118 research outputs found
Magneto-thermal evolution in the cores of adolescent neutron stars: The Grad-Shafranov equilibrium is never reached in the 'strong-coupling' regime
At the high temperatures present inside recently formed neutron stars
(), the particles in their cores are in the
"strong-coupling" regime, in which collisional forces make them behave as a
single, stably stratified, and thus non-barotropic fluid. In this regime,
axially symmetric hydromagnetic quasi-equilibrium states are possible, which
are only constrained to have a vanishing azimuthal Lorentz force. In such
equilibria, the particle species are not in chemical () equilibrium, so
decays (Urca reactions) tend to restore the chemical equilibrium,
inducing fluid motions that change the magnetic field configuration. If the
stars remained hot for a sufficiently long time, this evolution would
eventually lead to a chemical equilibrium state, in which the fluid is
barotropic and the magnetic field, if axially-symmetric, satisfies the
non-linear Grad-Shafranov equation. In this work, we present a numerical scheme
that decouples the magnetic and thermal evolution, enabling to efficiently
perform, for the first time, long-term magneto-thermal simulations in this
regime for different magnetic field strengths and geometries. Our results
demonstrate that, even for magnetar-strength fields , the feedback from the magnetic evolution on the thermal evolution
is negligible. Thus, as the core passively cools, the Urca reactions quickly
become inefficient at restoring chemical equilibrium, so the magnetic field
evolves very little, and the Grad-Shafranov equilibrium is not attained in this
regime. Therefore, any substantial evolution of the core magnetic field must
occur later, in the cooler "weak-coupling" regime (), in which Urca reactions are effectively frozen and ambipolar
diffusion becomes relevant.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, submitted to MNRA
Spinning down newborn neutron stars: nonlinear development of the r-mode instability
We model the nonlinear saturation of the r-mode instability via three-mode
couplings and the effects of the instability on the spin evolution of young
neutron stars. We include one mode triplet consisting of the r-mode and two
near resonant inertial modes that couple to it. We find that the spectrum of
evolutions is more diverse than previously thought. The evolution of the star
is dynamic and initially dominated by fast neutrino cooling. Nonlinear effects
become important when the r-mode amplitude grows above its first parametric
instability threshold. The balance between neutrino cooling and viscous heating
plays an important role in the evolution. Depending on the initial r-mode
amplitude, and on the strength of the viscosity and of the cooling this balance
can occur at different temperatures. If thermal equilibrium occurs on the
r-mode stability curve, where gravitational driving equals viscous damping, the
evolution may be adequately described by a one-mode model. Otherwise, nonlinear
effects are important and lead to various more complicated scenarios. Once
thermal balance occurs, the star spins-down oscillating between thermal
equilibrium states until the instability is no longer active. For lower
viscosity we observe runaway behavior in which the r-mode amplitude passes
several parametric instability thresholds. In this case more modes need to be
included to model the evolution accurately. In the most optimistic case, we
find that gravitational radiation from the r-mode instability in a very young,
fast spinning neutron star within about 1 Mpc of Earth may be detectable by
advanced LIGO for years, and perhaps decades, after formation. Details
regarding the amplitude and duration of the emission depend on the internal
dissipation of the modes of the star, which would be probed by such detections.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. Submitted to Phys. Rev. D.
Detectability discussion expanded. Includes referee inpu
CP and related phenomena in the context of Stellar Evolution
We review the interaction in intermediate and high mass stars between their
evolution and magnetic and chemical properties. We describe the theory of
Ap-star `fossil' fields, before touching on the expected secular diffusive
processes which give rise to evolution of the field. We then present recent
results from a spectropolarimetric survey of Herbig Ae/Be stars, showing that
magnetic fields of the kind seen on the main-sequence already exist during the
pre-main sequence phase, in agreement with fossil field theory, and that the
origin of the slow rotation of Ap/Bp stars also lies early in the pre-main
sequence evolution; we also present results confirming a lack of stars with
fields below a few hundred gauss. We then seek which macroscopic motions
compete with atomic diffusion in determining the surface abundances of AmFm
stars. While turbulent transport and mass loss, in competition with atomic
diffusion, are both able to explain observed surface abundances, the interior
abundance distribution is different enough to potentially lead to a test using
asterosismology. Finally we review progress on the turbulence-driving and
mixing processes in stellar radiative zones.Comment: Proceedings of IAU GA in Rio, JD4 on Ap stars; 10 pages, 7 figure
Cooling Flows and Metallicity Gradients in Clusters of Galaxies
The X-ray emission by hot gas at the centers of clusters of galaxies is
commonly modeled assuming the existence of steady-state, inhomogeneous cooling
flows. We derive the metallicity profiles of the intracluster medium expected
from such models. The inflowing gas is chemically enriched by type Ia
supernovae and stellar mass loss in the outer parts of the central galaxy,
which may give rise to a substantial metallicity gradient. The amplitude of the
expected metallicity enhancement towards the cluster center is proportional to
the ratio of the central galaxy luminosity to the mass inflow rate. The
metallicity of the hotter phases is expected to be higher than that of the
colder, denser phases. The metallicity profile expected for the Centaurus
cluster is in good agreement with the metallicity gradient recently inferred
from ASCA measurements (Fukazawa et al. 1994). However, current data do not
rule out alternative models where cooling is balanced by some heat source. The
metallicity gradient does not need to be present in all clusters, depending on
the recent merging history of the gas around the central cluster galaxy, and on
the ratio of the stellar mass in the central galaxy to the gas mass in the
cooling flow.Comment: uuencoded postscript, 8 pages of text + 2 figures, accepted by The
Astrophysical Journal (Letters
Internal heating and thermal emission from old neutron stars: Constraints on dense-matter and gravitational physics
The equilibrium composition of neutron star matter is achieved through weak
interactions (direct and inverse beta decays), which proceed on relatively long
time scales. If the density of a matter element is perturbed, it will relax to
the new chemical equilibrium through non-equilibrium reactions, which produce
entropy that is partly released through neutrino emission, while a similar
fraction heats the matter and is eventually radiated as thermal photons. We
examined two possible mechanisms causing such density perturbations: 1) the
reduction in centrifugal force caused by spin-down (particularly in millisecond
pulsars), leading to "rotochemical heating", and 2) a hypothetical
time-variation of the gravitational constant, as predicted by some theories of
gravity and current cosmological models, leading to "gravitochemical heating".
If only slow weak interactions are allowed in the neutron star (modified Urca
reactions, with or without Cooper pairing), rotochemical heating can account
for the observed ultraviolet emission from the closest millisecond pulsar, PSR
J0437-4715, which also provides a constraint on |dG/dt| of the same order as
the best available in the literature.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. To appear in the proceedings of "Isolated Neutron
Stars: from the Interior to the Surface", a conference held in London in
April 2006 (special issue of Astrophysics and Space Science, edited by Dany
Page, Roberto Turolla, & Silvia Zane
The Ionized Gas Kinematics of the LMC-Type Galaxy NGC 1427A in the Fornax Cluster
NGC 1427A is a LMC-like irregular galaxy in the Fornax cluster with an
extended pattern of strong star formation around one of its edges, which is
probably due to some kind of interaction with the cluster environment. We
present H-alpha velocities within NGC 1427A, obtained through long-slit
spectroscopy at seven different positions, chosen to fall on the brightest HII
regions of the galaxy. Due to its location very near the center of the cluster
this object is an excellent candidate to study the effects that the cluster
environment has on gas-rich galaxies embedded in it. The rotation of NGC 1427A
is modeled in two different ways. The global ionized gas kinematics is
reasonably well described by solid-body rotation, although on small scales it
shows a chaotic behaviour. In this simple model, the collision with a smaller
member of the cluster as being responsible for the peculiar morphology of NGC
1427A is very unlikely, since the only candidate intruder falls smoothly into
the general velocity pattern of the main galaxy. In a more elaborate model, for
which we obtain a better solution, this object does not lie in the same plane
of NGC 1427A, in which case we identify it as a satellite bound to the galaxy.
These results are discussed in the context of a normal irregular versus one
interacting with some external agent. Based on several arguments and
quantitative estimates, we argue that the passage through the hot intracluster
gas of the Fornax cluster is a very likely scenario to explain the
morphological properties of NGC 1427A.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX2e, uses aas2pp4.sty and psfig.sty, including 7
Postscript figures; accepted for publication in ApJ, Vol. 530, February 200
Abell 3560, a galaxy cluster at the edge of a major merging event
In this paper we study A3560, a rich cluster at the southern periphery of the
A3558 complex, a chain of interacting clusters in the central part of the
Shapley Concentration supercluster.
From a ROSAT-PSPC map we find that the X-ray surface brightness distribution
of A3560 is well described by two components, an elliptical King law and a more
peaked and fainter structure, which has been modeled with a Gaussian. The main
component, corresponding to the cluster, is elongated with the major axis
pointing toward the A3558 complex. The second component, centered on the
Dumb-bell galaxy which dominates the cluster, appears significantly offset (by
about 0.15 Mpc) from the cluster X-ray centroid.
From a Beppo-SAX observation we derive the radial temperature profile,
finding that the temperature is constant (at kT~3.7 keV) up to 8 arcmin,
corresponding to 0.3 Mpc: for larger distances, the temperature significantly
drops to kT~1.7 keV. We analyze also temperature maps, dividing the cluster in
4 sectors and deriving the temperature profiles in each sector: we find that
the temperature drop is more sudden in the sectors which point towards the
A3558 complex.
From VLA radio data, at 20 and 6 cm, we find a peculiar bright extended radio
source (J1332-3308), composed by a core (centered on the northern component of
the Dumb-bell galaxy), two lobes, a "filament" and a diffuse component. The
morphology of the source could be interpreted either with a strong interaction
of the radio source with the intracluster medium or with the model of
intermittency of the central engine.Comment: 8 pages with encapsulated figures, A&A in pres
On non-axisymmetric magnetic equilibria in stars
In previous work stable approximately axisymmetric equilibrium configurations
for magnetic stars were found by numerical simulation. Here I investigate the
conditions under which more complex, non-axisymmetric configurations can form.
I present numerical simulations of the formation of stable equilibria from
turbulent initial conditions and demonstrate the existence of non-axisymmetric
equilibria consisting of twisted flux tubes lying horizontally below the
surface of the star, meandering around the star in random patterns. Whether
such a non-axisymmetric equilibrium or a simple axisymmetric equilibrium forms
depends on the radial profile of the strength of the initial magnetic field.
The results could explain observations of non-dipolar fields on stars such as
the B0.2 main-sequence star tau-Sco or the pulsar 1E 1207.4-5209. The secular
evolution of these equilibria due to Ohmic and buoyancy processes is also
examined.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures. Accepted by MNRA
Structure, Deformations and Gravitational Wave Emission of Magnetars
Neutron stars can have, in some phases of their life, extremely strong
magnetic fields, up to 10^15-10^16 G. These objects, named magnetars, could be
powerful sources of gravitational waves, since their magnetic field could
determine large deformations. We discuss the structure of the magnetic field of
magnetars, and the deformation induced by this field. Finally, we discuss the
perspective of detection of the gravitational waves emitted by these stars.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, prepared for 19th International Conference on
General Relativity and Gravitation (GR19), Mexico City, Mexico, July 5-9,
201
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