Strong decays of N~*(1535) in an extended chiral quark model

The strong decays of the N*(1535) resonance are investigated in an extended chiral quark model by including the low-lying qqqqq components in addition to the qqq component.The results show that these five-quark components in N*(1535) contribute significantly to the N*(1535)→ Nπ and N*(1535) → Nη decays.The contributions to the Nη decay come from both the lowest energy and the next-to-lowest energy five-quarks components,while the contributions to the Nπ decay come from only the latter one.Taking these contributions into account,the description for the strong decays of N*(1535) is improved,especially for the puzzling large ratio of the decays to Nη and Nπ.

Orbit determination for geostationary satellites with the combination of transfer ranging and pseudorange data

Geostationary satellites(GEOs) play a significant role in the regional satellite navigation system.Simulation experiments show that the clock corrections could be mitigated through a single strategy or double differencing strategies for a navigation constellation,but for the mode of individual GEO orbit determination,high precision orbit and clock correction could not be obtained in the orbit determination based on the pseudorange data.A new GEO combined precise orbit determination(POD) strategy is studied in this paper,which combines pseudorange data and C-band transfer ranging data.This strategy overcomes the deficiency of C-band transfer ranging caused by limited stations and tracking time available.With the combination of transfer ranging and pseudorange data,clock corrections between the GEO and the stations can be estimated simultaneously along with orbital parameters,maintaining self-consistency between the satellite ephemeris and clock correction parameters.The error covariance analysis is conducted to illuminate the contributions from the transfer ranging data and the psudoranging data.Using data collected for a Chinese GEO satellite with 3 C-band transfer ranging stations and 4 L-band pseudorange tracking stations,POD experiments indicate that a meter-level accuracy is achievable.The root-mean-square(RMS) of the post-fit C-band ranging data is about 0.203 m,and the RMS of the post-fit pseudorange is 0.408 m.Radial component errors of the POD experiments are independently evaluated with the satellite laser ranging(SLR) data from a station in Beijing,with the residual RMS of 0.076 m.The SLR evaluation also suggests that for 2-h orbital predication,the predicted radial error is about 0.404 m,and the clock correction error is about 1.38 ns.Even for the combination of one C-band transfer ranging station and 4 pseudorange stations,POD is able to achieve a reasonable accuracy with the radial error of 0.280 m and the 2-h predicted radial error of 0.888 m.Clock synchronization between the GEO and tracking stations is achieved with an estimated accuracy of about 1.55 ns,meeting the navigation service requirements.

Hard X-ray lags of Cygnus X-1 on short timescales

Calculating the time lags over different timescales using the cross-correlation technique may lead to a biased estimate of small timescales.Given a timescale for lightcurve binning,we propose to subtract the local average instead of the global average during the cross-correlation,in order to filter variations on timescales larger than the bin size.The new method allows us to make an unbiased estimate of the time lags using RXTE/PCA data on timescales as small as-5 ms,where the Fourier technique becomes invalid.We calculate the time lag spectra of Cygnus X-1 at different spectral states with the new method,and find that the source appears to have similar X-ray lags on small timescales independent of its spectral states.

A statistical study of the relation between soft X-ray excess and accretion disk

To study the origin of the soft X-ray excess,we compile a sample of 94 unobscured,radio-quiet QSOs and Seyfert galaxies with available data from GALEX and ROSAT.We find that 50 sources show strong soft X-ray excess and the other 44 show weak/no soft X-ray excess.Systematic analyses of the data indicate that the difference in soft X-rays is mainly but not only resulting from different accretion rates(in units of Eddington rate).The statistical study of the sources with soft X-ray excess shows that the strength of soft X-ray excess weakly and positively correlates with the Eddington ratio and increases with the increase of the strength of UV radiations relative to the X-rays.Provided that the UV emissions are from the thin disk,the correlations imply that the origin of soft X-ray excess is associated with the thin disk,either by means of Comptonization of the disk photons or in some other ways.

A puzzle of the radio-quiet quasar PG 1407+265:Are optical and X-ray emissions produced from a relativistic jet?

PG 1407+265 is a radio quiet quasar that has a relativistic jet.In this report,we show some peculiar properties of its optical and X-ray emissions,which indicate possible non-thermal origins produced from the jet.We use a simple synchrotron + synchrotron self Compton (SSC) model to fit the emissions with different ratios of energy densities between the magnetic field and electrons (η≡U B/U e),which predicts a different γ-ray luminosity.The First LAT AGN Catalog (1LAC) did not include PG 1407+265,which indicates an upper limit of γ-ray luminosity.This upper limit constrains the ratio to be unreasonably large (η≥10 4-5).This inversely indicates that the optical and X-ray emissions may not be produced from the beaming jet.We discuss the physical implications of these results.

An alternative evolution scenario for OAO 1657-415 and IGR J18483-0311

The relation between the spin period and the orbital period in high-mass X-ray binaries is investigated.Be/X-ray binaries and SG/X-ray binaries occupy different areas in Corbet's diagram.The two SG/X-ray binaries,IGR J18483-0311 and OAO 1657-415,however,appear to occupy a transition region between Be/X-ray binaries and wind-fed SG/X-ray binaries.This can be understood by noting that the neutron stars in the two SG/X-ray binaries have not reached their equilibrium spin periods when the donors evolved off the main sequence.Here,we provide an alternative scenario to explain their location in Corbet's diagram:the SG/X-ray binaries are the descendants of Be/X-ray binaries,i.e.the supergiants in these systems were formed from O-type emission line stars instead of normal main-sequence stars.Furthermore,we suggest that there are two types of SG/X-ray binaries:one is directly evolved from a normal OB-type main sequence and neutron star system without an X-ray history,and the other evolved from a Be/X-ray binary with an X-ray history.

Systematic distortion in cosmic microwave background maps

To minimize instrumentally the induced systematic errors,cosmic microwave background(CMB)anisotropy experiments measure temperature differences across the sky using pairs of horn antennas, temperature map is recovered from temperature difference obtained in sky survey through a map-making procedure.To inspect and calibrate residual systematic errors in the recovered temperature maps is important as most previous studies of cosmology are based on these maps.By analyzing pixel-ring coupling and latitude dependence of CMB temperatures,we find notable systematic devia- tion from CMB Gaussianity in released Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe(WMAP)maps.The detected deviation cannot be explained by the best-fit LCDM cosmological model at a confidence level above 99%and cannot be ignored for a precision cosmology study.

Focal plane wave-front sensing algorithm for high-contrast imaging

High-contrast imaging provided by a coronagraph is critical for the direction imaging of the Earth-like planet orbiting its bright parent star.A major limitation for such direct imaging is the speckle noise that is induced from the wave-front error of an optical system.We derive an algorithm for the wave-front measurement directly from 3 focal plane images.The 3 images are achieved through a deformable mirror to provide specific phases for the optics system.We introduce an extra amplitude modulation on one deformable mirror configuration to create an uncorrelated wave-front,which is a critical procedure for wave-front sensing.The simulation shows that the reconstructed wave-front is consistent with the original wave-front theoretically,which indicates that such an algorithm is a promising technique for the wave-front measurement for the high-contrast imaging.