arXiv subjects

M. Chakraborty

Publications and source records attributed to M. Chakraborty.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Evidence for a spectral steepening of the gamma-ray emission from the Galactic Center ridge

Very-high-energy (VHE) $\gamma$-ray emission detected from the central molecular zone (CMZ) hints at diffusive propagation of cosmic rays (CRs) injected continuously near the Galactic center (GC). Using H.E.S.S. VHE $\gamma$-ray observations, we aim to construct a multi-component description of the region in order to derive the spatial and spectral distributions of CRs and discuss their potential origin. We rely on a spectro-morphological analysis, in which spectral and spatial parameters of different components are fit simultaneously, and on a three-dimensional description of the CMZ and CR distributions. The GC ridge emission is well reproduced with the assumed gas distribution model weighted by a $1/r^{\alpha}$ CR density profile with $\alpha = 1.10 \pm 0.05_{\rm{stat}} \pm 0.10_{\rm{syst}}$. We detect no significant spectral variations across the CMZ, which supports a continuous injection from the GC. We report a significant (> 3 $\sigma$) curvature in the GC ridge $\gamma$-ray spectrum, implying a parent proton break (or cutoff energy) of $E_b \sim 15-50$ TeV ($E_{\rm{cut}} \sim 60-160$ TeV). We also derive the best-fit spectral parameters of the other sources in the region and report a significant cutoff at $E \sim 5$ TeV in the spectrum of the pulsar wind nebula G0.9+0.1. Finally we constrain the position of the injection site to be close to the GC (ruling out the Arches and Quintuplet clusters as major contributors to the emission). We discuss possible origins for the GC ridge emission, potential mechanisms for causing the observed curvature, a possible contribution of the gas content to the emission of HESS J1745-290 and derive qualitative constraints on the line-of-sight positions of the clouds shaping the CMZ.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Understanding Pulsar Magnetospheres with the SKAO

The SKA telescopes will bring unparalleled sensitivity across a broad radio band, a wide field of view across the Southern sky, and the capacity for sub-arraying, all of which make them the ideal instruments for studying the pulsar magnetosphere. This chapter describes the advances that have been made in pulsar magnetosphere physics over the last decade, and details how these have been made possible through the advances of modern radio telescopes, particularly SKA precursors and pathfinders. It explains how the SKA telescopes would transform the field of pulsar magnetosphere physics through a combination of large-scale monitoring surveys and in-depth follow-up observations of unique sources and new discoveries. Finally, it describes how the specific observing opportunities available with the AA* and AA4 configurations will achieve the advances necessary to solve the problem of pulsar radio emission physics in the coming years.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Monitoring the upper atmospheric temperature and interplanetary magnetic field with the GRAPES-3 muon telescope

We study the influence of variations in the upper atmospheric temperature and interplanetary magnetic field on the cosmic ray induced atmospheric muon flux measured by the GRAPES-3 experiment over 22 years (2001--2022) of data; spanning three solar cycles: the declining phase of Solar Cycle 23, the full Cycle 24, and the rising and maximum phases of Cycle 25. Located in Ooty- India, the GRAPES-3 large area (560\,$m^2$) muon telescope detects $\sim$4 billion muons daily above 1\,GeV, with an angular resolution of $\sim$4$^\circ$, enabling a statistical precision $<$0.01\% on the hourly muon rate. After accounting for the effect of atmospheric pressure variations, we compare this data with the upper atmospheric temperature inferred from NASA's MERRA-2 dataset as well as magnetic field data from the ACE and WIND spacecraft at Lagrange point L1. A simultaneous iterative fitting method employing Fast Fourier Transforms and a narrow band-pass filter reveals the temperature and magnetic field coefficients to be $\alpha_T=-\,0.2241\,\pm\,0.04\, (stat.)\,\pm\,0.0220\, (syst.)\,\%\,K^{-1}$ and $\gamma_{M}=-\,0.574\,\pm\,0.027\, (stat.)\,\pm\,0.011\, (syst.)\,\%\,\text{nT}^{-1}$, respectively, for an assumed hadronic attenuation length $\lambda$=120 g cm$^{-2}$, underscoring the potential of the GRAPES-3 muon telescope to serve as a real time monitor of the upper atmospheric temperature or interplanetary magnetic field.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Understanding pulsar magnetospheres with the SKAO

The SKA telescopes will bring unparalleled sensitivity across a broad radio band, a wide field of view across the Southern sky, and the capacity for sub-arraying, all of which make them the ideal instruments for studying the pulsar magnetosphere. This paper describes the advances that have been made in pulsar magnetosphere physics over the last decade, and details how these have been made possible through the advances of modern radio telescopes, particularly SKA precursors and pathfinders. It explains how the SKA telescopes would transform the field of pulsar magnetosphere physics through a combination of large-scale monitoring surveys and in-depth follow-up observations of unique sources and new discoveries. Finally, it describes how the specific observing opportunities available with the AA* and AA4 configurations will achieve the advances necessary to solve the problem of pulsar radio emission physics in the coming years.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

An automated algorithmic method to mitigate long-term variations in the efficiency of the GRAPES-3 muon telescope

The GRAPES-3 large area muon telescope with its sixteen independent modules records the high energy (>1 GeV) muons continuously over 2.3 sr of the sky. However, the recorded muon rates are contaminated by instrumental effects and instabilities spanning both short- and long-timescales, such as variations in the efficiency of the detector. We present an automated, algorithmic method, which employs Bayesian blocks to discretize the data stream into periods and exploits the correlations among the sixteen independent modules of the muon telescope to separate the impact of these instrumental problems from those originating in physical effects of interest, allowing the Savitzky-Golay filter to be employed to mitigate the former. Compared to legacy methods, this method is less dependent on subjective input from experimental operators and provides a data stream free of all known instrumental effects over calendar years. The muon rate obtained with the new method shows a fairly better correlation with neutron monitor data, than that obtained with the legacy method.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

Dependence of Exchange Bias on Interparticle Interactions in Co/CoO Core/shell Nanostructures

This article reports dependence of exchange bias (EB) effect on interparticle interactions in nanocrystalline Co/CoO core/shell structures, synthesized using conventional sol-gel technique. Analysis via powder X-Ray diffraction (PXRD) studies and transmission electron microscope (TEM) images confirm absence of crystalline phases other than core-shell Co-CoO with average particle size $\approx$18 nm. Volume fraction ($φ$) is varied (from 20\% to 1\%) by introduction of stoichiometric amount of non-magnetic amorphous silica matrix (SiO$_2$) which leads to a change in interparticle separation/interaction. The influence of exchange and dipolar interactions on the EB effect, caused by the variation in interparticle interaction/separation is studied for a series of Co/CoO core/shell nanoparticle systems. Studies of thermal variation of magnetization ($M- T$) and magnetic hysteresis loops ($M- H$) for the series point towards strong dependence of magnetic properties on dipolar interaction in concentrated assemblies whereas individual nanoparticle response is dominant in isolated nanoparticle systems. The analysis of the EB effect reveals a monotonic increase of coercivity ($H_C$) and EB field ($H_E$) with increasing volume fraction. When the nanoparticles are close enough and the interparticle interaction is significant, collective behavior leads to an increase in the effective antiferromagnetic (AFM) CoO shell thickness which results in high $H_C$, $H_E$. Moreover, in concentrated assemblies, the dipolar field superposes to the local exchange field and enhances the EB effect contributing as an additional source of unidirectional anisotropy.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Small-scale cosmic ray anisotropy observed by the GRAPES-3 experiment at TeV energies

GRAPES-3 is a mid-altitude (2200 m) and near equatorial ($11.4^{\circ}$ North) air shower array, overlapping in its field of view for cosmic ray observations with experiments that are located in Northern and Southern hemispheres. We analyze a sample of $3.7\times10^9$ cosmic ray events collected by the GRAPES-3 experiment between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2016 with a median energy of $\sim16$ TeV for study of small-scale ($<60^{\circ}$) angular scale anisotropies. We observed two structures labeled as A and B, deviate from the expected isotropic distribution of cosmic rays in a statistically significant manner. Structure `A' spans $50^{\circ}$ to $80^{\circ}$ in the right ascension and $-15^{\circ}$ to $30^{\circ}$ in the declination coordinate. The relative excess observed in the structure A is at the level of $(6.5\pm1.3)\times10^{-4}$ with a statistical significance of 6.8 standard deviations. Structure `B' is observed in the right ascension range of $110^{\circ}$ to $140^{\circ}$. The relative excess observed in this region is at the level of $(4.9\pm1.4)\times10^{-4}$ with a statistical significance of 4.7 standard deviations. These structures are consistent with those reported by Milagro, ARGO-YBJ, and HAWC. These observations could provide a better understanding of the cosmic ray sources, propagation and the magnetic structures in our Galaxy.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Simultaneous X-ray/UV observations of ultraluminous X-ray source Holmberg II X-1 with Indian space mission AstroSat

We present the results of 8 epochs of simultaneous UV and X-ray observations of the highly variable ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) Holmberg II X-1 with AstroSat -- Indian multiwavelength space satellite. During the entire observation period from late 2016 to early 2020, Holmberg II X-1 showed a moderate X-ray luminosity of $8\times10^{39}$ erg/s and a hard power-law spectrum with $\Gamma \lesssim 1.9$. Due to low variability of the object in X-rays (by a factor 1.5) and insignificant variability in the UV range (upper limit $\approx25$%) we could not find reliable correlation between flux changes in these ranges. Inside each particular observation, the X-ray variability amplitude is higher, it reaches a factor of 2-3 respect to the mean level at the time scales of $\sim10$ ks or even shorter. We discussed our results in terms of three models of a heated donor star, a heated disk and a heated wind, and estimated the lower limit to the variability which would allow to reject at least part of them.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Reconstruction of the interatomic forces from dynamic Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy data

We explore the possibility for the reconstruction of the generative physical models describing interactions between atomic units in solids from observational electron microscopy data. Here, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is used to observe the dynamic motion of Si atoms at the edge of monolayer graphene under continuous electron beam illumination. The resulting time-lapsed STEM images represent the snapshots of observed chemical states of the system. We use two approaches: potential of mean force (PMF) calculation using a radial distribution function (RDF) and a direct fitting of the graphene-Si interatomic pair-wise potentials with force matching, to reconstruct the force fields in the materials. These studies lay the foundation for quantitative analysis of materials energetics from STEM data through the sampling of the metastable states in the chemical space of the system.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

A Machine Learning Approach For Classifying Low-mass X-ray Binaries Based On Their Compact Object Nature

Low Mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) are binary systems where one of the components is either a black hole or a neutron star and the other is a less massive star. It is challenging to unambiguously determine whether a LMXB hosts a black hole or a neutron star. In the last few decades, multiple observational works have tried, with different levels of success, to address this problem. In this paper, we explore the use of machine learning to tackle this observational challenge. We train a random forest classifier to identify the type of compact object using the energy spectrum in the energy range 5-25 keV obtained from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer archive. We report an average accuracy of 87+/-13 in classifying the spectra of LMXB sources. We further use the trained model for predicting the classes for LMXB systems with unknown or ambiguous classification. With the ever-increasing volume of astronomical data in the X-ray domain from present and upcoming missions (e.g., SWIFT, XMM-Newton, XARM, ATHENA, NICER), such methods can be extremely useful for faster and robust classification of X-ray sources and can also be deployed as part of the data reduction pipeline.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Energy sensitivity of the GRAPES-3 EAS array for primary cosmic ray protons

Low energy ground-based cosmic ray air shower experiments generally have energy threshold in the range of a few tens to a few hundreds of TeV. The shower observables are measured indirectly with an array of detectors. The atmospheric absorption of low energy secondaries limits their detection frequencies at the Earth's surface. However, due to selection effects, a tiny fraction of low energy showers, which are produced in the lower atmosphere can reach the observational level. But, due to less information of shower observables, the reconstruction of these showers are arduous. Hence, it is believed that direct measurements by experiments aboard on satellites and balloon flights are more reliable at low energies. Despite having very small efficiency ($\sim$0.1%) at low energies, the large acceptance ($\sim$5 m$^2$sr) of GRAPES-3 experiment allows observing primary cosmic rays down below to $\sim$1 TeV and opens up the possibility to measure primary energy spectrum spanning from a few TeV to beyond cosmic ray knee (up to 10$^{16}$ eV), covering five orders of magnitude. The GRAPES-3 energy threshold for primary protons through Monte Carlo simulations are calculated, which gives reasonably good agreement with data. Furthermore, the total efficiencies and acceptance are also calculated for protons primaries. The ability of GRAPES-3 experiment to cover such a broader energy range may provide a unique handle to bridge the energy spectrum between direct measurements at low energies and indirect measurements at ultra-high energies.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2019

The angular resolution of GRAPES-3 EAS array after correction for the shower front curvature

The angular resolution of an extensive air shower (EAS) array plays a critical role in determining its sensitivity for the detection of point $γ$-ray sources in the multi-TeV energy range. The GRAPES-3 an EAS array located at Ooty in India (11.4$^{\circ}$N, 76.7$^{\circ}$E, 2200 m altitude) is designed to study $γ$-rays in the TeV-PeV energy range. It comprises of a dense array of 400 plastic scintillators deployed over an area of 25000 m$^2$ and a large area (560 m$^2$) muon telescope. A new statistical method allowed real time determination of the propagation delay of each detector in the GRAPES-3 array. The shape of shower front is known to be curved and here the details of a new method developed for accurate measurement of the shower front curvature is presented. These two developments have led to a sizable improvement in the angular resolution of GRAPES-3 array. It is shown that the curvature depends on the size and age of an EAS. By employing two different techniques, namely, the odd-even and the left-right methods, independent estimates of the angular resolution are obtained. The odd-even method estimates the best achievable resolution of the array. For obtaining the angular resolution, the left-right method is used after implementing the size and age dependent curvature corrections. A comparison of the angular resolution as a function of EAS energy by these two methods shows them be virtually indistinguishable. The angular resolution of GRAPES-3 array is 47$^{\prime}$ for energies E$>$5 TeV and improves to 17$^{\prime}$ at E$>$100 TeV and finally approaching 10$^{\prime}$ at E$>$500 TeV.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2019

Tetramer Orbital-Ordering induced Lattice-Chirality in Ferrimagnetic, Polar MnTi2O4

Using density-functional theory calculations and experimental investigations on structural, magnetic and dielectric properties, we have elucidated a unique tetragonal ground state for MnTi2O4, a Ti^{3+} (3d^1)-ion containing spinel-oxide. With lowering of temperature around 164 K, cubic MnTi2O4 undergoes a structural transition into a polar P4_1 tetragonal structure and at further lower temperatures, around 45 K, the system undergoes a paramagnetic to ferrimagnetic transition. Magnetic superexchange interactions involving Mn and Ti spins and minimization of strain energy associated with co-operative Jahn-Teller distortions plays a critical role in stabilization of the unique tetramer-orbital ordered ground state which further gives rise to lattice chirality through subtle Ti-Ti bond-length modulations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Phonon-mediated repulsion, sharp transitions and (quasi)self-trapping in the extended Peierls-Hubbard model

We study two identical fermions, or two hard-core bosons, in an infinite chain and coupled to phonons by interactions that modulate their hopping as described by the Peierls/Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. We show that exchange of phonons generates effective nearest-neighbor repulsion between particles and also gives rise to interactions that move the pair as a whole. The two-polaron phase diagram exhibits two sharp transitions, leading to light dimers at strong coupling and the flattening of the dimer dispersion at some critical values of the parameters. This dimer (quasi)self-trapping occurs at coupling strengths where single polarons are mobile. This illustrates that, depending on the strength of the phonon-mediated interactions, the coupling to phonons may completely suppress or strongly enhance quantum transport of correlated particles.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Accretion disks and coronae in the X-ray flashlight

Plasma accreted onto the surface of a neutron star can ignite due to unstable thermonuclear burning and produce a bright flash of X-ray emission called a Type-I X-ray burst. Such events are very common; thousands have been observed to date from over a hundred accreting neutron stars. The intense, often Eddington-limited, radiation generated in these thermonuclear explosions can have a discernible effect on the surrounding accretion flow that consists of an accretion disk and a hot electron corona. Type-I X-ray bursts can therefore serve as direct, repeating probes of the internal dynamics of the accretion process. In this work we review and interpret the observational evidence for the impact that Type-I X-ray bursts have on accretion disks and coronae. We also provide an outlook of how to make further progress in this research field with prospective experiments and analysis techniques, and by exploiting the technical capabilities of the new and concept X-ray missions ASTROSAT, NICER, HXMT, eXTP, and STROBE-X.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

Convergence Analysis of l0-RLS Adaptive Filter

This paper presents first and second order convergence analysis of the sparsity aware l0-RLS adaptive filter. The theorems 1 and 2 state the steady state value of mean and mean square deviation of the adaptive filter weight vector.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2016

Edwards polaron formation : From one to three dimension

Employing a self-consistent (optimized) variational diagonalization scheme, we investigate the formation of polaronic quasiparticles in a spinless fermion-boson transport model that couples the movement of charge carriers to fluctuations and correlations of a background medium. The background is parameterized by bosonic degrees of freedom. The variational fermion-boson Hilbert space is constructed to achieve high accuracy in one to three spatial dimensions with modest computational requirements. To characterize the ground-state properties of the Edwards model in the single-particle sector, we present exact numerical results for the polaron band dispersion, quasiparticle weight, Drude weight, mass enhancement, and the particle-boson correlations in a wide parameter regime. In the Edwards model, transport will be quasifree, diffusive or boson-assisted in the weakly fermion-boson coupled, fluctuation-dominated or strongly correlated regimes, respectively. Thereby correlated transport is not only assisted but also limited by the bosonic excitations. As a result, the Drude weight remains finite even in the limit of very small boson frequencies. For a strongly correlated background, closed loops are important, in any dimension, to generate a finite effective particle mass even when the free fermion has an infinite mass.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Near Fermi level Electronic Structure of Pr$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$MnO$_3$: Photoemission Study

In this study, we report the observation of a pseudogap associated with the insulator-metal transition in compositions of Pr$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$MnO$_3$ system with no charge ordering. Our valence band photoemission study shows that the observed shifts in the near Fermi level density of states are abrupt at the Curie transtion and occur over an energy scale of $\sim$ 1 eV, strongly suggesting that the charge-ordering gap observed earlier in other manganites and the pseudogap observed here may indeed have same origin. These results could be understood within the framework of models based on electronic phase separation where it has been shown that the pseudogap is a generic feature of the mixed-phase compositions. Also, our band structure calculations on Pr$_{0.75}$Sr$_{0.25}$MnO$_3$ show the possible existence of half-metallicity in this system.

cond-mat.str-el↗