Neutron star masses from hydrodynamical effects in obscured sgHMXBs

A population of obscured supergiant High Mass X-ray Binaries (sgHMXBs) has been discovered by INTEGRAL. X-ray wind tomography of IGR J17252-3616 inferred a slow wind velocity to account for the enhanced obscuration. The main goal of this study is to understand under which conditions high obscuration could occur. We have used an hydrodynamical code to simulate the flow of the stellar wind around the neutron star. A grid of simulations was used to study the dependency of the absorbing column density and of the X-ray light-curves on the model parameters. A comparison between the simulation results and the observations of IGR J17252-3616 provides an estimate on these parameters. We have constrained the wind terminal velocity to 500-600 km/s and the neutron star mass to 1.75-2.15 solar masses. We have confirmed that the initial hypothesis of a slow wind velocity with a moderate mass loss rate is valid. The mass of the neutron star can be constrained by studying its impact on the accretion flow.Comment: A&A in pres

Universal Magnetic Properties of La2−δSrδCuO4La_{2-\delta} Sr_{\delta} Cu O_4 at Intermediate Temperatures

We present the theory of two-dimensional, clean quantum antiferromagnets with a small, positive, zero temperature ($T$) stiffness $\rho_s$, but with the ratio $k_B T / \rho_s$ arbitrary. Universal scaling forms for the uniform susceptibility ($\chi_u$), correlation length($\xi$), and NMR relaxation rate ($1/T_1$) are proposed and computed in a $1/N$ expansion and by Mont\'{e}-Carlo simulations. For large $k_B T/\rho_s$, $\chi_u (T)/T$ and $T\xi(T)$ asymptote to universal values, while $1/T_{1}(T)$ is nearly $T$-independent. We find good quantitative agreement with experiments and some numerical studies on $La_{2-\delta} Sr_{\delta} Cu O_4$.Comment: 14 pages, REVTEX, 1 postscript figure appende

Variational Monte-Carlo calculation of the nematic state of the two-dimensional electron gas in a magnetic field

We use a Jastrow-Slater wave function with an elliptical Fermi sea to describe the nematic state of the two-dimensional electron gas in a magnetic field and the Monte Carlo method to calculate a variational energy upper bound. These energy upper bounds are compared with other upper bounds describing stripe-ordered ground states which are obtained from optimized Hartree-Fock calculations and with those which correspond to an isotropic ground state. Our findings support the conclusions drawn in our previous study where the Fermi-hypernetted chain approximation was used instead of the Monte Carlo method. Namely, the nematic state becomes energetically favorable relative to the stripe-ordered Wigner crystal phase for the second excited Landau level and below a critical value of the layer ``thickness'' parameter which is very close to its value in the actual materials.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

Invariant spin coherent states and the theory of quantum antiferromagnet in a paramagnetic phase

The consistent theory of the Heisenberg quantum antiferromagnet in the disordered phase with short range antiferromagnetic order was developed on the basis of the path integral for the spin coherent states. We have presented the Lagrangian of the theory in a form which is explicitly invariant under rotations and have found natural variables in the term of which one can construct a natural perturbation theory. The short wave spin fluctuations are similar to the spin wave theory ones, and the long wave spin fluctuations are governed by the nonlinear sigma model. We have also demonstrated that the short wave spin fluctuations have to be considered accurately in the framework of the discrete version in time of the path integral. In the framework of our approach we have obtained the response function for the spin fluctuations for the whole region of the frequency $\omega$ and the wave vector ${\bf k}$ and have calculated the free energy of the system.Comment: 7 pages, LATEX2

Three-Dimensional SU(3) gauge theory and the Spatial String Tension of the (3+1)-Dimensional Finite Temperature SU(3) Gauge Theory

We establish a close relation between the spatial string tension of the (3+1)-dimensional $SU(3)$ gauge theory at finite temperature ($\sigma_s$) and the string tension of the 3-dimensional $SU(3)$ gauge theory ($\sigma_3$) which is similar to what has been found previously for $SU(2)$. We obtain $\sqrt{\sigma_3} = (0.554 \pm 0.004) g_3^2$ and $\sqrt{\sigma_s} = (0.586 \pm 0.045)g^2(T) T$, respectively. For temperatures larger than twice the critical temperature results are consistent with a temperature dependent coupling running according to the two-loop $\beta$-function with $\Lambda_T = 0.118(36)T_c$.Comment: 11 pages (4 figures

Quantum Critical Scaling in a Moderately Doped Antiferromagnet

Using high temperature expansions for the equal time correlator $S(q)$ and static susceptibility $\chi(q)$ for the t-J model, we present evidence for quantum critical (QC), $z\!=\!1$, behavior at intermediate temperatures in a broad range of $t/J$ ratio, doping, and temperatures. We find that the dynamical susceptibility is very close to the universal scaling function computable for the asymptotic QC regime, and that the dominant energy scale is temperature. Our results are in excellent agreement with measurements of the spin-echo decay rate, $1/T_{\rm 2G}$, in La$_2$CuO$_4$, and provide qualitative understanding of both $1/T_1$ and $1/T_{\rm 2G}$ nuclear relaxation rates in doped cuprates.Comment: 11 pages, REVTeX v3.0, PostScript file for 3 figures is attached, UIUC-P-93-07-068. In this revised version, we calculate the scaling functions and thus present new and more direct evidence in favor of our original conclusion

Instability of antiferromagnetic magnons in strong fields

We predict that spin-waves in an ordered quantum antiferromagnet (AFM) in a strong magnetic field become unstable with respect to spontaneous two-magnon decays. At zero temperature, the instability occurs between the threshold field $H^*$ and the saturation field $H_c$. As an example, we investigate the high-field dynamics of a Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice and show that the single-magnon branch of the spectrum disappears in the most part of the Brillouin zone.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted to PR

Hadronic screening masses and the magnetic gluon condensate at high temperature

The hadronic screening mass at high temperature ($T$) in QCD$_4$ is examined on the basis of the QCD sum rules in (2+1) dimensions. Due to the magnetic gluon condensate at high $T$ which is expected to be nonvanishing, the screening mass deviates from the asymptotic value $2\pi T$. Also, the screening mass in the vector (pseudo-vector) channel turns out to be heavier than that in the scalar (pseudo-scalar) channel.Comment: 9 pages (LaTeX) +3 figures (available on request), KUNS 128

Multi-wavelength observations of IGR J17544-2619 from quiescence to outburst

In this paper we report on a long multi-wavelength observational campaign of the supergiant fast X-ray transient prototype IGR J17544-2619. A 150 ks-long observation was carried out simultaneously with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, catching the source in an initial faint X-ray state and then undergoing a bright X-ray outburst lasting about 7 ks. We studied the spectral variability during outburst and quiescence by using a thermal and bulk Comptonization model that is typically adopted to describe the X-ray spectral energy distribution of young pulsars in high mass X-ray binaries. Although the statistics of the collected X-ray data were relatively high we could neither confirm the presence of a cyclotron line in the broad-band spectrum of the source (0.5-40 keV), nor detect any of the previously reported tentative detection of the source spin period. The monitoring carried out with Swift/XRT during the same orbit of the system observed by XMM-Newton and NuSTAR revealed that the source remained in a low emission state for most of the time, in agreement with the known property of all supergiant fast X-ray transients being significantly sub-luminous compared to other supergiant X-ray binaries. Optical and infrared observations were carried out for a total of a few thousands of seconds during the quiescence state of the source detected by XMM-Newton and NuSTAR. The measured optical and infrared magnitudes were slightly lower than previous values reported in the literature, but compatible with the known micro-variability of supergiant stars. UV observations obtained with the UVOT telescope on-board Swift did not reveal significant changes in the magnitude of the source in this energy domain compared to previously reported values.Comment: Accepted for publication on A&A. V2: few typos correcte