AX J0049.4-7323 - a close look at a neutron star interacting with a circumstellar disk

Detailed evidence on the system AX J0049.4-7323 is presented here to show how the passage of the neutron star in the binary system disrupts the circumstellar disk of the mass donor Be star. A similar effect is noted in three other Be/X-ray binary systems. Together the observational data should provide valuable tools for modelling these complex interactions.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA

Majorana fermions emerging from magnetic nanoparticles on a superconductor without spin-orbit coupling

There exists a variety of proposals to transform a conventional s-wave superconductor into a topological superconductor, supporting Majorana fermion mid-gap states. A necessary ingredient of these proposals is strong spin-orbit coupling. Here we propose an alternative system consisting of a one-dimensional chain of magnetic nanoparticles on a superconducting substrate. No spin-orbit coupling in the superconductor is needed. We calculate the topological quantum number of a chain of finite length, including the competing effects of disorder in the orientation of the magnetic moments and in the hopping energies, to identify the transition into the topologically nontrivial state (with Majorana fermions at the end points of the chain).Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Detection of Bulk Motions in the ICM of the Centaurus Cluster

Several recent numerical simulations of off-center cluster mergers predict that significant angular momentum with associated velocities of a few x 10^{3} km/s can be imparted to the resulting cluster. Such gas bulk velocities can be detected by the Doppler shift of X-ray spectral lines with ASCA spectrometers. Using two ASCA observations of the Centaurus cluster, we produced a velocity map for the gas in the cluster's central regions. We also detected radial and azimuthal gradients in temperature and metal abundance distributions, which seem to be associated with the infalling sub-group centered at NGC 4709 (Cen 45). More importantly, we found a significant (>99.8% confidence level) velocity gradient along a line near-perpendicular to the direction of the incoming sub-group and with a maximum velocity difference of ~3.4+-1.1 x 10^{3} km/s. It is unlikely (P < 0.002) that the observed velocity gradient is generated by gain fluctuations across the detectors. While the observed azimuthal temperature and abundance variations can be attributed to the interaction with Cen 45, we argue that the intracluster gas velocity gradient is more likely due to a previous off-center merging event in the main body of the Centaurus cluster.Comment: 13 pages in emulateapj5 style, 8 postscript figures; Accepted by ApJ; Revised version with minor change

The binary period and outburst behaviour of the SMC X-ray binary pulsar system SXP504

A probable binary period has been detected in the optical counterpart to the X-ray source CXOU J005455.6-724510 = RX J0054.9-7245 = AXJ0054.8-7244 = SXP504 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. This source was detected by Chandra on 04 Jul 2002 and subsequently observed by XMM-Newton on 18 Dec 2003. The source is coincident with an Optical Gravitational Lensing (OGLE) object in the lightcurves of which several optical outburst peaks are visible at ~ 268 day intervals. Timing analysis shows a period of 268.6 +/- 0.1 days at > 99% significance. Archival Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) data for the 504s pulse-period has revealed detections which correspond closely with predicted or actual peaks in the optical data. The relationship between this orbital period and the pulse period of 504s is within the normal variance found in the Corbet diagram.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. 1 LATEX page. 4 figure

Evolution of the Cluster X-ray Luminosity Function

We report measurements of the cluster X-ray luminosity function out to z=0.8 based on the final sample of 201 galaxy systems from the 160 Square Degree ROSAT Cluster Survey. There is little evidence for any measurable change in cluster abundance out to z~0.6 at luminosities less than a few times 10^44 ergs/s (0.5-2.0 keV). However, between 0.6 < z < 0.8 and at luminosities above 10^44 ergs/s, the observed volume densities are significantly lower than those of the present-day population. We quantify this cluster deficit using integrated number counts and a maximum-likelihood analysis of the observed luminosity-redshift distribution fit with a model luminosity function. The negative evolution signal is >3 sigma regardless of the adopted local luminosity function or cosmological framework. Our results and those from several other surveys independently confirm the presence of evolution. Whereas the bulk of the cluster population does not evolve, the most luminous and presumably most massive structures evolve appreciably between z=0.8 and the present. Interpreted in the context of hierarchical structure formation, we are probing sufficiently large mass aggregations at sufficiently early times in cosmological history where the Universe has yet to assemble these clusters to present-day volume densities.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

The Properties of Poor Groups of Galaxies: II. X-ray and Optical Comparisons

We use ROSAT PSPC data to study the X-ray properties of a sample of twelve poor groups that have extensive membership information (Zabludoff and Mulchaey 1997; Paper I). Diffuse X-ray emission is detected in nine of these groups. In all but one of the X-ray detected groups, the X-ray emission is centered on a luminous elliptical galaxy. Fits to the surface brightness profiles of the X-ray emission suggest the presence of two X-ray components in these groups. The first component is centered on the central elliptical galaxy. The location and extent of this component, combined with its X-ray temperature and luminosity, favor an origin in the interstellar medium of the central galaxy. Alternatively, the central component may be the result of a large-scale cooling flow. The second X-ray component is detected out to a radius of at least 100-300 kpc. This component follows the same relationships found among the X-ray temperature, X-ray luminosity and optical velocity dispersion of rich clusters. This result suggests that the X-ray detected groups are low-mass versions of clusters and that the extended gas component can properly be called the intragroup medium, in analogy to the intracluster medium in clusters. We also find a trend for the position angle of the optical light in the central elliptical galaxy to align with the position angle of the large-scale X-ray emission. (Abridged)Comment: 38 pages, AASLaTeX with 16 PS figures. Figure 1a-1l available in gzipped postscript format at ftp://corvus.ociw.edu/pub/mulchae

Measuring the mean and scatter of the X-ray luminosity -- optical richness relation for maxBCG galaxy clusters

Determining the scaling relations between galaxy cluster observables requires large samples of uniformly observed clusters. We measure the mean X-ray luminosity--optical richness (L_X--N_200) relation for an approximately volume-limited sample of more than 17,000 optically-selected clusters from the maxBCG catalog spanning the redshift range 0.1<z<0.3. By stacking the X-ray emission from many clusters using ROSAT All-Sky Survey data, we are able to measure mean X-ray luminosities to ~10% (including systematic errors) for clusters in nine independent optical richness bins. In addition, we are able to crudely measure individual X-ray emission from ~800 of the richest clusters. Assuming a log-normal form for the scatter in the L_X--N_200 relation, we measure \sigma_\ln{L}=0.86+/-0.03 at fixed N_200. This scatter is large enough to significantly bias the mean stacked relation. The corrected median relation can be parameterized by L_X = (e^\alpha)(N_200/40)^\beta 10^42 h^-2 ergs/s, where \alpha = 3.57+/-0.08 and \beta = 1.82+/-0.05. We find that X-ray selected clusters are significantly brighter than optically-selected clusters at a given optical richness. This selection bias explains the apparently X-ray underluminous nature of optically-selected cluster catalogs.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, revised after referee's comments. ApJ accepte

Cluster Evolution in the ROSAT North Ecliptic Pole Survey

The deepest region of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, at the North Ecliptic Pole, has been studied to produce a complete and unbiased X-ray selected sample of clusters of galaxies. This sample is used to investigate the nature of cluster evolution and explore potential implications for large-scale structure models. The survey is 99.6% optically identified. Spectroscopic redshifts have been measured for all the extragalactic identifications. In this Letter, first results on cluster evolution are presented based on a comparison between the number of the observed clusters in the North Ecliptic Pole survey and the number of expected clusters assuming no-evolution models. At z>0.3 there is a deficit of clusters with respect to the local universe which is significant at > 4.7sigma. The evolution appears to commence at L_{0.5-2.0} > 1.8x10^{44} erg s^{-1} in our data. The negative evolution goes in the same direction as the original EMSS result, the results from the 160 deg^{2} survey by Vikhlinin et al. (1998) and the recent results from the RDCS (Rosati et al. 2000). At lower redshifts there is no evidence for evolution, a result in agreement with these and other cluster surveys.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter