610 research outputs found
3-D Model of Broadband Emission from Supernova Remnants Undergoing Non-linear Diffusive Shock Acceleration
We present a 3-dimensional model of supernova remnants (SNRs) where the
hydrodynamical evolution of the remnant is modeled consistently with nonlinear
diffusive shock acceleration occuring at the outer blast wave. The model
includes particle escape and diffusion outside of the forward shock, and
particle interactions with arbitrary distributions of external ambient
material, such as molecular clouds. We include synchrotron emission and
cooling, bremsstrahlung radiation, neutral pion production, inverse-Compton
(IC), and Coulomb energy-loss. Boardband spectra have been calculated for
typical parameters including dense regions of gas external to a 1000 year old
SNR. In this paper, we describe the details of our model but do not attempt a
detailed fit to any specific remnant. We also do not include magnetic field
amplification (MFA), even though this effect may be important in some young
remnants. In this first presentation of the model we don't attempt a detailed
fit to any specific remnant. Our aim is to develop a flexible platform, which
can be generalized to include effects such as MFA, and which can be easily
adapted to various SNR environments, including Type Ia SNRs, which explode in a
constant density medium, and Type II SNRs, which explode in a pre-supernova
wind. When applied to a specific SNR, our model will predict cosmic-ray spectra
and multi-wavelength morphology in projected images for instruments with
varying spatial and spectral resolutions. We show examples of these spectra and
images and emphasize the importance of measurements in the hard X-ray, GeV, and
TeV gamma-ray bands for investigating key ingredients in the acceleration
mechanism, and for deducing whether or not TeV emission is produced by IC from
electrons or neutral pions from protons.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted by Apj, 24 June 200
ASCA Detection of Pulsed X-ray Emission from PSR J0631+1036
ASCA's long look at the 288 millisecond radio pulsar, PSR J0631+1036, reveals
coherent X-ray pulsation from this source for the first time. The source was
first detected in the serendipitous Einstein observation and later identified
as a radio pulsar. Possible pulsation in the gamma-ray band has been detected
from the CGRO EGRET data (Zepka, et al. 1996). The X-ray spectrum in the ASCA
band is characterized by a hard power-law type emission with a photon index of
about 2.3, when fitted with a single power-law function modified with
absorption. An additional blackbody component of about 0.14 keV increases the
quality of the spectral fit. The observed X-ray flux is 2.1e-13 ergs/s/cm2 in
the 1-10 keV band. We find that many characteristics of PSR J0631+1036 are
similar to those of middle-aged gamma-ray pulsars such as PSR B1055-52, PSR
B0633+17 (Geminga), and PSR B0656+14.Comment: To appear in ApJ Letter
Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Balloon Flight Data Handling Overview
The GLAST Balloon Flight Engineering Model (BFEM) represents one of 16 towers
that constitute the Large Area Telescope (LAT), a high-energy (>20 MeV)
gamma-ray pair-production telescope being built by an international partnership
of astrophysicists and particle physicists for a satellite launch in 2006. The
prototype tower consists of a Pb/Si pair-conversion tracker (TKR), a CsI
hodoscopic calorimeter (CAL), an anti-coincidence detector (ACD) and an
autonomous data acquisition system (DAQ). The self-triggering capabilities and
performance of the detector elements have been previously characterized using
positron, photon and hadron beams. External target scintillators were placed
above the instrument to act as sources of hadronic showers. This paper provides
a comprehensive description of the BFEM data-reduction process, from receipt of
the flight data from telemetry through event reconstruction and background
rejection cuts. The goals of the ground analysis presented here are to verify
the functioning of the instrument and to validate the reconstruction software
and the background-rejection scheme.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to be published in IEEE Transacations on Nuclear
Science, August 200
ASCA Observations of Temperature Structure and Metal Distribution in the Perseus Cluster of Galaxies
Large-scale distributions of hot-gas temperature and Fe abundance in the
Perseus cluster have been studied with multi-pointing observations by the GIS
instrument on ASCA. Within a radius of 20' from the cluster center, the energy
spectra requires two temperature components, in which the cool component
indicates kT ~ 2 keV and the hot-component temperature shows a significant
decline from about 8 keV to 6 keV toward the center. In the outer region of the
cluster, the temperature shows a fluctuation with an amplitude of about 2 keV
and suggest that a western region at ~16' from the cluster center is relatively
hotter. As for the Fe abundance, a significant decline with radius is detected
from 0.44 solar at the center to ~0.1 solar at a 50' offset region. If observed
Fe-K line intensity within 4' from the center is suppressed by a factor of 2
due to the resonance scattering effect, the corrected Fe mass density follows
the galaxy distribution. Finally, our results do not support the large-scale
velocity gradients previously reported from the same GIS data.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Latex(pasj95.sty),accepted in PAS
Galactic secondary positron flux at the Earth
Secondary positrons are produced by spallation of cosmic rays within the
interstellar gas. Measurements have been typically expressed in terms of the
positron fraction, which exhibits an increase above 10 GeV. Many scenarios have
been proposed to explain this feature, among them some additional primary
positrons originating from dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy. The PAMELA
satellite has provided high quality data that has enabled high accuracy
statistical analyses to be made, showing that the increase in the positron
fraction extends up to about 100 GeV. It is therefore of paramount importance
to constrain theoretically the expected secondary positron flux to interpret
the observations in an accurate way. We find the secondary positron flux to be
reproduced well by the available observations, and to have theoretical
uncertainties that we quantify to be as large as about one order of magnitude.
We also discuss the positron fraction issue and find that our predictions may
be consistent with the data taken before PAMELA. For PAMELA data, we find that
an excess is probably present after considering uncertainties in the positron
flux, although its amplitude depends strongly on the assumptions made in
relation to the electron flux. By fitting the current electron data, we show
that when considering a soft electron spectrum, the amplitude of the excess
might be far lower than usually claimed. We provide fresh insights that may
help to explain the positron data with or without new physical model
ingredients. PAMELA observations and the forthcoming AMS-02 mission will allow
stronger constraints to be aplaced on the cosmic--ray transport parameters, and
are likely to reduce drastically the theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. The recent PAMELA data on the positron fraction
(arXiv:0810.4995) have been included and the ensuing discussion has been
extended. Accepted version in A&
Suzaku X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of Cassiopeia A
Suzaku X-ray observations of a young supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A, were
carried out. K-shell transition lines from highly ionized ions of various
elements were detected, including Chromium (Cr-Kalpha at 5.61 keV). The X-ray
continuum spectra were modeled in the 3.4--40 keV band, summed over the entire
remnant, and were fitted with a simplest combination of the thermal
bremsstrahlung and the non-thermal cut-off power-law models. The spectral fits
with this assumption indicate that the continuum emission is likely to be
dominated by the non-thermal emission with a cut-off energy at > 1 keV. The
thermal-to-nonthermal fraction of the continuum flux in the 4-10 keV band is
best estimated as ~0.1. Non-thermal-dominated continuum images in the 4--14 keV
band were made. The peak of the non-thermal X-rays appears at the western part.
The peak position of the TeV gamma-rays measured with HEGRA and MAGIC is also
shifted at the western part with the 1-sigma confidence. Since the location of
the X-ray continuum emission was known to be presumably identified with the
reverse shock region, the possible keV-TeV correlations give a hint that the
accelerated multi-TeV hadrons in Cassiopeia A are dominated by heavy elements
in the reverse shock region.Comment: Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan 61, pp.1217-1228 (2009
Constraints on cosmic-ray propagation models from a global Bayesian analysis
Research in many areas of modern physics such as, e.g., indirect searches for
dark matter and particle acceleration in SNR shocks, rely heavily on studies of
cosmic rays (CRs) and associated diffuse emissions (radio, microwave, X-rays,
gamma rays). While very detailed numerical models of CR propagation exist, a
quantitative statistical analysis of such models has been so far hampered by
the large computational effort that those models require. Although statistical
analyses have been carried out before using semi-analytical models (where the
computation is much faster), the evaluation of the results obtained from such
models is difficult, as they necessarily suffer from many simplifying
assumptions, The main objective of this paper is to present a working method
for a full Bayesian parameter estimation for a numerical CR propagation model.
For this study, we use the GALPROP code, the most advanced of its kind, that
uses astrophysical information, nuclear and particle data as input to
self-consistently predict CRs, gamma rays, synchrotron and other observables.
We demonstrate that a full Bayesian analysis is possible using nested sampling
and Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods (implemented in the SuperBayeS code)
despite the heavy computational demands of a numerical propagation code. The
best-fit values of parameters found in this analysis are in agreement with
previous, significantly simpler, studies also based on GALPROP.Comment: 19 figures, 3 tables, emulateapj.sty. A typo is fixed. To be
published in the Astrophysical Journal v.728 (February 10, 2011 issue).
Supplementary material can be found at
http://www.g-vo.org/pub/GALPROP/GalpropBayesPaper
HST/WFPC2 observations of the LMC pulsar PSR B0540-69
The study of the younger, and brighter, pulsars is important to understand
the optical emission properties of isolated neutron stars. PSRB0540-69, the
second brightest (V~22) optical pulsar, is obviously a very interesting target
for these investigations. The aim of this work is threefold: constraining the
pulsar proper motion and its velocity on the plane of the sky through optical
astrometry, obtaining a more precise characterisation of the pulsar optical
spectral energy distribution (SED) through a consistent set of multi-band,
high-resolution, imaging photometry observations, measuring the pulsar optical
phase-averaged linear polarisation, for which only a preliminary and uncertain
measurement was obtained so far from ground-based observations. We performed
high-resolution observations of PSRB0540-69 with the WFPC2 aboard the HST, in
both direct imaging and polarimetry modes. From multi-epoch astrometry we set a
3sigma upper limit of 1 mas/yr on the pulsar proper motion, implying a
transverse velocity <250 km/s at the 50 kpc LMC distance. Moreover, we
determined the pulsar absolute position with an unprecedented accuracy of 70
mas. From multi-band photometry we characterised the pulsar power-law spectrum
and we derived the most accurate measurement of the spectral index
(0.70+/-0.07) which indicates a spectral turnover between the optical and X-ray
bands. Finally, from polarimetry we obtained a new measurement of the pulsar
phase-averaged polarisation degree (16+/-4%),consistent with magnetosphere
models depending on the actual intrinsic polarisation degree and depolarisation
factor, and we found that the polarisation vector (22+/-12deg position angle)
is possibly aligned with the semi-major axis of the pulsar-wind nebula and with
the apparent proper motion direction of its bright emission knot.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Gleam: the GLAST Large Area Telescope Simulation Framework
This paper presents the simulation of the GLAST high energy gamma-ray
telescope. The simulation package, written in C++, is based on the Geant4
toolkit, and it is integrated into a general framework used to process events.
A detailed simulation of the electronic signals inside Silicon detectors has
been provided and it is used for the particle tracking, which is handled by a
dedicated software. A unique repository for the geometrical description of the
detector has been realized using the XML language and a C++ library to access
this information has been designed and implemented.Comment: 10 pages, Late
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