281 research outputs found
The Rise of SN 2014J in the Nearby Galaxy M82
We report on the discovery of SN 2014J in the nearby galaxy M82. Given its proximity, it offers the best opportunity to date to study a thermonuclear supernova (SN) over a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Optical, near-IR, and mid-IR observations on the rising light curve, orchestrated by the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory, show that SN 2014J is a spectroscopically normal Type Ia supernova (SN Ia), albeit exhibiting high-velocity features in its spectrum and heavily reddened by dust in the host galaxy. Our earliest detections start just hours after the fitted time of explosion. We use high-resolution optical spectroscopy to analyze the dense intervening material and do not detect any evolution in the resolved absorption features during the light curve rise. Similar to other highly reddened SNe Ia, a low value of total-to-selective extinction, R_V âČ 2, provides the best match to our observations. We also study pre-explosion optical and near-IR images from Hubble Space Telescope with special emphasis on the sources nearest to the SN location
Simultaneous X-ray, gamma-ray, and Radio Observations of the repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102
We undertook coordinated campaigns with the Green Bank, Effelsberg, and
Arecibo radio telescopes during Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton
observations of the repeating fast radio burst FRB 121102 to search for
simultaneous radio and X-ray bursts. We find 12 radio bursts from FRB 121102
during 70 ks total of X-ray observations. We detect no X-ray photons at the
times of radio bursts from FRB 121102 and further detect no X-ray bursts above
the measured background at any time. We place a 5 upper limit of
erg cm on the 0.5--10 keV fluence for X-ray bursts at
the time of radio bursts for durations ms, which corresponds to a burst
energy of erg at the measured distance of FRB 121102. We also
place limits on the 0.5--10 keV fluence of erg cm and
erg cm for bursts emitted at any time during the
XMM-Newton and Chandra observations, respectively, assuming a typical X-ray
burst duration of 5 ms. We analyze data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space
Telescope Gamma-ray Burst Monitor and place a 5 upper limit on the
10--100 keV fluence of erg cm ( erg at
the distance of FRB 121102) for gamma-ray bursts at the time of radio bursts.
We also present a deep search for a persistent X-ray source using all of the
X-ray observations taken to date and place a 5 upper limit on the
0.5--10 keV flux of erg s cm (
erg~s at the distance of FRB 121102). We discuss these non-detections in
the context of the host environment of FRB 121102 and of possible sources of
fast radio bursts in general.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, published in Ap
A High Braking Index for a Pulsar
We present a phase-coherent timing solution for PSR J1640â4631, a young 206 ms pulsar using X-ray timing observations taken with NuSTAR. Over this timing campaign, we have measured the braking index of PSR J1640â4631 to be n = 3.15 ± 0.03. Using a series of simulations, we argue that this unusually high braking index is not due to timing noise, but is intrinsic to the pulsar's spin-down. We cannot, however, rule out contamination due to an unseen glitch recovery, although the recovery timescale would have to be longer than most yet observed. If this braking index is eventually proven to be stable, it demonstrates that pulsar braking indices greater than three are allowed in nature; hence, other physical mechanisms such as mass or magnetic quadrupoles are important in pulsar spin-down. We also present a 3Ï upper limit on the pulsed flux at 1.4 GHz of 0.018 mJy
A Multi-telescope Campaign on FRB 121102: Implications for the FRB Population
We present results of the coordinated observing campaign that made the first
subarcsecond localization of a Fast Radio Burst, FRB 121102. During this
campaign, we made the first simultaneous detection of an FRB burst by multiple
telescopes: the VLA at 3 GHz and the Arecibo Observatory at 1.4 GHz. Of the
nine bursts detected by the Very Large Array at 3 GHz, four had simultaneous
observing coverage at other observatories. We use multi-observatory constraints
and modeling of bursts seen only at 3 GHz to confirm earlier results showing
that burst spectra are not well modeled by a power law. We find that burst
spectra are characterized by a ~500 MHz envelope and apparent radio energy as
high as erg. We measure significant changes in the apparent
dispersion between bursts that can be attributed to frequency-dependent
profiles or some other intrinsic burst structure that adds a systematic error
to the estimate of DM by up to 1%. We use FRB 121102 as a prototype of the FRB
class to estimate a volumetric birth rate of FRB sources Mpc yr, where is the number of bursts per
source over its lifetime. This rate is broadly consistent with models of FRBs
from young pulsars or magnetars born in superluminous supernovae or long
gamma-ray bursts, if the typical FRB repeats on the order of thousands of times
during its lifetime.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to AAS Journal
Detection of Bursts from FRB 121102 with the Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope at 5 GHz and the Role of Scintillation
FRB 121102, the only repeating fast radio burst (FRB) known to date, was
discovered at 1.4 GHz and shortly after the discovery of its repeating nature,
detected up to 2.4 GHz. Here we present three bursts detected with the 100-m
Effelsberg radio telescope at 4.85 GHz. All three bursts exhibited frequency
structure on broad and narrow frequency scales. Using an autocorrelation
function analysis, we measured a characteristic bandwidth of the small-scale
structure of 6.41.6 MHz, which is consistent with the diffractive
scintillation bandwidth for this line of sight through the Galactic
interstellar medium (ISM) predicted by the NE2001 model. These were the only
detections in a campaign totaling 22 hours in 10 observing epochs spanning five
months. The observed burst detection rate within this observation was
inconsistent with a Poisson process with a constant average occurrence rate;
three bursts arrived in the final 0.3 hr of a 2 hr observation on 2016 August
20. We therefore observed a change in the rate of detectable bursts during this
observation, and we argue that boosting by diffractive interstellar
scintillations may have played a role in the detectability. Understanding
whether changes in the detection rate of bursts from FRB 121102 observed at
other radio frequencies and epochs are also a product of propagation effects,
such as scintillation boosting by the Galactic ISM or plasma lensing in the
host galaxy, or an intrinsic property of the burst emission will require
further observations.Comment: Accepted to ApJ. Minor typos correcte
Distorted cyclotron line profile in Cep X-4 as observed by NuSTAR
We present spectral analysis of NuSTAR and Swift observations of Cep X-4
during its outburst in 2014. We observed the source once during the peak of the
outburst and once during the decay, finding good agreement in the spectral
shape between the observations. We describe the continuum using a powerlaw with
a Fermi-Dirac cutoff at high energies. Cep X-4 has a very strong cyclotron
resonant scattering feature (CRSF) around 30 keV. A simple absorption-like line
with a Gaussian optical depth or a pseudo-Lorentzian profile both fail to
describe the shape of the CRSF accurately, leaving significant deviations at
the red side of the line. We characterize this asymmetry with a second
absorption feature around 19 keV. The line energy of the CRSF, which is not
influenced by the addition of this feature, shows a small but significant
positive luminosity dependence. With luminosities between (1-6)e36 erg/s, Cep
X-4 is below the theoretical limit where such a correlation is expected. This
behavior is similar to Vela X-1 and we discuss parallels between the two
systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure, accepted for publication in ApJ letter
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