939 research outputs found
A strongly changing accretion morphology during the outburst decay of the neutron star X-ray binary 4U 1608−52
It is commonly assumed that the properties and geometry of the accretion flow in transient low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) significantly change when the X-ray luminosity decays below ∼10⁻² of the Eddington limit (L_(Edd)). However, there are few observational cases where the evolution of the accretion flow is tracked in a single X-ray binary over a wide dynamic range. In this work, we use NuSTAR and NICER observations obtained during the 2018 accretion outburst of the neutron star LMXB 4U 1608−52, to study changes in the reflection spectrum. We find that the broad Fe–Kα line and Compton hump, clearly seen during the peak of the outburst when the X-ray luminosity is ∼10³⁷ erg s⁻¹ (∼0.05 L_(Edd)), disappear during the decay of the outburst when the source luminosity drops to ∼4.5 × 10³⁵ erg s⁻¹ (∼0.002 L_(Edd)). We show that this non-detection of the reflection features cannot be explained by the lower signal-to-noise ratio at lower flux, but is instead caused by physical changes in the accretion flow. Simulating synthetic NuSTAR observations on a grid of inner disc radius, disc ionization, and reflection fraction, we find that the disappearance of the reflection features can be explained by either increased disc ionization (log ξ ≳ 4.1) or a much decreased reflection fraction. A changing disc truncation alone, however, cannot account for the lack of reprocessed Fe–Kα emission. The required increase in ionization parameter could occur if the inner accretion flow evaporates from a thin disc into a geometrically thicker flow, such as the commonly assumed formation of a radiatively inefficient accretion flow at lower mass accretion rates
Acute systemic inflammation enhances tissue plasminogen activator release in man
Digitalitzat per Artypla
Radiation Pressure Dominate Regime of Relativistic Ion Acceleration
The electromagnetic radiation pressure becomes dominant in the interaction of
the ultra-intense electromagnetic wave with a solid material, thus the wave
energy can be transformed efficiently into the energy of ions representing the
material and the high density ultra-short relativistic ion beam is generated.
This regime can be seen even with present-day technology, when an exawatt laser
will be built. As an application, we suggest the laser-driven heavy ion
collider.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Color Skyrmions in the Quark-Gluon Plasma
We consider the general formulation of nonabelian fluid dynamics based on
symmetry considerations. We point out that, quite generally, this admits
solitonic excitations which are the color analog of skyrmions. Some general
properties of the solitons are discussed.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages, references adde
A Persistent Disk Wind in GRS 1915+105 with NICER
The bright, erratic black hole X-ray binary GRS 1915+105 has long been a
target for studies of disk instabilities, radio/infrared jets, and accretion
disk winds, with implications that often apply to sources that do not exhibit
its exotic X-ray variability. With the launch of NICER, we have a new
opportunity to study the disk wind in GRS 1915+105 and its variability on short
and long timescales. Here we present our analysis of 39 NICER observations of
GRS 1915+105 collected during five months of the mission data validation and
verification phase, focusing on Fe XXV and Fe XXVI absorption. We report the
detection of strong Fe XXVI in 32 (>80%) of these observations, with another
four marginal detections; Fe XXV is less common, but both likely arise in the
well-known disk wind. We explore how the properties of this wind depends on
broad characteristics of the X-ray lightcurve: mean count rate, hardness ratio,
and fractional RMS variability. The trends with count rate and RMS are
consistent with an average wind column density that is fairly steady between
observations but varies rapidly with the source on timescales of seconds. The
line dependence on spectral hardness echoes known behavior of disk winds in
outbursts of Galactic black holes; these results clearly indicate that NICER is
a powerful tool for studying black hole winds.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL. Comments welcom
Tips for research recruitment: The views of sexual minority youth
Researchers often experience difficulties recruiting hard-to-reach populations. This is especially so for studies involving those who have been historically stigmatized, such as individuals who challenge heteronormative expectations or people who experience mental ill health. The authors aimed to obtain the views of sexual minority adolescents (n=25) about what encouraged their participation in a research project. The authors used a general inductive approach to analyze interview data. Feedback consisted of 2 main overarching themes: tips and suggestions for future research and appreciate participants’ motivation to get involved in research. Strategies for how recruitment can be optimized for studies involving sexual minority young people are discussed
Revealing the spectral state transition of the Clocked Burster, GS 1826-238 with NuSTAR StrayCats
We present the long term analysis of GS 1826-238, a neutron star X-ray binary
known as the "Clocked Burster", using data from NuSTAR StrayCats. StrayCats, a
catalogue of NuSTAR stray light data, contains data from bright, off-axis X-ray
sources that have not been focused by the NuSTAR optics. We obtained stray
light observations of the source from 2014-2021, reduced and analyzed the data
using nustar-gen-utils Python tools, demonstrating the transition of source
from the "island" atoll state to a "banana" branch. We also present the
lightcurve analysis of Type I X-Ray bursts from the Clocked Burster and show
that the bursts from the banana/soft state are systematically shorter in
durations than those from the island/hard state and have a higher burst
fluence. From our analysis, we note an increase in mass accretion rate of the
source, and a decrease in burst frequency with the transition
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