117 research outputs found

    More on difference between angular momentum and pseudo-angular momentum

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    We extend the discussion on the difference between angular momentum and pseudo-angular momentum in field theory. We show that the often quoted expressions in [Phys.Rev.B 103, L100409 (2021)] only apply to a non-linear system, and derive the correct rotation symmetry and the corresponding angular momentum for a linear elastic system governed by Navier-Cauchy equation. By mapping the concepts and methods for the elastic wave into electromagnetic theory, we argue that the renowned canonical and Benlinfante angular momentum of light are actually pseudo-angular momentum. Then, we derive the ``Newtonian" momentum ∫d3xE\int \text{d}^3 x\boldsymbol{E} and angular momentum ∫d3x(r×E)\int \text{d}^3 x (\boldsymbol{r}\times\boldsymbol{E}) for a free electromagnetic wave, which are conserved quantities during propagation in vacuum.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

    The Very Early Soft X-ray Plateau of GRB 230307A: Signature of an Evolving Radiative Efficiency in Magnetar Wind Dissipation?

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    Very recently, a particularly long gamma-ray burst (GRB) 230307A was reported and proposed to originate from a compact binary merger based on its host galaxy property, kilonova, and heavy elements. More intriguingly, a very early plateau followed by a rapid decline in soft X-ray band was detected in its light curve by the Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy, indicating strong evidence of the existence of a magnetar as the merger product. This work explores that the Magnetar Wind Internal Gradual MAgnetic Dissipation (MIGMAD) model, in which the radiative efficiency evolves over time, successfully fits it to the observed data. Our results reinforce the notion that the X-ray plateau serves as a powerful indicator of a magnetar and imply that an evolving efficiency is likely to be a common feature in X-ray plateaus of GRB afterglows. In addition, we also discuss the explanations for the prompt emission, GRB afterglows, as well as kilonova, and predict possible kilonova afterglows in a magnetar central engine.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

    Target of Opportunity Observations Detectability of Kilonovae with WFST

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    Kilonovae are approximately thermal transients, produced by mergers of binary neutron stars (BNSs) and NS-black hole binaries. As the optical counterpart of the gravitational wave event GW170817, AT2017gfo is the first kilonova detected with smoking-gun evidence. Its observation offers vital information for constraining the Hubble constant, the source of cosmic rr-process enrichment, and the equation of state of neutron stars. The 2.5-meter Wide-Field Survey Telescope (WFST) operates at six bands (u, g, r, i, z, w), spanning from 320 to 925 nm. It will be completed in the first half of 2023, and with a field-of-view diameter of 3 degrees, aims to detect kilonovae in the near future. In this article, considering the influence of the host galaxies and sky brightness, we generate simulated images to investigate WFST's ability to detect AT2017gfo-like kilonovae. Due to their spectra, host galaxies can significantly impact kilonova detection at a longer wavelength. When kilonovae are at peak luminosity, we find that WFST performs better in the g and r bands and can detect 90\% (50\%) kilonovae at a luminosity distance of 248 Mpc (338 Mpc) with 30 s exposures. Furthermore, to reflect actual efficiency under target-of-opportunity observations, we calculate the total time of follow-up under various localization areas and distances. We find that if the localization areas of most BNS events detected during the fourth observing (O4) run of LIGO and Virgo are hundreds of deg2^2, WFST is expected to find ∼\sim30\% kilonovae in the first two nights during O4 period.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figure

    FAST observations of an extremely active episode of FRB 20201124A: IV. Spin Period Search

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    We report the properties of more than 800 bursts detected from the repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source FRB 20201124A with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio telescope (FAST) during an extremely active episode on UTC September 25th-28th, 2021 in a series of four papers. In this fourth paper of the series, we present a systematic search of the spin period and linear acceleration of the source object from both 996 individual pulse peaks and the dedispersed time series. No credible spin period was found from this data set. We rule out the presence of significant periodicity in the range between 1 ms to 100 s with a pulse duty cycle <0.49±0.08< 0.49\pm0.08 (when the profile is defined by a von-Mises function, not a boxcar function) and linear acceleration up to 300300 m s−2^{-2} in each of the four one-hour observing sessions, and up to 0.60.6 m s−2^{-2} in all 4 days. These searches contest theoretical scenarios involving a 1 ms to 100 s isolated magnetar/pulsar with surface magnetic field <1015<10^{15} G and a small duty cycle (such as in a polar-cap emission mode) or a pulsar with a companion star or black hole up to 100 M⊙_{\rm \odot} and Pb>10P_b>10 hours. We also perform a periodicity search of the fine structures and identify 53 unrelated millisecond-timescale "periods" in multi-components with the highest significance of 3.9 σ\sigma. The "periods" recovered from the fine structures are neither consistent nor harmonically related. Thus they are not likely to come from a spin period. We caution against claiming spin periodicity with significance below ∼\sim 4 σ\sigma with multi-components from one-off FRBs. We discuss the implications of our results and the possible connections between FRB multi-components and pulsar micro-structures.Comment: Accepted by Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (RAA

    FAST observations of an extremely active episode of FRB 20201124A: III. Polarimetry

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    As the third paper in the multiple-part series, we report the statistical properties of radio bursts detected from the repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source FRB 20201124A with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio telescope (FAST) during an extremely active episode between the 25th and the 28th of September 2021 (UT). We focus on the polarisation properties of 536 bright bursts with S/N>50\mathrm{S/N}>50. We found that the Faraday rotation measures (RMs) monotonically dropped from −579 rad m−2-579 \ {\rm rad \ m^{-2}} to −605 rad m−2-605 \ {\rm rad \ m^{-2}} in the 4-day window. The RM values were compatible with the values (−300-300 to −900 rad m−2-900\ {\rm rad \ m^{-2}} ) reported 4 month ago (Xu et al. 2022). However, the RM evolution rate in the current observation window was at least an order of magnitude smaller than the one ($\sim 500\ {\rm rad \ m^{-2}\, day^{-1}})previouslyreportedduringtherapidRM−variationphase,butisstillhigherthantheone() previously reported during the rapid RM-variation phase, but is still higher than the one (\le 1\ {\rm rad \ m^{-2} day^{-1}})duringthelaterRMno−evolutionphase.TheburstsofFRB20201124Awerehighlypolarisedwiththetotaldegreeofpolarisation(circularpluslinear)greaterthan90polarisationpositionangles(PAs),degreeoflinearpolarisation( ) during the later RM no-evolution phase. The bursts of FRB 20201124A were highly polarised with the total degree of polarisation (circular plus linear) greater than 90% for more than 90\% of all bursts. The distribution of linear polarisation position angles (PAs), degree of linear polarisation (L/I),anddegreeofcircularpolarisation(), and degree of circular polarisation (V/I)canbecharacterisedwithunimodaldistributionfunctions.Duringtheobservationwindow,thedistributionsbecamewiderwithtime,i.e.withlargerscatter,butthecentroidsofthedistributionfunctionsremainednearlyconstant.Forindividualbursts,significantPAvariations(confidencelevel5−) can be characterised with unimodal distribution functions. During the observation window, the distributions became wider with time, i.e. with larger scatter, but the centroids of the distribution functions remained nearly constant. For individual bursts, significant PA variations (confidence level 5-\sigma$) were observed in 33% of all bursts. The polarisation of single pulses seems to follow certain complex trajectories on the Poincar\'e sphere, which may shed light on the radiation mechanism at the source or the plasma properties along the path of FRB propagation.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures. Accepted by Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (RAA

    Magnetic activities and parameters of 43 flare stars in the GWAC archive

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    In the archive of the Ground Wide Angle Camera (GWAC), we found 43 white light flares from 43 stars, among which, three are sympathetic or homologous flares, and one of them also has a quasi-periodic pulsation with a period of 13.0±1.513.0\pm1.5 minutes. Among these 43 flare stars, there are 19 new active stars and 41 stars that have available TESS and/or K2 light curves, from which we found 931 stellar flares. We also obtained rotational or orbital periods of 34 GWAC flare stars, of which 33 are less than 5.4 days, and ephemerides of three eclipsing binaries from these light curves. Combining with low resolution spectra from LAMOST and the Xinglong 2.16m telescope, we found that LHα/LbolL_{\rm H\alpha}/L_{\rm bol} are in the saturation region in the rotation-activity diagram. From the LAMOST medium-resolution spectrum, we found that Star \#3 (HAT 178-02667) has double Hα\alpha emissions which imply it is a binary, and two components are both active stars. Thirteen stars have flare frequency distributions (FFDs) from TESS and/or K2 light curves. These FFDs show that the flares detected by GWAC can occur at a frequency of 0.5 to 9.5 yr−1^{-1}. The impact of flares on habitable planets was also studied based on these FFDs, and flares from some GWAC flare stars may produce enough energetic flares to destroy ozone layers, but none can trigger prebiotic chemistry on their habitable planets.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 3 table

    Functional building blocks for scalable multipartite entanglement in optical lattices

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    Featuring excellent coherence and operated parallelly, ultracold atoms in optical lattices form a competitive candidate for quantum computation. For this, a massive number of parallel entangled atom pairs have been realized in superlattices. However, the more formidable challenge is to scale-up and detect multipartite entanglement due to the lack of manipulations over local atomic spins in retro-reflected bichromatic superlattices. Here we developed a new architecture based on a cross-angle spin-dependent superlattice for implementing layers of quantum gates over moderately-separated atoms incorporated with a quantum gas microscope for single-atom manipulation. We created and verified functional building blocks for scalable multipartite entanglement by connecting Bell pairs to one-dimensional 10-atom chains and two-dimensional plaquettes of 2×42\times4 atoms. This offers a new platform towards scalable quantum computation and simulation
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