The brightness temperature problem in extreme intra-day variable quasars: a model for PKS 0405-385     

R. J. Protheroe 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,341(1):230-238

I re-examine the brightness temperature problem in PKS 0405-385, which is an extreme intra-day variable radio quasar with an inferred brightness temperature of  ∼5 × 10¹⁴ K  at 5 GHz, well above the Compton catastrophe limit of  ∼10¹¹ K  that is reached when the synchrotron photon energy density exceeds the energy density of the magnetic field. If one takes into account the uncertainty in the distance to the ionized clouds responsible for interstellar scintillation causing rapid intra-day variability in PKS 0405-385, it is possible that the brightness temperature could be as low as  ∼10¹³ K  at 5 GHz, or even lower. The radio spectrum can be fitted by optically thin emission from mono-energetic electrons, or an electron spectrum with a low-energy cut-off such that the critical frequency of the lowest energy electrons is above the radio frequencies of interest. If one observes optically thin emission along a long narrow emission region, the average energy density in the emission region can be many orders of magnitude lower than calculated from the observed intensity if one assumed a spherical emission region. I discuss the physical conditions in the emission region and find that the Compton catastrophe can then be avoided using a reasonable Doppler factor. I also show that MeV to 100-GeV gamma-ray emission at observable flux levels should be expected from extreme intra-day variable sources such as PKS 0405-385.  相似文献   

On the Spectral Index－Flux Density Relation for Large Samples of Radio Sources     

W.Reich  P.Reich  R.Wielebinski 《中国天文和天体物理学报》2003,3(4):347-358

We present new statistical results on the spectral index-flux density relation for large samples of radio sources using archival data of the most sensitive surveys, such as 6C, Miyun, WENSS, B3, NVSS, GB87. Instrumental selection effects and the completeness of the catalogs are discussed. Based on the spectral indices calculated for about 200 000 sources from the WENSS (327 MHz) and NVSS (1.4 GHz) catalogs, we obtained (1) The median spectral index increases from amed --0.9 toαmed --0.8 (Svαvα), while S327 flux densities decrease from 0.1 Jy down to 25mJy. The median spectral indices nearly show no variation within the error bars when the flux density is larger than 0.1 Jy. (2) A dependence of the fraction of ultra-steep spectrum sources (USS, -1.5 <α<-1.0), steep spectrum sources (SSS, -1.0 <α< -0.5) and flat spectrum sources (FSS, -0.5≤α≤0.0) is partly responsible for the spectral flattening. Another contribution to the spectral flattening comes from the variation of αmed of steep spectrum so  相似文献   

Starburst and AGN activity in ultraluminous infrared galaxies     

D. Farrah  J. Afonso  A. Efstathiou  M. Rowan-Robinson  M. Fox  D. Clements 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,343(2):585-607

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X-ray absorption in Seyfert 2 galaxies     

M. Guainazzi  F. Fiore  G. Matt  G.C. Perola 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2001,327(1):323-328

We have studied the correlation among X-ray absorption, optical reddening and nuclear dust morphology in Seyfert 2 galaxies. Two main conclusions emerge: (i) the Balmer decrement and the amount of X-ray absorption are anticorrelated over a wide range of column density,     – the correlation no longer applies to Compton-thick objects     , although they span a comparable range in Balmer decrement; (ii) Compton-thin Seyfert 2s seem to prefer nuclear environments, which are rich in dust on scales of hundreds of parsecs. On the other hand, Compton-thick Seyferts indifferently exhibit 'dust-poor' and 'dust-rich' environments. These results support an extension of the Seyfert unification scenario (as recently proposed by Matt ), where Compton-thick Seyfert 2s are observed through compact 'torii', whereas Compton-thin ones are obscured by dust on much larger scales.  相似文献   

Two 100-Mpc-scale structures in the three-dimensional distribution of radio galaxies and their implications     

Kate Brand  Steve Rawlings  Gary J. Hill  Mark Lacy  Ewan Mitchell  Joe Tufts 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,344(1):283-306

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The host galaxies of active galactic nuclei   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Guinevere Kauffmann  Timothy M. Heckman  Christy Tremonti  Jarle Brinchmann  Stéphane Charlot  Simon D. M. White  Susan E. Ridgway  Jon Brinkmann  Masataka Fukugita  Patrick B. Hall  &#;eljko Ivezi&#;  Gordon T. Richards  Donald P. Schneider 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,346(4):1055-1077

We examine the properties of the host galaxies of 22 623 narrow-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) with  0.02 < z < 0.3  selected from a complete sample of 122 808 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We focus on the luminosity of the [O  iii ]λ5007 emission line as a tracer of the strength of activity in the nucleus. We study how AGN host properties compare with those of normal galaxies and how they depend on L [O  iii ]. We find that AGN of all luminosities reside almost exclusively in massive galaxies and have distributions of sizes, stellar surface mass densities and concentrations that are similar to those of ordinary early-type galaxies in our sample. The host galaxies of low-luminosity AGN have stellar populations similar to normal early types. The hosts of high-luminosity AGN have much younger mean stellar ages. The young stars are not preferentially located near the nucleus of the galaxy, but are spread out over scales of at least several kiloparsecs. A significant fraction of high-luminosity AGN have strong Hδ absorption-line equivalent widths, indicating that they experienced a burst of star formation in the recent past. We have also examined the stellar populations of the host galaxies of a sample of broad-line AGN. We conclude that there is no significant difference in stellar content between type 2 Seyfert hosts and quasars (QSOs) with the same [O  iii ] luminosity and redshift. This establishes that a young stellar population is a general property of AGN with high [O  iii ] luminosities.  相似文献   

'Hyper-parameters' approach to joint estimation: applications to Cepheid-calibrated distances and X-ray clusters     

Pirin Erdogdu  Stefano Ettori  Ofer Lahav 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,340(2):573-579

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XMM–Newton confirmation of a warm absorber in the z = 4.4 blazar PMN J0525−3343     

M. A. Worsley  A. C. Fabian  A. K. Turner  A. Celotti  K. Iwasawa 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2004,350(1):207-212

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XMM–Newton spectral properties of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy IRAS 13224 – 3809     

Th. Boller  Y. Tanaka  A. Fabian  W. N. Brandt  L. Gallo  N. Anabuki  Y. Haba  S. Vaughan 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,343(4):L89-L93

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A high-velocity ionized outflow and XUV photosphere in the narrow emission line quasar PG1211+143   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

K. A. Pounds  J. N. Reeves  A. R. King  K. L. Page  P. T. O'Brien  M. J. L. Turner 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,345(3):705-713

We report on the analysis of a ∼60-ks XMM–Newton observation of the bright, narrow emission line quasar PG1211+143. Absorption lines are seen in both European Photon Imaging Camera and Reflection Grating Spectrometer spectra corresponding to H- and He-like ions of Fe, S, Mg, Ne, O, N and C. The observed line energies indicate an ionized outflow velocity of ∼24 000 km s⁻¹. The highest energy lines require a column density of   N _H∼ 5 × 10²³ cm⁻²  , at an ionization parameter of  log ξ∼ 3.4  . If the origin of this high-velocity outflow lies in matter being driven from the inner disc, then the flow is likely to be optically thick within a radius of ∼130 Schwarzschild radii, providing a natural explanation for the big blue bump (and strong soft X-ray) emission in PG1211+143.  相似文献