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We present a high-resolution X-ray spectrum of the accreting X-ray pulsar OAO 1657 – 415 obtained with HETG + ACIS-S onboard Chandra, revealing the presence of a broad line component around ∼6.3 keV associated with the neutral iron Kα line at 6.4 keV. This is interpreted as a Compton shoulder arising from the Compton-scattering of the 6.4-keV fluorescence photons, making OAO 1657–415 the second accreting neutron star in which such a feature has been detected. A Compton shoulder reveals the presence of dense matter surrounding the X-ray source. We did not detect any periodicity in the light-curve and we obtained an upper limit of ∼2 per cent for the pulse fraction during this observation. This could be a result of the smearing of the pulses when X-ray photons are scattered from a large region around the neutron star. In addition to the Fe Kα, Fe Kβ and Ni Kα lines already reported for this source, we report for the first time the presence of He-like and H-like iron emission lines at 6.7 and 6.97 keV in the first-order HETG spectrum. The detection of such ionized lines, indicative of a highly ionized surrounding medium, is rare in X-ray binaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gamma-ray emission in broad-line blazars is generally explained as inverse Compton (IC) radiation of relativistic electrons in the jet scattering optical-UV photons from the broad-line region (BLR), the so-called BLR external Compton (EC) scenario. We test this scenario on the Fermi gamma-ray spectra of 106 broad-line blazars detected with the highest significance or largest BLR, by looking for cut-off signatures at high energies compatible with γ --γ interactions with BLR photons. We do not find evidence for the expected BLR absorption. For 2/3 of the sources, we can exclude any significant absorption (βmax < 1), while for the remaining 1/3 the possible absorption is constrained to be 1.5-2 orders of magnitude lower than expected. This result holds also dividing the spectra in high- and low-flux states, and for powerful blazars with large BLR. Only 1 object out of 10 seems compatible with substantial attenuation (βmax > 5). We conclude that for 9 out of 10 objects, the jet does not interact with BLR photons. Gamma-rays seem either produced outside the BLR most of the time, or the BLR is ~100 x larger than given by reverberation mapping. This means that (i) EC on BLR photons is disfavoured as the main gamma-ray mechanism, versus IC on IR photons from the torus or synchrotron self-Compton; (ii) the Fermi gamma-ray spectrum is mostly intrinsic, determined by the interaction of the particle distribution with the seed-photon spectrum; and (iii) without suppression by the BLR, broad-line blazars can become copious emitters above 100 GeV, as demonstrated by 3C 454.3. We expect the CTA sky to bemuch richer of broad-line blazars than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compton scattering is the dominant opacity source in hot neutron stars, accretion discs around black holes and hot coronae.We collected here a set of numerical expressions of the Compton scattering redistribution functions (RFs) for unpolarized radiation, which are more exact than the widely used Kompaneets equation. The principal aim of this paper is the presentation of the RF by Guilbert, which is corrected for the computational errors in the original paper. This corrected RF was used in the series of papers on model atmosphere computations of hot neutron stars. We have also organized four existing algorithms for the RF computations into a unified form ready to use in radiative transfer and model atmosphere codes. The exact method by Nagirner & Poutanen was numerically compared to all other algorithms in a very wide spectral range from hard X-rays to radio waves. Sample computations of the Compton scattering RFs in thermal plasmawere done for temperatures corresponding to the atmospheres of bursting neutron stars and hot intergalactic medium. Our formulae are also useful to study the Compton scattering of unpolarized microwave background radiation in hot intracluster gas and the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. We conclude that the formulae by Guilbert and the exact quantum mechanical formulae yield practically the same RFs for gas temperatures relevant to the atmospheres of X-ray bursting neutron stars, T ≤ 108 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a one-zone homogeneous self-consistent model for the multiwavelength emission features of PKS 1424+240 that allows the effects of automatic photon quenching to be studied. In the model, a steady γ -ray injection rate in the source is assumed and the non-linear time-dependent kinematic equations describing the evolution of both electrons and photons are then acquired; these self-consistently involve photon-photon interaction, synchrotron radiation of electron/positron pairs, inverse Compton scattering and synchrotron self-absorption. The model is applied to reproduce the multiwavelength spectrum of PKS 1424+240; our results indicate that the observed spectral energy distribution (SED) of PKS 1424+240 can be reproduced well in the case of both electron injection and photon injection. The injected electrons mainly influence the SED over radio, optical and X-ray bands and the SED in the high-energy γ -ray band is determined mainly by automatic photon quenching; in particular, the break form of the spectrum in the energy range ≥ a few GeV is caused by this. It should be noted that the observed SED from X-ray to γ -ray bands can be reproduced only through quenching, provided the observed data in the optical band are produced through some other mechanism, e.g. electron synchrotron radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Crab Pulsar has been recently detected at very high energies (VHE) with its pulsed VHE emission reaching up to 1.5 TeV. The VHE peaks appear synchronized with the peaks at GeV energies and show VHE spectra following hard power-law functions. These new findings have been interpreted as evidence for a β -ray production that happens very close to the light cylinder. Motivated by these experimental results, we consider the efficiency of magnetocentrifugal particle acceleration in the magnetosphere of the Crab Pulsar, reexamining and extending results obtained in a previous work. It is shown that efficient magnetocentrifugal acceleration close to the light cylinder could provide the required electron Lorentz factors of 5 × 106 and that the resulting inverse Compton (IC) scattering off thermal photons might explain the enigmatic TeV emission of the pulsar. We estimate the corresponding VHE luminosity and provide a derivation of its spectral characteristics that appear remarkably close to the observational results to encourage further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photoionization cross-sections are obtained using the relativistic Dirac Atomic R-matrix Codes (DARC) for all valence and L-shell energy ranges between 27 and 270 eV. A total of 557 levels arising from the dominant configurations 3s²3p4, 3s3p5, 3p6, 3s²3p³[3d, 4s, 4p], 3p53d, 3s²3p²3d², 3s3p43d, 3s³p³3d² and 2s²2p53s²3p5 have been included in the targetwavefunction representation of the Ar III ion, including up to 4p in the orbital basis. We also performed a smaller Breit-Pauli (BP) calculation containing the lowest 124 levels. Direct comparisons are made with previous theoretical and experimental work for both valence shell and L-shell photoionization. Excellent agreement was found for transitions involving the ²Po initial state to all allowed final states for both calculations across a range of photon energies. A number of resonant states have been identified to help analyse and explain the nature of the spectra at photon energies between 250 and 270 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]