197 research outputs found
Programmability in AIPS++
AIPS++ is an Astronomical Information Processing System being designed and implemented by an international consortium of NRAO and six other radio astronomy institutions in Australia, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the USA. AIPS++ is intended to replace the functionality of AIPS, to be more easily programmable, and will be implemented in C++ using object-oriented techniques. Programmability in AIPS++ is planned at three levels. The first level will be that of a command-line interpreter with characteristics similar to IDL and PV-Wave, but with an intensive set of operations appropriate to telescope data handling, image formation, and image processing. The third level will be in C++ with extensive use of class libraries for both basic operations and advanced applications. The third level will allow input and output of data between external FORTRAN programs and AIPS++ telescope and image databases. In addition to summarizing the above programmability characteristics, this talk will given an overview of the classes currently being designed for telescope data calibration and editing, image formation, and the 'toolkit' of mathematical 'objects' that will perform most of the processing in AIPS++
ASCA Observations of the Jet Source XTE J1748-288
XTE J1748-288 is a new X-ray transient with a one-sided radio jet. It was
observed with ASCA on 1998/09/06 and 1998/09/26, 100 days after the onset of
the radio-X-ray outburst. The spectra were fitted with an attenuated power-law
model, and the 2-6-keV flux was 4.6 * 10^{-11} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2} and 2.2 *
10^{-12} on 09/06 and 09/26, respectively. The light curve showed that the
steady exponential decay with an e-folding time of 14 days lasted over 100 days
and 4 orders of magnitude from the peak of the outburst. The celestial region
including the source had been observed with ASCA on 1993/10/01 and 1994/09/22,
years before the discovery. In those period, the flux was < 10^{-13} erg s^{-1}
cm^{-2}, below ASCA's detection limit. The jet blob colliding to the
environmental matter was supposedly not the X-ray source, although the emission
mechanism has not been determined. A possible detection of a K line from highly
ionized iron is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJL. Fig2 is replaced with correct
on
V723 Cas (Nova Cassiopeiae 1995): MERLIN observations from 1996 to 2001
MERLIN observations of the unusually slow nova V723 Cas are presented. Nine
epochs of 6-cm data between 1996 and 2001 are mapped, showing the initial
expansion and brightening of the radio remnant, the development of structure
and the final decline. A radio light curve is presented and fitted by the
standard Hubble flow model for radio emission from novae in order to determine
the values of various physical parameters for the shell. The model is
consistent with the overall development of the radio emission. Assuming a
distance of 2.39 (+/-0.38) kpc and a shell temperature of 17000 K, the model
yields values for expansion velocity of 414 +/- 0.1 km s^-1 and shell mass of
1.13 +/- 0.04 * 10^-4 Msolar. These values are consistent with those derived
from other observations although the ejected masses are rather higher than
theoretical predictions. The structure of the shell is resolved by MERLIN and
shows that the assumption of spherical symmetry in the standard model is
unlikely to be correct.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
V4641Sgr - Super-Eddington source enshrouded by an extended envelope
An optical spectroscopy of an unusual fast transient V4641 Sgr constrains its
mass to 8.7-11.7M_sun (9.6M_sun is the best fit value) and the distance to
7.4--12.3 kpc (Orosz et al. 2001). At this distance the peak flux of 12 Crab in
the 2--12 keV energy band, measured by ASM/RXTE, implies the X-ray luminosity
exceeding 2-3e39 erg/s, i.e. near or above the Eddington limit for a 9.6M_sun
black hole. An optical photometry shows that at the peak of the optical
outburst the visual magnitude increased by Delta m_V > 4.7^m relative to the
quiescent level and reached m_V < 8.8^m. An assumption that this optical
emission is due to irradiated surface of an accretion disk or a companion star
with the the black body shape of the spectrum would mean that the bolometric
luminosity of the system exceeds L>3e41 erg/s > 300 L_Edd.
We argue that the optical data strongly suggest presence of an extended
envelope surrounding the source which absorbs primary X-rays flux and reemits
it in optical and UV. The data also suggests that this envelope should be
optically thin in UV, EUV and soft X-rays. The observed properties of V4641 Sgr
at the peak of an optical flare are very similar to those of SS433. This
envelope is likely the result of near or super Eddington rate of mass accretion
onto the black hole and it vanishes during subsequent evolution of the source
when apparent luminosity drops well below the Eddington value. Thus this
transient source provides us direct proof of the dramatic change in the
character of an accretion flow at the mass accretion rate near or above the
critical Eddington value as predicted long time ago by the theoretical models.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to A&A Letter
Spectral evidence for a powerful compact jet from XTE J1118+480
We present observations of the X-ray transient XTE J1118+480 during its
Low/Hard X-ray state outburst in 2000, at radio and sub-millimetre wavelengths
with the VLA, Ryle Telescope, MERLIN and JCMT. The high-resolution MERLIN
observations reveal all the radio emission (at 5 GHz) to come from a compact
core with physical dimensions smaller than 65*d(kpc) AU. The combined radio
data reveal a persistent and inverted radio spectrum, with spectral index
\~+0.5. The source is also detected at 350 GHz, on an extrapolation of the
radio spectrum. Flat or inverted radio spectra are now known to be typical of
the Low/Hard X-ray state, and are believed to arise in synchrotron emission
from a partially self-absorbed jet. Comparison of the radio and sub-millimetre
data with reported near-infrared observations suggest that the synchrotron
emission from the jet extends to the near-infrared, or possibly even optical
regimes. In this case the ratio of jet power to total X-ray luminosity is
likely to be P_J/L_X >> 0.01, depending on the radiative efficiency and
relativistic Doppler factor of the jet. Based on these arguments we conclude
that during the period of our observations XTE J1118+480 was producing a
powerful outflow which extracted a large fraction of the total accretion power.Comment: Accepted for publication as a Letter in MNRA
Possible 38 day X-ray period of KS1731-260
We report the detection of a 38 day period in the X-ray flux of the transient
burster KS1731-260. The narrow peak of periodicity was detected during ~TJD
10150--11050 when the source had a high and relatively stable X-ray flux. After
\~TJD 11100 the source became strongly variable on a time scale of months that
contaminates the search for the 38 day periodicity. The detected period can not
be a binary period. The binary with Roche lobe overflow has in this case large
radii of the secondary and of the accretion disk. Disk and secondary star
illumination by X-ray flux from luminous neutron star would lead to high
infrared brightness of the binary. That clearly contradicts the infrared data
even for the brightest infrared sources within CHANDRA error box of KS1731-260.
Remaining possibility is that observed periodicity is connected with the
accretion disk precession, similar to that was observed for SS 433, Her X-1,
Cyg X-1 etc.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to A&A Letter
Initial low/hard state, multiple jet ejections and X-ray/radio correlations during the outburst of XTE J1859+226
We have studied the 1999 soft X-ray transient outburst of XTE J1859+226 at
radio and X-ray wavelengths. The event was characterised by strong variability
in the disc, corona and jet - in particular, a number of radio flares
(ejections) took place and seemed well-correlated with hard X-ray events.
Apparently unusual for the `canonical soft' X-ray transient, there was an
initial period of low/hard state behaviour during the rise from quiescence but
prior to the peak of the main outburst - we show that not only could this
initial low/hard state be an ubiquitous feature of soft X-ray transient
outbursts but that it could also be extremely important in our study of
outburst mechanisms.Comment: 12 pages, Accepted for publication in MNRA
Sco X-1: The Evolution and Nature of the Twin Compact Radio Lobes
The radio components associated with the LMXB Sco X-1 have been monitored
with extensive VLBI imaging at 1.7 and 5.0 GHz over four years, including a
56-hour continuous VLBI observation in 1999 June. We often detected one strong
and one weak compact radio component, moving in opposite directions from the
radio core. We suggest that the moving components are radio lobes generated by
the disruption of energy flow in a twin-beam from the binary system. The
average lifetime of a lobe-pair, the space motion of the lobes and the measured
energy flow in the beam are discussed in arXiv:astro-ph/0104325. The lobe has a
flux density that is variable over a time-scale of one hour, a measured minimum
size of 1 mas (2.8 au), and is extended perpendicular to its motion. This short
electron radiative lifetime may be caused by synchrotron losses if the lobe
magnetic field is 300 G, or by adiabatic expansion of the electrons as soon as
they are produced at the working surface. The lobes also show periods of slow
expansion and a steepening radio spectrum, perhaps related to the
characteristics of the beam energy flow. The radio morphology for Sco X-1 is
more simple than for most other Galactic jet sources. The lobes of Sco X-1 are
similar to hot-spots found in many extragalactic double sources. Scaling the
phenomena observed in Sco X-1 to extragalactic sources implies hot-spot
variability time-scales of 10^4 yr and hot-spot lifetimes of 10^5 yr. The
recurrent formation of lobes in Sco X-1 probably does not occur for
extragalactic radio sources.Comment: 22 pages of text + 16 figures. ApJ, in pres
Low-Frequency Radio Transients in the Galactic Center
We report the detection of a new radio transient source, GCRT J1746-2757,
located only 1.1 degrees north of the Galactic center. Consistent with other
radio transients toward the Galactic center, this source brightened and faded
on a time scale of a few months. No X-ray counterpart was detected. We also
report new 0.33 GHz measurements of the radio counterpart to the X-ray
transient source, XTE J1748-288, previously detected and monitored at higher
radio frequencies. We show that the spectrum of XTE J1748-288 steepened
considerably during a period of a few months after its peak. We also discuss
the need for a more efficient means of finding additional radio transients
Infrared Candidates for the Intense Galactic X-ray Source GX 17+2
We present new astrometric solutions and infrared Hubble Space Telescope
observations of GX 17+2 (X1813-140), one of the brightest X-ray sources on the
celestial sphere. Despite 30 years of intensive study, and the existence of a
strong radio counterpart with a sub-arcsecond position, the object remains
optically unidentified. The observed X-ray characteristics strongly suggest
that it is a so-called "Z-source," the rare but important category that
includes Sco X-1 and Cyg X-2. Use of the USNO-A2.0 catalog enables us to
measure the position of optical and infrared objects near the radio source to
sub-arcsecond precision within the International Celestial Reference Frame, for
direct comparison with the radio position, which we also recompute using modern
calibrators. With high confidence we eliminate the V~17.5 star NP Ser, often
listed as the probable optical counterpart of the X-ray source, as a candidate.
Our HST NICMOS observations show two faint objects within our 0.5" radius 90%
confidence error circle. Even the brighter of the two, Star A, is far fainter
than expected (H~19.8), given multiple estimates of the extinction in this
field and our previous understanding of Z sources, but it becomes the best
candidate for the counterpart of GX 17+2. The probability of a chance
coincidence of an unrelated faint object on the radio position is high.
However, if the true counterpart is not Star A, it is fainter still, and our
conclusion that the optical counterpart is surprisingly underluminous is but
strengthened.Comment: 15 pages including 3 figures and 3 tables. Accepted for publication
in The Astrophysical Journa
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