A Relativistic Mean Field Model for Entrainment in General Relativistic Superfluid Neutron Stars

General relativistic superfluid neutron stars have a significantly more intricate dynamics than their ordinary fluid counterparts. Superfluidity allows different superfluid (and superconducting) species of particles to have independent fluid flows, a consequence of which is that the fluid equations of motion contain as many fluid element velocities as superfluid species. Whenever the particles of one superfluid interact with those of another, the momentum of each superfluid will be a linear combination of both superfluid velocities. This leads to the so-called entrainment effect whereby the motion of one superfluid will induce a momentum in the other superfluid. We have constructed a fully relativistic model for entrainment between superfluid neutrons and superconducting protons using a relativistic $\sigma - \omega$ mean field model for the nucleons and their interactions. In this context there are two notions of ``relativistic'': relativistic motion of the individual nucleons with respect to a local region of the star (i.e. a fluid element containing, say, an Avogadro's number of particles), and the motion of fluid elements with respect to the rest of the star. While it is the case that the fluid elements will typically maintain average speeds at a fraction of that of light, the supranuclear densities in the core of a neutron star can make the nucleons themselves have quite high average speeds within each fluid element. The formalism is applied to the problem of slowly-rotating superfluid neutron star configurations, a distinguishing characteristic being that the neutrons can rotate at a rate different from that of the protons.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Slowly Rotating General Relativistic Superfluid Neutron Stars with Relativistic Entrainment

Neutron stars that are cold enough should have two or more superfluids/supercondutors in their inner crusts and cores. The implication of superfluidity/superconductivity for equilibrium and dynamical neutron star states is that each individual particle species that forms a condensate must have its own, independent number density current and equation of motion that determines that current. An important consequence of the quasiparticle nature of each condensate is the so-called entrainment effect, i.e. the momentum of a condensate is a linear combination of its own current and those of the other condensates. We present here the first fully relativistic modelling of slowly rotating superfluid neutron stars with entrainment that is accurate to the second-order in the rotation rates. The stars consist of superfluid neutrons, superconducting protons, and a highly degenerate, relativistic gas of electrons. We use a relativistic $\sigma$ - $\omega$ mean field model for the equation of state of the matter and the entrainment. We determine the effect of a relative rotation between the neutrons and protons on a star's total mass, shape, and Kepler, mass-shedding limit.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, uses ReVTeX

Short-term fate of phytodetritus in sediments across the arabian sea oxygen minimum zone

The short-term fate of phytodetritus was investigated across the Pakistan margin of the Arabian Sea at water depths ranging from 140 to 1850 m, encompassing the oxygen minimum zone (~100–1100 m). Phytodetritus sedimentation events were simulated by adding ~44 mmol 13C-labelled algal material per m2 to surface sediments in retrieved cores. Cores were incubated in the dark, at in situ temperature and oxygen concentrations. Overlying waters were sampled periodically, and cores were recovered and sampled (for organisms and sediments) after durations of two and five days. The labelled carbon was subsequently traced into bacterial lipids, foraminiferan and macrofaunal biomass, and dissolved organic and inorganic pools. The majority of the label (20 to 100%) was in most cases left unprocessed in the sediment at the surface. The largest pool of processed carbon was found to be respiration (0 to 25% of added carbon), recovered as dissolved inorganic carbon. Both temperature and oxygen were found to influence the rate of respiration. Macrofaunal influence was most pronounced at the lower part of the oxygen minimum zone where it contributed 11% to the processing of phytodetritus

Cosmological Two-stream Instability

Two-stream instability requires, essentially, two things to operate: a relative flow between two fluids and some type of interaction between them. In this letter we provide the first demonstration that this mechanism may be active in a cosmological context. Building on a recently developed formalism for cosmological models with two, interpenetrating fluids with a relative flow between them, we show that two-stream instability may be triggered during the transition from one fluid domination to the other. We also demonstrate that the cosmological expansion eventually shuts down the instability by driving to zero the relativeflow and the coupling between the two fluids.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Final version that is publishe

Relativistic Two-stream Instability

We study the (local) propagation of plane waves in a relativistic, non-dissipative, two-fluid system, allowing for a relative velocity in the "background" configuration. The main aim is to analyze relativistic two-stream instability. This instability requires a relative flow -- either across an interface or when two or more fluids interpenetrate -- and can be triggered, for example, when one-dimensional plane-waves appear to be left-moving with respect to one fluid, but right-moving with respect to another. The dispersion relation of the two-fluid system is studied for different two-fluid equations of state: (i) the "free" (where there is no direct coupling between the fluid densities), (ii) coupled, and (iii) entrained (where the fluid momenta are linear combinations of the velocities) cases are considered in a frame-independent fashion (eg. no restriction to the rest-frame of either fluid). As a by-product of our analysis we determine the necessary conditions for a two-fluid system to be causal and absolutely stable and establish a new constraint on the entrainment.Comment: 15 pages, 2 eps-figure

r-modes in Relativistic Superfluid Stars

We discuss the modal properties of the $r$-modes of relativistic superfluid neutron stars, taking account of the entrainment effects between superfluids. In this paper, the neutron stars are assumed to be filled with neutron and proton superfluids and the strength of the entrainment effects between the superfluids are represented by a single parameter $\eta$. We find that the basic properties of the $r$-modes in a relativistic superfluid star are very similar to those found for a Newtonian superfluid star. The $r$-modes of a relativistic superfluid star are split into two families, ordinary fluid-like $r$-modes ($r^o$-mode) and superfluid-like $r$-modes ($r^s$-mode). The two superfluids counter-move for the $r^s$-modes, while they co-move for the $r^o$-modes. For the $r^o$-modes, the quantity $\kappa\equiv\sigma/\Omega+m$ is almost independent of the entrainment parameter $\eta$, where $m$ and $\sigma$ are the azimuthal wave number and the oscillation frequency observed by an inertial observer at spatial infinity, respectively. For the $r^s$-modes, on the other hand, $\kappa$ almost linearly increases with increasing $\eta$. It is also found that the radiation driven instability due to the $r^s$-modes is much weaker than that of the $r^o$-modes because the matter current associated with the axial parity perturbations almost completely vanishes.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Physical Review

Longitudinal broadening of near side jets due to parton cascade

Longitudinal broadening along $\Delta\eta$ direction on near side in two-dimensional ($\Delta\phi \times \Delta\eta$) di-hadron correlation distribution has been studied for central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV, within a dynamical multi-phase transport model. It was found that the longitudinal broadening is generated by a longitudinal flow induced by strong parton cascade in central Au+Au collisions, in comparison with p+p collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. The longitudinal broadening may shed light on the information about strongly interacting partonic matter at RHIC.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

Three-Particle Correlations from Parton Cascades in Au+Au Collisions

We present a study of three-particle correlations among a trigger particle and two associated particles in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV using a multi-phase transport model (AMPT) with both partonic and hadronic interactions. We found that three-particle correlation densities in different angular directions with respect to the triggered particle (`center', `cone', `deflected', `near' and `near-away') increase with the number of participants. The ratio of `deflected' to `cone' density approaches to 1.0 with the increasing of number of participants, which indicates that partonic Mach-like shock waves can be produced by strong parton cascades in central Au+Au collisions.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; Final version to appear in Physics Letters

Di-hadron azimuthal correlation and Mach-like cone structure in parton/hadron transport model

In the framework of a multi-phase transport model (AMPT) with both partonic and hadronic interactions, azimuthal correlations between trigger particles and associated scattering particles have been studied by the mixing-event technique. The momentum ranges of these particles are $3< p^{trig}_T< 6$ GeV/$c$ and $0.15< p_{T}^{assoc} < 3$ GeV/$c$ (soft), or $2.5<p^{trig}_T<$ 4 GeV/$c$ and $1< p_{T}^{assoc} < 2.5$ GeV/$c$ (hard) in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. A Mach-like structure has been observed in correlation functions for central collisions. By comparing scenarios with and without parton cascade and hadronic rescattering, we show that both partonic and hadronic dynamical mechanisms contribute to the Mach-like structure of the associated particle azimuthal correlations. The contribution of hadronic dynamical process can not be ignored in the emergence of Mach-like correlations of the soft scattered associated hadrons. However, hadronic rescattering alone cannot reproduce experimental amplitude of Mach-like cone on away-side, and the parton cascade process is essential to describe experimental amplitude of Mach-like cone on away-side. In addition, both the associated multiplicity and the sum of $p_{T}$ decrease, whileas the $$ increases, with the impact parameter in the AMPT model including partonic dynamics from string melting scenario.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures; Physics Letters B 641, 362-367 (2006

System-size scan of dihadron azimuthal correlations in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions

System-size dependence of dihadron azimuthal correlations in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collision is simulated by a multi-phase transport model. The structure of correlation functions and yields of associated particles show clear participant path-length dependences in collision systems with a partonic phase. The splitting parameter and root-mean-square width of away-side correlation functions increase with collision system size from $^{14}$N+$^{14}$N to $^{197}$Au+$^{197}$Au collisions. The double-peak structure of away-side correlation functions can only be formed in sufficient "large" collision systems under partonic phase. The contrast between the results with partonic phase and with hadron gas could suggest some hints to study onset of deconfinment.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; Nucl. Phys. A (accepted