471 research outputs found
Discovery of X-rays from the supernova remnant G0.9+0.1
During the survey of the Galactic Center region, we have
discovered X-ray emission from the central region of the supernova remnant
G0.9+0.1. The high interstellar absorption (N_H about 3 times 10^{23} cm^-2) is
consistent with a distance of order of 10 kpc and, correspondingly, an X-ray
luminosity of about 10^{35} erg s^{-1}. Although we cannot completely rule out
a thermal origin of the X-ray emission, its small angular extent (radius of
about 2'), the good fit with a power law, the presence of a flat spectrum radio
core, and the estimated SNR age of a few thousand years, favour the
interpretation in terms of synchrotron emission powered by a young, energetic
pulsar.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Uses espcrc2.sty (included). To appear in The
Active X-ray Sky: Results from BeppoSAX and Rossi-XTE, Nuclear Physics B
Proceedings Supplements, L. Scarsi, H. Bradt, P. Giommi and F. Fiore (eds.),
Elsevier Science B.
A dual output polarimeter devoted to the study of the Cosmic Microwave Background
We have developed a correlation radiometer at 33 GHz devoted to the search
for residual polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The two
instruments`s outputs are linear combination of two Stokes Parameters (Q and U
or U and V). The instrument is therefore directly sensitive to the polarized
component of the radiation (respectively linear and circular). The radiometer
has a beam-width oif 7 or 14 deg, but it can be coupled to a telescope
increasing the resolution. The expected CMB polarization is at most a part per
milion. The polarimeter has been designed to be sensitive to this faint signal,
and it has been optimized to improve its long term stability, observing from
the ground. In this contribution the performances of the instrument are
presented, together with the preliminary test and observations.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, in print on the Proc. SPIE Conf. - August 200
Broad-band X-ray measurements of the black hole candidate XTE J1908+094
XTE J1908+094 is an X-ray transient that went into outburst in February 2002.
After two months it reached a 2-250 keV peak flux of 1 to 2 X 10-8 erg/s/cm2.
Circumstantial evidence points to an accreting galactic black hole as the
origin of the the X-radiation: pulsations nor thermonuclear flashes were
detected that would identify a neutron star and the spectrum was unusually hard
for a neutron star at the outburst onset. We report on BeppoSAX and RXTE All
Sky Monitor observations of the broad-band spectrum of XTE J1908+094. The
spectrum is consistent with a model consisting of a Comptonization component by
a ~40 keV plasma (between 2 and 60 keV this component can be approximated by a
power law with a photon index of 1.9 to 2.1), a multicolor accretion disk
blackbody component with a temperature just below 1 keV and a broad emission
line at about 6 keV. The spectrum is heavily absorbed by cold interstellar
matter with an equivalent hydrogen column density of 2.5 X 10+22 cm-2, which
makes it difficult to study the black body component in detail. The black body
component exhibits strong evolution about 6 weeks into the outburst. Two weeks
later this is followed by a swift decay of the power law component. The
broadness of the 6 keV feature may be due to relativistic broadening or Compton
scattering of a narrow Fe-K line.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
The broad band spectral properties of galactic X-ray binary pulsars
BeppoSAX observed several galactic binary X-ray pulsars during the Science
Verification Phase and in the first year of the regular program. The complex
emission spectra of these sources are an ideal target for the BeppoSAX
instrumentation, that can measure the emission spectra in an unprecedented
broad energy band. Using this capability of BeppoSAX a detailed observational
work can be done on the galactic X-ray pulsars. In particular the 0.1-200 keV
energy band allows the shape of the continuum emission to be tightly
constrained. A better determination of the underlying continuum allows an
easier detection of features superimposed onto it, both at low energy (Fe K and
L, Ne lines) and at high energies (cyclotron features). We report on the
spectral properties of a sample of X-ray pulsars observed with BeppoSAX
comparing the obtained results. Some ideas of common properties are also
discussed and compared with our present understanding of the emission
mechanisms and processes.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Uses espcrc2.sty (included).To appear in
Proceedings of "The Active X-ray Sky: Results from BeppoSAX and Rossi-XTE
Multistage Switching Architectures for Software Routers
Software routers based on personal computer (PC) architectures are becoming an important alternative to proprietary and expensive network devices. However, software routers suffer from many limitations of the PC architecture, including, among others, limited bus and central processing unit (CPU) bandwidth, high memory access latency, limited scalability in terms of number of network interface cards, and lack of resilience mechanisms. Multistage PC-based architectures can be an interesting alternative since they permit us to i) increase the performance of single software routers, ii) scale router size, iii) distribute packet manipulation and control functionality, iv) recover from single-component failures, and v) incrementally upgrade router performance. We propose a specific multistage architecture, exploiting PC-based routers as switching elements, to build a high-speed, largesize,scalable, and reliable software router. A small-scale prototype of the multistage router is currently up and running in our labs, and performance evaluation is under wa
Spatially resolved spectroscopy of Cassiopeia A with MECS on board BeppoSAX
We have performed the first detailed spatially resolved spectroscopy of Cas A
in the 1.6-10 keV energy range, using data taken with the MECS spectrometer on
board the BeppoSAX Observatory. We performed a spatial deconvolution of the
data and eventually generated a set of spectra, covering a region of about 3
arcmin radius around the centre of Cas A. The results obtained by fitting these
spectra using a non-equilibrium ionisation plasma model and a power law, are:
(i) a single thermal component is sufficient to fit all the spectra; (ii) kT is
rather uniformly distributed with a minimum in the east and a maximum in the
west, and no evidence is found for high kT expected from the interaction of the
main shock with the ISM; (iii) from the distribution of the values of the
ionisation parameter n_et we infer the presence of two distinct components: the
first (a) in the range 1-10 cm^(-3), the second (b) with values ten times
higher; if we associate component a to the CSM and component b to the ejecta,
the mass ratio M(a)/M(b)<= 1/10 indicates a progenitor star that lost only a
small fraction of the envelope during its pre-SN life. In this hypothesis the
distribution of component b across the remnant suggests that the explosion was
not spherically symmetric; (iv) the distribution of abundances indicates that
we are detecting a CSM component with almost solar composition, and an ejecta
component enriched in heavier elements. Abundances found for alpha-elements are
consistent with the current view that Cas A was produced by the explosion of a
massive star.Comment: 16 pages, 9 PostScript figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication on
Astronomy & Astrophysics (submitted July 12, 2000; accepted December 20,
2000
Onset and Evolution of the Oblique, Resonant Electron Firehose Instability in the Expanding Solar Wind Plasma
A double adiabatically expanding solar wind would quickly develop large parallel to perpendicular temperature anisotropies in electrons and ions that are not observed. One reason is that firehose instabilities would be triggered, leading to an ongoing driving/saturation evolution mechanism. We verify this assumption here for the first time for the electron distribution function and the electron firehose instability (EFI), using fully kinetic simulations with the Expanding Box Model. This allows the self-consistent study of onset and evolution of the oblique, resonant EFI in an expanding solar wind. We characterize how the competition between EFI and adiabatic expansion plays out in high- A nd low-beta cases, in high- A nd low-speed solar wind streams. We observe that, even when competing against expansion, the EFI results in perpendicular heating and parallel cooling. These two concurrent processes effectively limit the expansion-induced increase in temperature anisotropy and parallel electron beta. We show that the EFI goes through cycles of stabilization and destabilization: When higher wave number EFI modes saturate, lower wave number modes are destabilized by the effects of the expansion. We show how resonant wave/particle interaction modifies the electron velocity distribution function after the onset of the EFI. The simulations are performed with the fully kinetic, semi-implicit expanding box code EB-iPic3D
BeppoSAX view of NGC 526A: a Seyfert 1.9 galaxy with a flat spectrum
In the present work we report the BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1.9
galaxy NGC 526A in the band 0.1-150 keV. The high energy instrument onboard,
PDS, has succeeded in measuring for the first time the spectrum of this source
in the 13-150 keV range. The combined analysis of all Narrow Field Instruments
provides a power law spectral index of ~ 1.6 and confirms the flat spectral
nature of this source. Although NGC 526A varies strongly in the 2-10 keV over
period of months/years, its spectral shape remains constant over these
timescales. An Fe K-alpha line, characterized by a complex structure, has been
detected in the 6-7 keV range. The line, which has an equivalent width of 120
eV, is not compatible with being produced in an absorbing torus with N_H ~
10^22 cm^-2, but most likely originates by reflection in an accretion disk
viewed at an intermediate inclination angle of ~ 42 deg. The reflection
component is however small (R < 0.7) and so it is not sufficient to steepen the
spectrum to photon index values more typical of AGNs. Instead, we find that the
data are more consistent with a flat power law spectrum cut-off at around 100
keV plus a small reflection component which could explain the observed iron
line. Thus NGC 526A is the only bona-fide Seyfert 2 galaxy which maintains a
"flat spectrum" even when broad band data are considered: in this sense its
properties, with respect to the general class of Seyfert 2's, are analogous to
those of NGC 4151 with respect to the vast majority of Seyfert 1's.Comment: 8 pages, 6 PostScript figures, Latex manuscript, new A&A file style
included, accepted for publication on Astronomy and Astrophysic
Discovery of the neutron star nature of SLX 1737-282
SLX 1737-282 is a persistent moderately bright X-ray source 1.2 deg from the
Galactic center. X-ray observations with the Wide Field Cameras on BeppoSAX
have for the first time revealed the true nature of SLX 1737-282: a 15-min long
thermonuclear flash was detected exposing the source as a neutron star in a
binary system. The flash was Eddington-limited constraining the distance to
between 5 and 8 kpc. We analyze BeppoSAX, ROSAT, and RXTE data on SLX 1737-282.
The persistent 0.5-200 keV luminosity is close to or less than 1% of the
Eddington limit which implies a rarely-seen circumstance for thermonuclear
flash activity.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letter
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