26,261 research outputs found
Initial Observations of Sunspot Oscillations Excited by Solar Flare
Observations of a large solar flare of December 13, 2006, using Solar Optical
Telescope (SOT) on Hinode spacecraft revealed high-frequency oscillations
excited by the flare in the sunspot chromosphere. These oscillations are
observed in the region of strong magnetic field of the sunspot umbra, and may
provide a new diagnostic tool for probing the structure of sunspots and
understanding physical processes in solar flares.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, ApJL in pres
Ultra-stripped Type Ic supernovae from close binary evolution
Recent discoveries of weak and fast optical transients raise the question of
their origin. We investigate the minimum ejecta mass associated with
core-collapse supernovae (SNe) of Type Ic. We show that mass transfer from a
helium star to a compact companion can produce an ultra-stripped core which
undergoes iron core collapse and leads to an extremely fast and faint SN Ic. In
this Letter, a detailed example is presented in which the pre-SN stellar mass
is barely above the Chandrasekhar limit, resulting in the ejection of only
~0.05-0.20 M_sun of material and the formation of a low-mass neutron star. We
compute synthetic light curves of this case and demonstrate that SN 2005ek
could be explained by our model. We estimate that the fraction of such
ultra-stripped to all SNe could be as high as 0.001-0.01. Finally, we argue
that the second explosion in some double neutron star systems (for example, the
double pulsar PSR J0737-3039B) was likely associated with an ultra-stripped SN
Ic.Comment: ApJ Letters, in press, 6 pages, 5 figures (emulateapj style). Very
minor changes to match printed version. Follow DOI link below for online
published versio
Giant Flexoelectric Effect in Ferroelectric Epitaxial Thin Films
We report on nanoscale strain gradients in ferroelectric HoMnO3 epitaxial
thin films, resulting in a giant flexoelectric effect. Using grazing-incidence
in-plane X-ray diffraction, we measured strain gradients in the films, which
were 6 or 7 orders of magnitude larger than typical values reported for bulk
oxides. The combination of transmission electron microscopy, electrical
measurements, and electrostatic calculations showed that flexoelectricity
provides a means of tuning the physical properties of ferroelectric epitaxial
thin films, such as domain configurations and hysteresis curves.Comment: Accepted by Phys. Rev. Let
Low-metallicity massive single stars with rotation. Evolutionary models applicable to I Zwicky 18
Massive rotating single stars with an initial metal composition appropriate
for the dwarf galaxy I Zw 18 ([Fe/H]=1.7) are modelled during hydrogen
burning for initial masses of 9-300 M and rotational velocities of
0-900 km s. Internal mixing processes in these models were calibrated
based on an observed sample of OB-type stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Even
moderately fast rotators, which may be abundant at this metallicity, are found
to undergo efficient mixing induced by rotation resulting in quasi
chemically-homogeneous evolution. These homogeneously-evolving models reach
effective temperatures of up to 90 kK during core hydrogen burning. This,
together with their moderate mass-loss rates, make them Transparent Wind
Ultraviolet INtense stars (TWUIN star), and their expected numbers might
explain the observed HeII ionizing photon flux in I Zw 18 and other
low-metallicity HeII galaxies. Our slowly rotating stars above 80
M evolve into late B- to M-type supergiants during core hydrogen
burning, with visual magnitudes up to 19 at the distance of I Zw
18. Both types of stars, TWUIN stars and luminous late-type supergiants, are
only predicted at low metallicity. Massive star evolution at low metallicity is
shown to differ qualitatively from that in metal-rich environments. Our grid
can be used to interpret observations of local star-forming dwarf galaxies and
high-redshift galaxies, as well as the metal-poor components of our Milky Way
and its globular clusters.Comment: accepted for publication in A\&
(2,2)-Formalism of General Relativity: An Exact Solution
I discuss the (2,2)-formalism of general relativity based on the
(2,2)-fibration of a generic 4-dimensional spacetime of the Lorentzian
signature. In this formalism general relativity is describable as a Yang-Mills
gauge theory defined on the (1+1)-dimensional base manifold, whose local gauge
symmetry is the group of the diffeomorphisms of the 2-dimensional fibre
manifold. After presenting the Einstein's field equations in this formalism, I
solve them for spherically symmetric case to obtain the Schwarzschild solution.
Then I discuss possible applications of this formalism.Comment: 2 figures included, IOP style file neede
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