97,603 research outputs found
Flux Expulsion - Field Evolution in Neutron Stars
Models for the evolution of magnetic fields of neutron stars are constructed,
assuming the field is embedded in the proton superconducting core of the star.
The rate of expulsion of the magnetic flux out of the core, or equivalently the
velocity of outward motion of flux-carrying proton-vortices is determined from
a solution of the Magnus equation of motion for these vortices. A force due to
the pinning interaction between the proton-vortices and the neutron-superfluid
vortices is also taken into account in addition to the other more conventional
forces acting on the proton-vortices. Alternative models for the field
evolution are considered based on the different possibilities discussed for the
effective values of the various forces. The coupled spin and magnetic evolution
of single pulsars as well as those processed in low-mass binary systems are
computed, for each of the models. The predicted lifetimes of active pulsars,
field strengths of the very old neutron stars, and distribution of the magnetic
fields versus orbital periods in low-mass binary pulsars are used to test the
adopted field decay models. Contrary to the earlier claims, the buoyancy is
argued to be the dominant driving cause of the flux expulsion, for the single
as well as the binary neutron stars. However, the pinning is also found to play
a crucial role which is necessary to account for the observed low field binary
and millisecond pulsars.Comment: 23 pages, + 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Self-diffusion coefficients of charged particles: Prediction of Nonlinear volume fraction dependence
We report on calculations of the translational and rotational short-time
self-diffusion coefficients and for suspensions of
charge-stabilized colloidal spheres. These diffusion coefficients are affected
by electrostatic forces and many-body hydrodynamic interactions (HI). Our
computations account for both two-body and three-body HI. For strongly charged
particles, we predict interesting nonlinear scaling relations and depending on volume fraction
, with essentially charge-independent parameters and . These
scaling relations are strikingly different from the corresponding results for
hard spheres. Our numerical results can be explained using a model of effective
hard spheres. Moreover, we perceptibly improve the known result for of
hard sphere suspensions.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, 3 Postscript figures included using eps
A Large-Diameter Hollow-Shaft Cryogenic Motor Based on a Superconducting Magnetic Bearing for Millimeter-Wave Polarimetry
In this paper we present the design and measured performance of a novel
cryogenic motor based on a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB). The motor is
tailored for use in millimeter-wave half-wave plate (HWP) polarimeters, where a
HWP is rapidly rotated in front of a polarization analyzer or
polarization-sensitive detector. This polarimetry technique is commonly used in
cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization studies. The SMB we use is
composed of fourteen yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) disks and a contiguous
neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) ring magnet. The motor is a hollow-shaft motor
because the HWP is ultimately installed in the rotor. The motor presented here
has a 100 mm diameter rotor aperture. However, the design can be scaled up to
rotor aperture diameters of approximately 500 mm. Our motor system is composed
of four primary subsystems: (i) the rotor assembly, which includes the NdFeB
ring magnet, (ii) the stator assembly, which includes the YBCO disks, (iii) an
incremental encoder, and (iv) the drive electronics. While the YBCO is cooling
through its superconducting transition, the rotor is held above the stator by a
novel hold and release mechanism (HRM). The encoder subsystem consists of a
custom-built encoder disk read out by two fiber optic readout sensors. For the
demonstration described in this paper, we ran the motor at 50 K and tested
rotation frequencies up to approximately 10 Hz. The feedback system was able to
stabilize the the rotation speed to approximately 0.4%, and the measured rotor
orientation angle uncertainty is less than 0.15 deg. Lower temperature
operation will require additional development activities, which we will
discuss
Data management of nanometre scale CMOS device simulations
In this paper we discuss the problems arising in managing and curating the data generated by simulations of nanometre scale CMOS (Complementary Metal–Oxide Semiconductor) transistors, circuits and systems and describe the software and operational techniques we have adopted to address them. Such simulations pose a number of challenges including, inter alia, multiTByte data volumes, complex datasets with complex inter-relations between datasets, multi-institutional collaborations including multiple specialisms and a mixture of academic and industrial partners, and demanding security requirements driven by commercial imperatives. This work was undertaken as part of the NanoCMOS project. However, the problems, solutions and experience seem likely to be of wider relevance, both within the CMOS design community and more generally in other disciplines
Spinning down newborn neutron stars: nonlinear development of the r-mode instability
We model the nonlinear saturation of the r-mode instability via three-mode
couplings and the effects of the instability on the spin evolution of young
neutron stars. We include one mode triplet consisting of the r-mode and two
near resonant inertial modes that couple to it. We find that the spectrum of
evolutions is more diverse than previously thought. The evolution of the star
is dynamic and initially dominated by fast neutrino cooling. Nonlinear effects
become important when the r-mode amplitude grows above its first parametric
instability threshold. The balance between neutrino cooling and viscous heating
plays an important role in the evolution. Depending on the initial r-mode
amplitude, and on the strength of the viscosity and of the cooling this balance
can occur at different temperatures. If thermal equilibrium occurs on the
r-mode stability curve, where gravitational driving equals viscous damping, the
evolution may be adequately described by a one-mode model. Otherwise, nonlinear
effects are important and lead to various more complicated scenarios. Once
thermal balance occurs, the star spins-down oscillating between thermal
equilibrium states until the instability is no longer active. For lower
viscosity we observe runaway behavior in which the r-mode amplitude passes
several parametric instability thresholds. In this case more modes need to be
included to model the evolution accurately. In the most optimistic case, we
find that gravitational radiation from the r-mode instability in a very young,
fast spinning neutron star within about 1 Mpc of Earth may be detectable by
advanced LIGO for years, and perhaps decades, after formation. Details
regarding the amplitude and duration of the emission depend on the internal
dissipation of the modes of the star, which would be probed by such detections.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. Submitted to Phys. Rev. D.
Detectability discussion expanded. Includes referee inpu
Effect of hyperon bulk viscosity on neutron-star r-modes
Neutron stars are expected to contain a significant number of hyperons in
addition to protons and neutrons in the highest density portions of their
cores. Following the work of Jones, we calculate the coefficient of bulk
viscosity due to nonleptonic weak interactions involving hyperons in
neutron-star cores, including new relativistic and superfluid effects. We
evaluate the influence of this new bulk viscosity on the gravitational
radiation driven instability in the r-modes. We find that the instability is
completely suppressed in stars with cores cooler than a few times 10^9 K, but
that stars rotating more rapidly than 10-30% of maximum are unstable for
temperatures around 10^10 K. Since neutron-star cores are expected to cool to a
few times 10^9 K within seconds (much shorter than the r-mode instability
growth time) due to direct Urca processes, we conclude that the gravitational
radiation instability will be suppressed in young neutron stars before it can
significantly change the angular momentum of the star.Comment: final PRD version, minor typos etc correcte
Color-magnetic flux tubes in quark matter cores of neutron stars
We argue that if color-superconducting quark matter exists in the core of a
neutron star, it may contain a high density of flux tubes, carrying flux that
is mostly color-magnetic, with a small admixture of ordinary magnetic flux. We
focus on the two-flavor color-superconducting ("2SC") phase, and assume that
the flux tubes are energetically stable, although this has not yet been
demonstrated. The density of flux tubes depends on the nature of the transition
to the color-superconducting phase, and could be within an order of magnitude
of the density of magnetic flux tubes that would be found if the core were
superconducting nuclear matter. We calculate the cross-section for
Aharonov-Bohm scattering of gapless fermions off the flux tubes, and the
associated collision time and frictional force on a moving flux tube. We
discuss the other forces on the flux tube, and find that if we take in to
account only the forces that arise within the 2SC core region then the
timescale for expulsion of the color flux tubes from the 2SC core is of order
10^10 years.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure, 2 appendices; added discussion of
energetic stability of flux tube
The Fastest Relativistic Jets: VLBA Observations of Blazars with Apparent Speeds Exceeding 25c
We have measured peak apparent speeds of 25.6c+/-7.0c, 25.6c+/-4.4c, and 28.2c+/-6.6c in the jets of 0235+164, 0827+243, and 1406-076, respectively, based on six epochs of high-sensitivity VLBA observations at 22 and 43 GHz during 2002 and 2003 (H0=71 km s-1 Mpc-1, Ωm=0.27, and ΩΛ=0.73). These blazars had been identified as potentially having apparent speeds exceeding 40c in an earlier VLBA survey of EGRET blazars by Jorstad and coworkers. We therefore confirm (with high confidence in 0827+243, and lower confidence in 0235+164 and 1406-076) the presence of highly relativistic pattern speeds in these three jets, although not at the \u3e40c levels reported by Jorstad and coworkers. The lower limit to the bulk Lorentz factor implied by the observed apparent speeds is Γ\u3e~25-30 in these three sources, if the pattern speeds are equal to or slower than the bulk flow speed
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