64,458 research outputs found
Merging White Dwarfs and Thermonuclear Supernovae
Thermonuclear supernovae result when interaction with a companion reignites
nuclear fusion in a carbon-oxygen white dwarf, causing a thermonuclear runaway,
a catastrophic gain in pressure, and the disintegration of the whole white
dwarf. It is usually thought that fusion is reignited in near-pycnonuclear
conditions when the white dwarf approaches the Chandrasekhar mass. I briefly
describe two long-standing problems faced by this scenario, and our suggestion
that these supernovae instead result from mergers of carbon-oxygen white
dwarfs, including those that produce sub-Chandrasekhar mass remnants. I then
turn to possible observational tests, in particular those that test the absence
or presence of electron captures during the burning.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figures, accepted for publication in Phil. Tr. A, proc. of
New windows on transients across the Universe, ed. P. O'Brien et al.; v2
includes changes following comments by the 2 referee
Observation of sub-Poisson photon statistics in the cavity-QED microlaser
We have measured the second-order correlation function of the cavity-QED
microlaser output and observed a transition from photon bunching to
antibunching with increasing average number of intracavity atoms. The observed
correlation times and the transition from super- to sub-Poisson photon
statistics can be well described by gain-loss feedback or enhanced/reduced
restoring action against fluctuations in photon number in the context of a
quantum microlaser theory and a photon rate equation picture. However, the
theory predicts a degree of antibunching several times larger than that
observed, which may indicate the inadequacy of its treatment of atomic velocity
distributions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Electronic structure and magnetic properties of Gd-doped and Eu-rich EuO
The effects of Gd doping and O vacancies on the magnetic interaction and
Curie temperature of EuO are studied using first-principles calculations.
Linear response calculations in the virtual crystal approximation show a broad
maximum in the Curie temperature as a function of doping, which results from
the combination of the saturating contribution from indirect exchange and a
decreasing contribution from the f-d hopping mechanism. Non-Heisenberg
interaction at low doping levels and its effect on the Curie temperature are
examined. The electronic structure of a substitutional Gd and of an O vacancy
in EuO are evaluated. When the 4f spins are disordered, the impurity state goes
from single to double occupation, but correlated bound magnetic polarons are
not ruled out. At higher vacancy concentrations typical for Eu-rich EuO films,
the impurity states broaden into bands and remain partially filled. To go
beyond the homogeneous doping picture, magnetostructural cluster expansions are
constructed, which describe the modified exchange parameters near Gd dopants or
O vacancies. Thermodynamic properties are studied using Monte Carlo
simulations. The Curie temperature for Gd-doped EuO agrees with the results of
the virtual crystal approximation and shows a maximum of about 150 K. At 3.125%
vacancy concentration the Curie temperature increases to 120 K, consistent with
experimental data for Eu-rich film samples.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, under review in Physical Review
EVN detection of a compact radio source as a counterpart to Fermi J1418+3541
Fermi J1418+3541 is a suspected blazar recently detected as a flaring gamma-ray point source, identified with likely radio, optical and infrared counterparts within the Fermi LAT error circle. We detected the proposed radio counterpart of Fermi J1418+3541 with the European VLBI Network (EVN), in real-time e-VLBI mode at 5 GHz on 2013 Jan 16 (project code RSF07). The source is dominated by a compact radio core, practically unresolved on intercontinental baselines from Europe to South Africa
Four hot DOGs eaten up with the EVN
Hot dust-obscured galaxies (hot DOGs) are a rare class of hyperluminous
infrared galaxies recently identified with the Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer (WISE) satellite. The majority of the ~1000-member all-sky population
should be at high redshifts (z~2-3), at the peak of star formation in the
history of the Universe. This class most likely represents a short phase during
galaxy merging and evolution, a transition from starburst- to AGN-dominated
phases. For the first time, we observed four hot DOGs with known mJy-level
radio emission using the European VLBI Network (EVN) at 1.7 GHz, in a hope to
find compact radio features characteristic to AGN activity. All four target
sources are detected at ~15-30 mas angular resolution, confirming the presence
of an active nucleus. The sources are spatially resolved, i.e. the flux density
of the VLBI-detected components is smaller than the total flux density,
suggesting that a fraction of the radio emission originates from larger-scale
(partly starburst-related) activity. Here we show the preliminary results of
our e-EVN observations made in 2014 February, and discuss WISE J1814+3412, an
object with kpc-scale symmetric radio structure, in more detail.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure; appears in the proceedings of the 12th European
VLBI Network Symposium and Users Meeting (7-10 October 2014, Cagliari,
Italy), eds. A. Tarchi, M. Giroletti & L. Feretti. JREF Proceedings of
Science, PoS(EVN 2014)003,
http://pos.sissa.it/archive/conferences/230/003/EVN%202014_003.pd
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