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Time series of SXT (Soft X-ray Telescope) images have revealed many jet-like features in the solar corona. Typical size of the “jet” is 5 × 103 – 4 × 105 km, the typical projected velocity is 30 – 300 km/s, and the kinetic energy estimated to be 1025 – 1028 erg. Many of the jets are associated with flare-like bright points or sub-flares. Three typical examples are discussed, including an X-ray jet identified with an Hα surge. It is suggested that magnetic reconnection is one of the possible mechanisms to produce these X-ray jets.

A new search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) flux has been conducted at Super-Kamiokande (SK), with a 22.5 × 2970-kton•day exposure from its fourth operational phase IV. The new analysis improves on the existing background reduction techniques and systematic uncertainties and takes advantage of an improved neutron tagging algorithm to lower the energy threshold compared to the previous phases of SK. This allows for setting the world's most stringent upper limit on the extraterrestrial νe flux, for neutrino energies below 31.3 MeV. The SK-IV results are combined with the ones from the first three phases of SK to perform a joint analysis using 22.5 × 5823 kton•days of data. This analysis has the world's best sensitivity to the DSNB νe flux, comparable to the predictions from various models. For neutrino energies larger than 17.3 MeV, the new combined 90% C.L. upper limits on the DSNB νe flux lie around 2.7 cm −2 •sec −1 , strongly disfavoring the most optimistic predictions. Finally, potentialities of the gadolinium phase of SK and the future Hyper-Kamiokande experiment are discussed.

Core-collapse supernovae are among the most magnificent events in the observable universe. They produce many of the chemical elements necessary for life to exist and their remnants-neutron stars and black holes-are interesting astrophysical objects in their own right. However, despite millennia of observations and almost a century of astrophysical study, the explosion mechanism of core-collapse supernovae is not yet well understood.

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