13,926 research outputs found
Further constraints on neutron star crustal properties in the low-mass X-ray binary 1RXS J180408.9342058
We report on two new quiescent {\it XMM-Newton} observations (in addition to
the earlier {\it Swift}/XRT and {\it XMM-Newton} coverage) of the cooling
neutron star crust in the low-mass X-ray binary 1RXS J180408.9342058. Its
crust was heated during the 4.5 month accretion outburst of the source.
From our quiescent observations, fitting the spectra with a neutron star
atmosphere model, we found that the crust had cooled from 100 eV to
73 eV from 8 days to 479 days after the end of its outburst.
However, during the most recent observation, taken 860 days after the end
of the outburst, we found that the crust appeared not to have cooled further.
This suggested that the crust had returned to thermal equilibrium with the
neutron star core. We model the quiescent thermal evolution with the
theoretical crustal cooling code NSCool and find that the source requires a
shallow heat source, in addition to the standard deep crustal heating
processes, contributing 0.9 MeV per accreted nucleon during outburst to
explain its observed temperature decay. Our high quality {\it XMM-Newton} data
required an additional hard component to adequately fit the spectra. This
slightly complicates our interpretation of the quiescent data of 1RXS
J180408.9342058. The origin of this component is not fully understood.Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRA
A deep Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope 610-MHz survey of the 1^HXMM–Newton/Chandra survey field
We present the results of a deep 610-MHz survey of the 1^HXMM–Newton/Chandra survey area with the Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope. The resulting maps have a resolution of ~7 arcsec and an rms noise limit of 60 μJy. To a 5σ detection limit of 300 μJy, we detect 223 sources within a survey area of 64 arcmin in diameter. We compute the 610-MHz source counts and compare them to those measured at other radio wavelengths. The well-known flattening of the Euclidean-normalized 1.4-GHz source counts below ~2 mJy, usually explained by a population of starburst galaxies undergoing luminosity evolution, is seen at 610 MHz. The 610-MHz source counts can be modelled by the same populations that explain the 1.4-GHz source counts, assuming a spectral index of −0.7 for the starburst galaxies and the steep spectrum active galactic nucleus (AGN) population. We find a similar dependence of luminosity evolution on redshift for the starburst galaxies at 610 MHz as is found at 1.4 GHz (i.e. 'Q'= 2.45^(+0.3)_(−0.4))
Closed conformal Killing-Yano tensor and geodesic integrability
Assuming the existence of a single rank-2 closed conformal Killing-Yano
tensor with a certain symmetry we show that there exist mutually commuting
rank-2 Killing tensors and Killing vectors. We also discuss the condition of
separation of variables for the geodesic Hamilton-Jacobi equations.Comment: 17 pages, no figure, LaTe
Proof of the Generalized Second Law for Quasistationary Semiclassical Black Holes
A simple direct explicit proof of the generalized second law of black hole
thermodynamics is given for a quasistationary semiclassical black hole.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, report Alberta-Thy-10-93 (revision of paper in
response to Phys. Rev. Lett. referees' comments, which suffered a series of
long delays
Transient Observers and Variable Constants, or Repelling the Invasion of the Boltzmann's Brains
If the universe expands exponentially without end, ``ordinary observers''
like ourselves may be vastly outnumbered by ``Boltzmann's brains,'' transient
observers who briefly flicker into existence as a result of quantum or thermal
fluctuations. One might then wonder why we are so atypical. I show that tiny
changes in physics--for instance, extremely slow variations of fundamental
constants--can drastically change this result, and argue that one should be
wary of conclusions that rely on exact knowledge of the laws of physics in the
very distant future.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX; v2: added references; v3: more discussion of setting,
alternative approaches, now 5 pages; v4: added discussion of the effect of
quantum fluctuations on varying constants, appendix added, now 7 pages; v5:
new reference, minor correctio
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