The 2008 outburst of IGR J17473–2721: evidence for a disk corona?
The 2008 outburst of the atoll source IGR J17473–2721 was observed by INTEGRAL, RXTE and Swift. Tens of type-I X-ray bursts were found in this outburst.  Joint observations by INTEGRAL, RXTE, and Swift provide sufficient data to look into the behavior of IGR J17473–2721 at the rising part of the 2008 outburst. The relation between the duration of the bursts and the accretion rate and the nature of the corona producing the observed power-law component can therefore be studied in detail.  We analyze observational data of IGR J17473–2721, focusing on the spectral evolution during the state transition from quiescent to low hard state (LHS), and on the flux dependence of the type-I X-ray bursts along the outburst.  We find that the joint INTEGRAL, RXTE and Swift energy spectrum can be well fitted with a model composed of a blackbody and a cutoff power-law, with a cutoff energy decreasing from ∼150 keV to ∼40 keV as the source leaves the quiescent state toward the low hard state. This fits into a scenario in which the corona is cooled by the soft X-rays along the outburst evolution, as observed in several other atoll sources. Fifty-seven type-I bursts were reported in the 2008 outburst of IGR J17473–2721. By using the flux measured in the 1.5–30 keV band, we find that the linear relationship between the burst duration and the flux still holds for those bursts that occur at the decaying part of the low hard state, but with a different slope than the overall one that was estimated with the bursts happening in the whole extent of, and for the rest of the low hard state. The significance of such a dichotomy in the type-I X-ray bursts is ∼3σ under an F-test. Similar results are hinted at as well with the broader energy-band that was adopted recently. This dichotomy may be understood in a scenario where part of the accreting material forms a corona on the way of falling onto the surface of the neutron star during the decaying part of the low hard state.Based on the accretion rates of the preceding LHS, estimated from type-I X-ray bursts and from persistent emission, at least for IGR J17473-2721, most of the accretion material may fall on the neutron star (NS) surface in the LHS. Considering the burst behavior in the context of the outburst indicates a corona formed on top of the disk rather than on the NS surface.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: X-Ray Properties of the Point Source Population in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 5055 （M63） with Chandra
abstract: Using Chandra ACIS S3 data we studied the X-ray properties of low-and high-mass X-ray binary populations in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 5055. A total of 43 X-ray point sources were detected within two effective radii, with 31 sources located on the disk and the rest 12 sources in the bulge. The resolved point sources dominate the X-ray emission of the galaxy, accounting for about 80% of the total counts in 0.3–10 keV. From spectral fittings we calculated the 0.3–10.0 keV luminosities of all the detected X-ray point sources and found that they span a wide range from a few times 1037 erg s−1 to over 1039 erg s−1. After compensating for incompleteness at the low luminosity end, we found that the corrected XLF of the bulge population is well fitted with a broken power-law with a break at 1.57+0.21−0.20×1038 erg s−1, while the profile of the disk population's XLF agrees with a single power-law distribution of slope 0.93+0.07−0.06. The disk population is significantly richer at 2×1038 erg s−1 than the bulge population, indicating that the disk may have undergone relatively recent, strong starbursts that significantly increased the HMXB population, although ongoing starbursts are also observed in the nuclear region. Similar XLF profiles of the bulge and disk populations were found in M81. However, in most other spiral galaxies different patterns of spatial variation of the XLF profiles from the bulge to the disk have been observed, indicating that the star formation and evolution history may be more complex than we have expected.

title: Observation of long-range, near-side angular correlations in proton-proton collisions at the LHC
abstract: Results on two-particle angular correlations for charged particles emitted in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 0.9, 2.36, and 7 TeV are presented, using data collected with the CMS detector over a broad range of pseudorapidity (η) and azimuthal angle (ϕ). Short-range correlations in Δη, which are studied in minimum bias events, are characterized using a simple “independent cluster” parametrization in order to quantify their strength (cluster size) and their extent in η (cluster decay width). Long-range azimuthal correlations are studied differentially as a function of charged particle multiplicity and particle transverse momentum using a 980 nb−1 data set at 7 TeV. In high multiplicity events, a pronounced structure emerges in the two-dimensional correlation function for particle pairs with intermediate pT of 1–3 GeV/c, 2.0 < |Δη| < 4.8 and Δϕ ≈ 0. This is the first observation of such a long-range, near-side feature in two-particle correlation functions in pp or $$ p\overline p $$ collisions.

title: Measurement of the production cross sections for a Z boson and one or more b jets in pp collisions at s$$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 7 TeV
abstract: A bstractThe production of a Z boson, decaying into two leptons and produced in association with one or more b jets, is studied using proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data were recorded in 2011 with the CMS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5 fb−1. The Z(ℓℓ) + b-jets cross sections (where ℓℓ = μμ or ee) are measured separately for a Z boson produced with exactly one b jet and with at least two b jets. In addition, a cross section ratio is extracted for a Z boson produced with at least one b jet, relative to a Z boson produced with at least one jet. The measured cross sections are compared to various theoretical predictions, and the data favour the predictions in the five-flavour scheme, where b quarks are assumed massless. The kinematic properties of the reconstructed particles are compared with the predictions from the MadGraph event generator using the pythia parton shower simulation.

title: The Chandra Deep Field-South: The 1 Million Second Exposure*
abstract: We present the main results from our 940 ks observation of the Chandra Deep Field-South using the source catalog described in an accompanying paper by Giacconi et al. We extend the measurement of source number counts to 5.5 × 10-17 ergs cm-2 s-1 in the soft 0.5-2 keV band and 4.5 × 10-16 ergs cm-2 s-1 in the hard 2-10 keV band. The hard-band log N-log S shows a significant flattening (slope 0.6) below ≈10-14 ergs cm-2 s-1, leaving at most 10%-15% of the X-ray background to be resolved, the main uncertainty lying in the measurement of the total flux of the X-ray background (XRB). On the other hand, the analysis in the very hard 5-10 keV band reveals a relatively steep log N-log S (slope 1.3) down to 10-15 ergs cm-2 s-1. Together with the evidence of a progressive flattening of the average X-ray spectrum near the flux limit, this indicates that there is still a nonnegligible population of faint hard sources to be discovered at energies not well probed by Chandra, which possibly contributes to the 30 keV bump in the spectrum of the XRB. We use optical redshifts and identifications, obtained with the Very Large Telescope, for one-quarter of the sample to characterize the combined optical and X-ray properties of the Chandra Deep Field-South sample. Different source types are well separated in a parameter space that includes X-ray luminosity, hardness ratio, and R-K color. Type II objects, while redder on average than the field population, have colors that are consistent with being hosted by a range of galaxy types. Type II active galactic nuclei are mostly found at z 1, in contrast with predictions based on active galactic nucleus population synthesis models, thus suggesting a revision of their evolutionary parameters.

title: Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
abstract: Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H --> gamma-gamma, H --> ZZ* --> 4 leptons and H --> WW --> 2 leptons + 2 neutrinos. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of 7 TeV and 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25/fb. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson.