Deducing turbulence parameters from transionospheric scintillation measurements

The theoretical framework and experimental methodology used to interpret observations of ionospheric scintillations in terms of geophysical processes are reviewed and recent experimental observations of ionospheric scintillations are discussed in this paper. During the past 15 years significant progress has been made in several areas. In particular, significant advances have been made in theoretical understanding of the strong scintillation regime and the effects of short-term temporal variations of the scintillation producing irregularities on observations made with spaced-receiver geometries in both weak and strong scintillations. This improved understanding of the scintillation process has significantly increased the utility of the technique particularly in the equatorial latitudes where geometrical effects are least important.     

Understanding high-density matter through analysis of surface spectral lines and burst oscillations from accreting neutron stars

We discuss millisecond period brightness oscillations and surface atomic spectral lines observed during type I X-ray bursts from a neutron star in a low mass X-ray binary system. We show that modeling of these phenomena can constrain models of the dense cold matter at the cores of neutron stars. We demonstrate that, even for a broad and asymmetric spectral line, the stellar radius-to-mass ratio can be inferred to better than 5%. We also fit our theoretical models to the burst oscillation data of the low mass X-ray binary XTE J1814-338, and find that the 90% confidence lower limit of the neutron star’s dimensionless radius-to-mass ratio is 4.2.     

当量比和间隙尺寸对爆震波传播过程的影响

为探索微型脉冲爆震发动机推进系统的可行性,进行了微空间内爆震极限特性的研究.通过对预混氢气/氧气爆震火焰在平板狭缝中的传播过程进行测量,分析了爆震波压力、速度随当量比和间隙尺寸的变化趋势,发现在极限范围外,来自稳流段的爆震波都能在间隙内通过压力和速度的自我调整后达到稳定状态,调整过程所需的距离随间隙尺寸减小而增长.根据爆震波速度衰减的定义,给出了激波和火焰锋面速度沿间隙通道方向的变化特点,观察到了微尺寸下爆震波的4种传播模式:稳定爆震波、准稳定爆震波、低速爆震波和非爆震波.      

Multi-wavelength study of the short term TeV flaring activity from the blazar Mrk 501 observed in June 2014

In this work, we study the short term flaring activity from the high synchrotron peaked blazar Mrk 501 detected by the FACT and H.E.S.S. telescopes in the energy range 2–20 TeV during June 23–24, 2014 (MJD 56831.86–56831.94). We revisit this major TeV flare of the source in the context of near simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of $\gamma$–rays in MeV-GeV regime with Fermi-LAT, soft X-rays in 0.3–10 keV range with Swift-XRT, hard X-rays in 10–20 keV and 15–50 keV bands with MAXI and Swift-BAT respectively, UV-Optical with Swift-UVOT and 15 GHz radio with OVRO telescope. We have performed a detailed temporal and spectral analysis of the data from Fermi-LAT, Swift-XRT and Swift-UVOT during the period June 15–30, 2014 (MJD 56823–56838). Near simultaneous archival data available from Swift-BAT, MAXI and OVRO telescope along with the V-band optical polarization measurements from SPOL observatory are also used in the study of giant TeV flare of Mrk 501 detected by the FACT and H.E.S.S. telescopes. No significant change in the multi-wavelength emission from radio to high energy $\gamma$–rays during the TeV flaring activity of Mrk 501 is observed except variation in soft X-rays. The varying soft X-ray emission is found to be correlated with the $\gamma$–ray emission at TeV energies during the flaring activity of the source. The soft X-ray photon spectral index is observed to be anti-correlated with the integral flux showing harder-when-brighter behavior. An average value of 4.5$\%$ for V-band optical polarization is obtained during the above period whereas the corresponding electric vector position angle changes significantly. We have used the minimum variability timescale from the H.E.S.S. observations to estimate the Doppler factor of the emission region which is found to be consistent with the previous studies of the source.     

当量比对斜爆轰波诱导区特性影响的数值模拟研究

为探索斜爆轰波诱导区特性变化的内在机制,利用带H2/O2详细化学反应模型的二维欧拉方程进行数值模拟,研究了当量比对诱导区特性的影响。结果表明,随着当量比增大,诱导区长度呈U型曲线变化,在此过程中温度起到了关键作用。通过研究诱导区末端的压力分布发现,诱导区末端的压缩波强度是影响诱导区过渡形式的决定性因素。当量比在0.6～2.5时,压缩波强度较强,过渡形式为突变型,超出该范围,压缩波强度较弱,过渡形式为平滑型。此外,结合定容燃烧(CVC)理论分析了不同来流压力下的诱导区长度随当量比的变化情况,得出诱导区内的化学动力学效应影响了诱导区长度,使其沿理论所预测的U型曲线变化;气动力学效应影响了诱导区长度的变化幅度和速率,避免其过度增大或减小。     

Measurement of neutron star parameters: A review of methods for low-mass X-ray binaries

Measurement of at least three independent parameters, for example, mass, radius and spin frequency, of a neutron star is probably the only way to understand the nature of its supranuclear core matter. Such a measurement is extremely difficult because of various systematic uncertainties. The lack of knowledge of several system parameter values gives rise to such systematics. Low mass X-ray binaries, which contain neutron stars, provide a number of methods to constrain the stellar parameters. Joint application of these methods has a great potential to significantly reduce the systematic uncertainties, and hence to measure three independent neutron star parameters accurately. Here, we review the methods based on: (1) thermonuclear X-ray bursts; (2) accretion-powered millisecond-period pulsations; (3) kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations; (4) broad relativistic iron lines; (5) quiescent emissions; and (6) binary orbital motions.