Spectroscopic Analysis of Star-forming Regions in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 628

NGC 628 is one of many spiral galaxies that has been observed and analyzed to determine the chemical composition. Since there have been improvements in the methods of analysis recently, this paper finds new values for the electron temperatures within this galaxy. Additionally, it brings up a previously unnoticed iron line contamination problem that has affected the [O iii] temperatures and fluxes. Temperature results are compared against, the most recent chemical analysis of the same galaxy.

Testing the Kerr black hole hypothesis with the continuum-fitting and the iron line methods: the case of GRS 1915+105

The continuum-fitting and the iron line methods are currently the two leading techniques for probing the strong gravity region around accreting black holes. In the present work, we test the Kerr black hole hypothesis with the stellar-mass black hole in GRS 1915+105 by analyzing five disk-dominated RXTE spectra and one reflection-dominated Suzaku spectrum. The combination of the constraints from the continuum-fitting and the iron line methods has the potential to provide more stringent tests of the Kerr metric. Our constraint on the Johannsen deformation parameter α13 is -0.15 < α13 < 0.14 at 3σ, where the Kerr metric is recovered when α13 = 0.

Testing the Kerr Black Hole Hypothesis with GRS 1716-249 by Combining the Continuum Fitting and the Iron-line Methods

The continuum-fitting and the iron-line methods are currently the two leading techniques for measuring the spins of accreting black holes. In the past few years, these two methods have been developed for testing fundamental physics. In the present work, we employ state-of-the-art models to test black holes through the continuum-fitting and the iron-line methods and we analyze three NuSTAR observations of the black hole binary GRS 1716-249 during its outburst in 2016–2017. In these three observations, the source was in a hard-intermediate state and the spectra show both a strong thermal component and prominent relativistic reflection features. Our analysis confirms the Kerr nature of the black hole in GRS 1716-249 and provides quite stringent constraints on possible deviations from the predictions of general relativity.

The X-ray corona turns into the relativistic jet in the micro quasar GRS 1915+105

GRS 1915+1051 was the first stellar-mass black-hole in our Galaxy to display a superluminal radio jet2, similar to those observed in active galactic nuclei with a supermassive black hole at the centre3. It has been proposed that the radio emission in GRS 1915+105 is fed by instabilities in the accretion disc4 by which the inner parts of the accretion flow is ejected in the jet5–7. Here we show that there is a significant correlation between: (i) the radio flux, coming from the jet, and the flux of the iron emission line, coming from the disc and, (ii) the temperature of the corona that produces the high-energy part of the X-ray spectrum via inverse Compton scattering and the amplitude of a high-frequency variability component coming from the innermost part of the accretion flow. At the same time, the radio flux and the flux of the iron line are strongly anti-correlated with the temperature of the X-ray corona and the amplitude of the high-frequency variability component. These correlations persist over ~10 years, despite the highly variable X-ray and radio properties of the source in that period8,9. Our findings provide, for the first time, incontrovertible evidence that the energy that powers this black-hole system can be directed either to the X-ray corona or the jet. When this energy is used to power the corona, raising its temperature, there is less energy left to fuel the jet and the radio flux drops, and vice versa. These facts, plus the modelling of the variability in this source show conclusively that in GRS 1915+105 the X-ray corona morphs into the jet.

Analysis of iron ores by ICP-AES

A method for the analysis of iron ore raw materials (IORM) using inductively coupled plasma atomic- emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and Concentration Ratio Calibration (CRC) has been developed. However, the general eq. for calibration by concentration ratios used in analysis of metals and alloys was modified with allowance for the IORM characteristics: all the elements, except sulfur, were represented as oxides, iron was represented as FeO and Fe2O3, and the total of 100% included ignition losses (LOI). A variant of solving the equation is proposed, which allowed us to relate the relative concentrations of the components (the ratios of the mass fraction of the determined components to the mass fraction of iron oxide) to the ratio of the line intensities of the certain element and iron line measured on a spectrometer. The equation takes into account the content of FeO and LOI, which are determined by standard methods of analysis. A method for acid decomposition of the samples in autoclaves heated in a HotBlock 200 system is proposed: a sample weight of 0.25 g was decomposed in closed vessels at a temperature of 150 – 180°C in the mixture of HCl, HF and HNO3. The following components were determined in concentrates and pellets: Fe2O3, Fetot, Al2O3, CaO, Cr2O3, K2O, MgO, MnO, Na2O, P2O5, SiO2, TiO2, Co, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb, S, V, Zn. The correctness of the developed method is confirmed by the analysis of SS of iron ore and iron concentrates, as well as by comparison with the results obtained by standardized methods. The proposed technique provides iron determination in iron ore raw materials with an accuracy no worse than that specified in GOST 23581, all other components are determined in a wider range of contents and with a higher accuracy.

Polarization properties of iron emission lines as a tool to identify the finite thickness of disks with moderately super-eddington accretion rate

The Fe-K[Formula: see text] fluorescence lines are commonly observed in AGNs and X-ray binaries. The lines are believed to be originated from the reflection of the hard X-ray continuum near the inner-most region of the accretion disks of black holes. The geometry of the accretion disk is usually assumed to be infinitely thin, but this assumption is not appropriate when the accretion rate is moderately super-Eddington. With the increase of the accretion rate, the disk becomes thick, which will significantly affect the properties of the fluorescence lines. For instance, the polarized radiation is strongly depended on the geometry of the accretion disk. In this work, based on the lamp-post model, we study the polarization properties of the relativistic Fe-K[Formula: see text] lines from thick disks in the framework of fully general relativity. We find that with the increase of the disk thickness, the polarization degree (PD) at the blue edge of the iron line increase significantly, and there appears a peak at the profile of the PD of the iron emission line, which at most is one order higher that of the line from the thin disk. Thus, the polarization properties of relativistic broad Fe-K[Formula: see text] lines can be used to as a tool to diagnose the disk thickness.

Spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy of the archetype type 2 active galactic nucleus NGC 1068 with Chandra

We investigate spatial distributions of iron Kα (Fe-Kα) lines in the cental 100 pc of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068 observed with Chandra. The spatial distributions of Fe-Kα lines, neutral and highly ionized, around the center of the galactic nucleus are not isotropic, as consistently confirmed in both image and spectral analyses. The hydrogen number density of the gas clouds responsible for the neutral Fe-Kα line emission is estimated to be 102–103 cm−3 for the sampled regions near the galactic core. The photo-ionization model, where iron is assumed to be ionized by X-rays from the galactic nucleus, yields ionization parameters lower than 19 for these clouds. The range of this ionization parameter is two or three orders of magnitude lower than the theoretically expected value to produce the observed helium-like Fe-Kα line intensities. Therefore, the photo-ionization model is excluded from the explanation of the amount of highly ionized iron that is responsible for the observed Fe-Kα lines. Also, we find anti-correlation in the spatial distributions between the molecular cloud in the area observed with ALMA and that of the Fe-Kα lines, including that from neutral iron. We suggest that X-ray iron-line and radio molecular cloud observations are complementary to probe the distribution of matters in the central regions around the cores of active galactic nuclei.

Detection of a High-Temperature Blackbody Hump in Black Hole Spectra. The strongly redshifted annihilation line

We detected a so called high-temperature blackbody (HBB) component, found in the 15 – 40 keV range, in the broad-band X-ray energy spectra of black hole (BH) candidate sources. A detailed study of this spectral feature is presented using data from five of the Galactic BH binaries, Cyg X–1, GX 339–4, GRS 1915+105, SS 433 and V4641 Sgr in the low/hard, intermediate, high/soft and very soft spectral states (LHS, IS, HSS and VSS, respectively) and spectral transitions between them using RXTE, INTEGRAL and BeppoSAX data. In order to fit the broad-band energy spectra of these sources we used an additive XSPEC model, composed of the Comptonization component and the Gaussian line component. In particular, we reveal that the IS spectra have the HBB component which color temperature, kTHBB is in the range of 4.5 – 5.9 keV. This HBB feature has been detected in some spectra of these five sources only in the IS (for the photon index Γ &gt; 1.9) using different X-ray telescopes. We also demonstrate that a timescale of the HBB-feature is of orders of magnitude shorter than the timescale of the iron line and its edge. That leads us to conclude that these spectral features are formed in geometrically different parts of the source and which are not connected to each other. Laurent & Titarchuk (2018) demonstrated a presence of a gravitational redshifted annihilation line emission in a BH using the Monte-Carlo simulations and therefore the observed HBB hump leads us to suggest this feature is a gravitational redshifted annihilation line observed in these black holes.