254 research outputs found
The effects of variations in nuclear interactions on nucleosynthesis in thermonuclear supernovae
Type Ia supernova explosions are violent stellar events important for their contribution to the cosmic abundance of iron peak elements and for their role as cosmological distance indicators
Symmetry energy of dilute warm nuclear matter
The symmetry energy of nuclear matter is a fundamental ingredient in the
investigation of exotic nuclei, heavy-ion collisions and astrophysical
phenomena. New data from heavy-ion collisions can be used to extract the free
symmetry energy and the internal symmetry energy at subsaturation densities and
temperatures below 10 MeV. Conventional theoretical calculations of the
symmetry energy based on mean-field approaches fail to give the correct
low-temperature, low-density limit that is governed by correlations, in
particular by the appearance of bound states. A recently developed quantum
statistical (QS) approach that takes the formation of clusters into account
predicts symmetry energies that are in very good agreement with the
experimental data. A consistent description of the symmetry energy is given
that joins the correct low-density limit with quasiparticle approaches valid
near the saturation density.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl
On the small-scale stability of thermonuclear flames in Type Ia supernovae
We present a numerical model which allows us to investigate thermonuclear
flames in Type Ia supernova explosions. The model is based on a finite-volume
explicit hydrodynamics solver employing PPM. Using the level-set technique
combined with in-cell reconstruction and flux-splitting schemes we are able to
describe the flame in the discontinuity approximation. We apply our
implementation to flame propagation in Chandrasekhar-mass Type Ia supernova
models. In particular we concentrate on intermediate scales between the flame
width and the Gibson-scale, where the burning front is subject to the
Landau-Darrieus instability. We are able to reproduce the theoretical
prediction on the growth rates of perturbations in the linear regime and
observe the stabilization of the flame in a cellular shape. The increase of the
mean burning velocity due to the enlarged flame surface is measured. Results of
our simulation are in agreement with semianalytical studies.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Uses AASTEX, emulateapj5.sty, onecolfloat.sty.
Replaced with accepted version (ApJ), Figures 1 and 3 are ne
Constraints on the high-density nuclear equation of state from the phenomenology of compact stars and heavy-ion collisions
A new scheme for testing nuclear matter equations of state (EsoS) at high
densities using constraints from neutron star phenomenology and a flow data
analysis of heavy-ion collisions is suggested. An acceptable EoS shall not
allow the direct Urca process to occur in neutron stars with masses below
, and also shall not contradict flow and kaon production data of
heavy-ion collisions. Compact star constraints include the mass measurements of
2.1 +/- 0.2 M_sun (1 sigma level) for PSR J0751+1807, of 2.0 +/- 0.1 M_sun from
the innermost stable circular orbit for 4U 1636-536, the baryon mass -
gravitational mass relationships from Pulsar B in J0737-3039 and the
mass-radius relationships from quasiperiodic brightness oscillations in 4U
0614+09 and from the thermal emission of RX J1856-3754. This scheme is applied
to a set of relativistic EsoS constrained otherwise from nuclear matter
saturation properties with the result that no EoS can satisfy all constraints
simultaneously, but those with density-dependent masses and coupling constants
appear most promising.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 5 table
2D simulations of the double-detonation model for thermonuclear transients from low-mass carbon-oxygen white dwarfs
Thermonuclear explosions may arise in binary star systems in which a carbon–oxygen (CO) white dwarf (WD) accretes helium-rich material from a companion star. If the accretion rate allows a sufficiently large mass of helium to accumulate prior to ignition of nuclear burning, the helium surface layer may detonate, giving rise to an astrophysical transient. Detonation of the accreted helium layer generates shock waves that propagate into the underlying CO WD. This might directly ignite a detonation of the CO WD at its surface (an edge-lit secondary detonation) or compress the core of the WD sufficiently to trigger a CO detonation near the centre. If either of these ignition mechanisms works, the two detonations (helium and CO) can then release sufficient energy to completely unbind the WD. These ‘double-detonation’ scenarios for thermonuclear explosion of WDs have previously been investigated as a potential channel for the production of Type Ia supernovae from WDs of ∼ 1 M⊙. Here we extend our 2D studies of the double-detonation model to significantly less massive CO WDs, the explosion of which could produce fainter, more rapidly evolving transients. We investigate the feasibility of triggering a secondary core detonation by shock convergence in low-mass CO WDs and the observable consequences of such a detonation. Our results suggest that core detonation is probable, even for the lowest CO core masses that are likely to be realized in nature. To quantify the observable signatures of core detonation, we compute spectra and light curves for models in which either an edge-lit or compression-triggered CO detonation is assumed to occur. We compare these to synthetic observables for models in which no CO detonation was allowed to occur. If significant shock compression of the CO WD occurs prior to detonation, explosion of the CO WD can produce a sufficiently large mass of radioactive iron-group nuclei to significantly affect the light curves. In particular, this can lead to relatively slow post-maximum decline. If the secondary detonation is edge-lit, however, the CO WD explosion primarily yields intermediate-mass elements that affect the observables more subtly. In this case, near-infrared observations and detailed spectroscopic analysis would be needed to determine whether a core detonation occurred. We comment on the implications of our results for understanding peculiar astrophysical transients including SN 2002bj, SN 2010X and SN 2005E
On duality for nonsmooth Lipschitz optimization problems
We present some duality theorems for a non-smooth Lipschitz vector optimization problem. Under generalized invexity assumptions on the functions the duality theorems do not require constraint qualifications
Relativistic quantum kinetic equation of the Vlasov type for systems with internal degrees of freedom
We present an approach to derive a relativistic kinetic equation of the
Vlasov type. Our approach is especially reliable for the description of quantum
field systems with many internal degrees of freedom. The method is based on the
Heisenberg picture and leads to a kinetic equation which fulfills the
conservation laws. We apply the approach to the standard Walecka Lagrangian and
an effective chiral Lagrangian.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, uses ijmpel.st
Electrical conductivity of plasmas of DB white dwarf atmospheres
The static electrical conductivity of non-ideal, dense, partially ionized
helium plasma was calculated over a wide range of plasma parameters:
temperatures and mass density . Calculations of
electrical conductivity of plasma for the considered range of plasma parameters
are of interest for DB white dwarf atmospheres with effective temperatures
.
Electrical conductivity of plasma was calculated by using the modified random
phase approximation and semiclassical method, adapted for the case of dense,
partially ionized plasma. The results were compared with the unique existing
experimental data, including the results related to the region of dense
plasmas. In spite of low accuracy of the experimental data, the existing
agreement with them indicates that results obtained in this paper are correct
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