On the Dramatic Spin-up/Spin-down Torque Reversals in Accreting Pulsars
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: Large Torque Variations in Two Soft Gamma Repeaters
abstract: We have monitored the pulse frequencies of the two soft gamma repeaters SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 through the beginning of year 2001 using primarily Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array observations. In both sources, we observe large changes in the spin-down torque up to a factor of ~4, which persist for several months. Using long-baseline phase-connected timing solutions as well as the overall frequency histories, we construct torque noise power spectra for each SGR. The power spectrum of each source is very red (power-law slope ~-3.5). The torque noise power levels are consistent with some accreting systems on timescales of ~1 yr, yet the full power spectrum is much steeper in frequency than any known accreting source. To the best of our knowledge, torque noise power spectra with a comparably steep frequency dependence have been seen only in young, glitching radio pulsars (e.g., Vela). The observed changes in spin-down rate do not correlate with burst activity; therefore, the physical mechanisms behind each phenomenon are also likely unrelated. Within the context of the magnetar model, seismic activity cannot account for both the bursts and the long-term torque changes unless the seismically active regions are decoupled from one another.

title: A Decade in the Life of EXO 2030+375: A Multiwavelength Study of an Accreting X-Ray Pulsar
abstract: Using BATSE and RXTE observations from 1991 April to 2001 August, we have detected 71 outbursts from 82 periastron passages of EXO 2030+375, a 42 s transient X-ray pulsar with a Be star companion, including several outbursts from 1993 August to 1996 April, when the source was previously believed to be quiescent. Combining BATSE, RXTE, and EXOSAT data, we have derived an improved orbital solution. Applying this solution results in a smooth profile for the spin-up rate during the giant outburst and results in evidence for a correlation between the spin-up rate and observed flux in the brighter BATSE outbursts. Infrared and H? measurements show a decline in the density of the circumstellar disk around the Be star. This decline is followed by a sudden drop in the X-ray flux and a turnover from a spin-up trend to spin-down in the frequency history. This is the first Be/X-ray binary that shows an extended interval, about 2.5 yr, in which the global trend is spin-down, but the outbursts continue. In 1995 the orbital phase of EXO 2030+375's outbursts shifted from peaking about 6 days after periastron to peaking before periastron. The outburst phase slowly recovered to peaking at about 2.5 days after periastron. We interpret this shift in orbital phase followed by a slow recovery as evidence of a global one-armed oscillation propagating in the Be disk. This is further supported by changes in the shape of the H? profile, which are commonly believed to be produced by a reconfiguration of the Be disk. The truncated viscous decretion disk model provides an explanation for the long series of normal outbursts and the evidence of an accretion disk in the brighter normal outbursts. Long-term multiwavelength observations such as these clearly add considerably to our knowledge of Be/X-ray binaries and the relationship among optical, infrared, and X-ray observations.

title: On the Correlation of Torque and Luminosity in GX 1+4
abstract: Over 5 years of daily hard X-ray (.20 keV) monitoring of the 2 minute accretion-powered pulsar GX 1+4 with the Compton Gamma Ray ObservatoryyBATSE large-area detectors has found nearly continuous rapid spin-down, interrupted by a bright 200 day spin-up episode. During spin-down, the torque becomes more negative as the luminosity increases (assuming that the 20–60 keV pulsed flux traces bolometric luminosity), the opposite of what is predicted by standard accretion torque theory. No changes in the shape of the 20–100 keV pulsed energy spectrum were detected, so that a very drastic change in the spectrum below 20 keV or the pulsed fraction would be required to make the 20–60 keV pulsed flux a poor luminosity tracer. These are the first observations that flatly contradict standard magnetic disk accretion theory, and they may have important implications for understanding the spin evolution of X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables, and protostars. We briefly discuss the possibility that GX 1+4 may be accreting from a retrograde disk during spin-down, as previously suggested.

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: 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: Search for heavy long-lived charged particles in $pp$ collisions at $s=7$ TeV
abstract: The result of a search for heavy long-lived charged particles produced in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC is described. The data sample has been collected using the CMS detector and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 inverse femtobarns. The inner tracking detectors are used to define a sample of events containing tracks with high momentum and high ionization energy loss. A second sample of events with high-momentum and high-ionization tracks satisfying muon identification and long time-of-flight criteria is analyzed independently. In both cases, the results are consistent with the expected background estimated from data. The results are used to establish cross section limits as a function of mass within the context of models with long-lived gluinos, scalar top quarks and scalar taus. Cross section limits on hyper-meson particles, containing new elementary long-lived hyper-quarks predicted by a vector-like confinement model, are also presented. Lower limits at 95% confidence level on the mass of gluinos (scalar top quarks) are found to be 1098 (737) GeV. A limit of 928 (626) GeV is set for a gluino (scalar top quark) that hadronizes into a neutral bound state before reaching the muon detectors. The lower mass limit for a pair produced scalar tau is found to be 223 GeV. Mass limits for a hyper-kaon are placed at 484, 602, and 747 GeV for hyper-rho masses of 800, 1200, and 1600 GeV, respectively.

title: Searches for Higgs bosons in pp collisions at √s=7 and 8 TeV in the context of four-generation and fermiophobic models
abstract: Searches are reported for Higgs bosons in the context of either the standard model extended to include a fourth generation of fermions (SM4) with masses of up to 600 GeV or fermiophobic models. For the former, results from three decay modes (ττ, WW, and ZZ) are combined, whilst for the latter the diphoton decay is exploited. The analysed proton–proton collision data correspond to integrated luminosities of up to 5.1 fb−1 at 7 TeV and up to 5.3 fb−1 at 8 TeV. The observed results exclude the SM4 Higgs boson in the mass range 110–600 GeV at 99% confidence level (CL), and in the mass range 110–560 GeV at 99.9% CL. A fermiophobic Higgs boson is excluded in the mass range 110–147 GeV at 95% CL, and in the range 110–133 GeV at 99% CL. The recently observed boson with a mass near 125 GeV is not consistent with either an SM4 or a fermiophobic Higgs boson.

title: Search for third-generation leptoquarks and scalar bottom quarks in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7\;TeV $
abstract: A bstractResults are presented from a search for third-generation leptoquarks and scalar bottom quarks in a sample of proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7\;TeV $ collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb−1. A scenario where the new particles are pair produced and each decays to a b quark plus a tau neutrino or neutralino is considered. The number of observed events is found to be in agreement with the standard model prediction. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the production cross sections. Leptoquarks with masses below ~450 GeV are excluded. Upper limits in the mass plane of the scalar quark and neutralino are set such that scalar bottom quark masses up to 410 GeV are excluded for neutralino masses of 50 GeV.

title: Search for new physics with jets and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at $ \sqrt {s} = 7 $ TeV
abstract: A search for new physics is presented based on an event signature of at least three jets accompanied by large missing transverse momentum, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb−1 collected in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt {s} = 7 $ TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. No excess of events is observed above the expected standard model backgrounds, which are all estimated from the data. Exclusion limits are presented for the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Cross section limits are also presented using simplified models with new particles decaying to an undetected particle and one or two jets.

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.