K-theoretic duality for shifts of finite type

C*-algebras generalizing Cuntz-Krieger algebras can be associated to hyperbolic homeomorphisms of compact metric spaces. They satisfy a non-commutative form of Spanier-Whitehead duality with respect to K-theory. We prove this for the case of subshifts of finite type. The special feature of the present situation is that the constructions are all done on the full Fock space and are very explicit, while the general theorem requires much more abstract machinery.Comment: 23 pages, Latex fil

Neutrino-pair bremsstrahlung by electrons in neutron star crusts

Neutrino-pair bremsstrahlung by relativistic degenerate electrons in a neutron-star crust at densities (10^9 - 1.5x10^{14}) g/cm^3 is analyzed. The processes taken into account are neutrino emission due to Coulomb scattering of electrons by atomic nuclei in a Coulomb liquid, and electron-phonon scattering and Bragg diffraction (the static-lattice contribution) in a Coulomb crystal. The static-lattice contribution is calculated including the electron band-structure effects for cubic Coulomb crystals of different types and also for the liquid crystal phases composed of rod- and plate-like nuclei in the neutron-star mantle (at 10^{14} - 1.5x10^{14} g/cm^3). The phonon contribution is evaluated with proper treatment of the multi-phonon processes which removes a jump in the neutrino bremsstrahlung emissivity at the melting point obtained in previous works. Below 10^{13} g/cm^3, the results are rather insensitive to the nuclear form factor, but results for the solid state near the melting point are affected significantly by the Debye-Waller factor and multi-phonon processes. At higher densities, the nuclear form factor becomes more significant. A comparison of the various neutrino generation mechanisms in neutron star crusts shows that electron bremsstrahlung is among the most important ones.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, LaTeX using aa.cls and epsf.sty. A&A, in pres

The strong Novikov conjecture for low degree cohomology

We show that for each discrete group G, the rational assembly map K_*(BG) \otimes Q \to K_*(C*_{max} G) \otimes \Q is injective on classes dual to the subring generated by cohomology classes of degree at most 2 (identifying rational K-homology and homology via the Chern character). Our result implies homotopy invariance of higher signatures associated to these cohomology classes. This consequence was first established by Connes-Gromov-Moscovici and Mathai. Our approach is based on the construction of flat twisting bundles out of sequences of almost flat bundles as first described in our previous work. In contrast to the argument of Mathai, our approach is independent of (and indeed gives a new proof of) the result of Hilsum-Skandalis on the homotopy invariance of the index of the signature operator twisted with bundles of small curvature.Comment: 11 page

The Crustal Rigidity of a Neutron Star, and Implications for PSR 1828-11 and other Precession Candidates

We calculate the crustal rigidity parameter, b, of a neutron star (NS), and show that b is a factor 40 smaller than the standard estimate due to Baym & Pines (1971). For a NS with a relaxed crust, the NS's free-precession frequency is directly proportional to b. We apply our result for b to PSR 1828-11, a 2.5 Hz pulsar that appears to be precessing with period 511 d. Assuming this 511-d period is set by crustal rigidity, we show that this NS's crust is not relaxed, and that its reference spin (roughly, the spin for which the crust is most relaxed) is 40 Hz, and that the average spindown strain in the crust is 5 \times 10^{-5}. We also briefly describe the implications of our b calculation for other well-known precession candidates.Comment: 44 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Ap

Weak decay of uniformly accelerated protons and related processes

We investigate the weak interaction emission of spin-1/2 fermions from accelerated currents. As particular applications, we analyze the decay of uniformly accelerated protons and neutrons, and the neutrino-antineutrino emission from uniformly accelerated electrons. The possible relevance of our results to astrophysics is also discussed.Comment: 16 pages (REVTEX), 6 figures, to appear in Physical Review

Eddington-limited X-ray Bursts as Distance Indicators. I. Systematic Trends and Spherical Symmetry in Bursts from 4U 1728-34

We investigate the limitations of thermonuclear X-ray bursts as a distance indicator for the weakly-magnetized accreting neutron star 4U 1728-34. We measured the unabsorbed peak flux of 81 bursts in public data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The distribution of peak fluxes was bimodal: 66 bursts exhibited photospheric radius expansion and were distributed about a mean bolometric flux of 9.2e-8 erg/cm^2/s, while the remaining (non-radius expansion) bursts reached 4.5e-8 erg/cm^2/s, on average. The peak fluxes of the radius-expansion bursts were not constant, exhibiting a standard deviation of 9.4% and a total variation of 46%. These bursts showed significant correlations between their peak flux and the X-ray colors of the persistent emission immediately prior to the burst. We also found evidence for quasi-periodic variation of the peak fluxes of radius-expansion bursts, with a time scale of approximately 40 d. The persistent flux observed with RXTE/ASM over 5.8 yr exhibited quasi-periodic variability on a similar time scale. We suggest that these variations may have a common origin in reflection from a warped accretion disk. Once the systematic variation of the peak burst fluxes is subtracted, the residual scatter is only approximately 3%, roughly consistent with the measurement uncertainties. The narrowness of this distribution strongly suggests that i) the radiation from the neutron star atmosphere during radius-expansion episodes is nearly spherically symmetric, and ii) the radius-expansion bursts reach a common peak flux which may be interpreted as a standard candle intensity.Adopting the minimum peak flux for the radius-expansion bursts as the Eddington flux limit, we derive a distance for the source of 4.4-4.8 kpc.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted by ApJ. Minor referee's revisions, also includes 9 newly public X-ray burst

Neutron Star Structure and the Neutron Radius of 208Pb

We study relationships between the neutron-rich skin of a heavy nucleus and the properties of neutron-star crusts. Relativistic effective field theories with a thicker neutron skin in $^{208}$Pb have a larger electron fraction and a lower liquid-to-solid transition density for neutron-rich matter. These properties are determined by the density dependence of the symmetry energy which we vary by adding nonlinear couplings between isoscalar and isovector mesons. An accurate measurement of the neutron radius in $^{208}$Pb---via parity violating electron scattering---may have important implications for the structure of neutron stars.Comment: 5 pages 3 figures, added additional evidence of model independence, Phys. Rev. Letters in pres

Cooling of Neutron Stars: Two Types of Triplet Neutron Pairing

We consider cooling of neutron stars (NSs) with superfluid cores composed of neutrons, protons, and electrons (assuming singlet-state pairing of protons, and triplet-state pairing of neutrons). We mainly focus on (nonstandard) triplet-state pairing of neutrons with the $|m_J| = 2$ projection of the total angular momentum of Cooper pairs onto quantization axis. The specific feature of this pairing is that it leads to a power-law (nonexponential) reduction of the emissivity of the main neutrino processes by neutron superfluidity. For a wide range of neutron critical temperatures $T_{cn}$, the cooling of NSs with the $|m_J| = 2$ superfluidity is either the same as the cooling with the $m_J = 0$ superfluidity, considered in the majority of papers, or much faster. The cooling of NSs with density dependent critical temperatures $T_{cn}(\rho)$ and $T_{cp}(\rho)$ can be imitated by the cooling of the NSs with some effective critical temperatures $T_{cn}$ and $T_{cp}$ constant over NS cores. The hypothesis of strong neutron superfluidity with $|m_J| = 2$ is inconsistent with current observations of thermal emission from NSs, but the hypothesis of weak neutron superfluidity of any type does not contradict to observations.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Neutral weak currents in nucleon superfluid Fermi liquids: Larkin-Migdal and Leggett approaches

Neutrino emission in processes of breaking and formation of nucleon Cooper pairs is calculated in the framework of the Larkin-Migdal and the Leggett approaches to the description of superfluid Fermi liquids at finite temperatures. We explain peculiarities of both approaches and explicitly demonstrate that they lead to the same expression for the emissivity in pair breaking and formation processes.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

On the Transport Properties of a Quark-Hadron Coulomb Lattice in the Cores of Neutron Stars

Already more that 40 years ago, it has been suggested that because of the enormous mass densities in the cores of neutron stars, the hadrons in the centers of neutron stars may undergo a phase transition to deconfined quark matter. In this picture, neutron stars could contain cores made of pure (up, down, strange) quark matter which are surrounded by a mixed phase of quarks and hadrons. More than that, because of the competition between the Coulomb and the surface energies associated with the positively charged regions of nuclear matter and negatively charged regions of quark matter, the mixed phase may develop geometrical structures, similarly to what is expected of the sub-nuclear liquid-gas phase transition. In this paper we restrict ourselves to considering the formation of rare phase blobs in the mixed quark-hadron phase. The influence of rare phase blobs on the thermal and transport properties of neutron star matter is investigated. The total specific heat, $c_V$, thermal conductivity, $\kappa$, and electron-blob Bremsstrahlung neutrino emissivities, $\epsilon_{\nu,\text{BR}}$, of quark-hybrid matter are computed and the results are compared with the associated thermal and transport properties of standard neutron star matter. Our results show that the contribution of rare phase blobs to the specific heat is negligibly small. This is different for the neutrino emissivity from electron-blob Bremsstrahlung scattering, which turns out to be of the same order of magnitude as the total contributions from other Bremsstrahlung processes for temperatures below about $10^8$ K.Comment: minor changes, accepted by Phys. Rev.