799 research outputs found
Gamma-Ray Constraints on Neutralino Dark Matter Clumps in the Galactic Halo
According to high resolution cold dark matter (CDM) simulations, large
virialized halos are formed through the constant merging of smaller halos
formed at earlier times. In particular, the halo of our Galaxy may have
hundreds of dark matter clumps. The annihilation of dark matter particles such
as the neutralino in these clumps generates -ray fluxes that can
potentially be detected by future experiments such as GLAST. We find that,
depending on the parameters of the clump density profile and on the
distribution of clumps in the Galactic halo, the contribution to the diffuse
-ray background from clumps can constrain the properties of neutralinos
such as the mass and annihilation cross section. We model the density profile
of clumps by three representative dark matter profiles: singular isothermal
spheres (SIS), Moore profiles, and Navarro, Frenk and White (NFW) density
profiles and calculate the spectrum and angular distribution in the sky of the
-ray flux due to neutralino annihilation in the clumpy halo of the
Galaxy. The calculations are carried out in the context of two different
scenarios for the distribution of clumps in the Galaxy and their
concentrations, which result in very different conclusions.Comment: 24 pages, 7 ps fig
Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays from Young Neutron Star Winds
The long-held notion that the highest-energy cosmic rays are of distant
extragalactic origin is challenged by observations that events above eV do not exhibit the expected high-energy cutoff from photopion
production off the cosmic microwave background. We suggest that these
unexpected ultra-high-energy events are due to iron nuclei accelerated from
young strongly magnetized neutron stars through relativistic MHD winds. We find
that neutron stars whose initial spin periods are shorter than ms, where is the surface magnetic field, can
accelerate iron cosmic rays to greater than eV. These ions can
pass through the remnant of the supernova explosion that produced the neutron
star without suffering significant spallation reactions. For plausible models
of the Galactic magnetic field, the trajectories of the iron ions curve
sufficiently to be consistent with the observed arrival directions of the
highest energy events.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, replaced with revised version, some references
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Unresolved Unidentified Source Contribution to the Gamma-ray Background
The large majority of EGRET point sources remain without an identified
low-energy counterpart, and a large fraction of these sources are most likely
extragalactic. Whatever the nature of the extragalactic EGRET unidentified
sources, faint unresolved objects of the same class must have a contribution to
the diffuse extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGRB). Understanding this
component of the EGRB, along with other guaranteed contributions from known
sources, is essential if we are to use this emission to constrain exotic
high-energy physics. Here, we follow an empirical approach to estimate whether
a potential contribution of unidentified sources to the EGRB is likely to be
important, and we find that it is. Additionally, we show how upcoming GLAST
observations of EGRET unidentified sources, as well as of their fainter
counterparts, can be combined with GLAST observations of the Galactic and
extragalactic diffuse backgrounds to shed light on the nature of the EGRET
unidentified sources even without any positional association of such sources
with low-energy counterparts.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Ap
The Effect of a Non-Thermal Tail on the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect in clusters of galaxies
We study the spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background
radiation induced by the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in clusters of galaxies
when the target electrons have a modified Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution with a
high-energy non-thermal tail. Bremsstrahlung radiation from this type of \\
electron distribution may explain the supra-thermal X-ray emission observed in
some clusters such as the Coma cluster and A2199 and serve as an alternative to
the classical but problematic inverse Compton scattering interpretation. We
show that the SZ effect can be used as a powerful tool to probe the electron
distribution in clusters of galaxies and discriminate among these different
interpretations of the X-ray excess. The existence of a non-thermal tail can
have important consequences for cluster based estimators of cosmological
parameters.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, version to be published in ApJ. Let
Physics with Cosmic Neutrinos, PeV to ZeV
We begin with a brief overview of highest-energy cosmic ray data, and the
experiments which will perform neutrino astronomy. We then discuss two particle
physics aspects of neutrinos. They are possible long-lifetime decay of the
neutrino, and a measurement of the neutrino-nucleon cross-section at a CMS
energy orders of magnitude beyond what can be achieved with terrestrial
accelerators. Measurement of an anomalously large neutrino cross-section would
indicate new physics (e.g. low string-scale, extra dimensions, precocious
unification), while a smaller than expected cross-section would reveal an
aspect of QCD evolution. We then discuss aspects of neutrino-primary models for
the extreme-energy (EE) cosmic ray data. Primary neutrinos in extant data are
motivated by the directional clustering at EE reported by the AGASA experiment.
We discuss the impact of the strongly-interacting neutrino hypothesis on
lower-energy physics via dispersion relations, the statistical significance of
AGASA directional clustering, and the possible relevance of the Z-burst
mechanism for existing EE cosmic ray data.Comment: 19 pages including 6 figures, Proc. YITP "Neutrinos" Oct. 200
Nucleation of quark matter bubbles in neutron stars
The thermal nucleation of quark matter bubbles inside neutron stars is
examined for various temperatures which the star may realistically encounter
during its lifetime. It is found that for a bag constant less than a critical
value, a very large part of the star will be converted into the quark phase
within a fraction of a second. Depending on the equation of state for neutron
star matter and strange quark matter, all or some of the outer parts of the
star may subsequently be converted by a slower burning or a detonation.Comment: 13 pages, REVTeX, Phys.Rev.D (in press), IFA 93-32. 5 figures (not
included) available upon request from [email protected]
Observational constraints on the Internal Structure and Dynamics of the Vela Pulsar
We show that the short spin-up time observed for the Vela pulsar during the
1988 ``Christmas'' glitch implies that the coupling time of the pulsar core to
its crust is less than 10 seconds. Ekman pumping cannot explain the fast
core-crust coupling and a more effective coupling is necessary. The internal
magnetic field of the Vela pulsar can provide the necessary coupling if the
field threads the core with a magnitude that exceeds Gauss for a
normal interior and Gauss for a superconducting interior. These
lower bounds favor the hypothesis that the interior of neutron stars contains
superfluid neutrons and protons and challenge the notion that pulsar magnetic
fields decay over million year time scales or that magnetic flux is expelled
from the core as the star slows.Comment: Latex with aasms4 style file, 15 pages, 1 ps figur
On The Origin of Very High Energy Cosmic Rays
We discuss the most recent developments in our understanding of the
acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays up to the highest energies. In
particular we specialize our discussion to three issues: 1) developments in the
theory of particle acceleration at shock waves; 2) the transition from galactic
to extragalactic cosmic rays; 3) implications of up-to-date observations for
the origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs).Comment: Invited Review Article to appear in Modern Physics Letters A, Review
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