161 research outputs found
Asteroseismic test of rotational mixing in low-mass white dwarfs
We exploit the recent discovery of pulsations in mixed-atmosphere (He/H),
extremely low-mass white dwarf precursors (ELM proto-WDs) to test the
proposition that rotational mixing is a fundamental process in the formation
and evolution of low-mass helium core white dwarfs. Rotational mixing has been
shown to be a mechanism able to compete efficiently against gravitational
settling, thus accounting naturally for the presence of He, as well as traces
of metals such as Mg and Ca, typically found in the atmospheres of ELM
proto-WDs. Here we investigate whether rotational mixing can maintain a
sufficient amount of He in the deeper driving region of the star, such that it
can fuel, through HeII-HeIII ionization, the observed pulsations in this type
of stars. Using state-of-the-art evolutionary models computed with MESA, we
show that rotational mixing can indeed explain qualitatively the very existence
and general properties of the known pulsating, mixed-atmosphere ELM proto-WDs.
Moreover, such objects are very likely to pulsate again during their final WD
cooling phase.Comment: accepted for publication in A&A Letter
It has to be cool: on supergiant progenitors of binary black hole mergers from common-envelope evolution
Common-envelope (CE) evolution in massive binary systems is thought to be one
of the most promising channels for the formation of compact binary mergers. In
the case of merging binary black holes (BBHs), the essential CE phase takes
place at a stage when the first BH is already formed and the companion star
expands as a supergiant. We study which BH binaries with supergiant companions
will evolve through and potentially survive a CE phase. To this end, we compute
envelope binding energies from detailed massive stellar models at different
evolutionary stages and metallicities. We make multiple physically extreme
choices of assumptions that favor easier CE ejection as well as account for
recent advancements in mass transfer stability criteria. We find that even with
the most optimistic assumptions, a successful CE ejection in BH (and also NS)
binaries is only possible if the donor is a massive convective-envelope giant,
a red supergiant (RSG). In other words, pre-CE progenitors of BBH mergers are
BH binaries with RSG companions. We find that due to its influence on the
radial expansion of massive giants, metallicity has an indirect but a very
strong effect on the envelope structure and binding energies of RSGs. Our
results suggest that merger rates from population synthesis models could be
severely overestimated, especially at low metallicity. Additionally, the lack
of observed RSGs with luminosities above log() = 5.6-5.8,
corresponding to stars with , puts into question the
viability of the CE channel for the formation of the most massive BBH mergers.
Either such RSGs elude detection due to very short lifetimes, or they do not
exist and the CE channel can only produce BBH systems with total mass . We discuss an alternative CE scenario, in which a partial envelope
ejection is followed by a phase of possibly long and stable mass transfer.Comment: 20 pages + App., accepted for publication in A&A. For fits, see: https://ftp.science.ru.nl/astro/jklencki
The Peculiar Phase Structure of Random Graph Bisection
The mincut graph bisection problem involves partitioning the n vertices of a
graph into disjoint subsets, each containing exactly n/2 vertices, while
minimizing the number of "cut" edges with an endpoint in each subset. When
considered over sparse random graphs, the phase structure of the graph
bisection problem displays certain familiar properties, but also some
surprises. It is known that when the mean degree is below the critical value of
2 log 2, the cutsize is zero with high probability. We study how the minimum
cutsize increases with mean degree above this critical threshold, finding a new
analytical upper bound that improves considerably upon previous bounds.
Combined with recent results on expander graphs, our bound suggests the unusual
scenario that random graph bisection is replica symmetric up to and beyond the
critical threshold, with a replica symmetry breaking transition possibly taking
place above the threshold. An intriguing algorithmic consequence is that
although the problem is NP-hard, we can find near-optimal cutsizes (whose ratio
to the optimal value approaches 1 asymptotically) in polynomial time for
typical instances near the phase transition.Comment: substantially revised section 2, changed figures 3, 4 and 6, made
minor stylistic changes and added reference
A Dense Companion to the Short-Period Millisecond Pulsar Binary PSR J0636+5128
PSR J0636+5128 is a millisecond pulsar in one of the most compact pulsar
binaries known, with a 96\,min orbital period. The pulsar mass function
suggests a very low-mass companion, similar to that seen in so-called "black
widow" binaries. Unlike in most of those, however, no radio eclipses by
material driven off from the companion were seen leading to the possibility
that the companion was a degenerate remnant of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf. We
report the discovery of the optical counterpart of its companion in images
taken with the Gemini North and Keck~I telescopes. The companion varies between
and on the 96\,min orbital period of the binary, caused by
irradiation from the pulsar's energetic wind. We modeled the multi-color
lightcurve using parallax constraints from pulsar timing and determine a
companion mass of , a radius of
, and a mean density of , all for an assumed neutron star mass of . This
makes the companion to PSR J0636+5128 one of the densest of the "black widow"
systems. Modeling suggests that the composition is not predominantly hydrogen,
perhaps due to an origin in an ultra-compact X-ray binary.Comment: 4 figures, 1 table. Submitted to ApJ on June 29, 2018. Accepted on
July 20, 201
Stellar archaeology with Gaia: the Galactic white dwarf population
Gaia will identify several 1e5 white dwarfs, most of which will be in the
solar neighborhood at distances of a few hundred parsecs. Ground-based optical
follow-up spectroscopy of this sample of stellar remnants is essential to
unlock the enormous scientific potential it holds for our understanding of
stellar evolution, and the Galactic formation history of both stars and
planets.Comment: Summary of a talk at the 'Multi-Object Spectroscopy in the Next
Decade' conference in La Palma, March 2015, to be published in ASP Conference
Series (editors Ian Skillen & Scott Trager
An Innovative System for Monitoring Radon and Indoor Air Quality
Nowadays, a global trend towards increasing the performance of a building is the reduction in energy consumption. In this respect, for existing residential buildings the most common techniques are the application of a thermal insulation layer to the exterior wall of the building and / or window replacements. Unfortunately, their application without proper education of those involved may have a negative effect on the indoor air quality. The use of a continuous monitoring device can give the owner the ability to understand the impact of his behaviour on indoor air quality and, as such, to adjust his routine in order to maintain the indoor air quality at the desired level. This paper introduces a prototype, called ICA system, for continuous, real-time indoor air quality monitoring. The ICA system presents sensors for monitoring the concentration of radon, CO2, CO, VOCs, as well as meteorological parameters, such as temperature, pressure, and relative humidity. Experiments were performed both in laboratory and in situ conditions for testing and validating the proposed system.This work was supported by the project ID P_37_229, Contract No. 22/01.09.2016, with the title “Smart Systems for Public Safety through Control and Mitigation of Residential Radon linked with Energy Efficiency Optimization of Buildings in Romanian Major Urban Agglomerations SMART-RAD-EN” of the POC Programme
The Green Bank North Celestial Cap Survey. IX. Timing Follow-up for 128 Pulsars
The Green Bank North Celestial Cap survey is one of the largest and most sensitive searches for pulsars and transient radio objects. Observations for the survey have finished; priorities have shifted toward long-term monitoring of its discoveries. In this study, we have developed a pipeline to handle large data sets of archival observations and connect them to recent, high-cadence observations taken using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment telescope. This pipeline handles data for 128 pulsars and has produced measurements of spin, positional, and orbital parameters that connect data over observation gaps as large as 2000 days. We have also measured glitches in the timing residuals for five of the pulsars included and proper motion for 19 sources (13 new). We include updates to orbital parameters for 19 pulsars, including nine previously unpublished binaries. For two of these binaries, we provide updated measurements of post-Keplerian binary parameters, which result in much more precise estimates of the total masses of both systems. For PSR J0509+3801, the much improved measurement of the Einstein delay yields much improved mass measurements for the pulsar and its companion, 1.399(6) M⊙ and 1.412(6) M⊙, respectively. For this system, we have also obtained a measurement of the orbital decay due to the emission of gravitational waves
On Distant Speech Recognition for Home Automation
The official version of this draft is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16226-3_7International audienceIn the framework of Ambient Assisted Living, home automation may be a solution for helping elderly people living alone at home. This study is part of the Sweet-Home project which aims at developing a new home automation system based on voice command to improve support and well-being of people in loss of autonomy. The goal of the study is vocal order recognition with a focus on two aspects: distance speech recognition and sentence spotting. Several ASR techniques were evaluated on a realistic corpus acquired in a 4-room flat equipped with microphones set in the ceiling. This distant speech French corpus was recorded with 21 speakers who acted scenarios of activities of daily living. Techniques acting at the decoding stage, such as our novel approach called Driven Decoding Algorithm (DDA), gave better speech recognition results than the baseline and other approaches. This solution which uses the two best SNR channels and a priori knowledge (voice commands and distress sentences) has demonstrated an increase in recognition rate without introducing false alarms
Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will be a transformative experiment for gravitational wave astronomy, and, as such, it will offer unique opportunities to address many key astrophysical questions in a completely novel way. The synergy with ground-based and space-born instruments in the electromagnetic domain, by enabling multi-messenger observations, will add further to the discovery potential of LISA. The next decade is crucial to prepare the astrophysical community for LISA’s first observations. This review outlines the extensive landscape of astrophysical theory, numerical simulations, and astronomical observations that are instrumental for modeling and interpreting the upcoming LISA datastream. To this aim, the current knowledge in three main source classes for LISA is reviewed; ultra-compact stellar-mass binaries, massive black hole binaries, and extreme or interme-diate mass ratio inspirals. The relevant astrophysical processes and the established modeling techniques are summarized. Likewise, open issues and gaps in our understanding of these sources are highlighted, along with an indication of how LISA could help making progress in the different areas. New research avenues that LISA itself, or its joint exploitation with upcoming studies in the electromagnetic domain, will enable, are also illustrated. Improvements in modeling and analysis approaches, such as the combination of numerical simulations and modern data science techniques, are discussed. This review is intended to be a starting point for using LISA as a new discovery tool for understanding our Universe
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