180,234 research outputs found
Phononic Rogue Waves
We present a theoretical study of extreme events occurring in phononic
lattices. In particular, we focus on the formation of rogue or freak waves,
which are characterized by their localization in both spatial and temporal
domains. We consider two examples. The first one is the prototypical nonlinear
mass-spring system in the form of a homogeneous Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou (FPUT)
lattice with a polynomial potential. By deriving an approximation based on the
nonlinear Schroedinger (NLS) equation, we are able to initialize the FPUT model
using a suitably transformed Peregrine soliton solution of the NLS, obtaining
dynamics that resembles a rogue wave on the FPUT lattice. We also show that
Gaussian initial data can lead to dynamics featuring rogue wave for
sufficiently wide Gaussians. The second example is a diatomic granular crystal
exhibiting rogue wave like dynamics, which we also obtain through an NLS
reduction and numerical simulations. The granular crystal (a chain of particles
that interact elastically) is a widely studied system that lends itself to
experimental studies. This study serves to illustrate the potential of such
dynamical lattices towards the experimental observation of acoustic rogue
waves.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
The Formation of High-Mass Black Holes in Low Mass X-ray Binaries
In this note we suggest that high-mass black holes; i.e., black holes of
several solar masses, can be formed in binaries with low-mass main-sequence
companions, provided that the hydrogen envelope of the massive star is removed
in common envelope evolution which begins only after the massive star has
finished He core burning. That is, the massive star is in the supergiant stage,
which lasts only years, so effects of mass loss by He winds are
small. Since the removal of the hydrogen envelope of the massive star occurs so
late, it evolves essentially as a single star, rather than one in a binary.
Thus, we can use evolutionary calculations of Woosley & Weaver (1995) of single
stars. We find that the black holes in transient sources can be formed from
stars with ZAMS masses in the interval 20-35\msun. The black hole mass is
only slightly smaller than the He core mass, typically \sim 7\msun.Comment: 19 pages, substantial changes, accepted in New Astronom
Evolution and Merging of Binaries with Compact Objects
In the light of recent observations in which short gamma-ray bursts are
interpreted as arising from black-hole(BH), neutron-star(NS) or NS-NS mergings
we would like to review our research on the evolution of compact binaries,
especially those containing NS's. These were carried out with predictions for
LIGO in mind, but are directly applicable to short gamma-ray bursts in the
interpretation above.
Most important in our review is that we show that the standard scenario for
evolving NS-NS binaries always ends up with a low-mass BH (LMBH), NS binary.
Bethe and Brown (1998) showed that this fate could be avoided if the two giants
in the progenitor binary burned He at the same time, and that in this way the
binary could avoid the common envelope evolution of the NS with red giant
companion which sends the first born NS into a BH in the standard scenario. The
burning of He at the same time requires, for the more massive giants such as
the progenitors of the Hulse-Taylor binary NS that the two giants be within 4%
of each other in ZAMS mass. Applying this criterion to all binaries results in
a factor 5 of LMBH-NS binaries as compared with NS-NS binaries.
Our scenario of NS-NS binaries as having been preceded by a double He-star
binary is collecting observational support in terms of the nearly equal NS
masses within a given close binary.Comment: 32 pages, 1 figure, substantial changes from v
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