C-type shocks in the interstellar medium: profiles of CH+ and CH absorption lines

We have computed optical absorption-line profiles of CH⁺ and CH, as predicted by a model of a C-type shock propagating in a diffuse interstellar cloud. Both these species are produced in the shock wave in the reaction sequence that is initiated by C⁺(H₂, H)CH⁺. Whilst CH⁺ flows at the ion speed, CH, which forms in the dissociative recombination reaction CH⁺₃(e⁻, H₂)CH, flows at a speed which is intermediate between those of the ions and the neutrals. The predicted velocity shift between the CH⁺ and CH line profiles is found to be no more than approximately 2 km s⁻¹, which is smaller than has previously been assumed. We also investigate OH and HCO⁺, finding that the correlation between their column densities, recently observed in the diffuse interstellar medium, can be reproduced by the model.     

Gamma-ray bursts: post-burst evolution of fireballs

The post-burst evolution of fireballs that produce γ-ray bursts (GRBs) is studied, assuming the expansion of fireballs to be adiabatic and relativistic. Numerical results as well as an approximate analytic solution for the evolution are presented. Owing to the adoption of a new relation between t R and γ, our results differ markedly from previous studies. Synchrotron radiation from the shocked interstellar medium is carefully calculated, using a conventional set of equations. The observed X-ray flux of GRB afterglows can be reproduced easily. Although the optical afterglows seem much more complicated, our results can still present a rather satisfactory agreement with observations. We also find that the expansion will no longer be highly relativistic about 4 d after the main GRB. We thus suggest that the marginally relativistic phase of the expansion should be investigated so as to check the afterglows observed a week or more later.     

Non-axisymmetric relativistic Bondi–Hoyle accretion on to a Schwarzschild black hole

We present the results of an exhaustive numerical study of fully relativistic non-axisymmetric Bondi–Hoyle accretion on to a moving Schwarzschild black hole. We have solved the equations of general relativistic hydrodynamics with a high-resolution shock-capturing numerical scheme based on a linearized Riemann solver. The numerical code was previously used to study axisymmetric flow configurations past a Schwarzschild black hole. We have analysed and discussed the flow morphology for a sample of asymptotically high Mach number models. The results of this work reveal that initially asymptotic uniform flows always accrete on to the hole in a stationary way, which closely resembles the previous axisymmetric patterns. This is in contrast with some Newtonian numerical studies where violent flip-flop instabilities were found. As discussed in the text, the reason can be found in the initial conditions used in the relativistic regime, as they cannot exactly duplicate the previous Newtonian setups where the instability appeared. The dependence of the final solution on the inner boundary condition as well as on the grid resolution has also been studied. Finally, we have computed the accretion rates of mass and linear and angular momentum.     

The Origin and Acceleration of ~3He and Heavy Ions in the 2000 July 14 Event

1INTRODUCTIONEnrichment of3He and heavy ions(i.e.,Ne,Mg,Si and Fe),characteristic of impulsive?ares,have beenstudied for more than three decades.It is found that they are generally associated with nonthermal energeticelectron-rich events(Reames et al.1988;Reames1999and references therein;Ho et al.2001;Wang et al.2006)and are related to the peculiar ratio of charge to mass(Mazur et al.1996;Reames1999).Althoughthe abundance of3He ions is not correlated with the abundance of heavy ions,s…     

Shock breakout in Type Ibc supernovae and application to GRB 060218/SN 2006aj

Recently, a soft blackbody component was observed in the early X-ray afterglow of GRB 060218, which was interpreted as shock breakout from the thick wind of the progenitor Wolf–Rayet (WR) star of the underlying Type Ic supernova 2006aj. In this paper, we present a simple model for computing the characteristic quantities (including energy, temperature and time duration) for the transient event from the shock breakout in Type Ibc supernovae produced by the core-collapse of WR stars surrounded by dense winds. In contrast to the case of a star without a strong wind, the shock breakout occurs in the wind region rather than inside the star, caused by the large optical depth in the wind. We find that, for the case of a WR star with a dense wind, the total energy of the radiation generated by the supernova shock breakout is larger than that in the case of the same star without a wind by a factor of >10. The temperature can be either hotter or colder, depending on the wind parameters. The time duration is larger caused by the increase in the effective radius of the star due to the presence of a thick wind. Then, we apply the model to GRB 060218/SN 2006aj. We show that, to explain both the temperature and the total energy of the blackbody component observed in GRB 060218 by the shock breakout, the progenitor WR star has to have an unrealistically large core radius (the radius at optical depth of 20), larger than 100 R_⊙. In spite of this disappointing result, our model is expected to have important applications to the observations on Type Ibc supernovae in which the detection of shock breakout will provide important clues to the progenitors of Type Ibc supernovae.     

Jet breaks in the X-ray light-curves of Swift gamma-ray burst afterglows

In the set of 236 gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows observed by Swift between 2005 January and 2007 March, we identify 30 X-ray light-curves that have power-law fall-offs that exhibit a steepening ('break') at 0.1–10 d after they are triggered, to a decay steeper than t ^−1.5. For most of these afterglows, the X-ray spectral slope and the decay indices before and after the break can be accommodated by the standard jet model although a different origin of the breaks cannot be ruled out. In addition, there are 27 other afterglows which have X-ray light-curves that may also exhibit a late break to a steep decay, but the evidence is not that compelling. The X-ray emissions of 38 afterglows decay slower than t ^−1.5 until after 3 d, half of them exhibiting such a slow decay until after 10 d. Therefore, the fraction of well-monitored Swift afterglows with potential jet breaks is around 60 per cent, whether we count only the strongest cases for each type or all of them. This fraction is comparable to the 75 per cent of pre-Swift afterglows which have optical light-curves that displayed similar breaks at ∼1 d. The peak energy of the GRB spectrum of Swift afterglows with light-curve breaks shows the same correlations with the burst isotropic output (Amati relation) and with the burst collimated output (Ghirlanda relation) as previously found for pre- Swift optical afterglows with light-curve breaks. However, we find that the Ghirlanda relation is largely a consequence of Amati's and that the use of the jet-break time leads to a stronger Ghirlanda correlation only when the few objects that do not satisfy the Amati relation are included.     

Shock oscillation model for quasi-periodic oscillations in stellar mass and supermassive black holes

We numerically examine centrifugally supported shock waves in 2D rotating accretion flows around a stellar mass  (10 M_⊙)  and a supermassive  (10⁶ M_⊙)  black holes over a wide range of input accretion rates of     . The resultant 2D shocks are unstable with time and the luminosities show quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) with modulations of a factor of 2–3 and with periods of a tenth of a second to several hours, depending on the black hole masses. The shock oscillation model may explain the intermediate frequency QPOs with 1–10 Hz observed in the stellar mass black hole candidates and also suggest the existence of QPOs with the period of hours in active galactic nuclei. When the accretion rate     is low, the luminosity increases in proportion to the accretion rate. However, when     greatly exceeds the Eddington critical rate     , the luminosity is insensitive to the accretion rate and is kept constantly around  ∼3 L _E  . On the other hand, the mass-outflow rate     increases in proportion to     and it amounts to about a few per cent of the input mass-flow rate.     

Shock-induced temperatures of MgO

Shock-compressed MgO radiates thermally at temperatures between 2900 and 3700 K in the 170–200 GPa pressure range. A simple energy-transport model of the shocked-MgO-targets distinguishes between different shock-induced radiation sources in these targets and provides estimates of spectral absorption-coefficients, α _ΛMgO, for shocked MgO (e.g. at 203 GPa, α _ΛMgO˜ 630, 7500, 4200 and 3800 m⁻¹, at 450, 600, 750 and 900 nm, respectively). The experimentally inferred temperatures of the shock-compressed states of MgO are consistent with temperatures calculated for MgO assuming that (1) it deforms as an elastic fluid, (2) has a Dulong-Petit value for specific heat at constant volume in its shocked state, and (3) undergoes no phase transformation below 200 GPa.