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At least 289 records · Page 16

The Hard X-Ray Emission from Scorpius X-1 as seen by INTEGRAL

We present the results of our hard X-ray and gamma-ray study of the LMXB Sco X-1 utilizing INTEGRAL IBIS/ISGRI and SPI data as well as contemporaneous RXTE PCA data. We have concentrated on investigating the high-energy spectral properties of the Sco X-1 including the nature of the high-energy spectrum and its possible correlations with the location of the source on the color-color diagram. We also present the results of a search for positron-electron annihilation line emission from Sco X-1, as it is the brightest of a bulge X-ray binary population which approximately traces the 511-keV spatial distribution inferred from SPI.

Sturner, Steve↗

Searching for Decaying Dark Matter in Deep XMM-Newton Observation of the Draco Dwarf Spheroidal

We present results of a search for the 3.5 keV emission line in our recent very long (approx. 1.4 Ms) XMM-Newton observation of the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The astrophysical X-ray emission from such dark matter-dominated galaxies is faint, thus they provide a test for the dark matter origin of the 3.5 keV line previously detected in other massive, but X-ray bright objects, such as galaxies and galaxy clusters. We do not detect a statistically significant emission line from Draco; this constrains the lifetime of a decaying dark matter particle to tau >(7-9) × 10(exp 27) s at 95% CL (combining all three XMM-Newton cameras; the interval corresponds to the uncertainty of the dark matter column density in the direction of Draco). The PN camera, which has the highest sensitivity of the three, does show a positive spectral residual (above the carefully modeled continuum) at E = 3.54 +/- 0.06 keV with a 2.3(sigma) significance. The two MOS cameras show less-significant or no positive deviations, consistently within 1(sigma) with PN. Our Draco limit on tau is consistent with previous detections in the stacked galaxy clusters, M31 and the Galactic Centre within their 1 − 2(sigma) uncertainties, but is inconsistent with the high signal from the core of the Perseus cluster (which has itself been inconsistent with the rest of the detections). We conclude that this Draco observation does not exclude the dark matter interpretation of the 3.5 keV line in those objects.

dark matter↗

Far-Infrared Line Emission from High Redshift Quasars

Recent millimeter and submillimeter detections of line emission in high redshift objects have yielded new information and constraints on star formation at early epochs. Only CO transitions and atomic carbon transitions have been detected from these objects, yet bright far-infrared lines such as C+ at 158 microns and N+ at 205 microns should be fairly readily detectable when redshifted into a submillimeter atmospheric window. We have obtained upper limits for C+ emission &om two high redshift quasars, BR1202-0725 at z=4.69 and BRI1335-0415 at z=4.41. These limits show that the ratio of the C+ line luminosity to the total far-infrared luminosity is less than 0.0l%, ten times smaller than has been observed locally. Additionally, we have searched for emission in the N+ 205 micron line from the Cloverleaf quasar, H1413+117, and detected emission in CO J=7-6. The N+ emission is found to be below the amount predicted based on comparison to the only previous detection of this line, in the starburst galaxy M82.

Benford, D. J.↗

Interstellar communication

The paper discusses a project in which the possibility of receiving signals from another civilization in our galaxy is being studied. The main question is in what electromagnetic frequency band should the search for such signals be conducted. Possible bands are discussed in terms of quantum costs and attainable signal-to-noise ratios. Of particular interest is the 'water hole', the range of frequencies from 1.420 to 1.662 GHz, with fundamental frequency in the Galaxy being the hydrogen line at 1.420 GHz. A plan for searching this band is described, in which the contemplated system would have a capability of detecting a 1000-Megawatt omnidirectional beacon at a distance of 10,000 light years.

Machol, R. E.↗

Diffuse galactic gamma-ray line emission from nucleosynthetic Fe-60, Al-26, and Na-22 - Preliminary limits from HEAO 3

Data obtained during a two-week period in the fall of 1979 with the HEAO 3 gamma-ray spectroscopy experiment have been searched for diffuse galactic plane gamma-ray line emission expected t4 result from the decay of nucleosynthetic Fe-60, Al-26, and Na-22. With the possible exception of the 1809 keV line from Al-26 decay, for which a 2.6-omicron cosmic excess of (6.0 + or - 2.3) x 0.0001 photons/sq cm per sec per rad was measured, no positive detection was made. However, new limits ranging from 1.8 to 11 times 0.0001 photons/sq cm per sec per rad, at the 3-omicron level of confidence, have been placed on diffuse emission in these lines from the vicinity of the galactic center (between -30 and 30 deg). These limits are lower than some theories predict and thus place new constraints on the yields of these radionuclides in explosive nucleosynthesis and on the present rate of galactic nucleosynthesis.

Mahoney, W. A.↗

Testing the AGN paradigm; Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Topical Astrophysics Conference, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, Oct. 14-16, 1991

The present volume on testing the AGN paradigm discusses black holes, accretion disks, high-energy continuum jets, AGN geometry, and the broad-line region. Attention is given to the search for black holes in galaxy nuclei, the structure of M32 at red wavelengths, testing the AGN paradigm for the Milky Way, and relativistic fluid flows in the magnetized Schwarzschild spacetime. Topics addressed include orbital models for the periodic X-ray flares of NGC 6814, observational evidence for thin AGN disks, X-ray Fe line studies, and the role of the UV bump in line emission. Also discussed are signatures of black hole accretion disks, rapid variability in AGN and accretion disk hot spots, relativistic jets in AGN, and the radiation field in astrophysical jets.

Holt, Stephen S.↗

Electronic photography at NASA Langley Research Center

The field of photography began a metamorphosis several years ago which promises to fundamentally change how images are captured, transmitted, and output. At this time the metamorphosis is still in the early stages, but already new processes, hardware, and software are allowing many individuals and organizations to explore the entry of imaging into the information revolution. Exploration at this time is prerequisite to leading expertise in the future, and a number of branches at LaRC have ventured into electronic and digital imaging. Their progress until recently has been limited by two factors: the lack of an integrated approach and the lack of an electronic photographic capability. The purpose of the research conducted was to address these two items. In some respects, the lack of electronic photographs has prevented application of an integrated imaging approach. Since everything could not be electronic, the tendency was to work with hard copy. Over the summer, the Photographics Section has set up an Electronic Photography Laboratory. This laboratory now has the capability to scan film images, process the images, and output the images in a variety of forms. Future plans also include electronic capture capability. The current forms of image processing available include sharpening, noise reduction, dust removal, tone correction, color balancing, image editing, cropping, electronic separations, and halftoning. Output choices include customer specified electronic file formats which can be output on magnetic or optical disks or over the network, 4400 line photographic quality prints and transparencies to 8.5 by 11 inches, and 8000 line film negatives and transparencies to 4 by 5 inches. The problem of integrated imaging involves a number of branches at LaRC including Visual Imaging, Research Printing and Publishing, Data Visualization and Animation, Advanced Computing, and various research groups. These units must work together to develop common approaches to image processing and archiving. The ultimate goal is to be able to search for images using an on-line database and image catalog. These images could then be retrieved over the network as needed, along with information on the acquisition and processing prior to storage. For this goal to be realized, a number of standard processing protocols must be developed to allow the classification of images into categories. Standard series of processing algorithms can then be applied to each category (although many of these may be adaptive between images). Since the archived image files would be standardized, it should also be possible to develop standard output processing protocols for a number of output devices. If LaRC continues the research effort begun this summer, it may be one of the first organizations to develop an integrated approach to imaging. As such, it could serve as a model for other organizations in government and the private sector.

Holm, Jack M.↗

Searching Circuit For A Servoloop

Feedback error voltage forced into range of stability. Circuit connected in series with error-voltage line of feedback loop. When loop operates normally in stable region, searching circuit does not disturb operation, and error-voltage output of loop filter is control voltage. When servo unlocks and error-voltage output of loop filter wanders into unstable range, searching circuit forces control voltage to sweep through stable region repeatedly until lock recovered. Consists of two halves identical except polarities of some parts in each half opposite of corresponding parts in other half.

Sigman, E. H.↗

Searching the SOHO online catalogs

The SOHO on-line catalogs will contain information about the observations from several made or planned campaigns, that must be available to scientists who wish to use SOHO data. The World Wide Web (WWW) was chosen as the interface to the SOHO on-line catalogs, because it is easy to use, well suited to a geographically distributed user community, and freely available. Through the use of a forms-capable WWW client such as Mosaic or Lynx, a scientist will be able to browse through the catalogs of observations in a very simple, self explanatory way. Data files can then be selected from the returned lists for either immediate transferring or sending on tape by mail, with appropriate checks for whether data is in the public domain or not.

Thompson, William↗

CLASS Survey Description: Coronal-line Needles in the SDSS Haystack

Coronal lines are a powerful, yet poorly understood, tool to identify and characterize active galactic nuclei. There have been few large-scale surveys of coronal lines in the general galaxy population in the literature so far. Using a novel preselection technique with a flux-to-rms ratio $\mathcal{F}$, followed by Markov Chain Monte Carlo fitting, we searched for the full suite of 20 coronal lines in the optical spectra of almost 1 million galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8. We present a catalog of the emission-line parameters for the resulting 258 galaxies with detections. The Coronal Line Activity Spectroscopic Survey includes line properties, host-galaxy properties, and selection criteria for all galaxies in which at least one line is detected. This comprehensive study reveals that a significant fraction of coronal-line activity is missed in past surveys based on a more limited set of coronal lines; ~60% of our sample do not display the more widely surveyed [Fe x] λ6374. In addition, we discover a strong correlation between coronal-line and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer W2 luminosities, suggesting that the mid-infrared flux can be used to predict coronal-line fluxes. For each line we also provide a confidence level that the line is present, generated by a novel neural network, trained on fully simulated data. We find that after training the network to detect individual lines using 100,000 simulated spectra, we achieve an overall true-positive rate of 75.49% and a false-positive rate of only 3.96%.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Connecting Low- and High-redshift Weak Emission-line Quasars via Hubble Space Telescope Spectroscopy of Lyα Emission

We present ultraviolet spectroscopy covering the Lyα + N v complex of six candidate low-redshift (0.9 < z < 1.5) weak emission-line quasars (WLQs) based on observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. The original systematic searches for these puzzling Type 1 quasars with intrinsically weak broad emission lines revealed an N ≈ 100 WLQ population from optical spectroscopy of high-redshift (z > 3) quasars, defined by a Lyα + N v rest-frame equivalent width (EW) threshold <15.4 Å. Identification of lower-redshift (z < 3) WLQ candidates, however, has relied primarily on optical spectroscopy of weak broad emission lines at longer rest-frame wavelengths. With these new observations expanding existing optical coverage into the ultraviolet, we explore unifying the low- and high-z WLQ populations via EW[Lyα+N v]. Two objects in the sample unify with high-z WLQs, three others appear consistent with the intermediate portion of the population connecting WLQs and normal quasars, and the final object is consistent with typical quasars. The expanded wavelength coverage improves the number of available line diagnostics for our individual targets, allowing a better understanding of the shapes of their ionizing continua. The ratio of EW[Lyα+N v] to EW[Mg ii] in our sample is generally small but varied, favoring a soft ionizing continuum scenario for WLQs, and we find a lack of correlation between EW[Lyα+N v] and the X-ray properties of our targets, consistent with a "slim-disk" shielding gas model. We also find indications that weak absorption may be a more significant contaminant in low-z WLQ populations than previously thought.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Cool Star Binaries with ALEXIS

We proposed to search for high-temperature, flare-produced Fe XXIII line emission from active cool star binary systems using the ALEXIS all-sky survey. Previous X-ray transient searches with ARIEL V and HEAO-1, and subsequent shorter duration monitoring with the GINGA and EXOSAT satellites demonstrated that active binaries can produce large (EM approximately equals 10(exp 55-56/cu cm) X-ray flares lasting several hours or longer. Hot plasma from these flares at temperatures of 10(exp 7)K or more should produce Fe XXIII line emission at lambda = 132.8 A, very near the peak response of ALEXIS telescopes 1A and 2A. Our primary goals were to estimate flare frequency for the largest flares in the active binary systems, and, if the data permitted, to derive a distribution of flare energy vs. frequency for the sample as a whole. After a long delay due to the initial problems with the ALEXIS attitude control, the heroic efforts on the part of the ALEXIS satellite team enabled us to carry out this survey. However, the combination of the higher than expected and variable background in the ALEXIS detectors, and the lower throughput of the ALEXIS telescopes resulted in no convincing detections of large flares from the active binary systems. In addition, vignetting-corrected effective exposure times from the ALEXIS aspect solution were not available prior to the end of this contract; therefore, we were unable to convert upper limits measured in ALEXIS counts to the equivalent L(sub EUV).

Stern, Robert A.↗

The Character and Variability of the Eta Carinae Wind Lines

The binarity of Eta Carinae has been debated for a long time. We have searched for more evidence for a companion star in a spectroscopic investigation of the Eta Carinae stellar wind lines, using moderate spectral and high angular resolution HST/STIS data. Over Eta Carinae's 5.54 year spectroscopic period many of the observable wind lines in the NUV/Optical spectral region exhibit peculiar line profiles with unusual velocity shifts relative to the system velocity. Some of the lines are exclusively blue-shifted over the entire cycle. Their ionization/excitation imply formation not in the stellar wind but rather in the interface between the two massive stars. We have analyzed velocity and intensity variations over the spectroscopic period and interpreted what the variations tell us about the geometry of the nebular structure close to Eta Carinae.

Nielsen, K. E.↗

A Dual-Line Detection Rayleigh Scattering Diagnostic Technique for the Combustion of Hydrocarbon Fuels and Filtered UV Rayleigh Scattering for Gas Velocity Measurements

Non-intrusive techniques for the dynamic measurement of gas flow properties such as density, temperature and velocity, are needed in the research leading to the development of new generation high-speed aircraft. Accurate velocity, temperature and density data obtained in ground testing and in-flight measurements can help understand the flow physics leading to transition and turbulence in supersonic, high-altitude flight. Such non-intrusive measurement techniques can also be used to study combustion processes of hydrocarbon fuels in aircraft engines. Reliable, time and space resolved temperature measurements in various combustor configurations can lead to a better understanding of high temperature chemical reaction dynamics thus leading to improved modeling and better prediction of such flows. In view of this, a research program was initiated at Polytechnic University's Aerodynamics Laboratory with support from NASA Lewis Research Center through grants NAG3-1301 and NAG3-1690. The overall objective of this program has been to develop laser-based, non-contact, space- and time-resolved temperature and velocity measurement techniques. In the initial phase of the program a ND:YAG laser-based dual-line Rayleigh scattering technique was developed and tested for the accurate measurement of gas temperature in the presence of background laser glare. Effort was next directed towards the development of a filtered, spectrally-resolved Rayleigh/Mie scattering technique with the objective of developing an interferometric method for time-frozen velocity measurements in high-speed flows utilizing the uv line of an ND:YAG laser and an appropriate molecular absorption filter. This effort included both a search for an appropriate filter material for the 266 nm laser line and the development and testing of several image processing techniques for the fast processing of Fabry-Perot images for velocity and temperature information. Finally, work was also carried out for the development of a new laser-based strain-rate and vorticity technique for the time-resolved measurement of vorticity and strain-rates in turbulent flows.

Otugen, M. Volkan↗

Fast variations in the ultraviolet resonance lines of Alpha Camelopardalis (O9.5 Ia) - Evidence for blobs in the wind

The 72 IUE spectra of Alpha Cam and 19 IUE spectra of Kappa Cas, obtained during 72 hours of continuous IUE time in September 1978 were searched for variations in the profiles of the resonance lines of Si IV, C IV, and N V, and the results are discussed. The UV resonance lines in the spectra of Alpha Cam showed variations at the 2 percent level near -1800, -700, and +700 km/s. The first two variations can be explained by absorption components of outward-accelerated blobs or shells with an average acceleration of 1.5 cm/sq s. The characteristics of the blobs and shells are discussed, including the column densities and masses. No variations were found in the spectra of Kappa Cas.

Lamers, Henry J. G. L. M.↗

Sites of fine-scale electron density turbulence in the interstellar medium

Observations of radio-wave scattering effects probe interstellar electron-density turbulence. But with limited use of complementary data sets only broad conclusions have been obtained. The locations of this turbulence are unknown (phases, objects, etc.), as is the mechanism for its production, although it could play a role in various galactic processes. The IRAS data set was used to search for correlations between scattering and structures traced by infrared emitting dust. The existent HI (21-cm line emission), and 408-MHz radio-continuum all-sky surveys were used to search for correlations between scattering and structures traced by these emissions. Only lines of sight outside the galactic plane were considered (to better delimit the structures which might be causing scattering). No correlation is apparent between 21-cm line emission, or infrared continuum emission and interstellar scattering. However, a correlation exists between the scattering toward extragalactic radio sources and 408-MHz continuum emission.

Simonetti, John H.↗

Ultraviolet Fe VII absorption and Fe II emission lines of central stars of planetary nebulae

The SWP camera of the IUE satellite was used in the high-dispersion mode to search for Fe VII absorption and Fe II high-excitation emission lines in five additional very hot central stars of planetary nebulae. Some of the Fe VII lines were detected at 1208, 1239, and 1332 A in all the objects of this program, LT 5, NGC 6058, NGC 7094, A43, and Lo 1 (= K1-26), as well as some of the Fe II emission lines at A 1360, 1776, 1869, 1881, 1884, and 1975 A. Two additional objects, NGC 2867 and He 2-131, were obtained from the IUE archive and were evaluated. The present study probably exhausts the list of candidates that are sufficiently bright and hot to be reached with the high-dispersion mode of the IUE.

Cheng, Kwang-Ping↗