The DRAO 26-m Large Scale Polarization Survey at 1.41 GHz

The Effelsberg telescope as well as the DRAO synthesis telescope are currently surveying the Galactic polarized emission at 21 cm in detail. These new surveys reveal an unexpected richness of small-scale structures in the polarized sky. However, observations made with synthesis or single-dish telescopes are not on absolute intensity scales and therefore lack information about the large-scale distribution of polarized emission to a different degree. Until now, absolutely calibrated polarization data from the Leiden/Dwingeloo polarization surveys are used to recover the missing spatial information. However, these surveys cannot meet the requirements of the recent survey projects regarding sampling and noise and new polarization observation were initiated to complement the Leiden/Dwingeloo Survey. In this paper we will outline the observation and report on the progress for a new polarization survey of the northern sky with the 26-m telescope of the DRAO.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Theory of double-resonant Raman spectra in graphene: intensity and line shape of defect-induced and two-phonon bands

We calculate the double resonant (DR) Raman spectrum of graphene, and determine the lines associated to both phonon-defect processes, and two-phonons ones. Phonon and electronic dispersions reproduce calculations based on density functional theory corrected with GW. Electron-light, -phonon, and -defect scattering matrix elements and the electronic linewidth are explicitly calculated. Defect-induced processes are simulated by considering different kind of idealized defects. For an excitation energy of $\epsilon_L=2.4$ eV, the agreement with measurements is very good and calculations reproduce: the relative intensities among phonon-defect or among two-phonon lines; the measured small widths of the D, $D'$, 2D and $2D'$ lines; the line shapes; the presence of small intensity lines in the 1800, 2000 cm$^{-1}$ range. We determine how the spectra depend on the excitation energy, on the light polarization, on the electronic linewidth, on the kind of defects and on their concentration. According to the present findings, the intensity ratio between the $2D'$ and 2D lines can be used to determine experimentally the electronic linewidth. The intensity ratio between the $D$ and $D'$ lines depends on the kind of model defect, suggesting that this ratio could possibly be used to identify the kind of defects present in actual samples. Charged impurities outside the graphene plane provide an almost undetectable contribution to the Raman signal

Radio and gamma-ray constraints on dark matter annihilation in the Galactic center

We determine upper limits on the dark matter (DM) self-annihilation cross section for scenarios in which annihilation leads to the production of electron--positron pairs. In the Galactic centre (GC), relativistic electrons and positrons produce a radio flux via synchroton emission, and a gamma ray flux via bremsstrahlung and inverse Compton scattering. On the basis of archival, interferometric and single-dish radio data, we have determined the radio spectrum of an elliptical region around the Galactic centre of extent 3 degrees semi-major axis (along the Galactic plane) and 1 degree semi-minor axis and a second, rectangular region, also centered on the GC, of extent 1.6 degrees x 0.6 degrees. The radio spectra of both regions are non-thermal over the range of frequencies for which we have data: 74 MHz -- 10 GHz. We also consider gamma-ray data covering the same region from the EGRET instrument (about GeV) and from HESS (around TeV). We show how the combination of these data can be used to place robust constraints on DM annihilation scenarios, in a way which is relatively insensitive to assumptions about the magnetic field amplitude in this region. Our results are approximately an order of magnitude more constraining than existing Galactic centre radio and gamma ray limits. For a DM mass of m_\chi =10 GeV, and an NFW profile, we find that the velocity-averaged cross-section must be less than a few times 10^-25 cm^3 s^-1.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Version accepted for publication in PRD. Reference section updated/extended

G55.0+0.3: A Highly Evolved Supernova Remnant

Multi-frequency analysis has revealed the presence of a new supernova remnant, G55.0+0.3, in the Galactic plane. A kinematic distance of 14 kpc has been measured from HI spectral line data. The faint, clumpy half-shell is non-thermal and has a physical radius of 70 pc. Using an evolutionary model, the age of the remnant is estimated to be on the order of one million years, which exceeds conventional limits by a factor of five. The remnant may be associated with the nearby pulsar J1932+2020, which has a spin-down age of 1.1 million years. This work implies that the radiative lifetimes of remnants could be much longer than previously suggested.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures in 9 files (figures 1 and 2 require 2 files each), Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (Jan. 20, 1998 volume

Analysis of the thin layer of Galactic warm ionized gas in the range 20 < l < 30 deg, -1.5 < b < +1.5 deg

We present an analysis of the thin layer of Galactic warm ionized gas at an angular resolution ~ 10'. This is carried out using radio continuum data at 1.4 GHz, 2.7 GHz and 5 GHz in the coordinate region 20 < l < 30 deg, -1.5 < b < +1.5 deg. For this purpose, we evaluate the zero level of the 2.7 and 5 GHz surveys using auxiliary data at 2.3 GHz and 408 MHz. The derived zero level corrections are T_{zero}(2.7 GHz)=0.15 +/- 0.06 K and T_{zero}(5 GHz)=0.1 +/- 0.05 K. We separate the thermal (free-free) and non-thermal (synchrotron) component by means of a spectral analysis performed adopting an antenna temperature spectral index -2.1 for the free-free emission, a realistic spatial distribution of indices for the synchrotron radiation and by fitting, pixel-by-pixel, the Galactic spectral index. We find that at 5 GHz, for |b| = 0 deg, the fraction of thermal emission reaches a maximum value of 82%, while at 1.4 GHz, the corresponding value is 68%. In addition, for the thermal emission, the analysis indicates a dominant contribution of the diffuse component relative to the source component associated with discrete HII regions.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted to MNRA

An absolutely calibrated survey of polarized emission from the northern sky at 1.4 GHz

A new polarization survey of the northern sky at 1.41 GHz is presented. The observations were carried out using the 25.6m telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Canada, with an angular resolution of 36 arcmin. The data are corrected for ground radiation to obtain Stokes U and Q maps on a well-established intensity scale tied to absolute determinations of zero levels, containing emission structures of large angular extent, with an rms noise of 12 mK. Survey observations were carried out by drift scanning the sky between -29 degr and +90 degr declination. The fully sampled drift scans, observed in steps of 0.25 degr to 2.5 degr in declination, result in a northern sky coverage of 41.7% of full Nyquist sampling. The survey surpasses by a factor of 200 the coverage, and by a factor of 5 the sensitivity, of the Leiden/Dwingeloo polarization survey (Spoelstra 1972) that was until now the most complete large-scale survey. The temperature scale is tied to the Effelsberg scale. Absolute zero-temperature levels are taken from the Leiden/Dwingeloo survey after rescaling those data by the factor of 0.94. The paper describes the observations, data processing, and calibration steps. The data are publicly available at http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/div/konti/26msurvey or http://www.drao.nrc.ca/26msurvey.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Polarization surveys of the Galaxy

We report on sensitive 21cm and 11cm polarization surveys of the Galactic plane carried out with the Effelsberg 100-m telescope at arcmin angular resolution and some related work. Highly structured polarized emission is seen along the Galactic plane as well as up to very high Galactic latitudes. These observations reflect Faraday effects in the interstellar medium. Polarized foreground and background components along the line of sight, modified by Faraday rotation and depolarization, add in a complex way. The amplitudes of polarized emission features are highly frequency dependent. Small-scale components decrease in amplitude rapidly with increasing frequency. We stress the need for sensitive absolutely calibrated polarization data. These are essential for baseline setting and a correct interpretation of small-scale structures. Absolutely calibrated data are also needed to estimate the high-frequency polarized background. A recent study of polarized emission observed across the local Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud complexes indicates excessive synchrotron emission within a few hundred parsecs. These results suggest that possibly a large fraction of the Galactic high latitude total intensity and polarized emission is of local origin.Comment: 6 pages with 2 PS figures. To be published in "Astrophysical Polarized Backgrounds", eds. S. Cecchini, S. Cortiglioni, R. Sault and C. Sbarra, AIP Conf. Pro

Gamma-ray Flares and VLBI Outbursts of Blazars

A model is developed for the time dependent electromagnetic - radio to gamma-ray - emission of active galactic nuclei, specifically, the blazars, based on the acceleration and creation of leptons at a propagating discontinuity or {\it front} of a Poynting flux jet. The front corresponds to a discrete relativistic jet component as observed with very-long-baseline-interferometry (VLBI). Equations are derived for the number, momentum, and energy of particles in the front taking into account synchrotron, synchrotron-self-Compton (SSC), and inverse-Compton processes as well as photon-photon pair production. The apparent synchrotron, SSC, and inverse-Compton luminosities as functions of time are determined. Predictions of the model are compared with observations in the gamma, optical and radio bands. The delay between the high-energy gamma-ray flare and the onset of the radio is explained by self-absorption and/or free-free absorption by external plasma. Two types of gamma-ray flares are predicted depending on pair creation in the front.Comment: 11 pages, submitted to ApJ. 10 figures can be obtained from R. Lovelace by sending postal address to [email protected]