49,168 research outputs found
Black Hole Winds
We show that black holes accreting at or above the Eddington rate probably
produce winds which are optically thick in the continuum, whether in quasars or
X-ray binaries. The photospheric radius and outflow speed are proportional to
\mo^2 and \mo^-1 respectively, where \mo is the mass outflow rate. The outflow
momentum rate is always of order L_Edd/c. Blackbody emission from these winds
may provide the big blue bump in some quasars and AGN, as well as ultrasoft
X-ray components in ULXs.Comment: 3 pages, no figures; MNRAS, in press (with minor corrections applied
Blunting the Spike: the CV Minimum Period
The standard picture of CV secular evolution predicts a spike in the CV
distribution near the observed short-period cutoff P_0 ~ 78 min, which is not
observed. We show that an intrinsic spread in minimum (`bounce') periods P_b
resulting from a genuine difference in some parameter controlling the evolution
can remove the spike without smearing the sharpness of the cutoff. The most
probable second parameter is different admixtures of magnetic stellar wind
braking (at up to 5 times the GR rate) in a small tail of systems, perhaps
implying that the donor magnetic field strength at formation is a second
parameter specifying CV evolution. We suggest that magnetic braking resumes
below the gap with a wide range, being well below the GR rate in most CVs, but
significantly above it in a small tail.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA
Discovery Prospects for NMSSM Higgs Bosons at the High-Energy Large Hadron Collider
We investigate the discovery prospects for NMSSM Higgs bosons during the
13~TeV run of the LHC. While one of the neutral Higgs bosons is demanded to
have a mass around 125~GeV and Standard Model (SM)-like properties, there can
be substantially lighter, nearby or heavier Higgs bosons, that have not been
excluded yet by LEP, Tevatron or the 8~TeV run of the LHC. The challenge
consists in discovering the whole NMSSM Higgs mass spectrum. We present the
rates for production and subsequent decay of the neutral NMSSM Higgs bosons in
the most promising final states and discuss their possible discovery. The
prospects for pinning down the Higgs sector of the Natural NMSSM will be
analysed taking into account alternative search channels. We give a series of
benchmark scenarios compatible with the experimental constraints, that feature
Higgs-to-Higgs decays and entail (exotic) signatures with multi-fermion and/or
multi-photon final states. These decay chains furthermore give access to the
trilinear Higgs self-couplings. We briefly discuss the possibility of
exploiting coupling sum rules in case not all the NMSSM Higgs bosons are
discovered
Evidence for a planetary mass third body orbiting the binary star KIC 5095269
In this paper, we report the evidence for a planetary mass body orbiting the
close binary star KIC 5095269. This detection arose from a search for eclipse
timing variations among the more than 2,000 eclipsing binaries observed by
Kepler. Light curve and periodic eclipse time variations have been analysed
using Systemic and a custom Binary Eclipse Timings code based on the Transit
Analysis Package which indicates a object orbiting every
around a primary and secondary in an
18.6d orbit. A dynamical integration over years suggests a stable
orbital configuration. Radial velocity observations are recommended to confirm
the properties of the binary star components and the planetary mass of the
companion.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
Ion engine thrust vector study, phase 2 Quarterly report
Performance prediction for expected thrust misalignment in electron bombardment ion thruste
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