12,892 research outputs found
X-ray properties of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 during a variability class transition
We present a detailed X-ray study of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 during a
variability class transition observed in 2000 June with the PPCs of the Indian
X-ray Astronomy Experiment. We supplement this observation with data from the
RXTE archives. The source made a transition from a steady low-hard state to a
regular oscillatory behaviour in the light curve known as bursts or class `rho'
(Belloni et al. 2000) between 2000 May 11 and 17 and reverted back to the
low-hard state on 2000 June 27. A gradual change in the burst recurrence time
from about 75 s to about 40 s was observed which then increased to about 120 s
during the ~ 40 days of class `rho'. The regular bursts disappeared from the
X-ray light curves and the class transition was observed to occur within 1.5
hours on 2000 June 27 with the PPCs. A correlation is found between the
observed QPO frequency at 5-8 Hz in the quiescent phase and the average X-ray
intensity of the source during the class `rho'. We notice a strong similarity
between the properties of the source during the class `rho' and those during
the oscillatory phase of the observations of class `alpha'. From the timing and
spectral analysis, it is found that the observed properties of the source over
tens of days during the class `rho' are identical to those over a time scale of
a few hundreds of seconds in the class `alpha'. Examining the light curves from
the beginning of the RXTE/PCA and RXTE/ASM observations, it is found that the
change of state from radio-quiet low-hard state to high state occurs through
the X-ray classes `rho' and `alpha' which appear together during the state
transition. It is further inferred that the source switches from low-hard state
to the class `rho' through the intermediate class `alpha'.Comment: 10 pages with 9 figures, LaTex. To be appeared in MNRA
A double peaked pulse profile observed in GX 1+4
The hard X-ray pulsar GX 1+4 was observed several times in the last few years
with a pair of balloon-borne Xenon filled Multi-cell Proportional Counters
(XMPC). In a balloon flight made on 22 March 1995, the source was detected in a
bright state, the average observed source count rate being per
detector. X-ray pulsations with a period of s were detected in
the source with a broad double peak pulse feature. When observed in December
1993 with the same instrument, the pulse profile of GX 1+4 showed a single
peak. This change in the pulse profile to a double pulse structure in about 15
months indicates either activation of the opposite pole of the neutron star if
the magnetic field is asymmetric or possibly a change in the beam pattern, from
a pencil beam to a fan beam. Assuming a fan beam configuration, the pulse
profile is used to find the inclinations of the magnetic axis and the viewing
axis with the spin axis. The derived angles support the GINGA observations of a
dip in the pulse profile which was resolved to have a local maximum in one of
the observations and was explained with resonance scattering of cyclotron line
energy photons by the accretion column (Makishima et al., \markcite{maki1988},
Dotani et al., \markcite{dotani1989}.). Compared to our previous observation of
the same source with the same telescope (Rao et al., \markcite{rao1994}) a
period change rate of is obtained which is the lowest rate
of change of period for this source since its discovery. Average pulse fraction
in the hard X-ray range is low (30%), consistent with its anti correlation with
luminosity as reported by us earlier (Rao et al., \markcite{rao1994}) and the
observed spectrum is very hard (power law photon index ).Comment: 10 pages, to appear in A&
Bright gap solitons of atoms with repulsive interaction
We report on the first experimental observation of bright matter-wave
solitons for 87Rb atoms with repulsive atom-atom interaction. This counter
intuitive situation arises inside a weak periodic potential, where anomalous
dispersion can be realized at the Brillouin zone boundary. If the coherent
atomic wavepacket is prepared at the corresponding band edge a bright soliton
is formed inside the gap. The strength of our system is the precise control of
preparation and real time manipulation, allowing the systematic investigation
of gap solitons.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Isolated unstable Weibel modes in unmagnetized plasmas with tunable asymmetry
In this letter, an initially unmagnetized pair plasma with asymmetric
velocity distributions is investigated where any unstable Weibel mode must be
isolated, with discrete values for the growth rates and the unstable
wavenumbers. For both a non-relativistic distribution with thermal spread and a
high-relativistic two-stream distribution it is shown that isolated modes are
excited and that, as the asymmetry tends to zero, the growth rate remains
finite, as long as the distribution function is not precisely symmetric.Comment: Comments: references adde
Different types of X-ray bursts from GRS 1915+105 and their origin
We report the X-ray observations of the Galactic X-ray transient source GRS
1915+105 with the PPCs of the Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment(IXAE) onboard
the Indian satellite IRS-P3 during 1997 June - August, which have revealed the
presence of four types of intense X-ray bursts. All the observed bursts have a
slow exponential rise, a sharp linear decay, and they can broadly be put in two
classes: irregular and quasi-regular bursts in one class, and regular bursts in
another class. The regular bursts are found to have two distinct time scales
and they persist over extended durations. There is a strong correlation between
the preceding quiescent time and the burst duration for the quasi-regular and
irregular bursts. No such correlation is found for the regular bursts. The
ratio of average flux during the burst time to the average flux during the
quiescent phase is high and variable for the quasi- regular and irregular
bursts while it is low and constant for the regular bursts. We suggest that the
peculiar bursts that we have seen are charact- eristic of the change of state
of the source. The source can switch back and forth between the low-hard state
and the high-soft state near critical accretion rates in a very short time
scale. A test of the model is presented using the publicly available 13-60 keV
RXTE/PCA data for irregular and regular bursts concurrent with our
observations.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, Accepted in APJ, emulateapj style use
Production of Two Photons and a Jet Through Gluon Fusion
We have computed the cross-section and distributions for the production of two photons and a jet via the process . In the Standard Model, this process occurs at the one-loop level through pentagon and box diagrams. We show that at the LHC this is a significant mechanism for the production of the two photons and a jet. This process is also an important background to the Higgs boson production, when the Higgs boson decays into two photons. We also explorethis process at the Tevatron
High frequency occurrence of single cotyledonary embryo morphotype and repetitive somatic embryogenesis in ‘Thompson Seedless’ crossed with seven grapevine male parents
Direct somatic embryogenesis was observed in zygotic embryos rescued from intra- and inter-specific crosses between ‘Thompson Seedless’ and seven male parents of grapevine when the embryos were cultured on Woody Plant Medium (WPM) supplemented with benzyladenine (1 μM). Repetitive somatic embryogenesis occurred on the same medium, which also supported a high percentage of embryo maturation, germination and plantlet development. The cultures retained embryogenic potential for more than two years. We observed a high frequency occurrence of monocotyledonous embryo morphotype and other morphological variations in somatic embryos of all the crosses. The percentage of embryos having mono-, di-, tri-, multiple and abnormal cotyledons varied among the crosses. The overall percentage of monocot embryos was 35.50 %, as against 38.64 % of dicot embryos, while the germination rates for mono- and dicot- embryos were 24.44 % and 24.15 %, respectively. Shoot development was poor in tri- and multiple-cotyledonary embryos, while there was no shoot formation in abnormal embryos. We assume that the relatively high occurrence of single cotyledonary morphotype may be due to the repetitive exposure of embryogenic tissues to a medium containing benzyladenine
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