21,562 research outputs found
Geography, Demography, and Economic Growth in Africa
macroeconomics, Geography, Demography, Economic Growth, Africa
Properties of Gamma-Ray Burst Time Profiles Using Pulse Decomposition Analysis
The time profiles of many gamma-ray bursts consist of distinct pulses, which
offers the possibility of characterizing the temporal structure of these bursts
using a relatively small set of pulse shape parameters. This pulse
decomposition analysis has previously been performed on a small sample of
bright long bursts using binned data from BATSE, which comes in several data
types, and on a sample of short bursts using the BATSE Time-Tagged Event (TTE)
data type. We have developed an interactive pulse-fitting program using the
phenomenological pulse model of Norris, et al. and a maximum-likelihood fitting
routine. We have used this program to analyze the Time-to-Spill (TTS) data for
all bursts observed by BATSE up through trigger number 2000, in all energy
channels for which TTS data is available. We present statistical information on
the attributes of pulses comprising these bursts, including relations between
pulse characteristics in different energy channels and the evolution of pulse
characteristics through the course of a burst. We carry out simulations to
determine the biases that our procedures may introduce. We find that pulses
tend to have shorter rise times than decay times, and tend to be narrower and
peak earlier at higher energies. We also find that pulse brightness, pulse
width, and pulse hardness ratios do not evolve monotonically within bursts, but
that the ratios of pulse rise times to decay times tend to decrease with time
within bursts.Comment: 40 pages, 19 figures. Submitted to Astrophysical Journal. PostScript
and PDF with un-bitmapped figures available at
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/slacpubs/8000/slac-pub-8364.html .
Accompanying paper astro-ph/0002218 available at
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/slacpubs/8000/slac-pub-8365.htm
On the Evidence for Axion-like Particles from Active Galactic Nuclei
Burrage, Davis, and Shaw recently suggested exploiting the correlations
between high and low energy luminosities of astrophysical objects to probe
possible mixing between photons and axion-like particles (ALP) in magnetic
field regions. They also presented evidence for the existence of ALP's by
analyzing the optical/UV and X-ray monochromatic luminosities of AGNs. We
extend their work by using the monochromatic luminosities of 320 unobscured
Active Galactic Nuclei from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey/Xmm-Newton Quasar
Survey (Young et al., 2009), which allows the exploration of 18 different
combinations of optical/UV and X-ray monochromatic luminosities. However, we do
not find compelling evidence for the existence of ALPs. Moreover, it appears
that the signal reported by Burrage et al. is more likely due to X-ray
absorption rather than to photon-ALP oscillation.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures. Updated to reflect the minor changes introduced
in the published versio
Discovery of a supernova associated with GRB 031203: SMARTS Optical-Infrared Lightcurves from 0.2 to 92 days
Optical and infrared monitoring of the afterglow site of gamma-ray burst
(GRB) 031203 has revealed a brightening source embedded in the host galaxy,
which we attribute to the presence of a supernova (SN) related to the GRB ("SN
031203"). We present details of the discovery and evolution of SN 031203 from
0.2 to 92 days after the GRB, derived from SMARTS consortium photometry in I
and J bands. A template type Ic lightcurve, constructed from SN 1998bw
photometry, is consistent with the peak brightness of SN 031203 although the
lightcurves are not identical. Differential astrometry reveals that the SN, and
hence the GRB, occurred less than 300 h_71^-1 pc (3-sigma) from the apparent
galaxy center. The peak of the supernova is brighter than the optical afterglow
suggesting that this source is intermediate between a strong GRB and a
supernova.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ Letter
Expected characteristics of the subclass of Supernova Gamma-ray Bursts (S-GRBs)
The spatial and temporal coincidence between the gamma-ray burst (GRB) 980425
and supernova (SN) 1998bw has prompted speculation that there exists a class of
GRBs produced by SNe (``S-GRBs''). Robust arguments for the existence of a
relativistic shock have been presented on the basis of radio observations. A
physical model based on the radio observations lead us to propose the following
characteristics of supernovae GRBs (S-GRBs): 1) prompt radio emission and
implied brightness temperature near or below the inverse Compton limit, 2) high
expansion velocity of the optical photosphere as derived from lines widths and
energy release larger than usual, 3) no long-lived X-ray afterglow, and 4) a
single pulse (SP) GRB profile. Radio studies of previous SNe show that only
type Ib and Ic potentially satisfy the first condition. Accordingly we have
investigated proposed associations of GRBs and SNe finding no convincing
evidence (mainly to paucity of data) to confirm any single connection of a SN
with a GRB. If there is a more constraining physical basis for the burst
time-history of S-GRBs beyond that of the SP requirement, we suggest the 1% of
light curves in the BATSE catalogue similar to that of GRB 980425 may
constitute the subclass. Future optical follow-up of bursts with similar
profiles should confirm if such GRBs originate from some fraction of SN type
Ib/Ic.Comment: 11 pages of LaTeX with 1 figure. Submitted to the Astrophysical
Journal Letter
Dust and dark Gamma-Ray Bursts: mutual implications
In a cosmological context dust has been always poorly understood. That is
true also for the statistic of GRBs so that we started a program to understand
its role both in relation to GRBs and in function of z. This paper presents a
composite model in this direction. The model considers a rather generic
distribution of dust in a spiral galaxy and considers the effect of changing
some of the parameters characterizing the dust grains, size in particular. We
first simulated 500 GRBs distributed as the host galaxy mass distribution,
using as model the Milky Way. If we consider dust with the same properties as
that we observe in the Milky Way, we find that due to absorption we miss about
10% of the afterglows assuming we observe the event within about 1 hour or even
within 100s. In our second set of simulations we placed GRBs randomly inside
giants molecular clouds, considering different kinds of dust inside and outside
the host cloud and the effect of dust sublimation caused by the GRB inside the
clouds. In this case absorption is mainly due to the host cloud and the
physical properties of dust play a strong role. Computations from this model
agree with the hypothesis of host galaxies with extinction curve similar to
that of the Small Magellanic Cloud, whereas the host cloud could be also
characterized by dust with larger grains. To confirm our findings we need a set
of homogeneous infrared observations. The use of coming dedicated infrared
telescopes, like REM, will provide a wealth of cases of new afterglow
observations.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&
GRB Energetics and the GRB Hubble Diagram: Promises and Limitations
We present a complete sample of 29 GRBs for which it has been possible to
determine temporal breaks (or limits) from their afterglow light curves. We
interpret these breaks within the framework of the uniform conical jet model,
incorporating realistic estimates of the ambient density and propagating error
estimates on the measured quantities. In agreement with our previous analysis
of a smaller sample, the derived jet opening angles of those 16 bursts with
redshifts result in a narrow clustering of geometrically-corrected gamma-ray
energies about E_gamma = 1.33e51 erg; the burst-to-burst variance about this
value is a factor of 2.2. Despite this rather small scatter, we demonstrate in
a series of GRB Hubble diagrams, that the current sample cannot place
meaningful constraints upon the fundamental parameters of the Universe. Indeed
for GRBs to ever be useful in cosmographic measurements we argue the necessity
of two directions. First, GRB Hubble diagrams should be based upon fundamental
physical quantities such as energy, rather than empirically-derived and
physically ill-understood distance indicators. Second, a more homogeneous set
should be constructed by culling sub-classes from the larger sample. These
sub-classes, though now first recognizable by deviant energies, ultimately must
be identifiable by properties other than those directly related to energy. We
identify a new sub-class of GRBs (``f-GRBs'') which appear both underluminous
by factors of at least 10 and exhibit a rapid fading at early times. About
10-20% of observed long-duration bursts appear to be f-GRBs.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal (20 May 2003). 19 pages, 3
Postscript figure
Investigation of laser dynamics, modulation and control by means of intra-cavity time varying perturbation
The generation of tunable visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light is examined, along with the control of this light by means of novel mode-locking and modulation techniques. Transient mode-locking of the Nd:YAG laser and generation of short tunable pulses in the visible and the alkali metal inert gas excimer laser systems were investigated. Techniques for frequency conversion of high power and high energy laser radiation are discussed, along with high average power blue and UV laser light sources
Scaling and Duality in Semi-exclusive Processes
We discuss extending scaling and duality studies to semi-exclusive processes.
We show that semi-exclusive hard pion photoproduction should exhibit scaling
behavior in kinematic regions where the photon and pion both interact directly
with the same quark. We show that such kinematic regions exist. We also show
that the constancy with changing momentum transfer of the resonance
peak/scaling curve ratio, familiar for many resonances in deep inelastic
scattering, is also expected in the semi-exclusive case.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.
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