Microlensing of collimated Gamma-Ray Burst afterglows

We investigate stellar microlensing of the collimated gamma-ray burst afterglows. A spherical afterglow appears on the sky as a superluminally expanding thin ring (``ring-like'' image), which is maximally amplified as it crosses the lens. We find that the image of the collimated afterglow becomes quite uniform (``disk-like'' image) after the jet break time (after the Lorentz factor of the jet drops below the inverse of the jet opening angle). Consequently, the amplification peak in the light curve after the break time is lower and broader. Therefore detailed monitoring of the amplification history will be able to test whether the afterglows are jets or not, i.e., ``disk-like'' or not, if the lensing occurs after the break time. We also show that some proper motion and polarization is expected, peaking around the maximum amplification. The simultaneous detection of the proper motion and the polarization will strengthen that the brightening of the light curve is due to microlensing.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Occurrence Distribution of Polar Cap Patches: Dependences on UT, Season and Hemisphere

Polar cap patches are islands of enhanced electron density in the polar cap F region ionosphere, which sometimes affect the propagation of trans-ionospheric radio waves. Considering the intake of daytime sunlit plasma by the high-latitude convection as the primary cause of patches, the spatial overlap between the convection and the daytime sunlit plasma should be one of the critical factors controlling the generation of patches. To confirm this hypothesis, we statistically investigated the UT and seasonal distributions of patch occurrence frequency in both the hemispheres by using in situ plasma density data from the Swarm satellite. As a result, it was found that the occurrence distribution of patches is a complex function of UT, season and hemisphere, but it can be mostly interpreted by the spatial overlap between the high-latitude convection and the solar terminator. This suggests that polar cap patches are not necessarily phenomena that occur only during winter months. That is, patches can often be observed even in periods away from the winter solstice if the location of solar terminator in the magnetic coordinate system is appropriate for the generation of patches. For example, in the southern hemisphere, where the offset between the geographic and magnetic poles is larger than that in the northern hemisphere, the highest patch occurrence rate is obtained around the equinoctial periods. These results indicate that it is needed to take these dependences into account when we discuss and predict the space weather impacts of patches on the trans-ionospheric radio propagation

Low Energy Electron Diffraction with Microscopic Resolution

We report on the development of a Scanning Low Energy Diffraction Microscope, operating in the range of 250 to 1000 eV primary energy. By discriminating against inelastically scattered electrons, low energy electron diffraction (LEED) patterns are obtained from areas of about 100 nm in size. By selecting a particular diffracted beam dark-field images of the surface structure are obtained in the scanning mode. Examples are given for polycrystalline Si and clean and adsorbate covered Si (111) surfaces

Structural and dynamical properties of liquid Si. An orbital-free molecular dynamics study

Several static and dynamic properties of liquid silicon near melting have been determined from an orbital free {\em ab-initio} molecular dynamics simulation. The calculated static structure is in good agreement with the available X-ray and neutron diffraction data. The dynamical structure shows collective density excitations with an associated dispersion relation which closely follows recent experimental data. It is found that liquid silicon can not sustain the propagation of shear waves which can be related to the power spectrum of the velocity autocorrelation function. Accurate estimates have also been obtained for several transport coefficients. The overall picture is that the dynamic properties have many characteristics of the simple liquid metals although some conspicuous differences have been found.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Pi pulsation signatures at substorm onset: An analysis of the 30 September 2011 substorm event using induction magnetometer records and all-sky images obtained at the conjugate stations, Syowa in Antarctica and Husafell, Tjornes in Iceland

第3回極域科学シンポジウム/第36回極域宙空圏シンポジウム 11月27日（火） 国立極地研究所 2階大会議

The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and analytic radial velocity curves for transiting extrasolar planetary systems

A transiting extrasolar planet sequentially blocks off the light coming from the different parts of the disk of the host star in a time dependent manner. Due to the spin of the star, this produces an asymmetric distortion in the line profiles of the stellar spectrum, leading to an apparent anomaly of the radial velocity curves, known as the Rossiter - McLaughlin effect. Here, we derive approximate but accurate analytic formulae for the anomaly of radial velocity curves taking account of the stellar limb darkening. The formulae are particularly useful in extracting information of the projected angle between the planetary orbit axis and the stellar spin axis, \lambda, and the projected stellar spin velocity, V sin I_s. We create mock samples for the radial curves for the transiting extrasolar system HD209458, and demonstrate that constraints on the spin parameters (V sin I_s, \lambda) may be significantly improved by combining our analytic template formulae and the precision velocity curves from high-resolution spectroscopic observations with 8-10 m class telescopes. Thus future observational exploration of transiting systems using the Rossiter - McLaughlin effect is one of the most important probes to better understanding of the origin of extrasolar planetary systems, especially the origin of their angular momentum.Comment: 39 pages, 16 figures, Accepted to ApJ. To match the published version (ApJ 623, April 10 issue

Density fluctuations and confinement in the Nagoya Bumpy Torus (NBT-1M)

The stabilization of low-frequency density fluctuations is evidenced in the Nagoya Bumpy Torus (NBT-1M) [Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research (IAEA, Vienna, 1985), Vol. 2, p. 551] in the presence of microwave-heated hot-electron rings. Flute-type fluctuations, which are considered to be stabilized by the charge-uncovering effect of the rings, are found to cause large plasma losses, and to affect radial density profiles in the way that the lower fluctuation level yields the steeper density gradient. The particle confinement is, therefore, improved by the hot-electron rings to some extent, but is mainly determined by the plasma convection, which is expected from the discrepancy between density and potential profiles. It is also found that fluctuations in a toroidal plasma inside the ring grow when a weak negative ambipolar potential and a steep density gradient are formed, and are reduced to a low level when a deep potential well is achieved