A balloon-borne very long baseline interferometry experiment in the stratosphere: Systems design and developments

The balloon-borne very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) experiment is a technical feasibility study for performing radio interferometry in the stratosphere. The flight model has been developed. A balloon-borne VLBI station will be launched to establish interferometric fringes with ground-based VLBI stations distributed over the Japanese islands at an observing frequency of approximately 20?GHz as the first step. This paper describes the system design and development of a series of observing instruments and bus systems. In addition to the advantages of avoiding the atmospheric effects of absorption and fluctuation in high frequency radio observation, the mobility of a station can improve the sampling coverage (“uv-coverage”) by increasing the number of baselines by the number of ground-based counterparts for each observation day. This benefit cannot be obtained with conventional arrays that solely comprise ground-based stations. The balloon-borne VLBI can contribute to a future progress of research fields such as black holes by direct imaging.     

Relativistic astrophysics explorer

The great success of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has shown that X-ray timing is an excellent tool for the study of strong gravitational fields and the measurement of fundamental physical properties of black holes and neutron stars. Here, we describe a next-generation X-ray timing mission, the Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer (RAE), designed to fit within the envelope of a medium-sized mission. The instruments will be a narrow-field X-ray detector array with an area of 6 m² equal to 10 times that of RXTE and a wide-field X-ray monitor. We describe the science made possible with this mission, the design of the instruments, and results on prototype large-area X-ray detectors.     

P对低膨胀Thermo-Span合金650℃氧化行为的影响

利用热重分析法(TG)和扫描电子显微镜(SEM)研究了微量元素P对Thermo-Span合金650℃氧化行为的影响.结果表明,氧化增重遵循抛物线规律,氧化层分两部分,包括氧化外层和氧化过渡层.外层富Fe,Co,O元素,氧化过渡层富Nb,Al,Cr,O等元素,Fe,Co,O含量降低.0.001%磷合金表层氧化物主要为针状的Fe,Co氧化物,而0.023%磷含量合金表层氧化物则大部分为块状Co的氧化物,随磷含量增加,表层Fe元素含量降低.0.023%磷阻碍Fe元素向外迁移及氧的向内扩散,降低合金在650℃下的氧化速率,提高合金650℃的抗氧化性能.     

黑箱建模方法在环境模拟试验中的应用

某大型环境模拟试验设备中一些制冷设备的热力参数,如涡轮膨胀机的出口温度,很难用传统的计算公式来准确求解这一问题。文章提出了用黑箱建模方法来预测这些参数;运用多元回归分析和人工神经网络的方法对黑箱模型进行求解。通过试验数据的验证,表明预测值与试验值非常接近,说明该方法是一种简便易行、准确性高的计算方法。     

枪黑色Ni/Sn合金在NaOH溶液中的析氢电催化性能

实验测出的电化学参数表明：在ＮａＯＨ溶液中电解制氢时,枪黑色Ｎｉ／Ｓｎ合金的析氢电催化性能比４５号钢和主硫镍的强很多,而且具有很主的电化学稳定性。     

粉体特性对铜基金属粉末选区激光烧结的影响

 设计制备了多组分铜基金属粉末（组分包括Cu,Cu-10Sn,Cu-8.4P）,并基于液相烧结机制实现了粉体激光烧结成形。研究了粉体特性（粉末粒度、颗粒形貌、化学成分、组分比例、及混粉均匀性）对烧结致密度及显微组织的影响。结果表明,粗细粉末共混,并使其具有较宽粒度分布;使用球形或近球形细粉,均能提高粉末松装密度及烧结致密度。元素P能充当脱氧剂而改善润湿性;但若CuP含量多于15％质量分数,会因生成过多磷渣而降低烧结性。提高粘结金属CuSn比例能使烧结致密度得以改善;但若其含量超过30％质量分数,则会导致“球化”效应。提高混粉均匀性,有利于改善烧结致密度和组织均匀性。     

Relativistic jets from black hole binaries

Relativistic jets are now believed to be a fairly ubiquitous property of accreting compact objects, and are intimately coupled with the accretion history. Associated with rapid changes in the accretion states of the binary systems, ejections of relativistic plasma can be observed at radio frequencies on timescale of weeks before becoming undetectable. However, recent observations point to long term effects of these ejecta on the interstellar medium with the formation of large scale relativistic jets around binary systems.     

Comptonization efficiencies of the variability classes of GRS 1915 + 105

The Galactic microquasar GRS 1915 + 105 exhibits at least seventeen types of variability classes. Intra and inter class transitions are reported to be observed within seconds to hours. Since the observation was not continuous, these classes appeared to be exhibited in a random order. Our goal is to predict a sequence of these classes. In this paper, we compute the ratio of the photon counts obtained from the power-law component and the blackbody component of each class and call this ratio as the ‘Comptonizing efficiency’ (CE) of that class. We sequence the classes in the ascending order of CE and find that this sequence matches with a few class transitions observed by RXTE satellite and IXAE instruments on board IRS-P3. A change in CE corresponds to a change in the optical depth of the Compton cloud. Our result implies that the optical depth of the Compton cloud gradually rises as the variability class becomes harder.     

SLX 1746-311 in outburst

We report on RXTE-PCA observations of SLX 1746-311 during a 100 day outburst in April 2003. We present the 3–20 keV PCA energy spectra of the source and study evolution of spectral parameters. The burst spectrum is soft with T_in 1.3 keV at the beginning of the outburst. There is a clear evidence of a hard power law component throughout the outburst. There is also an indication of a broad iron line. The source exhibits three state transitions with considerable change in the hardness ratio at low count rates. We discuss the possible scenario under which this unusual behaviour can be explained.     

Black hole spectral states and physical connections

The dramatic changes seen in the X-ray spectral and timing properties of accreting black hole candidates (BHCs) provide important clues about the accretion and jet formation processes that occur in these systems. Dividing the different source behaviors into spectral states provides a framework for studying BHCs. To date, there have been three main classification schemes with Luminosity-based, Component-based, or Transition-based criteria. The canonical, Luminosity-based criteria and physical models that are based on this concept do not provide clear explanations for several phenomena, including hysteresis of spectral states and the presence of jets. I discuss the re-definitions of states, focusing on an application of the Component-based states to more than 400 RXTE observations of the recurrent BHC 4U 1630–47. We compare the X-ray properties for the recent 2002–2004 outburst to those of an earlier (1998) outburst, during which radio jets were observed. The results suggest a connection between hysteresis of states and major jet ejections, and it is possible that both of these are related to the evolution of the inner radius of the optically thick accretion disk.