Multi-spacecraft study of foreshock cavitons upstream of the quasi-parallel bow shock

In this work we perform the first multi-spacecraft analysis of two foreshock cavitons observed by the Cluster spacecraft. We also study the characteristics of their surrounding regions. Foreshock cavitons are a relatively new type of phenomena in the Earth's foreshock. They appear in regions deep inside the foreshock and are therefore always immersed in a sea of ULF waves and suprathermal particles. In the observational data the cavitons appear as simultaneous depressions of interplanetary magnetic field and plasma density. The two cavitons presented here have highly structured interiors and exhibit surface irregularities. They propagate sunwards in the reference frame of the solar wind plasma. Since their velocities are smaller than the solar wind velocity, the cavitons are convected towards the Earth by the solar wind flow. Their sizes are comparable to the size of the Earth. We show that the cavitons are different from other foreshock phenomena, such as cavities. The latter are thought to form by thermal expansion due to the excess of thermal pressure caused by intense flux of suprathermal ions in their interiors. Thermal pressure inside the cavitons is the same as in their surroundings, so they cannot form in this way. The proposed mechanism for the caviton formation includes nonlinear interactions between different types of ULF waves deep inside the foreshock.     

Spectral Properties of Black Holes in Gamma Rays

Black holes are the most compact objects in the universe. Therefore, matter accreting onto them is likely to radiate photons of energy comparable to very high gravitational potential energy. We discuss the nature of the emitted radiation in X-rays and gamma-rays from black hole candidates. We present theoretical solutions, which comprise both Keplerian and sub-Keplerian components and suggest that shocks in accretion and outflows may play a major role in producing these spectra.     

Langmuir waves associated with collisionless shocks; a review

Progress in understanding the Langmuir waves which accompany collisionless shocks everywhere in the solar system is briefly reviewed, with some emphasis on the discovery papers, and with discussion and illustrative examples of the most recent progress.     

Relativistic corrections to the Kompaneets equation

We study the Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect for clusters of galaxies. We explore the relativistic corrections to the Kompaneets equation in terms of two different expansion approximation schemes, namely, the Fokker–Planck expansion approximation and delta function expansion approximation. We show that two expansion approximation formalisms are equivalent under the Thomson approximation, which is extremely good approximation for the CMB photon energies. This will clarify the situation for existing theoretical methods to analyse observation data.     

Is the Universe a white-hole?

Pathria (1972) has shown, for a pressureless closed Universe, that it is inside a black (or white) hole. We show now, that the Universe with a cosmic pressure obeying Einstein’s field equations, can be inside a white-hole. In the closed case, a positive cosmological constant does the job; for the flat and open cases, the condition we find is not verified for the very early Universe, but with the growth of the scale-factor, the condition will be certainly fulfilled for a positive cosmological constant, after some time. We associate the absolute temperature of the Universe, with the temperature of the corresponding white-hole.     

Particle acceleration at multiple internal relativistic shocks

Relativistic shocks provide an efficient method for high-energy particle acceleration in many astrophysical sources. Multiple shock systems are even more effective and of importance, for example, in the internal shock model of gamma-ray bursts. We investigate the reacceleration of pre-existing energetic particles at such relativistic internal shocks by the first order Fermi process of pitch angle scattering. We use a well established eigenfunction method to calculate the resulting spectra for infinitely thin shocks. Implications for GRBs and relativistic jets are discussed. Paul Dempsey would like to thank IRCSET for their financial support.     

3-D Rpic Simulations of Relativistic Jets: Particle Acceleration, Magnetic Field Generation, and Emission

We have applied numerical simulations and modeling to the particle acceleration, magnetic field generation, and emission from relativistic shocks. We investigate the nonlinear stage of theWeibel instability and compare our simulations with the observed gamma-ray burst emission. In collisionless shocks, plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Weibel, Buneman and other two-stream instabilities) are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration and magnetic field generation. 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) simulations with three different electron-positron jet velocity distributions and also with an electron-ion plasma have been performed and show shock processes including spatial and temporal evolution of shocks in unmagnetized ambient plasmas. The growth time and nonlinear saturation levels depend on the initial jet parallel velocity distributions. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the collisionless shocks accelerates jet and ambient particles both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation direction. The nonlinear fluctuation amplitude of densities, currents, electric, and magnetic fields in the electron-positron shocks are larger for smaller jet Lorentz factor. This comes from the fact that the growth time of the Weibel instability is proportional to the square of the jet Lorentz factor. We have performed simulations with broad Lorentz factor distribution of jet electrons and positrons, which is assumed to be created by photon annihilation. Simulation results with this broad distribution show that the Weibel instability is excited continuously by the wide-range of jet Lorentz factor from lower to higher values. In all simulations the Weibel instability is responsible for generating and amplifying magnetic fields perpendicular to the jet propagation direction, and contributes to the electron’s (positron’s) transverse deflection behind the jet head. This small scale magnetic field structure contributes to the generation of “jitter” radiation from deflected electrons (positrons), which is different from synchrotron radiation in uniform magnetic fields. The jitter radiation resulting from small scale magnetic field structures may be important for understanding the complex time structure and spectral evolution observed in gamma-ray bursts or other astrophysical sources containing relativistic jets and relativistic collisionless shocks. The detailed studies of shock microscopic process evolution may provide some insights into early and later GRB afterglows.     

Blazars天体喷流光度和非成束光度的比值(英文)

根据聚束模型 ,利用 3 8个超光速射电源数据 ,估计他们的喷流光度和非成束光度的比值 .平均结果为     

Investigating the Astrophysical Applicability of Radiative and Non-Radiative Blast wave Structure in Cluster Media

We describe experiments that investigate the capability of an experimental platform, based on laser-driven blast waves created in a medium of atomic clusters, to produce results that can be scaled to astrophysical situations. Quantitative electron density profiles were obtained for blast waves produced in hydrogen, argon, krypton and xenon through the interaction of a high intensity (I ≈ 10¹⁷ Wcm⁻²), sub-ps laser pulse. From this we estimate the local post-shock temperature, compressibility, shock strength and adiabatic index for each gas. Direct comparisons between blast wave structures for consistent relative gas densities were achieved through careful gas jet parameter control. From these we investigate the applicability of different radiative and Sedov-Taylor self-similar solutions, and therefore the (ρ,T) phase space that we can currently access.     

天文地球动力学中的相对论效应

天文地球动力学利用空间与地面观测手段 ,监测和研究地球整体与各圈层的物质运动以及它们间的相互作用 ,这都离不开广义相对论涉及的时间与空间。随着空间对地观测精度的提高 ,为了充分利用高精度观测提供的信息 ,在天文地球动力学的研究中必须考虑相对论效应。所涉及的相对论效应包括 :( 1 )相对论参考系的建立 ,( 2 )在恰当的参考系中对观测者和被观测对象的相对论运动方程 (平动和自转 )的描述 ,( 3 )观测者和被观测对象间的电磁信号传播 ,( 4 )依赖于坐标选择的结果与具有物理意义的可观测量间的转换 ,( 5)某些基本概念与定义在广义相对论框架下的重新确认。本文对天文地球动力学中的这些相对论效应作了简要的评述。