Katherine Blundell OBE

Abstract:

Our XMM-Newton spectrum of the giant, high-redshift (z=1.88) radio galaxy 6C 0905+39 shows that it contains one of the most powerful, high-redshift, Compton-thick quasars known. Its spectrum is very hard above 2 keV. The steep XMM spectrum below that energy is shown to be due to extended emission from the radio bridge using Chandra data. The nucleus of 6C 0905+39 has a column density of 3.5 (+1.4,-0.4) X 10^24 cm^-2 and absorption-corrected X-ray luminosity of 1.7 (+0.9,-0.1) X 10^45 erg/s in the 2-10 keV band. A lower redshift active galaxy in the same field, SDSS J090808.36+394313.6, may also be Compton-thick.

Abstract:

We investigate the phenomenon of circumbinary disks: their stability and potentially insightful use as diagnostic tools of outflows. Our fully 3D simulations investigate the behaviour of circumbinary orbits, exploring binary mass fraction - eccentricity parameter space. The work presented also has implications for exoplanetary astronomy in the existence and determination of stable orbits in binary systems. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence.