On the variability timescales and magnetic field in OJ 287

The continuum spectrum of OJ 287, like most other BL Lac objects, is featureless- no emission or absorption lines are observed. However, OJ 287 shows variations at different timescales in flux and polarization at various wavelength bands. Using the available variability data one can estimate the sizes of the emission regions in the source from light travel time arguments. We assume the emission mechanism to be synchrotron radiation by high energy electrons with single power law energy distribution. Theoretical synchrotron spectrum in the frequency range 10¹¹–10¹⁷ H _z is compared with the observed spectral shape, obtained from new multifrequency quasi-simultaneous observations, to estimate the lower and upper cut off frequencies. These frequencies are used to obtain theoretical values of the variability timescales and magnetic field in the emission region. We obtain a value of 0.93 G for the magnetic field and 5.184×10⁴ sec for the cooling time from the quiescent continuum spectrum. The shock-in-jet model explains the spectrum where shocks accelerate the particles and amplify the magnetic field in the jet. This timescale is compared with the one obtained from observed short timescale variability (20 minutes) with proper beaming correction. The short timescale variations (200 minutes in the source frame), possibly caused by an additional, flaring, component of the source, are also used to calculate compressed magnetic field. The observed and theoretically estimated variability timescales and the shape of the spectrum suggest that there are more than one emission components in OJ 287.     

A study of non-thermal radio emission features using fine spectral BAO and high-sensitivity RATAN observations of a solar active region

Based on spectral observations of active region NOAA 8545 on 19 May 1999, we describe the processes responsible for non-thermal long-lasting radio emission and for narrow-band non-drifting bursts observed at the same time. Non-thermal long-lasting radio emission consisted of two components: short-duration (1–2 s) microbursts with fluxes about 0.001 s.f.u. and continuum emission with growing spectrum in the range of 1000–2000 MHz. Energetic electrons continuously existed in the active region for more than 2.2 hours. The nature and parameters of microbursts were discussed by Bogod, Mercier, and Yasnov (2001). Here we consider the continuum source nature. It is shown that the model, taking into account the cyclotron loss-cone instability of hot electrons and the generation of plasma waves at the upper hybrid frequency, may explain the observed continuum source parameters. For the narrow-band non-drifting bursts we consider two models: the first taking into account an excitation of weak shock waves across the magnetic field and the second with an excitation of the upper hybrid waves under the double plasma resonance. Continuum source parameters are close to the last model. Our estimations for the magnetic field strength are as follows: H=120–126 G, which is valid for the region where the electron density of background plasmas n=(1.4–1.9) ×10⁹ cm^–3; H=180–190 G for the region where n=(3.0–4.3) ×10⁹ cm^–3; H=290 G for the region where n _e=2.5×10¹⁰ cm^–3; and H=350 G for the region where n _e=3.5×10¹⁰ cm^–3. The speed of the fast electrons is about 0.10–0.14 c.     

Hydrogen molecular ion in the magnetic field of a neutron star

A two-dimensional potential energy surface of an H ₂ ⁺ molecular ion is calculated for the case of the strong magnetic field of the neutron starB=10¹¹–10¹³ G. It is shown that the dependence of the potential energy from the angle between the magnetic field direction and the internuclear axis becomes very sharp as the magnetic field increases. The obtained potential energy surfaces can be used for studying the vibrational-rotational structure of the H ₂ ⁺ spectrum in a strong magnetic field and the development of the observational methods for the determination of the magnetic field of a neutron star.     

Propagation of spiral density waves in a magneto-active disk

The propagation of spiral density waves in a differentially rotating, self-gravitating, magnetoactive and highly flattened disk is investigated by using the asymptotic theory for tightly wound spirals developed by Lin and his collaborators. We adopt the continuum fluid model as the primary basis, and our treatment will be largely analytical. The disk plasma is studied in the frozen field approximation and inhomogenceous magnetic fields in the plane of the disk are considered in detail.In a differentially rotating disk with strong magnetic fields, the field lines will be considerably distorted and the mutual influence of magnetic fields and differential rotation is by no means obvious.In this paper we present a new asymptotic dispersion relation for tightly wound spiral density waves with magnetic fields along the spiral armsB (r). The effects of the magnetic fields lead to such terms likek ²(a ² +V _A ² ), wherek is the wave number,a represents the speed of sound,V _A = (B ²/4)^1/2 is the Alfvén speed,B denotes the field strength, and is the plasma density. These terms depict the well-known magnetoacoustic waves and could have been anticipated without a detailed computation. However the interaction of magnetic fields and differential rotation may give rise to other significant terms which are not so easy to foresee.We also present a more exact local dispersion relation by using the WKB approximation and study the effects of magnetic fields on the growth rate through the parametersQ andJ defined in the literature.Although the effects of the magnetic fields are rather insignificant for applications to Galactic dynamics, the effects of the magnetic fields are important for applications to star formation and problems related to the solar nebula.     

Effect of noise on sunspot magnetic field parameters

Using a perturbated (noised) dipole model of a sunspot magnetic field structure we simulated the influence of background noise or apparent noise (unresolved small-scale magnetic field structure) on sunspot magnetic field parameters. We evaluated mean values of the vertical and horizontal electric current densities |j|_∥ and |j|_⊥, respectively, of the force-free parameter α and of the Lorentz force |F|. For comparison we estimated |j_⊥| and |F| of a standard sunspot magnetic field model (return-flux model, OSHEROVICH 1982). Furthermore, we compared our results with those from observations resulting in estimated values of |j|_∥ for quiet sunspots. Our investigation led to the following results: the estimated values of 〈|F|〉 show clearly that due to the noise the axisymmetric magnetic dipole model is clustered into several subsystems of fluxbundles. The latter are connected with a system of electric current densities of the order of |j|_∥ ∼ 10⁻³ Am⁻² and |j|_⊥ = 10⁻¹ Am⁻², i.e., this system is a noise-generated nonaxisymmetric magnetohydrostatic model.     

Photon dispersion in a strong magnetic field with positronium formation: Theory

Positrinium atom is considered in a strong magnetic field in a vector-potential gauged asA _x =–By. The energy spectrum is obtained including its dependence on the centre-of-mass wave vector across the magnetic field. The pole-like contributions into the photon polarization operator coming from the positronium states are calculated and dispersion curves of joint photon-positronium states are obtained as trajectories of poles of the photon Green function in momentum space.When propagating in a strong magnetic field (B0.1B _cr 4×10¹² G) with curved lines of force, a photon is canalized along the magnetic field by adiabatically transforming into a bound electron-positron pair, which is a stronger effect than the analogous photon capture by transforming into an unbound pair at the edge of the continuum discussed previously by the authors. The effect of bound pair formation by-quanta in a strong magnetic field may be important near pulsars,-burst sources, powerful X-ray sources in close binary systems and other astronomical objects, recognized as magnetic neutron stars.     

Tilted Bianchi Type I stiff fluid magnetized cosmological model in general relativity

Tilted Bianchi Type I cosmological model for perfect fluid distribution in presence of magnetic field, is investigated. To get a determinate solution, it has been assumed that the universe is filled with stiff perfect fluid distribution together with A=(BC) ⁿ where A,B,C are metric potentials and n is a constant. The behaviour of the model in presence and absence of magnetic field is discussed. The various physical and geometrical aspects of the model, is also discussed. It has been shown that tilted nature of the Bianchi Type I model is preserved due to magnetic field. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Energy balance in cool quiescent prominences

The energy balance for cool quiescent prominences is examined using a 6000 km, 6000 K isothermal slab model prominence with a density gradient dictated by a modified Kippenhahn-Schlüter model. The model is irradiated from both sides by the coronal, chromospheric, and photospheric radiation fields. The radiative transfer problem is solved in detail for the Lyman continuum and H to determine the net radiative energy loss for hydrogen. An estimate of the energy loss for Ca ii H and K indicates that this source of energy loss is unimportant when compared with the hydrogen radiation. The radiative energy loss is easily balanced by the conductive energy gain from the corona.The only difficulty with our model is that the total hydrogen density must be of the order of 3 × 10¹²/ cm³ to match the n = 2 population density of 5 × 10⁴/cm³ obtained from observation. To support a prominence of this density and a thickness of 6000 km against gravity requires magnetic fields of the order of 20 G which is much higher than the average magnetic field in quiescent prominences deduced from limb observations. Two possible explanations for this discrepancy are given.Currently at the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik und Astrophysik, München, Germany.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Oscillations of a self-gravitating fluid spheroid with prevalent magnetic field

The Kelvin modes of oscillation of a selfgravitating, homogeneous fluid spheroid in hydrostatic equilibrium with a poloidal magnetic field inside and a dipole type field outside, are studied, using a variational principle. On the assumption that the eccentricitye of the spheroid is small, the frequencies of oscillation are calculated to the first order ine ².     

Studies of magnetic fields in the solar photosphere using the line-ratio method

The longitudinal magnetic field measured using the Fe I λ 525 and Fe I λ 524.7 nm lines and global magnetic field of the sun differ depending on the observatory. To study the cause of these discrepancies, we calculate the H _‖(525)/H _‖(524.7) ratios for various combinations of magnetic elements and compare them with the corresponding observed values. We use the standard quiet model of the solar photosphere suggesting that there are magnetic fields of different polarities in the range between zero and several kilogauss. The magnetic element distribution is found as a function of magnetic field strength and the parameters of this distribution are determined for which the calculated H _‖(525)/H _‖(524.7) ratio agrees with the observed one. The sigma-components are found to be shifted differently for various points of the Fe I λ 525 nm profile calculated for the inhomogeneous magnetic field. The farther the point is from the line center, the larger the sigma-components shift. Such a peculiarity of the profiles may be responsible for the discrepancies in the measured values of the global magnetic field obtained at different observatories. The increase in modulus of the global magnetic field during the maxima of solar activity can be due to a larger fraction of magnetic elements with kilogauss magnetic fields.     

A relation between magnetic field strength and temperature in sunspots

We present Stokes I Zeeman splitting measurements of sunspots using the highly sensitive (g = 3) Fe i line at = 1.5649 m. The splittings are compared with simultaneous intensity measurements in the adjacent continuum. The relation between magnetic field strength and temperature has a characteristic, nonlinear shape in all the spots studied. In the umbra, there is an approximately linear relation between B ² and T _b, consistent with magnetohydrostatic equilibrium in a nearly vertical field. A distinct flattening of the B ² vs T _brelationship in the inner penumbra may be due to changes in the lateral pressure balance as the magnetic field becomes more horizontal; spatially unresolved intensity inhomogeneities may also influence the observed relation.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.     

The Temperature – Magnetic Field Relation in Observed and Simulated Sunspots

Observations of the relation between continuum intensity and magnetic field strength in sunspots have been made for nearly five decades. This work presents full-Stokes measurements of the full-split (\(g = 3\)) line Fe i 1564.85 nm with a spatial resolution of \(0.5^{\prime\prime}\) obtained with the GREGOR Infrared Spectrograph in three large sunspots. The continuum intensity is corrected for instrumental scattered light, and the brightness temperature is calculated. Magnetic field strength and inclination are derived directly from the line split and the ratio of Stokes components. The continuum intensity (temperature) relations to the field strength are studied separately in the umbra, light bridges, and penumbra. The results are consistent with previous studies, and it was found that the scatter of values in the relations increases with increasing spatial resolution thanks to resolved fine structures. The observed relations show trends common for the umbra, light bridges, and the inner penumbra, while the outer penumbra has a weaker magnetic field than the inner penumbra at equal continuum intensities. This fact can be interpreted in terms of the interlocking comb magnetic structure of the penumbra. A comparison with data obtained from numerical simulations was made. The simulated data generally have a stronger magnetic field and a weaker continuum intensity than the observations, which may be explained by stray light and limited spatial resolution of the observations, and also by photometric inaccuracies of the simulations.     

Particle Acceleration in Reconnecting Current Sheets in Impulsive Electron-Rich Solar Flares

Electron and proton acceleration in reconnecting current sheets in electron-rich solar flares is considered. A significant three-dimensional magnetic field is assumed in the current sheet where the particles are accelerated by the DC electric field. The tearing instability of a pre-flare current sheet leads to the formation of multiple singular lines of magnetic field where the electric and magnetic fields are coaligned. Magnetized electrons are shown to be accelerated to a few tens of MeV before they leave the vicinity of a singular line. The acceleration time is estimated to be less than 10^–3 s. By contrast, much heavier protons are unmagnetized and their energy gain is more modest. The model explains a high electron-to-proton ratio and the unusually intense gamma-ray continuum above 1 MeV observed in the electron-rich flares.     

On the theory of annihilation lines in gamma-ray bursts

The mechanism of formation of an annihilation line 0.5 MeV in gamma-ray bursts due to electron-positron pair production in strong magnetic fields of neutron stars is discussed. Bremsstrahlung from a hot polar spot is supposed to be a source of gamma-quanta which produce the pairs. It is shown that a great part of radiation with the energyE>2mc ² per quantum (except for directions along or close to the magnetic field) is consumed by pair production and does not excape from the gamma-burster. This indicates a possible strong gap in continuum radiation at energies higher than 1 MeV. At the same time effective creation of pairs enables one to give a simple estimate of the expected annihilation line intensity in gamma-ray burst spectra. This estimate coincides with the available observational data.     

Fir continuum and line emissions from interstellar medium in galaxies

A self-consistent method has been evolved to infer physical parameters like density, radiation field and abundances using line and continuum radiations as diagnostics. For that purpose, we first calculate the temperatures of graphite and silicate grains using the model of Li and Draine (Astrophys. J. 554:778, 2001) by solving self-consistently the energy balance for G ₀ (1–10⁴) times the radiation field following Weingartner and Draine (Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 134:263, 2001). Consequently, infrared emission fluxes are also obtained. To keep it simple, this is presented in the empirical form of parameters T _D and wavelength. The same model of the grain is adopted for photoelectric heating of gas using the formalism of Weingartner and Draine (Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 134:263, 2001) (hereafter referred to as WD) and Bakes and Tielens (Astrophys. J. 427:822, 1994) (hereafter referred to as BT) for radiation field cited above in the range (6<hν≤13.6 eV). Temperature and abundances are determined using our own code for PDR very similar to cloudy code. All the possible sources of heating and cooling are considered for setting up the thermal balance. For the gas phase abundances that vary with depth in the cloud due to dust, self- and mutual shielding, chemical balance is solved. Most of the photoionization, photodissociation or chemical reaction rates are taken from UMIST database. We present an analysis of the cooling lines of singly ionized carbon [CII] at 158 μm and neutral oxygen [OI], at 63 μm and far infrared (FIR) continuum for a variety of star forming galaxies. Method of analysis of observational data is different from that of Malhotra et al. (Astrophys. J. 561:766, 2001). The radiation field G ₀, density N _h and abundance of carbon are obtained through best fit of observed and calculated intensities for lines and continuum radiations.     

Hydrogen molecular ion in the magnetic field of a neutron star

The paper discusses the structure and energies of rotational-vibrational levels of a molecular ion H ₂ ⁺ in a strong magnetic field typical of neutron stars,B=10¹²–10¹³ G. The study is based on the calculations of the potential energy surface of this molecular ion presented in the paper by Khersonskii (1984a). The energies of the rovibrational levels are calculated with the aid of the perturbation theory. The number of levels in a H ₂ ⁺ potential hole is determined at different magnetic intensities. In particular, it is ascertained that the number of levels decreases as the strength of the magnetic field increases. The effect of nuclear spins on the structure of the rotational levels is considered.     

Effects of high velocities on photoionization lines

We have treated formation of spectral lines in a commoving frame where photoionization is predominant over collisional processes. We have assumed that the radiation field for causing photoionization is a function of Planck function. We have also considered the situation in which the continuum contributes to the radiation in the line. In all the models the quantityB/A (ratio of outer to inner radii) is kept equal to 10 and the total optical depth is taken to be 10³. The velocity is assumed to be varying according to the lawdV/dτ ∼ < 1/τ whereτ is the optical depth (τ > 0) in the given shell. The velocities at the innermost radius (r =A) are set equal to 0 and at the outermost radius (r =B), the maximum velocities are taken to be 0, 1, 3 and 10 Doppler units. The calculated line profiles are those seen by an observer at infinity.P Cygni-type profiles are observed in the case of a medium with no continuum absorption. For a medium with continuum absorption double peaked asymmetric profiles are noticed when the velocities are small; the two emission peaks merge into a single asymmetric peak for larger velocities.     

Solution of the Milne Problem for a Magnetized Atmosphere

The Milne problem is solved numerically for a magnetized semi-infinite electron atmosphere in the case where the magnetic field is directed along the normal to the medium. The calculated angular distribution, degree of linear polarization, and positional angle of inclination of the plane of polarization of the emerging radiation are given in tables for a number of values of the Faraday rotation parameter and for degrees of intrinsic optical absorption, q=0, 0.2, and 0.4. It is assumed that the magnetic field B10⁶ G, so that scattering in the optical range is purely Thomson scattering.     

Time-dependent configuration changes of the magnetotail and plasma sheet thinning

The configuration of the magnetotail magnetic field has been calculated for a situation where a disruption of a portion of the tail current system develops. The decrease of the current in a localized region of the magnetotail leads to a collapse of the magnetic field in that vicinity. The calculated configuration of the field resembles what is predicted by reconnection models with the field lines moving toward the neutral sheet and then connecting and either moving toward or away from the earth. Associated with this changing magnetic field there is an induced electric field which will then influence the motion of the plasma in the magnetotail via E × B drifts.When the current from X_sm = ?20 to ?40 R_E in the tail is decreasing with a tune-constant of 0.5 h the electric field produced, which is primarily westward, has a maximum value of 0.83 mV m^?1 and produces plasma sheet thinning velocities of 0.3 km s^?1. Higher velocities result for more rapid rates of current decrease, and they agree well with experimental observations. The plasma flows in the sunward direction are, however, much smaller than what has been observed. This is due in part to the inability of the magnetic field model to adequately represent the magnetic field in the immediate vicinity of the neutral sheet. Use of an improved model would give better agreement with the observations.The calculations show that the induced electric field of a time-dependent magnetic field is able to explain certain observed features of the plasma sheet motions. Also, this agreement suggests that the assumption that there is no charge separation contribution to the electric field may be reasonable during situations of large scale and rapid current disruptions in the magnetotail.     

Bianchi Type I String Cosmological Models with Bulk Viscosity and Magnetic Field

Some locally rotationally symmetric (LRS) Bianchi type I cosmological models for a cloud string with bulk viscosity and magnetic field are presented. Where an equation of state ρ = kλ and a relation between metric potential R = AS ⁿ are considered. The solution describes a shearing and nonrotating model with a big bang start. In the absence of magnetic field it reduces to a string model with bulk viscosity, where the relation between the coefficient of bulk viscosity and energy density is ζ ∝ ρ^1/2. After choosing k = , it further reduces to a string model without viscosity and magnetic field. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.