Eclipsing Binaries with Possible Light-Time Effect

The period changes of six eclipsing binaries have been studied with focus on the light-time effect. With the least squares method we also calculated parameters of such an effect and properties of the unresolved body in these systems. With these results we discussed the probability of presence of such bodies in the systems with respect to possible confirmation by another method. In two systems we also suggested the hypothesis of fourth body or magnetic activity for explanation of the "second-order variability" after subtraction of the light-time effect of the third body.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, conference proceeding

Inhomogeneous Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Mutual Ion Diffusion

We present a study of inhomogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis with emphasis on transport phenomena. We combine a hydrodynamic treatment to a nuclear reaction network and compute the light element abundances for a range of inhomogeneity parameters. We find that shortly after annihilation of electron-positron pairs, Thomson scattering on background photons prevents the diffusion of the remaining electrons. Protons and multiply charged ions then tend to diffuse into opposite directions so that no net charge is carried. Ions with Z>1 get enriched in the overdense regions, while protons diffuse out into regions of lower density. This leads to a second burst of nucleosynthesis in the overdense regions at T<20 keV, leading to enhanched destruction of deuterium and lithium. We find a region in the parameter space at 2.1E-10<eta<5.2E-10 where constraints 7Li/H<10^{-9.7} and D/H<10^{-4.4} are satisfied simultaneously.Comment: 9 pages, minor changes to match the PRD versio

The Quark-Hadron Phase Transition, QCD Lattice Calculations and Inhomogeneous Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis

We review recent lattice QCD results for the surface tension at the finite temperature quark-hadron phase transition and discuss their implications on the possible scale of inhomogeneities. In the quenched approximation the average distance between nucleating centers is smaller than the diffusion length of a protron, so that inhomogeneities are washed out by the time nucleosynthesis sets in. Consequently the baryon density fluctuations formed by a QCD phase transition in the early universe cannot significantly affect standard big-bang nucleosynthesis calculations and certainly cannot allow baryons to close the universe. At present lattice results are inconclusive when dynamical fermions are included.Comment: 8 pages, LaTe

A cyclical period variation detected in the updated orbital period analysis of TV Columbae

The two CCD photometries of the intermediate polar TV Columbae are made for obtaining the two updated eclipse timings with high precision. There is an interval time \sim 17yr since the last mid-eclipse time observed in 1991. Thus, the new mid-eclipse times can offer an opportunity to check the previous orbital ephemerides. A calculation indicates that the orbital ephemeris derived by Augusteijn et al. (1994) should be corrected. Based on the proper linear ephemeris (Hellier, 1993), the new orbital period analysis suggests a cyclical period variation in the O-C diagram of TV Columbae. Using Applegate's mechanism to explain the periodic oscillation in O-C diagram, the required energy is larger than that a M0-type star can afford over a complete variation period \sim 31.0(\pm 3.0)yr. Thus, the light travel-time effect indicates that the tertiary component in TV Columbae may be a dwarf with a low mass, which is near the mass lower limit \sim 0.08Msun as long as the inclination of the third body high enough.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

An Overview of the 13:8 Mean Motion Resonance between Venus and Earth

It is known since the seminal study of Laskar (1989) that the inner planetary system is chaotic with respect to its orbits and even escapes are not impossible, although in time scales of billions of years. The aim of this investigation is to locate the orbits of Venus and Earth in phase space, respectively to see how close their orbits are to chaotic motion which would lead to unstable orbits for the inner planets on much shorter time scales. Therefore we did numerical experiments in different dynamical models with different initial conditions -- on one hand the couple Venus-Earth was set close to different mean motion resonances (MMR), and on the other hand Venus' orbital eccentricity (or inclination) was set to values as large as e = 0.36 (i = 40deg). The couple Venus-Earth is almost exactly in the 13:8 mean motion resonance. The stronger acting 8:5 MMR inside, and the 5:3 MMR outside the 13:8 resonance are within a small shift in the Earth's semimajor axis (only 1.5 percent). Especially Mercury is strongly affected by relatively small changes in eccentricity and/or inclination of Venus in these resonances. Even escapes for the innermost planet are possible which may happen quite rapidly.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, submitted to CMD

A pilgrimage to gravity on GPUs

In this short review we present the developments over the last 5 decades that have led to the use of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for astrophysical simulations. Since the introduction of NVIDIA's Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) in 2007 the GPU has become a valuable tool for N-body simulations and is so popular these days that almost all papers about high precision N-body simulations use methods that are accelerated by GPUs. With the GPU hardware becoming more advanced and being used for more advanced algorithms like gravitational tree-codes we see a bright future for GPU like hardware in computational astrophysics.Comment: To appear in: European Physical Journal "Special Topics" : "Computer Simulations on Graphics Processing Units" . 18 pages, 8 figure

First-order cosmological phase transitions in the radiation dominated era

We consider first-order phase transitions of the Universe in the radiation-dominated era. We argue that in general the velocity of interfaces is non-relativistic due to the interaction with the plasma and the release of latent heat. We study the general evolution of such slow phase transitions, which comprise essentially a short reheating stage and a longer phase equilibrium stage. We perform a completely analytical description of both stages. Some rough approximations are needed for the first stage, due to the non-trivial relations between the quantities that determine the variation of temperature with time. The second stage, instead, is considerably simplified by the fact that it develops at a constant temperature, close to the critical one. Indeed, in this case the equations can be solved exactly, including back-reaction on the expansion of the Universe. This treatment also applies to phase transitions mediated by impurities. We also investigate the relations between the different parameters that govern the characteristics of the phase transition and its cosmological consequences, and discuss the dependence of these parameters with the particle content of the theory.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figures; v2: Minor changes, references added; v3: several typos correcte

SS Ari: a shallow-contact close binary system

Two CCD epochs of light minimum and a complete R light curve of SS Ari are presented. The light curve obtained in 2007 was analyzed with the 2003 version of the W-D code. It is shown that SS Ari is a shallow contact binary system with a mass ratio $q=3.25$ and a degree of contact factor f=9.4(\pm0.8%). A period investigation based on all available data shows that there may exist two distinct solutions about the assumed third body. One, assuming eccentric orbit of the third body and constant orbital period of the eclipsing pair results in a massive third body with $M_3=1.73M_{\odot}$ and P_3=87.0$yr. On the contrary, assuming continuous period changes of the eclipsing pair the orbital period of tertiary is 37.75yr and its mass is about$0.278M_{\odot}$. Both of the cases suggest the presence of an unseen third component in the system.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures and 5 table

Primordial nuggets survival and QCD pairing

We revisit the problem of boiling and surface evaporation of quark nuggets in the cosmological quark-hadron transition with the explicit consideration of pairing between quarks in a color-flavor locked (CFL) state. Assuming that primordial quark nuggets are actually formed, we analyze the consequences of pairing on the rates of boiling and surface evaporation in order to determine whether they could have survived with substantial mass. We find a substantial quenching of the evaporation + boiling processes, which suggests the survival of primordial nuggets for the currently considered range of the pairing gap $\Delta$. Boiling is shown to depend on the competition of an increased stability window and the suppression of the rate, and is not likely to dominate the destruction of the nuggets. If surface evaporation dominates, the fate of the nuggets depend on the features of the initial mass spectrum of the nuggets, their evaporation rate, and the value of the pairing gap, as shown and discussed in the text.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure