Observation of Microlensing towards the Galactic Spiral Arms. EROS II 2 year survey

We present the analysis of the light curves of 8.5 million stars observed during two seasons by EROS (Experience de Recherche d'Objets Sombres), in the galactic plane away from the bulge. Three stars have been found that exhibit luminosity variations compatible with gravitational microlensing effects due to unseen objects. The corresponding optical depth, averaged over four directions, is 0.38 (+0.53, -0.15) 10^{-6}. All three candidates have long Einstein radius crossing times ($\sim$ 70 to 100 days). For one of them, the lack of evidence for a parallax or a source size effect enabled us to constrain the lens-source % geometric configuration. Another candidate displays a modulation of the magnification, which is compatible with the lensing of a binary source. The interpretation of the optical depths inferred from these observations is hindered by the imperfect knowledge of the distance to the target stars. Our measurements are compatible with expectations from simple galactic models under reasonable assumptions on the target distances.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, accepted by A&A in Aug 9

MACHO Mass Determination Based on Space Telescope Observation

We investigate the possibility of lens mass determination for a caustic crossing microlensing event based on a space telescope observation. We demonstrate that the parallax due to the orbital motion of a space telescope causes a periodic fluctuation of the light curve, from which the lens distance can be derived. Since the proper motion of the lens relative to the source is also measurable for a caustic crossing event, one can find a full solution for microlensing properties of the event, including the lens mass. To determine the lens mass with sufficient accuracy, the light curve near the caustic crossing should be observed within uncertainty of $\sim$ 1%. We argue that the Hubble Space Telescope observation of the caustic crossing supplied with ground-based observations of the full light curve will enable us to determine the mass of MACHOs, which is crucial for understanding the nature of MACHOs.Comment: 9 pages + 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

The Phoenix Deep Survey: The 1.4 GHz microJansky catalogue

The initial Phoenix Deep Survey (PDS) observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array have been supplemented by additional 1.4 GHz observations over the past few years. Here we present details of the construction of a new mosaic image covering an area of 4.56 square degrees, an investigation of the reliability of the source measurements, and the 1.4 GHz source counts for the compiled radio catalogue. The mosaic achieves a 1-sigma rms noise of 12 microJy at its most sensitive, and a homogeneous radio-selected catalogue of over 2000 sources reaching flux densities as faint as 60 microJy has been compiled. The source parameter measurements are found to be consistent with the expected uncertainties from the image noise levels and the Gaussian source fitting procedure. A radio-selected sample avoids the complications of obscuration associated with optically-selected samples, and by utilising complementary PDS observations including multicolour optical, near-infrared and spectroscopic data, this radio catalogue will be used in a detailed investigation of the evolution in star-formation spanning the redshift range 0 < z < 1. The homogeneity of the catalogue ensures a consistent picture of galaxy evolution can be developed over the full cosmologically significant redshift range of interest. The 1.4 GHz mosaic image and the source catalogue are available on the web at http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~ahopkins/phoenix/ or from the authors by request.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication by A

Astrometric Resolution of Severely Degenerate Binary Microlensing Events

We investigate whether the "close/wide" class of degeneracies in caustic-crossing binary microlensing events can be broken astrometrically. Dominik showed that these degeneracies are particularly severe because they arise from a degeneracy in the lens equation itself rather than a mere "accidental" mimicking of one light curve by another. A massive observing campaign of five microlensing collaborations was unable to break this degeneracy photometrically in the case of the binary lensing event MACHO 98-SMC-1. We show that this degeneracy indeed causes the image centroids of the wide and close solutions to follow an extremely similar pattern of motion during the time when the source is in or near the caustic. Nevertheless, the two image centroids are displaced from one another and this displacement is detectable by observing the event at late times. Photometric degeneracies therefore can be resolved astrometrically, even for these most severe cases.Comment: 11 pages, including 4 figures. Submitted to Ap

Radio observations of the CDF-South: a possible link between radio emission and star formation in X-ray selected AGN

We explore the nature of the radio emission of X-ray selected AGN by combining deep radio (1.4GHz; 60micro-Jy) and X-ray data with multiwavelength (optical, mid-infrared) observations in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (E-CDFS). The fraction of radio detected X-ray sources increases from 9% in the E-CDFS to 14% in the central region of this field, which has deeper X-ray coverage from the 1Ms CDFS. We find evidence that the radio emission of up to 60% of the hard X-ray/radio matched AGN is likely associated with star-formation in the host galaxy. Firstly, the mid-IR (24micron) properties of these sources are consistent with the infrared/radio correlation of starbursts. Secondly, most of them are found in galaxies with blue rest-frame optical colours (U-V), suggesting a young stellar population. On the contrary, X-ray/radio matched AGN which are not detected in the mid-infrared have red U-V colours suggesting their radio emission is associated with AGN activity. We also find no evidence for a population of heavily obscured radio-selected AGN that are not detected in X-rays. Finally, we do no confirm previous claims for a correlation between radio emission and X-ray obscuration. Assuming that the radio continuum measures star-formation, this finding is against models where the dust and gas clouds associated with circumnuclear starbursts are spherically blocking our view to the central engine.Comment: Accepted by A&

Development and test of an intra-vehicular network based on bluetooth low energy

This paper presents the development and test of an intra-vehicular system, based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), designed to present to the driver, in real-time, information collected from multiple sensors distributed inside of the car, using an Android smartphone. The architecture of the implemented BLE network is composed by the smartphone, which has the role of central station, and two BLE modules (peripheral stations) based on the CC2540 system-on-chip, which collect relevant sensor information from the battery system and the traction system of an electric car. Results based on an experimental performance evaluation of the wireless network show that the network is able to satisfy the application requirements, as long as the network parameters are properly configured taking into account the peculiarities of the BLE data transfer modes and the limitations of the BLE platform.This work is supported by FCT with the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2013, by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) with the reference project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Microjansky sources at 1.4 GHz

We present a deep 1.4 GHz survey made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), having a background RMS of 9 microJy near the image phase centre, up to 25 microJy at the edge of a 50' field of view. Over 770 radio sources brighter than 45 microJy have been catalogued in the field. The differential source counts in the deep field provide tentative support for the growing evidence that the microjansky radio population exhibits significantly higher clustering than found at higher flux density cutoffs. The optical identification rate on CCD images is approximately 50% to R=22.5, and the optical counterparts of the faintest radio sources appear to be mainly single galaxies close to this optical magnitude limit.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by ApJ Letters 4 May 199

The Phoenix Deep Survey: spectroscopic catalog

The Phoenix Deep Survey is a multi-wavelength survey based on deep 1.4 GHz radio imaging, reaching well into the sub-100 microJy level. One of the aims of this survey is to characterize the sub-mJy radio population, exploring its nature and evolution. In this paper we present the catalog and results of the spectroscopic observations aimed at characterizing the optically ``bright'' (R<~ 21.5 mag) counterparts of faint radio sources. Out of 371 sources with redshift determination, 21% have absorption lines only, 11% show AGN signatures, 32% are star-forming galaxies, 34% show narrow emission lines that do not allow detailed spectral classification (due to poor signal-to-noise ratio and/or lack of diagnostic emission lines) and the remaining 2% are identified with stars. For the star-forming galaxies with a Balmer decrement measurement we find a median extinction of A(Ha)=1.9 mag, higher than that of optically selected samples. This is a result of the radio selection, which is not biased against dusty systems. Using the available spectroscopic information, we estimate the radio luminosity function of star-forming galaxies in two independent redshift bins at z~0.1 and 0.3 respectively. We find direct evidence for strong luminosity evolution of these systems consistent with L(1.4 GHz) ~ (1+z)^(2.7).Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures. References added, and minor changes to reflect published versio

Optimal Microlensing Observations

One of the major limitations of microlensing observations toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the low rate of event detection. What can be done to improve this rate? Is it better to invest telescope time in more frequent observations of the inner high surface-brightness fields, or in covering new, less populated outer fields? How would a factor 2 improvement in CCD sensitivity affect the detection efficiency? Would a series of major (factor 2--4) upgrades in telescope aperture, seeing, sky brightness, camera size, and detector efficiency increase the event rate by a huge factor, or only marginally? I develop a simplified framework to address these questions. With observational resources fixed at the level of the MACHO and EROS experiments, the biggest improvement (factor ~2) would come by reducing the time spent on the inner ~25 deg^2 and applying it to the outer ~100 deg^2. By combining this change with the characteristics of a good medium-size telescope (2.5 m mirror, 1" point spread function, thinned CCD chips, 1 deg^2 camera, and dark sky), it should be possible to increase the detection of LMC events to more than 100 per year (assuming current estimates of the optical depth apply to the entire LMC).Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 13 pages plus 3 figure

Context aware advisor for public transportation

This paper presents an Android-based mobile app designed to provide real time context aware public transportation information and advice to its users through the combination of the user's preferences and geographic context with data retrieved from a public transportation information system called XTraN Passenger. Thus, this mobile app contributes to fulfill the necessities of the passengers, and also provides an incentive for people to use the public transportation infrastructure more frequently. The proposed mobile app allows the users to benefit from the access to real time public transportation data in a simple and intuitive way. The validation of the features and operation of the developed app was assessed with results from use cases and real-world experimental tests using public transportation data from a Brazilian bus fleet operator.This work is supported by FCT with the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2013, by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 –Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) with the reference project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941