762 research outputs found
Spatial distribution of X-ray emitting ejecta in Tycho's SNR: indications of shocked Titanium
Young supernova remnants show a characteristic ejecta-dominated X-ray
emission that allows us to probe the products of the explosive nucleosynthesis
processes and to ascertain important information about the physics of the
supernova explosions. Hard X-ray observations have recently revealed the
radioactive decay lines of 44Ti at ~67.9 keV and ~78.4 keV in the Tycho's SNR.
We here analyze the set of XMM-Newton archive observations of the Tycho's SNR.
We produce equivalent width maps of the Fe K and Ca XIX emission lines and find
indications for a stratification of the abundances of these elements and
significant anisotropies. We then perform a spatially resolved spectral
analysis by identifying five different regions characterized by high/low values
of the Fe K equivalent width. We find that the spatial distribution of the Fe K
emission is correlated with that of the Cr XXII. We also detect the Ti K-line
complex in the spectra extracted from the two regions with the highest values
of the Fe and Cr equivalent widths. The Ti line emissions remains undetected in
regions where the Fe and Cr equivalent widths are low. Our results indicate
that the post-shock Ti is spatially co-located with other iron-peak nuclei in
Tycho's SNR, in agreement with the predictions of multi-D models of Type Ia
supernovae.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
XMM-Newton Slew Survey observations of the gravitational wave event GW150914
The detection of the first gravitational wave (GW) transient GW150914
prompted an extensive campaign of follow-up observations at all wavelengths.
Although no dedicated XMM-Newton observations have been performed, the
satellite passed through the GW150914 error box during normal operations. Here
we report the analysis of the data taken during these satellite slews performed
two hours and two weeks after the GW event. Our data cover 1.1 square degrees
and 4.8 square degrees of the final GW localization region. No credible X-ray
counterpart to GW150914 is found down to a sensitivity of 6E-13 erg/cm2/s in
the 0.2-2 keV band. Nevertheless, these observations show the great potential
of XMM-Newton slew observations for the search of the electromagnetic
counterparts of GW events. A series of adjacent slews performed in response to
a GW trigger would take <1.5 days to cover most of the typical GW credible
region. We discuss this scenario and its prospects for detecting the X-ray
counterpart of future GW detections.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
On the metal abundances inside mixed-morphology supernova remnants: the case of IC443 and G166.0+4.3
Recent developments on the study of mixed morphology supernova remnants
(MMSNRs) have revealed the presence of metal rich X-ray emitting plasma inside
a fraction of these remnant, a feature not properly addressed by traditional
models for these objects. Radial profiles of thermodynamical and chemical
parameters are needed for a fruitful comparison of data and model of MMSNRs,
but these are available only in a few cases. We analyze XMM-Newton data of two
MMSNRs, namely IC443 and G166.0+4.3, previously known to have solar metal
abundances, and we perform spatially resolved spectral analysis of the X-ray
emission. We detected enhanced abundances of Ne, Mg and Si in the hard X-ray
bright peak in the north of IC443, and of S in the outer regions of G166.0+4.3.
The metal abundances are not distributed uniformly in both remnants. The
evaporating clouds model and the radiative SNR model fail to reproduce
consistently all the observational results. We suggest that further deep X-ray
observations of MMSNRs may reveal more metal rich objects. More detailed models
which include ISM-ejecta mixing are needed to explain the nature of this
growing subclass of MMSNRs.Comment: A&A in press. For journal style pdf file,
http://www.astropa.unipa.it/Library/OAPA_preprints/fb10742.pd
A year in the life of GW170817: the rise and fall of a structured jet from a binary neutron star merger
We present the results of our year-long afterglow monitoring of GW170817, the
first binary neutron star (NS) merger detected by advanced LIGO and advanced
Virgo. New observations with the Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and
the Chandra X-ray Telescope were used to constrain its late-time behavior. The
broadband emission, from radio to X-rays, is well-described by a simple
power-law spectrum with index ~0.585 at all epochs. After an initial shallow
rise ~t^0.9, the afterglow displayed a smooth turn-over, reaching a peak X-ray
luminosity of ~5e39 erg/s at 160 d, and has now entered a phase of rapid
decline ~t^(-2). The latest temporal trend challenges most models of choked
jet/cocoon systems, and is instead consistent with the emergence of a
relativistic structured jet seen at an angle of ~22 deg from its axis. Within
such model, the properties of the explosion (such as its blastwave energy
E_K~2E50 erg, jet width theta_c~4 deg, and ambient density n~3E-3 cm^(-3)) fit
well within the range of properties of cosmological short GRBs.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, MNRAS, in press. Final version, minor
changes only relative to original submission dated 21 August 201
Swift and Fermi observations of X-ray flares: the case of Late Internal Shock
Simultaneous Swift and Fermi observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) offer a
unique broadband view of their afterglow emission, spanning more than ten
decades in energy. We present the sample of X-ray flares observed by both Swift
and Fermi during the first three years of Fermi operations. While bright in the
X-ray band, X-ray flares are often undetected at lower (optical), and higher
(MeV to GeV) energies. We show that this disfavors synchrotron self-Compton
processes as origin of the observed X-ray emission. We compare the broadband
properties of X-ray flares with the standard late internal shock model, and
find that, in this scenario, X-ray flares can be produced by a late-time
relativistic (Gamma>50) outflow at radii R~10^13-10^14 cm. This conclusion
holds only if the variability timescale is significantly shorter than the
observed flare duration, and implies that X-ray flares can directly probe the
activity of the GRB central engine.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
A luminous blue kilonova and an off-axis jet from a compact binary merger at z=0.1341
The recent discovery of a faint gamma-ray burst (GRB) coincident with the
gravitational wave (GW) event GW 170817 revealed the existence of a population
of low-luminosity short duration gamma-ray transients produced by neutron star
mergers in the nearby Universe. These events could be routinely detected by
existing gamma-ray monitors, yet previous observations failed to identify them
without the aid of GW triggers. Here we show that GRB150101B was an analogue of
GRB170817A located at a cosmological distance. GRB 150101B was a faint short
duration GRB characterized by a bright optical counterpart and a long-lived
X-ray afterglow. These properties are unusual for standard short GRBs and are
instead consistent with an explosion viewed off-axis: the optical light is
produced by a luminous kilonova component, while the observed X-rays trace the
GRB afterglow viewed at an angle of ~13 degrees. Our findings suggest that
these properties could be common among future electromagnetic counterparts of
GW sources.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publicatio
Mitigating Autonomous Vehicle GPS Spoofing Attacks through Scene Text Observations
This paper investigates both from an empirical and a systems-based perspective, how surrounding textual information can be leveraged towards the mitigation of Autonomous Vehicle (AV) and self-driving cars Global Positioning System (GPS) signal spoofing attacks. The paper presents and proposes methods of how AVs and self-driving cars can extract, as they travel along a trajectory, surrounding textual information through machine-learning based Scene Text Recognition (STR). The paper researches and proposes geospatial models which can be applied to the extracted textual information in order to build a text-based geolocation system for the purposes of validating the received GPS signal. The ultimate contribution of the paper is to lay the groundwork towards enhancing the Cybersecurity of the current and future Autonomous Vehicle and self-driving car ecosystem by addressing its Achilles heel, namely insecure and inaccurate geolocation due to GPS spoofing attacks
GRB 130427A Afterglow: A Test for GRB Models
Gamma-ray Burst 130427A had the largest fluence for almost 30 years. With an isotropic energy output of 8.5×1053 erg and redshift of 0.34, it combined a very high energy release with a relative proximity to Earth in an unprecedented fashion. Sensitive X-ray facilities such as {\it XMM-Newton} and {\it Chandra} detected the afterglow of this event for a record-breaking baseline of 90 Ms. We show the X-ray light curve of GRB 130427A of this event over such an interval. The light curve shows an unbroken power law decay with a slope of α=1.31 over more than three decades in time. In this presentation, we investigate the consequences of this result for the scenarios proposed to interpret GRB 130427A and the implications in the context of the forward shock model (jet opening angle, energetics, surrounding medium). We also remark the chance of extending GRB afterglow observations for several hundreds of Ms with {\it Athena}
XMM-Newton observations of the supernova remnant IC443: I. soft X-ray emission from shocked interstellar medium
The shocked interstellar medium around IC443 produces strong X-ray emission
in the soft energy band (E<1.5 keV). We present an analysis of such emission as
observed with the EPIC MOS cameras on board the XMM-Newotn observatory, with
the purpose to find clear signatures of the interactions with the interstellar
medium (ISM) in the X-ray band, which may complement results obtained in other
wavelenghts. We found that the giant molecular cloud mapped in CO emission is
located in the foreground and gives an evident signature in the absorption of
X-rays. This cloud may have a torus shape and the part of torus interacting
with the IC443 shock gives rise to 2MASS-K emission in the southeast. The
measured density of emitting X-ray shocked plasma increases toward the
northeastern limb, where the remnant is interacting with an atomic cloud. We
found an excellent correlation between emission in the 0.3-0.5 keV band and
bright optical/radio filament on large spatial scales. The partial shell
structure seen in this band therefore traces the encounter with the atomic
cloud.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ (20 September
2006, v649). For hi-res figures, see
http://www.astropa.unipa.it/Library/OAPA_preprints/ic443ele1.ps.g
- …