MAGIC observations of Mkn 421 in 2008, and related optical/X-ray/TeV MWL study

The HBL-type blazar Markarian 421 is one of the brightest TeV gamma-ray sources of the Northern sky. From December 2007 until June 2008 it was intensively observed in the VHE (E>100 GeV) band by the MAGIC gamma-ray telescope. The source showed intense and prolonged activity during the whole period. In some nights the integral flux rose up to 3.6 Crab units (E>200 GeV). Intra-night rapid flux variations were observed. We compared the optical (KVA) and X-ray (RXTE-ASM, Swift-XRT) data with the MAGIC VHE data, investigating the correlations between different energy bands.Comment: 4 pages,4figures, Contribution to the 31st ICRC, Lodz, Poland, July 200

Data processing activities at the MAGIC site

open11siMAGIC is a system of two imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes located on the Canary Is- land of La Palma. The fast processing of the data at the observation site plays an essential part in the operation of the telescopes and has continuously improved since the beginning of the exper- iment. The on-site computing can be divided into three major contributions: the MAGIC online analysis (MOLA), providing preliminary real time analysis results; the on-site analysis (OSA), providing final data products at the end of each observation night; and the Data Check (DC), a daily check on the performance of the telescope’s subsystems and the quality control of the data observed during the previous night. We present the status of the system, including the latest upgrades and details on its performance.openFidalgo, David; Nievas-Rosillo, Miguel; Babic, Ana; Contreras, Jose-Luis; Doro, Michele; Godinovic, Nikola; Hrupec, Dario; Lorca, Alejandro; Moralejo, Abelardo; Satalecka, Konstancja; Will, MartinFidalgo, David; Nievas Rosillo, Miguel; Babic, Ana; Contreras, Jose Luis; Doro, Michele; Godinovic, Nikola; Hrupec, Dario; Lorca, Alejandro; Moralejo, Abelardo; Satalecka, Konstancja; Will, Marti

A resposta do estado ás barreiras linguísticas dos imigrantes. O caso português

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Migrações, Inter-etnicidades e TransnacionalismoEsta investigação pretende examinar as possíveis respostas do Estado às barreiras linguísticas com as quais se deparam os imigrantes quando chegam ao país de acolhimento e, mais especificamente, verificar que soluções são fornecidas pelo Estado português. Para alcançar este objectivo, procede-se inicialmente a uma análise descritiva dos modelos de integração dos imigrantes e dos níveis nos quais esta acontece. Através destas considerações, identificamos a existência dos constrangimentos causados pelo desconhecimento da língua da sociedade de acolhimento e verificamos qual pode ser o papel do Estado na remoção destas barreiras. Discernimos três medidas que constituem uma resposta bastante completa às diferentes necessidades e dificuldades causadas pelo desconhecimento da língua por parte dos imigrantes: a medida a curto prazo, mais imediata – o serviço de interpretação social; a medida a longo prazo, mais duradoura – o acesso à educação para os filhos dos imigrantes; e, finalmente, a terceira medida, a médio prazo – os cursos de língua para os imigrantes. Confrontamos estas soluções com a realidade portuguesa, primeiro justificando a necessidade destas respostas na caracterização da imigração em Portugal, com destaque para a população não lusófona. Este estudo pretende perceber que medidas forneceu o Estado português quando se viu obrigado a reagir perante o novo panorama imigratório. Verifica-se que assegurou o acesso ao sistema de educação dos descendentes dos imigrantes, estabeleceu o Serviço de Tradução Telefónica e criou cursos de língua no âmbito do Português para Todos. Apresentamos de maneira mais pormenorizada as medidas direccionadas directamente aos imigrantes propriamente ditos, analisando o funcionamento do STT e do programa PPT. Além disso, mediante entrevistas com formadoras dos cursos de língua, pretende-se perceber como estes funcionam na prática e verificar se contribuem para a supressão das barreiras linguísticas

Microquasar Cyg X-3 -- a unique jet-wind neutrino factory?

The origin of astrophysical neutrinos is one of the most debated topics today. Perhaps the most robust evidence of neutrino counterpart comes from supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei associated with strongly collimated outflows, or jets, that can accelerate particles to relativistic energies and produce neutrinos through hadronic interactions. Similar outflows can also be found from X-ray binaries, or `microquasars', that consist of a neutron star or a stellar-mass black hole accreting matter from a non-degenerate companion star. In some cases, these systems can accelerate particles up to GeV energies implying an efficient acceleration mechanism in their jets. Neutrino production in microquasar jets can be expected with suitable conditions and a hadronic particle population. Microquasar Cyg X-3 is a unique, short orbital period X-ray binary hosting a Wolf-Rayet companion star with a strong stellar wind. The interaction of the dense stellar wind with a relativistic jet leads to particle collisions followed by high-energy gamma-ray and potentially neutrino emission. Here, using the 10-year neutrino candidate sample of the IceCube neutrino observatory, we find that the events with the highest spatial association with Cyg X-3 occur during short-lived high-energy gamma-ray flaring periods indicating the possible astrophysical nature of these events.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. This article has been accepted for publication in MNRAS published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Long term monitoring of bright TeV Blazars with the MAGIC telescope

The MAGIC telescope has performed long term monitoring observations of the bright TeV Blazars Mrk421, Mrk501 and 1ES1959+650. Up to 40 observations, 30 to 60 minutes each have been performed for each source evenly distributed over the observable period of the year. The sensitivity of MAGIC is sufficient to establish a flux level of 25% of the Crab flux for each measurement. These observations are well suited to trigger multiwavelength ToO observations and the overall collected data allow an unbiased study of the flaring statistics of the observed AGNs.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 30th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Merida, July 200

MAGIC gamma-ray telescopes hunting for neutrinos and their sources

The discovery of an astrophysical flux of high-energy neutrinos by the IceCube Collaboration marks a major breakthrough in the ongoing search for the origin of cosmic rays. Presumably, the neutrinos, together with gamma rays, result from pion decay, following hadronic interactions of protons accelerated in astrophysical objects to ultra-relativistic energies. So far, the neutrino sky map shows no significant indication of astrophysical sources. Here, we report first results from follow-up observations, of sky regions where IceCube has detected muon tracks from energetic neutrinos, using the MAGIC telescopes which are sensitive to gamma rays at TeV energies. Furthermore, we show that MAGIC has the potential to distinguish air showers induced by tau neutrinos from the background of hadronic showers in the PeV-EeV energy range, employing a novel analysis method to the data obtained with high-zenith angle observations.Peer Reviewe