Search

The early afterglow of a Gamma-ray burst (GRB) can provide critical information on the jet and progenitor of the GRB. The extreme brightness of GRB 221009A allows us to probe its early afterglow in unprecedented detail. In this letter, we report comprehensive observation results of the early afterglow of GRB 221009A (from $T_0$+660 s to $T_0$+1860 s, where $T_0$ is the \textit{Insight}-HXMT/HE trigger time) in X/$\gamma$-ray energy band (from 20 keV to 20 MeV) by \textit{Insight}-HXMT/HE, GECAM-C and \textit{Fermi}/GBM. We find that the spectrum of the early afterglow in 20 keV-20 MeV could be well described by a cutoff power-law with an extra power-law which dominates the low and high energy bands respectively. The cutoff power-law $E_{\rm peak}$ is $\sim$ 30 keV and the power-law photon index is $\sim$ 1.8 throughout the early afterglow phase. By fitting the light curves in different energy bands, we find that a significant achromatic break (from keV to TeV) is required at $T_0$ + 1246$^{+27}_{-26}$ s (i.e. 1021 s since the afterglow starting time $T_{\rm AG}$=$T_0$+225 s), providing compelling evidence of a jet break. Interestingly, both the pre-break and post-break decay slopes vary with energy, and these two slopes become closer in the lower energy band, making the break less identifiable. Intriguingly, the spectrum of the early afterglow experienced a slight hardening before the break and a softening after the break. These results provide new insights into the understanding of this remarkable GRB., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters on 19-Jan-2024, 11 pages, 7 figures and 2 tables

We have performed a spectral-timing analysis on the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1535--571 during its 2017 outburst, with the aim of exploring the evolution of the inner accretion flow geometry. X-ray reverberation lags are observed in the hard-intermediate state (HIMS) and soft-intermediate state (SIMS) of the outburst. During the HIMS, the characteristic frequency of the reverberation lags $\nu_0$ (the frequency at which the soft lag turns to zero in the lag-frequency spectra) increases when the spectrum softens. This reflects a reduction of the spatial distance between the corona and accretion disc, when assuming the measured time lags are associated with the light travel time. We also find a strong correlation between $\nu_0$ and type-C Quasi Periodic Oscillation (QPO) centroid frequency $\nu_{QPO}$, which can be well explained by the Lense-Thirring (L-T) precession model under a truncated disk geometry. Despite the degeneracy in the spectral modellings, our results suggest that the accretion disc is largely truncated in the low hard state (LHS), and moves inward as the spectrum softens. Combine the spectral modelling results with the $\nu_0$ - $\nu_{QPO}$ evolution, we are inclined to believe that this source probably have a truncated disk geometry in the hard state.

Spectral lag of the low-energy photons with respect to the high-energy ones is a common astrophysical phenomenon (such as Gamma-ray bursts and the Crab pulsar) and may serve as a key probe to the underlying radiation mechanism. However, spectral lag in keV range of the magnetar bursts has not been systematically studied yet. In this work, we perform a detailed spectral lag analysis with the Li-CCF method for SGR J1935+2154 bursts observed by {\it Insight}-HXMT, GECAM and Fermi/GBM from July 2014 to Jan 2022. We discover that the spectral lags of about 61\% (non-zero significance >1$\sigma$) bursts from SGR J1935+2154 are linearly dependent on the photon energy ($E$) with $t_{\rm lag}(E)=\alpha (E/{\rm keV})+C$, which may be explained by a linear change of the temperature of the blackbody-emitting plasma with time. The distribution of the slope ($\alpha$) approximately follows a Gaussian function with mean and standard deviation of 0.02 ms/keV (i.e. high-energy photons arrive earlier) and 0.02 ms/keV, respectively. We also find that the distribution can be well fitted with three Gaussians with mean values of $\sim$ -0.009, 0.013 and 0.039 ms/keV, which may correspond to different origins of the bursts. These spectral lag features may have important implications on the magnetar bursts., Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS

GRB 221009A is the brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected since the discovery of this kind of energetic explosions. However, an accurate measurement of the prompt emission properties of this burst is very challenging due to its exceptional brightness. With joint observations of \textit{Insight}-HXMT and GECAM-C, we made an unprecedentedly accurate measurement of the emission during the first $\sim$1800 s of GRB 221009A, including its precursor, main emission (ME, which dominates the burst in flux), flaring emission and early afterglow, in the hard X-ray to soft gamma-ray band from $\sim$ 10 keV to $\sim$ 6 MeV. Based on the GECAM-C unsaturated data of the ME, we measure a record-breaking isotropic equivalent energy ($E_{\rm iso}$) of $\bf \sim 1.5 \times 10^{55}$ erg, which is about eight times the total rest-mass energy of the Sun. The early afterglow data require a significant jet break between 650 s and 1100 s, most likely at $\sim950$ s from the afterglow starting time $T_{AG}$, which corresponds to a jet opening angle of $\sim {0.7^\circ} \ (\eta_\gamma n)^{1/8}$, where $n$ is the ambient medium density in units of $\rm cm^{-3}$ and $\eta_\gamma$ is the ratio between $\gamma$-ray energy and afterglow kinetic energy. The beaming-corrected total $\gamma$-ray energy $E_{\gamma}$ is $\sim 1.15 \times10^{51} \ (\eta_\gamma n)^{1/4}$ erg, which is typical for long GRBs. These results suggest that this GRB may have a special central engine, which could launch and collimate a very narrowly beamed jet with an ordinary energy budget, leading to exceptionally luminous gamma-ray radiation per unit solid angle. Alternatively, more GRBs might have such a narrow and bright beam, which are missed by an unfavorable viewing angle or have been detected without distance measurement., Comment: Submitted to National Science Review. This paper is under press embargo, contact the corresponding author for details

The precursors of short and long Gamma Ray Bursts (SGRBs and LGRBs) can serve as probes of their progenitors, as well as shedding light on the physical processes of mergers or core-collapse supernovae. Some models predict the possible existence of Quasi-Periodically Oscillations (QPO) in the precursors of SGRBs. Although many previous studies have performed QPO search in the main emission of SGRBs and LGRBs, so far there was no systematic QPO search in their precursors. In this work, we perform a detailed QPO search in the precursors of SGRBs and LGRBs detected by Fermi/GBM from 2008 to 2019 using the power density spectrum (PDS) in frequency domain and Gaussian processes (GP) in time domain. We do not find any convinced QPO signal with significance above 3 $\sigma$, possibly due to the low fluxes of precursors. Finally, the PDS continuum properties of both the precursors and main emissions are also studied for the first time, and no significant difference is found in the distributions of the PDS slope for precursors and main emissions in both SGRBs and LGRBs., Comment: submitted

The detection of cyclotron resonance scattering features (CRSFs) is the only way to directly and reliably measure the magnetic field near the surface of a neutron star (NS). The broad energy coverage and large collection area of \emph{Insight}-HXMT in the hard X-ray band allowed us to detect the CRSF with the highest energy known to date, reaching about 146 keV during the 2017 outburst of the first galactic pulsing ultraluminous X-ray source (pULX) Swift J0243.6+6124. During this outburst, the CRSF was only prominent close to the peak luminosity $\sim 2\times10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$, the highest to date in any of the Galactic pulsars. The CRSF is most significant in the spin phase region corresponding to the main pulse of the pulse profile, and its centroid energy evolves with phase from 120 to 146 keV. We identify this feature as the fundamental CRSF, since no spectral feature exists at $60-70$ keV. This is the first unambiguous detection of an electron CRSF from an ULX. We also estimate a surface magnetic field $\sim1.6\times10^{13}$ G for Swift J0243.6+6124. Considering that the dipole magnetic field strengths, inferred from several independent estimates of magnetosphere radius, are at least an order of magnitude lower than our measurement, we argue that the detection of the highest energy CRSF reported here unambiguously proves the presence of multipole field components close to the surface of the neutron star. Such a scenario has previously been suggested for several pulsating ULXs, including Swift J0243.6+6124, and our result represents the first direct confirmation of this scenario., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL

The milestone discovery of GW 170817-GRB 170817A-AT 2017gfo has shown that gravitational wave (GW) could be produced during the merger of neutron star-neutron star/black hole and that in electromagnetic (EM) wave a gamma-ray burst (GRB) and a kilonova (KN) are generated in sequence after the merger. Observationally, however, EM property before the merger phase is still unclear. Here we report a peculiar precursor in a KN-associated long-duration GRB 211211A, providing evidence of the EM before the merger. This precursor lasts $\sim$ 0.2 s, and the waiting time between the precursor and the main burst is $\sim$ 1 s, comparable to that between GW 170817 and GRB 170817A. The spectrum of the precursor could be well fit with a non-thermal cutoff power-law model instead of a blackbody. Especially, a $\sim$22 Hz Quasi-Periodic Oscillation candidate ($\sim 3\sigma$) is detected in the precursor. These temporal and spectral properties indicate that this precursor is probably produced by a catastrophic flare accompanying with magnetoelastic or crustal oscillations of a magnetar in binary compact merger. The strong magnetic field of the magnetar can also account for the prolonged duration of GRB 211211A. However, it poses a challenge to reconcile the rather short lifetime of a magnetar with the rather long spiraling time of a binary neutron star system only by the GW radiation before merger., Comment: Published by ApJ. 13 pages, 11 figures

The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT), is China's first X-ray astronomy satellite launched on June 15, 2017. The anti-coincidence CsI detectors of the High Energy X-ray telescope (HE) onboard Insight-HXMT could serve as an all-sky gamma-ray monitor in about 0.2-3 MeV. In its first four years of operation, Insight-HXMT has detected 322 Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) by offline search pipeline including blind search and targeted search. For the GOLDEN sample of Insight-HXMT GRBs, joint analyses were performed with other GRB missions, including Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (Fermi/GBM), Swift Burst Alert Telescope (Swift/BAT) and Gravitational wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM). It shows that Insight-HXMT can provide better constraint on GRB spectrum at higher energy band. The properties of Insight-HXMT GRBs are reported in detail, including their trigger time, duration, spectral parameters, peak fluxes of different time scales and fluence. This catalog is an official product of the Insight-HXMT GRB team., Comment: 46 pages, 22 figures, accepted by APJS

We present the observational results from a detailed timing analysis of the black hole candidate EXO 1846-031 during its outburst in 2019 with the observations of Insight-HXMT, NICER and MAXI. This outburst can be classfied roughly into four different states. Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) observed by NICER (about 0.1-6Hz) and Insight-HXMT (about 0.7-8Hz) are also reported in this work. Meanwhile, we study various physical quantities related to QPO frequency.The QPO rms-frequency relationship in three energy band 1-10 keV indicates that there is a turning pointing in frequency around 2 Hz,which is similar to that of GRS 1915+105. A possible hypothesis for the relationship above may be related to the inclination of the source, which may require a high inclination to explain it. The relationships between QPO frequency and QPO rms,hardness,total fractional rms and count rate have also been found in other transient sources, which can indicate that the origin of type-C QPOs is non-thermal.

Low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) are commonly found in black hole X-ray binaries, and their origin is still under debate. The properties of LFQPOs at high energies (above 30 keV) are closely related to the nature of the accretion flow in the innermost regions, and thus play a crucial role in critically testing various theoretical models. The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) is capable of detecting emissions above 30 keV, and is therefore an ideal instrument to do so. Here we report the discovery of LFQPOs above 200 keV in the new black hole MAXI J1820+070 in the X-ray hard state, which allows us to understand the behaviours of LFQPOs at hundreds of kiloelectronvolts. The phase lag of the LFQPO is constant around zero below 30 keV, and becomes a soft lag (that is, the high-energy photons arrive first) above 30 keV. The soft lag gradually increases with energy and reaches ~0.9s in the 150-200 keV band. The detection at energies above 200 keV, the large soft lag and the energy-related behaviors of the LFQPO pose a great challenge for most currently existing models, but suggest that the LFQPO probably originates from the precession of a small-scale jet., Comment: 36 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables; published in Nature Astronomy

The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) named Insight is China's first X-ray astronomical satellite. The Low Energy X-ray Telescope (LE) is one of its main payloads onboard. The detectors of LE adopt swept charge device CCD236 with L-shaped transfer electrodes. Charges in detection area are read out continuously along specific paths, which leads to a time response distribution of photons readout time. We designed a long exposure readout mode to measure the time response distribution. In this mode, CCD236 firstly performs exposure without readout, then all charges generated in preceding exposure phase are read out completely. Through analysis of the photons readout time in this mode, we obtained the probability distribution of photons readout time.

The perfect Planck spectrum of the observed cosmic microwave background radiation indicates that our universe must be in thermal equilibrium. The dark sector of the universe should also be in the same equilibrium state with dark matter and dark energy coupled to each other and emits gravitational phonon blackbody radiation which is the main component of the cosmic background radiation. In the radiation-dominated era such gravitational radiation should be the majority species of the cosmic medium. Instead of the ideal fluid assumed by the standard cosmological model LCDM, the universe has to be taken as a thermodynamic system consisting of gravitationally connected dark energy and matter. Besides particle dynamics, statistical thermodynamics is also necessary for understanding the cosmological constitution and evolution history. As an alternative to LCDM we constructed a dark-energy-matter-coupled (DEMC) cosmological model. Based on the relativistic mass-energy relation, conservation law of energy, Lagrange's equation with variable potential function, mean-field theory of continuous phase transition, and the symmetry principle of the kinetic coefficients, we deduced dynamic equations of the expansion of a DEMC universe with three parameters. These equations reproduce the observed history of the rate of expansion of our universe., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures

Dark energy is a fundamental constituent of our universe, its status in the cosmological field equation should be equivalent to that of gravity. Here we construct a dark energy and matter gravity coupling (DEMC) model of cosmology in a way that dark energy and gravity are introduced into the cosmological field equation in parallel with each other from the beginning. The DEMC universe possesses a composite symmetry from global Galileo invariance and local Lorentz invariance. The observed evolution of the universe expansion rate at redshift z>1 is in tension with the standard LCDM model, but can be well predicted by the DEMC model from measurements of only nearby epochs. The so far most precise measured expansion rate at high z is quite a bit slower than the expectations from LCDM, but remarkably consistent with that from DEMC. It is hoped that the DEMC scenario can also help to solve other existing challenges to cosmology: large scale anomalies in CMB maps and large structures up to about 10^3 Mpc of a quasar group. The DEMC universe is a well defined mechanical system. From measurements we can quantitatively evaluate its total rest energy, present absolute radius and expanding speed., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

We present a model-independent determination of the curvature parameter $\Omega_k$ by using the Hubble parameter $H(z)$ and angular diameter distance $D_A(z)$ from the recent baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements. Each $H(z)$ and $D_A(z)$ pair from a BAO measurement can constrain a curvature parameter. The accuracy of the curvature measurement improves with increased redshift of $H(z)$ and $D_A(z)$ data. By using the $H(z)$ and $D_A(z)$ pair derived from BAO Lyman $\alpha$ forest measurement at $z=2.36$, the $\Omega_k$ is confined to be -0.05$\pm$0.06, which is consistent with the curvature $-0.037^{+0.044}_{-0.042}$ constrained by the nine-year WMAP data only. Considering future BAO meausurements, at least one order of magnitude improvement of this curvature measurement could be expected., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJL

The acceleration of the cosmic expansion revealed by supernova observations indicates that the present universe is dominated by repulsive dark energy. It is natural that the coupling between the dark energy and the attractive gravity has to be taken into account in studying the evolution of our universe. Here we induce a dynamic equation of universe evolution based on the cosmological principal, gravity-dark energy coupling, and energy conservation. The solutions of this dynamic equation provide a specific picture of cosmic evolution, which is well compatible with current observed evolution histories of both Hubble parameter H(z) and equation of state parameter w(z) of dark energy. In this picture, the already observed universe has undergone through three epochs - the epoch of equilibrium between gravity and dark energy at cosmological redshifts z>1, the phase transition epoch at z between about 0.5 and 1, and the present acceleration epoch starting from z~0.5. The expected matter-dominated deceleration epoch has not been seen yet, which requires future deep observations to look back upon more early universe., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures

In cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments, foreground-cleaned temperature maps are still contaminated by the residual dipole due to uncertainties of the Doppler dipole direction and microwave radiometer sidelobe. To obtain reliable CMB maps, such contamination has to be carefully removed from observed data. We have previously built a software package for map-making, residual dipole-contamination removal, and power spectrum estimation from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) raw data. This software has now been significantly improved. With the improved software, we obtain a negative result of CMB quadrupole detection with the WMAP raw data, which is -3.2+-3.5 uK^2 from the seven-year WMAP (WMAP7) data. This result is evidently incompatible with ~1000 uK^2 expected from the standard cosmological model LCDM. The completely missing of CMB quadrupole poses a serious challenge to the standard model and sets a strong constraint on possible models of cosmology. Due to the importance of this result for understanding the origin and early evolution of our universe, the software codes we used are opened for public checking., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. The final version to be published in Chin Sci Bull

The discovery of accelerated cosmic expansion implies that, in addition to the attractive gravity of matter, there exists in our universe some other form of energy (dark energy or cosmological constant) producing a repulsive force. The natural interpretation of dark energy is the vacuum energy. However, the density of vacuum energy expected by the quantum field theory is 120 orders of magnitude larger than what is allowed by cosmological observations, which is called the cosmological constant problem and remains one of the most significant unsolved problems in fundamental physics. Here we show that the huge discrepancy can be resolved by assuming that our universe is an attraction-repulsion coupled system with energy conservation, and that the pre-inflation vacuum is in equilibrium between attraction and repulsion (in flat Minkowski spacetime, not de Sitter or anti de Sitter). The attraction-repulsion coupling picture can also easily explain why both kinds of energy in our universe have similar magnitude today, and avoid singularity problems in general relativity and cosmology., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure

To reliably detect the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy is of great importance in understanding the birth and evolution of the Universe. One of the difficulties in CMB experiments is the domination of measured CMB anisotropy maps by the Doppler dipole moment from the motion of the antenna relative to the CMB. For each measured temperature the expected dipole component has to be calculated separately and then subtracted from the data. A small error in dipole direction, antenna pointing direction, sidelobe pickup contamination, and/or timing synchronism, can raise significant deviation in the dipole cleaned CMB temperature. After a full-sky observational scan, the accumulated deviations will be structured with a pattern closely correlated to the observation pattern with artificial anisotropies on large scales, including artificial quadrupole, octopole etc in the final CMB map. Such scan-induced anisotropies on large scales can be predicted by the true dipole moment and observational scan scheme. Indeed, the expected scan-induced quadrupole pattern of the WMAP mission is perfectly in agreement with the published WMAP quadrupole. With the scan strategy of the Planck mission, we predict that scan-induced anisotropies will also produce an artificially aligned quadrupole. The scan-induced anisotropy is a common problem for all sweep missions and, like the foreground emissions, has to be removed from observed maps. Without doing so, CMB maps from COBE, WMAP, and Planck as well, are not reliable for studying the CMB anisotropy., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

The Doppler dipole signal dominates the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy maps obtained by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission, and plays a key role throughout the data processing. Previously, we discovered a timing asynchronism of -25.6ms between the timestamps of the spacecraft attitude and radiometer output in the original raw WMAP time-ordered data (TOD), which, if not corrected in following data processing, would generate an artificial quadrupole component (l=2) in recovered CMB maps (Liu, Xiong & Li 2010). Recently, Roukema (2010b) proves that there does exist a timing-offset-induced error corresponding to about -25.6ms in the WMAP calibrated TOD by studying the fluctuation variance per pixel in the temperature map recovered from the TOD as a function of assumed timing-offset. Here, we find evidence directly in the WMAP TOD for such an uncorrected timing error, possibly occurred in calculating the Doppler dipole signal during the WMAP team's TOD data processing. The amplitude is highly significant and is consistent with previous work. We also show that the uncorrected timing-offset can lead the WMAP CMB quadrupole to be substantially overestimated., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Lett

It is discovered in our previous work that different observational systematics, e.g., errors of antenna pointing directions, asynchronous between the attitude and science data, can generate pseudo-dipole signal in full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy published by The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) team. Now the antenna sidelobe response to the Doppler signal is found to be able to produce similar effect as well. In this work, independent to the sources, we uniformly model the pseudo-dipole signal and remove it from published WMAP7 CMB maps by model fitting. The result demonstrates that most of the released WMAP CMB quadrupole is artificial., Comment: V3: using WMAP7 data

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) are of great importance for cosmology. In previous work we had developed a pipeline for map-making independently of the WMAP team. The new maps produced from the WMAP raw data by our pipeline are notably different to the official ones, and the power spectrum as well as the best-fit cosmological parameters are significantly different too. What's more, by revealing the inconsistency between the WMAP raw data and their official map, we had pointed out that there must exist an unexpected problem in the WMAP team's pipeline. In this work, we find that the trouble comes from the inaccuracy of antenna pointing direction caused by a systematical time drift between the attitude data and the science data in the WMAP raw time-order data (TOD). The CMB quadrupole in the WMAP release can be exactly generated from a differential dipole field which is completely determined by the spacecraft velocity and the antenna directions without using any CMB signal. After correcting the WMAP team's error, the CMB quadrupole component disappears. Therefore, the released WMAP CMB quadrupole is almost completely artificial and the real quadrupole of the CMB anisotropy should be near zero. Our finding is important for understanding the early universe., Comment: v1: 6 pages, 2 figures. v2: 9 pages, 3 figures, a time drift between the attitude data and the science data in the WMAP TOD is revealed as the reason for producing the inconsistency in WMAP release, figure 3 is added to show the effect of different offsets.

Two outbursts were observed by RXTE in the history of the atoll source IGR J17473-2721. During the most recent outburst in 2008, the source showed a complete series of spectral states/transitions. The neutron star system was prolific in type-I X-ray bursts, and we investigate them in the context of complete outbursts evolution. A total exposure of ~ 309 ks was collected by RXTE during the two outbursts of IGR J17473-2721. We carried out a systematic search for type-I bursts in this data set. For each burst found, we investigated the burst profile, the peak flux, and their dependence on the accretion rate along the evolution of the outbursts. Eighteen type-I X-ray bursts were found from IGR J17473-2721: two from the outburst in 2005 and the other 16 from the recent outburst in 2008. Among them, 3 bursts show photospheric radius expansion (PRE). The distance to the source is estimated as 6.4 kpc with a 15% uncertainty based on the three bursts that show PRE. In the recent outburst, there are 6 bursts showing up in the low/hard state prior to the state transition to a high/soft state, 3 bursts at the end phase of the high/soft state, and 7 in the following low/hard state. The blackbody radius of these bursts presents a variety of interesting features. We find that at the end of the recent outburst, the profile of the blackbody radius is anti-correlated with the blackbody temperature and the burst flux. The durations of the type-I burst are found to correlate with the Eddington ratio and to have two parallel evolution groups. Along the decreasing Eddington ratio, the burst duration decreases and ends in each group the PRE bursts occurred. This provides new clues to the type-I bursts in the context of outbursts for atoll XRBs., Comment: in press at A & A

A remarkable inconsistency between the calibrated differential time-ordered data (TOD) of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission, which is the input for map-making, and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps published by the WMAP team is revealed, indicating that there must exist a serious problem in the map making routine of the WMAP team. This inconsistency is easy to be confirmed without the use of WMAP map-making software. In view of the importance of this issue for cosmology study, the authors invite readers to check it by themselves., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Chinese Sci Bull in press

The high mass X-ray binary 4U 1901+03 was reported to have the pulse profile evolving with the X-ray luminosity and energy during its outburst in February-July 2003: the pulse peak changed from double to single along with the decreasing luminosity. We have carried out a detailed analysis on the contemporary phase-resolved energy spectrum of 4U 1901+03 as observed by Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We find that, both the continuum and the pulse spectra are phase dependent. The optical depth derived from the pulse spectrum is in general larger than that from the continuum. Fe Ka emission line is only detected in the spectrum of the continuum and is missing in the pulse spectrum. This suggests an origin of Fe emission from the accretion disk but not the surface of the neutron star., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ApJ

A digitalized temperature map is recovered from the first light sky survey image published by the Planck team, from which an angular power spectrum is derived. The amplitudes of the low multipoles measured from the preliminary Planck power spectrum are significantly lower than that reported by the WMAP team. Possible systematical effects are far from enough to explain the observed low-l differences., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

IGR J19405-3016 is reported in the 3rd IBIS catalog as being one of its lowest significance sources (~4.6 sigma under an exposure of about 371 ks). This leads to a caveat in multi-wavelength study although the source was identified in optical as a Seyfert 1. The currently increased INTEGRAL data stimulate us to investigate the reality of this source. We analyze all available observations carried out by INTEGRAL and Swift on IGR J19405-3016. We find that IGR J19405-3016 has a detection significance of ~ 9.4 sigma in the 20-60 keV band during the observational period between March 2003 and March 2008. Thus confirms a real source detection reported previously. The source position and error location are therefore updated. The source is found to be constant over years at the hard X-rays. Over the three XRT observations, the source flux varied by up to 39% from the average, and the spectrum is generally soft. The combined XRT/ISGRI spectrum is well fitted with a simple power law model (photon index 2.11+-0.03). Such a photon index is well consistent with the mean value 1.98 (dispersion 0.27) as obtained from Swift/BAT AGN samples at 14-195 keV. The spectral slope of IGR J19405-3016 is larger than the average spectral slope found by Molina et al. (2009). A similar discrepancy is found with the results of Beckmann et al. (2009) regarding Seyfert 1 AGNs. A possible explanation of this simple spectral description may be that the low level of the column density allows for the `true' spectrum to appear at soft X-rays as well., Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press

We have investigated the outbursts of IGR J17473-2721. We analyzed all available observations carried out by RXTE on IGR J17473-2721 during its later outburst and as well all the available SWIFT/BAT data. The flux of the latter outburst rose in ~ one month and then kept roughly constant for the following ~ two months. During this time period, the source was in a low/hard state. The source moved to a high/soft state within the following three days, accompanied by the occurrence of an additional outburst at soft X-rays and the end of the preceding outburst in hard X-rays. During the decay of this soft outburst, the source went back to a low/hard state within 6 days, with a luminosity 4 times lower than the first transition. This shows a full cycle of the hysteresis in transition between the hard and the soft states. The fact that the flux remained roughly constant for ~ two months at times prior to the spectral transition to a high/soft state might be regarded as the result of balancing the evaporation of the inner disk and the inward accretion flow, in a model in which the state transition is determined by the mass flow rate. Such a balance might be broken via an additional mass flow accreting onto the inner disk, which lightens the extra soft outburst and causes the state transition. However, the possibility of an origin of the emission from the jet during this time period cannot be excluded. The spectral analysis suggests an inclined XRB system for IGR J17473-2721. Such a long-lived preceding low/hard state makes IGR J17473-2721 resemble the behavior of outbursts seen in black hole X-ray binaries like GX 339-4., Comment: A&A in press

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps published by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) team are found to be inconsistent with the differential time-ordered data (TOD), from which the maps are reconstructed. The inconsistency indicates that there is a serious problem in the map making routine of the WMAP team, and it is necessary to reprocess the WMAP data. We develop a self-consistent software package of map-making and power spectrum estimation independently of the WMAP team. Our software passes a variety of tests. New CMB maps are then reconstructed, which are significantly different from the official WMAP maps. In the new maps, the inconsistency disappeared, along with the hitherto unexplained high level alignment between the CMB quadrupole and octopole components detected in released WMAP maps. An improved CMB cross-power spectrum is then derived from the new maps which better agrees with that of BOOMRANG. Two important results are hence obtained: the CMB quadrupole drops to nearly zero, and the power in multiple moment range between 200 and 675 decreases on average by about 13%, causing the best-fit cosmological parameters to change considerably, e.g., the total matter density increases from 0.26 up to 0.32 and the dark energy density decreases from 0.74 down to 0.68. These new parameters match with improved accuracy those of other independent experiments. Our results indicate that there is still room for significant revision in the cosmological model parameters., Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. In the revised version (v3) we make foreground reduction with the same technique WMAP team used and add the results of reconstructing the sky maps with the WMAP default flagging and our software

A remarkable similarity between the large-scale non-Gaussian pattern of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperatures obtained by Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission and the distribution feature of observation numbers is noted. Motivated from such a similarity, in this work we check the WMAP data for the correlation between pixel temperature t and observation number N. Systematic effect of imbalance differential observation and significant t-N correlation in magnitude, distribution non-Gaussianity and north-south asymmetry are found. Our results indicate that, for precision cosmology study based on WMAP observations, the observation effect on released WMAP temperature maps has to be further carefully studied., Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS

To minimize instrumentally induced systematic errors, cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy experiments measure temperature differences across the sky using paires of horn antennas, temperature map is recovered from temperature differences obtained in sky survey through a map-making procedure. To inspect and calibrate residual systematic errors in recovered temperature maps is important as most previous studies of cosmology are based on these maps. By analyzing pixel-ring couping and latitude dependence of CMB temperatures, we find notable systematic deviation from CMB Gaussianity in released Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) maps. The detected deviation is hard to explain by any process in the early universe and can not be ignored for a precision cosmology study., Comment: accepted for publication in Sci China G-Phy Mech Astron

To probe further the possible nature of the unidentified source IGR J17098-3628, we have carried out a detailed analysis of its long-term time variability as monitored by RXTE/ASM, and of its hard X-ray properties as observed by INTEGRAL. INTEGRAL has monitored this sky region over years and significantly detected IGR J17098-3628 only when the source was in this dubbed active state. In particular, at $\ge$ 20 keV, IBIS/ISGRI caught an outburst in March 2005, lasting for $\sim$5 days with detection significance of 73$\sigma$ (20-40 keV) and with the emission at $< $200 keV. The ASM observations reveal that the soft X-ray lightcurve shows a similar outburst to that detected by INTEGRAL, however the peak of the soft X-ray lightcurve either lags, or is preceded by, the hard X-ray ($>$20 keV) outburst by $\sim$2 days. This resembles the behavior of X-ray novae like XN 1124-683, hence it further suggests a LMXB nature for IGR J17098-3628. While the quality of the ASM data prevents us from drawing any definite conclusions, these discoveries are important clues that, coupled with future observations, will help to resolve the as yet unknown nature of IGR J17098-3628., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure, accepted in PASJ

Sky temperature map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is one of the premier probes of cosmology. To minimize instrumentally induced systematic errors, CMB anisotropy experiments measure temperature differences across the sky using paires of horn antennas with a fixed separation angle, temperature maps are recovered from temperature differences obtained in sky survey through a map-making procedure. The instrument noise, inhomogeneities of the sky coverage and sky temperature inevitably produce statistical and systematical errors in recovered temperature maps. We show in this paper that observation-dependent noise and systematic temperature distortion contained in released Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) CMB maps are remarkable. These errors can contribute to large-scale anomalies detected in WMAP maps and distort the angular power spectrum as well. It is needed to remake temperature maps from original WMAP differential data with modified map-making procedure to avoid observation-dependent noise and systematic distortion in recovered maps., Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, submitted to ApJ

We report on an analysis of X- and $\gamma$-ray observations of PKS 1830-211, based on the long-term campaigns carried out by \emph{INTEGRAL} and COMPTEL. The \emph{INTEGRAL} data currently available present a $33\sigma$ significance detection in the 20-100 keV band, while the COMPTEL 6-years data provide a $5.2\sigma$ significance detection in the 1-3 MeV energy band. At hard X-rays, \emph{INTEGRAL} and supplementary \emph{SWIFT} observations show flux variability on timescales of months. At $\gamma$-rays, the source shows persistent emission over years. The hard X-ray spectrum is well represented by a power-law model, with $\Gamma \sim 1.3$ in the 20-250 keV band. This photon index is well consistent with the previous report of $\Gamma \sim 1.3$ obtained at $E > 3.5$ keV from the best fit of \emph{XMM-Newton} data with a broken power law model. The joint \emph{XMM-Newton}/\emph{INTEGRAL} spectrum presented here is then fit with a broken power-law model and the parameters are refined compared to the previous. The results show the photon index changes from $\sim 1.0$ to $\sim 1.3$ at a break energy $\sim 4$ keV. At MeV energies, the spectrum softens to $\Gamma \sim 2.2$. These results, together with the EGRET measurement at $E \ge 100$ MeV, constitute a broad-band spectrum containing the peak of the power output at MeV energies, similar to most high-luminosity $\gamma$-ray blazars. The measured spectral characterstics are then discussed in the framework of the gravitational lens effects., Comment: accepted for ApJ

A technique for calculation of variability coherence at different timescales performed directly in the time domain is introduced. Simulations are made to compare the coherence spectrum derived by the time domain technique with the coherence function by Fourier analysis. The results indicate that in comparison with the Fourier analysis the time domain technique is more powerful for revealing signal coherence in noisy data. We apply the time domain technique to the real data of the black hole binaries Cygnus X-1 and GX 339-4 and compare the results with their Fourier coherence spectra., Comment: To be published in ApJ, 15 pages, 6 figures

High resolution reconstruction of complicated objects from incomplete and noisy data can be achieved by solving modulation equations iteratively under physical constraints. This direct demodulation method is a powerful technique for dealing with inverse problem in general case. Spectral and image restorations and computerized tomography are only particular cases of general demodulation. It is possible to reconstruct an object in higher dimensional space from observations by a simple lower dimensional instrument through direct demodulation. Our simulations show that wide field and high resolution images of space hard X-rays and soft gamma rays can be obtained by a collimated non-position-sensitive detector without coded aperture masks., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

Large-voltage and high-temperature plasma columns produced by pinch discharge can generate gamma-ray flashes with energy spectra and spectral evolution consistent with that observed in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The inverse Compton scattering (ICS) during the discharge process can produce high linear polarization. The calculation indicates that the observed polarization depends on the angle between the observer's line-of-sight to the GRB and the direction of the pinch discharge, but only weakly depends on observed gamma-ray energy., Comment: ChJAA accepted. 8 pages, 5 Postscript figures, uses cjaa-1.cls

We investigate the shot cutoff timescale evolutions during different spectral states in the black hole binary Cygnus X-1 with the recently proposed w spectral analysis technique. For low energy shots, their cutoff timescale decreases from the low state to intermediate state, and to high state monotonically. However in the high energy range, where shots are believed to be reprocessed in the hot corona, timescales are almost the same for different spectral states. A linear correlation is found between the energy spectrum photon index and the shot cutoff timescale at low energies. Both narrow and broad iron Kalpha lines are distinguished from timing analysis, providing dynamical evidence that broad and narrow iron lines originate respectively at small and large radii of the accretion disk. Possible mechanisms for state transitions and accretion flow geometry in accreting stellar mass black holes are discussed., Comment: accepted for publication in ApJL

The Chandra X-ray data of the central Virgo cluster are re-examined to reveal a triple-ring structure around the galaxy M87, reminiscent of the spectacular triple-ring pattern of the SN1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). In the sky plane, the two apparent smaller ellipses are roughly aligned along the M87 jets; the larger ring centers at the M87 nucleus and is likely a circle roughly perpendicular to the M87 jet. Certain similarities of these two triple-ring structures might hint at similar processes that operate in these two systems with entirely different sizes and mass scales. We suspect that a major merging event of two galaxies with nuclear supermassive black holes (SMBHs) might create such a triple-ring structure and drove acoustic and internal gravity waves far and near. The M87 jets are perhaps powered by a spinning SMBH resulting from this catastrophic merging event., Comment: accepted by ApJL

We present results from the analysis of X-ray power density spectra and coherence when GRS 1915+105 is in soft states. We use three data sets that belong to $\mu$, $\phi$ and $\delta$ classes in Belloni et al (2000). We find that the power density spectra appear to be complex, with several features between 0.01 and 10 Hz. The coherence deviates from unity above a characteristic frequency. We discuss our results in different models. The corona size in the sphere-disk model implied by this break frequency is on the order of 10$^4$ GM/c$^2$, which is unphysical. Our results are more consistent with the prediction of the model of a planar corona sustained by magnetic flares, in which the characteristic frequency is associated with the longest time-scale of an individual flare, which is about eight seconds., Comment: latex, 10 pages with 3 figures

Quantities characterizing temporal property, e.g. power density, coherence, and time lag, can be defined and calculated directly in the time domain without using the Fourier transformation. Spectral hardness, variability duration, and correlation between different characteristic quantities on different time scale can be studied in the time domain as well. The temporal analysis technique in the time domain is a powerful tool, particularly in studying rapid variability on short time scales (or in high frequencies). Results of studying variabilities of X-rays from Cyg X-1 with the analysis technique in the time domain and RXTE data reveal valuable clues to understanding production and propagation processes of X-rays and structure of accretion disk in the black hole system., Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures. To appear in Chin. J. Astron. Astrophys. 1, 313 (2001)

We report on an RXTE/PCA observation of Aql X-1 during its outburst in March 1997 in which, immediately following a Type-I burst, the broad-band 2-10 keV flux decreased by about 10% and the kilohertz QPO frequency decreased from 813+-3 Hz to 776+-4 Hz. This change in kHz QPO frequency is much larger than expected from a simple extrapolation of a frequency-flux correlation established using data before the burst. Meanwhile a very low frequency noise (VLFN) component in the broad-band FFT power spectra with a fractional root-mean-square (rms) amplitude of 1.2% before the burst ceased to exist after the burst. All these changes were accompanied by a change in the energy spectral shape. If we characterize the energy spectra with a model composed of two blackbody (BB) components and a power law component, almost all the decrease in flux was in the two BB components. We attribute the two BB components to the contributions from a region very near the neutron star or even the neutron star itself and from the accretion disk, respectively., Comment: 12 pages with 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, typos corrected and references updated

Systematic variations of average observational characteristics and correlation properties between different parameters of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with time from 1991 April to 1994 September are revealed. It is hard to explain the observed long-term variability by variations of experimental conditions. The variability of GRB properties with the time scale of months to years, together with the similarity between GRBs, solar hard X-ray flares and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, may indicate an origin of GRBs, at least partly, within the heliosphere. Large-voltage and high-temperature pinch plasma columns produced by disruptive electrical discharges in the outer heliosphere can generate hard X-ray and gamma-ray flashes with energy spectra and spectral evolution characters consistent with that observed in GRBs., Comment: LaTex, epsfig. 20 pages, 17 figures, replace to correct the definition of Epk and revise Figs 12-15