ALBERT

Description: The bright quasar Kaz 102, which lies in the vicinity of the North Ecliptic Pole, was monitored during the ROSAT All Sky Survey for 121.5 days from 1990 July 30 to 1991 January 25. In the course of the survey, optical photometry with various filters was peformed at several epochs, together with UV (IUE) and optical spectrophotometry. The spectral energy distribution in the 3 x 10(exp 14) -3 x 10(exp 17) Hz range is obtained simultaneously among the various frequencies to less than or = 1 day. No clear case of variability can be made in the X-rays, while in the optical and UV variability of 10%-20% is apparent. An analysis of IUE and Einstein archives indicates a doubling timescale of years for the UV and soft X-ray flux. The X-ray photon index, which in 1979 was rather flat (Gamma = 0.8(+0.6 -0.4), in 1990/1991 was found to be Gamma = 2.22 +/- 0.13, a typical value for radio-quiet quasars in this energy range. The overall energy distribution and the variability are discussed.

Description: To optimize the activity of the RIASS collaboration was established between IUE and Rosat projects. Some of the results obtained are given and the importance of such coordinated observations for the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) definition of Active Galactic Nuclei is illustrated. All the participants in the AGN part of the RIASS program are listed. The RIASS observations allow for a comprehensive study of the overall spectral energy distribution of AGN's. For the first time, data from different instruments can be used to determine the SED, since the observations were simultaneous. A preliminary analysis shows that the energies radiated in the UV and the soft X-rays domains are closely related. The spectra of individual objects as well as the correlation found between the intensity of CIV lambda 1550 emission line and the soft X-rays luminosity, suggest that the excess detected in this band is the high energy tail of the big UV bump.

Description: Currently, the best available probe of the early phase of gamma-ray burst (GRB) jet attributes is the prompt gamma-ray emission, in which several intrinsic and extrinsic variables determine GRB pulse evolution. Bright, usually complex bursts have many narrow pulses that are difficult to model due to overlap. However, the relatively simple, long spectral lag, wide-pulse bursts may have simpler physics and are easier to model. In this work we analyze the temporal and spectral behavior of wide pulses in 24 long-lag bursts, using a pulse model with two shape parameters - width and asymmetry - and the Band spectral model with three shape parameters. We find that pulses in long-lag bursts are distinguished both temporally and spectrally from those in bright bursts: the pulses in long spectral lag bursts are few in number, and approximately 100 times wider (10s of seconds), have systematically lower peaks in vF(v), harder low-energy spectra and softer high-energy spectra. We find that these five pulse descriptors are essentially uncorrelated for our long-lag sample, suggesting that at least approximately 5 parameters are needed to model burst temporal and spectral behavior. However, pulse width is strongly correlated with spectral lag; hence these two parameters may be viewed as mutual surrogates. We infer that accurate formulations for estimating GRB luminosity and total energy will depend on several gamma-ray attributes, at least for long-lag bursts. The prevalence of long-lag bursts near the BATSE trigger threshold, their predominantly low vF(v) spectral peaks, and relatively steep upper power-law spectral indices indicate that Swift will detect many such bursts.

Description: If gamma-ray bursters are at cosmological distances-a possibility suggested by their isotropic distribution and spatial inhomogeneity-then the temporal profiles and spectra of more distant sources will be time dilated compared to those of relatively nearby sources. Analyses of bright and dim Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) gamma-ray bursts yield a relative time-dilation factor of 2.3 on timescales of pulses and event durations. We redshift the spectra of time intervals near the intensity peaks of the bright sample on a trial grid and compare with spectra of the dim sample. A redshift factor of order two-with wide latitude permitted-brings the spectra of the two brightness groups into alignment. Thus there is coarse agreement with the time-dilation factor found in the temporal domain.

Description: The recent association of several short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with early type galaxies with low star formation rate demonstrates that short bursts arise from a different progenitor mechanism than long bursts. However, since the duration distributions of the two classes overlap, membership is not always easily established. The picture is complicated by the occasional presence of softer, extended emission lasting tens of seconds after the initial spike- like emission comprising an otherwise short burst. Using the large BATSE sample with time-tagged event (TTE) data, we show that the fundamental defining characteristic of the short burst class is that the initial spike exhibits negligible spectral evolution at energies above approx. 25 keV. This is behavior is nearly ubiquitous for the 260 bursts with T(sub 90) less than 2s where the BATSE TTE data type completely included the initial spike: Their spectral lags measured between the 25-50 keV and 100-300 energy ranges are consistent with zero in 90-95% of the cases, with most outliers probably representing the tail of the long burst class. We also analyze a small sample of "short" BATSE bursts - those with the most fluent, intense extended emission. The same lack of evolution on the pulse timescale obtains for the extended emission in the brighter bursts where significant measurements can be made. One possible inference is that both emission components may arise in the same region. We also show that the dynamic range in the ratio of peak intensities, spike : extended, is at least approx. l0(exp 3), and that for some bursts, the extended emission is only a factor of 2-5 lower. However, for our whole sample the total counts fluence of the extended component equals or exceeds that in the spike by a factor of several.

Description: Using the lag-luminosity relation and various BATSE catalogs we create a large catalog of burst redshifts, peak luminosities and emitted energies. These catalogs permit us to evaluate the lag-luminosity relation, and to study the burst energy distribution. We find that this distribution can be described as a power law with an index of alpha = 1.76 +/- 0.05 (95% confidence), close to the alpha = 2 predicted by the original quasi-universal jet model.

Description: Photometric observations of RR Lyr in the ultraviolet have been obtained using the Astronomical Netherlands Satellite. The observations are compared with theoretical light curves calculated using synthetic spectra and angular diameters determined as a function of phase for RR Lyr by Manduca et al. from photometry at longer wavelengths. A good agreement is found. A bump in the observed light curves in the phase range 0.6 to 0.8 supports the existence of a shock as predicted by Hutchinson, Hill, and Lillie.

Description: Spherical blast waves and detonation waves in rocket combustion chamber

Description: Recent detections of apparent gamma-ray burst (GRB) counterparts in optical and radio wavebands strongly favor the cosmological distance scale, at least for some GRBs, opening the possibility of GRBs serving as cosmological probes. But GRBs exhibit great diversity: in total duration; in number, width and pulse configuration; and in pulse and overall spectral evolution. However, it is possible that a portion of this behavior reflects a luminosity distribution, and possible that evolution of with cosmic time introduces dispersion into the average GRB characteristics -- issues analogous to those encountered with quasars. The temporal domain offers a rich avenue to investigate this problem. When corrected for assumed spectral redshift, time dilation of event durations, pulse widths, and intervals between pulses must yield the same time-dilation factor as a function of peak flux, or else a luminosity distribution may be the cause of observed time dilation effects. We describe results of burst analysis using an automated, Bayesian-based algorithm to determine burst temporal characteristics for different peak flux groups, and derived constraints on any physical process that would introduce a luminosity distribution.

Description: Our extensive program of modeling GRB profiles is aimed at elucidating the physical processes responsible for the burst itself, as well as possible extrinsic phenomena (e.g. time dilation) as discussed in another paper in this Symposium (Norris et al., "GRB PROFILES AS COSMIC PROBES"). We have developed special methods to extract the wealth of short time-scale information contained in the BATSE time-tag event (TTE) data. Our algorithm yields a piecewise-constant representation of the light curve -- using only the raw photon arrival times, and based on Bayesian change-point methods. This representation in effect lets the data determine the bin size and location, and avoids unwanted effects due to arbitrary choices of the bin parameters. We have determined widths, separations, and amplitudes of pulses contained in the bursts, without invoking a specific pulse model. The effect of cosmic time dilation can be easily seen in a direct plot of amplitude vs. time scale for individual pulses, without the need to lump the data into a small number of brightness classes. We are also performing noise equalization on these data (to reduce a well-known bias of pulse width as a function of signal-to-noise ratio), as well as fits of parametric pulse-shape models -- including explicit energy dependence of the pulse parameters. Such refinements are expected to improve the quality and physical significance of these results.