No Arabic abstract
Relativistic blast waves can be described by a mechanical model. In this model, the blast -- the compressed gas between the forward and reverse shocks -- is viewed as one hot body. Equations governing its dynamics are derived from conservation of mass, energy, and momentum. Simple analytical solutions are obtained in the two limiting cases of ultra-relativistic and non-relativistic reverse shock. Equations are derived for the general explosion problem.
The dynamics of a relativistic blast wave propagating through magnetized medium is considered taking into account possible inhomogeneities of density and magnetic field and additional energy supply. Under the simplifying assumption of a spherically symmetric explosion in a medium with toroidal magnetic field self-similar solutions for the internal dynamics of the flow are derived. In the weakly magnetized case, when the bulk of the flow may be described by the unmagnetized solutions, there is a strongly magnetized sheath near the contact discontinuity (when it exists). Self-similar solutions inside the sheath are investigated. In the opposite limit of strongly magnetized upstream plasma new analytical self-similar solutions are found. Possible application to the physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts is discussed.
We present a study of the intermediate regime between ultra-relativistic and nonrelativistic flow for gamma-ray burst afterglows. The hydrodynamics of spherically symmetric blast waves is numerically calculated using the AMRVAC adaptive mesh refinement code. Spectra and light curves are calculated using a separate radiation code that, for the first time, links a parametrisation of the microphysics of shock acceleration, synchrotron self-absorption and electron cooling to a high-performance hydrodynamics simulation.
In spite of their importance as standard candles in cosmology and as major major sites of nucleosynthesis in the Universe, what kinds of progenitor systems lead to type Ia supernovae (SN) remains a subject of considerable debate in the literature. This is true even for the case of Tychos SN exploded in 1572 although it has been deeply studied both observationally and theoretically. Analyzing X-ray data of Tychos supernova remnant (SNR) obtained with Chandra in 2003, 2007, 2009, and 2015, we discover that the expansion before 2007 was substantially faster than radio measurements reported in the past decades and then rapidly decelerated during the last ~ 15 years. The result is well explained if the shock waves recently hit a wall of dense gas surrounding the SNR. Such a gas structure is in fact expected in the so-called single-degenerate scenario, in which the progenitor is a binary system consisting of a white dwarf and a stellar companion, whereas it is not generally predicted by a competing scenario, the double-degenerate scenario, which has a binary of two white dwarfs as the progenitor. Our result thus favors the former scenario. This work also demonstrates a novel technique to probe gas environments surrounding SNRs and thus disentangle the two progenitor scenarios for Type Ia SNe.
We point out that the already existing literature on relativistic collisionless MHD shocks show that the parameter sigma= upstream proper magnetic energy density/upstream rest mass energy density, plays an important role in determining the structure and accelerating properties of such shocks. By adopting a value of sigma= 0.002 which corresponds to the relativistic shock associated with the Crab nebula, and by using appropriate relativistic shock jump conditions, we obtain here a generous upper-limit on the value of (proper) the magnetic field, B ~ 1.5 10^{-3} eta n^{1/2} G, for gamma ray burst (GRB) blast wave. Here, eta= E/Mc^2, where E is the energy and M is the mass of the baryons entrained in the original fireball (FB), and n is the proper number density of the ambient medium. Further, we point out that, in realistic cases, the actual value B could be as low as 5 10^{-6} eta n^{1/2} G. for realistic cases.
Traumatic brain injury [TBI] has become a signature injury of current military conflicts, with debilitating, costly, and long-lasting effects. Although mechanisms by which head impacts cause TBI have been well-researched, the mechanisms by which blasts cause TBI are not understood. From numerical hydrodynamic simulations, we have discovered that non-lethal blasts can induce sufficient skull flexure to generate potentially damaging loads in the brain, even without a head impact. The possibility that this mechanism may contribute to TBI has implications for injury diagnosis and armor design.