17690696
Gamma-Ray Bursts and Type Ic Supernova SN 1998bw
Recently a Type Ic supernova, SN 1998bw, was discovered coincident with a gamma-ray burst, GRB 980425. The supernova had unusual radio, optical, and spectroscopic properties. Among other things, it was especially bright for a Type Ic both optically and in the radio, and it rose quickly to maximum. We explore here models based upon helium stars in the range 9-14 M☉ and carbon-oxygen stars 6-11 M☉, which experience unusually energetic explosions (kinetic energy 0.5-2.8 × 1052 ergs). Bolometric light curves and multiband photometry are calculated and compared favorably with observations. No spectroscopic data are available at this time, but both LTE and non-LTE spectra are calculated for the model that agrees best with the light curve, a carbon-oxygen core of 6 M☉ exploded with a kinetic energy of 2.2 × 1052 ergs. We also examine potential mechanisms for producing the observed gamma-ray burst (GRB)—shock breakout and relativistic shock deceleration in circumstellar material. For spherically symmetric models, both fail to produce a GRB of even the low luminosity inferred for GRB 980425. However, the high explosion energies required to understand the supernova are in contrast to what is expected for such massive stars and indicate that a new sort of explosion may have been identified, possibly the consequence of a collapsar. Indeed a more likely explanation for what was seen is a highly asymmetric explosion in which the GRB was produced by mildly relativistic matter (Γ≈5) running into circumstellar matter along the line of sight to the Earth. The explosion itself was powered by black hole accretion and jets, but unlike "ordinary" gamma-ray bursts, the jets were not of sufficient energy and duration to effectively reach large values of Γ. They may also not have been oriented in our direction. The ejected mass (but not the 56Ni mass) and explosion energy are then smaller. Other associations between luminous Type Ic supernovae and GRBs may exist and should be sought, but most Type Ib and Type Ic supernovae do not make GRBs.
113407190
A THEORETICAL COLOR-VELOCITY CORRELATION FOR SUPERNOVAE ASSOCIATED WITH GAMMA-RAY BURSTS
We carry out the first multi-dimensional radiative transfer calculations to simultaneously compute synthetic spectra and light curves for models of supernovae driven by fast bipolar outflows. These allow us to make self-consistent predictions for the orientation dependence of both color evolution and spectral features. We compare models with different degrees of asphericity and metallicity and find significant observable consequences of both. In aspherical models, we find spectral and light curve features that vary systematically with observer orientation. In particular, we find that the early-phase light curves are brighter and bluer when viewed close to the polar axis but that the peak flux is highest for equatorial (off-axis) inclinations. Spectral line features also depend systematically on observer orientation, including the velocity of the Si II 6355 A line. Consequently, our models predict a correlation between line velocity and color that could assist the identification of supernovae associated with off-axis jet-driven explosions. The amplitude and range of this correlation depends on the degree of asphericity, the metallicity, and the epoch of observation but we find that it is always present and acts in the same direction.
118556930
HATS-1b: The First Transiting Planet Discovered by the HATSouth Survey
We report the discovery of HATS-1b, a transiting extrasolar planet orbiting the moderately bright V = 12.05 G dwarf star GSC 6652-00186, and the first planet discovered by HATSouth, a global network of autonomous wide-field telescopes. HATS-1b has a period of P 3.4465 days, mass of Mp 1.86 M J, and radius of Rp 1.30 R J. The host star has a mass of 0.99 M ☉ and radius of 1.04 R ☉. The discovery light curve of HATS-1b has near-continuous coverage over several multi-day timespans, demonstrating the power of using a global network of telescopes to discover transiting planets.
13255925
The Mount Stromlo A bell Cluster Supernova Search
We have initiated a 3 year project to find supernovae in a well-defined sample of high-density southern Abell clusters with redshifts z ≤ 0.08. These observations will provide a volume-limited sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to more than a magnitude below their peak brightness and will enable us to (1) measure the luminosity function of SNe, (2) further explore the correlation of light-curve shape with the absolute luminosity of SNe Ia to better understand SNe Ia as distance indicators, (3) measure SN rates, (4) measure the bulk motion of the Local Group using SNe Ia, and (5) directly compare SN Ia distances with brightest cluster galaxy distances. We use the MACHO wide-field two-color imager on the 1.3 m telescope at Mount Stromlo to routinely monitor ~12 clusters per week. We describe our technique for target selection and scheduling search observations, and for finding and identifying SN candidates. We also describe the results from the first year of our program, including the detection of 19 SNe, several RR Lyrae variables, and hundreds of asteroids.
3943345
First Searches for Optical Counterparts to Gravitational-wave Candidate Events
During the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory and Virgo joint science runs in 2009-2010, gravitational wave (GW) data from three interferometer detectors were analyzed within minutes to select GW candidate events and infer their apparent sky positions. Target coordinates were transmitted to several telescopes for follow-up observations aimed at the detection of an associated optical transient. Images were obtained for eight such GW candidates. We present the methods used to analyze the image data as well as the transient search results. No optical transient was identified with a convincing association with any of these candidates, and none of the GW triggers showed strong evidence for being astrophysical in nature. We compare the sensitivities of these observations to several model light curves from possible sources of interest, and discuss prospects for future joint GW-optical observations of this type.
5990408
The Science Case for PILOT I: Summary and Overview
PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. Conditions at Dome C are known to be exceptional for astronomy. The seeing (above ∼30 m height), coherence time, and isoplanatic angle are all twice as good as at typical mid-latitude sites, while the water-vapour column, and the atmosphere and telescope thermal emission are all an order of magnitude better. These conditions enable a unique scientific capability for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents an overview of the optical and instrumentation suite for PILOT and its expected performance, a summary of the key science goals and observational approach for the facility, a discussion of the synergies between the science goals for PILOT and other telescopes, and a discussion of the future of Antarctic astronomy. Paper II and Paper III present details of the science projects divided, respectively, between the distant Universe (i.e. studies of first light, and the assembly and evolution of structure) and the nearby Universe (i.e. studies of Local Group galaxies, the Milky Way, and the Solar System).
56248926
BROADBAND SINGLE SHOT SPECTROMETER
This paper summarizes the ongoing activities at DESY for the longitudinal phase space studies on ultra short bunches of VUV-FEL using infrared spectroscopy.
54960779
Measurement of the resonant and CP components in $\overline{B}^0\to J/\psi \pi^+\pi^-$ decays
The resonant structure of the reaction $\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/\psi \pi^+\pi^-$ is studied using data from 3 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected by the LHCb experiment, one-third at 7 Tev center-of-mass energy and the remainder at 8 Tev. The invariant mass of the $\pi^+\pi^-$ pair and three decay angular distributions are used to determine the fractions of the resonant and non-resonant components. Six interfering $\pi^+\pi^-$ states: $\rho(770)$, $f_0(500)$, $f_2(1270)$, $\rho(1450)$, $\omega(782)$ and $\rho(1700)$ are required to give a good description of invariant mass spectra and decay angular distributions. The positive and negative CP fractions of each of the resonant final states are determined. The $f_0(980)$ meson is not seen and the upper limit on its presence, compared with the observed $f_0(500)$ rate, is inconsistent with a model of tetraquark substructure for these scalar mesons at the eight standard deviation level. In the $q\overline{q}$ model, the absolute value of the mixing angle between the $f_0(980)$ and the $f_0(500)$ scalar mesons is limited to be less than $17^{\circ}$ at 90% confidence level.
119881774
Anisotropic low energy electron collision cross sections for methane derived from transport coefficients
Based on a comprehensive set of transport parameters of electrons in methane derived from single electron spectra in the range of field 0.01-15 Td the authors determined a set of elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections up to 3 eV. The necessity to include anisotropic elastic scattering in a Boltzmann analysis of methane is demonstrated. In addition the drift velocity in a mixture of methane with helium was used to enhance the reliability of the derived cross sections. The low energy part of the cross sections for elastic scattering is subject to a MERT analysis and is compared with total cross section data from single scattering experiments.
13580118
Opposite-side flavour tagging of B mesons at the LHCb experiment
The calibration and performance of the opposite-side flavour tagging algorithms used for the measurements of time-dependent asymmetries at the LHCb experiment are described. The algorithms have been developed using simulated events and optimized and calibrated with B+→J/ψK+, B0→J/ψK∗0 and B0→D∗−μ+νμ decay modes with 0.37 fb−1 of data collected in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7\mbox{~TeV}$ during the 2011 physics run. The opposite-side tagging power is determined in the B+→J/ψK+ channel to be (2.10±0.08±0.24) %, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.
123166326
Electron transport theory in gases: must it be so difficult?
Abstract This article reviews recent progress in both experimental and kinetic theoretical determination of charged particle transport coefficients in electric and magnetic fields in the context of wire gas chamber detectors. The “Magboltz” code of Biagi [13] is discussed. It is pointed out that there is really no alternative to the accurate “multiterm theory” of Ness [3–5] if high precision is required, but this may not be readily accessible to the nonspecialist because of its mathematical complexity. On the other hand, “momentum transfer” theory provides relatively simple expressions for transport coefficients and has an accuracy of the order of 10%. We focus on this simplified theory in the bulk of the paper, discussing some previous results and giving new formulas. In order to illustrate the utility of the method, we have performed numerical calculations in several cases of relevance to wire gas chambers.