Statistics of the individual-pulse polarization based on propagation effects in the pulsar magnetosphere

Pulsar radio emission is modelled as a sum of two completely polarized non-orthogonal modes with the randomly varying Stokes parameters and intensity ratio. The modes are the result of polarization evolution of the original natural waves in the hot, magnetized, weakly inhomogeneous plasma of the pulsar magnetosphere. In the course of the wavemode coupling, the linearly polarized natural waves acquire purely orthogonal elliptical polarizations. Further on, as the waves pass through the cyclotron resonance, they become non-orthogonal. The pulse-to-pulse fluctuations of the final polarization characteristics and the intensity ratio of the modes are attributed to the temporal fluctuations in the plasma flow.
The model suggested allows one to reproduce the basic features of the one-dimensional distributions of the individual-pulse polarization characteristics. Besides that, the propagation origin of the pulsar polarization implies a certain correlation between the mode ellipticity and position angle. On a qualitative level, for different sets of parameters, the expected correlations appear compatible with the observed ones. Further theoretical studies are necessary to establish the quantitative correspondence of the model to the observational results and to develop a technique of diagnostics of the pulsar plasma on this basis.     

A rope-shaped solar filament and a IIIb flare

On September 14–18, 2000, a medium-small solar active region was observed at Ganyu Station of Purple Mountain Observatory. Its spots were not large, but it had a peculiar active filament. On Sep.16, a flare of importance III_b with rather intense geophysical effects was produced. Our computation of the magnetic structure of the active region reveals that the rope-shaped filament was concerned with a low magnetic arc close to magnetic neutral line. An intense shear of magnetic field occurred near magnetic rope. The QSL analysis shows that a 3-D magnetic reconnection might appear in the vicinity of filament, and this can be used to interpret the formation of a large flare.     

Strong magnetic field in W75N OH maser flare

A flare of OH maser emission was discovered in W75N in 2000. Its location was determined with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to be within 110 au from one of the ultracompact H  ii regions, Very Large Array 2 (VLA2). The flare consisted of several maser spots. Four of the spots were found to form Zeeman pairs, all of them with a magnetic field strength of about 40 mG. This is the highest ever magnetic field strength found in OH masers, an order of magnitude higher than in typical OH masers. Three possible sources for the enhanced magnetic field are discussed: (i) the magnetic field of the exciting star dragged out by the stellar wind; (ii) the general interstellar field in the gas compressed by the magnetohydrodynamic shock; and (iii) the magnetic field of planets which orbit the exciting star and produce maser emission in gaseous envelopes.     

Infrared observations of serendipitous hard Chandra X-ray sources

We present observations of a sample of optically faint, hard X-ray sources of the kind likely to be responsible for much of the hard X-ray background. We confirm that such sources are easily detected in the near-infrared, and find that they have a featureless continuum suggesting that the active nucleus is heavily obscured. The infrared colours of the majority of the targets observed are consistent with absorbed elliptical host galaxies at z =1–2. It is likely that we are observing some of the brighter members of the important new class of X-ray type II quasars.     

Spine–sheath polarization structures in four active galactic nuclei jets

We present the results of multifrequency (15 + 8 + 5 GHz) polarization Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of the three BL Lacertae objects 0745+241, 1418+546 and 1652+398 together with 5-GHz VLBI Space Observatory Programme (VSOP) observations of 1418+546 and 1.6- and 5-GHz VSOP observations of the blazar 1055+018. The jets of all these sources have polarization structure transverse to the jet axis, with the polarization E vectors aligned with the jet along the jet spine and 'sheaths' of orthogonal E vectors at one or both edges of the jet. The presence of polarization aligned with the jet near the 'spine' may indicate that the jets are associated with helical B fields that propogate outward with the jet flow; the presence of orthogonal polarization near the edges of the jet may likewise be a consequence of a helical jet B field, or may be owing to an interaction with the ambient medium on parsec scales. We have tentatively detected interknot polarization in 1055+018 with E aligned with the local jet direction, consistent with the possibility that the jet of this source is associated with a helical B field.