XMM-Newton Observations of High Redshift Quasars

We report on our XMM observations of the high redshift quasars BR 2237--0607 (z=4.558) and BR 0351--1034 (z=4.351), together with 14 other z>4 objects found in the XMM public archive. Contrary to former reports, we do not find high redshift radio-loud quasars to be more absorbed than their radio-quiet counterparts. We find that the optical to X-ray spectral index alpha-ox is correlated with the luminosity density at 2500 A, but does not show a correlation with redshift. The mean 2-10 keV power-law slope of the 9 high redshift radio-quiet quasars in our sample for which a spectral analysis can be performed is alpha-x1.23+-0.48, similar to alpha-x=1.19 found from the ASCA observations of low redshift Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s), and significantly different from alpha-x=0.78 found for low redshift Broad-Line Seyfert galaxies. While the optical/UV spectra of low to high redshift quasars look remarkably similar, we find a first indication of a difference in their X-ray spectrum. The steep X-ray spectral index suggests high Eddington ratios L/L_Edd. These observations give credence to the hypothesis of Mathur (2000) that NLS1s are low luminosity cousins of high redshift quasars, both likely to be in their early evolutionary stage.Comment: 25 pages, AJ, in press (Jan 2006

On The Orbital Evolution of Jupiter Mass Protoplanet Embedded in A Self-Gravity Disk

We performed a series of hydro-dynamic simulations to investigate the orbital migration of a Jovian planet embedded in a proto-stellar disk. In order to take into account of the effect of the disk's self gravity, we developed and adopted an \textbf{Antares} code which is based on a 2-D Godunov scheme to obtain the exact Reimann solution for isothermal or polytropic gas, with non-reflecting boundary conditions. Our simulations indicate that in the study of the runaway (type III) migration, it is important to carry out a fully self consistent treatment of the gravitational interaction between the disk and the embedded planet. Through a series of convergence tests, we show that adequate numerical resolution, especially within the planet's Roche lobe, critically determines the outcome of the simulations. We consider a variety of initial conditions and show that isolated, non eccentric protoplanet planets do not undergo type III migration. We attribute the difference between our and previous simulations to the contribution of a self consistent representation of the disk's self gravity. Nevertheless, type III migration cannot be completely suppressed and its onset requires finite amplitude perturbations such as that induced by planet-planet interaction. We determine the radial extent of type III migration as a function of the disk's self gravity.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure

Non-damping oscillations at flaring loops

Context. QPPs are usually detected as spatial displacements of coronal loops in imaging observations or as periodic shifts of line properties in spectroscopic observations. They are often applied for remote diagnostics of magnetic fields and plasma properties on the Sun. Aims. We combine imaging and spectroscopic measurements of available space missions, and investigate the properties of non-damping oscillations at flaring loops. Methods. We used the IRIS to measure the spectrum over a narrow slit. The double-component Gaussian fitting method was used to extract the line profile of Fe XXI 1354.08 A at "O I" window. The quasi-periodicity of loop oscillations were identified in the Fourier and wavelet spectra. Results. A periodicity at about 40 s is detected in the line properties of Fe XXI, HXR emissions in GOES 1-8 A derivative, and Fermi 26-50 keV. The Doppler velocity and line width oscillate in phase, while a phase shift of about Pi/2 is detected between the Doppler velocity and peak intensity. The amplitudes of Doppler velocity and line width oscillation are about 2.2 km/s and 1.9 km/s, respectively, while peak intensity oscillate with amplitude at about 3.6% of the background emission. Meanwhile, a quasi-period of about 155 s is identified in the Doppler velocity and peak intensity of Fe XXI, and AIA 131 A intensity. Conclusions. The oscillations at about 40 s are not damped significantly during the observation, it might be linked to the global kink modes of flaring loops. The periodicity at about 155 s is most likely a signature of recurring downflows after chromospheric evaporation along flaring loops. The magnetic field strengths of the flaring loops are estimated to be about 120-170 G using the MHD seismology diagnostics, which are consistent with the magnetic field modeling results using the flux rope insertion method.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, accepted by A&

Measuring topic network centrality for identifying technology and technological development in online communities

Online communities are a rapidly growing knowledge repository that provides scholarly research, technical discussion, and social interactivity. This abundance of online information increases the difficulty of keeping up with new developments difficult for researchers and practitioners. Thus, we introduced a novel method that analyses both knowledge and social sentiment within the online community to discover the topical coverage of emerging technology and trace technological trends. The method utilizes the Weibull distribution and Shannon entropy to measure and link social sentiment with technological topics. Based on question-and-answer and social sentiment data from Zhihu, which is an online question and answer (Q&A) community with high-profile entrepreneurs and public intellectuals, we built an undirected weighting network and measured the centrality of nodes for technology identification. An empirical study on artificial intelligence technology trends supported by expert knowledge-based evaluation and cognition provides sufficient evidence of the method's ability to identify technology. We found that the social sentiment of hot technological topics presents a long-tailed distribution statistical pattern. High similarity between the topic popularity and emerging technology development trends appears in the online community. Finally, we discuss the findings in various professional fields that are widely applied to discover and track hot technological topics

Ground states of hard-core bosons in one dimensional periodic potentials

With Girardeau's Fermi-Bose mapping, we find the exact ground states of hard-core bosons residing in a one dimensional periodic potential. The analysis of these ground states shows that when the number of bosons $N$ is commensurate with the number of wells $M$ in the periodic potential, the boson system is a Mott insulator whose energy gap, however, is given by the single-particle band gap of the periodic potential; when $N$ is not commensurate with $M$, the system is a metal (not a superfluid). In fact, we argue that there may be no superfluid phase for any one-dimensional boson system in terms of Landau's criterion of superfluidity. The Kronig-Penney potential is used to illustrate our results.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure