901 research outputs found
On the local birth place of Geminga
Using estimates of the distance and proper motion of Geminga and the
constraints on its radial velocity posed by the shape of its bow shock, we
investigate its birth place by tracing its space motion backwards in time. Our
results exclude the lambda Ori association as the origin site because of the
large distance between both objects at any time. Our simulations place the
birth region at approximately 90-240 pc from the Sun, between 197 degrees and
199 degrees in Galactic longitude and -16 degrees and -8 degrees in latitude,
most probably inside the Cas-Tau OB association or the Ori OB1a association. We
discard the possibility of the progenitor being a massive field star. The
association of Geminga with either stellar association implies an upper limit
of M = 15 Msun for the mass of its progenitor. We also propose new members for
the Cas-Tau and Ori OB1 associations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
A search in the COS-B data base for correlated time variability in regions containing objects of interest
As is well known, association of the gamma-ray sources with celestial objects is, in general, difficult on a pure positional basis, while correlated time variability could obviously provide such proof. This technique can be employed on regions of the gamma-ray sky containing interesting objects of known variability at some wavelength even in the absence of a recognized gamma-ray excess with the aim to extract a weak but predictable signal from the surrounding noise. This technique is applied here on a longer variability time scale, generally of the order of days. Photons coming from the sky regions centered on the various celestial objects considered were selected with energies 100 MeV and with arrival directions within an energy-dependent area of radius of approx 6 deg at 100 MeV. In order to construct a time profile of such photons, their arrival times were grouped in bins of dimensions defined by the available photons number and by the value of the period searched for
The 78.4 day period of Cygnus XR-1
A search for a 78.4 day modulation in the high energy X-ray flux observed with OSO-8 and in the U-band optical polarization is reported. It is suggested that if such a modulation does exist, it is more likely to be related to the rotation of the free modes of oscillation of the primary than to the existence of a third body in the system
The distance to the Vela pulsar gauged with HST parallax oservations
The distance to the Vela pulsar (PSR B0833-45) has been traditionally assumed
to be 500 pc. Although affected by a significant uncertainty, this value stuck
to both the pulsar and the SNR. In an effort to obtain a model free distance
measurement, we have applied high resolution astrometry to the pulsar V~23.6
optical counterpart. Using a set of five HST/WFPC2 observations, we have
obtained the first optical measurement of the annual parallax of the Vela
pulsar. The parallax turns out to be 3.4 +/- 0.7 mas, implying a distance of
294(-50;+76) pc, i.e. a value significantly lower than previously believed.
This affects the estimate of the pulsar absolute luminosity and of its emission
efficiency at various wavelengths and confirms the exceptionally high value of
the N_e towards the Vela pulsar. Finally, the complete parallax data base
allows for a better measurement of the Vela pulsar proper motion
(mu_alpha(cos(delta))=-37.2 +/- 1.2 mas/yr; mu_delta=28.2 +/- 1.3 mas/yr after
correcting for the peculiar motion of the Sun) which, at the parallax distance,
implies a transverse velocity of ~65 km/s. Moreover, the proper motion position
angle appears specially well aligned with the axis of symmetry of the X-ray
nebula as seen by Chandra. Such an alignment allows to assess the space
velocity of the Vela pulsar to be ~81 km/s.Comment: LaTeX, 21 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
Light-curve modelling constraints on the obliquities and aspect angles of the young Fermi pulsars
In more than four years of observation the Large Area Telescope on board the
Fermi satellite has identified pulsed -ray emission from more than 80
young pulsars, providing light curves with high statistics. Fitting the
observations with geometrical models can provide estimates of the magnetic
obliquity and aspect angle , yielding estimates of the
radiation beaming factor and luminosity. Using -ray emission geometries
(Polar Cap, Slot Gap, Outer Gap, One Pole Caustic) and radio emission geometry,
we fit -ray light curves for 76 young pulsars and we jointly fit their
-ray plus radio light curves when possible. We find that a joint radio
plus -ray fit strategy is important to obtain (, )
estimates that can explain simultaneous radio and -ray emission. The
intermediate-to-high altitude magnetosphere models, Slot Gap, Outer Gap, and
One pole Caustic, are favoured in explaining the observations. We find no
evolution of on a time scale of a million years. For all emission
geometries our derived -ray beaming factors are generally less than one
and do not significantly evolve with the spin-down power. A more pronounced
beaming factor vs. spin-down power correlation is observed for Slot Gap model
and radio-quiet pulsars and for the Outer Gap model and radio-loud pulsars. For
all models, the correlation between -ray luminosity and spin-down power
is consistent with a square root dependence. The -ray luminosities
obtained by using our beaming factors not exceed the spin-down power. This
suggests that assuming a beaming factor of one for all objects, as done in
other studies, likely overestimates the real values. The data show a relation
between the pulsar spectral characteristics and the width of the accelerator
gap that is consistent with the theoretical prediction for the Slot Gap model.Comment: 90 pages, 80 figures (63 in Appendices), accepted for publication in
Astronomy and Astrophysic
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
Upper Limits on the Continuum Emission from Geminga at 74 and 326 MHz
We report a search for radio continuum emission from the gamma-ray pulsar
Geminga. We have used the VLA to image the location of the optical counterpart
of Geminga at 74 and 326 MHz. We detect no radio counterpart. We derive upper
limits to the pulse-averaged flux density of Geminga, taking diffractive
scintillation into account. We find that diffractive scintillation is probably
quenched at 74 MHz and does not influence our upper limit, S < 56 mJy
(2\sigma), but that a 95% confidence level at 326 MHz is S < 5 mJy. Owing to
uncertainties on the other low-frequency detections and the possibility of
intrinsic variability or extrinsic variability (refractive interstellar
scintillation) or both, our non-detections are nominally consistent with these
previous detections.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX2e with AASTeX 4.0, 3 figures; to be published in Ap
A refined ephemeris and phase resolved X-ray spectroscopy of the Geminga pulsar
We present a refined phase-connected post-glitch ephemeris for the Geminga
pulsar that is a good fit to all the post-glitch data from EGRET, ASCA, and
XMM. We also present the results of phase-resolved spectroscopy of two XMM
X-ray observations of the Geminga pulsar obtained in 2002 and 2004. An
investigation is made into a previously claimed existence of a small hot spot
on the neutron star surface. We conclude that that interpretation was more
likely an artifact of an overly restrictive assumption used to fit the
phase-resolved spectra, namely, that the spectral index of the non-thermal
component is constant. When we allow the spectral index to vary as a function
of rotation phase, we find systematic variations in spectral index, and such
fits do not require an additional, hot blackbody component.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures To be published in Ap.J. v633 no.
Early SPI/INTEGRAL contraints on the morphology of the 511 keV line emission in the 4th galactic quadrant
We provide first constraints on the morphology of the 511 keV line emission
from the galactic centre region on basis of data taken with the spectrometer
SPI on the INTEGRAL gamma-ray observatory. The data suggest an azimuthally
symmetric galactic bulge component with FWHM of ~9 deg with a 2 sigma
uncertainty range covering 6-18 deg. The 511 keV line flux in the bulge
component amounts to (9.9+4.7-2.1) 10e-4 ph cm-2 s-1. No evidence for a
galactic disk component has been found so far; upper 2 sigma flux limits in the
range (1.4-3.4) 10e-3 ph cm-2 s-1 have been obtained that depend on the assumed
disk morphology. These limits correspond to lower limits on the bulge-to-disk
ratio of 0.3-0.6.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&
The SXI telescope on board EXIST: scientific performances
The SXI telescope is one of the three instruments on board EXIST, a
multiwavelength observatory in charge of performing a global survey of the sky
in hard X-rays searching for Supermassive Black Holes. One of the primary
objectives of EXIST is also to study with unprecedented sensitivity the most
unknown high energy sources in the Universe, like high redshift GRBs, which
will be pointed promptly by the Spacecraft by autonomous trigger based on hard
X-ray localization on board. The recent addition of a soft X-ray telescope to
the EXIST payload complement, with an effective area of ~950 cm2 in the energy
band 0.2-3 keV and extended response up to 10 keV will allow to make broadband
studies from 0.1 to 600 keV. In particular, investigations of the spectra
components and states of AGNs and monitoring of variability of sources, study
of the prompt and afterglow emission of GRBs since the early phases, which will
help to constrain the emission models and finally, help the identification of
sources in the EXIST hard X-ray survey and the characterization of the
transient events detected. SXI will also perform surveys: a scanning survey
with sky coverage of about 2pi and limiting flux of 5x10^{-14}cgs plus other
serendipitous. We give an overview of the SXI scientific performance and also
describe the status of its design emphasizing how it has been derived by the
scientific requirements.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Proc. of SPIE, vol 7435-11,
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