Neutron star cooling: Theoretical aspects and observational constraints

The cooling theory of isolated neutron stars is reviewed. The main cooling regulators are discussed, first of all, operation of direct Urca process (or similar processes in exotic phases of dense matter) and superfluidity in stellar interiors. The prospects to constrain gross parameters of supranuclear matter in neutron-star interiors by confronting cooling theory with observations of isolated neutron stars are outlined. A related problem of thermal states of transiently accreting neutron stars with deep crustal heating of accreted matter is discussed in application to soft X-ray transients.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly (Adv. Sp. Res., accepted

PPPC 4 DM ID: A Poor Particle Physicist Cookbook for Dark Matter Indirect Detection

We provide ingredients and recipes for computing signals of TeV-scale Dark Matter annihilations and decays in the Galaxy and beyond. For each DM channel, we present the energy spectra of electrons and positrons, antiprotons, antideuterons, gamma rays, neutrinos and antineutrinos e, mu, tau at production, computed by high-statistics simulations. We estimate the Monte Carlo uncertainty by comparing the results yielded by the Pythia and Herwig event generators. We then provide the propagation functions for charged particles in the Galaxy, for several DM distribution profiles and sets of propagation parameters. Propagation of electrons and positrons is performed with an improved semi-analytic method that takes into account position-dependent energy losses in the Milky Way. Using such propagation functions, we compute the energy spectra of electrons and positrons, antiprotons and antideuterons at the location of the Earth. We then present the gamma ray fluxes, both from prompt emission and from Inverse Compton scattering in the galactic halo. Finally, we provide the spectra of extragalactic gamma rays. All results are available in numerical form and ready to be consumed.Comment: 57 pages with many figures and tables. v4: updated to include a 125 higgs boson, computation and discussion of extragalactic spectra corrected, some other typos fixed; all these corrections and updates are reflected on the numerical ingredients available at http://www.marcocirelli.net/PPPC4DMID.html they correspond to Release 2.

Constraining Very Heavy Dark Matter Using Diffuse Backgrounds of Neutrinos and Cascaded Gamma Rays

We consider multi-messenger constraints on very heavy dark matter (VHDM) from recent Fermi gamma-ray and IceCube neutrino observations of isotropic background radiation. Fermi data on the diffuse gamma-ray background (DGB) shows a possible unexplained feature at very high energies (VHE), which we have called the "VHE Excess" relative to expectations for an attenuated power law extrapolated from lower energies. We show that VHDM could explain this excess, and that neutrino observations will be an important tool for testing this scenario. More conservatively, we derive new constraints on the properties of VHDM for masses of 10^3-10^10 GeV. These generic bounds follow from cosmic energy budget constraints for gamma rays and neutrinos that we developed elsewhere, based on detailed calculations of cosmic electromagnetic cascades and also neutrino detection rates. We show that combining both gamma-ray and neutrino data is essential for making the constraints on VHDM properties both strong and robust. In the lower mass range, our constraints on VHDM annihilation and decay are comparable to other results; however, our constraints continue to much higher masses, where they become relatively stronger.Comment: 33 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in JCA

Dark Matter Direct Detection Signals inferred from a Cosmological N-body Simulation with Baryons

We extract at redshift z=0 a Milky Way sized object including gas, stars and dark matter (DM) from a recent, high-resolution cosmological N-body simulation with baryons. Its resolution is sufficient to witness the formation of a rotating disk and bulge at the center of the halo potential. The phase-space structure of the central galactic halo reveals the presence of a dark disk component, that is co-rotating with the stellar disk. At the Earth's location, it contributes to around 25% of the total DM local density, whose value is rho_DM ~ 0.37 GeV/cm^3. The velocity distributions also show strong deviations from pure Gaussian and Maxwellian distributions, with a sharper drop of the high velocity tail. We give a detailed study of the impact of these features on the predictions for DM signals in direct detection experiments. In particular, the question of whether the modulation signal observed by DAMA is or is not excluded by limits set by other experiments (CDMS, XENON and CRESST...) is re-analyzed and compared to the case of a standard Maxwellian halo, in both the elastic and the inelastic scattering scenarios. We find that the compatibility between DAMA and the other experiments is improved. In the elastic scenario, the DAMA modulation signal is slightly enhanced in the so-called channeling region, as a result of several effects. For the inelastic scenario, the improvement of the fit is mainly attributable to the departure from a Maxwellian distribution at high velocity.Comment: 39 page

Metabolic Syndrome Predicts New Onset of Chronic Kidney Disease in 5,829 Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A 5-year prospective analysis of the Hong Kong Diabetes Registry

OBJECTIVE—Type 2 diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease worldwide. Aside from hyperglycemia and hypertension, other metabolic factors may determine renal outcome. We examined risk associations of metabolic syndrome with new onset of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in 5,829 Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes enrolled between 1995 and 2005

Dark matter and Colliders searches in the MSSM

We study the complementarity between dark matter experiments (direct detection and indirect detections) and accelerator facilities (the CERN LHC and a $\sqrt{s}= 1$ TeV $e^+e^-$ Linear Collider) in the framework of the constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We show how non--universality in the scalar and gaugino sectors can affect the experimental prospects to discover the supersymmetric particles. The future experiments will cover a large part of the parameter space of the MSSM favored by WMAP constraint on the relic density, but there still exist some regions beyond reach for some extreme (fine tuned) values of the supersymmetric parameters. Whereas the Focus Point region characterized by heavy scalars will be easily probed by experiments searching for dark matter, the regions with heavy gauginos and light sfermions will be accessible more easily by collider experiments. More informations on both supersymmetry and astrophysics parameters can be thus obtained by correlating the different signals.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, corrected typos and reference adde

Non--power law behavior of the radial profile of phase--space density of halos

We study the pseudo phase-space density, $\rho(r)/\sigma^3(r)$, of $\Lambda$CDM dark matter halos with and without baryons (baryons+DM, and pure DM), by using the model introduced in Del Popolo (2009), which takes into account the effect of dynamical friction, ordered and random angular momentum, baryons adiabatic contraction and dark matter baryons interplay. We examine the radial dependence of $\rho(r)/\sigma^3(r)$ over 9 orders of magnitude in radius for structures on galactic and cluster of galaxies scales. We find that $\rho(r)/\sigma^3(r)$ is approximately a power-law only in the range of halo radius resolved by current simulations (down to 0.1% of the virial radius) while it has a non-power law behavior below the quoted scale, with inner profiles changing with mass. The non-power-law behavior is more evident for halos constituted both of dark matter and baryons while halos constituted just of dark matter and with angular momentum chosen to reproduce a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) density profile, are characterized by an approximately power-law behavior. The results of the present paper lead to conclude that density profiles of the NFW type are compatible with a power-law behavior of $\rho(r)/\sigma^3(r)$, while those flattening to the halo center, like those found in Del Popolo (2009) or the Einasto profile, or the Burkert profile, cannot produce radial profile of the pseudo-phase-space density that are power-laws at all radii. The results argue against universality of the pseudo phase-space density and as a consequence argue against universality of density profiles constituted by dark matter and baryons as also discussed in Del Popolo (2009).Comment: 20 pages; 7 figs. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0906.4447 and arXiv:1012.432

Cross-paradigm connectivity: reliability, stability, and utility

While functional neuroimaging studies typically focus on a particular paradigm to investigate network connectivity, the human brain appears to possess an intrinsic “trait” architecture that is independent of any given paradigm. We have previously proposed the use of “cross-paradigm connectivity (CPC)” to quantify shared connectivity patterns across multiple paradigms and have demonstrated the utility of such measures in clinical studies. Here, using generalizability theory and connectome fingerprinting, we examined the reliability, stability, and individual identifiability of CPC in a group of highly-sampled healthy traveling subjects who received fMRI scans with a battery of five paradigms across multiple sites and days. Compared with single-paradigm connectivity matrices, the CPC matrices showed higher reliability in connectivity diversity, lower reliability in connectivity strength, higher stability, and higher individual identification accuracy. All of these assessments increased as a function of number of paradigms included in the CPC analysis. In comparisons involving different paradigm combinations and different brain atlases, we observed significantly higher reliability, stability, and identifiability for CPC matrices constructed from task-only data (versus those from both task and rest data), and higher identifiability but lower stability for CPC matrices constructed from the Power atlas (versus those from the AAL atlas). Moreover, we showed that multi-paradigm CPC matrices likely reflect the brain’s “trait” structure that cannot be fully achieved from single-paradigm data, even with multiple runs. The present results provide evidence for the feasibility and utility of CPC in the study of functional “trait” networks and offer some methodological implications for future CPC studies

The Physics of Star Cluster Formation and Evolution

© 2020 Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00689-4.Star clusters form in dense, hierarchically collapsing gas clouds. Bulk kinetic energy is transformed to turbulence with stars forming from cores fed by filaments. In the most compact regions, stellar feedback is least effective in removing the gas and stars may form very efficiently. These are also the regions where, in high-mass clusters, ejecta from some kind of high-mass stars are effectively captured during the formation phase of some of the low mass stars and effectively channeled into the latter to form multiple populations. Star formation epochs in star clusters are generally set by gas flows that determine the abundance of gas in the cluster. We argue that there is likely only one star formation epoch after which clusters remain essentially clear of gas by cluster winds. Collisional dynamics is important in this phase leading to core collapse, expansion and eventual dispersion of every cluster. We review recent developments in the field with a focus on theoretical work.Peer reviewe