Inverse-Compton gamma rays in the galaxy

Compton gamma rays with energies 1 MeV largely results from scattering between electrons, with energies 100 MeV, and photons in the optical and infrared range and the 2.7 K universal blackbody radiation. An empirical model of the inverse Compton (IC) gamma ray production in the Galaxy is presented, using the most recent estimate of the interstellar electron spectrum given by Webber and a combination of optical and infrared observations to determine the galactic distribution of the various components of the interstellar photon field. The present analysis has an improved precision since the spectral distribution of the IC source function as well as that of the interstellar photon field are more accurately taken into account. The exact evaluation of the IC process is applied and different electron distribution models are considered

XMM-Newton observations of the spiral galaxy M74 (NGC 628)

The face-on spiral galaxy M74 (NGC 628) was observed by XMM on 2002 February 2. In total, 21 sources are found in the inner 5' from the nucleus (after rejection of a few sources associated to foreground stars). Hardness ratios suggest that about half of them belong to the galaxy. The higher-luminosity end of the luminosity function is fitted by a power-law of slope -0.8. This can be interpreted as evidence of ongoing star formation, in analogy with the distributions found in disks of other late-type galaxies. A comparison with previous Chandra observations reveals a new ultraluminous X-ray transient (L_x \~ 1.5 x 10^39 erg/s in the 0.3--8 keV band) about 4' North of the nucleus. We find another transient black-hole candidate (L_x ~ 5 x 10^38 erg/s) about 5' North-West of the nucleus. The UV and X-ray counterparts of SN 2002ap are also found in this XMM observation.Comment: submitted to ApJL. Based on publicly available data, see http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es/external/xmm_news/items/sn_2002_ap/index.shtm

Diffractive Interaction and Scaling Violation in pp->pi^0 Interaction and GeV Excess in Galactic Diffuse Gamma-Ray Spectrum of EGRET

We present here a new calculation of the gamma-ray spectrum from pp->pi^0 in the Galactic ridge environment. The calculation includes the diffractive pp interaction and incorporates the Feynman scaling violation for the first time. Galactic diffuse gamma-rays come, predominantly, from pi^0->gamma gamma in the sub-GeV to multi-GeV range. Hunter et al. found, however, an excess in the GeV range ("GeV Excess") in the EGRET Galactic diffuse spectrum above the prediction based on experimental pp->pi^0 cross-sections and the Feynman scaling hypothesis. We show, in this work, that the diffractive process makes the gamma-ray spectrum harder than the incident proton spectrum by ~0.05 in power-law index, and, that the scaling violation produces 30-80% more pi^0 than the scaling model for incident proton energies above 100GeV. Combination of the two can explain about a half of the "GeV Excess" with the local cosmic proton (power-law index ~2.7). The excess can be fully explained if the proton spectral index in the Galactic ridge is a little harder (~0.2 in power-law index) than the local spectrum. Given also in the paper is that the diffractive process enhances e^+ over e^- and the scaling violation gives 50-100% higher p-bar yield than without the violation, both in the multi-GeV range.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Astrophysical Journa

The final COS-B database: In-flight calibration of instrumental parameters

A method for the determination of temporal variation of sensitivity is designed to find a set of parameters which lead to maximum consistency between the intensities derived from different observation periods. This method is briefly described and the resulting sensitivity and background variations presented

Bayesian reconstruction of binary media with unresolved fine-scale spatial structures

We present a Bayesian technique to estimate the fine-scale properties of a binary medium from multiscale observations. The binary medium of interest consists of spatially varying proportions of low and high permeability material with an isotropic structure. Inclusions of one material within the other are far smaller than the domain sizes of interest, and thus are never explicitly resolved. We consider the problem of estimating the spatial distribution of the inclusion proportion, F(x), and a characteristic length-scale of the inclusions, δ, from sparse multiscale measurements. The observations consist of coarse-scale (of the order of the domain size) measurements of the effective permeability of the medium (i.e., static data) and tracer breakthrough times (i.e., dynamic data), which interrogate the fine scale, at a sparsely distributed set of locations. This ill-posed problem is regularized by specifying a Gaussian process model for the unknown field F(x) and expressing it as a superposition of Karhunen–Loève modes. The effect of the fine-scale structures on the coarse-scale effective permeability i.e., upscaling, is performed using a subgrid-model which includes δ as one of its parameters. A statistical inverse problem is posed to infer the weights of the Karhunen–Loève modes and δ, which is then solved using an adaptive Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. The solution yields non-parametric distributions for the objects of interest, thus providing most probable estimates and uncertainty bounds on latent structures at coarse and fine scales. The technique is tested using synthetic data. The individual contributions of the static and dynamic data to the inference are also analyzed.United States. Dept. of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration (Contract DE-AC04_94AL85000

A New Limit on the Antiproton Lifetime

Measurements of the cosmic ray pbar/p ratio are compared to predictions from an inhomogeneous disk-diffusion model of pbar production and propagation within the Galaxy, combined with a calculation of the modulation of the interstellar cosmic ray spectra as the particles propagate through the heliosphere to the Earth. The predictions agree with the observed pbar/p spectrum. Adding a finite pbar lifetime to the model, we obtain the limit tau_pbar > 0.8 Myr (90 % C.L.).Comment: 13 pages, 3 encapsulated Postscript figures, uses AASTeX; accepted by Astrophysical Journal; minor change

The final COS-B database now publicly available

The data obtained by the gamma ray satellite COS-B was processed, condensed and integrated together with the relevant mission and experiment parameters into the Final COS-B Database. The database contents and the access programs available with the database are outlined. The final sky coverage and a presentation of the large scale distribution of the observed Milky Way emission are given. The database is announced to be available through the European Space Agency

The open cluster NGC 6520 and the nearby dark molecular cloud Barnard 86

Wide field BVI photometry and $^{12}$CO(1$\to$0) observations are presen ted in the region of the open cluster NGC 6520 and the dark molecular cloud Barnard~86. From the analysis of the optical data we find that the cluster is rather compact, with a radius of 1.0$\pm$0.5 arcmin, smaller than previous estimates. The cluster age is 150$\pm$50 Myr and the reddening E$_{B-V}$=0.42$\pm$0.10. The distance from the Sun is estimated to be 1900$\pm$100 pc, and it is larger than previous estimates. We finally derive basic properties of the dark nebula Barnard 86 on the assumption that it lies at the same distance of the cluster.Comment: 21 pages, 8 eps figures (a few degraded in resolution), accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

The Spectral Variability of Cygnus X-1 at MeV Energies

In previous work, we have used data from the first three years of the CGRO mission to assemble a broad-band $\gamma$-ray spectrum of the galactic black hole candidate Cygnus X-1. Contemporaneous data from the COMPTEL, OSSE and BATSE experiments on CGRO were selected on the basis of the hard X-ray flux (45--140 keV) as measured by BATSE. This provided a spectrum of Cygnus X-1 in its canonical low X-ray state (as measured at energies below 10 keV), covering the energy range from 50 keV to 5 MeV. Here we report on a comparison of this spectrum to a COMPTEL-OSSE spectrum collected during a high X-ray state of Cygnus X-1 (May, 1996). These data provide evidence for significant spectral variability at energies above 1 MeV. In particular, whereas the hard X-ray flux {\it decreases} during the high X-ray state, the flux at energies above 1 MeV {\it increases}, resulting in a significantly harder high energy spectrum. This behavior is consistent with the general picture of galactic black hole candidates having two distinct spectral forms at soft $\gamma$-ray energies. These data extend this picture, for the first time, to energies above 1 MeV.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to be published in AIP Conf. Proc., "The Fifth Compton Symposium

CO Luminosity Functions For FIR and B-band Selected Galaxies and the First Estimate for Omega_{HI+H2}

We derive a non-parametric CO luminosity function using a FIR and an optical B-band selected sample of the galaxies included in the FCRAO Extragalactic CO Survey. The FIR selected sample is defined using the IRAS Bright Galaxy Surveys (BGS; IRAS 60 micron flux density >= 5.24 Jy). Although our CO sample is not complete, the normalization using the BGS reproduces the IRAS 60 micron luminosity function in excellent agreement with those found in the literature. Similarly, a B-band selected sample defined using the Revised Shapley-Ames (RSA) catalog is used to derive a CO luminosity function for a comparison. A Schechter function describes the both derived CO luminosity functions reasonably well. Adopting the standard CO-to-H2 conversion factor, we derive a molecular gas density of rho_{H2}=(3.1\pm 1.2)*10^7h Mo Mpc^{-3} for the local volume. Combining with the measurements of the local HI mass density and the helium contribution, we estimate that the total mass density of cold neutral gas in the local universe is Omega_{gas} =(4.3 \pm 1.1)*10^{-4} h^{-1}, which is about 20% of the total stellar mass density Omega_{stars}.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures uses aastex.cls and emulateapj5.sty. Accepted for publication in Ap