488 research outputs found
Interaction of cosmic background neutrinos with matter of periodic structure
We study coherent interaction of cosmic background neutrinos(CBNs) with
matter of periodic structure. The mixing and small masses of neutrinos
discovered in neutrino oscillation experiments indicate that CBNs which have
very low energy today should be in mass states and can transform from one mass
state to another in interaction with electrons in matter. We show that in a
coherent scattering process a periodic matter structure designed to match the
scale of the mass square difference of neutrinos can enhance the conversion of
CBNs from one mass state to another. Energy of CBNs can be released in this
scattering process and momentum transfer from CBNs to electrons in target
matter can be obtained.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, publication versio
Heating and Cooling of Hot Accretion Flows by Non Local Radiation
We consider non-local effects which arise when radiation emitted at one
radius of an accretion disk either heats or cools gas at other radii through
Compton scattering. We discuss three situations:
1. Radiation from the inner regions of an advection-dominated flow Compton
cooling gas at intermediate radii and Compton heating gas at large radii.
2. Soft radiation from an outer thin accretion disk Compton cooling a hot
one- or two-temperature flow on the inside.
3. Soft radiation from an inner thin accretion disk Compton cooling hot gas
in a surrounding one-temperature flow.
We describe how previous results are modified by these non-local
interactions. We find that Compton heating or cooling of the gas by the
radiation emitted in the inner regions of a hot flow is not important.
Likewise, Compton cooling by the soft photons from an outer thin disk is
negligible when the transition from a cold to a hot flow occurs at a radius
greater than some minimum . However, if the hot flow terminates at
, non-local cooling is so strong that the hot gas is cooled to
a thin disk configuration in a runaway process. In the case of a thin disk
surrounded by a hot one-temperature flow, we find that Compton cooling by soft
radiation dominates over local cooling in the hot gas for \dot{M} \gsim
10^{-3} \alpha \dot{M}_{Edd}, and R \lsim 10^4 R_{Schw}. As a result, the
maximum accretion rate for which an advection-dominated one-temperature
solution exists, decreases by a factor of , compared to the value
computed under an assumption of local energy balance.Comment: LaTeX aaspp.sty, 25 pages, and 6 figures; to appear in Ap
Nonadiabatic charged spherical evolution in the postquasistatic approximation
We apply the postquasistatic approximation, an iterative method for the
evolution of self-gravitating spheres of matter, to study the evolution of
dissipative and electrically charged distributions in General Relativity. We
evolve nonadiabatic distributions assuming an equation of state that accounts
for the anisotropy induced by the electric charge. Dissipation is described by
streaming out or diffusion approximations. We match the interior solution, in
noncomoving coordinates, with the Vaidya-Reissner-Nordstr\"om exterior
solution. Two models are considered: i) a Schwarzschild-like shell in the
diffusion limit; ii) a Schwarzschild-like interior in the free streaming limit.
These toy models tell us something about the nature of the dissipative and
electrically charged collapse. Diffusion stabilizes the gravitational collapse
producing a spherical shell whose contraction is halted in a short
characteristic hydrodynamic time. The streaming out radiation provides a more
efficient mechanism for emission of energy, redistributing the electric charge
on the whole sphere, while the distribution collapses indefinitely with a
longer hydrodynamic time scale.Comment: 11 pages, 16 Figures. Accepted for publication in Phys Rev
Dilution of zero point energies in the cosmological expansion
The vacuum fluctuations of all quantum fields filling the universe are
supposed to leave enormous energy and pressure contributions which are
incompatible with observations. It has been recently suggested that, when the
effective nature of quantum field theories is properly taken into account,
vacuum fluctuations behave as a relativistic gas rather than as a cosmological
constant. Accordingly, zero-point energies are tremendously diluted by the
universe expansion but provide an extra contribution to radiation energy.
Ongoing and future cosmological observations could offer the opportunity to
scrutinize this scenario. The presence of such additional contribution to
radiation energy can be tested by using primordial nucleosynthesis bounds or
measured on Cosmic Background Radiation anisotropy.Comment: 8 pages, no figures. Submitted the 17th of March to Modern Physics
Letters
Disks Surviving the Radiation Pressure of Radio Pulsars
The radiation pressure of a radio pulsar does not necessarily disrupt a
surrounding disk. The position of the inner radius of a thin disk around a
neutron star can be estimated by comparing the electromagnetic energy density
generated by the neutron star with the kinetic energy density of the disk.
Inside the light cylinder, the near zone electromagnetic field is essentially
the dipole magnetic field, and the inner radius is the conventional Alfven
radius. Far outside the light cylinder, in the radiation zone, and the
electromagnetic energy density is where is the
Poynting vector. Shvartsman (1970) argued that a stable equilibrium can not be
found in the radiative zone because the electromagnetic energy density
dominates over the kinetic energy density, with the relative strength of the
electromagnetic stresses increasing with radius. In order to check whether this
is true also near the light cylinder, we employ global electromagnetic field
solutions for rotating oblique magnetic dipoles (Deutsch 1955). Near the light
cylinder the electromagnetic energy density increases steeply enough with
decreasing to balance the kinetic energy density at a stable equilibrium.
The transition from the near zone to the radiation zone is broad. The radiation
pressure of the pulsar can not disrupt the disk for values of the inner radius
up to about twice the light cylinder radius if the rotation axis and the
magnetic axis are orthogonal. This allowed range beyond the light cylinder
extends much further for small inclination angles. We discuss implications of
this result for accretion driven millisecond pulsars and young neutron stars
with fallback disks.Comment: Accepted by Astrophysical Journal, final version with a minor
correctio
Trans-sonic propeller stage
We follow the approach used by Davies and Pringle (1981) and discuss the
trans-sonic substage of the propeller regime. This substage is intermediate
between the supersonic and subsonic propeller substages. In the trans-sonic
regime an envelope around a magnetosphere of a neutron star passes through a
kind of a reorganization process. The envelope in this regime consists of two
parts. In the bottom one turbulent motions are subsonic. Then at some distance
the turbulent velocity becomes equal to the sound velocity.
During this substage the boundary propagates outwards till it
reaches the outer boundary, and so the subsonic regime starts.
We found that the trans-sonic substage is unstable, so the transition between
supersonic and subsonic substages proceeds on the dynamical time scale. For
realistic parameters this time is in the range from weeks to years.Comment: 8 pages with figures, submitted to Astron. Astroph. Transaction
Direct measurement of electrocaloric effect in lead-free Ba(SnxTi1-x)O3 ceramics
In this study, we report on investigation of the electrocaloric (EC) effect in lead-free Ba(SnxTi1-x)O3 (BSnT) ceramics with compositions in the range of 0.08 ≤ x ≤ 0.15 by the direct measurement method using a differential scanning calorimeter. The maximum EC temperature change, ΔTEC-max = 0.63 K under an electric field of 2 kV/mm, was observed for the composition with x = 0.11 at ∼44 °C around the multiphase coexistence region. We observed that the EC effect also peaks at transitions between ferroelectric phases of different symmetries. Comparison with the results of indirect EC measurements from our previous work shows that the indirect approach provides reasonable estimations of the magnitude of the largest EC temperature changes and EC strength. However, it fails to describe correctly temperature dependences of the EC effect for the compositions showing relaxor-like behaviour (x = 0.14 and 0.15) because of their non-ergodic nature. Our study provides strong evidence supporting that looking for multiphase ferroelectric materials can be very useful to optimize EC performance
Fixed Volume Effect on Polar Properties and Phase Diagrams of Ferroelectric Semi-ellipsoidal Nanoparticles
For advanced applications in modern industry it is very important to reduce
the volume of ferroelectric nanoparticles without serious deterioration of
their polar properties. In many practically important cases fixed volume
(rather than fixed size) corresponds to realistic technological conditions of
nanoparticles fabrication. The letter is focused on the theoretical study of
the behavior of ferroelectric polarization, paramagnetoelectric coefficient and
phase diagrams of semi-ellipsoidal nanoparticles with fixed volume V. Our
approach combines the Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire phenomenology, classical
electrostatics and elasticity theory. Our results show that the size effects of
the phase diagrams and polarization of semi-ellipsoidal BiFeO3 nanoparticles
nontrivially depends on V. These findings provide a path to optimize the polar
properties of nanoparticles by controlling their phase diagrams at a fixed
volume.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, we added the section IV. Paramagnetoelectric
(PME) coefficient at fixed volume in this version and changed title and
abstract accordingl
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