2,100 research outputs found
The Integral Burst Alert System (IBAS)
We describe the INTEGRAL Burst Alert System (IBAS): the automatic software
for the rapid distribution of the coordinates of the Gamma-Ray Bursts detected
by INTEGRAL. IBAS is implemented as a ground based system, working on the
near-real time telemetry stream. During the first six months of operations, six
GRB have been detected in the field of view of the INTEGRAL instruments and
localized by IBAS. Positions with an accuracy of a few arcminutes are currently
distributed by IBAS to the community for follow-up observations within a few
tens of seconds of the event.Comment: 7 pages, latex, 5 figures, Accepted for publication on A&A Special
Issue on First Science with INTEGRA
Real time localization of Gamma Ray Bursts with INTEGRAL
The INTEGRAL satellite has been successfully launched in October 2002 and has
recently started its operational phase. The INTEGRAL Burst Alert System (IBAS)
will distribute in real time the coordinates of the GRBs detected with
INTEGRAL. After a brief introduction on the INTEGRAL instruments, we describe
the main IBAS characteristics and report on the initial results. During the
initial performance and verification phase of the INTEGRAL mission, which
lasted about two months, two GRBs have been localized with accuracy of about
2-4 arcmin. These observations have allowed us to validate the IBAS software,
which is now expected to provide quick (few seconds delay) and precise (few
arcmin) localization for about 10-15 GRBs per year.Comment: 6 pages, latex, 3 figures, submitted to Adv. Sp. Res., Proceedings of
the 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Houston, 10-19 October 200
INTEGRAL high energy behaviour of 4U 1812-12
The low mass X-ray binary system 4U 1812-12 was monitored with the INTEGRAL
observatory in the period 2003-2004 and with BeppoSAX on April 20, 2000. We
report here on the spectral and temporal analysis of both persistent and burst
emission. The full data set confirms the persistent nature of this burster, and
reveals the presence of emission up to 200 keV. The persistent spectrum is well
described by a comptonization (CompTT) model plus a soft blackbody component.
The source was observed in a hard spectral state with a 1-200 keV luminosity of
2*10^(36) ergs/s and L/LEdd~1% and no meaningful flux variation has been
revealed, as also confirmed by a 2004 RXTE observation. We have also detected 4
bursts showing double peaked profiles and blackbody spectra with temperatures
ranging from 1.9 to 3.1 keV.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication by A&
Models for Modules
We recall the structure of the indecomposable sl(2) modules in the
Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand category O. We show that all these modules can arise
as quantized phase spaces of physical models. In particular, we demonstrate in
a path integral discretization how a redefined action of the sl(2) algebra over
the complex numbers can glue finite dimensional and infinite dimensional
highest weight representations into indecomposable wholes. Furthermore, we
discuss how projective cover representations arise in the tensor product of
finite dimensional and Verma modules and give explicit tensor product
decomposition rules. The tensor product spaces can be realized in terms of
product path integrals. Finally, we discuss relations of our results to brane
quantization and cohomological calculations in string theory.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure
Discovery of a Transition to Global Spin-up in EXO 2030+375
EXO 2030+375, a 42-second transient X-ray pulsar with a Be star companion,
has been observed to undergo an outburst at nearly every periastron passage for
the last 13.5 years. From 1994 through 2002, the global trend in the pulsar
spin frequency was spin-down. Using RXTE data from 2003 September, we have
observed a transition to global spin-up in EXO 2030+375. Although the spin
frequency observations are sparse, the relative spin-up between 2002 June and
2003 September observations, along with an overall brightening of the outbursts
since mid 2002 observed with the RXTE ASM, accompanied by an increase in
density of the Be disk, indicated by infrared magnitudes, suggest that the
pattern observed with BATSE of a roughly constant spin frequency, followed by
spin-up, followed by spin-down is repeating. If so this pattern has
approximately an 11 year period, similar to the 15 +/- 3 year period derived by
Wilson et al. (2002) for the precession period of a one-armed oscillation in
the Be disk. If this pattern is indeed repeating, we predict a transition from
spin-up to spin-down in 2005.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, 4 pages, 5 figures, using
emulateapj.cl
In-flight calibration of the INTEGRAL/IBIS mask
Since the release of the INTEGRAL Offline Scientific Analysis (OSA) software
version 9.0, the ghost busters module has been introduced in the INTEGRAL/IBIS
imaging procedure, leading to an improvement of the sensitivity around bright
sources up to a factor of 7. This module excludes in the deconvolution process
the IBIS/ISGRI detector pixels corresponding to the projection of a bright
source through mask elements affected by some defects. These defects are most
likely associated with screws and glue fixing the IBIS mask to its support.
Following these major improvements introduced in OSA 9, a second order
correction is still required to further remove the residual noise, now at a
level of 0.2-1% of the brightest source in the field of view. In order to
improve our knowledge of the IBIS mask transparency, a calibration campaign has
been carried out during 2010-2012. We present here the analysis of these data,
together with archival observations of the Crab and Cyg X-1, that allowed us to
build a composite image of the mask defects and to investigate the origin of
the residual noise in the IBIS/ISGRI images. Thanks to this study, we were able
to point out a simple modification of the ISGRI analysis software that allows
to significantly improve the quality of the images in which bright sources are
detected at the edge of the field of view. Moreover, a refinement of the area
excluded by the ghost busters module is considered, and preliminary results
show improvements to be further tested. Finally, this study indicates further
directions to be investigated for improving the ISGRI sensitivity, such as
taking into account the thickness of the screws in the mask model or studying
the possible discrepancy between the modeled and actual mask element bridges.Comment: accepted for publication in the proceedings of "An INTEGRAL view of
the high-energy sky (the first 10 years)" 9th INTEGRAL Workshop, October
15-19, 2012, Paris, France, in Proceedings of Science (INTEGRAL 2012), Eds.
A. Goldwurm, F. Lebrun and C. Winkler,
(http://pos.sissa.it/cgi-bin/reader/conf.cgi?confid=176), id 154; 6 pages, 4
figures, see the PoS website for the full resolution versio
INTEGRAL observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud region
We present the preliminary results of the INTEGRAL survey of the Large
Magellanic Cloud. The observations have been carried out in January 2003 (about
10^6 s) and January 2004 (about 4x10^5 s). Here we concentrate on the bright
sources LMC X-1, LMC X-2, LMC X-3 located in our satellite galaxy, and on the
serendipitous detections of the Galactic Low Mass X-ray Binary EXO 0748-676 and
of the Seyfert 2 galaxy IRAS 04575-7537.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures. To be published in the Proceedings of the 5th
INTEGRAL Workshop: "The INTEGRAL Universe", February 16-20, 2004, Munic
The Microchannel X-ray Telescope for the Gamma-Ray Burst mission SVOM
We present the Microchannel X-ray Telescope, a new light and compact
focussing telescope that will be flying on the Sino-French SVOM mission
dedicated to Gamma-Ray Burst science. The MXT design is based on the coupling
of square pore micro-channel plates with a low noise pnCCD. MXT will provide an
effective area of about 50 cmsq, and its point spread function is expected to
be better than 3.7 arc min (FWHM) on axis. The estimated sensitivity is
adequate to detect all the afterglows of the SVOM GRBs, and to localize them to
better then 60 arc sec after five minutes of observation.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, to be published in SPIE Astronomical Telescopes
+ Instrumentation, Montreal, June 201
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