Search results for "Compact star"
showing 10 items of 39 documents
Lensing of fast radio bursts: future constraints on primordial black hole density with an extended mass function and a new probe of exotic compact fe…
2018
The discovery of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers has renewed interest in primordial black holes forming a part of the dark matter density of our Universe. Various tests have been proposed to test this hypothesis. One of the cleanest tests is the lensing of fast radio bursts. In this situation, the presence of a compact object near the line of sight produces two images of the radio burst. If the images are sufficiently separated in time, this technique can constrain the presence of primordial black holes. One can also try to detect the lensed image of the mini-bursts within the main burst. We show that this technique can produce the leading constraints over a wide range in…
Constant circulation sequences of binary neutron stars and their spin characterization
2018
For isentropic fluids, dynamical evolution of a binary system conserves the baryonic mass and circulation; therefore, sequences of constant rest mass and constant circulation are of particular importance. In this work, we present the extension of our Compact Object CALculator (\cocal{}) code to compute such quasiequilibria and compare them with the well-known corotating and irrotational sequences, the latter being the simplest, zero-circulation case. The circulation as a measure of the spin for a neutron star in a binary system has the advantage of being exactly calculable since it is a local quantity. To assess the different measures of spin, such as the angular velocity of the star, the q…
Propagation and stability of relativistic jets
2020
A simple look at the steady high-energy Universe reveals a clear correlation with outflows generated around compact objects (winds and jets). In the case of relativistic jets, they are thought to be produced as a consequence of the extraction of rotational energy from a Kerr black hole (Blandford-Znajek), or from the disc (Blandford-Payne). A fraction of the large energy budget provided by accretion and/or black hole rotational energy is invested into jet formation. After formation, the acceleration and collimation of these outflows allow them to propagate to large distances away from the compact object. The synchrotron cooling times demand that re-acceleration of particles takes place alon…
A relativistically smeared spectrum in the neutron star X-ray binary 4U 1705−44: looking at the inner accretion disc with X-ray spectroscopy
2009
Iron emission lines at 6.4-6.97 keV, identified with fluorescent Kalpha transitions, are among the strongest discrete features in the X-ray band. These are therefore one of the most powerful probes to infer the properties of the plasma in the innermost part of the accretion disc around a compact object. In this paper we present a recent XMM observation of the X-ray burster 4U 1705-44, where we clearly detect a relativistically smeared iron line at about 6.7 keV, testifying with high statistical significance that the line profile is distorted by high velocity motion in the accretion disc. As expected from disc reflection models, we also find a significant absorption edge at about 8.3 keV; th…
Protomagnetar and black hole formation in high-mass stars
2017
Using axisymmetric simulations coupling special relativistic MHD, an approximate post-Newtonian gravitational potential and two-moment neutrino transport, we show different paths for the formation of either protomagnetars or stellar mass black holes. The fraction of prototypical stellar cores which should result in collapsars depends on a combination of several factors, among which the structure of the progenitor star and the profile of specific angular momentum are probably the foremost. Along with the implosion of the stellar core, we also obtain supernova-like explosions driven by neutrino heating and hydrodynamic instabilities or by magneto-rotational effects in cores of high-mass stars…
Long-term X-ray variability of the microquasar system LS 5039/RX J1826.2−1450
2003
We report on the results of the spectral and timing analysis of a BeppoSAX observation of the microquasar system LS 5039/RX J1826.2-1450. The source was found in a low-flux state with Fx(1-10 keV)= 4.7 x 10^{-12} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}, which represents almost one order of magnitude lower than a previous RXTE observation 2.5 years before. The 0.1--10 keV spectrum is described by an absorbed power-law continuum with photon-number spectral index Gamma=1.8+-0.2 and hydrogen column density of NH=1.0^{+0.4}_{-0.3} x 10^{22} cm^{-2}. According to the orbital parameters of the system the BeppoSAX observation covers the time of an X-ray eclipse should one occur. However, the 1.6-10 keV light curve does…
First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Physical Origin of the Asymmetric Ring
2019
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has mapped the central compact radio source of the elliptical galaxy M87 at 1.3 mm with unprecedented angular resolution. Here we consider the physical implications of the asymmetric ring seen in the 2017 EHT data. To this end, we construct a large library of models based on general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations and synthetic images produced by general relativistic ray tracing. We compare the observed visibilities with this library and confirm that the asymmetric ring is consistent with earlier predictions of strong gravitational lensing of synchrotron emission from a hot plasma orbiting near the black hole event horizon. The ring rad…
Third family of compact stars within a nonlocal chiral quark model equation of state
2019
A class of hybrid compact star equations of state is investigated that joins by a Maxwell construction a low-density phase of hadronic matter, modeled by a relativistic mean-field approach with excluded nucleon volume, with a high-density phase of color superconducting two-flavor quark matter, described within a nonlocal covariant chiral quark model. It is found that the occurrence of a stable branch of hybrid compact stars requires a nonvanishing vector meson coupling in the quark model that exceeds a minimal value which depends on the presence of a diquark condensate. It is shown that these hybrid stars do not form a third family disconnected from the second family of ordinary neutron sta…
The long outburst of the black hole transient GRS 1716-249 observed in the X-ray and radio band
2018
We present the spectral and timing analysis of X-ray observations performed on the Galactic black hole transient GRS 1716-249 during the 2016-2017 outburst. The source was almost continuously observed with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory from December 2016 until October 2017. The X-ray hardness ratio and timing evolution indicate that the source approached the soft state three times during the outburst, even though it never reached the canonical soft spectral state. Thus, GRS 1716-249 increases the number of black hole transients showing outbursts with "failed" state transition. During the softening events, XRT and BAT broadband spectral modeling, performed with thermal Comptonization pl…
Looking through the photoionisation wake: Vela X−1 at φorb ≈ 0.75 with Chandra/HETG
2021
Context. The supergiant X-ray binary Vela X−1 represents one of the best astrophysical sources to investigate the wind environment of an O/B star irradiated by an accreting neutron star. Previous studies and hydrodynamic simulations of the system have revealed a clumpy environment and the presence of two wakes: an accretion wake surrounding the compact object and a photoionisation wake trailing it along the orbit. Aims. Our goal is to conduct, for the first time, high-resolution spectroscopy on Chandra/HETGS data at the orbital phase φorb ≈ 0.75, when the line of sight is crossing the photoionisation wake. We aim to conduct plasma diagnostics, inferring the structure and the geometry of the…