太阳微波爆发精细结构与硬X射线耀斑的相关

北京天文台在２．８４ＧＨｚ频率上观测到的带短时标精细结构的微波爆发与日本ＹＯＨＫＯＨ卫星上ＨＸＴ在１９９１年１０月－１９９２年１２月观测到的硬Ｘ射线爆发（ＨＸＢ）事件作了比较，发现在２０个微波精细结构爆发事件只有１２个与ＹＯＨＫＯＨ卫星记录的ＨＸＢ有对应关系．本文对１９９２年６月７日典型事件中２．８４ＧＨｚ与ＨＸＢ共同存在的百秒量级的准周期振荡作了分析及源区参数的计算，并作了简要的讨论．     

X-ray synchrotron nebulae and the origin of neutron stars

“With all reserve, we advance the view that a supernova represents the transition of an ordinary star into a neutron star.”This conclusion, reached just 50 years ago in a classic paper by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky (1934), was published three decades before the first direct observational evidence for the existence of neutron stars was uncovered. It still informs the standard picture of neutron star production in the Galaxy. We examine herein some recent evidence bearing on this question which has been derived from Observatory X-ray observations of supernova remnants and radio pulsars. In particular, the discovery that X-ray synchrotron nebulae are found surrounding most young ( 10⁶ yr) pulsars observed to date is discussed. We explore the implications of the lack of such nebulae in the majority of supernova remnants (SNR) for the properties and frequency of neutron star formation in supernova events.     

Study of the variability of blazars gamma-ray emission

The γ-ray emission of blazar jets shows a pronounced variability and this feature provides limits to the size and to the speed of the emitting region. We study the γ-ray variability of bright blazars using data from the first 18 months of activity of the Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. From the daily light-curves of the blazars characterized by a remarkable activity, we firstly determine the minimum variability time-scale, giving an upper limit for the size of the emitting region of the sources, assumed to be spheroidal blobs in relativistic motion. These regions must be smaller than ∼10⁻³ parsec. Another interesting time-scale is the duration of the outbursts. We conclude that they cannot correspond to radiation produced by a single blob moving relativistically along the jet, but they are either the signature of emission from a standing shock extracting energy from a modulated jet, or the superposition of a number of flares occurring on a shorter time-scale. We also derive lower limits on the bulk Lorentz factor needed to make the emitting region transparent for gamma-rays interacting through photon–photon collisions.     

Magnetar spectra and twisted magnetospheres

The huge potential drop between the footpoints of the closed field lines in the twisted magnetospheres of magnetars may accelerate electrons up to very high energies, γ ? 10⁶. On the other hand, the comparison between the observed spectra of magnetars and spectra obtained by accurate theoretical models seems to favor of a picture in which the magnetosphere is filled by “slow” electrons (v ? 0.8c), rather than by ultra-relativistic particles.     

Modeling the broadband persistent emission of magnetars

In this paper, we discuss our first attempts to model the broadband persistent emission of magnetars within a self-consistent, physical scenario. We present the predictions of a synthetic model that we calculated with a new Monte Carlo 3D radiative code. The basic idea is that soft thermal photons (e.g. emitted by the star surface) can experience resonant cyclotron upscattering by a population of relativistic electrons treated in the twisted magnetosphere. Our code is specifically tailored to work in the ultra-magnetized regime; polarization and QED effects are consistently accounted for, as well different configurations for the magnetosphere. We discuss the predicted spectral properties in the 0.1–1000 keV range, the polarization properties, and we present the model application to a sample of magnetars soft X-ray spectra.     

The beaming of external Compton emission

We consider a relativistically moving blob consisting of an isotropic electron distribution that Compton-scatters photons from an external isotropic radiation field. We compute the resulting beaming pattern, i.e. the distribution of the scattered photons, in the blob frame as well as in the observer’s frame by using the full Klein–Nishina cross section and the exact incident photon distribution. In the Thomson regime the comparison of our approach with Dermer (1995) results in concurrent characteristics but different absolute number of the scattered photons by a factor of f_corr = 3.09. Additionally, our calculation yields a slightly lower boost factor which varies the more from the corresponding value in Dermer (1995) the higher the spectral index p of the electron distribution gets.     

A fast pulse phase estimation method for X-ray pulsar signals based on epoch folding

X-ray pulsar-based navigation (XPNAV) is an attractive method for autonomous deep-space navigation in the future. The pulse phase estimation is a key task in XPNAV and its accuracy directly determines the navigation accuracy. State-of-the-art pulse phase estimation techniques either suffer from poor estimation accuracy, or involve the maximization of generally non-convex object function, thus resulting in a large computational cost. In this paper, a fast pulse phase estimation method based on epoch folding is presented. The statistical properties of the observed profile obtained through epoch folding are developed. Based on this, we recognize the joint prob-ability distribution of the observed profile as the likelihood function and utilize a fast Fourier transform-based procedure to estimate the pulse phase. Computational complexity of the proposed estimator is analyzed as well. Experimental results show that the proposed estimator significantly outperforms the currently used cross-correlation (CC) and nonlinear least squares (NLS) estima-tors, while significantly reduces the computational complexity compared with NLS and maximum likelihood (ML) estimators.     

ASTROSAT

The ASTROSAT satellite is an Indian National Space Observatory under development in India. Due for launch in 2010, ASTROSAT will carry a complement of five scientific instruments enabling simultaneous observations from the optical through to the hard X-ray energy band. This capability will enable broad-band spectroscopy and high time-resolution monitoring of both galactic and extra-galactic targets, such as X-ray binaries and AGN. One of the instruments is being built in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and another in collaboration with the University of Leicester. ASTROSAT also carries a scanning sky monitor to observe the variable X-ray sky. After an initial period of science verification and guaranteed time, a certain fraction of ASTROSAT observing time will also be made available to the community via a call for proposals. Here I summarise the instrument complement and principle scientific objectives of the mission.