No Arabic abstract
The direction of polarization produced by a moving source rotates with the respect to the rest frame. We show that this effect, induced by pulsar rotation, leads to an important correction to polarization swings within the framework of rotating vector model (RVM); this effect has been missed by previous works. We construct relativistic RVM taking into account finite heights of the emission region that lead to aberration, time-of-travel effects and relativistic rotation of polarization. Polarizations swings at different frequencies can be used, within the assumption of the radius-to-frequency mapping, to infer emission radii and geometry of pulsars.
The X-ray radiation produced on the surface of accreting magnetised neutron stars is expected to be strongly polarised. A swing of the polarisation vector with the pulsar phase gives a direct measure of the source inclination and magnetic obliquity. In the case of rapidly rotating millisecond pulsars, the relativistic motion of the emission region causes additional rotation of the polarisation plane. Here, we develop a relativistic rotating vector model, where we derive analytical expression for the polarisation angle as a function of the pulsar phase accounting for relativistic aberration and gravitational light bending in the Schwarzschild metric. We show that in the case of fast pulsars the rotation of the polarisation plane can reach tens of degrees, strongly influencing the observed shape of the polarisation angles phase dependence. The rotation angle grows nearly linearly with the spin rate but it is less sensitive to the neutron star radius. Overall, this angle is large even for large spots. Our results have implications with regard to the modelling of X-ray polarisation from accreting millisecond pulsars that are to be observed with the upcoming Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer and the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission. The X-ray polarisation may improve constraints on the neutron star mass and radius coming from the pulse profile modelling.
We show the results of two dimensional general relativistic inviscid and isothermal hydrodynamical simulations comparing the behavior of co-rotating (with respect to the black hole rotation) and counter-rotating circumbinary quasi-Keplerian discs in the post merger phase of a supermassive binary black hole system. While confirming the spiral shock generation within the disc due to the combined effects of mass loss and recoil velocity of the black hole, we find that the maximum luminosity of counter-rotating discs is a factor ~(2-12) higher than in the co-rotating case, depending on the spin of the black hole. On the other hand, the luminosity peak happens ~10 days later with respect to the co-rotating case, for a binary with a total mass M~10^6 M_odot. Although the global dynamics of counter-rotating discs in the post merger phase of a merging event is very similar to that for co-rotating discs, an important difference has been found. In fact, increasing the spin of the central black hole produces more luminous co-rotating discs while less luminous counter-rotating ones.
We study the magnetosphere of a slowly rotating magnetized neutron star subject to toroidal oscillations in the relativistic regime. Under the assumption of a zero inclination angle between the magnetic moment and the angular momentum of the star, we analyze the Goldreich-Julian charge density and derive a second-order differential equation for the electrostatic potential. The analytical solution of this equation in the polar cap region of the magnetosphere shows the modification induced by stellar toroidal oscillations on the accelerating electric field and on the charge density. We also find that, after decomposing the oscillation velocity in terms of spherical harmonics, the first few modes with $m=0,1$ are responsible for energy losses that are almost linearly dependent on the amplitude of the oscillation and that, for the mode $(l,m)=(2,1)$, can be a factor $sim8$ larger than the rotational energy losses, even for a velocity oscillation amplitude at the star surface as small as $eta=0.05 Omega R$. The results obtained in this paper clarify the extent to which stellar oscillations are reflected in the time variation of the physical properties at the surface of the rotating neutron star, mainly by showing the existence of a relation between $Pdot{P}$ and the oscillation amplitude. Finally, we propose a qualitative model for the explanation of the phenomenology of intermittent pulsars in terms of stellar oscillations that are periodically excited by star glitches.
Stationary and axisymmetric solutions of relativistic rotating stars with strong mixed poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields are obtained numerically. Because of the mixed components of the magnetic field, the underlying stationary and axisymmetric spacetimes are no longer circular. These configurations are computed from the full set of the Einstein-Maxwell equations, Maxwells equations and from first integrals and integrability conditions of the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium equations. After a brief introduction of the formulation of the problem, we present the first results for highly deformed magnetized rotating compact stars.
We present results from a new set of 3D general-relativistic hydrodynamic simulations of rotating iron core collapse. We assume octant symmetry and focus on axisymmetric collapse, bounce, the early postbounce evolution, and the associated gravitational wave (GW) and neutrino signals. We employ a finite-temperature nuclear equation of state, parameterized electron capture in the collapse phase, and a multi-species neutrino leakage scheme after bounce. The latter captures the important effects of deleptonization, neutrino cooling and heating and enables approximate predictions for the neutrino luminosities in the early evolution after core bounce. We consider 12-solar-mass and 40-solar-mass presupernova models and systematically study the effects of (i) rotation, (ii) progenitor structure, and (iii) postbounce neutrino leakage on dynamics, GW, and, neutrino signals. We demonstrate, that the GW signal of rapidly rotating core collapse is practically independent of progenitor mass and precollapse structure. Moreover, we show that the effects of neutrino leakage on the GW signal are strong only in nonrotating or slowly rotating models in which GW emission is not dominated by inner core dynamics. In rapidly rotating cores, core bounce of the centrifugally-deformed inner core excites the fundamental quadrupole pulsation mode of the nascent protoneutron star. The ensuing global oscillations (f~700-800 Hz) lead to pronounced oscillations in the GW signal and correlated strong variations in the rising luminosities of antineutrino and heavy-lepton neutrinos. We find these features in cores that collapse to protoneutron stars with spin periods <~ 2.5 ms and rotational energies sufficient to drive hyper-energetic core-collapse supernova explosions. Hence, joint GW + neutrino observations of a core collapse event could deliver strong evidence for or against rapid core rotation. [abridged]