17,805 research outputs found
Accretion modes in collapsars - prospects for GRB production
We explore low angular momentum accretion flows onto black holes formed after
the collapse of massive stellar cores. In particular, we consider the state of
the gas falling quasi-spherically onto stellar-mass black holes in the
hypercritical regime, where the accretion rates are in the range 0.001 - 0.5
solar masses per second and neutrinos dominate the cooling. Previous studies
have assumed that in order to have a black hole switch to a luminous state, the
condition l >> r_g c, where l is the specific orbital angular momentum of the
infalling gas and r_g is the Schwarszchild radius, needs to be fulfilled. We
argue that flows in hyperaccreting, stellar mass disks around black holes are
likely to transition to a highly radiative state when their angular momentum is
just above the threshold for disk formation, l ~ 2 r_g c. In a range where l
lies between r_g c and 2 r_g c, a dwarf disk forms in which gas spirals rapidly
into the black hole due to general relativistic effects, without any help from
horizontal viscous stresses. For high rotation rates with l greater than 2 r_g
c, the luminosity is supplied by large, hot equatorial bubbles around the black
hole. The highest neutrino luminosities are obtained for l ~ 2 r_g c, and this
value of angular momentum also produces the most energetic neutrinos, and thus
also the highest energy deposition rates. Given the range of l explored in this
work, we argue that, as long as l is greater than 2 r_g c, low angular momentum
cores may in fact be better suited for producing neutrino--driven explosions
following core collapse in supernovae and gamma ray bursts.Comment: Revised version following referee's comments. References added.
Accepted for publication in Ap
Zooming in on local level statistics by supersymmetric extension of free probability
We consider unitary ensembles of Hermitian NxN matrices H with a confining
potential NV where V is analytic and uniformly convex. From work by
Zinn-Justin, Collins, and Guionnet and Maida it is known that the large-N limit
of the characteristic function for a finite-rank Fourier variable K is
determined by the Voiculescu R-transform, a key object in free probability
theory. Going beyond these results, we argue that the same holds true when the
finite-rank operator K has the form that is required by the Wegner-Efetov
supersymmetry method of integration over commuting and anti-commuting
variables. This insight leads to a potent new technique for the study of local
statistics, e.g., level correlations. We illustrate the new technique by
demonstrating universality in a random matrix model of stochastic scattering.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figures, published version, minor changes in Section
The detailed chemical composition of the terrestrial planet host Kepler-10
Chemical abundance studies of the Sun and solar twins have demonstrated that
the solar composition of refractory elements is depleted when compared to
volatile elements, which could be due to the formation of terrestrial planets.
In order to further examine this scenario, we conducted a line-by-line
differential chemical abundance analysis of the terrestrial planet host
Kepler-10 and fourteen of its stellar twins. Stellar parameters and elemental
abundances of Kepler-10 and its stellar twins were obtained with very high
precision using a strictly differential analysis of high quality CFHT, HET and
Magellan spectra. When compared to the majority of thick disc twins, Kepler-10
shows a depletion in the refractory elements relative to the volatile elements,
which could be due to the formation of terrestrial planets in the Kepler-10
system. The average abundance pattern corresponds to ~ 13 Earth masses, while
the two known planets in Kepler-10 system have a combined ~ 20 Earth masses.
For two of the eight thick disc twins, however, no depletion patterns are
found. Although our results demonstrate that several factors (e.g., planet
signature, stellar age, stellar birth location and Galactic chemical evolution)
could lead to or affect abundance trends with condensation temperature, we find
that the trends give further support for the planetary signature hypothesis.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Chiral Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in the frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a pyrochlore slab
Ordering of the geometrically frustrated two-dimensional Heisenberg
antiferromagnet on a pyrochlore slab is studied by Monte Carlo simulations. In
contrast to the kagom\'e Heisenberg antiferromagnet, the model exhibits locally
non-coplanar spin structures at low temperatures, bearing nontrivial chiral
degrees of freedom. Under certain conditions, the model exhibits a novel
Kosterlitz-Thouless-type transition at a finite temperature associated with
these chiral degrees of freedom
Local Moment Instability of Os in Honeycomb Li2.15Os0.85O3.
Compounds with honeycomb structures occupied by strong spin orbit coupled (SOC) moments are considered to be candidate Kitaev quantum spin liquids. Here we present the first example of Os on a honeycomb structure, Li2.15(3)Os0.85(3)O3 (C2/c, a = 5.09 Å, b = 8.81 Å, c = 9.83 Å, β = 99.3°). Neutron diffraction shows large site disorder in the honeycomb layer and X-ray absorption spectroscopy indicates a valence state of Os (4.7 ± 0.2), consistent with the nominal concentration. We observe a transport band gap of Δ = 243 ± 23 meV, a large van Vleck susceptibility, and an effective moment of 0.85 μB, much lower than expected from 70% Os(+5). No evidence of long range order is found above 0.10 K but a spin glass-like peak in ac-susceptibility is observed at 0.5 K. The specific heat displays an impurity spin contribution in addition to a power law ∝T(0.63±0.06). Applied density functional theory (DFT) leads to a reduced moment, suggesting incipient itineracy of the valence electrons, and finding evidence that Li over stoichiometry leads to Os(4+)-Os(5+) mixed valence. This local picture is discussed in light of the site disorder and a possible underlying quantum spin liquid state
Comment on "Feynman Effective Classical Potential in the Schrodinger Formulation"
We comment on the paper "Feynman Effective Classical Potential in the
Schrodinger Formulation"[Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3303 (1998)]. We show that the
results in this paper about the time evolution of a wave packet in a double
well potential can be properly explained by resorting to a variational
principle for the effective action. A way to improve on these results is also
discussed.Comment: 1 page, 2eps figures, Revte
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