Gravitational Waves of Jet Precession in Gamma-ray Bursts

The physical nature of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are believed to involve an ultra-relativistic jet. The observed complex structure of light curves motivate the idea of jet precession. In this work, we study the gravitational waves of jet precession based on neutrino-dominated accretion disks around black holes, which may account for the central engine of GRBs. In our model, the jet and the inner part of the disk may precess along with the black hole, which is driven by the outer part of the disk. Gravitational waves are therefore expected to be significant from this black hole-inner disk precession system. By comparing our numerical results with the sensitivity of some detectors, we find that it is possible for DECIGO and BBO to detect such gravitational waves, particularly for GRBs in the Local Group.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Understanding Simulations of Thin Accretion Disks by Energy Equation

We study the fluctuations of standard thin accretion disks by linear analysis of the time-dependent energy equation together with the vertical hydrostatic equilibrium and the equation of state. We show that some of the simulation results in Hirose et al. (2009b), such as the time delay, the relationship of power spectra, and the correlation between magnetic energy and radiation energy, can be well understood by our analytic results.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure, accepted for publication in Ap

Dissection of three quantitative trait loci for grain size on the long arm of chromosome 10 in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Background Thousand grain weight is a key component of grain yield in rice, and a trait closely related to grain length (GL) and grain width (GW) that are important traits for grain quality. Causal genes for 16 quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting these traits have been cloned, but more QTL remain to be characterized for establishing a genetic regulating network. A QTL controlling grain size in rice, qGS10, was previously mapped in the interval RM6100–RM228 on chromosome 10. This study aimed to delimitate this QTL to a more precise location. Method A total of 12 populations were used. The ZC9 population comprised 203 S1:2 families derived from a residual heterozygous (RH) plant in the F9 generation of the indica rice cross Teqing (TQ)/IRBB52, segregating the upper region of RM6100–RM228 and three more regions on chromosomes 1, 9, and 11. The Ti52-1 population comprised 171 S1 plants derived from one RH plant in F7 of TQ/IRBB52, segregating a single interval that was in the lower portion of RM6100–RM228. The other ten populations were all derived from Ti52-1, including five S1 populations with sequential segregating regions covering the target region and five near isogenic line (NIL) populations maintaining the same segregating pattern. QTL analysis for 1,000-grain weight, GL, and GW was performed using QTL IciMapping and SAS procedure GLM. Result Three QTL were separated in the original qGS10 region. The qGL10.1 was located in the upper region RM6704–RM3773, shown to affect GL only. The qGS10.1 was located within a 207.1-kb interval flanked by InDel markers Te20811 and Te21018, having a stable and relatively high effect on all the three traits analyzed. The qGS10.2 was located within a 1.2-Mb interval flanked by simple sequence repeat markers RM3123 and RM6673. This QTL also affected all the three traits but the effect was inconsistent across different experiments. QTL for grain size were also detected in all the other three segregating regions. Conclusion Three QTL for grain size that were tightly linked on the long arm of chromosome 10 of rice were separated using NIL populations with sequential segregating regions. One of them, qGS10.1, had a stable and relatively high effect on grain weight, GL, and GW, providing a good candidate for gene cloning. Another QTL, qGS10.2, had a significant effect on all the three traits but the effect was inconsistent across different experiments, providing an example of genotype-by-environmental interaction

DO INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLES EXIST IN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS?

National Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China [2014CB845800]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [11073015, 11103015, 11222328, 11233006, 11333004, U1331101]The existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters (GCs) remains a crucial problem. Searching for IMBHs in GCs reveals a discrepancy between radio observations and dynamical modelings: the upper mass limits constrained by radio observations are systematically lower than that of dynamical modelings. One possibility for such a discrepancy is that, as we suggest in this work, there exist outflows in accretion flows. Our results indicate that, for most sources, current radio observations cannot rule out the possibility that IMBHs may exist in GCs. In addition, we adopt an (M)over dot - L-R relation to revisit this issue, which confirms the results obtained by the fundamental plane relation

REVISITING THE LIGHT CURVES OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS IN THE RELATIVISTIC TURBULENCE MODEL

National Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China [2014CB845800]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [11073015, 11103015, 11222328, 11233006, 11025313]; Guangxi Science Foundation [2013GXNSFFA019001]Rapid temporal variability has been widely observed in the light curves of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). One possible mechanism for such variability is related to the relativistic eddies in the jet. In this paper, we include the contribution of the inter-eddy medium together with the eddies to the gamma-ray emission. We show that the gamma-ray emission can either lead or lag behind the observed synchrotron emission, where the latter originates in the inter-eddy medium and provides most of the seed photons for producing gamma-ray emission through inverse Compton scattering. As a consequence, we argue that the lead/lag found in non-stationary short-lived light curves may not reveal the intrinsic lead/lag of different emission components. In addition, our results may explain the lead of gamma-ray emission with respect to optical emission observed in GRB 080319B

TIME EVOLUTION OF FLARES IN GRB 130925A: JET PRECESSION IN A BLACK HOLE ACCRETION SYSTEM

National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2013CB834900, 2014CB845800]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [11103015, 11222328, 11233006, 11322328, 11333004, U1331101]; One-Hundred-Talents Program; Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences; China Scholarship Council [[2013] 3009]GRB 130925A, composed of three gamma-ray emission episodes and a series of orderly flares, has been detected by Swift, Fermi, Konus-Wind, and INTEGRAL. If the third weakest gamma-ray episode can be considered a giant flare, we find that after the second gamma-ray episode observed by INTEGRAL located at about 2000 s, a positive relation exists between the time intervals of the adjacent flares and the time since the episode. We suggest that the second gamma-ray episode and its flares originate from the resumption of the accretion process due to the fragments from the collapsar falling back; such a relation may be related to a hyperaccretion disk around a precessed black hole (BH). We propose that the origin and time evolution of the flares, and the approximately symmetrical temporal structure and spectral evolution of the single flare can be explained well by a jet precession model. In addition, the mass and spin of the BH can be constrained, which indicates a stellar-mass, fast-rotating BH located in the center of GRB 130925A