Time – Distance Modelling in a Simulated Sunspot Atmosphere

In time?–?distance helioseismology, wave travel times are measured from the cross-correlation between Doppler velocities recorded at any two locations on the solar surface. However, one of the main uncertainties associated with such measurements is how to interpret observations made in regions of strong magnetic field. Isolating the effects of the magnetic field from thermal or sound-speed perturbations has proved to be quite complex and has yet to yield reliable results when extracting travel times from the cross-correlation function. One possible way to decouple these effects is by using a 3D sunspot model based on observed surface magnetic-field profiles, with a surrounding stratified, quiet-Sun atmosphere to model the magneto-acoustic ray propagation, and analyse the resulting ray travel-time perturbations that will directly account for wave-speed variations produced by the magnetic field. These artificial travel-time perturbation profiles provide us with several related but distinct observations: i) that strong surface magnetic fields have a dual effect on helioseismic rays?–?increasing their skip distance while at the same time speeding them up considerably compared to their quiet-Sun counterparts, ii) there is a clear and significant frequency dependence of both skip-distance and travel-time perturbations across the simulated sunspot radius, iii) the negative sign and magnitude of these perturbations appears to be directly related to the sunspot magnetic-field strength and inclination, iv) by “switching off” the magnetic field inside the sunspot, we are able to completely isolate the thermal component of the travel-time perturbations observed, which is seen to be both opposite in sign and much smaller in magnitude than those measured when the magnetic field is present. These results tend to suggest that purely thermal perturbations are unlikely to be the main effect seen in travel times through sunspots, and that strong, near-surface magnetic fields may be directly and significantly altering the magnitude and lateral extent of sound-speed inversions of sunspots made by time?–?distance helioseismology.     

Einstein Gravity Explorer–a medium-class fundamental physics mission

The Einstein Gravity Explorer mission (EGE) is devoted to a precise measurement of the properties of space-time using atomic clocks. It tests one of the most fundamental predictions of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, the gravitational redshift, and thereby searches for hints of quantum effects in gravity, exploring one of the most important and challenging frontiers in fundamental physics. The primary mission goal is the measurement of the gravitational redshift with an accuracy up to a factor 10⁴ higher than the best current result. The mission is based on a satellite carrying cold atom-based clocks. The payload includes a cesium microwave clock (PHARAO), an optical clock, a femtosecond frequency comb, as well as precise microwave time transfer systems between space and ground. The tick rates of the clocks are continuously compared with each other, and nearly continuously with clocks on earth, during the course of the 3-year mission. The highly elliptic orbit of the satellite is optimized for the scientific goals, providing a large variation in the gravitational potential between perigee and apogee. Besides the fundamental physics results, as secondary goals EGE will establish a global reference frame for the Earth’s gravitational potential and will allow a new approach to mapping Earth’s gravity field with very high spatial resolution. The mission was proposed as a class-M mission to ESA’s Cosmic Vision Program 2015–2025.

Cosmological Model with a Time-Dependent Equation of State in a Kaluza–Klein Metric

A homogeneous cosmological model in Kaluza–Klein metric is obtained assuming a time-dependent equation of state. The solution is in fact generalization of an earlier work by Hajj and Boutros for a perfect fluid. It is also found that dimensional reduction of the extra space takes place such that the five-dimensional universe naturally evolves into an effective four-dimensional one. The dynamical behaviour of the model is examined and it is also found that with a decrease in extra space the observable three-dimensional space entropy increase thus accounting for the large value of entropy observable at present.     

Kantowski–Sachs bulk viscous cosmological model in a scalar–tensor theory of gravitation

Field equations are obtained in the scalar–tensor theory of gravitation proposed by Saez and Ballester (Phys. Lett. A 113:467, 1986) with the aid of spatially homogenous and anisotropic Kantowski–Sachs space–time in the presence of bulk viscous fluid containing one dimensional cosmic strings. A determinate solution of the field equations is obtained, using some plausible physical conditions, which represents a Kantowski–Sach’s bulk viscous Cosmological model in the new scalar–tensor theory. Physical and kinematical properties of the model are also discussed.     

Attenuation of small-amplitude oscillations in a prominence–corona model with a transverse magnetic field

Observations show that small-amplitude prominence oscillations are usually damped after a few periods. This phenomenon has been theoretically investigated in terms of non-ideal magnetoacoustic waves, non-adiabatic effects being the best candidates to explain the damping in the case of slow modes. We study the attenuation of non-adiabatic magnetoacoustic waves in a slab prominence embedded in the coronal medium. We assume an equilibrium configuration with a transverse magnetic field to the slab axis and investigate wave damping by thermal conduction and radiative losses. The magnetohydrodynamic equations are considered in their linearised form and terms representing thermal conduction, radiation and heating are included in the energy equation. The differential equations that govern linear slow and fast modes are numerically solved to obtain the complex oscillatory frequency and the corresponding eigenfunctions. We find that coronal thermal conduction and radiative losses from the prominence plasma reveal as the most relevant damping mechanisms. Both mechanisms govern together the attenuation of hybrid modes, whereas prominence radiation is responsible for the damping of internal modes and coronal conduction essentially dominates the attenuation of external modes. In addition, the energy transfer between the prominence and the corona caused by thermal conduction has a noticeable effect on the wave stability, radiative losses from the prominence plasma being of paramount importance for the thermal stability of fast modes. We conclude that slow modes are efficiently damped, with damping times compatible with observations. On the contrary, fast modes are less attenuated by non-adiabatic effects and their damping times are several orders of magnitude larger than those observed. The presence of the corona causes a decrease of the damping times with respect to those of an isolated prominence slab, but its effect is still insufficient to obtain damping times of the order of the period in the case of fast modes.     

Interaction of free-floating planets with a star–planet pair

The recent discovery of free-floating planets and their theoretical interpretation as celestial bodies, either condensed independently or ejected from parent stars in tight clusters, introduced an intriguing possibility. Namely, that some exoplanets are not condensed from the protoplanetary disk of their parent star. In this novel scenario a free-floating planet interacts with an already existing planetary system, created in a tight cluster, and is captured as a new planet. In the present work we study this interaction process by integrating trajectories of planet-sized bodies, which encounter a binary system consisting of a Jupiter-sized planet revolving around a Sun-like star. To simplify the problem we assume coplanar orbits for the bound and the free-floating planet and an initially parabolic orbit for the free-floating planet. By calculating the uncertainty exponent, a quantity that measures the dependence of the final state of the system on small changes of the initial conditions, we show that the interaction process is a fractal classical scattering. The uncertainty exponent is in the range (0.2–0.3) and is a decreasing function of time. In this way we see that the statistical approach we follow to tackle the problem is justified. The possible final outcomes of this interaction are only four, namely flyby, planet exchange, capture or disruption. We give the probability of each outcome as a function of the incoming planet’s mass. We find that the probability of exchange or capture (in prograde as well as retrograde orbits and for very long times) is non-negligible, a fact that might explain the possible future observations of planetary systems with orbits that are either retrograde (see e.g. Queloz et?al. Astron. Astrophys. 417, L1, 2010) or tight and highly eccentric.     

The eccentric Kozai–Lidov effect as a resonance phenomenon

Exploring weakly perturbed Keplerian motion within the restricted three-body problem, Lidov (Planet Space Sci 9:719–759, 1962) and, independently, Kozai (Astron J 67:591–598, 1962) discovered coupled oscillations of eccentricity and inclination (the KL cycles). Their classical studies were based on an integrable model of the secular evolution, obtained by double averaging of the disturbing function approximated with its first non-trivial term. This was the quadrupole term in the series expansion with respect to the ratio of the semimajor axis of the disturbed body to that of the disturbing body. If the next (octupole) term is kept in the expression for the disturbing function, long-term modulation of the KL cycles can be established (Ford et al. in Astrophys J 535:385–401, 2000; Naoz et al. in Nature 473:187–189, 2011; Katz et al. in Phys Rev Lett 107:181101, 2011). Specifically, flips between the prograde and retrograde orbits become possible. Since such flips are observed only when the perturber has a nonzero eccentricity, the term “eccentric Kozai–Lidov effect” (or EKL effect) was proposed by Lithwick and Naoz (Astrophys J 742:94, 2011) to specify such behavior. We demonstrate that the EKL effect can be interpreted as a resonance phenomenon. To this end, we write down the equations of motion in terms of “action-angle” variables emerging in the integrable Kozai–Lidov model. It turns out that for some initial values the resonance is degenerate and the usual “pendulum” approximation is insufficient to describe the evolution of the resonance phase. Analysis of the related bifurcations allows us to estimate the typical time between the successive flips for different parts of the phase space.     

Two-photon positron–electron annihilation in a strong magnetic field

We consider the two-photon positron and electron annihilation in flight, it means the annihilating particles exhibit the middly relativistic momenta in a super strong magnetic field. Such particles are present in the corona of pulsars and magnetars. The paper presents how the total emission rate for the two-photon process is affected not only by magnetic field but also by the relativistic momentum of the annihilating particles. We found that the momenta influence significantly the total emission rate and the directions of the emitted photons. Additionally, the total emission for the two-photon process is comparable to that for the one-photon process at the momentum of annihilating particles of about m₀, where m₀ is the electron mass, and the magnetic field close to the critical Schwinger value of 4.41 × 10¹³ G. The latter is reported as a main annihilation channel in a super strong magnetic field. We calculated also the energetic spectra of annihilating photons emitted, which are also affected by the magnetic field and the momenta of the annihilating particles.     

Sources of SEP Acceleration during a Flare – CME Event

A high-speed, halo-type coronal mass ejection (CME), associated with a GOES M4.6 soft X-ray flare in NOAA AR 0180 at S12W29 and an EIT wave and dimming, occurred on 9 November 2002. A complex radio event was observed during the same period. It included narrow-band fluctuations and frequency-drifting features in the metric wavelength range, type III burst groups at metric – hectometric wavelengths, and an interplanetary type II radio burst, which was visible in the dynamic radio spectrum below 14 MHz. To study the association of the recorded solar energetic particle (SEP) populations with the propagating CME and flaring, we perform a multi-wavelength analysis using radio spectral and imaging observations combined with white-light, EUV, hard X-ray, and magnetogram data. Velocity dispersion analysis of the particle distributions (SOHO and Wind in situ observations) provides estimates for the release times of electrons and protons. Our analysis indicates that proton acceleration was delayed compared to the electrons. The dynamics of the interplanetary type II burst identify the burst source as a bow shock created by the fast CME. The type III burst groups, with start times close to the estimated electron-release times, trace electron beams travelling along open field lines into the interplanetary space. The type III bursts seem to encounter a steep density gradient as they overtake the type II shock front, resulting in an abrupt change in the frequency drift rate of the type III burst emission. Our study presents evidence in support of a scenario in which electrons are accelerated low in the corona behind the CME shock front, while protons are accelerated later, possibly at the CME bow shock high in the corona.     

Orbit and uncertainty propagation: a comparison of Gauss–Legendre-, Dormand–Prince-, and Chebyshev–Picard-based approaches

We present a new variable-step Gauss–Legendre implicit-Runge–Kutta-based approach for orbit and uncertainty propagation, VGL-IRK, which includes adaptive step-size error control and which collectively, rather than individually, propagates nearby sigma points or states. The performance of VGL-IRK is compared to a professional (variable-step) implementation of Dormand–Prince 8(7) (DP8) and to a fixed-step, optimally-tuned, implementation of modified Chebyshev–Picard iteration (MCPI). Both nearly-circular and highly-elliptic orbits are considered using high-fidelity gravity models and realistic integration tolerances. VGL-IRK is shown to be up to eleven times faster than DP8 and up to 45 times faster than MCPI (for the same accuracy), in a serial computing environment. Parallelization of VGL-IRK and MCPI is also discussed.     

Breakdown of the Goldreich–Julian relation in a neutron star

The electromagnetic field in a magnetized neutron star and the underlying volume charges and currents are found. A general case of a rigidly rotating neutron star with infinite conductivity, arbitrary distribution of the internal magnetic field, arbitrarily changing angular velocity, and arbitrary surface velocity less than the velocity of light is considered. Quaternions are used to describe rotation and determine the magnetic field. It is shown that the charge density is not equal to and can exceed significantly the common Goldreich–Julian density. Moreover, corrections to the magnetic field due to stellar rotation are zero. For a rotating neutron star, twisting magnetic field lines causes charge accumulation and current flows. This fact shows a possible link between changing internal magnetic field topology and observed activity of neutron stars.     

Braking PSR J1734–3333 with a possible fall-back disk

The very small braking index of PSR J1734–3333,n=0.9±0.2,challenges the current theories of braking mechanisms in pulsars.We present a possible interpretation that this pulsar is surrounded by a fall-back disk and braked by it.A modified braking torque is proposed based on the competition between the magnetic energy density of the pulsar and the kinetic energy density of the fall-back disk.With this torque,a self-similar disk can fit all the observed parameters of PSR J1734–3333with natural initial values of parameters.In this regime,the star will evolve to the region having anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma repeaters in the P˙P diagram in about 20 000 years and stay there for a very long time.The mass of the disk around PSR J1734–3333 in our model is about 10M⊕,similar to the observed mass of the disk around AXP 4U 0142+61.     

EC 11481–2303—a peculiar subdwarf OB star revisited

EC?11481–2303 is a peculiar, hot, high-gravity pre-white dwarf. Previous optical spectroscopy revealed that it is a sdOB star with T _eff=41?790 K, log?g=5.84, and He/H = 0.014 by number. We present an on-going spectral analysis by means of non-LTE model-atmosphere techniques based on high-resolution, high-S/N optical (VLT-UVES) and ultraviolet (FUSE, IUE) observations.We are able to reproduce the optical and UV observations simultaneously with a chemically homogeneous NLTE model atmosphere with a significantly higher effective temperature and lower He abundance (T _eff=55?000 K, log?g=5.8, and He/H=0.0025 by number). While C, N, and O appear less than 0.15 times solar, the iron-group abundance is strongly enhanced by at least a factor of ten.     

Updated results of a search for main-belt comets using the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey

The results of a search for main-belt comets using Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey data are updated. The remaining observations in the Very Wide segment of data, taken in the g’ or r’ filters, are visually inspected for cometary activity. The number of main-belt objects in the original and new data sets are 11,438 and 13,802, respectively, giving a total number of 25,240. This is the largest, and least biased, search for main-belt comets to date. One object is observed to show cometary activity, and a new upper limit for strongly active main-belt comets is derived to be 40 ± 18.     

GSC 4560–02157: a new long-period eclipsing cataclysmic variable star

We study the newly discovered variable star GSC 4560–02157. CCD photometry was performed in 2013–2014 at the Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory,and a spectrum was obtained with the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory in June, 2014. GSC 4560–02157 is demonstrated to be an eclipsing variable star(P = 0.265359d). All its flat-bottom primary minima are approximately at the same brightness level, but the star's out-of-eclipse brightness and brightness at secondary minima vary considerably(by up to 0.6m) from cycle to cycle. Moreover,there are short-term(time scale of 0.03–0.04 days) small-amplitude brightness variations out of eclipse. This behavior suggests a cataclysmic nature for the star, which is confirmed with a spectrum taken on 2014 June 5. The spectrum shows numerous emissions of the hydrogen Balmer series, He Ⅰ and He Ⅱ.     

Reconstruction of the North–South Solar Asymmetry with a Kuramoto Model

This paper applies a Kuramoto model of coupled oscillators to investigate the north–south (N–S) solar asymmetry and properties of meridional circulation. We focus our study on the asymmetry of the 11-year phase, which is slight but persistent: only two changes of sign (around 1928 and 1968) are observed in the past century. We present a model of two non-linear coupled oscillators that links the hemispheric phase asymmetry of sunspots with the asymmetry of the meridional flow. We use a Kuramoto model with evolving frequencies and constant symmetric coupling to show how asymmetry in meridional circulation could produce a persistent phase lead of one solar hemisphere over the other. We associate the natural frequencies of the two oscillators with the velocities of the meridional flow cells in the northern and southern hemispheres. We assume the respective circulations to be independent and estimate the value of the relevant cross-equatorial coupling by the coupling coefficient in the Kuramoto model. We find that a persistent N–S asymmetry of sunspots and the change of the leading hemisphere could indeed both be the result of the evolving frequencies of meridional circulation; the necessary asymmetry of the meridional flow may be small; and the cross-equatorial coupling has an intermediate range value. Possible applications of these results in solar dynamo models are discussed.     

The Observational Evidence on the Loop–Loop Interaction in a Flare–CME Event on April 15, 1998

The evolution of the soft X-ray and EUV coronal loops related to the April 15, 1998 solar flare–CME event is studied with multiwavelength observations including hard X-rays (BATSE), microwaves (NoRP, CNAO) and magnetograms (SOHO/MDI), as well as images from Yohkoh/SXT and SOHO/EIT at 195 Å. It is shown that: (1) two soft X-ray and EUV loops rose, crossed and turned bright, (2) near one footpoint of these loops, the background magnetic field decreased, (3) there were similar quasi periodic oscillations in the time profiles of hard X-ray and microwave emissions, which characterized the loop–loop coalescence instability, (4) after the loop–loop reconnection, two new loops formed, the small one stayed at the original place, and the large one ejected out as part of the constructed prominence cloud. Based upon these observations, we argue that the decrease of the background magnetic field near these loops caused them to rise and approach each other, and in turn, the fast loop–loop coalescence instability took place and triggered the flare and the CME.