27,231 research outputs found
Akn 564: an unusual component in the X-ray spectra of NLSy1 galaxies
We present an ASCA observation of the NLSy1 Ark 564. The X-ray light curve
shows rapid variability, but no evidence for energy-dependence to these
variations, within the 0.6 -- 10 keV bandpass. A strong (EW ~ 70 eV) spectral
feature is observed close to 1 keV. A similar feature has been observed in TON
S180 (another NLSy1) but has not been observed in broad-line Seyfert galaxies.
The feature energy suggests a large contribution from Fe L-shell lines but its
intensity is difficult to explain in terms of emission and/or absorption from
photoionized gas. Models based on gas in thermal equilibrium with kT ~1 keV
provide an alternative parameterization of the soft spectrum. The latter may be
interpreted as the hot intercloud medium, undergoing rapid cooling and
producing strong Fe L-shell recombination lines. In all cases the physical
conditions are rather different from those observed in broad-line Seyferts. The
hard X-ray spectrum shows a broad and asymmetric Fe Kalpha line of large
equivalent width (~550 eV) which can be explained by a neutral disk viewed at ~
60 degrees to the line-of-sight, contrary to the hypothesis that NLSy1s are
viewed pole-on. The large EW of this line, the strong 1 keV emission and the
strong optical Fe emission lines all suggest an extreme Fe abundance in this
and perhaps other NLSy1s.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. LaTeX with encapsulated postscript. Accepted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Orbital magnetoelectric coupling in band insulators
Magnetoelectric responses are a fundamental characteristic of materials that
break time-reversal and inversion symmetries (notably multiferroics) and,
remarkably, of "topological insulators" in which those symmetries are unbroken.
Previous work has shown how to compute spin and lattice contributions to the
magnetoelectric tensor. Here we solve the problem of orbital contributions by
computing the frozen-lattice electronic polarization induced by a magnetic
field. One part of this response (the "Chern-Simons term") can appear even in
time-reversal-symmetric materials and has been previously shown to be quantized
in topological insulators. In general materials there are additional orbital
contributions to all parts of the magnetoelectric tensor; these vanish in
topological insulators by symmetry and also vanish in several simplified models
without time-reversal and inversion those magnetoelectric couplings were
studied before. We give two derivations of the response formula, one based on a
uniform magnetic field and one based on extrapolation of a long-wavelength
magnetic field, and discuss some of the consequences of this formula.Comment: 13 page
ASCA observations of type-2 Seyfert galaxies: II. The Importance of X-ray Scattering and Reflection
We discuss the importance of X-ray scattering and Compton reflection in
type-2 Seyfert galaxies, based upon the analysis of ASCA observations of 25
such sources. Consideration of the iron Kalpha, [O III] line and X-ray
variability suggest that NGC 1068, NGC 4945, NGC 2992, Mrk 3, Mrk 463E and Mrk
273 are dominated by reprocessed X-rays. We examine the properties of these
sources in more detail.
We find that the iron Kalpha complex contains significant contributions from
neutral and high-ionization species of iron. Compton reflection, hot gas and
starburst emission all appear to make significant contributions to the observed
X-ray spectra.
Mrk 3 is the only source in this subsample which does not have a significant
starburst contamination. The ASCA spectrum below 3 keV is dominated by hot
scattering gas with U_X ~ 5, N_H ~ 4 x 10^23 cm^-2. This material is more
highly ionized than the zone of material comprising the warm absorber seen in
Seyfert~1 galaxies, but may contain a contribution from shock-heated gas
associated with the jet. Estimates of the X-ray scattering fraction cover 0.25
- 5%. The spectrum above 3 keV appears to be dominated by a Compton reflection
component although there is evidence that the primary continuum component
becomes visible close to 10 keV.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures. LaTeX with encapsulated postscript. To appear in
the Astrophysical Journal. Also available via
http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/~george/papers/gnt_s2p2/abstract.htm
The influence of grazing on surface climatological variables of tallgrass prairie
Mass and energy exchange between most grassland canopies and the atmosphere are mediated by grazing activities. Ambient temperatures can be increased or decreased by grazers. Data have been assembled from simulated grazing experiments on Konza Prairie Research Natural Area and observations on adjacent pastures grazed by cattle show significant changes in primary production, nutrient content, and bidirectional reflectance characteristics as a function of grazing intensity. The purpose of this research was to provide algorithms that would allow incorporation of grazing effects into models of energy budgets using remote sensing procedures. The approach involved: (1) linking empirical measurements of plant biomass and grazing intensities to remotely sensed canopy reflectance, and (2) using a higher resolution, mechanistic grazing model to derive plant ecophysiological parameters that influence reflectance and other surface climatological variables
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Supporting reflection and creative thinking by carers of older people with dementia
This vision paper frames requirements engineering as a creative problem solving process. Its purpose is to enable requirements researchers and practitioners to recruit relevant theories, models, techniques and tools from creative problem solving to understand and support requirements processes more effectively. It uses 4 drivers to motivate the case for requirements engineering as a creative problem solving process. It then maps established requirements activities onto one of the longest-established creative problem solving processes, and uses these mappings to locate opportunities for the application of creative problem solving in requirements engineering. The second half of the paper describes selected creativity theories, techniques, software tools and training that can be adopted to improve requirements engineering research and practice. The focus is on support for problem and idea finding - two creative problem solving processes that our investigation revealed are poorly supported in requirements engineering. The paper ends with a research agenda to incorporate creative processes, techniques, training and tools in requirements projects
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Identification of Trace Organic Components in the CR Chondrites by 4D TOFMS
This paper reports preliminary results of a 4D TOFMS study of CR chondrite organic material, highlighting the low-level organic species that may further reveal the complexity of parent body modification of interstellar precursors
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