10,354 research outputs found
Quasars, their host galaxies, and their central black holes
We present the final results from our deep HST imaging study of the hosts of
radio-quiet quasars (RQQs), radio-loud quasars (RLQs) and radio galaxies (RGs).
We describe new WFPC2 R-band observations for 14 objects and model these images
in conjunction with the data already reported in McLure et al (1999). We find
that spheroidal hosts become more prevalent with increasing nuclear luminosity
such that, for nuclear luminosities M_V < -23.5, the hosts of both radio-loud
and radio-quiet AGN are virtually all massive ellipticals. Moreover we
demonstrate that the basic properties of these hosts are indistinguishable from
those of quiescent, evolved, low-redshift ellipticals of comparable mass. This
result kills any lingering notion that radio-loudness is determined by
host-galaxy morphology, and also sets severe constraints on evolutionary
schemes which attempt to link low-z ULIRGs with RQQs. Instead, we show that our
results are as expected given the relationship between black-hole and spheroid
mass established for nearby galaxies, and apply this relation to estimate the
mass of the black hole in each object. The results agree very well with
completely-independent estimates based on nuclear emission-line widths; all the
quasars in our sample have M(bh) > 5 x 10^8 solar masses, while the radio-loud
objects are confined to M(bh) > 10^9 solar masses. This apparent mass-threshold
difference, which provides a natural explanation for why RQQs outnumber RLQs by
a factor of 10, appears to reflect the existence of a minimum and maximum level
of black-hole radio output which is a strong function of black-hole mass.
Finally, we use our results to estimate the fraction of massive
spheroids/black-holes which produce quasar-level activity. This fraction is
\~0.1% at the present day, rising to > 10% at z = 2-3.Comment: Revised version accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society. 46 pages, the final 19 of which comprise an
Appendix. 15 figures in main text. A further 14 4-panel greyscale plots and
14 line plots which appear in the Appendix have been reproduced here with
reduced quality due to space limitations. A full resolution copy of the
manuscript can be obtained via ftp://ftp.roe.ac.uk/pub/jsd/dunlop2002.ps.g
Extended emission around GPS radio sources
Extended radio emission detected around a sample of GHz Peaked Spectrum (GPS)
radio sources is discussed. Evidence for extended emission which is related to
the GPS source is found in 6 objects out of 33. Three objects are associated
with quasars with core-jet pc-scale morphology, and three are identified with
galaxies with symmetric (CSO) radio morphology. We conclude that the core-jet
GPS quasars are likely to be beamed objects with a continuous supply of energy
from the core to the kpc scale. It is also possible that low surface brightness
extended radio emission is present in other GPS quasars but the emission is
below our detection limit due to the high redshifts of the objects. On the
other hand, the CSO/galaxies with extended large scale emission may be
rejuvenated sources where the extended emission is the relic of previous
activity. In general, the presence of large scale emission associated with GPS
galaxies is uncommon, suggesting that in the context of the recurrent activity
model, the time scale between subsequent bursts is in general longer than the
radiative lifetime of the radio emission from the earlier activity.Comment: 18 paged, 18 figures, accepted for publication on A&
Detecting solar chameleons through radiation pressure
Light scalar fields can drive the accelerated expansion of the universe.
Hence, they are obvious dark energy candidates. To make such models compatible
with tests of General Relativity in the solar system and "fifth force" searches
on Earth, one needs to screen them. One possibility is the so-called
"chameleon" mechanism, which renders an effective mass depending on the local
matter density. If chameleon particles exist, they can be produced in the sun
and detected on Earth exploiting the equivalent of a radiation pressure. Since
their effective mass scales with the local matter density, chameleons can be
reflected by a dense medium if their effective mass becomes greater than their
total energy. Thus, under appropriate conditions, a flux of solar chameleons
may be sensed by detecting the total instantaneous momentum transferred to a
suitable opto-mechanical force/pressure sensor. We calculate the solar
chameleon spectrum and the reach in the chameleon parameter space of an
experiment using the preliminary results from a force/pressure sensor,
currently under development at INFN Trieste, to be mounted in the focal plane
of one of the X-Ray telescopes of the CAST experiment at CERN. We show, that
such an experiment signifies a pioneering effort probing uncharted chameleon
parameter space.Comment: revised versio
Social determinants in an Australian urban region: A 'complexity' lens
This item is under embargo for a period of 12 months from the date of publication, in accordance with the publisher's policy.
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Health Promotion International following peer review. The version of record [Fisher, M., Milos, D., Baum, F., & Friel, S (2014) Social determinants in an Australian urban region: a ‘complexity’ lens, Health Promotion International] is available online at: doi: 10.1093/heapro/dau071Area-based strategies have been widely employed in efforts to improve population health and take action on social determinants of health (SDH) and health inequities; including in urban areas where many of the social, economic and environmental factors converge to influence health. Increasingly, these factors are recognised as being part of a complex system, where population health outcomes are shaped by multiple, interacting factors operating at different levels of social organisation. This article reports on research to assess the extent to which an alliance of health and human service networks is able to promote action on SDH within an Australian urban region; using a complex systems frame. We found that such an alliance was able to promote some effective action which takes into account complex interactions between social factors affecting health, but also identified significant potential barriers to other forms of desired action identified by alliance members. We found that a complex systems lens was useful in assessing a collaborative intervention to address SDH within an urban region.
Key words:
Complex systems, urban health, social determinants of health, collaboratio
Untangling the Conceptual Isssues Raised in Reydon and Scholz’s Critique of Organizational Ecology and Darwinian Populations
Reydon and Scholz raise doubts about the Darwinian status of organizational ecology by arguing that Darwinian principles are not applicable to organizational populations. Although their critique of organizational ecology’s typological essentialism is correct, they go on to reject the Darwinian status of organizational populations. This paper claims that the distinction between replicators and interactors, raised in modern philosophy of biology but not discussed by Reydon and Scholz, points the way forward for organizational ecologists. It is possible to conceptualise evolving Darwinian populations providing the inheritance mechanism is appropriately specified. By this approach, adaptation and selection are no longer dichotomised, and the evolutionary significance of knowledge transmission is highlightedPeer reviewe
Scale Dependence of Polarized DIS Asymmetries
We compare the dependence of the polarized deep inelastic scattering
proton asymmetry, driven by the leading order Altarelli Parisi evolution
equations, to those arising from fixed order and
approximations. It is shown that the evolution effects associated with gluons,
which are not properly taken into account by the leading order approximation,
cannot be neglected in the analysis of the most recent experimental data.Comment: Latex file, (9 figures in postcript available from
[email protected]
Spectral Templates from Multicolor Redshift Surveys
Understanding how the physical properties of galaxies (e.g. their spectral
type or age) evolve as a function of redshift relies on having an accurate
representation of galaxy spectral energy distributions. While it has been known
for some time that galaxy spectra can be reconstructed from a handful of
orthogonal basis templates, the underlying basis is poorly constrained. The
limiting factor has been the lack of large samples of galaxies (covering a wide
range in spectral type) with high signal-to-noise spectrophotometric
observations. To alleviate this problem we introduce here a new technique for
reconstructing galaxy spectral energy distributions directly from samples of
galaxies with broadband photometric data and spectroscopic redshifts.
Exploiting the statistical approach of the Karhunen-Loeve expansion, our
iterative training procedure increasingly improves the eigenbasis, so that it
provides better agreement with the photometry. We demonstrate the utility of
this approach by applying these improved spectral energy distributions to the
estimation of photometric redshifts for the HDF sample of galaxies. We find
that in a small number of iterations the dispersion in the photometric
redshifts estimator (a comparison between predicted and measured redshifts) can
decrease by up to a factor of 2.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, LaTeX AASTeX, accepted for publication in A
WFPC2 LRF Imaging of Emission Line Nebulae in 3CR Radio Galaxies
We present HST/WFPC2 Linear Ramp Filter images of high surface brightness
emission lines (either [OII], [OIII], or H-alpha+[NII]) in 80 3CR radio
sources. We overlay the emission line images on high resolution VLA radio
images (eight of which are new reductions of archival data) in order to examine
the spatial relationship between the optical and radio emission. We confirm
that the radio and optical emission line structures are consistent with weak
alignment at low redshift (z < 0.6) except in the Compact Steep Spectrum (CSS)
radio galaxies where both the radio source and the emission line nebulae are on
galactic scales and strong alignment is seen at all redshifts. There are weak
trends for the aligned emission line nebulae to be more luminous, and for the
emission line nebula size to increase with redshift and/or radio power. The
combination of these results suggests that there is a limited but real capacity
for the radio source to influence the properties of the emission line nebulae
at these low redshifts (z < 0.6). Our results are consistent with previous
suggestions that both mechanical and radiant energy are responsible for
generating alignment between the radio source and emission line gas.Comment: 80 pages, 54 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Spatially resolved spectra of 3C galaxy nuclei
We present and discuss visible-wavelength long-slit spectra of four low
redshift 3C galaxies obtained with the STIS instrument on the Hubble Space
Telescope. The slit was aligned with near-nuclear jet-like structure seen in
HST images of the galaxies, to give unprecedented spatial resolution of the
galaxy inner regions. In 3C 135 and 3C 171, the spectra reveal clumpy emission
line structures that indicate outward motions of a few hundred km s
within a centrally illuminated and ionised biconical region. There may also be
some low-ionisation high-velocity material associated with 3C 135. In 3C 264
and 3C 78, the jets have blue featureless spectra consistent with their
proposed synchrotron origin. There is weak associated line emission in the
innermost part of the jets with mild outflow velocity. These jets are bright
and highly collimated only within a circumnuclear region of lower galaxy
luminosity, which is not dusty. We discuss the origins of these central regions
and their connection with relativistic jets.Comment: 15 pages incl Tables, 12 diagrams, To appear in A
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