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Register a new userThe Ultraviolet Spectral Energy Distributions of Quiescent Black Holes and Neutron Stars
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R.I. Hynes
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We present HST/ACS ultraviolet photometry of three quiescent black hole X-ray transients: X-ray Nova Muscae 1991 (GU Mus), GRO J0422+32 (V518 Per), and X-ray Nova Vel 1993 (MM Vel), and one neutron star system, Aql X-1. These are the first quiescent UV detections of these objects. All are detected at a much higher level than expected from their companion stars alone and are significant detections of the accretion flow. Three of the four UV excesses can be characterized by a black body of temperature 5000-13,000K, hotter than expected for the quiescent outer disk. A good fit could not be found for MM Vel. The source of the black-body-like emission is most likely a heated region of the inner disk. Contrary to initial indications from spectroscopy there does not appear to be a systematic difference in the UV luminosity or spectral shape between black holes and neutron star systems. However combining our new data with earlier spectroscopy and published X-ray luminosities there is a significant difference in the X-ray to UV flux ratios with the neutron stars exhibiting Lx/Luv about 10x higher than the black hole systems. Since both bandpasses are expected to be dominated by accretion light this suggests the difference in X-ray luminosities cannot simply reflect differences in quiescent accretion rates and so is a more robust discriminator between the black hole and neutron star populations than the comparison of X-ray luminosities alone.
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We investigate observable signatures of a first-order quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase transition in the context of core collapse supernovae. To this end, we conduct axially symmetric numerical relativity simulations with multi-energy neutrino transport, using a hadron-quark hybrid equation of state (EOS). We consider four non-rotating progenitor models, whose masses range from $9.6$ to $70$,M$_odot$. We find that the two less massive progenitor stars (9.6 and 11.2,M$_odot$) show a successful explosion, which is driven by the neutrino heating. They do not undergo the QCD phase transition and leave behind a neutron star (NS). As for the more massive progenitor stars (50 and 70,M$_odot$), the proto-neutron star (PNS) core enters the phase transition region and experiences the second collapse. Because of a sudden stiffening of the EOS entering to the pure quark matter regime, a strong shock wave is formed and blows off the PNS envelope in the 50,M$_odot$ model. Consequently the remnant becomes a quark core surrounded by hadronic matters, leading to the formation of the hybrid star. However for the 70,M$_odot$ model, the shock wave cannot overcome the continuous mass accretion and it readily becomes a black hole. We find that the neutrino and gravitational wave (GW) signals from supernova explosions driven by the hadron-quark phase transition are detectable for the present generation of neutrino and GW detectors. Furthermore, the analysis of the GW detector response reveals unique kHz signatures, which will allow us to distinguish this class of supernova explosions from failed and neutrino-driven explosions.
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