22 research outputs found
Are gravitational waves from giant magnetar flares observable?
Are giant flares in magnetars viable sources of gravitational radiation? Few
theoretical studies have been concerned with this problem, with the small
number using either highly idealized models or assuming a magnetic field orders
of magnitude beyond what is supported by observations. We perform nonlinear
general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations of large-scale
hydromagnetic instabilities in magnetar models. We utilise these models to find
gravitational wave emissions over a wide range of energies, from 10^40 to 10^47
erg. This allows us to derive a systematic relationship between the surface
field strength and the gravitational wave strain, which we find to be highly
nonlinear. In particular, for typical magnetar fields of a few times 10^15 G,
we conclude that a direct observation of f-modes excited by global magnetic
field reconfigurations is unlikely with present or near-future gravitational
wave observatories, though we also discuss the possibility that modes in a
low-frequency band up to 100 Hz could be sufficiently excited to be relevant
for observation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Further information can be found at
http://www.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/institute/astronomie-astrophysik/institut/theoretische-astrophysik/forschung.htm
Cauchy-perturbative matching revisited: tests in spherical symmetry
During the last few years progress has been made on several fronts making it
possible to revisit Cauchy-perturbative matching (CPM) in numerical relativity
in a more robust and accurate way. This paper is the first in a series where we
plan to analyze CPM in the light of these new results.
Here we start by testing high-order summation-by-parts operators, penalty
boundaries and contraint-preserving boundary conditions applied to CPM in a
setting that is simple enough to study all the ingredients in great detail:
Einstein's equations in spherical symmetry, describing a black hole coupled to
a massless scalar field. We show that with the techniques described above, the
errors introduced by Cauchy-perturbative matching are very small, and that very
long term and accurate CPM evolutions can be achieved. Our tests include the
accretion and ring-down phase of a Schwarzschild black hole with CPM, where we
find that the discrete evolution introduces, with a low spatial resolution of
\Delta r = M/10, an error of 0.3% after an evolution time of 1,000,000 M. For a
black hole of solar mass, this corresponds to approximately 5 s, and is
therefore at the lower end of timescales discussed e.g. in the collapsar model
of gamma-ray burst engines.
(abridged)Comment: 14 pages, 20 figure
Multi-patch methods in general relativistic astrophysics - I. Hydrodynamical flows on fixed backgrounds
Many systems of interest in general relativistic astrophysics, including
neutron stars, accreting compact objects in X-ray binaries and active galactic
nuclei, core collapse, and collapsars, are assumed to be approximately
spherically symmetric or axisymmetric. In Newtonian or fixed-background
relativistic approximations it is common practice to use spherical polar
coordinates for computational grids; however, these coordinates have
singularities and are difficult to use in fully relativistic models. We
present, in this series of papers, a numerical technique which is able to use
effectively spherical grids by employing multiple patches. We provide detailed
instructions on how to implement such a scheme, and present a number of code
tests for the fixed background case, including an accretion torus around a
black hole.Comment: 26 pages, 20 figures. A high-resolution version is available at
http://www.cct.lsu.edu/~bzink/papers/multipatch_1.pd
DNA double-strand breaks in heterochromatin elicit fast repair protein recruitment, histone H2AX phosphorylation and relocation to euchromatin
DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) can induce chromosomal aberrations and carcinogenesis and their correct repair is crucial for genetic stability. The cellular response to DSBs depends on damage signaling including the phosphorylation of the histone H2AX (γH2AX). However, a lack of γH2AX formation in heterochromatin (HC) is generally observed after DNA damage induction. Here, we examine γH2AX and repair protein foci along linear ion tracks traversing heterochromatic regions in human or murine cells and find the DSBs and damage signal streaks bending around highly compacted DNA. Given the linear particle path, such bending indicates a relocation of damage from the initial induction site to the periphery of HC. Real-time imaging of the repair protein GFP-XRCC1 confirms fast recruitment to heterochromatic lesions inside murine chromocenters. Using single-ion microirradiation to induce localized DSBs directly within chromocenters, we demonstrate that H2AX is early phosphorylated within HC, but the damage site is subsequently expelled from the center to the periphery of chromocenters within ∼20 min. While this process can occur in the absence of ATM kinase, the repair of DSBs bordering HC requires the protein. Finally, we describe a local decondensation of HC at the sites of ion hits, potentially allowing for DSB movement via physical forces
Stability of general-relativistic accretion disks
Self-gravitating relativistic disks around black holes can form as transient
structures in a number of astrophysical scenarios such as binary neutron star
and black hole-neutron star coalescences, as well as the core-collapse of
massive stars. We explore the stability of such disks against runaway and
non-axisymmetric instabilities using three-dimensional hydrodynamics
simulations in full general relativity using the THOR code. We model the disk
matter using the ideal fluid approximation with a -law equation of
state with . We explore three disk models around non-rotating black
holes with disk-to-black hole mass ratios of 0.24, 0.17 and 0.11. Due to metric
blending in our initial data, all of our initial models contain an initial
axisymmetric perturbation which induces radial disk oscillations. Despite these
oscillations, our models do not develop the runaway instability during the
first several orbital periods. Instead, all of the models develop unstable
non-axisymmetric modes on a dynamical timescale. We observe two distinct types
of instabilities: the Papaloizou-Pringle and the so-called intermediate type
instabilities. The development of the non-axisymmetric mode with azimuthal
number m = 1 is accompanied by an outspiraling motion of the black hole, which
significantly amplifies the growth rate of the m = 1 mode in some cases.
Overall, our simulations show that the properties of the unstable
non-axisymmetric modes in our disk models are qualitatively similar to those in
Newtonian theory.Comment: 30 pages, 21 figure