9,041 research outputs found
Supermodel Analysis of the Hard X-Ray Excess in the Coma Cluster
The Supermodel provides an accurate description of the thermal contribution
by the hot intracluster plasma which is crucial for the analysis of the hard
excess. In this paper the thermal emissivity in the Coma cluster is derived
starting from the intracluster gas temperature and density profiles obtained by
the Supermodel analysis of X-ray observables: the XMM-Newton temperature
profile and the Rosat brightness distribution. The Supermodel analysis of the
BeppoSAX/PDS hard X-ray spectrum confirms our previous results, namely an
excess at the c.l. of ~4.8sigma and a nonthermal flux of 1.30+-0.40x 10^-11 erg
cm^-2 s^-1 in the energy range 20-80 keV. A recent joint XMM-Newton/Suzaku
analysis reports an upper limit of ~6x10^-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 in the energy range
20-80 keV for the nonthermal flux with an average gas temperature of 8.45+-0.06
keV, and an excess of nonthermal radiation at a confidence level above 4sigma,
without including systematic effects, for an average XMM-Newton temperature of
8.2 keV in the Suzaku/HXD-PIN FOV, in agreement with our earlier PDS analysis.
Here we present a further evidence of the compatibility between the Suzaku and
BeppoSAX spectra, obtained by our Supermodel analysis of the PDS data, when the
smaller size of the HXD-PIN FOV and the two different average temperatures
derived by XMM-Newton and by the joint XMM-Newton/Suzaku analysis are taken
into account. The consistency of the PDS and HXD-PIN spectra reaffirms the
presence of a nonthermal component in the hard X-ray spectrum of the Coma
cluster. The Supermodel analysis of the PDS data reports an excess at c.l.
above 4sigma also for the higher average temperature of 8.45 keV thanks to the
PDS FOV considerably greater than the HXD-PIN FOV.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Is there a hard tail in the Coma Cluster X-ray spectrum?
We report results from a re-analysis of the BeppoSAX observation of Coma and
from the analysis of a second, yet unpublished observation of the same object.
From our re-analysis of the first observation we find that the statistical
evidence for a hard tail is about 2 sigma. From the analysis of the second
observation which, thanks to the lower background and the longer exposure time,
is characterized by a larger signal to noise we find no evidence for a hard
tail. From the upper limit on the flux of the hard tail, using the standard
Inverse Compton formulae, we derive a lower limit for the magnetic of about
0.2-0.4 microGauss consistent with Faraday rotation measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in A&A Letter
Random sequential adsorption and diffusion of dimers and k-mers on a square lattice
We have performed extensive simulations of random sequential adsorption and
diffusion of -mers, up to in two dimensions with particular attention
to the case . We focus on the behavior of the coverage and of vacancy
dynamics as a function of time. We observe that for a complete coverage
of the lattice is never reached, because of the existence of frozen
configurations that prevent isolated vacancies in the lattice to join. From
this result we argue that complete coverage is never attained for any value of
. The long time behavior of the coverage is not mean field and nonanalytic,
with as leading term. Long time coverage regimes are independent of
the initial conditions while strongly depend on the diffusion probability and
deposition rate and, in particular, different values of these parameters lead
to different final values of the coverage. The geometrical complexity of these
systems is also highlighted through an investigation of the vacancy population
dynamics.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, to be published in the Journal of Chemical
Physic
Free-Space Antenna Field/Pattern Retrieval in Reverberation Environments
Simple algorithms for retrieving free-space antenna field or directivity
patterns from complex (field) or real (intensity) measurements taken in ideal
reverberation environments are introduced and discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to IEEE Antennas and Wireless
Propagation Letter
Calibration of quasi-static aberrations in exoplanet direct-imaging instruments with a Zernike phase-mask sensor
Context. Several exoplanet direct imaging instruments will soon be in
operation. They use an extreme adaptive optics (XAO) system to correct the
atmospheric turbulence and provide a highly-corrected beam to a near-infrared
(NIR) coronagraph for starlight suppression. The performance of the coronagraph
is however limited by the non-common path aberrations (NCPA) due to the
differential wavefront errors existing between the visible XAO sensing path and
the NIR science path, leading to residual speckles in the coronagraphic image.
Aims. Several approaches have been developed in the past few years to
accurately calibrate the NCPA, correct the quasi-static speckles and allow the
observation of exoplanets at least 1e6 fainter than their host star. We propose
an approach based on the Zernike phase-contrast method for the measurements of
the NCPA between the optical path seen by the visible XAO wavefront sensor and
that seen by the near-IR coronagraph. Methods. This approach uses a focal plane
phase mask of size {\lambda}/D, where {\lambda} and D denote the wavelength and
the telescope aperture diameter, respectively, to measure the quasi-static
aberrations in the upstream pupil plane by encoding them into intensity
variations in the downstream pupil image. We develop a rigorous formalism,
leading to highly accurate measurement of the NCPA, in a quasi-linear way
during the observation. Results. For a static phase map of standard deviation
44 nm rms at {\lambda} = 1.625 {\mu}m (0.026 {\lambda}), we estimate a possible
reduction of the chromatic NCPA by a factor ranging from 3 to 10 in the
presence of AO residuals compared with the expected performance of a typical
current-generation system. This would allow a reduction of the level of
quasi-static speckles in the detected images by a factor 10 to 100 hence,
correspondingly improving the capacity to observe exoplanets.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures, A&A accepted, 2nd version after language-editor
correction
The Wide-field High-resolution Infrared TElescope (WHITE)
The Wide-field High-resolution Infrared TElescope (WHITE) will be dedicated
in the first years of its life to carrying out a few (well focused in terms of
science objectives and time) legacy surveys.
WHITE would have an angular resolution of ~0.3'' homogeneous over ~0.7 sq.
deg. in the wavelength range 1 - 5 um, which means that we will very
efficiently use all the available observational time during night time and day
time. Moreover, the deepest observations will be performed by summing up
shorter individual frames. We will have a temporal information that can be used
to study variable objects.
The three key science objectives of WHITE are : 1) A complete survey of the
Magellanic Clouds to make a complete census of young stellar objects in the
clouds and in the bridge and to study their star formation history and the link
with the Milky Way. The interaction of the two clouds with our Galaxy might the
closest example of a minor merging event that could be the main driver of
galaxy evolution in the last 5 Gyrs. 2) The building of the first sample of
dusty supernovae at z<1.2 in the near infrared range (1-5 um) to constrain the
equation of state from these obscured objects, study the formation of dust in
galaxies and build the first high resolution sample of high redshift galaxies
observed in their optical frame 3) A very wide weak lensing survey over that
would allow to estimate the equation of state in a way that would favourably
compete with space projects.Comment: Invited talk to the 2nd ARENA Conference : "The Astrophysical Science
Cases at Dome C" Potsdam 17-21 September, 200
Non trivial behavior of the linear response function in phase ordering kinetics
Drawing from exact, approximate and numerical results an overview of the
properties of the out of equilibrium response function in phase ordering
kinetics is presented. Focusing on the zero field cooled magnetization,
emphasis is on those features of this quantity which display non trivial
behavior when relaxation proceeds by coarsening. Prominent among these is the
dimensionality dependence of the scaling exponent which leads to
failure of the connection between static and dynamic properties at the lower
dimensionality , where . We also analyse the mean spherical
model as an explicit example of a stochastic unstable system, for which the
connection between statics and dynamics fails at all dimensionalities.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the International Conference
"Perspectives on Quantum Field Theory, Statistical Mechanics and Stochastics"
in honour of the 60th birthday of Francesco Guerr
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