598 research outputs found
Spectral Analysis of GRBs Measured by RHESSI
The Ge spectrometer of the RHESSI satellite is sensitive to Gamma Ray Bursts
(GRBs) from about 40 keV up to 17 MeV, thus ideally complementing the Swift/BAT
instrument whose sensitivity decreases above 150 keV. We present preliminary
results of spectral fits of RHESSI GRB data. After describing our method, the
RHESSI results are discussed and compared with Swift and Konus.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, conference proceedings, 'Swift and GRBs:
Unveiling the Relativistic Universe', San Servolo, Venice, 5-9 June 2006, to
appear in Il Nouvo Ciment
A Population of Short-Period Variable Quasars from PTF as Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) at sub-parsec separations should be
common in galactic nuclei, as a result of frequent galaxy mergers.
Hydrodynamical simulations of circumbinary discs predict strong periodic
modulation of the mass accretion rate on time-scales comparable to the orbital
period of the binary. As a result, SMBHBs may be recognized by the periodic
modulation of their brightness. We conducted a statistical search for periodic
variability in a sample of 35,383 spectroscopically confirmed quasars in the
photometric database of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). We analysed
Lomb-Scargle periodograms and assessed the significance of our findings by
modeling each individual quasar's variability as a damped random walk (DRW). We
identified 50 quasars with significant periodicity beyond the DRW model,
typically with short periods of a few hundred days. We find 33 of these to
remain significant after a re-analysis of their periodograms including
additional optical data from the intermediate-PTF and the Catalina Real-Time
Transient Survey (CRTS). Assuming that the observed periods correspond to the
redshifted orbital periods of SMBHBs, we conclude that our findings are
consistent with a population of unequal-mass SMBHBs, with a typical mass ratio
as low as q = M2/M1 ~ 0.01.Comment: MNRAS (accepted), new section 4.
RHESSI Spectral Fits of Swift GRBs
One of the challenges of the Swift era has been accurately determining Epeak
for the prompt GRB emission. RHESSI, which is sensitive from 30 keV to 17 MeV,
can extend spectral coverage above the Swift-BAT bandpass. Using the public
Swift data, we present results of joint spectral fits for 26 bursts co-observed
by RHESSI and Swift-BAT through May 2007. We compare these fits to estimates of
Epeak which rely on BAT data alone. A Bayesian Epeak estimator gives better
correspondence with our measured results than an estimator relying on
correlations with the Swift power law indices.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the proceedings of Gamma Ray Bursts
2007, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 5-9 200
The Giant Flare of December 27, 2004 from SGR 1806-20
The giant flare of December 27, 2004 from SGR 1806-20 represents one of the
most extraordinary events captured in over three decades of monitoring the
gamma-ray sky. One measure of the intensity of the main peak is its effect on
X- and gamma-ray instruments. RHESSI, an instrument designed to study the
brightest solar flares, was completely saturated for ~0.5 s following the start
of the main peak. A fortuitous alignment of SGR 1806-20 near the Sun at the
time of the giant flare, however, allowed RHESSI a unique view of the giant
flare event, including the precursor, the main peak decay, and the pulsed tail.
Since RHESSI was saturated during the main peak, we augment these observations
with Wind and RHESSI particle detector data in order to reconstruct the main
peak as well. Here we present detailed spectral analysis and evolution of the
giant flare. We report the novel detection of a relatively soft fast peak just
milliseconds before the main peak, whose timescale and sizescale indicate a
magnetospheric origin. We present the novel detection of emission extending up
to 17 MeV immediately following the main peak, perhaps revealing a
highly-extended corona driven by the hyper-Eddington luminosities. The spectral
evolution and pulse evolution during the tail are presented, demonstrating
significant magnetospheric twist and evolution during this phase. Blackbody
radii are derived for every stage of the flare, which show remarkable agreement
despite the range of luminosities and temperatures covered. Finally, we place
significant upper limits on afterglow emission in the hundreds of seconds
following the giant flare.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Ap
Spacetime colour reconnection in Herwig 7
We present a model for generating spacetime coordinates in the Monte Carlo event generator Herwig 7, and perform colour reconnection by minimizing a boost-invariant distance measure of the system. We compare the model to a series of soft physics observables. We find reasonable agreement with the data, suggesting that pp-collider colour reconnection may be able to be applied in larger systems
Release Note -- Vbfnlo-2.6.0
Vbfnlo is a flexible parton level Monte Carlo program for the simulation of
vector boson fusion (VBF), double and triple vector boson (plus jet) production
in hadronic collisions at next-to-leading order (NLO) in the strong coupling
constant, as well as Higgs boson plus two jet production via gluon fusion at
the one-loop level. This note briefly describes the main additional features
and processes that have been added in the new release -- Vbfnlo Version 2.6.0.
At NLO QCD diboson production (W\gamma, WZ, ZZ, Z\gamma and \gamma\gamma),
same-sign W pair production via vector boson fusion and the process
W\gamma\gamma j have been implemented (for which one-loop tensor integrals up
to six-point functions are included). In addition, gluon induced diboson
production can be studied separately at the leading order (one-loop) level. The
diboson processes WW, WZ and W\gamma can be run with anomalous gauge boson
couplings, and anomalous couplings between a Higgs and a pair of gauge bosons
is included in WW, ZZ, Z\gamma and \gamma\gamma diboson production. The code
has also been extended to include anomalous gauge boson couplings for single
vector boson production via VBF, and a spin-2 model has been implemented for
diboson pair production via vector boson fusion.Comment: 14 pages, 6 tables; new code available at
http://www-itp.particle.uni-karlsruhe.de/vbfnlo
Observations of the Prompt Gamma-Ray Emission of GRB 070125
The long, bright gamma-ray burst GRB 070125 was localized by the
Interplanetary Network. We present light curves of the prompt gamma-ray
emission as observed by Konus-WIND, RHESSI, Suzaku-WAM, and \textit{Swift}-BAT.
We detail the results of joint spectral fits with Konus and RHESSI data. The
burst shows moderate hard-to-soft evolution in its multi-peaked emission over a
period of about one minute. The total burst fluence as observed by Konus is
erg/cm (20 keV--10 MeV). Using the spectroscopic
redshift , we find that the burst is consistent with the ``Amati''
correlation. Assuming a jet opening angle derived from
broadband modeling of the burst afterglow, GRB 070125 is a significant outlier
to the ``Ghirlanda'' correlation. Its
collimation-corrected energy release ergs is
the largest yet observed.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ. Improved
spectral fits and energetics estimate
Gravitational Microlensing Events from the First Year of the Northern Galactic Plane Survey by the Zwicky Transient Facility
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) (Bellm et al. 2019; Graham et al. 2019; Masci et al. 2019) is currently surveying the entire northern sky, including dense Galactic plane fields. Here, we present preliminary results of the search for gravitational microlensing events in the ZTF data collected from the beginning of the survey (2018 March 20) through 2019 June 30
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