The triggering of local AGN and their role in regulating star formation

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.We explore the processes that trigger local AGN and the role of these AGN in regulating star formation, using ~350 nearby galaxies observed by the mJy Imaging VLBA Exploration at 20cm (mJIVE) survey. The >10^7 K brightness temperature required for an mJIVE detection cannot be achieved via star formation alone, allowing us to unambiguously detect nearby radio AGN and study their role in galaxy evolution. Radio AGN are an order of magnitude more common in early-type galaxies (ETGs) than in their late-type counterparts. The VLBI-detected ETGs in this study have a similar stellar mass distribution to their undetected counterparts, are typically not the central galaxies of clusters and exhibit merger fractions that are significantly higher than in the average ETG. This suggests that these radio AGN (which have VLBI luminosities >10^22 W Hz^-1) are primarily fuelled by mergers, and not by internal stellar mass loss or cooling flows. Our radio AGN are a factor of ~3 times more likely to reside in the UV-optical red sequence than the average ETG. Furthermore, typical AGN lifetimes (a few 10^7 yr) are much shorter than the transit times from blue cloud to red sequence (~1.5 Gyr). This indicates that the AGN are not triggered promptly and appear several dynamical timescales into the associated star formation episode, implying that they typically couple only to residual gas, at a point where star formation has already declined significantly. While evidence for AGN feedback is strong in systems where the black hole is fed by the cooling of hot gas, AGN triggered by mergers appear not to strongly regulate the associated star formation. The inability of the AGN to rapidly quench merger-driven star formation is likely to make merging the dominant mode of star formation in nearby ETGs, in line with evidence for minor mergers being the primary driver of stellar mass growth in these systems.Peer reviewe

Cold-gas outflows in typical low-redshift galaxies are driven by star formation, not AGN

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slv165Energetic feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is an important ingredient for regulating the star-formation history of galaxies in models of galaxy formation, which makes it important to study how AGN feedback actually occurs in practice. In order to catch AGNs in the act of quenching star formation we have used the interstellar NaD absorption lines to look for cold-gas outflows in a sample of 456 nearby galaxies for which we could unambigously ascertain the presence of radio AGN activity, thanks to radio imaging at milli-arcsecond scales. While compact radio emission indicating a radio AGN was found in 103 galaxies (23% of the sample), and 23 objects (5%) exhibited NaD absorption-line kinematics suggestive of cold-gas outflows, not one object showed evidence of a radio AGN and of a cold-gas outflow simultaneously. Radio AGN activity was found predominantly in early-type galaxies, while cold-gas outflows were mainly seen in spiral galaxies with central star-formation or composite star-formation/AGN activity. Optical AGNs also do not seem capable of driving galactic winds in our sample. Our work adds to a picture of the low-redshift Universe where cold-gas outflows in massive galaxies are generally driven by star formation and where radio-AGN activity occurs most often in systems in which the gas reservoir has already been significantly depleted.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Electronic and Magnetic Structures of Sr2FeMoO6

We have investigated the electronic and magnetic structures of Sr2FeMoO6 employing site-specific direct probes, namely x-ray absorption spectroscopy with linearly and circularly polarized photons. In contrast to some previous suggestions, the results clearly establish that Fe is in the formal trivalent state in this compound. With the help of circularly polarized light, it is unambiguously shown that the moment at the Mo sites is below the limit of detection (< 0.25mu_B), resolving a previous controversy. We also show that the decrease of the observed moment in magnetization measurements from the theoretically expected value is driven by the presence of mis-site disorder between Fe and Mo sites.Comment: To appear in Physical Review Letter

Electronic Structure of Sr_2FeMoO_6

We have analysed the unusual electronic structure of Sr_2FeMoO_6 combining ab-initio and model Hamiltonian approaches. Our results indicate that there are strong enhancements of the intraatomic exchange strength at the Mo site as well as the antiferromagnetic coupling strength between Fe and Mo sites. We discuss the possibility of a negative effective Coulomb correlation strength (U_{eff}) at the Mo site due to these renormalised interaction strengths.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Electronic Properties of Boron and Nitrogen doped graphene: A first principles study

Effect of doping of graphene either by Boron (B), Nitrogen (N) or co-doped by B and N is studied using density functional theory. Our extensive band structure and density of states calculations indicate that upon doping by N (electron doping), the Dirac point in the graphene band structure shifts below the Fermi level and an energy gap appears at the high symmetric K-point. On the other hand, by B (hole doping), the Dirac point shifts above the Fermi level and a gap appears. Upon co-doping of graphene by B and N, the energy gap between valence and conduction bands appears at Fermi level and the system behaves as narrow gap semiconductor. Obtained results are found to be in well agreement with available experimental findings.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to J. Nanopart. Re

Radio AGN in spiral galaxies

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.Radio AGN in the nearby Universe are more likely to be found in galaxies with early-type morphology, the detection rate in spiral or late-type galaxies (LTGs) being around an order of magnitude lower. We combine the mJy Imaging VLBA Exploration at 20cm (mJIVE-20) survey with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), to study the relatively rare population of AGN in LTGs that have nuclear radio luminosities similar to that in their early-type counterparts. The LTG AGN population is preferentially hosted by galaxies that have high stellar masses (M* > 10^10.8 MSun), red colours and low star-formation rates, with little dependence on the detailed morphology or local environment of the host LTG. The merger fraction in the LTG AGN is around 4 times higher than that in the general LTG population, indicating that merging is an important trigger for radio AGN in these systems. The red colours of our systems extend recent work which indicates that merger-triggered AGN in the nearby Universe appear after the peak of the associated starburst, implying that they do not strongly regulate star formation. Finally, we find that in systems where parsec-scale jets are clearly observed in our VLBI images, the jets are perpendicular to the major axis of the galaxy, indicating alignment between the accretion disc and the host galaxy stellar disc.Peer reviewe

Experimental analysis of self-organized structure and transport on the magnetospheric plasma device RT-1

Dipole plasma exhibits strong heterogeneities in field strength, density, temperature and other parameters, while maintaining a holistic balance. Our study of the internal structures reveals the fundamental self-organizing mechanisms operating in their simplest realization (as commonly observed in astronomical systems). Three new findings are reported from the RT-1 experiment. The creation of a high-energy electron core (similar to the radiation belts in planetary magnetospheres) is observed for the first time in a laboratory system. High-energy electrons (3–15 keV), produced by electron cyclotron heating, accumulate in a \u27belt\u27 located in the low-density region (high-beta value ~1 is obtained by increasing the high-energy component up to 70% of the total electrons). The dynamical process of the \u27up-hill diffusion\u27 (a spontaneous mechanism of creating density gradient) has been analyzed by perturbing the density by gas injection. The spontaneous density formation in the laboratory magnetosphere elucidates the self-organized plasma transport relevant to a planetary magnetosphere. The coherence-imaging spectroscopy visualized the two-dimensional profiles of ion temperature and flow velocity in the ion cyclotron resonance frequency heating. The ion temperature and flow were enhanced globally, and particularly along the magnetic field lines near the levitation magnet. These results advance our understanding of transport and self-organization not only in dipole plasmas, but in general magnetic confinement systems relevant to fusion plasmas

Nd:YAG laser Thomson scattering diagnostics for a laboratory magnetosphere

A new Nd:YAG laser Thomson scattering (TS) system has been developed to explore the mechanism of high-beta plasma formation in the RT-1 device. The TS system is designed to measure electron temperatures (Te) from 10 eV to 50 keV and electron densities (ne) of more than 1.0 × 1017 m−3. To measure at the low-density limit, the receiving optics views the long scattering length (60 mm) using a bright optical system with both a large collection window (260-mm diameter) and large collection lenses (300-mm diameter, a solid angle of ∼68 × 10−3 str). The scattered light of the 1.2-J Nd:YAG laser (repetition frequency: 10 Hz) is detected with a scattering angle of 90° and is transferred via a set of lenses and an optical fiber bundle to a polychromator. After Raman scattering measurement for the optical alignment and an absolute calibration, we successfully measured Te = 72.2 eV and ne = 0.43 × 1016 m−3 for the coil-supported case and Te = 79.2 eV and ne = 1.28 × 1016 m−3 for the coil-levitated case near the inner edge in the magnetospheric plasmas