Notes on the 5th IACHEC Working Groups teleconference 25-Jan-2010, Skype Participants: V.Burwitz (VB), M.Guainazzi(MG), F.Haberl (FH), H.Marshall (HM), J.Nevalainen (JN), A.Pollock (AP), M.Tsujimoto-Careca (MTC) Apologies: M.Ishida (MI), P.Plucinsky (PP), S.Sembay (SS) 1. Logistics of the 5th IACHEC Meeting ====================================== The contract has been signed. Both HEASARC/Goddard and SAO support financially the meeting. A MBL web page has been set-up for registration. The URL has been communicated to MG: http://mercury.mbl.edu/conference/register.asp?conf=ASTRO10 who will post it after completion of the pre-registration phase. Potential participants are very welcome to register! The meeting has been advertised through the Chandra and the XMM-Newton mailing lists. HEASARC is a mine of other community mailing lists, which could be used to advertise the meeting. MG will contact K.Jahoda to see through which HEASARC mailing lists the meeting can be still advertised. Contacts to make sure that key colleagues attend (or, at least, are informed of) the meeting are ongoing. So far J.Kaastra (pending the solution of personal issues) and M.Boettcher have announced their presence. VB will contact Pons and/or Zladin as neutron star atmosphere experts. MG will ask K.Jahoda if he can contact T.Kallman. 2. Status of the Working Groups =============================== Cluster (JN) ------------ Two weeks ago JN got from L.David the new public ACIS response matrices (CALDB 4.2.0). Work is ongoing to update the paper results, Although this calibration version is likely not to be the end of the ACIS contamination re-calibration, there is a general consensus that the paper should be published on the basis of the current status. Work on the usage of the FeXXV/FeXXVI line intensity ratio as a calibration-independent temperature (as well as calibration) diagnostics is ongoing. Results will be presented at the 5th IACHEC meeting. It is not decided yet whether these results will be included in the cluster paper, or in a separate specific paper. High resolution (AP) -------------------- The activity is ongoing at a low level. The overall goal is assembling a complete database of the emission lines in the Capella spectra. An update will be presented at the 5th IACHEC meeting. Isolated neutron star (FH) -------------------------- The activity of this working group is pending the refinement of the EPIC-pn soft X-ray redistribution calibration, which is expected to be completed by the forthcoming EPIC calibration meeting (22-24 March 2010). Non-thermal SNR (MTC) --------------------- A protocol for the analysis of the G21.5-0.9 spectra was distributed to the WG members by MTC at the beginning of January, with deadline on January 31. The Suzaku part of the paper is finished. The plan is to have a complete draft of the paper at the IACECH meeting, to be finalised during the meeting and submitted immediately afterwards. There is no work on the Crab yet (primarily intended to address the cross-calibration above 10 keV). Thanks to the paper led by M.Weisskopf, RXTE/PCA and EPIC-pn/Burst Mode state-of-the-art spectra are ready. However, higher-energy data and overall leadership of this project are still missing. MG will contact L.Natalucci (INTEGRAL) to ask for his availability to lead this effort. Thermal-SNR (AP) ---------------- Comparison of the 1E0102-7214 spectrum with laboratory beam-foil spectroscopic measurements suggests that the emission lines could be produced in ion-ion interactions. This may explain the flattening of the Oxygen iron complex in the short-wavelength (high quantum numbers) limit. In parallel, R.Smith has produced a version of the "no-line" APEC code where the contribution of the two-photon continuum is separately calculated. Recent Spitzer observations confirm the underabundance of iron already suggested by the X-ray spectra. This in an important clue to nail down the origin of the 17 Angstrom feature. PKS2155 (HM) ------------- The publication of the new Chandra effective area and contamination model paves the way for the publication of the PKS2155-304 and blazar sample papers. A parallel analysis led by J.Drake on the LETG spectrum of PKS2155-304 may eventually lead to an independent paper. White Dwarfs (VB) ----------------- A new LETG observation of GD13 is scheduled. This target covers an intermediate energy range between Sirius B, Hz43 and the isolated neutron stars. The data should be delivered by the end of March, and, with some luck, VB should be able to present the first results at the 5th IACHEC meeting. AOB ==== Despite a few quirks, mainly due to the inexperience of the Chair in handling Skype teleconferences, the new platform worked well. The next teleconferences will be organised with the same medium. MTC will investigate why M.Ishida could not connect. Next meetings ============= At least two further teleconferences will be held before the 5th IACHEC meeting: - the first around the third week of February, primarily devoted to a review of the status of the ongoing papers: 1E0102-7214, blazar sample, cluster sample, G21.5-0.9, PKS2155-304 - the second immediately after the registration deadline (March 10) to define the meeting agenda. Meet-o-Matic cycles have been set-up to identify the most suitable dates. Answer by Friday January 29, please.