No Arabic abstract
We present the review of some new problems in cosmology and physics of stars in connection with future launching of WSO. We discuss three problems. UV observations of distant z > 6 quasars allow to obtain information on the soft < 1 KeV X-ray radiation of the accretion disk around a supermassive black hole because of its cosmological redshift. Really the region of X-ray radiation is insufficiently investigated because of high galactic absorption. In a result one will get important information on the reionization zone of the Universe. Astronomers from ESO revealed the effect of alignment of electric vectors of polarized QSOs. One of the probable mechanism of such alignment is the conversion of QSO radiation into low mass pseudoscalar particles (axions) in the extragalactic magnetic field. These boson like particles have been predicted by new SUSY particle physics theory. Since the probability of such conversion is increasing namely in UV spectral range one can expect the strong correlation between UV spectral energy distribution of QSO radiation and polarimetric data in the optical range. In the stellar physics one of the interesting problems is the origin of the X-ray sources with super Eddington luminosities. The results of UV observations of these X-ray sources will allow to find the origin of these sources as accreting intermediate mass black holes.
Mostly forsaken, but revived after the emergence of all-dielectric nanophotonics, the Kerker effect can be observed in a variety of nanostructures from high-index constituents with strong electric and magnetic Mie resonances. Necessary requirement for the existence of a magnetic response limits the use of generally non-magnetic conventional plasmonic nanostructures for the Kerker effect. In spite of this, we demonstrate here for the first time the emergence of the lattice Kerker effect in regular plasmonic Al nanostructures. Collective lattice oscillations emerging from delicate interplay between Rayleigh anomalies and localized surface plasmon resonances both of electric and magnetic dipoles, and electric and magnetic quadrupoles result in suppression of the backscattering in a broad spectral range. Variation of geometrical parameters of Al arrays allows for tailoring lattice Kerker effect throughout UV and visible wavelength ranges, which is close to impossible to achieve using other plasmonic or all-dielectric materials. It is argued that our results set the ground for wide ramifications in the plasmonics and further application of the Kerker effect.
The composite spectra of quasars are widely used as templates for redshift determination, as well as for measurements of the mean transmission in Lyalpha-forest studies, and for investigation of general spectral properties of quasars. Possibility of composite spectra utilisation in these fields is related to remarkable similarity of quasar spectra in UV-optical range. But despite of general similarity in spectral shapes, they differ in several parameters, one of which is the spectral index. In the present paper we study the possible effects, related to neglect of this difference. We compiled 16 composite spectra from subsamples of individual SDSS DR7 quasar spectra with different spectral indices alpha_lambda within the wavelength range 1270-1480 AA, and show that (i) the redshifts measured for a test sample of high signal-to-noise ratio quasar spectra using these composites as templates appear to be systematically higher than those calculated with a traditional template, compiled from spectra with different alpha_lambda, with 1.5 times smaller errors in the former case; (ii) the difference in alpha_lambda in individual spectra used for compilation of composites can yield the mean transmission uncertainty up to 20%; (iii) a number of emission lines indistinguishable in ordinary composites, but seen in individual high-resolution spectra, can be detected in such composites. It is also shown, that there is no dependence of alpha_lambda on quasar luminosity in SDSS u, g, r and i bands, and monochromatic luminosity at 1450 AA.
We compute the spectral distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization induced by non-linear effects in the Compton interactions between CMB photons and cold intergalactic electrons. This signal is of the $y$-type and is dominated by contributions arising from the reionized era. We stress that it is not shadowed by the thermal SZ effect which has no equivalent for polarization. We decompose its angular dependence into $E$- and $B$-modes, and we calculate the corresponding power spectra, both exactly and using a suitable Limber approximation that allows a simpler numerical evaluation. We find that $B$-modes are of the same order of magnitude as $E$-modes. Both spectra are relatively flat, peaking around $ell=280$, and their overall amplitude is directly related to the optical depth to reionization. Moreover, we find this effect to be one order of magnitude larger than the non-linear kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect in galaxy clusters. Finally, we discuss how to improve the detectability of our signal by cross-correlating it with other quantities sourced by the flow of intergalactic electrons.
Cosmic photons can be efficiently collected by broadband intensity mapping but information on their emission redshift and frequency is largely lost. We introduce a technique to statistically recover these otherwise collapsed dimensions by exploiting information in spatial fluctuations and apply it to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) All Sky and Medium Imaging Surveys. By spatially cross-correlating photons in the GALEX far-UV (1500A) and near-UV (2300A) bands with a million spectroscopic objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as a function of redshift, we robustly detect the redshift-dependent intensity of the UV background (UVB) modulated by its clustering bias up to $zsim2$. These measurements clearly reveal the imprints of UVB spectral features redshifting through the filters. Using a simple parameterization, we simultaneously fit a UVB emissivity and clustering bias factor to these observations and constrain the main spectral features of the UVB spectrum: (i) the Lyman break, (ii) the non-ionizing UV continuum, which agrees with the Haardt & Madau model but does not rely on any assumption regarding the nature of the sources, and (iii) the Ly$alpha$ emission, whose luminosity density is consistent with estimates of the combined galaxy and AGN contributions at $zsim1$. Because the technique probes the total background including low surface brightness emission, we place constraints on the amount of UV light originating from the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM). Finally, the clustering bias of UV photons is found to be chromatic and evolving. Our frequency- and redshift-dependent UVB measurement delivers a summary statistic of the universes net radiation output from stars, black holes, and the IGM combined.
We present the results from the spectral analysis of more than 7,500 RXTE spectra of 10 AGN, which have been observed by RXTE regularly over a long period of time ~ 7-11 years. These observations most probably sample most of the flux and spectral variations that these objects exhibit, thus, they are ideal for the study of their long term X-ray spectral variability. We modelled the 3-10 spectrum of each observation in a uniform way using a simple power-law model (with the addition of Gaussian line and/or edge to model the iron Kalpha emission/absorption features, if necessary) to consistently parametrize the shape of the observed X-ray continuum. We found that the average spectral slope does not correlate with source luminosity or black hole mass, while it correlates positively with the average accretion rate. We have also determined the (positive) spectral slope-flux relation for each object, over a larger flux range than before. We found that this correlation is similar in almost all objects. We discuss this global spectral slope-flux trend in the light of current models for spectral variability. We consider (i) intrinsic variability, expected e.g. from Comptonization processes, (ii) variability caused by absorption of X-rays by a single absorber whose ionization parameter varies proportionally to the continuum flux variations, (iii) variability resulting from the superposition of a constant reflection component and an intrinsic power-law which is variable in flux but constant in shape, and, (iv) variability resulting from the superposition of a constant reflection component and an intrinsic power-law which is variable both in flux and shape. Our final conclusion is that scenario (iv) describes better our results.