Polarized Curvature Radiation in Pulsar Magnetosphere

The propagation of polarized emission in pulsar magnetosphere is investigated in this paper. The polarized waves are generated through curvature radiation from the relativistic particles streaming along curved magnetic field lines and co-rotating with the pulsar magnetosphere. Within the 1/{\deg} emission cone, the waves can be divided into two natural wave mode components, the ordinary (O) mode and the extraord nary (X) mode, with comparable intensities. Both components propagate separately in magnetosphere, and are aligned within the cone by adiabatic walking. The refraction of O-mode makes the two components separated and incoherent. The detectable emission at a given height and a given rotation phase consists of incoherent X-mode and O-mode components coming from discrete emission regions. For four particle-density models in the form of uniformity, cone, core and patches, we calculate the intensities for each mode numerically within the entire pulsar beam. If the co-rotation of relativistic particles with magnetosphere is not considered, the intensity distributions for the X-mode and O-mode components are quite similar within the pulsar beam, which causes serious depolarization. However, if the co-rotation of relativistic particles is considered, the intensity distributions of the two modes are very different, and the net polarization of out-coming emission should be significant. Our numerical results are compared with observations, and can naturally explain the orthogonal polarization modes of some pulsars. Strong linear polarizations of some parts of pulsar profile can be reproduced by curvature radiation and subsequent propagation effect.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

An easy-to-use diagnostic system development shell

The Diagnostic System Development Shell (DSDS), an expert system development shell for diagnostic systems, is described. The major objective of building the DSDS is to create a very easy to use and friendly environment for knowledge engineers and end-users. The DSDS is written in OPS5 and CommonLisp. It runs on a VAX/VMS system. A set of domain independent, generalized rules is built in the DSDS, so the users need not be concerned about building the rules. The facts are explicitly represented in a unified format. A powerful check facility which helps the user to check the errors in the created knowledge bases is provided. A judgement facility and other useful facilities are also available. A diagnostic system based on the DSDS system is question driven and can call or be called by other knowledge based systems written in OPS5 and CommonLisp. A prototype diagnostic system for diagnosing a Philips constant potential X-ray system has been built using the DSDS

Asymptotics of Spinfoam Amplitude on Simplicial Manifold: Lorentzian Theory

The present paper studies the large-j asymptotics of the Lorentzian EPRL spinfoam amplitude on a 4d simplicial complex with an arbitrary number of simplices. The asymptotics of the spinfoam amplitude is determined by the critical configurations. Here we show that, given a critical configuration in general, there exists a partition of the simplicial complex into three type of regions R_{Nondeg}, R_{Deg-A}, R_{Deg-B}, where the three regions are simplicial sub-complexes with boundaries. The critical configuration implies different types of geometries in different types of regions, i.e. (1) the critical configuration restricted into R_{Nondeg}$implies a nondegenerate discrete Lorentzian geometry, (2) the critical configuration restricted into R_{Deg-A}$ is degenerate of type-A in our definition of degeneracy, but implies a nondegenerate discrete Euclidean geometry on R_{Deg-A}, (3) the critical configuration restricted into R_{Deg-B} is degenerate of type-B, and implies a vector geometry on R_{Deg-B}. With the critical configuration, we further make a subdivision of the regions R_{Nondeg} and R_{Deg-A} into sub-complexes (with boundary) according to their Lorentzian/Euclidean oriented 4-simplex volume V_4(v), such that sgn(V_4(v)) is a constant sign on each sub-complex. Then in the each sub-complex, the spinfoam amplitude at the critical configuration gives the Regge action in Lorentzian or Euclidean signature respectively on R_{Nondeg} or R_{Deg-A}. The Regge action reproduced here contains a sign factor sgn(V_4(v)) of the oriented 4-simplex volume. Therefore the Regge action reproduced here can be viewed a discretized Palatini action with on-shell connection. Finally the asymptotic formula of the spinfoam amplitude is given by a sum of the amplitudes evaluated at all possible critical configurations, which are the products of the amplitudes associated to different type of geometries.Comment: 54 pages, 2 figures, reference adde

The triple degenerate star WD1704+481

WD1704+481 is a visual binary in which both components are white dwarfs. We present spectra of the H-alpha line of both stars which show that one component (WD1704+481.2 = Sanduleak B = GR 577) is a close binary with two white dwarf components. Thus, WD1704+481 is the first known triple degenerate star. From radial velocity measurements of the close binary we find an orbital period of 0.1448d, a mass ratio, q=Mbright/Mfaint of q=0.70+-0.03 and a difference in the gravitational redshifts of 11.5+-2.3km/s. The masses of the close pair of white dwarfs predicted by the mass ratio and gravitational redshift difference combined with theoretical cooling curves are 0.39+-0.05 solar mass and 0.56+-0.07 solar masses. WD1704+481 is therefore also likely to be the first example of a double degenerate in which the less massive white dwarf is composed of helium and the other white dwarf is composed of carbon and oxygen.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Commuting Simplicity and Closure Constraints for 4D Spin Foam Models

Spin Foam Models are supposed to be discretised path integrals for quantum gravity constructed from the Plebanski-Holst action. The reason for there being several models currently under consideration is that no consensus has been reached for how to implement the simplicity constraints. Indeed, none of these models strictly follows from the original path integral with commuting B fields, rather, by some non standard manipulations one always ends up with non commuting B fields and the simplicity constraints become in fact anomalous which is the source for there being several inequivalent strategies to circumvent the associated problems. In this article, we construct a new Euclidian Spin Foam Model which is constructed by standard methods from the Plebanski-Holst path integral with commuting B fields discretised on a 4D simplicial complex. The resulting model differs from the current ones in several aspects, one of them being that the closure constraint needs special care. Only when dropping the closure constraint by hand and only in the large spin limit can the vertex amplitudes of this model be related to those of the FK Model but even then the face and edge amplitude differ. Curiously, an ad hoc non-commutative deformation of the $B^{IJ}$ variables leads from our new model to the Barrett-Crane Model in the case of Barbero-Immirzi parameter goes to infinity.Comment: 41 pages, 4 figure