A Nonextensive Statistical Physics Analysis of the 1995 Kobe, Japan Earthquake

This paper presents an analysis of the distribution of earthquake magnitudes for the period 1990–1998 in a broad area surrounding the epicenter of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The frequency–magnitude distribution analysis is performed in a nonextensive statistical physics context. The nonextensive parameter q M , which is related to the frequency-magnitude distribution, reflects the existence of long-range correlations and is used as an index of the physical state of the studied area. Examination of the possible variations of q M values is performed during the period 1990–1998. A significant increase of q M occurs some months before the strong earthquake on April 9, 1994 indicating the start of a preparation phase prior to the Kobe earthquake. It should be noted that this increase coincides with the occurrence of six seismic events. Each of these events had a magnitude M = 4.1. The evolution of seismicity along with the increase of q M indicate the system’s transition away from equilibrium and its preparation for energy release. It seems that the variations of q M values reflect rather well the physical evolution towards the 1995 Kobe earthquake

Modelling the variable broad-band optical/UV/X-ray spectrum of PG1211+143: Implications for the ionized outflow

We present the results from a detailed analysis of the 2007 Swift monitoring campaign of the quasar PG1211+143. We constructed broad-band, optical/UV/X-ray spectral energy distributions over three X-ray flux intervals. We fitted them with a model which accounts for the disc and the X-ray coronal emission and the warm absorber (well established in this source). The three flux spectra are well fitted by the model we considered. The disc inner temperature remains constant at ~2 eV, while X-rays are variable both in spectral slope and normalization. The absorber covers almost 90% of the central source. It is outflowing with a velocity less than 2.3*10^4 km/s (3sigma upper limit), and has a column density of ~10^23.2. Its ionization parameter varies by a factor of 1.6, and it is in photo-ionizing equilibrium with the ionizing flux. It is located at a distance of less than 0.35 pc from the central source and its relative thickness, DR/R is less than 0.1. The absorber' s ionization parameter variations can explain the larger than average amplitude of the X-ray variations. The absence of optical/UV variations (consistent with the high black hole mass estimate) argues against the presence of inward propagating disc fluctuations and strong X-ray illumination of the disc (in agreement with the low ratio of X-ray over the bolometric luminosity of ~20-35). We estimate an upper limit for the mass outflow of ~5 solar masses per year (~2.3 times the Eddington mass accretion rate). If the outflow rate is indeed that high, then it must be a short-lived episode in the quasar's life time. Finally, we estimate an upper limit for the kinetic power of the outflow of ~1.4*10^43 ergs/s. This outflow cannot deploy significant mechanical energy to the surrounding ISM of the quasar's host galaxy, but is sufficient to heat the ISM to 10^7 K and to produce a fast decline to the star formation rate of the galaxy.Comment: Accepted for publication by A&

The earthquake intervent time distribution along the Hellenic subduction Zone.

Η ελληνική ζώνη υποβύθισης είναι η πιο σεισμική περιοχή της Ευρώπης. Η κατανομή Weibullέχει χρησιμοποιηθεί σαν μοντέλο για την περιγραφή των χρονικών διαστημάτων μεταξύ διαδοχικών σεισμών σε συγκεκριμένες ρηξιγενείς ζώνες (Rikitake, 1976; Rikitake, 1991), καθώς και για την περιγραφή της σεισμικότητας μίας ευρύτερης περιοχής (Hasumietal., 2009). Taδεδομένα που αναλύουμε σε αυτή την εργασία αφορούν την ελληνική ζώνη υποβύθισης και καλύπτουν την περίοδο 1976-2009. Χρησιμοποιούμε τις σεισμικές πηγές επιφανειακών σεισμών όπως αυτές ορίζονται από τους PapaioannouandPapazachos(2000), καθώς και τονκατάλογο σεισμών των Makropoulosetal. (2012) για την Ελλάδα και τις παρακείμενες περιοχές. Η εφαρμογή της κατανομής Weibullστα χρονικά διαστήματα μεταξύ διαδοχικών σεισμών αναλύεται και περιγράφεται σε αυτή την εργασία.The Hellenic Subduction Zone (HSZ) is the most seismically active region in Europe (Becker and Meier, 2010). The evolution of such an active region is characterized by complex phenomenology and is expressed through seismicity. Seismicity temporal patterns remain as one of the most important topics in earth sciences. The Weibull distribution has been used as a recurrence time model for large earthquakes (Rikitake, 1976; Rikitake, 1991). Moreover,Hasumi et al. (2009) used the Weibulllog Weibull distribution for the study of the interoccurrence times of earthquakes in Japan.The dataset formed in this study concerns the seismic belt of the HSZ during the period 1976-2009. We use the external seismic sources of shallow earthquakes in the Aegean and the surrounding area (Papaioannou and Papazachos, 2000) along with the updated and extended earthquake catalogue for Greece and adjacent areas (Makropoulos et al., 2012).The application of the Weibull distribution to the interevent times of the formed dataset is analyzed and discussed

The role of coherent structures and inhomogeneity in near-field inter-scale turbulent energy transfers

We use Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) data to study inter-scale and inter-space energy exchanges in the near-field of a turbulent wake of a square prism in terms of a Kármán-Howarth-Monin-Hill (KHMH) equation written for a triple decomposition of the velocity field which takes into account the presence of quasi-periodic vortex shedding coherent structures. Concentrating attention on the plane of the mean flow and on the geometric centreline, we calculate orientation-averages of every term in the KHMH equation. The near-field considered here ranges between 2 and 8 times the width d of the square prism and is very inhomogeneous and out of equilibrium so that non-stationarity and inhomogeneity contributions to the KHMH balance are dominant. The mean flow produces kinetic energy which feeds the vortex shedding coherent structures. In turn, these coherent structures transfer their energy to the stochastic turbulent fluctuations over all length-scales r from the Taylor length to d and dominate spatial turbulent transport of small-scale two-point stochastic turbulent fluctuations. The orientation averaged non-linear inter-scale transfer rate a which was found to be approximately independent of r by Alves Portela et al. (2017) in the range 6 r 6 0:3d at a distance x1 = 2d from the square prism requires an inter-scale transfer contribution of coherent structures for this approximate constancy. However, the near-constancy of a in the range 6 r 6 d at x1 = 8d which was also found by Alves Portela et al. (2017) is mostly attributable to stochastic fluctuations. Even so, the proximity of a to the turbulence dissipation rate " in the range 6 r 6 d at x1 = 8d does require inter-scale transfer contributions of the coherent structures. Spatial inhomogeneity also makes a direct and distinct contribution to a, and the constancy of a=" close to 1 would not have been possible without it either in this near-field flow. Finally, the pressure-velocity term is also an important contributor to the KHMH balance in this near-field, particularly at scales r larger than about 0:4d, and appears to correlate with the purely stochastic non-linear inter-scale transfer rate when the orientation average is lifted

Evolution of conditionally-averaged second order structure functions in a transitional boundary layer

We consider the bypass transition in a flat plate boundary layer subject to free-stream turbulence and compute the evolution of the second-order structure function of the streamwise velocity, du2(,), from the laminar to the fully turbulent region using DNS. In order to separate the contributions from laminar and turbulent events at the two points used to define du(→x,→r), we apply conditional sampling based on the local instantaneous intermittency, τ (1 for turbulent and 0 for laminar events). Using τ(→x,t), we define two-point intermittencies, γ(TT), γ(LL) and γ(TL) which physically represent the probabilities that both points are in turbulent or laminar patches, or one in turbulent and the other in a laminar patch, respectively. Similarly, we also define the conditionally-averaged structure functions, ⟨du2⟩(TT), ⟨du2⟩(LL) and ⟨du2⟩(TL) and decompose ⟨du2⟩(→x,→r) in terms of these conditional averages. The derived expressions generalise existing decompositions of single-point statistics to two-point statistics. It is found that in the transition region, laminar streaky structures maintain their geometrical characteristics in the physical and scale space well inside the transition region, even after the initial break down to form turbulent spots. Analysis of the ⟨du2⟩(TT) fields reveal that the outer mode is the dominant secondary instability mechanism. Further analysis reveals how turbulence spots penetrate the boundary layer and approach the wall. The peaks of ⟨du2⟩(TT) in scale space appear in larger streamwise separations as transition progresses and this is explained by the strong growth of turbulent spots in this direction. On the other hand, the spanwise separation where the peak occurs remains relatively constant and is determined by the initial inception process. We also analyse the evolution of the two-point intermittency field, γ(TT), at different locations. In particular, we study the growth of the volume enclosed within an iso-surface of γ(TT) and notice that it increases in both directions, with the growth in the streamwise direction being especially large. The evolution of these conditional two-point statistics sheds light into the transition process from a different perspective and complements existing analyses using single-point statistics

X-ray spectral analysis of the low-luminosity active galactic nucleus NGC 7213 using long XMM-Newton observations

We present the X-ray spectral results from the longest X-ray Multi-mirror Mission–Newton observation, 133 ks, of the low-luminosity active galactic nucleus NGC 7213. The hardness-ratio analysis of the X-ray light curves discloses a rather constant X-ray spectral shape, at least for the observed exposure time, enabling us to perform X-ray spectral studies using the total observed spectrum. Apart from a neutral Fe K? emission line, we also detect narrow emission lines from the ionized iron species, Fe?xxv and Fe?xxvi. Our analysis suggests that the neutral Fe K? originates from a Compton-thin reflector, while the gas responsible for the high-ionization lines is collisionally excited. The overall spectrum, in the 0.3–10?keV energy band, registered by the European Photon Imaging Camera can be modelled by a power-law component (with a slope of ? ? 1.9) plus two thermal components at 0.36 and 8.84?keV. The low-energy thermal component is entirely consistent with the X-ray spectral data obtained by the Reflection Grating Spectrometer between 0.35–1.8?keV