3,445 research outputs found
Small-Scale X-ray Variability in the Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant
A comparison of X-ray observations of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant
taken in 2000, 2002, and 2004 with the Chandra ACIS-S3 reveals the presence of
several small scale features (<= 10 arcsec) which exhibit significant intensity
changes over a 4 year time frame. Here we report on the variability of six
features, four of which show count rate increases from ~ 10% to over 90%, and
two which show decreases of ~ 30% -- 40%. While extracted 1-4.5 keV X-ray
spectra do not reveal gross changes in emission line strengths, spectral fits
using non-equilibrium ionization, metal-rich plasma models indicate increased
or decreased electron temperatures for features showing increasing or
decreasing count rates, respectively. Based on the observed count rate changes
and the assumption that the freely expanding ejecta has a velocity of ~ 5000
km/s at the reverse shock front, we estimate the unshocked ejecta to have
spatial scale variations of 0.02 - 0.03 pc, which is consistent with the X-ray
emitting ejecta belonging to a more diffuse component of the supernova ejecta
than that seen in the optically emitting ejecta, which have spatial scales ~
0.001 pc.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Astronomical Journa
Fluids with quenched disorder: Scaling of the free energy barrier near critical points
In the context of Monte Carlo simulations, the analysis of the probability
distribution of the order parameter , as obtained in simulation
boxes of finite linear extension , allows for an easy estimation of the
location of the critical point and the critical exponents. For Ising-like
systems without quenched disorder, becomes scale invariant at the
critical point, where it assumes a characteristic bimodal shape featuring two
overlapping peaks. In particular, the ratio between the value of at
the peaks () and the value at the minimum in-between ()
becomes -independent at criticality. However, for Ising-like systems with
quenched random fields, we argue that instead should be observed, where is the
"violation of hyperscaling" exponent. Since is substantially non-zero,
the scaling of with system size should be easily detectable in
simulations. For two fluid models with quenched disorder, versus
was measured, and the expected scaling was confirmed. This provides further
evidence that fluids with quenched disorder belong to the universality class of
the random-field Ising model.Comment: sent to J. Phys. Cond. Mat
An explanation for the curious mass loss history of massive stars: from OB stars, through Luminous Blue Variables to Wolf-Rayet stars
The stellar winds of massive stars show large changes in mass-loss rates and
terminal velocities during their evolution from O-star through the Luminous
Blue Variable phase to the Wolf-Rayet phase. The luminosity remains
approximately unchanged during these phases. These large changes in wind
properties are explained in the context of the radiation driven wind theory, of
which we consider four different models. They are due to the evolutionary
changes in radius, gravity and surface composition and to the change from
optically thin (in continuum) line driven winds to optically thick radiation
driven winds.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Letter to the
Editor
Cooling curves for neutron stars with hadronic matter and quark matter
The thermal evolution of isothermal neutron stars is studied with matter both
in the hadronic phase as well as in the mixed phase of hadronic matter and
strange quark matter. In our models, the dominant early-stage cooling process
is neutrino emission via the direct Urca process. As a consequence, the cooling
curves fall too fast compared to observations. However, when superfluidity is
included, the cooling of the neutron stars is significantly slowed down.
Furthermore, we find that the cooling curves are not very sensitive to the
precise details of the mixing between the hadronic phase and the quark phase
and also of the pairing that leads to superfluidity.Comment: 19 pages, 25 figure
Random pinning limits the size of membrane adhesion domains
Theoretical models describing specific adhesion of membranes predict (for
certain parameters) a macroscopic phase separation of bonds into adhesion
domains. We show that this behavior is fundamentally altered if the membrane is
pinned randomly due to, e.g., proteins that anchor the membrane to the
cytoskeleton. Perturbations which locally restrict membrane height fluctuations
induce quenched disorder of the random-field type. This rigorously prevents the
formation of macroscopic adhesion domains following the Imry-Ma argument [Y.
Imry and S. K. Ma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 35, 1399 (1975)]. Our prediction of
random-field disorder follows from analytical calculations, and is strikingly
confirmed in large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. These simulations are based
on an efficient composite Monte Carlo move, whereby membrane height and bond
degrees of freedom are updated simultaneously in a single move. The application
of this move should prove rewarding for other systems also.Comment: revised and extended versio
NLTE wind models of hot subdwarf stars
We calculate NLTE models of stellar winds of hot compact stars (central stars
of planetary nebulae and subdwarf stars). The studied range of subdwarf
parameters is selected to cover a large part of these stars. The models predict
the wind hydrodynamical structure and provide mass-loss rates for different
abundances. Our models show that CNO elements are important drivers of subdwarf
winds, especially for low-luminosity stars. We study the effect of X-rays and
instabilities on these winds. Due to the line-driven wind instability, a
significant part of the wind could be very hot.Comment: 7 pages, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Science. The final
publication will be available at springerlink.com
In pursuit of gamma-ray burst progenitors: the identification of a sub-population of rotating Wolf-Rayet stars
Long gamma-ray bursts involve the most powerful cosmic explosions since the
Big Bang. Whilst it has been established that GRBs are related to the death
throes of massive stars, the identification of their progenitors has proved
challenging. Theory suggests that rotating Wolf-Rayet stars are the best
candidates, but their strong stellar winds shroud their surfaces, preventing a
direct measurement of their rotation. Fortunately, linear spectropolarimetry
may be used to probe the flattening of their winds due to stellar spin.
Spectropolarimetry surveys show that an 80% majority of WR stars have
spherically symmetric winds and are thus rotating slowly, yet a small 20%
minority display a spectropolarimetric signature indicative of rotation. Here
we find a highly significant correlation between WR objects that carry the
signature of stellar rotation and the subset of WR stars with ejecta nebulae
that have only recently transitioned from a red sugergiant or luminous blue
variable phase. As these youthful WR stars have yet to spin-down due to mass
loss, they are the best candidate GRB progenitors identified to date. When we
take recently published WR ejecta nebula numbers we find that five out of the
six line-effect WR stars are surrounded by ejecta nebulae. The statistics imply
that the null hypothesis of no correlation between line-effect WR stars and
ejecta nebulae can be rejected at the 0.0004% level. Given that four
line-effect and WR ejecta nebula have spectroscopically been confirmed to
contain nucleosynthetic products, we argue that the correlation is both
statistically significant and physically convincing. The implication is that we
have identified a WR sub-population that fulfills the necessary criteria for
making GRBs. Finally, we discuss the potential of identifying GRB progenitors
via spectropolarimetry with extremely large telescopes.Comment: 5 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters
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Isotropic-nematic interfacial tension of hard and soft rods: application of advanced grand canonical biased sampling techniques
Coexistence between the isotropic and the nematic phase in suspensions of
rods is studied using grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations with a bias on
the nematic order parameter. The biasing scheme makes it possible to estimate
the interfacial tension gamma in systems of hard and soft rods. For hard rods
with L/D=15, we obtain gamma ~ 1.4 kB T/L^2, with L the rod length, D the rod
diameter, T the temperature, and kB the Boltzmann constant. This estimate is in
good agreement with theoretical predictions, and the order of magnitude is
consistent with experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
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