231 research outputs found
On the feasibility of exomoon detection via exoplanet phase curve spectral contrast
The author gratefully acknowledges support from the ECOGAL project, grant agreement 291227, funded by the European Research Council under ERC-2011-ADG.An exoplanet-exomoon system presents a superposition of phase curves to observers - the dominant component varies according to the planetary period, and the lesser component varies according to both the planetary and the lunar periods. If the spectra of the two bodies differ significantly, then it is likely that there are wavelength regimes where the contrast between the moon and planet is significantly larger. In principle, this effect could be used to isolate periodic oscillations in the combined phase curve. Being able to detect the exomoon component would allow a characterization of the exomoon radius, and potentially some crude atmospheric data. We run a parameter survey of combined exoplanet-exomoon phase curves, which shows that for most sets of planet-moon parameters, the lunar component of the phase curve is undetectable to current state-of-the-art transit observations. Even with future transit survey missions, measuring the exomoon signal will most likely require photometric precision of 10 parts per million or better. The only exception to this is if the moon is strongly tidally heated or in some way self-luminous. In this case, measurements of the phase curve at wavelengths greater than a few μm can be dominated by the lunar contribution. Instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope and its successors are needed to make this method feasible.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Convergence of SPH simulations of self-gravitating accretion discs: Sensitivity to the implementation of radiative cooling
Recent simulations of self-gravitating accretion discs, carried out using a
three-dimensional Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code by Meru and Bate,
have been interpreted as implying that three-dimensional global discs fragment
much more easily than would be expected from a two-dimensional local model.
Subsequently, global and local two-dimensional models have been shown to
display similar fragmentation properties, leaving it unclear whether the
three-dimensional results reflect a physical effect or a numerical problem
associated with the treatment of cooling or artificial viscosity in SPH. Here,
we study how fragmentation of self-gravitating disc flows in SPH depends upon
the implementation of cooling. We run disc simulations that compare a simple
cooling scheme, in which each particle loses energy based upon its internal
energy per unit mass, with a method in which the cooling is derived from a
smoothed internal energy density field. For the simple per particle cooling
scheme, we find a significant increase in the minimum cooling time scale for
fragmentation with increasing resolution, matching previous results. Switching
to smoothed cooling, however, results in lower critical cooling time scales,
and tentative evidence for convergence at the highest spatial resolution
tested. We conclude that precision studies of fragmentation using SPH require
careful consideration of how cooling (and, probably, artificial viscosity) is
implemented, and that the apparent non-convergence of the fragmentation
boundary seen in prior simulations is likely a numerical effect. In real discs,
where cooling is physically smoothed by radiative transfer effects, the
fragmentation boundary is probably displaced from the two-dimensional value by
a factor that is only of the order of unity.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS in pres
Clumpy shocks as the driver of velocity dispersion in molecular clouds : the effects of self-gravity and magnetic fields
DHF and IAB gratefully acknowledge support from the ECOGAL project, grant agreement 291227, funded by the European Research Council under ERC-2011-ADG.We revisit an alternate explanation for the turbulent nature of molecular clouds - namely, that velocity dispersions matching classical predictions of driven turbulence can be generated by the passage of clumpy material through a shock. While previous work suggested this mechanism can reproduce the observed Larson relation between velocity dispersion and size scale (σ ∝ LΓ with Γ ≈ 0.5), the effects of self-gravity and magnetic fields were not considered. We run a series of smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics experiments, passing clumpy gas through a shock in the presence of a combination of self-gravity and magnetic fields.We find power-law relations between σ and L throughout, with indices ranging from Γ = 0.3-1.2. These results are relatively insensitive to the strength and geometry of magnetic fields, provided that the shock is relatively strong. Γ is strongly sensitive to the angle between the gas' bulk velocity, and the shock front and the shock strength (compared to the gravitational boundness of the pre-shock gas). If the origin of the σ-L relation is in clumpy shocks, deviations from the standard Larson relation constrain the strength and behaviour of shocks in spiral galaxies.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Self-gravitating disc candidates around massive young stars
DHF gratefully acknowledges support from the ECOGAL project, grant agreement 291227, funded by the European Research Council under ERC-2011-ADG. JDI gratefully acknowledges support from the DISCSIM project, grant agreement 341137, funded by the European Research Council under ERC-2013-ADG. CJC acknowledges support from STFC grant ST/M001296/1.There have been several recent detections of candidate Keplerian discs around massive young protostars. Given the relatively large disc-to-star mass ratios in these systems, and their young ages, it is worth investigating their propensity to becoming self-gravitating. To this end, we compute self-consistent, semi-analytic models of putative self-gravitating discs for five candidate disc systems. Our aim is not to fit exactly the observations, but to demonstrate that the expected dust continuum emission from marginally unstable self-gravitating discs can be quite weak, due to high optical depth at the mid-plane even at millimetre wavelengths. In the best cases, the models produce ‘observable’ disc masses within a factor of <1.5 of those observed, with mid-plane dust temperatures comparable to measured temperatures from molecular line emission. We find in two cases that a self-gravitating disc model compares well with observations. If these discs are self-gravitating, they satisfy the conditions for disc fragmentation in their outer regions. These systems may hence have as-yet-unresolved low-mass stellar companions, and are thus promising targets for future high angular resolution observations.PostprintPeer reviewe
The pairing state in KFe2As2 studied by measurements of the magnetic vortex lattice
Understanding the mechanism and symmetry of electron pairing in iron-based
superconductors represents an important challenge in condensed matter physics
[1-3]. The observation of magnetic flux lines - "vortices" - in a
superconductor can contribute to this issue, because the spatial variation of
magnetic field reflects the pairing. Unlike many other iron pnictides, our
KFe2As2 crystals have very weak vortex pinning, allowing
small-angle-neutron-scattering (SANS) observations of the intrinsic vortex
lattice (VL). We observe nearly isotropic hexagonal packing of vortices,
without VL-symmetry transitions up to high fields along the fourfold c-axis of
the crystals, indicating rather small anisotropy of the superconducting
properties around this axis. This rules out gap nodes parallel to the c-axis,
and thus d-wave and also anisotropic s-wave pairing [2, 3]. The strong
temperature-dependence of the intensity down to T<<Tc indicates either widely
different full gaps on different Fermi surface sheets, or nodal lines
perpendicular to the axis.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
Classifying and modelling spiral structures in hydrodynamic simulations of astrophysical discs
DHF, FGR-F and IAB gratefully acknowledge support from the ECOGAL project, grant agreement 291227, funded by the European Research Council under ERC-2011-ADG.We demonstrate numerical techniques for automatic identification of individual spiral arms in hydrodynamic simulations of astrophysical discs. Building on our earlier work, which used tensor classification to identify regions that were 'spiral-like', we can now obtain fits to spirals for individual arm elements. We show this process can even detect spirals in relatively flocculent spiral patterns, but the resulting fits to logarithmic 'grand-design' spirals are less robust. Our methods not only permit the estimation of pitch angles, but also direct measurements of the spiral arm width and pattern speed. In principle, our techniques will allow the tracking of material as it passes through an arm. Our demonstration uses smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations, but we stress that the method is suitable for any finite-element hydrodynamics system. We anticipate our techniques will be essential to studies of star formation in disc galaxies, and attempts to find the origin of recently observed spiral structure in protostellar discs.PostprintPeer reviewe
Spin-glass state of vortices in YBa2Cu3Oy and La2-xSrxCuO4 below the metal-to-insulator crossover
Highly disordered magnetism confined to individual weakly interacting
vortices is detected by muon spin rotation in two different families of
high-transition-temperature superconductors, but only in samples on the
low-doping side of the low-temperature normal state metal-to-insulator
crossover (MIC). The results support an extended quantum phase transition (QPT)
theory of competing magnetic and superconducting orders that incorporates the
coupling between CuO2 planes. Contrary to what has been inferred from previous
experiments, the static magnetism that coexists with superconductivity near the
field-induced QPT is not ordered. Our findings unravel the mystery of the MIC
and establish that the normal state of high-temperature superconductors is
ubiquitously governed by a magnetic quantum critical point in the
superconducting phase.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure
Direct observation of the flux-line vortex glass phase in a type II superconductor
The order of the vortex state in La_{1.9} Sr_{0.1} CuO_{4} is probed using
muon spin rotation and small-angle neutron scattering. A transition from a
Bragg glass to a vortex glass is observed, where the latter is composed of
disordered vortex lines. In the vicinity of the transition the microscopic
behavior reflects a delicate interplay of thermally-induced and pinning-induced
disorder.Comment: 14 pages, 4 colour figures include
Symmetry and disorder of the vitreous vortex lattice in an overdoped BaFe_{2-x}Co_xAs_2 superconductor: Indication for strong single-vortex pinning
The disordered flux line lattice in single crystals of the slightly overdoped
aFe_{2-x}Co_xAs_2 (x = 0.19, Tc = 23 K) superconductor is studied by
magnetization measurements, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and magnetic
force microscopy (MFM). In the whole range of magnetic fields up to 9 T, vortex
pinning precludes the formation of an ordered Abrikosov lattice. Instead, a
vitreous vortex phase (vortex glass) with a short-range hexagonal order is
observed. Statistical processing of MFM datasets lets us directly measure its
radial and angular distribution functions and extract the radial correlation
length \zeta. In contrast to predictions of the collective pinning model, no
increase in the correlated volume with the applied field is observed. Instead,
we find that \zeta decreases as 1.3*R1 ~ H^(-1/2) over four decades of the
applied magnetic field, where R1 is the radius of the first coordination shell
of the vortex lattice. Such universal scaling of \zeta implies that the vortex
pinning in iron arsenides remains strong even in the absence of static
magnetism. This result is consistent with all the real- and reciprocal-space
vortex-lattice measurements in overdoped as-grown aFe_{2-x}Co_xAs_2 published
to date and is thus sample-independent. The failure of the collective pinning
model suggests that the vortices remain in the single-vortex pinning limit even
in high magnetic fields up to 9 T.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
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