243 research outputs found
Extracting the rp-process from X-ray burst light curves
The light curves of type I X-ray bursts (XRBs) result from energy released
from the atmosphere of a neutron star when accreted hydrogen and helium ignite
and burn explosively via the rp-process. Since charged particle reaction rates
are both density and very temperature dependent, a simulation model must
provide accurate values of these variables to predict the reaction flow. This
paper uses a self-consistent one-dimensional model calculation with a constant
accretion rate of dM/dt=5e16g/s (0.045 Eddington) and reports on the detailed
rp-process reaction flow of a given burst.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Nucl. Phys. A as part of the Nuclei in Cosmos 8
proceeding
The Equation of State of Neutron-Star Matter in Strong Magnetic Fields
We study the effects of very strong magnetic fields on the equation of state
(EOS) in multicomponent, interacting matter by developing a covariant
description for the inclusion of the anomalous magnetic moments of nucleons.
For the description of neutron star matter, we employ a field-theoretical
approach which permits the study of several models which differ in their
behavior at high density. Effects of Landau quantization in ultra-strong
magnetic fields ( Gauss) lead to a reduction in the electron
chemical potential and a substantial increase in the proton fraction. We find
the generic result for Gauss that the softening of the EOS caused
by Landau quantization is overwhelmed by stiffening due to the incorporation of
the anomalous magnetic moments of the nucleons. In addition, the neutrons
become completely spin polarized. The inclusion of ultra-strong magnetic fields
leads to a dramatic increase in the proton fraction, with consequences for the
direct Urca process and neutron star cooling. The magnetization of the matter
never appears to become very large, as the value of never deviates from
unity by more than a few percent. Our findings have implications for the
structure of neutron stars in the presence of large frozen-in magnetic fields.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Correlation energy of an electron gas in strong magnetic fields at high densities
The high-density electron gas in a strong magnetic field B and at zero
temperature is investigated. The quantum strong-field limit is considered in
which only the lowest Landau level is occupied. It is shown that the
perturbation series of the ground-state energy can be represented in analogy to
the Gell-Mann Brueckner expression of the ground-state energy of the field-free
electron gas. The role of the expansion parameter is taken by r_B= (2/3 \pi^2)
(B/m^2) (\hbar r_s /e)^3 instead of the field-free Gell-Mann Brueckner
parameter r_s. The perturbation series is given exactly up to o(r_B) for the
case of a small filling factor for the lowest Landau level.Comment: 10 pages, Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.
Thomas-Fermi Calculations of Atoms and Matter in Magnetic Neutron Stars II: Finite Temperature Effects
We present numerical calculations of the equation of state for dense matter
in high magnetic fields, using a temperature dependent Thomas-Fermi theory with
a magnetic field that takes all Landau levels into account. Free energies for
atoms and matter are also calculated as well as profiles of the electron
density as a function of distance from the atomic nucleus for representative
values of the magnetic field strength, total matter density, and temperature.
The Landau shell structure, which is so prominent in cold dense matter in high
magnetic fields, is still clearly present at finite temperature as long as it
is less than approximately one tenth of the cyclotron energy. This structure is
reflected in an oscillatory behaviour of the equation of state and other
thermodynamic properties of dense matter and hence also in profiles of the
density and pressure as functions of depth in the surface layers of magnetic
neutron stars. These oscillations are completely smoothed out by thermal
effects at temperatures of the order of the cyclotron energy or higher.Comment: 37 pages, 17 figures included, submitted to Ap
Surface structure of Quark stars with magnetic fields
We investigate the impact of magnetic fields on the electron distribution in
the electrosphere of quark stars. For moderately strong magnetic fields G, quantization effects are generally weak due to the large number
density of electrons at surface, but can nevertheless affect the spectral
features of quark stars. We outline the main observational characteristics of
quark stars as determined by their surface emission, and briefly discuss their
formation in explosive events termed Quark-Novae, which may be connected to the
-process.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the IXth
Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-9), Bhubaneswar, India,
3-14 Jan. 200
Poisson -- Boltzmann Brownian Dynamics of Charged Colloids in Suspension
We describe a method to simulate the dynamics of charged colloidal particles
suspended in a liquid containing dissociated ions and salt ions. Regimes of
prime current interest are those of large volume fraction of colloids, highly
charged particles and low salt concentrations. A description which is tractable
under these conditions is obtained by treating the small dissociated and salt
ions as continuous fields, while keeping the colloidal macroions as discrete
particles. For each spatial configuration of the macroions, the electrostatic
potential arising from all charges in the system is determined by solving the
nonlinear Poisson--Boltzmann equation. From the electrostatic potential, the
forces acting on the macroions are calculated and used in a Brownian dynamics
simulation to obtain the motion of the latter. The method is validated by
comparison to known results in a parameter regime where the effective
interaction between the macroions is of a pairwise Yukawa form
Prenatal and Lactational Exposure to Bisphenol A in Mice Alters Expression of Genes Involved in Cortical Barrel Development without Morphological Changes
It has been reported that premature infants in neonatal intensive care units are exposed to a high rate of bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine disrupting chemical. Our previous studies demonstrated that corticothalamic projection was disrupted by prenatal exposure to BPA, which persisted even in adult mice. We therefore analyzed whether prenatal and lactational exposure to low doses of BPA affected the formation of the cortical barrel, the barreloid of the thalamus, and the barrelette of the brainstem in terms of the histology and the expression of genes involved in the barrel development. Pregnant mice were injected subcutaneously with 20 µg/kg of BPA daily from embryonic day 0 (E0) to postnatal 3 weeks (P3W), while the control mice received a vehicle alone. The barrel, barreloid and barrelette of the adult mice were examined by cytochrome C oxidase (COX) staining. There were no significant differences in the total and septal areas and the patterning of the posterior medial barrel subfield (PMBSF), barreloid and barrelette, between the BPA-exposure and control groups in the adult mice. The developmental study at postnatal day 1 (PD1), PD4 and PD8 revealed that the cortical barrel vaguely appeared at PD4 and completely formed at PD8 in both groups. The expression pattern of some genes was spatiotemporally altered depending on the sex and the treatment. These results suggest that the trigeminal projection and the thalamic relay to the cortical barrel were spared after prenatal and lactational exposure to low doses of BPA, although prenatal exposure to BPA was previously shown to disrupt the corticothalamic projection
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
Bursting behavior of the Galactic Center faint X-ray transient GRS 1741.9-2853
The neutron star low-mass X-ray binary GRS 1741.9-2853 is a known type-I
burster of the Galactic Center. It is transient, faint, and located in a very
crowded region, only 10 arcmin from the supermassive black hole Sgr A*.
Therefore, its bursting behavior has been poorly studied so far. In particular,
its persistent emission has rarely been detected between consecutive bursts,
due to lack of sensitivity or confusion. This is what made GRS 1741.9-2853 one
of the nine "burst-only sources" identified by BeppoSAX a few years ago. The
physical properties of GRS 1741.9-2853 bursts are yet of great interest since
we know very little about the nuclear regimes at stake in low accretion rate
bursters. We examine here for the first time several bursts in relation with
the persistent emission of the source, using INTEGRAL, XMM-Newton, and Swift
observations. We investigate the source flux variability and bursting behavior
during its 2005 and 2007 long outbursts. The persistent luminosity of GRS
1741.9-2853 varied between ~1.7 and 10.5 10^36 erg s^-1, i.e. 0.9-5.3% of the
Eddington luminosity. The shape of the spectrum as described by an absorbed
power-law remained with a photon index Gamma ~ 2 and a column density $N_{\rm
H} ~ 12 10^22 cm^-2 throughout the outbursts. We discovered 11 type-I bursts
with INTEGRAL, and inspected 4 additional bursts: 2 recorded by XMM-Newton and
2 by Swift. From the brigthest burst, we derive an upper limit on the source
distance of ~7 kpc. The observed bursts characteristics and source accretion
rate suggest pure helium explosions igniting at column depths y_{ign} ~ 0.8-4.8
10^8 g cm^-1, for typical energy releases of ~1.2-7.4 10^39 erg.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Consistent alpha-cluster description of the 12C (0^+_2) resonance
The near-threshold 12C (0^+_2) resonance provides unique possibility for fast
helium burning in stars, as predicted by Hoyle to explain the observed
abundance of elements in the Universe. Properties of this resonance are
calculated within the framework of the alpha-cluster model whose two-body and
three-body effective potentials are tuned to describe the alpha - alpha
scattering data, the energies of the 0^+_1 and 0^+_2 states, and the
0^+_1-state root-mean-square radius. The extremely small width of the 0^+_2
state, the 0_2^+ to 0_1^+ monopole transition matrix element, and transition
radius are found in remarkable agreement with the experimental data. The
0^+_2-state structure is described as a system of three alpha-particles
oscillating between the ground-state-like configuration and the elongated chain
configuration whose probability exceeds 0.9
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