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At least 19 records

Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

The Crab Nebula is the brightest TeV gamma-ray source in the sky and has been used for the past 25 years as a reference source in TeV astronomy, for calibration and verification of new TeV instruments. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC), completed in early 2015, has been used to observe the Crab Nebula at high significance across nearly the full spectrum of energies to which HAWC is sensitive. HAWC is unique for its wide field of view, nearly 2 sr at any instant, and its high-energy reach, up to 100 TeV. HAWC’s sensitivity improves with the gamma-ray energy. Above ∼1 TeV the sensitivity is driven by the best background rejection and angular resolution ever achieved for a wide-field ground array. We present a time-integrated analysis of the Crab using 507 live days of HAWC data from 2014 November to 2016 June. The spectrum of the Crab is fit to a function of the form ϕ(E)=ϕ{sub 0}(E/E{sub 0}){sup −α−β⋅ln(E/E{sub 0})}. The data is well fitted with values of α = 2.63 ± 0.03, β = 0.15 ± 0.03, and log{sub 10}(ϕ{sub 0} cm{sup 2} s TeV)=−12.60±0.02 when E {sub 0} is fixed at 7 TeV and the fit applies between 1 and 37 TeV. Study of the systematic errors in this HAWC measurement is discussed and estimated to be ±50% in the photon flux between 1 and 37 TeV. Confirmation of the Crab flux serves to establish the HAWC instrument’s sensitivity for surveys of the sky. The HAWC all-sky survey will be the deepest survey of the northern sky ever conducted in the multi-TeV band.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Room Temperature Measurements of Higher Order Modes for the SPS Prototype RF-Dipole Crabbing Cavity

LHC High Luminosity Upgrade will be developing two local crabbing systems to increase the luminosity of the colliding bunches at the ATLAS and CMS experiments. One of the crabbing systems uses the rf-dipole cavity design that will be crabbing the beam in the horizontal plane. The fully integrated crabbing cavity has two higher order mode couplers in damping those excited modes. Currently two sets of HOM couplers have been fabricated at Jefferson Lab for prototyping and testing with the LARP crabbing cavities. This paper presents the measurements of the higher order modes with the prototype HOM couplers carried out at room temperature.

de Silva, SUbashini U.↗

Daily Monitoring of TeV Gamma-Ray Emission from Mrk 421, Mrk 501, and the Crab Nebula with HAWC

We present results from daily monitoring of gamma-rays in the energy range from ∼0.5 to ∼100 TeV with the first 17 months of data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. Its wide field of view of 2 steradians and duty cycle of >95% are unique features compared to other TeV observatories that allow us to observe every source that transits over HAWC for up to ∼6 hr each sidereal day. This regular sampling yields unprecedented light curves from unbiased measurements that are independent of seasons or weather conditions. For the Crab Nebula as a reference source, we find no variability in the TeV band. Our main focus is the study of the TeV blazars Markarian (Mrk) 421 and Mrk 501. A spectral fit for Mrk 421 yields a power-law index Γ=2.21±0.14{sub stat}±0.20{sub sys} and an exponential cut-off E{sub 0}=5.4±1.1{sub stat}±1.0{sub sys} TeV. For Mrk 501, we find an index Γ=1.60±0.30{sub stat}±0.20{sub sys} and exponential cut-off E{sub 0}=5.7±1.6{sub stat}±1.0{sub sys} TeV. The light curves for both sources show clear variability and a Bayesian analysis is applied to identify changes between flux states. The highest per-transit fluxes observed from Mrk 421 exceed the Crab Nebula flux by a factor of approximately five. For Mrk 501, several transits show fluxes in excess of three times the Crab Nebula flux. In a comparison to lower energy gamma-ray and X-ray monitoring data with comparable sampling, we cannot identify clear counterparts for the most significant flaring features observed by HAWC.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NEUTRINO ANALYSIS OF THE 2010 SEPTEMBER CRAB NEBULA FLARE AND TIME-INTEGRATED CONSTRAINTS ON NEUTRINO EMISSION FROM THE CRAB USING ICECUBE

We present the results of a search for high-energy muon neutrinos with the IceCube detector in coincidence with the Crab Nebula flare reported on 2010 September by various experiments. Due to the unusual flaring state of the otherwise steady source we performed a prompt analysis of the 79-string configuration data to search for neutrinos that might be emitted along with the observed {gamma}-rays. We performed two different and complementary data selections of neutrino events in the time window of 10 days around the flare. One event selection is optimized for discovery of E{sup -2}{sub {nu}} neutrino spectrum typical of first-order Fermi acceleration. A similar event selection has also been applied to the 40-string data to derive the time-integrated limits to the neutrino emission from the Crab. The other event selection was optimized for discovery of neutrino spectra with softer spectral index and TeV energy cutoffs as observed for various Galactic sources in {gamma}-rays. The 90% confidence level (CL) best upper limits on the Crab flux during the 10 day flare are 4.73 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -11} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} TeV{sup -1} for an E{sup -2}{sub {nu}} neutrino spectrum and 2.50 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -10} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} TeV{sup -1} for a softer neutrino spectra of E{sup -2.7}{sub {nu}}, as indicated by Fermi measurements during the flare. In this paper, we also illustrate the impact of the time-integrated limit on the Crab neutrino steady emission. The limit obtained using 375.5 days of the 40-string configuration is compared to existing models of neutrino production from the Crab and its impact on astrophysical parameters is discussed. The most optimistic predictions of some models are already rejected by the IceCube neutrino telescope with more than 90% CL.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Neutrino Analysis of the September 2010 Crab Nebula Flare and Time-Integrated Constraints on Neutrino Emission from the Crab Using IceCube

We present the results for a search of high-energy muon neutrinos with the IceCube detector in coincidence with the Crab nebula flare reported on September 2010 by various experiments. Due to the unusual flaring state of the otherwise steady source we performed a prompt analysis of the 79-string configuration data to search for neutrinos that might be emitted along with the observed gamma-rays. We performed two different and complementary data selections of neutrino events in the time window of 10 days around the flare. One event selection is optimized for discovery of E(sub v)(sup -2) neutrino spectrum typical of 1st order Fermi acceleration. A similar event selection has also been applied to the 40-string data to derive the time-integrated limits to the neutrino emission from the Crab [35]. The other event selection was optimized for discovery of neutrino spectra with softer spectral index and TeV energy cut-offs as observed for various galactic sources in gamma-rays. The 90% CL best upper limits on the Crab flux during the 10 day flare are 4.73 x 10(exp -11) per square centimeter per second TeV(sup -1) for an E(sub v)(sup -2) neutrino spectrum and 2.50 x 10(exp -10) per square centimeter per second TeV(sup -1) for a softer neutrino spectra of E(sub v)(sup -2.7), as indicated by Fermi measurements during the flare. IceCube has also set a time-integrated limit on the neutrino emission of the Crab using 375.5 days of livetime of the 40-string configuration data. This limit is compared to existing models of neutrino production from the Crab and its impact on astrophysical parameters is discussed. The most optimistic predictions of some models are already rejected by the IceCube neutrino telescope with more than 90% CL.

Abbasi, R.↗

Neutrino Analysis of the September 2010 Crab Nebula Flare and Time-integrated Constraints on Neutrino Emission From the Crab Using IceCube

We present the results for a search of high-energy muon neutrinos with the IceCube detector in coincidence with the Crab nebula flare reported on September 2010 by various experiments. Due to the unusual flaring state of the otherwise steady source we performed a prompt analysis of the 79-string configuration data to search for neutrinos that might be emitted along with the observed gamma-rays. We performed two different and complementary data selections of neutrino events in the time window of 10 days around the flare. One event selection is optimized for discovery of E(sub nu)(sup -2) neutrino spectrum typical of 1st order Fermi acceleration. A similar event selection has also been applied to the 40-string data to derive the time-integrated limits to the neutrino emission from the Crab [35]. The other event selection was optimized for discovery of neutrino spectra with softer spectral index and TeV energy cut-offs as observed for various galactic sources in gamma-rays. The 90% CL best upper limits on the Crab flux during the 10 day flare are 4.73 x 10(exp -11) per square centimeter per second TeV (sup -1) for an E(sub nu) (sup -2) neutrino spectrum and 2.50 x 10(exp -10) per square centimeter per second TeV(sup -1) for a softer neutrino spectra of E(sub nu)(sup -2.7), as indicated by Fermi measurements during the flare. IceCube has also set a time-integrated limit on the neutrino emission of the Crab using 375.5 days of livetime of the 40-string configuration data. This limit is compared to existing models of neutrino production from the Crab and its impact on astrophysical parameters is discussed. The most optimistic predictions of some models are already rejected by the IceCube neutrino telescope with more than 90% CL.

Stamatikos, M.↗

Characterization of the inner knot of the Crab: The site of the gamma-ray flares?

A particularly intriguing recent result from γ-ray astronomy missions is the detection of powerful flares from the Crab Nebula, which challenges the current understanding of pulsar wind nebulae and acceleration mechanisms. To search for the production site(s) of these flares, we conducted a multi-wavelength observing campaign using Keck, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. As the short timescales of the γ-ray flares (≲1 day) suggest a small emitting region, the Crab’s inner knot (about 0.6 arcsec from the pulsar) is a candidate site for such flaring. This paper describes observations of the inner knot, seeking to understand its nature and possible relationship with γ-ray flares. Using singular-value decomposition, analysis of the HST images yielded results consistent with traditional methods while substantially reducing some uncertainties. These analyses show that the knot’s intrinsic properties (especially size and brightness) are correlated with its (projected) separation from the pulsar. This characterization of the inner knot helps in constraining standard shock model parameters, under the assumption that the knot lies near the shocked surface. While the standard shock model gives good agreement in several respects, two puzzles persist: (a) the observed angular size of the knot relative to the pulsar–knot separation is much smaller than expected; and (b) the variable high degree of polarization (reported by others) is difficult to reconcile with a highly relativistic downstream flow. However, the IR–optical flux of the inner knot is marginally consistent with the shock accelerating most of the Nebula’s optical-emitting particles.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

RAPID GAMMA-RAY FLUX VARIABILITY DURING THE 2013 MARCH CRAB NEBULA FLARE

We report on a bright flare in the Crab Nebula detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The period of significantly increased luminosity occurred in 2013 March and lasted for approximately two weeks. During this period, we observed flux variability on timescales of approximately 5 hr. The combined photon flux above 100 MeV from the pulsar and its nebula reached a peak value of (12.5 ± 0.8) · 10{sup –6} cm{sup –2} s{sup –1} on 2013 March 6. This value exceeds the average flux by almost a factor of six and implies a ∼20 times higher flux for the synchrotron component of the nebula alone. This is the second brightest flare observed from this source. Spectral and temporal analysis of the LAT data collected during the outburst reveal a rapidly varying synchrotron component of the Crab Nebula while the pulsar emission remains constant in time.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

CHANDRA, KECK, AND VLA OBSERVATIONS OF THE CRAB NEBULA DURING THE 2011-APRIL GAMMA-RAY FLARE

We present results from our analysis of Chandra X-Ray Observatory, W. M. Keck Observatory, and Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) images of the Crab Nebula that were contemporaneous with the {gamma}-ray flare of 2011 April. Despite hints in the X-ray data, we find no evidence for statistically significant variations that pinpoint the specific location of the flares within the Nebula. The Keck observations extend this conclusion to the 'inner knot', i.e., the feature within an arcsecond of the pulsar. The VLA observations support this conclusion. We also discuss theoretical implications of the {gamma}-ray flares and suggest that the most dramatic {gamma}-ray flares are due to radiation-reaction-limited synchrotron emission associated with sudden, dissipative changes in the current system sustained by the central pulsar.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

GAMMA-RAY ACTIVITY IN THE CRAB NEBULA: THE EXCEPTIONAL FLARE OF 2011 APRIL

The Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi satellite observed a gamma-ray flare in the Crab Nebula lasting for approximately nine days in April of 2011. The source, which at optical wavelengths has a size of Almost-Equal-To 11 lt-yr across, doubled its gamma-ray flux within eight hours. The peak photon flux was (186 {+-} 6) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -7} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} above 100 MeV, which corresponds to a 30-fold increase compared to the average value. During the flare, a new component emerged in the spectral energy distribution, which peaked at an energy of (375 {+-} 26) MeV at flare maximum. The observations imply that the emission region was likely relativistically beamed toward us and that variations in its motion are responsible for the observed spectral variability.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

EXCESS OPTICAL ENHANCEMENT OBSERVED WITH ARCONS FOR EARLY CRAB GIANT PULSES

We observe an extraordinary link in the Crab pulsar between the enhancement of an optical pulse and the timing of the corresponding giant radio pulse. At optical through infrared wavelengths, our observations use the high time resolution of ARray Camera for Optical to Near-IR Spectrophotometry, a unique superconducting energy-resolving photon-counting array at the Palomar 200 inch telescope. At radio wavelengths, we observe with the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope and the Green Bank Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument backend. We see an 11.3% ± 2.5% increase in peak optical flux for pulses that have an accompanying giant radio pulse arriving near the peak of the optical main pulse, in contrast to a 3.2% ± 0.5% increase when an accompanying giant radio pulse arrives soon after the optical peak. We also observe that the peak of the optical main pulse is 2.8% ± 0.8% enhanced when there is a giant radio pulse accompanying the optical interpulse. We observe no statistically significant spectral differences between optical pulses accompanied by and not accompanied by giant radio pulses. Our results extend previous observations of optical-radio correlation to the time and spectral domains. Our refined temporal correlation suggests that optical and radio emission are indeed causally linked, and the lack of spectral differences suggests that the same mechanism is responsible for all optical emission.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A new pinnotherid crab of the genus Pinnixulala Palacios Theil, Cuesta & Felder, 2016 from uncertain infaunal hosts in the northern Gulf of Mexico, with a rediagnosis and updated synonymy for the polychaete symbiont Pinnixulala retinens (Rathbun, 1918) (Decapoda: Brachyura: Pinnotheridae)

Abstract A new infaunal pinnotherid crab, Pinnixulala heardin. sp., is described from muddy substrates of the middle to inner continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Molecular genetic analysis supports its separation from P. retinens (Rathbun, 1918), the only other western Atlantic member of the genus and a species most commonly found living as a symbiont of large polychaete worms. Both western Atlantic species are clearly separated from several described and undescribed populations of congeners occurring along shorelines of the eastern Pacific. We herein include a rediagnosis of P. retinens to facilitate morphological comparisons with P. heardin. sp. Unlike P. retinens, which is more common in shallow inshore waters and reaches larger sizes, the new species lacks development of a strong distally directed spine on the fourth pereopod ischium and has chelae that are at least as heavily developed as the second and third pereopods. In addition, the mature male first gonopods in P. heardin. sp. are tapered over their terminal one-third and directed distally, rather than being curved in their terminal one-third with the tips directed mesially, as they are in P. retinens. The new species is invariably collected from samples including infaunal worms and other invertebrates, but the specific hosts remain to be determined

Marine & Freshwater Biology↗

Three new symbiotic crabs of the genus Glassella Campos & Wicksten, 1997 from Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of Florida, USA (Decapoda: Brachyura: Pinnotheridae)

Abstract New species of the pinnotherid crab genus GlassellaCampos & Wicksten, 1997 are described from western Atlantic waters along the east and west coasts of Florida, with the generic assignment of one being provisional. Glassella chaneyin. sp., Glassella martinin. sp., and Glassella taylorin. sp., all morphologically resemble the long-known species G. floridana (Rathbun, 1918) and overlap part of its distributional range, there occupying similar habitats and at least sometimes found with similar hosts. While genomic DNA sequencing has previously established the generic assignment of G. floridana, small sizes and suboptimal preservation histories of specimens representing the three new species have rendered all sequencing attempts unsuccessful, and thus not allowed their inclusion in molecular phylogenetic analyses. To facilitate present morphological comparisons, a rediagnosis of G. floridana was undertaken, and previously published illustrations were augmented, the latter now including figures of its previously undescribed male first gonopod and gonopodal plate. Comparisons of G. floridana to the three new species reveal striking diagnostic differences between all four species in their male first gonopods and varied configurations in the gonopodal plate or its probable homologs. These characters support the otherwise established separation of G. floridana from its congeners on the basis of its more strongly armed flexor margins of the fourth and fifth pereopods. In G. taylorin. sp., representing the smallest known member of Glassella, development of the third maxilliped and male first gonopod is so exceptional as to suggest the species may warrant eventual assignment to a separate genus.

Marine & Freshwater Biology↗

Formation of the dark bays in the Crab optical synchrotron nebula - Is the Crab pulsar wind bubble interacting with its progenitor's wind?

Models are presented for the formation of the two dark bays in the Crab optical synchrotron nebula, from which the optical synchrotron-emitting particles seem to be excluded. It is proposed that the bays are formed by the advance of the Crab pulsar's wind bubble into an ambient medium possessing a stratified density distribution with higher density in the plane of the bays than in other directions. The ambient density and degree of stratification required to produce the bays depends on whether the medium consists of a general interstellar medium, a progenitor stellar wind, or fast-moving supernova ejecta. In the case of an interstellar medium, the bays would be expected to move apart much more slowly than observed, and the required density would have to be implausibly high. It is concluded that the pulsar wind bubble is probably interacting with the slow wind from its progenitor, and it is shown that bays formed in this way agree with the observations reasonably well.

Li, Zhi-Yun↗

Climate change and the future productivity and distribution of crab in the Bering Sea

Crab populations in the eastern Bering Sea support some of the most valuable fisheries in the United States, but their future productivity and distribution are uncertain. Here, we explore observed changes in the productivity and distribution for snow crab, Tanner crab, and Bristol Bay red king crab. We link historical indices of environmental variation and predator biomass with observed time series of centroids of abundance and extent of crab stock distribution; we also fit stock–recruit curves including environmental indices for each stock. We then project these relationships under forcing from global climate models to forecast potential productivity and distribution scenarios. Our results suggest that the productivity of snow crab is negatively related to the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and positively related to ice cover; Tanner crab’s productivity and distribution are negatively associated with cod biomass and sea surface temperature. Aspects of red king crab distribution and productivity appear to be related to bottom temperature, ice cover, the AO, and/or cod biomass. Projecting these relationships forward with available forecasts suggests that Tanner crab may become more productive and shift further offshore, red king crab distribution may contract and move north, and productivity may decrease for snow crab as the population contracts northward.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗