147 research outputs found
Fast rotating stars resulting from binary evolution will often appear to be single
Rapidly rotating stars are readily produced in binary systems. An accreting
star in a binary system can be spun up by mass accretion and quickly approach
the break-up limit. Mergers between two stars in a binary are expected to
result in massive, fast rotating stars. These rapid rotators may appear as Be
or Oe stars or at low metallicity they may be progenitors of long gamma-ray
bursts.
Given the high frequency of massive stars in close binaries it seems likely
that a large fraction of rapidly rotating stars result from binary interaction.
It is not straightforward to distinguish a a fast rotator that was born as a
rapidly rotating single star from a fast rotator that resulted from some kind
of binary interaction. Rapidly rotating stars resulting from binary interaction
will often appear to be single because the companion tends to be a low mass,
low luminosity star in a wide orbit. Alternatively, they became single stars
after a merger or disruption of the binary system during the supernova
explosion of the primary.
The absence of evidence for a companion does not guarantee that the system
did not experience binary interaction in the past. If binary interaction is one
of the main causes of high stellar rotation rates, the binary fraction is
expected to be smaller among fast rotators. How this prediction depend on
uncertainties in the physics of the binary interactions requires further
investigation.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to be published in the proceedings of IAU 272
"Active OB stars: structure, evolution, mass loss and critical limit", Paris
19-23 July 201
Thermodynamics of an ideal generalized gas:II Means of order
The property that power means are monotonically increasing functions of their
order is shown to be the basis of the second laws not only for processes
involving heat conduction but also for processes involving deformations. In an
-potentail equilibration the final state will be one of maximum entropy,
while in an entropy equilibrium the final state will be one of minimum . A
metric space is connected with the power means, and the distance between means
of different order is related to the Carnot efficiency. In the ideal classical
gas limit, the average change in the entropy is shown to be proportional to the
difference between the Shannon and R\'enyi entropies for nonextensive systems
that are multifractal in nature. The -potential, like the internal energy,
is a Schur convex function of the empirical temperature, which satisfies
Jensen's inequality, and serves as a measure of the tendency to uniformity in
processes involving pure thermal conduction.Comment: 8 page
Bound states of spin-half particles in a static gravitational field close to the black hole field
We consider the bound-state energy levels of a spin-1/2 fermion in the
gravitational field of a near-black hole object. In the limit that the metric
of the body becomes singular, all binding energies tend to the rest-mass energy
(i.e. total energy approaches zero). We present calculations of the ground
state energy for three specific interior metrics (Florides, Soffel and
Schwarzschild) for which the spectrum collapses and becomes quasi-continuous in
the singular metric limit. The lack of zero or negative energy states prior to
this limit being reached prevents particle pair production occurring.
Therefore, in contrast to the Coulomb case, no pairs are produced in the
non-singular static metric. For the Florides and Soffel metrics the singularity
occurs in the black hole limit, while for the Schwarzschild interior metric it
corresponds to infinite pressure at the centre. The behaviour of the energy
level spectrum is discussed in the context of the semi-classical approximation
and using general properties of the metric.Comment: 16 pages, 6 Figures. Submitted to General Relativity and Gravitatio
A Variational Method in Out of Equilibrium Physical Systems
A variational principle is further developed for out of equilibrium dynamical
systems by using the concept of maximum entropy. With this new formulation it
is obtained a set of two first-order differential equations, revealing the same
formal symplectic structure shared by classical mechanics, fluid mechanics and
thermodynamics. In particular, it is obtained an extended equation of motion
for a rotating dynamical system, from where it emerges a kind of topological
torsion current of the form , with and
denoting components of the vector potential (gravitational or/and
electromagnetic) and is the angular velocity of the accelerated frame.
In addition, it is derived a special form of Umov-Poynting's theorem for
rotating gravito-electromagnetic systems, and obtained a general condition of
equilibrium for a rotating plasma. The variational method is then applied to
clarify the working mechanism of some particular devices, such as the Bennett
pinch and vacuum arcs, to calculate the power extraction from an hurricane, and
to discuss the effect of transport angular momentum on the radiactive heating
of planetary atmospheres. This development is seen to be advantageous and opens
options for systematic improvements.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure, submitted to review, added one referenc
The variation of G in a negatively curved space-time
Scalar-tensor (ST) gravity theories provide an appropriate theoretical
framework for the variation of Newton's fundamental constant, conveyed by the
dynamics of a scalar-field non-minimally coupled to the space-time geometry.
The experimental scrutiny of scalar-tensor gravity theories has led to a
detailed analysis of their post-newtonian features, and is encapsulated into
the so-called parametrised post-newtonian formalism (PPN). Of course this
approach can only be applied whenever there is a newtonian limit, and the
latter is related to the GR solution that is generalized by a given ST solution
under consideration. This procedure thus assumes two hypothesis: On the one
hand, that there should be a weak field limit of the GR solution; On the other
hand that the latter corresponds to the limit case of given ST solution. In the
present work we consider a ST solution with negative spatial curvature. It
generalizes a general relativistic solution known as being of a degenerate
class (A) for its unusual properties. In particular, the GR solution does not
exhibit the usual weak field limit in the region where the gravitational field
is static. The absence of a weak field limit for the hyperbolic GR solution
means that such limit is also absent for comparison with the ST solution, and
thus one cannot barely apply the PPN formalism. We therefore analyse the
properties of the hyperbolic ST solution, and discuss the question o defining a
generalised newtonian limit both for the GR solution and for the purpose of
contrasting it with the ST solution. This contributes a basic framework to
build up a parametrised pseudo-newtonian formalism adequate to test ST
negatively curved space-times.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Contribution to the Joint European and National
Astronomy Meeting (JENAM) 2010; based on a talk given by JPM in the "From
Varying Couplings to Fundamental Physics" Symposiu
Stellar models with Schwarzschild and non-Schwarzschild vacuum exteriors
A striking characteristic of non-Schwarzschild vacuum exteriors is that they
contain not only the total gravitational mass of the source, but also an {\it
arbitrary} constant. In this work, we show that the constants appearing in the
"temporal Schwarzschild", "spatial Schwarzschild" and
"Reissner-Nordstr{\"o}m-like" exteriors are not arbitrary but are completely
determined by star's parameters, like the equation of state and the
gravitational potential. Consequently, in the braneworld scenario the
gravitational field outside of a star is no longer determined by the total mass
alone, but also depends on the details of the internal structure of the source.
We show that the general relativistic upper bound on the gravitational
potential , for perfect fluid stars, is significantly increased in
these exteriors. Namely, , and for the
temporal Schwarzschild, spatial Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstr{\"o}m-like
exteriors, respectively. Regarding the surface gravitational redshift, we find
that the general relativistic Schwarzschild exterior as well as the braneworld
spatial Schwarzschild exterior lead to the same upper bound, viz., .
However, when the external spacetime is the temporal Schwarzschild metric or
the Reissner-Nordstr{\"o}m-like exterior there is no such constraint: . This infinite difference in the limiting value of is because for
these exteriors the effective pressure at the surface is negative. The results
of our work are potentially observable and can be used to test the theory.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures and caption
f(R) Gravities, Killing Spinor Equations, "BPS" Domain Walls and Cosmology
We derive the condition on f(R) gravities that admit Killing spinor equations
and construct explicit such examples. The Killing spinor equations can be used
to reduce the fourth-order differential equations of motion to the first order
for both the domain wall and FLRW cosmological solutions. We obtain exact "BPS"
domain walls that describe the smooth Randall-Sundrum II, AdS wormholes and the
RG flow from IR to UV. We also obtain exact smooth cosmological solutions that
describe the evolution from an inflationary starting point with a larger
cosmological constant to an ever-expanding universe with a smaller cosmological
constant. In addition, We find exact smooth solutions of pre-big bang models,
bouncing or crunching universes. An important feature is that the scalar
curvature R of all these metrics is varying rather than a constant. Another
intriguing feature is that there are two different f(R) gravities that give
rise to the same "BPS" solution. We also study linearized f(R) gravities in
(A)dS vacua.Comment: 37 pages, discussion on gravity trapping in RSII modified, typos
corrected, further comments and references added; version to appear in JHE
A universal tool for determining the time delay and the frequency shift of light: Synge's world function
In almost all of the studies devoted to the time delay and the frequency
shift of light, the calculations are based on the integration of the null
geodesic equations. However, the above-mentioned effects can be calculated
without integrating the geodesic equations if one is able to determine the
bifunction giving half the squared geodesic distance between
two points and (this bifunction may be called Synge's world
function). In this lecture, is determined up to the order
within the framework of the PPN formalism. The case of a stationary
gravitational field generated by an isolated, slowly rotating axisymmetric body
is studied in detail. The calculation of the time delay and the frequency shift
is carried out up to the order . Explicit formulae are obtained for the
contributions of the mass, of the quadrupole moment and of the internal angular
momentum when the only post-Newtonian parameters different from zero are
and . It is shown that the frequency shift induced by the mass
quadrupole moment of the Earth at the order will amount to
in spatial experiments like the ESA's Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space mission.
Other contributions are briefly discussed.Comment: 18 pages, To appear in: "Lasers, Clocks and Drag-Free control:
Exploration of Relativistic Gravity in Space", Springer Series on
Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 349, p 15
Galileon Hairs of Dyson Spheres, Vainshtein's Coiffure and Hirsute Bubbles
We study the fields of spherically symmetric thin shell sources, a.k.a. Dyson
spheres, in a {\it fully nonlinear covariant} theory of gravity with the
simplest galileon field. We integrate exactly all the field equations once,
reducing them to first order nonlinear equations. For the simplest galileon,
static solutions come on {\it six} distinct branches. On one, a Dyson sphere
surrounds itself with a galileon hair, which far away looks like a hair of any
Brans-Dicke field. The hair changes below the Vainshtein scale, where the extra
galileon terms dominate the minimal gradients of the field. Their hair looks
more like a fuzz, because the galileon terms are suppressed by the derivative
of the volume determinant. It shuts off the `hair bunching' over the `angular'
2-sphere. Hence the fuzz remains dilute even close to the source. This is
really why the Vainshtein's suppression of the modifications of gravity works
close to the source. On the other five branches, the static solutions are all
{\it singular} far from the source, and shuttered off from asymptotic infinity.
One of them, however, is really the self-accelerating branch, and the
singularity is removed by turning on time dependence. We give examples of
regulated solutions, where the Dyson sphere explodes outward, and its
self-accelerating side is nonsingular. These constructions may open channels
for nonperturbative transitions between branches, which need to be addressed
further to determine phenomenological viability of multi-branch gravities.Comment: 29+1 pages, LaTeX, 2 .pdf figure
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