Planetary Collisions: Electromagnetic Signals

We investigate the electromagnetic signals accompanied with planetary collisions and their event rate, and explore the possibility of directly detecting such events. A typical Earth--Jupiter collision would give rise to a prompt EUV-soft-X-ray flash lasting for hours and a bright IR afterglow lasting for thousands of years. With the current and forthcoming observational technology and facilities, some of these collisional flashes or the post-collision remnants could be discovered.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in Proceedings of 14th Annual October Astrophysics Conference in Maryland, "The Search for Other Worlds". A concise version of ApJ, 596, L95 (2003), astro-ph/030821

Testing gravity in Large Extra Dimensions using Bose-Einstein Condensates

Recent conjectures that there are mesoscopically ``large'' extra dimensions, through which gravity propagates have interesting implications for much of physics. The scenario implies gross departures from Newton's law of gravity at small length scales. Testing departures from Coulomb's law on sub-millimetre scales is hard. It is now possible to routinely create Bose-Einstein condensates with de Broglie wavelengths of order a $\mu m$ and total size of order $10 \mu m$. BEC condensates move coherently under gravitational acceleration, and I propose that the transverse fringe shift due to the acceleration of pair of interfering BECs passing a dense linear mass may be measurable, and provide direct evidence for anomalous gravitational acceleration. Ideally such experiments are best carried out in free fall to maximise the time spent by a BEC in the non-Newtonian regime.Comment: 2 pages, double column, revtex, no figures Int J. Mod Phys D. (Special issue of GRF essays 2002). Int. J. Mod. Phys. D. in pres

Dynamics and Interactions of Binaries and Neutron Stars in Globular Clusters

We model the dynamics of test binaries in isotropic, multi-mass models of galactic globular clusters. The evolution of binary orbits through the cluster potentials is modeled, including second order diffusion terms, and probabilities for close encounters with field stars are calculated. We carry out Monte Carlo simulations of the effects of the binary--single star encounters on the binary population and distribution in the cluster, and estimate the collision rate for different stellar populations in globular clusters with different structural parameters. Assuming a Salpeter IMF, for low concentration clusters the core encounter rate is dominated by turnoff mass main--sequence stars and medium mass white dwarfs. For high concentration, high density clusters the encounter probabilities are increasingly dominated by neutron stars and heavy white dwarfs. Hence we predict a smaller ratio of blue stragglers and cataclysmic variables to pulsars in high concentration clusters. The total number of millisecond pulsars, and the ratio of single to binary pulsars, is broadly consistent with the observed population, suggesting the binary--single star encounters contribute significantly to the pulsar formation rate in globular clusters, for the whole range of globular cluster types. The number of millisecond pulsars and the ratio of pulsars in different globular clusters is best explained by a total binary fraction comparable to that of the galaxy, and a modest number of primordial neutron stars in the globular clusters.Comment: 59 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript, including 18 figures. Astrophysical Journal Supplements, in pres

Experimental hints of Gravity in Large Extra Dimensions?

Recent conjectures suggest the universe may have large extra dimensions, through which gravity propagates. This implies gross departures from Newton's law of gravity at small length scales. Here I consider some implications for particle dynamics on scales comparable to the compactification radius, R_c \ltorder 1 mm. During planet formation, coalescence of micron sized dust grains to planetesimals is a rate critical step. Blum et al (2000) found dust grain aggregates form low fractal dimension structures in microgravity, consistent with high angular momentum coalescence. I consider the effects of non-Newtonian gravity on dust aggregation on scales less than $R_c$ and show they naturally coalesce into low dimensional structures with high specific angular momentum. We infer $R_c \approx 80$ microns.Comment: 5 pages, revtex, Int. Jour. Mod. Phys. D (Special issue of GRF essays 2001), single spaced versio

The Role of Primordial Kicks on Black Hole Merger Rates

Primordial stars are likely to be very massive \geq30\Msun, form in isolation, and will likely leave black holes as remnants in the centers of their host dark matter halos in the mass range 10^{6}-10^{10}\Ms. Such early black holes, at redshifts z\gtsim10, could be the seed black holes for the many supermassive black holes found in galaxies in the local universe. If they exist, their mergers with nearby supermassive black holes may be a prime signal for long wavelength gravitational wave detectors. We simulate formation of black holes in the center of high redshift dark matter halos and explore implications of initial natal kick velocities conjectured by some formation models. The central concentration of early black holes in present day galaxies is reduced if they are born even with moderate kicks of tens of km/s. The modest kicks allow the black holes to leave their parent halo, which consequently leads to dynamical friction being less effective on the lower mass black holes as compared to those still embedded in their parent halos. Therefore, merger rates may be reduced by more than an order of magnitude. Using analytical and illustrative cosmological N--body simulations we quantify the role of natal kicks of black holes formed from massive metal free stars on their merger rates with supermassive black holes in present day galaxies. Our results also apply to black holes ejected by the gravitational slingshot mechanism.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Black Hole-Neutron Star Mergers in Globular Clusters

We model the formation of black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries via dynamical interactions in globular clusters. We find that in dense, massive clusters, 16-61% of the BH-NS binaries formed by interactions with existing BH binaries will undergo mergers driven by the emission of gravitational radiation. If the BHs are retained by the cluster after merging with a NS, the BHs acquire subsequent NS companions and undergo several mergers. Thus, the merger rate depends critically upon whether or not the BH is retained by the cluster after the merger. Results from numerical relativity suggest that kick imparted to a ~7 M_sun BH after it merges with a NS will greatly exceed the cluster's escape velocity. In this case, the models suggest that the majority of BH-NS mergers in globular clusters occur within 4 Gyrs of the cluster's formation and would be unobservable by Advanced LIGO. For more massive BHs, on the other hand, the post merger kick is suppressed and the BH is retained. Models with 35 M_sun BHs predict Advanced LIGO detection rates in the range 0.04 - 0.7 per year. On the pessimistic end of this range, BH-NS mergers resulting from binary-single star interactions in globular clusters could account for an interesting fraction of all BH-NS mergers. On the optimistic end, this channel may dominate the rate of detectable BH-NS mergers.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 3 tabels, accepted for publication in MNRA

The Vela pulsar `jet': a companion-punctured bubble of fallback material

Markwardt and Oegelman (1995) used ROSAT to reveal a 12 by 45 arcmin structure in 1 keV X rays around the Vela pulsar, which they interpret as a jet emanating from the pulsar. We here present an alternative view of the nature of this feature, namely that it consists of material from very deep inside the exploding star, close to the mass cut between material that became part of the neutron star and ejected material. The initial radial velocity of the inner material was lower than the bulk of the ejecta, and formed a bubble of slow material that started expanding again due to heating by the young pulsar's spindown energy. The expansion is mainly in one direction, and to explain this we speculate that the pre-supernova system was a binary. The explosion caused the binary to unbind, and the pulsar's former companion carved a lower-density channel into the main ejecta. The resulting puncture of the bubble's edge greatly facilitated expansion along its path relative to other directions. If this is the case, we can estimate the current speed of the former binary companion and from this reconstruct the presupernova binary orbit. It follows that the exploding star was a helium star, hence that the supernova was of type Ib. Since the most likely binary companion is another neutron star, the evolution of the Vela remnant and its surroundings has been rather more complicated than the simple expansion of one supernova blast wave into unperturbed interstellar material.Comment: submitted to MNRAS; 6 pages laTeX, 3 figures (1 postscript, 2 gif files of images