Shaping the Contours of Domestic Justice: The International Criminal Court and an Admissibility Challenge in the Uganda Situation

In December 2003, the Government of Uganda referred the situation in conflict-torn northern Uganda to the nascent International Criminal Court. It was the first referral by a State Party under Article 14 of the Rome Statute of ICC and led to the indictment of five leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Four years later, Uganda found itself in the midst of promising peace negotiations with the LRA. A major obstacle to a final agreement was the refusal of the indicted leaders to face ICC justice. Seeking to peacefully resolve the conflict, the Government signed a preliminary agreement in which it would assume the prosecution of the indictees. Under the principle of complementarity embedded in Article 17 of the Rome Statute, the ICC cannot prosecute where a jurisdictional state has undertaken investigation or prosecution, unless the State’s action is in an attempt to shield the accused from justice. However, with the case against the LRA leaders already deemed admissible, an admissibility challenge would be necessary to withdraw the ICC indictments. This paper examines the various and complex issues regarding both the nature of challenging admissibility generally and particular issues that arise from such challenges in the context of State self-referrals. The article proposes three different visions of complementarity as a means of understanding the boundaries within which the Court may situate a decision, and applies them to the hypothetical situation of an admissibility challenge to the LRA indictments. The options of both the indictees and Uganda are explored and the prospects for a successful challenge are examined. The paper concludes by suggesting a critical role for the Court in both resolving conflict and shaping the contours of acceptable domestic efforts to bring those responsible for grave crimes to justice

Shaping the Contours of Domestic Justice: The International Criminal Court and an Admissibility Challenge in the Uganda Situation

In December 2003, the Government of Uganda referred the situation in conflict-torn northern Uganda to the nascent International Criminal Court. It was the first referral by a State Party under Article 14 of the Rome Statute of ICC and led to the indictment of five leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Four years later, Uganda found itself in the midst of promising peace negotiations with the LRA. A major obstacle to a final agreement was the refusal of the indicted leaders to face ICC justice. Seeking to peacefully resolve the conflict, the Government signed a preliminary agreement in which it would assume the prosecution of the indictees. Under the principle of complementarity embedded in Article 17 of the Rome Statute, the ICC cannot prosecute where a jurisdictional state has undertaken investigation or prosecution, unless the State’s action is in an attempt to shield the accused from justice. However, with the case against the LRA leaders already deemed admissible, an admissibility challenge would be necessary to withdraw the ICC indictments. This paper examines the various and complex issues regarding both the nature of challenging admissibility generally and particular issues that arise from such challenges in the context of State self-referrals. The article proposes three different visions of complementarity as a means of understanding the boundaries within which the Court may situate a decision, and applies them to the hypothetical situation of an admissibility challenge to the LRA indictments. The options of both the indictees and Uganda are explored and the prospects for a successful challenge are examined. The paper concludes by suggesting a critical role for the Court in both resolving conflict and shaping the contours of acceptable domestic efforts to bring those responsible for grave crimes to justice

A Millisecond Interferometric Search for Fast Radio Bursts with the Very Large Array

We report on the first millisecond timescale radio interferometric search for the new class of transient known as fast radio bursts (FRBs). We used the Very Large Array (VLA) for a 166-hour, millisecond imaging campaign to detect and precisely localize an FRB. We observed at 1.4 GHz and produced visibilities with 5 ms time resolution over 256 MHz of bandwidth. Dedispersed images were searched for transients with dispersion measures from 0 to 3000 pc/cm3. No transients were detected in observations of high Galactic latitude fields taken from September 2013 though October 2014. Observations of a known pulsar show that images typically had a thermal-noise limited sensitivity of 120 mJy/beam (8 sigma; Stokes I) in 5 ms and could detect and localize transients over a wide field of view. Our nondetection limits the FRB rate to less than 7e4/sky/day (95% confidence) above a fluence limit of 1.2 Jy-ms. Assuming a Euclidean flux distribution, the VLA rate limit is inconsistent with the published rate of Thornton et al. We recalculate previously published rates with a homogeneous consideration of the effects of primary beam attenuation, dispersion, pulse width, and sky brightness. This revises the FRB rate downward and shows that the VLA observations had a roughly 60% chance of detecting a typical FRB and that a 95% confidence constraint would require roughly 500 hours of similar VLA observing. Our survey also limits the repetition rate of an FRB to 2 times less than any known repeating millisecond radio transient.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 13 pages, 9 figure

Survey for Transiting Extrasolar Planets in Stellar Systems: III. A Limit on the Fraction of Stars with Planets in the Open Cluster NGC 1245

We analyze a 19-night photometric search for transiting extrasolar planets in the open cluster NGC 1245. An automated transit search algorithm with quantitative selection criteria finds six transit candidates; none are bona fide planetary transits. We characterize the survey detection probability via Monte Carlo injection and recovery of realistic limb-darkened transits. We use this to derive upper limits on the fraction of cluster members with close-in Jupiter-radii, RJ, companions. We carefully analyze the random and systematic errors of the calculation. For similar photometric noise and weather properties as this survey, observing NGC 1245 twice as long results in a tighter constraint on "Hot Jupiter", HJ, companions than observing an additional cluster of similar richness as NGC 1245 for the same length of time as this survey. This survey observed ~870 cluster members. If 1% of stars have 1.5 RJ HJ companions, we expect to detect one planet for every 5000 dwarf stars observed for a month. To reach a ~2% upper limit on the fraction of stars with 1.5 RJ HJ companions, we conclude a total sample size of ~7400 dwarf stars observed for at least a month will be needed. Results for 1.0 RJ companions, without substantial improvement in the photometric precision, will require a small factor larger sample size.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures, submitted A

Research Note:<br>Derivation of temperature lapse rates in semi-arid south-eastern Arizona

International audienceEcological and hydrological modelling at the regional scale requires distributed information on weather variables, and temperature is important among these. In an area of basin and range topography with a wide range of elevations, such as south-eastern Arizona, measurements are usually available only at a relatively small number of locations and elevations, and temperatures elsewhere must be estimated from atmospheric lapse rate. This paper derives the lapse rates to estimate maximum, minimum and mean daily temperatures from elevation. Lapse rates were calculated using air temperatures at 2 m collected during 2002 at 18 locations across south-eastern Arizona, with elevations from 779 to 2512 m. The lapse rate predicted for the minimum temperature was lower than the mean environmental lapse rate (MELR), i.e. 6 K km?1, whereas those predicted for the mean and maximum daily temperature were very similar to the MELR. Lapse rates were also derived from radiosonde data at 00 and 12 UTC (5 pm and 5 am local time, respectively). The lapse rates calculated from radiosonde data were greater than those from the 2 m measurements, presumably because the effect of the surface was less. Given temperatures measured at Tucson airport, temperatures at the other sites were predicted using the different estimates of lapse rates. The best predictions of temperatures used the locally predicted lapse rates. In the case of maximum and mean temperature, using the MELR also resulted in accurate predictions. Keywords: near surface lapse rates, semi-arid climate, mean minimum and maximum temperatures, basin and range topograph

Survey for Transiting Extrasolar Planets in Stellar Systems

ABSTRACT We analyze a 19 night photometric search for transiting extrasolar planets in the open cluster NGC 1245. An automated transit search algorithm with quantitative selection criteria finds six transit candidates; none are bona fide planetary transits. We characterize the survey detection probability via Monte Carlo injection and recovery of realistic limb-darkened transits. We use this to derive upper limits on the fraction of cluster members with close-in Jupiter radii, R J , companions. The survey sample contains $870 cluster members, and we calculate 95$2% upper limit on the fraction of stars with 1.5R J companions in the 3:0 &lt; P day À1 &lt; 9:0 range, we conclude that a total sample size of $7400 dwarf stars observed for at least a month will be needed. Results for 1.0R J companions, without substantial improvement in the photometric precision, will require a small factor larger sample size

Photoionization of the Be isoelectronic sequence: total cross sections

The photoionization of the four-electron beryllium-like isoelectronic series from the neutral to Fe^{+22} has been studied for ground ^1S and metastable ^3P initial states. The wave functions of the final-state (target) ions were built using the CIV3 code. Both nonrelativistic LS-coupling R-matrix and relativistic Breit-Pauli (BP) R-matrix methods were used to calculate the cross sections in the photon-energy range between the first ionization threshold and the 1s^2 4f_{7/2} threshold for each ion. Our total cross sections compare well with experiment which is available for Be, B^+, C^{+2}, N^{+3}, and O^{+4}. The agreement between the present work and previous calculations is discussed in detail. The importance of relativistic effects is seen by the comparison between the LS and the BP results.Comment: 45 pages, 3 tables, 22 figure

The Host Galaxy and Redshift of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102

The precise localization of the repeating fast radio burst (FRB 121102) has provided the first unambiguous association (chance coincidence probability $p\lesssim3\times10^{-4}$) of an FRB with an optical and persistent radio counterpart. We report on optical imaging and spectroscopy of the counterpart and find that it is an extended ($0.6^{\prime\prime}-0.8^{\prime\prime}$) object displaying prominent Balmer and [OIII] emission lines. Based on the spectrum and emission line ratios, we classify the counterpart as a low-metallicity, star-forming, $m_{r^\prime} = 25.1$ AB mag dwarf galaxy at a redshift of $z=0.19273(8)$, corresponding to a luminosity distance of 972 Mpc. From the angular size, the redshift, and luminosity, we estimate the host galaxy to have a diameter $\lesssim4$ kpc and a stellar mass of $M_*\sim4-7\times 10^{7}\,M_\odot$, assuming a mass-to-light ratio between 2 to 3$\,M_\odot\,L_\odot^{-1}$. Based on the H$\alpha$ flux, we estimate the star formation rate of the host to be $0.4\,M_\odot\,\mathrm{yr^{-1}}$ and a substantial host dispersion measure depth $\lesssim 324\,\mathrm{pc\,cm^{-3}}$. The net dispersion measure contribution of the host galaxy to FRB 121102 is likely to be lower than this value depending on geometrical factors. We show that the persistent radio source at FRB 121102's location reported by Marcote et al (2017) is offset from the galaxy's center of light by $\sim$200 mas and the host galaxy does not show optical signatures for AGN activity. If FRB 121102 is typical of the wider FRB population and if future interferometric localizations preferentially find them in dwarf galaxies with low metallicities and prominent emission lines, they would share such a preference with long gamma ray bursts and superluminous supernovae.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, Published in ApJ Letters. V2: Corrected mistake in author lis

A Multi-telescope Campaign on FRB 121102: Implications for the FRB Population

We present results of the coordinated observing campaign that made the first subarcsecond localization of a Fast Radio Burst, FRB 121102. During this campaign, we made the first simultaneous detection of an FRB burst by multiple telescopes: the VLA at 3 GHz and the Arecibo Observatory at 1.4 GHz. Of the nine bursts detected by the Very Large Array at 3 GHz, four had simultaneous observing coverage at other observatories. We use multi-observatory constraints and modeling of bursts seen only at 3 GHz to confirm earlier results showing that burst spectra are not well modeled by a power law. We find that burst spectra are characterized by a ~500 MHz envelope and apparent radio energy as high as $10^{40}$ erg. We measure significant changes in the apparent dispersion between bursts that can be attributed to frequency-dependent profiles or some other intrinsic burst structure that adds a systematic error to the estimate of DM by up to 1%. We use FRB 121102 as a prototype of the FRB class to estimate a volumetric birth rate of FRB sources $R_{FRB} \approx 5x10^{-5}/N_r$ Mpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$, where $N_r$ is the number of bursts per source over its lifetime. This rate is broadly consistent with models of FRBs from young pulsars or magnetars born in superluminous supernovae or long gamma-ray bursts, if the typical FRB repeats on the order of thousands of times during its lifetime.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to AAS Journal

Your: Your Unified Reader

The advancement in signal processing and GPU based systems has enabled new transient detectors at various telescopes to perform much more sensitive searches than their predecessors. Typically the data output from the telescopes is in one of the two commonly used formats: psrfits and Sigproc filterbank. Software developed for transient searches often only works with one of these two formats, limiting their general applicability. Therefore, researchers have to write custom scripts to read/write the data in their format of choice before they can begin any data analysis relevant for their research. \textsc{Your} (Your Unified Reader) is a python-based library that unifies the data processing across multiple commonly used formats. \textsc{Your} implements a user-friendly interface to read and write in the data format of choice. It also generates unified metadata corresponding to the input data file for a quick understanding of observation parameters and provides utilities to perform common data analysis operations. \textsc{Your} also provides several state-of-the-art radio frequency interference mitigation (RFI) algorithms, which can now be used during any stage of data processing (reading, writing, etc.) to filter out artificial signals.Comment: 3 pages, Published in JOSS, Github: https://github.com/thepetabyteproject/you