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As evidenced by recent survey results, majority of asteroids are slow rotators (P>12 h), but lack spin and shape models due to selection bias. This bias is skewing our overall understanding of the spins, shapes, and sizes of asteroids, as well as of their other properties. Also, diameter determinations for large (>60km) and medium-sized asteroids (between 30 and 60 km) often vary by over 30% for multiple reasons. Our long-term project is focused on a few tens of slow rotators with periods of up to 60 hours. We aim to obtain their full light curves and reconstruct their spins and shapes. We also precisely scale the models, typically with an accuracy of a few percent. We used wide sets of dense light curves for spin and shape reconstructions via light-curve inversion. Precisely scaling them with thermal data was not possible here because of poor infrared data: large bodies are too bright for WISE mission. Therefore, we recently launched a campaign among stellar occultation observers, to scale these models and to verify the shape solutions, often allowing us to break the mirror pole ambiguity. The presented scheme resulted in shape models for 16 slow rotators, most of them for the first time. Fitting them to stellar occultations resolved previous inconsistencies in size determinations. For around half of the targets, this fitting also allowed us to identify a clearly preferred pole solution, thus removing the ambiguity inherent to light-curve inversion. We also address the influence of the uncertainty of the shape models on the derived diameters. Overall, our project has already provided reliable models for around 50 slow rotators. Such well-determined and scaled asteroid shapes will, e.g. constitute a solid basis for density determinations when coupled with mass information. Spin and shape models continue to fill the gaps caused by various biases., Comment: Accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysics. 12 pages + appendices

The XL-Calibur balloon-borne hard X-ray polarimetry mission comprises a Compton-scattering polarimeter placed at the focal point of an X-ray mirror. The polarimeter is housed within a BGO anticoincidence shield, which is needed to mitigate the considerable background radiation present at the observation altitude of ~40 km. This paper details the design, construction and testing of the anticoincidence shield, as well as the performance measured during the week-long maiden flight from Esrange Space Centre to the Canadian Northwest Territories in July 2022. The in-flight performance of the shield followed design expectations, with a veto threshold <100 keV and a measured background rate of ~0.5 Hz (20-40 keV). This is compatible with the scientific goals of the mission, where %-level minimum detectable polarisation is sought for a Hz-level source rate., Comment: Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods A

XL-Calibur is a hard X-ray (15-80 keV) polarimetry mission operating from a stabilised balloon-borne platform in the stratosphere. It builds on heritage from the X-Calibur mission, which observed the accreting neutron star GX 301-2 from Antarctica, between December 29th 2018 and January 1st 2019. The XL-Calibur design incorporates an X-ray mirror, which focusses X-rays onto a polarimeter comprising a beryllium rod surrounded by Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detectors. The polarimeter is housed in an anticoincidence shield to mitigate background from particles present in the stratosphere. The mirror and polarimeter-shield assembly are mounted at opposite ends of a 12 m long lightweight truss, which is pointed with arcsecond precision by WASP - the Wallops Arc Second Pointer. The XL-Calibur mission will achieve a substantially improved sensitivity over X-Calibur by using a larger effective area X-ray mirror, reducing background through thinner CZT detectors, and improved anticoincidence shielding. When observing a 1 Crab source for $t_{\rm day}$ days, the Minimum Detectable Polarisation (at 99% confidence level) is $\sim$2$\%\cdot t_{\rm day}^{-1/2}$. The energy resolution at 40 keV is $\sim$5.9 keV. The aim of this paper is to describe the design and performance of the XL-Calibur mission, as well as the foreseen science programme., Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

Hitomi (ASTRO-H) carries two Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXTs) that can focus X-rays up to 80 keV. Combined with the Hard X-ray Imagers (HXIs) that detect the focused X-rays, imaging spectroscopy in the high-energy band from 5 keV to 80 keV is made possible. We studied characteristics of HXTs after the launch such as the encircled energy function (EEF) and the effective area using the data of a Crab observation. The half power diameters (HPDs) in the 5--80 keV band evaluated from the EEFs are 1.59 arcmin for HXT-1 and 1.65 arcmin for HXT-2. Those are consistent with the HPDs measured with ground experiments when uncertainties are taken into account. We can conclude that there is no significant change in the characteristics of the HXTs before and after the launch. The off-axis angle of the aim point from the optical axis is evaluated to be less than 0.5 arcmin for both HXT-1 and HXT-2. The best-fit parameters for the Crab spectrum obtained with the HXT-HXI system are consistent with the canonical values., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures; the acknowledgment was modified

We describe the in-orbit performance of the soft X-ray imaging system consisting of the Soft X-ray Telescope and the Soft X-ray Imager aboard Hitomi. Verification and calibration of imaging and spectroscopic performance are carried out making the best use of the limited data of less than three weeks. Basic performance including a large field of view of 38'x38' is verified with the first light image of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. Amongst the small number of observed targets, the on-minus-off pulse image for the out-of-time events of the Crab pulsar enables us to measure a half power diameter of the telescope as about 1.3'. The average energy resolution measured with the onboard calibration source events at 5.89 keV is 179 pm 3 eV in full width at half maximum. Light leak and cross talk issues affected the effective exposure time and the effective area, respectively, because all the observations were performed before optimizing an observation schedule and parameters for the dark level calculation. Screening the data affected by these two issues, we measure the background level to be 5.6x10^{-6} counts s^{-1} arcmin^{-2} cm^{-2} in the energy band of 5-12 keV, which is seven times lower than that of the Suzaku XIS-BI., Comment: Accepted for publication in PASJ. 17 pages, 18 figures

Gamma Cassiopeiae is an enigmatic Be star with unusually strong hard X-ray emission. The Suzaku observatory detected six rapid X-ray spectral hardening events called "softness dips" in a ~100 ksec duration observation in 2011. All the softness dip events show symmetric softness ratio variations, and some of them have flat bottoms apparently due to saturation. The softness dip spectra are best described by either ~40% or ~70% partial covering absorption to kT ~12 keV plasma emission by matter with a neutral hydrogen column density of ~2-8e21 cm-2, while the spectrum outside of these dips is almost free of absorption. This result suggests the presence of two distinct X-ray emitting spots in the gamma Cas system, perhaps on a white dwarf companion with dipole mass accretion. The partial covering absorbers may be blobs in the Be stellar wind, the Be disk, or rotating around the white dwarf companion. Weak correlations of the softness ratios to the hard X-ray flux suggest the presence of stable plasmas at kT ~0.9 and 5 keV, which may originate from the Be or white dwarf winds. The formation of a Be star and white dwarf binary system requires mass transfer between two stars; gamma Cas may have experienced such activity in the past., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

We demonstrated a flexible thermoelectric (TE) sheet based on the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE) that is especially suitable for heat-flow sensing applications. This TE sheet contained a Ni0.2Zn0.3Fe2.5O4 film which was formed on a flexible plastic sheet using a spray-coating method known as ferrite plating. The experimental results suggest that the ferrite-plated film, which has a columnar crystal structure aligned perpendicular to the film plane, functions as a unique one-dimensional spin-current conductor suitable for bendable LSSE-based sensors.

Interacting binaries in which a white dwarf accretes material from a companion --- cataclysmic variables (CVs) in which the mass loss is via Roche-lobe overflow, and symbiotic stars in which the white dwarf captures the wind of a late type giant --- are relatively commonplace. They display a wide range of behaviors in the optical, X-rays, and other wavelengths, which still often baffles observers and theorists alike. They are likely to be a significant contributor to the Galactic ridge X-ray emission, and the possibility that some CVs or symbiotic stars may be the progenitors of some of the Type Ia supernovae deserves serious consideration. Furthermore, these binaries serve as excellent laboratories in which to study physics of X-ray emission from high density plasma, accretion physics, reflection, and particle acceleration. ASTRO-H is well-matched to the study of X-ray emission from many of these objects. In particular, the excellent spectral resolution of the SXS will enable dynamical studies of the X-ray emitting plasma. We also discuss the possibility of identifying an accreting, near-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf by measuring the gravitational redshift of the 6.4 keV line., Comment: 25 pages, 20 figures, ASTRO-H White Paper

Most supernova remnants (SNRs) are old, in the sense that their structure has been profoundly modified by their interaction with the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). Old SNRs are very heterogenous in terms of their appearance, reflecting differences in their evolutionary state, the environments in which SNe explode and in the explosion products. Some old SNRs are seen primarily as a result of a strong shock wave interacting with the ISM. Others, the so-called mixed-morphology SNRs, show central concentrations of emission, which may still show evidence of emission from the ejecta. Yet others, the pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), are seen primarily as a result of emission powered by a pulsar; these SNRs often lack the detectable thermal emission from the primary shock. The underlying goal in all studies of old SNRs is to understand these differences, in terms of the SNe that created them, the nature of the ISM into which they are expanding, and the fundamental physical processes that govern their evolution. Here we identify three areas of study where ASTRO-H can make important contributions. These are constraining abundances and physical processes in mature limb-brightened SNRs, understanding the puzzling nature of mixed-morphology SNRs, and exploring the nature of PWNe. The Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) on-board ASTRO-H will, as a result of its high spectral resolution, be the primary tool for addressing problems associated with old SNRs, supported by hard X-ray observations with the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) to obtain broad band X-ray coverage., Comment: 25 pages, 17 figures, ASTRO-H White Paper

Thanks to the unprecedented spectral resolution and sensitivity of the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) to soft thermal X-ray emission, ASTRO-H will open a new discovery window for understanding young, ejecta-dominated, supernova remnants (SNRs). In particular we study how ASTRO-H observations will address, comprehensively, three key topics in SNR research: (1) using abundance measurements to unveil SNR progenitors, (2) using spatial and velocity distribution of the ejecta to understand supernova explosion mechanisms, (3) revealing the link between the thermal plasma state of SNRs and the efficiency of their particle acceleration., Comment: 38 pages, 19 figures, ASTRO-H White Paper

We model the post-shock accretion column (PSAC) for intermediate polars (IPs), with parameterizing specific accretion rate between 0.0001 and 100 g cm-2 s-1 and metal abundance between 0.1 and 2 times of solar abundance, and taking into account the gravitational potential and non-equipartition between ions, electrons and ionization degree. We assume the cylinder and dipole as geometry of the PSAC. The PSAC becomes higher against the white dwarf (WD) radius for lower specific accretion rate and more massive WD, and may be comparable to the WD radius. The consideration of the dipolar geometry significantly reduces the density and temperature over the whole PSAC comparing with the cylindrical case when the specific accretion rate is lower than a threshold which the PSAC height reachs 0.2 RWD with and is decreased by the more massive white dwarf. We calculate the spectra of the cylindrical and dipolar PSACs with the wide range of the specific accretion rate. Although the spectra soften as the specific accretion rate decreases for the both geometrical assumptions under the specific accretion rate threshold, the softening is more speedy for the dipolar PSAC. The fact means that the both geometrical assumptions lead the different WD masses for each other when their spectra are applied to the IPs hosting the low accretion or a massive WD. Although the ionization non-equilibrium are also involved for the spectral calculation, the effects are trivial because the radiation from ionization non-equilibrium plasma is a few percent of the whole at most., Comment: submitted to MNRAS, 11 pages, 10 figures

We evaluated the thermoelectric properties of longitudinal spin Seebeck devices by using ten different transition metals (TMs). Both the intensity and sign of spin Seebeck coefficients were noticeably dependent on the degree of the inverse spin Hall effect and the resistivity of each TM film. Spin dependent behaviors were also observed under ferromagnetic resonance. These results indicate that the output of the spin Seebeck devices originates in the spin current., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures

Stoponium, a bound state of top squark and its antiparticle in a supersymmetric model, may be found in the ongoing Higgs searches at the LHC. Its WW and ZZ detection ratios relative to the Standard Model Higgs boson can be more than unity from WW* threshold to the two Higgs threshold. The gamma gamma channel is equally promising. Some regions of the stoponium mass below 150 GeV are already being probed by the ATLAS and CMS experiments., Comment: 10 pages 5 figures

The X-ray observation of AM Her in a very low state was performed with {\it Suzaku} in October 2008. One flare event with a time scale of $\sim$ 3700 sec was detected at the X-ray luminosity of $6.0 \times 10^{29} {\rm ~erg ~sec}^{-1}$ in the 0.5 -- 10 keV band assuming at a distance of 91 pc. The X-ray spectrum is represented by a thermal plasma emission model with a temperature of $8.67_{-1.14}^{+1.31}$ keV. During the quiescence out of the flare interval, {\it Suzaku} also detected significant X-rays at a luminosity of $1.7 \times 10^{29} {\rm ~erg ~sec}^{-1}$ in the 0.5 -- 10 keV band, showing a clear spin modulation at a period of 0.1289273(2) days at BJD 2454771.581. The X-ray spectra in the quiescence were represented by a MEKAL + Power Law (PL) model or a single CEMEKL model, which are also supported by phase-resolved analyses. A correlation between the temperature and the volume emission measure was found together with historical X-ray measurements of AM Her in various states. In order to account for a possible non-thermal emission from AM Her, particle acceleration mechanisms in the AM Her system are also discussed, including a new proposal of a shock acceleration process on the top of the accretion column., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

Suzaku X-ray observations of a young supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A, were carried out. K-shell transition lines from highly ionized ions of various elements were detected, including Chromium (Cr-Kalpha at 5.61 keV). The X-ray continuum spectra were modeled in the 3.4--40 keV band, summed over the entire remnant, and were fitted with a simplest combination of the thermal bremsstrahlung and the non-thermal cut-off power-law models. The spectral fits with this assumption indicate that the continuum emission is likely to be dominated by the non-thermal emission with a cut-off energy at > 1 keV. The thermal-to-nonthermal fraction of the continuum flux in the 4-10 keV band is best estimated as ~0.1. Non-thermal-dominated continuum images in the 4--14 keV band were made. The peak of the non-thermal X-rays appears at the western part. The peak position of the TeV gamma-rays measured with HEGRA and MAGIC is also shifted at the western part with the 1-sigma confidence. Since the location of the X-ray continuum emission was known to be presumably identified with the reverse shock region, the possible keV-TeV correlations give a hint that the accelerated multi-TeV hadrons in Cassiopeia A are dominated by heavy elements in the reverse shock region., Comment: Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan 61, pp.1217-1228 (2009)

A significant number of cataclysmic variables were detected as hard X-ray sources in the INTEGRAL survey, most of them of the magnetic intermediate polar type. We present a detailed X-ray broad-band study of two new sources, IGR J00234+6141 and 1RXS J213344.1+510725, that allow us to classify them as secure members of the intermediate polar class. Timing and spectral analysis of IGR J00234+6141 are based on a XMM-Newton observation and INTEGRAL publicly available data. For 1RXS J213344.1+510725 we use XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations at different epochs, as well as INTEGRAL publicly available data. We determine a spin period of 561.64 +/- 0.56 s for the white dwarf in IGR J00234+6141. The X-ray pulses are observed up to about 2 keV. From XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations of 1RXS J213344.1+510725, we find a rotational period of 570.862 +/- 0.034 s. The observations span three epochs where the pulsation is observed to change at different energies both in amplitude and shape. In both objects, the spectral analysis spanned over a wide energy range, from 0.3 to 100 keV, shows the presence of multiple emission components absorbed by dense material. The X-ray spectrum of IGR J00234+6141 is consistent with a multi-temperature plasma with a maximum temperature of about 50 keV. In 1RXS J213344.1+510725, multiple optically thin components are inferred, as well as an optically thick (blackbody) soft X-ray emission with a temperature of about 100 eV. This latter adds 1RXS J213344.1+510725 to the growing group of soft X-ray intermediate polars. (abridged), Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A

The NeXT (New exploration X-ray Telescope), the new Japanese X-ray Astronomy Satellite following Suzaku, is an international X-ray mission which is currently planed for launch in 2013. NeXT is a combination of wide band X-ray spectroscopy (3 - 80 keV) provided by multi-layer coating, focusing hard X-ray mirrors and hard X-ray imaging detectors, and high energy-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy (0.3 - 10 keV) provided by thin-foil X-ray optics and a micro-calorimeter array. The mission will also carry an X-ray CCD camera as a focal plane detector for a soft X-ray telescope and a non-focusing soft gamma-ray detector. With these instruments, NeXT covers very wide energy range from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. The micro-calorimeter system will be developed by international collaboration lead by ISAS/JAXA and NASA. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution of Delta E ~ 7 eV by the micro-calorimeter will enable a wide variety of important science themes to be pursued., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE meeting, "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation II: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray 2008", Marseille (2008)

We present our proposal for a small X-ray mission DIOS (Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor), consisting of a 4-stage X-ray telescope and an array of TES microcalorimeters, cooled with mechanical coolers, with a total weight of about 400 kg. The mission will perform survey observations of warm-hot intergalactic medium using OVII and OVIII emission lines, with the energy coverage up to 1.5 keV. The wide field of view of about 50' diameter, superior energy resolution close to 2 eV FWHM, and very low background will together enable us a wide range of science for diffuse X-ray sources. We briefly describe the design of the satellite, performance of the subsystems and the expected results., Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, a proceedings of SPIE "Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation" 2006

We present results from an XMM-Newton observation of the head-tail radio galaxy IC 310 located in the southwest region of the Perseus cluster. The spectrum is well-fitted by an absorbed power-law model with a photon index of $2.50 \pm 0.02$ with no significant absorption excess. The X-ray image shows a point-like emission at IC 310 without any signs of a structure correlated with the radio halo tail. The temperature of the intracluster medium surrounding IC 310 declines as a function of distance from the cluster center, from $ kT \sim 6$ keV in the northeast corner of the field of view to about 3 keV in the southwest region. Although we do not find any sharp edges in the surface brightness profile, a brightness excess over a smooth $\beta$ model by about 20% is seen. The temperature also rises by about 10% in the same region. This indicates that the IC 310 region is a subcluster probably infalling into the Perseus cluster, and the gas in front of IC 310 towards the Perseus cluster is likely to be compressed by the large-scale motion, which supports the view that the IC 310 system is undergoing a merger., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures (including color), accepted for publication in PASJ

We present an analysis of mock spectral observation of warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) using a constrained simulation of the local universe. The simulated map of oxygen emission lines from local WHIM reproduces well the observed structures traced by galaxies in the real local universe. We further attempt to perform mock observations of outer parts of simulated Coma cluster and A3627 adopting the expected performance of DIOS (Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor), which is proposed as a dedicated soft X-ray mission to search for cosmic missing baryons. We find that WHIMs surrounding nearby clusters are detectable with a typical exposure time of a day, and thus constitute realistic and promising targets for DIOS. We also find that an X-ray emitting clump in front of Coma cluster, recently reported in the XMM-Newton observation, has a counterpart in the simulated local universe, and its observed spectrum can be well reproduced in the simulated local universe if the gas temperature is set to the observationally estimated value., Comment: 25 pages, 3 tables, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in PASJ. High resolution PS/PDF files are available at http://www-utap.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~kohji/research/x-ray/index.html

We present our proposal for a small X-ray mission DIOS (Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor) to perform survey observations of warm-hot intergalactic medium using OVII and OVIII emission lines. This will be proposed to a small satellite program planned by ISAS/JAXA in Japan for a launch in 2008. The instrument consists of an array of TES microcalorimeters with an energy resolution 2 eV, cooled by mechanical coolers. The X-ray telescope will employ 4-stage reflection mirrors with a focal length as short as 70 cm and an angular resolution 2'. In addition to DIOS, we briefly describe the NeXT (New X-ray Telescope) mission, which is a larger Japanese X-ray observatory to be launched in 2010 and plans to explore non-thermal processes in the universe., Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures. To appear in the proceedings of "Modelling the Intergalactic and Intracluster Media", Vulcano Island, October 1-4, 2003

Extremely strong ionized Fe emission lines, with the equivalent width reaching about 4000 eV, were discovered with ASCA from a few Galactic compact objects, including AX J2315-0592, RX J1802.1+1804 and AX J1842.8-0423. These objects are thought to be binary systems containing magnetized white dwarfs (WDs). A possible interpretation of the strong Fe-K line is the line-photon collimation in the WD accretion column, due to resonance scattering of line photons. The collimation occurs when the accretion column has a flat shape, and the effect is augmented by the vertical velocity gradient there, which reduces the resonant trapping of resonant photons along the magnetic field lines. This effect was quantitatively confirmed with Monte-Carlo simulations. Furthermore, with ASCA observations of the polar V834 Centauri, this collimation effect was clearly detected as a rotational modulation of the equivalent width of the Fe-K emission line. Extremely strong emission lines mentioned above can be explained by our interpretation consistently. Combing this effect with other X-ray information, the geometry and plasma parameters in the accretion column were determined., Comment: 16 pages, Postscript, 32 figures, and 4 tables; accepted for MNRAS (Monthly Notices of The Royal Astronomical Society) on July 24, 2001

The temperature distribution of the intracluster medium (ICM) in the Virgo cluster of galaxies has been derived from extensive mapping observations with ASCA covering an area of 19 deg^2. In the spectral analysis, the inner region within a radius of ~60' from M87 is characterized by an ICM temperature of kT \~2.5 keV with little variation. On the other hand, the outer regions indicate significant variation of the temperature with an amplitude of about 1 keV. The temperature map was produced from the hardness ratio (H.R.) values with a resolution of about 5'. Besides the previously reported hot region with kT > 4 keV between M87 and M49, several hot regions with kT = 3-4 keV are detected in the cluster outskirts. The auto-correlation function for the H.R. variation shows that the temperature variation is correlated within a size of about 300 kpc, suggesting that gas blobs falling in the Virgo cluster have a typical size of groups of galaxies. A correlation with the velocity dispersion of member galaxies shows that only the north-west region indicates an unusually large beta_spec value of 2-4. The upper limit for extended non-thermal emission in the Virgo cluster is obtained to be L_X ~9 x 10^41 ergs/s in the 2 - 10 keV band. We discuss that these features consistently indicate that the Virgo cluster is in a relatively early stage of the cluster evolution., Comment: 37 pages, including 12 Postscript figures, accepted for publication in ApJ