Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Cooling Of The Crust In The Neutron Star Low-Mass X-Ray Binary Mxb 1659-29, Edward M. Cackett, Rudy Wijnands, Jon M. Miller, Edward F. Brown, Nathalie Degenaar

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research Publications

In quasi-persistent neutron star transients, long outbursts cause the neutron star crust to be heated out of thermal equilibrium with the rest of the star. During quiescence, the crust then cools back down. Such crustal cooling has been observed in two quasi-persistent sources: KS 1731-260 and MXB 1659-29. Here we present an additional Chandra observation of MXB 1659-29 in quiescence, which extends the baseline of monitoring to 6.6 yr after the end of the outburst. This new observation strongly suggests that the crust has thermally relaxed, with the temperature remaining consistent over 1000 days. Fitting the temperature cooling curve with …

A New Activity Phase Of The Blazar 3c 454.3 Multifrequency Observations By The Webt And Xmm-Newton In 2007-2008, Niall Smith, Et. Al.

Blackrock Castle Observatory Publications

Aims: The Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) consortium has been monitoring the blazar 3C 454.3 from the radio to the optical bands since 2004 to study its emission variability properties.

Methods: We present and analyse the multifrequency results of the 2007-2008 observing season, including XMM-Newton observations and near-IR spectroscopic monitoring, and compare the recent emission behaviour with the past one. The historical mm light curve is presented here for the first time.

Results: In the optical band we observed a multi-peak outburst in July-August 2007, and other faster events in November 2007-February 2008. During these outburst phases, several episodes of …

The Acs Survey Of Galactic Globular Clusters. Iii. The Double Subgiant Branch Of Ngc 1851, A. P. Milone, L. R. Bedin, G. Piotto, J. Anderson, I. R. King, A. Sarajedini, A. Dotter, B. Chaboyer, A. Marin Franch, S. Majewski, A. Aparicio, M. Hempel, N. E.Q Paust, I. N. Reid, A. Rosenberg, M. Siegel

Dartmouth Scholarship

Photometry with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST ACS) reveals that the subgiant branch (SGB) of the globular cluster NGC 1851 splits into two well-defined branches. If the split is due only to an age effect, the two SGBs would imply two star formation episodes separated by ~1 Gyr. We discuss other anomalies in NGC 1851 that could be interpreted in terms of a double stellar population. Finally, we compare the case of NGC 1851 with the other two globulars known to host multiple stellar populations, and show that all three clusters differ in several important …

Initial Measurements Of Black Hole Spin In Gx 339-4 From Suzaku Spectroscopy, J. M. Miller, C. S. Reynolds, A. C. Fabian, E. M. Cackett, G. Miniutti, J. Raymond, D. Steeghs, R. Reis, J. Homan

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research Publications

We report on a deep Suzaku observation of the stellar-mass black hole GX 339-4 in outburst. A clear, strong, relativistically shaped iron emission line from the inner accretion disk is observed. The broadband disk reflection spectrum revealed is one of the most sensitive yet obtained from an accreting black hole. We fit the Suzaku spectra with a physically motivated disk reflection model, blurred by a new relativistic line function in which the black hole spin parameter is a variable. This procedure yielded a black hole spin parameter of a=0.89+/-0.04. Joint modeling of these Suzaku spectra and prior XMM-Newton spectra obtained …

Investigating The Nature Of Absorption Lines In The Chandra X-Ray Spectra Of The Neutron Star Binary 4u 1820-30, E. M. Cackett, J. M. Miller, J. Raymond, J. Homan, M. Van Der Klis, M. Méndez, D. Steeghs, R. Wijnands

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research Publications

We use four Chandra gratings spectra of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1820-30 to better understand the nature of certain X-ray absorption lines in X-ray binaries, including the Ne II, Ne III, Ne IX, O VII, and O VIII lines. The equivalent widths of the lines are generally consistent between the observations, as expected if these lines originate in the hot interstellar medium. No evidence was found that the lines were blueshifted, again supporting the interstellar medium origin, although this may be due to poor statistics. There is apparent variability in the O VIII Lyα line equivalent width …