A Fourier-Based Algorithm for Modelling Aberrations in HETE-2's Imaging System

The High-Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-2), launched in October 2000, is a satellite experiment dedicated to the study of gamma-ray bursts in a very wide energy range from soft X-ray to gamma-ray wavelengths. The intermediate X-ray range (2-30keV) is covered by the Wide-field X-ray Monitor WXM, a coded aperture imager. In this article, an algorithm for reconstructing the positions of gamma-ray bursts is described, which is capable of correcting systematic aberrations to approximately 1 arcmin throughout the field of view. Functionality and performance of this algorithm have been validated using data from Monte Carlo simulations as well as from astrometric observations of the X-ray source Scorpius X-1.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables; Nucl.Instr.Meth., in pres

Detection of highly ionized O and Ne absorption lines in the X-ray spectrum of 4U1820-303 in the globular cluster, NGC 6624

We searched for absorption lines of highly ionized O and Ne in the energy spectra of two Low-mass X-ray binaries, 4U1820-303 in the globular cluster NGC6624 and Cyg X-2, observed with the Chandra LETG, and detected O VII, O VIII and Ne IX absorption lines for 4U1820-303. The equivalent width of the O VII K alpha line was 1.19 +0.47/-0.30 eV (90 % errors) and the significance was 6.5 sigma. Absorption lines were not detected for Cyg X-2 with a 90 % upper limit on the equivalent width of 1.06 eV for O VII K alpha. The absorption lines observed in 4U1820-303 are likely due to hot interstellar medium, because O will be fully photo-ionized if the absorbing column is located close to the binary system. The velocity dispersion is restricted to b = 200 - 420 km/s from consistency between O VII K alpha and K beta lines, Ne/O abundance ratio, and H column density. The average temperature and the O VII density are respectively estimated to be log(T[K]) = 6.2 - 6.3 and n(OVII) = (0.7 - 2.3) x 10^{-6} cm^{-3}. The difference of O VII column densities for the two sources may be connected to the enhancement of the soft X-ray background (SXB) towards the Galactic bulge region. Using the polytrope model of hot gas to account for the SXB we corrected for the density gradient and estimated the midplane O VII density at the solar neighborhood. The scale height of hot gas is then estimated using the AGN absorption lines. It is suggested that a significant portion of both the AGN absorption lines and the high-latitude SXB emission lines can be explained by the hot gas in our Galaxy.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 7 pages, 9 eps figure

X-ray and UV spectroscopy of Galactic diffuse hot gas along the LMC X--3 sight line

We present Suzaku spectra of X-ray emission in the fields just off the LMC X-3 sight line. OVII, OVIII, and NeIX emission lines are clearly detected, suggesting the presence of an optically thin thermal plasma with an average temperature of 2.4E6. This temperature is significantly higher than that inferred from existing X-ray absorption line data obtained with Chandra grating observations of LMC X-3, strongly suggesting that the gas is not isothermal. We then jointly analyze these data to characterize the spatial and temperature distributions of the gas. Assuming a vertical exponential Galactic disk model, we estimate the gas temperature and density at the Galactic plane and their scale heights as 3.6(2.9, 4.7)E6 K and 1.4(0.3, 3.4)E-3 cm^{-3} and 1.4(0.2, 5.2) kpc and $2.8(1.0, 6.4)$ kpc, respectively. This characterization can account for all the \ovi line absorption, as observed in a FUSE spectrum of LMC X-3, but only predicts less than one tenth of the OVI line emission intensity typically detected at high Galactic latitudes. The bulk of the OVI emission most likely arises at interfaces between cool and hot gases.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ, 200

High Magnetic Field Behaviour of the Triangular Lattice Antiferromagnet, CuFeO_2

The high magnetic field behaviour of the triangular lattice antiferromagnet CuFeO_2 is studied using single crystal neutron diffraction measurements in a field of up to 14.5 T and also by magnetisation measurements in a field of up to 12 T. At low temperature, two well-defined first order magnetic phase transitions are found in this range of applied magnetic field (H // c): at H_c1=7.6(3)/7.1(3) T and H_c2=13.2(1)/12.7(1) T when ramping the field up/down. In a field above H_c2 the magnetic Bragg peaks show unusual history dependence. In zero field T_N1=14.2(1) K separates a high temperature paramagnetic and an intermediate incommensurate structure, while T_N2=11.1(3) K divides an incommensurate phase from the low-temperature 4-sublattice ground state. The ordering temperature T_N1 is found to be almost field independent, while T_N2 decreases noticeably in applied field. The magnetic phase diagram is discussed in terms of the interactions between an applied magnetic field and the highly frustrated magnetic structure of CuFeO_2Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures in ReVTeX. To appear in PR

Locating the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium in the Simulated Local Universe

We present an analysis of mock spectral observation of warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) using a constrained simulation of the local universe. The simulated map of oxygen emission lines from local WHIM reproduces well the observed structures traced by galaxies in the real local universe. We further attempt to perform mock observations of outer parts of simulated Coma cluster and A3627 adopting the expected performance of DIOS (Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor), which is proposed as a dedicated soft X-ray mission to search for cosmic missing baryons. We find that WHIMs surrounding nearby clusters are detectable with a typical exposure time of a day, and thus constitute realistic and promising targets for DIOS. We also find that an X-ray emitting clump in front of Coma cluster, recently reported in the XMM-Newton observation, has a counterpart in the simulated local universe, and its observed spectrum can be well reproduced in the simulated local universe if the gas temperature is set to the observationally estimated value.Comment: 25 pages, 3 tables, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in PASJ. High resolution PS/PDF files are available at http://www-utap.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~kohji/research/x-ray/index.htm

An X-ray Spectroscopic Study of the Hot Interstellar Medium Toward the Galactic Bulge

We present a detailed spectroscopic study of the hot gas toward the Galactic bulge along the 4U 1820-303 sight line by a combination analysis of emission and absorption spectra. In addition to the absorption lines of OVII Kalpha, OVII Kbeta, OVIII Kalpha and NeIX Kalpha by Chandra LTGS as shown by previous works, Suzaku detected clearly the emission lines of OVII, OVIII, NeIX and NeX from the vicinity. We used simplified plasma models with constant temperature and density. Evaluation of the background and foreground emission was performed carefully, including stellar X-ray contribution based on the recent X-ray observational results and stellar distribution simulator. If we assume that one plasma component exists in front of 4U1820-303 and the other one at the back, the obtained temperatures are T= 1.7 +/- 0.2 MK for the front-side plasma and T=3.9(+0.4-0.3) MK for the backside. This scheme is consistent with a hot and thick ISM disk as suggested by the extragalactic source observations and an X-ray bulge around the Galactic center.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, accepted to be published in PASJ (Replace figure files to fix latex problem