scholarly journals Optical Short-Time Variations in GK Persei during the 1983 Outburst

1987 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 485-485
Author(s):  
H. Steinle ◽  
W. Pietsck

AbstractDuring the August 1983 outburst of the old nova GK Persei observations with EXOSAT showed for the first time a 351 second periodicity in X-rays.Our fast photometry (U(B)V with 25 sec time resolution) was made at the end of the outburst in the nights of September 29 , and October 1–3 , using the 2.2 meter telescope at Calar Alto (Spain).Optical variations up to 10% in U and 4% in V with periodicities in the range 350 to 360 seconds were found, lasting only for few cycles.A comparison with the extrapolated prediction of the X-ray maxima did not show a coincidence, but rather an anticoincidence in several cases. This supports a model of reprocessed X-rays at the inner edge of an accretion disk.

1974 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 395-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Brown

The possible validity of thermal bremsstrahlung models of flare hard X-ray bursts is investigated quantitatively. In particular, the problem of rapid thermal conduction in ‘multi-temperature’ models is adequately examined for the first time by using a continuous temperature distribution consistent with the observed X-ray spectrum. This distribution is obtained from a general analytic solution for the temperature structure required to mimick any ‘non-thermal’ spectrum, the method being equally applicable to cosmic sources.It is concluded that the thermal interpretation might extend to X-rays of hundreds of keV, a result with important consequences for flare energetics. The relationship of such a model to observations of X-ray polarization and rapid time variations is also considered.


1994 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 660-661
Author(s):  
Th. Boller ◽  
J. Trümper ◽  
S. Molendi ◽  
S. Schaeidt ◽  
H. Fink

X-ray variability in the 0.1–2.4 keV ROSAT energy band with a doubling timescale of 800 s and a factor of 4 within a few hours has been detected in a 20 ksec pointing on the IRAS AGN 13224-3809. The optical spectrum indicates that IRAS 13224-3809 is a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy with strong permitted Fe II emission, a member of the unusual I Zw 1 class objects. IRAS 13224-3809 appears to be one of the most rapidly variable AGN known so far. This is the first time that variability on a timescale smaller than 1000 s is reported at such high L (0.1–2.4 keV) = 3·1044 erg · s−1 X-ray luminosity in Seyfert galaxies. It is also the first reported X-ray variability in I Zw 1 class objects. The δt = 800 s variation indicates that the X-rays come from a compact region of about 17 light minutes in size. Our results from the X-ray spectral analysis favour a scenario in which a hard X-ray source irradiates the accretion disk which reemits at soft X-ray energies. The absence of broad H I wings can be explained if only a part of the BLR, far from the centre, is observed and the bulk of the region, which emits the wings, is hidden. We want to draw attention to the fact that rapid X-ray variability could also be connected with the absence of broad H I lines in IRAS 13224-3809.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahbubur Rahman ◽  
Pasan Hettiarachchi ◽  
Vernon Cooray ◽  
Joseph Dwyer ◽  
Vladimir Rakov ◽  
...  

We present observations of X-rays from laboratory sparks created in the air at atmospheric pressure by applying an impulse voltage with long (250 µs) rise-time. X-ray production in 35 and 46 cm gaps for three different electrode configurations was studied. The results demonstrate, for the first time, the production of X-rays in gaps subjected to switching impulses. The low rate of rise of the voltage in switching impulses does not significantly reduce the production of X-rays. Additionally, the timing of the X-ray occurrence suggests the possibility that the mechanism of X-ray production by sparks is related to the collision of streamers of opposite polarity.


1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1169-1178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kentaro Suzuya ◽  
Michihiro Furusaka ◽  
Noboru Watanabe ◽  
Makoto Osawa ◽  
Kiyohito Okamura ◽  
...  

Mesoscopic structures of SiC fibers produced from polycarbosilane by different methods were studied by diffraction and small-angle scattering of neutrons and x-rays. Microvoids of a size of 4–10 Å in diameter have been observed for the first time by neutron scattering in a medium momentum transfer range (Q = 0.1–1.0 Å−1). The size and the volume fraction of β–SiC particles were determined for fibers prepared at different heat-treatment temperatures. The results show that wide-angle neutron scattering measurements are especially useful for the study of the mesoscopic structure of multicomponent materials.


2019 ◽  
Vol 628 ◽  
pp. A135 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Arcodia ◽  
A. Merloni ◽  
K. Nandra ◽  
G. Ponti

The correlation observed between monochromatic X-ray and UV luminosities in radiatively-efficient active galactic nuclei (AGN) lacks a clear theoretical explanation despite being used for many applications. Such a correlation, with its small intrinsic scatter and its slope that is smaller than unity in log space, represents the compelling evidence that a mechanism regulating the energetic interaction between the accretion disk and the X-ray corona must be in place. This ensures that going from fainter to brighter sources the coronal emission increases less than the disk emission. We discuss here a self-consistently coupled disk-corona model that can identify this regulating mechanism in terms of modified viscosity prescriptions in the accretion disk. The model predicts a lower fraction of accretion power dissipated in the corona for higher accretion states. We then present a quantitative observational test of the model using a reference sample of broad-line AGN and modeling the disk-corona emission for each source in the LX − LUV plane. We used the slope, normalization, and scatter of the observed relation to constrain the parameters of the theoretical model. For non-spinning black holes and static coronae, we find that the accretion prescriptions that match the observed slope of the LX − LUV relation produce X-rays that are too weak with respect to the normalization of the observed relation. Instead, considering moderately-outflowing Comptonizing coronae and/or a more realistic high-spinning black hole population significantly relax the tension between the strength of the observed and modeled X-ray emission, while also predicting very low intrinsic scatter in the LX − LUV relation. In particular, this latter scenario traces a known selection effect of flux-limited samples that preferentially select high-spinning, hence brighter, sources.


2019 ◽  
Vol 626 ◽  
pp. A115 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Marcel ◽  
J. Ferreira ◽  
M. Clavel ◽  
P.-O. Petrucci ◽  
J. Malzac ◽  
...  

Context. Transient X-ray binaries (XrB) exhibit very different spectral shapes during their evolution. In luminosity-color diagrams, their behavior in X-rays forms q-shaped cycles that remain unexplained. In Paper I, we proposed a framework where the innermost regions of the accretion disk evolve as a response to variations imposed in the outer regions. These variations lead not only to modifications of the inner disk accretion rate ṁin, but also to the evolution of the transition radius rJ between two disk regions. The outermost region is a standard accretion disk (SAD), whereas the innermost region is a jet-emitting disk (JED) where all the disk angular momentum is carried away vertically by two self-confined jets. Aims. In the previous papers of this series, it has been shown that such a JED–SAD disk configuration could reproduce the typical spectral (radio and X-rays) properties of the five canonical XrB states. The aim of this paper is now to replicate all X-ray spectra and radio emission observed during the 2010–2011 outburst of the archetypal object GX 339-4. Methods. We used the two-temperature plasma code presented in two previous papers (Papers II and III) and designed an automatic ad hoc fitting procedure that for any given date calculates the required disk parameters (ṁin,rJ) that fit the observed X-ray spectrum best. We used X-ray data in the 3–40 keV (RXTE/PCA) spread over 438 days of the outburst, together with 35 radio observations at 9 GHz (ATCA) dispersed within the same cycle. Results. We obtain the time distributions of ṁin(t) and rJ(t) that uniquely reproduce the X-ray luminosity and the spectral shape of the whole cycle. In the classical self-absorbed jet synchrotron emission model, the JED–SAD configuration also reproduces the radio properties very satisfactorily, in particular, the switch-off and -on events and the radio-X-ray correlation. Although the model is simplistic and some parts of the evolution still need to be refined, this is to our knowledge the first time that an outburst cycle is reproduced with such a high level of detail. Conclusions. Within the JED–SAD framework, radio and X-rays are so intimately linked that radio emission can be used to constrain the underlying disk configuration, in particular, during faint hard states. If this result is confirmed using other outbursts from GX 339-4 or other X-ray binaries, then radio could be indeed used as another means to indirectly probe disk physics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 486 (4) ◽  
pp. 4863-4879 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Takey ◽  
Florence Durret ◽  
Isabel Márquez ◽  
Amael Ellien ◽  
Mona Molham ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We present X-ray and optical properties of the optically confirmed galaxy cluster sample from the 3XMM/SDSS Stripe 82 cluster survey. The sample includes 54 galaxy clusters in the redshift range of 0.05–1.2, with a median redshift of 0.36. We first present the X-ray temperature and luminosity measurements that are used to investigate the X-ray luminosity–temperature relation. The slope and intercept of the relation are consistent with those published in the literature. Then, we investigate the optical properties of the cluster galaxies including their morphological analysis and the galaxy luminosity functions (GLFs). The morphological content of cluster galaxies is investigated as a function of cluster mass and distance from the cluster centre. No strong variation of the fraction of early- and late-type galaxies with cluster mass is observed. The fraction of early-type galaxies as a function of cluster radius varies as expected. The individual GLFs of red sequence galaxies were studied in the five ugriz bands for 48 clusters. The GLFs were then stacked in three mass bins and two redshift bins. Twenty clusters of the present sample are studied for the first time in X-rays, and all are studied for the first time in the optical range. Altogether, our sample appears to have X-ray and optical properties typical of ‘average’ cluster properties.


2004 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 208-208
Author(s):  
J. M. Torrejón ◽  
I. Kreykenbohni ◽  
A. Orr ◽  
L. Titarchuk ◽  
I. Negueruela

We present an analysis of archival RXTE and BeppoSAX data of the X-ray source 4U2206+54. For the first time, high energy data (≥ 30 keV) is analyzed. The data is well described by comptonization models in which seed photons with temperatures between 1.1 keV arid 1.5 keV are comptonized by a hot plasma at 50 keV thereby producing a hard tail which extends up to 100 keV. From luminosity arguments it is shown that the area of the soft photons source must be small (r ≈ 1 km) and that the presence of an accretion disk in this system is unlikely. Here we report on the possible existence of a cyclotron line around 30 keV . The presence of a neutron star in the system is strongly favored by the available data.


Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Ka-Wah Wong ◽  
Rodrigo S. Nemmen ◽  
Jimmy A. Irwin ◽  
Dacheng Lin

The nearby M87 hosts an exceptional relativistic jet. It has been regularly monitored in radio to TeV bands, but little has been done in hard X-rays ≳10 keV. For the first time, we have successfully detected hard X-rays up to 40 keV from its X-ray core with joint Chandra and NuSTAR observations, providing important insights to the X-ray origins: from the unresolved jet or the accretion flow. We found that the hard X-ray emission is significantly lower than that predicted by synchrotron self-Compton models introduced to explain very-high-energy γ -ray emission above a GeV. We discuss recent models to understand these high energy emission processes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. A16
Author(s):  
C. Vignali ◽  
P. Severgnini ◽  
E. Piconcelli ◽  
G. Lanzuisi ◽  
R. Gilli ◽  
...  

Context. The search for heavily obscured active galactic nuclei has been revitalized in the last five years by NuSTAR, which has provided a good census and spectral characterization of a population of such objects, mostly at low redshift, thanks to its enhanced sensitivity above 10 keV compared to previous X-ray facilities, and its hard X-ray imaging capabilities. Aims. We aim at demonstrating how NGC 2785, a local (z = 0.009) star-forming galaxy, is responsible, in virtue of its heavily obscured active nucleus, for significant contamination in the non-imaging BeppoSAX/PDS data of the relatively nearby (≈17′) quasar IRAS 09104+4109 (z = 0.44), which was originally mis-classified as Compton thick. Methods. We analyzed ≈71 ks NuSTAR data of NGC 2785 using the MYTorus model and provided a physical description of the X-ray properties of the source for the first time. Results. We found that NGC 2785 hosts a heavily obscured (NH ≈ 3 × 1024 cm−2) nucleus. The intrinsic X-ray luminosity of the source, once corrected for the measured obscuration (L2−10keV ≈ 1042 erg s−1), is consistent within a factor of a few with predictions based on the source mid-infrared flux using widely adopted correlations from the literature. Conclusions. Based on NuSTAR data and previous indications from the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (BAT instrument), we confirm that NGC 2785, because of its hard X-ray emission and spectral shape, was responsible for at least one third of the 20–100 keV emission observed using the PDS instrument onboard BeppoSAX, originally completely associated with IRAS 09104+4109. Such emission led to the erroneous classification of this source as a Compton-thick quasar, while it is now recognized as Compton thin.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document