Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “peak finding”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 811 records · Page 45

The Work of Mechanical Degradation in Elongating Polymer Melts

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the mechanical degradation of well-entangled polymer melts during uniaxial extensional flow. Simulations measure the transient rise in extensional stresses and relate them to the molecular alignment and scission of chain backbones. Intermolecular entanglements couple chain scission in space and time, making degradation sensitive to deformation history and strain rate in ways not displayed by dilute polymer solutions. The rate of chain scission is nonmonotonic and peaks at strains corresponding to the maximum extensibility of entanglement segments but prior to the full extension of chain backbones. We measure a specific work per scission event w* and decompose it into separate contributions associated with chain alignment, chemical bond breaking, and scission-induced plasticity. We find chain scission in melts requires activating plastic dissipation that is multiple orders of magnitude larger than the chemical work required to break a covalent backbone bond. Our findings underscore the critical need to consider bulk polymer mechanics and rheology in designing efficient mechanical degradation and mechanochemical processes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A New Crater Near InSight: Implications for Seismic Impact Detectability on Mars

A new 1.5 m diameter impact crater was discovered on Mars only ~40 km from the InSight lander. Context camera images constrained its formation between 21 February and 6 April 2019; follow-up High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment images resolved the crater. During this time period, three seismic events were identified in InSight data. In this paper, we derive expected seismic signal characteristics and use them to evaluate each of the seismic events. However, none of them can definitively be associated with this source. Atmospheric perturbations are generally expected to be generated during impacts; however, in this case, no signal could be identified as related to the known impact. Using scaling relationships based on the terrestrial and lunar analogs and numerical modeling, we predict the amplitude, peak frequency, and duration of the seismic signal that would have emanated from this impact. The predicted amplitude falls near the lowest levels of the measured seismometer noise for the predicted frequency. Hence, it is not surprising this impact event was not positively identified in the seismic data. Finding this crater was a lucky event as its formation this close to InSight has a probability of only ~0.2, and the odds of capturing it in before and after images are extremely low. We revisit impact-seismic discriminators in light of real experience with a seismometer on the Martian surface. Using measured noise of the instrument, we revise our previous prediction of seismic impact detections downward, from ~a few to tens, to just ~2 per Earth year, still with an order of magnitude uncertainty.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Concurrent multi-peak Bragg coherent x-ray diffraction imaging of 3D nanocrystal lattice displacement via global optimization

Abstract In this paper we demonstrated a method to reconstruct vector-valued lattice distortion fields within nanoscale crystals by optimization of a forward model of multi-reflection Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (MR-BCDI) data. The method flexibly accounts for geometric factors that arise when making BCDI measurements, is amenable to efficient inversion with modern optimization toolkits, and allows for globally constraining a single image reconstruction to multiple Bragg peak measurements. This is enabled by a forward model that emulates the multiple Bragg peaks of a MR-BCDI experiment from a single estimate of the 3D crystal sample. We present this forward model, we implement it within the stochastic gradient descent optimization framework, and we demonstrate it with simulated and experimental data of nanocrystals with inhomogeneous internal lattice displacement. We find that utilizing a global optimization approach to MR-BCDI affords a reliable path to convergence of data which is otherwise challenging to reconstruct.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Probing the Galactic halo with RR Lyrae stars – II. The substructures of the Milky Way

ABSTRACT We identify substructures of the Galactic halo using 3003 type ab RR Lyrae stars with six-dimensional position–velocity information from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope and the Gaia Early Data Release 3. Based on this information, we define the separation of any two of the stars in the integrals of motion space and we identify substructures by utilizing the friends-of-friends algorithm. We identify members belonging to several known substructures: the Sagittarius stream, the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage (GES), the Sequoia and the Helmi streams. In addition to these known substructures, there are three other substructures possibly associated with globular clusters NGC 5272, 6656 and 5024, respectively. Finally, we also find three remaining unknown substructures, one of which has large angular momentum and a mean metallicity −2.13 dex, which may be a new substructure. As for the GES, we find that it accounts for a large part of substructures in the inner halo and the apocentre distance is in the range 10–34 kpc, which suggests that the GES is mainly distributed in the inner halo. The near one-third proportion of the GES and the peak value of 20 kpc of the apocentre distance suggest that the GES could account for the break in the density profile of the Galactic halo at the Galactocentric distance ~20–25 kpc. The similarity when comparing the kinematic properties of the GES with the Hercules–Aquila Cloud and Virgo Overdensity suggests that the three substructures may have similar origins.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Superconductivity in multiorbital systems with repulsive interactions: Hund's pairing versus spin-fluctuation pairing

Hund's pairing refers to Cooper pairing generated by onsite interactions that become attractive due to large Hund's exchange J. This is possible in multiorbital systems even when all local bare interactions are repulsive, since attractions in specific channels are given by certain linear combinations of interaction parameters. On the other hand, pairing processes such as the exchange of spin fluctuations are also present. We compare mean-field Hund's pairing and spin-fluctuation-mediated pairing using electronic bands appropriate for different classes of multiorbital systems over a wide range of interaction parameters. We find that, for systems without clear nesting features, the superconducting state generated by the Hund's mechanism agrees well with that from the full fluctuation exchange vertex when Hund's exchange and spin-orbit coupling are sufficiently large. On the other hand, for systems characterized by a peaked finite-momentum particle-hole susceptibility, spin-fluctuation pairing generally dominates over Hund's pairing. From this perspective Hund's pairing states appear unlikely to be realized in systems like Sr 2 RuO 4 and generic iron-based superconductors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Planck 2018 results XI. Polarized dust foregrounds

The study of polarized dust emission has become entwined with the analysis of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization in the quest for the curl-like B-mode polarization from primordial gravitational waves and the low-multipole E-mode polarization associated with the reionization of the Universe. We used the new Planck PR3 maps to characterize Galactic dust emission at high latitudes as a foreground to the CMB polarization and use end-to-end simulations to compute uncertainties and assess the statistical significance of our measurements. We present Planck EE, BB, and TE power spectra of dust polarization at 353 GHz for a set of six nested high-Galactic-latitude sky regions covering from 24 to 71% of the sky. We present power-law fits to the angular power spectra, yielding evidence for statistically significant variations of the exponents over sky regions and a difference between the values for the EE and BB spectra, which for the largest sky region are α EE = -2.42 ± 0.02 and α BB = -2.54 ± 0.02, respectively. The spectra show that the TE correlation and E/B power asymmetry discovered by Planck extend to low multipoles that were not included in earlier Planck polarization papers due to residual data systematics. We also report evidence for a positive TB dust signal. Combining data from Planck and WMAP, we have determined the amplitudes and spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of polarized foregrounds, including the correlation between dust and synchrotron polarized emission, for the six sky regions as a function of multipole. This quantifies the challenge of the component-separation procedure that is required for measuring the low-ℓ reionization CMB E-mode signal and detecting the reionization and recombination peaks of primordial CMB B modes. The SED of polarized dust emission is fit well by a single-temperature modified black-body emission law from 353 GHz to below 70 GHz. For a dust temperature of 19.6 K, the mean dust spectral index for dust polarization is β d P = 1.53±0.02. The difference between indices for polarization and total intensity is β d P -β d I = 0.05±0.03. By fitting multi-frequency cross-spectra between Planck data at 100, 143, 217, and 353 GHz, we examine the correlation of the dust polarization maps across frequency. We find no evidence for a loss of correlation and provide lower limits to the correlation ratio that are tighter than values we derive from the correlation of the 217- and 353 GHz maps alone. If the Planck limit on decorrelation for the largest sky region applies to the smaller sky regions observed by sub-orbital experiments, then frequency decorrelation of dust polarization might not be a problem for CMB experiments aiming at a primordial B-mode detection limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r ≃ 0.01 at the recombination peak. However, the Planck sensitivity precludes identifying how difficult the component-separation problem will be for more ambitious experiments targeting lower limits on r.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Lick Observatory Supernova Search follow-up program: photometry data release of 70 SESNe

We present BVRI and unfiltered (Clear) light curves of 70 stripped-envelope supernovae (SESNe), observed between 2003 and 2020, from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search follow-up program. Our SESN sample consists of 19 spectroscopically normal SNe Ib, 2 peculiar SNe Ib, six SNe Ibn, 14 normal SNe Ic, 1 peculiar SN Ic, 10 SNe Ic-BL, 15 SNe IIb, 1 ambiguous SN IIb/Ib/c, and 2 superluminous SNe. Our follow-up photometry has (on a per-SN basis) a mean coverage of 81 photometric points (median of 58 points) and a mean cadence of 3.6 d (median of 1.2 d). From our full sample, a subset of 38 SNe have pre-maximum coverage in at least one passband, allowing for the peak brightness of each SN in this subset to be quantitatively determined. We describe our data collection and processing techniques, with emphasis toward our automated photometry pipeline, from which we derive publicly available data products to enable and encourage further study by the community. Using these data products, we derive host-galaxy extinction values through the empirical colour evolution relationship and, for the first time, produce accurate rise-time measurements for a large sample of SESNe in both optical and infrared passbands. By modelling multiband light curves, we find that SNe Ic tend to have lower ejecta masses and lower ejecta velocities than SNe Ib and IIb, but higher 56Ni masses.

Lick Observatory↗

Grain subdivision and structural modifications by high-energy heavy ions in UO 2 with different initial grain size

Irradiation with 84 MeV Xe ions at peak fluence above 7 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 has been carried out on two UO 2 samples with different initial grain sizes at 300 °C and 500 °C. Characterization of both grain structure and bubble morphology has been performed using transmission electron microscopy, image analysis and precession electron diffraction. The bubble size in the large-grained sample was smaller than that in the standard-grain sample, confirming fission gas precipitation resistance in the former. The ion irradiation in the high electronic energy deposition range has caused formation of a large density of dislocations which resulted in grain polygonization for the sample with standard grain size, which was observed in multiple lamellas extracted next to each other at peak dose. The sample with large grains showed inconsistent behavior. In one case, dislocation pile-up occurred, but no sub-grain formation was observed. An adjacent location showed sub-grain formation, even if to less extent compared to the standard grain-size sample. Furthermore, these findings suggest a limited polygonization resistance in large-grained UO 2 compared to standard-grain UO 2 . Recrystallization of both sample surfaces was present, leaving unclear if this is a surface effect or a consequence of the highest energy deposition rate in this area.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

A machine learning study on spinodal clumping in heavy ion collisions

Possible observables of baryon number clustering due to the instabilities occurring at a first order QCD phase transition are discussed. The dynamical formation of baryon clusters at a QCD phase transition can be described by numerical fluid dynamics, augmented with a gradient term and an equation of state with a mechanically unstable region. It is shown that the dynamical description of this phase transition, in nuclear collisions, will lead to the formation of dense baryon clusters at the phase boundary. State-of-the-art machine learning methods find that the coordinate space clumping leaves characteristic imprints on the spatial net density distribution in almost every event. On the other hand the momentum distributions do not show any clear event-by-event features. Lastly, it is shown that the 'third order' cumulant, the skewness, shows a peak at the beam energy where the system, created in the heavy ion collision, reaches the deconfinement phase transition.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

A Survey of Thunderstorms That Produce Megaflashes Across the Americas

We previously observed that long-horizontal lightning flashes exceeding 100 km in length, known as “megaflashes,” occur preferentially in certain thunderstorms. In this study, we develop a cluster feature approach for automatically documenting the evolutions of thunderstorm systems from continuous lightning observations provided by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). We apply this methodology to GOES-16 GLM observations from 2018 to mid-2022 to improve our understanding of megaflash-producing storms. We find that megaflashes occur in long-lived (median: 14 hr) storms that grow to exceptional sizes (median: 11,984 km 2 ) while they propagate across long distances (median: 622 km) compared to ordinary storms. The first megaflashes are typically produced within 15 min of the storm reaching its peak intensity and extent. However, most megaflashes occur ≥13 hr after the initial megaflash activity, and are sufficiently close to convection to suggest initiation in the thunderstorm core (where GLM has difficulty detecting faint early light sources from megaflashes). Megaflashes generated outside of convection are rare, accounting for 2.7% of the sample using a 50 km convective distance threshold, but also tend to be larger than normal megaflashes, possibly due to having direct access to electrified stratiform clouds through which megaflashes propagate.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Dipole ladders with large Hubbard interaction in a moiré exciton lattice

Two-dimensional semiconductor moiré superlattices have emerged as a powerful platform for engineering correlated electronic phenomena. On the other hand, optical excitation creates charge neutral interlayer excitons with an out-of-plane electric dipole. Strong onsite dipole–dipole interaction promises the formation of correlated bosonic states, akin to the Mott states of electrons, but has not yet been demonstrated. Here we report a large interaction between excitons occupying the same moiré lattice site—characterized by the Hubbard U parameter—and consequent dipole ladders with spin- and electron-filling dependence in WSe 2 /WS 2 moiré superlattices. Photoluminescence measurements show successive peaks emerging with an energy separation of around 34 meV above the ground state as the exciton density is increased. This corresponds to the sequential injection of excitons into a single site with an energy cost to overcome the large exciton Hubbard U, forming a dipole ladder. Based on findings of local magnetic moments at two holes per moiré cell, we show that excitons can also fill a second moiré orbital, establishing the two-orbital nature of the moiré potential landscape. Our results show that the Bose–Hubbard model with possible exciton crystal phases can be investigated in interacting opto-moiré quantum matter.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

HOD-dependent systematics for luminous red galaxies in the DESI 2024 BAO analysis

In this paper, we present the estimation of systematics related to the halo occupation distribution (HOD) modeling in the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) distance measurement of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) 2024 analysis. This paper focuses on the study of HOD systematics for luminous red galaxies (LRG). We consider three different HOD models for LRGs, including the base 5-parameter vanilla model and two extensions to it, that we refer to as baseline and extended models. The baseline model is described by the 5 vanilla HOD parameters, an incompleteness factor and a velocity bias parameter, whereas the extended one also includes a galaxy assembly bias and a satellite profile parameter. We utilize the 25 dark matter simulations available in the AbacusSummit simulation suite at z=0.8 and generate mock catalogs for our different HOD models. To test the impact of the HOD modeling in the position of the BAO peak, we run BAO fits for all these sets of simulations and compare the best-fit BAO-scaling parameters α iso and α AP between every pair of HOD models. Furthermore, we do this for both Fourier and configuration spaces independently, using post-reconstruction measurements. We find a 3.3σ detection of HOD systematic for α AP in configuration space with an amplitude of 0.19%. For the other cases, we did not find a 3σ detection, and we decided to compute a conservative estimation of the systematic using the ensemble of shifts between all pairs of HOD models. By doing this, we quote a systematic with an amplitude of 0.07% in α iso for both Fourier and configuration spaces; and of 0.09% in α AP for Fourier space.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Predicting the Galactic population of free-floating planets from realistic initial conditions

ABSTRACT We present the first prediction for the mass distribution function of Galactic free-floating planets (FFPs) that aims to accurately include the relative contributions of multiple formation pathways and stellar populations. We derive our predicted distribution from dedicated simulations of planet birth, growth, migration, and ejection around circumbinary systems and extend these results to also include the contributions from single and wide binary systems. Our resulting FFP mass distribution shows several distinct features, including a strong peak at ${\sim} 8\, {\rm M}_{\oplus }$ arising from the transition between pebble and gas accretion regimes and a trough at ${\sim} 1\, {\rm M}_{\oplus }$ due to the shift in the dominant ejection process from planet–planet scattering to ejection through interactions with stars in circumbinary systems. We find that interactions with the central binary in close circumbinary systems are likely the dominant progenitor for FFPs more massive than Earth, leading to a steep power-law dependence in mass that agrees well with existing observations. In contrast, we find planet–planet scattering events in single and wide binary systems likely produce the majority of planets at Mars mass and below, resulting in a shallower power-law dependence. Our results suggest that existing extrapolations into the sub-terrestrial mass range may significantly overestimate the true FFP abundance. The features we predict in the mass distribution of FFPs will be detectable by upcoming space-based microlensing surveys and, if observed, will provide key insight into the origins of FFPs and the environments in which they form.

Coleman, Gavin A. L. (ORCID:0000000151118963)↗

SNICAR-ADv4: a physically based radiative transfer model to represent the spectral albedo of glacier ice

Abstract. Accurate modeling of cryospheric surface albedo is essential for our understanding of climate change as snow and ice surfaces regulate the global radiative budget and sea-level through their albedo and mass balance. Although significant progress has been made using physical principles to represent the dynamic albedo of snow, models of glacier ice albedo tend to be heavily parameterized and not explicitly connected with physical properties that govern albedo, such as the number and size of air bubbles, specific surface area (SSA), presence of abiotic and biotic light absorbing constituents (LACs), and characteristics of any overlying snow. Here, we introduce SNICAR-ADv4, an extension of the multi-layer two-stream delta-Eddington radiative transfer model with the adding–doubling solver that has been previously applied to represent snow and sea-ice spectral albedo. SNICAR-ADv4 treats spectrally resolved Fresnel reflectance and transmittance between overlying snow and higher-density glacier ice, scattering by air bubbles of varying sizes, and numerous types of LACs. SNICAR-ADv4 simulates a wide range of clean snow and ice broadband albedo (BBA), ranging from 0.88 for (30 µm) fine-grain snow to 0.03 for bare and bubble-free ice under direct light. Our results indicate that representing ice with a density of 650 kg m−3 as snow with no refractive Fresnel layer, as done previously, generally overestimates the BBA by an average of 0.058. However, because most naturally occurring ice surfaces are roughened “white ice”, we recommend modeling a thin snow layer over bare ice simulations. We find optimal agreement with measurements by representing cryospheric media with densities less than 650 kg m−3 as snow and larger-density media as bubbly ice with a Fresnel layer. SNICAR-ADv4 also simulates the non-linear albedo impacts from LACs with changing ice SSA, with peak impact per unit mass of LACs near SSAs of 0.1–0.01 m2 kg−1. For bare, bubble-free ice, LACs actually increase the albedo. SNICAR-ADv4 represents smooth transitions between snow, firn, and ice surfaces and accurately reproduces measured spectral albedos of a variety of glacier surfaces. This work paves the way for adapting SNICAR-ADv4 to be used in land ice model components of Earth system models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Dynamical Unification of Tidal Disruption Events

The ~100 tidal disruption events (TDEs) observed so far exhibit a wide range of emission properties both at peak and over their lifetimes. Some TDEs radiate predominantly at X-ray energies, while others radiate chiefly at UV and optical wavelengths. While the peak luminosities across TDEs show distinct properties, the evolutionary behavior can also vary between TDEs with similar peak emission properties. In particular, for optical TDEs, while their UV and optical emissions decline somewhat following the fallback pattern, some events can greatly rebrighten in X-rays at late time. In this Letter, we conduct three-dimensional general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations of TDE accretion disks at varying accretion rates in the regime of super-Eddington accretion. We make use of Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations to calculate the reprocessed spectra at various inclinations and at different evolutionary stages. We confirm the unified model proposed by Dai et al., which predicts that the observed emission largely depends on the viewing angle of the observer with respect to the disk orientation. Furthermore, we find that disks with higher accretion rates have elevated wind and disk densities, which increases the reprocessing of the high-energy radiation and thus generally augments the optical-to-X-ray flux ratio along a particular viewing angle. This implies that at later times, as the accretion level declines, we expect that more X-rays will leak out along intermediate viewing angles. Such dynamical model for TDEs can provide a natural explanation for the diversity in the emission properties observed in TDEs at peak and along their temporal evolution.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Coexistence between similar invaders: The case of two cosmopolitan exotic insects

Biological invasions are usually examined in the context of their impacts on native species. However, few studies have examined the dynamics between invaders when multiple exotic species successfully coexist in a novel environment. Yet, long-term coexistence of now established exotic species has been observed in North American lady beetle communities. Exotic lady beetles Harmonia axyridis and Coccinella septempunctata were introduced for biological control in agricultural systems and have since become dominant species within these communities. In this study, we investigated coexistence via spatial and temporal niche partitioning among H. axyridis and C. septempunctata using a 31-year data set from southwestern Michigan, USA. We found evidence of long-term coexistence through a combination of small-scale environmental, habitat, and seasonal mechanisms. Across years, H. axyridis and C. septempunctata experienced patterns of cyclical dominance likely related to yearly variation in temperature and precipitation. Within years, populations of C. septempunctata peaked early in the growing season at 550 degree days, while H. axyridis populations grew in the season until 1250 degree days and continued to have high activity after this point. C. septempunctata was generally most abundant in herbaceous crops, whereas H. axyridis did not display strong habitat preferences. These findings suggest that within this region H. axyridis has broader habitat and abiotic environmental preferences, whereas C. septempunctata thrives under more specific ecological conditions. These ecological differences have contributed to the continued coexistence of these two invaders. Understanding the mechanisms that allow for the coexistence of dominant exotic species contributes to native biodiversity conservation management of invaded ecosystems.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Kinetic and equilibrium reactions on natural and laboratory generation of thermogenic gases from Type II marine shale

The phenomenon that laboratory pyrolysis experiments produce much wetter gases than those in natural reservoirs is a long-recognized and debated problem in the investigation of natural gases in sedimentary basins. In this study, we explore the discrepancy by pyrolyzing a type II kerogen from the Woodford Shale in Oklahoma, compared with the previous results on the produced natural gases from the Arkoma Basin generated from the same source rock (Liu et al., 2019) with the discussion of gas and isotopic compositions at bulk and position-specific (PS) levels. An improved GC-pyrolysis-GC IRMS method is applied for the determination of PS δ 13 C of propane produced in the pyrolysis of the Woodford Shale at Easy %R o from 0.76 to 3.27. Kinetic and thermodynamic considerations of the chemical and isotopic compositions of the natural and laboratory pyrolysis gases suggest that the generation of light hydrocarbons involves uni-directional cracking reactions, exchange reactions with water, and likely reversible reactions among light hydrocarbons and other H-containing volatiles. After the gas generation in the unconventional Woodford Shale reservoirs, the C 1 -C 4 gases might have approached close to chemical equilibrium of C 1 -C 3 and isotope equilibrium of C 2 -C 1 and C 3 -C 1 pairs at their peak temperatures. The capping H for the generation of C 1 -C 4 in the Woodford Shale gases appears to have experienced at least partial exchange with the water, while that in the pyrolysis gases is only originated from organic-bound compounds with large kinetic isotope effects (KIE). Our findings indicate that elevated compound-specific and PS δ 13 C values of propane in the wet-gas cracking stage are significantly influenced by the breakdown of the thermally stable compounds (e.g., remaining kerogen, residues). A first synthesis of PS δ 13 C and δ 2 H isotopic compositions of propane from this study and the literature data suggests relatively similar isotopic structures of propane precursors in kerogens. Finally, this study demonstrates that PS isotope analysis of propane can contribute to identifying various geological (e.g., maturation, wet-gas cracking, H exchange, diffusion) and biodegradation processes.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

The connection between star formation and supermassive black hole activity in the local Universe

ABSTRACT We study the nuclear (AGN) activity in the local Universe (z < 0.33) and its correlation with the host galaxy properties, derived from a Sloan Digital Sky Survey sample with spectroscopic star-formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass determination. To quantify the level of AGN activity we used the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue. Applying multiwavelength selection criteria (optical BPT-diagrams, X-ray/optical ratio etc), we found that 24 per cent of the detected sources are efficiently-accreting AGN with moderate-to-high X-ray luminosity, twice as likely to be hosted by star-forming galaxies than by quiescent ones. The distribution of the specific Black Hole accretion rate (λsBHAR) shows that nuclear activity in local, non-AGN dominated galaxies peaks at very low accretion rates (−4 ≲ log λsBHAR ≲ −3) in all stellar mass ranges. We observe systematically larger values of λsBHAR for galaxies with active star formation than for quiescent ones, and an increase of the mean λsBHAR with SFR for both star-forming and quiescent galaxies. These finding confirm the decrease in AGN activity with cosmic time and are consistent with a scenario where both star-formation and AGN activity are fuelled by a common gas reservoir.

Torbaniuk, O. (ORCID:0000000344652564)↗