1,165 research outputs found
Constraints on the origin of the ultra-high energy cosmic-rays using cosmic diffuse neutrino flux limits: An analytical approach
Astrophysical neutrinos are expected to be produced in the interactions of
ultra-high energy cosmic-rays with surrounding photons. The fluxes of the
astrophysical neutrinos are highly dependent on the characteristics of the
cosmic-ray sources, such as their cosmological distributions. We study possible
constraints on the properties of cosmic-ray sources in a model-independent way
using experimentally obtained diffuse neutrino flux above 100 PeV. The
semi-analytic formula is derived to estimate the cosmogenic neutrino fluxes as
functions of source evolution parameter and source extension in redshift. The
obtained formula converts the upper-limits on the neutrino fluxes into the
constraints on the cosmic-ray sources. It is found that the recently obtained
upper-limit on the cosmogenic neutrinos by IceCube constrains the scenarios
with strongly evolving ultra-high energy cosmic-ray sources, and the future
limits from an 1 km^3 scale detector are able to further constrain the
ultra-high energy cosmic-rays sources with evolutions comparable to the cosmic
star formation rate.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures and 1 table. Accepted by Phys. Rev.
Enhanced Water Electrolysis: Effect Of Temperature On The Oxygen Evolution Reaction At Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles Modified Glassy Carbon Electrodes
Water splitting producing hydrogen and oxygen gases appears promising in view of the increasing need of renewable energy sources and storage strategies. Investigation of stable and highly efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is targeted in this study at cobalt oxide nanoparticle modified glassy carbon (nano-CoOx/GC) electrodes. The effect of the preparation (Tp) and measuring temperature (Tm) on the electrocatalytic activity of nano-CoOx/GC towards the OER is investigated under various operating conditions. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), cyclic voltammetry (CV) as well as SEM and XRD techniques were used to probe the electrocatalytic and morphological characteristics of nano-CoOx prepared under various conditions. Increasing Tp and/or Tm results in improving the kinetics and electrocatalytic activity of the proposed anodes towards the OER as demonstrated in the value of the onset potential of the OER and the OER currents recorded at a fixed potential. The morphology as well as the surface characterization of the prepared catalyst are reported herein and evaluated
Chandra Observations of A Galactic Supernova Remnant Vela Jr.: A New Sample of Thin Filaments Emitting Synchrotron X-Rays
A galactic supernova remnant (SNR) Vela Jr. (RX J0852.04622, G266.61.2)
shows sharp filamentary structure on the north-western edge of the remnant in
the hard X-ray band. The filaments are so smooth and located on the most outer
side of the remnant. We measured the averaged scale width of the filaments
( and ) with excellent spatial resolution of {\it Chandra}, which are
in the order of the size of the point spread function of {\it Chandra} on the
upstream side and 49.5 (36.0--88.8) arcsec on the downstream side,
respectively. The spectra of the filaments are very hard and have no line-like
structure, and were well reproduced with an absorbed power-law model with
2.67 (2.55--2.77), or a {\tt SRCUT} model with = 4.3
(3.4--5.3) Hz under the assumption of . These results
imply that the hard X-rays are synchrotron radiation emitted by accelerated
electrons, as mentioned previously. Using a correlation between a function
and the SNR age, we estimated the
distance and the age of Vela Jr.: the estimated distance and age are 0.33
(0.26--0.50) kpc and 660 (420--1400) years, respectively. These results are
consistent with previous reports, implying that --age relation may be
a useful tool to estimate the distance and the age of synchrotron X-ray
emitting SNRs.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, ApJ, in pres
Diffuse Hard X-ray Sources Discovered with the ASCA Galactic Plane Survey
We found diffuse hard X-ray sources, G11.0+0.0, G25.5+0.0, and G26.6-0.1 in
the ASCA Galactic plane survey data. The X-ray spectra are featureless with no
emission line, and are fitted with both models of a thin thermal plasma in
non-equilibrium ionization and a power-law function. The source distances are
estimated to be 1-8 kpc, using the best-fit NH values on the assumption that
the mean density in the line of sight is 1 H cm^-3. The source sizes and
luminosities are then 4.5-27 pc and (0.8-23)x10^33 ergs/s. Although the source
sizes are typical to supernova remnants (SNR) with young to intermediate ages,
the X-ray luminosity, plasma temperature, and weak emission lines in the
spectra are all unusual. This suggests that these objects are either shell-like
SNRs dominated by X-ray synchrotron emission, like SN 1006, or, alternatively,
plerionic SNRs. The total number of these classes of SNRs in our Galaxy is also
estimated.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures; to appear in Ap
The effect of 980 nm and 1480 nm pumping on the performance of newly Hafnium Bismuth Erbium-doped fiber amplifier
An experimental study on the comparison of optical amplifying performance between 980 nm and 1480 nm pumping for the newly Hafnium Bismuth Erbium co-doped fiber (HB-DF) has been presented. A short length of 1-meter HB-EDF was used as the gain medium of the optical amplifier. 1480 nm pumping is found to provide higher attainable gain and lower noise figure compared to 980 nm pumping. At 1480 nm pumping, the average small signal gain for HB-EDFA in the single pass configuration has improved by 13.4 dB in the C-band region range from 1525 nm to 1565 nm. In the double-pass configuration, a maximum small signal gain of 36.6 dB was achieved at the wavelength of 1560 nm, this is 11.6 dB higher compared to the HB-EDFA with 980 nm pumping. The double pass HB-EDFA with 1480 nm pumping has exhibited a reduction of average noise figure by 23.4% and 29.8% for-30 dBm and-10 dBm of input signal power respectively in the C- and L-band region
Melanoma circulating tumor cells: Benefits and challenges required for clinical application
The implementation of novel therapeutic interventions has improved the survival rates of melanoma patients with metastatic disease. Nonetheless, only 33% of treated cases exhibit long term responses. Circulating tumor cell (CTC) measurements are currently of clinical value in breast, prostate and colorectal cancers. However, the clinical utility of melanoma CTCs (MelCTCs) is still unclear due to challenges that appear intrinsic to MelCTCs (i.e. rarity, heterogeneity) and a lack of standardization in their isolation, across research laboratories. Here, we review the latest developments, pinpoint the challenges in MelCTC isolation and address their potential role in melanoma management
Thermal and Non-thermal X-Rays from the LMC Super Bubble 30 Dor C
We report on the discovery of thermal and non-thermal X-rays from the shells
of the super bubble (SB) 30 Dor C in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The
X-ray morphology is a nearly circular shell with a radius of about 40 pc, which
is bright on the northern and western sides. The spectra of the shells are
different from region to region. The southern shell shows clear emission lines,
and is well fitted with a model of a thin-thermal plasma (kT = 0.21keV) in
non-equilibrium ionization (NEI) plus a power-law component. This thermal
plasma is located inside of the H alpha emission, which is the outer edge of
the shell of the SB. The northern and western sides of the SB are dim in H
alpha emission, but are bright in non-thermal (power-law) X-rays with a photon
index of 2.1-2.9. The non-thermal X-ray shell traces the outer boundary of the
radio shell. These features of thin-thermal and non-thermal X-rays are similar
to those of SN 1006, a prototype of synchrotron X-ray shell, but the
non-thermal component of 30 Dor C is about ten-times brighter than that of SN
1006. 30 Dor C is the first candidate of an extragalactic SB, in which
energetic electrons are accelerating in the shell. The age is much older than
that of SN 1006, and hence the particle acceleration time in this SB may be
longer than those in normal shell-like SNRs. We found point-like sources
associated with some of tight star clusters. The X-ray luminosity and spectrum
are consistent with those of young clusters of massive stars. Point-like
sources with non-thermal spectra are also found in the SB. These may be
background objects (AGNs) or stellar remnants (neutron stars or black holes).Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ, the paper with
full resolution images in
http://www-cr.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp/member/bamba/Paper/30DorC.pd
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