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Register a new userProspects for Neutrino-Antineutrino Transformation in Astrophysical Environments
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We examine whether the newly derived neutrino spin coherence could lead to large-scale coherent neutrino-antineutrino conversion. In a linear analysis we find that such transformation is largely suppressed, but demonstrate that nonlinear feedback can enhance it. We point out that conditions which favor this feedback may exist in core collapse supernovae and in binary neutron star mergers.
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Magnetic reconnection is a basic plasma process of dramatic rearrangement of magnetic topology, often leading to a violent release of magnetic energy. It is important in magnetic fusion and in space and solar physics --- areas that have so far provided the context for most of reconnection research. Importantly, these environments consist just of electrons and ions and the dissipated energy always stays with the plasma. In contrast, in this paper I introduce a new direction of research, motivated by several important problems in high-energy astrophysics --- reconnection in high energy density (HED) radiative plasmas, where radiation pressure and radiative cooling become dominant factors in the pressure and energy balance. I identify the key processes distinguishing HED reconnection: special-relativistic effects; radiative effects (radiative cooling, radiation pressure, and Compton resistivity); and, at the most extreme end, QED effects, including pair creation. I then discuss the main astrophysical applications --- situations with magnetar-strength fields (exceeding the quantum critical field of about 4 x 10^13 G): giant SGR flares and magnetically-powered central engines and jets of GRBs. Here, magnetic energy density is so high that its dissipation heats the plasma to MeV temperatures. Electron-positron pairs are then copiously produced, making the reconnection layer highly collisional and dressing it in a thick pair coat that traps radiation. The pressure is dominated by radiation and pairs. Yet, radiation diffusion across the layer may be faster than the global Alfven transit time; then, radiative cooling governs the thermodynamics and reconnection becomes a radiative transfer problem, greatly affected by the ultra-strong magnetic field. This overall picture is very different from our traditional picture of reconnection and thus represents a new frontier in reconnection research.
Observations of radio pulsars have revealed that they have large velocities which may be greater than 1000 km/s. In this work, the efficacy of an active-sterile neutrino transformation mechanism to provide these large pulsar kicks is investigated. A phase-space based approach is adopted to follow the the transformation of active neutrinos to sterile neutrinos through an MSW-like resonance in the protoneutron star to refine an estimate to the magnitude of the pulsar kick that can be generated in such an event. The result is that this mechanism can create the large pulsar kicks that are observed while not overcooling the star.
Certain classes of astrophysical objects, namely magnetars and central engines of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), are characterized by extreme physical conditions not encountered elsewhere in the Universe. In particular, they possess magnetic fields that exceed the critical quantum field of 44 teragauss. Figuring out how these complex ultra-magnetized systems work requires understanding various plasma processes, both small-scale kinetic and large-scale magnetohydrodynamic (MHD). However, an ultra-strong magnetic field modifies the underlying physics to such an extent that many relevant plasma-physical problems call for building QED-based relativistic quantum plasma physics. In this review, after describing the extreme astrophysical systems of interest and identifying the key relevant plasma-physical problems, we survey the recent progress in the development of such a theory. We discuss how a super-critical field modifies the properties of vacuum and matter and outline the basic theoretical framework for describing both non-relativistic and relativistic quantum plasmas. We then turn to astrophysical applications of relativistic QED plasma physics relevant to magnetar magnetospheres and central engines of supernovae and long GRBs. Specifically, we discuss propagation of light through a magnetar magnetosphere; large-scale MHD processes driving magnetar activity and GRB jet launching and propagation; energy-transport processes governing the thermodynamics of extreme plasma environments; micro-scale kinetic plasma processes important in the interaction of intense magnetospheric electric currents with a magnetars surface; and magnetic reconnection of ultra-strong magnetic fields. Finally, we point out that future progress will require the development of numerical modeling capabilities.
Several models for type Ia-like supernovae events rely on the production of a self-sustained detonation powered by nuclear reactions. In the absence of hydrogen, the fuel that powers these detonations typically consists of either pure helium (He) or a mixture of carbon and oxygen (C/O). Studies that systematically determine the conditions required to initiate detonations in C/O material exist, but until now no analogous investigation of He matter has been conducted. We perform one-dimensional reactive hydrodynamical simulations at a variety of initial density and temperature combinations and find critical length scales for the initiation of He detonations that range between 1 - $10^{10}$ cm. A simple estimate of the length scales over which the total consumption of fuel will occur for steady-state detonations is provided by the Chapman-Jouguet (CJ) formalism. Our initiation lengths are consistently smaller than the corresponding CJ length scales by a factor of $Sim 100$, providing opportunities for thermonuclear explosions in a wider range of low-mass white dwarfs (WDs) than previously thought possible. We find that virialized WDs with as little mass as 0.24 $M_odot$ can be detonated, and that even less massive WDs can be detonated if a sizable fraction of their mass is raised to a higher adiabat. That the initiation length is exceeded by the CJ length implies that certain systems may not reach nuclear statistical equilibrium within the time it takes a detonation to traverse the object. In support of this hypothesis, we demonstrate that incomplete burning will occur in the majority of He WD detonations and that $^{40}$Ca, $^{44}$Ti, or $^{48}$Cr, rather than $^{56}$Ni, is the predominant burning product for many of these events. We anticipate that ...
Axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) are hypothetical particles that occur in extensions of the Standard Model and are candidates for cold dark matter. They could be detected through their oscillations into photons in the presence of external electromagnetic fields. gammaALPs is an open-source python framework that computes the oscillation probability between photons and axions/ALPs. In addition to solving the photon-ALP equations of motion, gammaALPs includes models for magnetic fields in different astrophysical environments such as jets of active galactic nuclei, intra-cluster and intergalactic media, and the Milky Way. Users are also able to easily incorporate their own custom magnetic-field models. We review the basic functionality and features of gammaALPs, which is heavily based on other open-source scientific packages such as numpy and scipy. Although focused on gamma-ray energies, gammaALPs can be easily extended to arbitrary photon energies.
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