SuperHERO: The Next Generation Hard X-ray HEROES Telescope

SuperHERO is a new high-sensitivity Long Duration Balloon (LDB)-capable, hard-x-ray (20-75 keV) telescope for making novel astrophysics and heliophysics observations. The proposed SuperHERO payload will be developed jointly by the Astrophysics Office at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the Solar Physics Laboratory and Wallops Flight Facility at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. SuperHERO is a follow-on payload to the High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun (HEROES) balloon-borne telescope that recently launched from Fort Sumner, NM in September of 2013. The HEROES core instrument is a hard x-ray telescope consisting of x-ray 109 optics configured into 8 modules. Each module is aligned to a matching gas-filled detector at a focal length of 6 m. SuperHERO will make significant improvements to the HEROES payload, including: new solid-state multi-pixel CdTe detectors, additional optics, the Wallops Arc-Second Pointer, alignment monitoring systems and lighter gondola

A Luminous Be+White Dwarf Supersoft Source in the Wing of the SMC: MAXI J0158-744

We present a multi-wavelength analysis of the very fast X-ray transient MAXI J0158-744, which was detected by MAXI/GSC on 2011 November 11. The subsequent exponential decline of the X-ray flux was followed with Swift observations, all of which revealed spectra with low temperatures (~100eV) indicating that MAXI J0158-744 is a new Supersoft Source (SSS). The Swift X-ray spectra near maximum show features around 0.8 keV that we interpret as possible absorption from OVIII, and emission from O, Fe, and Ne lines. We obtained SAAO and ESO optical spectra of the counterpart early in the outburst and several weeks later. The early spectrum is dominated by strong Balmer and HeI emission, together with weaker HeII emission. The later spectrum reveals absorption features that indicate a B1/2IIIe spectral type, and all spectral features are at velocities consistent with the Small Magellanic Cloud. At this distance, it is a luminous SSS (>10^37 erg/s) but whose brief peak luminosity of >10^39 erg/s in the 2-4 keV band makes it the brightest SSS yet seen at "hard" X-rays. We propose that MAXI J0158-744 is a Be-WD binary, and the first example to possibly enter ULX territory. The brief hard X-ray flash could possibly be a result of the interaction of the ejected nova shell with the B star wind in which the white dwarf (WD) is embedded. This makes MAXI J0158-744 only the third Be/WD system in the Magellanic Clouds, but it is by far the most luminous. The properties of MAXI J0158-744 give weight to previous suggestions that SSS in nearby galaxies are associated with early-type stellar systems.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures; ApJ accepte

Oblique Corrections To The W Width

The lowest-order expression for the partial $W$ width to $e \nu ,~\Gamma (W \to e \nu) = G_\mu M_W^3 /(6 \pi \sqrt{2})$, has no oblique radiative corrections from new physics if the measured $W$ mass is used. Here $G_\mu = (1.16639 \pm 0.00002) \times 10^{-5}$ GeV/$c^2$ is the muon decay constant. For the present value of $M_W = (80.14 \pm 0.27)$ GeV/$c^2$, and with $m_t = 140$ GeV$/c^2$, one expects $\Gamma (W \to e \nu) = (224.4 \pm 2.3)$ MeV. The total width $\Gamma_{\rm tot}(W)$ is also expected to lack oblique corrections from new physics, so that $\Gamma_{\rm tot} (W)/ \Gamma (W \to e \nu) = 3 + 6 [1 + \{\alpha_s (M_W)/\pi \}]$. Present data are consistent with this prediction.Comment: 15 pages (LaTeX), one PostScript figure not included (available upon request

Precision Physics at LEP

1 - Introduction 2 - Small-Angle Bhabha Scattering and the Luminosity Measurement 3 - Z^0 Physics 4 - Fits to Precision Data 5 - Physics at LEP2 6 - ConclusionsComment: Review paper to appear in the RIVISTA DEL NUOVO CIMENTO; 160 pages, LateX, 70 eps figures include

A Search for Dark Higgs Bosons

Recent astrophysical and terrestrial experiments have motivated the proposal of a dark sector with GeV-scale gauge boson force carriers and new Higgs bosons. We present a search for a dark Higgs boson using 516 fb-1 of data collected with the BABAR detector. We do not observe a significant signal and we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the product of the Standard Model-dark sector mixing angle and the dark sector coupling constant.Comment: 7 pages, 5 postscript figures, published version with improved plots for b/w printin

Electromagnetic Wave Theory and Applications

Contains table of contents for Section 3, research summary and reports on six research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAL 03-86-K-0002)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAL 03-89-C-0001)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-86-K-0533)National Science Foundation (Contract ECS 86-20029)U.S. Army Research Office (Contract DAAL03 88-K-0057)International Business Machine CorporationSchlumberger-Doll ResearchNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NAG 5-270)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-83-K-0258)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NAG 5-769)U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Waterways Experimental Station (Contract DACA39-87-K-0022)Simulation TechnologiesU.S. Air Force - Rome Air Development Center (Contract F19628-88-K-0013)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-89-J-1107)Digital Equipment Corporatio

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