No Arabic abstract
We have studied the inner regions of the LINER galaxy NGC1052 since the mid 1990s at high resolution with 15 GHz very-long-baseline interferometry observations. A compact, two-sided jet structure is revealed, with multiple sub-parsec scale features moving outward from the central region with typical speeds of 0.26 c. Complementary to this, since early 2005 we are performing a multi-mission campaign of observations of this source, including X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray, and radio flux density monitoring, and VLBA observations at 22 GHz and 43 GHz. X-ray variability is present at time scales of weeks, comparable with the structural changes observed by VLBI. Here we present first results of the high-resolution imaging observations and discuss these findings in the context of the multi-band campaign.
We revisit the paradigm of the dependency of jet power on black hole spin in accreting black hole systems. In a previous paper we showed that the luminosity of compact jets continuously launched due to accretion onto black holes in X-ray binaries (analogous to those that dominate the kinetic feedback from AGN) do not appear to correlate with reported black hole spin measurements. It is therefore unclear whether extraction of the black hole spin energy is the main driver powering compact jets from accreting black holes. Occasionally, black hole X-ray binaries produce discrete, transient (ballistic) jets for a brief time over accretion state changes. Here, we quantify the dependence of the power of these transient jets (adopting two methods to infer the jet power) on black hole spin, making use of all the available data in the current literature, which includes 12 BHs with both measured spin parameters and radio flares over the state transition. In several sources, regular, well-sampled radio monitoring has shown that the peak radio flux differs dramatically depending on the outburst (up to a factor of 1000) whereas the total power required to energise the flare may only differ by a factor ~< 4 between outbursts. The peak flux is determined by the total energy in the flare and the time over which it is radiated (which can vary considerably between outbursts). Using a Bayesian fitting routine we rule out a statistically significant positive correlation between transient jet power measured using these methods, and current estimates of black hole spin. Even when selecting subsamples of the data that disregard some methods of black hole spin measurement or jet power measurement, no correlation is found in all cases.
(abridged) We have analyzed the properties of the Na D doublet lines in a large sample of 691 radio galaxies using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). These radio galaxies are resolved in the FIRST survey, have redshifts less that 0.2 and radio flux densities at 1.4 GHz higher than 40 mJy. Approximately 1/3 of the sources show a significant excess (above that contributed by their stellar populations) of Na D absorption that can be robustly fitted with two Voigt profiles representing the Na D doublet. A further 1/6 of the sources show residual absorption, for which the fits were not well constrained though while ~50% of the sample show no significant residual absorption. The residual absorption is modestly blueshifted, typically by ~50 km/s, but the velocity dispersions are high, generally ~500 km/s. Assuming that the size of the absorbing region is consistent with ~1 kpc for dust lanes in a sample of generally more powerful radio sources and a continuous constant velocity flow (continuity equation), we estimate mass and energy outflow rates of about 10 Msun/yr and few x e42 erg/s. These rates are consistent with those in the literature based on HI absorption line observations of radio galaxies. The energy required to power these outflows is on the order of 1-10% of the jet mechanical power and we conclude that the radio jet alone is sufficient. The mass and energy outflow rates are consistent with what is needed to heat/expel the mass returned by the stellar populations as well as the likely amount of gas from a cooling halo. This suggests that radio-loud AGN play a key role in energizing the outflow/heating phase of the feedback cycle. The deposition of the jet mechanical energy could be important for explaining the ensemble characteristics of massive early type galaxies in the local universe.
NGC1052-DF2 and NGC1052-DF4 are ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) that were found to have extremely low velocity dispersions, indicating that they have little or no dark matter. Both galaxies host anomalously luminous globular cluster (GC) systems, with a peak magnitude of their GC luminosity function (GCLF) that is $sim1.5$ magnitudes brighter than the near-universal value of $M_V approx -7.5$. Here we present an analysis of the joint GCLF of the two galaxies, making use of new HST photometry and Keck spectroscopy, and a recently improved distance measurement. We apply a homogeneous photometric selection method to the combined GC sample of DF2 and DF4. The new analysis shows that the peak of the combined GC luminosity function remains at $M_V approx -9$ mag. In addition, we find a subpopulation of less luminous GCs at $M_V approx -7.5$ mag, where the near-universal GCLF peak is located. The number of GCs in the magnitude range of $-5$ to $-8$ is $7.1_{-4.34}^{+7.33}$ in DF2 and $8.6_{-4.83}^{+7.74}$ in DF4, similar to that expected from other galaxies of the same luminosity. The total GC number between $M_V$ of $-5$ to $-11$ is $18.5_{-4.42}^{+8.99}$ for DF2 and $18.6_{-4.92}^{+9.37}$ for DF4, calculated from the background-subtracted GCLF. The updated total number of GCs in both galaxies is $37^{+11.08}_{-6.54}$. The number of GCs do not scale with the halo mass in either DF2 or DF4, suggesting that $N_{GC}$ is not directly determined by the merging of halos.
A great challenge in present-day physics is to understand whether the observed internal dynamics of galaxies is due to dark matter matter or due to a modification of the law of gravity. Recently, van Dokkum et al. reported that the ultra-diffuse dwarf galaxy NGC1052-DF2 lacks dark matter, and they claimed that this would -- paradoxically -- be problematic for modified gravity theories like Milgromian dynamics (MOND). However, NGC1052-DF2 is not isolated, so that a valid prediction of its internal dynamics in MOND cannot be made without properly accounting for the external gravitational fields from neighbouring galaxies. Including this external field effect following Haghi et al. shows that NGC1052-DF2 is consistent with MOND.
Spectral algorithms, such as principal component analysis and spectral clustering, typically require careful data transformations to be effective: upon observing a matrix $A$, one may look at the spectrum of $psi(A)$ for a properly chosen $psi$. The issue is that the spectrum of $A$ might be contaminated by non-informational top eigenvalues, e.g., due to scale` variations in the data, and the application of $psi$ aims to remove these. Designing a good functional $psi$ (and establishing what good means) is often challenging and model dependent. This paper proposes a simple and generic construction for sparse graphs, $$psi(A) = 1((I+A)^r ge1),$$ where $A$ denotes the adjacency matrix and $r$ is an integer (less than the graph diameter). This produces a graph connecting vertices from the original graph that are within distance $r$, and is referred to as graph powering. It is shown that graph powering regularizes the graph and decontaminates its spectrum in the following sense: (i) If the graph is drawn from the sparse ErdH{o}s-Renyi ensemble, which has no spectral gap, it is shown that graph powering produces a `maximal spectral gap, with the latter justified by establishing an Alon-Boppana result for powered graphs; (ii) If the graph is drawn from the sparse SBM, graph powering is shown to achieve the fundamental limit for weak recovery (the KS threshold) similarly to cite{massoulie-STOC}, settling an open problem therein. Further, graph powering is shown to be significantly more robust to tangles and cliques than previous spectral algorithms based on self-avoiding or nonbacktracking walk counts cite{massoulie-STOC,Mossel_SBM2,bordenave,colin3}. This is illustrated on a geometric block model that is dense in cliques.