arXiv subjects

Adam Rogers

Publications and source records attributed to Adam Rogers.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Gravitational lensing by compact objects within plasma

Frequency-dependent gravitational lens effects are found for trajectories of electromagnetic rays passing through a distribution of plasma near a massive object. Ray propagation through plasma adds extra terms to the equations of motion that depend on the plasma refractive index. For low-frequency rays these refractive effects can dominate, turning the gravitational lens into a mirror. While light rays behave like particles with an effective mass given by the plasma frequency in a medium with constant density, an inhomogeneous plasma introduces more complicated behavior even for the spherically symmetric case. As a physical example, the pulse profile of a compact object sheathed in a dense plasma is examined, which introduces dramatic frequency-dependent shifts from the behavior in vacuum.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

On the Diversity of Compact Objects within Supernova Remnants II: Energy Loss Mechanisms

Energy losses from isolated neutron stars are commonly attributed to the emission of electromagnetic radiation from a rotating point-like magnetic dipole in vacuum. This emission mechanism predicts a braking index $n=3$, which is not observed in highly magnetized neutron stars. Despite this fact, the assumptions of a dipole field and rapid early rotation are often assumed a priori, typically causing a discrepancy between the characteristic age and the associated supernova remnant (SNR) age. We focus on neutron stars with `anomalous' magnetic fields that have established SNR associations and known ages. Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) are usually described in terms of the magnetar model, which posits a large magnetic field established by dynamo action. The high magnetic field pulsars (HBPs) have extremely large magnetic fields just above QED scale (but below that of the AXPs and SGRs), and central compact objects (CCOs) may have buried fields that will emerge in the future as nascent magnetars. In the first part of this series we examined magnetic field growth as a method of uniting the CCOs with HBPs and X-ray dim isolated neutron stars (XDINSs) through evolution. In this work we constrain the characteristic age of these neutron stars using the related SNR age for a variety of energy loss mechanisms and allowing for arbitrary initial spin periods. In addition to the SNR age, we also make use of the observed braking indices and X-ray luminosities to constrain the models.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

On the Diversity of Compact Objects within Supernova Remnants. I: A Parametric Model for Magnetic Field Evolution

A wealth of X-ray and radio observations has revealed in the past decade a growing diversity of neutron stars (NSs) with properties spanning orders of magnitude in magnetic field strength and ages, and with emission processes explained by a range of mechanisms dictating their radiation properties. However, serious difficulties exist with the magneto-dipole model of isolated neutron star fields and their inferred ages, such as a large range of observed braking indices ($n$, with values often $<$3) and a mismatch between the neutron star and associated supernova remnant (SNR) ages. This problem arises primarily from the assumptions of a constant magnetic field with $n$=3, and an initial spin period that is much smaller than the observed current period. It has been suggested that a solution to this problem involves magnetic field evolution, with some NSs having magnetic fields buried within the crust by accretion of fall-back supernova material following their birth. In this work we explore a parametric phenomenological model for magnetic field growth that generalizes previous suggested field evolution functions, and apply it to a variety of NSs with both secure SNR associations and known ages. We explore the flexibility of the model by recovering the results of previous work on buried magnetic fields in young neutron stars. Our model fits suggest that apparently disparate classes of NSs may be related to one another through the time-evolution of the magnetic field.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Frequency-dependent effects of gravitational lensing within plasma

The interaction between refraction from a distribution of inhomogeneous plasma and gravitational lensing introduces novel effects to the paths of light rays passing by a massive object. The plasma contributes additional terms to the equations of motion, and the resulting ray trajectories are frequency-dependent. Lensing phenomena and circular orbits are investigated for plasma density distributions $N \propto 1/r^h$ with $h \geq 0$ in the Schwarzschild space-time. For rays passing by the mass near the plasma frequency refractive effects can dominate, effectively turning the gravitational lens into a mirror. We obtain the turning points, circular orbit radii, and angular momentum for general $h$. Previous results have shown that light rays behave like massive particles with an effective mass given by the plasma frequency for a constant density $h=0$. We study the behaviour for general $h$ and show that when $h=2$ the plasma term acts like an additional contribution to the angular momentum of the passing ray. When $h=3$ the potential and radii of circular orbits are analogous to those found in studies of massless scalar fields on the Schwarzschild background. As a physically motivated example we study the pulse profiles of a compact object with antipodal hotspots sheathed in a dense plasma, which shows dramatic frequency-dependent shifts from the behaviour in vacuum. Finally, we consider the potential observability and applications of such frequency-dependent plasma effects in general relativity for several types of neutron star.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

Global Optimization methods for Gravitational Lens Systems with Regularized Sources

Several approaches exist to model gravitational lens systems. In this study, we apply global optimization methods to find the optimal set of lens parameters using a genetic algorithm. We treat the full optimization procedure as a two-step process: an analytical description of the source plane intensity distribution is used to find an initial approximation to the optimal lens parameters. The second stage of the optimization uses a pixelated source plane with the semilinear method to determine an optimal source. Regularization is handled by means of an iterative method and the generalized cross validation (GCV) and unbiased predictive risk estimator (UPRE) functions that are commonly used in standard image deconvolution problems. This approach simultaneously estimates the optimal regularization parameter and the number of degrees of freedom in the source. Using the GCV and UPRE functions we are able to justify an estimation of the number of source degrees of freedom found in previous work. We test our approach by applying our code to a subset of the lens systems included in the SLACS survey.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Strong Gravitational Lens Modeling with Spatially Variant Point Spread Functions

Astronomical instruments generally possess spatially variant point-spread functions, which determine the amount by which an image pixel is blurred as a function of position. Several techniques have been devised to handle this variability in the context of the standard image deconvolution problem. We have developed an iterative gravitational lens modeling code called Mirage that determines the parameters of pixelated source intensity distributions for a given lens model. We are able to include the effects of spatially variant point-spread functions using the iterative procedures in this lensing code. In this paper, we discuss the methods to include spatially variant blurring effects and test the results of the algorithm in the context of gravitational lens modeling problems.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Gravitational Lens Modeling with Genetic Algorithms and Particle Swarm Optimizers

Strong gravitational lensing of an extended object is described by a mapping from source to image coordinates that is nonlinear and cannot generally be inverted analytically. Determining the structure of the source intensity distribution also requires a description of the blurring effect due to a point spread function. This initial study uses an iterative gravitational lens modeling scheme based on the semilinear method to determine the linear parameters (source intensity profile) of a strongly lensed system. Our 'matrix-free' approach avoids construction of the lens and blurring operators while retaining the least squares formulation of the problem. The parameters of an analytical lens model are found through nonlinear optimization by an advanced genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimizer (PSO). These global optimization routines are designed to explore the parameter space thoroughly, mapping model degeneracies in detail. We develop a novel method that determines the L-curve for each solution automatically, which represents the trade-off between the image chi-square and regularization effects, and allows an estimate of the optimally regularized solution for each lens parameter set. In the final step of the optimization procedure, the lens model with the lowest chi-square is used while the global optimizer solves for the source intensity distribution directly. This allows us to accurately determine the number of degrees of freedom in the problem to facilitate comparison between lens models and enforce positivity on the source profile. In practice we find that the GA conducts a more thorough search of the parameter space than the PSO.

astro-ph.CO↗