Iodine-Cell Spectroscopy Applied to Investigating the Solar Differential Rotation

In an attempt to examine whether the spectroscopic Doppler method with an iodine cell (which is known to be successful for precise radial-velocity determinations in stellar astronomy) could be effective for investigating the solar differential rotation, we carried out intensive observations to collect spectra at a large number of points on the solar disk by using the Domeless Solar Telescope along with the horizontal spectrograph of the Hida Observatory. Having converted the resulting line-of-sight velocity component into the angular rotational rate (ω), we derived a differential rotation law, w_sidereal  (deg day^-1) = 14.03 (±0.06)-1.84 (±0.57) sin²y-1.92 (±0.85) sin⁴y\omega_{\mathrm{sidereal}}\; (\mathrm{deg}\,\mathrm{day}^{-1}) =14.03 (\pm0.06)-1.84 (\pm0.57) \sin^{2}\psi-1.92 (\pm0.85) \sin^{4}\psi (ψ: heliographic latitude), which is reasonably consistent with other spectroscopic determinations published so far. Our analysis also revealed several practical points to note for successful application (e.g., exclusion of those data that are not well distant from the meridian; mutual data subtraction/averaging for symmetric counterparts at the eastern and western hemisphere). Considering its easiness and cheapness, this iodine-cell-featured spectroscopic method may be regarded as an effective and practical tool for studying the differential rotation of the Sun.     

Stability of ion-acoustic waves in a pair-ion plasma with a third species of ions: application to cometary plasmas

A popular model of a cometary plasma is hydrogen (H⁺) with positively charged oxygen (O⁺) as a heavier ion component. However, the discovery of negatively charged oxygen (O^?) ions enables one to model a cometary plasma as a pair-ion plasma (of O⁺ and O^?) with hydrogen as a third ion constituent. We have, therefore, studied the stability of the ion-acoustic wave in such a pair-ion plasma with hydrogen and electrons streaming with velocities $V_{d\mathrm{H}^{+}}$ and V _de , respectively, relative to the oxygen ions. We find the calculated frequency of the ion-acoustic wave with this model to be in good agreement with the observed frequencies. The ion-acoustic wave can also be driven unstable by the streaming velocity of the hydrogen ions. The growth rate increases with increasing hydrogen density $n_{\mathrm{H}^{+}}$ , and streaming velocities $V_{d\mathrm{H}^{+}}$ and V _de . It, however, decreases with increasing oxygen ion densities $n_{\mathrm{O}^{+}}$ and $n_{\mathrm{O}^{-}}$ .     

Small-Scale Flux Emergence Observed Using <Emphasis Type="Italic">Hinode</Emphasis>/SOT

The aim of this paper is to determine the flux emergence rate due to small-scale magnetic features in the quiet Sun using high-resolution Hinode SOT NFI data. Small-scale magnetic features are identified in the data using two different feature identification methods (clumping and downhill); then three methods are applied to detect flux emergence events. The distribution of the intranetwork peak emerged fluxes is determined. When combined with previous emergence results, from ephemeral regions to sunspots, the distribution of all fluxes are found to follow a power-law distribution which spans nearly seven orders of magnitude in flux (10¹⁶ – 10²³ Mx) and 18 orders of magnitude in frequency. The power-law fit to all these data is of the form

Investigation of the Neupert Effect in the Various Intervals of Solar Flares

The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) gives us a chance to investigate the theoretical Neupert effect using the correlation between the thermal-energy derivative and the nonthermal energy, or the thermal energy and the integral nonthermal energy. Based on this concept, we analyze four M-class RHESSI flares on 13 November 2003, 4 November 2004, 3 and 25 August 2005. According to the evolution of the temperature [T], emission measure [EM], and thermal energy [E _th], each event is divided into three phases during the nonthermal-energy input [ \frac dE_nthdt\frac {\mathrm{d}E_{\mathrm{nth}}}{\mathrm{d}t} in the units of erg s⁻¹]. Phase 1 is identified as the interval before the temperature maximum, while after the thermal-energy maximum is phase 3, between them is phase 2. We find that these four flares show the Neupert effect in phase 1, but not in phase 3. The Neupert effect still works well in the second phase, although the cooling becomes slightly important. We define the parameter μ in the relation of \fracdE_thdt=m\fracdE_nth(t)dt\frac{\mathrm {d}E_{\mathrm{th}}}{\mathrm{d}t}=\mu\frac{\mathrm{d}E_{\mathrm {nth}}(t)}{\mathrm{d}t} or E_th(t₀)=mò₀^t₀\fracdE_nth(t)dt dtE_{\mathrm{th}}(t_{0})=\mu\int_{0}^{t_{0}}\frac{\mathrm{d}E_{\mathrm{nth}}(t)}{\mathrm{d}t}\,\mathrm{d}t when the cooling is ignored in phase 1. Considering the uncertainties in estimating the energy from the observations, it is not possible to precisely determine the fraction of the known energy in the nonthermal electrons transformed into the thermal energy of the hottest plasma observed by RHESSI. After a rough estimate of the flare volume and the assumption of the filling factor, we investigate the parameter μ in these four events. Its value ranges from 0.02 to 0.20, indicating that a small fraction (2% – 20%) of the nonthermal energy can be efficiently transformed into thermal energy, which is traced by the soft X-ray emission, and the bulk of the energy is lost possibly due to cooling.     

Charged analogues of Schwarzschild interior solution in terms of pressure

Recently, Bijalwan (Astrophys. Space Sci., doi:, 2011a) discussed charged fluid spheres with pressure while Bijalwan and Gupta (Astrophys. Space Sci. 317, 251–260, 2008) suggested using a monotonically decreasing function f to generate all possible physically viable charged analogues of Schwarzschild interior solutions analytically. They discussed some previously known and new solutions for Schwarzschild parameter u( = \fracGMc²a ) ￡ 0.142u( =\frac{GM}{c^{2}a} ) \le 0.142, a being radius of star. In this paper we investigate wide range of u by generating a class of solutions that are well behaved and suitable for modeling Neutron star charge matter. We have exploited the range u≤0.142 by considering pressure p=p(ω) and f = ( f₀(1 - \fracR²(1 - w)a²) +f_a\fracR²(1 - w)a² )f = ( f_{0}(1 - \frac{R^{2}(1 - \omega )}{a^{2}}) +f_{a}\frac{R^{2}(1 - \omega )}{a^{2}} ), where w = 1 -\fracr²R²\omega = 1 -\frac{r^{2}}{R^{2}} to explore new class of solutions. Hence, class of charged analogues of Schwarzschild interior is found for barotropic equation of state relating the radial pressure to the energy density. The analytical models thus found are well behaved with surface red shift z _s ≤0.181, central red shift z _c ≤0.282, mass to radius ratio M/a≤0.149, total charge to total mass ratio e/M≤0.807 and satisfy Andreasson’s (Commun. Math. Phys. 288, 715–730, 2009) stability condition. Red-shift, velocity of sound and p/c ² ρ are monotonically decreasing towards the surface while adiabatic index is monotonically increasing. The maximum mass found to be 1.512 M _Θ with linear dimension 14.964 km. Class of charged analogues of Schwarzschild interior discussed in this paper doesn’t have neutral counter part. These solutions completely describe interior of a stable Neutron star charge matter since at centre the charge distribution is zero, e/M≤0.807 and a typical neutral Neutron star has mass between 1.35 and about 2.1 solar mass, with a corresponding radius of about 12 km (Kiziltan et al., [astro-ph.GA], 2010).     

Dissipation of modified entropic gravitational energy through gravitational waves

The phenomenological nature of a new gravitational type interaction between two different bodies derived from Verlinde’s entropic approach to gravitation in combination with Sorkin’s definition of Universe’s quantum information content, is investigated. Assuming that the energy stored in this entropic gravitational field is dissipated under the form of gravitational waves and that the Heisenberg principle holds for this system, one calculates a possible value for an absolute minimum time scale in nature t = \frac1516 \fracL^1/2(^h/_2p) Gc⁴ ~ 9.27×10^-105\tau=\frac{15}{16} \frac{\Lambda^{1/2}\hbar G}{c^{4}}\sim9.27\times10^{-105} seconds, which is much smaller than the Planck time t _P =(ħG/c ⁵)^1/2∼5.38×10⁻⁴⁴ seconds. This appears together with an absolute possible maximum value for Newtonian gravitational forces generated by matter F_g=\frac3230\fracc⁷L (^h/_2p) G² ~ 3.84×10¹⁶⁵F_{g}=\frac{32}{30}\frac{c^{7}}{\Lambda \hbar G^{2}}\sim 3.84\times 10^{165} Newtons, which is much higher than the gravitational field between two Planck masses separated by the Planck length F _gP =c ⁴/G∼1.21×10⁴⁴ Newtons.     

Ultra-high energy neutrino fluxes from supermassive AGN black holes

We compute the ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrino fluxes from plausible accreting supermassive black holes closely linking to the 377 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). They have well-determined black hole masses collected from the literature. The neutrinos are produced via simple or modified URCA processes, even after the neutrino trapping, in superdense proto-matter medium. The resulting fluxes are ranging from: (1) (quark reactions)— $J^{q}_{\nu\varepsilon}/(\varepsilon_{d}\ \mathrm{erg}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}\,\mathrm{sr}^{-1})\simeq8.29\times 10^{-16}$ to 3.18×10^?4, with the average $\overline{J}^{q}_{\nu\varepsilon}\simeq5.53\times 10^{-10}\varepsilon_{d}\ \mathrm{erg}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}\,\mathrm{sr}^{-1}$ , where ε _d ～10^?12 is the opening parameter; (2) (pionic reactions)— $J^{\pi}_{\nu\varepsilon} \simeq0.112J^{q}_{\nu\varepsilon}$ , with the average $J^{\pi}_{\nu\varepsilon} \simeq3.66\times 10^{-11}\varepsilon_{d}\ \mathrm{erg}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}\,\mathrm{sr}^{-1}$ ; and (3) (modified URCA processes)— $J^{URCA}_{\nu\varepsilon}\simeq7.39\times10^{-11} J^{q}_{\nu\varepsilon}$ , with the average $\overline{J}^{URCA}_{\nu\varepsilon} \simeq2.41\times10^{-20} \varepsilon_{d}\ \mathrm{erg}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}\,\mathrm{sr}^{-1}$ . We conclude that the AGNs are favored as promising pure neutrino sources, because the computed neutrino fluxes are highly beamed along the plane of accretion disk, peaked at high energies and collimated in smaller opening angle θ～ε _d .     

Density variation effect on multi-ions with kinetic Alfven wave around cusp region—a kinetic approach

The kinetic Alfven waves in the presence of homogeneous magnetic field plasma with multi-ions effect are investigated. The dispersion relation and normalised damping rate are derived for low-\(\beta\) plasma using kinetic theory. The effect of density variation of \(\text{H}^{+}\), \(\text{He}^{+}\) and \(\text{O}^{+}\) ions is observed on frequency and damping rate of the wave. The variation of frequency (\(\omega\)) and normalised damping rate (\(\gamma / \varOmega_{H^{ +}} \)) of the wave are studied with respect to \(k_{ \bot} \rho_{j}\), where \(k_{ \bot} \) is the perpendicular wave number, \(\rho_{j}\) is the ion gyroradius and \(j \) denotes \(\text{H}^{+}\), \(\text{He}^{+}\) and \(\text{O}^{+}\) ions. The variation with \(k_{ \bot} \rho_{j}\) is considered over wide range. The parameters appropriate to cusp region are used for the explanation of results. It is found that with hydrogen and helium ions gyration, the frequency of wave is influenced by the density variation of \(\text{H}^{+}\) and \(\text{He}^{+}\) ions but remains insensitive to the change in density of \(\text{O}^{+}\) ions. For oxygen ion gyration, the frequency of wave varies over a short range only for \(\text{O}^{+}\) ion density variation. The wave shows damping at lower altitude due to variation in density of lighter \(\text{H}^{+}\) and \(\text{He}^{+}\) ions whereas at higher altitude only heavy \(\text{O}^{+}\) ions contribute in wave damping. The damping of wave may be due to landau damping or energy transfer from wave to particles. The present study signifies that the both lighter and heavier ions dominate differently to change the characteristics of kinetic Alfven wave and density variation is also an important parameter to understand wave phenomena in cusp region.     

Ion-acoustic double layers in magnetized positive-negative ion plasmas with nonthermal electrons

The nonlinear ion-acoustic double layers (IADLs) in a warm magnetoplasma with positive-negative ions and nonthermal electrons are investigated. For this purpose, the hydrodynamic equations for the positive-negative ions, nonthermal electron density distribution, and the Poisson equation are used to derive a modified Zakharov–Kuznetsov (MZK) equation, in the small amplitude regime. It is found that compressive and rarefactive IADLs strongly depend on the mass and density ratios of the negative-to-positive ions as well as the nonthermal electron parameter. Also, it is shown that there are one critical value for the density ratio of the negative-to-positive ions (ν), the ratio between unperturbed electron-to-positive ion density (μ), and the nonthermal electron parameter (β), which decide the existence of positive and negative IADLs. The present study is applied to examine the small amplitude nonlinear IADL excitations for the (H⁺, O₂^-)(\mathrm{H}^{+}, \mathrm{O}_{2}^{-}) and (H⁺,H⁻) plasmas, where they are found in the D- and F-regions of the Earth’s ionosphere. This investigation should be helpful in understanding the salient features of the nonlinear IADLs in either space or laboratory plasmas where two distinct groups of ions and non-Boltzmann distributed electrons are present.     

An Analytical Model to Predict the Arrival Time of Interplanetary CMEs

Referring to the aerodynamic drag force, we present an analytical model to predict the arrival time of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). All related calculations are based on the expression for the deceleration of fast CMEs in the interplanetary medium (ICMEs), [(v)\dot]=-\frac115 700(v-V_SW)²\dot{v}=-\frac{1}{15\,700}(v-V_{\mathrm{SW}})^{2} , where V _SW is the solar wind speed. The results can reproduce well the observations of three typical parameters: the initial speed of the CME, the speed of the ICME at 1 AU and the transit time. Our simple model reveals that the drag acceleration should be really the essential feature of the interplanetary motion of CMEs, as suggested by Vršnak and Gopalswamy (J. Geophys. Res. 107, 1019, 2002).     

Phase mixing of propagating Alfvén waves in a stratified atmosphere: solar spicules

Alfvénic waves are thought to play an important role in coronal heating and solar wind acceleration. Recent observations by Hinode/SOT showed that the spicules mostly exhibit upward propagating high frequency waves. Here we investigate the dissipation of such waves due to phase mixing in stratified environment of solar spicules. Since they are highly dynamic structures with speeds at about significant fractions of the Alfvén phase speed, we take into account the effects of steady flows. Our numerical simulations show that in the presence of stratification due to gravity, damping takes place in space than in time. The exponential damping low, \operatornameexp(-\operatornameAt³)\operatorname{exp}(-\operatorname{At}^{3}), is valid under spicule conditions, however the calculated damping time is much longer than the reported spicule lifetimes from observations.     

On the rotational energy distributions of reactive, non-polar species in the interstellar medium

A basic model for the formation of non-equilibrium rotational energy distributions is described for reactive, homo-polar diatomic molecules and ions in the interstellar medium. Kinetic models were constructed to calculate the rotational populations of $\mathrm{C}_{2}^{+}$ under the conditions it would experience in the diffuse interstellar medium. As the non-polar ion reacts with molecular hydrogen, but not atomic hydrogen, the thermalization of a hot nascent rotational population will be arrested by chemical reaction when the H₂ density begins to be significant. Populations that deviate strongly from the local thermodynamic equilibrium are predicted for $\mathrm{C}_{2}^{+}$ in environments where it may be detectable. Consequences of this are discussed and a new optical spectrum is calculated.     

Multi-wavelength correlation studies of diffuse emission from the Aquila Rift

We present a multi-wavelength correlation study of diffuse ultraviolet radiation using GALEX observations towards the Aquila Rift. Apart from airglow and zodiacal emissions, we find a diffuse background of \(1300\mbox{--} 3700~\mbox{ph}\,\mbox{cm}^{-2}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}\,\mbox{sr}^{-1}\,\mathring{\mathrm{A}}^{-1}\) in the far-ultraviolet (FUV, 1350–1750 Å) band and \(1300\mbox{--}2800~\mbox{ph}\,\mbox{cm}^{-2}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}\,\mbox{sr}^{-1}\,\mathring{\mathrm{A}}^{-1}\) in the near-ultraviolet (NUV, 1750–2850 Å) band. The observed diffuse UV emissions are saturated with total as well as neutral hydrogen column density in the region due to high optical depth in UV (\(\tau \), 0.91–23.38). Higher values of FUV/NUV ratio in the region, greater than the threshold value of 0.6, along with the positive correlation between the ratio and FUV intensity are due to excess emission in the FUV band which is absent in the NUV band. We estimated the excess emission to be in the range \(\sim 400\mbox{--} 2700~\mbox{ph}\,\mbox{cm}^{-2}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}\,\mbox{sr}^{-1}\,\mathring{\mathrm{A}}^{-1}\), plausibly due to H₂ fluorescence, ion line emissions and two-photon continuum emissions from the region in the FUV band, which also shows saturation in optically thick regions with N(H₂) as well as \(\mbox{H}\alpha \) emissions. Since N(H₂) and \(\mbox{H}\alpha \) emissions spread all over the region, the excess emission from the field is composite in nature and a detailed spectroscopic analysis is needed to disentangle the contribution from individual components.     

Addendum to: Strength of the Solar Coronal Magnetic Field – A Comparison of Independent Estimates Using Contemporaneous Radio and White-Light Observations

This addendum uses an alternate fit for the electron density distribution \(N(r)\) (see Figure 1) and estimates the coronal magnetic field using the new model. We find that the estimates of the magnetic field are in close agreement using both the models.

We have fit the \(N(r)\) distribution obtained from STEREO-A/COR1 and SOHO/LASCO-C2 using a fifth-order polynomial (see Figure 1). The expression can be written as

$$\begin{aligned} N_{\text{cor}}(r) &= 1.43 \times 10^{9} r^{-5} - 1.91 \times 10^{9} r^{-4} + 1.07 \times 10^{9} r^{-3} - 2.87 \times 10^{8} r^{-2} \\ &\quad {} + 3.76 \times 10^{7} r^{-1} - 1.91 \times 10^{6} , \end{aligned}$$

(1)

where \(N_{\text{cor}}(r)\) is in units of cm^?3 and \(r\) is in units of \(\mathrm{R}_{\odot}\). The background coronal electron density is enhanced by a factor of 5.5 at 2.63 \(\mathrm{R}_{\odot}\) during the coronal mass ejection (CME). The estimated coronal magnetic field strength (\(B\)) using radio data indicates that \(B(r) \approx(0.51\text{\,--\,}0.48) \pm 0.02\ \mathrm{G}\) in the range \(r \approx2.65\text{\, --\,}2.82\ \mathrm{R}_{\odot}\). The field strengths for STEREO-A/COR1 and SOHO/LASCO-C2 are ≈?0.32 G at \(r \approx 3.11\ \mathrm{R}_{\odot}\) and ≈?0.12 G at \(r \approx 4.40\ \mathrm{R}_{\odot}\), respectively.

     

The Na <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">i</Emphasis> and Sr <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">ii</Emphasis> Resonance Lines in Solar Prominences

We estimate the electron density, \(n_{\mathrm{e}}\), and its spatial variation in quiescent prominences from the observed emission ratio of the resonance lines Na?i?5890 Å (D₂) and Sr?ii?4078 Å. For a bright prominence (\(\tau_{\alpha}\approx25\)) we obtain a mean \(n_{\mathrm{e}}\approx2\times10^{10}~\mbox{cm}^{-3}\); for a faint one (\(\tau _{\alpha }\approx4\)) \(n_{\mathrm{e}}\approx4\times10^{10}~\mbox{cm}^{-3}\) on two consecutive days with moderate internal fluctuation and no systematic variation with height above the solar limb. The thermal and non-thermal contributions to the line broadening, \(T_{\mathrm{kin}}\) and \(V_{\mathrm{nth}}\), required to deduce \(n_{\mathrm{e}}\) from the emission ratio Na?i/Sr?ii cannot be unambiguously determined from observed widths of lines from atoms of different mass. The reduced widths, \(\Delta\lambda_{\mathrm{D}}/\lambda_{0}\), of Sr?ii?4078 Å show an excess over those from Na?D₂ and \(\mbox{H}\delta\,4101\) Å, assuming the same \(T_{\mathrm{kin}}\) and \(V_{\mathrm{nth}}\). We attribute this excess broadening to higher non-thermal broadening induced by interaction of ions with the prominence magnetic field. This is suggested by the finding of higher macro-shifts of Sr?ii?4078 Å as compared to those from Na?D₂.     

Limits on the changes in the gravitational constant from nucleosynthesis

Due to the recent all-sky, high-precision measurement of microwave background anisotropies by WMAP, a value for baryon-to-photon ratio η was obtained. At the WMAP value for η, the ⁴HE abundance was predicted. In this article we use a simple semi-analytical method with ⁴He predicted and measured values to place a limit on the variation of the gravitational constant G. We find using a conservative range for the measured values for Y _p , that ΔG/G is constrained between −0.26 and 0.15. If we assume a monotonic power law time dependence G∼t ^−β then β values is constrained between −0.008 and 0.0038, which translate into . This compares well with results obtained by others using full numerical analysis.      

Accelerated expansion from?a?modified-quadratic gravity

We investigate the late-time dynamics of a four-dimensional universe based on modified scalar field gravity in which the standard Einstein-Hilbert action R is replaced by f(φ)R+f(R) where f(φ)=φ ² and f(R)=AR ²+BR _μν R ^μν,(A,B)∈ℝ. We discussed two independent cases: in the first model, the scalar field potential is quartic and for this special form it was shown that the universe is dominated by dark energy with equation of state parameter w≈−0.2 and is accelerated in time with a scale factor evolving like a(t)∝t ^5/3 and B+3A≈0.036. When, B+3A→∞ which corresponds for the purely quadratic theory, the scale factor evolves like a(t)∝t ^1/2 whereas when B+3A→0 which corresponds for the purely scalar tensor theory we found when a(t)∝t ^1.98. In the second model, we choose an exponential potential and we conjecture that the scalar curvature and the Hubble parameter vary respectively like R=hH[(f)\dot]/f,h ? \mathbbRR=\eta H\dot{\phi}/\phi,\eta\in\mathbb{R} and H=g[(f)\dot]^c,(g,c) ? \mathbbRH=\gamma\dot{\phi}^{\chi},(\gamma,\chi)\in\mathbb{R}. It was shown that for some special values of  χ, the universe is free from the initial singularity, accelerated in time, dominated by dark or phantom energy whereas the model is independent of the quadratic gravity corrections. Additional consequences are discussed.     

Gravitational analysis of V541 Cygni,DI Herculis,and the Pioneer anomaly

Detailed analyses by independent research groups over several decades reveal a significant discrepancy between the observed rate of periastron advance in the detached eclipsing binary star systems DI Herculis and V541 Cygni and the values theoretically predicted from the combined classical and general relativistic effects. A modification to Newton’s gravitational theory is proposed in this investigation to account for these discrepancies, and is represented by