474 research outputs found
Carbon Detonation and Shock-Triggered Helium Burning in Neutron Star Superbursts
The strong degeneracy of the 12C ignition layer on an accreting neutron star
results in a hydrodynamic thermonuclear runaway, in which the nuclear heating
time becomes shorter than the local dynamical time. We model the resulting
combustion wave during these superbursts as an upward propagating detonation.
We solve the reactive fluid flow and show that the detonation propagates
through the deepest layers of fuel and drives a shock wave that steepens as it
travels upward into lower density material. The shock is sufficiently strong
upon reaching the freshly accreted H/He layer that it triggers unstable 4He
burning if the superburst occurs during the latter half of the regular Type I
bursting cycle; this is likely the origin of the bright Type I precursor bursts
observed at the onset of superbursts. The cooling of the outermost shock-heated
layers produces a bright, ~0.1s, flash that precedes the Type I burst by a few
seconds; this may be the origin of the spike seen at the burst onset in 4U
1820-30 and 4U 1636-54, the only two bursts observed with RXTE at high time
resolution. The dominant products of the 12C detonation are 28Si, 32S, and
36Ar. Gupta et al. showed that a crust composed of such intermediate mass
elements has a larger heat flux than one composed of iron-peak elements and
helps bring the superburst ignition depth into better agreement with values
inferred from observations.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted to ApJ; discussion about onset of
detonation discussed in new detail, including a new figur
An Improved Limit on Invisible Decays of Positronium
The results of a new search for positronium decays into invisible final
states are reported. Convincing detection of this decay mode would be a strong
evid ence for new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM): for example the
existence of extra--dimensions, of milli-charged particles, of new light gauge
bosons or of mirror particles. Mirror matter could be a relevant dark matter
candidate.
In this paper the setup and the results of a new experiment are presented. In
a collected sample of about orthopositronium decay
s, no evidence for invisible decays in an energy window [0,80] keV was found
and an upper limit on the branching ratio of orthopositronium \invdecay could
be set: \binvdecay<4.2\times 10^{-7} (90% C.L.)
Our results provide a limit on the photon mirror-photon mixing strength
(90% C.L.) and rule out particles lighter
than the electron mass with a fraction of the
electron charge. Furthermore, upper limits on the branching ratios for the
decay of parapositronium (90%
C.L.) and the direct annihilation (90% C.L.) could be set.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, added references, fixed limit on millicharged
particles and changed two plots accordingl
Light Curve Models of Supernovae and X-ray spectra of Supernova Remnants
We compare parameters of well-observed type II SN1999em derived by M.Hamuy
and D.Nadyozhin based on Litvinova-Nadyozhin (1985) analytic fits with those
found from the simulations with our radiative hydro code Stella. The difference
of SN parameters is quite large for the long distance scale. The same code
applied to models of SN1993J allows us to estimate systematic errors of
extracting foreground extinction toward SN1993J suggested by Clocchiatti et al.
(1995). A new implicit two-temperature hydro code code Supremna is introduced
which self-consistently takes into account the kinetics of ionization, electron
thermal conduction, and radiative losses for predicting X-ray spectra of young
supernova remnants such as Tycho and Kepler.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, Supernovae as Cosmological Lighthouses, Padua,
June 16- 19, 2004, eds. M.Turatto et al., ASP Conference Serie
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