3,521 research outputs found
XMM-Newton Observation of the Northwest Radio Relic Region in Abell 3667
Abell 3667 is the archetype of a merging cluster with radio relics. The NW
radio relic is the brightest cluster relic or halo known, and is believed to be
due to a strong merger shock. We have observed the NW relic for 40 ksec of net
XMM time. We observe a global decline of temperature across the relic from 6 to
1 keV, similar to the Suzaku results. Our new observations reveal a sharp
change of both temperature and surface brightness near the position of the
relic. The increased X-ray emission on the relic can be equivalently well
described by either a thermal or nonthermal spectral model. The parameters of
the thermal model are consistent with a Mach number M~2 shock and a shock speed
of ~1200 km s^-1. The energy content of the relativistic particles in the radio
relic can be explained if they are (re)-accelerated by the shock with an
efficiency of ~0.2%. Comparing the limit on the inverse Compton X-ray emission
with the measured radio synchrotron emission, we set a lower limit to the
magnetic field in the relic of 3 muG. If the emission from the relic is
non-thermal, this lower limit is in fact the required magnetic field.Comment: 11 pages, ApJ in pres
Suzaku Discovery of a Hard X-Ray Tail in the Persistent Spectra from the Magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 during its 2009 Activity
The fastest-rotating magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 was observed in broad-band
X-rays with Suzaku for 33 ks on 2009 January 28-29, 7 days after the onset of
its latest bursting activity. After removing burst events, the
absorption-uncorrected 2-10 keV flux of the persistent emission was measured
with the XIS as 5.7e-11 ergs cm-2 s-1, which is 1-2 orders of magnitude higher
than was measured in 2006 and 2007 when the source was less active. The
persistent emission was also detected significantly with the HXD in >10 keV up
to at least ~110 keV, with an even higher flux of 1.3e-10 ergs cm-2 s-1 in
20-100 keV. The pulsation was detected at least up to 70 keV at a period of
2.072135+/-0.00005 s, with a deeper modulation than was measured in a fainter
state. The phase-averaged 0.7-114 keV spectrum was reproduced by an absorbed
blackbody emission with a temperature of 0.65+/-0.02 keV, plus a hard power-law
with a photon index of ~1.5. At a distance of 9 kpc, the bolometric luminosity
of the blackbody and the 2-100 keV luminosity of the hard power-law are
estimated as (6.2+/-1.2)e+35 ergs s-1 and 1.9e+36 ergs s-1, respectively, while
the blackbody radius becomes ~5 km. Although the source had not been detected
significantly in hard X-rays during the past fainter states, a comparison of
the present and past spectra in energies below 10 keV suggests that the hard
component is more enhanced than the soft X-ray component during the persistent
activity.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, PASJ Vol.62 No.2 accepte
Performance of a Low Noise Front-end ASIC for Si/CdTe Detectors in Compton Gamma-ray Telescope
Compton telescopes based on semiconductor technologies are being developed to
explore the gamma-ray universe in an energy band 0.1--20 MeV, which is not well
covered by the present or near-future gamma-ray telescopes. The key feature of
such Compton telescopes is the high energy resolution that is crucial for high
angular resolution and high background rejection capability. The energy
resolution around 1 keV is required to approach physical limit of the angular
resolution due to Doppler broadening. We have developed a low noise front-end
ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit), VA32TA, to realize this goal
for the readout of Double-sided Silicon Strip Detector (DSSD) and Cadmium
Telluride (CdTe) pixel detector which are essential elements of the
semiconductor Compton telescope. We report on the design and test results of
the VA32TA. We have reached an energy resolution of 1.3 keV (FWHM) for 60 keV
and 122 keV at 0 degree C with a DSSD and 1.7 keV (FWHM) with a CdTe detector.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, IEEE style file, to appear in IEEE Trans. Nucl.
Sc
Hard X-ray Properties of the Merging Cluster Abell 3667 as Observed with Suzaku
Wide-band Suzaku data on the merging cluster Abell 3667 were examined for
hard X-ray emission in excess to the known thermal component. Suzaku detected
X-ray signals in the wide energy band from 0.5 to 40 keV. The hard X-ray (> 10
keV) flux observed by the HXD around the cluster center cannot be explained by
a simple extension of the thermal emission with average temperature of ~7 keV.
The emission is most likely an emission from a very hot (kT > 13.2 keV) thermal
component around the cluster center, produced via a strong heating process in
the merger. In the north-west radio relic, no signature of non-thermal emission
was observed. Using the HXD, the overall upper-limit flux within a 34'x34'
field-of-view around the relic is derived to be 5.3e-12 erg s-1 cm-2 in the
10-40 keV band, after subtracting the ICM contribution estimated using the XIS
or the XMM-Newton spectra. Directly on the relic region, the upper limit is
further tightened by the XIS data to be less than 7.3e-13 erg s-1 cm-2, when
converted into the 10--40 keV band. The latter value suggest that the average
magnetic field within the relic is higher than 1.6 uG. The non-thermal pressure
due to magnetic fields and relativistic electrons may be as large as ~20% of
the thermal pressure in the region.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, to be appeared in PASJ 200
Lack of kainic acid-induced gamma oscillations predicts subsequent CA1 excitotoxic cell death
Gamma oscillations are a prominent feature of hippocampal network activity, but their functional role remains debated, ranging from mere epiphenomena to being crucial for information processing. Similarly, persistent gamma oscillations sometimes appear prior to epileptic discharges in patients with mesial temporal sclerosis. However, the significance of this activity in hippocampal excitotoxicity is unclear. We assessed the relationship between kainic acid (KA)-induced gamma oscillations and excitotoxicity in genetically engineered mice in which N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor deletion was confined to CA3 pyramidal cells. Mutants showed reduced CA3 pyramidal cell firing and augmented sharp wave–ripple activity, resulting in higher susceptibility to KA-induced seizures, and leading to strikingly selective neurodegeneration in the CA1 subfield. Interestingly, the increase in KA-induced γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels, and the persistent 30–50-Hz gamma oscillations, both of which were observed in control mice prior to the first seizure discharge, were abolished in the mutants. Consequently, on subsequent days, mutants manifested prolonged epileptiform activity and massive neurodegeneration of CA1 cells, including local GABAergic neurons. Remarkably, pretreatment with the potassium channel blocker α-dendrotoxin increased GABA levels, restored gamma oscillations, and prevented CA1 degeneration in the mutants. These results demonstrate that the emergence of low-frequency gamma oscillations predicts increased resistance to KA-induced excitotoxicity, raising the possibility that gamma oscillations may have potential prognostic value in the treatment of epilepsy.National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Intramural Research ProgramNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01-MH078821)Japan Society for the Promotion of Scienc
On the boundary of the dispersion-managed soliton existence
A breathing soliton-like structure in dispersion-managed (DM) optical fiber
system is studied. It is proven that for negative average dispersion the
breathing soliton is forbidden provided that a modulus of average dispersion
exceed a threshold which depends on the soliton amplitude.Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, to appear in JETP Lett. 72, #3 (2000
The Polyakov loop and the heat kernel expansion at finite temperature
The lower order terms of the heat kernel expansion at coincident points are
computed in the context of finite temperature quantum field theory for flat
space-time and in the presence of general gauge and scalar fields which may be
non Abelian and non stationary. The computation is carried out in the imaginary
time formalism and the result is fully consistent with invariance under
topologically large and small gauge transformations. The Polyakov loop is shown
to play a fundamental role.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX, no figure
An integrated nonlinear optical loop mirror in silicon photonics for all-optical signal processing
The nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) has been studied for several decades and has attracted considerable attention for applications in high data rate optical communications and all-optical signal processing. The majority of NOLM research has focused on silica fiber-based implementations. While various fiber designs have been considered to increase the nonlinearity and manage dispersion, several meters to hundreds of meters of fiber are still required. On the other hand, there is increasing interest in developing photonic integrated circuits for realizing signal processing functions. In this paper, we realize the first-ever passive integrated NOLM in silicon photonics and demonstrate its application for all-optical signal processing. In particular, we show wavelength conversion of 10 Gb/s RZ-OOK signals over a wavelength range of 30 nm with error-free operation and a power penalty of less than 2.5 dB, we achieve error-free NRZ-to-RZ modulation format conversion at 10 Gb/s also with a power penalty of less than 2.8 dB, and we obtain error-free all-optical time-division demultiplexing of a 40 Gb/s RZ-OOK data signal into its 10 Gb/s tributary channels with a maximum power penalty of 3.5 dB
Negaton and Positon solutions of the soliton equation with self-consistent sources
The KdV equation with self-consistent sources (KdVES) is used as a model to
illustrate the method. A generalized binary Darboux transformation (GBDT) with
an arbitrary time-dependent function for the KdVES as well as the formula for
-times repeated GBDT are presented. This GBDT provides non-auto-B\"{a}cklund
transformation between two KdV equations with different degrees of sources and
enable us to construct more general solutions with arbitrary -dependent
functions. By taking the special -function, we obtain multisoliton,
multipositon, multinegaton, multisoliton-positon, multinegaton-positon and
multisoliton-negaton solutions of KdVES. Some properties of these solutions are
discussed.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, no figues, to be published in J. Phys. A: Math. Ge
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