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Institute
On-orbit verification of RL-based APC calibrations for micrometre level microwave ranging system
(2023)
Micrometre level ranging accuracy between satellites on-orbit relies on the high-precision calibration of the antenna phase center (APC), which is accomplished through properly designed calibration maneuvers batch estimation algorithms currently. However, the unmodeled perturbations of the space dynamic and sensor-induced uncertainty complicated the situation in reality; ranging accuracy especially deteriorated outside the antenna main-lobe when maneuvers performed. This paper proposes an on-orbit APC calibration method that uses a reinforcement learning (RL) process, aiming to provide the high accuracy ranging datum for onboard instruments with micrometre level. The RL process used here is an improved Temporal Difference advantage actor critic algorithm (TDAAC), which mainly focuses on two neural networks (NN) for critic and actor function. The output of the TDAAC algorithm will autonomously balance the APC calibration maneuvers amplitude and APC-observed sensitivity with an object of maximal APC estimation accuracy. The RL-based APC calibration method proposed here is fully tested in software and on-ground experiments, with an APC calibration accuracy of less than 2 mrad, and the on-orbit maneuver data from 11–12 April 2022, which achieved 1–1.5 mrad calibration accuracy after RL training. The proposed RL-based APC algorithm may extend to prove mass calibration scenes with actions feedback to attitude determination and control system (ADCS), showing flexibility of spacecraft payload applications in the future.
Lidar pose tracking of a tumbling spacecraft using the smoothed normal distribution transform
(2023)
Lidar sensors enable precise pose estimation of an uncooperative spacecraft in close range. In this context, the iterative closest point (ICP) is usually employed as a tracking method. However, when the size of the point clouds increases, the required computation time of the ICP can become a limiting factor. The normal distribution transform (NDT) is an alternative algorithm which can be more efficient than the ICP, but suffers from robustness issues. In addition, lidar sensors are also subject to motion blur effects when tracking a spacecraft tumbling with a high angular velocity, leading to a loss of precision in the relative pose estimation. This work introduces a smoothed formulation of the NDT to improve the algorithm’s robustness while maintaining its efficiency. Additionally, two strategies are investigated to mitigate the effects of motion blur. The first consists in un-distorting the point cloud, while the second is a continuous-time formulation of the NDT. Hardware-in-the-loop tests at the European Proximity Operations Simulator demonstrate the capability of the proposed methods to precisely track an uncooperative spacecraft under realistic conditions within tens of milliseconds, even when the spacecraft tumbles with a significant angular rate.
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has led to the first images of a supermassive black hole, revealing the central compact objects in the elliptical galaxy M87 and the Milky Way. Proposed upgrades to this array through the next-generation EHT (ngEHT) program would sharply improve the angular resolution, dynamic range, and temporal coverage of the existing EHT observations. These improvements will uniquely enable a wealth of transformative new discoveries related to black hole science, extending from event-horizon-scale studies of strong gravity to studies of explosive transients to the cosmological growth and influence of supermassive black holes. Here, we present the key science goals for the ngEHT and their associated instrument requirements, both of which have been formulated through a multi-year international effort involving hundreds of scientists worldwide.
In the past few years, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has provided the first-ever event horizon-scale images of the supermassive black holes (BHs) M87* and Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). The next-generation EHT project is an extension of the EHT array that promises larger angular resolution and higher sensitivity to the dim, extended flux around the central ring-like structure, possibly connecting the accretion flow and the jet. The ngEHT Analysis Challenges aim to understand the science extractability from synthetic images and movies to inform the ngEHT array design and analysis algorithm development. In this work, we compare the accretion flow structure and dynamics in numerical fluid simulations that specifically target M87* and Sgr A*, and were used to construct the source models in the challenge set. We consider (1) a steady-state axisymmetric radiatively inefficient accretion flow model with a time-dependent shearing hotspot, (2) two time-dependent single fluid general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations from the H-AMR code, (3) a two-temperature GRMHD simulation from the BHAC code, and (4) a two-temperature radiative GRMHD simulation from the KORAL code. We find that the different models exhibit remarkably similar temporal and spatial properties, except for the electron temperature, since radiative losses substantially cool down electrons near the BH and the jet sheath, signaling the importance of radiative cooling even for slowly accreting BHs such as M87*. We restrict ourselves to standard torus accretion flows, and leave larger explorations of alternate accretion models to future work.
The next-generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT) will be a significant enhancement of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) array, with ∼10 new antennas and instrumental upgrades of existing antennas. The increased uv-coverage, sensitivity, and frequency coverage allow a wide range of new science opportunities to be explored. The ngEHT Analysis Challenges have been launched to inform the development of the ngEHT array design, science objectives, and analysis pathways. For each challenge, synthetic EHT and ngEHT datasets are generated from theoretical source models and released to the challenge participants, who analyze the datasets using image reconstruction and other methods. The submitted analysis results are evaluated with quantitative metrics. In this work, we report on the first two ngEHT Analysis Challenges. These have focused on static and dynamical models of M87* and Sgr A* and shown that high-quality movies of the extended jet structure of M87* and near-horizon hourly timescale variability of Sgr A* can be reconstructed by the reference ngEHT array in realistic observing conditions using current analysis algorithms. We identify areas where there is still room for improvement of these algorithms and analysis strategies. Other science cases and arrays will be explored in future challenges.
The observation of electromagnetic counterparts to both high energy neutrinos and gravitational waves marked the beginning of a new era in astrophysics. The multi-messenger approach allows us to gain new insights into the most energetic events in the Universe such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovas, and black hole mergers. Real-time multi-messenger alerts are the key component of the observational strategies to unravel the transient signals expected from astrophysical sources. Focusing on the high-energy regime, we present a historical perspective of multi-messenger observations, the detectors and observational techniques used to study them, the status of the multi-messenger alerts and the most significant results, together with an overview of the future prospects in the field.
The tremendous phenomenological success of the Standard Model (SM) suggests that its flavor structure and gauge interactions may not be arbitrary but should have a fundamental first-principle explanation. In this work, we explore how the basic distinctive properties of the SM dynamically emerge from a unified New Physics framework tying together both flavor physics and Grand Unified Theory (GUT) concepts. This framework is suggested by a novel anomaly-free supersymmetric chiral E\(_6\)×SU(2)\(_F\)×U(1)\(_F\) GUT containing the SM. Among the most appealing emergent properties of this theory is the Higgs-matter unification with a highly-constrained massless chiral sector featuring two universal Yukawa couplings close to the GUT scale. At the electroweak scale, the minimal SM-like effective field theory limit of this GUT represents a specific flavored three-Higgs doublet model consistent with the observed large hierarchies in the quark mass spectra and mixing already at tree level.
The extragalactic gamma-ray sky is dominated by blazars, active galactic nuclei (AGN) with a relativistic jet that is closely aligned with the line of sight. Galaxies develop an active nucleus if the central supermassive black hole (BH) accretes large amounts of ambient matter and magnetic flux. The inflowing mass accumulates around the plane perpendicular to the accretion flow's angular momentum. The flow is heated through viscous friction and part of the released energy is radiated as blackbody or non-thermal radiation, with luminosities that can dominate the accumulated stellar luminosity of the host galaxy. A fraction of the accretion flow luminosity is reprocessed in a surrounding field of ionised gas clouds. These clouds, revolving around the central BH, emit Doppler-broadened atomic emission lines. The region where these broad-line-emitting clouds are located is called broad-line region (BLR).
About one in ten AGN forms an outflow of radiation and relativistic particles, called a relativistic jet. According to the Blandford-Znajek mechanism, this is facilitated through electromagnetic processes in the magnetosphere of a spinning BH. The latter induces a magnetospheric poloidal current circuit, generating a decelerating torque on the BH and inducing a toroidal magnetic field. Consequently, rotational energy of the BH is converted to Poynting flux streaming away mainly along the rotational axis and starting the jet. One possibility for particle acceleration near the jet base is realised by magnetospheric vacuum gaps, regions temporarily devoid of plasma, such that an intermittent electric field arises parallel to the magnetic field lines, enabling particle acceleration and contributing to the mass loading of the jets.
Magnetised structures, containing bunches of relativistic electrons, propagate away from the galactic nucleus along the jets. Assuming that these electrons emit synchrotron radiation and that they inverse-Compton (IC) up-scatter abundant target photons, which can either be the synchrotron photons themselves or photons from external emitters, the emitted spectrum can be theoretically determined. Additionally taking into account that these emission regions move relativistically themselves and that the emission is Doppler-boosted and beamed in forward direction, the typical two-hump spectral energy distribution (SED) of blazars is recovered.
There are however findings that challenge this well-established model. Short-time variability, reaching down to minute scales at very high energy gamma rays, is today known to be a widespread phenomenon of blazars, calling for very compact emission regions. In most models of such optically thick emission regions, the gamma-ray flux is usually pair-absorbed exponentially, without considering the cascade evolving from the pair-produced electrons. From the observed flux, it is often concluded that emission emanates from larger distances where the region is optically thin, especially from outside of the BLR. Only in few blazars gamma-ray attenuation associated with pair absorption in the BLR was clearly reported.
With the advent of sophisticated high-energy or very high energy gamma-ray detectors, like the Fermi Large Area Telescope or the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov telescopes, besides the extraordinarily fast variability spectral features have been found that cannot be explained by conventional models reproducing the two-hump SED. Two such narrow spectral features are discussed in this work. For the nearby blazar Markarian 501, hints to a sharp peak around 3 TeV have been reported from a multi-wavelength campaign carried out in July 2014, while for 3C 279 a spectral dip was found in 2018 data, that can hardly be described with conventional fitting functions. In this work it is examined whether these spectral peculiarities of blazar jet emission can be explained, if the full radiation reprocessing through an IC pair cascade is accounted for.
Such a cascade is the multiple concatenation of IC scattering events and pair production events. In the cascades generally considered in this work, relativistic electrons and high-energy photons are injected into a fixed soft target photon field. A mathematical description for linear IC pair cascades with escape terms is delivered on the basis of preliminary works. The steady-state kinetic equations for the electrons and for the photons are determined, whereby it is paid attention to an explicit formulation and to motivating the correct integration borders of all integrals from kinematic constraints. In determining the potentially observable gamma-ray flux, both the attenuated injected flux and the flux evolving as an effect of IC up-scattering, pair absorption and escape are incorporated, giving the emerging spectra very distinct imprints.
Much effort is dedicated to the numerical solution of the electrons' kinetic equation via iterative schemes. It is explained why pointwise iteration from higher to lower Lorentz factors is more efficient than iterating the whole set of sampling points. The algorithm is parallelised at two positions. First, several workers can perform pointwise iterations simultaneously. Second, the most demanding integral is cut into a number of part integrals which can be determined by multiple workers. Through these measures, the Python code can be readily applied to simulate steady-state IC pair cascades with escape.
In the case of Markarian 501 the developed framework is as follows. The AGN hosts an advection-dominated accretion flow with a normalised accretion rate of several \(10^{-4}\) and an electron temperature near \(10^{10}\) K. On the one hand, the accretion flow illuminates the few ambient gas clouds with approximate radius \(10^{11}\) m, which reprocess a fraction 0.01 of the luminosity into hydrogen and helium emission lines. On the other hand, the gamma rays from the accretion flow create electrons and positrons in a sporadically active vacuum gap in the BH magnetosphere. In the active gap, a power of roughly 0.001 of the Blandford-Znajek power is extracted from the rotating BH through a gap potential drop of several \(10^{18}\) V, generating ultra-relativistic electrons, which subsequently are multiplied by a factor of about \(10^6\) through interaction with the accretion flow photons. This electron beam propagates away from the central engine and encounters the photon field of one passing ionised cloud. The resulting IC pair cascade is simulated and the evolving gamma-ray spectrum is determined. Just above the absorption troughs due to the hydrogen lines, the spectrum exhibits a narrow bump around 3 TeV. When the cascaded emission is added to the emission generated at larger distances, the observed multi-wavelength SED including the sharp peak at 3 TeV is reproduced, underlining that radiation processes beyond conventional models are motivated by distinct spectral features.
The dip in the spectrum of 3C 279 is addressed by a similar cascade model. Three types of injection are considered, varying in the ratio of the photon density to the electron density and varying in the spectral shape. The IC pair cascade is assumed to happen either in the dense BLR photon field with a luminosity of several \(10^{37}\) W and a radial size of few \(10^{14}\) m or in the diluted photon field outside of the BLR. The latter scenario is however rejected as the spectral slope around several 100 MeV and the dip at few 10 GeV cannot be reconciled within this model. The radiation cascaded in the BLR can explain the observational data, irrespective of the assumed injected rate. It is therefore concluded that for this period of gamma-ray emission, the radiation production happens at the edge of the BLR of 3C 279.
Both investigations show that IC pair cascades can account for fine structure seen in blazar SEDs. It is insufficient to restrict the radiation transport to pure exponential absorption of an injection term. Pair production and IC up-scattering by all generations of photons and electrons in the optically thick regime critically shape the emerging spectra. As the advent of future improved detectors will provide more high-precision spectra, further observations of narrow spectral features can be expected. It seems therefore recommendable to incorporate cascading into conventional radiation production models or to extend the model developed in this work by synchrotron radiation.
Hard X-ray Properties of Relativistically Beamed Jets from Radio- and Gamma-Ray-Bright Blazars
(2022)
In this work I characterize the hard X-ray properties of blazars, active galactic nuclei with highly beamed emission, which are notoriously hard to detect in this energy range. I employ pre-defined samples of beamed AGN: the radio-selected MOJAVE and TANAMI samples, as well as the most recent gamma-ray-selected Fermi/LAT 4LAC catalog. The hard X-ray data is extracted from the 105-month all-sky survey maps of the Swift/BAT (Burst Alert Telescope) in the energy band of 20 keV to 100 keV. A great majority of both the MOJAVE and TANAMI samples are significantly detected, with signal-to noise ratios of the sources often just below the X-ray catalog signal thresholds. All blazar sub-types (FSRQs, BL Lacs) and radio galaxies show characteristic ranges of X-ray flux, luminosity, and photon index. Their properties are correlated with the corresponding SED's shape / peak frequency. The LogN-LogS distributions of the samples show a scarcity of blazars in the middle and lower X-ray flux range, indicating differing evolutionary paths between radio and X-ray emission, which is also suggested by the corresponding luminosity functions. Compared to the radio samples, the 4LAC sources are on average significantly less bright in the BAT band since this range often coincides with the spectral gap region between the two big SED emission bumps. Also, the spectral shapes differ notably, especially for the sub-type of BL Lacs. Using the parameter space of X-ray and gamma-ray photon indices, 35 blazar candidate sources can be assigned to either the FSRQ or BL Lac type with high certainty. The reason why many blazars are weak in this energy band can be traced back to a number of factors: the selection bias of the initial sample, differential evolution of the X-rays and the wavelengths in which the sample is defined, and the limited sensitivity of the observing instruments.
We prove a sharp Bernstein-type inequality for complex polynomials which are positive and satisfy a polynomial growth condition on the positive real axis. This leads to an improved upper estimate in the recent work of Culiuc and Treil (Int. Math. Res. Not. 2019: 3301–3312, 2019) on the weighted martingale Carleson embedding theorem with matrix weights. In the scalar case this new upper bound is optimal.
In this work, we consider impulsive dynamical systems evolving on an infinite-dimensional space and subjected to external perturbations. We look for stability conditions that guarantee the input-to-state stability for such systems. Our new dwell-time conditions allow the situation, where both continuous and discrete dynamics can be unstable simultaneously. Lyapunov like methods are developed for this purpose. Illustrative finite and infinite dimensional examples are provided to demonstrate the application of the main results. These examples cannot be treated by any other published approach and demonstrate the effectiveness of our results.
For the understanding of the variable, transient and non-thermal universe, unbiased long-term monitoring is crucial. To constrain the emission mechanisms at the highest energies, it is important to characterize the very high energy emission and its correlation with observations at other wavelengths. At very high energies, only a limited number of instruments is available. This article reviews the current status of monitoring of the extra-galactic sky at TeV energies.
In this view point we do not change cosmology after the hot fireball starts (hence agrees well with observation), but the changed start suggested and resulting later implications lead to an even better fit with current observations (voids, supercluster and galaxy formation; matter and no antimatter) than the standard model with big bang and inflation: In an eternal ocean of qubits, a cluster of qubits crystallizes to defined bits. The universe does not jump into existence (“big bang”) but rather you have an eternal ocean of qubits in free super-position of all their quantum states (of any dimension, force field and particle type) as permanent basis. The undefined, boiling vacuum is the real “outside”, once you leave our everyday universe. A set of n Qubits in the ocean are “liquid”, in very undefined state, they have all their m possibilities for quantum states in free superposition. However, under certain conditions the qubits interact, become defined, and freeze out, crystals form and give rise to a defined, real world with all possible time series and world lines. GR holds only within the crystal. In our universe all n**m quantum possibilities are nicely separated and crystallized out to defined bit states: A toy example with 6 qubits each having 2 states illustrates, this is completely sufficient to encode space using 3 bits for x,y and z, 1 bit for particle type and 2 bits for its state. Just by crystallization, space, particles and their properties emerge from the ocean of qubits, and following the arrow of entropy, time emerges, following an arrow of time and expansion from one corner of the toy universe to everywhere else. This perspective provides time as emergent feature considering entropy: crystallization of each world line leads to defined world lines over their whole existence, while entropy ensures direction of time and higher representation of high entropy states considering the whole crystal and all slices of world lines. The crystal perspective is also economic compared to the Everett-type multiverse, each qubit has its m quantum states and n qubits interacting forming a crystal and hence turning into defined bit states has only n**m states and not more states. There is no Everett-type world splitting with every decision but rather individual world trajectories reside in individual world layers of the crystal. Finally, bit-separated crystals come and go in the qubit ocean, selecting for the ability to lay seeds for new crystals. This self-organizing reproduction selects over generations also for life-friendliness. Mathematical treatment introduces quantum action theory as a framework for a general lattice field theory extending quantum chromo dynamics where scalar fields for color interaction and gravity have to be derived from the permeating qubit-interaction field. Vacuum energy should get appropriately low by the binding properties of the qubit crystal. Connections to loop quantum gravity, string theory and emergent gravity are discussed. Standard physics (quantum computing; crystallization, solid state physics) allow validation tests of this perspective and will extend current results.
Im Rahmen eines selbst-konsistenten Outer-Gap-Modells der Pulsar-Magnetosphäre wurde die elektromagnetische sehr hochenergetische Strahlung des Crab-Pulsars simuliert. Dies wurde parallel anhand zweier verschiedener Fälle getan, die sich in den angenommenen Gleichungen für die elektrische Feldstärke und für den Krümmungsradius der magnetischen Feldlinien unterscheiden. Die Kinetik der geladenen Teilchen bei ihrer Propagation durch die Outer Gap wurde unter Einbeziehung von Krümmungsstrahlung, inverser Compton-Streuung und Triple Paarbildung betrachtet. Das theoretisch simulierte Spektrum wird mit von Fermi-LAT und von den MAGIC Teleskopen gemessenen Daten verglichen.
Our universe may have started by Qubit decoherence:
In quantum computers, qubits have all their states undefined during calculation and become defined as output (“decoherence”). We study the transition from an uncontrolled, chaotic quantum vacuum (“before”) to a clearly interacting “real world”. In such a cosmology, the Big Bang singularity is replaced by a condensation event of interacting strings. This triggers a crystallization process. This avoids inflation, not fitting current observations: increasing long-range interactions limit growth and crystal symmetries ensure the same laws of nature and basic symmetries over the whole crystal. Tiny mis-arrangements provide nuclei of superclusters and galaxies and crystal structure allows arrangement of dark (halo regions) and normal matter (galaxy nuclei) for galaxy formation. Crystals come and go: an evolutionary cosmology is explored: entropic forces from the quantum soup “outside” of the crystal try to dissolve it. This corresponds to dark energy and leads to a “big rip” in 70 Gigayears. Selection for best growth and condensation events over generations of crystals favors multiple self-organizing processes within the crystal including life or even conscious observers in our universe. Philosophically this theory shows harmony with nature and replaces absurd perspectives of current cosmology.
Independent of cosmology, we suggest that a “real world” (so our everyday macroscopic world) happens only inside a crystal. “Outside” there is wild quantum foam and superposition of all possibilities. In our crystallized world the vacuum no longer boils but is cooled down by the crystallization event, space-time exists and general relativity holds. Vacuum energy becomes 10**20 smaller, exactly as observed in our everyday world. We live in a “solid” state, within a crystal, the n quanta which build our world have all their different m states nicely separated. There are only nm states available for this local “multiverse”. The arrow of entropy for each edge of the crystal forms one fate, one world-line or clear development of our world, while layers of the crystal are different system states. Mathematical leads from loop quantum gravity (LQG) point to required interactions and potentials. Interaction potentials for strings or loop quanta of any dimension allow a solid, decoherent state of quanta challenging to calculate. However, if we introduce here the heuristic that any type of physical interaction of strings corresponds just to a type of calculation, there is already since 1898 the Hurwitz theorem showing that then only 1D, 2D, 4D and 8D (octonions) allow complex or hypercomplex number calculations. No other hypercomplex numbers and hence dimensions or symmetries are possible to allow calculations without yielding divisions by zero. However, the richest solution allowed by the Hurwitz theorem, octonions, is actually the observed symmetry of our universe, E8. Standard physics such as condensation, crystallization and magnetization but also solid-state physics and quantum computing allow us to show an initial mathematical treatment of our new theory by LQG to describe the cosmological state transformations by equations, and, most importantly, point out routes to parametrization of free parameters looking at testable phenomena, experiments and formulas that describe processes of crystallization, protein folding, magnetization, solid-state physics and quantum computing. This is presented here for LQG, for string theory it would be more elegant but was too demanding to be shown here.
Note: While my previous Opus server preprint “A new cosmology of a crystallization process (decoherence) from the surrounding quantum soup provides heuristics to unify general relativity and quantum physics by solid state physics” (https://doi.org/10.25972/OPUS-23076) deals with the same topics and basic formulas, this new version is improved: clearer in title, better introduction, more stringent in its mathematics and improved discussion of the implications including quantum computing, hints for parametrization and connections to LQG and other current cosmological efforts.
This 5th of June 2021 version is again an OPUS preprint, but this will next be edited for Archives https://arxiv.org.
Flux distribution is an important tool to understand the variability processes in activegalactic nuclei. We now have available a great deal of observational evidences pointing towards thepresence of log-normal components in the high energy light curves, and different models have beenproposed to explain these data. Here, we collect some of the recent developments on this topic usingthe well-known blazar Mrk 501 as example of complex and interesting aspects coming from its fluxdistribution in different energy ranges and at different timescales. The observational data we refer toare those collected in a complementary manner by Fermi-LAT over multiple years, and by the FirstG-APD Cherenkov Telescope (FACT) telescope and the H.E.S.S. array in correspondence of the brightflare of June 2014
The main objectives of the KM3NeT Collaboration are (i) the discovery and subsequent observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe and (ii) the determination of the mass hierarchy of neutrinos. These objectives are strongly motivated by two recent important discoveries, namely: (1) the high-energy astrophysical neutrino signal reported by IceCube and (2) the sizable contribution of electron neutrinos to the third neutrino mass eigenstate as reported by Daya Bay, Reno and others. To meet these objectives, the KM3NeT Collaboration plans to build a new Research Infrastructure consisting of a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. A phased and distributed implementation is pursued which maximises the access to regional funds, the availability of human resources and the synergistic opportunities for the Earth and sea sciences community. Three suitable deep-sea sites are selected, namely off-shore Toulon (France), Capo Passero (Sicily, Italy) and Pylos (Peloponnese, Greece). The infrastructure will consist of three so-called building blocks. A building block comprises 115 strings, each string comprises 18 optical modules and each optical module comprises 31 photo-multiplier tubes. Each building block thus constitutes a three-dimensional array of photo sensors that can be used to detect the Cherenkov light produced by relativistic particles emerging from neutrino interactions. Two building blocks will be sparsely configured to fully explore the IceCube signal with similar instrumented volume, different methodology, improved resolution and
Interplanetary shocks are believed to play an important role in the acceleration of charged particles in the heliosphere. While the acceleration to high energies proceeds via the diffusive mechanism at the scales exceeding by far the shock width, the initial stage (injection) should occur at the shock itself. Numerical tracing of ions is done in a model quasi-perpendicular shock front with a typical interplanetary shock parameters (Mach number, upstream ion temperature). The analysis of the distribution of the transmitted solar wind is used to adjust the cross-shock potential which is not directly measured. It is found that, for typical upstream ion temperatures, acceleration of the ions from the tail of the solar wind distribution is unlikely. Pickup ions with a shell distribution are found to be effectively energized and may be injected into further diffusive acceleration regime. Pre-accelerated ions are efficiently upscaled in energies. A part of these ions is returned to the upstream region where they can further be diffusively accelerated.
This work is concerned with the numerical approximation of solutions to models that are used to describe atmospheric or oceanographic flows. In particular, this work concen- trates on the approximation of the Shallow Water equations with bottom topography and the compressible Euler equations with a gravitational potential. Numerous methods have been developed to approximate solutions of these models. Of specific interest here are the approximations of near equilibrium solutions and, in the case of the Euler equations, the low Mach number flow regime. It is inherent in most of the numerical methods that the quality of the approximation increases with the number of degrees of freedom that are used. Therefore, these schemes are often run in parallel on big computers to achieve the best pos- sible approximation. However, even on those big machines, the desired accuracy can not be achieved by the given maximal number of degrees of freedom that these machines allow. The main focus in this work therefore lies in the development of numerical schemes that give better resolution of the resulting dynamics on the same number of degrees of freedom, compared to classical schemes.
This work is the result of a cooperation of Prof. Klingenberg of the Institute of Mathe- matics in Wu¨rzburg and Prof. R¨opke of the Astrophysical Institute in Wu¨rzburg. The aim of this collaboration is the development of methods to compute stellar atmospheres. Two main challenges are tackled in this work. First, the accurate treatment of source terms in the numerical scheme. This leads to the so called well-balanced schemes. They allow for an accurate approximation of near equilibrium dynamics. The second challenge is the approx- imation of flows in the low Mach number regime. It is known that the compressible Euler equations tend towards the incompressible Euler equations when the Mach number tends to zero. Classical schemes often show excessive diffusion in that flow regime. The here devel- oped scheme falls into the category of an asymptotic preserving scheme, i.e. the numerical scheme reflects the behavior that is computed on the continuous equations. Moreover, it is shown that the diffusion of the numerical scheme is independent of the Mach number.
In chapter 3, an HLL-type approximate Riemann solver is adapted for simulations of the Shallow Water equations with bottom topography to develop a well-balanced scheme. In the literature, most schemes only tackle the equilibria when the fluid is at rest, the so called Lake at rest solutions. Here a scheme is developed to accurately capture all the equilibria of the Shallow Water equations. Moreover, in contrast to other works, a second order extension is proposed, that does not rely on an iterative scheme inside the reconstruction procedure, leading to a more efficient scheme.
In chapter 4, a Suliciu relaxation scheme is adapted for the resolution of hydrostatic equilibria of the Euler equations with a gravitational potential. The hydrostatic relations are underdetermined and therefore the solutions to that equations are not unique. However, the scheme is shown to be well-balanced for a wide class of hydrostatic equilibria. For specific classes, some quadrature rules are computed to ensure the exact well-balanced property. Moreover, the scheme is shown to be robust, i.e. it preserves the positivity of mass and energy, and stable with respect to the entropy. Numerical results are presented in order to investigate the impact of the different quadrature rules on the well-balanced property.
In chapter 5, a Suliciu relaxation scheme is adapted for the simulations of low Mach number flows. The scheme is shown to be asymptotic preserving and not suffering from excessive diffusion in the low Mach number regime. Moreover, it is shown to be robust under certain parameter combinations and to be stable from an Chapman-Enskog analysis.
Numerical results are presented in order to show the advantages of the new approach.
In chapter 6, the schemes developed in the chapters 4 and 5 are combined in order to investigate the performance of the numerical scheme in the low Mach number regime in a gravitational stratified atmosphere. The scheme is shown the be well-balanced, robust and stable with respect to a Chapman-Enskog analysis. Numerical tests are presented to show the advantage of the newly proposed method over the classical scheme.
In chapter 7, some remarks on an alternative way to tackle multidimensional simulations are presented. However no numerical simulations are performed and it is shown why further research on the suggested approach is necessary.
The most energetic versions of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) feature two highly-relativistic plasma outflows, so-called jets, that are created in the vicinity of the central supermassive black hole and evolve in opposite directions. In blazars, which dominate the extragalactic gamma-ray sky, the jets are aligned close to the observer's line of sight leading to strong relativistic beaming effects of the jet emission. Radio observations especially using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) provide the best way to gain direct information on the intrinsic properties of jets down to sub-parsec scales, close to their formation region.
In this thesis, I focus on the properties of three AGNs, IC 310, PKS 2004-447, and 3C 111 that belong to the small non-blazar population of gamma-ray-loud AGNs. In these kinds of AGNs, the jets are less strongly aligned with respect to the observer than in blazars. I study them in detail with a variety of radio astronomical instruments with respect to their high-energy emission and in the context of the large samples in the monitoring programmes MOJAVE and TANAMI. My analysis of radio interferometric observations and flux density monitoring data reveal very different characteristics of the jet emission in these sources. The work presented in this thesis illustrates the diversity of the radio properties of gamma-ray-loud AGNs that do not belong to the dominating class of blazars.
In this thesis, the broad band emission, especially in the gamma-ray and radio band, of the active galaxy IC 310 located in the Perseus cluster of galaxies was investigated. The main experimental methods were Cherenkov astronomy using the MAGIC telescopes and high resolution very
long baseline interferometry (VLBI) at radio frequencies (MOJAVE, EVN). Additionally, data
of the object in different energy bands were studied and a multi-wavelength campaign has been
organized and conducted. During the campaign, an exceptional bright gamma-ray flare at TeV
energies was found with the MAGIC telescopes. The results were compared to theoretical acceleration and emission models for explaining the high energy radiation of active galactic nuclei. Many open questions regarding the particle acceleration to very high energies in the jets of active galactic nuclei, the particle content of the jets, or how the jets are launched, were addressed in this thesis by investigating the variability of IC 310 in the very high energy band.
It is argued that IC310 was originally mis-classified as a head-tail radio galaxy. Instead,
it shows a variability behavior in the radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray band similar to the one
found for blazars. These are active galactic nuclei that are characterized by flux variability in all observed energy bands and at all observed time scales. They are viewed at a small angle between the jet axis and the line-of-sight. Thus, strong relativistic beaming influences the variability properties of blazars. Observations of IC 310 with the European VLBI Network helped to find limits for the angle between the jet axis and the line-of-sight, namely 10 deg - 20 deg. This places IC 310 at the borderline between radio galaxies (larger angles) and blazars (smaller angles).
During the gamma-ray outburst detected at the beginning of the multi-wavelength campaign, flux variability as short as minutes was measured. The spectrum during the flare can be described by a simple power-law function over two orders of magnitude in energy up to ~10 TeV. Compared to previous observations, no significant variability of the spectral shape was found. Together with the constraint on the viewing angle, this challenges the currently accepted models for particle acceleration at shock waves in the jets. Alternative models, such as stars moving through the jets, mini-jets in the jet caused, e.g., by reconnection events, or gap acceleration in a pulsar-like magnetosphere around the black hole were investigated. It was found that only the latter can explain all observational findings, which at least suggests that it could even be worthwhile to reconsider published investigations of AGN with this new knowledge in mind.
The first multi-wavelength campaign was successfully been conducted in 2012/2013, including
ground-based as well as space-based telescopes in the radio, optical, ultraviolet, X-ray, and
gamma-ray energy range. No pronounced variability was found after the TeV flare in any energy band. The X-ray data showed a slightly harder spectrum when the emission was brighter. The long-term radio light curve indicated a flickering flux variability, but no strong hint for a
new jet component was found from VLBI images of the radio jet. In any case, further analysis of the existing multi-wavelength data as well as complimentary measurements could provide further exciting insights, e.g., about the broad band spectral energy distribution.
Overall, it can be stated that IC 310 is a key object for research of active galactic nuclei in
the high-energy band due to its proximity and its peculiar properties regarding flux variability
and spectral behavior. Such objects are ideally suited for studying particle acceleration, jet
formation, and other physical effects and models which are far from being fully understood.
Multi-Wavelength Observations of the high-peaked BL Lacertae objects 1ES 1011+496 and 1ES 2344+514
(2012)
BL Lacertae objects belong to the most luminous sources in the Universe. They represent a subclass of active galactic nuclei with a spectrum that is dominated by non-thermal emission, extending from radio wavelengths to tera electronvolt (TeV) energies. The emission is strongly variable on time scales of years down to minutes, and arises from relativistic jets pointing at small angles to the line of sight of the observer, which is the reason for naming them “blazars”. Blazars are the dominant extragalactic source class in the radio, microwave and gamma-ray regime, are prime candidates for the origin of the Cosmic Rays and excellent laboratories to study black hole and jet physics as well as relativistic effects. Despite more than 20 years of observational efforts, the physical mechanisms driving their emission are not yet fully understood. So far, studies of their broad-band continuum emission were mostly concentrated on bright, flaring states. However, for a better understanding of the central engine powering the jets, the bias from flux-limited observations of the past must be overcome and their long-term average continuum spectral energy distributions (SEDs) must be determined. This work presents the first simultaneous multi-wavelength campaigns from the radio to the TeV regime of two high-frequency peaked BL Lacertae objects known to emit at TeV energies. The first source, 1ES 1011+496, was observed between February and May 2008, the second one, 1ES 2344+514, between September 2008 and February 2009. The extensive observational campaigns were organised independently from an external trigger for the presence of a flaring state. Since the duty cycle of major flux outbursts is known to be rather low, the campaigns were expected to yield SEDs representative of the long-term average emission. Central for this thesis is the analysis of data obtained with the MAGIC Cherenkov telescope, measuring energy spectra and light curves from ~0.1 to ~10 TeV. For the remaining instruments, observation time was proposed and additional data was organised by collaboration with the instrument teams by the author of this work. Such data was obtained mostly in a fully reduced state. Individual light curves are investigated as well as combined in a search for inter-band correlations. The data of both sources reveal a notable lack of a correlation between the emission at radio and optical wavelengths, indicating that the radio and short-wavelength emission arise in different regions of the jet. Quasi-simultaneous SEDs of two different flux states are observationally determined and described by a one-zone as well as a self-consistent two-zone synchrotron self-Compton model. First approaches to model the SEDs by means of a Chi2 minimisation technique are briefly discussed. The SEDs and the resulting model parameters, characterising the physical conditions in the emission regions, are compared to archival data. Though the models can describe the data well, for 1ES 1011+496 the model parameters indicate that in addition to the synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission of relativistic electrons, emission due to accelerated protons seems to be required. The SEDs of 1ES 2344+514 reveal one of the lowest activity states ever detected from the source. Despite that, the model parameters are not indicative of a distinct quiescent state, which may be caused by the degeneracy of the different parameters in one-zone models. Moreover, indications accumulate that the radiation can not be attributed to a single emission region. The results disfavour some of the current blazar classification schemes and the so-called “blazar sequence”, emphasising the need for a more realistic explanation of the systematics of the blazar SEDs in terms of fundamental parameters.
Die Herkunft hochenergetischer solarer Teilchen konnte in den vergangenen Jahren eindeutig auf Schockbeschleunigung an koronalen Masseauswürfen zurückgeführt werden. Durch resonante Interaktionen zwischen Wellen und Teilchen werden zum einen geladene Teilchen unter Veränderung ihrer Energie gestreut, zum anderen wird die Dynamik der Plasmawellen in solchen Beschleunigungsregionen durch diese Prozesse von selbstgenerierten Wellenmoden maßgeblich beeinflusst. Mittels numerischer Modellierungen wurden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit die grundlegenden physikalischen Regimes der Turbulenz und des Teilchentransports beschrieben. Die Simulation der Plasmadynamik bedient sich der Methodik der Magnetohydrodynamik, wohingegen kinetische Einzelteilchen durch die elementaren Bewegungsgleichungen der Elektrodynamik berechnet werden. Es konnten die Turbulenztheorien von Goldreich und Sridhar unter heliosphärischen Bedingungen bei drei solaren Radien bestätigt werden. Vor allem zeigten sich Hinweise für das Erreichen der kritischen Balance, einem Schlüsselparameter dieser Theorien. Weiterhin werden Ergebnisse der dynamischen Entwicklung angeregter Wellenmoden präsentiert, in denen die Bedeutsamkeit für die gesamte Turbulenz gezeigt werden konnte. Als zentraler Prozess bei hohen Energien hat sich das wave-steepening herausgestellt, das als effizienter Energietransportmechanismus in paralleler Richtung zum Hintergrundmagnetfeld identifiziert wurde und somit turbulente Strukturen bei hohen parallelen Wellenzahlen erklärt, deren Entstehung das Goldreich-Sridhar Modell nicht beschreiben kann. Darüber hinaus wurden grundlegende Erkenntnisse über die quasilineare Theorie des Teilchentransports erzielt. Im Speziellen konnte ein tieferes Verständnis für die Interpretation der Diffusionskoeffizienten von Welle-Teilchen Wechselwirkungen erlangt werden. Simulationen zur Streuung an angeregten Wellenmoden zeigten erstmals komplexe resonante Strukturen die im Rahmen analytischer Modelle nicht mehr adäquat beschrieben werden können.
Die Emission solarer Typ II Radiobursts ist ein seit Jahrzehnten beobachtetes Phänomen der heliosphärischen Plasmaphysik. Diese Radiobursts, die im Zusammenhang mit der Propagation koronaler Schockfronten auftreten, zeigen ein charakteristisches, zweibandiges Emissionsspektrum. Mit expandierendem Schock driften sie zu niedrigeren Frequenzen. Analytische Theorien dieser Emission sagen nichtlineare Plasmawellenwechselwirkung als Ursache voraus, doch aufgrund des geringen Sonnenabstands der Emissionsregion ist die in-situ Datenlage durch Satellitenmessungen äusserst schlecht, so dass eine endgültige Verifikation der vorhergesagten Vorgänge bisher nicht möglich war. Mit Hilfe eines kinetischen Plasma-Simulationscodes nach dem Particle-in-Cell Prinzip wurde in dieser Dissertation die Plasmaumgebung in der Foreshock-Region einer koronalen Schockfront modelliert. Das Propagations- und Kopplungsverhalten elektrostatischer und elektromagnetischer Wellenmoden wurde untersucht. Die vollständige räumliche Information über die Wellenzusammensetzung in der Simulation erlaubt es, die Kinematik nichtlinearer Wellenkopplungen genauestens zu untersuchen. Es zeigte sich ein mit der analytischen Theorie der Drei-Wellen-Wechselwirkung konsistentes Bild der Erzeugung solarer Radiobursts: durch elektromagnetischen Zerfall elektrostatischer Moden kommt es zur Erzeugung fundamentaler, sowie durch Verschmelzung gegenpropagierender elektrostatischer Moden zur Anregung harmonischer Radioemission. Kopplungsstärken und Winkelabhängigkeit dieser Prozesse wurden untersucht. Mit dem somit zur Verfügung stehenden, numerischen Laborsystem wurde die Parameter-Abhängigkeit der Wellenkopplungen und entstehenden Radioemissionen bezüglich Stärke des Elektronenbeams und des solaren Abstandes untersucht.
Indirect Search for Dark Matter in the Universe - the Multiwavelength and Multiobject Approach
(2011)
Cold dark matter constitutes a basic tenet of modern cosmology, essential for our understanding of structure formation in the Universe. Since its first discovery by means of spectroscopic observations of the dynamics of the Coma cluster some 80 years ago, mounting evidence of its gravitational pull and its impact on the geometry of space-time has build up across a wide range of scales, from galaxies to the entire Hubble flow. The apparent lack of electromagnetic coupling and independent measurements of the energy density of baryonic matter from the primordial abundances of light elements show the non-baryonic nature of dark matter, and its clustering properties prove that it is cold, i.e. that it has a temperature lower than its mass during the time of radiation-matter equality. A generic particle candidate for cold dark matter are weakly interacting massive particles at the electroweak symmetry-breaking scale, such as the neutralinos in R-parity conserving supersymmetry. Such particles would naturally freeze-out with a cosmologically relevant relic density at early times in the expanding Universe. Subsequent clustering of matter would recover annihilation interactions between the dark matter particles to some extent and thus lead to potentially observable high-energy emission from the decaying unstable secondaries produced in annihilation events. The spectra of the secondaries would permit a determination of the mass and annihilation cross section, which are crucial for the microphysical identification of the dark matter. This the central motivation for indirect dark matter searches. However, presently neither the indirect searches, nor the complementary direct searches based on the detection of elastic scattering events, nor the production of candidate particles in collider experiments, has yet provided unequivocal evidence for dark matter. This does not come as a surprise, since the dark matter particles interact only through weak interactions and therefore the corresponding secondary emission must be extremely faint. It turns out that even for the strongest mass concentrations in the Universe, the dark matter annihilation signal is expected to not exceed the level of competing astrophysical sources. Thus, the discrimination of the putative dark matter annihilation signal from the signals of the astrophysical inventory has become crucial for indirect search strategies. In this thesis, a novel search strategy will be developed and exemplified in which target selection across a wide range of masses, astrophysical background estimation, and multiwavelength signatures play the key role. It turns out that the uncertainties regarding the halo profile and the boost due to surviving substructure are bigger for halos at the lower end of the observed mass scales, i.e. in the regime of dwarf galaxies and below, while astrophysical backgrounds tend to become more severe for massive dark matter halos such as clusters of galaxies. By contrast, the uncertainties due to unknown details of particle physics are invariant under changes of the halo mass. Therefore, the different scaling behaviors can be employed to significantly cut down on the uncertainties in observations of different targets covering a major part of the involved mass scales. This strategical approach was implemented in the scientific program carried out with the MAGIC telescope system. Observations of dwarf galaxies and the Virgo- and Perseus clusters of galaxies have been carried out and, at the time of writing, result in some of the most stringent constraints on weakly interacting massive particles from indirect searches. Here, the low-threshold design of the MAGIC telescope system plays a crucial role, since the bulk of the high-energy photons, produced with a high multiplicity during the fragmentation of unstable dark matter annihilation products, are emitted at energies well below the dark matter mass scale. The upper limits severely constrain less generic, but more prolific scenarios characterized by extraordinarily high annihilation efficiencies.
Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit Strahlungsprozessen in Blazaren. Bei den Blazaren handelt es sich um eine Unterkategorie der aktiven Galaxienkerne, bei denen die Jetachse in Richtung des Beobachters zeigt. Charakteristisch für die Blazare ist ein Multifrequenzspektrum der Photonen, welches sich vom Radiobereich bis hin zur Gamma-Strahlung mit TeV-Energien erstreckt. Insbesondere der Gamma-Bereich rückt aktuell in den Fokus der Betrachtung mit Experimenten wie zum Beispiel FERMI und MAGIC. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Modellierung der auftretenden Strahlungsprozesse und die Beschreibung der Multifrequenzspektren der Blazare mit Hilfe eines hadronisch-leptonischen Modells. Grundlage hierfür ist ein selbstkonsistentes Synchrotron-Selbst-Compton-Modell (SSC), welches zur Beschreibung des Spektrums der Quelle 1 ES 1218+30.4 verwendet wird. Dabei wird die Parameterwahl unterstützt durch eine Abschätzung der Masse des zentralen schwarzen Loches. Das hier behandelte SSC-Modell wird dahingehend untersucht, wie es sich unter Veränderung der Modellparameter verhält. Dabei werden Abhängigkeiten des Photonenspektrums von Änderungsfaktoren der Parameter abgeleitet. Außerdem werden diese Abhängigkeiten in Relation gesetzt und aus dieser Betrachtung ergibt sich die Schlussfolgerung, dass unter der Voraussetzung eines festen Spektralindex der Elektronenverteilung die Wahl eines Parametersatzes zur Modellierung eines Photonenspektrums eindeutig ist. Zur Einführung eines zeitabhängigen, hadronischen Modells wird das SSCModell um die Anwesenheit nichtthermischer Protonen erweitert. Dadurch kann Proton-Synchrotron-Strahlung einen Beitrag im Gamma-Bereich leisten. Außerdem werden durch Proton-Photon-Wechselwirkung Pionen erzeugt. Aus deren Zerfall werden zusammen mit der Paarbildung aus Photon-Photon-Absorption sekundäre Elektronen und Positronen produziert, die wiederum zum Hochenergiespektrum beitragen. Neben den Pionen werden bei der Proton-Photon- Wechselwirkung außerdem noch Neutrinos und Neutronen erzeugt, die einen direkten Einblick in die Emissionsregion erlauben. Das hier vorgestellte hadronische Modell wird auf die Quelle 3C 279 angewandt. Für diese Quelle reicht mit der Detektion im VHE-Bereich der SSCAnsatz nicht aus, um das Photonenspektrum zu beschreiben. Mit dem vorgelegten Modell gelingt die Beschreibung des Spektrums in den SSC-kritischen Bereichen sehr gut. Insbesondere können verschiedene Flusszustände modelliert und allein durch Veränderung der Maximalenergien von Protonen und Elektronen ineinander überführt werden. Diese einfache Möglichkeit der Modellierung der Variabilität der Quelle unterstreicht die Wahl des hadronischen Ansatzes. Somit wird hier ein sehr gutes Werkzeug zur Untersuchung der Emissionsprozesse in Blazaren geliefert. Darüber hinaus ist mit der Abschätzung des Neutrino-Flusses zwar die Detektion von 3C 279 als Punktquelle mit IceCube unwahrscheinlich, jedoch liefert das Modell generell die Möglichkeit im Kontext des Multimessenger-Ansatzes Antworten zu liefern. Im gleichen Kontext wird auch der Beitrag zur kosmischen Strahlung durch entweichende Neutronen untersucht.
One key scientific program of the MAGIC telescope project is the discovery and detection of blazars. They constitute the most prominent extragalactic source class in the very high energy (VHE) Gamma-ray regime with 29 out of 34 known objects (as of April 2010). Therefore a major part of the available observation time was spent in the last years on high-frequency peaked blazars. The selection criteria were chosen to increase the detection probability. As the X-ray flux is believed to be correlated to the VHE Gamma-ray flux, only X-ray selected sources with a flux F(X) > 2 μJy at 1 keV were considered. To avoid strong attenuation of the Gamma-rays in the extragalactic infrared background, the redshift was restricted to values between z < 0.15 and z < 0.4, depending on the declination of the objects. The latter determines the zenith distance during culmination which should not exceed 30° (for z < 0.4) and 45° (for z < 0.15), respectively. Between August 2005 and April 2009, a sample of 24 X-ray selected high-frequency peaked blazars has been observed with the MAGIC telescope. Three of them were detected including 1ES 1218+304 being the first high-frequency peaked BL Lacertae object (HBL) to be discovered with MAGIC in VHE Gamma-rays. One previously detected object was not confirmed as VHE emitter in this campaign by MAGIC. A set of 20 blazars previously not detected will be treated more closely in this work. In this campaign, during almost four years ~ 450 hrs or ~ 22% of the available observation time for extragalactic objects were dedicated to investigate the baseline emission of blazars and their broadband spectral properties in this emission state. For the sample of 20 objects in a redshift range of 0.018 < z < 0.361 integral flux upper limits in the VHE range on the 99.7% confidence level (corresponding to 3 standard deviations) were calculated resulting in values between 2.9% and 14.7% of the integral flux of the Crab Nebula. As the distribution of significances of the individual objects shows a clear shift to positive values, a stacking method was applied to the sample. For the whole set of 20 objects, an excess of Gamma-rays was found with a significance of 4.5 standard deviations in 349.5 hours of effective exposure time. For the first time a signal stacking in the VHE regime turned out to be successful. The measured integral flux from the cumulative signal corresponds to 1.4% of the Crab Nebula flux above 150 GeV with a spectral index α = −3.15±0.57. None of the objects showed any significant variability during the observation time and therefore the detected signal can be interpreted as the baseline emission of these objects. For the individual objects lower limits on the broad-band spectral indices αX−Gamma between the X-ray range at 1 keV and the VHE Gamma-ray regime at 200 GeV were calculated. The majority of objects show a spectral behaviour as expected from the source class of HBLs: The energy output in the VHE regime is in general lower than in X-rays. For the stacked blazar sample the broad-band spectral index was calculated to αX−Gamma = 1.09, confirming the result found for the individual objects. Another evidence for the revelation of the baseline emission is the broad-band spectral energy distribution (SED) comprising archival as well as contemporaneous multi-wavelength data from the radio to the VHE band. The SEDs of known VHE Gamma-ray sources in low flux states matches well the SED of the stacked blazar sample.
Mergers between rich clusters of galaxies represent the most violent events in the Universe. The merger events initiate a complex chain of processes that leads to the dissipation of the collisional energy. This phase of violent relaxation is accompanied by turbulence and shock waves as well as non-thermal particle acceleration. This thesis aims at the interpretation of multi-wavelength observations of the merging cluster of galaxies Abell 3376 in the framework of a theoretical model of the involved effects. Observations with the Very Large Array radio interferometer were carried out and analyzed to clarify the morphology of the non-thermal particle distribution in Abell 3376, in particular about the shocked regions. The dissipation in the hot intra-cluster gas was studied using archival X-ray observations with ROSAT and XMM. Results were compared with constrained numerical simulations of the evolution of the merger process in the framework of cosmological structure formation. For this purpose, the ENZO-Code was employed for the computation of the gas dynamics and self-gravity of the colliding mass distribution. The non-thermal properties of the intra-cluster gas could be indirectly inferred from the local Mach number and the strength of the turbulence.
20 years after the discovery of the Crab Nebula as a source of very high energy gamma-rays, the number of sources newly discovered above 100 GeV using ground-based Cherenkov telescopes has considerably grown, at the time of writing of this thesis to a total of 81. The sources are of different types, including galactic sources such as supernova remnants, pulsars, binary systems, or so-far unidentified accelerators and extragalactic sources such as blazars and radio galaxies. The goal of this thesis work was to search for gamma-ray emission from a particular type of blazars previously undetected at very high gamma-ray energies, by using the MAGIC telescope. Those blazars previously detected were all of the same type, the so-called high-peaked BL Lacertae objects. The sources emit purely non-thermal emission, and exhibit a peak in their radio-to-X-ray spectral energy distribution at X-ray energies. The entire blazar population extends from these rare, low-luminosity BL Lacertae objects with peaks at X-ray energies to the much more numerous, high-luminosity infrared-peaked radio quasars. Indeed, the low-peaked sources dominate the source counts obtained from space-borne observations at gamma-ray energies up to 10 GeV. Their spectra observed at lower gamma-ray energies show power-law extensions to higher energies, although theoretical models suggest them to turn over at energies below 100 GeV. This opened the quest for MAGIC as the Cherenkov telescope with the currently lowest energy threshold. In the framework of this thesis, the search was focused on the prominent sources BL Lac, W Comae and S5 0716+714, respectively. Two of the sources were unambiguously discovered at very high energy gamma-rays with the MAGIC telescope, based on the analysis of a total of about 150 hours worth of data collected between 2005 and 2008. The analysis of this very large data set required novel techniques for treating the effects of twilight conditions on the data quality. This was successfully achieved and resulted in a vastly improved performance of the MAGIC telescope in monitoring campaigns. The detections of low-peaked and intermediate-peaked BL Lac objects are in line with theoretical expectations, but push the models based on electron shock acceleration and inverse-Compton cooling to their limits. The short variability time scales of the order of one day observed at very high energies show that the gamma-rays originate rather close to the putative supermassive black holes in the centers of blazars, corresponding to less than 1000 Schwarzschild radii when taking into account relativistic bulk motion.
We model Milky Way like isolated disk galaxies in high resolution three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations with the adaptive mesh refinement code Enzo. The model galaxies include a dark matter halo and a disk of gas and stars. We use a simple implementation of sink particles to measure and follow collapsing gas, and simulate star formation as well as stellar feedback in some cases. We investigate two largely different realizations of star formation. Firstly, we follow the classical approach to transform cold, dense gas into stars with an fixed efficiency. These kind of simulations are known to suffer from an overestimation of star formation and we observe this behavior as well. Secondly, we use our newly developed FEARLESS approach to combine hydrodynamical simulations with a semi-analytic modeling of unresolved turbulence and use this technique to dynamically determine the star formation rate. The subgrid-scale turbulence regulated star formation simulations point towards largely smaller star formation efficiencies and henceforth more realistic overall star formation rates. More work is necessary to extend this method to account for the observed highly supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds and ultimately use the turbulence regulated algorithm to simulate observed star formation relations.
It is aim of this work to develop, implement, and apply a new numerical scheme for modeling turbulent, multiphase astrophysical flows such as galaxy cluster cores and star forming regions. The method combines the capabilities of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and large-eddy simulations (LES) to capture localized features and to represent unresolved turbulence, respectively; it will be referred to as Fluid mEchanics with Adaptively Refined Large-Eddy SimulationS or FEARLESS.
Blazars are among the most luminous sources in the universe. Their extreme short-time variability indicates emission processes powered by a supermassive black hole. With the current generation of Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes, these sources are explored at very high energies. Lowering the threshold below 100 GeV and improving the sensitivity of the telescopes, more and more blazars are discovered in this energy regime. For the MAGIC telescope, a low energy analysis has been developed allowing to reach energies of 50 GeV for the first time. The method is presented in this thesis at the example of PG 1553+113 measuring a spectrum between 50 GeV and 900 GeV. In the energy regime observed by MAGIC, strong attenuation of the gamma-rays is expected from pair production due to interactions of gamma-rays with low-energy photons from the extragalactic background light. For PG 1553+113, this provides the possibility to constrain the redshift of the source, which is still unknown. Well studied from radio to x-ray energies, PG 1553+113 was discovered in 2005 in the very high energy regime. In total, it was observed with the MAGIC telescope for 80~hours between April 2005 and April 2007. From more than three years of data taking, the MAGIC telescope provides huge amounts of data and a large number of files from various sources. To handle this data volume and to provide monitoring of the data quality, an automatic procedure is essential. Therefore, a concept for automatic data processing and management has been developed. Thanks to its flexibility, the concept is easily applicable to future projects. The implementation of an automatic analysis is running stable since three years in the data center in Würzburg and provides consistent results of all MAGIC data, i.e. equal processing ensures comparability. In addition, this database controlled system allows for easy tests of new analysis methods and re-processing of all data with a new software version at the push of a button. At any stage, not only the availability of the data and its processing status is known, but also a large set of quality parameters and results can be queried from the database, facilitating quality checks, data selection and continuous monitoring of the telescope performance. By using the automatic analysis, the whole data sample can be analyzed in a reasonable amount of time, and the analyzers can concentrate on interpreting the results instead. For PG 1553+113, the tools and results of the automatic analysis were used. Compared to the previously published results, the software includes improvements as absolute pointing correction, absolute light calibration and improved quality and background-suppression cuts. In addition, newly developed analysis methods taking into account timing information were used. Based on the automatically produced results, the presented analysis was enhanced using a special low energy analysis. Part of the data were affected by absorption due to the Saharan Air Layer, i.e. sanddust in the atmosphere. Therefore, a new method has been developed, correcting for the effect of this meteorological phenomenon. Applying the method, the affected data could be corrected for apparent flux variations and effects of absorption on the spectrum, allowing to use the result for further studies. This is especially interesting, as these data were taken during a multi-wavelength campaign. For the whole data sample of 54 hours after quality checks, a signal from the position of PG 1553+113 was found with a significance of 15 standard deviations. Fitting a power law to the combined spectrum between 75 GeV and 900 GeV, yields a spectral slope of 4.1 +/- 0.2. Due to the low energy analysis, the spectrum could be extended to below 50 GeV. Fitting down to 48 GeV, the flux remains the same, but the slope changes to 3.7 +/- 0.1. The determined daily light curve shows that the integral flux above 150 GeV is consistent with a constant flux. Also for the spectral shape no significant variability was found in three years of observations. In July 2006, a multi-wavelength campaign was performed. Simultaneous data from the x-ray satellite Suzaku, the optical telescope KVA and the two Cherenkov experiments MAGIC and H.E.S.S. are available. Suzaku measured for the first time a spectrum up to 30 keV. The source was found to be at an intermediate flux level compared to previous x-ray measurements, and no short time variability was found in the continuous data sample of 41.1 ksec. Also in the gamma regime, no variability was found during the campaign. Assuming a maximum slope of 1.5 for the intrinsic spectrum, an upper limit of z < 0.74 was determined by deabsorbing the measured spectrum for the attenuation of photons by the extragalactic background light. For further studies, a redshift of z = 0.3 was assumed. Collecting various data from radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet, x-ray and gama-ray energies, a spectral energy distribution was determined, including the simultaneous data of the multi-wavelength campaign. Fitting the simultaneous data with different synchrotron-self-compton models shows that the observed spectral shape can be explained with synchrotron-self-compton processes. The best result was obtained with a model assuming a log-parabolic electron distribution.
At the beginning of regular observations with the MAGIC telescope in December 2004, all but one extragalactic sources detected at very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays belonged to the class of high frequency peaked BL Lac (HBL) objects. This motivated a systematic scan of candidate sources to increase the number of known sources and to study systematically their spectral properties. As candidate sources for VHE emission, X-ray bright HBLs were selected from a compilation of active galactic nuclei. The MAGIC observations took place from December 2004 to March 2006. The declination of the objects was restricted to values between -1.2° and +58.8° corresponding to a maximum zenith distance lower than 30° at culmination. Since gamma-rays are absorbed by photo-pair production in low energy background radiation fields, the redshift of the investigated objects was limitetd to z < 0.3. Under the assumption that HBLs generally emit the same energy flux at 1keV as at 200GeV, only the brightest X-ray sources were observed, leading to a cut in the X-ray flux of F(1keV) > 2µJy}. Of the fourteen sources observed, four have been detected: 1ES 1218+304 (for the first time at very high energies), 1ES 2344+514 (strong detection in a state of low activity), Mrk 421 and Mrk 501. A hint of a signal on a 3-sigma-level from the direction of 1ES 1011+496 has been observed. In the meantime the object has been confirmed as a source of VHE gamma-rays by a second MAGIC observation campaign triggered by an optical outburst. For ten sources, upper limits on their integral fluxes above 200GeV have been calculated on a 99% confidence level. To cross calibrate the different data samples, collected during 14 months, bright muon ring images have been used, recorded as background events by the MAGIC telescope. Based on the development by Meyer (2003), the method has been improved and implemented into the automatic data analysis as a continuous monitor of the calibration and the point spread function of the optical system. While the ring images are generated by muons with small impact parameters, it could be shown that the image parameter distributions for muons with large impact parameters and gamma showers completely overlap, revealing these muons as the dominant background for gamma-ray observations below energies of 150GeV. The sample of HBLs (including all HBLs detected at VHE so far) has been investigated for correlations between broad-band spectral indices as determined from simultaneous optical, archival X-ray and radio luminosities, finding that the VHE emitting HBLs do not differ from the non-detected ones. In general the absorption corrected HBL gamma-ray luminosities at 200GeV are not higher than their X-ray luminosities at 1keV. Based on a complete X-ray BL Lac sample, the Hamburg/ROSAT X-ray BL Lac sample, the number of expected VHE sources has been estimated for the performed scan, finding a consistent number under the assumption of a 37% completeness of the investigated sample and a 1keV-to-200GeV luminosity ratio of 1.4. An upper limit on the omnidirectional flux at 200GeV has been calculated by interpolating the sum over the observed fluxes and upper limits. Within the uncertainties, the result is in agreement with the expectations derived from the X-ray luminosity function of BL Lacs. For 1ES 1218+304 and 1ES 2344+514 the lightcurves have been derived, showing evidence for flux variability on a time scale of 17 days and 24h, respectively. In the case of 1ES 1218+304 variability has been reported for the first time at VHEs. For both sources the energy spectra have been reconstructed and discussed in the context of their broad band spectral energy distribution (SED), using a single zone synchrotron self Compton model. The SEDs are well fitted by the simulation even though the very high peak frequencies at gamma-rays push the model to its limits. The parameters derived from the simulation are in good agreement with the parameters found for similar HBLs.
In this work, we studied in great detail how the unknown parameters of the SUSY seesaw model can be determined from measurements of observables at or below collider energies, namely rare flavor violating decays of leptons, slepton pair production processes at linear colliders and slepton mass differences. This is a challenging task as there is an intricate dependence of the observables on the unknown seesaw, light neutrino and mSUGRA parameters. In order to separate these different influences, we first considered two classes of seesaw models, namely quasi-degenerate and strongly hierarchical right-handed neutrinos. As a generalisation, we presented a method that can be used to reconstruct the high energy seesaw parameters, among them the heavy right-handed neutrino masses, from low energy observables alone.
The Galactic Starburst Region NGC 3603 : exciting new insights on the formation of high mass stars
(2004)
One of the most fundamental, yet still unsolved problems in star formation research is addressed by the question "How do high mass stars form?". While most details related to the formation and early evolution of low mass stars are quite well understood today, the basic processes leading to the formation of high mass stars still remain a mystery. There is no doubt that low mass stars like our Sun form via accretion of gas and dust from their natal environment. With respect to the formation of high mass stars theorists currently discuss two possible scenarios controversely: First, similar to stars of lower masses, high mass stars form by continuous (time variable) accretion of large amounts of gas and dust through their circumstellar envelopes and/or disks. Second, high mass stars form by repeated collisions (coalescence) of protostars of lower masses. Both scenarios bear difficulties which impose strong constrains on the final mass of the young star. To find evidences for or against one of these two theoretical models is a challenging task for observers. First, sites of high mass star formation are much more distant than the nearby sites of low mass star formation. Second, high mass stars form and evolve much faster than low mass star. In particular, they contract to main sequence, hydrogen burning temperatures and densities on time scales which are much shorter than typical accretion time scales. Third, as a consequence of the previous point, young high mass stars are usually deeply embedded in their natal environment throughout their (short) pre-main sequence phase. Therefore, high mass protostars are rare, difficult to find and difficult to study. In my thesis I undertake a novel approach to search for and to characterize high mass protostars, by looking into a region where young high mass stars form in the violent neighbourhood of a cluster of early type main sequence stars. The presence of already evolved O type stars provides a wealth of energetic photons and powerful stellar winds which evaporate and disperse the surrounding interstellar medium, thus "lifting the courtains" around nearby young stars at a relatively early evolutionary stage. Such premises are given in the Galactic starburst region NGC 3603. Nevertheless, a large observational effort with different telescopes and instruments -- in particular, taking advantage of the high angular resolution and high sensitivity of near and mid IR instruments available at ESO -- was necessary to achieve the goals of my study. After a basic introduction on the topic of (high mass) star formation in Chapter 1, a short overview of the investigated region NGC 3603 and its importance for both galactic and extragalactic star formation studies is given in Chapter 2. Then, in Chapter 3, I report on a comprehensive investigation of the distribution and kinematics of the molecular gas and dust associated with the NGC 3603 region. In Chapter 4 I thoroughly address the radial extent of the NGC 3603 OB cluster and the spatial distribution of the cluster members. Together with deep Ks band imaging data, a detailed survey of NGC 3603 at mid IR wavelengths allows to search the neighbourhood of the cold molecular gas and dust for sources with intrinsic mid IR excess (Chapter 5). In Chapter 6 I characterize the most prominent sources of NGC 3603 IRS 9 and show that these sources are bona-fide candidates for high mass protostars. Finally, a concise summary as well as an outlook on future prospects in high mass star formation research is given in Chapter 7.