Timing Offset Calibration of CZTI instrument aboard ASTROSAT

The radio as well as the high energy emission mechanism in pulsars is yet not understood properly. A multi-wavelength study is likely to help in better understanding of such processes. The first Indian space-based observatory, ASTROSAT, has five instruments aboard, which cover the electromagnetic spectrum from infra-red (1300 $\AA$) to hard X-ray (380 KeV). Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI), one of the five instruments is a hard X-ray telescope functional over an energy range of 20-380 KeV. We aim to estimate the timing offset introduced in the data acquisition pipeline of the instrument, which will help in time alignment of high energy time series with those from two other ground-based observatories, viz. the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT). PSR B0531+21 is a well-studied pulsar with nearly aligned radio and hard X-ray pulse profiles. We use simultaneous observations of this pulsar with the ASTROSAT, the ORT and the GMRT. The pulsar was especially observed using the ORT with almost daily cadence to obtain good timing solutions. We also supplement the ORT data with archival FERMI data for estimation of timing noise. The timing offset of ASTROSAT instruments was estimated from fits to arrival time data at the ASTROSAT and the radio observatories. We estimate the offset between the GMRT and the ASTROSAT-CZTI to be -4716 $\pm$ 50 $\mu s$. The corresponding offset with the ORT was -29639 $\pm$ 50 $\mu s$. The offsets between the GMRT and Fermi-LAT -5368 $\pm$ 56 $\mu s$. (Abridged)Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, Revised and Updated, accepted for publication in A&

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum