KIC 9821622: An interesting lithium-rich giant in the Kepler field

We report the discovery of a new exceptional young lithium-rich giant, KIC 9821622, in the \textit{Kepler} field that exhibits an unusually large enhancement of $\alpha$, Fe-peak, and \textit{r}-process elements. From high-resolution spectra obtained with GRACES at Gemini North, we derived fundamental parameters and detailed chemical abundances of 23 elements from equivalent widths and synthesis analysis. By combining atmospheric stellar parameters with available asteroseismic data, we obtained the stellar mass, radius, and age. The data analysis reveals that KIC 9821622 is a Li-rich (A(Li)$_{NLTE}$ = 1.80 $\pm$ 0.2) intermediate-mass giant star ($M$ = 1.64 $M_{\odot}$) located at the red giant branch near the luminosity bump. We find unexpectedly elevated abundances of Fe-peak and \textit{r}-process elements. In addition, as previously reported, we find that this is a young star (2.37 Gyr) with unusually high abundances of $\alpha$-elements ([$\alpha$/Fe] = 0.31). The evolutionary status of KIC 9821622 suggests that its Li-rich nature is the result of internal fresh Li that is synthesized through the Cameron-Fowler mechanism near the luminosity bump. However, its peculiar enhancement of $\alpha$, Fe-peak, and \textit{r}-process elements opens the possibility of external contamination by material enriched by a supernova explosion. Although it is less likely, planet accretion cannot be ruled out.Comment: Letter, 6 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A. - Some language editing include

Gravitational waveforms with controlled accuracy

A partially first-order form of the characteristic formulation is introduced to control the accuracy in the computation of gravitational waveforms produced by highly distorted single black hole spacetimes. Our approach is to reduce the system of equations to first-order differential form on the angular derivatives, while retaining the proven radial and time integration schemes of the standard characteristic formulation. This results in significantly improved accuracy over the standard mixed-order approach in the extremely nonlinear post-merger regime of binary black hole collisions.Comment: Revised version, published in Phys. Rev. D, RevTeX, 16 pages, 4 figure

Gravitational Waves from a Fissioning White Hole

We present a fully nonlinear calculation of the waveform of the gravitational radiation emitted in the fission of a vacuum white hole. At early times, the waveforms agree with close-approximation perturbative calculations but they reveal dramatic time and angular dependence in the nonlinear regime. The results pave the way for a subsequent computation of the radiation emitted after a binary black hole merger.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX

Interpreting the time variable RM observed in the core region of the TeV blazar Mrk 421

In this work we interpret and discuss the time variable rotation measure (RM) found, for the first time over a 1-yr period, in the core region of a blazar. These results are based on a one-year, multi-frequency (15, 24, and 43 GHz) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) monitoring of the TeV blazar Markarian 421 (Mrk 421). We investigate the Faraday screen properties and its location with respect to the jet emitting region. Given that the 43 GHz radio core flux density and the RM time evolution suggest a similar trend, we explore the possible connection between the RM and the accretion rate. Among the various scenarios that we explore, the jet sheath is the most promising candidate for being the main source of Faraday rotation. During the one-year observing period the RM trend shows two sign reversals, which may be qualitatively interpreted within the context of the magnetic tower models. We invoke the presence of two nested helical magnetic fields in the relativistic jet with opposite helicities, whose relative contribution produce the observed RM values. The inner helical field has the poloidal component ($B_{\rm p}$) oriented in the observer's direction and produces a positive RM, while the outer helical field, with $B_{\rm p}$ in the opposite direction, produces a negative RM. We assume that the external helical field dominates the contribution to the observed RM, while the internal helical field dominates when a jet perturbation arises during the second observing epoch. Being the intrinsic polarization angle parallel to the jet axis, a pitch angle of the helical magnetic field $\phi\gtrsim 70^\circ$ is required. Additional scenarios are also considered to explain the observed RM sign reversals.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Published on MNRA

Non-stochastic behavior of atomic surface diffusion on Cu(111) at all temperatures

Atomic diffusion is usually understood as a succession of random, independent displacements of an adatom over the surface's potential energy landscape. Nevertheless, an analysis of Molecular Dynamics simulations of self-diffusion on Cu(111) demonstrates the existence of different types of correlations in the atomic jumps at all temperatures. Thus, the atomic displacements cannot be correctly described in terms of a random walk model. This fact has a profound impact on the determination and interpretation of diffusion coefficients.Comment: 5 figure

Strong lensing by fermionic dark matter in galaxies

It has been shown that a self-gravitating system of massive keV fermions in thermodynamic equilibrium correctly describes the dark matter (DM) distribution in galactic halos and predicts a denser quantum core towards the center of the configuration. Such a quantum core, for a fermion mass in the range of $50$ keV $\lesssim m c^2 \lesssim 345$ keV, can be an alternative interpretation of the central compact object in Sgr A*. We present in this work the gravitational lensing properties of this novel DM model in Milky Way-like spiral galaxies. We describe the lensing effects of the pure DM component both on halo scales, where we compare them to the effects of the Navarro-Frenk-White and the Non-Singular Isothermal Sphere DM models, and near the galaxy center, where we compare them with the effects of a Schwarzschild BH. For the particle mass leading to the most compact DM core, $m c^2\approx 10^{2}$ keV, we draw the following conclusions. At distances $r\gtrsim 20$ pc from the center of the lens the effect of the central object on the lensing properties is negligible. However, we show that measurements of the deflection angle produced by the DM distribution in the outer region at a few kpc, together with rotation curve data, could help to discriminate between different DM models. We show that at distances $\sim 10^{-4}$ pc strong lensing effects, such as multiple images and Einstein rings, may occur. Large differences in the deflection angle produced by a DM central core and a central BH appear at distances $r\lesssim 10^{-6}$ pc; in this regime the weak-field formalism is no longer applicable and the exact general-relativistic formula has to be used. We find that quantum DM cores do not show a photon sphere what implies that they do not cast a shadow. Similar conclusions apply to the other DM distributions for other fermion masses in the above specified range and for other galaxy types.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. v2: Version published in PR

First clear evidence of quantum chaos in the bound states of an atomic nucleus

We study the spectral fluctuations of the $^{208}$Pb nucleus using the complete experimental spectrum of 151 states up to excitation energies of $6.20$ MeV recently identified at the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratorium at Garching, Germany. For natural parity states the results are very close to the predictions of Random Matrix Theory (RMT) for the nearest-neighbor spacing distribution. A quantitative estimate of the agreement is given by the Brody parameter $\omega$, which takes the value $\omega=0$ for regular systems and $\omega \simeq 1$ for chaotic systems. We obtain $\omega=0.85 \pm 0.02$ which is, to our knowledge, the closest value to chaos ever observed in experimental bound states of nuclei. By contrast, the results for unnatural parity states are far from RMT behavior. We interpret these results as a consequence of the strength of the residual interaction in $^{208}$Pb, which, according to experimental data, is much stronger for natural than for unnatural parity states. In addition our results show that chaotic and non-chaotic nuclear states coexist in the same energy region of the spectrum.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur