Optical Modulation in the X-Ray Binary 4U 1543-624 Revisited

The X-ray binary 4U 1543$-$624 has been provisionally identified as an ultracompact system with an orbital period of $\simeq$18~min. We have carried out time-resolved optical imaging of the binary to verify the ultra-short orbital period. Using 140\,min of high-cadence $r'$-band photometry we recover the previously-seen sinusoidal modulation and determine a period $P=18.20\pm0.09$\,min. In addition, we also see a 7.0$\times 10^{-4}$\,mag\,min$^{-1}$ linear decay, likely related to variations in the source's accretion activity. Assuming that the sinusoidal modulation arises from X-ray heating of the inner face of the companion star, we estimate a distance of 6.0--6.7\,kpc and an inclination angle of 34$^{\circ}$--61$^{\circ}$ (90\% confidence) for the binary. Given the stability of the modulation we can confirm that the modulation is orbital in origin and 4U 1543$-$624 is an ultracompact X-ray binary.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA

Blindly detecting orbital modulations of jets from merging supermassive black holes

In the last few years before merger, supermassive black hole binaries will rapidly inspiral and precess in a magnetic field imposed by a surrounding circumbinary disk. Multiple simulations suggest this relative motion will convert some of the local energy to a Poynting-dominated outflow, with a luminosity 10^{43} erg/s * (B/10^4 G)^2(M/10^8 Msun)^2 (v/0.4 c)^2, some of which may emerge as synchrotron emission at frequencies near 1 GHz where current and planned wide-field radio surveys will operate. On top of a secular increase in power on the gravitational wave inspiral timescale, orbital motion will produce significant, detectable modulations, both on orbital periods and (if black hole spins are not aligned with the binary's total angular momenta) spin-orbit precession timescales. Because the gravitational wave merger time increases rapidly with separation, we find vast numbers of these transients are ubiquitously predicted, unless explicitly ruled out (by low efficiency $\epsilon$) or obscured (by accretion geometry f_{geo}). If the fraction of Poynting flux converted to radio emission times the fraction of lines of sight accessible $f_{geo}$ is sufficiently large (f_{geo} \epsilon > 2\times 10^{-4} for a 1 year orbital period), at least one event is accessible to future blind surveys at a nominal 10^4 {deg}^2 with 0.5 mJy sensitivity. Our procedure generalizes to other flux-limited surveys designed to investigate EM signatures associated with many modulations produced by merging SMBH binaries.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. v1 original submission; v2 minor changes in response to refere

Progress in Electroweak Baryogenesis

Recent work on generating the excess of matter over antimatter in the early universe during the electroweak phase transition is reviewed.Comment: 50 pages (figures on request), uses harvmac (table of contents correct for "l" format), UCSD-93-2,BU-HEP-93-

Investigation of line-of-sight propagation in dense atmosphere, phase 3, part 1

The investigation of microwave absorption in the 1 to 10 GHz frequency band by the Jovian atmosphere has continued, and an estimate of the strength of signal fading at these frequencies due to layers of turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere is given. The microwave absorption due to gaseous ammonia is estimated both in terms of a power loss in dB/km, and in total power loss in dB for slant-path communication with a probe at altitudes down to pressures of several tens of atmospheres. The graphs indicate a frequency-squared scaling of the absorption, and appreciable losses at altitudes where the pressure is several atmospheres. An estimate of turbulence strength is given. This may turn out to be quite crude considering the absence of any relevant data. A planetary scaling law which appears to hold reasonably well for Earth to Venus, is extrapolated to Jupiter. No reasonable modifications of the estimate can alter the conclusion that direct-path fading is negligible for pressure regimes up to 20 atm

An alternative to the plasma emission model: Particle-In-Cell, self-consistent electromagnetic wave emission simulations of solar type III radio bursts

1.5D PIC, relativistic, fully electromagnetic (EM) simulations are used to model EM wave emission generation in the context of solar type III radio bursts. The model studies generation of EM waves by a super-thermal, hot beam of electrons injected into a plasma thread that contains uniform longitudinal magnetic field and a parabolic density gradient. In effect, a single magnetic line connecting Sun to earth is considered, for which several cases are studied. (i) We find that the physical system without a beam is stable and only low amplitude level EM drift waves (noise) are excited. (ii) The beam injection direction is controlled by setting either longitudinal or oblique electron initial drift speed, i.e. by setting the beam pitch angle. In the case of zero pitch angle, the beam excites only electrostatic, standing waves, oscillating at plasma frequency, in the beam injection spatial location, and only low level EM drift wave noise is also generated. (iii) In the case of oblique beam pitch angles, again electrostatic waves with same properties are excited. However, now the beam also generates EM waves with the properties commensurate to type III radio bursts. The latter is evidenced by the wavelet analysis of transverse electric field component, which shows that as the beam moves to the regions of lower density, frequency of the EM waves drops accordingly. (iv) When the density gradient is removed, electron beam with an oblique pitch angle still generates the EM radiation. However, in the latter case no frequency decrease is seen. Within the limitations of the model, the study presents the first attempt to produce simulated dynamical spectrum of type III radio bursts in fully kinetic plasma model. The latter is based on 1.5D non-zero pitch angle (non-gyrotropic) electron beam, that is an alternative to the plasma emission classical mechanism.Comment: Physics of Plasmas, in press, May 2011 issue (final accepted version

Advanced Meteorological Temperature Sounder (AMTS) simulations

Simulation studies are reported on temperature retrievals from AMTS and their effect on atmospheric analysis. Observations are simulated from radiosonde reports and observed cloud cover. Temperature retrievals are performed and RMS temperature and thickness errors are calculated relative to the radiosonde profiles and compared to similarly generated HIRS statistics. Significant improvement over HIRS is found throughout the atmosphere but especially in the stratosphere and lower troposphere