High-energy observations of XRF 030723: Evidence for an off-axis gamma-ray burst?
We report High Energy Transient Explorer 2 (HETE-2) Wide Field X-ray Monitor (WXM) and French Gamma Telescope observations of XRF 030723 along with observations of the XRF afterglow made using the 6.5 m Magellan Clay telescope and Chandra. The observed peak energy E of the νFν burst spectrum is found to lie within (or below) the WXM 2-25 keV passband at 98.5% confidence, and no counts are detected above 30 keV. Our best-fit value is E = 8.4 keV. The ratio of X-ray to γ-ray flux for the burst follows a correlation found for GRBs observed with HETE-2, and the duration of the burst is similar to that typical of long-duration GRBs. If we require that the burst isotropic equivalent energy Eiso and Epk satisfy the relation discovered by Amati et al. (2002), a redshift of z = 0.38 can be determined, in agreement with constraints determined from optical observations. We are able to fit the X-ray afterglow spectrum and to measure its temporal fade. Although the best-fit fade is shallower than the concurrent fade in the optical, the spectral similarity between the two bands indicates that the X-ray fade may actually trace the optical fade. If this is the case, the late-time rebrightening observed in the optical cannot be due to a supernova bump. We interpret the prompt and afterglow X-ray emission as arising from a jetted GRB observed off-axis and possibly viewed through a complex circumburst medium that is due to a progenitor wind.

title: The Missing Link: Early Methane ("T") Dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
abstract: We report the discovery of three cool brown dwarfs that fall in the effective temperature gap between the latest L dwarfs currently known, with no methane absorption bands in the 1-2.5 µm range, and the previously known methane (T) dwarfs, whose spectra are dominated by methane and water. The newly discovered objects were detected as very red objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data and have JHK colors between the red L dwarfs and the blue Gl 229B-like T dwarfs. They show both CO and CH(4) absorption in their near-infrared spectra in addition to H(2)O, with weaker CH(4) absorption features in the H and K bands than those in all other methane dwarfs reported to date. Due to the presence of CH(4) in these bands, we propose that these objects are early T dwarfs. The three form part of the brown dwarf spectral sequence and fill in the large gap in the overall spectral sequence from the hottest main-sequence stars to the coolest methane dwarfs currently known.

title: COSMOS: A Hybrid N-Body/Hydrodynamics Code for Cosmological Problems
abstract: We describe a new hybrid N-body/hydrodynamical code based on the particle-mesh (PM) method and the piecewise-parabolic method (PPM) for use in solving problems related to the evolution of large-scale structure, galaxy clusters, and individual galaxies. The code, named COSMOS, possesses several new features that distinguish it from other PM-PPM codes. In particular, to solve the Poisson equation we have written a new multigrid solver which can determine the gravitational potential of isolated matter distributions and which properly takes into account the finite-volume discretization required by PPM. All components of the code are constructed to work with a nonuniform mesh, preserving second-order spatial differences. The PPM code uses vacuum boundary conditions for isolated problems, preventing inflows when appropriate. The PM code uses a second-order variable-time-step time integration scheme. Radiative cooling and cosmological expansion terms are included. COSMOS has been implemented for parallel computers using the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) library, and it features a modular design which simplifies the addition of new physics and the configuration of the code for different types of problems. We discuss the equations solved by COSMOS and describe the algorithms used, with emphasis on these features. We also discuss the results of tests we have performed to establish that COSMOS works and to determine its range of validity.

title: Extracting Neutron Star Properties from X-ray Burst Oscillations
abstract: Many thermonuclear X-ray bursts exhibit brightness oscillations. The brightness oscillations are thought to be due to the combined effects of non-uniform nuclear burning and rotation of the neutron star. The waveforms of the oscillations contain information about the size and number of burning regions. They also contain substantial information about the mass and radius of the star, and hence about strong gravity and the equation of state of matter at supranuclear densities. We have written general relativistic ray-tracing codes that compute the waveforms and spectra of rotating hot spots as a function of photon energy. Using these codes, we survey the effect on the oscillation waveform and amplitude of parameters such as the compactness of the star, the spot size, the surface rotation velocity, and whether there are one or two spots. We also fit phase lag versus photon energy curves to data from the millisecond X-ray pulsar, SAX J1808-3658.

title: HETE-2 localization and observation of the gamma-ray burst GRB 020813
abstract: A bright, long gamma-ray burst (GRB) was detected and localized by the instruments on board the High Energy Transient Explorer 2 satellite (HETE-2) at 02:44:19.17 UTC (9859.17s UT) on 2002 August 13. The location was reported to the GRB Coordinates Network (GCN) about 4min after the burst. In the prompt emission, the burst had a duration of approximately 125s, and more than four peaks. We analyzed the time-resolved 2–400keV energy spectra of the prompt emission of GRB 020813 using the Wide Field X-Ray Monitor (WXM) and the French Gamma Telescope (FREGATE) in detail. We found that the early part of the burst (17–52s after the burst trigger) shows a depletion of low-energy photons below about 50keV. It is difficult to explain the depletion by either synchrotron self-absorption or Comptonization. One possibility is that the low-energy depletion may be understood as a mixture of “jitter” radiation with the usual synchrotron radiation component.

title: Construction and preliminary application of the variability→luminosity estimator
abstract: We present a possible Cepheid-like luminosity estimator for the long-duration gamma-ray bursts based on the variability of their light curves. We also present a preliminary application of this luminosity estimator to 907 long-duration bursts from the BATSE catalog.

title: Deep inelastic inclusive e p scattering at low x and a determination of alpha(s)
abstract: A precise measurement of the inclusive deep-inelastic \(e^+ p\) scattering cross section is reported in the kinematic range \(1.5 \le Q^2 \le 150\) GeV\(^2\) and \( 3 \cdot 10^{-5} \le x \le ). The data were recorded with the H1 detector at HERA in 1996 and 1997, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 20 pb\(^{-1}\). The double differential cross section, from which the proton structure function \(\) and the longitudinal structure function \(F_L(x,Q^2)\) are extracted, is measured with typically 1% statistical and 3% systematic uncertainties. The measured derivative \((\partial F_2(x,Q^2) / \partial \ln Q^2)_x \) is observed to rise continuously towards small x for fixed \(Q^2\). The cross section data are combined with published H1 measurements at high \(Q^2\) for a next-to-leading order DGLAP QCD analysis. The H1 data determine the gluon momentum distribution in the range \(3 \cdot 10^{-4} \le x \le 0.1\) to within an experimental accuracy of about 3% for \(Q^2 =20\) GeV\(^2\). A fit of the H1 measurements and the \(\mu p \) data of the BCDMS collaboration allows the strong coupling constant \(\alpha_s\) and the gluon distribution to be simultaneously determined. A value of \(\alpha_s (M_Z^2) =0.1150 \pm 0.0017 (exp)^{+0.0009}_{-0.0005} (model)\) is obtained in NLO, with an additional theoretical uncertainty of about \(\pm 0.005\), mainly due to the uncertainty of the renormalisation scale.

title: Search for excited neutrinos at HERA
abstract: We present a search for excited neutrinos using ep data taken by the H1 experiment at HERA at a center-of-mass energy of 318 GeV with an integrated luminosity of 15 pb1. No evidence for excited neutrino production is found. Mass dependent exclusion limits are determined for the ratio of the coupling to the compositeness scale, f/, independently of the relative couplings to the SU(2) and U(1) gauge bosons. These limits extend the excluded region to higher masses than has been possible in previous searches at other colliders.

title: Elastic Electroproduction of $\rho$ Mesons at HERA
abstract: The elastic electroproduction of rho mesons is studied at HERA with the H1 detector for a photon virtuality in the range 1 Q^2 60 GeV^2 and for a hadronic centre of mass energy in the range 30 W 140 GeV. The shape of the pipi mass distribution in the rho resonance region is measured as a function of Q^2. The full set of rho spin density matrix elements is determined, and evidence is found for a helicity flip amplitude at the level of 8 +- 3 % of the non-flip amplitudes. Measurements are presented of the dependence of the cross section on Q^2, W and t (the four-momentum transfer squared to the proton). They suggest that, especially at large Q^2, the gamma^*p cross section develops a stronger W dependence than that expected from the behaviour of elastic and total hadron-hadron cross sections.

title: Diffractive Jet Production in Deep-Inelastic $e^{+}p$ Collisions at HERA
abstract: A measurement is presented of dijet and 3-jet cross sections in low-\(|t|\) diffractive deep-inelastic scattering interactions of the type \(ep \rightarrow eXY\), where the system X is separated by a large rapidity gap from a low-mass baryonic system Y. Data taken with the H1 detector at HERA, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 18.0 pb\(^{-1}\), are used to measure hadron level single and double differential cross sections for \(4 4 \rm GeV\). The energy flow not attributed to jets is also investigated. The measurements are consistent with a factorising diffractive exchange with trajectory intercept close to 1.2 and tightly constrain the dominating diffractive gluon distribution. Viewed in terms of the diffractive scattering of partonic fluctuations of the photon, the data require the dominance of \(q\overline{q}g\) over \(q\overline{q}\) states. Soft colour neutralisation models in their present form cannot simultaneously reproduce the shapes and the normalisations of the differential cross sections. Models based on 2-gluon exchange are able to reproduce the shapes of the cross sections at low \(x_\mathbb{P}\) values.

title: Three-jet production in deep-inelastic scattering at HERA
abstract: Three-jet production is studied for the first time in deep-inelastic positron–proton scattering. The measurement carried out with the H1 detector at HERA covers a large range of four-momentum transfer squared 5 2 000 GeV 2 and invariant three-jet masses 25 3 jet ≲140 GeV . Jets are defined by the inclusive k ⊥ algorithm in the Breit frame. The size of the three-jet cross section and the ratio of the three-jet to the dijet cross section R 3/2 are described over the whole phase space by the predictions of perturbative QCD in next-to-leading order. The shapes of angular jet distributions deviate significantly from a uniform population of the available phase space but are well described by the QCD calculation.