284 research outputs found
X-Ray and Infrared Enhancement of Anomalous X-ray Pulsar 1E 2259+58
The long term (~1.5 years) X-ray enhancement and the accompanying infrared
enhancement light curves of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 2259+58 following the
major bursting epoch can be accounted for by the relaxation of a fall back disk
that has been pushed back by a gamma-ray flare. The required burst energy
estimated from the results of our model fits is low enough for such a burst to
have remained below the detection limits. We find that an irradiated disk model
with a low irradiation efficiency is in good agreement with both X-ray and
infrared data. Non-irradiated disk models also give a good fit to the X-ray
light curve, but are not consistent with the infrared data for the first week
of the enhancement.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Violation of the London Law and Onsager-Feynman quantization in multicomponent superconductors
Non-classical response to rotation is a hallmark of quantum ordered states
such as superconductors and superfluids. The rotational responses of all
currently known single-component "super" states of matter (superconductors,
superfluids and supersolids) are largely described by two fundamental
principles and fall into two categories according to whether the systems are
composed of charged or neutral particles: the London law relating the angular
velocity to a subsequently established magnetic field and the Onsager-Feynman
quantization of superfluid velocity. These laws are theoretically shown to be
violated in a two-component superconductor such as the projected liquid
metallic states of hydrogen and deuterium at high pressures. The rotational
responses of liquid metallic hydrogen or deuterium identify them as a new class
of dissipationless states; they also directly point to a particular
experimental route for verification of their existence.Comment: Nature Physics in print. This is an early version of the paper. The
final version will be posted 6 months after its publication Nature Physics,
according to the journal polic
A Giant Glitch in the Energetic 69 ms X-ray Pulsar AXS J161730-505505
We present new results on the recently discovered 69 ms X-ray pulsar AXS
J161730-505505, the sixth youngest sample of all known pulsars. We have
undertaken a comprehensive X-ray observing campaign of AXS J161730-505505 with
the ASCA, SAX, and XTE observatories and follow its long term spin-down history
between 1989 and 1999, using these, archival GINGA and ASCA data sets, and the
radio ephemeris. The spin-down is not simply described by a linear function as
originally thought, but instead we find evidence of a giant glitch (|Delta P/P|
> 10E-6) between 1993 August and 1997 September, perhaps the largest yet
observed from a young pulsar. The glitch is well described by steps in the
period and its first derivative accompanied by a persistent second derivative
similar to those in the Vela pulsar. The pulse profile of AXS J161730-505505
presents a single asymmetric peak which is maintained over all observation
epochs. The energy spectrum is also steady over time, characterized by a highly
absorbed power-law with a photon index 1.4 +/- 0.2, consistent with that found
for other young rotation powered pulsars.Comment: 6 pages with 2 figures, LaTex, emulateapj.sty. To appear in the
Astrophysical Journal Letter
Crystalline Color Superconductivity
In any context in which color superconductivity arises in nature, it is
likely to involve pairing between species of quarks with differing chemical
potentials. For suitable values of the differences between chemical potentials,
Cooper pairs with nonzero total momentum are favored, as was first realized by
Larkin, Ovchinnikov, Fulde and Ferrell (LOFF). Condensates of this sort
spontaneously break translational and rotational invariance, leading to gaps
which vary periodically in a crystalline pattern. Unlike the original LOFF
state, these crystalline quark matter condensates include both spin zero and
spin one Cooper pairs. We explore the range of parameters for which crystalline
color superconductivity arises in the QCD phase diagram. If in some shell
within the quark matter core of a neutron star (or within a strange quark star)
the quark number densities are such that crystalline color superconductivity
arises, rotational vortices may be pinned in this shell, making it a locus for
glitch phenomena.Comment: 40 pages, LaTeX with eps figs. v2: New paragraph on Ginzburg-Landau
treatment of LOFF phase in section 5. References added. v3: Small changes
only. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Pulsar Constraints on Neutron Star Structure and Equation of State
With the aim of constraining the structural properties of neutron stars and
the equation of state of dense matter, we study sudden spin-ups, glitches,
occurring in the Vela pulsar and in six other pulsars. We present evidence that
glitches represent a self-regulating instability for which the star prepares
over a waiting time. The angular momentum requirements of glitches in Vela
indicate that at least 1.4% of the star's moment of inertia drives these
events. If glitches originate in the liquid of the inner crust, Vela's
`radiation radius' must exceed ~12 km for a mass of 1.4 solar masses.
Observational tests of whether other neutron stars obey this constraint will be
possible in the near future.Comment: 5 pages, including figures. To appear in Physical Review Letter
Can Thin Disks Produce Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars?
We investigate whether young neutron stars with fall-back disks can produce
Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars (AXPs) within timescales indicated by the ages of
associated supernova remnants. The system passes through a propeller stage
before emerging as an AXP or a radio pulsar. The evolution of the disk is
described by a diffusion equation which has self-similar solutions with either
angular momentum or total mass of the disk conserved. We associate these two
types of solutions with accretor and propeller regimes, respectively. Our
numerical calculations of thin disk models with changing inner radius take into
account the super-critical accretion at the early stages, and electron
scattering and bound-free opacities with rich metal content. Our results show
that, assuming a fraction of the mass inflow is accreted onto the neutron star,
the fall-back disk scenario can produce AXPs for acceptable parameters.Comment: 16 pages, 4 Figures, to be published in Astrophysical Journal Vol.
599, Dec. 1
Color Superconductivity in Compact Stars
After a brief review of the phenomena expected in cold dense quark matter,
color superconductivity and color-flavor locking, we sketch some implications
of recent developments in our understanding of cold dense quark matter for the
physics of compact stars. We give a more detailed summary of our recent work on
crystalline color superconductivity and the consequent realization that (some)
pulsar glitches may originate in quark matter.Comment: 19 pages. 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the ECT Workshop
on Neutron Star Interiors, Trento, Italy, June 2000. Shorter versions
contributed to the proceedings of Strong and Electroweak Matter 2000,
Marseille, France, June 2000 and to the proceedings of Strangeness 2000,
Berkeley, CA, July 2000. KR was the speaker at all three meeting
Predicting the Starquakes in PSR J0537-6910
We report on more than 7 years of monitoring of PSR J0537-6910, the 16 ms
pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud, using data acquired with the RXTE. During
this campaign the pulsar experienced 23 sudden increases in frequency
(``glitches'') amounting to a total gain of over six ppm of rotation frequency
superposed on its gradual spindown of d(nu)/d(t) = -2e-10 Hz/s. The time
interval from one glitch to the next obeys a strong linear correlation to the
amplitude of the first glitch, with a mean slope of about 400 days ppm (6.5
days per uHz), such that these intervals can be predicted to within a few days,
an accuracy which has never before been seen in any other pulsar. There appears
to be an upper limit of ~40 uHz for the size of glitches in_all_ pulsars, with
the 1999 April glitch of J0537 as the largest so far. The change in the
spindown of J0537 across the glitches, Delta(d(nu)/d(t)), appears to have the
same hard lower limit of -1.5e-13 Hz/s, as, again, that observed in all other
pulsars. The spindown continues to increase in the long term,
d(d(nu)/d(t))/d(t) = -1e-21 Hz/s/s, and thus the timing age of J0537 (-0.5 nu
d(nu)/d(t)) continues to decrease at a rate of nearly one year every year,
consistent with movement of its magnetic moment away from its rotational axis
by one radian every 10,000 years, or about one meter per year. J0537 was likely
to have been born as a nearly-aligned rotator spinning at 75-80 Hz, with a
|d(nu)/d(t)| considerably smaller than its current value of 2e-10 Hz/s. The
pulse profile of J0537 consists of a single pulse which is found to be flat at
its peak for at least 0.02 cycles.Comment: 54 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journal. Cleaner figure 2. V4 -- in line with version accepted by Ap
RXTE observations of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary GX 17+2: correlated X-ray spectral and timing behavior
We have analyzed ~600 ks of Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer data of the neutron
star low-mass X-ray binary and Z source GX 17+2. A study was performed of the
properties of the noise components and quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) as a
function of the spectral properties, with the main goal to study the relation
between the frequencies of the horizontal branch and upper kHz QPOs. It was
found that when the upper kHz QPO frequency is below 1030 Hz these frequencies
correlate, whereas above 1030 Hz they anti-correlate. GX 17+2 is the first
source in which this is observed. We also found that the frequency difference
of the high frequency QPOs was not constant and that the quality factors (Q
values) of the HBO, its second harmonic, and the kHz QPOs are similar, and vary
almost hand in hand by a factor of more than three. Observations of the normal
branch oscillations during two type I X-ray bursts showed that their absolute
amplitude decreased as the flux from the neutron star became stronger. We
discuss these and other findings in terms of models that have been proposed for
these phenomena. We also compare the behavior of GX 17+2 and other Z sources
with that of black hole sources and consider the possibility that the mass
accretion rate might not be driving force behind all spectral and variability
changes.Comment: 35 pages, including 14 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ.
Revised discussion, one new figure, and some minor figure changes with
respect to old versio
R-Modes in Superfluid Neutron Stars
The analogs of r-modes in superfluid neutron stars are studied here. These
modes, which are governed primarily by the Coriolis force, are identical to
their ordinary-fluid counterparts at the lowest order in the small
angular-velocity expansion used here. The equations that determine the next
order terms are derived and solved numerically for fairly realistic superfluid
neutron-star models. The damping of these modes by superfluid ``mutual
friction'' (which vanishes at the lowest order in this expansion) is found to
have a characteristic time-scale of about 10^4 s for the m=2 r-mode in a
``typical'' superfluid neutron-star model. This time-scale is far too long to
allow mutual friction to suppress the recently discovered gravitational
radiation driven instability in the r-modes. However, the strength of the
mutual friction damping depends very sensitively on the details of the
neutron-star core superfluid. A small fraction of the presently acceptable
range of superfluid models have characteristic mutual friction damping times
that are short enough (i.e. shorter than about 5 s) to suppress the
gravitational radiation driven instability completely.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure
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