681 research outputs found
Software fault-tolerance by design diversity DEDIX: A tool for experiments
The use of multiple versions of a computer program, independently designed from a common specification, to reduce the effects of an error is discussed. If these versions are designed by independent programming teams, it is expected that a fault in one version will not have the same behavior as any fault in the other versions. Since the errors in the output of the versions are different and uncorrelated, it is possible to run the versions concurrently, cross-check their results at prespecified points, and mask errors. A DEsign DIversity eXperiments (DEDIX) testbed was implemented to study the influence of common mode errors which can result in a failure of the entire system. The layered design of DEDIX and its decision algorithm are described
Source Matching in the SDSS and RASS: Which Galaxies are Really X-ray Sources?
The current view of galaxy formation holds that all massive galaxies harbor a
massive black hole at their center, but that these black holes are not always
in an actively accreting phase. X-ray emission is often used to identify
accreting sources, but for galaxies that are not harboring quasars
(low-luminosity active galaxies), the X-ray flux may be weak, or obscured by
dust. To aid in the understanding of weakly accreting black holes in the local
universe, a large sample of galaxies with X-ray detections is needed. We
cross-match the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) with galaxies from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 (SDSS DR4) to create such a sample. Because
of the high SDSS source density and large RASS positional errors, the
cross-matched catalog is highly contaminated by random associations. We
investigate the overlap of these surveys and provide a statistical test of the
validity of RASS-SDSS galaxy cross-matches. SDSS quasars provide a test of our
cross-match validation scheme, as they have a very high fraction of true RASS
matches. We find that the number of true matches between the SDSS main galaxy
sample and the RASS is highly dependent on the optical spectral classification
of the galaxy; essentially no star-forming galaxies are detected, while more
than 0.6% of narrow-line Seyferts are detected in the RASS. Also, galaxies with
ambiguous optical classification have a surprisingly high RASS detection
fraction. This allows us to further constrain the SEDs of low-luminosity active
galaxies. Our technique is quite general, and can be applied to any
cross-matching between surveys with well-understood positional errors.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, submitted to The Astronomical Journal on 19
June 200
Multiple Components of the Luminous Compact X-ray Source at the Edge of Holmberg II observed by ASCA and ROSAT
We report the results of the analysis of ASCA/ROSAT observations of the
compact luminous X-ray source found at the edge of the nearby star-forming
dwarf galaxy Holmberg II (UGC 4305).Our ASCA spectrum revealed that the X-ray
emission extends to the hard band and can be best described by a power-law with
a photon spectral index of 1.9. The ASCA spectrum does not fit with a
multi-color disk blackbody. The joint ASCA-ROSAT spectrum suggests two
components to the spectrum: the hard power-law component and a warm thermal
plasma kT~0.3[keV]. An additional absorption over that of our galaxy is
required. The wobble correction of the ROSAT HRI image has clearly unveiled the
existence of an extended component which amounts to 27+/-5% of the total X-ray
emission.
These observations indicate that there are more than one component in the
X-ray emission. The properties of the point-like component is indicative of an
accretion onto an intermediate mass blackhole, unless a beaming is taking
place. We argue that the extended component does not come from electron
scattering and/or reflection by scattered optically-thick clouds of the central
radiation. Possible explanations of this X-ray source include multiple
supernova remnants feeding an intermediate-mass blackhole. (abridged)Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures accepted to Astronomical Journa
The Large-Scale Structure of the X-ray Background and its Cosmological Implications
A careful analysis of the HEAO1 A2 2-10 keV full-sky map of the X-ray
background (XRB) reveals clustering on the scale of several degrees. After
removing the contribution due to beam smearing, the intrinsic clustering of the
background is found to be consistent with an auto-correlation function of the
form (3.6 +- 0.9) x 10^{-4} theta^{-1} where theta is measured in degrees. If
current AGN models of the hard XRB are reasonable and the cosmological
constant-cold dark matter cosmology is correct, this clustering implies an
X-ray bias factor of b_X ~ 2. Combined with the absence of a correlation
between the XRB and the cosmic microwave background, this clustering can be
used to limit the presence of an integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect and
thereby to constrain the value of the cosmological constant, Omega_Lambda <
0.60 (95 % C.L.). This constraint is inconsistent with much of the parameter
space currently favored by other observations. Finally, we marginally detect
the dipole moment of the diffuse XRB and find it to be consistent with the
dipole due to our motion with respect to the mean rest frame of the XRB. The
limit on the amplitude of any intrinsic dipole is delta I / I < 5 x 10^{-3} at
the 95 % C.L. When compared to the local bulk velocity, this limit implies a
constraint on the matter density of the universe of Omega_m^{0.6}/b_X(0) >
0.24.Comment: 15 pages, 8 postscript figures, to appear in the Astrophysical
Journal. The postscript version appears not to print, so use the PDF versio
A Systematic Analysis of Fe II Emission in Quasars: Evidence for Inflow to the Central Black Hole
Broad Fe II emission is a prominent feature of the optical and ultraviolet
spectra of quasars. We report on a systematical investigation of optical Fe II
emission in a large sample of 4037 z < 0.8 quasars selected from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey. We have developed and tested a detailed line-fitting
technique, taking into account the complex continuum and narrow and broad
emission-line spectrum. Our primary goal is to quantify the velocity broadening
and velocity shift of the Fe II spectrum in order to constrain the location of
the Fe II-emitting region and its relation to the broad-line region. We find
that the majority of quasars show Fe II emission that is redshifted, typically
by ~ 400 km/s but up to 2000 km/s, with respect to the systemic velocity of the
narrow-line region or of the conventional broad-line region as traced by the
Hbeta line. Moreover, the line width of Fe II is significantly narrower than
that of the broad component of Hbeta. We show that the magnitude of the Fe II
redshift correlates inversely with the Eddington ratio, and that there is a
tendency for sources with redshifted Fe II emission to show red asymmetry in
the Hbeta line. These characteristics strongly suggest that Fe II originates
from a location different from, and most likely exterior to, the region that
produces most of Hbeta. The Fe II-emitting zone traces a portion of the
broad-line region of intermediate velocities whose dynamics may be dominated by
infall.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Isolated, Massive Supergiants near the Galactic Center
We have carried out a pilot project to assess the feasibility of using radio,
infrared, and X-ray emission to identify young, massive stars located between 1
and 25 pc from the Galactic center. We first compared catalogs compiled from
the Very Large Array, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and 2MASS. We identified
two massive, young stars: the previously-identified star that is associated
with the radio HII region H2, and a newly-identified star that we refer to as
CXOGC J174516.1-290315. The infrared spectra of both stars exhibit very strong
Br-gamma and He I lines, and resemble those of massive supergiants that have
evolved off of the main sequence, but not yet reached the Wolf-Rayet phase. We
estimate that each star has a bolometric luminosity >10^6 L_sun. The detection
of these two sources in X-rays is surprising, because stars at similar
evolutionary states are not uniformly bright X-ray sources. Therefore, we
suggest that both stars are in binary systems that contain either OB stars
whose winds collide with those of the luminous supergiants, or compact objects
that are accreting from the winds of the supergiants. We also identify X-ray
emission from a nitrogen-type Wolf-Rayet star and place upper limits on the
X-ray luminosities of three more evolved, massive stars that previously have
been identified between 1 and 25 pc from Sgr A*. Finally, we briefly discuss
the implications that future searches for young stars will have for our
understanding of the recent history of star formation near the Galactic center.
(abridged)Comment: 9 pages, including 8 figures. Submitted to ApJ, and modified in
response to referee's repor
Diffuse Hard X-ray Sources Discovered with the ASCA Galactic Plane Survey
We found diffuse hard X-ray sources, G11.0+0.0, G25.5+0.0, and G26.6-0.1 in
the ASCA Galactic plane survey data. The X-ray spectra are featureless with no
emission line, and are fitted with both models of a thin thermal plasma in
non-equilibrium ionization and a power-law function. The source distances are
estimated to be 1-8 kpc, using the best-fit NH values on the assumption that
the mean density in the line of sight is 1 H cm^-3. The source sizes and
luminosities are then 4.5-27 pc and (0.8-23)x10^33 ergs/s. Although the source
sizes are typical to supernova remnants (SNR) with young to intermediate ages,
the X-ray luminosity, plasma temperature, and weak emission lines in the
spectra are all unusual. This suggests that these objects are either shell-like
SNRs dominated by X-ray synchrotron emission, like SN 1006, or, alternatively,
plerionic SNRs. The total number of these classes of SNRs in our Galaxy is also
estimated.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures; to appear in Ap
Suzaku Observations of Active Galactic Nuclei Detected in the Swift/BAT Survey: Discovery of "New Type" of Buried Supermassive Black Holes
We present the Suzaku broad band observations of two AGNs detected by the
Swift/BAT hard X-ray (>15 keV) survey that did not have previous X-ray data,
Swift J0601.9-8636 and Swift J0138.6-4001. The Suzaku spectra reveals in both
objects a heavily absorbed power law component with a column density of NH =~
10^{23.5-24} cm^{-2} that dominates above 10 keV, and an intense reflection
component with a solid angle >~ from a cold, optically thick medium. We
find that these AGNs have an extremely small fraction of scattered light from
the nucleus, <~ 0.5% with respect to the intrinsic power law component. This
indicates that they are buried in a very geometrically-thick torus with a small
opening angle and/or have unusually small amount of gas responsible for
scattering. In the former case, the geometry of Swift J0601.9-8636 should be
nearly face-on as inferred from the small absorption for the reflection
component. The discovery of two such objects in this small sample implies that
there must be a significant number of yet unrecognized, very Compton thick AGNs
viewed at larger inclination angles in the local universe, which are difficult
to detect even in the currently most sensitive optical or hard X-ray surveys.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Lette
The UCLA Design Diversity Experiment (DEDIX) system: A distributed testbed for multiple-version software
To establish a long-term research facility for experimental investigations of design diversity as a means of achieving fault-tolerant systems, a distributed testbed for multiple-version software was designed. It is part of a local network, which utilizes the Locus distributed operating system to operate a set of 20 VAX 11/750 computers. It is used in experiments to measure the efficacy of design diversity and to investigate reliability increases under large-scale, controlled experimental conditions
Are the jets accelerated from the disk coronas in some active galactic nuclei?
We use a sample of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with estimated
central black hole masses to explore their jet formation mechanisms. The jet
power of AGNs is estimated from their extended radio luminosity. It is found
that the jets in several AGNs of this sample are too powerful to be extracted
from the standard thin accretion disks or rapidly spinning black holes
surrounded by standard thin disks. If the advection dominated accretion flows
(ADAFs) are present in these AGNs, their bright optical continuum luminosity
cannot be produced by pure-ADAFs due to their low accretion rates and low
radiation efficiency, unless the ADAFs transit to standard thin disks at some
radii . If this is the case, we find that the dimensionless
accretion rates as high as 0.05 and transition from ADAFs to standard thin
disks at rather small radii around 20GM/c^2 are required to explain their
bright optical continuum emission. We propose that the disk-corona structure is
present at least in some AGNs in this sample. The plasmas in the corona are
very hot, and the pressure scale-height of the corona H\sim R. Powerful jets
with Q_jet \sim L_bol (bolometric luminosity) can form by the large-scale
magnetic fields created by dynamo processes in the disk corona of some AGNs.
The maximal jet power extractable from the corona Q_jet^max\le 0.6L_c (L_c is
the corona luminosity) is expected by this jet formation scenario. The
statistic results on the sample of AGNs are consistent with the predictions of
this scenario. Finally, the possibility that the jet is driven from a
super-Keplerian rotating hot layer located between the corona and the cold disk
is discussed. We find that, in principle, this layer can also produce a
powerful jet with Q_jet\sim L_bol.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in Ap
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