31,036 research outputs found
Diagnostics of the structure of AGN's broad line regions with reverberation mapping data: confirmation of the two-component broad line region model
We re-examine the ten Reverberation Mapping (RM) sources with public data
based on the two-component model of the Broad Line Region (BLR). In fitting
their broad H-beta lines, six of them only need one Gaussian component, one of
them has a double-peak profile, one has an irregular profile, and only two of
them need two components, i.e., a Very Broad Gaussian Component (VBGC) and an
Inter-Mediate Gaussian Component (IMGC). The Gaussian components are assumed to
come from two distinct regions in the two-component model; they are Very Broad
Line Region (VBLR) and Inter-Mediate Line region (IMLR). The two sources with a
two-component profile are Mrk 509 and NGC 4051. The time lags of the two
components of both sources satisfy ,
where and are the lags of the two components while
and represent the mean gas velocities of the two regions,
supporting the two-component model of the BLR of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN).
The fact that most of these ten sources only have the VBGC confirms the
assumption that RM mainly measures the radius of the VBLR; consequently, the
radius obtained from the R-L relationship mainly represent the radius of VBLR.
Moreover, NGC 4051, with a lag of about 5 days in the one component model, is
an outlier on the R-L relationship as shown in Kaspi et al. (2005); however
this problem disappears in our two-component model with lags of about 2 and 6
days for the VBGC and IMGC, respectively.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in the Special Issue of
Science in China (G) "Astrophysics of Black holes and Related Compact
Objects
The Electrostatic Persistence Length Calculated from Monte Carlo, Variational and Perturbation Methods
Monte Carlo simulations and variational calculations using a Gaussian ansatz
are applied to a model consisting of a flexible linear polyelectrolyte chain as
well as to an intrinsically stiff chain with up to 1000 charged monomers.
Addition of salt is treated implicitly through a screened Coulomb potential for
the electrostatic interactions.
For the flexible model the electrostatic persistence length shows roughly
three regimes in its dependence on the Debye-H\"{u}ckel screening length,
.As long as the salt content is low and is longer
than the end-to-end distance, the electrostatic persistence length varies only
slowly with . Decreasing the screening length, a controversial
region is entered. We find that the electrostatic persistence length scales as
, in agreement with experiment on flexible
polyelectrolytes, where is a strength parameter measuring the
electrostatic interactions within the polyelectrolyte. For screening lengths
much shorter than the bond length, the dependence becomes
quadratic in the variational calculation. The simulations suffer from numerical
problems in this regime, but seem to give a relationship half-way between
linear and quadratic.
A low temperature expansion only reproduces the first regime and a high
temperature expansion, which treats the electrostatic interactions as a
perturbation to a Gaussian chain, gives a quadratic dependence on the Debye
length.
For a sufficiently stiff chain, the persistence length varies quadratically
with in agreement with earlier theories.Comment: 20 pages LaTeX, 9 postscript figure
NEW ESTIMATES OF WELFARE AND CONSUMER LOSSES IN U.S. FOOD MANUFACTURING
In the past 15 years, industrial-organization economists have significantly expanded the range of algorithms for calculating welfare losses due to imperfect competition. We compare eleven empirical estimates of economic losses due to market power in 47 U.S. food manufacturing industries, almost all of them previously unpublished. Each of the studies incorporate different theoretical assumptions about demand conditions, supply conditions, or industry pricing behavior; or they utilize various data sources, time periods, and assumptions about the proper competitive benchmark. The estimates of average allocative losses due imperfect competition range from 0.2 percent to an impossibly high 289 percent of industry output; consumer losses range from 6.0 percent to 816 percent. However, there is a high degree of congruence in the rankings of economic losses due to market power. Hence, from the perspective of antitrust enforcement, the choice of industry targets has not been greatly altered by advances in estimation techniques.Agribusiness,
MARKET-STRUCTURE DETERMINANTS OF NATIONAL BRAND-PRIVATE LABEL PRICE DIFFERENCES OF MANUFACTURED FOOD PRODUCTS
This paper estimates the relationships between market structure and the Lerner index of monopoly constructed from price data on processed food products sold through grocery stores. A theoretical model of a differentiated oligopoly specifies two determinants of price-cost margins: the Herfindahl-Hirschman index of seller concentration adjusted for the elasticity of demand and the industry advertising-to-sales ratio. The results indicate that the three principal determinants of price-cost margin variation, in order of their impacts, are: advertising intensity, elasticity of demand, and concentration. Previous structure-performance studies that did not incorporate the elasticity of demand were probably misspecified.Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis,
Evaluation of Water Conservation From More Efficient Irrigation Systems
Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,
A Potts Neuron Approach to Communication Routing
A feedback neural network approach to communication routing problems is
developed with emphasis on Multiple Shortest Path problems, with several
requests for transmissions between distinct start- and endnodes. The basic
ingredients are a set of Potts neurons for each request, with interactions
designed to minimize path lengths and to prevent overloading of network arcs.
The topological nature of the problem is conveniently handled using a
propagator matrix approach. Although the constraints are global, the
algorithmic steps are based entirely on local information, facilitating
distributed implementations. In the polynomially solvable single-request case
the approach reduces to a fuzzy version of the Bellman-Ford algorithm. The
approach is evaluated for synthetic problems of varying sizes and load levels,
by comparing with exact solutions from a branch-and-bound method. With very few
exceptions, the Potts approach gives legal solutions of very high quality. The
computational demand scales merely as the product of the numbers of requests,
nodes, and arcs.Comment: 10 pages LaTe
Development of aircraft brake materials
The requirements of brake materials were outlined and a survey made to select materials to meet the needs of high temperature brakes. A number of metals and ceramic materials were selected and evaluated in sliding tests which simulated aircraft braking. Nickel, molybdenum tungsten, Zr02, high temperature cements and carbons were tested. Additives were then incorporated into these materials to optimize their wear or strength behavior with particular emphasis on nickel and molybdenum base materials and a high temperature potassium silicate cement. Optimum materials were developed which improved wear behavior over conventional brake materials in the simulated test. The best materials are a nickel, aluminum oxide, lead tungstate composition containing graphite or molybdenum disulphite; a molybdenum base material containing LPA100 (an intermetallic compound of cobalt, molybdenum, and silicon); and a carbon material (P5)
Determining Central Black Hole Masses in Distant Active Galaxies and Quasars. II. Improved Optical and UV Scaling Relationships
We present four improved empirical relationships useful for estimating the
central black hole mass in nearby AGNs and distant luminous quasars alike using
either optical or UV single-epoch spectroscopy. These mass-scaling
relationships between line widths and luminosity are based on recently improved
empirical relationships between the broad-line region size and luminosities in
various energy bands and are calibrated to the improved mass measurements of
nearby AGNs based on emission-line reverberation mapping. The mass-scaling
relationship based on the Hbeta line luminosity allows mass estimates for
low-redshift sources with strong contamination of the optical continuum
luminosity by stellar or non-thermal emission, while that based on the C IV
lambda 1549 line dispersion allows mass estimates in cases where only the line
dispersion (as opposed to the FWHM) can be reliably determined. We estimate
that the absolute uncertainties in masses given by these mass-scaling
relationships are typically around a factor of 4. We include in an Appendix
mass estimates for all the Bright Quasar Survey (PG) quasars for which direct
reverberation-based mass measurements are not available.Comment: 48 pages including 12 figures and 7 tables. Accepted by Ap
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