We argue that the `changing look AGN recently reported by LaMassa et al. could be a luminous flare produced by the tidal disruption of a super-solar mass star passing just a few gravitational radii outside the event horizon of a $sim 10^8 M_{odot}$ n
uclear black hole. This flare occurred in a massive, star forming galaxy at redshift $z=0.312$, robustly characterized thanks to repeated late-time photometric and spectroscopic observations. By taking difference-photometry of the well sampled multi-year SDSS Stripe-82 light-curve, we are able to probe the evolution of the nuclear spectrum over the course of the outburst. The tidal disruption event (TDE) interpretation is consistent with the very rapid rise and the decay time of the flare, which displays an evolution consistent with the well-known $t^{-5/3}$ behaviour (with a clear superimposed re-brightening flare). Our analysis places constraints on the physical properties of the TDE, such as the putative disrupted stars mass and orbital parameters, as well as the size and temperature of the emitting material. The properties of the broad and narrow emission lines observed in two epochs of SDSS spectra provide further constraints on the circum-nuclear structure, and could be indicative that the system hosted a moderate-luminosity AGN as recently as a few $10^4$ years ago, and is likely undergoing residual accretion as late as ten years after peak, as seen from the broad H$alpha$ emission line. We discuss the complex interplay between tidal disruption events and gas accretion episodes in galactic nuclei, highlighting the implications for future TDE searches and for estimates of their intrinsic rates.
We construct the rest-frame 2--10 keV intrinsic X-ray luminosity function of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) from a combination of X-ray surveys from the all-sky Swift BAT survey to the Chandra Deep Field-South. We use ~3200 AGNs in our analysis, which
covers six orders of magnitude in flux. The inclusion of the XMM and Chandra COSMOS data has allowed us to investigate the detailed behavior of the XLF and evolution. In deriving our XLF, we take into account realistic AGN spectrum templates, absorption corrections, and probability density distributions in photometric redshift. We present an analytical expression for the overall behavior of the XLF in terms of the luminosity-dependent density evolution, smoothed two power-law expressions in 11 redshift shells, three-segment power-law expression of the number density evolution in four luminosity classes, and binned XLF. We observe a sudden flattening of the low luminosity end slope of the XLF slope at z>~0.6. Detailed structures of the AGN downsizing have been also revealed, where the number density curves have two clear breaks at all luminosity classes above log LX>43. The two break structure is suggestive of two-phase AGN evolution, consisting of major merger triggering and secular processes.
A new neutron detection concept is presented that is based on superconductive niobium (Nb) strips coated by a boron (B) layer. The working principle of the detector relies on the nuclear reaction 10B+n $rightarrow$ $alpha$+ 7Li , with $alpha$ and Li
ions generating a hot spot on the current-biased Nb strip which in turn induces a superconducting-normal state transition. The latter is recognized as a voltage signal which is the evidence of the incident neutron. The above described detection principle has been experimentally assessed and verified by irradiating the samples with a pulsed neutron beam at the ISIS spallation neutron source (UK). It is found that the boron coated superconducting strips, kept at a temperature T = 8 K and current-biased below the critical current Ic, are driven into the normal state upon thermal neutron irradiation. As a result of the transition, voltage pulses in excess of 40 mV are measured while the bias current can be properly modulated to bring the strip back to the superconducting state, thus resetting the detector. Measurements on the counting rate of the device are presented and the future perspectives leading to neutron detectors with unprecedented spatial resolutions and efficiency are highlighted.
We combine multiwavelength data in the AEGIS-XD and C-COSMOS surveys to measure the typical dark matter halo mass of X-ray selected AGN [Lx(2-10keV)>1e42 erg/s] in comparison with far-infrared selected star-forming galaxies detected in the Herschel/P
EP survey (PACS Evolutionary Probe; Lir>1e11 solar) and quiescent systems at z~1. We develop a novel method to measure the clustering of extragalactic populations that uses photometric redshift Probability Distribution Functions in addition to any spectroscopy. This is advantageous in that all sources in the sample are used in the clustering analysis, not just the subset with secure spectroscopy. The method works best for large samples. The loss of accuracy because of the lack of spectroscopy is balanced by increasing the number of sources used to measure the clustering. We find that X-ray AGN, far-infrared selected star-forming galaxies and passive systems in the redshift interval 0.6<z<1.4 are found in halos of similar mass, $log M_{DMH}/(M_{odot},h^{-1})approx13.0$. We argue that this is because the galaxies in all three samples (AGN, star-forming, passive) have similar stellar mass distributions, approximated by the J-band luminosity. Therefore all galaxies that can potentially host X-ray AGN, because they have stellar masses in the appropriate range, live in dark matter haloes of $log M_{DMH}/(M_{odot},h^{-1})approx13.0$ independent of their star-formation rates. This suggests that the stellar mass of X-ray AGN hosts is driving the observed clustering properties of this population. We also speculate that trends between AGN properties (e.g. luminosity, level of obscuration) and large scale environment may be related to differences in the stellar mass of the host galaxies.
We took advantage of the observations carried out by XMM in the COSMOS field during 3.5 years, to study the long term variability of a large sample of AGN (638 sources), in a wide range of redshift (0.1<z<3.5) and X-ray luminosity ($10^{41}<$L(2-10)$
<10^{45.5}$). Both a simple statistical method to asses the significance of variability, and the Normalized Excess Variance ($sigma^{2}_{rms}$) parameter, where used to obtain a quantitative measurement of the variability. Variability is found to be prevalent in most AGN, whenever we have good statistic to measure it, and no significant differences between type-1 and type-2 AGN were found. A flat (slope -0.23+/-0.03) anti-correlation between $sigma^{2}_{rms}$ and X-ray luminosity is found, when significantly variable sources are considered all together. When divided in three redshift bins, the anti-correlation becomes stronger and evolving with z, with higher redshift AGN being more variable. We prove however that this effect is due to the pre-selection of variable sources: considering all the sources with available $sigma^{2}_{rms}$ measurement, the evolution in redshift disappears. For the first time we were also able to study the long term X-ray variability as a function of $M_{rm BH}$ and Eddington ratio, for a large sample of AGN spanning a wide range of redshift. An anti-correlation between $sigma^{2}_{rms}$ and $M_{rm BH}$ is found, with the same slope of the anti-correlation between $sigma^{2}_{rms}$ and X-ray luminosity, suggesting that the latter can be a byproduct of the former one. No clear correlation is found between $sigma^{2}_{rms}$ and the Eddington ratio in our sample. Finally, no correlation is found between the X-ray $sigma^{2}_{rms}$ and the optical variability.
With this paper, we release accurate photometric redshifts for 1692 counterparts to Chandra sources in the central square degree of the COSMOS field. The availability of a large training set of spectroscopic redshifts that extends to faint magnitudes
enabled photometric redshifts comparable to the highest quality results presently available for normal galaxies. We demonstrate that morphologically extended, faint X-ray sources without optical variability are more accurately described by a library of normal galaxies (corrected for emission lines) than by AGN-dominated templates, even if these sources have AGN-like X-ray luminosities. Preselecting the library on the bases of the source properties allowed us to reach an accuracy sigma_(Delta z/(1+z_spec)) sim0.015 with a fraction of outliers of 5.8% for the entire Chandra-COSMOS sample. In addition, we release revised photometric redshifts for the 1735 optical counterparts of the XMM-detected sources over the entire 2 sq. deg.of COSMOS. For 248 sources, our updated photometric redshift differs from the previous release by Delta z>0.2. These changes are predominantly due to the inclusion of newly available deep H-band photometry H_AB=24 mag. We illustrate once again the importance of a spectroscopic training sample and how an assumption about the nature of a source together with the number and the depth of the available bands influence the accuracy of the photometric redshifts determined for AGN. These considerations should be kept in mind when defining the observational strategies of upcoming large surveys targeting AGN, such as eROSITA at X-ray energies and ASKAP/EMU in the radio band.
We report the occurrence of superconductivity, with maximum Tc = 40 K, in superlattices (SLs) based on two insulating oxides, namely CaCuO2 and SrTiO3. In these (CaCuO2)n/(SrTiO3)m SLs, the CuO2 planes belong only to CaCuO2 block, which is an antifer
romagnetic insulator. Superconductivity, confined within few unit cells at the CaCuO2/SrTiO3 interface, shows up only when the SLs are grown in a highly oxidizing atmosphere, because of extra oxygen ions entering at the interfaces. Evidence is reported that the hole doping of the CuO2 planes is obtained by charge transfer from the interface layers, which act as charge reservoir.
We present the observed-frame optical, near- and mid-infrared properties of X-ray selected AGN in the Lockman Hole. Using a likelihood ratio method on optical, near-infrared or mid-infrared catalogues, we assigned counterparts to 401 out of the 409 X
-ray sources of the XMM-Newton catalogue. Accurate photometry was collected for all the sources from U to 24um. We used X-ray and optical criteria to remove any normal galaxies, galactic stars, or X-ray clusters among them and studied the multi-wavelength properties of the remaining 377 AGN. We used a mid-IR colour-colour selection to understand the AGN contribution to the optical and infrared emission. Using this selection, we identified different behaviours of AGN-dominated and host-dominated sources in X-ray-optical-infrared colour-colour diagrams. More specifically, the AGN dominated sources show a clear trend in the f_x/f_R vs. R-K and f_24um/f_R vs. R-K diagrams, while the hosts follow the behaviour of non X-ray detected galaxies. In the optical-near-infrared colour-magnitude diagram we see that the known trend of redder objects being more obscured in X-rays is stronger for AGN-dominated than for host-dominated systems. This is an indication that the trend is more related to the AGN contaminating the overall colours than any evolutionary effects. Finally, we find that a significant fraction (~30%) of the reddest AGN are not obscured in X-rays.
We investigate the effects of magnetic and electric fields on electron wavefunction interactions in single walled carbon nanotube bundles. The magnetoresistance measurements performed at 4.2K and the dependence of the data upon the electric field, ob
tained by varying the bias current through the samples, reveal good agreement with weak localization theory. Recording current-voltage characteristics at different temperatures we find an ohmic non-ohmic transition which disappears above 85K. Conductance vs temperature measurements are also well explained in the framework of weak localization theory by the predicted temperature dependence of the electric field-conditioned characteristic length. This length results equal to the average bundles diameter just at T{backcong}85K, indicating that the observed conductance transition is due to a 2D-3D crossover.
We present the results of a program to acquire high-quality optical spectra of X-ray sources detected in the E-CDF-S and its central area. New spectroscopic redshifts are measured for 283 counterparts to Chandra sources with deep exposures (t~2-9 hr
per pointing) using multi-slit facilities on both the VLT and Keck thus bringing the total number of spectroscopically-identified X-ray sources to over 500 in this survey field. We provide a comprehensive catalog of X-ray sources detected in the E-CDF-S including the optical and near-infrared counterparts, and redshifts (both spectroscopic and photometric) that incorporate published spectroscopic catalogs thus resulting in a final sample with a high fraction (80%) of X-ray sources having secure identifications. We demonstrate the remarkable coverage of the Lx-z plane now accessible from our data while emphasizing the detection of AGNs that contribute to the faint end of the luminosity function at 1.5<z<3. Our redshift catalog includes 17 type 2 QSOs that significantly increases such samples (2x). With our deepest VIMOS observation, we identify elusive optically-faint galaxies (R~25) at z~2-3 based upon the detection of interstellar absorption lines; we highlight one such case, an absorption-line galaxy at z=3.208 having no obvious signs of an AGN in its optical spectrum. In addition, we determine distances to eight galaxy groups with extended X-ray emission. Finally, we measure the physical extent of known large-scale structures (z~0.7) evident in the CDF-S. While a thick sheet (radial size of 67.7 Mpc) at z~0.67 extends over the full field, the z~0.73 structure is thin (18.8 Mpc) and filamentary as traced by both AGNs and galaxy groups. In the appendix, we provide spectroscopic redshifts for 49 counterparts to fainter X-ray sources detected only in the 1 and 2 Ms catalogs, and 48 VLA radio sources not detected in X-rays.
