Based on multiyear INTEGRAL observations of SS433 in 2003-2011, a composite IBIS/ISGRI 18-60 keV orbital light curve is constructed around zero precessional phases psi_{pr}= 0 at the maximim accretion disk opening angle. It shows a peculiar shape wit
h significant excess near the orbital phase phi_orb= 0.25, which is not seen in the softer 2-10 keV energy band. The 40-60 keV orbital light curve demonstrates two almost equal humps at phases sim 0.25 and sim 0.75, most likely due to nutation effects of the accretion disk. The nutational variability of SS433 in 15-50 keV with a period of 6.290 days is independently found from timing analysis of Swift/BAT data. The change of the off-eclipse 18-60 keV X-ray flux with the precessional phase shows a double-wave form with strong primary maximum at psi_{pr}= 0 and weak but significant secondary maximum at psi_{pr}= 0.6. A weak variability of the 18-60 keV flux in the middle of the orbital eclipse correlated with the disk precessional phase is also observed. The joint analysis of the broadband 18-60 keV orbital and precessional light curves confirms the presence of a hot extended corona in the central parts of the supercritical accretion disk and constrains the binary mass ratio in SS433 in the range 0.5>q>0.3, suggesting the black hole nature of the compact object.
The energy spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) allows constraining episodes of energy release in the early Universe. In this paper we revisit and refine the computations of the cosmological thermalization problem. For this purpose a new
code, called CosmoTherm, was developed that allows solving the coupled photon-electron Boltzmann equation in the expanding, isotropic Universe for small spectral distortion in the CMB. We explicitly compute the shape of the spectral distortions caused by energy release due to (i) annihilating dark matter; (ii) decaying relict particles; (iii) dissipation of acoustic waves; and (iv) quasi-instantaneous heating. We also demonstrate that (v) the continuous interaction of CMB photons with adiabatically cooling non-relativistic electrons and baryons causes a negative mu-type CMB spectral distortion of DI_nu/I_nu ~ 10^{-8} in the GHz spectral band. We solve the thermalization problem including improved approximations for the double Compton and Bremsstrahlung emissivities, as well as the latest treatment of the cosmological recombination process. At redshifts z <~ 10^3 the matter starts to cool significantly below the temperature of the CMB so that at very low frequencies free-free absorption alters the shape of primordial distortions significantly. In addition, the cooling electrons down-scatter CMB photons introducing a small late negative y-type distortion at high frequencies. We also discuss our results in the light of the recently proposed CMB experiment Pixie, for which CosmoTherm should allow detailed forecasting. Our current computations show that for energy injection because of (ii) and (iv) Pixie should allow to improve existing limits, while the CMB distortions caused by the other processes seem to remain unobservable with the currently proposed sensitivities and spectral bands of Pixie.
The problem of disk accretion onto the surface of a neutron star with a weak magnetic field at a luminosity exceeding several percent of Eddington is reduced to the problem of the braking of a hypersonic flow with a velocity that is 0.4-0.5 of the sp
eed of light above the base of the spreading layer -- a dense atmosphere made up of previously fallen matter. We show that turbulent braking in the Prandtl-Karman model with universally accepted coefficients for terrestrial conditions and laboratory experiments and a ladder of interacting gravity waves in a stratified quasi-exponential atmosphere at standard Richardson numbers lead to a spin-up of the massive zone that extends to the ocean made up of a plasma with degenerate electrons. Turbulent braking in the ocean at the boundary with the outer solid crust reduces the rotation velocity to the solid-body rotation velocity of the star. This situation should lead to strong heating of deep atmospheric layers and to the switch-off of the explosive helium burning mechanism. Obviously, a more efficient mechanism for the dissipation of a fast azimuthal flow in the atmosphere should operate in X-ray bursters. We show that a giant solitary gravity wave in the atmosphere can lead to energy dissipation and to a sharp decrease in azimuthal velocity in fairly rarefied atmospheric layers above the zone of explosive helium burning nuclear reactions. We discuss the reasons why this wave, that has no direct analog in the Earths atmosphere or ocean, appears and its stability. We pose the question as to whether neutron stars with massive atmospheres, spun up to high velocities by accreting matter from a disk, can exist among the observed Galactic X-ray sources.
The main goal of this work is to calculate the contributions to the cosmological recombination spectrum due to bound-bound transitions of helium. We show that due to the presence of helium in the early Universe unique features appear in the total cos
mological recombination spectrum. These may provide a unique observational possibility to determine the relative abundance of primordial helium, well before the formation of first stars. We include the effect of the tiny fraction of neutral hydrogen atoms on the dynamics of HeII -> HeI recombination at redshifts $zsim 2500$. As discussed recently, this process significantly accelerates HeII -> HeI recombination, resulting in rather narrow and distinct features in the associated recombination spectrum. In addition this process induces some emission within the hydrogen Lyman-$alpha$ line, before the actual epoch of hydrogen recombination round $zsim 1100-1500$. We also show that some of the fine structure transitions of neutral helium appear in absorption, again leaving unique traces in the Cosmic Microwave Background blackbody spectrum, which may allow to confirm our understanding of the early Universe and detailed atomic physics.
