10 research outputs found
Cosmic strings and Natural Inflation
In the present work we discuss cosmic strings in natural inflation. Our
analysis is based entirely on the CMB quadrupole temperature anisotropy and on
the existing upper bound on the cosmic string tension. Our results show that
the allowed range for both parameters of the inflationary model is very
different from the range obtained recently if cosmic strings are formed at the
same time with inflation, while if strings are formed after inflation we find
that the parameters of the inflationary model are similar to the ones obtained
recently.Comment: 12 pages, 0 tables, 4 figures, accepted for publication in JHE
Confronting hybrid inflation in supergravity with CMB data
-term GUT inflation coupled to N=1 Supergravity is confronted with CMB
data. Corrections to the string mass-per-unit-length away from the Bogomolny
limit are taken into account. We find that a superpotential coupling
10^{-7}/\mcN \lesssim \kappa \lesssim 10^{-2}/\mcN, with \mcN the dimension
of the Higgs-representation, is still compatible with the data. The parameter
space is enlarged in warm inflation, as well as in the curvaton and
inhomogeneous reheat scenario. -strings formed at the end of -term
inflation are also considered. Because these strings satisfy the Bogomolny
bound the bounds are stronger: the gauge coupling is constrained to the range
.Comment: 36 pages, 15 figure
The Magnetic Field of the Solar Corona from Pulsar Observations
We present a novel experiment with the capacity to independently measure both
the electron density and the magnetic field of the solar corona. We achieve
this through measurement of the excess Faraday rotation due to propagation of
the polarised emission from a number of pulsars through the magnetic field of
the solar corona. This method yields independent measures of the integrated
electron density, via dispersion of the pulsed signal and the magnetic field,
via the amount of Faraday rotation. In principle this allows the determination
of the integrated magnetic field through the solar corona along many lines of
sight without any assumptions regarding the electron density distribution. We
present a detection of an increase in the rotation measure of the pulsar
J18012304 of approximately 160 \rad at an elongation of 0.95 from
the centre of the solar disk. This corresponds to a lower limit of the magnetic
field strength along this line of sight of . The lack of
precision in the integrated electron density measurement restricts this result
to a limit, but application of coronal plasma models can further constrain this
to approximately 20mG, along a path passing 2.5 solar radii from the solar
limb. Which is consistent with predictions obtained using extensions to the
Source Surface models published by Wilcox Solar ObservatoryComment: 16 pages, 4 figures (1 colour): Submitted to Solar Physic
Studying Millisecond Pulsars in X-rays
Millisecond pulsars represent an evolutionarily distinct group among rotation-powered pulsars. Outside the radio band, the soft X-ray range (--10 keV) is most suitable for studying radiative mechanisms operating in these fascinating objects. X-ray observations revealed diverse properties of emission from millisecond pulsars. For the most of them, the bulk of radiation is of a thermal origin, emitted from small spots (polar caps) on the neutron star surface heated by relativistic particles produced in pulsar acceleration zones. On the other hand, a few other very fast rotating pulsars exhibit almost pure nonthermal emission generated, most probably, in pulsar magnetospheres. There are also examples of nonthermal emission detected from X-ray nebulae powered by millisecond pulsars, as well as from pulsar winds shocked in binary systems with millisecond pulsars as companions. These and other most important results obtained from X-ray observations of millisecond pulsars are reviewed in this paper, as well as results from the search for millisecond pulsations in X-ray flux of the radio-quite neutron star RX J1856.5-3754
Astrophysical input for gravitational wave searches
We describe several areas where the newly emerging field of gravitational wave astronomy would benefit from exploiting the expertise of the broader astrophysics community. We deal specifically with searches for long-lived gravitational wave signals from neutron stars, paying particular attention to the known radio pulsar population and supernova remnants
Radio Pulsars
Almost 50 years after radio pulsars were discovered in 1967, our
understanding of these objects remains incomplete. On the one hand, within a
few years it became clear that neutron star rotation gives rise to the
extremely stable sequence of radio pulses, that the kinetic energy of rotation
provides the reservoir of energy, and that electromagnetic fields are the
braking mechanism. On the other hand, no consensus regarding the mechanism of
coherent radio emission or the conversion of electromagnetic energy to particle
energy yet exists. In this review, we report on three aspects of pulsar
structure that have seen recent progress: the self-consistent theory of the
magnetosphere of an oblique magnetic rotator; the location, geometry, and
optics of radio emission; and evolution of the angle between spin and magnetic
axes. These allow us to take the next step in understanding the physical nature
of the pulsar activity.Comment: Invited review for Space Science Review