Planets orbiting Quark Nova compact remnants

We explore planet formation in the Quark Nova scenario. If a millisecond pulsar explodes as a Quark Nova, a protoplanetary disk can be formed out of the metal rich fall-back material. The propeller mechanism transfers angular momentum from the born quark star to the disk that will go through viscous evolution with later plausible grain condensation and planet formation. As a result, earth-size planets on circular orbits may form within short radii from the central quark star. The planets in the PSR1257+12 system can be explained by our model if the Quark Nova compact remnant is born with a period of $\sim 0.5$ ms following the explosion. We suggest that a good portion of the Quark Nova remnants may harbour planetary systems

The canonical effect in statistical models for relativistic heavy ion collisions

Enforcing exact conservation laws instead of average ones in statistical thermal models for relativistic heavy ion reactions gives raise to so called canonical effect, which can be used to explain some enhancement effects when going from elementary (e.g. pp) or small (pA) systems towards large AA systems. We review the recently developed method for computation of canonical statistical thermodynamics, and give an insight when this is needed in analysis of experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Talk given in Strangeness in Quark Matter, Frankfurt am Main 2001. Submitted to J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phy

Novel cruzain inhibitors for the treatment of Chagas' disease.

The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas' disease, affects millions of individuals and continues to be an important global health concern. The poor efficacy and unfavorable side effects of current treatments necessitate novel therapeutics. Cruzain, the major cysteine protease of T. cruzi, is one potential novel target. Recent advances in a class of vinyl sulfone inhibitors are encouraging; however, as most potential therapeutics fail in clinical trials and both disease progression and resistance call for combination therapy with several drugs, the identification of additional classes of inhibitory molecules is essential. Using an exhaustive virtual-screening and experimental validation approach, we identify several additional small-molecule cruzain inhibitors. Further optimization of these chemical scaffolds could lead to the development of novel drugs useful in the treatment of Chagas' disease

Quark-nova remnants IV: Application to radio emitting AXP transients

(Abridged) XTE J1810-197 and 1E 1547.0-5408 are two transient AXPs exhibiting radio emission with unusual properties. In addition, their spin down rates during outburst show opposite trends, which so far has no explanation. Here, we extend our quark-nova model for AXPs to include transient AXPs, in which the outbursts are caused by transient accretion events from a Keplerian (iron-rich) degenerate ring. For a ring with inner and outer radii of 23.5 km and 26.5 km, respectively, our model gives a good fit to the observed X-ray outburst from XTE J1810-197 and the behavior of temperature, luminosity, and area of the two X-ray blackbodies with time. The two blackbodies in our model are related to a heat front (i.e. Bohm diffusion front) propagating along the ring's surface and an accretion hot spot on the quark star surface. Radio pulsations in our model are caused by dissipation at the light cylinder of magnetic bubbles, produced near the ring during the X-ray outburst. The delay between X-ray peak emission and radio emission in our model is related to the propagation time of these bubbles to the light cylinder. We predict a ~1 year and ~1 month delay for XTE J1810-197 and 1E 1547.0-5408, respectively. The observed flat spectrum, erratic pulse profile, and the pulse duration are all explained in our model as a result of X-point reconnection events induced by the dissipation of the bubbles at the light cylinder. The spin down rate of the central quark star can either increase or decrease depending on how the radial drift velocity of the magnetic islands changes with distance from the central star. We suggest an evolutionary connection between transient AXPs and typical AXPs in our model.Comment: 16 journal pages, 4 figures and 1 table [Version accepted for publication in A&A

SGRs and AXPs proposed as ancestors of the Magnificent seven

The recently suggested correlation between the surface temperature and the magnetic field in isolated neutron stars does not seem to work well for SGRs, AXPs and X-ray dim isolated neutron stars (XDINs; specifically the Magnificent Seven or M7). Instead by appealing to a Color-Flavor Locked Quark Star (CFLQS) we find a more natural explanation. In this picture, the heating is provided by magnetic flux expulsion from a crust-less superconducting quark star. Combined with our previous studies concerning the possibility of SGRs, AXPs, and XDINs as CFLQSs, this provides another piece of evidence that these objects are all related. Specifically, we propose that XDINs are the descendants of SGRs and AXPs.Comment: submitted to A&A letters to the edito

Fall-back crust around a quark-nova compact remnant I: The degenerate shell case with applications to SGRs, AXPs and XDINs

We explore the formation and evolution of debris ejected around quark stars in the Quark Nova scenario, and the application to Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters (SGRs) and Anomolous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs). If an isolated neutron star explodes as a Quark Nova, an Iron-rich shell of degenerate matter forms out of the fall-back (crust) material. Our model can account for many of the observed features of SGRs and AXPs such as: (i) the two types of bursts (giant and regular); (ii) the spin-up and spin-down episodes during and following the bursts with associated persistant increases in $\dot{P}$; (iii) the energetics of the boxing day burst, SGR1806$+$20; (iv) the presence of an Iron line as observed in SGR1900$+$14; (v) the correlation between the far-Infrared and the X-ray fluxes during the bursting episode and the quiescent phase; (vi) the hard X-ray component observed in SGRs during the giant bursts, and (vii) the discrepancy between the ages of SGRs/AXPs and their supernova remnants. We also find a natural evolutionary relationship between SGRs and AXPs in our model which predicts that only the youngest SGRs/AXPs are most likely to exhibit strong bursting. Many features of X-ray Dim Isolated Neutron stars (XDINs) are also accounted for in our model such as, (i) the two-component blackbody spectra; (ii) the absorption lines around 300 eV; and (iii) the excess optical emission.Comment: submitted to Ap

Continuous Mental Effort Evaluation during 3D Object Manipulation Tasks based on Brain and Physiological Signals

Designing 3D User Interfaces (UI) requires adequate evaluation tools to ensure good usability and user experience. While many evaluation tools are already available and widely used, existing approaches generally cannot provide continuous and objective measures of usa-bility qualities during interaction without interrupting the user. In this paper, we propose to use brain (with ElectroEncephaloGraphy) and physiological (ElectroCardioGraphy, Galvanic Skin Response) signals to continuously assess the mental effort made by the user to perform 3D object manipulation tasks. We first show how this mental effort (a.k.a., mental workload) can be estimated from such signals, and then measure it on 8 participants during an actual 3D object manipulation task with an input device known as the CubTile. Our results suggest that monitoring workload enables us to continuously assess the 3DUI and/or interaction technique ease-of-use. Overall, this suggests that this new measure could become a useful addition to the repertoire of available evaluation tools, enabling a finer grain assessment of the ergonomic qualities of a given 3D user interface.Comment: Published in INTERACT, Sep 2015, Bamberg, German

On the exact conservation laws in thermal models and the analysis of AGS and SIS experimental results

The production of hadrons in relativistic heavy ion collisions is studied using a statistical ensemble with thermal and chemical equilibrium. Special attention is given to exact conservation laws, i.e. certain charges are treated canonically instead of using the usual grand canonical approach. For small systems, the exact conservation of baryon number, strangeness and electric charge is to be taken into account. We have derived compact, analytical expressions for particle abundances in such ensemble. As an application, the change in $K/\pi$ ratios in AGS experiments with different interaction system sizes is well reproduced. The canonical treatment of three charges becomes impractical very quickly with increasing system size. Thus, we draw our attention to exact conservation of strangeness, and treat baryon number and electric charge grand canonically. We present expressions for particle abundances in such ensemble as well, and apply them to reproduce the large variety of particle ratios in GSI SIS 2 A GeV Ni-Ni experiments. At the energies considered here, the exact strangeness conservation fully accounts for strange particle suppression, and no extra chemical factor is needed.Comment: Talk given at Strangeness in Quark Matter '98, Padova, Italy (1998). Submitted to J.Phys. G. 5 pages, 2 figure

Exact Baryon, Strangeness and Charge Conservation in Hadronic Gas Models

Relativistic heavy ion collisions are studied assuming that particles can be described by a hadron gas in thermal and chemical equilibrium. The exact conservation of baryon number, strangeness and charge are explicitly taken into account. For heavy ions the effect arising from the neutron surplus becomes important and leads to a substantial increase in e.g. the $\pi^-/\pi^+$ ratio. A method is developed which is very well suited for the study of small systems.Comment: 5 pages, 5 Postscript figure

Quark nova imprint in the extreme supernova explosion SN 2006gy

The extremely luminous supernova 2006gy (SN 2006gy) is among the most energetic ever observed. The peak brightness was 100 times that of a typical supernova and it spent an unheard of 250 days at magnitude -19 or brighter. Efforts to describe SN 2006gy have pushed the boundaries of current supernova theory. In this work we aspire to simultaneously reproduce the photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2006gy using a quark nova model. This analysis considers the supernova explosion of a massive star followed days later by the quark nova detonation of a neutron star. We lay out a detailed model of the interaction between the supernova envelope and the quark nova ejecta paying special attention to a mixing region which forms at the inner edge of the supernova envelope. This model is then fit to photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2006gy. This QN model naturally describes several features of SN 2006gy including the late stage light curve plateau, the broad H{\alpha} line and the peculiar blue H{\alpha} absorption. We find that a progenitor mass between 20Msun and 40Msun provides ample energy to power SN 2006gy in the context of a QN.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure