Hard X-ray light curves of high-mass X-ray binaries
Using the 7.2 years of continuous data now available from the Burst And Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) aboard CGRO, we have measured orbital periods and produced folded lightcurves for 8 High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXB). Given the length of the datasets, our determinations are based on many more binary orbits than previous investigations. Thus our source detections have high statistical significance and we are able to follow long-term trends in X-ray output. In particular we focus on two systems: A0538-668 and EXO2030+375 both HMXBs exhibiting Type I outbursts. Recent work on A0538-668 (Alcock et al 1999) reported a 16.65d optical variability due to the orbital period, but only seen during minima of a longer-term variability at 421d. We searched for this signal in the BATSE dataset using an ephemeris derived from Alcock et al ( 1999) & Skinner ( 1982). We found no evidence for such modulation and place an upper limit of 3.0 x 10(exp -3) photon/sq cm.s in the 20-70 keV BATSE energy band , based upon statistical modelling of the signal. EXO2030+375 has exhibited an X-ray active epoch, followed by a quiescent period lasting 2.5yr and since April 1996 has exhibited renewed activity. Previous observations (Reig et a 1998) using RXTE ASM data indicate secondary outbursts occur at apastron passage during the current epoch, but not in the former. We present a lightcurve for the earlier epoch showing convincing evidence for such apastron outbursts. We find apastron outbursts in 3 sources, all having orbital periods greater than 41d. No such signal is conclusively detected in the more rapidly orbiting systems studied.

title: Characterization of the Crab Pulsar's Timing Noise
abstract: We present a power spectral analysis of the Crab pulsar’s timing noise, mainly using radio measurements from Jodrell Bank taken over the period 1982-1989, an interval bounded by sparse data sampling and a large glitch. The power spectral analysis is complicated by nonuniform data sampling and the presence of a steep red power spectrum that can distort power spectra measurement by causing severe power “leakage”. We develop a simple windowing method for computing red noise power spectra of uniformly sampled data sets and test it on Monte Carlo generated sample realizations of red power-law noise. We generalize time-domain methods of generating power-law red noise with even integer spectral indices to the case of noninteger spectral indices. The Jodrell Bank pulse phase residuals are dense and smooth enough that an interpolation onto a uniform time series is possible. A windowed power spectrum is computed revealing a periodic or nearly periodic component with a period of 568± 10 days and a 1/f 3 power-law noise component in pulse phase with a noise strength Sφ = (1.24±0.067)×10−16 cycles/sec over the analysis frequency range f = 0.003 − 0.1 cycles/day. This result deviates from past analyses which characterized the pulse phase timing residuals as either 1/f 4 power-law noise or a quasiperiodic process. The analysis was checked using the Deeter polynomial method of power spectrum estimation that was developed for the case of nonuniform sampling, but has lower spectral resolution. The timing noise is consistent with a torque noise spectrum rising with analysis frequency as f implying blue torque noise, a result not predicted by current models of pulsar timing noise. If the periodic or nearly periodic component is due to a binary companion, we find a mass function f(M) = (6.8 ± 2.4) × 10−16 M⊙ and a companion mass, Mc ≥ 3.2M⊕ assuming a Crab pulsar mass of 1.4M⊙.

title: Chandra Observations of the Anomalous X-ray Pulsar 4U 0142+61
abstract: We present X-ray imaging, timing, and phase-resolved spectroscopy of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61 using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The spectrum is well described by a power-law plus blackbody model with Γ = 3.35(2), kTBB = 0.458(3) keV, and NH = 0.91(2) × 1022 cm-2; we find no significant evidence for spectral features (0.5-7.0 keV). Time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy shows evidence for evolution in phase in either Γ, kTBB, or some combination thereof as a function of pulse phase. We derive a precise X-ray position for the source and determine its spin period, P = 8.68866(30) s. We have detected emission beyond 4'' from the central source and extending beyond 100'', likely due to dust scattering in the interstellar medium.

title: On the Dramatic Spin-up/Spin-down Torque Reversals in Accreting Pulsars
abstract: Dramatic torque reversals between spin-up and spin-down have been observed in half of the persistent X-ray 
pulsars monitored by the BATSE all-sky monitor on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Theoretical models 
developed to explain early pulsar timing data can explain spin-down torques via a disk-magnetosphere interaction 
if the star nearly corotates with the inner accretion disk. To produce the observed BATSE torque reversals, however, these equilibrium models require the disk to alternate between two mass accretion rates, with ˙M5 producing accretion torques of similar magnitude but always of opposite sign. Moreover, in at least one pulsar (GX 114) undergoing secular spin-down, the neutron star spins down faster during brief (~20 day) hard X-ray flares—this is opposite the correlation expected from standard theory, assuming that BATSE pulsed flux increases with mass accretion rate. The 10 day to 10 yr intervals between torque reversals in these systems are much longer than any characteristic magnetic or viscous timescale near the inner disk boundary and are more suggestive of a global disk phenomenon. 
 
We discuss possible explanations of the observed torque behavior. Despite the preferred sense of rotation defined by the binary orbit, the BATSE observations are urprisingly consistent with an earlier suggestion for GX 1+4: the disks in these systems somehow alternate between episodes of prograde and retrograde rotation. We are unaware of any mechanism that could produce a stable retrograde disk in a binary undergoing Roche lobe overflow, but such flip-flop behavior does occur in numerical simulations of wind-fed systems. One possibility is that the disks in some of these binaries are fed by an X-ray–excited wind.

title: Magnetar Twists: Fermi/Gamma ray Burst Monitor (GBM) detection of SGR J1550-5418
abstract: SGRJ1550–5418 (previously known as AXP1E1547.0–5408 or PSRJ1550–5418) went into three active bursting episodes in 2008 October and in 2009 January and March, emitting hundreds of typical Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR) bursts in soft gamma-rays. The second episode was especially intense, and our untriggered burst search on Fermi/GBM data (8−1000 keV) revealed ∼450 bursts emitted over 24 hours during the peak of this activity. Using the GBM data, we identified a ∼150-s-long enhanced persistent emission during 2009 January 22 that exhibited intriguing timing and spectral properties: (i) clear pulsations up to ∼110 keV at the spin period of the neutron star (P ∼ 2.07 s, the fastest of all magnetars), (ii) an additional (to a powerlaw) blackbody component required for the enhanced emission spectra with Sabancı University, Orhanlı-Tuzla, İstanbul 34956, Turkey Space Science Office, VP62, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94249, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands Universities Space Research Associations, NSSTC, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr., Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA Max-Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, 85748 Garching, Germany Spitzer Science Center/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA Dynetics, Inc., 1000 Explorer Boulevard, Huntsville, AL 35806, USA

title: Long-Term Spectral and Timing Behavior of the Black Hole Candidate XTE J1908+094
abstract: We present the long-term X-ray light curves and detailed spectral and timing analyses of XTE J1908+094 using the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array observations covering two outbursts in 2002 and early 2003. At the onset of the first outburst, the source was found in a spectrally low/hard state lasting for ~40 days, followed by a 3 day long transition to the high/soft state. The source flux (in 2-10 keV) reached ~100 mcrab on 2002 April 6, then decayed rapidly. In power spectra, we detect strong band-limited noise and varying low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations that evolved from ~0.5 to ~5 Hz during the initial low/hard state of the source. We find that the second outburst closely resembled the spectral evolution of the first. The X-ray transient's overall outburst characteristics led us to classify XTE J1908+094 as a black hole candidate. Here we also derive precise X-ray position of the source using Chandra observations that were performed during the decay phase of the first outburst and following the second outburst.

title: Search for supersymmetry in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} =7$ TeV in events with a single lepton, jets, and missing transverse momentum
abstract: Results are reported from a search for new physics processes in events containing a single isolated high-transverse-momentum lepton (electron or muon), energetic jets, and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a 4.98 fb−1 sample of proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, obtained with the CMS detector at the LHC. Three separate background estimation methods, each relying primarily on control samples in the data, are applied to a range of signal regions, providing complementary approaches for estimating the background yields. The observed yields are consistent with the predicted standard model backgrounds. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the parameter space for the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model, as well as on cross sections for simplified models, which provide a generic description of the production and decay of new particles in specific, topology based final states.

title: Search for new physics with same-sign isolated dilepton events with jets and missing transverse energy.
abstract: A search for new physics is performed in events with two same-sign isolated leptons, hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy in the final state. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 fb(-1) produced in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This constitutes a factor of 140 increase in integrated luminosity over previously published results. The observed yields agree with the standard model predictions and thus no evidence for new physics is found. The observations are used to set upper limits on possible new physics contributions and to constrain supersymmetric models. To facilitate the interpretation of the data in a broader range of new physics scenarios, information on the event selection, detector response, and efficiencies is provided.

title: Observation of Z decays to four leptons with the CMS detector at the LHC
abstract: A bstractThe first observation of the Z boson decaying to four leptons in proton-proton collisions is presented. The analyzed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.02 fb−1 at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV collected by the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. A pronounced resonance peak, with a statistical significance of 9.7 σ, is observed in the distribution of the invariant mass of four leptons (electrons and/or muons) with mass and width consistent with expectations for Z boson decays. The branching fraction and cross section reported here are defined by phase space restrictions on the leptons, namely, 80 < m4ℓ < 100 GeV, where m4ℓ is the invariant mass of the four leptons, and mℓℓ > 4 GeV for all pairs of leptons, where mℓℓ is the two-lepton invariant mass. The measured branching fraction is $ \mathcal{B}\left( {Z\to 4\ell } \right)=\left( {4.2_{-0.8}^{+0.9}\left( {\mathrm{stat}.} \right)\pm 0.2\left( {\mathrm{syst}.} \right)} \right)\times {10^{-6 }} $ and agrees with the standard model prediction of 4.45 × 10−6. The measured cross section times branching fraction is $ \sigma \left( {\mathrm{pp}\to \mathrm{Z}} \right)\mathcal{B}\left( {\mathrm{Z}\to 4\ell } \right)=112_{-20}^{+23}\left( {\mathrm{stat}.} \right)_{-5}^{+7}\left( {\mathrm{syst}.} \right)_{-2}^{+3}\left( {\mathrm{lumi}.} \right) $ fb, also consistent with the standard model prediction of 120 fb. The four-lepton mass peak arising from Z → 4ℓ decays provides a calibration channel for the Higgs boson search in the H → ZZ → 4ℓ decay mode.

title: Study of Various Photomultiplier Tubes with Muon Beams And Cerenkov Light Produced in Electron Showers
abstract: The PMTs of the CMS Hadron Forward calorimeter were found to generate a large size signal when their windows were traversed by energetic charged particles. This signal, which is due to. Cerenkov light production at the PMT window, could interfere with the calorimeter signal and mislead the measurements. In order to find a viable solution to this problem, the response of four different types of PMTs to muons traversing their windows at different orientations is measured at the H2 beam-line at CERN. Certain kinds of PMTs with thinner windows show significantly lower response to direct muon incidence. For the four anode PMT, a simple and powerful algorithm to identify such events and recover the PMT signal using the signals of the quadrants without window hits is also presented. For the measurement of PMT responses to. Cerenkov light, the Hadron Forward calorimeter signal was mimicked by two different setups in electron beams and the PMT performances were compared with each other. Superior performance of particular PMTs was observed.

title: Search for new physics in final states with a lepton and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at the LHC
abstract: This Letter describes the search for an enhanced production rate of events with a charged lepton and a neutrino in high-energy pp collisions at the LHC. The analysis uses data collected with the CMS detector, with an integrated luminosity of 5.0  fb-1 at √s=7  TeV, and a further 3.7  fb-1 at √s=8  TeV. No evidence is found for an excess. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on a heavy charged gauge boson (W′) in the sequential standard model, a split universal extra dimension model, and contact interactions in the helicity-nonconserving model. For the last, values of the binding energy below 10.5 (8.8) TeV in the electron (muon) channel are excluded at a 95% confidence level. Interpreting the lν final state in terms of a heavy W′ with standard model couplings, masses below 2.90 TeV are excluded.