REM/ROSS: a powerful tool for monitoring the prompt afterglow of γ-ray bursts

Observations of the prompt afterglow of γ-ray burst events are unanimously considered of paramount importance for GRB science and cosmology. Such observations at NIR wavelengths are even more promising allowing the monitoring of high-z Ly- absorbed bursts as well as events occurring in dusty star-forming regions. In these pages we present rapid eye mount (REM), a fully robotized fast slewing telescope equipped with a high throughput NIR (Z, J, H, K) camera dedicated to detecting the prompt IR afterglow. REM can discover objects at extremely high redshift and trigger large telescopes to observe them. The REM telescope will simultaneously feed REM optical slitless spectrograph (ROSS) via a dichroic. ROSS will intensively monitor the prompt optical continuum of GRB afterglows. The synergy between the REM-IR camera and the ROSS spectrograph makes REM a powerful observing tool for any kind of fast transient phenomena. Beside its ambitious scientific goals, REM is also technically challenging since it represent the first attempt to locate a NIR camera on a small telescope providing, with ROSS, unprecedented simultaneous wavelength coverage on a telescope of this size.     

Hard X-ray focusing optics up to 80 keV for the future missions

X-ray telescopes have been providing high sensitivity X-ray observations in numerous missions. For X-ray telescopes in the future, one of the key technologies is to expand the energy band beyond 10 keV. We designed depth-graded multilayer, so-called supermirrors, for a hard X-ray telescope in the energy band up to 40 keV using lightweight thin-foil optics. They were successfully flown in a balloon flight and obtained a hard X-ray image of Cyg X-1 in the 20–40 keV band. Now supermirrors are promising to realize a hard X-ray telescope. We have estimated the performance of a hard X-ray telescope using a platinum–carbon supermirror for future satellite missions, such as NeXT (Japan) and XEUS (Europe). According to calculations, they will have a significant effective area up to 80 keV, and their effective areas will be more than 280 cm² even at 60 keV. Limiting sensitivity will be down to 1.7 × 10⁻¹³ erg cm⁻² s⁻¹ in the 10–80 keV band at a 100 ks observation. In this paper, we present the results of the balloon experiment with the first supermirror flown and projected effective areas of hard X-ray telescopes and action items for future missions.     

Lorentz Symmetry breaking studies with photons from astrophysical observations

Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) may be a good observational window on Quantum Gravity physics. Within last few years, all major gamma-ray experiments have published results from the search for LIV with variable astrophysical sources: gamma-ray bursts with detectors on-board satellites and Active Galactic Nuclei with ground-based experiments. In this paper, the recent time-of-flight studies with unpolarized photons published from the space and ground based observations are reviewed. Various methods used in the time delay searches are described, and their performance discussed. Since no significant time-lag value was found within experimental precision of the measurements, the present results consist of 95% confidence level limits on the Quantum Gravity scale on the linear and quadratic terms in the standard photon dispersion relations.     

Polarization effects in radiation from compact X-ray sources

The theory of polarization effects in radiation from compact X-ray sources is presented. The following four problems are considered: 1) the polarization of X-rays from the magnetized neutron stars; 2) the polarization of X-rays from the accretion disk around a black hole; 3) the optical polarization from X-ray binaries, and 4) the results of X-ray polarimetric observations.     

Stereoscopic measurements of the Čerenkov radiation produced by TEV gamma rays

Current approaches to the identification of VHE gamma rays using stereo images of erenkov light flashes are reviewed. The method of analysis developed by the University of Durham group involving a measure of cascade development is described. This method is applied to observations of a burst of VHE gamma rays from AE Aqr and enhancement of the gamma ray signal is demonstrated.     

Plans for submillimetre and infrared satellites in Japan

I describe plans for submillimetre and infrared satellites which are now under discussion among Japanese infrared and millimetre astronomers. We propose a submillimetre and/or infrared mission to be launched around 2000 with a main reflector 1–2 m in diameter and cooled down to 50–150 K. This mission, although a small one, will be able to contribute significantly to the advance in submillimetre and infrared astronomy if its role is specified for suitable purposes like surveys.     

The high precision gamma-ray spectrometer for lunar polar orbiter SELENE

The high precision gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) is scheduled to be launched on the lunar polar orbiter of the SELENE mission in 2007. The GRS consists of a large Ge crystal as a main detector and massive bismuth germanate crystals as an anticoincidence detector. A Stirling cryocooler was adopted in cooling the Ge detector. The flight model of SELENE GRS has been completed and an energy resolution of 3.0 keV (FWHM) at 1.332 MeV has been achieved. The spectrometer aims to observe nuclear line gamma rays emitted from the lunar surface in a wide energy range from 100 keV to 12 MeV for one year and more to obtain chemical composition on the entire lunar surface. The gamma-ray data enable us to study lunar geoscience problems including crust and mantle composition, and volatile reservoirs at polar regions.     

基于不同天文标准计算地球引力对卫星轨道的影响

建立了一个考虑地球非球形引力摄动的卫星轨道摄动模型并用C＋＋语言编写程序进行轨道计算,其积分器采用Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg7（8）。建模过程中,对岁差、章动等量的计算分别考虑了美国海军天文台1981年和2005年的两种天文标准。通过与STK对比,发现无论采用哪一种标准,轨道传播两天后的位置误差都不会超过分米量级,速度误差不会超过毫米每秒的量级。说明了建模和编程计算的合理性,以及采用新旧两种天文标准计算卫星轨道的差别甚小。