Search results for "Astrophysics"
showing 10 items of 8341 documents
Why Have Many of the Brightest Radio-loud Blazars Not Been Detected in Gamma-Rays by Fermi?
2015
We use the complete MOJAVE 1.5 Jy sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to examine the gamma-ray detection statistics of the brightest radio-loud blazars in the northern sky. We find that 23% of these AGNs were not detected above 0.1 GeV by the Fermi-LAT during the four-year 3FGL catalog period partly because of an instrumental selection effect and partly due to their lower Doppler boosting factors. Blazars with synchrotron peaks in their spectral energy distributions located below 10^(13.4) Hz also tend to have high-energy peaks that lie below the 0.1 GeV threshold of the LAT, and are thus less likely to be detected by Fermi. The non-detected AGNs in the 1.5 Jy sample also have significa…
Relativistic simulations of black hole-neutron star coalescence: the jet emerges
2014
We perform magnetohydrodynamic simulations in full general relativity (GRMHD) of a binary black hole-neutron star on a quasicircular orbit that undergoes merger. The binary mass ratio is 3:1, the black hole initial spin parameter $a/m=0.75$ ($m$ is the black hole Christodoulou mass) aligned with the orbital angular momentum, and the neutron star is an irrotational $\Gamma=2$ polytrope. About two orbits prior to merger (at time $t=t_B$), we seed the neutron star with a dynamically weak interior dipole magnetic field that extends into the stellar exterior. At $t=t_B$ the exterior has a low-density atmosphere with constant plasma parameter $\beta\equiv P_{\rm gas}/P_{\rm mag}$. Varying $\beta$…
Polarization calibration techniques for the new-generation VLBI
2020
The calibration and analysis of polarization observations in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) requires the use of specific algorithms that suffer from several limitations, closely related to assumptions in the data properties that may not hold in observations taken with new-generation VLBI equipment. Nowadays, the instantaneous bandwidth achievable with VLBI backends can be as high as several GHz, covering several radio bands simultaneously. In addition, the sensitivity of VLBI observations with state-of-the-art equipment may reach dynamic ranges of tens of thousands, both in total intensity and in polarization. In this paper, we discuss the impact of the limitations of common VLBI …
Reconstruction of inclined air showers detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory
2014
We describe the method devised to reconstruct inclined cosmic-ray air showers with zenith angles greater than $60^\circ$ detected with the surface array of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The measured signals at the ground level are fitted to muon density distributions predicted with atmospheric cascade models to obtain the relative shower size as an overall normalization parameter. The method is evaluated using simulated showers to test its performance. The energy of the cosmic rays is calibrated using a sub-sample of events reconstructed with both the fluorescence and surface array techniques. The reconstruction method described here provides the basis of complementary analyses including an…
Robust Neutrino Constraints by Combining Low Redshift Observations with the CMB
2009
We illustrate how recently improved low-redshift cosmological measurements can tighten constraints on neutrino properties. In particular we examine the impact of the assumed cosmological model on the constraints. We first consider the new HST H-0 = 74.2 +/- 3.6 measurement by Riess et al. (2009) and the sigma(8)(Omega(m)/0.25)(0.41) = 0.832 +/- 0.033 constraint from Rozo et al. (2009) derived from the SDSS maxBCG Cluster Catalog. In a ACDM model and when combined with WMAP5 constraints, these low-redshift measurements constrain Sigma m(v) < 0.4 eV at the 95% confidence level. This bound does not relax when allowing for the running of the spectral index or for primordial tensor perturbations…
Dark coupling and gauge invariance
2010
We study a coupled dark energy–dark matter model in which the energymomentum exchange is proportional to the Hubble expansion rate. The inclusion of its perturbation is required by gauge invariance. We derive the linear perturbation equations for the gauge invariant energy density contrast and velocity of the coupled fluids, and we determine the initial conditions. The latter turn out to be adiabatic for dark energy, when assuming adiabatic initial conditions for all the standard fluids. We perform a full Monte Carlo Markov Chain likelihood analysis of the model, using WMAP 7-year data.
Future CMB cosmological constraints in a dark coupled universe
2010
Cosmic microwave background satellite missions as the ongoing Planck experiment are expected to provide the strongest constraints on a wide set of cosmological parameters. Those constraints, however, could be weakened when the assumption of a cosmological constant as the dark energy component is removed. Here we show that it will indeed be the case when there exists a coupling among the dark energy and the dark matter fluids. In particular, the expected errors on key parameters as the cold dark matter density and the angular diameter distance at decoupling are significantly larger when a dark coupling is introduced. We show that it will be the case also for future satellite missions as EPIC…
MOJAVE. XII. ACCELERATION AND COLLIMATION OF BLAZAR JETS ON PARSEC SCALES
2014
We report on the acceleration properties of 329 features in 95 blazar jets from the MOJAVE VLBA program. Nearly half the features and three-quarters of the jets show significant changes in speed and/or direction. In general, apparent speed changes are distinctly larger than changes in direction, indicating that changes in the Lorentz factors of jet features dominate the observed speed changes rather than bends along the line of sight. Observed accelerations tend to increase the speed of features near the jet base, $\lesssim 10-20$ parsecs projected, and decrease their speed at longer distances. The range of apparent speeds at fixed distance in an individual jet can span a factor of a few, i…
Binary neutron star mergers: a jet engine for short gamma-ray bursts
2016
We perform magnetohydrodynamic simulations in full general relativity (GRMHD) of quasi-circular, equal-mass, binary neutron stars that undergo merger. The initial stars are irrotational, $n=1$ polytropes and are magnetized. We explore two types of magnetic-field geometries: one where each star is endowed with a dipole magnetic field extending from the interior into the exterior, as in a pulsar, and the other where the dipole field is initially confined to the interior. In both cases the adopted magnetic fields are initially dynamically unimportant. The merger outcome is a hypermassive neutron star that undergoes delayed collapse to a black hole (spin parameter $a/M_{\rm BH} \sim 0.74$) imme…
The Gamma-Ray Emitting Radio-Loud Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy PKS 2004-447 II. The Radio View
2015
Gamma-ray detected radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 (g-NLS1) galaxies constitute a small but interesting sample of the gamma-ray loud AGN. The radio-loudest g-NLS1 known, PKS 2004-447, is located in the southern hemisphere and is monitored in the radio regime by the multiwavelength monitoring program TANAMI. We aim for the first detailed study of the radio morphology and long-term radio spectral evolution of PKS 2004-447, which are essential to understand the diversity of the radio properties of g-NLS1s. The TANAMI VLBI monitoring program uses the Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA) and telescopes in Antarctica, Chile, New Zealand, and South Africa to monitor the jets of radio-loud active …