The X-ray nebula of the filled center supernova remnant 3C58 and its interaction with the environment

An \xmm observation of the plerionic supernova remnant 3C58 has allowed us to study the X-ray nebula with unprecedented detail. A spatially resolved spectral analysis with a resolution of 8\arcsec has yielded a precise determination of the relation between the spectral index and the distance from the center. We do not see any evidence for bright thermal emission from the central core. In contrast with previous ASCA and {\em Einstein} results, we derive an upper limit to the black-body 0.5-10 keV luminosity and emitting area of $1.8\times 10^{32}$ \ergsec and $1.3\times 10^{10}$ cm$^2$, respectively, ruling out emission from the hot surface of the putative neutron star and also excluding the "outer-gap" model for hot polar caps. We have performed for the first time a spectral analysis of the outer regions of the X-ray nebula, where most of the emission is still non-thermal, but where the addition of a soft (kT=0.2-0.3 keV) optically thin plasma component is required to fit the spectrum at $E<1$ keV. This component provides 6% of the whole remnant observed flux in the 0.5-10.0 keV band. We show that a Sedov interpretation is incompatible with the SN1181-3C58 association, unless there is a strong deviation from electron-ion energy equipartition, and that an origin of this thermal emission in terms of the expansion of the nebula into the ejecta core nicely fits all the radio and X-ray observations.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

X-ray Spectroscopy of Candidate Ultracompact X-ray Binaries

We present high-resolution spectroscopy of the neutron star/low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) 4U 1850-087 and 4U 0513-40 as part of our continuing study of known and candidate ultracompact binaries. The LMXB 4U 1850-087 is one of four systems in which we had previously inferred an unusual Ne/O ratio in the absorption along the line of sight, most likely from material local to the binaries. However, our recent Chandra X-ray Observatory LETGS spectrum of 4U 1850-087 finds a Ne/O ratio by number of 0.22+/-0.05, smaller than previously measured and consistent with the expected interstellar value. We propose that variations in the Ne/O ratio due to source variability, as previously observed in these sources, can explain the difference between the low- and high-resolution spectral results for 4U 1850-087. Our XMM-Newton RGS observation of 4U 0513-40 also shows no unusual abundance ratios in the absorption along the line of sight. We also present spectral results from a third candidate ultracompact binary, 4U 1822-000, whose spectrum is well fit by an absorbed power-law + blackbody model with absorption consistent with the expected interstellar value. Finally, we present the non-detection of a fourth candidate ultracompact binary, 4U 1905+000, with an upper limit on the source luminosity of < 1 x 10^{32} erg s^{-1}. Using archival data, we show that the source has entered an extended quiescent state.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication to the Astrophysical Journa

On a computer-aided approach to the computation of Abelian integrals

An accurate method to compute enclosures of Abelian integrals is developed. This allows for an accurate description of the phase portraits of planar polynomial systems that are perturbations of Hamiltonian systems. As an example, it is applied to the study of bifurcations of limit cycles arising from a cubic perturbation of an elliptic Hamiltonian of degree four

Metodologia de monitoramento de doenças de coqueiro visando produção integrada de coco verde no Submédio São Francisco.

No Submédio São Francisco foram identificados algumas das principais doenças do coqueiro

High-Energy Spectral Complexity from Thermal Gradients in Black Hole Atmospheres

We show that Compton scattering of soft photons with energies near 100 eV in thermally stratified black-hole accretion plasmas with temperatures in the range 100 keV - 1 MeV can give rise to an X-ray spectral hardening near 10 keV. This could produce the hardening observed in the X-ray spectra of black holes, which is generally attributed to reflection or partial covering of the incident continuum source by cold optically thick matter. In addition, we show that the presence of very hot (kT=1 MeV) cores in plasmas leads to spectra exibiting high energy tails similar to those observed from Galactic black-hole candidates.Comment: 11 pages, uuencoded gziped postscript, ApJ Letters in pres

Discovery of luminous pulsed hard X-ray emission from anomalous X-ray pulsars 1RXS J1708-4009, 4U 0142+61 and 1E 2259+586 by INTEGRAL and RXTE

We report on the discovery of hard spectral tails for energies above 10 keV in the total and pulsed spectra of anomalous X-ray pulsars 1RXS J1708-4009, 4U 0142+61 and 1E 2259+586 using RXTE PCA (2-60 keV) and HEXTE (15-250 keV) data and INTEGRAL IBIS ISGRI (20-300 keV) data. Improved spectral information on 1E 1841-045 is presented. The pulsed and total spectra measured above 10 keV have power-law shapes and there is so far no significant evidence for spectral breaks or bends up to ~150 keV. The pulsed spectra are exceptionally hard with indices measured for 4 AXPs approximately in the range -1.0 -- 1.0. We also reanalyzed archival CGRO COMPTEL (0.75-30 MeV) data to search for signatures from our set of AXPs. No detections can be claimed, but the obtained upper-limits in the MeV band indicate that for 1RXS J1708-4009, 4U 0142+61 and 1E 1841-045 strong breaks must occur somewhere between 150 and 750 keV.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 19 pages; 4 Tables; 15 Figures (6 color

Optimum Small Optical Beam Displacement Measurement

We derive the quantum noise limit for the optical beam displacement of a TEM00 mode. Using a multimodal analysis, we show that the conventional split detection scheme for measuring beam displacement is non-optimal with 80% efficiency. We propose a new displacement measurement scheme that is optimal for small beam displacement. This scheme utilises a homodyne detection setup that has a TEM10 mode local oscillator. We show that although the quantum noise limit to displacement measurement can be surpassed using squeezed light in appropriate spatial modes for both schemes, the TEM10 homodyning scheme out-performs split detection for all values of squeezing.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

A Catalog of Candidate Intermediate-luminosity X-ray Objects

ROSAT, and now Chandra, X-ray images allow studies of extranuclear X-ray point sources in galaxies other than our own. X-ray observations of normal galaxies with ROSAT and Chandra have revealed that off-nuclear, compact, Intermediate-luminosity (Lx[2-10 keV] >= 1e39 erg/s) X-ray Objects (IXOs, a.k.a. ULXs [Ultraluminous X-ray sources]) are quite common. Here we present a catalog and finding charts for 87 IXOs in 54 galaxies, derived from all of the ROSAT HRI imaging data for galaxies with cz <= 5000 km/s from the Third Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies (RC3). We have defined the cutoff Lx for IXOs so that it is well above the Eddington luminosity of a 1.4 Msun black hole (10^38.3 erg/s), so as not to confuse IXOs with ``normal'' black hole X-ray binaries. This catalog is intended to provide a baseline for follow-up work with Chandra and XMM, and with space- and ground-based survey work at wavelengths other than X-ray. We demonstrate that elliptical galaxies with IXOs have a larger number of IXOs per galaxy than non-elliptical galaxies with IXOs, and note that they are not likely to be merely high-mass X-ray binaries with beamed X-ray emission, as may be the case for IXOs in starburst galaxies. Approximately half of the IXOs with multiple observations show X-ray variability, and many (19) of the IXOs have faint optical counterparts in DSS optical B-band images. Follow-up observations of these objects should be helpful in identifying their nature.Comment: 29 pages, ApJS, accepted (catalog v2.0) (full resolution version of paper and future releases of catalog at http://www.xassist.org/ixocat_hri