David Vs. Goliath: What Accreting Stellar Mass Black Holes Can Teach Us About the Supermassive
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Spectroscopy of the Candidate Luminous Blue Variable at the Center
A&A manuscript no. ASTRONOMY (will be inserted by hand later) AND Your thesaurus codes are: 06 (08.03.4; 08.05.1; 08.05.3; 08.09.2; 08.13.2; 08.22.3) ASTROPHYSICS Spectroscopy of the candidate luminous blue variable at the center of the ring nebula G79.29+0.46 R.H.M. Voors1,2⋆, T.R. Geballe3, L.B.F.M. Waters4,5, F. Najarro6, and H.J.G.L.M. Lamers1,2 1 Astronomical Institute, University of Utrecht, Princetonplein 5, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands 2 SRON Laboratory for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, NL-3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands 3 Gemini Observatory, 670 N. A’ohoku Place, Hilo, Hawaii 96720, USA 4 Astronomical Institute ’Anton Pannekoek’, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, NL-1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Nether- lands 5 SRON Laboratory for Space Research, P.O. Box 800, NL-9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands 6 CSIC Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, Dpto. Fisica Molecular, C/Serrano 121, E-28006 Madrid, Spain Received date: 23 March 2000; accepted date Abstract. We report optical and near-infrared spectra of Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) stage (Conti 1984), these the central star of the radio source G79.29+0.46, a can- stars lose a large amount of mass in a short time interval didate luminous blue variable. The spectra contain nu- (e.g. Chiosi & Maeder 1986). The identifying characteris- merous narrow (FWHM < 100 kms−1) emission lines of tics of an LBV in addition to its blue colors are (1) a mass −5 −1 which the low-lying hydrogen lines are the strongest, and loss rate of (∼ 10 M⊙ yr ), (2) a low wind velocity of resemble spectra of other LBVc’s and B[e] supergiants. -
BRAS Newsletter August 2013
www.brastro.org August 2013 Next meeting Aug 12th 7:00PM at the HRPO Dark Site Observing Dates: Primary on Aug. 3rd, Secondary on Aug. 10th Photo credit: Saturn taken on 20” OGS + Orion Starshoot - Ben Toman 1 What's in this issue: PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE....................................................................................................................3 NOTES FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT ............................................................................................4 MESSAGE FROM THE HRPO …....................................................................................................5 MONTHLY OBSERVING NOTES ....................................................................................................6 OUTREACH CHAIRPERSON’S NOTES .........................................................................................13 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION .......................................................................................................14 2 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Hi Everyone, I hope you’ve been having a great Summer so far and had luck beating the heat as much as possible. The weather sure hasn’t been cooperative for observing, though! First I have a pretty cool announcement. Thanks to the efforts of club member Walt Cooney, there are 5 newly named asteroids in the sky. (53256) Sinitiere - Named for former BRAS Treasurer Bob Sinitiere (74439) Brenden - Named for founding member Craig Brenden (85878) Guzik - Named for LSU professor T. Greg Guzik (101722) Pursell - Named for founding member Wally Pursell -
Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array I: Design, Commissioning, and Early Photometric Results
Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array I: design, commissioning, and early photometric results Jonathan J. Swift Steven R. Gibson Michael Bottom Brian Lin John A. Johnson Ming Zhao Jason T. Wright Paul Gardner Nate McCrady Emilio Falco Robert A. Wittenmyer Stephen Criswell Peter Plavchan Chantanelle Nava Reed Riddle Connor Robinson Philip S. Muirhead David H. Sliski Erich Herzig Richard Hedrick Justin Myles Kevin Ivarsen Cullen H. Blake Annie Hjelstrom Jason Eastman Jon de Vera Thomas G. Beatty Andrew Szentgyorgyi Stuart I. Barnes Downloaded From: http://astronomicaltelescopes.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 05/21/2017 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/termsofuse.aspx Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 1(2), 027002 (Apr–Jun 2015) Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array I: design, commissioning, and early photometric results Jonathan J. Swift,a,*,† Michael Bottom,a John A. Johnson,b Jason T. Wright,c Nate McCrady,d Robert A. Wittenmyer,e Peter Plavchan,f Reed Riddle,a Philip S. Muirhead,g Erich Herzig,a Justin Myles,h Cullen H. Blake,i Jason Eastman,b Thomas G. Beatty,c Stuart I. Barnes,j,‡ Steven R. Gibson,k,§ Brian Lin,a Ming Zhao,c Paul Gardner,a Emilio Falco,l Stephen Criswell,l Chantanelle Nava,d Connor Robinson,d David H. Sliski,i Richard Hedrick,m Kevin Ivarsen,m Annie Hjelstrom,n Jon de Vera,n and Andrew Szentgyorgyil aCalifornia Institute of Technology, Departments of Astronomy and Planetary Science, 1200 E. California Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91125, United States bHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States cThe Pennsylvania State University, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, 525 Davey Laboratory, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States dUniversity of Montana, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 32 Campus Drive, No. -
Powerful Jets from Radiatively Efficient Disks, a Decades-Old Unresolved Problem in High Energy Astrophysics
galaxies Article Powerful Jets from Radiatively Efficient Disks, a Decades-Old Unresolved Problem in High Energy Astrophysics Chandra B. Singh 1,*,†, David Garofalo 2,† and Benjamin Lang 3 1 South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University, University Town, Chenggong, Kunming 650500, China 2 Department of Physics, Kennesaw State University, Marietta, GA 30060, USA; [email protected] 3 Department of Physics & Astronomy, California State University, Northridge, CA 91330, USA; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] † These authors contributed equally to this work. Abstract: The discovery of 3C 273 in 1963, and the emergence of the Kerr solution shortly thereafter, precipitated the current era in astrophysics focused on using black holes to explain active galactic nuclei (AGN). But while partial success was achieved in separately explaining the bright nuclei of some AGN via thin disks, as well as powerful jets with thick disks, the combination of both powerful jets in an AGN with a bright nucleus, such as in 3C 273, remained elusive. Although numerical simulations have taken center stage in the last 25 years, they have struggled to produce the conditions that explain them. This is because radiatively efficient disks have proved a challenge to simulate. Radio quasars have thus been the least understood objects in high energy astrophysics. But recent simulations have begun to change this. We explore this milestone in light of scale-invariance and show that transitory jets, possibly related to the jets seen in these recent simulations, as some have proposed, cannot explain radio quasars. We then provide a road map for a resolution. -
Pos(MQW7)111 Ce
Long-term optical activity of the microquasar V4641 Sgr PoS(MQW7)111 Vojtechˇ Šimon Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 25165 Ondˇrejov, Czech Republic E-mail: [email protected] Arne Henden AAVSO, 49 Bay State Road, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA E-mail: [email protected] We present an analysis of the optical activity of the microquasar V4641 Sgr using the visual and photographic data. We analyze four smaller (echo) outbursts that followed the main outburst (1999). Their mean recurrence time TC is 377 days, with a trend of a decrease. We interpret the characteristic features of the recent activity of V4641 Sgr (the narrow outbursts separated by a long quiescence, a clear trend in the evolution of their TC) as the thermal instability of the accre- tion disk operating in dwarf novae and soft X-ray transients. We argue that the luminosity of four echo outbursts is too high to be explained by the thermal emission of the accretion disk. We inter- pret them as due to the thermal instability, in which the outburst gives rise to a jet radiating also in the optical. This supports the finding by Uemura et al., PASJ 54, L79 (2002). The pre-outburst observations (1964–1967) reveal ongoing activity of the system. It displays low-amplitude fluc- tuations on the timescale of several weeks, independent on the orbital phase. In addition, a larger brightening which lasted for several tens of days and occurred from the level of brightness higher than in other years can be resolved. VII Microquasar Workshop: Microquasars and Beyond September 1 - 5, 2008 Foca, Izmir, Turkey c Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence. -
NI\S/\ \\\\\\\\\ \\\\ \\\\ \\\\\ \\\\\ \\\\\ \\\\\ \\\\ \\\\ ' NF00991 ) NASA Technical Memorandum 86169
NASA-TM-8616919850010600 NASA Technical Memorandum 86169'----------/ X-Ray Spectra of Supernova Remnants Andrew E. Szymkowiak FEBRUARY 1985 LIBRARY COpy ;:. t- q', IJ~/) LANGLEY RESEARCY CENTER LIBRARY, NASA HAMPTON, VIRGINIA NI\S/\ \\\\\\\\\ \\\\ \\\\ \\\\\ \\\\\ \\\\\ \\\\\ \\\\ \\\\ ' NF00991 ) NASA Technical Memorandum 86169 X-Ray Spectra of Supernova Remnants Andrew E. Szymkowiak University of Maryland College Park, Maryland NI\S/\ National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Branch 1985 This Page Intentionally Left Blank iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of r,ontents............................................... iii I. Introductlon................................................. 1 II. Observational and Theoretical Background.................... 4 III. Theory for the X-ray Emission.............................. 14 IV. Experiment and Analysis Description......................... 33 V. Variations in X-ray Spectra Across Puppis A.................. 46 VI. X-ray Spectra of Two Young Remnants......................... 70 VII. Future Prospects........................................... 93 VIII. Recapitulation............................................ 99 Bibliography.................................................... 102 1 I. Introduct10n The advent of astronom1cal spectroscopy prov1ded much of the impetus for the creation of astrophysics, a bridge between phYS1CS and astronomy. The ability to study composition and temperature of remote objects allowed the transition from a field mainly concerned with -
Modified Viscosity in Accretion Disks. Application to Galactic Black Hole
Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no. languagecorrection_doarxiva c ESO 2017 April 24, 2017 Modified viscosity in accretion disks. Application to Galactic black hole binaries, intermediate mass black holes, and AGN Mikołaj Grz˛edzielski1, Agnieszka Janiuk1, Bo˙zenaCzerny1 and Qingwen Wu2 1 Center for Theoretical Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland e-mail: [email protected] 2 School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China Received ...; accepted ... ABSTRACT Aims Black holes (BHs) surrounded by accretion disks are present in the Universe at different scales of masses, from microquasars up to the active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Since the work of Shakura and Sunyaev (1973) and their α-disk model, various prescriptions for the heat-production rate are used to describe the accretion process. The current picture remains ad hoc due the complexity of the magnetic field action. In addition, accretion disks at high Eddington rates can be radiation-pressure dominated and, according to some of the heating prescriptions, thermally unstable. The observational verification of their resulting variability patterns may shed light on both the role of radiation pressure and magnetic fields in the accretion process. Methods We compute the structure and time evolution of an accretion disk, using the code GLADIS (which models the global accretion disk instability). We supplement this model with a modified viscosity prescription, which can to some extent describe the magnetisation of the disk. We study the results for a large grid of models, to cover the whole parameter space, and we derive conclusions separately for different scales of black hole masses, which are characteristic for various types of cosmic sources. -
On the Viability of Gravitational Bose-Einstein Condensates As
Draft version November 15, 2018 Preprint typeset using LATEX style emulateapj v. 11/10/09 ON THE VIABILITY OF GRAVITATIONAL BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATES AS ALTERNATIVES TO SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES Hujeirat, A.A.1 Draft version November 15, 2018 ABSTRACT Black holes are inevitable mathematical outcome of spacetime-energy coupling in general relativity. Currently these objects are of vital importance for understanding numerous phenomena in astrophysics and cosmology. However, neither theory nor observations have been capable of unequivocally prove the existence of black holes or granting us an insight of what their internal structures could look like, therefore leaving researchers to speculate about their nature. In this paper the reliability of supermassive Bose-Einstein condensates (henceforth SMBECs) as alternative to supermassive black holes is examined. Such condensates are found to suffer of a causality problem that terminates their cosmological growth toward acquiring masses typical for quasars and triggers their self-collapse into supermassive black holes (SMBHs). It is argued that a SMBEC-core most likely would be subject to an extensive deceleration of its rotational frequency as well as to vortex-dissipation induced by the magnetic fields that thread the crust, hence diminishing the superfluidity of the core. Given that rotating superfluids between two concentric spheres have been verified to be dynamically unstable to non axi-symmetric perturbations, we conclude that the remnant energy stored in the core would be sufficiently large to turn the flow turbulent and dissipative and subsequently lead to core collapse bosonova. The feasibility of a conversion mechanism of normal matter into bosonic condensates under normal astrophysical conditions is discussed as well. -
GRAVITY+: Towards Faint Science, All Sky, High Contrast, Milli-Arcsecond Optical Interferometric Imaging
GRAVITY+: Towards Faint Science, All Sky, High Contrast, Milli-Arcsecond Optical Interferometric Imaging White Paper and Proposal For the GRAVITY+ Consortium (MPE, LESIA, IPAG, UoC, CENTRA, MPIA, UoS): F. Eisenhauer1 (PI), P. Garcia2,3,4 (CoI), R. Genzel1,5, S. Hönig6 (CoI*), L. Kreidberg7,8 (CoI), J.-B. Le Bouquin9 (CoI), P. Léna10, T. Paumard10 (CoI), C. Straubmeier11 (CoI) Senior Team Members and Associated Partners: A. Amorim2,12, W. Brandner8, M. Carbillet13, V. Cardoso2,14, Y. Clénet10, R. Davies1, D. Defrère15, T. de Zeeuw1,16, G. Duvert9, A. Eckart11,17, S. Esposito18, M. Fabricius1,19, N.M. Förster Schreiber1, P. Gandhi6, E. Gendron10, S. Gillessen1, D. Gratadour10, K.-H. Hofmann17, M. Horrobin11, M. Ireland20, P. Kervella10, S. Kraus21, S. Lacour10, O. Lai22, B. Lopez22, D. Lutz1, F. Martinache22, A. Meilland22, F. Millour22, T. Ott1, R. Oudmaijer23, F. Patru10, K. Perraut9, G. Perrin10, R. Petrov22, S. Quanz24, S. Rabien1, A. Riccardi18, R. Saglia1,19, J. Sánchez Bermúdez8,25, D. Schertl17, J. Schubert1, F. Soulez26, E. Sturm1, L.J. Tacconi1, M. Tallon26, I. Tallon-Bosc26, E. Thiébaut26, F. Vidal10, G. Weigelt17, A. Ziad13 Supporters: O. Absil15, A. Alonso-Herrero27, R. Bender1,19, M. Benisty9,28, J.-P. Berger9, E. Banados8, C. Boisson29, J. Bouvier9, P. Caselli1, A. Cassan30, B. Chazelas31, A. Chiavassa32, F. Combes33, V. Coudé du Foresto10, J. Dexter1,34, C. Dougados9, Th. Henning8, T. Herbst8, J. Kammerer20, M. Kishimoto35, L. Labadie11, A.-M. Lagrange9, A. Marconi36, A. Matter13, Z. Meliani29, F. Ménard9, J. Monnier37, D. Mourard13, H. Netzer38, N. Neumayer8, B. Peterson39,40,41, P.-O. Petrucci9, J.-U. Pott8, H.W. -
Mark T. Reynolds
CURRICULUM VITAE - 1st December 2018 Mark T. Reynolds 306GWestHall, Phone:+1734764–4160 1085 S. University Ave., Email: [email protected] Ann Arbor, Homepage: dept.astro.lsa.umich.edu/∼markrey MI 48109 Education: Ph.D.Astrophysics 2008,UniversityCollegeCork,Ireland Title: Optical & IR observations of quiescent LMXBs. Advisor: Prof. Paul Callanan B.Sc. Physics 2003, University College Cork, Ireland Graduated with first class honours Employment: • 2013 – Present: Assistant research scientist in the astronomy department at the University of Michigan. • 2008 – 2013: Postdoctoral researcher in the astronomy department at the University of Michigan (w/ Jon Miller). Research Interests: • Accretion as a function of M, M˙ , ‘feedback’, disk-jet connections in accreting sources. • Accretion physics, stellar remnants (BHs, NSs & WDs), transients & variable sources • Supermassive black-hole/Galaxy growth & co-evolution. • Using black holes and neutron stars to test GR in the strong field limit. • Using neutron stars to constrain the equation of state of ultra-dense matter. • X-ray binaries, compact object mass estimation, population studies, LMXB - millisecond radio pulsar link, SNRs, YSOs. • Extragalactic X-ray binaries, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts. Selected Publications: • “A Swift Survey of Accretion onto Stellar Mass Black Holes” Reynolds M.T., Miller J.M., 2013, ApJ, 769, 16 • “Reflection From the Strong Gravity Regime in a z=0.658 Gravitationally Lensed-Quasar” Reis R.C., Reynolds M.T., Miller J.M., Walton D., 2014, Nature, 507, 207 • “A Rapidly -
Quasar Jet Emission Model Applied to the Microquasar GRS 1915+105
A&A 415, L35–L38 (2004) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20040010 & c ESO 2004 Astrophysics Quasar jet emission model applied to the microquasar GRS 1915+105 M. T¨urler1;2, T. J.-L. Courvoisier1;2,S.Chaty3;4,andY.Fuchs4 1 INTEGRAL Science Data Centre, ch. d’Ecogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland 2 Observatoire de Gen`eve, ch. des Maillettes 51, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland Letter to the Editor 3 Universit´e Paris 7, 2 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France 4 Service d’Astrophysique, DSM/DAPNIA/SAp, CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, Cedex, France Received 18 December 2003 / Accepted 14 January 2004 Abstract. The true nature of the radio emitting material observed to be moving relativistically in quasars and microquasars is still unclear. The microquasar community usually interprets them as distinct clouds of plasma, while the extragalactic com- munity prefers a shock wave model. Here we show that the synchrotron variability pattern of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 observed on 15 May 1997 can be reproduced by the standard shock model for extragalactic jets, which describes well the long-term behaviour of the quasar 3C 273. This strengthens the analogy between the two classes of objects and suggests that the physics of relativistic jets is independent of the mass of the black hole. The model parameters we derive for GRS 1915+105 correspond to a rather dissipative jet flow, which is only mildly relativistic with a speed of 0:60 c. We can also estimate that the shock waves form in the jet at a distance of about 1 AU from the black hole. -
Relativistic Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei and Microquasars
SSRv manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Relativistic Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei and Microquasars Gustavo E. Romero · M. Boettcher · S. Markoff · F. Tavecchio Received: date / Accepted: date Abstract Collimated outflows (jets) appear to be a ubiquitous phenomenon associated with the accretion of material onto a compact object. Despite this ubiquity, many fundamental physics aspects of jets are still poorly un- derstood and constrained. These include the mechanism of launching and accelerating jets, the connection between these processes and the nature of the accretion flow, and the role of magnetic fields; the physics responsible for the collimation of jets over tens of thousands to even millions of gravi- tational radii of the central accreting object; the matter content of jets; the location of the region(s) accelerating particles to TeV (possibly even PeV and EeV) energies (as evidenced by γ-ray emission observed from many jet sources) and the physical processes responsible for this particle accelera- tion; the radiative processes giving rise to the observed multi-wavelength emission; and the topology of magnetic fields and their role in the jet colli- mation and particle acceleration processes. This chapter reviews the main knowns and unknowns in our current understanding of relativistic jets, in the context of the main model ingredients for Galactic and extragalactic jet sources. It discusses aspects specific to active Galactic nuclei (especially Gustavo E. Romero Instituto Argentino de Radioastronoma (IAR), C.C. No. 5, 1894, Buenos Aires, Argentina E-mail: [email protected] M. Boettcher Centre for Space Research, Private Bag X6001, North-West University, Potchef- stroom, 2520, South Africa E-mail: [email protected] S.