Caustic Structures and Detectability of Circumbinary Planets in Microlensing

Recent discoveries of circumbinary planets in Kepler data show that there is a viable channel of planet formation around binary main sequence stars. Motivated by these discoveries, we have investigated the caustic structures and detectability of circumbinary planets in microlensing events. We have produced a suite of animations of caustics as a function of the projected separation and angle of the binary host to efficiently explore caustic structures over the entire circumbinary parameter space. Aided by these animations, we have derived a semi-empirical analytic expression for the location of planetary caustics, which are displaced in circumbinary lenses relative to those of planets with a single host. We have used this expression to show that the dominant source of caustic motion will be due to the planet's orbital motion and not that of the binary star. Finally, we estimate the fraction of circumbinary microlensing events that are recognizable as such to be significant (5-50 percent) for binary projected separations in the range 0.1-0.5 in units of Einstein radii.Comment: 15 pages, 1 table, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Does mass accretion lead to field decay in neutron stars

The recent discovery of cyclotron lines from gamma-ray bursts indicates that the strong magnetic fields of isolated neutron stars might not decay. The possible inverse correlation between the strength of the magnetic field and the mass accreted by the neutron star suggests that mass accretion itself may lead to the decay of the magnetic field. The spin and magnetic field evolution of the neutron star was calculated under the hypothesis of the accretion-induced field decay. It is shown that the calculated results are consistent with the observations of binary and millisecond radio pulsars

Activity of manganese in liquid Ni-Mn alloys

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Fuel Cell : Efficient Power Sources of 21st Century

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Phase relationships in the system Ni-W-O and thermodynamic properties of NiWO<SUB>4</SUB>

The phase diagram of the Ni-W-O system at 1200 K was established by metallographic and X-ray identification of the phases present after equilibration at controlled oxygen potentials. The oxygen partial pressures over the samples were fixed by metered streams of CO + CO2 gas mixtures. There was only one ternary oxide, nickel tungstate (NiWO4), in the Ni-W-O system at a total pressure of 1 atm, and this compound decomposed to a mixture of Ni + WO2.72 on lowering the oxygen potential. The Gibbs' free energy of formation of NiWO4 was determined from the measurement of the e.m.f, of the solid oxide galvanic cell, Pt, Ni + NiWO4 + WO2.72/CaO-ZrO2/Ni + NiO, Pt and thermodynamic properties of tungsten and nickel oxides available in the literature. For the reaction, NiO(s) + WO3(s) &#8594; NiWO4(s) &#916;G &#176; = - 10 500 - 0.708 T(&#177;250) cal mo1-1

Decomposition of β-alumina in an oxygen potential gradient

Single phase sodium β-alumina solid electrolyte was found to undergo isothermal phase separation in electrochemical cells, where a large oxygen potential gradient was imposed across the electrolyte and electrodes, not reversible to sodium ions, were short circuited. The experimental conditions and evidence of decomposition are outlined and a thermodynamic explanation for the phenomenon is given. This finding may lead to new methods for making multi-layered ceramic materials involving ionic conductors

Does SN 1987A contain a rapidly vibrating neutron star

If the recently reported 0.5 ms-period pulsed optical signal from the direction of Supernova 1987A originated in a young neutron star, its interpretation as a rotational period has difficulties. The surface magnetic field would have to be much lower than expected, and the high rotation rate may rule out preferred nuclear equations of state. It is pointed out here that a remnant radial vibration of a neutron star, excited in the supernova event, may survive for several years with about the observed (gravitationally redshifted) period. Heavy ions at the low-density stellar surface, periodically shocked by the vibration, may efficiently produce narrow pulses of optical cyclotron radiation in a surface field of about a trillion gauss

Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguides: Toward the Slowing and Storage of Light

The development of a simple, solid-state-based technology to slow the propagation of light could prove an important step in the realization of the high-bit-rate communication systems of the future. The use of coupled resonator optical waveguides (CROWs) as practical elements to slow and store light pulses is one possibility