The millisecond-duration radio flashes known as fast radio bursts (FRBs) represent an enigmatic astrophysical phenomenon. Recently, the sub-arcsecond localization (∼100 mas precision) of FRB121102 using the Very Large Array has led to its unambiguous association with persistent radio and optical counterparts, and to the identification of its host galaxy. However, an even more precise localization is needed in order to probe the direct physical relationship between the millisecond bursts themselves and the associated persistent emission. Here, we report very-long-baseline radio interferometric observations using the European VLBI Network and the 305 m Arecibo telescope, which simultaneously detect both the bursts and the persistent radio emission at milliarcsecond angular scales and show that they are co-located to within a projected linear separation of 40 pc (12 mas angular separation, at 95% confidence). We detect consistent angular broadening of the bursts and persistent radio source (∼2-4 mas at 1.7 GHz), which are both similar to the expected Milky Way scattering contribution. The persistent radio source has a projected size constrained to be  0.7 pc (0.2 mas angular extent at 5.0 GHz) and a lower limit for the brightness temperature of T 5 10 K b 7´. Together, these observations provide strong evidence for a direct physical link between FRB121102 and the compact persistent radio source. We argue that a burst source associated with a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus or a young neutron star energizing a supernova remnant are the two scenarios for FRB121102 that best match the observed data.

We present relativistic analyses of 9257 measurements of times-of-arrival from the first binary pulsar, PSR B1913+16, acquired over the last thirty-five years. The determination of the "Keplerian" orbital elements plus two relativistic terms completely characterizes the binary system, aside from an unknown rotation about the line of sight; leading to a determination of the masses of the pulsar and its companion: 1.438 ± 0.001 M and 1.390 ± 0.001 M , respectively. In addition, the complete system characterization allows the creation of tests of relativistic gravitation by comparing measured and predicted sizes of various relativistic phenomena. We find that the ratio of observed orbital period decrease due to gravitational wave damping (corrected by a kinematic term) to the general relativistic prediction, is 0.9983 ± 0.0016; thereby confirming the existence and strength of gravitational radiation as predicted by general relativity. For the first time in this system, we have also successfully measured the two parameters characterizing the Shapiro gravitational propagation delay, and find that their values are consistent with general relativistic predictions. We have also measured for the first time in any system the relativistic shape correction to the elliptical orbit, δ θ , although its intrinsic value is obscured by currently unquantified pulsar emission beam aberration. We have also marginally measured the time derivative of the projected semimajor axis, which, when improved in combination with beam aberration modelling from geodetic precession observations, should ultimately constrain the pulsar's moment of inertia.

We present a measurement of the flux of neutrino-induced upgoing muons (∼ 100 GeV) using the MACRO detector. The ratio of the number of observed to expected events integrated over all zenith angles is 0.74 ±0.036(stat) ±0.046(systematic) ±0.13(theoretical). The observed zenith distribution for −1.0 ≤ cos θ ≤ −0.1 does not fit well with the no oscillation expectation, giving a maximum probability for χ 2 of 0.1%. The acceptance of the detector has been extensively studied using downgoing muons, independent analyses and Monte-Carlo simulations. The other systematic uncertainties cannot be the source of the discrepancies between the data and expectations.We have investigated whether the observed number of events and the shape of the zenith dis-1

We present a measurement of the underground decoherence function using multi-muon events observed in the MACRO detector at Gran Sasso at an average depth of 3800 hg/cm 2 .Muon pair separations up to 70 m have been measured, corresponding to parent mesons with P ⊥ ≤ 1÷2 GeV/c. Improved selection criteria are used to reduce detector effects mainly in the low distance separation region of muon pairs. Special care is given to a new unfolding procedure designed to minimize systematic errors in the numerical algorithm. The accuracy of the measurement is such that the possible contribution of rare processes, such as µ ± + N → µ ± + N + µ + + µ − , can be experimentally studied.The measured decoherence function is compared with the predictions of the hadronic interaction model of the HEMAS Monte Carlo code. Good agreement is obtained. We interpret this agreement to indicate that no anomalous P ⊥ components in soft hadronNucleus and Nucleus-Nucleus collisions are required by the MACRO experimental data.Preliminary comparisons with other Monte Carlo codes point out that the uncertainties associated with the hadronic interaction model may be as large as 20%, depending on the energy. MACRO data can be used as a benchmark for future work on the discrimination of shower models in the primary energy region around and below the knee of the spectrum.