Strong Ca II Absorption Lines in the Reddened Quasar SDSS J2339–0912: Evidence of the Collision/Merger in the Host Galaxy?
We report the detection of strong Ca II/Mg II absorption lines at the quasar redshift in the narrow-line quasar SDSS J2339-0912 (z = 0.6604). The quasar exhibits strong Fe II, a small Balmer emission line width, and a very red B - Ks color. Both the optical continuum and broad emission lines are reddened by SMC-like dust of E(B - V) 1.0 mag, while its near-infrared color (J - Ks = 1.60) shows little reddening. The Ca II absorption lines are saturated and resolved with an FWHM of 362 km s-1 and an equivalent width of W = 4.2 A (in the source rest frame). Mg II absorption lines are also saturated and have a similar line width. The line profile and the fact that there is no evidence of starlight from the host galaxy suggest that these absorption lines are not of a stellar origin. The ratio of column density of Ca II to that of dust is consistent with that of the interstellar medium (ISM) in our Galaxy. We suggest that both the heavy reddening and the large absorption line width are due to the highly disturbed ISM on the line of sight toward the quasar and that the disturbance is caused by a galaxy collision or even merger in the quasar host galaxy.

title: Polarization of Quasars: Rotated and Funnel-shaped Outflow
abstract: Polarization is a useful probe to investigate the geometries and dynamics of outflow in BAL QSOs. We perform a Monte-Carlo simulation to calculate the polarization produced by resonant and electron scattering in BALR. We find: 1)A rotated and funnel-shaped outflow is preferred to explain many observed polarization features. 2)The resonant scattering can contribute a significant part of NV emission line in some QSOs.

title: Relation between Starlight and Nebular Emission Lines of Star-Forming Galaxies
abstract: We present an exercise that intends to establish a relationship between the strength of nebular emission lines and optical stellar features in the spectrum of a galaxy. After accurately subtracting the stellar continuum and the underlying stellar absorption, we made reliable measurements of the emission lines of all the galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2 (SDSS DR2). More than 4000 star-forming galaxies with high S/N ratio of both the stellar spectrum and the emission lines are selected. These galaxy spectra are fitted with the 10 PCs of Yip et al., after all the emission line regions have been filtered out. We find that the flux of hydrogen Balmer emission lines, H α and H β can be well recovered from the PCs, while the metal lines are not well reproduced. The fluxes of H α and H β measured from the PC-reconstructed spectra and from the observed spectra agree well with an rms scatter of only ~0.1 dex. This result suggests that, with moderate spectral resolution and S/N ratio, the optical stellar spectrum of a galaxy can serve as an indicator of star formation rate.

title: Partially obscured quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Early Data Release
abstract: We have compiled a sample of 21 low redshift (z . 0.3), luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) with large Balmer decrements (Hα/Hβ > 7) using the galaxy and QSO catalogs of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Early Data Release. Using this sample we attempt to determine the fraction of quasars with large internal absorption. We find that these AGN have Strong [O III] λ5007 and broad Hα emission, and that starlight dominates the spectra in the blue band, suggesting that these objects are heavily reddened. Their narrow emission line ratios are similar to those of Seyfert 2 galaxies, yet the average [O III] λ5007 emission is ∼10 times more luminous. Applying the empirical relation between the optical continuum and the Balmer line luminosity for blue quasars, we find that the intrinsic luminosities of these 21 objects are in the range for quasars. We propose that they are obscured, intermediate type quasars analogous to type 1.8 and 1.9 Seyfert galaxies. The ratio of these optically selected, intermediate type quasars to type 1 quasars are found to be around 1, similar to that for local Seyfert galaxies. Preliminary study indicates that most of these quasars are hosted in early type galaxies.  quasars: general — galaxies: nuclei

title: The 172 ks Chandra Exposure of the LALA Bootes Field: X-Ray Source Catalog
abstract: We present an analysis of a deep, 172 ks Chandra observation of the Large Area Lyman Alpha survey (LALA) Bootes field, obtained with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS-I) on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. This is one of the deepest Chandra images of the extragalactic sky; only the 2 Ms Chandra Deep Field North (CDF-N) and 1 Ms Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S) are substantially deeper. In this paper we present the X-ray source catalog obtained from this image, along with an analysis of source counts and optical identifications. The X-ray image is composed of two individual observations obtained in 2002 and reaches 0.5–2.0 and 2.0–10.0 keV flux limits of 1.5 × 10-16 and 1.0 × 10-15 ergs cm-2 s-1, respectively, for point sources near the aim point. A total of 168 X-ray sources were detected: 160 in the 0.5–7.0 keV band, 132 in the 0.5–2.0 keV band, and 111 in the 2.0–7.0 keV band. The X-ray source counts were derived and compared with those from other Chandra deep surveys; the hard X-ray source density of the LALA Bootes field is 33% higher than that of CDF-S at the flux level of 2.0 × 10-15 ergs cm-2 s-1, confirming the field-to-field variances of the hard-band source counts reported by previous studies. The deep exposure resolves 72% of the 2.0–10.0 keV X-ray background. Our primary optical data are R-band imaging from the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS), with a limiting magnitude of R = 25.7 (Vega, 3 σ, and 4'' diameter aperture). We have found optical counterparts for 152 of the 168 Chandra sources (90%); 144 of these are detected in the R-band image, and eight have optical counterparts in other bands (either BW, V, I, or z'). Among the R-band nondetected sources, not more than 11 of them can possibly be at z > 5, based on the hardness ratios of their X-ray emission and nondetections in bluer bands (BW, V). The majority (~76%) of the X-ray sources are found to have log(fX/fR) within 0.0 ± 1; these are believed to be AGNs. Most of the X-ray–faint/optically bright sources [log(fX/fR) 1.0], which are harder in X-ray and are probably obscured AGNs.

title: Polar outflows in six broad absorption line quasars
abstract: Using radio observations by FIRST and NVSS, we build a sample of 151 radio-variable quasars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 3 (SDSS DR3). Six (and probably another two) of these objects are classified as broad absorption line (BAL) quasars and show radio flux variations of a few tens of percent within 1.5-5 yr. Such large amplitudes of variations imply brightness temperatures much higher than the inverse Compton limits (10(12) K) in all these BAL quasars, suggesting the presence of relativistic jets beaming toward the observer. The angles between the outflow and the jet are constrained to be less than similar to 20 degrees. Such BAL quasars with polar outflows are beyond the simple unification models of BAL and non-BAL quasars, which hypothesize BAL quasars as otherwise normal quasars seen nearly edge-on.

title: Results of the SLAC LCLS gun high-power RF tests
abstract: The beam quality and operational requirements for the Linac coherent light source (LCLS) currently being constructed at SLAC are exceptional, requiring the design of a new RF photocathode gun for the electron source. Based on operational experience at SLAC's GTF and SDL and ATF at BNL as well as other laboratories, the 1.6 cell s-band (2856 MHz) gun was chosen to be the best electron source for the LCLS, however a significant re-design was necessary to achieve the challenging parameters. Detailed 3-D analysis and design was used to produce near-perfect rotationally symmetric rf fields to achieve the emittance requirement. In addition, the thermo-mechanical design allows the gun to operate at 120 Hz and a 140 MV/m cathode field, or to an average power dissipation of 4 kW. Both average and pulsed heating issues are addressed in the LCLS gun design. The first LCLS gun is now fabricated and has been operated with high-power RF. The results of these high-power tests are presented and discussed.

title: How Saturated Are Absorption Lines in the Broad Absorption Line Quasar PG 1411+442?
abstract: Recently, convincing evidence was found for extremely large X-ray absorption by column densities greater than 1023 cm-2 in broad absorption line quasars. One consequence of this is that any soft X-ray emission from these QSOs would be the scattered light or leaked light from partially covering absorbing material. A detection of the unabsorbed soft X-ray and absorbed hard X-ray component will allow us to determine the total column density as well as the effective covering factor of the absorbing material, which are difficult to obtain from the UV absorption lines. Brinkmann et al. recently showed that both the unabsorbed and absorbed components are detected in the nearby very bright broad absorption line quasar PG 1411+442. In this Letter, we make a further analysis of the broadband X-ray spectrum and the UV spectrum from the Hubble Space Telescope and demonstrate that broad absorption lines are completely saturated at the bottom of absorption troughs.

title: The X-Ray Absorber in Broad Absorption Line Quasars
abstract: Recent observations of Broad Absorption Line (BAL) quasars demonstrated that the soft X-ray emission of these objects is extremely weak, and convincing evidence for very strong absorption by a high column density (~1023.5 cm-2) was obtained for PG 1411+442, even though it is one of the few BAL QSOs strongly detected in soft X-rays. This paper examines the ionization status and geometry of the X-ray absorber by combining the properties of the UV lines with the X-ray continuum absorption. We show that the gas has to have large column densities in ions of major UV absorption lines, such as C IV, N V, O VI, and Ne VIII, in order to have sufficient opacity around 0.2-0.35 keV. The UV absorption lines have to be saturated if the X-ray absorber intersects the line of sight to the UV continuum emission region. A uniformly covering UV and X-ray absorption model can be constructed for PG 1411+442, but in some other soft X-ray-detected BAL QSOs, such as PG 1001+054, the observed line optical depth is much lower than expected from the X-ray-absorbing material. We propose a scheme in which a substantial fraction of the line of sight to the continuum source may be covered by either an optically thick flow or clouds in a narrow velocity range, but in which the total covering factor of either the whole flow or all clouds is close to unity. The absorber can contribute significantly to the extremely highly ionized emission lines, such as O VI λλ1032/1037 and Ne VIII λλ770/780, if it covers a substantial fraction of solid angle and if the density is higher than 108 cm-3. However, it has very little impact on the medium- and low-ionization UV lines such as N V and C IV. The profiles of Ne VIII and O VI lines may be indicators for the kinematics of the X-ray absorber in QSOs. The observed Ne VIII line profiles in QSOs suggest that the velocity of the gas projected onto our line of sight is similar to that seen in the outflows of the UV BALs.

title: Direct evidence for neutrino flavor transformation from neutral-current interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.
abstract: Observations of neutral-current nu interactions on deuterium in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory are reported. Using the neutral current (NC), elastic scattering, and charged current reactions and assuming the standard 8B shape, the nu(e) component of the 8B solar flux is phis(e) = 1.76(+0.05)(-0.05)(stat)(+0.09)(-0.09)(syst) x 10(6) cm(-2) s(-1) for a kinetic energy threshold of 5 MeV. The non-nu(e) component is phi(mu)(tau) = 3.41(+0.45)(-0.45)(stat)(+0.48)(-0.45)(syst) x 10(6) cm(-2) s(-1), 5.3sigma greater than zero, providing strong evidence for solar nu(e) flavor transformation. The total flux measured with the NC reaction is phi(NC) = 5.09(+0.44)(-0.43)(stat)(+0.46)(-0.43)(syst) x 10(6) cm(-2) s(-1), consistent with solar models.

title: Search for supersymmetry in events with a lepton, a photon, and large missing transverse energy in pp collisions at $ \sqrt {s} = 7 $ TeV
abstract: A search is performed for an excess of events, over the standard model expectations, with a photon, a lepton, and large missing transverse energy in pp collisions at $ \sqrt {s} = 7 $ TeV. Such events are expected in many new physics models, in particular a supersymmetric theory that is broken via a gauge-mediated mechanism, when the lightest charged and neutral gauginos are mass degenerate. The data sample used in this search corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1 collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. No evidence of such an excess above the standard model backgrounds, dominated by W production, is found. The results are presented as 95% confidence level upper limits on the cross section for a benchmark gauge-mediated scenario, and are then converted into exclusion limits on the squark, gluino, and wino masses.