We present selected results of observations and monitoring of cataclysmic variables (CVs) and related objects by the instruments IBIS and OMC onboard INTEGRAL. We analyse the behaviour of the intermediate polar (IP) V1223 Sgr in a state which we call a shallow low state. We present far X-ray spectra ($E$ up to 60 keV), and the optical and far X-ray orbital modulation. The relation between far X-ray and optical flux appears to be stable over about 400 days. We also present far X-ray observations of some other CVs (or at least upper limits of their far X-ray fluxes) and show that the systems with magnetized white dwarf (like polars and IPs) are observable with INTEGRAL. The OMC light curves show that an outburst and a shallow low state of IX Vel are caused by the mass transfer variations, and not by the thermal instability of the disk, and that the amplitude of the flickering decreases with the decreasing intensity of the “stable” component.

Instruments will be briefly introduced and the main mission results to date will be described.

The Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer mission, launched on 2004 November 20, is a multiwavelength observatory for gamma-ray burst (GRB) astronomy. The satellite carries three instruments: a new-generation wide-field gamma-ray (15–150 keV) detector that detects bursts, calculates 1–4 arcmin positions, and triggers autonomous spacecraft slews; a narrow-field X-ray telescope that gives 5 arcsec positions and performs spectroscopy in the 0.2 to 10 keV band; and a narrow-field UV/optical telescope that operates in the 170–600 nm band and provides 0.3 arcsec positions and optical finding charts. In the first 8 months of the mission (until the end of July 2005), Swift detected 54 GRBs performing detailed X-ray and UV/optical afterglow observations spanning timescales from 1 minute to several days after the burst. Swift has already collected a rich trove of early X-ray afterglow data and some interesting features are emerging. In particular early afterglow signatures reveal valuable and unprecedented information about GRBs, including the prompt emission – afterglow transition, GRB emission site, central engine activity, forward-reverse shock physics, and the GRB immediate environment.

We present here the results of new XMM-Newton observations of the PSR B1259–63 system during the beginning of 2004, as the pulsar approaches the disc of the Be star. We combine these results with earlier X-ray data from BeppoSAX, XMM-Newton, and ASCA. The X-ray light curve looks similar to the radio light curve with a rapid increase in the flux around the time of the disc crossing. This supports a model in which the X-ray emission from the system is due to inverse Compton scattering of the pulsar wind relativistic particles with moderate Lorentz factor $\gamma \sim 10$–100 on the Be star soft photons.

We present optical observations of the newly discovered accretion powered millisecond pulsar IGR J00291+5934, undertaken in the weeks following its outburst on 2$^{nd}$ December 2004. The decay to quiescence is seen to be highly variable with no indication of a modulation on the $\sim$2.46 hr orbital period apparent in the data, consistent with a system at low inclination. We also have a single Keck LRIS spectrum of the companion to IGR J00291+5934 taken 10 days after outburst. Strong hydrogen and helium emission lines are observed confirming the identity of the counterpart.

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is an international and multi-agency space mission that will study the cosmos in the energy range 10 keV – 300 GeV. The GLAST Science Support Center (GSSC) is the scientific community's interface with GLAST. The GSSC will provide data, analysis software and documentation. In addition, the GSSC will administer the guest investigator program for NASA HQ. Consequently, the GSSC will provide proposal preparation tools to assist proposers in assessing the feasibility of observing sources of interest.

Polarimetry in gamma-rays has the capability to enhance our understanding of compact object emission in our galaxy. In particular this diagnostic method could provide useful insight into the geometrical arrangement of these emitting objects and the roles that magnetic fields play in their emisson mechanisms. Gamma Ray Bursts have been studied in this way but the results, perhaps indicating a high degree of polarisation, remain unverified [Coburn & Boggs (2003), Wigger et al. (2004), Willis et al. (2005)]. The nature of GRBs solve many instrumental problems in polarimetry, however their true nature is less well defined and so a study of a better understood object such as the Crab Pulsar, for now, may reveal more as to the physics of the system.

I will review the discovery of microquasars and their importance in our understanding of High Energy Sources in Galaxies.

We present models for gamma-ray production in microquasars and we propose them as possible parent populations for different groups of EGRET unidentified sources. These models are developed for a variety of scenarios taking into account several possible combinations, i.e. black holes or neutron stars as the compact object, low mass or high mass stellar companions, as well as leptonic or hadronic gamma-ray production processes.

Microquasars are sources of very high-energy gamma-rays and, very probably, high-energy gamma-ray emitters. We propose a model for a jet that can allow to give accurate observational predictions for jet emission at different energies and provide with physical information of the object using multiwavelength data.

Since its launch in October 2002, the INTEGRAL satellite has observed the X-ray binary and black hole (BH) candidate GRS 1758–258, for more than 2 Ms. Between 2003 and 2004 INTEGRAL could follow its spectral and temporal behaviour: while it was weak and soft in spring 2003 it was detected up to 150 keV at the end of 2003 August, in a hard state similar to the one observed between 1990 and 1997 by previous high energy missions.

High energy gamma-ray astronomy has recently made significant progresss through ground-based instruments like the H.E.S.S. array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The unprecedented angular resolution and the large field of view has allowed to spatially resolve for the first time the morphology of gamma-ray sources in the TeV energy range. The experimental technique is described and the types of sources detected and still expected are discussed. Selected results include objects as different as a Galactic binary Pulsar, the Galactic Center and Supernova Remnants but they also concern the diffuse extragalactic optical/infrared radiation field. Finally, a scan of the Galactic plane in TeV gamma rays is described which has led to a significant number of new TeV sources, many of which are still unidentified in other wavelengths. The field has a close connection with X-ray astronomy which allows the study of the synchrotron emission from these very high energy sources.

The field of ground based gamma-ray astronomy has seen rapid growth over the past thirty years with the development of the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique to search for Very High Energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma radiation. This growth continues with the construction of four third generation telescope systems in Namibia, Australia, La Palma and the USA. These systems will search for VHE gamma radiation from such objects as AGN, SNRs, microquasars, dark matter and the galactic centre.

The Very Energy Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) in its first phase of operation will consist of an array of 4 Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) arranged in a ‘Mercedes’ star configuration. To be located at a high, dark site in Southern Arizona the full array is expected to see first light in October 2006. In February of 2005 the first VERITAS telescope achieved first light at a temporary location near to the final site. This poster summarises the status of the VERITAS instruments as of summer 2005.

The EGRET experiment detected pulsed emission from several pulsars in the HE energy range 20 MeV < E < 10 GeV. However, no pulsed emission has ever been detected above 300 GeV, which points to a cut-off in pulsed emission somewhere between ∼10 GeV and ∼300 GeV. Software has been developed at UCD which is capable of examining gamma-ray events in the energy range $E>130$ GeV and detecting the signature periodicity of pulsars if it exists. Data recorded on the Crab pulsar with the Whipple Imaging Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescope has been analysed with this software and upper limits on pulsed emission have been obtained.

We discuss populations of X-ray and $\gamma$-ray sources in star-forming regions (SFR). Interacting winds of massive stars and high supernova activity in SFRs can be powerful sources of high energy emission. Models of nonthermal particle acceleration in the vicinity of active SFRs are reviewed. A class of hard emission sources where a fast wind from a massive star collides with a supernova shell is described. Stellar winds of massive stars and core collapsed supernova explosions with great energy release in the form of multiple interacting shock waves inside the superbubbles are argued as favorable sites of nonthermal particle acceleration. Young stellar objects and supernova activity in the dense environment of starforming regions produce an another potentially abundant class of hard faint X-ray sources due to interaction of fast moving knots with the dense ambient medium. The knots could have very different physical nature, e.g. supernova ejecta fragments or Herbig-Haro-like objects. We argue that the sources may have rather steep logN—logS distribution and can contribute substantially to the galactic diffuse emission including the both low-ionized 6.4 keV and He-like Fe lines.

Since its launch in October 2002, ESA's INTEGRAL observatory has enabled significant advances to be made in the study of Galactic nucleosynthesis. In particular, the imaging Ge spectrometer SPI combines for the first time the diagnostic powers of high resolution gamma-ray line spectroscopy and moderate spatial resolution. This review summarizes the major nucleosynthesis results obtained with INTEGRAL so far. Positron annihilation in our Galaxy is being studied in unprecented detail. SPI observations yield the first sky maps in both the 511 keV annihilation line and the positronium continuum emission, and the most accurate spectrum at 511 keV to date, thereby imposing new constraints on the source(s) of Galactic positrons which still remain(s) unidentified. For the first time, the imprint of Galactic rotation on the centroid and shape of the 1809 keV gamma-ray line due to the decay of $^{26}$Al has been seen, confirming the Galactic origin of this emission. SPI also provided the most accurate determination of the gamma-ray line flux due to the decay of $^{60}$Fe. The combined results for $^{26}$Al and $^{60}$Fe have important implications for nucleosynthesis in massive stars, in particular Wolf-Rayet stars. Both IBIS and SPI are searching the Galactic plane for young supernova remnants emitting the gamma-ray lines associated with radioactive $^{44}$Ti. None have been found so far, which raises important questions concerning the production of $^{44}$Ti in supernovae, the Galactic supernova rate, and the Galaxy's chemical evolution.

I review here the current ideas regarding the origin, evolution, and physical nature of hot diffuse gas in normal, starburst, interacting and merging galaxies, using recent X-ray observations with XMM-Newton and Chandra. Many types of diffuse X-ray structures, including winds, bubbles, halos, chimneys and fountains, can be formed in galaxies, and can enrich the intergalactic medium with mass, energy and metals. This has profound implications as regards galactic formation and evolution, and the enrichment and evolution of galaxy groups and clusters.

From a Chandra survey of nine interacting galaxy systems the evolution of X-ray emission during the merger process has been investigated. From comparing LX/LK and LFIR/LB it is found that the X-ray luminosity peaks ∼300 Myr before nuclear coalescence, even though we know that rapid and increasing star formation is still taking place at this time. It is likely that this drop in X-ray luminosity is a consequence of outflows breaking out of the galactic discs of these systems. At a time ∼1 Gyr after coalescence, the merger-remnants in our sample are X-ray dim when compared to typical X-ray luminosities of mature elliptical galaxies. However, we do see evidence that these systems will start to resemble typical elliptical galaxies at a greater dynamical age, given the properties of the 3 Gyr system within our sample, indicating that halo regeneration will take place within low LX merger-remnants.

First, the X-ray source populations of M31 and M33 as known from Einstein and ROSAT observations are presented. Then, chandra results on the galaxies are shortly summarized which not only spatially resolved the centre areas but also supernova remnants (SNRs) in both galaxies, and led to source catalogues of restricted areas with high astrometric accuracy. Also luminosity function studies and studies of individual sources based on chandra and XMM-Newton observations led to a better knowledge of the X-ray source populations. After that I will concentrate on XMM-Newton surveys, in which more than 850 and 400 X-ray sources were detected in M31 and M33, respectively, down to a 0.2–4.5 keV luminosity of less than 1035 erg s−1. EPIC hardness ratios as well as informations from earlier X-ray, optical, and radio catalogues were used to distinguish between different source classes (SNRs, supersoft sources (SSSs), X-ray binaries (XRBs), globular cluster sources within the galaxies, and foreground stars, and objects in the background). However, many sources could only be classified as hard.They may either be XRBs or Crab-like SNRs in the galaxies or background sources. Within M31, two globular cluster sources could be identified as low mass XRBs as they showed type I X-ray bursts. Many of the SSSs in both galaxies were identified as optical novae. Due to the high frequency of outbursts in the bulge area of M31 many novae can be monitored at the same time which makes the investigation of class properties much easier compared to novae in the Milky Way or the Magellanic Clouds.