62,692 research outputs found
Constraining the duty cycle of transient low-mass X-ray binaries through simulations
We performed simulations of a large number of so-called very faint X-ray
transient sources from surveys obtained using the X-ray telescope aboard the
Neil Gehrels \emph{Swift} Observatory on two Galactic globular clusters, and
the Galactic Center. We calculated the ratio between the duty cycle we input in
our simulations and the one we measure after the simulations. We found that
fluctuations in outburst duration and recurrence times affect our estimation of
the duty cycle more than non detected outbursts. This biases our measures to
overestimate the simulated duty cycle of sources. Moreover, we determined that
compact surveys are necessary to detect outbursts with short duration because
they could fall in gaps between observations, if such gaps are longer than
their duration. On the other hand, long surveys are necessary to detect sources
with low duty cycle because the smallest duty cycle a survey can observe is
given by the ratio between the shortest outburst duration and the total length
of the survey. If one has a limited amount of observing time, these two effects
are competing, and a compromise is required which is set by the goals of the
proposed survey. We have also performed simulations with several artificial
survey strategies in order to evaluate the optimal observing campaign aimed at
detecting transients as well as at having the most accurate estimates of the
duty cycle. As expected, the best campaign would be a regular and dense
monitoring that extends for a very long period. The closest real example of
such a dataset is the monitoring of the Galactic Centre.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Pulsars in Globular Clusters with the SKA
Globular clusters are highly efficient radio pulsar factories. These pulsars
can be used as precision probes of the clusters' structure, gas content,
magnetic field, and formation history; some of them are also highly interesting
in their own right because they probe exotic stellar evolution scenarios as
well as the physics of dense matter, accretion, and gravity. Deep searches with
SKA1-MID and SKA1-LOW will plausibly double to triple the known population.
Such searches will only require one to a few tied-array beams, and can be done
during early commissioning of the telescope - before an all-sky pulsar survey
using hundreds to thousands of tied-array beams is feasible. With SKA2 it will
be possible to observe most of the active radio pulsars within a large fraction
of the Galactic globular clusters, an estimated population of 600 - 3700
observable pulsars (those beamed towards us). This rivals the total population
of millisecond pulsars that can be found in the Galactic field; fully
characterizing it will provide the best-possible physical laboratories as well
as a rich dynamical history of the Galactic globular cluster system.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, to be published in: "Advancing Astrophysics with
the Square Kilometre Array", Proceedings of Science, PoS(AASKA14)04
Very-high-energy observations of the binaries V 404 Cyg and 4U 0115+634 during giant X-ray outbursts
Transient X-ray binaries produce major outbursts in which the X-ray flux can
increase over the quiescent level by factors as large as . The low-mass
X-ray binary V 404 Cyg and the high-mass system 4U 0115+634 underwent such
major outbursts in June and October 2015, respectively. We present here
observations at energies above hundreds of GeV with the VERITAS observatory
taken during some of the brightest X-ray activity ever observed from these
systems. No gamma-ray emission has been detected by VERITAS in 2.5 hours of
observations of the microquasar V 404 Cyg from 2015, June 20-21. The upper flux
limits derived from these observations on the gamma-ray flux above 200 GeV of F
cm s correspond to a tiny fraction (about
) of the Eddington luminosity of the system, in stark contrast to that
seen in the X-ray band. No gamma rays have been detected during observations of
4U 0115+634 in the period of major X-ray activity in October 2015. The flux
upper limit derived from our observations is F cm
s for gamma rays above 300 GeV, setting an upper limit on the ratio of
gamma-ray to X-ray luminosity of less than 4%.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope observations of an M2.8 flare: insights into the initiation of a flare-coronal mass ejection event
We present the first observations of a solar flare with the GMRT. An M2.8
flare observed at 1060 MHz with the GMRT on Nov 17 2001 was associated with a
prominence eruption observed at 17 GHz by the Nobeyama radioheliograph and the
initiation of a fast partial halo CME observed with the LASCO C2 coronograph.
Towards the start of the eruption, we find evidence for reconnection above the
prominence. Subsequently, we find evidence for rapid growth of a vertical
current sheet below the erupting arcade, which is accompanied by the flare and
prominence eruption.Comment: Accepted for publication in Solar Physic
A simultaneous search for prompt radio emission associated with the short GRB 170112A using the all-sky imaging capability of the OVRO-LWA
We have conducted the most sensitive low frequency (below 100 MHz) search to
date for prompt, low-frequency radio emission associated with short-duration
gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), using the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long
Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA). The OVRO-LWA's nearly full-hemisphere
field-of-view (, square degrees) allows us to search for
low-frequency (sub- MHz) counterparts for a large sample of the subset of
GRB events for which prompt radio emission has been predicted. Following the
detection of short GRB 170112A by Swift, we used all-sky OVRO-LWA images
spanning one hour prior to and two hours following the GRB event to search for
a transient source coincident with the position of GRB 170112A. We detect no
transient source, with our most constraining flux density limit of
for frequencies spanning . We
place constraints on a number of models predicting prompt, low-frequency radio
emission accompanying short GRBs and their potential binary neutron star merger
progenitors, and place an upper limit of on the fraction of energy released in the prompt radio
emission. These observations serve as a pilot effort for a program targeting a
wider sample of both short and long GRBs with the OVRO-LWA, including bursts
with confirmed redshift measurements which are critical to placing the most
constraining limits on prompt radio emission models, as well as a program for
the follow-up of gravitational wave compact binary coalescence events detected
by advanced LIGO and Virgo.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, ApJ submitte
Inferring monopartite projections of bipartite networks: an entropy-based approach
Bipartite networks are currently regarded as providing a major insight into
the organization of many real-world systems, unveiling the mechanisms driving
the interactions occurring between distinct groups of nodes. One of the most
important issues encountered when modeling bipartite networks is devising a way
to obtain a (monopartite) projection on the layer of interest, which preserves
as much as possible the information encoded into the original bipartite
structure. In the present paper we propose an algorithm to obtain
statistically-validated projections of bipartite networks, according to which
any two nodes sharing a statistically-significant number of neighbors are
linked. Since assessing the statistical significance of nodes similarity
requires a proper statistical benchmark, here we consider a set of four null
models, defined within the exponential random graph framework. Our algorithm
outputs a matrix of link-specific p-values, from which a validated projection
is straightforwardly obtainable, upon running a multiple hypothesis testing
procedure. Finally, we test our method on an economic network (i.e. the
countries-products World Trade Web representation) and a social network (i.e.
MovieLens, collecting the users' ratings of a list of movies). In both cases
non-trivial communities are detected: while projecting the World Trade Web on
the countries layer reveals modules of similarly-industrialized nations,
projecting it on the products layer allows communities characterized by an
increasing level of complexity to be detected; in the second case, projecting
MovieLens on the films layer allows clusters of movies whose affinity cannot be
fully accounted for by genre similarity to be individuated.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure
Deeper, Wider, Sharper: Next-Generation Ground-Based Gravitational-Wave Observations of Binary Black Holes
Next-generation observations will revolutionize our understanding of binary
black holes and will detect new sources, such as intermediate-mass black holes.
Primary science goals include: Discover binary black holes throughout the
observable Universe; Reveal the fundamental properties of black holes; Uncover
the seeds of supermassive black holes.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, White Paper Submitted to Astro2020 (2020
Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey) by GWIC 3G Science Case Team
(GWIC: Gravitational Wave International Committee
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