3,171 research outputs found
Ultraviolet and optical properties of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxies
Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies are remarkable for their extreme
continuum and emission line properties which are not well understood. New
results bearing on the spectroscopic characteristics of these objects are
presented here, with the aim of establishing their typical ultraviolet and
optical spectral behavior. We employ HST observations of 22 NLS1s, which
represent a substantial improvement over previous work in terms of data quality
and sample size. High signal-to-noise NLS1 composite spectra are constructed,
allowing accurate measurements of the continuum shape and the strengths,
ratios, and widths for lines, including weak features which are barely
identifiable in other Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) composites. We find that the
NLS1 sources have redder UV-blue continua than those typically measured in
other quasars and Seyferts. Objects with UV line absorption show redder
spectra, suggesting that dust is important in modifying the continuum shapes.
The data also permit a detailed investigation of the previously proposed link
between NLS1s and z >~ 4 quasars. Direct comparison of their composite spectra,
as well as a Principal Component Analysis, suggest that high-z QSOs do not show
a strong preference toward NLS1 behavior.Comment: 23 pages (incl. 9 figures, 4 tables), to appear in The Publications
of the Astronomical Society of the Pacifi
The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) Light Curve Server v1.0
The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) is working towards
imaging the entire visible sky every night to a depth of V~17 mag. The present
data covers the sky and spans ~2-5~years with ~100-400 epochs of observation.
The data should contain some ~1 million variable sources, and the ultimate goal
is to have a database of these observations publicly accessible. We describe
here a first step, a simple but unprecedented web interface
https://asas-sn.osu.edu/ that provides an up to date aperture photometry light
curve for any user-selected sky coordinate. Because the light curves are
produced in real time, this web tool is relatively slow and can only be used
for small samples of objects. However, it also imposes no selection bias on the
part of the ASAS-SN team, allowing the user to obtain a light curve for any
point on the celestial sphere. We present the tool, describe its capabilities,
limitations, and known issues, and provide a few illustrative examples.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PAS
Determining the Elemental and Isotopic Composition of the preSolar Nebula from Genesis Data Analysis: The Case of Oxygen
We compare element and isotopic fractionations measured in solar wind samples
collected by NASA's Genesis mission with those predicted from models
incorporating both the ponderomotive force in the chromosphere and conservation
of the first adiabatic invariant in the low corona. Generally good agreement is
found, suggesting that these factors are consistent with the process of solar
wind fractionation. Based on bulk wind measurements, we also consider in more
detail the isotopic and elemental abundances of O. We find mild support for an
O abundance in the range 8.75 - 8.83, with a value as low as 8.69 disfavored. A
stronger conclusion must await solar wind regime specific measurements from the
Genesis samples.Comment: 6 pages, accepted by Astrophysical Journal Letter
Uncoupled excitons in semiconductor microcavities detected in resonant Raman scattering
We present an outgoing resonant Raman-scattering study of a GaAs/AlGaAs based microcavity embedded in a p-i-n junction. The p-i-n junction allows the vertical electric field to be varied, permitting control of exciton-photon detuning and quenching of photoluminescence which otherwise obscures the inelastic light scattering signals. Peaks corresponding to the upper and lower polariton branches are observed in the resonant Raman cross sections, along with a third peak at the energy of uncoupled excitons. This third peak, attributed to disorder activated Raman scattering, provides clear evidence for the existence of uncoupled exciton reservoir states in microcavities in the strong-coupling regime
Magnetic field dependence of the energy of negatively charged excitons in semiconductor quantum wells
A variational calculation of the spin-singlet and spin-triplet state of a
negatively charged exciton (trion) confined to a single quantum well and in the
presence of a perpendicular magnetic field is presented. We calculated the
probability density and the pair correlation function of the singlet and
triplet trion states. The dependence of the energy levels and of the binding
energy on the well width and on the magnetic field strength was investigated.
We compared our results with the available experimental data on GaAs/AlGaAs
quantum wells and find that in the low magnetic field region (B<18 T) the
observed transition are those of the singlet and the dark triplet trion (with
angular momentum ), while for high magnetic fields (B>25 T) the dark
trion becomes optically inactive and possibly a transition to a bright triplet
trion (angular momentum ) state is observed.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures submitted to Phys. Rev.
Emission-Line Properties of the Optical Filaments of NGC 1275
Extended nebular filaments are seen at optical wavelengths in NGC 1275, the
central galaxy in the Perseus cluster. The agents responsible for the
excitation of these filaments remain poorly understood. In this paper we
investigate possible mechanisms for powering the filaments, using measurements
from an extensive spectroscopic data set acquired at the Lick Observatory 3-m
Shane telescope. The results show that the filaments are in an extremely low
ionization and excitation state. The high signal-to-noise ratio of the spectra
allows us to measure or place sensitive upper limits on weak but important
diagnostic lines. We compare the observed line intensity ratios to the
predictions of various ionization models, including photoionization by an
active galactic nucleus, shock heating, stellar photoionization, and
photoionization by the intracluster medium. We also investigate possible roles
for cluster extreme-ultraviolet emission, and filtering of cluster soft X-ray
emission by an ionized screen, in the energetics of the filaments. None of
these mechanisms provides an entirely satisfactory explanation for the physical
state of the nebulae. Heating and ionization by reconnection of the
intracluster magnetic field remains a potentially viable alternative, which
merits further investigation through Faraday rotation studies.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Resonant hyper-Raman scattering in spherical quantum dots
A theoretical model of resonant hyper-Raman scattering by an ensemble of
spherical semiconductor quantum dots has been developed. The electronic
intermediate states are described as Wannier-Mott excitons in the framework of
the envelope function approximation. The optical polar vibrational modes of the
nanocrystallites (vibrons) and their interaction with the electronic system are
analized with the help of a continuum model satisfying both the mechanical and
electrostatic matching conditions at the interface. An explicit expression for
the hyper-Raman scattering efficiency is derived, which is valid for incident
two-photon energy close to the exciton resonances. The dipole selection rules
for optical transitions and Fr\"ohlich-like exciton-lattice interaction are
derived: It is shown that only exciton states with total angular momentum
and vibrational modes with angular momentum contribute to the
hyper-Raman scattering process. The associated exciton energies, wavefunctions,
and vibron frequencies have been obtained for spherical CdSe zincblende-type
nanocrystals, and the corresponding hyper-Raman scattering spectrum and
resonance profile are calculated. Their dependence on the dot radius and the
influence of the size distribution on them are also discussed.Comment: 12 pages REVTeX (two columns), 2 tables, 8 figure
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