171 research outputs found
‘Large complaints in little papers’ : negotiating Ovidian genealogies of complaint in Drayton's Englands Heroicall Epistles
Taking as its starting point Michael Drayton's reworking of a key Heroidean topos, the heroine's self-conscious reflection on letter-writing as an activity fraught with anxiety, this essay examines the cultural and literary factors that conspire to inhibit or facilitate the emergence of a distinctive feminine epistolary voice in Englands Heroicall Epistles. In particular it seeks to explain how Drayton's female letter-writers manage to negotiate the impediments to self-expression they initially encounter and thus go on to articulate morally and politically incisive forms of complaint. It argues that the participation of Drayton's fictional writers in the authorial business of revising Ovid for an altered historical context plays a crucial role in supporting that process. This allows Drayton's heroines to recover a degree of textual authority through an independent critical engagement, by turns resistant and identificatory, with his Ovidian sources, including the Metamorphoses as well as the Heroides. A comparative analysis of the ways in which intertextual allusions to these sources are deployed by his male and female writers reveals them to be governed by a different dynamic and used for different ends. It is primarily by means of their complex, intersecting dialogues with their male correspondents and with the Ovidian models upon which they draw that Drayton's heroines are able to formulate a compelling counter-perspective on the politics of love and history
Absolute Timing of the Crab Pulsar with RXTE
We have monitored the phase of the main X-ray pulse of the Crab pulsar with
the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) for almost eight years, since the start
of the mission in January 1996. The absolute time of RXTE's clock is
sufficiently accurate to allow this phase to be compared directly with the
radio profile. Our monitoring observations of the pulsar took place bi-weekly
(during the periods when it was at least 30 degrees from the Sun) and we
correlated the data with radio timing ephemerides derived from observations
made at Jodrell Bank. We have determined the phase of the X-ray main pulse for
each observation with a typical error in the individual data points of 50 us.
The total ensemble is consistent with a phase that is constant over the
monitoring period, with the X-ray pulse leading the radio pulse by
0.0102+/-0.0012 period in phase, or 344+/-40 us in time. The error estimate is
dominated by a systematic error of 40 us in the radio data, arising from
uncertainties in the variable amount of pulse delay due to interstellar
scattering and instrumental calibration. The statistical error is 0.00015
period, or 5 us. The separation of the main pulse and interpulse appears to be
unchanging at time scales of a year or less, with an average value of
0.4001+/-0.0002 period. There is no apparent variation in these values with
energy over the 2-30 keV range. The lag between the radio and X-ray pulses may
be constant in phase (rotational) or constant in time (linear pathlength). We
are not (yet) able to distinguish between these two interpretations.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
The Binary Nature of PSR J2032+4127
PSR J2032+4127 is a gamma-ray and radio-emitting pulsar which has been
regarded as a young luminous isolated neutron star. However, its recent
spin-down rate has extraordinarily increased by a factor of two. We present
evidence that this is due to its motion as a member of a highly-eccentric
binary system with a 15-solar-mass Be star, MT91~213. Timing observations show
that, not only are the positions of the two stars coincident within 0.4 arcsec,
but timing models of binary motion of the pulsar fit the data much better than
a model of a young isolated pulsar. MT91~213, and hence the pulsar, lie in the
Cyg~OB2 stellar association, which is at a distance of only 1.4-1.7 kpc. The
pulsar is currently on the near side of, and accelerating towards, the Be star,
with an orbital period of 20-30 years. The next periastron is well-constrained
to occur in early 2018, providing an opportunity to observe enhanced
high-energy emission as seen in other Be-star binary systems.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Simultaneous X-ray and Radio Observations of Rotating Radio Transient J1819-1458
We present the results of simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of PSR
J1819-1458. Our 94-ks XMM-Newton observation of the high magnetic field 5*10^13
G pulsar reveals a blackbody spectrum (kT~130 eV) with a broad absorption
feature, possibly composed of two lines at ~1.0 and ~1.3 keV. We performed a
correlation analysis of the X-ray photons with radio pulses detected in 16.2
hours of simultaneous observations at 1-2 GHz with the Green Bank, Effelsberg,
and Parkes telescopes, respectively. Both the detected X-ray photons and radio
pulses appear to be randomly distributed in time. We find tentative evidence
for a correlation between the detected radio pulses and X-ray photons on
timescales of less than 10 pulsar spin periods, with the probability of this
occurring by chance being 0.46%. This suggests that the physical process
producing the radio pulses may also heat the polar-cap.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, Accepted to Ap
Correlated emission and spin-down variability in radio pulsars
The recent revelation that there are correlated period derivative and pulse
shape changes in pulsars has dramatically changed our understanding of timing
noise as well as the relationship between the radio emission and the properties
of the magnetosphere as a whole. Using Gaussian processes we are able to model
timing and emission variability using a regression technique that imposes no
functional form on the data. We revisit the pulsars first studied by Lyne et
al. (2010). We not only confirm the emission and rotational transitions
revealed therein, but reveal further transitions and periodicities in 8 years
of extended monitoring. We also show that in many of these objects the pulse
profile transitions between two well-defined shapes, coincident with changes to
the period derivative. With a view to the SKA and other telescopes capable of
higher cadence we also study the detection limitations of period derivative
changes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 Figures, Proceedings of IAU Symposium 337 "Pulsar
Astrophysics - The Next 50 Years" held at Jodrell Bank Observatory, UK Sept.
4-8 201
- …