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Register a new userSpectral appearance of the planetary-surface accretion shock: Global spectra and hydrogen-line profiles and fluxes
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Added by
Gabriel-Dominique Marleau
Publication date
2020
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Hydrogen-line emission from an accretion shock has recently been observed at planetary-mass objects. Our previous work predicted the shock spectrum and luminosity for a shock on the circumplanetary disc. We extend this to the planet-surface shock. We calculate the global spectral energy distribution (SED) of accreting planets by combining our model emission spectra with photospheric SEDs, and predict the line-integrated flux for several hydrogen lines, especially H alpha, but also H beta, Pa alpha, Pa beta, Pa gamma, Br alpha, and Br gamma. We apply our non-equilibrium emission model to the surface accretion shock for a wide range of accretion rates Mdot and masses M_p . Fits to formation calculations provide radii and effective temperatures. Extinction by the surrounding material is neglected, which is arguably often relevant. We find that the line luminosity increases monotonically with Mdot and M_p , depending mostly on Mdot and weakly on M_p for the relevant range of parameters. The Lyman, Balmer, and Paschen continua can exceed the photosphere. The H beta line is fainter by 0 to 1 dex than H alpha, whereas other lines are weaker (by 1 to 3 dex). Shocks on the planet or the CPD surface are distinguishable at very high spectral resolution, but the planet surface shock likely dominates if both are present. Applied to recent non-detections of H alpha, our models imply looser constraints on the Mdot of putative planets than when extrapolating fits from the stellar regime. These hydrogen-line luminosity predictions are useful for interpreting (non-)detections of accreting planets.
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In the core-accretion formation scenario of gas giants, most of the gas accreting onto a planet is processed through an accretion shock. In this series of papers we study this shock since it is key in setting the forming planets structure and thus its post-formation luminosity, with dramatic observational consequences. We perform one-dimensional grey radiation-hydrodynamical simulations with non-equilibrium (two-temperature) radiation transport and up-to-date opacities. We survey the parameter space of accretion rate, planet mass, and planet radius and obtain post-shock temperatures, pressures, and entropies, as well as global radiation efficiencies. We find that usually, the shock temperature T_shock is given by the free-streaming limit. At low temperatures the dust opacity can make the shock hotter but not significantly. We corroborate this with an original semi-analytical derivation of T_shock . We also estimate the change in luminosity between the shock and the nebula. Neither T_shock nor the luminosity profile depend directly on the optical depth between the shock and the nebula. Rather, T_shock depends on the immediate pre-shock opacity, and the luminosity change on the equation of state (EOS). We find quite high immediate post-shock entropies (S ~ 13-20 kB/mH), which makes it seem unlikely that the shock can cool the planet. The global radiation efficiencies are high (eta^phys > 97%) but the remainder of the total incoming energy, which is brought into the planet, exceeds the internal luminosity of classical cold starts by orders of magnitude. Overall, these findings suggest that warm or hot starts are more plausible.
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The aim of this paper is to try to explain the physical origin of the non-thermal electron distribution that is able to form the enhanced intensities of satellite lines in the X-ray line spectra observed during the impulsive phases of some solar flares. Synthetic X-ray line spectra of the distributions composed of the distribution of shock reflected electrons and the background Maxwellian distribution are calculated in the approximation of non-Maxwellian ionization, recombination, excitation and de-excitation rates. The distribution of shock reflected electrons is determined analytically. We found that the distribution of electrons reflected at the nearly-perpendicular shock resembles, at its high-energy part, the so called n-distribution. Therefore it could be able to explain the enhanced intensities of Si XIId satellite lines. However, in the region immediately in front of the shock its effect is small because electrons in background Maxwellian plasma are much more numerous there. Therefore, we propose a model in which the shock reflected electrons propagate to regions with smaller densities and different temperatures. Combining the distribution of the shock-reflected electrons with the Maxwellian distribution having different densities and temperatures we found that spectra with enhanced intensities of the satellite lines are formed at low densities and temperatures of the background plasma when the combined distribution is very similar to the n-distribution also in its low-energy part. In these cases, the distribution of the shock-reflected electrons controls the intensity ratio of the allowed Si XIII and Si XIV lines to the Si XIId satellite lines. The high electron densities of the background plasma reduce the effect of shock-reflected electrons on the composed electron distribution function, which leads to the Maxwellian spectra.
We report the detection of Voigt spectral line profiles of radio recombination lines (RRLs) toward Sagittarius B2(N) with the 100-m Green Bank Telescope (GBT). At radio wavelengths, astronomical spectra are highly populated with RRLs, which serve as ideal probes of the physical conditions in molecular cloud complexes. An analysis of the Hn(alpha) lines presented herein shows that RRLs of higher principal quantum number (n>90) are generally divergent from their expected Gaussian profiles and, moreover, are well described by their respective Voigt profiles. This is in agreement with the theory that spectral lines experience pressure broadening as a result of electron collisions at lower radio frequencies. Given the inherent technical difficulties regarding the detection and profiling of true RRL wing spans and shapes, it is crucial that the observing instrumentation produce flat baselines as well as high sensitivity, high resolution data. The GBT has demonstrated its capabilities regarding all of these aspects, and we believe that future observations of RRL emission via the GBT will be crucial towards advancing our knowledge of the larger-scale extended structures of ionized gas in the interstellar medium (ISM).
We carry out two-dimensional global particle-in-cell simulations of the interaction between the solar wind and a dipole field to study the formation of the bow shock and magnetosphere. A self-reforming bow shock ahead of a dipole field is presented by using relatively high temporal-spatial resolutions. We find that (1) the bow shock and the magnetosphere are formed and reach a quasi-stable state after several ion cyclotron periods, and (2) under the Bz southward solar wind condition the bow shock undergoes a self-reformation for low b{eta}i and high MA. Simultaneously, a magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail is found. For high b{eta}i and low MA, the shock becomes quasi-stationary, and the magnetotail reconnection disappears. In addition, (3) the magnetopause deflects the magnetosheath plasmas. The sheath particles injected at the quasi-perpendicular region of the bow shock can be convected to downstream of an oblique shock region. A fraction of these sheath particles can leak out from the magnetosheath at the wings of the bow shock. Hence, the downstream situation is more complicated than that for a planar shock produced in local simulations.
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