1,150 research outputs found
Ultra-compact binaries: relevance and role of Utrecht
We present a short overview of the formation and evolution of ultra-compact
binaries. They are relevant to a surprisingly large number of astrophysical
phenomena (binary interactions, mass transfer stability, explosive phenomena
such as type Ia supernovae and gravitational waves).Comment: To appear in proceedings of "370 years of astronomy in Utrecht",
Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, April 2-5, 2012 (ASP Conference Series
Fun for Two
We performed populations synthesis calculations of single stars and binaries
and show that binary evolution is extremely important for Galactic astronomy.
We review several binary evolution models and conclude that they give quite
different results. These differences can be understood from the assumptions
related to how mass is transfered in the binary systems. Most important are 1)
the fraction of mass that is accreted by the companion star during mass
transfer, 2) the amount of specific angular momentum which is carried away with
the mass that leaves the binary system.Comment: 7 pages, 0 figures to appear in the proceeding of the IAU Symposium
200, "The Formation of Binary Stars" eds. H. Zinnecker and R. Mathie
An ultra-compact low temperature scanning probe microscope for magnetic fields above 30 T
We present the design of a highly compact High Field Scanning Probe
Microscope (HF-SPM) for operation at cryogenic temperatures in an extremely
high magnetic field, provided by a water-cooled Bitter magnet able to reach 38
T. The HF-SPM is 14 mm in diameter: an Attocube nano-positioner controls the
coarse approach of a piezo resistive AFM cantilever to a scanned sample. The
Bitter magnet constitutes an extreme environment for SPM due to the high level
of vibrational noise; the Bitter magnet noise at frequencies up to 300 kHz is
characterized and noise mitigation methods are described. The performance of
the HF-SPM is demonstrated by topographic imaging and noise measurements at up
to 30 T. Additionally, the use of the SPM as a three-dimensional dilatometer
for magnetostriction measurements is demonstrated via measurements on a
magnetically frustrated spinel sample.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Millihertz Quasi-periodic Optical Oscillations in 4U 0614+091
We report the discovery of a 1mHz optical quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in
the candidate ultracompact low-mass X-ray binary 4U 0614+091. The ultra-low
frequency QPO has no X-ray counterpart in contemporaneous RXTE/PCA data and is
likely a signature of structure in the accretion disk. The QPO can be
reasonably fitted with a single sine wave but with a phase jump part way
through the observation, indicating that it is not coherent.We also identify a
48 min modulation, approximately consistent with the suggested orbital period
of O'Brien (2005) and Shahbaz et al. (2008). If this is indeed orbital, it
supports an identification of 4U 0614+091 as an ultra-compact source.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Societ
Simulation of the White Dwarf -- White Dwarf galactic background in the LISA data
LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is a proposed space mission, which
will use coherent laser beams exchanged between three remote spacecraft to
detect and study low-frequency cosmic gravitational radiation. In the low-part
of its frequency band, the LISA strain sensitivity will be dominated by the
incoherent superposition of hundreds of millions of gravitational wave signals
radiated by inspiraling white-dwarf binaries present in our own galaxy. In
order to estimate the magnitude of the LISA response to this background, we
have simulated a synthesized population that recently appeared in the
literature. We find the amplitude of the galactic white-dwarf binary background
in the LISA data to be modulated in time, reaching a minimum equal to about
twice that of the LISA noise for a period of about two months around the time
when the Sun-LISA direction is roughly oriented towards the Autumn equinox.
Since the galactic white-dwarfs background will be observed by LISA not as a
stationary but rather as a cyclostationary random process with a period of one
year, we summarize the theory of cyclostationary random processes and present
the corresponding generalized spectral method needed to characterize such
process. We find that, by measuring the generalized spectral components of the
white-dwarf background, LISA will be able to infer properties of the
distribution of the white-dwarfs binary systems present in our Galaxy.Comment: 14 pages and 6 figures. Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravity
(Proceedings of GWDAW9
Prospects for observing ultra-compact binaries with space-based gravitational wave interferometers and optical telescopes
Space-based gravitational wave interferometers are sensitive to the galactic
population of ultra-compact binaries. An important subset of the ultra-compact
binary population are those stars that can be individually resolved by both
gravitational wave interferometers and electromagnetic telescopes. The aim of
this paper is to quantify the multi-messenger potential of space-based
interferometers with arm-lengths between 1 and 5 Gm. The Fisher Information
Matrix is used to estimate the number of binaries from a model of the Milky Way
which are localized on the sky by the gravitational wave detector to within 1
and 10 square degrees and bright enough to be detected by a magnitude limited
survey. We find, depending on the choice of GW detector characteristics,
limiting magnitude, and observing strategy, that up to several hundred
gravitational wave sources could be detected in electromagnetic follow-up
observations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures Updated to include new results. Submitted to MNRA
Comparison of LISA and Atom Interferometry for Gravitational Wave Astronomy in Space
One of the atom interferometer gravitational wave missions proposed by
Dimopoulos et al.1 in 2008 was called AGIS-Sat. 2. It had a suggested
gravitational wave sensitivity set by the atom state detection shot noise level
that started at 1 mHz, was comparable to LISA sensitivity from 1 to about 20
mHz, and had better sensitivity from 20 to 500 mHz. The separation between the
spacecraft was 1,000 km, with atom interferometers 200 m long and shades from
sunlight used at each end. A careful analysis of many error sources was
included, but requirements on the time-stability of both the laser wavefront
aberrations and the atom temperatures in the atom clouds were not investigated.
After including these considerations, the laser wavefront aberration stability
requirement to meet the quoted sensitivity level is about 1\times10-8
wavelengths, and is far tighter than for LISA. Also, the temperature
fluctuations between atom clouds have to be less than 1 pK. An alternate atom
interferometer GW mission in Earth orbit called AGIS-LEO with 30 km satellite
separation has been suggested recently. The reduction of wavefront aberration
noise by sending the laser beam through a high-finesse mode-scrubbing optical
cavity is discussed briefly, but the requirements on such a cavity are not
given. Unfortunately, such an Earth-orbiting mission seems to be considerably
more difficult to design than a non-geocentric mission and does not appear to
have comparably attractive scientific goals.Comment: Submitted to Proc. 46th Rencontres de Moriond: Gravitational Waves
and Experimental Gravity, March 20 - 27, 2011, La Thuile, Ital
Population synthesis of classical low-mass X-ray binaries in the Galactic Bulge
Aims. We model the present-day population of 'classical' low-mass X-ray
binaries (LMXBs) with neutron star accretors, which have hydrogen-rich donor
stars. Their population is compared with that of hydrogen-deficient LMXBs,
known as ultracompact X-ray binaries (UCXBs). We model the observable LMXB
population and compare it to observations. Methods. We combine the binary
population synthesis code SeBa with detailed LMXB evolutionary tracks to model
the size and properties of the present-day LMXB population in the Galactic
Bulge. Whether sources are persistent or transient, and what their
instantaneous X-ray luminosities are, is predicted using the thermal-viscous
disk instability model. Results. We find a population of ~2.1 x 10^3 LMXBs with
neutron star accretors. Of these about 15 - 40 are expected to be persistent
(depending on model assumptions), with luminosities higher than 10^35 erg s^-1.
About 7 - 20 transient sources are expected to be in outburst at any given
time. Within a factor of two these numbers are consistent with the observed
population of bright LMXBs in the Bulge. This gives credence to our prediction
of the existence of a population of ~1.6 x 10^3 LMXBs with low donor masses
that have gone through the period minimum, and have present-day mass transfer
rates below 10^-11 Msun yr^-1. Conclusions. Even though the observed population
of hydrogen-rich LMXBs in the Bulge is larger than the observed population of
(hydrogen-deficient) UCXBs, the latter have a higher formation rate. While
UCXBs may dominate the total LMXB population at the present, the majority would
be very faint, or may have become detached and produced millisecond radio
pulsars. In that case UCXBs would contribute significantly more to the
formation of millisecond radio pulsars than hydrogen-rich LMXBs. [abridged]Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics. v2: minor language correction
The gravitational wave signal from the Galactic disk population of binaries containing two compact objects
We review the properties of Galactic binaries containing two compact objects,
as derived by means of population synthesis. Using this information we
calculate the gravitational wave signal of these binaries. At frequencies below
f ~< 2 mHz the double white dwarf population forms an unresolved background for
the low-frequency gravitational wave detector LISA. Above this limit some few
thousand double white dwarfs and few tens of binaries containing neutron stars
will be resolved. Of the resolved double white dwarfs ~500 have a total mass
above the Chandrasekhar limit. About ~95 of these have a measurable frequency
change allowing a determination of their chirp mass. We discuss the properties
of the resolved systems.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
The impact of the FMR and starburst galaxies on the (low metallicity) cosmic star formation history
The question how much star formation is occurring at low metallicity throughout the cosmic history appears crucial for the discussion of the origin of various energetic transients, and possibly double black hole mergers. We revisit the observation-based distribution of birth metallicities of stars (fSFR(Z,z)), focusing on several factors that strongly affect its low metallicity part: (i) the method used to describe the metallicity distribution of galaxies (redshift-dependent mass metallicity relation - MZR, or redshift-invariant fundamental metallicity relation - FMR), (ii) the contribution of starburst galaxies and (iii) the slope of the MZR. We empirically construct the FMR based on the low-redshift scaling relations, which allows us to capture the systematic differences in the relation caused by the choice of metallicity and star formation rate (SFR) determination techniques and discuss the related fSFR(Z,z) uncertainty. We indicate factors that dominate the fSFR(Z,z) uncertainty in different metallicity and redshift regimes. The low metallicity part of the distribution is poorly constrained even at low redshifts (even a factor of âŒ200 difference between the model variations) The non-evolving FMR implies a much shallower metallicity evolution than the extrapolated MZR, however, its effect on the low metallicity part of the fSFR(Z,z) is counterbalanced by the contribution of starbursts (assuming that they follow the FMR). A non-negligible fraction of starbursts in our model may be necessary to satisfy the recent high-redshift SFR density constraints
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