A computer code, based upon the existing GUPIX code for PIXE analysis, has been developed to fit X-ray spectra that are excited simultaneously by both XRF and PIXE. Full matrix corrections for both excitation modes are included, and element concentrations are deduced. The code is intended for eventual use in processing spectra from the alpha-particle X-ray spectrometers aboard the Mars Explorat...

A short review of ultra-compact binaries, focused on ultra-compact X-ray binaries, is followed by a discussion of recent results of our VLT campaign to obtain optical spectra of (candidate) ultra-compact X-ray binaries. We find evidence for carbon/oxygen as well as helium/nitrogen discs and no evidence for (traces) of hydrogen. This suggests that the donors in the observed systems are white dwa...

Recent cosmic ray (CR) experiments discovered that the CR spectra experience a remarkable hardening for rigidity above several hundred GV. We propose that this is caused by the superposition of the CR energy spectra of many sources that have a dispersion in the injection spectral indices. Adopting similar parameters as those of supernova remnants derived from the Fermi -ray observations, we can...

It has been proposed that RX J1914.4+2456 is a stellar binary system with an orbital period of 9.5 mins. As such it shares many similar properties with RX J0806.3+1527 (5.4 mins). However, while the X-ray spectrum of RX J0806.3+1527 can be modelled using a simple absorbed blackbody, the X-ray spectrum of RX J1914.4+2456 has proved difficult to fit using a physically plausible model. In this pap...

The knowledge of neutron and gamma ray energy spectra can strongly influence the BNCT information about delivered dose to target volume as well as to the surface healthy tissue region. This region is very often decisive to stay within the recommended healthy tissue limit. Modification of neutron Bonner spectrometer to one block i.e. Bonner spectrometer monoblock (BSM) and gamma ray Si semicondu...

PURPOSE The accurate prediction of x-ray spectra under typical conditions encountered in clinical x-ray examination procedures and the assessment of factors influencing them has been a longstanding goal of the diagnostic radiology and medical physics communities. In this work, the influence of anode surface roughness on diagnostic x-ray spectra is evaluated using MCNP4C-based Monte Carlo simula...

We report X-ray imaging-spectroscopy of the jet of M87 at sub arc second resolution with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The galaxy nucleus and all the knots seen at radio and optical wavelengths, as far from the nucleus as knot C, are detected in the X-ray observations. There is a strong trend for the ratio of X-ray to radio, or optical, flux to decline with increasing distance from the nucleus...

We have surveyed 188 ROSATPSPC fields for X–ray sources with hard spectra (α < 0.5); such sources must be major contributors to the X–ray background at faint fluxes. In this paper we present optical identifications for 62 of these sources: 28 AGN which show broad lines in their optical spectra (BLAGN), 13 narrow emission line galaxies (NELGs), 5 galaxies with no visible emission lines, 8 cluste...

We examine the possibility that Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) represent the extreme end of the black hole X-ray binary (XRB) population. Based on their X-ray properties, we suggest that ULXs are persistently in a high/hard spectral state and we propose a new disk–jet model that can accomodate both a high accretion rate and a hard X-ray spectrum. Our model predicts that the modified disk em...

In this paper we explore the use of the novel relativistic intermediate Hamiltonian Fock-space coupled-cluster method in the calculation of the electronic spectrum for small actinyl ions (NpO2+, NpO2(2+), and PuO2(2+)). It is established that the method, in combination with uncontracted double-zeta quality basis sets, yields excitation energies in good agreement with experimental values, and be...