Pulsars are rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars, created in the gravitational collapse of massive stars. We report the detection of pulsed giga–electron volt gamma rays from the young ...pulsar PSR J0540–6919 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This is the first gamma-ray pulsar detected in another galaxy. It has the most luminous pulsed gamma-ray emission yet observed, exceeding the Crab pulsar's by a factor of 20. PSR J0540–6919 presents an extreme test case for understanding the structure and evolution of neutron star magnetospheres.
The flux of positrons and electrons ( e {sup +} + e {sup −}) has been measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the energy range between 7 GeV and 2 TeV. We discuss a number of ...interpretations of Pass 8 Fermi -LAT e {sup +} + e {sup −} spectrum, combining electron and positron emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), or produced by the collision of cosmic rays (CRs) with the interstellar medium. We find that the Fermi -LAT spectrum is compatible with the sum of electrons from a smooth SNR population, positrons from cataloged PWNe, and a secondary component. If we include in our analysis constraints from the AMS-02 positron spectrum, we obtain a slightly worse fit to the e {sup +} + e {sup −} Fermi -LAT spectrum, depending on the propagation model. As an additional scenario, we replace the smooth SNR component within 0.7 kpc with the individual sources found in Green’s catalog of Galactic SNRs. We find that separate consideration of far and near sources helps to reproduce the e {sup +} + e {sup −} Fermi -LAT spectrum. However, we show that the fit degrades when the radio constraints on the positron emission from Vela SNR (which is the main contributor at high energies) are taken into account. We find that a break in the power-law injection spectrum at about 100 GeV can also reproduce the measured e {sup +} + e {sup −} spectrum and, among the CR propagation models that we consider, no reasonable break of the power-law dependence of the diffusion coefficient can modify the electron flux enough to reproduce the observed shape.
GRB 131108A is a bright long gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by the Large Area Telescope and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Dedicated temporal and spectral ...analyses reveal three γ-ray flares dominating above 100 MeV, which are not directly related to the prompt emission in the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor band (10 keV-10 MeV). The high-energy light curve of GRB 131108A (100 MeV-10 GeV) shows an unusual evolution: a steep decay, followed by three flares with an underlying emission, and then a long-lasting decay phase. The detailed analysis of the γ-ray flares finds that the three flares are 6-20 times brighter than the underlying emission and are similar to each other. The fluence of each flare, (1.6 ∼ 2.0) × 10−6 erg cm−2, is comparable to that of emission during the steep decay phase, 1.7 × 10−6 erg cm−2. The total fluence from three γ-ray flares is 5.3 × 10−6 erg cm−2. The three γ-ray flares show properties similar to the usual X-ray flares that are sharp flux increases, occurring in ∼50% of afterglows, in some cases well after the prompt emission. Also, the temporal and spectral indices during the early steep decay phase and the decaying phase of each flare show the consistency with a relation of the curvature effect ( = 2 + ), which is the first observational evidence of the high-latitude emission in the GeV energy band.
We report a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) study using genetic function approximation (GFA) to describe the polymer-carbon composite sensor activities in the JPL electronic nose ...(ENose), when exposed to chemical vapors at parts-per-million (ppm) concentration levels. A unique QSAR molecular descriptor set developed in this work combines the default analyte property set (thermodynamic, structural etc.) with sensing film-analyte interactions that describes the sensor response. These descriptors are calculated using semi-empirical and molecular modeling tools. The QSAR training data set consists of 15-20 analyte molecules specified by NASA for applications related to life support and habitation in space. The statistically validated QSAR model was also tested independently to predict the sensor activities for test analytes not considered in the training set
In this paper, an integrated optics chemical sensor based on a ring resonator, with an ethyl cellulose polymer coating, has been demonstrated. The measured sensitivity to isopropanol in air is 50 ppm ...-- the level immediately useful for health-related air quality monitoring. The resonator was fabricated using SiO2 and SixNy materials. The signal readout is based on tracking the wavelength of a resonance peak. The resonator layout optimisation for sensing applications is discussed.
While the successful launch and operation in space of the Gas Pixel Detectors onboard the PolarLight cubesat and the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer demonstrate the viability and the technical ...soundness of this class of detectors for astronomical X-ray polarimetry, substantial improvements in some of the overall detector response quality factors are still possible, addressing the limitations posed by the readout ASIC and by the electrons multiplier stage. We report on the design and tests of a new generation Gas Pixel Detector made up of a new custom readout ASIC, dubbed XPOL-III, specifically designed to meet more challenging data rates requirements, and a new electron multiplier stage based on a thin, weakly resistive 60um pitch Capillary Plate, substituting the more standard high resistivity Gas Electron Multiplier aiming to improve both detector response stability and polarization measurement accuracy.
X-ray polarimetry, based on Gas Pixel Detectors (GPDs), have reached a high level of maturity with the Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE) leading to the first ever spatially resolved ...polarimetric measures. However, being this a new technique, a few unexpected effect have emerged during in flight operations. In particular it was almost immediately found that on-board unpolarized calibration sources were showing radially polarized halos. The origin of this features was recognized in a correlation between the error in reconstructing the absorption point of the X-ray photon and the direction of its electric field vector. Here we present and discuss in detail this effect, showing that it is possible to provide a simple and robust mathematical formalism to handle it. We further show its role and relevance for the recent IXPE measures, and for the use of GPD-based techniques in general, and illustrate how to model it in the study of extended sources.
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