Search

Blazars emit a highly variable non-thermal spectrum. It is usually assumed that the same non-thermal electrons are responsible for the IR-optical-UV emission (via synchrotron) and the gamma-ray emission (via inverse Compton). Hence, the light curves in the two bands should be correlated. Orphan gamma-ray flares (i.e. lacking a luminous low-frequency counterpart) challenge our theoretical understanding of blazars. By means of large-scale two-dimensional radiative particle-in-cell simulations, we show that orphan gamma-ray flares may be a self-consistent by-product of particle energization in turbulent magnetically dominated pair plasmas. The energized particles produce the gamma-ray flare by inverse Compton scattering an external radiation field, while the synchrotron luminosity is heavily suppressed since the particles are accelerated nearly along the direction of the local magnetic field. The ratio of inverse Compton to synchrotron luminosity is sensitive to the initial strength of turbulent fluctuations (a larger degree of turbulent fluctuations weakens the anisotropy of the energized particles, thus increasing the synchrotron luminosity). Our results show that the anisotropy of the non-thermal particle population is key to modelling the blazar emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use ensemble machine learning algorithms to study the evolution of magnetic fields in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence that is helically forced. We perform direct numerical simulations of helically forced turbulence using mean field formalism, with electromotive force (EMF) modeled both as a linear and non-linear function of the mean magnetic field and current density. The form of the EMF is determined using regularized linear regression and random forests. We also compare various analytical models to the data using Bayesian inference with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. Our results demonstrate that linear regression is largely successful at predicting the EMF and the use of more sophisticated algorithms (random forests, MCMC) do not lead to significant improvement in the fits. We conclude that the data we are looking at is effectively low dimensional and essentially linear. Finally, to encourage further exploration by the community, we provide all of our simulation data and analysis scripts as open source IPYTHON notebooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutron star (NS) masses and radii can be estimated from observations of photospheric radius-expansion X-ray bursts, provided the chemical composition of the photosphere, the spectral colour-correction factors in the observed luminosity range, and the emission area during the bursts are known. By analysing 246 X-ray bursts observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer from 11 low-mass X-ray binaries, we find a dependence between the persistent spectral properties and the time evolution of the blackbody normalization during the bursts. All NS atmosphere models predict that the colour-correction factor decreases in the early cooling phase when the luminosity first drops below the limiting Eddington value, leading to a characteristic pattern of variability in the measured blackbody normalization. However, the model predictions agree with the observations for most bursts occurring in hard, low-luminosity, island spectral states, but rarely during soft, high-luminosity, banana states. The observed behaviour may be attributed to the accretion flow, which influences cooling of the NS preferentially during the soft state bursts. This result implies that only the bursts occurring in the hard, low-luminosity spectral states can be reliably used for NS mass and radius determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectral measurements of thermonuclear (type I) X-ray bursts from low-mass X-ray binaries have been used to measure neutron star (NS) masses and radii. A number of systematic issues affect such measurements and have raised concerns as to the robustness of the methods. We present analysis of the X-ray emission from bursts observed from 4U 1608−52 at various persistent fluxes. We find a strong dependence of the burst properties on the flux and spectral hardness of the persistent emission before burst. Bursts occurring during the low accretion rate (hard) state exhibit evolution of the blackbody normalization consistent with the theoretical predictions of NS atmosphere models. However, bursts occurring during the high accretion rate (soft) state show roughly constant normalization, which is inconsistent with the NS atmosphere models and therefore these bursts cannot be easily used to determine NS parameters. We analyse the hard-state burst to put the lower limit on the NS radius R in 4U 1608−52 of 12 km (for masses 1.0–2.4 M⊙). We constrain R to be between 13 and 16 km for masses 1.2–1.6 M⊙. The best agreement with the theoretical NS mass–radius relations is achieved for source distances in the range 3.1–3.7 kpc. We expect that the radius limit will be 10 per cent lower if spectral models including rapid rotation are used instead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Magnetic energy around astrophysical compact objects can strongly dominate over plasma rest mass. Emission observed from these systems may be fed by dissipation of Alfvén wave turbulence, which cascades to small damping scales, energizing the plasma. We use 3D kinetic simulations to investigate this process. When the cascade is excited naturally, by colliding large-scale Alfvén waves, we observe quasithermal heating with no nonthermal particle acceleration. We also find that the particles are energized along the magnetic field lines and so are poor producers of synchrotron radiation. At low plasma densities, our simulations show the transition to "charge-starved" cascades, with a distinct damping mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer vision and machine learning tools offer an exciting new way for automatically analyzing and categorizing information from complex computer simulations. Here we design an ensemble machine learning framework that can independently and robustly categorize and dissect simulation data output contents of turbulent flow patterns into distinct structure catalogs. The segmentation is performed using an unsupervised clustering algorithm, which segments physical structures by grouping together similar pixels in simulation images. The accuracy and robustness of the resulting segment region boundaries are enhanced by combining information from multiple simultaneously-evaluated clustering operations. The stacking of object segmentation evaluations is performed using image mask combination operations. This statistically-combined ensemble (SCE) of different cluster masks allows us to construct cluster reliability metrics for each pixel and for the associated segments without any prior user input. By comparing the similarity of different cluster occurrences in the ensemble, we can also assess the optimal number of clusters needed to describe the data. Furthermore, by relying on ensemble-averaged spatial segment region boundaries, the SCE method enables reconstruction of more accurate and robust region of interest (ROI) boundaries for the different image data clusters. We apply the SCE algorithm to 2-dimensional simulation data snapshots of magnetically-dominated fully-kinetic turbulent plasma flows where accurate ROI boundaries are needed for geometrical measurements of intermittent flow structures known as current sheets. • Computer vision tools can be used to automate the analysis of physics simulations. • Region of interest boundaries from image segmentation results are often fluctuating. • Multiple clustering results can be combined with mask stacking operations. • Ensemble machine learning methods increase stability of clustering and segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectro-polarimetric signatures of accretion disks in X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei contain information on the masses and spins of their central black holes, as well as the geometry of matter in proximity to the compact objects. This information can be extracted by means of X-ray polarimetry. In this work, we present a fast analytical ray-tracing technique for polarized light (ARTPOL) that helps us to obtain the spinning black hole parameters from the observed properties. This technique can replace the otherwise time-consuming numerical ray-tracing calculations for any optically thick or geometrically thin accretion flow. For the purposes of illustration, we considered a standard optically thick, geometrically thin accretion disk in the equatorial plane of the Kerr black hole. We show that ARTPOL proves accurate for dimensionless spin parameter a ≤ 0.94 with a speed that is over four orders of magnitude faster than direct ray-tracing calculations. This approach opens up broader prospects for direct fittings of the spectro-polarimetric data from the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed a complete theory for the calculation of the observed Stokes parameters for radiation emitted from the surface of a rapidly rotating neutron star (NS) using the oblate Schwarzschild approximation. We accounted for the rotation of the polarization plane due to relativistic effects along the path from the stellar surface to the observer. The results were shown to agree with those obtained by performing full numerical general relativistic ray-tracing with the ARCMANCER code. We showed that the obtained polarization angle profiles may differ substantially from those derived for a spherical star. We demonstrated that assuming incorrect shape for the star can lead to biased constraints for NS parameters when fitting the polarization data. Using a simplified model, we also made a rough estimate of how accurately the geometrical parameters of an accreting NS can be determined using the X-ray polarization measurements of upcoming polarimeters like the Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer or the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We computed accurate atmosphere models of rotation-powered millisecond pulsars in which the polar caps of a neutron star (NS) are externally heated by magnetospheric return currents. The external ram pressure, energy losses, and stopping depth of the penetrating charged particles were computed self-consistently with the atmosphere model, instead of assuming a simplified deep-heated atmosphere in radiative equilibrium. We used exact Compton scattering formalism to model the properties of the emergent X-ray radiation. The deep-heating approximation was found to be valid only if most of the heat originates from ultra-relativistic bombarding particles with Lorentz factors of γ ≳ 100. In the opposite regime, the atmosphere attains a distinct two-layer structure with an overheated optically thin skin on top of an optically thick cool plasma. The overheated skin strongly modifies the emergent radiation: It produces a Compton-upscattered high-energy tail in the spectrum and alters the radiation beaming pattern from limb darkening to limb brightening for emitted hard X-rays. This kind of drastic change in the emission properties can have a significant impact on the inferred NS pulse profile parameters as performed, for example, by Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR. Finally, the connection between the energy distribution of the return current particles and the atmosphere emission properties offers a new tool to probe the exact physics of pulsar magnetospheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relativistic magnetized shocks are a natural source of coherent emission, offering a plausible radiative mechanism for fast radio bursts (FRBs). We present first-principles 3D simulations that provide essential information for the FRB models based on shocks: the emission efficiency, spectrum, and polarization. The simulated shock propagates in an e± plasma with magnetization σ>1. The measured fraction of shock energy converted to coherent radiation is ≃10-3σ-1, and the energy-carrying wave number of the wave spectrum is ≃4ωc/c, where ωc is the upstream gyrofrequency. The ratio of the O-mode and X-mode energy fluxes emitted by the shock is ≃0.4σ-1. The dominance of the X mode at σ≫1 is particularly strong, approaching 100% in the spectral band around 2ωc. We also provide a detailed description of the emission mechanism for both X and O modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We perform a joint Bayesian inference of neutron-star mass and radius constraints based on GW170817, observations of quiescent low-mass x-ray binaries (QLMXBs), photospheric radius expansion x-ray bursting sources, and x-ray timing observations of J0030+0451. With this dataset, the form of the prior distribution still has an impact on the posterior mass-radius curves and equation of state (EOS), but this impact is smaller than recently obtained when considering QLMXBs alone. We analyze the consistency of the electromagnetic data by including an "intrinsic scattering" contribution to the uncertainties, and find only a slight broadening of the posteriors. This suggests that the gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations of neutron-star structure are providing a consistent picture of the neutron-star mass-radius curve and the EOS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ultracompact low-mass X-ray binary 4U1820-30 situated in the globular cluster NGC6624 has an orbital period of only ≈11.4min, which likely implies a white dwarf companion. The observed X-ray bursts demonstrate a photospheric radius expansion phase and therefore are believed to reach the Eddington luminosity, allowing us to estimate the mass and the radius of the neutron star (NS) in this binary. Here, we re-analyse all Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations of the system and confirm that almost all the bursts took place during the hard persistent state of the system. This allows us to use the recently developed direct cooling tail method to estimate the NS mass and radius. However, because of the very short, about a second, duration of the cooling tail phases that can be described by the theoretical atmosphere models, the obtained constraints on the NS radius are not very strict. Assuming a pure helium NS atmosphere, we found that the NS radius is in the range 10-12 km, if the NS mass is below 1.7M☉, and in a wider range of 8-12 km for a higher 1.7-2.0M☉ NS mass. The method also constrains the distance to the system to be 6.5 ± 0.5 kpc, which is consistent with the distance to the cluster. For the solar composition atmosphere, the NS parameters are in strong contradiction with the generally accepted range of possible NS masses and radii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Investigation of the performance of Boris-SDC as particle pusher in particle-in-cell code • Extension of Boris-SDC to relativistic regimes • Boris-SDC provides higher accuracy than Boris but computational cost is about the same The paper investigates two new use cases for the Boris Spectral Deferred Corrections (Boris-SDC) time integrator for plasma simulations. First, we show that using Boris-SDC as a particle pusher in an electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) code can, at least in the linear regime, improve simulation accuracy compared with the standard second order Boris method. In some instances, the higher order of Boris-SDC even allows a much larger time step, leading to modest computational gains. Second, we propose a modification of Boris-SDC for the relativistic regime. Based on an implementation of Boris-SDC in the RUNKO PIC code, we demonstrate for a relativistic Penning trap that Boris-SDC retains its high order of convergence for velocities ranging from 0.5 c to > 0.99 c. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]