Search results for "aves"
showing 10 items of 2443 documents
Apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy: a comparison between homodyne and heterodyne approaches
2006
International audience; In coherent homodyne apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy (ASNOM) the background field cannot be fully suppressed because of the interference between the different collected fields, making the images difficult to interpret. We show that implementing the heterodyne version of ASNOM allows one to overcome this issue. We present a comparison between homodyne and heterodyne ASNOM through near-field analysis of gold nanowells, integrated waveguides, and a single evanescent wave generated by total internal reflection. The heterodyne approach allows for the control of the interferometric effect with the background light. In particular, the undesirable backgro…
The supernova remnant SN 1006 as a Galactic particle accelerator
2022
The origin of cosmic rays is a pivotal open issue of high-energy astrophysics. Supernova remnants are strong candidates to be the Galactic factory of cosmic rays, their blast waves being powerful particle accelerators. However, supernova remnants can power the observed flux of cosmic rays only if they transfer a significant fraction of their kinetic energy to the accelerated particles, but conclusive evidence for such efficient acceleration is still lacking. In this scenario, the shock energy channeled to cosmic rays should induce a higher post-shock density than that predicted by standard shock conditions. Here we show this effect, and probe its dependence on the orientation of the ambient…
Signatures of photon and axion-like particle mixing in the gamma-ray burst jet
2011
Photons couple to Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) or more generally to any pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson in the presence of an external electromagnetic field. Mixing between photons and ALPs in the strong magnetic field of a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) jet during the prompt emission phase can leave observable imprints on the gamma-ray polarization and spectrum. Mixing in the intergalactic medium is not expected to modify these signatures for ALP mass > 10^(-14) eV and/or for < nG magnetic field. We show that the depletion of photons due to conversion to ALPs changes the linear degree of polarization from the values predicted by the synchrotron model of gamma ray emission. We also show that when …
Spin down during quiescence of the fastest known accretion-powered pulsar
2010
We present a timing solution for the 598.89 Hz accreting millisecond pulsar, IGR J00291+5934, using Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer data taken during the two outbursts exhibited by the source on 2008 August and September. We estimate the neutron star spin frequency and we refine the system orbital solution. To achieve the highest possible accuracy in the measurement of the spin frequency variation experienced by the source in-between the 2008 August outburst and the last outburst exhibited in 2004, we re-analysed the latter considering the whole data set available. We find that the source spins down during quiescence at an average rate of ��dot_{sd}=(-4.1 +/- 1.2)E-15 Hz/s. We discuss possible …
Computational general relativistic force-free electrodynamics
2021
Scientific codes are an indispensable link between theory and experiment; in (astro-)plasma physics, such numerical tools are one window into the universe's most extreme flows of energy. The discretization of Maxwell's equations - needed to make highly magnetized (astro)physical plasma amenable to its numerical modeling - introduces numerical diffusion. It acts as a source of dissipation independent of the system's physical constituents. Understanding the numerical diffusion of scientific codes is the key to classify their reliability. It gives specific limits in which the results of numerical experiments are physical. We aim at quantifying and characterizing the numerical diffusion propert…
XMM-Newton Large Program on SN1006 - I: Methods and Initial Results of Spatially-Resolved Spectroscopy
2015
Based on our newly developed methods and the XMM-Newton large program of SN1006, we extract and analyze the spectra from 3596 tessellated regions of this SNR each with 0.3-8 keV counts $>10^4$. For the first time, we map out multiple physical parameters, such as the temperature ($kT$), electron density ($n_e$), ionization parameter ($n_et$), ionization age ($t_{ion}$), metal abundances, as well as the radio-to-X-ray slope ($\alpha$) and cutoff frequency ($\nu_{cutoff}$) of the synchrotron emission. We construct probability distribution functions of $kT$ and $n_et$, and model them with several Gaussians, in order to characterize the average thermal and ionization states of such an extended s…
Numerical-relativity simulations of long-lived remnants of binary neutron star mergers
2019
We analyze the properties of the gravitational wave signal emitted after the merger of a binary neutron star system when the remnant survives for more than a 80 ms (and up to 140ms). We employ four different piecewise polytropic equations of state supplemented by an ideal fluid thermal component. We find that the post-merger phase can be subdivided into three phases: an early post-merger phase (where the quadrupole mode and a few subdominant features are active), the intermediate post-merger phase (where only the quadrupole mode is active) and the late post-merger phase (where convective instabilities trigger inertial modes). The inertial modes have frequencies somewhat smaller than the qua…
Looking at the axionic dark sector with ANITA
2020
The ANITA experiment has recently observed two anomalous events emerging from well below the horizon. Even though they are consistent with tau cascades, a high energy Standard Model or Beyond the Standard Model explanation is challenging and in tension with other experiments. We study under which conditions the reflection of generic radio pulses can reproduce these signals. We propose that these pulses can be resonantly produced in the ionosphere via axion-photon conversion. This naturally explains the direction and polarization of the events and avoids other experimental bounds.
On the observability of T Tauri accretion shocks in the X-ray band
2010
Context. High resolution X-ray observations of classical T Tauri stars (CTTSs) show a soft X-ray excess due to high density plasma (n_e=10^11-10^13 cm^-3). This emission has been attributed to shock-heated accreting material impacting onto the stellar surface. Aims. We investigate the observability of the shock-heated accreting material in the X-ray band as a function of the accretion stream properties (velocity, density, and metal abundance) in the case of plasma-beta<<1 in the post-shock zone. Methods. We use a 1-D hydrodynamic model describing the impact of an accretion stream onto the chromosphere, including the effects of radiative cooling, gravity and thermal conduction. We expl…
Plasma heating and particle acceleration in collisionless shocks through astrophysical observations
2023
Supernova remnants (SNRs), the products of stellar explosions, are powerful astrophysical laboratories, which allow us to study the physics of collisionless shocks, thanks to their bright electromagnetic emission. Blast wave shocks generated by supernovae (SNe) provide us with an observational window to study extreme conditions, characterized by high Mach (and Alfvenic Mach) numbers, together with powerful nonthermal processes. In collisionless shocks, temperature equilibration between different species may not be reached at the shock front. In this framework, different particle species might be heated at different temperatures (depending on their mass) in the post-shock medium of SNRs. SNR…