Returning again. Resurrection narratives and afterlife aesthetics in contemporary television drama

This article examines the return of the dead to life in two television drama series of the last decade, Les Revenants (The Returned; 2012–15, Canal) and Glitch (2015–19, ABC Studios). The returning dead do not figure as classic undead figures, as ghosts or zombies, instead returning to life exactly as they were at the point of death and in search of a renewed purpose and an ultimate destiny. This, the article suggests, can constitute a form of latter-day resurrection. The article shows how both series present established religion as incapable of recognizing the return of the dead, while science and the secular state are also never wholly able to explain and manage these apparent miracles. The return of this seemingly religious trope to an ostensibly secular world and the mutual jostling and overlapping of theological, scientific, and aesthetic discourses, as they seek to represent and explain the mystery, not only constitutes a postsecular theme but also occasions the search, at times inherent to artistic form, at times explicit and self-reflexive, for an appropriately postsecular televisual aesthetics

Nature of cyclical changes in the timing residuals from the pulsar B1642-03

We report an analysis of timing data for the pulsar B1642-03 (J1645-0317) gathered over the 40-year time span between 1969 and 2008. During this interval, the pulsar experienced eight glitch-like events with a fractional increase in the rotation frequency Deltanu/nu=(0.9-2.6)x10^{-9}. We have revealed two important relations in the properties of these peculiar glitches. The first result shows that there is a strong linear correlation between the amplitude of the glitch and the time interval to the next glitch. The second result shows that the amplitude of the glitches is modulated by a periodic large-scale sawtooth-like function. As a result of this modulation, the glitch amplitude varies discretely from glitch to glitch with a step of 1.5x10^{-9} Hz in the range (2.4-6.9)x10^{-9} Hz. The post-glitch time interval also varies discretely with a step of about 600 days in the range 900-2700 days. An analysis of the data showed that three modulation schemes with modulation periods of 43 years, 53 years and 60 years are possible. The best model is the 60-year modulation scheme including 12 glitches. We make a conclusion that the nature of the observed cyclical changes in the timing residuals from PSR B1642-03 is a continuous generation of peculiar glitches whose amplitudes are modulated by a periodic large-scale sawtooth-like function. As the modulation function is periodical, the picture of cyclical timing residuals will be exactly repeated in each modulation period or every 60 years.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Glitch or anti-glitch: a Bayesian view

The sudden spin-down in the rotation of magnetar 1E 2259+586 observed by Archibald et al. (2013) was a rare event. However this particular event, referred to as an anti-glitch, was followed by another event which Archibald et al. (2013) suggested could either be a conventional glitch or another anti-glitch. Although there is no accompanied radiation activity or pulse profile change, there is decisive evidence for the existence of the second timing event, judging from the timing data. We apply Bayesian Model Selection to quantitatively determine which of these possibilities better explains the observed data. We show that the observed data strongly supports the presence of two successive anti-glitches with a Bayes Factor, often called the odds ratio, greater than 40. Furthermore, we show that the second anti-glitch has an associated frequency change Δν of -8.2 X 10<sup>8</sup> Hz. We discuss the implications of these results for possible physical mechanisms behind this anti-glitch

Cyclical Changes in the Timing Residuals from the Pulsar B0919+06

We report the detection of a large glitch in the pulsar B0919+06 (J0922+0638). The glitch occurred in 2009 November 5 (MJD 55140) and was characterized by a fractional increase in the rotation frequency of Deltanu/nu=1.3x10^{-6}. A large glitch happens in the pulsar whose rotation has unstable character. We present the results of the analysis of the rotation behavior of this pulsar over the 30-year time span from 1979 to 2009. These results show that the pulsar's rotation frequency underwent continuous, slow oscillations which look like glitch-like events. During the 1991-2009 interval, the pulsar experienced a continuous sequence of 12 slow glitches with a fractional increase in the rotation frequency Deltanu/nu=1.5x10^{-9}. All the slow glitches observed have a similar signature related to a slow increase in the rotation frequency during 200 days and the subsequent relaxation back to the pre-glitch value during 400 days. We show that a continuous sequence of such slow glitches is characterized by practically identical amplitudes equal to Deltanu=3.5x10^{-9} Hz and identical time intervals between glitches of about 600 days and is well described by a periodic sawtooth-like function. The detection of two different phenomena, such as a large glitch and a sequence of slow glitches, indicates the presence of two types of discontinuities in the rotation frequency of the pulsar B0919+06. These discontinuities can be classified as normal and slow glitches.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to Ap

Pulsar state switching, timing noise and free precession

Recent radio pulsar observations have shown that a number of pulsars display interesting long term periodicities in their spin-down rates. At least some of these pulsars also undergo sharp changes in pulse profile. This has been convincingly attributed to the stars abruptly switching between two different magnetospheric states. The sharpness of these transitions has been taken as evidence against free precession as the mechanism behind the long term variations. We argue that such a conclusion is premature. By performing a simple best-fit analysis to the data, we show that the relationship between the observed spin and modulation periods is of approximately the correct form to be accounted for by the free precession of a population of neutron stars with strained crusts, the level of strain being similar in all of the stars, and consistent with the star retaining a memory of a former faster rotation rate. We also provide an argument as to why abrupt magnetospheric changes can occur in precessing stars, and how such changes would serve to magnify the effect of precession in the timing data, making the observation of the precession more likely in those stars where such switching occurs. We describe how future observations could further test the precession hypothesis advanced here.Comment: Additional reference inserted; to appear in MNRA

Years of RXTE Monitoring of Anomalous X-ray Pulsar 4U 0142+61: Long-Term Variability

We report on 10 years of monitoring of the 8.7-s Anomalous X-ray Pulsar 4U 0142+61 using the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). This pulsar exhibited stable rotation from 2000 March until 2006 February: the RMS phase residual for a spin-down model which includes nu, nudot, and nuddot is 2.3%. We report a possible phase-coherent timing solution valid over a 10-yr span extending back to March 1996. A glitch may have occured between 1998 and 2000, but is not required by the existing timing data. The pulse profile has been evolving since 2000. In particular, the dip of emission between its two peaks got shallower between 2002 and 2006, as if the profile were evolving back to its pre-2000 morphology, following an earlier event, which possibly also included the glitch suggested by the timing data. These profile variations are seen in the 2-4 keV band but not in 6-8 keV. We also detect a slow increase in the pulsed flux between 2002 May and 2004 December, such that it has risen by 36+/-3% over 2.6 years in the 2-10 keV band. The pulsed flux variability and the narrow-band pulse profile changes present interesting challenges to aspects of the magnetar model.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Ap