The Complex X-ray Spectrum of the Sefyert 1.5 Source NGC 6860

The X-ray spectrum of the Seyfert 1.5 source NGC 6860 is among the most complex of the sources detected in the Swift Burst Alert Telescope all-sky survey. A short XMM-Newton follow-up observation of the source revealed a flat spectrum both above and below 2 keV. To uncover the complexity of the source, in this paper we analyze both a 40 ks Suzaku and a 100 ks XMM-Newton observation of NGC 6860. While the spectral state of the source changed between the newer observations presented here and the earlier short XMM-Newton spectrum - showing a higher flux and steeper power law component - the spectrum of NGC 6860 is still complex with clearly detected warm absorption signatures. We find that a two component warm ionized absorber is present in the soft spectrum, with column densities of about 10^20 and 10^21 cm$^-2, ionization parameters of xi = 180 and 45 ergs cm s^-1, and outflow velocities for each component in the range of 0-300 km s^-1. Additionally, in the hard spectrum we find a broad (approx 11000 km s^-1) Fe K-alpha emission line, redshifted by approx 2800 km s^-1.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures, Accepted to Ap

The nuclear dimension of C*-algebras

We introduce the nuclear dimension of a C*-algebra; this is a noncommutative version of topological covering dimension based on a modification of the earlier concept of decomposition rank. Our notion behaves well with respect to inductive limits, tensor products, hereditary subalgebras (hence ideals), quotients, and even extensions. It can be computed for many examples; in particular, it is finite for all UCT Kirchberg algebras. In fact, all classes of nuclear C*-algebras which have so far been successfully classified consist of examples with finite nuclear dimension, and it turns out that finite nuclear dimension implies many properties relevant for the classification program. Surprisingly, the concept is also linked to coarse geometry, since for a discrete metric space of bounded geometry the nuclear dimension of the associated uniform Roe algebra is dominated by the asymptotic dimension of the underlying space.Comment: 33 page

Geographical issues and physics applications of "very" long neutrino factory baselines

We discuss several potential applications of ``very'' long neutrino factory baselines, as well as potential detector locations for these applications.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures; Talk given at the NuFact 05 workshop, June 21-26, Frascati, Ital

Lavrentiev Phenomenon in Microstructure Theory

A variational problem arising as a model in martensitic phase transformation including surface energy is studied. It explains the complex, multi-dimensional pattern of twin branching which is often observed in a martensitic phase near the austenite interface. We prove that a Lavrentiev phenomenon can occur if the domain is a rectangle. We show that this phenomenon disappears under arbitrarily small shears of the domain. We also prove that other perturbations of the problem lead to an extinction of the Lavrentiev phenomenon