arXiv subjects

Khai Nguyen

Publications and source records attributed to Khai Nguyen.

60 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Emission Signatures from Sub-parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes III: Comparison of Models with Observations

We present a method for comparing the H$β$ emission-line profiles of observed supermassive black hole (SBHB) candidates and models of sub-parsec SBHBs in circumbinary disks. Using the approach based on principal component analysis we infer the values of the binary parameters for the spectroscopic SBHB candidates and evaluate the parameter degeneracies, representative of the uncertainties intrinsic to such measurements. We find that as a population, the SBHB candidates favor the average value of the semimajor axis corresponding to $\log(a/M) \approx 4.20\pm 0.42$ and comparable mass ratios, $q>0.5$. If the SBHB candidates considered are true binaries, this result would suggest that there is a physical process that allows initially unequal mass systems to evolve toward comparable mass ratios (e.g., accretion that occurs preferentially onto the smaller of the black holes) or point to some, yet unspecified, selection bias. Our method also indicates that the SBHB candidates equally favor configurations in which the mini-disks are coplanar or misaligned with the binary orbital plane. If confirmed for true SBHBs, this finding would indicate the presence of a physical mechanism that maintains misalignment of the mini-disks down to sub-parsec binary separations (e.g., precession driven by gravitational torques). The probability distributions of the SBHB parameters inferred for the observed SBHB candidates and our control group of AGNs are statistically indistinguishable, implying that this method can in principle be used to interpret the observed emission-line profiles once a sample of confirmed SBHBs is available but cannot be used as a conclusive test of binarity.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Emission Signatures from Sub-parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes II: Effect of Accretion Disk Wind on Broad Emission Lines

We present an improved semi-analytic model for calculation of the broad optical emission-line signatures from sub-parsec supermassive black hole binaries (SBHBs) in circumbinary disks. The second-generation model improves upon the treatment of radiative transfer by taking into account the effect of the radiation driven accretion disk wind on the properties of the emission-line profiles. Analysis of 42.5 million modeled emission-line profiles shows that correlations between the profile properties and SBHB parameters identified in the first-generation model are preserved, indicating that their diagnostic power is not diminished. The profile shapes are a more sensitive measure of the binary orbital separation and the degree of alignment of the black hole mini-disks, and are less sensitive to the SBHB mass ratio and orbital eccentricity. We also find that modeled profile shapes are more compatible with the observed sample of SBHB candidates than with our control sample of regular AGNs. Furthermore, if the observed sample of SBHBs is made up of genuine binaries, it must include compact systems with comparable masses, and misaligned mini-disks. We note that the model described in this paper can be used to interpret the observed emission-line profiles once a sample of confirmed SBHBs is available but cannot be used to prove that the observed SBHB candidates are true binaries.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

EmbNum: Semantic labeling for numerical values with deep metric learning

Semantic labeling for numerical values is a task of assigning semantic labels to unknown numerical attributes. The semantic labels could be numerical properties in ontologies, instances in knowledge bases, or labeled data that are manually annotated by domain experts. In this paper, we refer to semantic labeling as a retrieval setting where the label of an unknown attribute is assigned by the label of the most relevant attribute in labeled data. One of the greatest challenges is that an unknown attribute rarely has the same set of values with the similar one in the labeled data. To overcome the issue, statistical interpretation of value distribution is taken into account. However, the existing studies assume a specific form of distribution. It is not appropriate in particular to apply open data where there is no knowledge of data in advance. To address these problems, we propose a neural numerical embedding model (EmbNum) to learn useful representation vectors for numerical attributes without prior assumptions on the distribution of data. Then, the "semantic similarities" between the attributes are measured on these representation vectors by the Euclidean distance. Our empirical experiments on City Data and Open Data show that EmbNum significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods for the task of numerical attribute semantic labeling regarding effectiveness and efficiency.

cs.DB↗

arXiv2018

Likelihood for Detection of Sub-parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Spectroscopic Surveys

Motivated by observational searches for sub-parsec supermassive black hole binaries (SBHBs) we develop a modular analytic model to determine the likelihood for detection of SBHBs by ongoing spectroscopic surveys. The model combines the parametrized rate of orbital evolution of SBHBs in circumbinary disks with the selection effects of spectroscopic surveys and returns a multivariate likelihood for SBHB detection. Based on this model we find that in order to evolve into the detection window of the spectroscopic searches from larger separations in less than a Hubble time, $10^8M_\odot$ SBHBs must, on average, experience angular momentum transport faster than that provided by a disk with accretion rate $0.06\,\dot{M}_E$. Spectroscopic searches with yearly cadence of observations are in principle sensitive to binaries with orbital separations $< {\rm few}\times 10^4\, r_g$ ($r_g = GM/c^2$ and $M$ is the binary mass), and for every one SBHB in this range there should be over 200 more gravitationally bound systems with similar properties, at larger separations. Furthermore, if spectra of all SBHBs in this separation range exhibit the AGN-like emission lines utilized by spectroscopic searches, the projection factors imply five undetected binaries for each observed $10^8M_\odot$ SBHB with mass ratio $0.3$ and orbital separation $10^4\,r_g$ (and more if some fraction of SBHBs is inactive). This model can be used to infer the most likely orbital parameters for observed SBHB candidates and to provide constraints on the rate of orbital evolution of SBHBs, if observed candidates are shown to be genuine binaries.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Emission Signatures from Sub-parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes I: Diagnostic Power of Broad Emission Lines

Motivated by advances in observational searches for sub-parsec supermassive black hole binaries (SBHBs) made in the past few years we develop a semi-analytic model to describe spectral emission line signatures of these systems. The goal of this study is to aid the interpretation of spectroscopic searches for binaries and help test one of the leading models of binary accretion flows in the literature: SBHB in a circumbinary disk. In this work we present the methodology and a comparison of the preliminary model with the data. We model SBHB accretion flows as a set of three accretion disks: two mini-disks that are gravitationally bound to the individual black holes and a circumbinary disk. Given a physically motivated parameter space occupied by sub-parsec SBHBs, we calculate a synthetic database of nearly 15 million broad optical emission line profiles and explore the dependence of the profile shapes on characteristic properties of SBHBs. We find that the modeled profiles show distinct statistical properties as a function of the semi-major axis, mass ratio, eccentricity of the binary, and the degree of alignment of the triple disk system. This suggests that the broad emission line profiles from SBHB systems can in principle be used to infer the distribution of these parameters and as such merit further investigation. Calculated profiles are more morphologically heterogeneous than the broad emission lines in observed SBHB candidates and we discuss improved treatment of radiative transfer effects which will allow direct statistical comparison of the two groups.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Derivation of the Aharanov Bohm phase shift using classical forces

In 1959 Aharonov and Bohm suggested that an electron passing around a long solenoid would pick up a phase shift dependent on the magnetic field of the solenoid, even though the electrons themselves pass through a region of space which has a zero magnetic field. It has long been held that this result is purely quantum and is derived in many well known quantum mechanics text books using the Schrodinger equation and vector potential. Here the same phase shift is derived from a purely classical force, but relativistic transformations are taken into account. The force is in the direction of motion of the electron (or opposite) leading to a phase advance (or lag) and we obtain precisely the phase shift thought previously to be purely quantum. The only quantum result used here is the de Broglie wavelength of the particle, in order to get two slit like interference and the phase shift. We employ a stack of dipoles as the solenoid and note the same force on the electron in two different frames of reference. We shall consider the solenoid stationary and the electron moving, and then consider the electron rest frame and consider the solenoid moving in the opposite direction.

quant-ph↗