arXiv subjects

Abraham Loeb

Publications and source records attributed to Abraham Loeb.

At least 721 records · Page 40Linked to original sources

arXiv2002

Gravitational Lensing of the SDSS High-Redshift Quasars

We predict the effects of gravitational lensing on the color-selected flux-limited samples of z~4.3 and z>5.8 quasars, recently published by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our main findings are: (i) The lensing probability should be 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than for conventional surveys. The expected fraction of multiply-imaged quasars is highly sensitive to redshift and the uncertain slope of the bright end of the luminosity function, beta_h. For beta_h=2.58 (3.43) we find that at z~4.3 and i*<20.0 the fraction is ~4% (13%) while at z~6 and z*<20.2 the fraction is ~7% (30%). (ii) The distribution of magnifications is heavily skewed; sources having the redshift and luminosity of the SDSS z>5.8 quasars acquire median magnifications of med(mu_obs)~1.1-1.3 and mean magnifications of ~5-50. Estimates of the quasar luminosity density at high redshift must therefore filter out gravitationally-lensed sources. (iii) The flux in the Gunn-Peterson trough of the highest redshift (z=6.28) quasar is known to be f_lambda<3 10^-19 erg/sec/cm^2/Angstrom. Should this quasar be multiply imaged, we estimate a 40% chance that light from the lens galaxy would have contaminated the same part of the quasar spectrum with a higher flux. Hence, spectroscopic studies of the epoch of reionization need to account for the possibility that a lens galaxy, which boosts the quasar flux, also contaminates the Gunn-Peterson trough. (iv) Microlensing by stars should result in ~1/3 of multiply imaged quasars in the z>5.8 catalog varying by more than 0.5 magnitudes over the next decade. The median equivalent width would be lowered by ~20% with respect to the intrinsic value due to differential magnification of the continuum and emission-line regions.

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arXiv2002

Galactic Constraints on the Sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

We show that if the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with energies E>10^{19}eV are associated with galaxies, then the production of UHECRs must occur in transient events. Our galaxy is currently at a dim state in between transients. The time interval between transients is >3x10^4 years if the minimum Lorentz factor to which protons are accelerated in the transients is between 10^3 and 10^7. This constraint is satisfied by gamma-ray bursts.

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arXiv2002

Gravitational lenses magnify up to one third of the most distant quasars

Exceptionally bright quasars with redshifts up to z=6.28 have recently been discovered. Quasars are thought to be powered by the accretion of gas onto supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. Their maximum (Eddington) luminosity is proportional to the mass of the black hole, and so these bright quasars are inferred to have black holes with masses of more than a few billion solar masses. The existence of such massive black holes poses a challenge to models for the formation of structures in the early Universe, as it requires that the black holes would grow so massive in less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Here we show that up to a third of known quasars with z~6 will have their observed flux magnified by a factor of 10 or more through gravitational lensing by galaxies along the line of sight. The inferred abundance of quasar host galaxies, as well as the luminosity density provided by the quasars, are therefore substantially overestimated.

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arXiv2002

Measuring the Size of Quasar Broad-Line Clouds Through Time Delay Light-Curve Anomalies of Gravitational Lenses

Intensive monitoring campaigns have recently attempted to measure the time delays between multiple images of gravitational lenses. Some of the resulting light-curves show puzzling low-level, rapid variability which is unique to individual images, superimposed on top of (and concurrent with) longer time-scale intrinsic quasar variations which repeat in all images. We demonstrate that both the amplitude and variability time-scale of the rapid light-curve anomalies, as well as the correlation observed between intrinsic and microlensed variability, are naturally explained by stellar microlensing of a smooth accretion disk which is occulted by optically-thick broad-line clouds. The rapid time-scale is caused by the high velocities of the clouds (~5x10^3 km/s), and the low amplitude results from the large number of clouds covering the magnified or demagnified parts of the disk. The observed amplitudes of variations in specific lenses implies that the number of broad-line clouds that cover ~10% of the quasar sky is ~10^5 per 4 pi steradian. This is comparable to the expected number of broad line clouds in models where the clouds originate from bloated stars.

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arXiv2002

Are X-ray Clusters Cooled by Heat Conduction to the Surrounding Intergalactic Medium?

We show that X-ray clusters would have cooled substantially over a Hubble time by transport of heat from their hot interior to the their envelope, if the heat conductivity had not been heavily suppressed relative to the Spitzer value due to magnetic fields. The suppression is required in order for the observed abundance of hot X-ray clusters to be consistent with predictions from popular cosmological models. If a similar or stronger suppression factor applies to cluster cores, then thermal conduction can not be the mechanism that prevents cooling flows there.

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arXiv2002

The Expected Redshift Distribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts

We predict the redshift distribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) assuming that they trace the cosmic star formation history. We find that a fraction >~50% of all GRBs on the sky originate at a redshift z >~5, even though the fraction of the total stellar mass formed by z~5 is only ~15%. These two fractions are significantly different because they involve different cosmological factors when integrating the star formation rate over redshift. Hence, deep observations of transient events, such as GRB afterglows or supernovae, provide an ideal strategy for probing the high-redshift universe. We also show that the intrinsic distribution of GRB durations is bimodal but significantly narrower and shifted towards shorter durations than the observed distribution.

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arXiv2002

Effective Screening due to Minihalos During the Epoch of Reionization

We show that the gaseous halos of collapsed objects introduce a substantial cumulative opacity to ionizing radiation, even after the smoothly distributed hydrogen in the intergalactic medium has been fully reionized. This opacity causes a delay of around unity in redshift between the time of the overlap of ionized bubbles in the intergalactic medium and the lifting of complete Gunn-Peterson Lyman alpha absorption. The minihalos responsible for this screening effect are not resolved by existing numerical simulations of reionization.

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arXiv2002

Identifying Gamma-Ray Burst Remnants Through Positron Annihilation Radiation

We model the annihilation of relic positrons produced in a gamma-ray burst (GRB) after its afterglow has faded. We find that the annihilation signal from at least one GRB remnant in the Milky Way galaxy should be observable with future space missions such as INTEGRAL and EXIST, provided that the gas surrounding the GRB source has the typical density of the interstellar medium, < 1 cm^-3. Three fortunate circumstances conspire to make the signal observable. First, unlike positrons in a standard supernova, the GRB positrons initially travel at a relativistic speed and remain ahead of any non-relativistic ejecta until the ejecta become rarefied and the annihilation time becomes long. Second, the GRB remnant remains sufficiently hot (T > 5 x 10^5 K) for a strong annihilation line to form without significant smearing by three-photon decay of positronium. Third, the annihilation signal persists over a time longer than the average period between GRB events in the Milky Way galaxy.

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arXiv2002

Dynamics of a Massive Black Hole at the Center of a Dense Stellar System

We develop a simple physical model to describe the dynamics of a massive point-like object, such as a black hole, near the center of a dense stellar system. It is shown that the total force on this body can be separated into two independent parts, one of which is the slowly varying influence of the aggregate stellar system, and the other being the rapidly fluctuating stochastic force due to discrete encounters with individual stars. For the particular example of a stellar system distributed according to a Plummer model, it is shown that the motion of the black hole is then similar to that of a Brownian particle in a harmonic potential, and we analyze its dynamics using an approach akin to Langevin's solution of the Brownian motion problem. The equations are solved to obtain the average values, time-autocorrelation functions, and probability distributions of the black hole's position and velocity. By comparing these results to N-body simulations, we demonstrate that this model provides a very good statistical description of the actual black hole dynamics. As an application of our model, we use our results to derive a lower limit on the mass of the black hole Sgr A* in the Galactic center.

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arXiv2002

Brownian Motion in Gravitationally-Interacting Systems

We derive a model that describes the motion of a Brownian particle in a system which is dominated by gravitational forces. An example of such a system is a massive black hole immersed in a cluster of stars. We compute the dispersion in the position and velocity of such a black hole, and examine whether it achieves a state of equipartition of kinetic energy with the stars. This problem has been considered before only for stellar systems with an isothermal Maxwellian distribution of velocities; here we study other examples and confirm our calculations with N-body simulations. In certain cases, depending on the stellar distribution function, the black hole can acquire a steady state kinetic energy which is very far from equipartition relative to the stars.

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arXiv2002

Emission of Positron Annihilation Line Radiation by Clusters of Galaxies

Clusters of galaxies are enriched with positrons from jets of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) or from the interaction of cosmic rays with the intracluster gas. We follow the cooling of these positrons and show that their eventual annihilation with cluster electrons yields a narrow annihilation line. Unlike annihilation in the interstellar medium of galaxies, the line produced in clusters is not smeared by three-photon decay of positronium, because positronium formation is suppressed at the high (>~ 1 keV) temperature of the cluster electrons. We show that if AGN jets are composed of e^+e^- pairs, then the annihilation line from rich clusters within a distance of 100 Mpc might be detectable with future space missions, such as INTEGRAL or EXIST.

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arXiv2001

Vacuum Decay Constraints on a Cosmological Scalar Field

If the potential of a scalar field, Phi, which currently provides the ``dark energy'' of the universe, has a negative minimum -M_0^4, then quantum-mechanical fluctuations could nucleate a bubble of Phi at a negative value of the potential. The bubble would expand at the speed of light. Given that no such bubble enveloped us in the past, we find that any minimum in V(Phi) must be separated from the current Phi value by more than min{1.5M_0, 0.21M_Pl}, where M_Pl is the Planck mass. We also show that vacuum decay renders a cyclic or ekpyrotic universe with M_0^4 > 10^{-10}M_Pl^4, untenable.

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arXiv2001

The Long-Term Future of Extragalactic Astronomy

If the current energy density of the universe is indeed dominated by a cosmological constant, then high-redshift sources will remain visible to us only until they reach some finite age in their rest-frame. The radiation emitted beyond that age will never reach us due to the acceleration of the cosmic expansion rate, and so we will never know what these sources look like as they become older. As a source image freezes on a particular time frame along its evolution, its luminosity distance and redshift continue to increase exponentially with observation time. The higher the current redshift of a source is, the younger it will appear as it fades out of sight. For the popular set of cosmological parameters, I show that a source at a redshift z=5-10 will only be visible up to an age of 4-6 billion years. Arguments relating the properties of high-redshift sources to present-day counterparts will remain indirect even if we continue to monitor these sources for an infinite amount of time. These sources will not be visible to us when they reach the current age of the universe.

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arXiv2001

An Intergalactic Magnetic Field from Quasar Outflows

Outflows from quasars inevitably pollute the intergalactic medium (IGM) with magnetic fields. The short-lived activity of a quasar leaves behind an expanding magnetized bubble in the IGM. We model the expansion of the remnant quasar bubbles and calculate their distribution as a function magnetic field strength at different redshifts. We find that by a redshift z ~ 3, about 5-80% of the IGM volume is filled by magnetic fields with an energy density > 10% of the mean thermal energy density of a photo-ionized IGM (at ~ 10^4 K). As massive galaxies and X-ray clusters condense out of the magnetized IGM, the adiabatic compression of the magnetic field could result in the fields observed in these systems without a need for further dynamo amplification.

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arXiv2001

Element Diffusion During Cosmological Structure Formation

We consider element diffusion during the linear growth of structure in the intergalactic medium (IGM) before the redshift of reionization. The elements produced during big bang nucleosynthesis (such as D, He-4 or Li-7) condensed in collapsing regions more readily than hydrogen. Diffusion was most effective when the IGM was neutral since the collisional cross-section between neutral species is smaller than the corresponding Coulomb cross-section in an ionized gas. We find that diffusion led to small deviations in element abundances of up to 0.1%. Abundance measurements to this level of precision in low-metallicity environments could provide information about the thermal and ionization history of the primordial gas during the early formation of structure in the IGM.

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arXiv2001

Stability of the Forward/Reverse Shock System Formed by the Impact of a Relativistic Fireball on an Ambient Medium

We analyze the stability of a relativistic double (forward/reverse) shock system which forms when the fireball of a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) impacts on the surrounding medium. We find this shock system to be stable to linear global perturbations for either a uniform or a wind (r^{-2}) density profile of the ambient medium. For the wind case, we calculate analytically the frequencies of the normal modes which could modulate the early short-term variability of GRB afterglows. We find that perturbations in the double shock system could induce oscillatory fluctuations in the observed flux on short (down to seconds) time scales during the early phase of an afterglow.

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arXiv2001

Novel Ways to Probe the Universe with Gamma-Ray Bursts and Quasars

I consider novel ways by which Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and quasars can be used to probe the universe. Clues about how and when was the intergalactic medium ionized can be read off the UV emission spectrum of GRB explosions from the first generation of stars. The existence of intergalactic and galactic stars can be inferred from their gravitational microlensing effect on GRB afterglows. Prior to reionization, quasars should be surrounded by a halo of scattered Lyman-alpha radiation which probes the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) around them. The situation is analogous to the appearance of a halo of scattered light around a street lamp which is embedded in a dense fog. Outflows from quasars magnetize the IGM at all redshifts. As a result, the shocks produced by converging flows during the formation of large scale structure in the IGM, accelerate electrons to relativistic energies and become visible in the radio regime through their synchrotron emission and in the gamma-ray regime through their inverse-Compton scattering of the microwave background photons. During transient episodes of strong mergers, X-ray clusters should therefore appear as extended radio or gamma-ray sources on the sky.

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arXiv2001

Constraining the Collisional Nature of the Dark Matter Through Observations of Gravitational Wakes

We propose to use gravitational wakes as a direct observational probe of the collisional nature of the dark matter. We calculate analytically the structure of a wake generated by the motion of a galaxy in the core of an X-ray cluster for dark matter in the highly-collisional and collisionless limits. We show that the difference between these limits can be recovered from detailed X-ray or weak lensing observations. We also discuss the sizes of sub-halos in these limits. Preliminary X-ray data on the motion of NGC 1404 through the Fornax group disfavors fluid-like dark matter but does not exclude scenarios in which the dark matter is weakly collisional.

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