Low-mass and high-mass supermassive black holes in radio-loud AGNs are spun-up in different evolution paths

How supermassive black holes(SMBHs) are spun-up is a key issue in modern astrophysics. As an extension to the study in Wang et al., here we address the issue by comparing the host galaxy properties of nearby(z 0.05) radio-selected Seyfert 2 galaxies. With the two-dimensional bulge+disk decompositions for the SDSS r-band images, we identify a dichotomy in various host galaxy properties for radio-loud SMBHs. By assuming that radio emission from the jet reflects a high SMBH spin, which stems from the well-known Blandford-Znajek mechanism of jet production, high-mass SMBHs(i.e., MBH 107.9 M⊙)have a preference for being spun-up in classical bulges, and low-mass SMBHs(i.e., MBH = 106-107 M⊙)in pseudo-bulges. This dichotomy suggests and confirms that high-mass and low-mass SMBHs are spun-up in different ways, i.e., a major "dry" merger and a secular evolution respectively.     

SAGE测光巡天数据处理方法研究

元素丰度与星系演化(Stellar Abundance and Galactic Evolution,SAGE)是自主设计的能够准确计算恒星大气参数以及消光的新测光系统。对北天除银盘外共计约12 000 deg2的天区开展了SAGE系统测光巡天,计划获取约5亿颗恒星的高精度测光数据。单次曝光条件下100σ完备星等uSC～17. 3,vSAGE～16. 8(AB星等),这些为研究银河系提供宝贵的测光资料。介绍了巡天专用的数据处理程序的研究和开发,主要研究了针对单幅图像的快速自动化处理过程,重点介绍数据改正、天体测量校正、测光和流量定标过程,以及数据结果和数据质量检测等。     

南山26米射电望远镜轨道高差测量及其对指向精度的影响

轮轨式天线的轨道作为承载整个天线重量的基础,其精度直接影响天线在方位方向运转的平稳性,引起天线轴系偏差从而影响天线的指向精度。介绍改造后的乌鲁木齐南山26 m射电望远镜(Nanshan Radio Telescope, NSRT)轨道结构以及轨道高差测量,并建立天线在不同方位、俯仰角下轨道高差引起天线指向偏差的数学模型。利用"十字扫描"法实测多颗标准源在相应位置的指向数据,并通过高斯拟合得到指向偏差。通过分析可知,轨道高差引起的指向偏差经过修正可以提高天线的指向精度。     

基于容器技术的天文应用软件自动部署方法

平方千米阵列即将开始建设,各子工作包也进入关键设计评估阶段。基于云与容器技术是平方千米阵列科学数据处理器未来可能采用的平台技术。针对超大规模海量数据处理面临的天文应用软件快速部署、运行与实测要求,充分考虑天文应用软件运行环境复杂、云计算环境下超大规模计算集群部署困难等问题,系统研究并给出了一种使用容器技术的天文应用软件通用自动部署方法。以目前较为常用的可见度函数校准软件SAGECaL为例,首先分析了SAGECaL的相关特性和分布式部署方面存在的困难,进而给出了基于容器技术的SAGECaL分布式集群的自动部署方法。实验结果表明,自动部署方法极大地提高了SAGECaL分布式集群的部署效率,满足项目组承担平方千米阵列科学数据处理器相关测试工作所需要的基础平台部署与切换等需求,同时也为其它天文软件在云端的快速部署与执行提供了有益的思路。     

Evidence for the Retrograde Accretion onto Supermassive Black Holestwo

Recently, Sloan Digital Sky Survey successfully carried out the reverberation mapping of a sky area, aiming to test the R ? L relation that has been already widely used. Here, R is the responsivity-weighted radius of the broad line region, and L is the optical luminosity at 5100 Å. Two results have been obtained from the data in the first year: (1) The time lags of AGNs (Active Galactic Nuclei) with a high accretion rate are much shorter than that estimated from the R ? L relation, which confirmed the results of reverberation mapping observations made by the Lijiang 2.4 meter telescope. (2) Some AGNs with a lower accretion rate also have very short time lags. The shortening of the time lags of the AGNs with a low accretion rate is caused by the retrograde accretion of black holes. This result has verified from observations the theoretical prediction made by Wang et al. (2014). The discovery of the black holes with a retrograde accretion has important significance, it indicates that the cosmological evolution of the black holes in quasars is implemented via the inherently random accretion.     

Contribution to diffuse gamma-rays in the Galactic Centre region from unresolved millisecond pulsars

Diffuse gamma-rays in the Galactic Centre region have been studied. We propose that there exists a population of millisecond pulsars in the Galactic Centre, which emit GeV gamma-rays through synchrotron-curvature radiation as predicted by outer gap models. These GeV gamma-rays from unresolved millisecond pulsars probably contribute to the diffuse gamma-ray spectrum detected by EGRET which displays a break at a few GeV. We have used a Monte Carlo method to obtain simulated samples of millisecond pulsars in the Galactic Centre region covered by EGRET  (∼ 15)  according to the different period and magnetic field distributions from observed millisecond pulsars in the Galactic field and globular clusters, and superposed their synchrotron-curvature spectra to derive the total GeV flux. Our simulated results suggest that there probably exist about 6000 unresolved millisecond pulsars in the region of angular resolution of EGRET, the emissions of which could contribute significantly to the observed diffuse gamma-rays in the Galactic Centre.     

Fast compression and reconstruction of astronomical images based on compressed sensing

With the fast increase in the resolution of astronomical images, the question of how to process and transfer such large images has become a key issue in astronomy. We propose a new real-time compression and fast reconstruction algorithm for astronomical images based on compressive sensing techniques. We first reconstruct the original signal with fewer measurements, according to its compressibility. Then,based on the characteristics of astronomical images, we apply Daubechies orthogonal wavelets to obtain a sparse representation. A matrix representing a random Fourier ensemble is used to obtain a sparse representation in a lower dimensional space. For reconstructing the image, we propose a novel minimum total variation with block adaptive sensing to balance the accuracy and computation time. Our experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can efficiently reconstruct colorful astronomical images with high resolution and improve the applicability of compressed sensing.     

A new lunar absolute control point: established by images from the landing camera on Chang'e-3

The establishment of a lunar control network is one of the core tasks in selenodesy, in which defining an absolute control point on the Moon is the most important step. However, up to now, the number of absolute control points has been very sparse. These absolute control points have mainly been lunar laser ranging retroreflectors, whose geographical location can be observed by observations on Earth and also identified in high resolution lunar satellite images. The Chang'e-3(CE-3) probe successfully landed on the Moon, and its geographical location has been monitored by an observing station on Earth. Since its positional accuracy is expected to reach the meter level, the CE-3 landing site can become a new high precision absolute control point. We use a sequence of images taken from the landing camera, as well as satellite images taken by CE-1 and CE-2, to identify the location of the CE-3 lander. With its geographical location known, the CE-3 landing site can be established as a new absolute control point, which will effectively expand the current area of the lunar absolute control network by 22%, and can greatly facilitate future research in the field of lunar surveying and mapping, as well as selenodesy.     

估算有中子星作伴星的黑洞质量

在本文中，我们讨论了由中子星和黑洞构成的密近双星系统的引力效应。首先，我们清楚地解释了引力辐射存在引起的轨道圆化，并估算了圆化的时间尺度。求解了围绕史瓦西黑洞作圆轨道运动的矢量进动方程，得到了一个精确解。由进动周期和中心黑洞的质量的关系，我们得到了估算中子星伴随的黑洞质量的方法。随后我们讨论了以中子星脉冲信号随自旋进动变化来寻找黑洞的方法。     

Universal birefringent filter with a new double passband mode

This article describes the universal birefringent filter (UBF) which will be mounted at Taiwan. The UBF permits observations of solar images, vector magnetic fields and/or line-of-sight velocity fields in any Fraunhofer line in the wavelength region from 4000 to 7000 with half width from 0.05 to 0.14 . We have tested it at ten Fraunhofer lines under a spectral telescope in Huairou Station of Beijing Astronomical Observatory and obtained the passband profiles. The principles of magnetic field and velocity field measurement with the UBF are also described.