8388140
Stochastic Acceleration in the Western Hot Spot of Pictor A
Chandra's high-resolution observations of radio galaxies require a revisit of the relevant electron acceleration processes. Although the diffusive shock particle acceleration model may explain spectra of spatially unresolved sources, it encounters difficulties in explaining the structure and spectral properties of recently discovered Chandra X-ray features in several low-power radio sources. We argue that these observations strongly suggest stochastic electron acceleration by magnetized turbulence, and show that the simplest stochastic particle acceleration model with energy-independent acceleration and escape timescales can overcome most of these difficulties. We use the bright core of the western hot spot of Pictor A as an example to demonstrate the model characteristics, which may be tested with high-energy observations.
15715110
Suppressed star formation in circumnuclear regions in seyfert galaxies
Feedback from black hole activity is widely believed to play a key role in regulating star formation and black hole growth. A long-standing issue is the relation between star formation and the fueling of the supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We compile a sample of 57 Seyfert galaxies to tackle this issue. We estimate the surface densities of gas and star formation rates in circumnuclear regions (CNRs). Comparing them with the well-known Kennicutt-Schmidt (K-S) law, we find that the star formation rates (SFRs) in the CNRs of most Seyfert galaxies are suppressed in this sample. Feedback is suggested to explain the suppressed SFRs.
119102309
Possible hard X-ray shortages in bursts from KS 1731-260 and 4U 1705-44
Aims. A hard X-ray shortage, implying the cooling of the corona, was observed during bursts of IGR J17473-272, 4U 1636-536, Aql X-1, and GS 1826-238. Apart from these four sources, we investigate here an atoll sample, in which the number of bursts for each source is larger than 5, to explore the possible additional hard X-ray shortage during Rossi X-ray timing explorer (RXTE) era. Methods. According to the source catalog that shows type-I bursts, we analyzed all the available pointing observations of these sources carried out by the RXTE proportional counter array. We grouped and combined the bursts according to their outburst states and searched for the possible hard X-ray shortage while bursting. Results. We found that the island states of KS 1731-260 and 4U 1705-44 show a hard X-ray shortage at significant levels of 4.5 and 4.7σ and a systematic time lag of 0.9 ± 2.1 s and 2.5 ± 2.0 s with respect to the soft X-rays, respectively. While in their banana branches and other sources, we did not find any consistent shortage.
16433217
The afterglows of ultraluminous quasars
Quasars represent a brief phase in the life cycle of most massive galaxies, but the evolutionary connection between central black holes and their host galaxies remains unclear. While quasars are active and shining brighter than the Compton-limit luminosity, their radiation heats the surrounding medium to the Compton temperature, forming Compton spheres extending to the Stromgren radius of Fe26+/He2+. After the quasars shut off, their "afterglow" can be detected through three signatures: (1) an extended X-ray envelope, with a characteristic temperature of ~3 × 107 K, (2) Lyα and Lyβ lines and the K edge of Fe26+, and (3) nebulosity from hydrogen and helium recombination emission lines. We discuss the possibility of detecting these signatures using Chandra, the planned X-Ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy mission, and ground-based optical telescopes. The luminosity and size of quasar afterglows can be used to constrain the lifetime of quasars.
17406200
EVOLUTION OF GASEOUS DISK VISCOSITY DRIVEN BY SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS IN STAR-FORMING GALAXIES AT HIGH REDSHIFT
Motivated by Genzel et al.'s observations of high-redshift star-forming galaxies, containing clumpy and turbulent rings or disks, we build a set of equations describing the dynamical evolution of gaseous disks with inclusion of star formation and its feedback. Transport of angular momentum is due to "turbulent" viscosity induced by supernova explosions in the star formation region. Analytical solutions of the equations are found for the initial cases of a gaseous ring and the integrated form for a gaseous disk, respectively. For a ring with enough low viscosity, it evolves in a slow process of gaseous diffusion and star formation near the initial radius. For a high viscosity, the ring rapidly diffuses in the early phase. The diffusion drives the ring into a region with a low viscosity and starts the second phase undergoing pile-up of gas at a radius following the decreased viscosity torque. The third is a sharply decreasing phase because of star formation consumption of gas and efficient transportation of gas inward forming a stellar disk. We apply the model to two z similar to 2 galaxies BX 482 and BzK 6004, and find that they are undergoing a decline in their star formation activity.
17396076
INTEGRAL and RXTE/ASM observations on IGR J17098−3628
To probe further the possible nature of the unidentified source IGR J17098-3628, we have carried out a detailed analysis of its long-term time variability as monitored by RXTE/ASM, and of its hard X-ray properties as observed by INTEGRAL. INTEGRAL has monitored this sky region over years and significantly detected IGR J17098-3628 only when the source was in this dubbed active state. In particular, at $\ge$ 20 keV, IBIS/ISGRI caught an outburst in March 2005, lasting for $\sim$5 days with detection significance of 73$\sigma$ (20-40 keV) and with the emission at $ $20 keV) outburst by $\sim$2 days. This resembles the behavior of X-ray novae like XN 1124-683, hence it further suggests a LMXB nature for IGR J17098-3628. While the quality of the ASM data prevents us from drawing any definite conclusions, these discoveries are important clues that, coupled with future observations, will help to resolve the as yet unknown nature of IGR J17098-3628.
111339244
Bonded wafer substrates for integrated detector arrays
Bonded wafer substrates that are optimized for integrating high-energy-particle silicon detector arrays with their readout electronics have been fabricated. The detectors are processed in the handle wafer, which is a 300- mu m-thick, high-resistivity, silicon wafer. This wafer is bonded to a primary wafer using a low-temperature process that does not affect the detector material. The support electronics are processed in the remnant of the primary wafer, which is a submicron-thick silicon film formed by a bond-and-etchback procedure. These two materials are isolated from each other by a radiation-hardened dielectric film. The integration process is based on a low-temperature, radiation-hardened VLSI CMOS process that is also shown not to seriously affect the detector material. >
118436895
Mechanism of very high energy radiation in BL Lacertae object 3C 66A
Aims. Our goal is to understand the nature of blazars and the mechanisms for generating high-energy.-rays, through investigation of the blazar 3C 66A. Methods. We model the high-energy spectrum of 3C 66A, which was observed recently with the Fermi-LAT and VERITAS telescopes. The spectrum has a hard change from the energy range of 0.2-100 GeV to 200-500 GeV in recent almost contemporaneous observations of two telescopes. Results. The de-absorbed VERITAS spectrum depends strongly on redshift, which is highly uncertain. If z = 0.444 is adopted, we are able to use the SSC model to produce the Fermi-LAT component and the EC model to the VERITAS component. However, if z = 0.1, the intrinsic VERITAS spectrum will be softer, and there will be a smooth link between the Fermi-LAT and VERITAS spectra that can be explained using an SSC model.
118518662
CHEERS RESULTS ON Mrk 573: A STUDY OF DEEP CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS
We present results on Mrk 573 obtained as part of the CHandra survey of Extended Emission-line Regions in nearby Seyfert galaxies (CHEERS). Previous studies showed that this source features a biconical emission in the soft X-ray band closely related to the narrow-line region as mapped by the [O III] emission line and the radio emission, though on a smaller scale; we investigate the properties of soft X-ray emission from this source with new deep Chandra observations. Making use of the subpixel resolution of the Chandra/ACIS image and point-spread function deconvolution, we resolve and study substructures in each ionizing cone. The two cone spectra are fitted with a photoionization model, showing a mildly photoionized phase diffused over the bicone. Thermal collisional gas at about ~1.1 keV and ~0.8 keV appears to be located between the nucleus and the "knots" resolved in radio observations, and between the "arcs" resolved in the optical images, respectively; this can be interpreted in terms of shock interaction with the host galactic plane. The nucleus shows a significant flux decrease across the observations indicating variability of the active galactic nucleus (AGN), with the nuclear region featuring a higher ionization parameter with respect to the bicone region. The long exposure allows us to find extended emission up to ~7 kpc from the nucleus along the bicone axis. Significant emission is also detected in the direction perpendicular to the ionizing cones, disagreeing with the fully obscuring torus prescribed in the AGN unified model and suggesting instead the presence of a clumpy structure.
118457696
Search for new physics in the multijet and missing transverse momentum final state in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 8 TeV
A bstractA search for new physics is performed in multijet events with large missing transverse momentum produced in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 8 TeV using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb−1 collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data sample is divided into three jet multiplicity categories (3-5, 6-7, and ≥8 jets), and studied further in bins of two variables: the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta and the missing transverse momentum. The observed numbers of events in various categories are consistent with backgrounds expected from standard model processes. Exclusion limits are presented for several simplified supersymmetric models of squark or gluino pair production.

118837794
Observation of Z decays to four leptons with the CMS detector at the LHC
A bstractThe first observation of the Z boson decaying to four leptons in proton-proton collisions is presented. The analyzed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.02 fb−1 at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV collected by the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. A pronounced resonance peak, with a statistical significance of 9.7 σ, is observed in the distribution of the invariant mass of four leptons (electrons and/or muons) with mass and width consistent with expectations for Z boson decays. The branching fraction and cross section reported here are defined by phase space restrictions on the leptons, namely, 80 < m4ℓ < 100 GeV, where m4ℓ is the invariant mass of the four leptons, and mℓℓ > 4 GeV for all pairs of leptons, where mℓℓ is the two-lepton invariant mass. The measured branching fraction is $ \mathcal{B}\left( {Z\to 4\ell } \right)=\left( {4.2_{-0.8}^{+0.9}\left( {\mathrm{stat}.} \right)\pm 0.2\left( {\mathrm{syst}.} \right)} \right)\times {10^{-6 }} $ and agrees with the standard model prediction of 4.45 × 10−6. The measured cross section times branching fraction is $ \sigma \left( {\mathrm{pp}\to \mathrm{Z}} \right)\mathcal{B}\left( {\mathrm{Z}\to 4\ell } \right)=112_{-20}^{+23}\left( {\mathrm{stat}.} \right)_{-5}^{+7}\left( {\mathrm{syst}.} \right)_{-2}^{+3}\left( {\mathrm{lumi}.} \right) $ fb, also consistent with the standard model prediction of 120 fb. The four-lepton mass peak arising from Z → 4ℓ decays provides a calibration channel for the Higgs boson search in the H → ZZ → 4ℓ decay mode.