INTEGRAL and Swift/XRT observations of IGR J18179−1621
IGR J18179-1621 is a hard X-ray binary transient discovered recently by INTEGRAL. Here we report on detailed timing and spectral analysis of IGR J18179-1621 in X-rays based on available INTEGRAL and Swift data. From the INTEGRAL analysis, IGR J18179-1621 is detected with a significance of 21.6s in the 1840 keV band by ISGRI and 15.3s in the 325 keV band by JEM-X, between 2012 February 29 and 2012 March 1. We analyse two quasi-simultaneous Swift ToO observations. A clear 11.82-s pulsation is detected above the white noise at a confidence level larger than 99.99 per cent. The pulse fraction is estimated as 22 +/- 8 per cent at 0.210 keV. No sign of pulsation is detected by INTEGRAL/ISGRI in the 1840 keV band. With Swift and INTEGRAL spectra combined in soft and hard X-rays, IGR J18179-1621 could be fitted by an absorbed power law with a high-energy cut-off plus a Gaussian absorption line centred at 21.5 keV. An additional absorption intrinsic to the source is found, while the absorption line is evidence for a most probable origin from cyclotron resonant scattering and suggests a magnetic field in the emitting region of 2.4 x 1012 G.

title: TYPE-I X-RAY BURSTS REVEAL A FAST CO-EVOLVING BEHAVIOR OF THE CORONA IN AN X-RAY BINARY
abstract: The coronae in X-ray binaries (XRBs) still remain poorly understood, although they have been believed for a long time to play a key role in modeling the characteristic outbursts of XRBs. Type-I X-ray bursts, the thermonuclear flashes happening on the surface of a neutron star (NS), can be used as a probe to the innermost region of an NS XRB, where the corona is believed to be located very close to the NS. We report the discovery of a tiny life cycle of the corona that is promptly co-evolved with the type-I bursts superimposed on the outburst of the NS XRB IGR J17473-2721. This finding may serve as the first evidence of directly seeing the rapid disappearance and formation of a corona in an XRB with a cooling/heating timescale of less than a second, which can strongly constrain the accretion models in XRBs at work.

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 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: 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: 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: Measurement of the single-top-quark t-channel cross section in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV
abstract: A bstractA measurement of the single-top-quark t-channel production cross section in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC is presented. Two different and complementary approaches have been followed. The first approach exploits the distributions of the pseudorapidity of the recoil jet and reconstructed top-quark mass using background estimates determined from control samples in data. The second approach is based on multivariate analysis techniques that probe the compatibility of the candidate events with the signal. Data have been collected for the muon and electron final states, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1.17 and 1.56 fb−1, respectively. The single-top-quark production cross section in the t-channel is measured to be 67.2±6.1 pb, in agreement with the approximate next-to-next-to-leading-order standard model prediction. Using the standard model electroweak couplings, the CKM matrix element |Vtb| is measured to be 1.020 ± 0.046 (meas.) ± 0.017 (theor.).

title: Are Seyfert 2 galaxies without polarized broad emission lines more obscured
abstract: New XMM-Newton data of seven Seyfert 2 galaxies with optical spectropolarimetric observations are presented. An analysis of the 0.5–10 keV spectra shows that four Seyfert 2 galaxies with polarized broad lines (PBLs) are absorbed by NH<1024 cm−2, while two of three Seyfert 2 galaxies without PBLs show evidence of Compton-thick obscuration, supporting the conclusion that Seyfert 2 galaxies without PBLs are more obscured than those with PBLs. Adding the measured obscuration indicators (NH, T ratio, and Fe Kα line EW) of six luminous AGNs to our previous sample improves the significance level of the difference in absorption from 92.3% to 96.3% for NH, 99.1% to 99.4% for T ratio, and 95.3% to 97.4% for Fe Kα line EW. The present results support and enhance the suggestions that the absence of PBLs in Seyfert 2 galaxies can be explained by larger viewing angles of the line of sight to the putative dusty torus, which leads to the obscuration of the broad-line scattering screen, as expected in the unification model.

title: Alignment of the ATLAS Inner Detector tracking system
abstract: The ATLAS Inner Detector (ID) consists of two silicon subsystems, the Pixel detector and the Semiconductor Tracker (SCT), complemented by the Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) composed of drift tubes. After the assembly of the detector, the position of the individual modules is known with much worse accuracy than their intrinsic resolution. The baseline goal of the trackbased alignment is to determine the position and orientation of the modules with such precision that the track parameters determination is not worsened by more than 20% with respect to that expected from the perfectly aligned detector. This is crucial for efficient track reconstruction and precise momentum measurement and vertex reconstruction. The alignment of the ID requires the determination of its large number of degrees of freedom (DoF) with high accuracy. Thus the demanded precision for the alignment of the silicon sensors is below 10 μm. The implementation of the track based alignment within the ATLAS software framework unifies different alignment approaches and allows the alignment of all tracking subsystems together. The results of the alignment using real data recorded during the LHC start up run in 2009 plus the recent 7 TeV data collected during 2010 run will be presented.

title: Chandra X-Ray Sources in the LALA Cetus Field*
abstract: The 174 ks Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer exposure of the Large Area Lyman Alpha Survey (LALA) Cetus field is the second of the two deep Chandra images on LALA fields. In this paper we present the Chandra X-ray sources detected in the Cetus field, along with an analysis of X-ray source counts, stacked X-ray spectrum, and optical identifications. A total of 188 X-ray sources were detected: 174 in the 0.5-7.0 keV band, 154 in the 0.5-2.0 keV band, and 113 in the 2.0-7.0 keV band. The X-ray source counts were derived and compared with LALA field (172 ks exposure). Interestingly, we find consistent hard-band X-ray source density, but (36 ± 12)% higher soft-band X-ray source density in Cetus field. The weighted stacked spectrum of the detected X-ray sources can be fitted by a power law with photon index Γ = 1.55. Based on the weighted stacked spectrum, we find that the resolved fraction of the X-ray background drops from (72 ± 1)% at 0.5-1.0 keV to (63 ± 4)% at 6.0-8.0 keV. The unresolved spectrum can be fitted by a power law over the range 0.5-7 keV, with a photon index Γ = 1.22. We also present optical counterparts for 154 of the X-ray sources, down to a limiting magnitude of r' = 25.9 (Vega), using a deep r'-band image obtained with the MMT.

title: A STUDY OF COUPLER-TRAPPED MODES IN X-BAND LINACS FOR THE GLC / NLC
abstract: Each of the X-band accelerating structures for the GLC/NLC (Global Linear Collider/Next Linear Collider) consists of 55 cells which accelerate a train of charged bunches. The cells are carefully designed to ensure that the transverse wakefield left behind each bunch does not disrupt the trailing bunches, but some modes are trapped in the region of the coupler cells. These modes can give rise to severe emittance dilution if care is not taken to avoid a region of resonant growth in the emittance. Here, we present results on simulations, cold test experimental measurements and beam dynamics simulations arising as a consequence of modes trapped in the coupler. The region in which trapped modes have little influence on the beam is delineated.