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T Tauri stars are low mass, pre-main sequence stars. These objects are surrounded by an accretion disk and present strong magnetic activity. T Tauri stars are copious emitters of X-ray emission which belong to powerful magnetic reconnection events. Strong magnetospheric shocks are likely outcome of massive reconnection. Such shocks can accelerate particles up to relativistic energies through Fermi mechanism. We present a model for the high-energy radiation produced in the environment of T Tauri stars. We aim at determining whether this emission is detectable. If so, the T Tauri stars should be very nearby.
Turbulent flows take place in a large variety of astrophysical objects, and often times are the source of dynamo generated magnetic fields. Much of the progress in our understanding of dynamo mechanisms, has been made within the theoretical framework of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). However, for sufficiently diffuse media, the Hall effect eventually becomes non-negligible.
We present results from simulations of the Hall-MHD equations. The simulations are performed with a pseudospectral code to achieve exponentially fast convergence. We study the role of the Hall effect in the dynamo efficiency for different values of the Hall parameter.
As any human labor, the editing process of a book is open to human error. Especially, when there are more than 100 contributors and strict deadlines. Ours was not free of such a fate, but the good will of Cambridge University Press allows us to correct an involuntary omission.
Using a 2.5-D electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) model, very early stages of a generation of the electromagnetic emission produced by a monochromatic Langmuir wave are studied. It is found that the electromagnetic emission, which is dominant on the harmonic of the plasma frequency, starts to be generated in a very small region of k-vectors. Later on the k-vectors of this emission are scattered around a ‘circle’ (in our 2-D case), given by the relations for the L+L'→T process. Analytical analysis of two subsequent processes L→L'+S a L+L'→T confirms these results.
Jet Emitting Disc (JED) has dynamical properties quite different from both the standard and advection dominated discs. It also exhibits three different thermal equilibrium branches at a given radius: two stable (cold and hot) and one intermediate unstable. The hot solution has all the characteristics of the so-called “hot corona” generally invoked in XrB sytems in the Low/Hard states. We detail the energetics and radiative expectations of our model and show their good agreement with those observed in Cygnus X-1 in terms of jet power, jet velocity and spectral emission.
Interpretation of current and future data calls for a continuous improvement in the theoretical modeling of CMB spectrum. We describe the new version of a numerical code, KYPRIX, specifically written to solve the Kompaneets equation in a cosmological context under general assumptions. We report on the equation formalism, and structure and computational aspects of the code. New physical options have been introduced in the current code version: the cosmological constant in the terms controlling the general expansion of the Universe, the relevant chemical abundances, and the ionization history, from recombination to cosmological reionization. We present some of fundamental tests we carried out to verify the accuracy, reliability, and performance of the code. All the tests demonstrate the reliability and versatility of the new code version and its accuracy and applicability to the scientific analysis of current CMB spectrum data and of much more precise measurements that will be available in the future.
The nonlinear saturation of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is best studied through numerical MHD simulations. Recent results of simulations that adopt the local shearing box approximation, and fully global models that follow the entire disk, are described. Outstanding issues remain, such as a first-principles understanding of the dynamo processes that control saturation with no net magnetic flux. Important directions for future work include a better understanding of basic plasma processes, such as reconnection, dissipation, and particle acceleration, in the MHD turbulence driven by the MRI.
We present long-term numerical simulations of powerful extragalactic relativistic jets in two dimensions. The jets are injected in a realistic atmosphere with powers 1044, 1045 and 1046 erg/s, during tens of Myrs. After this time, the jet injection is switched off. We follow the evolution of the jets and associated shocks from 1 kpc to hundreds of kiloparsecs during more than 100 Myrs. The 1045 erg/s jet was simulated with leptonic and baryonic composition. Our results show that, for powerful jets, the main heating mechanisms are the driving shock-wave and mixing. We discuss the implications that these results have in the frame of cooling flows in clusters.
With the aim to model jets produced by conical wire arrays on the MAGPIE generator, and to strengthen the link between laboratory and astrophysical jets, we performed three-dimensional magneto-hydro-dynamic numerical simulations using the code GORGON and successfully reproduced the experiments. We found that a minimum resolution of ~100 μm is required to retrieve the unstable character of the jet. Moreover, arrays with less wires produce more unstable jets with stronger magnetic fields around them.
We present the results of the three-dimensional, fully non-linear MHD simulations of the large-scale magnetic field evolution in a barred galaxy with the back reaction of magnetic field to gas. We also include the process of the cosmic-ray driven dynamo. In addition, we check what physical processes are responsible for the magnetic field evolution in the tidally influenced spiral galaxies. We solve the MHD equations for the gas and magnetic field in a spiral galaxy with gravitationally prescribed bulge, disk and halo which travels along common orbit with the second body. In order to compare our modeling results with the observations we also construct the maps of high-frequency (Faraday rotation-free) polarized radio emission from the simulated magnetic fields. The model accounts for the effects of projection and limited resolution.
We found that the obtained magnetic field configurations are highly similar to the observed maps of the polarized intensity of barred galaxies, because the modeled vectors form coherent structures along the bar and spiral arms. We also found a physical explanation of the problem of inconsistency between the velocity and magnetic fields character present in this type of galaxies. Due to the dynamical influence of the bar, the gas forms spiral waves which go radially outward. Each spiral arm forms the magnetic arm which stays much longer in the disk than the gaseous spiral structure. The modeled total energy of magnetic field and magnetic flux grows exponentially due to the action of the cosmic-ray driven dynamo. We also obtained the polarization maps of tidally influenced spiral galaxies which are similar to observations.
We present a new formulation to compute numerically stationary and axisymmetric equilibria of magnetized and self-gravitating astrophysical fluids. Under the assumption of ideal MHD, the stream function for the flow can be chosen as a basic variable with which the Euler-Maxwell equations are cast into a set of basic equations, i.e. a generalized Bernoulli equation and a Grad-Shafranov-like equation by employing various integral conditions. A novel feature of this formulation is that systems with stars, disks and winds are treated in a simple unified picture and the magnetic field structures can contain both poloidal and toroidal components.
We have found evidence for interaction between a standing and a traveling shock in the jet of the blazar CTA 102. Our result is based in the study of the spectral evolution of the turnover frequency-turnover flux density (νm, Sm) plane. The radio/mm light curves were taken during a major radio outburst in April 2006.
Understanding the physical mechanisms that play a role in the saturation of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) has been an outstanding problem in accretion physics since the early 90's. Here, we present the summary of a study of the parasitic modes that feed off exact viscous, resistive MRI modes. We focus on the situation in which the amplitude of the magnetic field produced by the MRI is such that the instantaneous growth rate of the fastest parasitic mode matches that of the fastest MRI mode. We argue that this "saturation" amplitude provides an estimate of the magnetic field that can be generated by the MRI before the secondary instabilities suppress its growth significantly. We show that there exist two regimes, delimited by a critical Elsasser number of order unity, in which saturation is achieved via secondary instabilities that correspond to either Kelvin-Helmholtz or tearing modes.
A spherical hydrodynamical expansion flow can be described as the gradient of a potential. In that case no vorticity should be produced, but several additional mechanisms can drive its production. Here we analyze the effects of baroclinicity, rotation and shear in the case of a viscous fluid. Those flows resemble what happens in the interstellar medium. In fact in this astrophysical environment supernovae explosion are the dominant flows and, in a first approximation, they can be seen as spherical. One of the main difference is that in our numerical study we examine only weakly supersonic flows, while supernovae explosions are strongly supersonic.
Jets are produced by young stellar objects (YSOs), by black hole binary star system “microquasars” (μQSOs), by active galactic nuclei (AGN), are associated with neutron stars and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), and are thought responsible for the gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). An understanding of these outflows must include how they are launched and collimated into jets, and how they propagate to large distances. Jets be they Poynting flux and/or kinetic flux dominated are current driven (CD) and/or Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) velocity shear driven unstable. Here I present some of the work that is leading to a better understanding of the properties required for the observed relative stability of astrophysical jets.
The Solar System formation PFO–CFO hypothesis is developed in the direction of creation of a phenomenological model focused on solution of a number of paradoxes and answering to a number of mysterious questions under the same cover. For explanation of the events and processes that occurred over the period from the middle ages of the pre-solar star to the Solar System formation, original approaches are applied.
Using a new formulation to compute structures of stationary and axisymmetric magnetized barotropic stars in Newtonian gravity, we have succeeded in obtaining numerically exact models of stars with extremely high interior magnetic fields. In this formulation, there appear four arbitrary functions of the magnetic flux function from the integrability conditions among the basic equations. Since in our new formulation these arbitrary functions appear in the expression of the current density, configurations with different current distributions can be specified by choosing the forms of the arbitrary functions.
By choosing appropriate forms for the four arbitrary functions, we have solved many kinds of equilibrium configurations both with poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields. Among them, by choosing special form for the toroidal current density, we have been able to obtain magnetized stars which have extremely strong poloidal magnetic fields deep inside the core region near the symmetric axis. By adopting the appropriate model parameters for the neutron stars, the magnetic fields could be 1014 ~ 1015 G on the surfaces and be about 1017 G in the deep interior regions. For other model parameters appropriate for white dwarfs, the magnetic fields could be around 107 ~ 108 G (surface regions) and 109 ~ 1010 G (core regions). It is remarkable that the regions with very strong interior magnetic fields are confined to a very narrow region around the symmetric axis in the central part of the stars. The issues of stability of these configurations and of evolutionary paths to reach such configurations need to be investigated in the future work.
3D-MHD numerical simulations of bipolar, hypersonic, weakly magnetized jets and synthetic synchrotron observations are presented to study the structure and evolution of magnetic fields in FR II radio sources. The magnetic field setup in the jet is initially random. The power of the jets as well as the observational viewing angle are investigated. We find that synthetic polarization maps agree with observations and show that magnetic fields inside the sources are shaped by the jets' backflow. Polarimetry statistics correlates with time, the viewing angle and the jet-to-ambient density contrast. The magnetic structure inside thin elongated sources is more uniform than for ones with fatter cocoons. Jets increase the magnetic energy in cocoons, in proportion to the jet velocity. Both, filaments in synthetic emission maps and 3D magnetic power spectra suggest that turbulence develops in evolved sources.
We present results of recent observations and theoretical modeling of data from black holes accreting at very low luminosities (L/LEdd ≲ 10−8). We discuss our newly developed time-dependent model for episodic ejection of relativistic plasma within a jet framework, and a successful application of this model to describe the origin of radio flares seen in Sgr A*, the Galactic center black hole. Both the observed time lags and size-frequency relationships are reproduced well by the model. We also discuss results from new Spitzer data of the stellar black hole X-ray binary system A0620–00. Complemented by long term SMARTS monitoring, these observations indicate that once the contribution from the accretion disk and the donor star are properly included, the residual mid-IR spectral energy distribution of A0620–00 is quite flat and consistent with a non-thermal origin. The results above suggest that a significant fraction of the observed spectral energy distribution originating near black holes accreting at low luminosities could result from a mildly relativistic outflow. The fact that these outflows are seen in both stellar-mass black holes as well as in supermassive black holes at the heart of AGNs strengthens our expectation that accretion and jet physics scales with mass.
In recent years, numerous efforts have been devoted to unravel the connection between accretion flow and jets in accreting compact objects. Here we report new constraints on these issues, through the long term study of the radio and X-ray behaviour of the black hole candidate H 1743–322. This source is known to be one of the “outliers” of the universal radio/X-ray correlation, i.e. a group of stellar mass accreting black holes displaying fainter radio emission for a given X-ray luminosity, than expected from the correlation. In this work we find, at high X-ray luminosity in the hard state, a tight radio/X-ray correlation with an unusual steep slope of b = 1.38 ± 0.03. This correlation then breaks below ~5 × 10−3LEdd (M/10M⊙)−1 in X-rays and becomes shallower. When compared with radio/X-ray data from other black hole X-ray binaries, we see that the deviant points of H 1743–322 join the universal correlation and seem to follow it at low luminosity. Based on these results, we investigate several hypotheses that could explain both the b ~ 1.4 slope and the transition toward the universal correlation.