We compile and analyze approximately 200 trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions of molecular masers associated with very young high-mass stars. Most of the measurements come from the BeSSeL ...Survey using the VLBA and the Japanese VERA project. These measurements strongly suggest that the Milky Way is a four-arm spiral, with some extra arm segments and spurs. Fitting log-periodic spirals to the locations of the masers, allowing for "kinks" in the spirals and using well-established arm tangencies in the fourth Galactic quadrant, allows us to significantly expand our view of the structure of the Milky Way. We present an updated model for its spiral structure and incorporate it into our previously published parallax-based distance-estimation program for sources associated with spiral arms. Modeling the three-dimensional space motions yields estimates of the distance to the Galactic center, , the circular rotation speed at the Sun's position, km s−1, and the nature of the rotation curve. Our data strongly constrain the full circular velocity of the Sun, km s−1, and its angular velocity, km s−1 kpc-1. Transforming the measured space motions to a Galactocentric frame which rotates with the Galaxy, we find non-circular velocity components typically 10 km s−1. However, near the Galactic bar and in a portion of the Perseus arm we find significantly larger non-circular motions. Young high-mass stars within 7 kpc of the Galactic center have a scale height of only 19 pc, and thus are well suited to define the Galactic plane. We find that the orientation of the plane is consistent with the IAU-defined plane to within 0 1, and that the Sun is offset toward the north Galactic pole by pc. Accounting for this offset places the central supermassive black hole, Sgr A*, in the midplane of the Galaxy. The measured motions perpendicular to the plane of the Galaxy limit precession of the plane to 4 km s−1 at the radius of the Sun. Using our improved Galactic parameters, we predict the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar to be at a distance of 6.54 0.24 kpc, assuming its orbital decay from gravitational radiation follows general relativity.
We present a systematic study of the orbital inclination effects on black hole transients fast time-variability properties. We have considered all the black hole binaries that have been densely ...monitored by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite. We find that the amplitude of low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) depends on the orbital inclination. type-C QPOs are stronger for nearly edge-on systems (high inclination), while type-B QPOs are stronger when the accretion disc is closer to face-on (low inclination). Our results also suggest that the noise associated with type-C QPOs is consistent with being stronger for low-inclination sources, while the noise associated with type-B QPOs seems inclination independent. These results are consistent with a geometric origin of the type-C QPOs – for instance arising from relativistic precession of the inner flow within a truncated disc – while the noise would correspond to intrinsic brightness variability from mass accretion rate fluctuations in the accretion flow. The opposite behaviour of type-B QPOs – stronger in low-inclinations sources – supports the hypothesis that type-B QPOs are related to the jet, the power of which is the most obvious measurable parameter expected to be stronger in nearly face-on sources.
A
bstract
We investigate the thermodynamics and the classical and semiclassical dynamics of two-dimensional (2D), asymptotically flat, nonsingular dilatonic black holes. They are characterized by a ...de Sitter core, allowing for the smearing of the classical singularity, and by the presence of two horizons with a related extremal configuration. For concreteness, we focus on a 2D version of the Hayward black hole. We find a second order thermodynamic phase transition, separating large unstable black holes from stable configurations close to extremality. We first describe the black-hole evaporation process using a quasistatic approximation and we show that it ends in the extremal configuration in an infinite amount of time. We go beyond the quasistatic approximation by numerically integrating the field equations for 2D dilaton gravity coupled to
N
massless scalar fields, describing the radiation. We find that the inclusion of large backreaction effects (
N
≫ 1) allows for an end-point extremal configuration after a finite evaporation time. Finally, we evaluate the entanglement entropy (EE) of the radiation in the quasistatic approximation and construct the relative Page curve. We find that the EE initially grows, reaches a maximum and then goes down towards zero, in agreement with previous results in the literature. Despite the breakdown of the semiclassical approximation prevents the description of the evaporation process near extremality, we have a clear indication that the end point of the evaporation is a regular, extremal state with vanishing EE of the radiation. This suggests that the nonunitary evolution, which commonly characterizes the evaporation of singular black holes, could be traced back to the presence of the singularity.
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