Study of the light-induced metal-insulator transition in SrTiO3 by photoresistance spectroscopy

Photoresistivity and its spectral response has been systematically studied in oxygen deficient SrTiO3 single crystals for a wide range of resistivities, ρ, and carrier densities, n. At roomtemperature we have found a persistent photoresistance that gradually decreases as ρ is diminished or n is increased in addition to relaxation times of seconds to a few minutes suggesting that trapping of carriers is playing a major role. An analysis of the photoresistance excitation spectra shows two distinctive features that are related to the indirect gap of SrTiO3 at (3.25 ± 0.04) eV and to a direct transition at (3.40 ± 0.03) eV. The photoresistive crystals present a temperature dependent resisitivity under illumination that experiences a metal-insulator transition below T ∼ 85 K. Lowtemperature photoresistance spectrum reveals as a suitable technique to understand the origin of this transition, pointing to an enhanced efficiency of the ∼ 3.25 eV gap to promote electrons to the bottom of the conduction band.Fil: Bridoux, German. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología. Departamento de Física. Laboratorio de Física del Solido; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Villafuerte, Manuel Jose. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología. Departamento de Física. Laboratorio de Física del Solido; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Ferreyra, J. M.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología. Departamento de Física. Laboratorio de Física del Solido; ArgentinaFil: Bachi, N.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología. Departamento de Física. Laboratorio de Física del Solido; ArgentinaFil: Figueroa, C. A.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología. Departamento de Física. Laboratorio de Física del Solido; ArgentinaFil: Heluani, S. P.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología. Departamento de Física. Laboratorio de Física del Solido; Argentin

Spectrum and Variability of Mrk501 as observed by the CAT Imaging Telescope

The CAT Imaging Telescope has observed the BL Lac object Markarian 501 between March and August 1997. We report here on the variability over this time including several large flares. We present also preliminary spectra for all these data, for the low emission state, and for the largest flare.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Late

Observation of the Crab Nebula Gamma-Ray Emission Above 220 Gev by the Cat Cherenkov Imaging Telescope

The CAT imaging telescope, recently built on the site of the former solar plant Themis (French Pyrenees), observed gamma-rays from the Crab nebula from October 1996 to March 1997. This steady source, often considered as the standard candle of very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, is used as a test-beam to probe the performances of the new telescope, particularly its energy threshold (220 GeV at 20 degrees zenith angle) and the stability of its response. Due to the fine-grain camera, an accurate analysis of the longitudinal profiles of shower images is performed, yielding the source position in two dimensions for each individual shower.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Tex, contribution to 25th ICRC Durba

Detection of Vhe Gamma-Rays from MRK 501 with the Cat Imaging Telescope

The CAT imaging telescope on the site on the former solar plant Themis has been observing gamma-rays from Mrk501 above 220 GeV in March and April 1997. This source is shown to be highly variable and the light curve is presented. The detected gamma-ray rate for the most intense flare is in excess of 10 per minute.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Tex, contribution to 25th ICRC Durba

Auto anti oxLDL, IgM and IgG: comparison between sedentary and athletes

Introduction: The practice of regular physical activity contributes to reduce the prevalence of coronary hearth disease (CHD) and aerobic exercises are associated with beneficial changes in the profile of circulating lipids and lipoproteins. However in the past years the oxidative hypothesis assumed great importance in the pathogenesis of CHD. During exhaustive exercises there is a greater possibility of oxidation of LDL, forming oxidized LDL (oxLDL) that has a key role in atherogenesis. However the incidence of coronary events in athletes is lower than in sedentary persons. It is described in the literature that we can found in serum auto autoantibodies anti-oxLDL, of the isotypes IgG and IgM. The former involved with atherogenesis and the latter with an atheroprotective function. The aim of this study was to verify if there are differences in the prevalence of the different autoantibodies between athletes and sedentary persons. Methods: Twenty male recreational runners and twenty male sedentary individuals living in the city of São Paulo were recruited for the study. Both the study protocol and consent form had been approved by the UNIFESP-EPM Ethics Committee. None of the participants were using lipid-lowering medications, no smokers, addicted to alcohol consumption, obese or had systemic arterial hypertension, neither liver, renal, metabolic, inflammatory or neoplastic diseases. Blood sample were collected at rest. Blood draws for all the individuals were performed after 12 hours of fasting. IgM and IgG anti ox LDL specific reactivity in serum, were measured by ELISA using previously stored serum. Student’s t-test was used to analyze differences in age and body mass index (BMI). The Mann-Whitney test was used to determine if the differences between the results for sedentary individuals and those for runners at rest were significant. Results: We found that at rest the group of athletes studied showed a statistically higher concentration of IgM autoantibodies against ox-LDL than controls (figure 1 a). At the same time, IgG autoantibodies anti ox-LDL presented the same concentration in controls and athletes (Figure 1 b). Conclusion: This finding is of extreme importance when we consider the prevalence of CHD in those different populations and the opposite actions of these two isotypes of antibodies

Very High Energy Gamma-ray spectral properties of Mrk 501 from CAT Cerenkov telescope observations in 1997

The BL Lac object Mrk 501 went into a very high state of activity during 1997, both in VHE gamma-rays and X-rays. We present here results from observations at energies above 250 GeV carried out between March and October 1997 with the CAT Cerenkov imaging Telescope. The average differential spectrum between 30 GeV and 13 TeV shows significant curvature and is well represented by phi_0 * E_TeV^{-(alpha + beta*log10(E_TeV))}, with: phi_0 = 5.19 +/- 0.13 {stat} +/- 0.12 {sys-MC} +1.66/-1.04 {sys-atm} * 10^-11 /cm^2/s/TeV alpha = 2.24 +/- 0.04 {stat} +/- 0.05 {sys} beta = 0.50 +/- 0.07 {stat} (negligible systematics). The TeV spectral energy distribution of Mrk 501 clearly peaks in the range 500 GeV-1 TeV. Investigation of spectral variations shows a significant hardness-intensity correlation with no measurable effect on the curvature. This can be described as an increase of the peak TeV emission energy with intensity. Simultaneous and quasi-simultaneous CAT VHE gamma-ray and BeppoSAX hard X-ray detections for the highest recorded flare on 16th April and for lower-activity states of the same period show correlated variability with a higher luminosity in X-rays than in gamma-rays. The observed spectral energy distribution and the correlated variability between X-rays and gamma-rays, both in amplitude and in hardening of spectra, favour a two-component emission scheme where the low and high energy components are attributed to synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) radiation, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics, 8 pages including 6 figures. Published with minor change

The CAT Imaging Telescope for Very-High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy

The CAT (Cherenkov Array at Themis) imaging telescope, equipped with a very-high-definition camera (546 fast phototubes with 0.12 degrees spacing surrounded by 54 larger tubes in two guard rings) started operation in Autumn 1996 on the site of the former solar plant Themis (France). Using the atmospheric Cherenkov technique, it detects and identifies very high energy gamma-rays in the range 250 GeV to a few tens of TeV. The instrument, which has detected three sources (Crab nebula, Mrk 421 and Mrk 501), is described in detail.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures. submitted to Elsevier Preprin

First detection of a VHE gamma-ray spectral maximum from a Cosmic source: H.E.S.S. discovery of the Vela X nebula

The Vela supernova remnant (SNR) is a complex region containing a number of sources of non-thermal radiation. The inner section of this SNR, within 2 degrees of the pulsar PSR B0833-45, has been observed by the H.E.S.S. gamma-ray atmospheric Cherenkov detector in 2004 and 2005. A strong signal is seen from an extended region to the south of the pulsar, within an integration region of radius 0.8 deg. around the position (RA = 08h 35m 00s, dec = -45 deg. 36' J2000.0). The excess coincides with a region of hard X-ray emission seen by the ROSAT and ASCA satellites. The observed energy spectrum of the source between 550 GeV and 65 TeV is well fit by a power law function with photon index = 1.45 +/- 0.09(stat) +/- 0.2(sys) and an exponential cutoff at an energy of 13.8 +/- 2.3(stat) +/- 4.1(sys) TeV. The integral flux above 1 TeV is (1.28 +/- 0.17 (stat) +/- 0.38(sys)) x 10^{-11} cm^{-2} s^{-1}. This result is the first clear measurement of a peak in the spectral energy distribution from a VHE gamma-ray source, likely related to inverse Compton emission. A fit of an Inverse Compton model to the H.E.S.S. spectral energy distribution gives a total energy in non-thermal electrons of ~2 x 10^{45} erg between 5 TeV and 100 TeV, assuming a distance of 290 parsec to the pulsar. The best fit electron power law index is 2.0, with a spectral break at 67 TeV.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics letter

Observations of Mkn 421 in 2004 with H.E.S.S. at large zenith angles

Mkn 421 was observed during a high flux state for nine nights in April and May 2004 with the fully operational High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in Namibia. The observations were carried out at zenith angles of 60$^\circ$--65$^\circ$, which result in an average energy threshold of 1.5 TeV and a collection area reaching 2~km$^2$ at 10~TeV. Roughly 7000 photons from Mkn~421 were accumulated with an average gamma-ray rate of 8 photons/min. The overall significance of the detection exceeds 100 standard deviations. The light-curve of integrated fluxes above 2~TeV shows changes of the diurnal flux up to a factor of 4.3. For nights of high flux, intra-night variability is detected with a decay time of less than 1 hour. The time averaged energy spectrum is curved and is well described by a power-law with a photon index \egamm and an exponential cutoff at \ecut~TeV and an average integral flux above 2~TeV of 3 Crab flux units. Significant variations of the spectral shape are detected with a spectral hardening as the flux increases. Contemporaneous multi-wavelength observations at lower energies (X-rays and gamma-rays above $\approx 300$~GeV) indicate smaller relative variability amplitudes than seen above 2~TeV during high flux state observed in April 2004.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, published in A&

Very high energy gamma rays from the direction of Sagittarius A*.

We report the detection of a point-like source of very high energy (VHE) -rays coincident within 1' of Sgr A *, obtained with the HESS array of Cherenkov telescopes. The -rays exhibit a power-law energy spectrum with a spectral index of and a flux above the 165 GeV threshold of m -2 s -1. The measured flux and spectrum differ substantially from recent results reported in particular by the CANGAROO collaboration