3,099 research outputs found
Lithium Ionization by a Strong Laser Field
We study ab initio computations of the interaction of Lithium with a strong
laser field. Numerical solutions of the time-dependent fully-correlated
three-particle Schroedinger equation restricted to the one-dimensional
soft-core approximation are presented. Our results show a clear transition from
non-sequential to sequential double ionization for increasing intensities. Non
sequential double ionization is found to be sensitive to the spin configuration
of the ionized pair. This asymmetry, also found in experiments of
photoionization of Li with synchrotron radiation, shows the evidence of the
influence of the exclusion principle in the underlying rescattering mechanism
Agricultural productivity in the United States: catching-up and the business cycle
This paper examines the relation between the business cycle and convergence in levels of total factor productivity (TFP) across states. First, we find evidence of convergence in TFP levels across the different phases of the business cycle, but the speed of convergence was much greater during periods of contraction in economic activity than during periods of expansion. Second, we find that technology embodied in capital was an important source of productivity growth in agriculture. As with the rate of catch-up, the embodiment effect was much stronger during low economic activity phases of the business cycle.Agriculture, Convergence, Total factor productivity
The Next Geminga: Deep Multiwavelength Observations of a Neutron Star Identified with 3EG J1835+5918
We describe Chandra, HST, and radio observations that reveal a radio-quiet
but magnetospherically active neutron star in the error circle of the
high-energy gamma-ray source 3EG J1835+5918, the brightest of the unidentified
EGRET sources at high Galactic latitude. A Chandra ACIS-S spectrum of the
ultrasoft X-ray source RX J1836.2+5925, suggested by Mirabal & Halpern as the
neutron star counterpart of 3EG J1835+5918, requires two components: a
blackbody of T~3x10^5 K and a hard tail that can be parameterized as a power
law of photon index Gamma~2. An upper limit of d < 800 pc can be derived from
the blackbody fit under an assumption of R = 10 km. Deep optical imaging with
the HST STIS CCD failed to detect this source to a limit of V > 28.5, thus
f_X/f_V > 6000 and d > 250 pc assuming the X-ray fitted temperature for the
full surface. Repeated observations with the 76 m Lovell telescope at Jodrell
Bank place an upper limit of < 0.1 mJy on the flux density at 1400 MHz for a
pulsar with P > 0.1 s, and < 0.25 mJy for a ~10 ms pulsar at the location of RX
J1836.2+5925. All of this evidence points to an older, possibly more distant
version of the highly efficient gamma-ray pulsar Geminga, as the origin of the
gamma-rays from 3EG J1835+5918.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Exceptional flaring activity of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1547.0-5408
(Abridged) We studied an exceptional period of activity of the anomalous
X-ray pulsar 1E 1547.0-5408 in January 2009, during which about 200 bursts were
detected by INTEGRAL. The major activity episode happened when the source was
outside the field of view of all the INTEGRAL instruments. But we were still
able to study the properties of 84 bursts detected simultaneously by the
anti-coincidence shield of the spectrometer SPI and by the detector of the
imager ISGRI. We find that the luminosity of the 22 January 2009 bursts of 1E
1547.0-5408 was > 1e42 erg/s. This luminosity is comparable to that of the
bursts of soft gamma repeaters (SGR) and is at least two orders of magnitude
larger than the luminosity of the previously reported bursts from AXPs.
Similarly to the SGR bursts, the brightest bursts of 1E 1547.0-5408 consist of
a short spike of ~100 ms duration with a hard spectrum, followed by a softer
extended tail of 1-10 s duration, which occasionally exhibits pulsations with
the source spin period of ~2 s. The observation of AXP bursts with luminosities
comparable to the one of SGR bursts strengthens the conjecture that AXPs and
SGRs are different representatives of one and the same source type.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysic
Magnetar-like Emission from the Young Pulsar in Kes 75
We report detection of magnetar-like X-ray bursts from the young pulsar PSR
J1846-0258, at the center of the supernova remnant Kes 75. This pulsar, long
thought to be rotation-powered, has an inferred surface dipolar magnetic field
of 4.9x10^13 G, higher than those of the vast majority of rotation-powered
pulsars, but lower than those of the ~12 previously identified magnetars. The
bursts were accompanied by a sudden flux increase and an unprecedented change
in timing behavior. These phenomena lower the magnetic and rotational
thresholds associated with magnetar-like behavior, and suggest that in neutron
stars there exists a continuum of magnetic activity that increases with
inferred magnetic field strength.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Science. Note: The
content of this paper is embargoed until February 21, 200
Optical Observations of PSR J0205+6449
PSR J0205+6449 is a X-ray and radio pulsar in supernova remnant 3C 58. We
report on observations of the central region of 3C 58 using the 4.2-m William
Herschel Telescope with the intention of identifying the optical counterpart of
PSR J0205+6449 and characterising its pulsar wind nebula.
Around the pulsar position we identified extended emission with a magnitude
of B = 23 \fm 97 \pm 0.10, V = 22 \fm 95 \pm 0.05 and R = 22 \fm 15 \pm
0.03 consistent with a pulsar wind nebula. From the R-band image we identified
three knots with = 24 \fm 08 \pm 0.07 (o1), 24 \fm 15 \pm 0.07 (o2)
and 24 \fm 24 \pm 0.08 (o3). We confirm the presence of an optical pulsar
wind nebula around PSR J0205+6449 and give an upper limit of 24
for the optical magnitude of the pulsar. Furthermore we make the tentative
suggestion that our object o1, with an 24.08 is the optical
counterpart. If confirmed the pulsar would have an and
an optical efficiency of about 5% of the Crab pulsar. Such a low efficiency is
more consistent with the characteristic age of the pulsar rather than that of
SN 1181.Comment: The paper contains 3 figures and 3 tables, accepted for publication
in MNRA
The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey: IV. Discovery of 180 pulsars and parameters for 281 previously known pulsars
The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey has led to the discovery of more than 700
pulsars. In this paper, we provide timing solutions, flux densities and pulse
profiles for 180 of these new discoveries. Two pulsars, PSRs J1736-2843 and
J1847-0130 have rotational periods P > 6s and are therefore among the slowest
rotating radio pulsars known. Conversely, with P = 1.8ms, PSR J1843-1113 has
the third shortest period of pulsars currently known. This pulsar and PSR
J1905+0400 (P = 3.8ms) are both solitary. We also provide orbital parameters
for a new binary system, PSR J1420-5625, which has P = 34ms, an orbital period
of 40 days and a minimum companion mass of 0.4 solar masses. The 10 degree-wide
strip along the Galactic plane that was surveyed is known to contain 264 radio
pulsars that were discovered prior to the multibeam pulsar survey. We have
redetected almost all of these pulsars and provide new dispersion measure
values and flux densities at 20cm for the redetected pulsars.Comment: 35 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS, a high quality image of
the figure on page 32 is available from
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pulsar/images/pmsurvey_fig.p
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