1,372 research outputs found
Possible Cosmological Implications of the Quark-Hadron Phase Transition
We study the quark-hadron phase transition within an effective model of QCD,
and find that in a reasonable range of the main parameters of the model, bodies
with quark content between and 10 solar masses can have been formed
in the early universe. In addition, we show that a significant amount of
entropy is released during the transition. This may imply the existence of a
higher baryon number density than what is usually expected at temperatures
above the QCD scale. The cosmological QCD transition may then provide a natural
way for decreasing the high baryon asymmetry created by an Affleck-Dine like
mechanism down to the value required by primordial nucleosynthesis.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, 5 Postscript figures included. Submitted to Journal
of Physics
Relics of the Cosmological QCD Phase Transition
The abundance and size distribution of quark nuggets (QN), formed a few
microseconds after the big bang due to first order QCD phase transition in the
early universe, has been estimated. It appears that stable QNs could be a
viable candidate for cosmological dark matter. The evolution of baryon
inhomogeneity due to evaporated (unstable) QNs are also examined.Comment: To appear in Physical Review
Self-Lensing Models of the LMC
All of the proposed explanations for the microlensing events observed towards
the LMC have difficulties. One of these proposed explanations, LMC
self-lensing, which invokes ordinary LMC stars as the long sought-after lenses,
has recently gained considerable popularity as a possible solution to the
microlensing conundrum. In this paper, we carefully examine the set of LMC
self-lensing models. In particular, we review the pertinent observations made
of the LMC, and show how these observations place limits on such self-lensing
models. We find that, given current observational constraints, no purely LMC
disk models are capable of producing optical depths as large as that reported
in the MACHO collaboration 2-year analysis. Besides pure disk, we also consider
alternate geometries, and present a framework which encompasses the previous
studies of LMC self-lensing. We discuss which model parameters need to be
pushed in order for such models to succeed. For example, like previous workers,
we find that an LMC halo geometry may be able to explain the observed events.
However, since all known LMC tracer stellar populations exhibit disk-like
kinematics, such models will have difficulty being reconciled with
observations. For SMC self-lensing, we find predicted optical depths differing
from previous results, but more than sufficient to explain all observed SMC
microlensing. In contrast, for the LMC we find a self-lensing optical depth
contribution between 0.47e-8 and 7.84e-8, with 2.44e-8 being the value for the
set of LMC parameters most consistent with current observations.Comment: 20 pages, Latex, 14 figures, submitted to Ap
Inhomogeneous Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Mutual Ion Diffusion
We present a study of inhomogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis with emphasis on
transport phenomena. We combine a hydrodynamic treatment to a nuclear reaction
network and compute the light element abundances for a range of inhomogeneity
parameters. We find that shortly after annihilation of electron-positron pairs,
Thomson scattering on background photons prevents the diffusion of the
remaining electrons. Protons and multiply charged ions then tend to diffuse
into opposite directions so that no net charge is carried. Ions with Z>1 get
enriched in the overdense regions, while protons diffuse out into regions of
lower density. This leads to a second burst of nucleosynthesis in the overdense
regions at T<20 keV, leading to enhanched destruction of deuterium and lithium.
We find a region in the parameter space at 2.1E-10<eta<5.2E-10 where
constraints
7Li/H<10^{-9.7} and D/H<10^{-4.4} are satisfied simultaneously.Comment: 9 pages, minor changes to match the PRD versio
Dynamical evolution of the Universe in the quark-hadron phase transition and possible nugget formation
We study the dynamics of first-order phase transition in the early Universe
when it was old with quarks and gluons condensing into hadrons.
We look at how the Universe evolved through the phase transition in small as
well as large super cooling scenario, specifically exploring the formation of
quark nuggets and their possible survival. The nucleation of the hadron phase
introduces new distance scales in the Universe, which we estimate along with
the hadron fraction, temperature, nucleation time etc. It is of interest to
explore whether there is a relic signature of this transition in the form of
quark nuggets which might be identified with the recently observed dark objects
in our galactic halo and account for the Dark Matter in the Universe at
present.Comment: LaTeX file with four postscript figure
Microlensing as a probe of the Galactic structure; 20 years of microlensing optical depth studies
Microlensing is now a very popular observational astronomical technique. The
investigations accessible through this effect range from the dark matter
problem to the search for extra-solar planets. In this review, the techniques
to search for microlensing effects and to determine optical depths through the
monitoring of large samples of stars will be described. The consequences of the
published results on the knowledge of the Milky-Way structure and its dark
matter component will be discussed. The difficulties and limitations of the
ongoing programs and the perspectives of the microlensing optical depth
technique as a probe of the Galaxy structure will also be detailed.Comment: Accepted for publication in General Relativity and Gravitation.
General Relativity and Gravitation in press (2010) 0
Artificial Intelligence Approach to the Determination of Physical Properties of Eclipsing Binaries. I. The EBAI Project
Achieving maximum scientific results from the overwhelming volume of
astronomical data to be acquired over the next few decades will demand novel,
fully automatic methods of data analysis. Artificial intelligence approaches
hold great promise in contributing to this goal. Here we apply neural network
learning technology to the specific domain of eclipsing binary (EB) stars, of
which only some hundreds have been rigorously analyzed, but whose numbers will
reach millions in a decade. Well-analyzed EBs are a prime source of
astrophysical information whose growth rate is at present limited by the need
for human interaction with each EB data-set, principally in determining a
starting solution for subsequent rigorous analysis. We describe the artificial
neural network (ANN) approach which is able to surmount this human bottleneck
and permit EB-based astrophysical information to keep pace with future data
rates. The ANN, following training on a sample of 33,235 model light curves,
outputs a set of approximate model parameters (T2/T1, (R1+R2)/a, e sin(omega),
e cos(omega), and sin i) for each input light curve data-set. The whole sample
is processed in just a few seconds on a single 2GHz CPU. The obtained
parameters can then be readily passed to sophisticated modeling engines. We
also describe a novel method polyfit for pre-processing observational light
curves before inputting their data to the ANN and present the results and
analysis of testing the approach on synthetic data and on real data including
fifty binaries from the Catalog and Atlas of Eclipsing Binaries (CALEB)
database and 2580 light curves from OGLE survey data. [abridged]Comment: 52 pages, accepted to Ap
Finite temperature effects on cosmological baryon diffusion and inhomogeneous Big-Bang nucleosynthesis
We have studied finite temperature corrections to the baryon transport cross
sections and diffusion coefficients. These corrections are based upon the
recently computed renormalized electron mass and the modified state density due
to the background thermal bath in the early universe. It is found that the
optimum nucleosynthesis yields computed using our diffusion coefficients shift
to longer distance scales by a factor of about 3. We also find that the minimum
value of abundance decreases by while and
increase. Effects of these results on constraints from primordial
nucleosynthesis are discussed. In particular, we find that a large baryonic
contribution to the closure density (\Omega_b h_{50}^{2} \lsim 0.4) may be
allowed in inhomogeneous models corrected for finite temperature.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
How to identify a Strange Star
Contrary to young neutron stars, young strange stars are not subject to the
r-mode instability which slows rapidly rotating, hot neutron stars to rotation
periods near 10 ms via gravitational wave emission. Young millisecond pulsars
are therefore likely to be strange stars rather than neutron stars, or at least
to contain significant quantities of quark matter in the interior.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Curvature energy effects on strange quark matter nucleation at finite density
We consider the effects of the curvature energy term on thermal strange quark
matter nucleation in dense neutron matter. Lower bounds on the temperature at
which this process can take place are given and compared to those without the
curvature term.Comment: PlainTex, 6 pp., IAG-USP Rep.5
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