Extracting information from the gravitational redshift of compact rotating objects

Essential macroscopic internal properties of compact objects can be related to each other with the help of General Relativity. A somewhat familiar example is the relationship between the compactness M/R and the gravitational redshift for nonrotating bodies. Rotation poses new challenges when trying to relate observed or potentially observed quantities such as the graviational redshift, mass, radius, and angular velocity. Using a perturbative approach, we present an analytical approximation whose purpose is to relate these quantities. Two main results are highlighted: Derivation of a new maximal angular velocity depending only on the mass of the object and a possible estimate of the radius from a measurement of the gravitational redshift.     

Habitable zones and UV habitable zones around host stars

Ultraviolet radiation is a double-edged sword to life. If it is too strong, the terrestrial biological systems will be damaged. And if it is too weak, the synthesis of many biochemical compounds cannot go along. We try to obtain the continuous ultraviolet habitable zones, and compare the ultraviolet habitable zones with the habitable zones of host stars. Using the boundary ultraviolet radiation of ultraviolet habitable zone, we calculate the ultraviolet habitable zones of host stars with masses from 0.08 to 4.00 M _⊙. For the host stars with effective temperatures lower than 4,600 K, the ultraviolet habitable zones are closer than the habitable zones. For the host stars with effective temperatures higher than 7,137 K, the ultraviolet habitable zones are farther than the habitable zones. For a hot subdwarf as a host star, the distance of the ultraviolet habitable zone is about ten times more than that of the habitable zone, which is not suitable for the existence of life.     

Evaluation of the intermediate-term periodicities in solar and cosmic ray activities during cycle 23

In this paper we investigate the presence and temporal evolution of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) time-series and three solar parameters, namely the daily sunspot number, the coronal green line and the 10.7 cm solar radio flux over the period 1996–2003 by the wavelet technique. A number of short- and intermediate-term quasi-periodicities were also detected in both GCR and solar parameters. For the short-term range, we have identified quasi-periods of 16–30 days, 40–55 days, 60–70 days, 80–90 days and 80–100 days. In the case of intermediate range, the significant periods were 120–140 days, 150–170 days, 190–210 days, 240–260 days, ≈1.09 yr. and ≈1.23 yr. The wavelet power spectra show that all the above-mentioned periods are intermittent in nature and occurred in different time-series in different intervals. The result exhibits that the well-known “Rieger period” of (150–160 days) was prominent in both GCR and solar data sets during the ascending phase of cycle 23. Possible reasons behind the observed periods were discussed with the help of previous results and existing numerical models.     

On the pair-instability supernovae and gamma-ray burst phenomenon

We present a model of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) related to “very massive” stars. In the framework of our model, the GRB phenomenon is a result of helium burning in degenerate conditions in a massive star (≳130 M _⊙), in which the thermal nuclear burning occurs in the deflagration regime and has a pulsating temporal pattern. The shock runs away from the burning (reaction) zone, which leads to the development of a coronal outflow (jet-like) structure. In our scenario the GRB observable prompt fast rise and decay part can be a result of photon propagation through the hot corona (Comptonization photosphere) of the star. On the other hand, the GRB afterglow is a cooling phase of the expanding and outflowing envelope. Presumably, the X-ray part of the GRB emergent spectrum is formed due to upscattering of soft photons of outer layers of the star off hot coronal electrons, and thus it should have a specific shape of the Comptonization spectrum.     

Spectrophotometric variability of the magnetic CP star 56 Arietis in spectral region from 1950 to 3200 Å

We presented a phenomenological mode that attributes the precession of perihelion of planets to the relativistic correction. This modifies Newton’s equation by adding an inversely cube term with distance. The total energy of the new system is found to be the same as the Newtonian one. Moreover, we have deduced the deflection of light formula from Rutherford scattering. The relativistic term can be accounted for quantum correction of the gravitational potential and/or self energy of objects.     

Dependence of the holmberg effect on separations between paired galaxies

To investigate the dependence of the Holmberg effect of paired galaxies on three-dimensional separations, we have constructed four subsamples characterized by three-dimensional separations s ≤ 50 kpc, 50 kpc < s ≤ 100 kpc , 100kpc < s ≤150kpc , and 150 kpc < s ≤ 200 kpc , respectively. In this study, linear correlation coefficients and surplus standard deviations of color indices, luminosity, and size between two components of paired galaxies are calculated. It is found that there is a weak tendency for correlation coefficients of color indices to increase with decreasing three-dimensional separations, but such a tendency does not exist for ones of luminosity and size. We also note that there is no tendency for surplus standard deviations to decrease with decreasing three-dimensional separations. This suggests that it is still very difficult to clearly affirm the dependence of the Holmberg Effect of paired galaxies on three-dimensional separations.     

A real-time software backend for the GMRT

The new era of software signal processing has a large impact on radio astronomy instrumentation. Our design and implementation of a 32 antennae, 33 MHz, dual polarization, fully real-time software backend for the GMRT, using only off-the-shelf components, is an example of this. We have built a correlator and a beamformer, using PCI-based ADC cards and a Linux cluster of 48 nodes with dual gigabit inter-node connectivity for real-time data transfer requirements. The highly optimized compute pipeline uses cache efficient, multi-threaded parallel code, with the aid of vectorized processing. This backend allows flexibility in final time and frequency resolutions, and the ability to implement algorithms for radio frequency interference rejection. Our approach has allowed relatively rapid development of a fairly sophisticated and flexible backend receiver system for the GMRT, which will greatly enhance the productivity of the telescope. In this paper we describe some of the first lights using this software processing pipeline. We believe this is the first instance of such a real-time observatory backend for an intermediate sized array like the GMRT.     

Electron-acoustic solitons in plasma with nonthermal electrons

Nonlinear electron-acoustic solitary waves (EASWs) are studied using Sagdeev’s pseudo-potential technique in a collisionless unmagnetized plasma consisting of a cold electron fluid, nonthermal hot electrons and stationary ions. It is shown that the presence of fast nonthermal electrons may modify the parametric region where electron-acoustic solitons may exist. Our investigation is of wide relevance to astronomers and space scientists working on interstellar space plasmas.     

Dark energy as a manifestation of the non-constant cosmological constant

We propose a time-varying cosmological constant with a fixed equation of state, which evolves mainly through its interaction with the background during most of the long history of the universe. However, such an interaction does not exist in the very early- and the late-time universe and this produces the acceleration during these eras when it becomes very nearly a constant. It is found that after the initial inflationary phase, the cosmological constant, which we call the lambda parameter, rolls down from a large constant value to another but very small constant value and further dominates the present epoch showing up in the form of dark energy, driving the acceleration.     

The use of invariant manifolds for transfers between unstable periodic orbits of different energies

Techniques from dynamical systems theory have been applied to the construction of transfers between unstable periodic orbits that have different energies. Invariant manifolds, trajectories that asymptotically depart or approach unstable periodic orbits, are used to connect the initial and final orbits. The transfer asymptotically departs the initial orbit on a trajectory contained within the initial orbit’s unstable manifold and later asymptotically approaches the final orbit on a trajectory contained within the stable manifold of the final orbit. The manifold trajectories are connected by the execution of impulsive maneuvers. Two-body parameters dictate the selection of the individual manifold trajectories used to construct efficient transfers. A bounding sphere centered on the secondary, with a radius less than the sphere of influence of the secondary, is used to study the manifold trajectories. A two-body parameter, κ, is computed within the bounding sphere, where the gravitational effects of the secondary dominate. The parameter κ is defined as the sum of two quantities: the difference in the normalized angular momentum vectors and eccentricity vectors between a point on the unstable manifold and a point on the stable manifold. It is numerically demonstrated that as the κ parameter decreases, the total cost to complete the transfer decreases. Preliminary results indicate that this method of constructing transfers produces a significant cost savings over methods that do not employ the use of invariant manifolds.