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C. -Y. Wang

Publications and source records attributed to C. -Y. Wang.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

An energetic dirty fireball detected in soft X-rays

The collapse of massive stars drives explosions that power relativistic fireballs. If only a small amount of matter is entrained, such clean fireballs can expand with Lorentz factors $Γ> 100$, accounting for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). It has been hypothesized that energetic explosions with more baryon contamination, dubbed ``dirty fireballs'', may exist in nature, but they have not been observed. Here we report the observation of an extragalactic fast X-ray transient, EP241113a, detected by Einstein Probe. Compared to GRBs, it has a similar isotropic energy of $1.4\times 10^{51}$ erg, but significantly lower spectral peak energy. Theoretical modeling of its early X-ray afterglow suggests a relativistic jet with a low Lorentz factor of $Γ\sim 20$ aligned close to the line-of-sight, signifying the prototype of a dirty fireball.

astro-ph.HE

A fast X-ray transient from a weak relativistic jet associated with a type Ic-BL supernova

Massive stars end their lives as core-collapse supernovae, amongst which some extremes are broad-lined type Ic supernovae from Wolf-Rayet stars associated with long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) having powerful relativistic jets. Their less-extreme brethren make unsuccessful jets that are choked inside the stars, appearing as X-ray flashes or low-luminosity GRBs. On the other hand, there exists a population of extragalactic fast X-ray transients (EFXTs) with timescales ranging from seconds to thousands of seconds, whose origins remain obscure. Here, we report the discovery of the bright X-ray transient EP240414a detected by the Einstein Probe (EP), which is associated with the type Ic supernova SN 2024gsa at a redshift of 0.401. The X-ray emission evolution is characterised by a very soft energy spectrum peaking at $< 1.3$ keV, which makes it different from known LGRBs, X-ray flashes, or low-luminosity GRBs. Follow-up observations at optical and radio bands revealed the existence of a weak relativistic jet that interacts with an extended shell surrounding the progenitor star. Located on the outskirts of a massive galaxy, this event reveals a new population of explosions of Wolf-Rayet stars characterised by a less powerful engine that drives a successful but weak jet, possibly owing to a progenitor star with a smaller core angular momentum than in traditional LGRB progenitors.

astro-ph.HE

Compact Polarization-Entangled Photon Source Based on Coexisting Noncritically Birefringent and Quasi Phase Matching in a Nonlinear Crystal

Polarization-entangled photons are indispensable to numerous quantum technologies and fundamental studies. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a novel source that generates collinear polarization-entangled photons by simultaneously achieving two distinct types of phase-matching conditions (noncritically birefringent and quasi phase matching) in a periodically poled nonlinear crystal with a large poling period of 2 mm. The photon pairs are generated in a polarization-entangled state with a fidelity and concurrence of 0.998 and 0.935, respectively, and violate the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality by 84 standard deviations. The compact source does not require interferometer, delicate domain structures, or post selection, and is advantageous for scalable quantum computing and communication, where many replicas or chip-scale devices are needed.

quant-ph

Surface optical phonon modes in ternary aligned crystalline InGaN-GaN multi-quantum well nanopillar arrays

The optical properties of focused ion beam-engraved perfectly aligned and spatially controlled multi-quantum-well InGaN-GaN nanopillars were investigated. Crystalline MQW nanopillars with a diameter of 30 to 95 nm and high aspect ratios showed a maximum of three-fold enhancement in emission intensity per unit active area. A light emitting contour map of Taiwan is drawn with a nanopillar structure to demonstrate the site control of the technique adopted in the present study. Raman scattering studies were used to characterize the newly created surfaces. Unknown peaks in GaN and InGaN nanostructures are identified for surface optical (SO) phonon modes with proper assignments of wave vectors using multiple excitations, and the SO mode for the ternary phase is reported for the first time.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci