0000000000056068
AUTHOR
F. D'antona
Evolutionary paths of binaries with a neutron star - I. The case of SAX J1808.4 - 3658
The evolutionary status of the low mass X-ray binary SAX J1808.4-3658 is simulated by following the binary evolution of its possible progenitor system through mass transfer, starting at a period of $\sim$6.6 hr. The evolution includes angular momentum losses via magnetic braking and gravitational radiation. It also takes into account the effects of illumination of the donor by both the X-ray emission and the spin down luminosity of the pulsar. The system goes through stages of mass transfer and stages during which it is detached, where only the rotationally powered pulsar irradiates the donor. We show that the pulsar irradiation is a necessary ingredient to reach SAX J1808.4-3658 orbital pe…
Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Natural History of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma is increasing in many countries. The estimated number of new cases annually is over 500,000, and the yearly incidence comprises between 2.5 and 7% of patients with liver cirrhosis. The incidence varies between different geographic areas, being higher in developing areas; males are predominantly affected, with a 2:3 male/female ratio. The heterogeneous geographic distribution reflects the epidemiologic impact of the main etiologic factors and environmental risk, which are the hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses. The percentage of cases of hepatocellular carcinoma attributable to HBV worldwide is 52.3% and is higher in Asia where the serop…
Radio-ejection and bump-related orbital period gap of millisecond binary pulsars
The monotonic increase of the radius of low mass stars during their ascent on the red giant branch halts when they suffer a temporary contraction. This occurs when the hydrogen burning shell reaches the discontinuity in hydrogen content left from the maximum increase in the convective extension, at the time of the first dredge up, and produces a well known "bump" in the luminosity function of the red giants of globular clusters. If the giant is the mass losing component in a binary in which mass transfer occurs on the nuclear evolution time scale, this event produces a temporary stop in the mass transfer, which we will name "bump related" detachment. If the accreting companion is a neutron …
Self-Enrichment in Globular Clusters: Is There a Role for the Super-Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars?
In four globular clusters (GCs) a non negligible fraction of stars can be interpreted only as a very helium rich population. The evidence comes from the presence of a "blue" main sequence in $\omega$ Cen and NGC 2808, and from the the very peculiar horizontal branch morphology in NGC 6441 and NGC 6388. Although a general consensus is emerging on the fact that self--enrichment is a common feature among GCs, the helium content required for these stars is Y$\simgt$0.35, and it is difficult to understand how it can be produced without any --or, for $\omega$ Cen, without a considerable--associated metal enhancement. We examine the possible role of super--AGB stars, and show that they may provide…
The optical counterpart of SAX J1808.4-3658 in quiescence: evidence of an active radio pulsar?
Abstract The optical counterpart of the binary millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4–3658 during quiescence was detected at V = 21.5 mag by Homer et al. [MNRAS 325 (2001) 1471]. It was proposed that the bulk of the optical emission arises from viscous dissipation in the innermost zones of a remnant disk. The serious difficulty in this scenario lies in the estimate of the irradiating luminosity required to match the observational data, that is a factor 10–50 higher than the observed quiescent X-ray luminosity of this source. To overcome this problem, we propose an alternative scenario, in which the irradiation is due to the release of rotational energy by the fast spinning neutron star, switc…
Interleukin-6 and its soluble receptor in patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
AIM: To evaluate the immunohistochemical localization of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) on tumor tissue specimens from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the serum levels of IL-6 and sIL-6R in a group of patients with HCC as well as liver cirrhosis (LC) in a group of patients with LC alone and in a control group. METHODS: Three groups of subjects were studied: group I (n = 83) suffering from HCC and LC, group II (n = 72) suffering from LC alone and group III (n = 42) as healthy controls. All patients had hepatitis C virus infection. Serum IL-6 and IL-6R levels were determined using a commercially available ELISA kit. Immunohistochemistry was performed using the…
Improved orbital parameters of accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658
Abstract We analyze the three outbursts of the X-ray millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 that occurred in 1998, 2000, and 2002 observed with RXTE. With a technique based on epoch folding search we find an unique orbital solution valid over the five years of high temporal resolution data available. We revise the estimate of the orbital period, P orb = 7249.1569(1) s and of its error, which we decrease by one order of magnitude. We also give the first constraint on the orbital period derivative, - 6.6 × 10 - 12 P ˙ orb + 0.8 × 10 - 12 s s - 1 . We find that in 2002 the pulse profile shape is clearly asymmetric, showing a secondary peak at about 145° from the main pulse, which is different fr…
Timing an Accreting Millisecond Pulsar: Measuring the Accretion Torque in IGR J00291+5934
We performed a timing analysis of the fastest accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J00291+5934 using RXTE data taken during the outburst of December 2004. We corrected the arrival times of all the events for the orbital (Doppler) effects and performed a timing analysis of the resulting phase delays. In this way we have the possibility to study, for the first time in this class of sources, the spin-up of a millisecond pulsar as a consequence of accretion torques during the X-ray outburst. The accretion torque gives us for the first time an independent estimate of the mass accretion rate onto the neutron star, which can be compared with the observed X-ray luminosity. We also report a revised valu…
Subphotospheric convection and magnetic activity dependence on metallicity and age: Models and tests
We present an extensive study on the dependence of the convective turnover time (conv) on the stellar metallicity and age for main-sequence stars of masses 0.6{1.6 M. To this aim we have used and compared predictions by stellar models based on the classical Mixing Length Theory and models incorporating a Full Spectrum of Turbulence treatment of subphotospheric convection. We show that the metallicity eect is relevant for dG stars but negligible for dK stars, while stellar age is important when computing the turnover times for red dwarfs younger than logt 8:5 yr. A scatter by up to a factor 3 could be spuriously introduced in the activity vs. Rossby number relationships if such eects are neg…
Binary evolution of PSR J1713+0747
PSR J1713+0747 is a binary millisecond radio pulsar with a long orbital period (Porb ∼ 68 d) and a very low neutron star mass (M NS = 1.3 ± 0.2 M⊙). We simulate the evolution of this binary system with an accurate numerical code, which keeps into account both the evolution of the primary and of the whole binary system. We show that strong ejection of matter from the system is fundamental to obtain a mass at the end of the evolution that is within 1 - σ from the observed one, but propeller effects are almost negligible in such a system, where the accretion rate is always near to the Eddington limit. We show that there are indeed two mechanisms can account for the amount of mass loss from the…
On the Optical Counterpart of SAX J1808.4-3658 during Quiescence: Evidence for an Active Radio Pulsar?
The optical counterpart of the binary millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 during quiescence was detected at V =21.5 mag, inconsistent with intrinsic emission from the faint companion star. We propose that the optical emission from this system during quiescence is due to the reprocessing by the companion star and a remnant accretion disk of the rotational energy released by the fast spinning neutron star, switched on, as magneto-dipole rotator (radio pulsar), during quiescence. In this scenario the companion behaves as a bolometer, reprocessing in optical the intercepted fraction of the power emitted by the pulsar. This reprocessed fraction depends only on known binary parameters. Thus…
Optical counterpart of the XTE J0929-314 in quiescence: constraints on the magnetic field
We present VLT observations of the optical counterpart of th X-ray millisecond pulsar XTE J0929-314 in quiescence. We detected a very faint candidate in agreement with the position given by radio and X observation. From the observed optical flux we inferred un upper limit to the magnetic field of the system. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.
The different fates of a low-mass X-ray binary - I. Conservative mass transfer
We study the evolution of a low mass x-ray binary coupling a binary stellar evolution code with a general relativistic code that describes the behavior of the neutron star. We assume the neutron star to be low--magnetized (B~10^8 G). In the systems investigated in this paper, our computations show that during the binary evolution the companion transfers as much as 1 solar mass to the neutron star, with an accretion rate of 10^-9 solar masses/yr. This is sufficient to keep the inner rim of the accretion disc in contact with the neutron star surface, thus preventing the onset of a propeller phase capable of ejecting a significant fraction of the matter transferred by the companion. We find th…
General relativistic effects on the evolution of binary systems.
When a radio pulsar brakes down due to magnetodipole emission,its gravitational mass decreases accordingly. If the pulsar is hosted in a binary system, this mass loss will Increase the orbital period of the system. We show that this relativistic effect can be indeed observable if the neutron star is fast and magnetized enough and that, if observed, it will help to put tight constraints to the equation of state of ultradense matter. Moreover, in Low Mass X-ray Binaries that evolve towards short periods, the neutron star lights up as a radio pulsar during the "period gap". As the effect we consider contrasts the orbital period decay, the system spends a longer time in this phase. As a consequ…