Outbursts from IGR J17473-2721
IGR J17473-2721 was discovered by INTEGRAL as a neutron star low mass X-ray binary. To date, two outbursts have been detected in X-rays by RXTE/ASM and SWIFT: the one occurring in 2005 was weak and was characterized by a low/hard state spectrum; the one of March 2008 was strong and showed a 6-step evolution in its flux. We investigate their evolution, emphasizing the later outburst.  We analyzed all available observations carried out by RXTE on IGR J17473-2721 during its later outburst. We analyzed as well all the available SWIFT/BAT data on this source.  The flux of the latter outburst rose in similar to one month and then kept roughly constant for the following similar to 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 similar to 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.

title: INTEGRAL and RXTE/ASM observations on IGR J17098−3628
abstract: 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 $ $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  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.

title: EVOLUTION OF GASEOUS DISK VISCOSITY DRIVEN BY SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS IN STAR-FORMING GALAXIES AT HIGH REDSHIFT
abstract: Motivated by Genzel et al.'s observations of high-redshift star-forming galaxies, containing clumpy and turbulent rings or disks, we build a set of equations describing the dynamical evolution of gaseous disks with inclusion of star formation and its feedback. Transport of angular momentum is due to "turbulent" viscosity induced by supernova explosions in the star formation region. Analytical solutions of the equations are found for the initial cases of a gaseous ring and the integrated form for a gaseous disk, respectively. For a ring with enough low viscosity, it evolves in a slow process of gaseous diffusion and star formation near the initial radius. For a high viscosity, the ring rapidly diffuses in the early phase. The diffusion drives the ring into a region with a low viscosity and starts the second phase undergoing pile-up of gas at a radius following the decreased viscosity torque. The third is a sharply decreasing phase because of star formation consumption of gas and efficient transportation of gas inward forming a stellar disk. We apply the model to two z similar to 2 galaxies BX 482 and BzK 6004, and find that they are undergoing a decline in their star formation activity.

title: Possible hard X-ray shortages in bursts from KS 1731-260 and 4U 1705-44
abstract: A hard X-ray shortage, implying the cooling of the corona, was observed during bursts of IGR J17473-272, 4U 1636-536, Aql X-1, and GS 1826-238. Apart from these four sources, we investigate here an atoll sample, in which the number of bursts for each source is larger than 5, to explore the possible additional hard X-ray shortage during Rossi X-ray timing explorer (RXTE) era.  According to the source catalog that shows type-I bursts, we analyzed all the available pointing observations of these sources carried out by the RXTE proportional counter array. We grouped and combined the bursts according to their outburst states and searched for the possible hard X-ray shortage while bursting.  We found that the island states of KS 1731-260 and 4U 1705-44 show a hard X-ray shortage at significant levels of 4.5 and 4.7σ and a systematic time lag of 0.9 ± 2.1 s and 2.5 ± 2.0 s with respect to the soft X-rays, respectively. While in their banana branches and other sources, we did not find any consistent shortage.

title: The afterglows of ultraluminous quasars
abstract: Quasars represent a brief phase in the life cycle of most massive galaxies, but the evolutionary connection between central black holes and their host galaxies remains unclear. While quasars are active and shining brighter than the Compton-limit luminosity, their radiation heats the surrounding medium to the Compton temperature, forming Compton spheres extending to the Stromgren radius of Fe26+/He2+. After the quasars shut off, their "afterglow" can be detected through three signatures: (1) an extended X-ray envelope, with a characteristic temperature of ~3 × 107 K, (2) Lyα and Lyβ lines and the K edge of Fe26+, and (3) nebulosity from hydrogen and helium recombination emission lines. We discuss the possibility of detecting these signatures using Chandra, the planned X-Ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy mission, and ground-based optical telescopes. The luminosity and size of quasar afterglows can be used to constrain the lifetime of quasars.

title: Suppressed star formation in circumnuclear regions in seyfert galaxies
abstract: Feedback from black hole activity is widely believed to play a key role in regulating star formation and black hole growth. A long-standing issue is the relation between star formation and the fueling of the supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We compile a sample of 57 Seyfert galaxies to tackle this issue. We estimate the surface densities of gas and star formation rates in circumnuclear regions (CNRs). Comparing them with the well-known Kennicutt-Schmidt (K-S) law, we find that the star formation rates (SFRs) in the CNRs of most Seyfert galaxies are suppressed in this sample. Feedback is suggested to explain the suppressed SFRs.

title: The CLEO III ring imaging Cherenkov detector
abstract: The CLEO detector has been upgraded to include a state of the art particle identification system, based on the Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector (RICH) technology, in order to take data at the upgraded CESR electron positron collider. The expected performance as well as the preliminary results are reviewed from an engineering run during the first few months of operation of the CLEO III detector.

title: Origin of power-law X-ray emission in the steep power-law state of X-ray binaries
abstract: We present a new explanation for the origin of the steep power-law (SPL) state of X-ray binaries. The power-law component of X-ray emission is the synchrotron radiation of relativistic electrons in highly magnetized compact spots orbiting near the inner stable circular orbit of a black hole. It has a hard spectrum that extends to above MeV energies, which is determined by the electron acceleration rate. These photons are then down-scattered by the surrounding plasma to form an observed steep spectrum. We discuss the relevance of the model to high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations and the extremely high luminosity of the SPL state.

title: UM 625 Revisited: Multiwavelength Study of a Seyfert 1 Galaxy with a Low-mass Black Hole
abstract: UM 625, previously identified as a narrow-line active galactic nucleus (AGN), actually exhibits broad H alpha and H beta lines whose width and luminosity indicate a low black hole (BH) mass of 1.6 x 10(6) M-circle dot. We present a detailed multiwavelength study of the nuclear and host galaxy properties of UM 625. Analysis of Chandra and XMM-Newton observations suggests that this system contains a heavily absorbed and intrinsically X-ray weak (alpha(ox) = -1.72) nucleus. Although not strong enough to qualify as radio loud, UM 625 does belong to a minority of low-mass AGNs detected in the radio. The broadband spectral energy distribution constrains the bolometric luminosity to L-bol approximate to (0.5-3) x 10(43) erg s(-1) and L-bol/L-Edd approximate to 0.02-0.15. A comprehensive analysis of Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Hubble Space Telescope images shows that UM 625 is a nearly face-on S0 galaxy with a prominent, relatively blue pseudobulge (Sersic index n = 1.60) that accounts for similar to 60% of the total light in the R band. The extended disk is featureless, but the central similar to 150-400 pc contains a conspicuous semi-ring of bright, blue star-forming knots, whose integrated ultraviolet luminosity suggests a star formation rate of similar to 0.3 M-(c) yr(-1). The mass of the central BH roughly agrees with the value predicted from its bulge velocity dispersion but is significantly lower than that expected from its bulge luminosity.

title: Threshold resummation effects in Higgs boson pair production at the LHC
abstract: A bstractWe investigate the resummation effects in the Standard Model Higgs boson pair production through gluon-gluon fusion at the LHC with soft-collinear effective theory. We calculate the total cross section and the invariant mass distribution at Next-to-Next-to-Leading-Logarithmic level with π2-enhanced terms resummed, which are matched to the QCD Next-to-Leading Order results. In the high order QCD predictions exact top quark mass effects are included in full form factors. Our results show that the resummation effects increase the Next-to-Leading Order results by about 20% ~ 30%, and the scale uncertainty is reduced to 8%, which leads to increased confidence on the theoretical predictions. The PDF+αs uncertainties are almost not changed after including resummation effects. We also study the sensitivities of the total cross section and the invariant mass distribution to the Higgs boson self-coupling. We find that the total cross section and the invariant mass distribution shape depend strongly on the Higgs boson self-coupling, and therefore it is possible to extract Higgs boson self-coupling from the total cross section and invariant mass distribution when the measurement precision increases at the LHC.

title: Search for physics beyond the standard model in dilepton mass spectra in proton-proton collisions at s=8$$ \sqrt{s}=8 $$ TeV
abstract: A bstractDimuon and dielectron mass spectra, obtained from data resulting from proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV and recorded by the CMS experiment, are used to search for both narrow resonances and broad deviations from standard model predictions. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 20.6 (19.7) fb−1 for the dimuon (dielectron) channel. No evidence for non-standard-model physics is observed and 95% confidence level limits are set on parameters from a number of new physics models. The narrow resonance analyses exclude a Sequential Standard Model ZSSM′ resonance lighter than 2.90 TeV, a superstring-inspired Zψ′ lighter than 2.57 TeV, and Randall-Sundrum Kaluza-Klein gravitons with masses below 2.73, 2.35, and 1.27 TeV for couplings of 0.10, 0.05, and 0.01, respectively. A notable feature is that the limits have been calculated in a model-independent way to enable straightforward reinterpretation in any model predicting a resonance structure. The observed events are also interpreted within the framework of two non-resonant analyses: one based on a large extra dimensions model and one based on a quark and lepton compositeness model with a left-left isoscalar contact interaction. Lower limits are established on MS, the scale characterizing the onset of quantum gravity, which range from 4.9 to 3.3 TeV, where the number of additional spatial dimensions varies from 3 to 7. Similarly, lower limits on Λ, the energy scale parameter for the contact interaction, are found to be 12.0 (15.2) TeV for destructive (constructive) interference in the dimuon channel and 13.5 (18.3) TeV in the dielectron channel.