6,670 research outputs found
Mass estimate of the Swift J 164449.3+573451 supermassive black hole based on the 3:2 QPO resonance hypothesis
A dormant Swift source J 164449.3+573451 (Sw 164449+57)recently experienced a
powerful outburst, caused most probably by a tidal disruption of a star by the
super-massive black hole at the center of the source. During the outburst, a
quasi periodic oscillation (QPO) was detected in the observed X-ray flux from
Sw 164449+57. We show that if the observed QPO belongs to a "3:2 twin peak QPO"
(with the second frequency not observed), the mass of the black hole in Sw
164449+57 is rather low, M ~ 10^5 M_sun, and the source belongs to a class of
intermediate mass black holes. The low mass of the source has been pointed out
previously by several authors.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
Gyroscopic Precession and Inertial Forces in Axially Symmetric Stationary Spacetimes
We study the phenomenon of gyroscopic precession and the analogues of
inertial forces within the framework of general relativity. Covariant
connections between the two are established for circular orbits in stationary
spacetimes with axial symmetry. Specializing to static spacetimes, we prove
that gyroscopic precession and centrifugal force both reverse at the photon
orbits. Simultaneous non-reversal of these in the case of stationary spacetimes
is discussed. Further insight is gained in the case of static spacetime by
considering the phenomena in a spacetime conformal to the original one.
Gravi-electric and gravi-magnetic fields are studied and their relation to
inertial forces is established.Comment: 21 pages, latex, no figures, http://202.41.67.76/~nayak/gpifass.te
Poincare ball embeddings of the optical geometry
It is shown that optical geometry of the Reissner-Nordstrom exterior metric
can be embedded in a hyperbolic space all the way down to its outer horizon.
The adopted embedding procedure removes a breakdown of flat-space embeddings
which occurs outside the horizon, at and below the Buchdahl-Bondi limit
(R/M=9/4 in the Schwarzschild case). In particular, the horizon can be captured
in the optical geometry embedding diagram. Moreover, by using the compact
Poincare ball representation of the hyperbolic space, the embedding diagram can
cover the whole extent of radius from spatial infinity down to the horizon.
Attention is drawn to advantages of such embeddings in an appropriately curved
space: this approach gives compact embeddings and it distinguishes clearly the
case of an extremal black hole from a non-extremal one in terms of topology of
the embedded horizon.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures; CQG accepte
The determination of the electron-phonon interaction from tunneling data in the two-band superconductor MgB2
We calculate the tunneling density of states (DOS) of MgB2 for different
tunneling directions, by directly solving the real-axis, two-band Eliashberg
equations (EE). Then we show that the numeric inversion of the standard
single-band EE, if applied to the DOS of the two-band superconductor MgB2, may
lead to wrong estimates of the strength of certain phonon branches (e.g. the
E_2g) in the extracted electron-phonon spectral function alpha^(2)F(omega). The
fine structures produced by the two-band interaction turn out to be clearly
observable only for tunneling along the ab planes in high-quality single
crystals. The results are compared to recent experimental data.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of M2S-HTSC-VII conference, Rio de
Janeiro (May 2003
Optical geometry for gravitational collapse and Hawking radiation
The notion of optical geometry, introduced more than twenty years ago as a
formal tool in quantum field theory on a static background, has recently found
several applications to the study of physical processes around compact objects.
In this paper we define optical geometry for spherically symmetric
gravitational collapse, with the purpose of extending the current formalism to
physically interesting spacetimes which are not conformally static. The
treatment is fully general but, as an example, we also discuss the special case
of the Oppenheimer-Snyder model. The analysis of the late time behaviour shows
a close correspondence between the structure of optical spacetime for
gravitational collapse and that of flat spacetime with an accelerating
boundary. Thus, optical geometry provides a natural physical interpretation for
derivations of the Hawking effect based on the ``moving mirror analogy.''
Finally, we briefly discuss the issue of back-reaction in black hole
evaporation and the information paradox from the perspective of optical
geometry.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, aps, revtex, To be published in PR
Gravitational lensing in spherically symmetric static spacetimes with centrifugal force reversal
In Schwarzschild spacetime the value of the radius coordinate is
characterized by three different properties: (a) there is a ``light sphere'',
(b) there is ``centrifugal force reversal'', (c) it is the upper limiting
radius for a non-transparent Schwarschild source to act as a gravitational lens
that produces infinitely many images. In this paper we prove a theorem to the
effect that these three properties are intimately related in {\em any}
spherically symmetric static spacetime. We illustrate the general results with
some examples including black-hole spacetimes and Morris-Thorne wormholes.Comment: 18 pages, 3 eps-figure
Black hole spin inferred from 3:2 epicyclic resonance model of high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations
Estimations of black hole spin in the three Galactic microquasars GRS
1915+105, GRO J1655-40, and XTE J1550-564 have been carried out based on
spectral and timing X-ray measurements and various theoretical concepts. Among
others, a non-linear resonance between axisymmetric epicyclic oscillation modes
of an accretion disc around a Kerr black hole has been considered as a model
for the observed high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (HF QPOs).
Estimates of spin predicted by this model have been derived based on the
geodesic approximation of the accreted fluid motion. Here we assume accretion
flow described by the model of a pressure-supported torus and carry out related
corrections to the mass-spin estimates. We find that for dimensionless black
hole spin a<0.9, the resonant eigenfrequencies are very close to those
calculated for the geodesic motion. Their values slightly grow with increasing
torus thickness. These findings agree well with results of a previous study
carried out in the pseudo-Newtonian approximation. The situation becomes
different for a>0.9, in which case the resonant eigenfrequencies rapidly
decrease as the torus thickness increases. We conclude that the assumed
non-geodesic effects shift the lower limit of the spin, implied for the three
microquasars by the epicyclic model and independently measured masses, from
a~0.7 to a~0.6. Their consideration furthermore confirms compatibility of the
model with the rapid spin of GRS 1915+105 and provides highly testable
predictions of the QPO frequencies. Individual sources with a moderate spin
(a<0.9) should exhibit a smaller spread of the measured 3:2 QPO frequencies
than sources with a near-extreme spin (a~1). This should be further examined
using the large amount of high-resolution data expected to become available
with the next generation of X-ray instruments, such as the proposed Large
Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT).Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
Effective Potential of a Black Hole in Thermal Equilibrium with Quantum Fields
Expectation values of one-loop renormalized thermal equilibrium stress-energy
tensors of free conformal scalars, spin- fermions and U(1) gauge
fields on a Schwarzschild black hole background are used as sources in the
semi-classical Einstein equation. The back-reaction and new equilibrium metric
are solved for at for each spin field. The nature of the modified
black hole spacetime is revealed through calculations of the effective
potential for null and timelike orbits. Significant novel features affecting
the motions of both massive and massless test particles show up at lowest order
in , where is the renormalized black hole mass,
and is the Planck mass. Specifically, we find the tendency for
\underline{stable} circular photon orbits, an increase in the black hole
capture cross sections, and the existence of a gravitationally repulsive region
associated with the black hole which is generated from the U(1) back-reaction.
We also consider the back-reaction arising from multiple fields, which will be
useful for treating a black hole in thermal equilibrium with field ensembles
belonging to gauge theories.Comment: 25 pages (not including seven figures), VAND-TH-93-6. Typed in Latex,
uses RevTex macro
Non-monotonic orbital velocity profiles around rapidly rotating Kerr-(anti-)de Sitter black holes
It has been recently demonstrated that the orbital velocity profile around
Kerr black holes in the equatorial plane as observed in the locally
non-rotating frame exhibits a non-monotonic radial behaviour. We show here that
this unexpected minimum-maximum feature of the orbital velocity remains if the
Kerr vacuum is generalized to the Kerr-de Sitter or Kerr-anti-de Sitter metric.
This is a new general relativity effect in Kerr spacetimes with non-vanishing
cosmological constant. Assuming that the profile of the orbital velocity is
known, this effect constrains the spacetime parameters.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for Class. Quant. Gra
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