Topology of magnetic field and polarization in accretion discs of AGN

In this paper we demonstrate that the wavelength dependence of polarization degree and position angle allows us to derive the distribution of magnetic field in accretion disc. The polarized radiation arises due to scattering of emission light by electrons in a magnetized optically thick accretion disc. Faraday rotation of polarization plane is taken into consideration. Through wavelength dependence of polarization it is possible to derive the value of the magnetic Prandtl number in the accretion disc plasma. The power law index of the polarization wavelength dependence is related with the radial distribution of magnetic field in an accretion disc. This allows us to test the various models of an accretion disc around the central black hole.     

High resolution imaging of the Hubble Deep and Flanking Fields

42 hours of A-array VLA data and 18 days MERLIN data at 1.4 GHz have been combined to image a 10 arcminute field centred on the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). This area encloses both the Hubble Deep and Flanking Fields. A complete sample of 87 sources have been detected with flux densities above 40 μJy. All these have been imaged with the MERLIN+VLA combination to produce images with 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 arcsecond resolution. These are the most sensitive 1.4 GHz images yet made with rms noise levels of 3.3 μJy/beam in the 0.2 arcsecond images. About 70% of the microJy sources are found to be starburst type systems associated with major disk galaxies in the redshift range 0.4–1. Some 20% are found to be low-luminosity AGN systems identified with field ellipticals at redshifts close to 1. The remaining 10% are associated with optically faint systems close to or beyond the HDF limit; many of these may be dust-shrouded starbursts at high redshift. We propose to extend this study to include VLBI data of comparable sensitivity to investigate the compact radio structures found in the microJy source population.     

Updated version of the ‘homogeneous catalog of open cluster parameters’

We report a new version of the “Homogeneous catalog of open cluster parameters” maintained by our team over the last decades. The catalog is based on redetermination of the main parameters of clusters (color excesses, heliocentric distances, and ages) based on published photometric measurements, in particular, those provided by the 2MASS point-source catalog. Currently, our catalog provides the parameters for 959 clusters. It also gives the estimates of cluster radial velocities for 496 clusters partly based on the data fromRAVE catalog. Estimates of proper-motion components are provided for all clusters included into the catalog. We analyze the distributions of the errors of the main cluster parameters and compare the distribution of cluster positions projected onto the Galactic plane with the distribution of cosmic masers thereby validating the distance scale of open clusters.     

Adiabatic indices in a convecting anisotropic plasma

Adiabatic indices for a non-dissipative anisotropic convecting plasma are analyzed, and general expressions for the effective adiabatic index and the partial adiabatic indices parallel (γ_∥) and perpendicular (γ_⟂) to the magnetic field are obtained. It is shown that, in the general case, the value of the effective adiabatic index is not an universal constant and depends on the plasma temperature anisotropy and on the properties of the plasma motion. The values of γ_⟂ and γ_∥ are shown to be independent of the plasma parameters being completely determined by the characteristics of the plasma flow.     

A Helicity-Based Method to Infer the CME Magnetic Field Magnitude in Sun and Geospace: Generalization and Extension to Sun-Like and M-Dwarf Stars and Implications for Exoplanet Habitability

Patsourakos et al. (Astrophys. J. 817, 14, 2016) and Patsourakos and Georgoulis (Astron. Astrophys. 595, A121, 2016) introduced a method to infer the axial magnetic field in flux-rope coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the solar corona and farther away in the interplanetary medium. The method, based on the conservation principle of magnetic helicity, uses the relative magnetic helicity of the solar source region as input estimates, along with the radius and length of the corresponding CME flux rope. The method was initially applied to cylindrical force-free flux ropes, with encouraging results. We hereby extend our framework along two distinct lines. First, we generalize our formalism to several possible flux-rope configurations (linear and nonlinear force-free, non-force-free, spheromak, and torus) to investigate the dependence of the resulting CME axial magnetic field on input parameters and the employed flux-rope configuration. Second, we generalize our framework to both Sun-like and active M-dwarf stars hosting superflares. In a qualitative sense, we find that Earth may not experience severe atmosphere-eroding magnetospheric compression even for eruptive solar superflares with energies \({\approx}\, 10^{4}\) times higher than those of the largest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) X-class flares currently observed. In addition, the two recently discovered exoplanets with the highest Earth-similarity index, Kepler 438b and Proxima b, seem to lie in the prohibitive zone of atmospheric erosion due to interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs), except when they possess planetary magnetic fields that are much higher than that of Earth.     

The Intensity–Velocity Phase Spectra of Evanescent Oscillations and Acoustic Sources

There are three major issues in modeling solar evanescent oscillations: the variation of the intensity [I]–velocity [V] phase difference of p-modes close to the base of photosphere; the existence of a plateau of negative I–V phase differences below and between the ridges of the low-frequency p-modes; the explanation of the I–V cross-spectra of the evanescent oscillations. We present new interpretations for the first two issues, based on modeling intensity fluctuations taking steep temperature gradients, opacity, and non-adiabatic cooling into account. We also discuss consequences of our model for the explanation of power spectra and cross-power spectra of p-modes. In particular, we present evidence that the acoustic sources that generate evanescent waves produce a coherent background that explains the plateau–interridge regime of negative I–V phase difference.     

Modulational behavior of electromagnetic waves in ultra-relativistic electron-positron plasmas

The dynamical properties of electromagnetic (EM) waves in ultra-relativistic electron-positron (EP) plasmas are analytically investigated on the basis of the nonlinear governing equations obtained from a kinetic way. It is shown that the EM wave envelope will collapse and be trapped into a localized region for the modulation interaction with low frequency density variation induced by ponderomotive force. The correlation between the localized strong wave field and the pulsar radio emission is discussed.     

Evaporating quantum Lukewarm black holes final state from back-reaction corrections of quantum scalar fields

We obtain renormalized stress tensor of a mass-less, charge-less dynamical quantum scalar field, minimally coupled with a spherically symmetric static Lukewarm black hole. In two dimensional analog the minimal coupling reduces to the conformal coupling and the stress tensor is found to be determined by the nonlocal contribution of the anomalous trace and some additional parameters in close relation to the work presented by Christensen and Fulling. Lukewarm black holes are a special class of Reissner-Nordström-de Sitter space times where its electric charge is equal to its mass. Having the obtained renormalized stress tensor we attempt to obtain a time-independent solution of the well known metric back reaction equation. Mathematical derivations predict that the final state of an evaporating quantum Lukewarm black hole reduces to a remnant stable mini black hole with moved locations of the horizons. Namely the perturbed black hole (cosmological) horizon is compressed (extended) to scales which is smaller (larger) than the corresponding classical radius of the event horizons. Hence there is not obtained an deviation on the cosmic sensor-ship hypothesis.     

Book reviews

Marine decapod Crustacea of southern Australia: a guide to identification. By Gary C. B. Poore. Published in 2004 by CSIRO Publishing, P.O. Box 1139, Collingwood, VIC 3066, Australia. 608 p., hardcover. ISBN: 0–643–06906–2. Price: AU$180.00 (orders: publishing.sales@csiro.au).

Marine mammals: fisheries, tourism and management issues. Edited by Nicholas J. Gales, Mark A. Hindell and Roger Kirkwood. Published in 2003 by CSIRO Publishing, P.O. Box 1139, Collingwood, VIC 3066, Australia. 446 p., hardcover. ISBN: 0–643–06953–4. Price: AU$116 (orders: publishing.sales@csiro.au).

Freshwater fishes of north‐eastern Australia. By Brad Pusey, Mark Kennard, and Angela Arthington. Published in 2004 by CSIRO Publishing, P.O. Box 1139, Collingwood, VIC 3066, Australia. 700 p., hardcover. ISBN: 0–643–06966–6. Price: au$89.00 (orders: publishing.sales@csiro.au).