Search results for "fields"
showing 10 items of 575 documents
Instability of twisted magnetar magnetospheres
2019
We present three-dimensional force-free electrodynamics simulations of magnetar magnetospheres that demonstrate the instability of certain degenerate, high energy equilibrium solutions of the Grad-Shafranov equation. This result indicates the existence of an unstable branch of twisted magnetospheric solutions and allows to formulate an instability criterion. The rearrangement of magnetic field lines as a consequence of this instability triggers the dissipation of up to 30% of the magnetospheric energy on a thin layer above the magnetar surface. During this process, we predict an increase of the mechanical stresses onto the stellar crust, which can potentially result in a global mechanical f…
On Low Mass X-ray Binaries and Millisecond Pulsar
2013
The detection, in 1998, of the first Accreting Millisecond Pulsar, started an exciting season of continuing discoveries in the fashinating field of compact binary systems harbouring a neutron star. Indeed, in these last three lustres, thanks to the extraordinary performances of astronomical detectors, on ground as well as on board of satellites, mainly in the Radio, Optical, X-ray, and Gamma-ray bands, astrophysicists had the opportunity to thoroughly investigate the so-called Recycling Scenario: the evolutionary path leading to the formation of a Millisecond Radio Pulsar. The most intriguing phase is certainly the spin-up stage during which, because of the accretion of matter and angular m…
NuSTARandXMM–Newtonbroad-band spectrum of SAX J1808.4–3658 during its latest outburst in 2015
2018
The first discovered accreting millisecond pulsar, SAX J1808.4-3658, went into X-ray outburst in April 2015. We triggered a 100 ks XMM-Newton ToO, taken at the peak of the outburst, and a 55 ks NuSTAR ToO, performed four days apart. We report here the results of a detailed spectral analysis of both the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR spectra. While the XMM-Newton spectrum appears much softer than in previous observations, the NuSTAR spectrum confirms the results obtained with XMM-Newton during the 2008 outburst. We find clear evidence of a broad iron line that we interpret as produced by reflection from the inner accretion disk. For the first time, we use a self-consistent reflection model to fit the…
Caustics for spherical waves
2016
We study the development of caustics in shift-symmetric scalar field theories by focusing on simple waves with an $SO(p)$-symmetry in an arbitrary number of space dimensions. We show that the pure Galileon, the DBI-Galileon, and the extreme-relativistic Galileon naturally emerge as the unique set of caustic-free theories, highlighting a link between the caustic-free condition for simple $SO(p)$-waves and the existence of either a global Galilean symmetry or a global (extreme-)relativistic Galilean symmetry.
Narrowing the window of inflationary magnetogenesis
2017
We consider inflationary magnetogenesis where the conformal symmetry is broken by the term $f^2(\phi) F_{\alpha\beta} F^{\alpha\beta}$. We assume that the magnetic field power spectrum today between 0.1 and $10^4$ Mpc is a power law, with upper and lower limits from observation. This fixes $f$ to be close to a power law in conformal time in the window during inflation when the modes observed today are generated. In contrast to previous work, we do not make any assumptions about the form of $f$ outside these scales. We cover all possible reheating histories, described by an average equation of state $-1/3 <\bar{w} <1$. Requiring that strong coupling and large backreaction are avoided both at…
The 1-loop effective potential for the Standard Model in curved spacetime
2018
The renormalisation group improved Standard Model effective potential in an arbitrary curved spacetime is computed to one loop order in perturbation theory. The loop corrections are computed in the ultraviolet limit, which makes them independent of the choice of the vacuum state and allows the derivation of the complete set of $\beta$-functions. The potential depends on the spacetime curvature through the direct non-minimal Higgs-curvature coupling, curvature contributions to the loop diagrams, and through the curvature dependence of the renormalisation scale. Together, these lead to significant curvature dependence, which needs to be taken into account in cosmological applications, which i…
Renormalisation group improvement in the stochastic formalism
2019
We investigate compatibility between the stochastic infrared (IR) resummation of light test fields on inflationary spacetimes and renormalisation group running of the ultra-violet (UV) physics. Using the Wilsonian approach, we derive improved stochastic Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations which consistently include the renormalisation group effects. With the exception of stationary solutions, these differ from the naive approach of simply replacing the classical potential in the standard stochastic equations with the renormalisation group improved potential. Using this new formalism, we exemplify the IR dynamics with the Yukawa theory during inflation, illustrating the differences between …
Q7-branes and their coupling to IIB supergravity
2007
We show how, by making use of a new basis of the IIB supergravity axion-dilaton coset, SL(2,R)/SO(2), 7-branes that belong to different conjugacy classes of the duality group SL(2,R) naturally couple to IIB supergravity with appropriate source terms characterized by an SL(2,R) charge matrix Q. The conjugacy classes are determined by the value of the determinant of Q. The (p,q) 7-branes are the branes in the conjugacy class detQ = 0. The 7-branes in the conjugacy class detQ > 0 are labelled by three numbers (p,q,r) which parameterize the matrix Q and will be called Q7-branes. We construct the full bosonic Wess--Zumino term for the Q7-branes. In order to realize a gauge invariant coupling …
On the maximal superalgebras of supersymmetric backgrounds
2009
17 pages.-- ISI article identifier:000262585300016.-- ArXiv pre-print avaible at:http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.5034
Gender Diversity in STEM Disciplines: A Multiple Factor Problem.
2019
La falta de diversidad, y específicamente de diversidad de género, es uno de los problemas clave que se están encontrando tanto las empresas del sector tecnológico como las instituciones del ámbito académico en la educación superior. Según la UNESCO, las mujeres representan el 35% de todos los matriculados en las ramas de Ciencia, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas (STEM, en sus siglas en inglés), encontrándose el mínimo, un 3%, en el área de las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC). Al mismo tiempo, el número de mujeres profesionales que abandonan trabajos de perfil tecnológico es inaceptablemente alto. Como miembros de una institución de educación superior centrada e…