19,818 research outputs found
Atypical Thermonuclear Supernovae from Tidally Crushed White Dwarfs
Suggestive evidence has accumulated that intermediate mass black holes (IMBH)
exist in some globular clusters. As stars diffuse in the cluster, some will
inevitable wander sufficiently close to the hole that they suffer tidal
disruption. An attractive feature of the IMBH hypothesis is its potential to
disrupt not only solar-type stars but also compact white dwarf stars. Attention
is given to the fate of white dwarfs that approach the hole close enough to be
disrupted and compressed to such extent that explosive nuclear burning may be
triggered. Precise modeling of the dynamics of the encounter coupled with a
nuclear network allow for a realistic determination of the explosive energy
release, and it is argued that ignition is a natural outcome for white dwarfs
of all varieties passing well within the tidal radius. Although event rates are
estimated to be significantly less than the rate of normal Type Ia supernovae,
such encounters may be frequent enough in globular clusters harboring an IMBH
to warrant a search for this new class of supernova.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, ApJ, accepte
Supergroup BF action for supergravity
General relativity can be formulated as a SU(2) BF-theory with constraints,
as has been shown, by Pleba\'nski. The cosmological constant term can be
obtained from the constraint term, following from the consistency of the
equations of motion, as recently shown by Krasnov. We consider an
invariant, supergravity extension of this theory, for which the consistency of
the equations of motion and the constraints contribute as well to the
cosmological constant terms of Townsend's supergravity. The Kalb-Ramond
invariance is shortly discussed.Comment: 14 page
Recommended from our members
Plant hydraulic traits reveal islands as refugia from worsening drought.
Relatively mesic environments within arid regions may be important conservation targets as 'climate change refugia' for species persistence in the face of worsening drought conditions. Semi-arid southern California and the relatively mesic environments of California's Channel Islands provide a model system for examining drought responses of plants in potential climate change refugia. Most methods for detecting refugia are focused on 'exposure' of organisms to certain abiotic conditions, which fail to assess how local adaptation or acclimation of plant traits (i.e. 'sensitivity') contribute to or offset the benefits of reduced exposure. Here, we use a comparative plant hydraulics approach to characterize the vulnerability of plants to drought, providing a framework for identifying the locations and trait patterns that underlie functioning climate change refugia. Seasonal water relations, xylem hydraulic traits and remotely sensed vegetation indices of matched island and mainland field sites were used to compare the response of native plants from contrasting island and mainland sites to hotter droughts in the early 21st century. Island plants experienced more favorable water relations and resilience to recent drought. However, island plants displayed low plasticity/adaptation of hydraulic traits to local conditions, which indicates that relatively conserved traits of island plants underlie greater hydraulic safety and localized buffering from regional drought conditions. Our results provide an explanation for how California's Channel Islands function as a regional climate refugia during past and current climate change and demonstrate a physiology-based approach for detecting potential climate change refugia in other systems
GRB990123: Evidence that the Gamma Rays Come from a Central Engine
GRB990123 was a long complex gamma-ray burst with an optical transient that
started early within the gamma-ray phase. The peak and power law decay of the
early optical emission strongly indicates the presence of a decelerating
relativistic shell during that phase. Prior to this burst, it was not known if
the shell decelerated during the burst, so an external shock origin for the
gamma rays was still possible. If the gamma-rays are produced in the external
shock, then the pulse widths should reflect the observed deceleration of the
shell and increase by about 2.3. We analyze the fine time structure observed in
the gamma-ray data from BATSE and determine that the width of the peaks do not
increase as expected for a decelerating shell; the later pulses are, at most, a
factor of 1.15 longer than the earlier pulses. We also analyze the variability
to determine what fraction of the shell's surface could be involved in the
production of the gamma rays, the so-called surface filling factor. For
GRB990123 we find a filling factor of 0.008. The lack of pulse width evolution
eliminates the only remaining kinematically acceptable external shock
explanation for the gamma-ray phase and, thus, the gamma rays must originate at
a central engine.Comment: 14 pages, 3 embedded figues, Latex, Submitted to ApJ
Search for the Higgs Boson at LHC in 3-3-1 Model
We present an analysis of production and signature of neutral Higgs boson
() on the version of the 3-3-1 model containing heavy leptons at the
Large Hadron Collider. We studied the possibility to identify it using the
respective branching ratios. Cross section are given for the collider energy,
14 TeV. Event rates and significances are discussed for two
possible values of integrated luminosity, 300 fb and 3000 fb.Comment: 17 pages 7 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:1205.404
Gamma-Ray Burst and Relativistic Shells: The Surface Filling Factor
The variability observed in many complex gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is
inconsistent with causally connected variations in a single, symmetric,
relativistic shell interacting with the ambient material ("external shocks").
Rather, the symmetry of the shell must be broken on an angular scale much
smaller than Gamma^{-1} where Gamma is the bulk Lorentz factor for the shell.
The observed variability in the external shock models arises from the number of
causally connected regions that (randomly) become active. We define the
"surface filling factor" to be the ratio of the area of causally connected
regions that become active to the observable area of the shell. From the
observed variability in 52 BATSE bursts, we estimate the surface filling factor
to be typically 0.005 although some values are near unity. We find that the
surface filling factor is about 0.1 Delta T/T in both the constant Gamma phase
(which probably produces the GRB) and the deaccelerating phase (which probably
produces the x-ray afterglows). Here, \Delta T is a typical time scale of
variability and T is the time since the initial signal. We analyze the 2 hr
flare seen by ASCA 36 hr after the GRB and conclude that the surface filling
factor must be small (0.001) in the x-ray afterglow phase as well. Explanations
for low surface filling factor can either require more or less energy (by a
factor of about 1000) compared to that expected for a symmetric shell.Comment: 26 pages, 5 embedded figures, Latex, revised version as in press,
ApJ, added figure to show the possible expanding shell geometries that can
give low filling facto
- âŠ