arXiv subjects

T. Aoki

Publications and source records attributed to T. Aoki.

41 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2003

Inner Size of a Dust Torus in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 4151

The most intense monitoring observations yet made were carried out on the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4151 in the optical and near-infrared wave-bands. A lag from the optical light curve to the near-infrared light curve was measured. The lag-time between the V and K light curves at the flux minimum in 2001 was precisely 48+2-3 days, as determined by a cross-correlation analysis. The correlation between the optical luminosity of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and the lag-time between the UV/optical and the near-infrared light curves is presented for NGC 4151 in combination with previous lag-time measurements of NGC 4151 and other AGNs in the literature. This correlation is interpreted as thermal dust reverberation in an AGN, where the near-infrared emission from an AGN is expected to be the thermal re-radiation from hot dust surrounding the central engine at a radius where the temperature equals to that of the dust sublimation temperature. We find that the inner radius of the dust torus in NGC 4151 is $\sim $ 0.04 pc corresponding to the measured lag-time, well outside the broad line region (BLR) determined by other reverberation studies of the emission lines.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Multi-band optical follow-up observations of GRB 020813 at KISO and Bisei observatories

Observations were made of the optical afterglow of GRB020813 (Fox, Blake & Price, 2002) with the KISO observatory 1.05 m Schmidt telescope and the Bisei astronomical observatory 1.01 m telescope. Four-band ($B, V, R$, and $I$) photometric data points were obtained from 2002, August 13 10:52 to 16:46 UT, or 0.346$-$0.516 days after the burst. In order to investigate the early-time ($<$1 day) evolution of the afterglow, four-band light curves were produced by analyzing the data taken at these two astronomical observatories, as well as publicly released data taken by the Magellan Baade telescope (Gladders and Hall, 2002c). The light curves can be approximated by a broken power law, of which the indices are approximately 0.46 and 1.33 before and after a break at $\sim$0.2 days, respectively. The optical spectral index stayed approximately constant at $\sim$0.9 over 0.17 $\sim$ 4.07 days after the burst. Since the temporal decay index after the break and the spectral index measured at that time are both consistent with those predicted by a spherical expansion model, the early break is unlikely to be a jet break, but likely to represent the end of an early bump in the light curve as was observed in the optical afterglow of GRB021004.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

The Optical/Near-Infrared Light Curves of SN 2002ap for the First 140 Days after Discovery

Supernova (SN) 2002ap in M74 was observed in the $UBVRIJHK$ bands for the first 40 days following its discovery (2002 January 29) until it disappeared because of solar conjunction, and then in June after it reappeared. The magnitudes and dates of peak brightness in each band were determined. While the rate of increase of the brightness before the peak is almost independent of wavelength, the subsequent rate of decrease becomes smaller with wavelength from the $U$ to the $R$ band, and is constant at wavelengths beyond $I$. The photometric evolution is faster than in the well-known ``hypernovae'' SNe~1998bw and 1997ef, indicating that SN 2002ap ejected less mass. The bolometric light curve of SN 2002ap for the full period of observations was constructed. The absolute magnitude is found to be much fainter than that of SN 1998bw, but is similar to that of SN 1997ef, which lies at the faint end of the hypernova population. The bolometric light curve at the early epochs was best reproduced with the explosion of a C+O star that ejects $2.5~M_\sun$ with kinetic energy $E_{\rm K}=4\times 10^{51}~{\rm ergs}$. A comparison of the predicted brightness of SN 2002ap with that observed after solar conjunction may imply that $γ$-ray deposition at the later epochs was more efficient than in the model. This may be due to an asymmetric explosion.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

Timing System of SPring-8 Booster Synchrotron

The timing system of SPring-8 booster synchrotron generates various timing signals concerning beam injection, acceleration from 1 GeV to 8 GeV and ejection. We have improved the timing system of the synchrotron giving it better stability and flexibility. This improvement results the other merits of advanced operations, for example, storing electron beam in the synchrotron, changing the injection cycle from 1 Hz to the slower frequency to increase the RF knock-out (RF-KO) operation period and ejecting the low energy beam during ramping up.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv1993

Face-on Barred Spiral Structure of Molecular Clouds in M31's Bulge

By image processing and color excess analyses of B, V, R, and I-band CCD images of the central region of M31 taken with the Kiso 105-cm Schmidt telescope, we found a bar of 200 pc length. We also found a more extended ``face-on" spiral feature of dark clouds, which appear t o be connected to this bar and is probably an out-of-plane structure. The \co-line emission was detected from the dark clouds using the Nobeyama 45m telescope, and the virial mass of individual clouds was estimated to be about 10E6 solar masses. The CO intensity-to-virial mass ratio is anomalously small, and so is the color excess-to-mass ratio, which indicates a low temperature and a small amount dust per unit gas mass in the cloud, respectively. This implies that the molecular clouds in the central few hundred pc of M31 are more primeval, suggesting a low star-formation and low dust supply. We propose a possible scenario for the origin of the face-on spiral containing such gas on the basis of a ram-pressure accretion model of stripped gas clouds from the companion galaxies. Key words: Dark clouds -- CO line -- Galaxies; individual (M31) -- Interstellar dust -- Nuclei of galaxies.

astro-ph↗