No Arabic abstract
There is an increasing theoretical and observational evidence that the external magnetic field of magnetars may contain a toroidal component, likely of the same order of the poloidal one. Such twisted magnetospheres are threaded by currents flowing along the closed field lines which can efficiently interact with soft thermal photons via resonant cyclotron scatterings (RCS). Actually, RCS spectral models proved quite successful in explaining the persistent ~1-10 keV emission from the magnetar candidates, the soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and the anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs). Moreover, it has been proposed that, in presence of highly relativistic electrons, the same process can give rise to the observed hard X-ray spectral tails extending up to ~200 keV. Spectral calculations have been restricted up to now to the case of a globally twisted dipolar magnetosphere, although there are indications that the twist may be confined only to a portion of the magnetosphere, and/or that the large scale field is more complex than a simple dipole. In this paper we investigate multipolar, force-free magnetospheres of ultra-magnetized neutron stars. We first discuss a general method to generate multipolar solutions of the Grad- Schluter-Shafranov equation, and analyze in detail dipolar, quadrupolar and octupolar fields. The spectra and lightcurves for these multipolar, globally twisted fields are then computed using a Monte Carlo code and compared with those of a purely dipolar configuration. Finally the phase-resolved spectra and energy-dependent lightcurves obtained with a simple model of a locally sheared field are confronted with the INTEGRAL observations of the AXPs 1RXS J1708-4009 and 4U 0142+61. Results support a picture in which the field in these two sources is not globally twisted.
The neutron drop is firstly investigated in an axially symmetric harmonic oscillator (ASHO) field, whose potential strengths of different directions can be controlled artificially. The shape of the neutron drop will change from spherical to oblate or prolate according to the anisotropy of the external field. With the potential strength increasing in the axial direction, the neutron prefers to occupy the orbital perpendicular to the symmetry axis. On the contrary, the neutron likes to stay in the orbital parallel to the symmetry axis when the potential strength increases in the radial direction. Meanwhile, when the potential strength of one direction disappears, the neutron drop cannot bind together. These investigations are not only helpful to simulate the properties of neutrons in finite nuclei but also provide the theoretical predictions to the future artificial operations on the nuclei like the ultracold atom system, for a deeper realization of quantum many-body systems.
Contrary to the well known spin qubits, rare-earth qubits are characterized by a strong influence of crystal field due to large spin-orbit coupling. At low temperature and in the presence of resonance microwaves, it is the magnetic moment of the crystal-field ground-state which nutates (for several $mu$s) and the Rabi frequency $Omega_R$ is anisotropic. Here, we present a study of the variations of $Omega_R(vec{H}_{0})$ with the magnitude and direction of the static magnetic field $vec{H_{0}}$ for the odd $^{167}$Er isotope in a single crystal CaWO$_4$:Er$^{3+}$. The hyperfine interactions split the $Omega_R(vec{H}_{0})$ curve into eight different curves which are fitted numerically and described analytically. These spin-orbit qubits should allow detailed studies of decoherence mechanisms which become relevant at high temperature and open new ways for qubit addressing using properly oriented magnetic fields.
Extensive early observations proved that the ejecta of supernova 1987A (SN 1987A) are aspherical. Fifteen years after the supernova explosion, the Hubble Space Telescope has resolved the rapidly expanding ejecta. The late-time images and spectroscopy provide a geometrical picture that is consistent with early observations and suggests a highly structured, axially symmetric geometry. We present here a new synthesis of the old and new data. We show that the Bochum event, presumably a clump of $^{56}$Ni, and the late-time image, the locus of excitation by $^{44}$Ti, are most naturally accounted for by sharing a common position angle of about 14degree, the same as the mystery spot and early speckle data on the ejecta, and that they are both oriented along the axis of the inner circumstellar ring at 45degree to the plane of the sky. We also demonstrate that the polarization represents a prolate geometry with the same position angle and axis as the early speckle data and the late-time image and hence that the geometry has been fixed in time and throughout the ejecta. The Bochum event and the Doppler kinematics of the [Ca II]/[O II] emission in spatially resolved HST spectra of the ejecta can be consistently integrated into this geometry. The radioactive clump is deduced to fall approximately along the axis of the inner circumstellar ring and therefore to be redshifted in the North whereas the [Ca II]/[O II] 7300 AA emission is redshifted in the South. We present a jet-induced model for the explosion and argue that such a model can account for many of the observed asymmetries. In the jet models, the oxygen and calcium are not expected to be distributed along the jet, but primarily in an expanding torus that shares the plane and northern blue shift of the inner circumstellar ring.
Magnetars are young and highly magnetized neutron stars which display a wide array of X-ray activity including short bursts, large outbursts, giant flares and quasi-periodic oscillations, often coupled with interesting timing behavior including enhanced spin-down, glitches and anti-glitches. The bulk of this activity is explained by the evolution and decay of an ultrastrong magnetic field, stressing and breaking the neutron star crust, which in turn drives twists of the external magnetosphere and powerful magnetospheric currents. The population of detected magnetars has grown to about 30 objects and shows unambiguous phenomenological connection with very highly magnetized radio pulsars. Recent progress in magnetar theory includes explanation of the hard X-ray component in the magnetar spectrum and development of surface heating models, explaining the sources remarkable radiative output.
Nowadays, the analysis of the X-ray spectra of magnetically powered neutron stars or magnetars is one of the most valuable tools to gain insight into the physical processes occurring in their interiors and magnetospheres. In particular, the magnetospheric plasma leaves a strong imprint on the observed X-ray spectrum by means of Compton up-scattering of the thermal radiation coming from the star surface. Motivated by the increased quality of the observational data, much theoretical work has been devoted to develop Monte Carlo (MC) codes that incorporate the effects of resonant Compton scattering in the modeling of radiative transfer of photons through the magnetosphere. The two key ingredients in this simulations are the kinetic plasma properties and the magnetic field (MF) configuration. The MF geometry is expected to be complex, but up to now only mathematically simple solutions (self-similar solutions) have been employed. In this work, we discuss the effects of new, more realistic, MF geometries on synthetic spectra. We use new force-free solutions in a previously developed MC code to assess the influence of MF geometry on the emerging spectra. Our main result is that the shape of the final spectrum is mostly sensitive to uncertain parameters of the magnetospheric plasma, but the MF geometry plays an important role on the angle-dependence of the spectra.