Confronting Neutron Star Cooling Theories with New Observations

With the successful launch of Chandra and XMM/Newton X-ray space missions combined with the lower-energy band observations, we are in the position where careful comparison of neutron star cooling theories with observations will make it possible to distinguish among various competing theories. For instance, the latest theoretical and observational developments already exclude both nucleon and kaon direct URCA cooling. In this way we can now have realistic hope for determining various important properties, such as the composition, degree of superfluidity, the equation of state and steller radius. These developments should help us obtain better insight into the properties of dense matter.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

Determinants of an elevated pulmonary arterial pressure in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension

Given the difficulty of diagnosing early-stage pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) due to the lack of signs and symptoms, and the risk of an open lung biopsy, the precise pathological features of presymptomatic stage lung tissue remain unknown. It has been suggested that the maximum elevation of the mean pulmonary arterial pressure (Ppa) is achieved during the early symptomatic stage, indicating that the elevation of the mean Ppa is primarily driven by the pulmonary vascular tone and/or some degree of pulmonary vascular remodeling completed during this stage. Recently, the examination of a rat model of severe PAH suggested that the severe PAH may be primarily determined by the presence of intimal lesions and/or the vascular tone in the early stage. Human data seem to indicate that intimal lesions are essential for the severely increased pulmonary arterial blood pressure in the late stage of the disease. However, many questions remain. For instance, how does the pulmonary hemodynamics change during the course of the disease, and what drives the development of severe PAH? Although it is generally acknowledged that both pulmonary vascular remodeling and the vascular tone are important determinants of an elevated pulmonary arterial pressure, which is the root cause of the time-dependent progression of the disease? Here we review the recent histopathological concepts of PAH with respect to the progression of the lung vascular disease

Hadron-quark mixed phase in hyperon stars

We analyze the different possibilities for the hadron-quark phase transition occurring in beta-stable matter including hyperons in neutron stars. We use a Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach including hyperons for the hadronic equation of state and a generalized MIT bag model for the quark part. We then point out in detail the differences between Maxwell and Gibbs phase transition constructions including the effects of surface tension and electromagnetic screening. We find only a small influence on the maximum neutron star mass, whereas the radius of the star and in particular its internal structure are more affected.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

Strangeness in Neutron Stars

It is generally agreed on that the tremendous densities reached in the centers of neutron stars provide a high-pressure environment in which several intriguing particles processes may compete with each other. These range from the generation of hyperons to quark deconfinement to the formation of kaon condensates and H-matter. There are theoretical suggestions of even more exotic processes inside neutron stars, such as the formation of absolutely stable strange quark matter. In the latter event, neutron stars would be largely composed of strange quark matter possibly enveloped in a thin nuclear crust. This paper gives a brief overview of these striking physical possibilities with an emphasis on the role played by strangeness in neutron star matter, which constitutes compressed baryonic matter at ultra-high baryon number density but low temperature which is no accessible to relativistic heavy ion collision experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables; Accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the International Workshop on Astronomy and Relativistic Astrophysics (IWARA) 2005, Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Neutrino Opacities in Neutron Stars with Kaon Condensates

The neutrino mean free paths in hot neutron-star matter are obtained in the presence of kaon condensates. The kaon-induced neutrino absorption process, which is allowed only in the presence of kaon condensates, is considered for both nondegenerate and degenerate neutrinos. The neutrino mean free path due to this process is compared with that for the neutrino-nucleon scattering. While the mean free path for the kaon-induced neutrino absorption process is shown to be shorter than the ordinary two-nucleon absorption process by several orders of magnitude when temperature is not very high, the neutrino-nucleon scattering process has still a dominant contribution to the neutrino opacity. Thus, the kaon-induced neutrino absorption process has a minor effect on the thermal and dynamical evolution of protoneutron stars.Comment: 35 pages, 4 figure

Itokawa's Opposition Surge seen by Hayabusa/AMICA

Using images acquired by the Hayabusa/AMICA instrument, along with Lederer et al.'s (2008) ground-based observations, we re-examine Itokawa's disk-integrated phase curve. The AMICA images provide critical opposition measurements (between 0.7deg - 9.3deg phase at 540 nm). Using Hapke's model (2012), we fit the updated phase curves at 5 different wavelengths. Preliminary modeling results show a range of porosity values commensurate with those in the literature (Ostro et al. 2004, Gundlach and Blum, 2012, Kiuchi and Nakamura 2014) based on an impact-generated grain size distribution function and grain size range evaluations from the AMICA data (Yano et al. 2006). This wide range on a global porosity is indicative of a highly variable porosity across the surface. The derived transport mean free path and the generally forward scattering nature of the global regolith are indicative of scattering centers (such as cracks, bubbles, and inclusions) that are small compared to the observational wavelengths. The derived regolith properties are compared with the imaging and sample analysis results, providing a test of the predictive capabilities of global disk-integrated measurements. This work suggests that the sub-pixel grain information could be extracted from the photometry, especially around opposition

Nonequilibrium Weak Processes in Kaon Condensation II - Kinetics of condensation ---

The kinetics of negatively charged kaon condensation in the early stages of a newly born neutron star is considered. The thermal kaon process, in which kaons are thermally produced by nucleon-nucleon collisions, is found to be dominant throughout the equilibration process. Temporal changes of the order parameter of the condensate and the number densities of the chemical species are obtained from the rate equations, which include the thermal kaon reactions as well as the kaon-induced Urca and the modified Urca reactions. It is shown that the dynamical evolution of the condensate is characterized by three stages: the first, prior to establishment of a condensate, the second, during the growth and subsequent saturation of the condensate, and the third, near chemical equilibrium. The connection between the existence of a soft kaon mode and the instability of the noncondensed state is discussed. Implications of the nonequilibrium process on the possible delayed collapse of a protoneutron star are also mentioned.Comment: 27 pages, incl. 8 eps figures, RevTe

Nonequilibrium Weak Processes in Kaon Condensation I --- Reaction rate for the thermal kaon process ---

We investigate the thermal kaon process,in which kaons are thermally produced via nucleon-nucleon collisions.This process is relevant to nonequilibrium dynamics of kaon condensation inside neutron stars.The reaction rates for these processes are calculated, and their temperature and density dependences are compared with those of other reaction rates.It is shown that the thermal kaon process is dominant over other relevant weak reactions throughout the nonequilibrium process, such as the kaon-induced Urca and the modified Urca reactions, and may control the entire evolution of the kaon condensate. The characteristic role of the soft and hard kaons during the evolution is explained, and implications for astrophysical phenomena are briefly discussed.Comment: 31 pages,incl.10 eps figures,RevTe

Analysis of the Temporal Relationship Between Pitch Control and Articulatory Movements in the Realization of Japanese Word Accent by a Patient with Apraxia of Speech

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Diffractive Interaction and Scaling Violation in pp->pi^0 Interaction and GeV Excess in Galactic Diffuse Gamma-Ray Spectrum of EGRET

We present here a new calculation of the gamma-ray spectrum from pp->pi^0 in the Galactic ridge environment. The calculation includes the diffractive pp interaction and incorporates the Feynman scaling violation for the first time. Galactic diffuse gamma-rays come, predominantly, from pi^0->gamma gamma in the sub-GeV to multi-GeV range. Hunter et al. found, however, an excess in the GeV range ("GeV Excess") in the EGRET Galactic diffuse spectrum above the prediction based on experimental pp->pi^0 cross-sections and the Feynman scaling hypothesis. We show, in this work, that the diffractive process makes the gamma-ray spectrum harder than the incident proton spectrum by ~0.05 in power-law index, and, that the scaling violation produces 30-80% more pi^0 than the scaling model for incident proton energies above 100GeV. Combination of the two can explain about a half of the "GeV Excess" with the local cosmic proton (power-law index ~2.7). The excess can be fully explained if the proton spectral index in the Galactic ridge is a little harder (~0.2 in power-law index) than the local spectrum. Given also in the paper is that the diffractive process enhances e^+ over e^- and the scaling violation gives 50-100% higher p-bar yield than without the violation, both in the multi-GeV range.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Astrophysical Journa