N. Kawai

Relativistic jet activity from the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole [Discovery of the onset of rapid accretion by a dormant massive black hole]

Supermassive black holes have powerful gravitational fields with strong gradients that can destroy stars that get too close, producing a bright flare in ultraviolet and X-ray spectral regions from stellar debris that forms an accretion disk around the black hole. The aftermath of this process may have been seen several times over the past two decades in the form of sparsely sampled, slowly fading emission from distant galaxies, but the onset of the stellar disruption event has not hitherto been observed. Here we report observations of a bright X-ray flare from the extragalactic transient Swift J164449.3+573451. This source increased in brightness in the X-ray band by a factor of at least 10,000 since 1990 and by a factor of at least 100 since early 2010. We conclude that we have captured the onset of relativistic jet activity from a supermassive black hole. A companion paper comes to similar conclusions on the basis of radio observations. This event is probably due to the tidal disruption of a star falling into a supermassive black hole, but the detailed behaviour differs from current theoretical models of such events.D. N. Burrows , J. A. Kennea , G. Ghisellini , V. Mangano , B. Zhang , K. L. Page , M. Eracleous , P. Romano , T. Sakamoto , A. D. Falcone , J. P. Osborne , S. Campana , A. P. Beardmore , A. A. Breeveld , M. M. Chester , R. Corbet , S. Covino , J. R. Cummings , P. D’Avanzo , V. D’Elia , P. Esposito , P. A. Evans , D. Fugazza, J. M. Gelbord , K. Hiroi , S. T. Holland , K. Y. Huang , M. Im, G. Israel , Y. Jeon , Y.-B. Jeon , N. Kawai , H. A. Krimm , P. Mészáros , H. Negoro , N. Omodei , W.K. Park , J. S. Perkins , M. Sugizaki , H.-I. Sung , G. Tagliaferri , E. Troja , Y. Ueda, Y. Urata, R. Usui , L. A. Antonelli , S. D. Barthelmy , G. Cusumano , P. Giommi , F. E. Marshall , A. Melandri , M. Perri , J. L. Racusin , B. Sbarufatti , M. H. Siegel , & N. Gehrels 21

A log NH I = 22.6 Damped Lyα Absorber in a Dark Gamma-Ray Burst: The Environment of GRB 050401*

The optical afterglow spectrum of GRB 050401 (at z = 2.8992 ± 0.0004) shows the presence of a damped Lyα absorber (DLA), with log N = 22.6 ± 0.3. This is the highest column density ever observed in a DLA and is about 5 times larger than the strongest DLA detected so far in any QSO spectrum. From the optical spectrum, we also find a very large Zn column density, implying an abundance of [Zn/H] = -1.0 ± 0.4. These large columns are supported by the early X-ray spectrum from Swift XRT, which shows a column density (in excess of Galactic) of log NH = 22.21 assuming solar abundances (at z = 2.9). The comparison of this X-ray column density, which is dominated by absorption due to α-chain elements, and the H I column density derived from the Lyα absorption line allows us to derive a metallicity for the absorbing matter of [α/H] = -0.4 ± 0.3. The optical spectrum is reddened and can be well reproduced with a power law with SMC extinction, where AV = 0.62 ± 0.06. But the total optical extinction can also be constrained independent of the shape of the extinction curve: from the optical to X-ray spectral energy distribution, we find 0.5 AV 4.5. However, even this upper limit, independent of the shape of the extinction curve, is still well below the dust column that is inferred from the X-ray column density, i.e., AV = 9.1. This discrepancy might be explained by a small dust content with high metallicity (low dust-to-metals ratio). Gray extinction cannot explain the discrepancy, since we are comparing the metallicity to a measurement of the total extinction (without reference to the reddening). Little dust with high metallicity may be produced by sublimation of dust grains or may naturally exist in systems younger than a few hundred megayears.

The redshift and afterglow of the extremely energetic gamma-ray burst GRB 080916C

Context. The detection of GeV photons from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has important consequences for the interpretation and modelling of these most-energetic cosmological explosions. The full exploitation of the high-energy measurements relies, however, on accurate knowledge of the distance to the events. Aims. Here we report on the discovery of the afterglow and subsequent redshift determination of GRB 080916C, the first GRB detected by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope with high significance detection of photons at energies >0.1 GeV. Methods. Observations were done with the 7-channel “Gamma-Ray Optical and Near-infrared Detector” (GROND) at the 2.2 m MPI/ESO telescope, the SIRIUS instrument at the Nagoya-SAAO 1.4 m telescope in South Africa, and the GMOS instrument at Gemini-S. Results. The afterglow photometric redshift of z = 4.35 ± 0.15, based on simultaneous 7-filter observations with GROND, places GRB 080916C among the top 5% most distant GRBs and makes it the most energetic GRB known to date. The detection of GeV photons from such a distant event is unexpected because of the predicted opacity due to interaction with the extragalactic background light. The observed gamma-ray variability in the prompt emission, together with the redshift, suggests a lower limit for the Lorentz factor of the ultra-relativistic ejecta of Γ > 1090. This value rivals any previous measurements of Γ in GRBs and strengthens the extreme nature of GRB 080916C.

Detection of Magnetospheric X-Ray Pulsation from the Millisecond Pulsar B1821–24

We report the first clear detection of X-ray pulsation of magnetospheric origin from a millisecond pulsar, PSR B1821-24, with the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics. The photon arrival time shows a periodicity of 3.05 ms period, as observed in the radio band. The observed X-ray pulse is double peaked. The pulses are characterized by a sharp temporal profile and hard power-law spectrum with a phase-averaged photon index of ~1.9. These two features are quite similar to the X-ray/γ-ray pulses from the Crab pulsar and characteristic of the nonthermal emission from the magnetosphere of the neutron star, but contradictory to the thermal emission from its surface. Since this pulsar has physical parameters completely different from those of young pulsars, we expect these observations to provide significant constraints on models of pulsar magnetospheric emission, which have been developed mostly based on the observations of young pulsars.

Accurate Position of SGR 1900+14 by Bursts and Changes in Pulse Period and Folded Pulse Profile with ASCA

The Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) observed the soft gamma repeater SGR 1900+14 on 1998 April 30-May 1 and discovered a pulsar with a period of 5.1589715(8) s from the known X-ray source of RX J190714.2+0919.3. Four months later, on September 16-17, ASCA observed SGR 1900+14 again just after the giant burst on 1998 August 27. Comparing the observations in September with those in April, there are several changes in characteristics. The pulse period changed to 5.160295(3) s, and thus the long-term period derivative is 1.1 × 10-10 s s-1. This strongly supports a magnetar model. The folded pulse profile in 2-10 keV largely changed from three peaks in April to one simple peak, while the steady intensity increased by a factor of 2. Finally, we successfully determined the accurate location of SGR 1900+14 by the bursts with an accuracy of 15 in diameter.

A Cooling Neutron Star in Supernova Remnant G296.5+10.0

We present a ~20 ks Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) observation of the intriguing X-ray source 1E 1207.4-5209. The source is situated near the center of G296.5+10.0, one of the original barrel-shaped supernova remnants (SNRs). ASCA and ROSAT PSPC data are very well described by a blackbody model of temperature kT = 0.28 keV with a foreground absorbing column of NH = 4 × 1020 cm-2 in the range 0.1-10.0 keV. Previous stringent upper limits for optical and radio emission from the source support a cooling neutron star hypothesis. At its likely distance of 2 kpc, the luminosity LX ~ 1033d22 ergs s-1 implies a radiating surface area A ~ 30d22 km2, which is significantly less than the total area of a canonical neutron star. Despite the large number of detected photons, we see no evidence for rotationally induced X-ray pulsations. Surprisingly, no pulsar-like behavior is found in 1E 1207.4-5209, except that a faint radio nebulosity surrounding it may well be a pulsar-powered plerion. We deduce that the neutron star may have been born spinning very slowly (a birth period P ~ 0.5 s) and is a weak pulsar, which strengthens our belief that the observed radiation is indeed due to surface cooling.

OPTICAL AND NEAR-INFRARED POLARIMETRY OF HIGHLY REDDENED Type Ia SUPERNOVA 2014J: PECULIAR PROPERTIES OF DUST IN M82

We presented optical and near-infrared multi-band linear polarimetry of the highly reddened Type Ia SN~2014J appeared in M82. SN~2014J exhibits large polarization at shorter wavelengths, e.g.,

Comparative Study of the Initial Spikes of Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater Giant Flares in 1998 and 2004 Observed with Geotail: Do Magnetospheric Instabilities Trigger Large-Scale Fracturing of a Magnetar's Crust?

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UNRAVELING THE NATURE OF UNIDENTIFIED HIGH GALACTIC LATITUDE FERMI/LAT GAMMA-RAY SOURCES WITH SUZAKU

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ASCA Observations of the Jet Source XTE J1748–288

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