X-Ray Properties of the Point Source Population in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 5055 （M63） with Chandra
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: A CHANDRA STUDY OF TEMPERATURE SUBSTRUCTURES IN INTERMEDIATE-REDSHIFT GALAXY CLUSTERS
abstract: By analyzing the gas temperature maps created from the Chandra archive data, we reveal the prevailing existence of temperature substructures on ~100 h –1 70 kpc scales in the central regions of nine intermediate-redshift (z ≈ 0.1) galaxy clusters, which resemble those found in the Virgo and Coma Clusters. Each substructure contains a clump of hot plasma whose temperature is about 2-3 keV higher than the environment, corresponding to an excess thermal energy of ~1058-1060 erg per clump. If there were no significant nongravitational heating sources, these substructures would have perished in 108-109 yr due to thermal conduction and turbulent flows, whose velocity is found to range from about 200 to 400 km s–1, we conclude that the substructures cannot be created and sustained by inhomogeneous radiative cooling. We also eliminate the possibilities that the temperature substructures are caused by supernova explosions, or by the nonthermal X-ray emission due to the inverse-Comptonization of the cosmic microwave background photons. By calculating the rising time of active galactic nucleus (AGN)-induced buoyant bubbles, we speculate that the intermittent AGN outbursts (≥1060 erg per burst) may have played a crucial role in the formation of the high-temperature substructures. Our results are supported by the recent study of McNamara and Nulsen, posing a tight observational constraint on future theoretical and numerical studies.

title: A joint Chandra and XMM-Newton view of Abell 3158: a massive off-centre cool gas clump as a robust diagnostic of a merger stage
abstract: In previous works, the nearby galaxy cluster Abell 3158 was reported to possess a relatively regular, relaxed morphology in the X-ray band. By analysing the Chandra and XMM-Newton archived data of Abell 3158, we have identified a bow-edge-shaped discontinuity in the X-ray surface brightness distribution about 120 h -1 71 kpc west of the X-ray peak. This feature is found to be associated with a massive, off-centre cool gas clump, and actually forms the west boundary of the cool clump. By calculating the thermal gas pressures in the cool clump and in the free-stream region, we determine that the cool gas clump is moving at a subsonic velocity of 700 +140 -340 km s -1 (M = 0.6 +0.1 -0.3 ) towards west on the sky plane. We exclude the possibility that this cool clump was formed by local inhomogeneous radiative cooling in the intracluster medium, because of the effectiveness of the thermal conduction on the time-scale of ∼.3 Gyr. As no evidence for central active galactic nucleus activity has been found in Abell 3158, and this cool clump bears many similarities to the off-centre cool gas clumps detected in other merging clusters in terms of their mass, size, location and thermal properties (e.g. lower temperature and higher abundance as compared with the environment), we speculate that the cool clump in Abell 3158 was caused by a merger event, and is the remnant of the original central cool-core of the main cluster or the infalling subcluster. This idea is supported not only by the study of the line-of-sight velocity distribution of the cluster member galaxies, but also by the study of the gas entropy-temperature correlation. This example shows that the appearance of such massive, off-centre cool gas clumps can be used to diagnose the dynamical state of a cluster, especially when prominent shocks and cold fronts are absent.

title: CHANDRA OBSERVATION OF A WEAK SHOCK IN THE GALAXY CLUSTER A2556
abstract: Based on a 21.5 ks Chandra observation of A2556, we identify an edge on the surface brightness profile at about 160 h(71)(-1) kpc northeast of the cluster center, and it corresponds to a shock front whose Mach number M is calculated to be 1.25(-0.03)(+0.02). No prominent substructure, such as sub-cluster, is found in either the optical or X-ray band that can be associated with the edge, suggesting that the conventional supersonic motion mechanism may not work in this case. As an alternative solution, we propose that the nonlinear steepening of an acoustic wave, which is induced by the turbulence of the intracluster medium at the core of the cluster, can be used to explain the origin of the shock front. Although nonlinear steepening weak shock is expected to occur frequently in clusters, why it is rarely observed still remains a question that requires further investigation, including both deeper X-ray observation and extensive theoretical studies.

title: TWO-PHASE ICM IN THE CENTRAL REGION OF THE RICH CLUSTER OF GALAXIES A1795: A JOINT CHANDRA, XMM-NEWTON, AND SUZAKU VIEW
abstract: Based on a detailed analysis of the high-quality Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Suzaku data of the X-ray bright cluster of galaxies A1795, we report clear evidence for a two-phase intracluster medium (ICM) structure, which consists of a cool (with a temperature T-c approximate to 2.0-2.2 keV) and a hot (T-h approximate to 5.0-5.7 keV) component that coexist and dominate the X-ray emission at least in the central 80 kpc. A third weak emission component (T-3 approximate to 0.8 keV) is also detected within the innermost 144 kpc and is ascribed to a portion of interstellar medium of the cD galaxy. Deprojected spectral analysis reveals flat radial temperature distributions for both the hot phase and cool phase components. These results are consistent with the ASCA measurements reported by Xu et al. and resemble the previous findings for the Centaurus Cluster. By analyzing the emission measure ratio and gas metal abundance maps created from the Chandra data, we find that the cool phase component is more metal-enriched than the hot phase one in the 50-100 kpc region, which agrees with that found in M87. The coexistence of the cool phase and hot phase ICM cannot be realized by bubble uplifting from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) alone. Instead, the two-phase ICM properties are better reconciled with a cD corona model. In this model, the cool phase may be ascribed to the plasmas confined in magnetic loops, which are surrounded by the intruding hot phase ICM and have been polluted by metals synthesized in the cD galaxy. AGN feedback energy released in the innermost 10 kpc can serve as the heating source to prevent the loop-interior gas from cooling down to temperatures much lower than the observed value. The total gravitating mass profile exhibits a hierarchical structure, regardless of the ICM temperature modeling.

title: A Method to Extract the Angular Power Spectrum of the Epoch of Reionization from Low-Frequency Radio Interferometers
abstract: The redshifted 21 cm signal of neutral hydrogen from the epoch of reionization (EoR) is extremely weak and its first detection is therefore expected to be statistical with first-generation low-frequency radio interferometers. In this Letter, we propose a method to extract the angular power spectrum of the EoR from the visibility correlation coefficients p{sub ij} (u, v), instead of the visibilities V{sub ij} (u, v) measured directly by radio interferometers in conventional algorithm. The visibility correlation coefficients are defined as p{sub ij}(u,v)=V{sub ij}(u,v)/{radical}(|V{sub ii}||V{sub jj}|) by introducing the autocorrelation terms V{sub ii} and V{sub jj} such that the angular power spectrum C{sub l} can be obtained through C{sub l} = T {sup 2}{sub 0}(|p{sub ij} (u, v)|{sup 2}), independently of the primary beams of antennas. This also partially removes the influence of receiver gains in the measurement of C{sub l} because the amplitudes of the gains cancel each other out in the statistical average operation of (|p{sub ij} (u, v)|{sup 2}). We use the average system temperature T{sub 0} as a calibrator of C{sub l}, which is dominated by the Milky Way and extragalactic sources in the frequency range that we are interested in, below 200 MHz. Finally, we demonstratemore » the feasibility of this novel method using the simulated sky maps as targets and the 21 CentiMeter Array (21CMA) as interferometer.« less

title: Traveling wave structure optimization for the NLC
abstract: The JLC/NLC linac must accelerate multi-bunch beams in order to obtain a luminosity >3/spl times/10/sup 34/ cm/sup -2/ sec/sup -1/ at a center of mass energy of 1 TeV. It is essential for the structure design to minimize the long and short-range dipole wakefields to prevent emittance degradation and the beam breakup instability (BBU). In addition, the structures must operate at a high RF gradient to minimize the linac cost. High-power testing of prototype structures at SLAC has shown noticeable damage. The damage is largest in the front of the structure, where the group velocity is high, and there is minimal or no damage at the back end, where the group velocity is low. Theoretical analysis using a simple circuit model suggests using structures with a lower group velocity, on the order of a few percent, would be a way of avoiding damage. For the standard 2/spl pi//3 accelerating mode, it is difficult to lower the group velocity without losing efficiency or increasing the wakefields. With this in mind, we have taken the phase advance as an additional parameter in structure optimization. We found that a low group velocity structure at higher phase advance can maintain high RF efficiency and low wakefields. In this paper, we study the impact of phase advance on structure performance. We then optimize the NLC S-band and X-band structures to meet design requirements.

title: ${\mathcal O}(\alpha_s v^2)$ correction to $J/\psi$ plus $\eta_c$ production in $e^+e^-$ annihilation at $\sqrt{s}=10.6GeV
abstract: Based on the nonrelativistic QCD factorization approach, ${\mathcal O}(\alpha_s v^2)$ corrections to $\jpsi$ plus $\eta_c$ production in $e^+e^-$ annihilation at $\sqrt{s}=10.6 \gev$ is calculated in this work. The numerical results show that the correction at $\alpha_s v^2$ order is only about a few percent for the total theoretical result. It indicates that the perturbative expansions for the theoretical prediction become convergence and higher order correction will be smaller. The uncertainties from the long-distance matrix elements, renormalization scale and the measurement in experiment are also discussed. Our result is in agreement with previous result in ref .

title: A Puzzling X-Ray Source Found in the Chandra Deep Field-South
abstract: In this Letter, we report the detection of an extremely strong X-ray emission line in the 940 ks Chandra ACIS-I spectrum of CXOCDFS J033225.3-274219. The source was identified as a type 1 active galactic nucleus at a redshift of z = 1.617, with a 2.0-10.0 keV rest-frame X-ray luminosity of ~1044 ergs s-1. The emission line was detected at 6.2 keV, with an equivalent width (EW) of 4.4 keV; both quantities refer to the observed frame. In the rest frame, the line is at 16.2 keV with an EW of 11.5 keV. An X-ray emission line at a similar energy (~17 keV, in the rest frame) in PKS 2149-306 was discovered before using ASCA data. We reject the possibility that the line is due to a statistical or instrumental artifact. The line is most likely due to blueshifted Fe K emission from an relativistic outflow, probably an inner X-ray jet, with velocities of the order of ~0.6c-0.7c. Other possible explanations are also discussed.

title: Probing the X-ray binary populations of the ring galaxy NGC 1291
abstract: We present Chandra studies of the X-ray binary (XRB) populations in the bulge and ring regions of the ring galaxy NGC 1291. We detect 169 X-ray point sources in the galaxy, 75 in the bulge and 71 in the ring, utilizing the four available Chandra observations totaling an effective exposure of 179 ks. We report photometric properties of these sources in a point-source catalog. There are Almost-Equal-To 40% of the bulge sources and Almost-Equal-To 25% of the ring sources showing >3{sigma} long-term variability in their X-ray count rate. The X-ray colors suggest that a significant fraction of the bulge ( Almost-Equal-To 75%) and ring ( Almost-Equal-To 65%) sources are likely low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). The spectra of the nuclear source indicate that it is a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN) with moderate obscuration; spectral variability is observed between individual observations. We construct 0.3-8.0 keV X-ray luminosity functions (XLFs) for the bulge and ring XRB populations, taking into account the detection incompleteness and background AGN contamination. We reach 90% completeness limits of Almost-Equal-To 1.5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 37} and Almost-Equal-To 2.2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 37} erg s{sup -1} for the bulge and ring populations, respectively. Both XLFs can be fit with a brokenmore » power-law model, and the shapes are consistent with those expected for populations dominated by LMXBs. We perform detailed population synthesis modeling of the XRB populations in NGC 1291, which suggests that the observed combined XLF is dominated by an old LMXB population. We compare the bulge and ring XRB populations, and argue that the ring XRBs are associated with a younger stellar population than the bulge sources, based on the relative overdensity of X-ray sources in the ring, the generally harder X-ray color of the ring sources, the overabundance of luminous sources in the combined XLF, and the flatter shape of the ring XLF.« less

title: The ninth data release of the sloan digital sky survey: first spectroscopic data from the sdss-iiI baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey
abstract: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) presents the first spectroscopic data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This ninth data release (DR9) of the SDSS project includes 535,995 new galaxy spectra (median z ~ 0.52), 102,100 new quasar spectra (median z ~ 2.32), and 90,897 new stellar spectra, along with the data presented in previous data releases. These spectra were obtained with the new BOSS spectrograph and were taken between 2009 December and 2011 July. In addition, the stellar parameters pipeline, which determines radial velocities, surface temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities of stars, has been updated and refined with improvements in temperature estimates for stars with T eff -0.5. DR9 includes new stellar parameters for all stars presented in DR8, including stars from SDSS-I and II, as well as those observed as part of the SEGUE-2. The astrometry error introduced in the DR8 imaging catalogs has been corrected in the DR9 data products. The next data release for SDSS-III will be in Summer 2013, which will present the first data from the APOGEE along with another year of data from BOSS, followed by the final SDSS-III data release in 2014 December.