22 research outputs found
Binary Neutron Stars with Generic Spin, Eccentricity, Mass ratio, and Compactness - Quasi-equilibrium Sequences and First Evolutions
Information about the last stages of a binary neutron star inspiral and the
final merger can be extracted from quasi-equilibrium configurations and
dynamical evolutions. In this article, we construct quasi-equilibrium
configurations for different spins, eccentricities, mass ratios, compactnesses,
and equations of state. For this purpose we employ the SGRID code, which allows
us to construct such data in previously inaccessible regions of the parameter
space. In particular, we consider spinning neutron stars in isolation and in
binary systems; we incorporate new methods to produce highly eccentric and
eccentricity reduced data; we present the possibility of computing data for
significantly unequal-mass binaries; and we create equal-mass binaries with
individual compactness up to 0.23. As a proof of principle, we explore the
dynamical evolution of three new configurations. First, we simulate a
mass ratio which is the highest mass ratio for a binary neutron star evolved in
numerical relativity to date. We find that mass transfer from the companion
star sets in a few revolutions before merger and a rest mass of
is transferred between the two stars. This configuration
also ejects a large amount of material during merger, imparting a substantial
kick to the remnant. Second, we simulate the first merger of a precessing
binary neutron star. We present the dominant modes of the gravitational waves
for the precessing simulation, where a clear imprint of the precession is
visible in the (2,1) mode. Finally, we quantify the effect of an eccentricity
reduction procedure on the gravitational waveform. The procedure improves the
waveform quality and should be employed in future precision studies, but also
other errors, notably truncation errors, need to be reduced in order for the
improvement due to eccentricity reduction to be effective. [abridged]Comment: (37pages, 26 figures
Quasi-equilibrium models of magnetized compact objects
We report work towards a relativistic formulation for modeling strongly
magnetized neutron stars, rotating or in a close circular orbit around another
neutron star or black hole, under the approximations of helical symmetry and
ideal MHD. The quasi-stationary evolution is governed by the first law of
thermodynamics for helically symmetric systems, which is generalized to include
magnetic fields. The formulation involves an iterative scheme for solving the
Einstein-Maxwell and relativistic MHD-Euler equations numerically. The
resulting configurations for binary systems could be used as self-consistent
initial data for studying their inspiral and merger.Comment: Talk given at the 14th Conference on Recent Developments in Gravity
(NEB XIV), Ioannina, Greece, 8-11 Jun 201
Lipoprotein-Associated Phospholipase A2: A Novel Contributor in Sjögren’s Syndrome-Related Lymphoma?
BackgroundB-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (B-NHL) is one of the major complications of primary Sjögren’s syndrome (SS). Chronic inflammation and macrophages in SS minor salivary glands have been previously suggested as significant predictors for lymphoma development among SS patients. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2)—a product mainly of tissue macrophages—is found in the circulation associated with lipoproteins and has been previously involved in cardiovascular, autoimmune, and malignant diseases, including lymphoma.ObjectiveThe purpose of the current study was to investigate the contributory role of Lp-PLA2 in B-NHL development in the setting of primary SS.MethodsLp-PLA2 activity in serum samples collected from 50 primary SS patients with no lymphoma (SS-nL), 9 primary SS patients with lymphoma (SS-L), and 42 healthy controls (HC) was determined by detection of [3H]PAF degradation products by liquid scintillation counter. Moreover, additional sera from 50 SS-nL, 28 SS-L, and 32 HC were tested for Lp-PLA2 activity using a commercially available ELISA kit. Lp-PLA2 mRNA, and protein expression in minor salivary gland (MSG) tissue samples derived from SS-nL, SS-L patients, and sicca controls (SC) were analyzed by real-time PCR, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry.ResultsSerum Lp-PLA2 activity was significantly increased in SS-L compared to both SS-nL and HC by two independent methods implemented [mean ± SD (nmol/min/ml): 62.0 ± 13.4 vs 47.6 ± 14.4 vs 50.7 ± 16.6, p-values: 0.003 and 0.04, respectively, and 19.4 ± 4.5 vs 15.2 ± 3.3 vs 14.5 ± 3.0, p-values: <0.0001, in both comparisons]. ROC analysis revealed that the serum Lp-PLA2 activity measured either by radioimmunoassay or ELISA has the potential to distinguish between SS-L and SS-nL patients (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.8022, CI [95%]: 0.64–0.96, p-value: 0.004 for radioimmunoassay, and AUC: 0.7696, CI [95%]: 0.66–0.88, p-value: <0.0001, for ELISA). Lp-PLA2 expression in MSG tissues was also increased in SS-L compared to SS-nL and SC at both mRNA and protein level. ROC analysis revealed that both MSG mRNA and protein Lp-PLA2 have the potential to distinguish between SS-nL and SS-L patients (area under the curve [AUC] values of 0.8490, CI [95%]: 0.71–0.99, p-value: 0.0019 and 0.9444, CI [95%]: 0.79–1.00, p- value: 0.0389 respectively). No significant difference in either serum Lp-PLA2 activity or MSG tissue expression was observed between SS-nL and HC.ConclusionsLp-PLA2 serum activity and MSG tissue mRNA/protein expression could be a new biomarker and possibly a novel therapeutic target for B-cell lymphoproliferation in the setting of SS
Magnetohydrodynamics in stationary and axisymmetric spacetimes: A fully covariant approach
Minor modifications (text only); published version (28 pages)This work was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for
Scientific Research(C) under Grant No. 20540275, MEXT
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Area
under Grant No. 20105004, NSF Grant No. PHY100155,
and ANR Grant No. 06-2-134423 Me´thodes mathe´matiques
pour la relativite´ ge´ne´ral
New code for equilibriums and quasiequilibrium initial data of compact objects. IV. Rotating relativistic stars with mixed poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields
A new code for computing fully general relativistic solutions of strongly magnetized rapidly rotating compact stars is developed as a part of the Compact Object CALculator (cocal) code. The full set of Einstein’s equations, Maxwell’s equations, and magnetohydrodynamic equations are consistently solved assuming perfect conductivity, stationarity, and axisymmetry, and strongly magnetized solutions associated with mixed poloidal and toroidal components of magnetic fields are successfully obtained in generic (noncircular) spacetimes. We introduce the formulation of the problem and the numerical method in detail, then present examples of extremely magnetized compact star solutions and their convergence tests. It is found that, in extremely magnetized stars, the stellar matter can be expelled from the region of strongest toroidal fields. Hence, we conjecture that a toroidal electrovacuum region may appear inside of the extremely magnetized compact stars, which may seem like the neutron star becoming the strongest toroidal solenoid coil in the Universe