5,502 research outputs found
Three New Long Period X-ray Pulsars Discovered in the Small Magellanic Cloud
The Small Magellanic Cloud is increasingly an invaluable laboratory for
studying accreting and isolated X-ray pulsars. We add to the class of compact
SMC objects by reporting the discovery of three new long period X-ray pulsars
detected with the {\it Chandra X-ray Observatory}. The pulsars, with periods of
152, 304 and 565 seconds, all show hard X-ray spectra over the range from 0.6 -
7.5 keV. The source positions of the three pulsars are consistent with known
H-alpha emission sources, indicating they are likely to be Be type X-ray binary
star systems.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
X-ray Pulsars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
XMM-Newton archival data for the Small Magellanic Cloud have been examined
for the presence of previously undetected X-ray pulsars. One such pulsar, with
a period of 202 s, is detected. Its position is consistent with an early B star
in the SMC and we identify it as a high mass X-ray binary (HMXB). In the course
of this study we determined the pulse period of the possible AXP CXOU
J010043.1-721134 to be 8.0 s, correcting an earlier report (Lamb et al 2002b)
of a 5.4 s period for this object. Pulse profiles and spectra for each of these
objects are presented as well as for a recently discovered (Haberl & Pietsch
2004) 263 s X-ray pulsar. Properties of an ensemble of 24 optically identified
HMXB pulsars from the SMC are investigated. The locations of the pulsars and an
additional 22 X-ray pulsars not yet identified as having high mass companions
are located predominately in the young (ages years) star
forming regions of the SMC as expected on the basis of binary evolution models.
We find no significant difference between the distribution of spin periods for
the HMXB pulsars of the SMC compared with that of the Milky Way. For those HMXB
pulsars which have Be companions we note an inverse correlation between spin
period and maximum X-ray flux density. (This anti-correlation has been
previously noted for all X-ray binary pulsars by Stella, White & Rosner 1986).
The anti-correlation for the Be binaries may be a reflection of the fact that
the spin periods and orbital periods of Be HMXBs are correlated. We note a
similar correlation between X-ray luminosity and spin period for the Be HMXB
pulsars of the Milky Way and speculate that exploitation of the correlation
could serve as a distance indicator.Comment: final version accepted in The Astrophysical Journa
Cross-sections of Andreev scattering by quantized vortex rings in 3He-B
We studied numerically the Andreev scattering cross-sections of
three-dimensional isolated quantized vortex rings in superfluid 3He-B at
ultra-low temperatures. We calculated the dependence of the cross-section on
the ring's size and on the angle between the beam of incident thermal
quasiparticle excitations and the direction of the ring's motion. We also
introduced, and investigated numerically, the cross-section averaged over all
possible orientations of the vortex ring; such a cross-section may be
particularly relevant for the analysis of experimental data. We also analyzed
the role of screening effects for Andreev reflection of quasiparticles by
systems of vortex rings. Using the results obtained for isolated rings we found
that the screening factor for a system of unlinked rings depends strongly on
the average radius of the vortex ring, and that the screening effects increase
with decreasing the rings' size.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures ; submitted to Physical Review
Confined Quantum Time of Arrival for Vanishing Potential
We give full account of our recent report in [E.A. Galapon, R. Caballar, R.
Bahague {\it Phys. Rev. Let.} {\bf 93} 180406 (2004)] where it is shown that
formulating the free quantum time of arrival problem in a segment of the real
line suggests rephrasing the quantum time of arrival problem to finding a
complete set of states that evolve to unitarily arrive at a given point at a
definite time. For a spatially confined particle, here it is shown explicitly
that the problem admits a solution in the form of an eigenvalue problem of a
class of compact and self-adjoint time of arrival operators derived by a
quantization of the classical time of arrival. The eigenfunctions of these
operators are numerically demonstrated to unitarilly arrive at the origin at
their respective eigenvalues.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Comparative structural analysis of retroviral fusion proteins identifies regions that modulate membrane fusion: a potential retroviral achilles heal?
The role of inertia for the rotation of a nearly spherical particle in a general linear flow
We analyse the angular dynamics of a neutrally buoyant nearly spherical
particle immersed in a steady general linear flow. The hydrodynamic torque
acting on the particle is obtained by means of a reciprocal theorem, regular
perturbation theory exploiting the small eccentricity of the nearly spherical
particle, and assuming that inertial effects are small, but finite.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur
Vortex mass in a superfluid at low frequencies
An inertial mass of a vortex can be calculated by driving it round in a
circle with a steadily revolving pinning potential. We show that in the low
frequency limit this gives precisely the same formula that was used by Baym and
Chandler, but find that the result is not unique and depends on the force field
used to cause the acceleration. We apply this method to the Gross-Pitaevskii
model, and derive a simple formula for the vortex mass. We study both the long
range and short range properties of the solution. We agree with earlier results
that the non-zero compressibility leads to a divergent mass. From the
short-range behavior of the solution we find that the mass is sensitive to the
form of the pinning potential, and diverges logarithmically when the radius of
this potential tends to zero.Comment: 4 page
Diffuse Gamma-ray Emission from the Galactic Center - A Multiple Energy Injection Model
We suggest that the energy source of the observed diffuse gamma-ray emission
from the direction of the Galactic center is the Galactic black hole Sgr A*,
which becomes active when a star is captured at a rate of
yr^{-1}. Subsequently the star is tidally disrupted and its matter is accreted
into the black hole. During the active phase relativistic protons with a
characteristic energy erg per capture are ejected. Over
90% of these relativistic protons disappear due to proton-proton collisions on
a timescale years in the small central bulge region with
radius pc within Sgr A*, where the density is cm^{-3}. The
gamma-ray intensity, which results from the decay of neutral pions produced by
proton-proton collisions, decreases according to , where t is
the time after last stellar capture. Less than 5% of relativistic protons
escaped from the central bulge region can survive and maintain their energy for
>10^7 years due to much lower gas density outside, where the gas density can
drop to cm. They can diffuse to a pc region before
disappearing due to proton-proton collisions. The observed diffuse GeV
gamma-rays resulting from the decay of neutral pions produced via collision
between these escaped protons and the gas in this region is expected to be
insensitive to time in the multi-injection model with the characteristic
injection rate of 10^{-5} yr^{-1}. Our model calculated GeV and 511 keV
gamma-ray intensities are consistent with the observed results of EGRET and
INTEGRAL, however, our calculated inflight annihilation rate cannot produce
sufficient intensity to explain the COMPTEL data.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted by A&
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