arXiv subjects

Yuki Kaneko

Publications and source records attributed to Yuki Kaneko.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

SHELLQs. Black Hole Mass and Eddington Ratio Distributions of Intermediate-Luminosity Quasars at 6<z<7

We present near-infrared spectroscopy of 21 quasars at 6.07 < z < 6.90 obtained with JWST/NIRSpec and Subaru/MOIRCS. These targets have absolute ultraviolet magnitudes of -25 < M_1450 < -22 and are drawn from a sample of z>6 quasars identified in the Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) project. These quasars occupy the intermediate-luminosity regime between luminous quasars and the faint high-redshift AGNs uncovered by JWST. We detect broad Balmer emission lines and MgII 2798 with underlying continua from the NIRSpec and MOIRCS targets, respectively. The virial black hole masses of this sample span a wide range of 7.2 < log M_BH/M_sun < 9.4, with Eddington ratios of -1.3 < log L_bol/L_Edd < 0.4. Combining these measurements with our previous mass estimates for other SHELLQs quasars, we construct a sample of 27 quasars with M_BH estimates at 6 < z < 7 and derive the distributions of M_BH and L_bol/L_Edd. When compared with luminosity-matched quasars at z ~ 1.3, we find median offsets of delta log M_BH/M_sun = -0.4 and Delta log L_bol/L_Edd = 0.2 in the high-redshift sample. In addition, 11% of the high-redshift quasars are accreting near or above the Eddington limit. As a systematic check, adopting the Eddington-ratio-dependent calibration of single-epoch M_BH estimates increases the inferred super-Eddington fraction to 22%. These results indicate that a representative population of distant supermassive black holes undergo a rapid accretion phase, although not as extreme as that seen in the most luminous quasar population, consistent with the anti-hierarchical growth scenario of supermassive black holes.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

17 Yr of Magnetar Bursts Observed with the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor

The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) has been in operation for over 17 years, during which it has observed more than a thousand bursts from soft gamma repeaters (SGRs), also known as magnetars. Serving as a laboratory for extreme physics, magnetars are a sub-family of neutron stars characterized by extreme magnetic field strength, observed through a combination of persistent and short transient emission across the electromagnetic spectrum. We present the comprehensive GBM catalog of SGR short bursts which supersedes the 5-year catalog of Collazzi et al. 2015. The new catalog contains 1254 SGR short bursts observed over 17 years, providing the longest uninterrupted, high-sensitivity all-sky monitoring of magnetar bursts with unprecedented spectral and temporal resolution. Our catalog contains bursts from 17 unique Galactic sources, with major contributions by bursts from SGR J1935+2154 and SGR J1550-5418. We present overall characteristics of these bursts, such as the durations, spectral parameters for various photon models, fluxes, as well as their comparison with recently published catalogs of other missions and the previous GBM magnetar catalog. The machine readable catalog, as well as burst spectra and response files are made publicly available for the community.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

An 11-Year Catalog of Gamma-Ray Transients: A Comprehensive Search with Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor Data

The Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on board Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has produced the largest database of all-sky observations in gamma rays with its continuous data with high time and energy resolutions. These data contain a wealth of unidentified transient events that did not trigger the detectors for various reasons. We conducted extensive searches to identify such untriggered transient events observed with GBM in 11 years (July 2010 - June 2021). In particular, we employed four different search modes with various energy ranges (mainly below 300 keV) and time resolutions (from 8 ms to 2 s), utilizing three statistical methods (signal-to-noise ratio, Poisson, and Bayesian statistics), each with different effectiveness in identifying specific classes of transients. Moreover, we developed algorithms for known-event flagging as well as unknown-event classification for our candidate events found in the searches. In this paper, we present our search methodologies, event flagging and classification algorithms and the resulting comprehensive event catalog. The catalog contains more than a million events in total, including known events such as gamma-ray bursts, soft-gamma repeater bursts, galactic X-ray source activities, terrestrial gamma flashes, and solar flares. For each candidate event, the catalog presents the event time, detection significance, event duration, hardness ratios, known-event flagging results, and classification probabilities. Our short-transient catalog significantly expands the currently-existing list of known events and complements the GBM trigger catalog. The event database with filtering capabilities is also publicly available at https://magnetars.sabanciuniv.edu/gbm, which allows users to retrieve event information based on their input queries along with the event lightcurves.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Detailed Time Resolved Spectral and Temporal Investigations of SGR J1550-5418 Bursts Detected with Fermi/Gamma-ray Burst Monitor

We have conducted a time-resolved spectral analysis of magnetar bursts originating from SGR J1550-5418. Our analysis utilizes a two-step methodology for temporal segmentation of the data. We first generated and fitted overlapping time segments. Subsequently, we obtained non-overlapping time segments with varying lengths based on their spectral evolution patterns, employing a machine learning algorithm called k-means clustering. For the fitting process, we employed three distinct models, namely a modified blackbody (MBB-RCS), a double blackbody (BB+BB), and a power law with an exponential cut-off (COMPT) model. We found that nearly all of the time segments fit well with the COMPT model. Both the average peak energy in the $ν$F$ν$ spectra (Epeak) and Photon Index parameters follow a Gaussian distribution with the means ${\sim}$30 keV and -0.5, respectively. Furthermore, there is a strong positive correlation between the cooler and hotter temperature parameters of the BB+BB model, and both two parameters show a Gaussian distribution with peaks ${\sim}$4 keV and 12 keV, respectively. Additionally, we found that the distribution of the temperature parameter of the MBB-RCS model can be fitted with a skewed Gaussian function with a peak ${\sim}$9-10 keV. Lastly, we searched for quasiperiodic spectral oscillations (QPSOs) in the hardness ratio evolution of the bursts. We identified five potential QPSO candidates at frequencies ranging from ${\sim}$15 Hz to ${\sim}$68 Hz. We discuss and compare these results with previous studies.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Searching for quasi-periodicities in short transients: the curious case of GRB 230307A

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the Universe; their energy release reache s us from the end of the re-ionization era, making them invaluable cosmological probes. GRB 230307A i s the second-brightest GRB ever observed in the 56 years of observations since the discovery of the phenomenon in 1967. Follow-up observations of the event at longer wavelengths revealed a lanthanide-ri ch kilonova with long-lasting X-ray emission immediately following the prompt gamma-rays. Moreover, t he gamma-ray light curve of GRB 230307A collected with INTEGRAL's SPectrometer of INTEGRAL AntiCoincidence Shield (SPI-ACS) and Fermi's Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM). We use Fourier analysis, wavelets and Gaussian Processes to search for periodic and quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in the prompt gamma-ray emission of GRB 230307A. We critically assess all three methods in terms of their robustness for detections of QPOs in fast transients such as GRBs. Our analyses reveal QPOs at a frequency of $\sim 1.2$ Hz (0.82s period) near the burst's peak emission phase, consistent across instruments and detection methods. We also identify a second, less significant QPO at $\sim 2.9$ Hz (0.34s) nearly simultaneously. We hypothesise that the two QPOs originate from the transition epoch at the end of the jet acceleration phase. These QPOs re present plasma circulation periods in vorticity about the jet axis carried outwards to the prompt radiation zone at much larger radii. They are sampled by colliding structures (e.g., shocks) in the spinning jet, possibly marking the evolution of plasma rotation during the final stages of the progenitor neutron star coalescence event.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Concise Spectrotemporal Studies of Magnetar SGR J1935+2154 Bursts

SGR J1935+2154 has truly been the most prolific magnetar over the last decade: It has been entering into burst active episodes once every 1-2 years since its discovery in 2014, it emitted the first Galactic fast radio burst associated with an X-ray burst in 2020, and has emitted hundreds of energetic short bursts. Here, we present the time-resolved spectral analysis of 51 bright bursts from SGR J1935+2154. Unlike conventional time-resolved X-ray spectroscopic studies in the literature, we follow a two-step approach to probe true spectral evolution. For each burst, we first extract spectral information from overlapping time segments, fit them with three continuum models, and employ a machine learning based clustering algorithm to identify time segments that provide the largest spectral variations during each burst. We then extract spectra from those non-overlapping (clustered) time segments and fit them again with the three models: the cutoff power-law model, the sum of two blackbody functions, and the model considering the emission of a modified black body undergoing resonant cyclotron scattering, which is applied systematically at this scale for the first time. Our novel technique allowed us to establish the genuine spectral evolution of magnetar bursts. We discuss the implications of our results and compare their collective behavior with the average burst properties of other magnetars.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Numerical Renormalization Group Study of Quadrupole Kondo Effect with the Crystal-field Excited State

We have studied the quadrupolar Kondo effect for an impurity in cubic environment with taking account of a singlet excited state $Γ_1$, which models a $\mathrm{Pr}^{3+}$ ion with a non-Kramers double ground state $Γ_3$. We have used the numerical renormalization group approach and determined the phase diagram with varying quadrupole Kondo coupling $J$ and $Γ_1$ excitation energy $Δ$. Two phases are found and identified as local Fermi liquid and non-Fermi liquid. This non-Fermi liquid phase is characteristic to the two-channel Kondo impurity, and a similar phase diagram has been also found in other extended quadrupole models. We have analyzed in detail the $J$-dependence of the Kondo temperature $T_K$ near the phase boundary $J_c (Δ) $ and found a nice scaling behavior with an stretched exponential form $T_K \sim δJ^α \exp (-\mathrm{const.}/\sqrt{δJ})$ where $δJ \equiv J - J_c (Δ)$. This differs from the standard scaling form and indicates that one needs to consider renormalization of multiple coupling constants.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Quasi-Periodic Peak Energy Oscillations in X-ray Bursts from SGR J1935+2154

Magnetars are young neutron stars powered by the strongest magnetic fields in the Universe (10$^{13-15}$ G). Their transient X-ray emission usually manifests as short (a few hundred milliseconds), bright, energetic ($\sim$ 10$^{40-41}$ erg) X-ray bursts. Since its discovery in 2014, magnetar J1935+2154 has become one of the most prolific magnetars, exhibiting very active bursting episodes, and other fascinating events such as pulse timing anti-glitches and Fast Radio Bursts. Here, we present evidence for possible 42 Hz (24 ms) quasi-periodic oscillations in the $νF_ν$ spectrum peak energy (Ep) identified in a unique burst detected with the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor in January 2022. While quasi-periodic oscillations have been previously reported in the intensity of magnetar burst lightcurves, quasi-periodic oscillations in the Ep have not. We also find an additional event from the same outburst that appears to exhibit similar character in Ep, albeit of lower statistical quality. For these two exceptional transients, such Ep oscillations can be explained by magnetospheric density and pressure perturbations. For burst-emitting plasma consisting purely of $e^+e^-$ pairs, these acoustic modes propagate along a highly magnetized flux tube of length up to around $L\sim 130$ neutron star radii, with $L$ being lower if ions are present in the emission zone. Detailed time-resolved analyses of other magnetar bursts are encouraged to evaluate the rarity of these events and their underlying mechanisms.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Fermi-GBM Observations of the SGR J1935+2154 Burst Forest

During 2020 April and May, SGR J1935+2154 emitted hundreds of short bursts and became one of the most prolific transient magnetars. At the onset of the active bursting period, a 130 s burst "forest," which included some bursts with peculiar time profiles, were observed with the Fermi/Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). In this Letter, we present the results of time-resolved spectral analysis of this burst "forest" episode, which occurred on 2020 April 27. We identify thermal spectral components prevalent during the entire 130 s episode; high-energy maxima appear during the photon flux peaks, which are modulated by the spin period of the source. Moreover, the evolution of the $νF_ν$ spectral hardness (represented by $E_{\rm peak}$ or blackbody temperature) within the lightcurve peaks is anti-correlated with the pulse phases extrapolated from the pulsation observed within the persistent soft X-ray emission of the source six hours later. Throughout the episode, the emitting area of the high-energy (hotter) component is 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than that for the low-energy component. We interpret this with a geometrical viewing angle scenario, inferring that the high-energy component likely originates from a low-altitude hotspot located within closed toroidal magnetic field lines.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Persistent Emission Properties of SGR J1935+2154 During Its 2020 Active Episode

We present detailed spectral and temporal characteristics of the persistent X-ray emission of SGR J1935+2154 based on our XMM-Newton and Chandra observations taken in the aftermath of its April 2020 burst storm, during which hundreds of energetic X-ray bursts were emitted, including one associated with an extraordinary fast radio burst. We clearly detect the pulsed X-ray emission in the XMM-Newton data. An average spin-down rate of 1.6$\times$10$^{-11}$ s s$^{-1}$ is obtained using our spin period measurement combined with three earlier values reported from the same active episode. Our investigations of the XMM-Newton and Chandra spectra with a variety of phenomenological and physically-motivated models, concluded that the magnetic field topology of SGR J1935+2154 is most likely highly non-dipolar. The spectral models indicate that surface field strengths in somewhat localized regions substantially exceed the polar value of 4.4$\times$10$^{14}$ G inferred from a spin-down torque associated with a rotating magnetic dipole.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Fermi/GBM View of the 2019 and 2020 Burst Active Episodes of SGR J1935+2154

We present temporal and time-integrated spectral analyses of 148 bursts from the latest activation of SGR J1935+2154, observed with Fermi/GBM from October 4th 2019 through May 20th 2020, excluding a ~130 s segment with a very high burst density on April 27th 2020. The 148 bursts presented here, are slightly longer and softer than bursts from earlier activations of SGR J1935+2154, as well as from other magnetars. The long-term spectral evolution trend is interpreted as being associated with an increase in the average plasma loading of the magnetosphere during bursts. We also find a trend of increased burst activity from SGR J1935+2154 since its discovery in 2014. Finally, we find no association of typical radio bursts with X-ray bursts from the source; this contrasts the association of FRB 200428 with an SGR J1935+2154 X-ray burst, to date unique among the magnetar population.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Burst properties of the most recurring transient magnetar SGR J1935+2154

We present timing and time-integrated spectral analysis of 127 bursts from SGR J1935+2154. These bursts were observed with the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Burst Alert Telescope on the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory during the source's four active episodes from 2014 to 2016. This activation frequency makes SGR J1935+2154 the most burst prolific transient magnetar. We find the average duration of all the detected bursts to be much shorter than the typical, anticipated value. We fit the burst time-integrated spectra with two black-body functions, a Comptonized model and three other simpler models. Bursts from SGR J1935+2154 exhibit similar spectral properties to other magnetars, with the exception of the power law index from the Comptonized model, which correlates with burst fluence. We find that the durations and both black-body temperatures of the bursts have significantly evolved across the four active episodes. We also find that the burst time history exhibits two trends, which are strongly correlated with the decay of the persistent emission in each outburst.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

Broadband Spectral Investigations of Magnetar Bursts

We present our broadband (2 - 250 keV) time-averaged spectral analysis of 388 bursts from SGR J1550-5418, SGR 1900+14 and SGR 1806-20 detected with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) here and as a database in a companion web-catalog. We find that two blackbody functions (BB+BB), sum of two modified blackbody functions (LB+LB), sum of blackbody and powerlaw functions (BB+PO) and a power law with a high energy exponential cut-off (COMPT) all provide acceptable fits at similar levels. We performed numerical simulations to constrain the best fitting model for each burst spectrum and found that 67.6% burst spectra with well-constrained parameters are better described by the Comptonized model. We also found that 64.7% of these burst spectra are better described with LB+LB model, which is employed in SGR spectral analysis for the first time here, than BB+BB and BB+PO. We found a significant positive lower bound trend on photon index, suggesting a decreasing upper bound on hardness, with respect to total flux and fluence. We compare this result with bursts observed from SGR and AXP sources and suggest the relationship is a distinctive characteristic between the two. We confirm a significant anti-correlation between burst emission area and blackbody temperature and find that it varies between the hot and cool blackbody temperatures differently than previously discussed. We expand on the interpretation of our results in the framework of strongly magnetized neutron star case.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Burst and Outburst Characteristics of Magnetar 4U 0142+61

We have compiled the most comprehensive burst sample from magnetar 4U 0142+61, comprising 27 bursts from its three burst-active episodes in 2011, 2012 and the latest one in 2015 observed with Swift/BAT and Fermi/GBM. Bursts from 4U 0142+61 morphologically resemble typical short bursts from other magnetars. However, 4U 0142+61 bursts are less energetic compared to the bulk of magnetar bursts. We uncovered an extended tail emission following a burst on 2015 February 28, with a thermal nature, cooling over a time-scale of several minutes. During this tail emission, we also uncovered pulse peak phase aligned X-ray bursts , which could originate from the same underlying mechanism as that of the extended burst tail, or an associated and spatially coincident but different mechanism.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Magnetar-like X-ray Bursts from a Rotation Powered Pulsar, PSR J1119-6127

Two energetic hard X-ray bursts have recently triggered the Fermi and Swift space observatories from the rotation powered pulsar, PSR J1119-6127. We have performed in depth spectral and temporal analyses of these two events. Our extensive searches in both observatory data for lower luminosity bursts uncovered 10 additional events from the source. We report here on the timing and energetics of the 12 bursts from PSR J1119-6127 during its burst active phase of 2016 July 26 and 28. We also found a spectral softer X-ray flux enhancement in a post burst episode, which shows evidence of cooling. We discuss here the implications of these results on the nature of this unusual high-field radio pulsar, which firmly place it within the typical magnetar population.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Variation of Spectral and Timing Properties in the Extended Burst Tails from the Magnetar 4U 0142+61

Extended emission episodes with intensity above the pre-burst level are observed following magnetar bursts from a number of soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs). Such extended tail emission were observed subsequent to two events detected from AXP 4U 0142+61. We investigated in detail the evolution of spectral and temporal properties during these two tail segments using RXTE/PCA observations, and report distinct variations both in the spectral and temporal behavior throughout the tails. In particular, sudden enhancement of pulsation amplitude in conjunction with bursts, and smooth decline of X-ray emission (cooling) during the tail were observed in both cases. We suggest that an inefficiently radiating trapped fireball formed during the burst, which can heat up the stellar surface, is able to explain the tail properties and its energetics. We also present the episodic detection of absorption and emission features during tails. One possible mechanism that has been proposed to give rise to such spectral lines is the proton/ion cyclotron resonance process which has been suggested to offer a valuable tool in probing the complex magnetic field of magnetars.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Burst Tails from SGR J1550-5418 Observed with Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer

We present the results of our extensive search using the Bayesian block method for long tails following short bursts from a magnetar, SGR J1550-5418, over all RXTE observations of the source. We identified four bursts with extended tails, most of which occurred during its 2009 burst active episode. The durations of tails range between ~13 s and over 3 ks, which are much longer than the typical duration of bursts. We performed detailed spectral and temporal analysis of the burst tails. We find that the spectra of three tails show a thermal nature with a trend of cooling throughout the tail. We compare the results of our investigations with the properties of four other extended tails detected from SGR 1900+14 and SGR 1806-20 and suggest a scenario for the origin of the tail in the framework of the magnetar model.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in Short Recurring Bursts of the Soft-Gamma Repeater J1550-5418

The discovery of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in magnetar giant flares has opened up prospects for neutron star asteroseismology. The scarcity of giant flares makes a search for QPOs in the shorter, far more numerous bursts from Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) desirable. In Huppenkothen et al (2013), we developed a Bayesian method for searching for QPOs in short magnetar bursts, taking into account the effects of the complicated burst structure, and have shown its feasibility on a small sample of bursts. Here, we apply the same method to a much larger sample from a burst storm of 286 bursts from SGR J1550-5418. We report a candidate signal at 260 Hz in a search of the individual bursts, which is fairly broad. We also find two QPOs at 93 Hz and one at 127 Hz, when averaging periodograms from a number of bursts in individual triggers, at frequencies close to QPOs previously observed in magnetar giant flares. Finally, for the first time, we explore the overall burst variability in the sample, and report a weak anti-correlation between the power-law index of the broadband model characterising aperiodic burst variability, and the burst duration: shorter bursts have steeper power law indices than longer bursts. This indicates that longer bursts vary over a broader range of time scales, and are not simply longer versions of the short bursts.

astro-ph.HE↗