The Angular Momenta of Neutron Stars and Black Holes as a Window on Supernovae

It is now clear that a subset of supernovae display evidence for jets and are observed as gamma-ray bursts. The angular momentum distribution of massive stellar endpoints provides a rare means of constraining the nature of the central engine in core-collapse explosions. Unlike supermassive black holes, the spin of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binary systems is little affected by accretion, and accurately reflects the spin set at birth. A modest number of stellar-mass black hole angular momenta have now been measured using two independent X-ray spectroscopic techniques. In contrast, rotation-powered pulsars spin-down over time, via magnetic braking, but a modest number of natal spin periods have now been estimated. For both canonical and extreme neutron star parameters, statistical tests strongly suggest that the angular momentum distributions of black holes and neutron stars are markedly different. Within the context of prevalent models for core-collapse supernovae, the angular momentum distributions are consistent with black holes typically being produced in GRB-like supernovae with jets, and with neutron stars typically being produced in supernovae with too little angular momentum to produce jets via magnetohydrodynamic processes. It is possible that neutron stars are imbued with high spin initially, and rapidly spun-down shortly after the supernova event, but the available mechanisms may be inconsistent with some observed pulsar properties.Comment: ApJ Letters, accepte

Quantum wires from coupled InAs/GaAs strained quantum dots

The electronic structure of an infinite 1D array of vertically coupled InAs/GaAs strained quantum dots is calculated using an eight-band strain-dependent k-dot-p Hamiltonian. The coupled dots form a unique quantum wire structure in which the miniband widths and effective masses are controlled by the distance between the islands, d. The miniband structure is calculated as a function of d, and it is shown that for d>4 nm the miniband is narrower than the optical phonon energy, while the gap between the first and second minibands is greater than the optical phonon energy. This leads to decreased optical phonon scattering, providing improved quantum wire behavior at high temperatures. These miniband properties are also ideal for Bloch oscillation.Comment: 5 pages revtex, epsf, 8 postscript figure

A high-speed spectrograph shutter

Device can operate in close-open-close mode. Beam splitter placed behind static-slit assembly allows use of more than one camera. Each frame in particular series may be conveniently varied in exposure time and spacing. This can be done independent of other frames in the series. In ''open'' position, shutter transmits light over wide wavelength range

A high speed spectrograph shutter

High speed spectrograph shutte

Giant Antiferromagnetically Coupled Moments in a Molecule-Based Magnet with Interpenetrating Lattices

The molecule-based magnet [Ru$_2$(O$_2$CMe)$_4$]$_3$[Cr(CN)$_6$] contains two weakly-coupled, interpenetrating sublattices in a body-centered cubic structure. Although the field-dependent magnetization indicates a metamagnetic transition from an antiferromagnet to a paramagnet, the hysteresis loop also exhibits a substantial magnetic remanance and coercive field uncharacteristic of a typical metamagnet. We demonstrate that this material behaves like two giant moments with a weak antiferromagnetic coupling and a large energy barrier between the orientations of each moment. Because the sublattice moments only weakly depend on field in the transition region, the magnetic correlation length can be directly estimated from the magnetization.Comment: 3 figure

Second order parameter-uniform convergence for a finite difference method for a singularly perturbed linear reaction-diffusion system

A singularly perturbed linear system of second order ordinary differential equations of reaction-diffusion type with given boundary conditions is considered. The leading term of each equation is multiplied by a small positive parameter. These singular perturbation parameters are assumed to be distinct. The components of the solution exhibit overlapping layers. Shishkin piecewise-uniform meshes are introduced, which are used in conjunction with a classical finite difference discretisation, to construct a numerical method for solving this problem. It is proved that the numerical approximations obtained with this method is essentially second order convergent uniformly with respect to all of the parameters

Experimental investigation of leading-edge thrust at supersonic speeds

Wings, designed for leading edge thrust at supersonic speeds, were investigated in the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at Mach numbers of 1.60, 1.80, 2.00, 2.16, and 2.36. Experimental data were obtained on a uncambered wing which had three interchangeable leading edges that varied from sharp to blunt. The leading edge thrust concept was evaluated. Results from the investigation showed that leading edge flow separation characteristics of all wings tested agree well with theoretical predictions. The experimental data showed that significant changes in wing leading edge bluntness did not affect the zero lift drag of the uncambered wings

Identifying the Higgs Spin and Parity in Decays to Z Pairs

Higgs decays to Z boson pairs may be exploited to determine spin and parity of the Higgs boson, a method complementary to spin-parity measurements in Higgs-strahlung. For a Higgs mass above the on-shell ZZ decay threshold, a model-independent analysis can be performed, but only by making use of additional angular correlation effects in gluon-gluon fusion at the LHC and gamma-gamma fusion at linear colliders. In the intermediate mass range, in which the Higgs boson decays into pairs of real and virtual Z bosons, threshold effects and angular correlations, parallel to Higgs-strahlung, may be adopted to determine spin and parity, though high event rates will be required for the analysis in practice.Comment: 14 pages, 2 postscript figure

A Comparison of Intermediate Mass Black Hole Candidate ULXs and Stellar-Mass Black Holes

Cool thermal emission components have recently been revealed in the X-ray spectra of a small number of ultra-luminous X-ray (ULX) sources with L_X > 1 E+40 erg/s in nearby galaxies. These components can be well fitted with accretion disk models, with temperatures approximately 5-10 times lower than disk temperatures measured in stellar-mass Galactic black holes when observed in their brightest states. Because disk temperature is expected to fall with increasing black hole mass, and because the X-ray luminosity of these sources exceeds the Eddington limit for 10 Msun black holes (L_Edd = 1.3 E+39 erg/s), these sources are extremely promising intermediate-mass black hole candidates (IMBHCs). In this Letter, we directly compare the inferred disk temperatures and luminosities of these ULXs, with the disk temperatures and luminosities of a number of Galactic black holes. The sample of stellar-mass black holes was selected to include different orbital periods, companion types, inclinations, and column densities. These ULXs and stellar-mass black holes occupy distinct regions of a L_X -- kT diagram, suggesting these ULXs may harbor IMBHs. We briefly discuss the important strengths and weaknesses of this interpretation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 color figures, uses emulateapj.sty and apjfonts.sty, subm. to ApJ

Gravitational Radiation from Black Hole Binaries in Globular Clusters

A populations of stellar mass black hole binaries may exist in globular clusters. The dynamics of globular cluster evolution imply that there may be at most one black hole binary is a globular cluster. The population of binaries are expected to have orbital periods greater than a few hours and to have a thermal distribution of eccentricities. In the LISA band, the gravitational wave signal from these binaries will consist of several of the higher harmonics of the orbital frequency. A Monte Carlo simulation of the galactic globular cluster system indicates that LISA will detect binaries in 10 % of the clusters with an angular resolution sufficient to identify the host cluster of the binary.Comment: 7 pages, 2 eps figures, uses iopart styl