The viscosity parameter alpha and the properties of accretion disc outbursts in close binaries

The physical mechanisms driving angular momentum transport in accretion discs are still unknown. Although it is generally accepted that, in hot discs, the turbulence triggered by the magneto-rotational instability is at the origin of the accretion process in Keplerian discs, it has been found that the values of the stress-to-pressure ratio (the alpha "viscosity" parameter) deduced from observations of outbursting discs are an order of magnitude higher than those obtained in numerical simulations. We test the conclusion about the observation-deduced value of alpha using a new set of data and comparing the results with model outbursts. We analyse a set of observations of dwarf-nova and AM CVn star outbursts and from the measured decay times determine the hot-disc viscosity parameter alpha_h. We determine if and how this method is model dependent. From the dwarf-nova disc instability model we determine an amplitude vs recurrence-time relation and compare it to the empirical Kukarkin-Parenago relation between the same, but observed, quantities. We found that all methods we tried, including the one based on the amplitude vs recurrence-time relation, imply alpha_h ~ 0.1 - 0.2 and exclude values an order of magnitude lower. The serious discrepancy between the observed and the MRI-calculated values of the accretion disc viscosity parameter alpha is therefore real since there can be no doubt about the validity of the values deduced from observations of disc outbursts.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press. (In Fig. 3b the upper sequence of numbers and symbols is an artefact of the compilation on astro-ph) and should be ignored.

Models of AM CVn star outbursts

Outbursting AM CVn stars exhibit outbursts similar to those observed in different types of dwarf novae. Their light-curves combine the characteristic features of SU UMa, ER UMa, Z Cam, and WZ Sge-type systems but also show a variety of properties never observed in dwarf novae. The compactness of AM CVn orbits and their unusual chemical composition make these systems valuable testbeds for outburst models. We aim for a better understanding of the role of helium in the accretion disc instability mechanism, testing the model for dwarf novae outbursts in the case of AM CVn stars, and aim to explain the outburst light-curves of these ultra-compact binaries. We calculated the properties of the hydrogen-free AM CVn stars using our previously developed numerical code adapted to the different chemical composition of these systems and supplemented with formulae accounting for mass transfer rate variations, additional sources of the disc heating, and the primary's magnetic field. We discovered how helium-dominated discs react to the thermal-viscous instability and were able to reproduce various features of the outburst cycles in the light-curves of AM CVn stars. The AM CVn outbursts can be explained by the suitably adapted dwarf-nova disc instability model but, as in the case of its application to hydrogen-dominated cataclysmic variables, one has to resort to additional mechanisms to account for the observed superoutbursts, dips, cycling states, and standstills. We show that the enhanced mass-transfer rate, due presumably to variable irradiation of the secondary, must not only be taken into account but is a determining factor that shapes AM CVn star outbursts. The cause of the variable secondary's irradiation has yet to be understood; the best candidate is the precession of a tilted/warped disc.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics - in press; corrected (language) versio

Multi-gluon helicity amplitudes with one off-shell leg within high energy factorization

Basing on the Slavnov-Taylor identities, we derive a new prescription to obtain gauge invariant tree-level scattering amplitudes for the process g*g->Ng within high energy factorization. Using the helicity method, we check the formalism up to several final state gluons, and we present analytical formulas for the the helicity amplitudes for N=2. We also compare the method with Lipatov's effective action approach.Comment: 25 pages, quite a few figures, an appendix added, typos correcte

Predictions for p+p+Pb Collisions at sNN=5\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5 TeV: Comparison with Data

Predictions made in Albacete {\it et al} prior to the LHC $p+$Pb run at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5$ TeV are compared to currently available data. Some predictions shown here have been updated by including the same experimental cuts as the data. Some additional predictions are also presented, especially for quarkonia, that were provided to the experiments before the data were made public but were too late for the original publication are also shown here.Comment: 55 pages 35 figure

The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems

We review the formation and evolution of compact binary stars consisting of white dwarfs (WDs), neutron stars (NSs), and black holes (BHs). Binary NSs and BHs are thought to be the primary astrophysical sources of gravitational waves (GWs) within the frequency band of ground-based detectors, while compact binaries of WDs are important sources of GWs at lower frequencies to be covered by space interferometers (LISA). Major uncertainties in the current understanding of properties of NSs and BHs most relevant to the GW studies are discussed, including the treatment of the natal kicks which compact stellar remnants acquire during the core collapse of massive stars and the common envelope phase of binary evolution. We discuss the coalescence rates of binary NSs and BHs and prospects for their detections, the formation and evolution of binary WDs and their observational manifestations. Special attention is given to AM CVn-stars -- compact binaries in which the Roche lobe is filled by another WD or a low-mass partially degenerate helium-star, as these stars are thought to be the best LISA verification binary GW sources.Comment: 105 pages, 18 figure

Precision QCD, Hadronic Structure & Forward QCD, Heavy Ions: Report of Energy Frontier Topical Groups 5, 6, 7 submitted to Snowmass 2021

This report was prepared on behalf of three Energy Frontier Topical Groups of the Snowmass 2021 Community Planning Exercise. It summarizes the status and implications of studies of strong interactions in high-energy experiments and QCD theory. We emphasize the rich landscape and broad impact of these studies in the decade ahead. Hadronic interactions play a central role in the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC) physics program, and strong synergies exist between the (HL-)LHC and planned or proposed experiments at the U.S. Electron-Ion Collider, CERN forward physics experiments, high-intensity facilities, and future TeV-range lepton and hadron colliders. Prospects for precision determinations of the strong coupling and a variety of nonperturbative distribution and fragmentation functions are examined. We also review the potential of envisioned tests of new dynamical regimes of QCD in high-energy and high-density scattering processes with nucleon, ion, and photon initial states. The important role of the high-energy heavy-ion program in studies of nuclear structure and the nuclear medium, and its connections with QCD involving nucleons are summarized. We address ongoing and future theoretical advancements in multi-loop QCD computations, lattice QCD, jet substructure, and event generators. Cross-cutting connections between experimental measurements, theoretical predictions, large-scale data analysis, and high-performance computing are emphasized.Comment: 95 pages (bibliography 30 pages), 28 figures; v.2: minor changes, authors and references adde

General Overview of Black Hole Accretion Theory

I provide a broad overview of the basic theoretical paradigms of black hole accretion flows. Models that make contact with observations continue to be mostly based on the four decade old alpha stress prescription of Shakura & Sunyaev (1973), and I discuss the properties of both radiatively efficient and inefficient models, including their local properties, their expected stability to secular perturbations, and how they might be tied together in global flow geometries. The alpha stress is a prescription for turbulence, for which the only existing plausible candidate is that which develops from the magnetorotational instability (MRI). I therefore also review what is currently known about the local properties of such turbulence, and the physical issues that have been elucidated and that remain uncertain that are relevant for the various alpha-based black hole accretion flow models.Comment: To be published in Space Science Reviews and as hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI: The Physics of Accretion on to Black Holes (Springer Publisher