4,003 research outputs found
On a common misunderstanding of the Birkhoff theorem and light deflection calculation: generalized Shapiro delay and its possible laboratory test
In Newtonian gravity (NG) it is known that the gravitational field anywhere
inside a spherically symmetric distribution of mass is determined only by the
enclosed mass. This is also widely believed to be true in general relativity
(GR), and the Birkhoff theorem is often invoked to support this analogy between
NG and GR. Here we show that such an understanding of the Birkhoff theorem is
incorrect and leads to erroneous calculations of light deflection and delay
time through matter. The correct metric, matching continuously to the location
of an external observer, is determined both by the enclosed mass and mass
distribution outside. The effect of the outside mass is to make the interior
clock run slower, i.e., a slower speed of light for external observer. We also
discuss the relations and differences between NG and GR, in light of the
results we obtained in this Lettework. Finally we discuss the Generalized
Shapiro delay, caused by the outside mass, and its possible laboratory test.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, invited talk in the 2nd Galileo-Xu Guangqi
Meeing, Italy, 2011, IJMPD in pres
Region of the anomalous compression under Bondi-Hoyle accretion
We investigate the properties of an axisymmetric non-magnetized gas flow
without angular momentum on a small compact object, in particular, on a
Schwarzschild black hole in the supersonic region near the object; the velocity
of the object itself is assumed to be low compared to the speed of sound at
infinity. First of all, we see that the streamlines intersect (i.e., a caustic
forms) on the symmetry axis at a certain distance from the center on the
front side if the pressure gradient is neglected. The characteristic radial
size of the region, in which the streamlines emerging from the sonic surface at
an angle no larger than to the axis intersect, is To refine the flow structure in this region, we numerically
compute the system in the adiabatic approximation without ignoring the
pressure. We estimate the parameters of the inferred region with anomalously
high matter temperature and density accompanied by anomalously high energy
release.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
A Solution to the Protostellar Accretion Problem
Accretion rates of order 10^-8 M_\odot/yr are observed in young protostars of
approximately a solar mass with evidence of circumstellar disks. The accretion
rate is significantly lower for protostars of smaller mass, approximately
proportional to the second power of the stellar mass, \dot{M}_accr\propto M^2.
The traditional view is that the observed accretion is the consequence of the
angular momentum transport in isolated protostellar disks, controlled by disk
turbulence or self--gravity. However, these processes are not well understood
and the observed protostellar accretion, a fundamental aspect of star
formation, remains an unsolved problem. In this letter we propose the
protostellar accretion rate is controlled by accretion from the large scale gas
distribution in the parent cloud, not by the isolated disk evolution.
Describing this process as Bondi--Hoyle accretion, we obtain accretion rates
comparable to the observed ones. We also reproduce the observed dependence of
the accretion rate on the protostellar mass. These results are based on
realistic values of the ambient gas density and velocity, as inferred from
numerical simulations of star formation in self--gravitating turbulent clouds.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, ApJ Letters, in pres
A note on Dolby and Gull on radar time and the twin "paradox"
Recently a suggestion has been made that standard textbook representations of
hypersurfaces of simultaneity for the travelling twin in the twin "paradox" are
incorrect. This suggestion is false: the standard textbooks are in agreement
with a proper understanding of the relativity of simultaneity.Comment: LaTeX, 3 pages, 2 figures. Update: added new section V and updated
reference
Extended radio emission in BL Lac objects - I: the images
We have observed 28 sources selected from the 1Jy sample of BL Lac objects
(Stickel et al. 1991) with the Very Large Array (VLA) in A, B and D
configurations at 1.36, 1.66 and 4.85 GHz, and/or with the Westerbork Synthesis
Radio Telescope (WSRT) at 1.40 GHz. In this paper we present high sensitivity
images at arcsecond resolution of the 18 objects showing extended structure in
our images, and of another source from the FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky
at Twenty-cm) survey (Becker et al. 1995). In general our high sensitivity
images reveal an amount of extended emission larger than previously reported.
In some objects the luminosity of the extended structure is comparable with
that of FR~II radio sources. A future paper will be devoted to the
interpretation of these results.Comment: 12 pages, 35 figures, to appear on A&A Supp. Ser., postscript file
with figures included available at
http://www.ira.noto.cnr.it/staff/carlo/ds1030.ps.g
On the stability of self-gravitating accreting flows
Analytic methods show stability of the stationary accretion of test fluids
but they are inconclusive in the case of self-gravitating stationary flows. We
investigate numerically stability of those stationary flows onto compact
objects that are transonic and rich in gas. In all studied examples solutions
appear stable. Numerical investigation suggests also that the analogy between
sonic and event horizons holds for small perturbations of compact support but
fails in the case of finite perturbations.Comment: 10 pages, accepted for publication in PR
Reflection and Transmission at the Apparent Horizon during Gravitational Collapse
We examine the wave-functionals describing the collapse of a self-gravitating
dust ball in an exact quantization of the gravity-dust system. We show that
ingoing (collapsing) dust shell modes outside the apparent horizon must
necessarily be accompanied by outgoing modes inside the apparent horizon, whose
amplitude is suppressed by the square root of the Boltzmann factor at the
Hawking temperature. Likewise, ingoing modes in the interior must be
accompanied by outgoing modes in the exterior, again with an amplitude
suppressed by the same factor. A suitable superposition of the two solutions is
necessary to conserve the dust probability flux across the apparent horizon,
thus each region contains both ingoing and outgoing dust modes. If one
restricts oneself to considering only the modes outside the apparent horizon
then one should think of the apparent horizon as a partial reflector, the
probability for a shell to reflect being given by the Boltzmann factor at the
Hawking temperature determined by the mass contained within it. However, if one
considers the entire wave function, the outgoing wave in the exterior is seen
to be the transmission through the horizon of the interior outgoing wave that
accompanies the collapsing shells. This transmission could allow information
from the interior to be transferred to the exterior.Comment: 19 pages, no figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Magnetically Accreting Isolated Old Neutron Stars
Previous work on the emission from isolated old neutron stars (IONS)
accreting the inter-stellar medium (ISM) focussed on gravitational capture -
Bondi accretion. We propose a new class of sources which accrete via magnetic
interaction with the ISM. While for the Bondi mechanism, the accretion rate
decreases with increasing NS velocity, in magnetic accretors (MAGACs="magics")
the accretion rate increases with increasing NS velocity. MAGACs will be
produced among high velocity (~> 100 km s-1) high magnetic field (B> 1e14 G)
radio pulsars - the ``magnetars'' - after they have evolved first through
magnetic dipole spin-down, followed by a ``propeller'' phase (when the object
sheds angular momentum on a timescale ~< 1e10 yr). The properties of MAGACS may
be summarized thus: dipole magnetic fields of B~>1e14 G; minimum velocities
relative to the ISM of >25-100 km s-1, depending on B, well below the median in
the observed radio-pulsar population; spin-periods of >days to years; accretion
luminosities of 1e28- 1e31 ergs s-1 ; and effective temperatures kT=0.3 - 2.5
keV if they accrete onto the magnetic polar cap. We find no examples of MAGACs
among previously observed source classes (anomalous X-ray pulsars,
soft-gamma-ray repeaters or known IONS). However, MAGACs may be more prevelant
in flux-limited X-ray catalogs than their gravitationally accreting
counterparts.Comment: ApJ, accepte
Hydromagnetic and gravitomagnetic crust-core coupling in a precessing neutron star
We consider two types of mechanical coupling between the crust and the core
of a precessing neutron star. First, we find that a hydromagnetic (MHD)
coupling between the crust and the core strongly modifies the star's
precessional modes when ; here is the
Alfven crossing timescale, and and are the star's spin and
precession periods, respectively. We argue that in a precessing pulsar PSR
B1828-11 the restoring MHD stress prevents a free wobble of the crust relative
to the non-precessing core. Instead, the crust and the proton-electron plasma
in the core must precess in unison, and their combined ellipticity determines
the period of precession. Link has recently shown that the neutron superfluid
vortices in the core of PSR B1828-11 cannot be pinned to the plasma; he has
also argued that this lack of pinning is expected if the proton Fermi liquid in
the core is type-I superconductor. In this case, the neutron superfluid is
dynamically decoupled from the precessing motion. The pulsar's precession
decays due to the mutual friction between the neutron superfluid and the plasma
in the core. The decay is expected to occur over tens to hundreds of precession
periods and may be measurable over a human lifetime. Such a measurement would
provide information about the strong n-p interaction in the neutron-star core.
Second, we consider the effect of gravitomagnetic coupling between the neutron
superfluid in the core and the rest of the star and show that this coupling
changes the rate of precession by about 10%. The general formalism developed in
this paper may be useful for other applications.Comment: 6 page
No news for Kerr-Schild fields
Algebraically special fields with no gravitational radiation are described.
Kerr-Schild fields, which include as a concrete case the Kinnersley photon
rocket, form an important subclass of them.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex
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