Search results for "Cosmology"
showing 10 items of 2905 documents
Limits on the Mass and Abundance of Primordial Black Holes from Quasar Gravitational Microlensing
2017
The idea that dark matter can be made of intermediate-mass primordial black holes in the $10M_\odot \lesssim M \lesssim 200M_\odot$ range has recently been reconsidered, particularly in the light of the detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO experiment. The existence of even a small fraction of dark matter in black holes should nevertheless result in noticeable quasar gravitational microlensing. Quasar microlensing is sensitive to any type of compact objects in the lens galaxy, to their abundance, and to their mass. We have analyzed optical and X-ray microlensing data from 24 gravitationally lensed quasars to estimate the abundance of compact objects in a very wide range of masses. We…
Radio and Gamma Properties of the 2 cm Survey and MOJAVE Samples
2009
The 2 cm VLBA Survey observed since 1994 a set of ~170 Quasars, BL Lac objects, and radio galaxies, selected to be representative of the compact AGN radio population. This effort was continued as the MOJAVE project, where a statistically complete set of radio sources being monitored was defined. A comparison of the gamma-detection rates between the members of both samples shows that the MOJAVE-I sources, hosting generally faster jets, have a much higher detection rate than the sources not belonging to this sample. BL Lac objects are more favourably detected than QSOs in gamma-rays, in the same rate for both samples.
The Broadband Spectral Energy Distribution of the MOJAVE Sample
2010
We are constructing the broadband SED catalog of the MOJAVE sample from the radio to the gamma-ray band using MOJAVE, Swift UVOT/XRT/BAT, and Fermi/LAT data, in order to understand the emission mechanism of extragalactic outflows and to investigate the site of high-energy emission in AGN. Since the launch of Fermi gamma-ray Space Telescope in August 2008, two thirds of the MOJAVE sources have been detected by Fermi/LAT. Combining the results of high-resolution VLBI, X-ray, and gamma-ray observations of the jet-dominated AGN sample, we want to pin down the origin of high-energy emission in relativistic jets. Here we present our overall project and preliminary results for 6 selected sources.
Microlensing of Quasar UV Iron Emission
2013
We measure the differential microlensing of the UV Fe II and Fe III emission line blends between 14 quasar image pairs in 13 gravitational lenses. We find that the UV iron emission is strongly microlensed in 4 cases with amplitudes comparable to that of the continuum. Statistically modeling the magnifications we infer a typical size of r ~ 4*sqrt(M/Msun) light-days for the Fe line emitting regions which is comparable to the size of the region generating the UV continuum (3 ~ 7 light-days). This may indicate that a significant part of the UV Fe II and Fe III emission originates in the quasar accretion disk.
THE MISSING LINK: MERGING NEUTRON STARS NATURALLY PRODUCE JET-LIKE STRUCTURES AND CAN POWER SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURSTS
2011
Short Gamma-Ray Bursts (SGRBs) are among the most luminous explosions in the universe, releasing in less than one second the energy emitted by our Galaxy over one year. Despite decades of observations, the nature of their "central-engine" remains unknown. Considering a binary of magnetized neutron stars and solving Einstein equations, we show that their merger results in a rapidly spinning black hole surrounded by a hot and highly magnetized torus. Lasting over 35 ms and much longer than previous simulations, our study reveals that magnetohydrodynamical instabilities amplify an initially turbulent magnetic field of ~ 10^{12} G to produce an ordered poloidal field of ~ 10^{15} G along the bl…
Characteristics of the diffuse astrophysical electron and Tau neutrino flux with six years of IceCube high energy cascade data
2020
We report on the first measurement of the astrophysical neutrino flux using particle showers (cascades) in IceCube data from 2010-2015. Assuming standard oscillations, the astrophysical neutrinos in this dedicated cascade sample are dominated (∼90%) by electron and tau flavors. The flux, observed in the sensitive energy range from 16 TeV to 2.6 PeV, is consistent with a single power-law model as expected from Fermi-type acceleration of high energy particles at astrophysical sources. We find the flux spectral index to be γ=2.53±0.07 and a flux normalization for each neutrino flavor of φastro=1.66-0.27+0.25 at E0=100 TeV, in agreement with IceCube's complementary muon neutrino results and wit…
Radio data and synchrotron emission in consistent cosmic ray models
2011
It is well established that phenomenological two-zone diffusion models of the galactic halo can very well reproduce cosmic-ray nuclear data and the observed antiproton flux. Here, we consider lepton propagation in such models and compute the expected galactic population of electrons, as well as the diffuse synchrotron emission that results from their interaction with galactic magnetic fields. We find models in agreement not only with cosmic ray data but also with radio surveys at essentially all frequencies. Requiring such a globally consistent description strongly disfavors very large ($L\gtrsim 15$ kpc) and, even stronger, small ($L\lesssim 1$ kpc) effective diffusive halo sizes. This has…
MIUSCAT: extended MILES spectral coverage. I. Stellar populations synthesis models
2012
We extend the spectral range of our stellar population synthesis models based on the MILES and CaT empirical stellar spectral libraries. For this purpose we combine these two libraries with the Indo-U.S. to construct composite stellar spectra to feed our models. The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) computed with these models and the originally published models are combined to construct composite SEDs for single-age, single-metallicity stellar populations (SSPs) covering the range 3465 - 9469\AA at moderately high, and uniform, resolution (FWHM=2.51\AA). The colours derived from these SSP SEDs provide good fits to Galactic globular cluster data. We find that the colours involving redder …
Stochastic fluctuations of bosonic dark matter
2021
Numerous theories extending beyond the standard model of particle physics predict the existence of bosons that could constitute the dark matter (DM) permeating the universe. In the standard halo model (SHM) of galactic dark matter the velocity distribution of the bosonic DM field defines a characteristic coherence time $\tau_c$. Until recently, laboratory experiments searching for bosonic DM fields have been in the regime where the measurement time $T$ significantly exceeds $\tau_c$, so null results have been interpreted as constraints on the coupling of bosonic DM to standard model particles with a bosonic DM field amplitude $\Phi_0$ fixed by the average local DM density. However, motivate…
Relaxion Stars and their detection via Atomic Physics
2019
The cosmological relaxion can address the hierarchy problem, while its coherent oscillations can constitute dark matter in the present universe. We consider the possibility that the relaxion forms gravitationally bound objects that we denote as relaxion stars. The density of these stars would be higher than that of the local dark matter density, resulting in enhanced signals in table-top detectors, among others. Furthermore, we raise the possibility that these objects may be trapped by an external gravitational potential, such as that of the Earth or the Sun. This leads to formation of relaxion halos of even greater density. We discuss several interesting implications of relaxion halos, as …