ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 05 10 54 8 v 1 1 9 O ct 2 00 5 Different Types of Fe K α Lines from Radiating Annuli near Black Holes

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 98 10 37 9 v 1 2 3 O ct 1 99 8 Supermassive Black Holes Then and Now ∗

Recent surveys suggest that most or all normal galaxies host a massive black hole with 1/100 to 1/1000 of the visible mass of the spheroid of the galaxy. Various lines of argument suggest that these galaxies have merged at least once in our past lightcone, and that the black holes have also merged. This leads to a merger rate of massive black holes of about 1/yrs.

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 05 10 82 5 v 1 2 9 O ct 2 00 5 Time Variation of the Fine Structure Constant in the Spacetime of a Cosmic Domain Wall

The gravitational field produced by a domain wall acts as a medium with spacetime-dependent permittivity ε. Therefore, the fine structure constant α = e 2 /4πε will be a time-dependent function at fixed position. The most stringent constraint on the time-variation of α comes from the natural reactor Oklo and gives | ˙ α/α| < f ew × 10 −17 yr −1. This limit constrains the tension of a cosmic dom...

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 05 11 22 4 v 1 8 N ov 2 00 5 Nearby young single black holes

We consider nearby young black holes formed after supernova explosions in close binaries whose secondary components are currently observed as the so-called runaway stars. Using data on runaway stars and making reasonable assumptions about the mechanisms of supernova explosions and binary breakup, we estimate the present position of nearby young black holes. For two objects, we obtained relative...

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 04 08 13 5 v 1 9 A ug 2 00 4 A Determination of the Chemical Composition of α Centauri A from Strong Lines

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 05 10 08 1 v 1 4 O ct 2 00 5 Fast 1 / f α noise generation

We present efficient algorithms for generating ”infinite” streams of band-limited 1/f noise, by numerically filtering a white signal. In the 1/f case the algorithm is optimal, i.e. only limited by the white generator, and is close to optimal in the general case (0 ≤ α ≤ 2) . The properties and performances are evaluated in the context of the Planck simulation experiment. The software is availab...