On the generation of envelope solitons in?the?presence of?excess superthermal electrons and?positrons

A theoretical model is presented to investigate the existence, formation, and possible realization of nonlinear envelope ion acoustic solitary waves which accompany collisionless electron-positron-ion plasmas with high-energy electrons and positrons (represented by kappa distribution). By employing the reductive perturbation method, the hydrodynamic model and the Poisson equation are reduced to nonlinear Schr?dinger equation. The effects of the superthermal parameters, as well as ion-to-electron temperature ratio on the propagation and stability of the envelope solitary waves are examined. The superthermal parameters (ion-to-electron temperature ratio) give rise to instability (stability) of the solitary excitations, since the instability window is strongly modified. Finally, the present results should elucidate the excitation of the nonlinear ion-acoustic solitary wave packets in superthermal electron-positron-ion plasmas, particularly in interstellar medium.     

Bimodality of anomalous pulsars?

At present, it is widely believed that anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs), rotational radio transients (RRATs), compact central objects (CCOs) in supernova remnants, and X-ray dim isolated neutron stars (XDINSs) belong to different classes of anomalous objects in which the central bodies are isolated neutron stars. Previously, we have shown that AXPs and SGRs can be described in terms of the drift model for parameters of the central neutron star typical of radio pulsars (rotation periods P ～ 0.1–1 s and surface magnetic fields B ～ 10¹¹–10¹³ G). Here, we show that some of the peculiarities of the sources under consideration can be explained by their geometry (in particular, by the angle β between the rotation axis and the magnetic moment). If β ? 10° (an aligned rotator), the drift waves in the outer layers of the neutron star magnetosphere can account for the observed periodicity in the radiation. For large β (a nearly orthogonal rotator), the observed modulation of the radiation and its short bursts can be explained by mass accretion from the ambient medium (e.g., a relic disk).     

A family of well behaved charge analogues of?a?well behaved neutral solution in?general relativity

A family of charge analogues of a neutral solution with g ₄₄=(1+Cr ²)⁶ has been obtained by using a specific electric intensity, which involves a parameter K. Both neutral and charged solutions are analysed physically subject to the surface density 2×10¹⁴ gm/cm³ (neutron star). The neutral solution is well behaved for 0.0<Ca ²≤0.10477 while its charge analogues are well behaved for a wide range of a parameter K (0≤K≤72) i.e. pressure, density, pressure-density ratio, velocity of sound is monotonically decreasing and the electric intensity is monotonically increasing in nature for the given range of the parameter K. The maximum mass and radius occupied by the neutral solution are 3.4126M _Θ and 18.9227 km for Ca ²=0.10447 respectively. While the red shift at centre Z ₀=0.9686 and red shift at the surface Z _a =0.4612. For the charged solution, the maximum mass and radius are 5.6111M _Θ and 17.2992 km respectively for K=3.0130 and Ca ²=0.2500, with the red shift Z ₀=3.0113 and Z _a =1.0538.     

New type of extragalactic objects?

We have reported the discovery of a population of the normal extragalactic field galaxies with the clear presence of strong FHIL (forbidden high by ionized lines) and HeII 4686 emission. In this paper we present a dozen of them extracted from the SDSS dr7. The high resolution spectra 0.86 ? /px obtained with the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical observatory of Russia are introduced for one of them, SDSS J093801.63 + 135317.0 confirming the presence of strong and wide FHIL and HeII 4686 emission. These objects show typical narrow (FWHM ~ 120 - 250 km s^-1) emission lines both of HI and forbidden emission lines of [NII] 6548/84, [SII] 6717/31, [OI] 6300, [OII] 3727, and [OIII] 5007/4959 with underlying stellar absorption lines, coupled with the strong FHIL emission of [FeVII] 5721, 6087, [FeX] 6375, [FeXI] 7892, [FeXIV] 5303, and HeII 4686, sometimes very broad up to 1500 km s^-1. Following the direct images, all morphological types are introduced, spherical, elliptical, spiral, barred spiral, etc., without morphological or other peculiarity and any signs of "standard" AGN activity. None of them are X-ray source. The appearance of the FHIL emission in normal galaxies (the objects of SBN/HII/ELG spectral types) might be one of the important sign of the beginning of the AGN activity. The existence of the numerous normal extragalactic objects with FHIL and HeII 4686 emission tell us that the link between the AGNs and the normal galaxies perhaps might be realized with the FHIL flare in normal galaxies. For all of them, the existence of the nonthermal source in normal galaxies should be proposed.     

Superrotation of the thermosphere by global deposition of meteoroids?

Mitra has suggested that the Superrotation of the upper atmosphere is caused by a deposition of meteoroids. The meteoroids are assumed to impart to the atmosphere the excess of their orbital angular momentum per unit mass over the Earth's angular momentum per unit mass. The process is to take place in the height region above 150 km. Only above this height is a Superrotation of the atmosphere observed. In this report the forces that tend to make the atmosphere corotate with the Earth are analysed. It is shown that the most important of these forces is ion drag, and not viscous drag as postulated by Mitra. As the net angular spin momentum imparted by the meteoroids seems to be less than Mitra's estimate and its main part is applied to the atmosphere at altitudes much lower than 150 km, the hypothesis that meteoroids provide a significant contribution to the Superrotation is rejected.     

Spectroscopy of K-complex asteroids: Parent bodies of carbonaceous meteorites?

This is the first focused study of non-Eos K asteroids. We have observed a total of 30 K-complex objects (12 K-2 Sk- and 13 Xk-type asteroids (from the Bus taxonomy), plus 3 K-candidates from previous work) and we present an analysis of their spectral properties from 0.4 to 2.5 μm. We targeted these asteroids because their previous observations are spectrally similar enough to suggest a possible compositional relationship. All objects have exhibited spectral redness in the visible wavelengths and minor absorptions near 1 micron. If, as suggested, K-complex asteroids (including K, Xk, and Sk) are the parent bodies of carbonaceous meteorites, knowledge of K-asteroid properties and distribution is essential to our understanding of the cosmochemical importance of some of the most primitive meteorite materials in our collection. This paper presents initial results of our analysis of telescopic data, with supporting analysis of laboratory measurements of meteorite analogs. Our results indicate that K-complex asteroids are distinct from other main belt asteroid types (S, B, C, F, and G). They do not appear to be a subset of these other types. K asteroids nearly span the range of band center positions and geometric albedos exhibited by the carbonaceous chondrites (CO, CM, CV, CH, CK, CR, and CI). We find that B-, C-, F- and G-type asteroids tend to be darker than meteorites, and can have band centers longer than any of the chondrites measured here. This could indicate that K-complex asteroids are better spectral analogues for the majority of our carbonaceous meteorites than the traditional B-, C-, F- and G-matches suggested in the literature. This paper present first results of our ongoing survey to determine K-type mineralogy, meteorite linkages, and significance to the geology of the asteroid regions.     

Solar Control of Martian Polar Caps?

Regression of polar caps of Mars for the period 1905–1988 shows a highly significant anticorrelation with sunspot numbers. This behaviour is abnormal since the regression exhibited a significant correlation for the period 1862–1912. Combined with such unusual behaviour of Jupiter and Neptune, reported earlier, this may imply a common cause outside the solar system, viz., variation of the density of the local interstellar medium.     

Cosmic rays from remnants of quasars?

Considerations of the collision losses for protons traversing the 2.7-K blackbody microwave radiation field have led to the conclusion that the highest energy cosmic rays, those observed at ≥10²⁰ eV, must come from sources within the present epoch. In light of this constraint, it is here suggested that these particles may be accelerated near the event horizons of spinning supermassive black holes associated with presently inactive quasar remnants. The required emf is generated by the black hole induced rotation of externally supplied magnetic field lines threading the horizon. Producing the observed flux of the highest energy cosmic rays would constitute a negligible drain on the black hole dynamo. Observations with upcoming air shower arrays and space missions may lead to the identification of candidate dormant galaxies that harbour such black holes. Although the highest energy events observed so far are accounted for within the context of this scenario, a spectral upper bound at ∼10²¹ eV is expected since the acceleration to higher energies appears to be precluded, on general grounds.     

An absolute clock of the cosmos?

In 1968–2005 different observers (mainly, one of the authors—V.M. Lyuty) performed numerous measurements of luminosity of the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151. It is shown that (a) luminosity of the object pulsated over 38 years with a period of 160.0106(7) min coinciding, within the error limits, with the well-known period P ₀ = 160.0101(2) min of the enigmatic “solar” pulsations, and (b) when registering oscillations of luminosity of NGC 4151 nucleus with the P ₀ period, time moments of observations must be reduced to the earth instead of the sun, i.e., to the reference frame of the observer. The coherent P ₀ oscillation is characterized, therefore, by invariability of both frequency and phase with respect to redshift z and the earth’s orbital motion, respectively. From these results it, thus, follows that the coherent P ₀ oscillation seems to be of a true cosmological origin. The P ₀ period itself might represent a course of the “cosmic clock” related to the existence of an absolute time of the Universe in Newton’s comprehension.     

A new component of cosmic rays?

Recent direct measurements of the energy spectra of the major mass components of cosmic rays have indicated the presence of a ‘kink’ in the region of 200 GeV per nucleon. The kink, which varies in magnitude from one element to another, is much sharper than predicted by our cosmic ray origin model in which supernova remnants are responsible for cosmic ray acceleration and it appears as though a new, steeper component is responsible.The component amounts to about 20 percent of the total at 30 GeV/nucleon for protons and helium nuclei and its magnitude varies with nuclear charge; the unweighted fraction for all cosmic rays being 36%.The origin of the new component is subject to doubt but the contenders include O, B, A, supergiant and Wolf-Rayet stars, by way of their intense stellar winds. Another explanation is also in terms of these particles as the sources but then being trapped, and even further accelerated, in the Local Bubble.     

Where are the rings of Neptune?

Stable rings can exist at inclinations of 0–15°, 165°–180°, or ～90° to Neptune's equator, but perturbations due to the massive satellite Triton would produce a severe “warping” of the ring plane. If Neptune possesses rings, they may not lie in the plane of its equator.     

Strong lensing of submillimetre galaxies: a tracer of foreground structure?

The steep source counts and negative K -corrections of bright submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) suggest that a significant fraction of those observed at high flux densities may be gravitationally lensed, and that the lensing objects may often lie at redshifts above 1, where clusters of galaxies are difficult to detect through other means. In this case, follow-up of bright SMGs may be used to identify dense structures along the line-of-sight. Here, we investigate the probability for SMGs to experience strong lensing, using the latest N -body simulations and observed source flux and redshift distributions. We find that almost all high-redshift sources with a flux density above 100 mJy will be lensed if they are not relatively local galaxies. We also give estimates of the fraction of sources experiencing strong lensing as a function of observed flux density. This has implications for planning follow-up observations for bright SMGs discovered in future surveys with the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2 and other instruments. The largest uncertainty in these calculations is the maximum allowed lensing amplification, which is dominated by the presently unknown spatial extent of SMGs.     

Are the Viking Lander sites representative of the surface of Mars?

Global remote-sensing observations of Mars are compared with remote-sensing observations of the two Viking Lander site regions and with orbiter and lander imaging of the sites. The lander sites do not fit most of the global trends of remote-sensing data. The presence of a duricrust in the top meter of the surface is inferred for most regions of high thermal inertia, although the duricrust is thinner at the lander sites than elsewhere. Regions of low thermal inertia are covered by greater than several centimeters of unconsolidated dust. A thin, microns-thick layer of bright dust appears at the surface at the lander sites, and these locations may be regions of incipient formation of low thermal inertia. The lander sites are intermediate in structure between classical bright and dark regions, and are distinctive from most of the rest of the planet.     

Solar-Cycle Variation of Subsurface-Flow Divergence: A Proxy of Magnetic Activity?

We study the solar-cycle variation of subsurface flows from the surface to a depth of 16 Mm. We have analyzed Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) Dopplergrams with a ring-diagram analysis covering about 15 years and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) Dopplergrams covering more than 6 years. After subtracting the average rotation rate and meridional flow, we have calculated the divergence of the horizontal residual flows from the maximum of Solar Cycle 23 through the declining phase of Cycle 24. The subsurface flows are mainly divergent at quiet regions and convergent at locations of high magnetic activity. The relationship is essentially linear between divergence and magnetic activity at all activity levels at depths shallower than about 10 Mm. At greater depths, the relationship changes sign at locations of high activity; the flows are increasingly divergent at locations with a magnetic activity index (MAI) greater than about 24 G. The flows are more convergent by about a factor of two during the rising phase of Cycle 24 than during the declining phase of Cycle 23 at locations of medium and high activity (about 10 to 40 G MAI) from the surface to at least 10 Mm. The subsurface divergence pattern of Solar Cycle 24 first appears during the declining phase of Cycle 23 and is present during the extended minimum. It appears several years before the magnetic pattern of the new cycle is noticeable in synoptic maps. Using linear regression, we estimate the amount of magnetic activity that would be required to generate the precursor pattern and find that it should be almost twice the amount of activity that is observed.     

Mystery of Callisto: Is It Undifferentiated?

The Galileo-determined moment-of-inertia factor for Callisto of 0.406 ± 0.039 (1σ) is consistent with only a small amount of ice–rock differentiation (<10%), because the moment-of-inertia for a totally undifferentiated Callisto is 0.38 (not 0.40). The apparently high value for the moment-of-inertia may include nonhydrostatic contributions originating in Callisto's lithosphere. The anhydrous rock/(rock + water–ice) mass ratio for Callisto is ≈0.45, close to the theoretically predicted value of ≈0.40.     

What drives the growth of black holes?

Massive black holes (BHs) are at once exotic and yet ubiquitous, residing at the centers of massive galaxies in the local Universe. Recent years have seen remarkable advances in our understanding of how these BHs form and grow over cosmic time, during which they are revealed as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). However, despite decades of research, we still lack a coherent picture of the physical drivers of BH growth, the connection between the growth of BHs and their host galaxies, the role of large-scale environment on the fueling of BHs, and the impact of BH-driven outflows on the growth of galaxies. In this paper we review our progress in addressing these key issues, motivated by the science presented at the “What drives the growth of black holes?” workshop held at Durham on 26–29th July 2010, and discuss how these questions may be tackled with current and future facilities.     

Is sky distribution of gamma-ray bursts random?

We investigate the full randomness of the angular distribution of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the BATSE (the Burst and Transient Source Experiment). We divided the BATSE sample into 5 subsamples (short1, short2, intermediate, long1, long2 based on their durations and peak fluxes and studied the angular distributions separately. We used three methods, the Voronoi tesselation, minimal spanning tree and multifractal spectra to search for non-randomness in the subsamples. To investigate the eventual non-randomness in the subsamples we defined 13 test-variables (9 from the Voronoi tesselation, 3 from the minimal spanning tree and one from the multifractal spectrum). We performed Monte Carlo simulations taking into account the BATSE sky-exposure function. We tested the randomness by introducing squared Euclidean distances in the parameter space of the test-variables. We concluded that the short1, short2 groups deviate significantly (99.90%, 99.98%) from the full randomness in the distribution of the squared Euclidean distances, however, it is not the case with the long subsamples. In the intermediate group, the squared Euclidean distances also yield a significant deviation (98.51%).     

Spindown of magnetars:quantum vacuum friction?

Magnetars are proposed to be peculiar neutron stars which could power their X-ray radiation by super-strong magnetic fields as high as 10~(14) G.However,no direct evidence for such strong fields has been obtained till now,and the recent discovery of low magnetic field magnetars even indicates that some more efficient radiation mechanism than magnetic dipole radiation should be included.In this paper,quantum vacuum friction(QVF) is suggested to be a direct consequence of super-strong surface fields,therefore the magnetar model could then be tested further through QVF braking.The high surface magnetic field of a pulsar interacting with the quantum vacuum results in a significantly high spindown rate(P).It is found that a QVF dominates the energy loss of pulsars when the pulsar's rotation period and its first derivative satisfy the relationship P~3P 0.63 ×10~(-16)ξ~(-4) s~2,whereξ is the ratio of the surface magnetic field over the dipole magnetic field.In the "QVF + magnetodipole" joint braking scenario,the spindown behavior of magnetars should be quite different from that in the pure magnetodipole model.We are expecting these results could be tested by magnetar candidates,especially low magnetic field cases,in the future.     

Towards a new maximum of OJ 287?

The results of a photometric campaign in theB, V, R andI bands of the BL Lac object OJ 287 are presented. The source is found at the same level and spectral slope as in 1991, without any sign forecasting the predicted maximum in August 1994.     

What determines the observational differences of blazars?

We examine the scenario that the Doppler factor determines the observational differences of blazars. Significantly negative correlations are found between the observational synchrotron peak frequency and the Doppler factor. After correcting the Doppler boosting, the intrinsic peak frequency has a tight linear relation with the Doppler factor. It is interesting that this relation is consistent with the scenario that the black hole mass governs both the bulk Lorentz factor and the synchrotron peak frequency. In addition, the distinction between the kinetic jet powers of BL Lac objects and flat spectrum radio quasars disappears after the boosting factor δ~2 is considered. The negative correlation between the peak frequency and the observational isotropic luminosity, known as the blazar sequence, also disappears after the Doppler boosting is corrected. We also find that the correlation between the Compton dominance and the Doppler factor exists for all types of blazars. Therefore, this correlation is unsuitable for examining the external Compton emission dominance.