8,613 research outputs found
New Neighbours: Modelling the Growing Population of Gamma-ray Millisecond Pulsars
The Fermi Large Area Telescope, in collaboration with several groups from the
radio community, have had marvellous success at uncovering new gamma-ray
millisecond pulsars (MSPs). In fact, MSPs now make up a sizable fraction of the
total number of known gamma-ray pulsars. The MSP population is characterized by
a variety of pulse profile shapes, peak separations, and radio-to-gamma phase
lags, with some members exhibiting nearly phase-aligned radio and gamma-ray
light curves (LCs). The MSPs' short spin periods underline the importance of
including special relativistic effects in LC calculations, even for emission
originating from near the stellar surface. We present results on modelling and
classification of MSP LCs using standard pulsar model geometries.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of the ICREA Workshop on The
High-Energy Emission from Pulsars and their Systems (HEEPS), Sant Cugat,
Spai
Non-surgical techniques in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease of the lower limb: preliminary results in a cohort of elderly, high risk patients
published_or_final_versio
Magnetars and pulsars: a missing link
There is growing evidence that soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous
X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are isolated neutron stars with superstrong magnetic
fields, i.e., magnetars, marking them a distinguished species from the
conventional species of spindown-powered isolated neutron stars, i.e., radio
pulsars. The current arguments in favor of the magnetar interpretation of
SGR/AXP phenomenology will be outlined, and the two energy sources in
magnetars, i.e. a magnetic dissipation energy and a spindown energy, will be
reviewed. I will then discuss a missing link between magnetars and pulsars,
i.e., lack of the observational evidence of the spindown-powered behaviors in
known magnetars. Some recent theoretical efforts in studying such behaviors
will be reviewed along with some predictions testable in the near future.Comment: Invited talk at the Sixth Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar
Astrophysics, a tribute to Helmut A. Abt, July 11-17, 2002, Xi'an. To appear
in the proceedings (eds. K. S. Cheng, K. C. Leung & T. P. Li
Evidence for solar cycles in a late Holocene speleothem record from Dongge Cave, China
The association between solar activity and Asian monsoon (AM) remains unclear. Here we evaluate the possible connection between them based on a precisely-dated, high-resolution speleothem oxygen isotope record from Dongge Cave, southwest China during the past 4.2 thousand years (ka). Without being adjusted chronologically to the solar signal, our record shows a distinct peak-to-peak correlation with cosmogenic nuclide 14C, total solar irradiance (TSI) and sunspot number (SN) at multi-decadal to centennial timescales. Further cross-wavelet analyses between our calcite δ18O and atmospheric 14C show statistically strong coherence at three typical periodicities of ~80, 200 and 340 years, suggesting important roles of solar activities in modulating AM changes at those timescales. Our result has further indicated a better correlation between our calcite δ18O record and atmospheric 14C than between our record and TSI. This better correlation may imply that the Sun–monsoon connection is dominated most likely by cosmic rays and oceanic circulation (both associated to atmospheric 14C), instead of the direct solar heating (TSI)
New Physics in b -> s mu+ mu-: CP-Conserving Observables
We perform a comprehensive study of the impact of new-physics operators with
different Lorentz structures on decays involving the b -> s mu+ mu- transition.
We examine the effects of new vector-axial vector (VA), scalar-pseudoscalar
(SP) and tensor (T) interactions on the differential branching ratios and
forward-backward asymmetries (A_{FB}'s) of Bsbar -> mu+ mu-, Bdbar -> Xs mu+
mu-, Bsbar -> mu+ mu- gamma, Bdbar -> Kbar mu+ mu-, and Bdbar -> K* mu+ mu-,
taking the new-physics couplings to be real. In Bdbar -> K* mu+ mu-, we further
explore the polarization fraction f_L, the angular asymmetry A_T^{(2)}, and the
longitudinal-transverse asymmetry A_{LT}. We identify the Lorentz structures
that would significantly impact these observables, providing analytical
arguments in terms of the contributions from the individual operators and their
interference terms. In particular, we show that while the new VA operators can
significantly enhance most of the asymmetries beyond the Standard Model
predictions, the SP and T operators can do this only for A_{FB} in Bdbar ->
Kbar mu+ mu-.Comment: 54 pages, JHEP format, 45 figures (included). 5/6/2013: typos in K*
mu mu angular coefficients corrected, typos in Eq. (D.12) corrected, added a
missing term in I3LT in Eq. (D.16). Numerical analysis unchange
Electronic Properties of Boron and Nitrogen doped graphene: A first principles study
Effect of doping of graphene either by Boron (B), Nitrogen (N) or co-doped by
B and N is studied using density functional theory. Our extensive band
structure and density of states calculations indicate that upon doping by N
(electron doping), the Dirac point in the graphene band structure shifts below
the Fermi level and an energy gap appears at the high symmetric K-point. On the
other hand, by B (hole doping), the Dirac point shifts above the Fermi level
and a gap appears. Upon co-doping of graphene by B and N, the energy gap
between valence and conduction bands appears at Fermi level and the system
behaves as narrow gap semiconductor. Obtained results are found to be in well
agreement with available experimental findings.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to J. Nanopart. Re
A Tale of Two Current Sheets
I outline a new model of particle acceleration in the current sheet
separating the closed from the open field lines in the force-free model of
pulsar magnetospheres, based on reconnection at the light cylinder and
"auroral" acceleration occurring in the return current channel that connects
the light cylinder to the neutron star surface. I discuss recent studies of
Pulsar Wind Nebulae, which find that pair outflow rates in excess of those
predicted by existing theories of pair creation occur, and use those results to
point out that dissipation of the magnetic field in a pulsar's wind upstream of
the termination shock is restored to life as a viable model for the solution of
the "" problem as a consequence of the lower wind 4-velocity implied by
the larger mass loading.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, Invited Review, Proceedings of the "ICREA
Workshop on The High-Energy Emission from Pulsars and their Systems", Sant
Cugat, Spain, April 12-16, 201
New-physics contributions to the forward-backward asymmetry in B -> K* mu+ mu-
We study the forward-backward asymmetry (AFB) and the differential branching
ratio (DBR) in B -> K* mu+ mu- in the presence of new physics (NP) with
different Lorentz structures. We consider NP contributions from vector-axial
vector (VA), scalar-pseudoscalar (SP), and tensor (T) operators, as well as
their combinations. We calculate the effects of these new Lorentz structures in
the low-q^2 and high-q^2 regions, and explain their features through analytic
approximations. We find two mechanisms that can give a significant deviation
from the standard-model predictions, in the direction indicated by the recent
measurement of AFB by the Belle experiment. They involve the addition of the
following NP operators: (i) VA, or (ii) a combination of SP and T (slightly
better than T alone). These two mechanisms can be distinguished through
measurements of DBR in B -> K* mu+ mu- and AFB in B -> K mu+ mu-.Comment: 33 pages, revtex, 9 figures. Paper originally submitted with the
wrong figures. This is corrected in the replacement. An incorrect factor of 2
found in a formula. This is corrected and figures modified. Conclusions
unchanged. Typos correcte
Gamma-rays from millisecond pulsars in Globular Clusters
Globular clusters (GCs) with their ages of the order of several billion years
contain many final products of evolution of stars such as: neutron stars, white
dwarfs and probably also black holes. These compact objects can be at present
responsible for the acceleration of particles to relativistic energies.
Therefore, gamma-ray emission is expected from GCs as a result of radiation
processes occurring either in the inner magnetosperes of millisecond pulsars or
in the vicinity of accreting neutron stars and white dwarfs or as a result of
interaction of particles leaving the compact objects with the strong radiation
field within the GC. Recently, GeV gamma-ray emission has been detected from
several GCs by the new satellite observatory Fermi. Also Cherenkov telescopes
reported interesting upper limits at the TeV energies which start to constrain
the content of GCs. We review the results of these gamma-ray observations in
the context of recent scenarios for their origin.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, will be published in Astrophysics and Space
Science Series (Springer), eds. N. Rea and D.F. Torre
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