Indian Centre for Space Physics

About: Indian Centre for Space Physics is a nonprofit organization based out in Kolkata, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Very low frequency & Ionosphere. The organization has 86 authors who have published 323 publications receiving 4668 citations. The organization is also known as: Centre for Space Physics.

Accretion flow dynamics during the evolution of timing and spectral properties of GX 339-4 during its 2010-11 outburst

Abstract: Context. The Galactic transient black hole candidate (BHC) GX 339-4 exhibited several outbursts at regular intervals of about two to three years in the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) era. After remaining in an almost quiescent state for three long years, it again became X-ray active in January, 2010, continuing to be so over the next ∼14 months. Aims. We study the timing and spectral properties of the BHC during its recent outburst and understand the behavioral change in the accretion flow dynamics associated with the evolution of the various X-ray features. Methods. The detailed analysis of the temporal and spectral properties of the source during this outburst are carried out using archival data of the RXTE PCA instrument. We analyze a total of 236 observational intervals consisting of 419 days of data observed by RXTE, from 2010 January 12 to 2011 March 6. Results. Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of the mass accretion processes and properties of the accretion disk of the BHC. The PCA spectra of 2.5‐25 keV are mainly fitted with a combination of two components, namely, a disk black body and a power-law. The entire outburst as observed by RXTE, is divided into four spectral states, namely, hard, hard-intermediate, softintermediate, and soft. Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) were found in three out of the four states, namely hard, hard-intermediate, and soft-intermediate states. The QPO frequencies increase monotonically from 0.102 Hz to 5.692 Hz in the rising phase of the outburst, while during the declining phase QPO frequencies decrease monotonically from 6.420 to 1.149 Hz. The evolution pattern, i.e. the hardness-intensity diagram, of the present outburst can be reproduced by two different components of the flow of accreting material. Conclusions. The recent outburst of GX 339-4 gives us an opportunity to understand the evolution of the two-component accretion rates starting from the onset to the end of the outburst phase. We found that the QPO frequency variation could be explained by the propagating oscillatory shock model (POS) and the hardness versus intensity variation can be reproduced if we assume that higher viscosity causes the conversion of a low angular momentum disk component into a Keplerian component during the outburst phase. The decline phase starts because of the reduction in the viscosity.

Time dependence of the proton flux measured by pamela during the 2006 july-2009 december solar minimum

Abstract: The energy spectra of galactic cosmic rays carry fundamental information regarding their origin and propagation. These spectra, when measured near Earth, are significantly affected by the solar magnetic field. A comprehensive description of the cosmic radiation must therefore include the transport and modulation of cosmic rays inside the heliosphere. During the end of the last decade, the Sun underwent a peculiarly long quiet phase well suited to study modulation processes. In this paper we present proton spectra measured from 2006 July to 2009 December by PAMELA. The large collected statistics of protons allowed the time variation to be followed on a nearly monthly basis down to 400 MV. Data are compared with a state-of-the-art three-dimensional model of solar modulation.

Measurement of Boron and Carbon Fluxes in Cosmic Rays with the PAMELA Experiment

Abstract: The propagation of cosmic rays inside our galaxy plays a fundamental role in shaping their injection spectra into those observed at Earth. One of the best tools to investigate this issue is the ratio of fluxes for secondary and primary species. The boron-to-carbon (B/C) ratio, in particular, is a sensitive probe to investigate propagation mechanisms. This paper presents new measurements of the absolute fluxes of boron and carbon nuclei as well as the B/C ratio from the PAMELA space experiment. The results span the range 0.44-129 GeV/n in kinetic energy for data taken in the period 2006 July to 2008 March.

Measurement of boron and carbon fluxes in cosmic rays with the PAMELA experiment

Abstract: The propagation of cosmic rays inside our galaxy plays a fundamental role in shaping their injection spectra into those observed at Earth. One of the best tools to investigate this issue is the ratio of fluxes for secondary and primary species. The boron-to-carbon (B/C) ratio, in particular, is a sensitive probe to investigate propagation mechanisms. This paper presents new measurements of the absolute fluxes of boron and carbon nuclei, as well as the B/C ratio, from the PAMELA space experiment. The results span the range 0.44 - 129 GeV/n in kinetic energy for data taken in the period July 2006 - March 2008.

A new reference chemical composition for tmc-1

Abstract: Recent detections of complex organic molecules in dark clouds have rekindled interest in the astrochemical modeling of these environments. Because of its relative closeness and rich molecular complexity, TMC-1 has been extensively observed to study the chemical processes taking place in dark clouds. We use local thermodynamical equilibrium radiative transfer modeling coupled with a Bayesian statistical method which takes into account outliers to analyze the data from the Nobeyama spectral survey of TMC-1 between 8 and 50 GHz. We compute the abundance relative to molecular hydrogen of 57 molecules, including 19 isotopologues in TMC-1 along with their associated uncertainty. The new results are in general agreement with previous abundance determination from Ohishi & Kaifu and the values reported in the review from Agundez & Wakelam. However, in some cases, large opacity and low signal to noise effects allow only upper or lower limits to be derived, respectively.