Astrophysics
We argue that recent observations of afterglows and some theoretical considerations indicate that the gamma-ray fluence may be a better measure of strength of a burst than its peak flux. We discuss how the distribution of the fluence, or…
The distributions of spectral characteristics and their correlations with fluence, peak flux, or duration, are essential in understanding the nature of GRBs. However, the selection effects involved in detecting GRBs can distort these…
We investigate synchrotron emission models as the source of gamma-ray burst spectra. We show that including the possibility for synchrotron self-absorption, a ``smooth cutoff'' to the electron energy distribution, and an anisotropic…
The understanding and modeling of the structure and evolution of stars is based on statistical physics as well as on hydrodynamics. Today, a precise identification and proper description of the physical processes at work in stellar…
(abridged) Aims. To reconstruct the spectral shape of the quasar ionizing radiation in the extreme-UV range (1Ryd <= E < 10Ryd) from the analysis of narrow absorption lines (NAL) of the associated systems. Methods. Computational technique…
Previous work in the literature has studied gravitational radiation in black-hole collisions at the speed of light. In particular, it had been proved that the perturbative field equations may all be reduced to equations in only two…
In this article we review recent work aimed at showing explicitly the influence of electromagnetic self corrections on the dynamics of a circular vortex line endowed with a current at first order in the coupling between the current and the…
We examine whether nonthermal protons energized during a cluster merger are simultaneously responsible for the Coma cluster's diffuse radio flux (via secondary decay) and the departure of its intra-cluster medium (ICM) from a thermal…
Recent announcements that the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) - the faint remnant of the Big Bang - is polarized have caused a stir among cosmologists. Such polarization has long been predicted but could not be detected, until the recent…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides a snapshot of the early Universe when matter began to become structured and has been the focus of several recent observational campaigns. In this Perspective, we discuss the results from these…
We describe the technological concept and the first-light results of a 1024-channel spectrometer based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware. This spectrometer is the prototype for the seven beam L-band receiver to be installed…
We present observations of Sakurai's Object obtained at 1-5um between 2003 and 2007. By fitting a radiative transfer model to an echelle spectrum of CO fundamental absorption features around 4.7um, we determine the excitation conditions in…
We study the size of BLRs of low luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei, also called 'dwarf AGN', defined as having ($L_{H\alpha}\le10^{41}{\rm erg\cdot s^{-1}}$)). We more than double the sample size analyzed previously (Wang & Zhang 2003,…
The differential energy spectrum of cosmic rays from Cherenkov radiation measurements in EAS in the energy range of 10^15-10^20eV has been compared with an anomalous diffusion model for the particles in interstellar space having fractal…
We present the results of two-dimensional radiation-gasdynamic simulations of aspherical Planetary Nebulae (PNe) evolution. These simulations were constructed using the Generalized Interacting Stellar Winds (GISW) scenario of Balick (1987)…
Howes et al. Reply to Comment on "Kinetic Simulations of Magnetized Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas" arXiv:0711.4355
We conducted a very long baseline interferometric observation of 5 nearby pulsars and did not resolve the scattering disks of any of these sources. Using our upper limits on the angular diameters of these scattering disks and published…
There are multiple examples of gravitational losses in neutron stars and black holes. Protons and neutrons have been found to have enormous repulsive pressures that highly squeezed collapsing matter cannot overcome. The case against…
We have obtained differential time series photometry of the cataclysmic variable GS Pavonis over a timespan of 2 years. These show that this system is deeply eclipsing (~2-3.5 mag) with an orbital period of 3.72 hr. The eclipse depth and…
The structural and nucleosynthetic evolution of 3, 4, 5, 6 and \mass{7} stars with two metallicities ($Z = 0.005$ and 0.02) has been computed in detail, from the early pre-main sequence phase up to the thermally pulsing (TP) AGB phase or…