Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

We use electric and magnetic field data from MMS spacecraft between 2016 and 2017 tostatistically investigate earthward propagating plasma flow bursts and field-aligned currents(FACs) inside the plasma sheet of the geomagnetic tail. We observe that the occurrence rateof flow burst peaks around the midnight region with decreasing trend towards Earth and theplasma sheet flanks. Further, we distinguish between long and short FACs. Long FACs laston average 6 sec and have a magnitude of 5-20 nA/m 2 . Short FACs last on average 10 timesshorter and have an magnitude of 10-50 nA/m 2 . Both, long and short FACs occur on averageone time per flow burst, on minimum 0 times and on maximum 4 times per flow burst. Intotal, 43 % of the observed FACs are located in a flow burst, 40 % before and 17 % right after aflow burst.

Gamma-ray bursts are still not fully understood events. However, their exploration could pro- vide a useful tool for a better understanding of the early Universe because they belong to the most distant and violent objects that astronomers know. This thesis tries to bring more information about a so-called group of intermediate-duration bursts claimed by different authors employing dif- ferent data samples. Firstly, duration and spectral hardness properties of bursts from the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager are statistically analysed. The obtained results bring a suspicion that these intermediate bursts gather into a separate group. Secondly, these bursts are investigated in more detail with respect to their spectral lags, peak count rates, red- shifts, supernova observations, and so forth. Thirdly, long-duration bursts with known redshifts and with derived pseudo-redshifts detected by The Burst and Transient Source Experiment, Swift and Fermi bursts with known redshifts, are used to study the cosmological effects on the observed flux and fluence distributions.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are short, intense flashes of 0.1-1 MeV electromagnetic radiation that are routinely observed by Earth orbiting satellites. The sources of GRBs are known to be extragalacitic and located at cosmological distances. Due to the extremely high isotropic equivalent energies of GRBs, which are on the order of Eiso~1054 erg, the gamma-ray emission is believed to be collimated, making them observable only when they are directed towards Earth. The favored progenitor models of GRBs are also believed to emit gravitational waves that would be observable by the current generation of ground-based interferometric gravitational wave detectors. The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) and Virgo instruments operated near design sensitivity and collected more than a year of triple coincident data during the S5/VSR1 science run, which spanned the two year interval between November 2005 and October 2007. During this time, GRB detections were being made by the NASA/Goddard Swift Burst Alert Telescope at a rate of approximately 0.3 per day, producing a collection of triggers that has since been used in a coincident GRB-GW burst search with data from the LIGO-Virgo interferometer network. This dissertation describes the search for gravitational waves using the times and locations of 123 below-threshold potential GRB triggers from Swift over the same time period. Although most of the below-threshold triggers are likely false alarms, there is reason to believe that some are the result of actual faintly-observed GRB events. Recent GRB observations indicate that the local rate of low-luminosity GRBs is much higher than previously believed. This result, combined with the possibility of discovering a rare nearby GRB event accompanied by gravitational waves, is what motivates this search. The analysis results indicate no evidence for gravitational waves associated with any of the below-threshold triggers. A median distance lower limit of ~16 Mpc was derived for a typical neutron star-black hole coalescence progenitor assumption.

M.Sc. (Geology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Les sursauts gamma se divisent entre sursauts courts, issus de la coalescence de deux objets compacts, et sursauts longs, issus de l'effondrement d'une étoile très massive de type Wolf-Rayet. Ce phénomène cataclysmique produit un jet ultra-relativiste. La dissipation de l'énergie au sein de ce jet est à l'origine d'une bouffée de photons gamma (keV-GeV) d'une durée moyenne de 10 s que l'on nomme émission prompte. Elle est suivie d'une phase d'émission rémanente détectable en X, en optique et en radio qui est visible de quelques secondes après le sursauts à quelques jours voir semaines et provient de la dissipation de l'énergie du jet dans le milieu environnant. Il s'agit des événements transitoires les plus lumineux que nous connaissons ce qui permet de les détecter jusqu'à des valeurs de décalage cosmologique (redshift) de l'ordre de 8-9. Cela permet l'exploration du diagramme de Hubble à grand redshift qui reste encore mal connu. Mais pour cela, il est nécessaire de standardiser ces sources astrophysiques afin de calibrer leur luminosité. Diverses relations, liant la luminosité des sursauts gamma à un paramètre indépendant de la cosmologie, ont été mises en évidence permettant de transformer les sursauts en " chandelles standards ". Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons étudié ces relations afin d'apporter un éclairage nouveau sur la façon dont elles sont affectées par divers effets de sélection instrumentaux. Les relations spectrales lient la luminosité isotropique ou l'énergie isotropique à l'énergie du maximum spectral de l'émission prompte. Nous avons montré que la combinaison de deux effets de sélection (détection puis mesure du redshift) permettait d'expliquer les contradictions entre les études reposant sur les sursauts avec redshift et celles incluant les sursauts sans redshift. Cela a conduit à la mise en évidence d'un lien entre l'émission prompte en gamma et l'émission rémanente en optique. Nous nous sommes également intéressé à l'une des relations temporelles, celle reliant Liso au délai spectral. Ce paramètre correspond à la différence entre le temps d'arrivée des photons de hautes et de basses énergies. Après avoir développé notre propre méthode de calcul de cette quantité, nous avons obtenu des résultats intéressants sur les distributions de ce paramètre et son lien avec l'évolution spectrale au sein des sursauts gamma. Nous avons également mis en évidence l'existence d'effets de sélection impactant cette relation et compromettant son usage pour la cosmologie. Plus généralement, cette thèse a permis de mettre en évidence la complexité de la standardisation des sursauts gamma qui ne peut être faites de manière aussi simple que celle utilisée jusqu'à présent. Nous avons montré qu'une étude détaillée des effets de sélection qui affectent ces relations de standardisation est un préalable indispensable avant toute utilisation de ces dernières à des fins cosmologiques. / GRBs are divided between short bursts, resulting from the coalescence of two compact objects, and long bursts, resulting from the collapse of a very massive star (Wolf-Rayet type). This cataclysmic phenomenon produces an ultra-relativistic jet. Energy dissipation in this jet produces flashes of gamma photons (keV-GeV) with an average duration of 10 seconds which is called prompt emission. It is followed by a detectable afterglow phase in X, optical and radio band which is visible from a few seconds after the bursts to several days or weeks and results from the dissipation of the energy contained in the jet into the surrounding medium. They are the most luminous transient events that we know, which can be detected up to redshifts of about 8-9. Being so bright, GRBs may allow the exploration of the Hubble diagram at high redshift, which is still poorly understood. To do this, it is however necessary to standardize these astrophysical sources and calibrate their brightness. Various relationships linking the intrinsic luminosity of GRBs with a parameter independent from cosmology have been highlighted allowing GRBs standardization. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to assess whether the observed correlations represent an intrinsic property of GRBs. In this thesis, we study selection effects to understand their impact on several relations which have been used to standardize GRBs. Spectral relationships connect the isotropic brightness or isotropic energy, and the peak energy of the prompt emission. We show that a combination of two selection effects, respectively associated with the GRB detection and the measure of their redshift, explains the contradiction between studies based on GRBs with a redshift and studies based on larger samples of GRBs without a redshift. Our study led us to discover a link between the prompt gamma emission and the optical afterglow that is a first step to understand the link between these two phases of the gamma-ray burst emission. Among the second category of relations, we focused on the relation between the luminosity and the spectral lag of the prompt emission. This parameter corresponds to the difference between the times of arrival of GRB photons at high and low energies. We developed our own method for the measure of the spectral lag, which led us to discuss the distribution of this parameter and its relationship to the spectral evolution within GRBs. We also confirmed the existence of selection effect affecting this relationship and compromising its use for cosmology. This thesis highlights the strong impact of observational selection effects on the relations which have been proposed for GRB standardization. We conclude that the study of selection effects is essential to understand if the relations proposed for the standardization of GRBs are intrinsic or due to selection effects, and if they can be used for cosmological purposes.

Esta tese apresenta a caracterização de desempenho dos serviços executados em um ambiente em nuvem, quando são consideradas rajadas de diferentes origens, intensidades e variabilidades nas cargas de trabalho. Os resultados mostram que a presença de rajadas no processo de chegada das requisições e/ou nas demandas de serviço, ocasiona uma considerável degradação no desempenho dos serviços e, portanto, devem ser consideradas nos modelos de cargas de trabalhos e nas atividades voltadas para avaliação de desempenho em computação em nuvem. Considerando-se a grande influência das rajadas, é proposta e validada uma metodologia que permite monitorar uma carga de trabalho e determinar a ocorrência de rajadas tanto nas taxas de chegadas de requisições quanto nas demandas de serviços. A metodologia utilizada na condução deste trabalho consta de diferentes modelos de cargas de trabalho com rajadas de diferentes variabilidades e intensidades, desenvolvidos e integrados à arquitetura CloudSim-BEQoS proposta nesta tese. Utilizando-se essa arquitetura é possível executar um conjunto de experimentos que possibilitam a obtenção dos resultados que caracterizam o desempenho dos serviços quando são criadas condições de rajadas nas cargas de trabalho submetidas à nuvem. / This thesis presents the performance characterization of the services executed in a cloud environment, when bursts are considered from different sources, intensity and variability in the workload. The results show that the presence of bursts in the arrival process of requests and/or in service demands, causes a significant degradation in the performance of services and therefore should belong to the models of workloads and in the activities considered for performance evaluation in cloud computing. Considering the great influence of bursts, a methodology to monitor a workload and predict the occurrence of bursts in both the rates of request arrivals and the service demands is proposed and validated. The methodology used in the conduction of this work consists in different types of workloads with bursts of different variability and intensity, developed and integrated into the CloudSim-BEQoS architecture proposed in this thesis. By using this architecture it is possible to execute a set of experiments that enable the achievement of the results that characterize the performance of services when bursts conditions are created in the workload submitted to the cloud.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第22255号 / 理博第4569号 / 新制||理||1656(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)准教授 前田 啓一, 講師 LEE Shiu Hang, 教授 長田 哲也 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

abstract: Several key, open questions in astrophysics can be tackled by searching for and mining large datasets for transient phenomena. The evolution of massive stars and compact objects can be studied over cosmic time by identifying supernovae (SNe) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in other galaxies and determining their redshifts. Modeling GRBs and their afterglows to probe the jets of GRBs can shed light on the emission mechanism, rate, and energetics of these events. In Chapter 1, I discuss the current state of astronomical transient study, including sources of interest, instrumentation, and data reduction techniques, with a focus on work in the infrared. In Chapter 2, I present original work published in the Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, testing InGaAs infrared detectors for astronomical use (Strausbaugh, Jackson, and Butler 2018); highlights of this work include observing the exoplanet transit of HD189773B, and detecting the nearby supernova SN2016adj with an InGaAs detector mounted on a small telescope at ASU. In Chapter 3, I discuss my work on GRB jets published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, highlighting the interesting case of GRB 160625B (Strausbaugh et al. 2019), where I interpret a late-time bump in the GRB afterglow lightcurve as evidence for a bright-edged jet. In Chapter 4, I present a look back at previous years of RATIR (Re-ionization And Transient Infra-Red Camera) data, with an emphasis on the efficiency of following up GRBs detected by the Fermi Space Telescope, before some final remarks and brief discussion of future work in Chapter 5. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Physics 2019

This dissertation uses shocks to explain both the prevalence of radio synchroton emission and dust formation in classical novae, as well as the origin of fast radio bursts. First, we examine the radio lightcurves of nova V809 Cep and find that the peak brightness temperature exceeded 10⁵𝘒, an order of magnitude above what is expected for thermal emission. We argue that the brightness temperature is the result of synchrotron emission due to internal shocks within the ejecta. We then examine the radio lightcurves of seven novae with radio evidence for shocks (QU Vul, V1723 Aql, V5668 Sgr, V809 Cep, V357 Mus, V1324 Sco, PGIR20fbf) and IR/optical evidence for dust formation. We demonstrate that dust formation generally precedes the rise of radio non-thermal emission, and present evidence to suggest that shocks occur prior to the onset of dust formation but that the radio shock emission is initially being absorbed by a layer of photo-ionized gas ahead of the shock. We model the optical depth of the photo-ionized gas to demonstrate that the time required for the photo-ionized gas to become optically thin to radio frequencies can be longer than the time required for dust nucleation; thus, dust appears to form before the shock emission is visible. We further demonstrate that the radio spectral evolution in novae with no evidence for dust formation is markedly different from novae with evidence for shocks, suggesting that in novae without velocity or distance estimates, the radio spectral evolution could be used to constrain the presence of shocks. Finally, we demonstrate that novae with evidence for dust absorption are preferentially inclined edge, on suggesting that both shocks and dust form in the equatorial plane. Since internal shocks in nova ejecta are thought to lead to dust formation, localizing both phenomenon to the equatorial plane strengthens the connection between the two phenomena. We then use Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations to explore the synchroton maser instability as a potential mechanism for the formation of Fast Radio Bursts. Electromagnetic precursor waves generated by the synchrotron maser instability at relativistic magnetized shocks have been recently invoked to explain the coherent radio emission of Fast Radio Bursts. By means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we explore the properties of the precursor waves in relativistic electron-positron perpendicular shocks as a function of the pre-shock magnetization σ ≳1 (i.e., the ratio of incoming Poynting flux to particle energy flux) and thermal spread Δᵧ ≡ 𝑘𝑇/𝑚𝑐² = 10⁻⁵−10⁻¹. We measure the fraction 𝑓𝜉 of total incoming energy that is converted into precursor waves, as computed in the post-shock frame. At fixed magnetization, we find that 𝑓𝜉 is nearly independent of temperature as long as Δᵧ ≲ 10¹·⁵ (with only a modest decrease of a factor of three from Δᵧ = 10⁻⁵ to Δᵧ = 10¹·⁵, but it drops by nearly two orders of magnitude for Δᵧ ≳ 10⁻¹. For our reference σ = 1, the power spectrum of precursor waves is relatively broad (fractional width ∼ 1−3) for cold temperatures, whereas it shows pronounced line-like features with fractional width ∼ 0.2 for 10⁻³ ≲ Δᵧ ≲ 10¹·⁵. For σ ≳ 1, the precursor waves are beamed within an angle ≃ σ -⁻¹/² from the shock normal (as measured in the post-shock frame), as required so they can outrun the shock. Our results can provide physically-grounded inputs for FRB emission models based on maser emission from relativistic shocks.