Search results for "Cosmology"
showing 10 items of 2905 documents
Insights into the particle acceleration of a peculiar gamma -ray radio galaxy IC 310
2015
IC 310 has recently been identified as a gamma-ray emitter based on observations at GeV energies with Fermi-LAT and at very high energies (VHE, E > 100 GeV) with the MAGIC telescopes. Despite IC 310 having been classified as a radio galaxy with the jet observed at an angle > 10 degrees, it exhibits a mixture of multiwavelength properties of a radio galaxy and a blazar, possibly making it a transitional object. On the night of 12/13th of November 2012 the MAGIC telescopes observed a series of violent outbursts from the direction of IC 310 with flux-doubling time scales faster than 5 min and a peculiar spectrum spreading over 2 orders of magnitude. Such fast variability constrains the size of…
The Aftermath of an Exceptional TeV Flare in the AGN Jet of IC 310
2013
The nearby active galaxy IC 310 (z=0.019), located in the Perseus cluster of galaxies is a bright and variable multi-wavelength emitter from the radio regime up to very high gamma-ray energies above 100 GeV. Very recently, a blazar-like compact radio jet has been found by parsec-scale VLBI imaging. Along with the unusually flat gamma-ray spectrum and variable high-energy emission, this suggests that IC 310 is the closest known blazar and therefore a key object for AGN research. As part of an intense observing program at TeV energies with the MAGIC telescopes, an exceptionally bright flare of IC 310 was detected in November 2012 reaching a flux level of up to >0.5 Crab units above 300 GeV. W…
Microlensing of the Fe K$\alpha$ line and the X-ray continuum
2005
The observed enhancement of the Fe K$\alpha$ line in three gravitationally lensed QSOs (MG J0414+0534, QSO 2237+0305, H1413+117) is interpreted in terms of microlensing, even when equivalent X-ray continuum amplification is not observed. In order to interpret these observations, first we studied the effects of microlensing on quasars spectra, produced by straight fold caustic crossing over standard relativistic accretion disk. The disk emission was analyzed using the ray tracing method, considering Schwarzschild and Kerr metrics. When the emission is separated in two regions (an inner disk corresponding to the Fe K$\alpha$ line and an outer annulus corresponding to the continuum, or vice-ve…
Interstellar travel guide : chronicles of a violent universe
2017
In contrast to observations from our local viewpoint, the universe is extremely violent. Explosions of massive stars, X-ray and gamma-ray binary stars, and active galaxies are related to the presence of compact objects such as neutron stars or black holes. Processes such as matter accretion or the formation and release of relativistic plasma jets are responsible for the generation of large amounts of high-energy radiation, caused by the acceleration of elementary particles, and have a significant impact in their surroundings. Moreover, they are related to the generation of gravitational waves: vibrations in spacetime produced by the acceleration of compact massive objects that produce stron…
Design and Fabrication of Detector Module for UFFO Burst Alert & Trigger Telescope
2011
The Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory (UFFO) pathfinder is a space mission devoted to the measurement of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), especially their early light curves which will give crucial information on the progenitor stars and central engines of the GRBs. It consists of two instruments: the UFFO Burst Alert & Trigger telescope (UBAT) for the detection of GRB locations and the Slewing Mirror Telescope (SMT) for the UV/optical afterglow observations, upon triggering by UBAT. The UBAT employs a coded-mask {\gamma}/X-ray camera with a wide field of view (FOV), and is comprised of three parts: a coded mask, a hopper, and a detector module (DM). The UBAT DM consists of a LYSO scintillator crystal a…
An extraordinary view of the universe : the use of X-ray vision in space science
2017
X-ray emission from cosmic sources indicates that these sources are heated to temperatures exceeding a million degrees or that they contain highly energetic particles. Recent X-ray telescopes, such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton, observed thousands of cosmic X-ray sources. These observations greatly impacted our understanding of the physics governing the evolution of structures across the universe. Here, I review and highlight some of these important results.
Photometric observations of the radio bright B[e]/X-ray binary CI Cam
2000
We present multiwavelength (optical, IR, radio) observations of CI Cam, the optical counterpart to the transient X-ray source XTE J0421+560. Pre-outburst quiescent observations reveal the presence of a dusty envelope around the system. Pronounced short term variability is observed at all wavebands from U-K, but no indication of prior flaring of a similar magnitude to the 1998 April outburst is found in these data.\ud \ud Data obtained during the 1998 April X-ray flare reveal pronounced optical-radio flaring. The optical flux was observed to quickly return to quiescent levels, while the radio flare was of much longer duration. The optical component is likely to result from a combination of f…
XMM-Newton detection of the 2.1 ms coherent pulsations from IGR J17379-3747
2018
We report on the detection of X-ray pulsations at 2.1 ms from the known X-ray burster IGR J17379-3747 using XMM-Newton. The coherent signal shows a clear Doppler modulation from which we estimate an orbital period of ~1.9 hours and a projected semi-major axis of ~8 lt-ms. Taking into account the lack of eclipses (inclination angle of < 75 deg) and assuming a neutron star mass of 1.4 Msun, we estimated a minimum companion star of ~0.06 Msun. Considerations on the probability distribution of the binary inclination angle make less likely the hypothesis of a main-sequence companion star. On the other hand, the close correspondence with the orbital parameters of the accreting millisecond puls…
High redshift galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey. II. Strengthening the evidence of bright-end excess in UV luminosity functions at 2.5 <= z<= 4.5 by PD…
2018
Context. Knowing the exact shape of the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function (LF) of high-redshift galaxies is important to understand the star formation history of the early Universe. However, the uncertainties, especially at the faint and bright ends of the LFs, remain significant. Aims. In this paper, we study the UV LF of redshift z = 2:5 4.5 galaxies in 2.38 deg of ALHAMBRA data with I ≤ 24. Thanks to the large area covered by ALHAMBRA, we particularly constrain the bright end of the LF. We also calculate the cosmic variance and the corresponding bias values for our sample and derive their host dark matter halo masses. Methods.We have used a novel methodology based on redshift and magn…
A possible cyclotron resonance scattering feature near 0.7 keV in X1822-371
2015
We analyse all available X-ray observations of X1822-371 made with XMM-Newton, Chandra, Suzaku and INTEGRAL satellites. The observations were not simultaneous. The Suzaku and INTEGRAL broad band energy coverage allows us to constrain the spectral shape of the continuum emission well. We use the model already proposed for this source, consisting of a Comptonised component absorbed by interstellar matter and partially absorbed by local neutral matter, and we added a Gaussian feature in absorption at $\sim 0.7$ keV. This addition significantly improves the fit and flattens the residuals between 0.6 and 0.8 keV. We interpret the Gaussian feature in absorption as a cyclotron resonant scattering …