18,507 research outputs found
Detection of the old stellar component of the major Galactic bar
We present near-IR colour--magnitude diagrams and star counts for a number of
regions along the Galactic plane. It is shown that along the l=27 b=0 line of
sight there is a feature at 5.7 +-0.7kpc with a density of stars at least a
factor two and probably more than a factor five times that of the disc at the
same position. This feature forms a distinct clump on an H vs. J-H diagram and
is seen at all longitudes from the bulge to about l=28, but at no longitude
greater than this. The distance to the feature at l=20 is about 0.5kpc further
than at l=27 and by l=10 it has merged with, or has become, the bulge. Given
that at l=27 and l=21 there is also a clustering of very young stars, the only
component that can reasonably explain what is seen is a bar with half length of
around 4kpc and a position angle of about 43+-7.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures accepted as a letter in MNRA
Quantum Electrodynamics vacuum polarization solver
The self-consistent modeling of vacuum polarization due to virtual
electron-positron fluctuations is of relevance for many near term experiments
associated with high intensity radiation sources and represents a milestone in
describing scenarios of extreme energy density. We present a generalized
finite-difference time-domain solver that can incorporate the modifications to
Maxwell's equations due to vacuum polarization. Our multidimensional solver
reproduced in one dimensional configurations the results for which an analytic
treatment is possible, yielding vacuum harmonic generation and birefringence.
The solver has also been tested for two-dimensional scenarios where finite
laser beam spot sizes must be taken into account. We employ this solver to
explore different types of counter-propagating configurations that can be
relevant for future planned experiments aiming to detect quantum vacuum
dynamics at ultra-high electromagnetic field intensities
Ionized gas at the edge of the Central Molecular Zone
To determine the properties of the ionized gas at the edge of the CMZ near
Sgr E we observed a small portion of the edge of the CMZ near Sgr E with
spectrally resolved [C II] 158 micron and [N II] 205 micron fine structure
lines at six positions with the GREAT instrument on SOFIA and in [C II] using
Herschel HIFI on-the-fly strip maps. We use the [N II] spectra along with a
radiative transfer model to calculate the electron density of the gas and the
[C II] maps to illuminate the morphology of the ionized gas and model the
column density of CO-dark H2. We detect two [C II] and [N II] velocity
components, one along the line of sight to a CO molecular cloud at -207 km/s
associated with Sgr E and the other at -174 km/s outside the edge of another CO
cloud. From the [N II] emission we find that the average electron density is in
the range of about 5 to 25 cm{-3} for these features. This electron density is
much higher than that of the warm ionized medium in the disk. The column
density of the CO-dark H layer in the -207 km/s cloud is about 1-2X10{21}
cm{-2} in agreement with theoretical models. The CMZ extends further out in
Galactic radius by 7 to 14 pc in ionized gas than it does in molecular gas
traced by CO. The edge of the CMZ likely contains dense hot ionized gas
surrounding the neutral molecular material. The high fractional abundance of N+
and high electron density require an intense EUV field with a photon flux of
order 1e6 to 1e7 photons cm{-2} s{-1}, and/or efficient proton charge exchange
with nitrogen, at temperatures of order 1e4 K, and/or a large flux of X-rays.
Sgr E is a region of massive star formation which are a potential sources of
the EUV radiation that can ionize the gas. In addition X-ray sources and the
diffuse X-ray emission in the CMZ are candidates for ionizing nitrogen.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
The puzzling case of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J00291+5934: flaring optical emission during quiescence
We present an optical (gri) study during quiescence of the accreting
millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J00291+5934 performed with the 10.4m Gran
Telescopio Canarias (GTC) in August 2014. Despite the source being in
quiescence at the time of our observations, it showed a strong optical flaring
activity, more pronounced at higher frequencies (i.e. the g band). Once the
flares were subtracted, we tentatively recovered a sinusoidal modulation at the
system orbital period in all bands, even if a significant phase shift with
respect to an irradiated star, typical of accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars
is detected. We conclude that the observed flaring could be a manifestation of
the presence of an accretion disc in the system. The observed light curve
variability could be explained by the presence of a superhump, which might be
another proof of the formation of an accretion disc. In particular, the disc at
the time of our observations was probably preparing to the new outburst of the
source, that happened just a few months later, in 2015.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in A&
Spontaneous Scalarization and Boson Stars
We study spontaneous scalarization in Scalar-Tensor boson stars. We find that
scalarization does not occur in stars whose bosons have no self-interaction. We
introduce a quartic self-interaction term into the boson Lagrangian and show
that when this term is large, scalarization does occur. Strong self-interaction
leads to a large value of the compactness (or sensitivity) of the boson star, a
necessary condition for scalarization to occur, and we derive an analytical
expression for computing the sensitivity of a boson star in Brans-Dicke theory
from its mass and particle number. Next we comment on how one can use the
sensitivity of a star in any Scalar-Tensor theory to determine how its mass
changes when it undergoes gravitational evolution. Finally, in the Appendix, we
derive the most general form of the boson wavefunction that minimises the
energy of the star when the bosons carry a U(1) charge.Comment: 23 pages, 5 postscript figures. Typing errors corrected. Includes
some new text that relates the paper to several previous results. Accepted
for publication in PR
Cerenkov radiation and scalar stars
We explore the possibility that a charged particle moving in the
gravitational field generated by a scalar star could radiate energy via a
recently proposed gravitational \v{C}erenkov mechanism. We numerically prove
that this is not possible for stable boson stars. We also show that soliton
stars could have \v{C}erenkov radiation for particular values of the boson
mass, although diluteness of the star grows and actual observational
possibility decreases for the more usually discussed boson masses. These
conclusions diminish, although do not completely rule out, the observational
possibility of actually detecting scalar stars using this mechanism, and lead
us to consider other forms, like gravitational lensing.Comment: Accepted for publication in Class. Quantum Gra
On the invariant causal characterization of singularities in spherically symmetric spacetimes
The causal character of singularities is often studied in relation to the
existence of naked singularities and the subsequent possible violation of the
cosmic censorship conjecture. Generally one constructs a model in the framework
of General Relativity described in some specific coordinates and finds an ad
hoc procedure to analyze the character of the singularity. In this article we
show that the causal character of the zero-areal-radius (R=0) singularity in
spherically symmetric models is related with some specific invariants. In this
way, if some assumptions are satisfied, one can ascertain the causal character
of the singularity algorithmically through the computation of these invariants
and, therefore, independently of the coordinates used in the model.Comment: A misprint corrected in Theor. 4.1 /Cor. 4.
The missing GeV {\gamma}-ray binary: Searching for HESS J0632+057 with Fermi-LAT
The very high energy (VHE; >100 GeV) source HESS J0632+057 has been recently
confirmed as a \gamma-ray binary, a subclass of the high mass X-ray binary
(HMXB) population, through the detection of an orbital period of 321 days. We
performed a deep search for the emission of HESS J0632+057 in the GeV energy
range using data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). The analysis was
challenging due to the source being located in close proximity to the bright
\gamma-ray pulsar PSR J0633+0632 and lying in a crowded region of the Galactic
plane where there is prominent diffuse emission. We formulated a Bayesian block
algorithm adapted to work with weighted photon counts, in order to define the
off-pulse phases of PSR J0633+0632. A detailed spectral-spatial model of a 5
deg circular region centred on the known location of HESS J0632+057 was
generated to accurately model the LAT data. No significant emission from the
location of HESS J0632+057 was detected in the 0.1-100 GeV energy range
integrating over ~3.5 years of data; with a 95% flux upper limit of F_{0.1-100
GeV} < 3 x 10-8 ph cm-2 s-1. A search for emission over different phases of the
orbit also yielded no significant detection. A search for source emission on
shorter timescales (days--months) did not yield any significant detections. We
also report the results of a search for radio pulsations using the 100-m Green
Bank Telescope (GBT). No periodic signals or individual dispersed bursts of a
likely astronomical origin were detected. We estimated the flux density limit
of < 90/40 \mu Jy at 2/9 GHz. The LAT flux upper limits combined with the
detection of HESS J0632+057 in the 136-400 TeV energy band by the MAGIC
collaboration imply that the VHE spectrum must turn over at energies <136 GeV
placing constraints on any theoretical models invoked to explain the \gamma-ray
emission.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) Main Journa
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