8,615 research outputs found
The Kepler Light Curves of AGN: A Detailed Analysis
We present a comprehensive analysis of 21 light curves of Type 1 AGN from the
Kepler spacecraft. First, we describe the necessity and development of a
customized pipeline for treating Kepler data of stochastically variable sources
like AGN. We then present the light curves, power spectral density functions
(PSDs), and flux histograms. The light curves display an astonishing variety of
behaviors, many of which would not be detected in ground-based studies,
including switching between distinct flux levels. Six objects exhibit PSD
flattening at characteristic timescales which roughly correlate with black hole
mass. These timescales are consistent with orbital timescales or freefall
accretion timescales. We check for correlations of variability and
high-frequency PSD slope with accretion rate, black hole mass, redshift and
luminosity. We find that bolometric luminosity is anticorrelated with both
variability and steepness of the PSD slope. We do not find evidence of the
linear rms-flux relationships or lognormal flux distributions found in X-ray
AGN light curves, indicating that reprocessing is not a significant contributor
to optical variability at the 0.1-10% level.Comment: 39 pages including 2 appendices. Accepted for Publication in the
Astrophysical Journal, with higher resolution figure
Implementing a Reconciliation and Balancing Model in the U.s. Industry Accounts
As part of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ integration initiative (Yuskavage, 2000; Moyer et al., 2004a, 2004b; Lawson et al., 2006), the Industry Accounts Directorate is drawing upon the Stone method (Stone et al., 1942) and Chen (2006) to reconcile the gross operating surplus component of value-added from the 2002 expenditure-based benchmark input-output accounts and the 2002 income-based gross domestic product-by-industry accounts. The objective of the reconciliation is to use information regarding the relative reliabilities of underlying data in both the benchmark input-output use table and the gross domestic product-by-industry accounts in a balanced input-output framework in order to improve intermediate input estimates and gross operating surplus estimates in both accounts. Given a balanced input-output framework, the Stone method also provides a tool for balancing the benchmark use table. This paper presents work by the Industry Accounts Directorate to develop and implement the reconciliation and balancing model. The paper provides overviews of the benchmark use table and gross domestic product-by-industry accounts, including features of external source data and adjustment methodologies that are relevant for the reconciliation. In addition, the paper presents the empirical model that the Industry Accounts Directorate is building and briefly describes the technology used to solve the model. Preliminary work during development of the model shows that reconciling and balancing a large system with disaggregated data is computationally feasible and efficient in pursuit of an economically accurate and reliable benchmark use table and gross domestic product-by-industry accounts.
Radiation-Hydrodynamic Simulations of Collapse and Fragmentation in Massive Protostellar Cores
We simulate the early stages of the evolution of turbulent, virialized,
high-mass protostellar cores, with primary attention to how cores fragment, and
whether they form a small or large number of protostars. Our simulations use
the Orion adaptive mesh refinement code to follow the collapse from ~0.1 pc
scales to ~10 AU scales, for durations that cover the main fragmentation phase,
using three-dimensional gravito-radiation hydrodynamics. We find that for a
wide range of initial conditions radiation feedback from accreting protostars
inhibits the formation of fragments, so that the vast majority of the collapsed
mass accretes onto one or a few objects. Most of the fragmentation that does
occur takes place in massive, self-shielding disks. These are driven to
gravitational instability by rapid accretion, producing rapid mass and angular
momentum transport that allows most of the gas to accrete onto the central star
rather than forming fragments. In contrast, a control run using the same
initial conditions but an isothermal equation of state produces much more
fragmentation, both in and out of the disk. We conclude that massive cores with
observed properties are not likely to fragment into many stars, so that, at
least at high masses, the core mass function probably determines the stellar
initial mass function. Our results also demonstrate that simulations of massive
star forming regions that do not include radiative transfer, and instead rely
on a barotropic equation of state or optically thin heating and cooling curves,
are likely to produce misleading results.Comment: 23 pages, 18 figures, emulateapj format. Accepted to ApJ. This
version has minor typo fixes and small additions, no significant changes.
Resolution of images severely degraded to fit within size limit. Download the
full paper from http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~krumholz/recent.htm
Kepler Observations of the Three Pre-Launch Exoplanet Candidates: Discover of Two Eclipsing Binaries and a New Exoplanet
Three transiting exoplanet candidate stars were discovered in a ground-based photometric survey prior to the launch of NASA's Kepler mission. Kepler observations of them were obtained during Quarter 1 of the Kepler mission. All three stars are faint by radial velocity follow-up standards, so we have examined these candidates with regard to eliminating false positives and providing high confidence exoplanet selection. We present a first attempt to exclude false positives for this set of faint stars without high-resolution radial velocity analysis. This method of exoplanet confirmation will form a large part of the Kepler mission follow-up for Jupiter-sized exoplanet candidates orbiting faint stars. Using the Kepler light curves and pixel data, as well as medium-resolution reconnaissance spectroscopy and speckle imaging, we find that two of our candidates are binary stars. One consists of a late-F star with an early M companion, while the other is a K0 star plus a late M-dwarf/brown dwarf in a 19 day elliptical orbit. The third candidate (BOKS-1) is an r = 15 G8V star hosting a newly discovered exoplanet with a radius of 1.12 R_(Jupiter) in a 3.9 day orbit
Beam Profile Measurements and Simulations of the PETRA Laser-Wire
The Laser-wire will be an essential diagnostic tool at the International
Linear Collider. It uses a finely focussed laser beam to measure the transverse
profile of electron bunches by detecting the Compton-scattered photons (or
degraded electrons) downstream of where the laser beam intersects the electron
beam. Such a system has been installed at the PETRA storage ring at DESY, which
uses a piezo-driven mirror to scan the laser-light across the electron beam.
Lat- est results of experimental data taking are presented and compared to
detailed simulations using the Geant4 based program BDSIM.Comment: 3 pagesm 4 figures. Submitted as a conference paper for the Particle
Accelerator Conference 2005 (PAC05
KSwAGS: A Swift X-ray and UV Survey of the Kepler Field. I
We introduce the first phase of the Kepler-Swift Active Galaxies and Stars
survey (KSwAGS), a simultaneous X-ray and UV survey of ~6 square degrees of the
Kepler field using the Swift XRT and UVOT. We detect 93 unique X-ray sources
with S/N>3 with the XRT, of which 60 have observed UV counterparts. We use the
Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) to obtain the optical counterparts of these sources,
and construct the X-ray to optical flux ratio as a first approximation of the
classification of the source. The survey produces a mixture of stellar sources,
extragalactic sources, and sources which we are not able to classify with
certainty. We have obtained optical spectra for thirty of these targets, and
are conducting an ongoing observing campaign to fully identify the sample. For
sources classified as stellar or AGN with certainty, we construct SEDs using
the 2MASS, UBV and GALEX data supplied for their optical counterparts by the
KIC, and show that the SEDs differ qualitatively between the source types, and
so can offer a method of classification in absence of a spectrum. Future papers
in this series will analyze the timing properties of the stars and AGN in our
sample separately. Our survey provides the first X-ray and UV data for a number
of known variable stellar sources, as well as a large number of new X-ray
detections in this well-studied portion of the sky. The KSwAGS survey is
currently ongoing in the K2 ecliptic plane fields.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. 19 pages, 8
figures, 3 table
Stresses in isostatic granular systems and emergence of force chains
Progress is reported on several questions that bedevil understanding of
granular systems: (i) are the stress equations elliptic, parabolic or
hyperbolic? (ii) how can the often-observed force chains be predicted from a
first-principles continuous theory? (iii) How to relate insight from isostatic
systems to general packings? Explicit equations are derived for the stress
components in two dimensions including the dependence on the local structure.
The equations are shown to be hyperbolic and their general solutions, as well
as the Green function, are found. It is shown that the solutions give rise to
force chains and the explicit dependence of the force chains trajectories and
magnitudes on the local geometry is predicted. Direct experimental tests of the
predictions are proposed. Finally, a framework is proposed to relate the
analysis to non-isostatic and more realistic granular assemblies.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Corrected typos and clkearer text, submitted to
Phys. Rev. Let
Longitudinal and lateral-directional aerodynamic characteristics of a wing-cone configuration at Mach numbers from 2.5 to 4.5
A study was conducted to determine the longitudinal and lateral-directional aerodynamic characteristics of a generic wing-cone configuration at supersonic speeds. The fuselage has a 5 deg half-angle cone forebody, cylindrical midbody, and a 9 deg truncated cone afterbody. The delta wing (aspect ratio 1.0) had a 4 pct. thick diamond airfoil section. The tests were made in the Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at Mach numbers from 2.50 and 4.50. Angle of attack was varied from -4 to 28 degs, and angle of sideslip varied from -8 to 8 degs. Several configurations were studied to determine the effects of variations in wing longitudinal position, wing incidence, vertical tail configuration, canard shape, and nose bluntness. Typical effects of Reynolds number and Mach number on the longitudinal characteristics were observed. The incremental effects of the configuration variables were generally unaffected by Mach number. The directional stability characteristics of the large and small centerline mounted vertical tail configurations were significantly degraded with increasing angle of attack and Mach number
Laserwire at the Accelerator Test Facility 2 with Sub-Micrometre Resolution
A laserwire transverse electron beam size measurement system has been
developed and operated at the Accelerator Test Facility 2 (ATF2) at KEK.
Special electron beam optics were developed to create an approximately 1 x 100
{\mu}m (vertical x horizontal) electron beam at the laserwire location, which
was profiled using a 150 mJ, 71 ps laser pulse with a wavelength of 532 nm. The
precise characterisation of the laser propagation allows the non-Gaussian
transverse profiles of the electron beam caused by the laser divergence to be
deconvolved. A minimum vertical electron beam size of 1.07 0.06 (stat.)
0.05 (sys.) {\mu}m was measured. A vertically focussing quadrupole just
before the laserwire was varied whilst making laserwire measurements and the
projected vertical emittance was measured to be 82.56 3.04 pm rad.Comment: 17 pages, 26 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beam
- …