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Gamma Cas analog sources are a subset of Be stars that emit intense and hard X-ray emission. Two competing ideas for their X-ray production mechanism are (a) the magnetic activities of the Be star and its disk and (b) the accretion from the Be star to an unidentified compact object. Among such sources, Pi Aqr plays a pivotal role as it is one of the only two spectroscopic binaries observed for many orbital cycles and one of the three sources with X-ray brightness sufficient for detailed X-ray spectroscopy. Bjorkman et al. (2002) estimated the secondary mass > 2.0 Mo with optical spectroscopy, which would argue against the compact object being a white dwarf (WD). However, their dynamical mass solution is inconsistent with an evolutionary solution and their radial velocity measurement is inconsistent with later work by Naze et al. (2019). We revisit this issue by adding a new data set with the NuSTAR X-ray observatory and the HIDES echelle spectrograph. We found that the radial velocity amplitude is consistent with Naze et al. (2019), which is only a half of that claimed by Bjorkman et al. (2002). Fixing the radial velocity amplitude of the primary, the secondary mass is estimated as < 1.4 Mo over an assumed range of the primary mass and the inclination angle. We further constrained the inclination angle and the secondary mass independently by fitting the X-ray spectra with a non-magnetic or magnetic accreting WD model under the assumption that the secondary is indeed a WD. The two results match well. We thus argue that the possibility of the secondary being a WD should not be excluded for pi Aqr., 10 pages, 9 figures, PASJ in press

We report on the evolution of X-ray spectral and timing properties of the X-ray binary MAXI J1727 − 203 based on NICER/XTI and MAXI/GSC observations. Over the course of the outburst, a transition from the intermediate state to the high/soft state, and then back to the low/hard state was observed. During the high/soft state, the innermost radius estimated from the multi-colour disc model remained constant at $\sim 145.0\ (\frac{D}{10\ \mathrm{kpc}}) \ {(\frac{\cos i}{\cos 0^{\circ }})}^{-1/2}$ km, where D is the source distance and i is the inclination. Assuming that the binary system contain a Schwarzschild black hole and has an inclination angle of 0°–84°, and considering the typical Eddington ratio at the transition back to the low/hard state, the black hole mass was estimated to be M ≥ 11.5 M⊙ for a distance of D ≥ 5.9 kpc. We also attempted to constrain the black hole mass and distance with a different method by combining the results from optical and near-infrared photometric observations. We modelled the near-infrared to X-ray spectral energy distributions obtained in the outburst period with an irradiated disk model, and estimated the lower limit of the black hole mass for a given distance, assuming both accretion disk and companion star fill their Roche lobe. The lower limit was, however, found to be much higher than the constraint obtained from the X-ray data. We discuss several possible causes of this inconsistency. It is difficult to fully resolve the conflict by a single cause and hence a combination of causes is required.

Presence of the apparently extended hard (2-10 keV) X-ray emission along the Galactic plane has been known since the early 1980s. With a deep X-ray exposure using the Chandra X-ray Observatory of a slightly off-plane region in the Galactic bulge, most of the extended emission was resolved into faint discrete X-ray sources in the Fe K band (Revnivtsev et al.,2009). The major constituents of these sources have long been considered to be X-ray active stars and magnetic cataclysmic variables (CVs). However, recent works including our NIR imaging and spectroscopic studies (Morihana et al.,2013, 2016) argue that other populations should be more dominant. To investigate this further, we conducted a much deeper NIR imaging observation at the center of the Chandra's exposure field. We have used the MOIRCS on the Subaru telescope, reaching the limiting magnitude of ~18 mag in the J, H, and Ks bands in this crowded region, and identified ~50 % of the X-ray sources with NIR candidate counterparts. We classified the X-ray sources into three groups (A, B, and C) based on their positions in the X-ray color-color diagram and characterized them based on the X-ray and NIR features. We argue that the major populations of the Group A and C sources are, respectively, CVs (binaries containing magnetic or non-magnetic white dwarfs with high accretion rates) and X-ray active stars. The major population of the Group B sources is presumably WD binaries with low mass accretion rates. The Fe K equivalent width in the composite X-ray spectrum of the Group B sources is the largest among the three and comparable to that of the Galactic bulge X-ray emission. This leads us to speculate that there are numerous WD binaries with low mass accretion rates, which are not recognized as CVs, but are the major contributor of the apparently extended X-ray emission., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

We present comprehensive spectroscopic and photometric analyses of the intermediate luminosity type lax supernova (SN lax) 2019muj based on multi-band datasets observed through the framework of the OISTER target-of-opportunity program. SN 2019muj exhibits almost identical characteristics to the subluminous SNe lax 2008ha and 2010ae in terms of the observed spectral features and the light curve evolution at the early phase, except for the peak luminosity. The long-term observations unveil late-time flattening light curves as seen in luminous SN lax 2014dt. This can be explained by the existence of an inner dense and optically thick component possibly associated with a bound white dwarf remnant left behind after the explosion. We demonstrate that the weak deflagration model with a wide range of explosion parameters can reproduce the late-phase light curves of other SNe lax. Therefore, we conclude that a common explosion mechanism operates for different subclass SNe lax., DST-JSPS grant [DST/INT/JSPS/P-281/2018]; Optical and Near-infrared Astronomy Inter-University Cooperation Program; JSPS KAKENHI [JP19K23461, 21K13959, JP20H00174, JP20H04737, JP18H04585, JP18H05223, JP17H02864, JP17K14253]; Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council (TUBITAK-2211C); Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council (TUBITAK-2214A); [19B-N-CN02]; [19B-N-CT01], We are grateful to the staff at the Seimei and Subaru telescopes for their support. The spectral data using the Seimei telescope were taken under the programs 19B-N-CN02, 19B-N-CT01. The latephase observation was performed with the Subaru telescope under S19B-055. We are honored and grateful for the opportunity of observing the Universe from Maunakea, which has cultural, historical, and natural significance in Hawaii. We thank the support staff at IAO and CREST who enabled the 2m HCT observations. The IAO is operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India. D.K.S. and G.C.A. acknowledge partial support through DSTJSPS grant DST/INT/JSPS/P-281/2018. The authors also thank T. J. Moriya and M. Tanaka for insightful comments. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration. The spectral data of comparison SNe were downloaded from the SUSPECT7 (Richardson et al. 2001) and WISeREP8 (Yaron & Gal-Yam 2012) databases. This research has made use of data obtained from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), a service of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA/GSFC and of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's High Energy Astrophysics Division. This work is supported by the Optical and Near-infrared Astronomy Inter-University Cooperation Program. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests. M.K. acknowledges support by JSPS KAKENHI Grants (JP19K23461, 21K13959). K.M. acknowledges support by JSPS KAKENHI Grants (JP20H00174, JP20H04737, JP18H04585, JP18H05223, JP17H02864). M.Y. is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant (JP17K14253). U.B. acknowledges the support provided by the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council (TUBITAK-2211C and 2214A).

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration (LVC) sent out 56 gravitational-wave (GW) notices during the third observing run (O3). Japanese collaboration for Gravitational wave ElectroMagnetic follow-up (J-GEM) performed optical and near-infrared observations to identify and observe an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. We constructed web-based system which enabled us to obtain and share information of candidate host galaxies for the counterpart, and status of our observations. Candidate host galaxies were selected from the GLADE catalog with a weight based on the three-dimensional GW localization map provided by LVC. We conducted galaxy-targeted and wide-field blind surveys, real-time data analysis, and visual inspection of observed galaxies. We performed galaxy-targeted follow-ups to 23 GW events during O3, and the maximum probability covered by our observations reached to 9.8%. Among them, we successfully started observations for 10 GW events within 0.5 days after the detection. This result demonstrates that our follow-up observation has a potential to constrain EM radiation models for a merger of binary neutron stars at a distance of up to $\sim$100~Mpc with a probability area of $\leq$ 500~deg$^2$., 25 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, published at https://academic.oup.com/ptep/article/2021/5/05A104/6122445

Narrow-band filters can detect emission and absorption line features from multiple sources in a field of view simultaneously without spectroscopy. However, it is difficult to estimate and subtract the continuum component from sources of different spectral slope, especially when the equivalent width of the target lines is small. For example, Cataclysmic Variables have equivalent widths of hydrogen recombination emission lines of about –10 to –100 angstroms, but many of the ones that have been detected by conventional NB filters so far have a large equivalent width. We have therefore constructed novel narrow-band filters with transmission bands on both sides of the central wavelengths of the Paβ (1.282 µm) and Brγ (2.167 µm) emission lines so that we can evaluate the continuum level more accurately than the conventional filters having transmission in only one side of the target line. We installed the narrow-band filters to the Simultaneous three-color InfraRed Imager for Unbiased Survey (SIRIUS) in the InfraRed Survey Facility (IRSF) telescope at South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), and evaluated their performance. We found that the narrow-band filters can detect emission line features with an equivalent width of several tens of angstroms. Thus, this filter set is useful for detecting emission line features from targets with small equivalent widths that have been difficult to detect with the conventional NB filter set.

SMI (SPICA Mid-infrared Instrument) is one of the three focal-plane science instruments for SPICA. SMI is the Japanese-led instrument proposed and managed by a university consortium. SMI covers the wavelength range from 10 to 36 μm with four separate channels: the low-resolution (R = 60 – 160) spectroscopy function for 17 – 36 μm, the broad-band (R = 5) imaging function at 34 μm, the mid-resolution (R = 1400 – 2600) spectroscopy function for 18 – 36 μm, and the high-resolution (R = 29000) spectroscopy function for 10 – 18 μm. In this presentation, we will show the latest design and specifications of SMI as a result of feasibility studies.

We present our follow-up observations to search for an electromagnetic counterpart of the IceCube high-energy neutrino, IceCube-170922A. Monitoring observations of a likely counterpart, TXS 0506+056, are also described. First, we quickly took optical and near-infrared images of 7 flat-spectrum radio sources within the IceCube error region right after the neutrino detection and found a rapid flux decline of TXS 0506+056 in Kanata/HONIR J-band data. Motivated by this discovery, intensive follow-up observations of TXS 0506+056 are continuously done, including our monitoring imaging observations, spectroscopic observations, and polarimetric observations in optical and near-infrared wavelengths. TXS 0506+056 shows a large amplitude (~1.0 mag) variability in a time scale of several days or longer, although no significant variability is detected in a time scale of a day or shorter. TXS 0506+056 also shows a bluer-when-brighter trend in optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Structure functions of variabilities are examined and indicate that TXS 0506+056 is not a special blazar in terms of optical variability. Polarization measurement results of TXS 0506+056 are also discussed., 19 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan (PASJ)

Centaurus A (Cen A) is one of the most famous galaxies hosting an active galactic nucleus (AGN), where the interaction between AGN activities and surrounding interstellar and intergalactic media has been investigated. Recent studies reported detections of the H{\alpha} emission from clouds in the galactic halo toward the northeast and southwest of the nucleus of Cen A, suggesting that AGN jets may have triggered star formation there. We performed near-infrared line mapping of Cen A with the IRSF 1.4-m telescope, using the narrow-band filter tuned for Pa{\beta}, from which we find that the Pa{\beta} emission is not detected significantly from either northeast or southwest regions. The upper limit of the Pa{\beta}/H{\alpha} ratio in the northeast region is compatible with that expected for a typical HII region, in line with the scenario that AGNs have triggered star formation there. On the other hand, the upper limit of Pa{\beta}/H{\alpha} in the southwest region is significantly lower than that expected for a typical HII region. A possibility to explain the low Pa{\beta}/H{\alpha} ratio in the southwest region is the scattering of H{\alpha} and Pa{\beta} photons from the center of Cen A by dust grains in the halo clouds. From the upper limit of Pa{\beta}/H{\alpha} in the southwest region, we obtain constraints on the dust size distribution, which is found to be compatible with those seen in the interstellar medium of our Galaxy., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ, typos corrected

We present optical observations of the Type Ia supernova (SN) 2019ein, starting two days after the estimated explosion date. the spectra and light curves show that SN 2019ein belongs to a high-velocity (HV) and broad-line group with a relatively rapid decline in the light curves (Delta m(15)(B) = 1.36 0.02 mag) and a short rise time (15.37 0.55 days). the Si ii lambda 6355 velocity, associated with a photospheric component but not with a detached high-velocity feature, reached similar to 20,000 km s(-1) 12 days before the B-band maximum. the line velocity, however, decreased very rapidly and smoothly toward maximum light, to similar to 13,000 km s(-1), which is relatively low among HV SNe. This indicates that the speed of the spectral evolution of HV SNe Ia is correlated with not only the velocity at maximum light, but also the light-curve decline rate, as is the case for normal-velocity (NV) SNe Ia. Spectral synthesis modeling shows that the outermost layer at >17,000 km s(-1) is well described by an O-Ne-C burning layer extending to at least 25,000 km s(-1), and there is no unburnt carbon below 30,000 km s(-1); these properties are largely consistent with the delayed detonation scenario and are shared with the prototypical HV SN 2002bo despite the large difference in Delta m(15)(B). This structure is strikingly different from that derived for the well-studied NV SN 2011fe. We suggest that the relation between the mass of Ni-56 (or Delta m(15)) and the extent of the O-Ne-C burning layer provides an important constraint on the explosion mechanism(s) of HV and NV SNe., Google Summer of Code initiative; ESA's Summer of Code in Space program; Optical and Near-infrared Astronomy Inter-University Cooperation Program; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of JapanMinistry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) [17H06362]; Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR); JSPS KAKENHIMinistry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT)Japan Society for the Promotion of ScienceGrants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) [19K23461, 18H04585, 18H05223, 17H02864, 17K14253]; Turkish Scientific and Technical Research CouncilTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [TuBITAK-2211C, TuBITAK-2214A], This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. the spectral data of comparison SNe awere downloaded from the SUSPECT25 (Richardson et al. 2001) and WISeREP26 (Yaron & Gal-Yam 2012) databases. This research has made use of data obtained from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), a service of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA/GSFC and of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's High Energy Astrophysics Division. This research made use of TARDIS, a community-developed software package for spectral synthesis in supernovae (Kerzendorf & Sim 2014; Kerzendorf et al. 2019). the development of TARDIS received support from the Google Summer of Code initiative and from ESA's Summer of Code in Space program. TARDIS makes extensive use of Astropy and PyNE. This work is supported by the Optical and Near-infrared Astronomy Inter-University Cooperation Program. Part of this work was financially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research 17H06362 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan. This work was supported by the joint research program of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR). M.K. acknowledges support by JSPS KAKENHI Grant (19K23461). K.M. acknowledges support by JSPS KAKENHI Grant (18H04585, 18H05223, 17H02864). M.Y. is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant (17K14253). U. B. acknowledges the support provided by the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council (TuBITAK-2211C and TuBITAK-2214A).

Accepted: 2018-09-05, 資料番号: SA1180278000

We present the results of the spectroscopic monitoring of the FU Orionis type star V960 Mon. Spectroscopic variations of a FU Orionis type star will provide valuable information of its physical nature and the mechanism of the outburst. We conducted medium-resolution (R~10000) spectroscopic observations of V960 Mon with 2m Nayuta telescope at the Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory, from 2015 January to 2017 January for 53 nights in total. We focused on H alpha line and nearby atomic lines, and detected the strength variations in both absorption and emission lines. The observed variation in the equivalent width of the absorption lines correspond to a decrease in effective temperature and increase in surface gravity. These variations were likely to originate from the luminosity fading of the accretion disk due to the decrease in mass accretion rate., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in AJ

We present the results of X-ray and Near-Infrared observations of the Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission (GRXE). We extracted 2,002 X-ray point sources in the Chandra Bulge Field (l =0°.113, b = 1°.424) down to ~10-14.8 ergscm-2s-1 in 2-8 keV band with the longest observation (900 ks) of the GRXE. Based on X-ray brightness and hardness, we classied the X-ray point sources into three groups: A (hard), B (soft and broad spectrum), and C (soft and peaked spectrum). In order to know populations of the X-ray point sources, we carried out NIR imaging and spectroscopy observation. We identied 11% of X-ray point sources with NIR and extracted NIR spectra for some of them. Based on X-ray and NIR properties, we concluded that non-thermal sources in the group A are mostly active galactic nuclei and the thermal sources are mostly white dwarf binaries such as cataclysmic variables (CVs) and Pre-CVs. We concluded that the group B and C sources are X-ray active stars in flare and quiescence, respectively.

We present the early-phase spectra and the light curves of the broad-lined supernova (SN) 2016coi from $t=7$ to $67$ days after the estimated explosion date. This SN was initially reported as a broad-lined Type SN Ic (SN Ic-BL). However, we found that spectra up to $t=12$ days exhibited the He~{\sc i} $\lambda$5876, $\lambda$6678, and $\lambda$7065 absorption lines. We show that the smoothed and blueshifted spectra of normal SNe Ib are remarkably similar to the observed spectrum of SN 2016coi. The line velocities of SN 2016coi were similar to those of SNe Ic-BL and significantly faster than those of SNe Ib. Analyses of the line velocity and light curve suggest that the kinetic energy and the total ejecta mass of SN 2016coi are similar to those of SNe Ic-BL. Together with broad-lined SNe 2009bb and 2012ap for which the detection of He~{\sc i} were also reported, these SNe could be transitional objects between SNe Ic-BL and SNe Ib, and be classified as broad-lined Type `Ib' SNe (SNe `Ib'-BL). Our work demonstrates the diversity of the outermost layer in broad-lined SNe, which should be related to the variety of the evolutionary paths., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

The first detected gravitational wave from a neutron star merger was GW170817. In this study, we present J-GEM follow-up observations of SSS17a, an electromagnetic counterpart of GW170817. SSS17a shows a 2.5-mag decline in the $z$-band from 1.7 days to 7.7 days after the merger. Such a rapid decline is not comparable with supernovae light curves at any epoch. The color of SSS17a also evolves rapidly and becomes redder for later epochs; the $z-H$ color changed by approximately 2.5 mag in the period of 0.7 days to 7.7 days. The rapid evolution of both the optical brightness and the color are consistent with the expected properties of a kilonova that is powered by the radioactive decay of newly synthesized $r$-process nuclei. Kilonova models with Lanthanide elements can reproduce the aforementioned observed properties well, which suggests that $r$-process nucleosynthesis beyond the second peak takes place in SSS17a. However, the absolute magnitude of SSS17a is brighter than the expected brightness of the kilonova models with the ejecta mass of 0.01 $\Msun$, which suggests a more intense mass ejection ($\sim 0.03 \Msun$) or possibly an additional energy source., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Published in PASJ (Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan)

Context. Although heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been found by many observational studies, the properties of the surrounding dust are poorly understood. Using AKARI/IRC spectroscopy, we discover a new sample of a heavily obscured AGN in LEDA 1712304 which shows a deep spectral absorption feature due to silicate dust. Aims. We study the infrared (IR) spectral properties of circumnuclear silicate dust in LEDA 1712304. Methods. We perform IR spectral fitting, considering silicate dust properties such as composition, porosity, size and crystallinity. Spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting is also performed to the flux densities in the UV to sub-millimeter range to investigate the global spectral properties. Results. The best-fit model indicates 0.1 $\mu$m-sized porous amorphous olivine (${\rm Mg_{2x}Fe_{2-2x}SiO_4}$; $x=0.4$) with $4\%$ crystalline pyroxene. The optical depth is $\tau_{\rm sil}{\sim}2.3$, while the total IR luminosity and stellar mass are estimated to be $L_{\rm IR}=(5\pm1){\times}10^{10}\,L_{\odot}$ and $M_{\rm star}=(2.7\pm0.8){\times}10^{9}\,M_{\odot}$, respectively. In such low $L_{\rm IR}$ and $M_{\rm star}$ ranges, there are few galaxies which show that large ${\tau}_{\rm sil}$. Conclusions. The silicate dust in the AGN torus of LEDA 1712304 has properties notably similar to those in other AGNs as a whole, but slightly different in the wing shape of the absorption profile. The porosity of the silicate dust suggests dust coagulation or processing in the circumnuclear environments, while the crystallinity suggests that the silicate dust is relatively fresh., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Context.Spectropolarimetry is a powerful technique for investigating the physical properties of gas and solid materials in cometary comae without mutual contamination, but only a few spectropolarimetric studies have been conducted to extract each component.Aims.We attempt to derive the continuum (i.e., scattered light from dust coma) polarization degree of comet 2P/Encke, free of the influence of molecular emissions. The target is unique in that its orbit is dynamically decoupled from Jupiter, like the main-belt asteroids, but it ejects gas and dust like ordinary comets.Methods.We observed the comet using the Hiroshima Optical and Near-Infrared Camera attached to the Cassegrain focus of the 150 cm Kanata telescope on UT 2017 February 21 when the comet was at the solar phase angle ofα= 75°.7.Results.We find that the continuum polarization degree with respect to the scattering plane isPcont, r= 33.8 ± 2.7% at the effective wavelength of 0.82μm, which is significantly higher than those of cometary dust in a high-Pmaxgroup at similar phase angles. Assuming that an ensemble polarimetric response of the dust of 2P/Encke as a function of phase angle is morphologically similar with those of other comets, its maximum polarization degree is estimated toPmax≳ 40% atαmax≈ 100°. In addition, we obtain the polarization degrees of the C2swan bands (0.51–0.56μm), the NH2αbands (0.62–0.69μm), and the CN-red system (0.78–0.94μm) in a range of 3–19%, which depend on the molecular species and rotational quantum numbers of each branch. The polarization vector is aligned nearly perpendicularly to the scattering plane with an average of 0°.4 over a wavelength range of 0.50–0.97μm.Conclusions.From the observational evidence, we conjecture that the high polarization degree of 2P/Encke might be attributable to a dominance of large dust particles around the nucleus, which have remained after frequent perihelion passages near the Sun.

From 2013 April to 2014 April, we performed an X-ray and optical simultaneous monitoring of the type 1.5 Seyfert galaxy NGC 3516. It employed Suzaku, and 5 Japanese ground-based telescopes, the Pirka, Kiso Schmidt, Nayuta, MITSuME, and the Kanata telescopes. The Suzaku observations were conducted seven times with various intervals ranging from days, weeks, to months, with an exposure of $\sim50$ ksec each. The optical $B$-band observations not only covered those of Suzaku almost simultaneously, but also followed the source as frequently as possible. As a result, NGC 3516 was found in its faint phase with the 2-10 keV flux of $0.21-2.70 \times 10^{-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$. The 2-45 keV X-ray spectra were composed of a dominant variable hard power-law continuum with a photon index of $\sim1.7$, and a non-relativistic reflection component with a prominent Fe-K$\alpha$ emission line. Producing the $B$-band light curve by differential image photometry, we found that the $B$-band flux changed by $\sim2.7 \times 10^{-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$, which is comparable to the X-ray variation, and detected a significant flux correlation between the hard power-law component in X-rays and the $B$-band radiation, for the first time in NGC 3516. By examining their correlation, we found that the X-ray flux preceded that of $B$ band by $2.0^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$ days ($1\sigma$ error). Although this result supports the X-ray reprocessing model, the derived lag is too large to be explained by the standard view which assumes a "lamppost"-type X-ray illuminator located near a standard accretion disk. Our results are better explained by assuming a hot accretion flow and a truncated disk., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

著者人数: 42名, Accepted: 2016-03-14, 資料番号: SA1160038000

We report X-ray, optical, and near-infrared monitoring of the new X-ray transient MAXI J1820$+$070 discovered with MAXI on 2018 March 11. Its X-ray intensity reached $\sim 2$ Crab in 2--20 keV at the end of March, and then gradually decreased until the middle of June. In this period, the X-ray spectrum was described by Comptonization of the disk emission, with a photon index of $\sim$1.5 and an electron temperature of $\sim$50 keV, which is consistent with a black hole X-ray binary in the low/hard state. The electron temperature and the photon index were slightly decreased and increased with increasing flux, respectively. The source showed significant X-ray flux variation on timescales of seconds. This short-term variation was found to be associated with changes in the spectral shape, and the photon index became slightly harder at higher fluxes. This suggests that the variation was produced by a change in the properties of the hot electron cloud responsible for the strong Comptonization. Modeling a multi-wavelength SED around the X-ray flux peak at the end of March, covering the near-infrared to X-ray bands, we found that the optical and near-infrared fluxes were likely contributed substantially by the jet emission. Before this outburst, the source was never detected in the X-ray band with MAXI (with a 3$\sigma$ upper limit of $\sim$0.2 mCrab in 4--10 keV, obtained from the 7-year data in 2009--2016), whereas weak optical and infrared activity was found at their flux levels $\sim$3 orders of magnitude lower than the peak fluxes in the outburst., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We conducted an optical and near-infrared polarimetric observation of the highly dormant Jupiter-Family Comet, 209P/LINEAR. Because of its low activity, we were able to determine the linear polarization degrees of the coma dust particles and nucleus independently, that is $P_n$=30.3$^{+1.3}_{-0.9}$% at $\alpha$=92.2$^\circ$ and $P_n$=31.0$^{+1.0}_{-0.7}$% at $\alpha$=99.5$^\circ$ for the nucleus, and $P_c$=28.8$^{+0.4}_{-0.4}$% at $\alpha$=92.2$^\circ$ and 29.6$^{+0.3}_{-0.3}$% at $\alpha$=99.5$^\circ$ for the coma. We detected no significant variation in $P$ at the phase angle coverage of 92.2$^\circ$-99.5$^\circ$, which may imply that the obtained polarization degrees are nearly at maximum in the phase-polarization curves. By fitting with an empirical function, we obtained the maximum values of linear polarization degrees $P_\mathrm{max}$=30.8% for the nucleus and $P_\mathrm{max}$=29.6% for the dust coma. The $P_\mathrm{max}$ of the dust coma is consistent with those of dust-rich comets. The low geometric albedo of $P_v$=0.05 was derived from the slope-albedo relationship and was associated with high $P_\mathrm{max}$. We examined $P_\mathrm{max}$-albedo relations between asteroids and 209P, and found that the so-called Umov law seems to be applicable on this cometary surface., Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, accepted on 2015 October 14 for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Apparently diffuse X-ray emission has been known to exist along the central quarter of the Galactic Plane since the beginning of the X-ray astronomy, which is referred to as the Galactic Ridge X-ray emission (GRXE). Recent deep X-ray observations have shown that numerous X-ray point sources account for a large fraction of the GRXE in the hard band (2-8 keV). However, the nature of these sources is poorly understood. Using the deepest X-ray observations made in the Chandra Bulge Field (Revnivtsev et al., 2009,2011), we present the result of a coherent photometric and spectroscopic analysis of individual X-ray point sources for the purpose of constraining their nature and deriving their fractional contributions to the hard band continuum and Fe K\alpha line emission of the GRXE. Based on the X-ray color-color diagram, we divided the point sources into three groups: A (hard), B (soft and broad spectrum), and C (soft and peaked spectrum). The group A sources are further decomposed spectrally into thermal and non-thermal sources with different fractions in different flux ranges. From their X-ray properties, we speculate that the group A non-thermal sources are mostly AGNs and the thermal sources are mostly white dwarf (WD) binaries such as magnetic and non-magnetic cataclysmic variables (CVs), pre-CVs, and symbiotic stars, whereas the group B and C sources are X-ray active stars in flares and quiescence, respectively. In the log N-log S curve of the 2-8 keV band, the group A non-thermal sources is dominant above about 10^{-14} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}, which is gradually taken over by Galactic sources in the fainter flux ranges. The Fe K\alpha emission is mostly from the group A thermal (WD binaries) and the group B (X-ray active stars) sources., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (13 Pages, 15 figures, 6 tables)

Gamma Cassiopeiae is an enigmatic Be star with unusually hard, strong X-ray emission compared with normal main-sequence B stars. The origin has been debated for decades between two theories: mass accretion onto a hidden compact companion and a magnetic dynamo driven by the star-Be disk differential rotation. There has been no decisive signature found that supports either theory, such as a pulse in X-ray emission or the presence of large-scale magnetic field. In a ~100 ksec duration observation of the star with the Suzaku X-ray observatory in 2011, we detected six rapid X-ray spectral hardening events called “softness dips”. 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 − 8 × 1021cm−2, while the spectrum outside of these dips is almost free of absorption. This result suggests that two distinct X-ray emitting spots in the γ Cas system, perhaps on a white dwarf companion with dipole mass accretion, are occulted by blobs in the Be stellar wind, the Be disk, or rotating around the white dwarf companion. The formation of a Be star and white dwarf binary system requires mass transfer between two stars; γ Cas may have experienced such activity in the past.

Recent detection of gravitational waves from a neutron star (NS) merger event GW170817 and identification of an electromagnetic counterpart provide a unique opportunity to study the physical processes in NS mergers. To derive properties of ejected material from the NS merger, we perform radiative transfer simulations of kilonova, optical and near-infrared emissions powered by radioactive decays of r-process nuclei synthesized in the merger. We find that the observed near-infrared emission lasting for > 10 days is explained by 0.03 Msun of ejecta containing lanthanide elements. However, the blue optical component observed at the initial phases requires an ejecta component with a relatively high electron fraction (Ye). We show that both optical and near-infrared emissions are simultaneously reproduced by the ejecta with a medium Ye of ~ 0.25. We suggest that a dominant component powering the emission is post-merger ejecta, which exhibits that mass ejection after the first dynamical ejection is quite efficient. Our results indicate that NS mergers synthesize a wide range of r-process elements and strengthen the hypothesis that NS mergers are the origin of r-process elements in the Universe., 7 pages, 4 figures. Published in PASJ (Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan)