7,742 research outputs found
High-energy particle transport in 3D hydrodynamic models of colliding-wind binaries
Massive stars in binary systems (as WR140, WR147 or Carinae) have long
been regarded as potential sources of high-energy -rays. The emission
is thought to arise in the region where the stellar winds collide and produce
relativistic particles which subsequently might be able to emit -rays.
Detailed numerical hydrodynamic simulations have already offered insight in the
complex dynamics of the wind collision region (WCR), while independent
analytical studies, albeit with simplified descriptions of the WCR, have shed
light on the spectra of charged particles. In this paper, we describe a
combination of these two approaches. We present a 3D-hydrodynamical model for
colliding stellar winds and compute spectral energy distributions of
relativistic particles for the resulting structure of the WCR. The hydrodynamic
part of our model incorporates the line-driven acceleration of the winds,
gravity, orbital motion and the radiative cooling of the shocked plasma. In our
treatment of charged particles we consider diffusive shock acceleration in the
WCR and the subsequent cooling via inverse Compton losses (including
Klein-Nishina effects), bremsstrahlung, collisions and other energy loss
mechanisms.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures / accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Density-operator evolution: Complete positivity and the Keldysh real-time expansion
We study the reduced time-evolution of open quantum systems by combining
quantum-information and statistical field theory. Inspired by prior work [EPL
102, 60001 (2013) and Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 050402 (2013)] we establish the
explicit structure guaranteeing the complete positivity (CP) and
trace-preservation (TP) of the real-time evolution expansion in terms of the
microscopic system-environment coupling.
This reveals a fundamental two-stage structure of the coupling expansion:
Whereas the first stage defines the dissipative timescales of the system
--before having integrated out the environment completely-- the second stage
sums up elementary physical processes described by CP superoperators. This
allows us to establish the nontrivial relation between the (Nakajima-Zwanzig)
memory-kernel superoperator for the density operator and novel memory-kernel
operators that generate the Kraus operators of an operator-sum. Importantly,
this operational approach can be implemented in the existing Keldysh real-time
technique and allows approximations for general time-nonlocal quantum master
equations to be systematically compared and developed while keeping the CP and
TP structure explicit.
Our considerations build on the result that a Kraus operator for a physical
measurement process on the environment can be obtained by 'cutting' a group of
Keldysh real-time diagrams 'in half'. This naturally leads to Kraus operators
lifted to the system plus environment which have a diagrammatic expansion in
terms of time-nonlocal memory-kernel operators. These lifted Kraus operators
obey coupled time-evolution equations which constitute an unraveling of the
original Schr\"odinger equation for system plus environment. Whereas both
equations lead to the same reduced dynamics, only the former explicitly encodes
the operator-sum structure of the coupling expansion.Comment: Submission to SciPost Physics, 49 pages including 6 appendices, 13
figures. Significant improvement of introduction and conclusion, added
discussions, fixed typos, no results change
The new surprising behaviour of the two "prototype" blazars PKS 2155-304 and 3C 279
Recent VHE observations have unveiled a surprising behaviour in two
well-known blazars at opposite sides of the blazar sequence. PKS 2155-304 have
shown for the first time in an HBL a large Compton dominance, high gamma-ray
luminosities and a cubic relation between X-ray and VHE fluxes. 3C 279 is the
first FSRQ detected at VHE. The high luminosity required to overcome the
significant absorption caused by the BLR emission cannot be easily reconciled
with the historical and quasi-simultaneous SED properties. Both cases shed a
new light on the structure and ambient fields of blazars. Contrary to previous
claims, it is also shown that 3C 279 --as any FSRQ-- cannot in general provide
robust constraints on the EBL.Comment: Proceedings of "4th Heidelberg International Symposium on High Energy
Gamma-Ray Astronomy 2008" (Gamma 2008), July 7-11, 2008. Slightly refined
text with updated reference
TeV gamma rays and cosmic rays from the nucleus of M87, a mis-aligned BL Lac object
The unresolved nuclear region of M87 emits strong non-thermal emission from
radio to X-rays. Assuming this emission to originate in the pc scale jet
aligned at to the line of sight, we interpret this
emission in the context of the Synchrotron Proton Blazar (SPB) model. We find
the observed nuclear jet emission to be consistent with M87 being a mis-aligned
BL Lac Object and predict gamma-ray emission extending up to at least 100 GeV
at a level easily detectable by GLAST and MAGIC, and possibly by VERITAS
depending on whether it is high-frequency or low-frequency peaked. Predicted
neutrino emission is below the sensitivity of existing and planned neutrino
telescopes. Ultra-high energy neutrons produced in pion photoproduction
interactions decay into protons after escaping from the host galaxy. Because
energetic protons are deflected by the intergalactic magnetic field, the
protons from the decay of neutrons emitted in all directions, including along
the jet axis where the Doppler factor and hence emitted neutron energies are
higher, can contribute to the observed ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We
consider the propagation of these cosmic ray protons to Earth and conclude that
M87 could account for the observed flux if the extragalactic magnetic field
topology were favourable.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. 3 additional references plus minor changes,
acctepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic
The pion parton distribution function in the valence region
The parton distribution function of the pion in the valence region is
extracted in a next-to-leading order analysis from Fermilab E-615 pionic
Drell-Yan data. The effects of the parameterization of the pion's valence
distributions are examined. Modern nucleon parton distributions and nuclear
corrections were used and possible effects from higher twist contributions were
considered in the analysis. In the next-to-leading order analysis, the high-
dependence of the pion structure function differs from that of the leading
order analysis, but not enough to agree with the expectations of pQCD and
Dyson-Schwinger calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Electron-beam-induced shift in the apparent position of a pinned vortex in a thin superconducting film
When an electron beam strikes a superconducting thin film near a pinned
vortex, it locally increases the temperature-dependent London penetration depth
and perturbs the circulating supercurrent, thereby distorting the vortex's
magnetic field toward the heated spot. This phenomenon has been used to
visualize vortices pinned in SQUIDs using low-temperature scanning electron
microscopy. In this paper I develop a quantitative theory to calculate the
displacement of the vortex-generated magnetic-flux distribution as a function
of the distance of the beam spot from the vortex core. The results are
calculated using four different models for the spatial distribution of the
thermal power deposited by the electron beam.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to PRB with referee-suggested
revisions, includes new paragraph on numerical evaluatio
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