3,054 research outputs found
SN1991bg-like supernovae are a compelling source of most Galactic antimatter
The Milky Way Galaxy glows with the soft gamma ray emission resulting from
the annihilation of electron-positron pairs every
second. The origin of this vast quantity of antimatter and the peculiar
morphology of the 511keV gamma ray line resulting from this annihilation have
been the subject of debate for almost half a century. Most obvious positron
sources are associated with star forming regions and cannot explain the rate of
positron annihilation in the Galactic bulge, which last saw star formation some
ago, or else violate stringent constraints on the positron
injection energy. Radioactive decay of elements formed in core collapse
supernovae (CCSNe) and normal Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) could supply
positrons matching the injection energy constraints but the distribution of
such potential sources does not replicate the required morphology. We show that
a single class of peculiar thermonuclear supernova - SN1991bg-like supernovae
(SNe 91bg) - can supply the number and distribution of positrons we see
annihilating in the Galaxy through the decay of Ti synthesised in these
events. Such Ti production simultaneously addresses the observed
abundance of Ca, the Ti decay product, in solar system material.Comment: Accepted for publication in Proceedings of IAU Symposium 322: The
Multimessenger Astrophysics of the Galactic Center 4 page
Analysis of Senior-Subordinated Structures Backed by Private-Label Mortgages
This paper does a valuation analysis of senior-subordinated struc ture tranches backed by non-agency mortgages. The valuation is done using Monte Carlo simulation and employs the CIR interest rate process in conjunction with an empirical model estimated for non-agency mortgage prepayments and defaults. The sensitivity of the value of tranches to a number of variables are analyzed. We find that the interest rate process parameters significantly affect prepayments and defaults but not the relative value of the senior tranche. It is found that with the shifting o f prepayments, the senior tranche does not dominate all the junior tranches at all interest rates. The shifting of prepayments has the unintended effect of providing stability to the junior tranches by making their cashflows less sensitive to prepayments. Our main conclusion is that while the shifting o f prepayments increases protection from default to the senior tranche for a given level of subordination, it has the unwanted effect of lowering its value through increased contraction risk. This value loss should be taken into account in determining the optimum level of subordination
Radio Synchrotron Emission from Secondary Leptons in the Vicinity of Sgr A*
A point-like source of ~TeV gamma-rays has recently been seen towards the
Galactic center by HESS and other air Cerenkov telescopes. In recent work
(Ballantyne et al. 2007), we demonstrated that these gamma-rays can be
attributed to high-energy protons that (i) are accelerated close to the event
horizon of the central black hole, Sgr A*, (ii) diffuse out to ~pc scales, and
(iii) finally interact to produce gamma-rays. The same hadronic collision
processes will necessarily lead to the creation of electrons and positrons.
Here we calculate the synchrotron emissivity of these secondary leptons in the
same magnetic field configuration through which the initiating protons have
been propagated in our model. We compare this emission with the observed ~GHz
radio spectrum of the inner few pc region which we have assembled from archival
data and new measurements we have made with the Australia Telescope Compact
Array. We find that our model predicts secondary synchrotron emission with a
steep slope consistent with the observations but with an overall normalization
that is too large by a factor of ~ 2. If we further constrain our theoretical
gamma-ray curve to obey the implicit EGRET upper limit on emission from this
region we predict radio emission that is consistent with observations, i.e.,
the hadronic model of gamma ray emission can, simultaneously and without
fine-tuning, also explain essentially all the diffuse radio emission detected
from the inner few pc of the Galaxy.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Two references missing from published version
added and acknowledgements extende
Oscillating Neutrinos from the Galactic Center
It has recently been demonstrated that the -ray emission spectrum of
the EGRET-identified, central Galactic source 2EG J1746-2852 can be well fitted
by positing that these photons are generated by the decay of 's produced
in p-p scattering at or near an energizing shock. Such scattering also produces
charged pions which decay leptonically.The ratio of -rays to neutrinos
generated by the central Galactic source may be accurately determined and a
well-defined and potentially-measurable high energy neutrino flux at Earth is
unavoidable. An opportunity, therefore, to detect neutrino oscillations over an
unprecedented scale is offered by this source. In this paper we assess the
prospects for such an observation with the generation of neutrino \v{C}erenkov
telescopes now in the planning stage. We determine that the next generation of
detectors may find an oscillation signature in the Galactic Center (GC) signal.Comment: 45 pages, LaTeX, uses ApJ style, some minor revisions, this final
version to be published in ApJ
SN1991bg-like supernovae are associated with old stellar populations
SN1991bg-like supernovae are a distinct subclass of thermonuclear supernovae
(SNe Ia). Their spectral and photometric peculiarities indicate their
progenitors and explosion mechanism differ from `normal' SNe Ia. One method of
determining information about supernova progenitors we cannot directly observe
is to observe the stellar population adjacent to the apparent supernova
explosion site to infer the distribution of stellar population ages and
metallicities. We obtain integral field observations and analyse the spectra
extracted from regions of projected radius about the
apparent SN explosion site for 11 91bg-like SNe in both early- and late-type
galaxies. We utilize full-spectrum spectral fitting to determine the ages and
metallicities of the stellar population within the aperture. We find that the
majority of the stellar populations that hosted 91bg-like supernovae have
little recent star formation. The ages of the stellar populations suggest that
that 91bg-like SN progenitors explode after delay times of ,
much longer than the typical delay time of normal SNe Ia, which peaks at .Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Publications of the
Astronomical Society of Australi
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