Performance of astrometric detection of a hotspot orbiting on the innermost stable circular orbit of the galactic centre black hole

The galactic central black hole Sgr A* exhibits outbursts of radiation in the near infrared (so-called IR flares). One model of these events consists in a hotspot orbiting on the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) of the hole. These outbursts can be used as a probe of the central gravitational potential. One main scientific goal of the second generation VLTI instrument GRAVITY is to observe these flares astrometrically. Here, the astrometric precision of GRAVITY is investigated in imaging mode, which consists in analysing the image computed from the interferometric data. The capability of the instrument to put in light the motion of a hotspot orbiting on the ISCO of our central black hole is then discussed. We find that GRAVITY's astrometric precision for a single star in imaging mode is smaller than the Schwarzschild radius of Sgr A*. The instrument can also demonstrate that a body orbiting on the last stable orbit of the black hole is indeed moving. It yields a typical size of the orbit, if the source is as bright as m_K=14. These results show that GRAVITY allows one to study the close environment of Sgr A*. Having access to the ISCO of the central massive black hole probably allows constraining general relativity in its strong regime. Moreover, if the hotspot model is appropriate, the black hole spin can be constrained.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures ; accepted by MNRA

Antigenic and genetic evolution of contemporary swine H1 influenza viruses in the United States

Several lineages of influenza A viruses (IAV) currently circulate in North American pigs. Genetic diversity is further increased by transmission of IAV between swine and humans and subsequent evolution. Here, we characterized the genetic and antigenic evolution of contemporary swine H1N1 and H1N2 viruses representing clusters H1-α (1A.1), H1-β (1A.2), H1pdm (1A.3.3.2), H1-γ (1A.3.3.3), H1-δ1 (1B.2.2), and H1-δ2 (1B.2.1) currently circulating in pigs in the United States. The δ1-viruses diversified into two new genetic clades, H1-δ1a (1B.2.2.1) and H1-δ1b (1B.2.2.2), which were also antigenically distinct from the earlier H1-δ1-viruses. Further characterization revealed that a few key amino acid changes were associated with antigenic divergence in these groups. The continued genetic and antigenic evolution of contemporary H1 viruses might lead to loss of vaccine cross-protection that could lead to significant economic impact to the swine industry, and represents a challenge to public health initiatives that attempt to minimize swine-to-human IAV transmission

Fluctuation-dissipation ratio of a spin glass in the aging regime

We present the first experimental determination of the time autocorrelation $C(t',t)$ of magnetization in the non-stationary regime of a spin glass. Quantitative comparison with the response, the magnetic susceptibility $\chi(t',t)$, is made using a new experimental setup allowing both measurements in the same conditions. Clearly, we observe a non-linear fluctuation-dissipation relation between $C$ and $\chi$, depending weakly on the waiting time $t'$. Following theoretical developments on mean-field models, and lately on short range models, it is predicted that in the limit of long times, the $\chi(C)$ relationship should become independent on $t'$. A scaling procedure allows us to extrapolate to the limit of long waiting times.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Aging dynamics in reentrant ferromagnet: Cu0.2_{0.2}Co0.8_{0.8}Cl2_{2}-FeCl3_{3} graphite bi-intercalation compound

Aging dynamics of a reentrant ferromagnet Cu$_{0.2}$Co$_{0.8}$Cl$_{2}$-FeCl$_{3}$ graphite bi-intercalation compound has been studied using AC and DC magnetic susceptibility. This compound undergoes successive transitions at the transition temperatures $T_{c}$ ($= 9.7$ K) and $T_{RSG}$ ($= 3.5$ K). The relaxation rate $S(t)$ exhibits a characteristic peak at $t_{cr}$ close to a wait time $t_{w}$ below $T_{c}$, indicating that the aging phenomena occur in both the reentrant spin glass (RSG) phase below $T_{RSG}$ and the ferromagnetic (FM) phase between $T_{RSG}$ and $T_{c}$. The relaxation rate $S(t)$ ($=\text{d}\chi_{ZFC}(t)/\text{d}\ln t$) in the FM phase exhibits two peaks around $t_{w}$ and a time much shorter than $t_{w}$ under the positive $T$-shift aging, indicating a partial rejuvenation of domains. The aging state in the FM phase is fragile against a weak magnetic-field perturbation. The time ($t$) dependence of $\chi_{ZFC}(t)$ around $t \approx t_{cr}$ is well approximated by a stretched exponential relaxation: $\chi_{ZFC}(t) \approx \exp[-(t/\tau)^{1-n}]$. The exponent $n$ depends on $t_{w}$, $T$, and $H$. The relaxation time $\tau$ ($\approx t_{cr}$) exhibits a local maximum around 5 K, reflecting a chaotic nature of the FM phase. It drastically increases with decreasing temperature below $T_{RSG}$.Comment: 16 pages,16 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Numerical Study on Aging Dynamics in the 3D Ising Spin-Glass Model. II. Quasi-Equilibrium Regime of Spin Auto-Correlation Function

Using Monte Carlo simulations, we have studied isothermal aging of three-dimensional Ising spin-glass model focusing on quasi-equilibrium behavior of the spin auto-correlation function. Weak violation of the time translational invariance in the quasi-equilibrium regime is analyzed in terms of {\it effective stiffness} for droplet excitations in the presence of domain walls. Within the range of computational time window, we have confirmed that the effective stiffness follows the expected scaling behavior with respect to the characteristic length scales associated with droplet excitations and domain walls, whose growth law has been extracted from our simulated data. Implication of the results are discussed in relation to experimental works on ac susceptibilities.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Distributed Graph Clustering using Modularity and Map Equation

We study large-scale, distributed graph clustering. Given an undirected graph, our objective is to partition the nodes into disjoint sets called clusters. A cluster should contain many internal edges while being sparsely connected to other clusters. In the context of a social network, a cluster could be a group of friends. Modularity and map equation are established formalizations of this internally-dense-externally-sparse principle. We present two versions of a simple distributed algorithm to optimize both measures. They are based on Thrill, a distributed big data processing framework that implements an extended MapReduce model. The algorithms for the two measures, DSLM-Mod and DSLM-Map, differ only slightly. Adapting them for similar quality measures is straight-forward. We conduct an extensive experimental study on real-world graphs and on synthetic benchmark graphs with up to 68 billion edges. Our algorithms are fast while detecting clusterings similar to those detected by other sequential, parallel and distributed clustering algorithms. Compared to the distributed GossipMap algorithm, DSLM-Map needs less memory, is up to an order of magnitude faster and achieves better quality.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures; v3: Camera ready for Euro-Par 2018, more details, more results; v2: extended experiments to include comparison with competing algorithms, shortened for submission to Euro-Par 201

Elastic Pion Scattering on the Deuteron in a Multiple Scattering Model

Pion elastic scattering on deuterium is studied in the KMT multiple scattering approach developed in momentum space. Using a Paris wave function and the same methods and approximations as commonly used in pion scattering on heavier nuclei excellent agreement with differential cross section data is obtained for a wide range of pion energies. Only for $T_{\pi}>250$ MeV and very backward angles, discrepancies appear that are reminiscent of disagreements in pion scattering on $^3$He, $^3$H, and $^4$He. At low energies the second order corrections have been included. Polarization observables are studied in detail. While tensor analyzing powers are well reproduced, vector analyzing powers exhibit dramatic discrepancies.Comment: 25 pages LATEX and 9 postscript figures in a self-extracting uufile archiv

The relative influences of disorder and of frustration on the glassy dynamics in magnetic systems

The magnetisation relaxations of three different types of geometrically frustrated magnetic systems have been studied with the same experimental procedures as previously used in spin glasses. The materials investigated are Y$_2$Mo$_2$O$_7$ (pyrochlore system), SrCr$_{8.6}$Ga$_{3.4}$O$_{19}$ (piled pairs of Kagom\'e layers) and (H$_3$O)Fe$_3$(SO$_4$)$_2$(OH)$_6$ (jarosite compound). Despite a very small amount of disorder, all the samples exhibit many characteristic features of spin glass dynamics below a freezing temperature $T_g$, much smaller than their Curie-Weiss temperature $\theta$. The ageing properties of their thermoremanent magnetization can be well accounted for by the same scaling law as in spin glasses, and the values of the scaling exponents are very close. The effects of temperature variations during ageing have been specifically investigated. In the pyrochlore and the bi-Kagom\'e compounds, a decrease of temperature after some waiting period at a certain temperature $T_p$ re-initializes ageing and the evolution at the new temperature is the same as if the system were just quenched from above $T_g$. However, as the temperature is raised back to $T_p$, the sample recovers the state it had previously reached at that temperature. These features are known in spin glasses as rejuvenation and memory effects. They are clear signatures of the spin glass dynamics. In the Kagom\'e compound, there is also some rejuvenation and memory, but much larger temperature changes are needed to observe the effects. In that sense, the behaviour of this compound is quantitatively different from that of spin glasses.Comment: latex VersionCorrigee4.tex, 4 files, 3 figures, 5 pages (Proceedings of the International Conference on Highly Frustrated Magnetism (HFM2003), August 26-30, 2003, Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), Grenoble, France

Three very young HgMn stars in the Orion OB1 Association

We report the detection of three mercury-manganese stars in the Orion OB1 association. HD 37886 and BD-0 984 are in the approximately 1.7 million year old Orion OB1b. HD 37492 is in the approximately 4.6 million year old Orion OB1c. Orion OB1b is now the youngest cluster with known HgMn star members. This places an observational upper limit on the time scale needed to produce the chemical peculiarities seen in mercury-manganese stars, which should help in the search for the cause or causes of the peculiar abundances in HgMn and other chemically peculiar upper main sequence stars.Comment: 8 pages including 1 figure. To appear in Astrophysical Journal Letter