2132712
Inclinations and black hole masses of Seyfert 1 galaxies
A tight correlation between black hole mass (MBH) and central velocity dispersion (σ) has been found recently for both active and quiescent galaxies. By applying this correlation, we develop a simple method to derive the inclination angles for a sample of 11 Seyfert 1 galaxies that have both measured central velocity dispersions and black hole masses estimated by reverberation mapping. These angles, with a mean value of 36° that agrees well with the result obtained by fitting the iron Kα lines of Seyfert 1 galaxies observed with ASCA, provide further support to the orientation-dependent unification scheme of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A positive correlation of the inclinations with observed FWHMs of the Hβ line and a possible anticorrelation with the nuclear radio loudness have been found. We conclude that more accurate knowledge of inclinations and broad-line region dynamics is needed to improve the black hole mass determination of AGNs with the reverberation mapping technique.
2227030
Testing the transition layer model of quasi-periodic oscillations in neutron star X-ray binaries
We compare the theoretical predictions of the transition layer model with some observational features of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in neutron star X-ray binaries. We found that the correlation between horizontal branch oscillation (HBO) frequencies and kilohertz (kHz) QPO frequencies, the difference between the low-frequency QPOs in atoll sources and HBOs in Z sources, and the correlation between the frequencies of low-frequency QPOs and break frequencies can be well explained by the transition layer model, provided the neutron star mass is around 1.4 M☉ and the angle between magnetosphere equator and accretion disk plane is around 6°. The observed decrease of peak separation between the two kHz QPO frequencies with the increase of the kHz QPO frequencies and the increase of QPO frequencies with the increase of inferred mass accretion rate are also consistent with the theoretical predictions of the transition layer model. In addition, we derive a simple equation that can be adopted to estimate the angle (δ) between magnetosphere equator and accretion disk plane by use of the simultaneously observed QPO frequency data. We estimate this angle, in the range of 4°-8°, for five Z sources and two atoll sources. The nearly constant δ value for each source, derived from the different sets of simultaneously observed QPO frequency data, provides a strong test of the theoretical model. Finally, we suggest that similar transition layer oscillations may be responsible for the observed QPOs in accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsars and Galactic black hole candidates.
11771360
The Nature of Linearly Polarized Millimeter and Submillimeter Emission in Sagittarius A
The linearly polarized millimeter and sub-millimeter emission in Sagittarius A* is produced within 10 Schwarzschild radii of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center and may originate from a hot magnetized accretion disk, where electrons are heated efficiently by turbulent plasma waves. I n such a scenario, the flux density and polarization are very sensitive to the electron heating rate and the inclination angle of disk, respectively, and the major axis of the submillimeter intrinsic polarization, which is aligned with the rotation axis of the disk, is perpendicular to the major axis of the polarized near-infrared emission. In combination with MHD simulations, which study the properties of the magnetic field and viscous stresses, the current spectral and polarization measurements give tight constraints on the model parameters. Simultaneous observations will be able to test the model.
118517819
Quasar candidate selection and photometric redshift estimation based on SDSS and UKIDSS data
We present a sample of 8498 quasars with both SDSS ugriz optical and UKIDSS Y JHK near-IR photometric data. With this sample, we obtain the median colour-z relations based on 7400 quasars with magnitude uncertainties less than 0.1mag in all bands. By analyzing the quasar colours, we propose an empirical criterion in the Y K vs. g z colour-colour diagram to separate stars and quasars with redshift z < 4, and two other criteria for selecting high redshift quasars. Using the SDSS-UKIDSS colourz relations, we estimate the photometric redshifts of 8498 SDSS-UKIDSS quasars, and find that 85.0% of them are consistent with the spectroscopic redshifts within |�z| < 0.2, which leads to a significant increase of the photometric redshift accuracy than that based on the SDSS colour-z relations only. As two tests, we compare our colour selection criterion with a small UKIDSS/EDR quasar/star sample and a sample of 4671 variable sources in the SDSS Stripe 82 region with both SDSS and UKIDSS data. We find that they can be clearly divided into two classes (quasars and stars) by our criterion in the Y K vs. g z plot. We select 3834 quasar candidates from the variable sources with g < 20.5 in Stripe 82, 826 of them being SDSS quasars and the rest without SDSS spectroscopy. We estimate the photometric redshifts for 3519 quasar candidates with all UKIDSS Y JHK data and find an accuracy of 87.5% within |�z| < 0.2 with the spectroscopic redshifts of 819 SDSS-UKIDSS identified quasars among them. We demonstrate that even at the same spectroscopy limit as SDSS, with our criterion we can at least partially recover the missing quasars with z � 2.7 in SDSS. The SDSS identified quasars only take a small fraction (21.5%) of our quasar candidates selected from the variable sources in Stripe 82, indicating that a deeper spectroscopy is very promising in producing a much larger sample of quasars than SDSS. The implications of our current results to the future Chinese LAMOST quasar survey are also discussed.
199676816
Discovering the missing bright quasars at intermediate redshifts based on the optical/near-IR color selections
2377462
Galaxy bulge formation: Interplay with dark matter halo and central supermassive black hole
We present a simple scenario where the formation of galactic bulges was regulated by the dark halo gravity and regulates the growth of the central supermassive black hole. Assuming the angular momentum is low, we suggest that bulges form in a runaway collapse due to the "gravothermal" instability once the central gas density or pressure exceeds a certain threshold. We emphasize that the threshold is nearly universal, set by the background NFW dark matter gravity gDM ~ 1.2 × 10-8 cm s-2 in the central cusps of halos. Unlike known thresholds for gradual formation of galaxy disks, we show that the universal "halo-regulated" star formation threshold for spheroids matches the very high star formation rate and star formation efficiency seen in high-redshift observations of central starburst regions. The starburst feedback also builds up a pressure shortly after the collapse. This large pressure could act both outward to halt further infall of gas from larger scales and inward to counter the Compton-thick wind launched from the central black hole in an Eddington accretion. Assuming the feedback balances inward and outward forces, our scenario naturally gives rise to the black hole-bulge relationships observed in the local universe.
53329928
Application of the Principle of Maximum Conformality to Top-Pair Production
at the Tevatron and LHC even for the present NNLO level. The Principle of Maximum Conformality (PMC) eliminates the renormalization scale ambiguity in precision tests of Abelian QED and non-Abelian QCD theories. By using the PMC, all nonconformal {βi}-terms in the perturbative expansion series are summed into the running coupling constant, and the resulting scale-fixed predictions are independent of the renormalization scheme. The correct scale-displacement between the arguments of different renormalization schemes is automatically set, and the number of active flavors nf in the {βi}-function is correctly determined. The PMC is consistent with the renormalization group property that a physical result is independent of the renormalization scheme and the choice of the initial renormalization scale μ r . The PMC scale μ r is unambiguous at finite order. Any residual dependence on μ init r for a finite-order calculation will be highly suppressed since the unknown higher-order {βi}-terms will be absorbed into the PMC scales’ higher-order perturbative terms. We find that such renormalization group invariance can be satisfied to high accuracy for σtt̄ at the NNLO level. In this paper we apply PMC scale setting to predict the tt̄ cross-section σtt̄ at the Tevatron and LHC colliders. It is found that σtt̄ remains almost unchanged by varying μ init r within the region of [mt/4, 4mt]. The convergence of the expansion series is greatly improved. For the (qq̄)-channel, which is dominant at the Tevatron, its NLO PMC scale is much smaller than the top-quark mass in the small x-region, and thus its NLO cross-section is increased by about a factor of two. In the case of the (gg)-channel, which is dominant at the LHC, its NLO PMC scale slightly increases with the subprocess collision energy √ s, but it is still smaller than mt for √ s ∼ 1 TeV, and the resulting NLO cross-section is increased by ∼ 20%. As a result, a larger σtt̄ is obtained in comparison to the conventional scale setting method, which agrees well with the present Tevatron and LHC data. More explicitly, by setting mt = 172.9 ± 1.1 GeV, we predict σTevatron, 1.96 TeV = 7.626 +0.265 −0.257 pb, σLHC, 7TeV = 171.8 +5.8 −5.6 pb and σLHC, 14 TeV = 941.3 +28.4 −26.5 pb.
118440734
Observational Constraints on Agegraphic Dark Energy
In this paper, we use the Type Ia supernova data as well as the CMB and LSS data to constrain the agegraphic dark energy model recently proposed by Cai. Due to its peculiar nature, the parameter $n$ of this model cannot be well constrained by the SNIa data, while the other parameter $\Omega_{m0}$ can be constrained to be $0.34\pm0.04$. When combined with CMB and LSS data, the range of $1\sigma$ confidence level for $n$ is greatly narrowed, albeit still very large. The best fit result is $\Omega_{m0}=0.28\pm0.02$, which is consistent with most observations like WMAP and SDSS, and $n=3.4$, of which a meaningful range of confidence level can not be obtained due to the fact that the contours are not closed. Despite of this result, we conclude that for $n>1$ this model is consistent with SNIa, CMB and LSS observations. Furthermore, the fitting results indicate a generalized definition for the agegraphic dark energy.
118422229
Revisiting the real graviton effects at CERN LHC within the quantum gravity theory with large extra dimensions
CERN LHC provides a good experimental platform to perturbatively probe the fundamental gravity scale up to several TeV, with the precise value depending on the number of extra dimensions. The leading experimental signal of the graviton at the LHC is from the process $pp\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathrm{\text{jet}}+{\mathrm{E\ensuremath{\llap{\not\;}}}}_{T}$, where ${\mathrm{E\ensuremath{\llap{\not\;}}}}_{T}$ stands for the transverse missing energy. A detailed discussion on the hadronic production of the real graviton through hard subprocesses: $q\overline{q}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}G+g$, $g+q\ensuremath{\rightarrow}G+q$, and $g+g\ensuremath{\rightarrow}G+g$ have been studied within the quantum gravity theory with large extra dimensions. The main theoretical uncertainties together with the dominant standard model background to these processes, e.g. $q\overline{q}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{Z}^{0}+g$ and $g+q\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{Z}^{0}+q$ with ${Z}^{0}$ further decaying into neutrinos, have also been discussed. It is found that only in a certain jet energy region and with a certain number of extra dimensions can the quantum gravity signal be distinguished from the background, which inversely lead to the effective scale ${M}_{D}$ to be probed up to $(8.8\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.9)\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ for two extra dimensions and $(5.9\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5)\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ for four extra dimensions with sufficient integrated luminosity, e.g. $100\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, at CERN LHC.
62897747
Self-Consistency Requirements of the Renormalization Group for Setting the Renormalization Scale
In conventional treatments, predictions from fixed-order perturbative QCD calculations cannot be fixed with certainty due to ambiguities in the choice of the renormalization scale as well as the renormalization scheme. In this paper we present a general discussion of the constraints of the renormalization group (RG) invariance on the choice of the renormalization scale. We adopt the RG based equations, which incorporate the scheme parameters, for a general exposition of RG invariance, since they simultaneously express the invariance of physical observables under both the variation of the renormalization scale and the renormalization scheme parameters. We then discuss the self-consistency requirements of the RG, such as reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity, which must be satisfied by the scale-setting method. The Principle of Minimal Sensitivity (PMS) requires the slope of the approximant of an observable to vanish at the renormalization point. This criterion provides a scheme-independent estimation, but it violates the symmetry and transitivity properties of the RG and does not reproduce the Gell-Mann-Low scale for QED observables. The Principle of Maximum Conformality (PMC) satisfies all of the deductions of the RG invariance - reflectivity, symmetry, and transitivity. Using the PMC, all non-conformal {βRi}-terms (R stands for an arbitrary renormalization scheme) in themore » perturbative expansion series are summed into the running coupling, and one obtains a unique, scale-fixed, scheme-independent prediction at any finite order. The PMC scales and the resulting finite-order PMC predictions are both to high accuracy independent of the choice of initial renormalization scale, consistent with RG invariance.« less
33191226
Fragmentation function and hadronic production of the heavy supersymmetric hadrons
The light top-squark $\widetilde{t}_1$ may be the lightest squark, and its lifetime may be ‘long enough’ in a kind of SUSY models that have not been ruled out yet experimentally, so colorless ‘supersymmetric hadrons (superhadrons)’ $(\widetilde{t}_1 \overline{q})$ (q is a quark excluding the t-quark) may be formed as long as the light top-squark $\widetilde{t}_1$ can be produced. The fragmentation function of $\widetilde{t}_1$ into heavy ‘supersymmetric hadrons (superhadrons)’ $(\widetilde{t}_1 \overline{Q})$ (Q̄=c̄ or b̄) and hadronic production of the superhadrons are investigated quantitatively. The fragmentation function is calculated precisely. Due to the difference in spin of the SUSY component, the asymptotic behavior of the fragmentation function is different from those of the existing ones. The fragmentation function is also applied to compute the production of heavy superhadrons at the hadronic colliders Tevatron and LHC in the so-called fragmentation approach. The resultant cross-section for the heavy superhadrons is too small to observe at Tevatron, but large enough at LHC, when all the relevant parameters in the SUSY models are taken within the favored region for the heavy superhadrons. The production of ‘light superhadrons’ $(\widetilde{t}_1 \overline{q})$ (q=u,d,s) is also roughly estimated with the same SUSY parameters. It is pointed out that the production cross-sections of the light superhadrons $(\widetilde{t}_1 \overline{q})$ may be much greater than those of the heavy superhadrons, so that even at Tevatron the light superhadrons may be produced in great quantities.