Here we study a 1-200 keV energy spectrum of the black hole binary Cygnus X-1 taken with NuSTAR and Suzaku. This is the first report of a NuSTAR observation of Cyg X-1 in the intermediate state, and ...the observation was taken during the part of the binary orbit where absorption due to the companion's stellar wind is minimal. The spectrum includes a multi-temperature thermal disk component, a cutoff power-law component, and relativistic and nonrelativistic reflection components. Our initial fits with publicly available constant density reflection models (relxill and reflionx) lead to extremely high iron abundances (>9.96 and times solar, respectively). Although supersolar iron abundances have been reported previously for Cyg X-1, our measurements are much higher and such variability is almost certainly unphysical. Using a new version of reflionx that we modified to make the electron density a free parameter, we obtain better fits to the spectrum even with solar iron abundances. We report on how the higher density ( cm−3) impacts other parameters such as the inner radius and inclination of the disk.
We present the results from simultaneous Chandra HETGS and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 in its quasi-stable 'soft state' (or State A) performed on ...2007 August 14, several days after the state transition from 'hard state' (State C). The X-ray flux increased with spectral hardening around the middle of the Chandra observation, after which the 67 Hz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) became significant. The HETGS spectra reveal at least 32 narrow absorption lines from highly ionized ions including Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, whose features are the deepest among those ever observed with Chandra from this source. By fitting to the absorption-line profiles by Voigt functions, we find that the absorber has outflow velocities of 150 and 500 km s-1 with a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 70 and 200 km s-1 for the Si XIV and Fe XXVI ions, respectively. The larger velocity and its dispersion in heavier ions indicate that the wind has a nonuniform dynamical structure along the line of sight. The location of the absorber is estimated at ~(1-3) X 105 r g (where r g is the gravitational radius) from the source, consistent with thermally and/or radiation-driven winds. By taking into account narrow spectral features detected with Chandra, the continuum spectra obtained with RXTE in the 3-25 keV band can be well described with a thermal Comptonization with an electron temperature of 4 keV and an optical depth of 5 from seed photons from the standard disk extending down to (4-7)r g. In this interpretation, most of the radiation energy is produced in the Comptonization corona, which completely covers the inner part of the disk. A broad (1s width of 0.2 keV) iron-K emission line and a smeared edge feature are detected, which can be explained by reflection from the accretion disk at radii larger than 400r g when an emissivity power law index of -3 is assumed.
Gas Slit Camera (GSC) onboard MAXI on ISS Mihara, Tatehiro; Nakajima, Motoki; Sugizaki, Mutsumi ...
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan,
11/2011, Volume:
63, Issue:
sp3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The Gas Slit Camera (GSC) is an X-ray instrument on the MAXI (Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image) mission aboard the International Space Station. It is designed to scan the entire sky every 92-minute ...orbital period in the 2–30 keV band and to achieve the highest sensitivity among the X-ray all-sky monitors ever flown so far. The GSC employs large-area position-sensitive proportional counters with a total detector area of 5350 cm
$^2$
. The on-board data processor has functions to format telemetry data as well as to control the high voltage of the proportional counters so as to protect them from particle irradiation. This paper describes the instruments, on-board data processing, telemetry data formats, and performance specifications expected from ground calibration tests.
We present the first radio polarimetric observations of a fast-rising blue optical transient, AT2018cow. Two epochs of polarimetry with additional coincident photometry were performed with the ...Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The overall photometric results based on simultaneous observations in the 100 and 230 GHz bands are consistent with the nonthermal radiation model reported by Ho et al. and indicate that the spectral peaks (∼110 GHz at the first epoch and ∼67 GHz at the second epoch) represent the synchrotron self-absorption frequency. The non-detection of linear polarization with <0.15% in the 230 GHz band at the phase when the effect of synchrotron self-absorption was quite small in the band may be explained by internal Faraday depolarization with high circumburst density and strong magnetic field. This result supports the stellar explosion scenario rather than the tidal disruption model. The maximum energy of accelerating particles at the shocks of AT2018cow-like objects is also discussed.
The Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) mission is the first astronomical payload to be installed on the Japanese Experiment Module — Exposed Facility (JEM-EF or Kibo-EF) on the International Space ...Station. It has two types of X-ray slit cameras with wide FOVs and two kinds of X-ray detectors consisting of gas proportional counters covering the energy range of 2 to 30 keV and X-ray CCDs covering the energy range of 0.5 to 12 keV. MAXI will be more powerful than any previous X-ray All Sky Monitor payloads, being able to monitor hundreds of Active Galactic Nuclei. A realistic simulation under optimal observation conditions suggests that MAXI will provide all-sky images of X-ray sources of
$\sim $
20 mCrab (
$\sim $
7
$\times$
10
$^{-10} $
erg cm
$^{-2} $
s
$^{-1}$
in the energy band of 2–30 keV) from observations during one ISS orbit (90 min),
$\sim $
4.5 mCrab for one day, and
$\sim $
2 mCrab for one week. The final detectability of MAXI could be
$\sim $
0.2 mCrab for two years, which is comparable to the source confusion limit of the MAXI field of view (FOV). The MAXI objectives are: (1) to alert the community to X-ray novae and transient X-ray sources, (2) to monitor long-term variabilities of X-ray sources, (3) to stimulate multi-wavelength observations of variable objects, (4) to create unbiased X-ray source cataloges, and (5) to observe diffuse cosmic X-ray emissions, especially with better energy resolution for soft X-rays down to 0.5 keV.
We report on the in-orbit performance of the Gas Slit Camera (GSC) on the MAXI (Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image) mission carried on the International Space Station (ISS). Its commissioning operation, ...which started on 2009 August 8, confirmed the basic performances of the effective area in the energy band of 2–30 keV, the spatial resolution of the slit-and-slat collimator and detector with 1
$^\circ\!\!\!.$
5 FWHM, the source visibility of 40–150 seconds for each scan cycle, and the sky coverage of 85% per 92-minute orbital period and 95% per day. The gas gains and read-out amplifier gains have been stable within 1%. The background rate is consistent with the past X-ray experiments operated at a similar low-earth orbit if its relation with the geomagnetic cutoff rigidity is extrapolated to high latitude. We also present the status of the in-orbit operation and a calibration of the effective area and the energy response matrix using Crab-nebula data.
Most black hole binaries show large changes in X-ray luminosity caused primarily by variations in mass accretion rate. An important question for understanding black hole accretion and jet production ...is whether the inner edge of the accretion disk recedes at low accretion rate. Measurements of the location of the inner edge (R {sub in}) can be made using iron emission lines that arise due to fluorescence of iron in the disk, and these indicate that R {sub in} is very close to the black hole at high and moderate luminosities (approx>1% of the Eddington luminosity, L {sub Edd}). Here, we report on X-ray observations of the black hole GX 339 - 4 in the hard state by Suzaku and the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer that extend iron line studies to 0.14% L {sub Edd} and show that R {sub in} increases by a factor of >27 over the value found when GX 339 - 4 was bright. The exact value of R {sub in} depends on the inclination of the inner disk (i), and we derive 90% confidence limits of R {sub in} > 35R{sub g} at i = 0{sup 0} and R {sub in} > 175R{sub g} at i = 30{sup 0}. This provides direct evidence that the inner portion of the disk is not present at low luminosity, allowing for the possibility that the inner disk is replaced by advection- or magnetically dominated accretion flows.
Nanosatellites are being widely used in various missions, including remote sensing applications. However, the difficulty lies in mission operation due to downlink speed limitation in nanosatellites. ...Considering the global cloud fraction of 67%, retrieving clear images through the limited downlink capacity becomes a larger issue. In order to solve this problem, we propose an image prioritization method based on cloud coverage using CNN. The CNN is designed to be lightweight and to be able to prioritize RGB images for nanosatellite application. As previous CNNs are too heavy for onboard processing, new strategies are introduced to lighten the network. The input size is reduced, and patch decomposition is implemented for reduced memory usage. Replication padding is applied on the first block to suppress border ambiguity in the patches. The depth of the network is reduced for small input size adaptation, and the number of kernels is reduced to decrease the total number of parameters. Lastly, a multi-stream architecture is implemented to suppress the network from optimizing on color features. As a result, the number of parameters was reduced down to 0.4%, and the inference time was reduced down to 4.3% of the original network while maintaining approximately 70% precision. We expect that the proposed method will enhance the downlink capability of clear images in nanosatellites by 112%.
Abstract
We report on the detection and subsequent X-ray monitoring of the new Galactic black hole candidate MAXI J1535−571 with the Gas Slit Camera onboard Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI/GSC). ...After the discovery on 2017 September 2, made independently with MAXI and the Swift/BAT, the source brightened gradually, and in a few weeks reached the peak intensity of ∼5 Crab, or ∼1.6 × 10−7 erg cm−2 s−1 in terms of the 2–20 keV flux. On the initial outburst rise, the 2–20 keV MAXI/GSC spectrum was described by a power-law model with a photon index of ≲ 2, while after a hard-to-soft transition, which occurred on September 18, the spectrum required a disk blackbody component in addition. At around the flux peak, the 2–8 keV and 15–50 keV light curves showed quasi-periodic and anti-correlated fluctuations with amplitudes of 10%–20%, on a time scale of ∼1 d. Based on these X-ray properties obtained with the MAXI/GSC, with additional information from the Swift/BAT, we discuss the evolution of the spectral state of this source, and give constraints on its system parameters.
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