37,703 research outputs found
Orbital Decay of the PSR J0045-7319/B Star Binary System: Age of Radio Pulsar and Initial Spin of Neutron Star
Recent timing observations of PSR J0045-7319 reveal that the neutron star/B
star binary orbit is decaying on a time scale of |\Porb/\dot\Porb|=0.5 Myr,
shorter than the characteristic age ( Myr) of the pulsar (Kaspi et
al.~1996a). We study mechanisms for the orbital decay. The standard weak
friction theory based on static tide requires far too short a viscous time to
explain the observed \dot\Porb. We show that dynamical tidal excitation of
g-modes in the B star can be responsible for the orbital decay. However, to
explain the observed short decay timescale, the B star must have some
significant retrograde rotation with respect to the orbit --- The retrograde
rotation brings lower-order g-modes, which couple much more strongly to the
tidal potential, into closer ``resonances'' with the orbital motion, thus
significantly enhancing the dynamical tide. A much less likely possibility is
that the g-mode damping time is much shorter than the ordinary radiative
damping time. The observed orbital decay timescale combined with a generic
orbital evolution model based on dynamical tide can be used as a ``timer'',
giving an upper limit of Myr for the age of the binary system since the
neutron star formation. Thus the characteristic age of the pulsar is not a good
age indicator. Assuming standard magnetic dipole braking for the pulsar and no
significant magnetic field decay on a timescale \lo 1 Myr, the upper limit
for the age implies that the initial spin of the neutron star at birth was
close to its current value.Comment: AASTeX, 9 pages, 3 ps figures. ApJ Letters, in pres
A model for parton distributions in hadrons
The non-perturbative parton distributions in hadrons are derived from simple
physical arguments resulting in an analytical expression for the valence parton
distributions. The sea partons arise mainly from pions in hadronic
fluctuations. The model gives new insights and a good description of structure
function data.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX. Contribution to DIS 99 worksho
Innermost Stable Circular Orbit of a Spinning Particle in Kerr Spacetime
We study stability of a circular orbit of a spinning test particle in a Kerr
spacetime. We find that some of the circular orbits become unstable in the
direction perpendicular to the equatorial plane, although the orbits are still
stable in the radial direction. Then for the large spin case ($S < \sim O(1)),
the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) appears before the minimum of the
effective potential in the equatorial plane disappears. This changes the radius
of ISCO and then the frequency of the last circular orbit.Comment: 25 pages including 8 figure
Squeezing and entanglement of matter-wave gap solitons
We study quantum squeezing and entanglement of gap solitons in a
Bose-Einstein condensate loaded into a one-dimensional optical lattice. By
employing a linearized quantum theory we find that quantum noise squeezing of
gap solitons, produced during their evolution, is enhanced compared with the
atomic solitons in a lattice-free case due to intra-soliton structure of
quantum correlations induced by the Bragg scattering in the periodic potential.
We also show that nonlinear interaction of gap solitons in dynamically stable
bound states can produce strong soliton entanglement.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Spin-Kick Correlation in Neutron Stars: Alignment Conditions and Implications
Recent observations of pulsar wind nebulae and radio polarization profiles
revealed a tendency of the alignment between the spin and velocity directions
in neutron stars. We study the condition for spin-kick alignment using a toy
model, in which the kick consists of many off-centered, randomly-oriented
thrusts. Both analytical considerations and numerical simulations indicate that
spin-kick alignment cannot be easily achieved if the proto-neutron star does
not possess some initial angular momentum, contrary to some previous claims. To
obtain the observed spin-kick misalignment angle distribution, the initial spin
period of the neutron star must be smaller than the kick timescale. Typically,
an initial period of a hundred milliseconds or less is required.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures. Accepted by Ap
Kaon decays and the flavour problem
After a brief introduction to the so-called flavour problem, we discuss the
role of rare K decays in probing the mechanism of quark-flavour mixing.
Particular attention is devoted to the formulation of the Minimal Flavour
Violation hypothesis, as a general and natural solution to the flavour problem,
and to the fundamental role of K -> pi nu nu-bar decays in testing this
scenario.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, contribution to TH 2002 (Paris, July 2002
On the Possible Enhancement of the Magnetic Field by Neutrino Reemission Processes in the Mantle of a Supernova
URCA neutrino reemission processes under the conditions in the mantle of a
supernova with a strong toroidal magnetic field are investigated. It is shown
that parity violation in these processes can be manifested macroscopically as a
torque that rapidly spins up the region of the mantle occupied by such a field.
Neutrino spin-up of the mantle can strongly affect the mechanism of further
generation of the toroidal field, specifically, it can enhance the field in a
small neighborhood of the rigid-body-rotating core of the supernova remnant.Comment: 8 pages, late
Innermost Stable Circular Orbit of Inspiraling Neutron-Star Binaries: Tidal Effects, Post-Newtonian Effects and the Neutron-Star Equation of State
We study how the neutron-star equation of state affects the onset of the
dynamical instability in the equations of motion for inspiraling neutron-star
binaries near coalescence. A combination of relativistic effects and Newtonian
tidal effects cause the stars to begin their final, rapid, and
dynamically-unstable plunge to merger when the stars are still well separated
and the orbital frequency is 500 cycles/sec (i.e. the gravitational
wave frequency is approximately 1000 Hz). The orbital frequency at which the
dynamical instability occurs (i.e. the orbital frequency at the innermost
stable circular orbit) shows modest sensitivity to the neutron-star equation of
state (particularly the mass-radius ratio, , of the stars). This
suggests that information about the equation of state of nuclear matter is
encoded in the gravitational waves emitted just prior to the merger.Comment: RevTeX, to appear in PRD, 8 pages, 4 figures include
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