No Arabic abstract
We present a study of the source positioning accuracy of the LECS and MECS instruments on-board BeppoSAX. From the analysis of a sample of archival images we find that a systematic error, which depends on the spacecraft roll angle and has an amplitude of ~17 for the LECS and ~27 for the MECS, affects the sky coordinates derived from both instruments. The error is due to a residual misalignment of the two instruments with respect to the spacecraft Z axis arisen from the presence of attitude inaccuracies in the observations used to calibrate the pointing direction of LECS and MECS optical axes. Analytical formulae to correct LECS and MECS sky coordinates are derived. After the coordinate correction the 90% confidence level error radii are 16 and 17 for LECS and MECS respectively, improving by a factor of ~2 the source location accuracy of the two instruments. The positioning accuracy improvement presented here can significantly enhance the follow-up studies at other wavelengths of the X-ray sources observed with LECS and MECS instruments.
In this contribution we discuss briefly a few calibration items relevant to the data analysis and present some preliminary scientific results. The discussion on instrumental topics focuses on the response matrix and Point Spread Function (PSF). In the scientific results section we discuss a first analysis of the two Seyferts MCG 6-30-15 and NGC 4151 and of the Cosmic X-ray Background.
We report on a BeppoSAX Low-Energy Concentrator Spectrometer (LECS) observation of the super-soft source (SSS) CAL83. The X-ray emission in SSS is believed to arise from nuclear burning of accreted material on the surface of a white dwarf (WD). The LECS spectrum of CAL83 can be well fit by both absorbed blackbody and WD atmosphere models. If the absorption is constrained to be equal to the value derived from Hubble Space Telescope measurements, then the best-fit blackbody temperature is 46.4 +/- 1.4 eV while a Non Local Thermal Equilibrium (NLTE) WD atmosphere model gives a lower temperature of 32.6 +/- 0.7 eV. In contrast to CAL87, there are no strong absorption edges visible in the X-ray spectrum with a 68% confidence upper limit of 2.3 to the optical depth of a Cvi edge at 0.49 keV predicted by WD atmosphere models. The luminosity and radius derived from the NLTE fit are consistent with the values predicted for stable nuclear burning on the surface of a ~0.9-1.0 solar mass WD.
The Super Soft Source RX J0925.7--4758 was observed by BeppoSAX LECS and MECS on January 25--26 1997. The source was clearly detected by the LECS but only marginally detected by the MECS. We apply detailed Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (Non-LTE) models including metal line opacities to the observed LECS spectrum. We test whether the X-ray spectrum of RX J0925 is consistent with that of a white dwarf and put constraints upon the effective temperature and surface gravity by considering the presence or absence of spectral features such as absorption edges and line blends in the models and the observed spectrum. We find that models with effective temperatures above ~1e6 K or below ~7.5e5 K can be excluded. If we assume a single model component for RX J0925 we observe a significant discrepancy between the model and the data above the NeIX edge energy at 1.19 keV. This is consistent with earlier observations with ROSAT and ASCA. The only way to account for the emission above ~1.2 keV is by introducing a second spectral (plasma) component. This plasma component may be explained by a shocked wind originating from the compact object or from the irradiated companion star. If we assume log g = 9 then the derived luminosity is consistent with that of a nuclear burning white dwarf at a distance of ~4 kpc.
The wave-function-matching (WFM) technique for first-principles transport-property calculations was modified by So{}rensen {it et al.} so as to exclude rapidly decreasing evanescent waves [So{}rensen {it et al.}, Phys. Rev. B {bf 77}, 155301 (2008)]. However, this method lacks translational invariance of the transmission probability with respect to insertion of matching planes and consistency between the sum of the transmission and reflection probabilities and the number of channels in the transition region. We reformulate the WFM method since the original methods are formulated to include all the generalized Bloch waves. It is found that the translational invariance is destroyed by the overlap of the layers between the electrode and transition regions and by the pseudoinverses used to exclude the rapidly decreasing evanescent waves. We then devise a method that removes the overlap and calculates the transmission probability without the pseudoinverses. As a result, we find that the translational invariance of the transmission probability with respect to insertion of the extra layers is properly retained and the sum of the transmission and reflection probabilities exactly agrees with the number of channels. In addition, we prove that the accuracy in the transmission probability of this WFM technique is comparable with that obtained by the nonequilibrium Greens function method. Furthermore, we carry out the electron transport calculations on two-dimensional graphene sheets embedded with B--N line defects sandwiched between a pair of semi-infinite graphene electrodes and find the dependence of the electron transmission on the transverse momentum perpendicular to the direction of transport.
In this paper, we propose a multi-target image tracking algorithm based on continuously apative mean-shift (Cam-shift) and unscented Kalman filter. We improved the single-lamp tracking algorithm proposed in our previous work to multi-target tracking, and achieved better robustness in the case of occlusion, the real-time performance to complete one positioning and relatively high accuracy by dynamically adjusting the weights of the multi-target motion states. Our previous algorithm is limited to the analysis of tracking error. In this paper, the results of the tracking algorithm are evaluated with the tracking error we defined. Then combined with the double-lamp positioning algorithm, the real position of the terminal is calculated and evaluated with the positioning error we defined. Experiments show that the defined tracking error is 0.61cm and the defined positioning error for 3-D positioning is 3.29cm with the average processing time of 91.63ms per frame. Even if nearly half of the LED area is occluded, the tracking error remains at 5.25cm. All of this shows that the proposed visible light positioning (VLP) method can track multiple targets for positioning at the same time with good robustness, real-time performance and accuracy. In addition, the definition and analysis of tracking errors and positioning errors indicates the direction for future efforts to reduce errors.