Highly variable γ-ray emission of CTD 135 and implications for its compact symmetric structure

The γ-ray emission properties of CTD 135,a typical compact symmetric object(CSO),are investigated with ～11-year Fermi/LAT observations.We show that it has bright and significantly variable GeV emission,with the γ-ray luminosity of L_γ～ 10~(47) erg s~(-1) and a variation index of TS_(var)=1002.A quasi-periodic oscillation(QPO) with a periodicity of ～460 days is detected in the global 95% false-alarm level.These γ-ray emission features are similar to that of blazars.Its broadband spectral energy distribution(SED) can be attributed to the radiations of the relativistic electrons accelerated in the core region and the extended region.The SED modeling shows that the γ-rays are from the core region,which has a Doppler boosting factor of δ～10.8 and relativistically moves with a small viewing angle,being similar to blazar jets.On the base of the analysis results,we propose that the episodic activity of the central engine in CTD135 results in a blazar-like jet and the bubble-like lobes as the Fermi bubbles in the Galaxy.The strong 7-ray emission with obvious variability is from the jet radiations and the symmetric radio structure is attributed to the bubbles.The jet radiation power and disk luminosity in units of Eddington luminosity of CTD 135 follow the same relation as other young radio sources,indicating that its jet radiation may also be driven by the Eddington ratio.     

L_(syn)-E_(syn,p)-δ relation in active galactic nucleus jets and implication for the physical origin of the L_p-E_(p,z)-Γ_0 relation of gamma-ray bursts

High energy photon radiations of gamma-ray bursts(GRBs) and active galactic nuclei(AGNs)are dominated by their jet radiations.We examine whether the synchrotron radiations of jets in BL Lacs,flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs),and Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies(NLS1s) follow the relation between the prompt gamma-ray emission and the initial Lorentz factor(Γ_0) of GRBs.It is shown that the AGN sample does not agree with the L_p-E_(p,z)-Γ_0 relation of GRBs.In addition,we obtain a tight relation of ■ for FSRQs and NLS1 galaxies,where L_(syn) is the luminosity at peak photon energy E_(syn,p) of the synchrotron radiations.This relation is different from the L_p-E_(p,z)-Γ_0 relation of GRB s.The dependence of L_(syn) to δ is consistent with the expectation of the Doppler boosting effect for the FSRQs and NLS1 galaxies,but it is not for GRBs.We argue that Γ_0 may be a representative of the kinetic power of the radiating region and the tight L_p-E_(p,z)-Γ_0 relation is shaped by the radiation physics and the jet power together.     

Does black hole spin play a key role in the FSRQ/BL Lac dichotomy?

Blazars are characterized by large intensity and spectral variations across the electromagnetic spectrum It is believed that jets emerging from them are almost aligned with the line-of-sight. The majority of identified extragalactic sources in γ-ray catalogs of EGRET and Fermi are blazars. Observationally,blazars can be divided into two classes: flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs) and BL Lacs. BL Lacs usually exhibit lower γ-ray luminosity and harder power law spectra at γ-ray energies than FSRQs. We attempt to explain the high energy properties of FSRQs and BL Lacs from Fermi γ-ray space telescope observations. It was argued previously that the difference in accretion rates is mainly responsible for the large mismatch in observed luminosity in γ-ray. However, when intrinsic luminosities are derived by correcting for beaming effects, this difference in γ-ray luminosity between the two classes is significantly reduced. In order to explain this difference in intrinsic luminosities, we propose that spin plays an important role in the luminosity distribution dichotomy of BL Lacs and FSRQs. As the outflow power of a blazar increases with increasing spin of a central black hole, we suggest that the spin plays a crucial role in making BL Lac sources low luminous and slow rotators compared to FSRQ sources.     

The Variability of Hardness Ratio 1 observed by ROSAT： Narrow—Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies versus Broad—Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies

We examined the correlation between the ROSAT Hardness Ratio 1 and Count Rates eight Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies (NLS1s) and 14 Broad-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies (BLS1s). We found that six of the NLS1s show a positive HR1-CTs correlation, and seven of the BLS1s, a negative correlation. The other two NLS1s and seven BLS1s do not show any clear HR1-CTs correlation. Thus, the spectral behavior is statistically different for the NLS1s and BLS1s. The different behaviors can possibly be interpreted in terms of a stable ‘soft excess’ that is strong in NLS1s and weak in BLS1s, plus a power law component, common to both, which softens with increasing flux.     

Searching for γ-ray emission from LOTAAS pulsars

The LOw-Frequency ARray(LOFAR)has recently conducted a survey(LOFAR Tied-Array Allsky Survey;LOTAAS)for pulsars in the Northern hemisphere that resulted in discoveries of 73 new pulsars.For the purpose of studying the properties of these pulsars,we search for theirγ-ray counterparts using the all-sky survey data obtained with the Large Area Telescope(LAT)onboard the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope(Fermi).We analyze the LAT data for 70 LOTAAS pulsars(excluding two millisecond pulsars and one with the longest known spin period of 23.5 s).We find one candidate counterpart to PSR J1017+30,which should be searched for theγ-ray pulsation signal once its timing solution is available.For other LOTAAS pulsars,we derive their 0.3-500 GeV flux upper limits.In order to compare the LOTAAS pulsars with the knownγ-ray pulsars,we also derive the 0.3-500 GeVγ-ray fluxes for 112 of the latter contained in the Fermi LAT fourth source catalog.Based on the properties of theγ-ray pulsars,we derive upper limits on the spin-down luminosities of the LOTAAS pulsars.The upper limits are not very constraining but help suggest that most of the LOTAAS pulsars probably have<10³³ erg s^-1 spin-down luminosities and are not expected to be detectable with Fermi LAT.     

The intrinsic γ-ray emissions of Fermi blazars

The beaming effect is important for understanding the observational properties of blazars.In this work, we collect 91 Fermi blazars with available radio Doppler factors. γ-ray Doppler factors are estimated and compared with radio Doppler factors for some sources. The intrinsic(de-beamed)γ-ray flux density(f_γ~(in)), intrinsic γ-ray luminosity(L_γ~(in)) and intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency(V_P~(in))are calculated. Then we study the correlations between finγand redshift and find that they follow the theoretical relation: log f =-2.0 log z + const. When the subclasses are considered, we find that stationary jets are perhaps dominant in low synchrotron peaked blazars. Sixty-three Fermi blazars with both available short variability time scales(?T) and Doppler factors are also collected. We find that the intrinsic relationship between L_γ~(in) and ?Tinobeys the Elliot Shapiro and Abramowicz Nobili relations. Strong positive correlation between f_γ~(in)and V_P~(in)is found, suggesting that synchrotron emissions are highly correlated with γ-ray emissions.     

A synchrotron self-Compton scenario for the very high energy γ-ray emission of the intermediate BL Lacertae object W Comae

W Comae has significant variability in multi-wavelengthes, from radio to gamma-ray bands. A bright outburst in optical and X-ray bands was observed in 1998, and most recently, a strong TeV flare was detected by VERITAS in 2008. It is the first TeV intermediate-frequency-peaked BL Lacertae source. I find that both the broadband spectral energy distributions （SEDs） which were quasi-simultaneously obtained during the TeV flare and during the optical/X-ray outburst are well fit by using a single-zone synchrotron ＋ synchrotron-self-Compton model. The satisfactory fitting requires a large beaming factor, i.e., δ- 25 and δ- 20 for the TeV flare and the optical/X-ray outburst, respectively, suggesting that both the optical/X-ray outburst and the TeV flare are from a relativistic jet. The size of the emission region of the TeV flare is three times larger than that of the optical/X-ray outburst, and the strength of the magnetic field for the TeV flare is - 14 times smaller than that of the X-ray/optical outburst, likely indicating that the region of the TeV flare is more distant from the core than that of the X-ray/optical outburst. The inverse Compton component of the TeV flare peaks around 1.3 GeV, but it is around 20 MeV for the X-ray/optical outburst, lower than that for the TeV flare by two orders of magnitude. The model predicts that the optical/X-ray outburst might be accompanied by a strong MeV/GeV emission, but the TeV flare may be not associated with the X-ray/optical outburst. The GeV emission is critical for characterizing the SEDs of the optical/X-ray outburst and the TeV flare. The predicted GeV flux is above the sensitivity of Fermi/LAT, and it could be verified with the observations by Fermi/LAT in the near future.     

Comparisons of Jet Properties between GeV Radio Galaxies and Blazars

We compile a sample of spectral energy distributions(SEDs) of 12 GeV radio galaxies(RGs),including eight FR Ⅰ RGs and four FR Ⅱ RGs. These SEDs can be represented with the one-zone leptonic model. No significant unification, as expected in the unification model, is found for the derived jet parameters between FR Ⅰ RGs and BL Lacertae objects(BL Lacs) and between FR Ⅱ RGs and flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs). However, on average FR Ⅰ RGs have a larger γb(break Lorentz factor of electrons) and lower B(magnetic field strength) than FR Ⅱ RGs, analogous to the differences between BL Lacs and FSRQs. The derived Doppler factors(δ) of RGs are on average smaller than those of blazars, which is consistent with the unification model such that RGs are the misaligned parent populations of blazars with smaller δ. On the basis of jet parameters from SED fits, we calculate their jet powers and the powers carried by each component, and compare their jet compositions and radiation efficiencies with blazars. Most of the RG jets may be dominated by particles, like BL Lacs, not FSRQs.However, the jets of RGs with higher radiation efficiencies tend to have higher jet magnetization. A strong anticorrelation between synchrotron peak frequency and jet power is observed for GeV RGs and blazars in both the observer and co-moving frames, indicating that the "sequence" behavior among blazars, together with the GeV RGs, may be intrinsically dominated by jet power.     

Searching for γ-ray counterparts to very faint X-ray transient neutron star binaries

Very faint X-ray transients(VFXTs) are a group of X-ray binaries with low luminosities,displaying peak X-ray luminosities during their outbursts of only 10~(34)–10~(36) erg s~(-1). Using γ-ray data obtained with the Large Area Telescope(LAT) onboard the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope(Fermi),we investigate their possible nature of containing rotation-powered pulsars, or more specifically being transitional millisecond pulsars(MSPs). Among more than 40 known VFXTs, we select 12 neutron star systems. We analyze the LAT data for the fields of 12 VFXTs in the energy range 0.2–300 Ge V,but do not find any counterparts likely detected by Fermi. We obtain luminosity upper limits for the 12 sources. While the distances to the sources are largely uncertain, the upper limits are comparable to the luminosities of two transitional systems, PSR J1023-0038 and XSS J12270-4859. From our study,we conclude that no evidence is found at γ-rays for the suggestion that some VFXTs could contain rotation-powered MSPs(or be transitional MSP systems).     

The beaming effect and γ-ray emission for Fermi blazars

We study the γ-ray luminosity and beaming effect for Fermi blazars.Our results are as follows.(i) There are significant correlations between γ-ray luminosity and radio core luminosity,and between γ-ray luminosity and R_v,which suggests that the γ-ray emissions have a strong beaming effect,(ⅱ) Using the L_(ext)/M_(abs) as an indicator of environment effects,we find that there is no significant correlation betweenγ-ray luminosity and L_(ext)/M_(abs) for all sources when we remove the effect of redshift.Flat spectrum radio quasars considered alone also do not show a significant correlation,but BL Lacertae objects(BL Lacs) still show a significant correlation when we remove the effect of redshift.These results suggest that the γ-ray emission may be affected by the environment on a kiloparsec scale for BL Lacs.     

Correlation between excitation index and Eddington ratio in radio galaxies

We use a sample of 111 radio galaxies with redshift z 0.3 to investigate their nuclear properties.The black hole masses of the sources in this sample are estimated with the velocity dispersion/luminosity of the galaxies, or the width of the broad-lines. We find that the excitation index, the relative intensity of low and high excitation lines, is correlated with the Eddington ratio for this sample. The size of the narrow-line region(NLR) was found to vary with ionizing luminosity as RNLR∝L_(ion)~(0.25)(Liu et al. 2013). Using this empirical relation, we find that the correlation between the excitation index and the Eddington ratio can be reproduced by photoionization models. We adopt two sets of spectral energy distributions(SEDs), with or without a big blue bump in ultraviolet as the ionizing continuum, and infer that the modeled correlation between the excitation index and the Eddington ratio is insensitive to the applied SED. This means that the difference between high excitation galaxies and low excitation galaxies is not caused by the different accretion modes in these sources. Instead, it may be caused by the size of the NLR.     

X-Ray Properties of the Point Source Population in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 5055 （M63） with Chandra

Using Chandra ACIS S3 data we studied the X-ray properties of low-and high- mass X-ray binary populations in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 5055. A total of 43 X-ray point sources were detected within two effective radii, with 31 sources located on the disk and the rest 12 sources in the bulge. The resolved point sources dominate the X-ray emission of the galaxy, accounting for about 80% of the total counts in 0.3–10keV. From spectral fittings we calculated the 0.3–10.0keV luminosities of all the detected X-ray point sources and found that they span a wide range from a few times 1037 erg s-1 to over 1039 erg s-1. After compensating for incompleteness at the low luminosity end, we found that the corrected XLF of the bulge populationis well fitted with a brokenpower-law with a break at 1.57 - 00..2210× 1038 erg s-1, while the profile of the disk population’s XLF agrees with a single power- law distribution of slope 0.93 -00..0076. The disk population is significantly richer at >～ 2 × 1038 erg s-1 than the bulge population, indicating that the disk may have undergonerelatively recent, strong starbursts that significantly increased the HMXB population, although ongoing starbursts are also observed in the nuclear region. Similar XLF profiles of the bulge and disk populations were found in M81. However, in most other spiral galaxies different patterns of spatial variation of the XLF profiles from the bulge to the disk have been observed, indicating that the star formation and evolution history may be more complex than we have expected.     

The core dominance parameter and Fermi detection of extragalactic radio sources

By cross-correlating an archive sample of 542 extragalactic radio sources with the Fermi-LAT Third Source Catalog(3FGL), we have compiled a sample of 80 γ-ray sources and 462 non-Fermi sources with available core dominance parameter(RCD), and core and extended radio luminosity; all the parameters are directly measured or derived from available data in the literature. We found that RCD has significant correlations with radio core luminosity, γ-ray luminosity and γ-ray flux; the Fermi sources have on average higher RCD than non-Fermi sources. These results indicate that the Fermi sources should be more compact,and the beaming effect should play a crucial role in the detection of γ-ray emission. Moreover, our results also show Fermi sources have systematically larger radio flux than non-Fermi sources at fixed RCD, indicating larger intrinsic radio flux in Fermi sources. These results show a strong connection between radio andγ-ray flux for the present sample and indicate that the non-Fermi sources are likely due to the low beaming effect, and/or the low intrinsic γ-ray flux. This supports a scenario that has been published in the literature:a co-spatial origin of the activity for the radio and γ-ray emission, suggesting that the origin of the seed photons for the high-energy γ-ray emission is within the jet.     

Evidence of Evolution in the Dense Cores in Massive Star Forming Regions

The excitation of H2O masers usually needs very high density gas, hence it can serve as a marker of dense gas in HII region. We selected a sample of H2O maser sources from Plume et al. (four with, and four without detected CS(J = 7-6) emission), and observed them in 13CO(J=1-0) and C18O (J=1-0). C18O (J=1-0) emission was detected only in three of the sources with detected CS(J=7-6) emission. An analysis combined with some data in the literature suggests that these dense cores may be located at different evolutionary stages. Multi-line observation study may provide us clues on the evolution of massive star forming regions and the massive stars themselves.     

Radio Identifications of Markarian Galaxies and the Correlation between Radio and Far-Infrared Properties

By checking DSS optical images and NVSS radio images, 782 Markarian galaxies were identified to be NVSS radio sources. A comparison of the radio luminosity at 1.4 GHz and the far-infrared (FIR) luminosity for 468 "normal" galaxies shows a tight correlation. Most of the Seyfert galaxies and quasars follow the radio-FIR relation deduced from the "normal" galaxy sample, but with a somewhat larger scatter. A total 167 Markarian galaxies, comprising 100 "normal" galaxies, 66 Seyfert galaxies and one quasar, have either excess radio emission or much lower FIR spectral index α(25μm,60μm). These galaxies may be classified as "AGN-powered". For "normal" galaxies, the average q value (defined as the log ratio between FIR and radio luminosities) is 2.3. There seems a trend for q to slightly decrease with increasing radio luminosity. This may imply that the ongoing active star formation in galaxies with higher radio luminosities is more efficient in heating the cosmic-ray electrons.     

The nature of the γ-ray flare associated with blazar 3C 454.3

We have studied the simultaneous spectral energy distributions(SEDs) of the 2009 December flare and those of the quiescent state of blazar 3C 454.3 by constructing a multi-component model. We find that all six SEDs can be explained by a one-zone leptonic model involving synchrotron self-Compton(SSC) plus external Compton emission from an accretion disk(ECD) and that from a broad-line region(ECC). X-ray emission is dominated by the SSC mechanism, and the γ-ray spectrum is well represented by a combination of ECD and ECC processes. Our results indicate that the energy density of the magnetic field and electrons decrease with distance from the central engine, and the Doppler factor increases with the blob moving outward in the development of the 2009 December flare. The increase in the observed flux density is possibly due to the increase in the Doppler factor of the blob. The relation between the Doppler factor δb and the distance from the central black hole suggests the magnetically driven jets span a sub-pc scale, and the relation between the magnetic field B′ and the dimension of the emission region R′b is in good agreement with what is required by conservation of magnetic flux. The weak "harder-when-brighter" behavior of the γ-ray spectrum could be a result of the increase in Doppler factor during the outward motion of the blob. The parameters during the quiescent state obviously deviate from those during the flare state. We propose that the flare was likely caused by the ejection of a new blob. The gamma-ray emissions in different states are associated with the evolution of the blob.     

Flux and spectral variation characteristics of 3C 454.3 at the GeV band

We analyze the long-term lightcurve of 3C 454.3 observed with Fermi/LAT and investigate its relation to flux in the radio,optical and X-ray bands.By fitting the 1-day binned Ge V lightcurve with multiple Gaussian functions(MGF),we propose that the typical variability timescale in the Ge V band is 1–10 d.The Ge V flux variation is accompanied by the spectral variation characterized as fluxtracking,i.e.,"harder when brighter."The Ge V flux is correlated with the optical and X-ray fluxes,and a weak correlation betweenγ-ray flux and radio flux is also observed.Theγ-ray flux is not correlated with the optical linear polarization degree for the global lightcurves,but they show a correlation for the lightcurves before MJD 56000.The power density spectrum of the global lightcurve shows an obvious turnover at~7.7 d,which may indicate a typical variability timescale of 3C 454.3 in theγ-ray band.This is also consistent with the derived timescales by fitting the global lightcurve with MGF.The spectral evolution and an increase in the optical linear polarization degree along with the increase inγ-ray flux may indicate that the radiation particles are accelerated and the magnetic field is ordered by the shock processes during the outbursts.In addition,the nature of 3C 454.3 may be consistent with a self-organized criticality system,similar to Sagittariusand thus the outbursts could be from plasmoid ejections driven by magnetic reconnection.This may further support the idea that the jet radiation regions are magnetized.     

Spectral energy distributions for TeV blazars

In this work, we collected a sample of 69 TeV blazars from TeVCat, obtained their multiwavelength observations, and fitted their spectral energy distributions by using a second degree polynomial function. The structure parameters of synchrotron bumps for 68 blazars and those of inverseCompton bumps for 56 blazars were derived. Then, we conducted statistical analysis on the parameters(curvature, peak frequency, peak luminosity, bolometric luminosity and X/γ-ray spectral indexes).From our analysis and discussions, we can conclude the following:(1) There is a clear positive correlation between the synchrotron peak frequency, log ν_p~s, and the inverse-Compton peak frequency, log ν_p~(IC),and between the synchrotron peak luminosity, log ν_p~sL_(νp)~s, and the inverse-Compton peak luminosity,log ν_p~(IC)L_(νp)~(IC).(2) The correlation between the peak frequency and the curvature of synchrotron bump is clearly different from that of the inverse-Compton bump, which further indicates that there are different emission mechanisms between them.(3) There is a correlation between log νIC pand γ-ray spectral index, α_γ, for the TeV blazars: log ν_p~(IC)=-(4.59 ± 0.30)α_γ+(32.67 ± 0.59), which is consistent with previous work.(4) An "L-shape" relation is found between log ν_p~s and α_X for both TeV blazars and Fermi blazars. A significant correlation between log νs pand X-ray photon index(α_X) is found for the TeV blazars with high synchrotron peak frequency: log ν_p~s=-(3.20 ± 0.34)α_X+(24.33 ± 0.79),while the correlation is positive for low synchrotron peaked TeV sources.(5) In the αX-αγdiagram,there is also an "L-shape." The anti-correlation is consistent with results available in the literature, and we also find a positive correlation between them.(6) Inverse-Compton dominant sources have luminous bolometric luminosities.     

Superluminal Motion and Polarization in Blazars

A relativistic beaming model has been successfully used to explain the observed properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). In this model there are two emission components, a boosted one and an unbeamed one, shown up in the radio band as the core and lobe components. The luminosity ratio of the core to the lobe is denned as the core-dominance parameter (R = LCore/LLobe). The de-beamed radio luminosity (Ldbjet) in the jet is assumed to be proportional to the unbeamedluminosity (Lub) in the co-moving frame, i.e., f = Ldbjet/Lub, and f is determined in ourprevious paper. We further discuss the relationship between BL Lacertae objects (BLs) and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), which are subclasses of blazars with different degrees of polarization, using the calculated values of the ratio f for a sample of superluminal blazars. We found 1) that the BLs show smaller averaged Doppler factors and Lorentz factors, larger viewing angles and higher core-dominance parameters than do the FSRQs, and 2) that in th     

Meta-analysis of electron cyclotron resonance absorption features detected in high-mass X-ray binaries

Using recent compilations of detailed X-ray observations and spectral models of exceptional quality, we record the electron cyclotron resonance absorption(ECRA) features that have been detected in 45 pulsating high-mass X-ray binaries(HMXBs) and ultraluminous X-ray(ULX) sources harboring neutron stars, although seven of these detections are still questionable and another 21 are single and/or not independently confirmed. From the comprehensive catalogs of Jaisawal Naik and Staubert et al.and from several additional recent observations, we produce two lists of HMXB ECRA sources: a list of 17 sources in which multiple ECRA lines or single very low-energy lines are seen, in which we can reasonably assume that the lowest energy reveals the fundamental cyclotron level for each source; and a"contaminated" list of 38 sources including the 21 detections of single ECRA lines that may(not) be higherlevel harmonics. Both lists confirm a previous result that we have obtained independently by modeling the propeller lines of Magellanic HMXB pulsars: the surface dipolar magnetic fields B*of HMXB neutron stars are segregated around five distinct values with B*= 0.28 ± 0.08, 0.55 ± 0.11, 1.3 ± 0.37, 3.0 ± 0.68 and 7.9 ± 3.1, in units of TG. However, an explanation of this phenomenon is currently lacking. We have found no correlation between these B*values and the corresponding observed spin periods, spin period derivatives, orbital periods, maximum X-ray luminosities, neutron star masses or companion star masses.