Near-infrared interferometric observation of the Herbig Ae star HD 144432 with VLTI/AMBER
We study the sub-AU-scale circumstellar environment of the Herbig Ae star HD 144432 with near-infrared VLTI/AMBER observations to investigate the structure of its inner dust disk.  The interferometric observations were carried out with the AMBER instrument in the H and K band. We interpret the measured H - and K -band visibilities, the near- and mid-infrared visibilities from the literature, and the spectral energy distribution (SED) of HD 144432 by using geometric ring models and ring-shaped temperature-gradient disk models with power-law temperature distributions.  We derive a K -band ring-fit radius of 0.17 ± 0.01   AU and an H -band radius of 0.18 ± 0.01   AU (for a distance of 145   pc). This measured K -band radius of  ~0.17   AU lies in the range between the dust sublimation radius of  ~0.13   AU (predicted for a dust sublimation temperature of 1500   K and gray dust) and the prediction of models including backwarming (~0.27 AU). We find that an additional extended halo component is required in both the geometric and temperature-gradient modeling. In the best-fit temperature-gradient model, the disk consists of two components. The inner part of the disk is a thin ring with an inner radius of  ~0.21   AU, a temperature of  ~1600   K, and a ring thickness  ~0.02   AU. The outer part extends from  ~1   AU to  ~10   AU with an inner temperature of  ~400   K. We find that the disk is nearly face-on with an inclination angle of Conclusions. Our temperature-gradient modeling suggests that the near-infrared excess is dominated by emission from a narrow, bright rim located at the dust sublimation radius, while an extended halo component contributes  ~6% to the total flux at 2    μ m. The mid-infrared model emission has a two-component structure with  ~20% of the flux originating from the inner ring and the rest from the outer parts. This two-component structure is indicative of a disk gap, which is possibly caused by the shadow of a puffed-up inner rim.

title: Hollow core?
abstract: We carried out the Gaussian fitting to the profile of PSR B1237+25 and found that six components rather than five are necessary to make a good fit. In the central part, we found that the core emission is not filled pencil beam but is a small hollow cone. This implies that the impact angle could be β < 0.5◦. The “hollow core” is in agreement with Inverse Compton Scattering model of radio pulsars.

title: Descope of the ALIA mission
abstract: The present work reports on a feasibility study commissioned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences of China to explore various possible mission options to detect gravitational waves in space alternative to that of the eLISA/LISA mission concept. Based on the relative merits assigned to science and technological viability, a few representative mission options descoped from the ALIA mission are considered. A semi-analytic Monte Carlo simulation is carried out to understand the cosmic black hole merger histories and the possible scientific merits of the mission options in probing the light seed black holes and their coevolution with galaxies in early Universe. The study indicates that, by choosing the armlength of the interferometer to be three million kilometers and shifting the sensitivity floor to around one-hundredth Hz, together with a very moderate improvement on the position noise budget, there are certain mission options capable of exploring light seed, intermediate mass black hole binaries at high redshift that are not readily accessible to eLISA/LISA, and yet the technological requirements seem to within reach in the next few decades for China.

title: Application of silicon-detector technology to experiments in space. An option for the Astromag facility
abstract: SummaryCosmic antimatter search needs transportation systems of the apparatus outside the atmosphere. The Astromag facility on the NASA space station will be a great opportunity for such a search in the next future. Here we discuss the advantages achievable from silicon-detector technology in space research and we propose a silicon calorimeter as an ideal option to work in connection with the Astromag facility itself.RiassuntoLa ricerca di antimateria cosmica necessita di sistemi di trasporto e di apparati al di fuori dell’atmosfera. La facility Astromag, posta sulla stazione spaziale della NASA, costituirà nel prossimo futuro una grande opportunità per questo tipo di ricerca. Si discutono qui i vantaggi che si possono ottenera dalla tecnologia dei rivelatori a silicio nella ricerca spaziale e si propone un calorimetro a silicio come opzione ideale per operare in connessione con la facility Astromag stessa.РезюмеПоиски антивещества в космосе требуют транспортных систем для вывода экспериментальной аппаратуры за пределы атмосферы. Экспериментальная установка «АСТРОМАГ» на космической станции NASA представляет болышие возможности для таких поисков. Мы обсуждаем преимущества технологии кремниевых детекторов в космических исследованиях. Предлагается кремниевый калориметр, как идеальный прибор для установки «АСТРОМАГ».

title: Guidelines for a supercollider experiment: the magnetic system
abstract: We try to give some general guidelines for optimizing the magnetic system of a general-purpose detector with a high momentum resolution for muons at a supercollider experiment. Solenoidal and toroidal schemes are investigated, with the possibility of using calorimeter material as the coil.

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: Study on the spectrum of the injected relativistic protons
abstract: About 10TeV gamma-ray emission within 10 pc region from the Galactic Center had been reported by 4 independent groups. Considering that this TeV gamma-ray emission is produced via a hadronic model, and the relativistic protons came from the tidal disruption of stars by massive black holes, we investigate the spectral nature of the injected relativistic protons required by the hadronic model. The calculation was carried on the tidal disruption of the different types of stars and the different propagation mechanisms of protons in the interstellar medium. Compared with the observation data from HESS, we find for the best fitting that the power-law index of the spectrum of the injected protons is about -1.9, when a red giant star is tidally disrupted, and the effective confinement of protons diffusion mechanism is adopted.