Browsing by Author "Stern, D."
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- A deep X-ray view of the bare AGN Ark 120: V. Spin determination from disc-Comptonisation efficiency methodPorquet, D.; Done, C.; Reeves, J.N.; Grosso, N.; Marinucci, A.; Matt, G.; Lobban, A.; Nardini, E.; Braito, V.; Marin, F.; Kubota, A.; Ricci, C.; Koss, M.; Stern, D.; Ballantyne, D.; Farrah, D. (EDP Sciences, 2019-02-25)Context. The spin of supermassive black holes (SMBH) in active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be determined from spectral signature(s) of relativistic reflection such as the X-ray iron Kα line profile, but this can be rather uncertain when the line of sight intersects the so-called warm absorber and/or other wind components as these distort the continuum shape. Therefore, AGN showing no (or very weak) intrinsic absorption along the line-of-sight such as Ark 120, a so-called bare AGN, are the ideal targets for SMBH spin measurements. However, in our previous work on Ark 120, we found that its 2014 X-ray spectrum is dominated by Comptonisation, while the relativistic reflection emission only originates at tens of gravitational radii from the SMBH. As a result, we could not constrain the SMBH spin from disc reflection alone. Aims. Our aim is to determine the SMBH spin in Ark 120 from an alternative technique based on the global energetics of the disc-corona system. Indeed, the mass accretion rate (M) through the outer disc can be measured from the optical-UV emission, while the bolometric luminosity (L bol ) can be fairly well constrained from the optical to hard X-rays spectral energy distribution, giving access to the accretion efficiency η = L bol /(M c 2 ) which depends on the SMBH spin. Methods. The spectral analysis uses simultaneous XMM-Newton (OM and pn) and NuSTAR observations on 2014 March 22 and 2013 February 18. We applied the OPTXCONV model (based on OPTXAGNF) to self consistently reproduce the emission from the inner corona (warm and hot thermal Comptonisation) and the outer disc (colour temperature corrected black body), taking into account both the disc inclination angle and relativistic effects. For self-consistency, we modelled the mild relativistic reflection of the incident Comptonisation components using the XILCONV convolution model. Results. We infer a SMBH spin of 0.83 +0.05 -0.03 , adopting the SMBH reverberation mass of 1.50 × 10 8 M · . In addition, we find that the coronal radius decreases with increasing flux (by about a factor of two), from 85 +13 -10 R g in 2013 to 14 ± 3 R g in 2014. Conclusions. This is the first time that such a constraint is obtained for a SMBH spin from this technique, thanks to the bare properties of Ark 120, its well determined SMBH reverberation mass, and the presence of a mild relativistic reflection component in 2014 which allows us to constrain the disc inclination angle. We caution that these results depend on the detailed disc-corona structure, which is not yet fully established. However, the realistic parameter values (e.g. L bol /L Edd , disc inclination angle) found suggest that this is a promising method to determine spin in moderate-M AGN. © 2019 ESO.
- Economic growth and environmental degradation: The Environmental Kuznets Curve and sustainable developmentStern, D.; Common, M.; Barbier, E. (Elsevier Science Ltd., 1996)In this paper we critically examine the concept of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). It proposes that there is an inverted U-shape relation between environmental degradation and income per capita, so that, eventually, growth reduces the environmental impact of economic activity. The concept is dependent on a model of the economy in which there is no feedback from the quality of the environment to production possibilities, and in which trade has a neutral effect on environmental degradation. The actual violation of these assumptions gives rise to fundamental problems in estimating the parameters of an EKC. The paper identifies other econometric problems with estimates of the EKC, and reviews a number of empirical studies. The inference from some such EKC estimates that further development will reduce environmental degradation is dependent on the assumption that world per capita income is normally distributed when in fact median income is far below mean income. We carry out simulations combining EKC estimates from the literature with World Bank forecasts for economic growth for individual countries, aggregating over countries to derive the global impact. Within the horizon of the Bank's forecast (2025) global emissions of SOI continue to increase. Forest loss stabilizes before the end of the period but tropical deforestation continues at a constant rate throughout the period.
- A New Population of High-z, Dusty Lyα Emitters and Blobs Discovered by WISE: Feedback Caught in the Act?Bridge, C. R.; Blain, A.; Borys, C. J. K.; Petty, S.; Benford, D.; Eisenhardt, P.; Farrah, D.; Griffith, R. L.; Jarrett, T.; Lonsdale, C.; Stanford, S. A.; Stern, D.; Tsai, C. W.; Wright, E. L.; Wu, J. W. (IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2013-06)By combining data from the NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission with optical spectroscopy from the W. M. Keck telescope, we discover a mid-IR color criterion that yields a 78% success rate in identifying rare, typically radio-quiet, 1.6 less than or similar to z less than or similar to 4.6 dusty Ly alpha emitters (LAEs). Of these, at least 37% have emission extended on scales of 30-100 kpc and are considered Ly alpha "blobs" (LABs). The objects have a surface density of only similar to 0.1 deg(-2), making them rare enough that they have been largely missed in deep, small area surveys. We measured spectroscopic redshifts for 92 of these galaxies, and find that the LAEs (LABs) have a median redshift of 2.3 (2.5). The WISE photometry coupled with data from Herschel (Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA) reveals that these galaxies are in the Hyper Luminous IR galaxy regime (L-IR greater than or similar to 10(13)-10(14) L-circle dot) and have warm colors. They are typically more luminous and warmer than other dusty, z similar to 2 populations such as submillimeter-selected galaxies and dust-obscured galaxies. These traits are commonly associated with the dust being illuminated by intense active galactic nucleus activity. We hypothesize that the combination of spatially extended Ly alpha, large amounts of warm IR-luminous dust, and rarity (implying a short-lived phase) can be explained if the galaxies are undergoing brief, intense "feedback" transforming them from an extreme dusty starburst/QSO into a mature galaxy.
- The nuclear spectroscopic telescope array (NuSTAR) high-energy x-ray missionHarrison, F. A.; Craig, W. W.; Christensen, F. E.; Hailey, C. J.; Zhang, W. W.; Boggs, S. E.; Stern, D.; Cook, W. R.; Forster, K.; Giommi, P.; Grefenstette, B. W.; Kim, Y.; Kitaguchi, T.; Koglin, J. E.; Madsen, K. K.; Mao, P. H.; Miyasaka, H.; Mori, K.; Perri, M.; Pivovaroff, M. J.; Puccetti, S.; Rana, V. R.; Westergaard, N. J.; Willis, J.; Zoglauer, A.; An, H. J.; Bachetti, M.; Barriere, N. M.; Bellm, E. C.; Bhalerao, V.; Brejnholt, N. F.; Fuerst, F.; Liebe, C. C.; Markwardt, C. B.; Nynka, M.; Vogel, J. K.; Walton, D. J.; Wik, D. R.; Alexander, D. M.; Cominsky, L. R.; Hornschemeier, A. E.; Hornstrup, A.; Kaspi, V. M.; Madejski, G. M.; Matt, G.; Molendi, S.; Smith, D. M.; Tomsick, J. A.; Ajello, M.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Balokovic, M.; Barret, D.; Bauer, F. E.; Blandford, R. D.; Brandt, W. N.; Brenneman, L. W.; Chiang, J.; Chakrabarty, D.; Chenevez, J.; Comastri, A.; Dufour, F.; Elvis, M.; Fabian, A. C.; Farrah, D.; Fryer, C. L.; Gotthelf, E. V.; Grindlay, J. E.; Helfand, D. J.; Krivonos, R.; Meier, D. L.; Miller, J. M.; Natalucci, L.; Ogle, P.; Ofek, E. O.; Ptak, A.; Reynolds, S. P.; Rigby, J. R.; Tagliaferri, G.; Thorsett, S. E.; Treister, E.; Urry, C. M. (IOP Publishing Ltd., 2013-06)The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission, launched on 2012 June 13, is the first focusing high-energy X-ray telescope in orbit. NuSTAR operates in the band from 3 to 79 keV, extending the sensitivity of focusing far beyond the similar to 10 keV high-energy cutoff achieved by all previous X-ray satellites. The inherently low background associated with concentrating the X-ray light enables NuSTAR to probe the hard X-ray sky with a more than 100-fold improvement in sensitivity over the collimated or coded mask instruments that have operated in this bandpass. Using its unprecedented combination of sensitivity and spatial and spectral resolution, NuSTAR will pursue five primary scientific objectives: (1) probe obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity out to the peak epoch of galaxy assembly in the universe (at z less than or similar to 2) by surveying selected regions of the sky; (2) study the population of hard X-ray-emitting compact objects in the Galaxy by mapping the central regions of the Milky Way; (3) study the non-thermal radiation in young supernova remnants, both the hard X-ray continuum and the emission from the radioactive element Ti-44; (4) observe blazars contemporaneously with ground-based radio, optical, and TeV telescopes, as well as with Fermi and Swift, to constrain the structure of AGN jets; and (5) observe line and continuum emission from core-collapse supernovae in the Local Group, and from nearby Type Ia events, to constrain explosion models. During its baseline two-year mission, NuSTAR will also undertake a broad program of targeted observations. The observatory consists of two co-aligned grazing-incidence X-ray telescopes pointed at celestial targets by a three-axis stabilized spacecraft. Deployed into a 600 km, near-circular, 6 degrees inclination orbit, the observatory has now completed commissioning, and is performing consistent with pre-launch expectations. NuSTAR is now executing its primary science mission, and with an expected orbit lifetime of 10 yr, we anticipate proposing a guest investigator program, to begin in late 2014.
- Weak hard X-ray emission from two broad absorption line quasars observed with NuSTAR: Compton-thick absorption or intrinsic X-ray weakness?Luo, B.; Brandt, W. N.; Alexander, D. M.; Harrison, F. A.; Stern, D.; Bauer, F. E.; Boggs, S. E.; Christensen, F. E.; Comastri, A.; Craig, W. W.; Fabian, A. C.; Farrah, D.; Fiore, F.; Fuerst, F.; Grefenstette, B. W.; Hailey, C. J.; Hickox, R.; Madsen, K. K.; Matt, G.; Ogle, P.; Risaliti, G.; Saez, C.; Teng, S. H.; Walton, D. J.; Zhang, W. W. (IOP Publishing Ltd., 2013-08)We present Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) hard X-ray observations of two X-ray weak broad absorption line (BAL) quasars, PG 1004+130 (radio loud) and PG 1700+518 (radio quiet). Many BAL quasars appear X-ray weak, probably due to absorption by the shielding gas between the nucleus and the accretion-disk wind. The two targets are among the optically brightest BAL quasars, yet they are known to be significantly X-ray weak at rest-frame 2-10 keV (16-120 times fainter than typical quasars). We would expect to obtain approximate to 400-600 hard X-ray (greater than or similar to 10 keV) photons with NuSTAR, provided that these photons are not significantly absorbed (N-H less than or similar to 10(24) cm(-2)). However, both BAL quasars are only detected in the softer NuSTAR bands (e.g., 4-20 keV) but not in its harder bands (e.g., 20-30 keV), suggesting that either the shielding gas is highly Compton-thick or the two targets are intrinsically X-ray weak. We constrain the column densities for both to be N-H approximate to 7 x 10(24) cm(-2) if the weak hard X-ray emission is caused by obscuration from the shielding gas. We discuss a few possibilities for how PG 1004+130 could have Compton-thick shielding gas without strong Fe K alpha line emission; dilution from jet-linked X-ray emission is one likely explanation. We also discuss the intrinsic X-ray weakness scenario based on a coronal-quenching model relevant to the shielding gas and disk wind of BAL quasars. Motivated by our NuSTAR results, we perform a Chandra stacking analysis with the Large Bright Quasar Survey BAL quasar sample and place statistical constraints upon the fraction of intrinsically X-ray weak BAL quasars; this fraction is likely 17%-40%.
- WISE detections of known QSOs at redshifts greater than sixBlain, A. W.; Assef, R.; Stern, D.; Tsai, C. W.; Eisenhardt, P.; Bridge, C. R.; Benford, D.; Jarrett, T.; Cutri, R.; Petty, S.; Wu, J. W.; Wright, E. L. (IOP Publishing Ltd., 2013-12)We present WISE All-Sky mid-infrared (IR) survey detections of 55% (17/31) of the known QSOs at z > 6 from a range of surveys: the SDSS, the CFHT-LS, FIRST, Spitzer, and UKIDSS. The WISE catalog thus provides a substantial increase in the quantity of IR data available for these sources: 17 are detected in the WISE W1 (3.4 mu m) band, 16 in W2 (4.6 mu m), 3 in W3 (12 mu m), and 0 in W4 (22 mu m). This is particularly important with Spitzer in its warm-mission phase and no faint follow-up capability at wavelengths longward of 5 mu m until the launch of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). WISE thus provides a useful tool for understanding QSOs found in forthcoming large-area optical/IR sky surveys using PanSTARRS, SkyMapper, VISTA, DES, and LSST. The rest-UV properties of the WISE-detected and the WISE-non-detected samples differ: the detections have brighter i/z-band magnitudes and redder rest-UV colors. This suggests that a more aggressive hunt for very high redshift QSOs by combining WISE W1 and W2 data with red, observed optical colors could be effective at least for a subset of dusty candidate QSOs. Stacking the WISE images of the WISE-non-detected QSOs indicates that they are, on average, significantly fainter than the WISE-detected examples, and are thus not narrowly missing detection in the WISE catalog. The WISE catalog detection of three of our sample in the W3 band indicates that their mid-IR flux can be detected individually, although there is no stacked W3 detection of sources detected in W1 but not W3. Stacking analyses of WISE data for large active galactic nucleus samples will be a useful tool, and high-redshift QSOs of all types will be easy targets for JWST.