A precise measurement of the magnetic field in the corona of the black hole binary V404 Cygni

Observations of binary stars containing an accreting black hole or neutron star often show x-ray emission extending to high energies (>10 kilo­–electron volts), which is ascribed to an accretion disk corona of energetic particles akin to those seen in the solar corona. Despite their ubiquity, the physical conditions in accretion disk coronae remain poorly constrained. Using simultaneous infrared, optical, x-ray, and radio observations of the Galactic black hole system V404 Cygni, showing a rapid synchrotron cooling event in its 2015 outburst, we present a precise 461 ± 12 gauss magnetic field measurement in the corona. This measurement is substantially lower than previous estimates for such systems, providing constraints on physical models of accretion physics in black hole and neutron star binary systems. This article has a correction. Please see: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6386/eaat927

Erratum for the Report “A precise measurement of the magnetic field in the corona of the black hole binary V404 Cygni”

In the Report “A precise measurement of the magnetic field in the corona of the black hole binary V404 Cygni,” a calculation error led to values of the magnetic field that were about 14 times too high. The mathematical expressions given in the Report were correct, but the code used to calculate the numerical values included an extraneous factor, which led to incorrect results. The magnetic fields calculated from the observations at different wavelengths were all scaled by the same factor, so after this is removed they remain consistent with each other. The corrected value of the magnetic field is lower than previously calculated, making the field in V404 Cygni even more unlike those estimated for other systems. However, the lower magnetic field is no longer consistent with the value predicted from the equipartition model. The text, materials and methods, Table S1, and Figure S3 have been updated to reflect the corrected magnetic field values and to state that the system was not in equipartition. No other results or conclusions of the study were affected. The authors thank J. Malzac (Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, Université de Toulouse) for alerting them to this error

The Thermal Filter for the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) on-board Aditya-L1

The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) is an imaging telescope on-board the Aditya-L1 satellite, which is India’s maiden space mission dedicated solely to solar observations. The spatially resolved, high cadence observations are designed to be taken in eleven science filters with Full Width Half Maxima ranging between 0.1–58 nm and spread over the Near-Ultraviolet (NUV) domain of the solar spectrum (200–400 nm). The huge incoming solar flux, limited by the linearity regime performance of the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) as well as the thermal operational constraints, mandate the use of an entrance aperture filter, the Thermal Filter (TF), for SUIT. The design of this filter is, further, constrained by exposure time and enhanced emission of the Sun during eruptive events. From performance perspective, the TF reflects ∼50% of the incident radiation and allows only 0.1–0.45% of the incoming flux to pass within 200–400 nm. The transmission on either side of the operational range is satisfactorily reduced, so as to ensure minimum unwanted light leaking into the imaging system. Therefore, the TF plays a significant role in increasing the photometric efficiency as well as maintaining the operational temperature of the telescope. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time any attempt of designing and manufacturing any such rejection filter aiming optimized performance in the NUV range is being done for a space-based imaging solar telescope. The choice of materials for substrate and coating for the filter poses several challenges in terms of contamination, corrosion/ oxidation, durability during manufacturing process, long-term exposure to harsh space environment as well as formation of pinholes. The transmission and reflection profiles of the fabricated TF is satisfactory to meet our design and technical constraints. The TF is also qualified for various environmental and radiation conditions. The transmission of the TF is seen to be well within our allowed margins (±10% of the design value) even after being exposed to these qualification tests. © 2022 SPIE. All rights reserved.Immediate accessThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Stress-induced birefringence in the lenses of Wide-Area Linear Optical Polarimeter-South

Two unique wide-field and high-accuracy polarimeters named WALOP (Wide-Area Linear Optical Polarimeter)- North and WALOP-South are currently under development at the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), India, to create a large area optical polarization map of the sky for the upcoming PASIPHAE sky survey. These instruments are designed to achieve a linear polarimetric measurement accuracy of 0.1% across a field of view (FoV) of 30×30 arcminutes. The WALOP-South instrument will be installed first on a 1 m telescope at the Sutherland Observatory, where the temperatures during the night can vary between 10 to -5°C. These temperature variations and the instrument's pointing to various non-zenithal positions in the sky can introduce stress birefringence in the lenses, leading to time-varying instrumental polarization. This work estimates stress-induced birefringence due to thermal, and gravity stresses on WALOP-South lenses. Using the optomechanical model of the WALOP-South, we carried out Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulations in SolidWorks software to estimate the stresses for various scenarios of temperature, telescope pointing airmass, and lens mount material (aluminum and titanium). Further, we use the stress tensor analysis to estimate the principal stresses and their directions and consequent birefringence and retardance introduced in the lenses. The stressinduced birefringence will change the optical path length for orthogonal polarization states of the beam passing through the lenses and introduce phase retardation. Overall, with the lens mount design of the instrument, we find that the retardation and consequent instrumental polarization will be within the instrumental accuracy requirements. Additionally, the stress birefringence is found to be higher for aluminum compared to titanium mounts. We further incorporated this retardance in the instrument Mueller matrix estimation to understand its effects on the polarization measurements. © COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.Immediate accessThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Early-time polarized optical light curve of GRB 131030A

Peer reviewe

RoboPol: AGN polarimetric monitoring data

We present uniformly reprocessed and re-calibrated data from the RoboPol programme of optopolarimetric monitoring of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), covering observations between 2013, when the instrument was commissioned, and 2017. In total, the data set presented in this paper includes 5068 observations of 222 AGN with Dec. > -25a -. We describe the current version of the RoboPol pipeline that was used to process and calibrate the entire data set, and we make the data publicly available for use by the astronomical community. Average quantities summarizing optopolarimetric behaviour (average degree of polarization, polarization variability index) are also provided for each source we have observed and for the time interval we have followed it. © 2020 The Author(s)