Radiation from hot bare strange stars

We present the results of numerical simulations of stationary, spherically outflowing, pair winds, with total luminosities of L=10^{35}- 10^{42} ergs/s. These results have direct relevance to the emission from hot, bare, strange stars, which are thought to be powerful sources of electron-positron pairs created by the Coulomb barrier at the quark surface. The spectra of emergent photons and pairs are calculated. For L > 2x10^{35} erg/s, photons dominate the emerging emission. As L increases from 10^{35} to 10^{42} ergs/s, the mean photon energy decreases from ~ 400-500 keV to 40 keV, while the spectrum changes in shape from a wide annihilation line to being nearly blackbody with a high energy (> 100 keV) tail. Such a correlation of the photon spectrum with the luminosity, together with the fact that super-Eddington luminosities can be achieved, might be a good observational signature of hot, bare, strange stars.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Accepted in MNRAS, includes minor correction

A Two-Dimensional Hydrostatically Equilibrium Atmosphere of a Neutron Star with Given Differential Rotation

An analytic solution has been found in the Roche approximation for the axially symmetric structure of a hydrostatically equilibrium atmosphere of a neutron star produced by collapse. A hydrodynamic (quasione-dimensional) model for the collapse of a rotating iron core in a massive star gives rise to a heterogeneous rotating protoneutron star with an extended atmosphere composed of matter from the outer part of the iron core with differential rotation (Imshennik and Nadyozhin, 1992). The equation of state of a completely degenerate iron gas with an arbitrary degree of relativity is taken for the atmospheric matter. We construct a family of toroidal model atmospheres with total masses $M \approx 0.1 \div 0.2 M_{\odot}$ and total angular momenta $J \approx (1 \div 5.5) \cdot 10^{49} erg \cdot s$, which are acceptable for the outer part of the collapsed iron core, in accordance with the hydrodynamic model, as a function of constant parameters $\omega_{0} and r_{0}$ of the specified differential rotation law $\Omega = \omega_{0}\exp{\Big[-\frac{(r\sin{\Theta})^{2}}{r_{0}^{2}}\Big]}$ in spherical coordinates. The assumed rotation law is also qualitatively consistent with the hydrodynamic model for the collapse of an iron core.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

GRBs and the thermalization process of electron-positron plasmas

We discuss the temporal evolution of the pair plasma created in Gamma-Ray Burst sources. A particular attention is paid to the relaxation of the plasma into thermal equilibrium. We also discuss the connection between the dynamics of expansion and the spatial geometry of the plasma. The role of the baryonic loading parameter is emphasized.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, in the Proceedings of the "Gamma Ray Bursts 2007" meeting, November 5-9, 2007, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US

Pair plasma relaxation time scales

By numerically solving the relativistic Boltzmann equations, we compute the time scale for relaxation to thermal equilibrium for an optically thick electron-positron plasma with baryon loading. We focus on the time scales of electromagnetic interactions. The collisional integrals are obtained directly from the corresponding QED matrix elements. Thermalization time scales are computed for a wide range of values of both the total energy density (over 10 orders of magnitude) and of the baryonic loading parameter (over 6 orders of magnitude). This also allows us to study such interesting limiting cases as the almost purely electron-positron plasma or electron-proton plasma as well as intermediate cases. These results appear to be important both for laboratory experiments aimed at generating optically thick pair plasmas as well as for astrophysical models in which electron-positron pair plasmas play a relevant role.Comment: Phys. Rev. E, in pres

Relativistic stars in differential rotation: bounds on the dragging rate and on the rotational energy

For general relativistic equilibrium stellar models (stationary axisymmetric asymptotically flat and convection-free) with differential rotation, it is shown that for a wide class of rotation laws the distribution of angular velocity of the fluid has a sign, say "positive", and then both the dragging rate and the angular momentum density are positive. In addition, the "mean value" (with respect to an intrinsic density) of the dragging rate is shown to be less than the mean value of the fluid angular velocity (in full general, without having to restrict the rotation law, nor the uniformity in sign of the fluid angular velocity); this inequality yields the positivity and an upper bound of the total rotational energy.Comment: 23 pages, no figures, LaTeX. Submitted to J. Math. Phy

A hydrodynamic model for asymmetric explosions of rapidly rotating collapsing supernovae with a toroidal atmosphere

We numerically solved the two-dimensional axisymmetric hydrodynamic problem of the explosion of a low-mass neutron star in a circular orbit. In the initial conditions, we assumed a nonuniform density distribution in the space surrounding the collapsed iron core in the form of a stationary toroidal atmosphere that was previously predicted analytically and computed numerically. The configuration of the exploded neutron star itself was modeled by a torus with a circular cross section whose central line almost coincided with its circular orbit. Using an equation of state for the stellar matter and the toroidal atmosphere in which the nuclear statistical equilibrium conditions were satisfied, we performed a series of numerical calculations that showed the propagation of a strong divergent shock wave with a total energy of 0.2x10^51 erg at initial explosion energy release of 1.0x10^51 erg. In our calculations, we rigorously took into account the gravitational interaction, including the attraction from a higher-mass (1.9M_solar) neutron star located at the coordinate origin, in accordance with the rotational explosion mechanism for collapsing supernovae.W e compared in detail our results with previous similar results of asymmetric supernova explosion simulations and concluded that we found a lower limit for the total explosion energy.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 2 table