On particle acceleration and radiation output in stochastic electromagnetic fields

We demonstrate that when charged particles interact with a plane electromagnetic wave which possesses a random amplitude, then the particles are accelerated to high energy because they are pushed along by the wave's Poynting vector. Not only are they so accelerated, as they are carried along by the wave, but also they diffuse at right angles to the direction of the Poynting flux (i.e. in the direction of the wave's electric field). The ultimate energy that such particles can reach is determined when they radiate as much energyper unit time as they receive from the plane wave. For numbers believed typical of the Crab nebula this ultimate energy is of order 10¹⁰ mc ². We have done these calculations to show that turbulent electromagnetic waves are quite efficient in generating high energy particles from low energy particles. Thus when the low frequency coherent waves emitted by a magnetized rotating neutron star are turned into incoherent waves because of wave-plasma interactions in a surrounding nebula, they still accelerate particles to rather high energies. Accordingly, while it obviously takes less time to produce high energy particles with a coherent wave than with a turbulent wave, the calculations given here show that the bulk of the relativistic electrons in the Crab nebula could still be energized by the turbulent remnants of a coherent wave.     

Energy budget and imaging spectroscopy of a compact flare

We present the analysis of a compact flare that occurred on 26 February 2002 at 10:26 UT, seen by both RHESSI and TRACE. The size of the nearly circular hard X-ray source is determined to be 5.6 (±0.8)′′, using different methods. The power-law distribution of non-thermal photons is observed to extend down to 10 keV without flattening, and to soften with increasing distance from the flare kernel. The former indicates that the energy of the precipitating flare electron population is larger than previously estimated: it amounts to 2.6 (±0.8)×10³⁰ erg above 10 keV, assuming thick-target emission. The thermal energy content of the soft X-ray source (isothermal temperature of 20.8 (±0.9) MK) and its radiated power were derived from the thermal emission at low energies. TRACE has observed a low-temperature ejection in the form of a constricted bubble, which is interpreted as a reconnection jet. Its initial energy of motion is estimated. Using data from both satellites, an energy budget for this flare is derived. The kinetic energy of the jet bulk motion and the thermal and radiated energies of the flare kernel were more than an order of magnitude smaller than the derived electron beam energy. A movie is available on the CD-ROM accompanying this volume. Supplementary material to this paper is available in electronic form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1022478300679     

The physics of E × B-drifting jets

E × B-drifting jets have been generally ignored for the past 25 years even though they may well describe all the astrophysical jet sources, both on galactic and stellar scales. Here we present closed-form solutions for their joint field-and-particle distribution, argue that the observed jets are near equipartition, with extremely relativistic, monoenergetic e^±-pairs of bulk Lorentz factor γ ≲ 10⁴, and are first-order stable. We describe plausible mechanisms for the jets’ (i) formation, (ii) propagation, and (iii) termination. Wherever a beam meets with resistance, its frozen-in Poynting flux transforms the delta-shaped energy distribution of the pairs into an almost white power law,E ² N _E ∼E ^−∫ with ∫ ≳ 0, via single-step falls through the huge convected potential.     

Gamma-ray bursts from unstable Poynting-dominated outflows

Poynting-flux driven outflows from magnetized rotators are a plausible explanation for gamma-ray burst engines. We suggest a new possibility for how such outflows might transfer energy into radiating particles. We argue that, in a region near the rotation axis, the Poynting flux drives non-linearly unstable large-amplitude electromagnetic waves (LAEMW) that 'break' at radii     where the MHD approximation becomes inapplicable. In the 'foaming' (relativistically reconnecting) regions formed during the wave breaks, the random electric fields stochastically accelerate particles to ultrarelativistic energies which then radiate in turbulent electromagnetic fields. The typical energy of the emitted photons is a fraction of the fundamental Compton energy     with     plus additional boosting due to the bulk motion of the medium. The emission properties are similar to synchrotron radiation, with a typical cooling time ∼10⁻³ s. During the wave break, the plasma is also bulk accelerated in the outward radial direction and at larger radii can produce afterglows due to interactions with the external medium. The near equipartition fields required by afterglow models may be due to magnetic field regeneration in the outflowing plasma (similar to field generation by LAEMW in laser–plasma interactions) and mixing with the upstream plasma.     

Kinetics of organic matter degradation in the Murchison meteorite for the evaluation of parent‐body temperature history

Abstract– To evaluate kinetic parameters for thermal degradation of organic matter, in situ heating experiments of insoluble organic matter (IOM) and bulk of Murchison (CM2) meteorite were conducted under Fourier transform infrared micro‐spectroscopy combined with a heating stage. Decreases of aliphatic C–H band area under Ar flow were well fitted with Ginstling‐Brounshtein three‐dimensional diffusion model, and the rate constants for decreases of aliphatic C–H were determined. Activation energies E_a and frequency factors A obtained from these rate constants at different temperatures using the Arrhenius equation were E_a = 109 ± 3 kJ mol^?1 and A = 8.7 × 10⁴ s^?1 for IOM, and E_a = 61 ± 6 kJ mol^?1 and A = 3.8 s^?1 for bulk, respectively. Activation energy values of aliphatic C–H decrease are larger for IOM than bulk. Hence, the mineral assemblage of the Murchison meteorite might have catalytic effects for the organic matter degradation. Using obtained kinetic expressions, the time scale for metamorphism can be estimated for a given temperature with aliphatic C–H band area, or the temperature of metamorphism can be estimated for a given time scale. For example, using the obtained kinetic parameters of IOM, aliphatic C–H is lost approximately within 200 years at 100 °C and 100 Myr at 0 °C. Assuming alteration period of 7.5 Myr, alteration temperatures could be calculated to be <15 ± 12 °C. Aliphatic C–H decrease profiles in a parent body can be estimated using time–temperature history model. The kinetic expression obtained by the infrared spectral band of aliphatic C–H could be used as an alternative method to evaluate thermal processes of organic matter in carbonaceous chondrites.     

Three-Dimensional Particle Acceleration in Electromagnetic Cylinder and Torus

Particle acceleration via Poynting vector with toroidal magnetic field is studied in 3D PIC simulation of electron-positron plasma. We choose two different initial magnetic field configurations to compare how the particle acceleration is affected by the expansion of electromagnetic wave. In the cylindrical case, the electromagnetic field strength decays as (ct)⁻², and particles are accelerated in the radial direction as well as the axial direction. Rayleigh-Taylor instability is also observed at the center of the cylinder. In the torus case, the field strength decays as (ct)⁻³, making the acceleration less efficient. Particles accelerated in the axial direction by E × B force creates strong charge separation.     

Kinetic Alfven waves in plasma sheet boundary layer—particle aspect analysis

The particle aspect approach is adopted to investigate the trajectories of charged particles in the electromagnetic field of kinetic Alfven wave. Expressions are found for the dispersion relation, damping rate and associated currents in homogenous plasma. Kinetic effects of electrons and ions are included to study kinetic Alfven wave because both are important in the transition region. It is found that the ratio β of electron thermal energy density to magnetic field energy density and the ratio of ion to electron thermal temperature (T_i/T_e) affect the dispersion relation, damping-rate and associated currents in both cases (warm and cold electron limits). The treatment of kinetic Alfven wave instability is based on the assumption that the plasma consists of resonant and non-resonant particles. The resonant particles participate in an energy exchange process, whereas the non-resonant particles support the oscillatory motion of the wave.     

Large-Scale Variation of Solar Wind Electron Properties from Quasi-Thermal Noise Spectroscopy: Ulysses Measurements

The transport of energy in space plasmas, especially in the solar wind, is far from being understood. Measuring the temperature of the electrons and their non-thermal properties is essential to understand the transport properties in collisionless plasmas. Quasi-thermal noise spectroscopy is a reliable tool for measuring the electron temperature accurately since it is less sensitive to the spacecraft perturbations than particle detectors. We apply this method to Ulysses radio data obtained during the first pole-to-pole fast latitude scan in the high-speed solar wind, using a kappa function to describe the electron velocity distribution. We deduce the variations with heliocentric distance between 1.5 and 2.3 AU in the fast solar wind at high latitude in terms of three fitting parameters: the electron density varies as n _e??R ^?1.96±0.08, the electron temperature as T _e??R ^?0.53±0.15, and the kappa index of the distribution remains constant at ??=2.0±0.2. These observations agree with the predictions of the exospheric theory.     

Radiative Cooling in MHD Models of the Quiet Sun Convection Zone and Corona

We present a series of numerical simulations of the quiet-Sun plasma threaded by magnetic fields that extend from the upper convection zone into the low corona. We discuss an efficient, simplified approximation to the physics of optically thick radiative transport through the surface layers, and investigate the effects of convective turbulence on the magnetic structure of the Sun’s atmosphere in an initially unipolar (open field) region. We find that the net Poynting flux below the surface is on average directed toward the interior, while in the photosphere and chromosphere the net flow of electromagnetic energy is outward into the solar corona. Overturning convective motions between these layers driven by rapid radiative cooling appears to be the source of energy for the oppositely directed fluxes of electromagnetic energy.     

Polarization of the Crab Nebula with disordered magnetic components

In this paper, we present an expanding disc model to derive the polarization properties of the Crab nebula. The distribution function of the plasma and the energy density of the magnetic field are prescribed as functions of the distance from the pulsar using the model derived by Kennel and Coroniti with  σ= 0.003  , where σ is the ratio of the Poynting flux to the kinetic energy flux in the bulk motion just before the termination shock. Unlike the case for previous models, we introduce a disordered magnetic field, which is parametrized by the fractional energy density of the disordered component. The flow dynamics are not solved, and the mean field is toroidal.
The averaged degree of polarization over the disc is obtained as a function of the inclination angle and fractional energy density of the disordered magnetic field. It is found for the Crab Nebula that the disordered component contains about 60 per cent of the magnetic field energy. This value is supported by the facts that the disc appears not as 'lip-shaped' but as 'rings' in the observed intensity map, and that the highest degree of polarization of ∼40 per cent is reproduced for rings, which is consistent with the observations.
We suggest that, because the disordered field contributes to the pressure rather than to the tension, the pinch force may have been overestimated in previous relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. The disruption of the oppositely directed magnetic fields, which is proposed by Lyuvarsky, may actually take place. The relativistic flow speed, which is indicated by the front–back contrast, can be detected in the asymmetry of distributions of the position angle and depolarization.     

The Substellar Population in the Young σ Orionis Cluster, Spatial Distribution

We review different surveys, in the optical and infrared, conducted in the very young (age 1–8 Myr), nearby (d ～ 350 pc) σ Orionis cluster aimed to characterize the substellar population. We describe spectral characteristics of very low mass stars, brown dwarfs and planetary mass objects in the cluster with spectral types from K7 to T6. We study the spatial distribution of the substellar population detected in a IZJ survey covering an area of 1.12 deg.² We find that the radial distribution of substellar objects can be well fitted by an exponential law (ρ = ρ_o e ^?r/ro ), with a central density (ρ _o ) of 0.26 ± 0.03 objects/arcmin² and a characteristic radius (r _o) of 8.8 arcmin ± 0.6 (equivalent to 0.90 ± 0.06 pc at the distance of the cluster). We discuss the presence of possible inhomogeneities in this distribution due to the existence of subclustering. We also compare the spatial distribution of the substellar population with previously known stars in the cluster. We report the initial mass spectrum in the substellar domain.     

Bulk motions of spiral galaxies in the z = 0.03 volume

We analyze the peculiar velocity field for 2400 flat spiral galaxies selected from an infrared sky survey (2MFGC). The distances to the galaxies have been determined from the Tully-Fisher relation in the photometric J band with a dispersion of 0^m.45. The bulk motion of this sample relative to the cosmic microwave background (3K) frame has an amplitude of 199 ± 37 km s^?1 in the direction l = 290° ± 11°, b = +1° ± 9°. The amplitude of the dipole motion tends to decrease with distance in accordance with the expected convergence of bulk flows in the 3K frame. We believe that external massive attractors similar to the Shapley cluster concentration are responsible for ～60% of the local flow velocity in the z = 0.03 volume.     

Structure of pair winds from compact objects with application to emission from bare strange stars

We present the results of numerical simulations of stationary, spherically outflowing, e ^± pair winds, with total luminosities in the range 10³⁴–10⁴² ergs s^?1. In the concrete example described here, the wind injection source is a hot, bare, strange star, predicted to be a powerful source of e ^± pairs created by the Coulomb barrier at the quark surface. We find that photons dominate in the emerging emission, and the emerging photon spectrum is rather hard and differs substantially from the thermal spectrum expected from a neutron star with the same luminosity. This might help distinguish the putative bare strange stars from neutron stars.     

Recombination of electrons with H3+ and H5+ ions

The dissociative recombination coefficients α for capture of electrons by H₃⁺ and H₅⁺ ions have been determined as a function of electron temperature T_e using a microwave afterglow-mass spectrometer apparatus. At ion and neutral temperatures T_u+ = T_n = 240 K, the coefficient α (H₃⁺) is found to vary slowly with T_e at first, decreasing from 1.6 × 10^?7 cm³/s at T_e = 240 K to 1.2 × 10^?7 cm³/s at T_e = 500 K, thereafter falling as T_e^?1 over the range 500 K ? T_e, ? 3000 K. These results, which have a ± 20% uncertainty, agree satisfactorily over the common energy range (0.03–0.36 eV) with the recombination cross sections determined in merged beam measurements by Auerbach et al. At T₊ = T_n = 128 K, the coefficient α(H₅⁺) is found to be (1.8 ± 0.3) × 10^?6 [T_e(K)/300]^?0.69 cm³/s over the range 128 K ? T_e ? 3000 K, with a more rapid decrease, as T_e^?1, between 3000 K and 5500 K. The implications of these results for modelling planetary atmospheres and interstellar clouds are briefly touched on.     

The Process of Photon-Splitting and its Effect on Pulsar Emission:The Analytic Approach

Magnetic photon splitting γ → γγ, a quantum electrodynamic process that becomes important when magnetic field approaching the quantum critical value, B _c = 4.413 × 10¹³ G, may have important effects on pulsar radio emission. According to the standard model, the pulsar radio emission is produced by coherent curvature radiation of a large amounts of e ^± pairs, which are thought to be generated by the pair creation process γ + B → e ^±. However, if the magnetic field is strong enough, the photon splitting may dominate the pair creation process, then the amounts of e ^± pairs and the radio luminosity will be strongly suppressed and may be undetectable. Here we use the fitted analytical formula of the photon splitting attenuation coefficient to study the above process, and find that the photon splitting will strongly decrease the radio emission when B > 10¹³ G. We also note that the photon splitting can strongly but not totally suppress the creation of pairs due to the diminishing dependence of B in the attenuation coefficient. We find that the ratio of the probability of a photon being absorbed by photon splitting to that by pair creation is no more than about six. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Eccentric Eclipsing Binary V889 Aquilae

Several new times of minimum light recorded with photoelectric or CCD means have been gathered for the eccentric eclipsing binary V889 Aql (P = 11.1 days, e = 0.37). Its O–C diagram is presented, and improved elements of the apsidal motion and the light-time effect (LITE) are given. We found a long apsidal motion period of about 24 400 ± 2400 years and a period of the third body of about 52 ± 2 years.     

The peculiar motion of the galaxies

The result of SANDAGE and TAMMANN (1975) that the peculiar motion of the galaxies superimposed on the HUBBLE flow is probably smaller than 50 km/s shows that the kinetic energy density of the “galaxy gas” was always smaller than the energy density of radiation or matter if the galaxies were formed later than z ≈︂ 10⁴. The galaxies possessed initial velocities 0.2 c if they orginated in the recombination area.     

Is the Long-Term Persistency of Circular Polarisation due to the Constant Helicity of the Magnetic Fields in Rotating Quasar Engines?

Many compact radio sources like quasars, blazars, radio galaxies, and micro-quasars emit circular polarisation (CP) with surprising temporal persistent handedness. We propose that the CP is caused by Faraday conversion (FC) of linear polarisation (LP) synchrotron light which propagates along a line-of-sight (LOS) through helical magnetic fields. Jet outflows from radio galaxies should have the required magnetic helicity in the emission region due to the magnetic torque of the accretion disc. Also advection dominated accretion flow (ADAF)should contain magnetic fields with the same helicity. However, a jetregion seems to be the more plausible origin of CP. The proposed scenario requires Faraday rotation (FR) to be insignificant in the emission region. The proposed mechanism works in electron-positron(e^±) as well as electron-proton (e/p) plasma. In the latter case, the emission region should consist of individual flux tubes with independent polarities in order to suppress too strong FR– as it was already proposed for FR based CP generation models. The predominant CP is expected to mostly counter-rotate (rotation is measured here in sky-projection) with respect to the central engine in all cases (jet or ADAF, e^± or e/p plasma) and therefore allows to measure the sense of rotation of quasar engines. The engine of SgrA^* is expected – in this scenario – to rotate clockwise and therefore counter-Galactic, as do the young hot stars in its vicinity, which are thought to feed SgrA^* by their winds. Generally, sources with Stokes-V<0 (V>0) are expected to rotate clockwise(counter-clockwise).     

Numerical construction of magnetosphere with relativistic two-fluid plasma flows

We present a numerical model in which a cold pair plasma is ejected with relativistic speed through a polar cap region and flows almost radially outside the light cylinder. Stationary axisymmetric structures of electromagnetic fields and plasma flows are self-consistently calculated. In our model, motions of positively and negatively charged particles are assumed to be determined by electromagnetic forces and inertial terms, without pair creation and annihilation or radiation loss. The global electromagnetic fields are calculated by the Maxwell's equations for the plasma density and velocity, without using ideal magnetohydrodynamic condition. Numerical result demonstrates the acceleration and deceleration of plasma due to parallel component of the electric fields. Numerical model is successfully constructed for weak magnetic fields or highly relativistic fluid velocity, i.e. kinetic energy dominated outflow. It is found that appropriate choices of boundary conditions and plasma injection model at the polar cap should be explored in order to extend present method to more realistic pulsar magnetosphere, in which the Poynting flux is dominated.