2,622 research outputs found
Pulsar activity and the morphology of supernova remnants
We use the recently introduced concept of a 'window' of magnetic field strengths in which pulsars can be active to explain the variation in morphology of supernova remnants. The striking difference between shell-type and filled-type remnants is attributed to differences in he magnetic field strengths of the neutron stars left by the respective Supernovae. Field strengths of a value permitting pulsar activity result in particle production and Crab-like centrally concentrated remnants. Other field values lead to strong magnetic dipole radiation and consequent shell formation (e.g. Cas A). Several apparent inconsistencies concerning pulsar-supernova associations appear to find a logical explanation on the basis of this hypothesis
Evidence for a large population of shocked interstellar clouds
A 21 cm absorption measurement over a long path length free of the effects of differential galactic rotation indicates the existence of two distinct cloud populations in the plane. One of them consisting of cold, dense clouds has been well studied before. The newly found hot clouds appear to be at least five times more numerous. They have a spin temperature of ˜ 300 K, an rms velocity of ˜ 35 km/s-1, twice the total mass, and hundred times the kinetic energy of the cold clouds. Over long path lengths, the hot clouds have NH/kpc ˜ 2 × 1021/cm-2 kpc-1, and are estimated to have individual column densities ≤ 1020/cm-2. We propose that they are shocked clouds found only within supernova bubbles and that the cold clouds are found in the regions in-between old remnants, immersed in an intercloud medium. We conclude that the solar neighborhood must be located between old supernova remnants rather than within one
Mass-to-Radius Ratio for the Millisecond Pulsar J0437-4715
Properties of X-ray radiation emitted from the polar caps of a radio pulsar
depend not only on the cap temperature, size, and position, but also on the
surface chemical composition, magnetic field, and neutron star's mass and
radius. Fitting the spectra and the light curves with neutron star atmosphere
models enables one to infer these parameters. As an example, we present here
results obtained from the analysis of the pulsed X-ray radiation of a nearby
millisecond pulsar J0437-4715. In particular, we show that stringent
constraints on the mass-to-radius ratio can be obtained if orientations of the
magnetic and rotation axes are known, e.g., from the radio polarization data.Comment: 2 figures, aasms4.sty; accepted for publication in ApJLetter
Length-weight relationship and certain biological aspects of the Indian white shrimp Fenneropenaeus indicus (H. Milne Edwards, 1837) exploited by trawls in the Arabian Sea off Kerala coast, India
Length-weight relationship (LWR), sex ratio and maturity of Fenneropenaeus indicus (H. Milne Edwards, 1837), was analysed based on samplings from coastal trawl fishing grounds in the Arabian Sea off Kerala coast, India. The male to female ratio (1:1.27) did not vary significantly from the hypothetical 1:1 ratio. Length at maturity (Lm50) was estimated at 122 mm total length for females. The LWR did not differ significantly between male and female shrimps. The information generated from this study will enhance knowledge on the biology of the species and assist in assessment and management of its stock
A Note on the Intermediate Region in Turbulent Boundary Layers
We demonstrate that the processing of the experimental data for the average
velocity profiles obtained by J. M. \"Osterlund
(www.mesh.kth.se/jens/zpg/) presented in [1] was incorrect. Properly
processed these data lead to the opposite conclusion: they confirm the
Reynolds-number-dependent scaling law and disprove the conclusion that the flow
in the intermediate (`overlap') region is Reynolds-number-independent.Comment: 8 pages, includes 1 table and 3 figures, broken web link in abstract
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Extended Acceleration in Slot Gaps and Pulsar High-Energy Emission
We revise the physics of primary electron acceleration in the "slot gap" (SG)
above the pulsar polar caps (PCs), a regime originally proposed by Arons and
Scharlemann (1979) in their electrodynamic model of pulsar PCs. We employ the
standard definition of the SG as a pair-free space between the last open field
lines and the boundary of the pair plasma column which is expected to develop
above the bulk of the PC. The rationale for our revision is that the proper
treatment of primary acceleration within the pulsar SGs should take into
account the effect of the narrow geometry of the gap on the electrodynamics
within the gap and also to include the effect of inertial frame dragging on the
particle acceleration. The combination of the effects of frame dragging and
geometrical screening in the gap region naturally gives rise to a regime of
extended acceleration, that is not limited to "favorably curved" field lines as
in earlier models, and the possibility of multiple-pair production by curvature
photons at very high altitudes, up to several stellar radii. The estimated
theoretical high-energy luminosities of the SG cascade radiation are in good
agreement with the corresponding empirical relationships for gamma-ray pulsars.
We illustrate the results of our modeling of the pair cascades and gamma-ray
emission from the high altitudes in the SG for the Crab pulsar. The combination
of the frame-dragging field and high-altitude SG emission enables both
acceleration at the smaller inclination angles and a larger emission beam, both
necessary to produce widely-spaced double-peaked profiles.Comment: 24 pages, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal, Version
2 has corrected expressions for high-B cas
On the Excess Dispersion in the Polarization Position Angle of Pulsar Radio Emission
The polarization position angles (PA) of pulsar radio emission occupy a
distribution that can be much wider than what is expected from the average
linear polarization and the off-pulse instrumental noise. Contrary to our
limited understanding of the emission mechanism, the excess dispersion in PA
implies that pulsar PAs vary in a random fashion. An eigenvalue analysis of the
measured Stokes parameters is developed to determine the origin of the excess
PA dispersion. The analysis is applied to sensitive, well-calibrated
polarization observations of PSR B1929+10 and PSR B2020+28. The analysis
clarifies the origin of polarization fluctuations in the emission and reveals
that the excess PA dispersion is caused by the isotropic inflation of the data
point cluster formed by the measured Stokes parameters. The inflation of the
cluster is not consistent with random fluctuations in PA, as might be expected
from random changes in the orientation of the magnetic field lines in the
emission region or from stochastic Faraday rotation in either the pulsar
magnetosphere or the interstellar medium. The inflation of the cluster, and
thus the excess PA dispersion, is attributed to randomly polarized radiation in
the received pulsar signal. The analysis also indicates that orthogonal
polarization modes (OPM) occur where the radio emission is heavily modulated.
In fact, OPM may only occur where the modulation index exceeds a critical value
of about 0.3.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
X-ray emission from the old pulsar B0950+08
We present the timing and spectral analyses of theXMM-newton data on the
17-Myr-old, nearby radio pulsar B0950+08. This observation revealed pulsations
of the X-ray flux of the pulsar at its radio period. The pulse shape and pulsed
fraction are apparently different at lower and higher energies of the observed
0.2-10 keV energy range, which suggests that the radiation cannot be explained
by a single emission mechanism. The X-ray spectrum of the pulsar can be fitted
with a power-law model with a photon index about 1.75 and an (isotropic)
luminosity about 9.8e29 erg/s in the 0.2-10 keV. Better fits are obtained with
two-component, power-law plus thermal, models with index of 1.30 and 9.7e29
erg/s for the power-law component that presumably originates from the pulsar's
magnetosphere. The thermal component, dominating at E>0.7 keV, can be
interpreted as radiation from heated polar caps on the neutron star surface
covered with a hydrogen atmosphere. The inferred effective temperature, radius,
and bolometric luminosity of the polar caps are about 1 MK, 250 m, and 3e29
erg/s. Optical through X-ray nonthermal spectrum of the pulsar can be described
as a single power-law with index 1.3-1.4 for the two-component X-ray fit. The
ratio of the nonthermal X-ray (1-10 keV) luminosity to the nonthermal optical
(4000-9000 \AA) luminosity is within the range of 1e2-1e3 observed for younger
pulsars, which suggests that the magnetospheric X-ray and optical emissions are
powered by the same mechanism in all pulsars. An upper limit on the temperature
of the bulk of the neutron star surface, inferred from the optical and X-ray
data, is about 0.15 MK. We also analyze X-ray observations of several other old
pulsars, B2224+65, J2043+2740, B0628-28, B1813-36, B1929+10, and B0823+26.Comment: To be published in ApJ. Nonthermal optical and X-ray luminosities of
seven radio pulsars are updated and presented in a new Table. Figure 6
showing the ratios of the luminosities vs. spin-down energy is also update
Pair Multiplicities and Pulsar Death
Through a simple model of particle acceleration and pair creation above the
polar caps of rotation-powered pulsars, we calculate the height of the
pair-formation front (PFF) and the dominant photon emission mechanism for the
pulsars in the Princeton catalog. We find that for most low- and moderate-field
pulsars, the height of the pair formation front and the final Lorentz factor of
the primary beam is set by nonresonant inverse Compton scattering (NRICS), in
the Klein-Nishina limit. NRICS is capable of creating pairs over a wide range
of pulsar parameters without invoking a magnetic field more complicated than a
centered dipole, although we still require a reduced radius of curvature for
most millisecond pulsars. For short-period pulsars, the dominant process is
curvature radiation, while for extremely high-field pulsars, it is resonant
inverse Compton scattering (RICS). The dividing point between NRICS dominance
and curvature dominance is very temperature-dependent; large numbers of pulsars
dominated by NRICS at a stellar temperature of K are dominated by
curvature at K. We apply these results to pulsar death-line calculations
and to the issue of particle injection into the Crab Nebula.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Ap
A High Galactic Latitude HI 21cm-line Absorption Survey using the GMRT: I. Observations and Spectra
We have used the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to measure the
Galactic HI 21-cm line absorption towards 102 extragalactic radio continuum
sources, located at high (|b| >15deg.) Galactic latitudes. The Declination
coverage of the present survey is Decl. ~ -45deg.. With a mean rms optical
depth of ~0.003, this is the most sensitive Galactic HI 21-cm line absorption
survey to date. To supplement the absorption data, we have extracted the HI
21-cm line emission profiles towards these 102 lines of sight from the Leiden
Dwingeloo Survey of Galactic neutral hydrogen. We have carried out a Gaussian
fitting analysis to identify the discrete absorption and emission components in
these profiles. In this paper, we present the spectra and the components. A
subsequent paper will discuss the interpretation of these results.Comment: 46 pages, Accepted for publication in Journal of Astrophysics &
Astronom
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