6,825 research outputs found
Environmental Impact on the Southeast Limb of the Cygnus Loop
We analyze observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory of the southeast
knot of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant. In this region, the blast wave
propagates through an inhomogeneous environment. Extrinsic differences and
subsequent multiple projections along the line of sight rather than intrinsic
shock variations, such as fluid instabilities, account for the apparent
complexity of the images. Interactions between the supernova blast wave and
density enhancements of a large interstellar cloud can produce the
morphological and spectral characteristics. Most of the X-ray flux arises in
such interactions, not in the diffuse interior of the supernova remnant.
Additional observations at optical and radio wavelengths support this account
of the existing interstellar medium and its role in shaping the Cygnus Loop,
and they demonstrate that the southeast knot is not a small cloud that the
blast wave has engulfed. These data are consistent with rapid equilibration of
electron and ion temperatures behind the shock front, and the current blast
wave velocity v_{bw} approx 330 km/s. Most of this area does not show strong
evidence for non-equilibrium ionization conditions, which may be a consequence
of the high densities of the bright emission regions.Comment: To appear in ApJ, April 1, 200
Magnetic Reconnection with Radiative Cooling. I. Optically-Thin Regime
Magnetic reconnection, a fundamental plasma process associated with a rapid
dissipation of magnetic energy, is believed to power many disruptive phenomena
in laboratory plasma devices, the Earth magnetosphere, and the solar corona.
Traditional reconnection research, geared towards these rather tenuous
environments, has justifiably ignored the effects of radiation on the
reconnection process. However, in many reconnecting systems in high-energy
astrophysics (e.g., accretion-disk coronae, relativistic jets, magnetar flares)
and, potentially, in powerful laser plasma and z-pinch experiments, the energy
density is so high that radiation, in particular radiative cooling, may start
to play an important role. This observation motivates the development of a
theory of high-energy-density radiative magnetic reconnection. As a first step
towards this goal, we present in this paper a simple Sweet--Parker-like theory
of non-relativistic resistive-MHD reconnection with strong radiative cooling.
First, we show how, in the absence of a guide magnetic field, intense cooling
leads to a strong compression of the plasma in the reconnection layer,
resulting in a higher reconnection rate. The compression ratio and the layer
temperature are determined by the balance between ohmic heating and radiative
cooling. The lower temperature in the radiatively-cooled layer leads to a
higher Spitzer resistivity and hence to an extra enhancement of the
reconnection rate. We then apply our general theory to several specific
astrophysically important radiative processes (bremsstrahlung, cyclotron, and
inverse-Compton) in the optically thin regime, for both the zero- and
strong-guide-field cases. We derive specific expressions for key reconnection
parameters, including the reconnection rate. We also discuss the limitations
and conditions for applicability of our theory.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figur
High-Precision Entropy Values for Spanning Trees in Lattices
Shrock and Wu have given numerical values for the exponential growth rate of
the number of spanning trees in Euclidean lattices. We give a new technique for
numerical evaluation that gives much more precise values, together with
rigorous bounds on the accuracy. In particular, the new values resolve one of
their questions.Comment: 7 pages. Revision mentions alternative approach. Title changed
slightly. 2nd revision corrects first displayed equatio
First-principles calculations for the adsorption of water molecules on the Cu(100) surface
First-principles density-functional theory and supercell models are employed
to calculate the adsorption of water molecules on the Cu(100) surface. In
agreement with the experimental observations, the calculations show that a H2O
molecule prefers to bond at a one-fold on-top (T1) surface site with a tilted
geometry. At low temperatures, rotational diffusion of the molecular axis of
the water molecules around the surface normal is predicted to occur at much
higher rates than lateral diffusion of the molecules. In addition, the
calculated binding energy of an adsorbed water molecule on the surfaces is
significantly smaller than the water sublimation energy, indicating a tendency
for the formation of water clusters on the Cu(100) surface.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Neutrino magnetohydrodynamics
A new neutrino magnetohydrodynamics (NMHD) model is formulated, where the
effects of the charged weak current on the electron-ion magnetohydrodynamic
fluid are taken into account. The model incorporates in a systematic way the
role of the Fermi neutrino weak force in magnetized plasmas. A fast
neutrino-driven short wavelengths instability associated with the magnetosonic
wave is derived. Such an instability should play a central role in strongly
magnetized plasma as occurs in supernovae, where dense neutrino beams also
exist. In addition, in the case of nonlinear or high frequency waves, the
neutrino coupling is shown to be responsible for breaking the frozen-in
magnetic field lines condition even in infinite conductivity plasmas.
Simplified and ideal NMHD assumptions were adopted and analyzed in detail
Condensation Transitions in a One-Dimensional Zero-Range Process with a Single Defect Site
Condensation occurs in nonequilibrium steady states when a finite fraction of
particles in the system occupies a single lattice site. We study condensation
transitions in a one-dimensional zero-range process with a single defect site.
The system is analysed in the grand canonical and canonical ensembles and the
two are contrasted. Two distinct condensation mechanisms are found in the grand
canonical ensemble. Discrepancies between the infinite and large but finite
systems' particle current versus particle density diagrams are investigated and
an explanation for how the finite current goes above a maximum value predicted
for infinite systems is found in the canonical ensemble.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, revtex
Transport of interface states in the Heisenberg chain
We demonstrate the transport of interface states in the one-dimensional
ferromagnetic Heisenberg model by a time dependent magnetic field. Our analysis
is based on the standard Adiabatic Theorem. This is supplemented by a numerical
analysis via the recently developed time dependent DMRG method, where we
calculate the adiabatic constant as a function of the strength of the magnetic
field and the anisotropy of the interaction.Comment: minor revision, final version; 13 pages, 4 figure
Induced two-photon decay of the 2s level and the rate of cosmological hydrogen recombination
Induced emission due to the presence of soft CMB photons slightly increases
the two-photon decay rate of the 2s level of hydrogen defining the rate of
cosmological recombination. This correspondingly changes the degree of
ionization, the visibility function and the resulting primordial temperature
anisotropies and polarization of the CMB on the percent level. These changes
exceed the precision of the widely used CMBFAST and CAMB codes by more than one
order of magnitude and can be easily taken into account.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
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