ASCA Observations of the Jet Source XTE J1748-288

XTE J1748-288 is a new X-ray transient with a one-sided radio jet. It was observed with ASCA on 1998/09/06 and 1998/09/26, 100 days after the onset of the radio-X-ray outburst. The spectra were fitted with an attenuated power-law model, and the 2-6-keV flux was 4.6 * 10^{-11} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2} and 2.2 * 10^{-12} on 09/06 and 09/26, respectively. The light curve showed that the steady exponential decay with an e-folding time of 14 days lasted over 100 days and 4 orders of magnitude from the peak of the outburst. The celestial region including the source had been observed with ASCA on 1993/10/01 and 1994/09/22, years before the discovery. In those period, the flux was < 10^{-13} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2}, below ASCA's detection limit. The jet blob colliding to the environmental matter was supposedly not the X-ray source, although the emission mechanism has not been determined. A possible detection of a K line from highly ionized iron is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJL. Fig2 is replaced with correct on

Modal Sequencing and Dynamic Emission Properties of an 8-hour GMRT Observation of Pulsar B1822-09

The research presented here examines an 8-hour observation of pulsar B1822-09,taken by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. B1822-09 has been known to exhibit two stable emission modes, the B-mode, where the precursor (PC) `turns-on', and the Q-mode, which is defined by interpulse (IP) emission. The results of our analysis, of this extremely long observation, have shown that B1822-09 exhibits at least three other emission behaviors that have not been seen before in other similar pulsars or in other observations of B1822-09. These three behaviors can be described as: Q-mode emission with PC emission, B-mode emission with IP emission, and instances where both the PC and IP are `on' when transitioning from one mode to the other. The pulse structure has been found to be more complex than previously thought. The MP has an inner cone/core triple (T) configuration together with a central sightline traverse. The IP is a 15/degr-wide region, that along with the MP originate from an open dipolar field. The PC emission comes from a still unknown source. We argue that the PC emission arises within the same region as the MP, but likely comes from higher in the magnetosphere. Overall, our analyses strongly suggest that mode changes allow information transfer between the two magnetic polar regions and contribute to global magnetospheric changes.Comment: 15 pages, submitted to MNRA

Normal approximation for coverage models over binomial point processes

We give error bounds which demonstrate optimal rates of convergence in the CLT for the total covered volume and the number of isolated shapes, for germ-grain models with fixed grain radius over a binomial point process of $n$ points in a toroidal spatial region of volume $n$. The proof is based on Stein's method via size-biased couplings.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AAP634 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Differentiation signatures in the Flora region

Most asteroid families are very homogeneous in physical properties. Some show greater diversity, however. The Flora family is the most intriguing of them. The Flora family is spread widely in the inner main belt, has a rich collisional history, and is one of the most taxonomically diverse regions in the main belt. As a result of its proximity to the asteroid (4) Vesta (the only currently known intact differentiated asteroid) and its family, migration between the two regions is possible. This dynamical path is one of the counter arguments to the hypothesis that there may be traces of a differentiated parent body other than Vesta in the inner main belt region. We here investigate the possibility that some of the V- and A- types (commonly interpreted as basaltoids and dunites - parts of the mantle and crust of differentiated parent bodies) in the Flora dynamical region are not dynamically connected to Vesta.Comment: accepted to AA (28 09 2015

The Great Recession and Distribution of Income in California

Analyzes changes in household income during the 2007-09 recession by percentile, family structure, and region; the gap between high- and low-income families compared to other states; the impact of un- and underemployment; and the role of education

Decoding the Origin of Dark Matter

We discuss the interplay between LHC signatures and the mechanism by which dark matter is generated in the early universe in supersymmetric theories. The LHC signatures of two of the major mechanisms for such generation of dark matter which are known to be the Stau Coannihilation (Stau-Co) region and annihilation on the Hyperbolic Branch (HB) are exhibited in detail. By analyzing the various LHC signatures, including multi leptons, hadronic jets, b-tagging, and missing transverse momentum, one can discriminate between the Stau-Co region and the HB region for the mSUGRA model. Interestingly, there are some regions of the parameter space which are beyond the current and near future reach of the dark matter direct detection experiments but will be accessible at the LHC, and vise versa.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, based on a talk presented at SUSY 09; Boston, 5-10 June, 200

Optical meta-atom for localization of light with quantized energy

The capacity to confine light into a small region of space is of paramount importance in many areas of modern science. Here, we suggest a mechanism to store a quantized "bit" of light - with a very precise amount of energy - in an open core-shell plasmonic structure ("meta-atom") with a nonlinear optical response. Notwithstanding the trapped light state is embedded in the radiation continuum, its lifetime is not limited by the radiation loss. Interestingly, it is shown that the interplay between the nonlinear response and volume plasmons enables breaking fundamental reciprocity restrictions, and coupling very efficiently an external light source to the meta-atom. The collision of an incident optical pulse with the meta-atom may be used to release the trapped radiation "bit".Comment: Article in press in Nature Communications (29/09/2015). Attached: Supplementary Movies 1 and 2 (small size version