AMP chain graph models can be obtained by combining
generalized least squares and iterative proportional fitting to an iterative
algorithm. In an appendix, we give useful convergence results for iterative
partial maximization algorithms that apply in particular to the described
algorithm.Comment: 15 pages, article will appear in Scandinavian Journal of Statistic
First presentation of LPIN1 acute rhabdomyolysis in adolescence and adulthood
LPIN1 mutations are a known common cause of autosomal recessive, recurrent and life-threatening acute rhabdomyolysis of childhood-onset. The first episode of rhabdomyolysis usually happens in nearly all cases before the age of 5 and death is observed in 1/3 of patients. Here we present two cases of acute rhabdomyolysis with a milder phenotype caused by LPIN1 mutation presenting in adolescence (11 years old) and adulthood (40 years old) after Parvovirus infection and metabolic stress, respectively. In our opinion, the mutation types, epigenetic factors, the environment exposition to triggers or the existence of proteins with a similar structure of LPIN1, may have a role in modulating the onset of rhabdomyolysis. LPIN1 should be included on a panel of genes analysed in the investigation of adult individuals with rhabdomyolysis. Metabolic and viral stressors should be included in the list of possible rhabdomyolysis precipitant
High Energy gamma-rays From FR I Jets
Thanks to Hubble and Chandra telescopes, some of the large scale jets in
extragalactic radio sources are now being observed at optical and X-ray
frequencies. For the FR I objects the synchrotron nature of this emission is
surely established, although a lot of uncertainties - connected for example
with the particle acceleration processes involved - remain. In this paper we
study production of high energy gamma-rays in FR I kiloparsec-scale jets by
inverse-Compton emission of the synchrotron-emitting electrons. We consider
different origin of seed photons contributing to the inverse-Compton
scattering, including nuclear jet radiation as well as ambient, stellar and
circumstellar emission of the host galaxies. We discuss how future detections
or non-detections of the evaluated gamma-ray fluxes can provide constraints on
the unknown large scale jet parameters, i.e. the magnetic field intensity and
the jet Doppler factor. For the nearby sources Centaurus A and M 87, we find
measurable fluxes of TeV photons resulting from synchrotron self-Compton
process and from comptonisation of the galactic photon fields, respectively. In
the case of Centaurus A, we also find a relatively strong emission component
due to comptonisation of the nuclear blazar photons, which could be easily
observed by GLAST at energy ~10 GeV, providing important test for the
unification of FR I sources with BL Lac objects.Comment: 39 pages, 6 figures included. Modified version, accepted for
publication in Astrophysical Journa
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