17 research outputs found
Making Black Holes in Supernovae
The possibility of making stellar mass black holes in supernovae that
otherwise produce viable Type II and Ib supernova explosions is discussed and
estimates given of their number in the Milky Way Galaxy. Observational
diagnostics of stellar mass black hole formation are reviewed. While the
equation of state sets the critical mass, fall back during the explosion is an
equally important (and uncertain) element in determining if a black hole is
formed. SN 1987A may or may not harbor a black hole, but if the critical mass
for neutron stars is 1.5 - 1.6 M\sun, as Brown and Bethe suggest, it probably
does. Observations alone do not yet resolve the issue. Reasons for this state
of ambiguity are discussed and suggestions given as to how gamma-ray and x-ray
observations in the future might help.Comment: 14 pages, uuencoded gzipped postscript, Accepted Nuclear Physics A,
Gerry Brown Festschrift contributio
Stochastic background of gravitational waves
A continuous stochastic background of gravitational waves (GWs) for burst
sources is produced if the mean time interval between the occurrence of bursts
is smaller than the average time duration of a single burst at the emission,
i.e., the so called duty cycle must be greater than one. To evaluate the
background of GWs produced by an ensemble of sources, during their formation,
for example, one needs to know the average energy flux emitted during the
formation of a single object and the formation rate of such objects as well. In
many cases the energy flux emitted during an event of production of GWs is not
known in detail, only characteristic values for the dimensionless amplitude and
frequencies are known. Here we present a shortcut to calculate stochastic
backgrounds of GWs produced from cosmological sources. For this approach it is
not necessary to know in detail the energy flux emitted at each frequency.
Knowing the characteristic values for the ``lumped'' dimensionless amplitude
and frequency we show that it is possible to calculate the stochastic
background of GWs produced by an ensemble of sources.Comment: 6 pages, 4 eps figures, (Revtex) Latex. Physical Review D (in press
Supernova Neutrinos, Neutrino Oscillations, and the Mass of the Progenitor Star
We investigate the initial progenitor mass dependence of the early-phase
neutrino signal from supernovae taking neutrino oscillations into account. The
early-phase analysis has advantages in that it is not affected by the time
evolution of the density structure of the star due to shock propagation or
whether the remnant is a neutron star or a black hole. The initial mass affects
the evolution of the massive star and its presupernova structure, which is
important for two reasons when considering the neutrino signal. First, the
density profile of the mantle affects the dynamics of neutrino oscillation in
supernova. Second, the final iron core structure determines the features of the
neutrino burst, i.e., the luminosity and the average energy. We find that both
effects are rather small. This is desirable when we try to extract information
on neutrino parameters from future supernova-neutrino observations. Although
the uncertainty due to the progenitor mass is not small for intermediate
(), we
can, nevertheless, determine the character of the mass hierarchy and whether
is very large or very small.Comment: 8 pages, 15 figure
Post-Newtonian SPH calculations of binary neutron star coalescence. II. Binary mass ratio, equation of state, and spin dependence
Using our new Post-Newtonian SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamics) code, we
study the final coalescence and merging of neutron star (NS) binaries. We vary
the stiffness of the equation of state (EOS) as well as the initial binary mass
ratio and stellar spins. Results are compared to those of Newtonian
calculations, with and without the inclusion of the gravitational radiation
reaction. We find a much steeper decrease in the gravity wave peak strain and
luminosity with decreasing mass ratio than would be predicted by simple
point-mass formulae. For NS with softer EOS (which we model as simple
polytropes) we find a stronger gravity wave emission, with a
different morphology than for stiffer EOS (modeled as polytropes as
in our previous work). We also calculate the coalescence of NS binaries with an
irrotational initial condition, and find that the gravity wave signal is
relatively suppressed compared to the synchronized case, but shows a very
significant second peak of emission. Mass shedding is also greatly reduced, and
occurs via a different mechanism than in the synchronized case. We discuss the
implications of our results for gravity wave astronomy with laser
interferometers such as LIGO, and for theoretical models of gamma-ray bursts
(GRBs) based on NS mergers.Comment: RevTeX, 38 pages, 24 figures, Minor Corrections, to appear in Phys.
Rev.
Models for Type Ia supernovae and related astrophysical transients
We give an overview of recent efforts to model Type Ia supernovae and related
astrophysical transients resulting from thermonuclear explosions in white
dwarfs. In particular we point out the challenges resulting from the
multi-physics multi-scale nature of the problem and discuss possible numerical
approaches to meet them in hydrodynamical explosion simulations and radiative
transfer modeling. We give examples of how these methods are applied to several
explosion scenarios that have been proposed to explain distinct subsets or, in
some cases, the majority of the observed events. In case we comment on some of
the successes and shortcoming of these scenarios and highlight important
outstanding issues.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, review published in Space Science Reviews as
part of the topical collection on supernovae, replacement corrects typos in
the conclusions sectio
Atomic X-ray Spectroscopy of Accreting Black Holes
Current astrophysical research suggests that the most persistently luminous
objects in the Universe are powered by the flow of matter through accretion
disks onto black holes. Accretion disk systems are observed to emit copious
radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, each energy band providing
access to rather distinct regimes of physical conditions and geometric scale.
X-ray emission probes the innermost regions of the accretion disk, where
relativistic effects prevail. While this has been known for decades, it also
has been acknowledged that inferring physical conditions in the relativistic
regime from the behavior of the X-ray continuum is problematic and not
satisfactorily constraining. With the discovery in the 1990s of iron X-ray
lines bearing signatures of relativistic distortion came the hope that such
emission would more firmly constrain models of disk accretion near black holes,
as well as provide observational criteria by which to test general relativity
in the strong field limit. Here we provide an introduction to this phenomenon.
While the presentation is intended to be primarily tutorial in nature, we aim
also to acquaint the reader with trends in current research. To achieve these
ends, we present the basic applications of general relativity that pertain to
X-ray spectroscopic observations of black hole accretion disk systems, focusing
on the Schwarzschild and Kerr solutions to the Einstein field equations. To
this we add treatments of the fundamental concepts associated with the
theoretical and modeling aspects of accretion disks, as well as relevant topics
from observational and theoretical X-ray spectroscopy.Comment: 63 pages, 21 figures, Einstein Centennial Review Article, Canadian
Journal of Physics, in pres
The Role of Radioactivities in Astrophysics
I present both a history of radioactivity in astrophysics and an introduction
to the major applications of radioactive abundances to astronomy
Have Superheavy Elements been Produced in Nature?
We discuss the possibility whether superheavy elements can be produced in
Nature by the astrophysical rapid neutron capture process. To this end we have
performed fully dynamical network r-process calculations assuming an
environment with neutron-to-seed ratio large enough to produce superheavy
nuclei. Our calculations include two sets of nuclear masses and fission
barriers and include all possible fission channels and the associated fission
yield distributions. Our calculations produce superheavy nuclei with A ~ 300
that however decay on timescales of days.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure