Realistic Sensitivity Curves For Pulsar Timing Arrays

We construct realistic sensitivity curves for pulsar timing array searches for gravitational waves, incorporating both red and white noise contributions to individual pulsar noise spectra, and the effect of fitting to a pulsar timing model. We demonstrate the method on both simulated pulsars and a realistic array consisting of a subset of NANOGrav pulsars used in recent analyses. A comparison between the results presented here and measured upper limit curves from actual analyses shows agreement to tens of percent. The resulting sensitivity curves can be used to assess the detectability of predicted gravitational-wave signals in the nanohertz frequency band in a coherent, flexible, and computationally efficient manner

Realistic Sensitivity Curves For Pulsar Timing Arrays

We construct realistic sensitivity curves for pulsar timing array searches for gravitational waves, incorporating both red and white noise contributions to individual pulsar noise spectra, and the effect of fitting to a pulsar timing model. We demonstrate the method on both simulated pulsars and a realistic array consisting of a subset of NANOGrav pulsars used in recent analyses. A comparison between the results presented here and measured upper limit curves from actual analyses shows agreement to tens of percent. The resulting sensitivity curves can be used to assess the detectability of predicted gravitational-wave signals in the nanohertz frequency band in a coherent, flexible, and computationally efficient manner

Weak lensing evidence for a filament between A222/A223

We present a weak lensing analysis and comparison to optical and X-ray maps of the close pair of massive clusters A222/223. Indications for a filamentary connection between the clusters are found and discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Proc. IAU Colloquium 195: Outskirts of Galaxy Clusters - Intense Life in the Suburbs. Version with higher resolution available at http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~dietrich/torino_proc.ps.g

Chemical evolution of star clusters

I discuss the chemical evolution of star clusters, with emphasis on old globular clusters, in relation to their formation histories. Globular clusters clearly formed in a complex fashion, under markedly different conditions from any younger clusters presently known. Those special conditions must be linked to the early formation epoch of the Galaxy and must not have occurred since. While a link to the formation of globular clusters in dwarf galaxies has been suggested, present-day dwarf galaxies are not representative of the gravitational potential wells within which the globular clusters formed. Instead, a formation deep within the proto-Galaxy or within dark-matter minihaloes might be favoured. Not all globular clusters may have formed and evolved similarly. In particular, we may need to distinguish Galactic halo from Galactic bulge clusters.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures. To appear as invited review article in a special issue of the Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. A: Ch. 6 "Star clusters as tracers of galactic star-formation histories" (ed. R. de Grijs). Fully peer reviewed. LaTeX, requires rspublic.cls style fil

Two years of monitoring Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients with Swift

We present two years of intense Swift monitoring of three SFXTs, IGR J16479-4514, XTE J1739-302, and IGR J17544-2619 (since October 2007). Out-of-outburst intensity-based X-ray (0.3-10keV) spectroscopy yields absorbed power laws with by hard photon indices (G~1-2). Their outburst broad-band (0.3-150 keV) spectra can be fit well with models typically used to describe the X-ray emission from accreting NSs in HMXBs. We assess how long each source spends in each state using a systematic monitoring with a sensitive instrument. These sources spend 3-5% of the total in bright outbursts. The most probable flux is 1-2E-11 erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} (2-10 keV, unabsorbed), corresponding to luminosities in the order of a few 10^{33} to 10^{34} erg s^{-1} (two orders of magnitude lower than the bright outbursts). The duty-cycle of inactivity is 19, 39, 55%, for IGR J16479-4514, XTE J1739-302, and IGR J17544-2619, respectively. We present a complete list of BAT on-board detections further confirming the continued activity of these sources. This demonstrates that true quiescence is a rare state, and that these transients accrete matter throughout their life at different rates. X-ray variability is observed at all timescales and intensities we can probe. Superimposed on the day-to-day variability is intra-day flaring which involves variations up to one order of magnitude that can occur down to timescales as short as ~1ks, and whichcan be explained by the accretion of single clumps composing the donor wind with masses M_cl~0.3-2x10^{19} g. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 17 pages, 11 figures, 8 table