973 research outputs found
Linking the X-ray timing and spectral properties of the glitching AXP 1RXS J170849-400910
Previous studies of the X-ray flux and spectral properties of 1RXS
J170849-400910 showed hints of a possible correlation with the spin glitches
that occurred in 1999 and 2001. However, due to the sparseness of spectral
measurements and the paucity of detected glitches no firm conclusion could be
drawn. We retrieved and analysed archival XTE pointings of 1RXS J170849-400910
covering the time interval between January 2003 and June 2006 and carried out a
detailed timing analysis by means of phase fitting techniques. We detected two
relatively large glitches Delta nu / nu of 1.2 and 2.1 10^-6 occurred in
January and June 2005. Interestingly, the occurrence times of these glitches
are in agreement with the predictions made in our previous studies. This
finding strongly suggests a connection between the flux, spectral and timing
properties of 1RXS J170849-400910.Comment: Submitted to A&A, 4 pages; results presented at the INT meeting "The
Neutron Star Crust and Surface: Observations and Models" on June 27; referee
comments adde
Nonlinear effects in resonant layers in solar and space plasmas
The present paper reviews recent advances in the theory of nonlinear driven
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves in slow and Alfven resonant layers. Simple
estimations show that in the vicinity of resonant positions the amplitude of
variables can grow over the threshold where linear descriptions are valid.
Using the method of matched asymptotic expansions, governing equations of
dynamics inside the dissipative layer and jump conditions across the
dissipative layers are derived. These relations are essential when studying the
efficiency of resonant absorption. Nonlinearity in dissipative layers can
generate new effects, such as mean flows, which can have serious implications
on the stability and efficiency of the resonance
Mass-Radius Relation for Magnetic White Dwarfs
Recently, several white dwarfs with very strong surface magnetic fields have
been observed. In this paper we explore the possibility that such stars could
have sufficiently strong internal fields to alter their structure. We obtain a
revised white dwarf mass-radius relation in the presence of strong internal
magnetic fields. We first derive the equation of state for a fully degenerate
ideal electron gas in a magnetic field using an Euler-MacLaurin expansion. We
use this to obtain the mass-radius relation for magnetic He, C,
and Fe white dwarfs of uniform composition.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures and 1 table, To appear in Ap
The r-modes in accreting neutron stars with magneto-viscous boundary layers
We explore the dynamics of the r-modes in accreting neutron stars in two
ways. First, we explore how dissipation in the magneto-viscous boundary layer
(MVBL) at the crust-core interface governs the damping of r-mode perturbations
in the fluid interior. Two models are considered: one assuming an
ordinary-fluid interior, the other taking the core to consist of superfluid
neutrons, type II superconducting protons, and normal electrons. We show,
within our approximations, that no solution to the magnetohydrodynamic
equations exists in the superfluid model when both the neutron and proton
vortices are pinned. However, if just one species of vortex is pinned, we can
find solutions. When the neutron vortices are pinned and the proton vortices
are unpinned there is much more dissipation than in the ordinary-fluid model,
unless the pinning is weak. When the proton vortices are pinned and the neutron
vortices are unpinned the dissipation is comparable or slightly less than that
for the ordinary-fluid model, even when the pinning is strong. We also find in
the superfluid model that relatively weak radial magnetic fields ~ 10^9 G (10^8
K / T)^2 greatly affect the MVBL, though the effects of mutual friction tend to
counteract the magnetic effects. Second, we evolve our two models in time,
accounting for accretion, and explore how the magnetic field strength, the
r-mode saturation amplitude, and the accretion rate affect the cyclic evolution
of these stars. If the r-modes control the spin cycles of accreting neutron
stars we find that magnetic fields can affect the clustering of the spin
frequencies of low mass x-ray binaries (LMXBs) and the fraction of these that
are currently emitting gravitational waves.Comment: 19 pages, 8 eps figures, RevTeX; corrected minor typos and added a
referenc
The gravitational wave spectrum of non-axisymmetric, freely precessing neutron stars
Evidence for free precession has been observed in the radio signature of
several pulsars. Freely precessing pulsars radiate gravitationally at
frequencies near the rotation rate and twice the rotation rate, which for
rotation frequencies greater than Hz is in the LIGO band. In older
work, the gravitational wave spectrum of a precessing neutron star has been
evaluated to first order in a small precession angle. Here we calculate the
contributions to second order in the wobble angle, and we find that a new
spectral line emerges. We show that for reasonable wobble angles, the
second-order line may well be observable with the proposed advanced LIGO
detector for precessing neutron stars as far away as the galactic center.
Observation of the full second-order spectrum permits a direct measurement of
the star's wobble angle, oblateness, and deviation from axisymmetry, with the
potential to significantly increase our understanding of neutron star
structure.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure. Minor changes in the text, typos correcte
Cold ideal equation of state for strongly magnetized neutron-star matter: effects on muon production and pion condensationn
Neutron stars with very strong surface magnetic fields have been suggested as
the site for the origin of observed soft gamma repeaters (SGRs). In this paper
we investigate the influence of such strong magnetic fields on the properties
and internal structure of these magnetized neutron stars (magnetars). We study
properties of a degenerate equilibrium ideal neutron-proton-electron (npe) gas
with and without the effects of the anomalous nucleon magnetic moments in a
magnetic field. The presence of a sufficiently strong magnetic field changes
the ratio of protons to neutrons as well as the neutron drip density. We also
study the appearance of muons as well as pion condensation in strong magnetic
fields. We discuss the possibility that boson condensation in the interior of
magnetars might be a source of SGRs.Comment: 10 pages included 9 figures, ApJ in pres
Thermodynamics of natural images
The scale invariance of natural images suggests an analogy to the statistical
mechanics of physical systems at a critical point. Here we examine the
distribution of pixels in small image patches and show how to construct the
corresponding thermodynamics. We find evidence for criticality in a diverging
specific heat, which corresponds to large fluctuations in how "surprising" we
find individual images, and in the quantitative form of the entropy vs. energy.
The energy landscape derived from our thermodynamic framework identifies
special image configurations that have intrinsic error correcting properties,
and neurons which could detect these features have a strong resemblance to the
cells found in primary visual cortex
Factorization of natural 4 Ă 4 patch distributions
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30212-4_15Revised and Selected Papers of ECCV 2004 Workshop SMVP 2004, Prague, Czech Republic, May 16, 2004The lack of sufficient machine readable images makes impossible the direct computation of natural image 4 Ă 4 block statistics and one has to resort to indirect approximated methods to reduce their domain space. A natural approach to this is to collect statistics over compressed images; if the reconstruction quality is good enough, these statistics will be sufficiently representative. However, a requirement for easier statistics collection is that the method used provides a uniform representation of the compression information across all patches, something for which codebook techniques are well suited. We shall follow this approach here, using a fractal compressionâinspired quantization scheme to approximate a given patch B by a triplet (D B , ÎŒ B , Ï B ) with Ï B the patchâs contrast, ÎŒ B its brightness and D B a codebook approximation to the meanâvariance normalization (B â ÎŒ B )/Ï B of B. The resulting reduction of the domain space makes feasible the computation of entropy and mutual information estimates that, in turn, suggest a factorization of the approximation of p(B) â p(D B , ÎŒ B , Ï B ) as p(D B , ÎŒ B , Ï B ) â p(D B )p(ÎŒ)p(Ï)Ί(|| â ||), with Ί being a high contrast correction.With partial support of Spainâs CICyT, TIC 01â57
THERMAL RADIATION FROM MAGNETIZED NEUTRON STARS: A look at the Surface of a Neutron Star.
Surface thermal emission has been detected by ROSAT from four nearby young
neutron stars. Assuming black body emission, the significant pulsations of the
observed light curves can be interpreted as due to large surface temperature
differences produced by the effect of the crustal magnetic field on the flow of
heat from the hot interior toward the cooler surface. However, the energy
dependence of the modulation observed in Geminga is incompatible with blackbody
emission: this effect will give us a strong constraint on models of the neutron
star surface.Comment: 10 pages. tar-compressed and uuencoded postcript file. talk given at
the `Jubilee Gamow Seminar', St. Petersburg, Sept. 1994
Biological Effects of Stellar Collapse Neutrinos
Massive stars in their final stages of collapse radiate most of their binding
energy in the form of MeV neutrinos. The recoil atoms that they produce in
elastic scattering off nuclei in organic tissue create radiation damage which
is highly effective in the production of irreparable DNA harm, leading to
cellular mutation, neoplasia and oncogenesis. Using a conventional model of the
galaxy and of the collapse mechanism, the periodicity of nearby stellar
collapses and the radiation dose are calculated. The possible contribution of
this process to the paleontological record of mass extinctions is examined.Comment: gzipped PostScript (filename.ps.Z), 12 pages. Final version, Phys.
Rev. Lett., in pres
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