Two-photon annihilation in the pair formation cascades in pulsar polar caps

The importance of the photon-photon pair production process ($\gamma+ \gamma^{\prime}\to e^{+}+e^{-}$) to form pair production cascades in pulsar polar caps is investigated within the framework of the Ruderman-Sutherland vacuum gap model. It is found that this process is unimportant if the polar caps are not hot enough, but will play a non-negligible role in the pair formation cascades when the polar cap temperatures are in excess of the critical temperatures, $T_{cri}$, which are around $4\times 10^6K$ when $P=0.1$s and will slowly increase with increasing periods. Compared with the $\gamma-B$ process, it is found that the two-photon annihilation process may ignite a central spark near the magnetic pole, where $\gamma-B$ sparks can not be formed due to the local weak curvatures. This central spark is large if the gap is dominated by the ``resonant ICS mode''. The possible connection of these central sparks with the observed pulsar ``core'' emission components is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 3 Postscript figures, LaTex, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Radio-to-TeV Phase-resolved Emission from the Crab Pulsar: The Annular Gap Model

In the framework of the three-dimensional (3D) annular gap model with reasonable parameters (the magnetic inclination angle \alpha = 45 deg and the view angle \zeta = 63 deg), we first use the latest hight energy data to self-consistently calculate radio, X-ray, gamma-ray and TeV (MAGIC and VERITAS) light curves, phase-averaged spectrum and phase-resolved spectra for the Crab pulsar. It is found that the acceleration electric field and potential in the annular gap and core gap are huge enough in the several tens of neutron star radii. The pulsed emission of radio, X-ray, gamma-ray and TeV are mainly generated from the emission of primary particles or secondary particles with different emission mechanisms in the nearly similar region of the annular gap located in the only one magnetic pole, which leads to the nearly "phase-aligned" multi-wavelength light curves. The emission of peak 1 (P1) and peak 2 (P2) is originated from the annular gap region near the null charge surface, while the emission of bridge is mainly originated from the core gap region. The phase-averaged spectrum and phase-resolved spectra of the Crab pulsar from soft X-ray to TeV band are produced by four components: synchrotron radiation from CR-induced and ICS-induced pairs dominates the X-ray band to soft gamma-ray band (100 eV to 10 MeV); curvature radiation and synchrotron radiation from the primary particles mainly contribute to gamma-ray band (10 MeV to \sim 20 GeV); ICS from the pairs significantly contributes to the TeV gamma-ray band (\sim 20 GeV to 400 GeV). The multi-wavelength pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar has been well modeled with the annular gap and core gap model. To distinguish our single magnetic pole model from two-pole models, the convincing values of the magnetic inclination angle and the viewing angle will play a key role.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables; published in ApJ on March 12. Due to the character limitation, the abstract here has been adopted a shortened versio

Investigation of transition between spark ignition and controlled auto-ignition combustion in a V6 direct-injection engine with cam profile switching

Controlled auto-ignition (CAI) combustion, also known as Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) can be achieved by trapping residuals with early exhaust valve closure in a direct fuel injection in-cylinder four-stroke gasoline engines (through the employment of low-lift cam profiles). Due to the operating region being limited to low and mid-load operation for CAI combustion with a low-lift cam profile, it is important to be able to operate SI combustion at high-load with a normal cam profile. A 3.0L prototype engine was modified to achieve CAI combustion, using a Cam Profile Switching mechanism which has the capability to switch between high and low-lift cam-profiles. A strategy was used where a high-profile could be used for SI combustion and a low-lift profile was used for CAI combustion. Initial analysis showed that for transitioning from SI to CAI combustion, misfire occurred on the first CAI transitional cycle. Subsequent experiments showed that the throttle opening position and switching time could be controlled avoiding misfire. Further work investigated transitioning at different loads and from CAI to SI combustion

Whitham modulation theory for the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation

The genus-1 KP-Whitham system is derived for both variants of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation (namely, the KPI and KPII equations). The basic properties of the KP-Whitham system, including symmetries, exact reductions, and its possible complete integrability, together with the appropriate generalization of the one-dimensional Riemann problem for the Korteweg-deVries equation are discussed. Finally, the KP-Whitham system is used to study the linear stability properties of the genus-1 solutions of the KPI and KPII equations; it is shown that all genus-1 solutions of KPI are linearly unstable while all genus-1 solutions of KPII {are linearly stable within the context of Whitham theory.Comment: Significantly revised versio