10 research outputs found
Critical Phenomena in Neutron Stars I: Linearly Unstable Nonrotating Models
We consider the evolution in full general relativity of a family of linearly
unstable isolated spherical neutron stars under the effects of very small,
perturbations as induced by the truncation error. Using a simple ideal-fluid
equation of state we find that this system exhibits a type-I critical
behaviour, thus confirming the conclusions reached by Liebling et al. [1] for
rotating magnetized stars. Exploiting the relative simplicity of our system, we
are able carry out a more in-depth study providing solid evidences of the
criticality of this phenomenon and also to give a simple interpretation of the
putative critical solution as a spherical solution with the unstable mode being
the fundamental F-mode. Hence for any choice of the polytropic constant, the
critical solution will distinguish the set of subcritical models migrating to
the stable branch of the models of equilibrium from the set of subcritical
models collapsing to a black hole. Finally, we study how the dynamics changes
when the numerically perturbation is replaced by a finite-size, resolution
independent velocity perturbation and show that in such cases a nearly-critical
solution can be changed into either a sub or supercritical. The work reported
here also lays the basis for the analysis carried in a companion paper, where
the critical behaviour in the the head-on collision of two neutron stars is
instead considered [2].Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
Gravastar energy conditions revisited
We consider the gravastar model where the vacuum phase transition between the
de Sitter interior and the Schwarzschild or Schwarzschild-de Sitter exterior
geometries takes place at a single spherical delta-shell. We derive sharp
analytic bounds on the surface compactness (2m/r) that follow from the
requirement that the dominant energy condition (DEC) holds at the shell. In the
case of Schwarzschild exterior, the highest surface compactness is achieved
with the stiff shell in the limit of vanishing (dark) energy density in the
interior. In the case of Schwarzschild-de Sitter exterior, in addition to the
gravastar configurations with the shell under surface pressure, gravastar
configurations with vanishing shell pressure (dust shells), as well as
configurations with the shell under surface tension, are allowed by the DEC.
Respective bounds on the surface compactness are derived for all cases. We also
consider the speed of sound on the shell as derived from the requirement that
the shell is stable against the radial perturbations. The causality requirement
(sound speed not exceeding that of light) further restricts the space of
allowed gravastar configurations.Comment: LaTeX/IOP-style, 16 pages, 2 figures, changes wrt v1: motivation for
eq. (6) clarified, several referecnes added (to appear in Class. Quantum
Grav.
The Spectrum of Electromagnetic Jets from Kerr Black Holes and Naked Singularities in the Teukolsky Perturbation Theory
We give a new theoretical basis for examination of the presence of the Kerr
black hole (KBH) or the Kerr naked singularity (KNS) in the central engine of
different astrophysical objects around which astrophysical jets are typically
formed: X-ray binary systems, gamma ray bursts (GRBs), active galactic nuclei
(AGN), etc. Our method is based on the study of the exact solutions of the
Teukolsky master equation for electromagnetic perturbations of the Kerr metric.
By imposing original boundary conditions on the solutions so that they describe
a collimated electromagnetic outflow, we obtain the spectra of possible {\em
primary jets} of radiation, introduced here for the first time. The theoretical
spectra of primary electromagnetic jets are calculated numerically. Our main
result is a detailed description of the qualitative change of the behavior of
primary electromagnetic jet frequencies under the transition from the KBH to
the KNS, considered here as a bifurcation of the Kerr metric. We show that
quite surprisingly the novel spectra describe linearly stable primary
electromagnetic jets from both the KBH and the KNS. Numerical investigation of
the dependence of these primary jet spectra on the rotation of the Kerr metric
is presented and discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 35 figures, LaTeX file. Final version. Accepted for
publication in Astrophysics and Space Science. Amendments. Typos corrected.
Novel notion -"primary jet" is introduced. New references and comments adde
Bounded excursion stable gravastars and black holes
Dynamical models of prototype gravastars were constructed in order to study
their stability. The models are the Visser-Wiltshire three-layer gravastars, in
which an infinitely thin spherical shell of stiff fluid divides the whole
spacetime into two regions, where the internal region is de Sitter, and the
external is Schwarzschild. It is found that in some cases the models represent
the "bounded excursion" stable gravastars, in which the thin shell is
oscillating between two finite radii, while in other cases they collapse until
the formation of black holes. In the phase space, the region for the ``bounded
excursion" gravastars is very small in comparison to that of black holes, but
not empty. Therefore, although the existence of gravastars cannot be excluded
from such dynamical models, our results do indicate that, even if gravastars
indeed exist, they do not exclude the existence of black holes.Comment: Revtex4, 12 figures. Version published in JCAP, 06 (2008) 02