AGN+Transients Journal Club

Schedule

The AGN+T Journal Club meets Mondays 3-4 pm in Cahill 370.

Mailing List

We now have an AGN Journal Club mailing list for announcement, paper lists, etc. See http://astro.caltech.edu:88/mailman/listinfo/agn-jc to sign up.

Current (2009-2010) Academic Year

Next Meeting

Date: Monday November 23, 3:00 pm

Blazars and transients from the Catalina survey

Coordinator: George Djorgovski

Date: Monday November 16, 3:00 pm

Electromagnetic counterparts to supermassive binary black hole mergers

Coordinator: Tom Prince

I am generally interested in the question of possible E&M counterparts to massive black hole mergers that will be detectable by LISA. For those who are not so familiar with the topic, the 2008 paper by Haiman et al. (arXiv:0811.1920v1) may provide a useful overview. In addition, the 2005 paper of Milosavljevic and Phinney (ApJL? , 622, L93) describes circum-binary disc evolution and a mechanism for merger afterglows; this may also be of interest.

Papers:

• "Fossil Gas and the Electromagnetic Precursor of Supermassive Binary Black Hole Mergers", Chang et al. arXiv: 0906.0825v1

Date: Monday November 9, 3:00 pm

Jet acceleration in M87

Coordinator: Dave Meier

Masanori Nakamura was to have given the AGN-T journal club presentation on Monday. (He is a former JPL/NRC and Los Alamos postdoctoral fellow and currently holds the David Fellowship at JHU and STScI? .) However, his schedule and the health of his family have cut his trip short; he will be here at JPL (at most) only Thursday and Friday, and will be taking red-eyes to be here as well. It is even possible that he will have to cancel that portion of his trip. Therefore, Masa has given me permission to present his viewgraphs on Monday.

The presentation discusses a new large body of VLBI data on M87 by Asada, Nakamura, and colleagues (using the EVN and VLBA at 1.6, 15, and 43 GHz). This represents one of the first times that this data has been discussed publicly , with interpretation. Some of these results, not yet published, have been kept secret for several months or more and are now just coming to light. They provide considerable insight on the processes of jet acceleration in M87 and perhaps in many other AGN.

Date: Monday November 2, 3:00 pm

Polarization of self-absorbed synchrotron sources

Coordinator: Chris Hirata

Papers:

• Jones & O'Dell 1977, "Transfer of polarized radiation in self-absorbed synchrotron sources. I. Results for a homogeneous source," ApJ? , 214, 522. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1977ApJ...214..522J
• Jones & O'Dell 1977, "Transfer of polarized radiation in self-absorbed synchrotron sources. II. Treatment of inhomogeneous media and calculation of emergent polarization," ApJ? , 215, 236. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1977ApJ...215..236J

Date: Monday October 26, 3:00 pm

Detecting Binary SMBHs

Coordinator: Hai Fu

Binary SMBHs are a natural consequence of galaxy mergers. But confirmations of such systems are rare. This Monday, I will review
recent searches for these systems.

Papers:

• Begelman, Blandford, & Rees 1980, "Massive black hole binaries in active galactic nuclei," Nature, 287, 307B. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1980Natur.287..307B
• Boroson & Lauer 2009, "A candidate sub-parsec supermassive binary black hole system," Nature, 458, 53B. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009Natur.458...53B
• Wang et al., 2009, "Active galactic nuclei with double-peaked narrow lines: Are they dual active galactic nuclei," ApJL? , 705, L76. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009arXiv0910.0580W

2008-2009 Academic Year

Date: Friday July 10, 1:00 pm

Lobes & Hot Spots of FR II Radio Sources

Coordinator: Dave Meier

Papers:

• To Be Posted...

Date: Friday July 3, 1:00 pm

Physics of Accretion Disk Vertical Structure and Spectra (Canceled - Caltech holiday; reschedule?)

Coordinator: Chris Hirata

Papers:

• Hubeny & Hubeny, "Non-LTE Models and Theoretical Spectra of Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei," ApJ? , 484, L37. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9705085
• Hubeny & Hubeny, "Non-LTE Models and Theoretical Spectra of Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei," ApJ? , 505, 558. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9804288

Date: Friday June 26, 1:00 pm

Optical and Correlated Variability of Blazars

Coordinator: George Djorgovski

Papers:

• Useful Reviews
  • C. M. Urry: "An Overview of Blazar Variability", http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9609023
  • R. Wagner: "Correlated Variability in Blazars", http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.2483
• Recent Case Studies
  • R. Chatterjee et al. 2008, ApJ? , 689, 79
    • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ApJ...689...79C
  • E. Bonning et al. 2009, ApJ? , 697, L81
    • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ApJ...697L..81B

Date: Friday June 19, 1:00 pm

Cosmological Black Hole Jet Statistics and Predictions

Coordinator: Vaso Pavlidou

Papers:

• Dermer, 2007, ApJ? , 659, 958-975, "Statistics of Cosmological Black Hole Jet Sources: Blazar Predictions for the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope."
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007ApJ...659..958D
• Dermer, 1995,ApJ, 446, L63-L66, "On the Beaming Statistics of Gamma-Ray Sources"
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995ApJ...446L..63D

Vaso's presentation: PPT: JournalClubDermer2007.ppt

Link to C. Dermer's presentation discussed in Vaso's presentation: http://kicp-workshops.uchicago.edu/impact-2008/depot/dermer.pdf

Date: Friday June 12, 1:00 pm

Date: Friday June 5, 1:00 pm

Jet Physics and Observational Probes

Coordinator: David Meier

Papers:

• Bogovalov, 1994, MNRAS, 270, 721-733, “On the theory of MHD winds from a magnetosphere of axisymmetric rotators”
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994MNRAS.270..721B
• Blandford & Payne 1982, MNRAS, 199, 883-903, “Hydromagnetic flows from accretion discs and the production of radio jets”
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1982MNRAS.199..883B
• Li, Chiueh, & Begelman 1992, ApJ? , 394, 459-471, “Electromagnetically driven relativistic jets: a class of self-similar solutions”
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992ApJ...394..459L
• Vlahakis, Tsinganos, Sauty, & Trussoni 2000, MNRAS, 318, 417-428, “A disc-wind model with correct crossing of all magnetohydrodynamic critical surfaces”
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000MNRAS.318..417V
• Vlahakis & Konigl, 2003, ApJ? , 596, 1080-1103, “Relativistic magnetohydrodynamics with application to gemma-ray burst outflows. I. Theory and semianalytic trans-alfvenic solutions”
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003ApJ...596.1080V

Dave's presentation: PDF: MeierJournalClub.pdf or PPT: MeierJournalClub.ppt

Date: Friday May 29, 1:00 pm

Accretion Disk Physics

Coordinator: Chris Hirata

Papers:

• Page & Thorne 1974, Disk-Accretion onto a Black Hole. Time-Averaged Structure of Accretion Disk
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1974ApJ...191..499P
• Thorne 1974, Disk-Accretion onto a Black Hole. II. Evolution of the Hole
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1974ApJ...191..507T

Date: Friday May 22, 1:00 pm

Measuring Black Hole Properties

Coordinator: Fiona Harrison

Papers:

• Broad iron lines in AGN - Fabian, Iwasawa, Reynolds, Young
  • http://fr.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0004366
• Grenhill et al (2007) - Masers in AGN Environments - overview of Maser situation
  • grenhill-2007-agn-masers.pdf
• Moran et al - Probing AGN with Water Masers
  
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1996IAUS..175..211M
• Grenhill et al - Maser in the Circinus Galaxy
  • http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0302533

Date: Friday May 15, 1:00 pm:

No Meeting

Date: Friday May 8, 1:00 pm

• Fu Hai: A Common Origin for Quasar Extended Emission-Line Regions and Their Broad-Line Regions (Hai & Stockton, 2007)
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007ApJ...664L..75F
• Vaso: Implications of very rapid TeV variability in blazars (Begelman, Fabian, and Rees, 2008)
  • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.384L..19B

Date: Friday May 1, 1:00 pm

AGN Potpourri

Assignments:

• Fiona: review Mattox
• Hai Fu: review Kawakatu et al (2009)
• Toni Venters: review Venters et al (2009)

Papers:

• Gamma-Gamma Opacity: Mattox et al. (1993) - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1993ApJ...410..609M
  • Correction to lum. distance formula: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997ApJ...476..692M
• Optical emission lines from NL regions in AGN: Kawataku et al. (2009) - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ApJ...693.1686K
• EBL absorption feature in gamma-ray blazar contribution: Venters et a. (2009) - vent0413_emapj.pdf

Date: Friday April 24

No meeting (Astro 2010 Town Hall at UCLA)

Date: Friday April 17, 1:00 pm

Jet Lorentz Factor Measures (pt. 2)

Assignments (10 minutes):

• Matthew: review ISS papers
• Fiona: review Mattox (postponed)
• Joey: (crude) review of Henri

Papers: See last week

• Implications of ~minute-scale TeV fluctuations: Begelman, Fabian, & Rees (2008) - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.384L..19B

Date: Friday April 10, 1:00 pm

Jet Lorentz Factor Measures (pt. 1)

Assignments (10 minutes):

• Marshall: review Cohen et al.
• Tony: review Readhead '94, dispelling myth of Inverse Compton Catastrophe
• Vaso: review Aharonian
• Joey: review Jorstad ( 20090410-jorstad-summary.pdf)
• Matthew: review ISS papers
• Fiona: review Mattox
• Volunteers for Henri?

Papers:

• Superluminal motion: Cohen et al (2007) - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007ApJ...658..232C
  • Suggested by MHC in place of Vermeulen & Cohen (1994)
• Equipartition Doppler: Readhead (1994) - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994ApJ...426...51R
• Causality -> Source Size vs SMBH mass: Aharonian et al. (2007) - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007ApJ...664L..71A
• Timescale -> Light Travel Time: Jorstad et al. (2005) - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AJ....130.1418J
• Beamed AGN Fraction (statistical: Henri & Sauge' (2006) - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006ApJ...640..185H
• Estimation from IDV
  • Microarcsecond Quasar J1819+3845 - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000ApJ...529L..65D
  • Interstellar Scintillation - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007RMxAC..27..129R

Date: Friday April 3, 2:00 pm

Scintillation:

Preliminary set of references to be read over the weekend (March 28-29)

Date: Thursday March 12, 3:30 pm

No papers discussed. JLR reported on Fermi-LAT collaboration meeting. Discussed Dermer's presentation from the AGN F2F? .

• JLR's Summary Slides are attached to MiscellaneousStuff (private)
• Confluence page with AGN presentations (need Confluence login)
• Confluence page with FA presentations (need Confluence login)

Date: Thursday February 26, 4:00 pm

Papers discussed:

• Levinson and Blandford 1995, ApJ, 449, 86 (the pair cascade model, pt II: X-rays; Walter presented a brief summary)
• Levinson 1996, ApJ, 459, 520 (the pair cascade model, pt III: Synchrotron; Vaso presented a 1-slide summary)
• Sikora, Begelman and Rees 1994, ApJ, 421, 153 (The Begelman flavor of the EC model, with emission outside the gammasphere; Cartoon Slide (PDF))

Date: Monday February 9, 4:00 pm

Paper discussed:

• Blandford and Levinson 1995, ApJ 441, 79 (the pair cascade model, pt I: gamma rays), 1-slide summary, power point format

Date: Thursday January 29, 4:00 pm

We will be discussing three variants of the external inverse-Compton model for high-energy emission in blazars (affectionately known as EC models).

• Blandford and Levinson 1995, ApJ 441, 79
• Sikora, Begelman & Rees 1994, ApJ 421 153
• Dermer, Schickeiser & Mastichiadis 1992, A&A 256, L27

Date: Tuesday January 20, 1:00 pm

• Last part of von Montigny et al 1995 paper.
• Define a list of papers for following weeks

Date: Friday January 9, 4:00 pm

Papers:

1. von Montigny et al (1995) High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from Active Galaxies: EGRET Observations and Their Implications
   • (EGRET AGN results, model review)

Paper Suggestions

Experiment

1. von Montigny et al (1995) High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from Active Galaxies: EGRET Observations and Their Implications (Vaso)
2. Hagen-Thorn et al (2008) The Outburst of the Blazar AO 0235+164 (JLR)
   • Optical observations of current Fermi flaring source
   • Discussion of timescales
   • Maybe more useful for references
3. ...

Theory

1. Begelman, Blandford and Rees (1984) Theory of extragalactic radio sources
2. Burbidge, Jones, and Odell (1974) Physics of compact nonthermal sources III - Energetic considerations (JLR)
3. ...

• BlandfordLevinson1995.ppt: 1-slide summary of Blandford and Levinson 1995 Pair Cascade Model