arXiv subjects

Alak Ray

Publications and source records attributed to Alak Ray.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Radio Detection of Green Peas: Implications for Magnetic Fields in Young Galaxies

Green Peas are a new class of young, emission line galaxies that were discovered by citizen volunteers in the Galaxy Zoo project. Their low stellar mass, low metallicity and very high star formation rates make Green Peas the nearby (z~0.2) analogs of the Lyman-break Galaxies (LBGs) which account for the bulk of the star formation in the early universe (z~2-5). They thus provide accessible laboratories in the nearby Universe for understanding star formation, supernova feedback, particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification in early galaxies. We report the first direct radio detection of Green Peas with low frequency GMRT observations and our stacking detection with archival VLA FIRST data. We show that the radio emission implies that these extremely young galaxies already have magnetic fields (>30 muG) even larger than that of the Milky Way. This is at odds with the present understanding of magnetic field growth based on amplification of seed fields by dynamo action over a galaxy's lifetime. Our observations strongly favor models with pregalactic magnetic fields at muG levels.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Afterglows of Mildly Relativistic Supernovae: Baryon Loaded Blastwaves

Relativistic supernovae have been discovered until recently only through their association with long duration Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB). As the ejecta mass is negligible in comparison to the swept up mass, the blastwaves of such explosions are well described by the Blandford-McKee (in the ultra relativistic regime) and Sedov-Taylor (in the non-relativistic regime) solutions during their afterglows. However, the recent discovery of the relativistic supernova SN 2009bb, without a detected GRB, has indicated the possibility of highly baryon loaded mildly relativistic outflows which remains in nearly free expansion phase during the radio afterglow. In this work, we consider the dynamics and emission from a massive, relativistic shell, launched by a Central Engine Driven EXplosion (CEDEX), decelerating adiabatically due to its collision with the pre-explosion circumstellar wind profile of the progenitor. We show that this model explains the observed radio evolution of the prototypical SN 2009bb and demonstrate that SN 2009bb had a highly baryon loaded, mildly relativistic outflow.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Engine-driven Relativistic Supernovae as Sources of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays

Understanding the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays is a crucial step in probing new physics at energies unattainable by terrestrial accelerators. Their sources remain an enigma half a century after their discovery. They must be accelerated in the local universe as otherwise interaction with cosmic background radiations would severely deplete the flux of protons and nuclei at energies above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) limit. Hypernovae, nearby GRBs, AGNs and their flares have all been suggested and debated in the literature as possible sources. Type Ibc supernovae have a local sub-population with mildly relativistic ejecta which are known to be sub-energetic GRBs or X-Ray Flashes for sometime and more recently as those with radio afterglows but without detected GRB counterparts, such as SN 2009bb. In this work we measure the size-magnetic field evolution, baryon loading and energetics of SN 2009bb using its radio spectra obtained with VLA and GMRT. We show that the engine-driven SNe lie above the Hillas line and they can explain the characteristics of post-GZK UHECRs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Baryon Loaded Relativistic Blastwaves in Supernovae

We provide a new analytic blastwave solution which generalizes the Blandford-McKee solution to arbitrary ejecta masses and Lorentz factors. Until recently relativistic supernovae have been discovered only through their association with long duration Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB). The blastwaves of such explosions are well described by the Blandford-McKee (in the ultra relativistic regime) and Sedov-Taylor (in the non-relativistic regime) solutions during their afterglows, as the ejecta mass is negligible in comparison to the swept up mass. The recent discovery of the relativistic supernova SN 2009bb, without a detected GRB, opens up the possibility of highly baryon loaded mildly relativistic outflows which remains in nearly free expansion phase during the radio afterglow. In this work, we consider a massive, relativistic shell, launched by a Central Engine Driven EXplosion (CEDEX), decelerating adiabatically due to its collision with the pre-explosion circumstellar wind profile of the progenitor. We compute the synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in the shock amplified magnetic field. This models the radio emission from the circumstellar interaction of a CEDEX. We show that this model explains the observed radio evolution of the prototypical SN 2009bb and demonstrate that SN 2009bb had a highly baryon loaded, mildly relativistic outflow. We discuss the effect of baryon loading on the dynamics and observational manifestations of a CEDEX. In particular, our predicted angular size of SN 2009bb is consistent with VLBI upper limits on day 85, but is presently resolvable on VLBI angular scales, since the relativistic ejecta is still in the nearly free expansion phase.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray Acceleration in Engine-driven Relativistic Supernovae

The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays remains an enigma. They offer a window to new physics, including tests of physical laws relevant to their propagation and interactions, at energies unattainable by terrestrial accelerators. They must be accelerated locally, as otherwise background radiations would severely suppress the flux of protons and nuclei, at energies above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) limit. Nearby Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), Hypernovae, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and their flares, have all been suggested and debated as possible sources. A local sub-population of type Ibc supernovae (SNe) with mildly relativistic outflows have been detected as sub-energetic GRBs or X-Ray Flashes (XRFs) and recently as radio afterglows without detected GRB counterparts. We measure the size-magnetic field evolution, baryon loading and energetics, using the observed radio spectra of SN 2009bb. We place such engine-driven SNe above the Hillas line and establish that they can readily explain the post-GZK UHECRs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

An Expanding Neutral Hydrogen Supershell Evacuated by Multiple Supernovae in M101

Several neutral hydrogen (HI) cavities have been detected in the Milky Way and other nearby star forming galaxies. It has been suggested that at least a fraction of them may be expanding supershells driven by the combined mechanical feedback from multiple supernovae occurring in an OB association. Yet most extragalactic HI holes have neither a demonstrated expansion velocity, nor an identified OB association inside them. In this work, we report on the discovery of an unbroken expanding HI supershell in the nearby spiral galaxy M101, with an UV emitting OB association inside it. We measure its size (500 pc) and expansion velocity (20 km/s) by identifying both its approaching and receding components in the position-velocity space, using 21 cm emission spectroscopy. This provides us with an ideal system to test the theory of supershells driven by the mechanical feedback from multiple supernovae. The UV emission of the cluster inside the supershell is compared with simulated spectral energy distribution of synthetic clusters of the appropriate age (~15 Myr). The observed UV flux is found to be consistent with an association of the appropriate mass (~10^5 Solar Mass) and age required by the energy budget of the supershell. Properties of this supershell and another previously reported in the same galaxy are used to infer its neutral hydrogen scale height and mean neutral hydrogen density in the disk. The presence of another UV emitting stellar association in over-dense swept up gas is discussed in the context of propagating star formation.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

Orbital parameters of binary radio pulsars in globular clusters and stellar interactions

The observed distribution of globular cluster binary radio pulsars in the eccentricity versus orbital period plane can be explained as a result of binary-single star interactions. Our numerical and analytical study hints that the highest eccentricity binaries in clusters are likely to be from exchange and/or merger of a single star with a binary component, while the intermediate eccentricity systems are probably results of fly-by interactions.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2009

Ruling out Kozai resonance in highly eccentric galactic binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1903+0327

We investigate the observational signatures associated with one of the proposed formation scenario for the recently discovered highly eccentric binary millisecond pulsar (MSP) PSR J1903+0327 in the galactic plane. The scenario requires that the MSP to be part of a hierarchical triple (HT), consisting of inner and outer binaries, experiencing the Kozai resonance. Numerical modeling of a bound point mass HT, while incorporating the effects due to the quadrupolar interactions between the binary orbits and dominant contributions to the general relativistic periastron precession in the inner binary, reveals that, at the present epoch, the orbital eccentricity of the binary MSP should decrease for reasonable ranges in the HT parameters. The estimated decrements in the orbital eccentricity of the inner binary are few parts in $10^{5}$, substantially higher than the reported accuracies in the estimation of the orbital eccentricity of the binary MSP, while employing various general relativistic timing models for isolated binary pulsars. For wide ranges in the allowed orbital parameters, the estimated rate of change in the eccentricity of the inner binary is orders of magnitude higher than the value recently measured by the pulsar timing analysis. Therefore, we rule out the scenario that the MSP is part of a HT undergoing the Kozai oscillations. The origin of this system in a typical globular cluster is also shown to be less likely than inferred in the discovery paper.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2009

Massive stars as thermonuclear reactors and their explosions following core collapse

Nuclear reactions transform atomic nuclei inside stars. This is the process of stellar nucleosynthesis. The basic concepts of determining nuclear reaction rates inside stars are reviewed. How stars manage to burn their fuel so slowly most of the time are also considered. Stellar thermonuclear reactions involving protons in hydrostatic burning are discussed first. Then I discuss triple alpha reactions in the helium burning stage. Carbon and oxygen survive in red giant stars because of the nuclear structure of oxygen and neon. Further nuclear burning of carbon, neon, oxygen and silicon in quiescent conditions are discussed next. In the subsequent core-collapse phase, neutronization due to electron capture from the top of the Fermi sea in a degenerate core takes place. The expected signal of neutrinos from a nearby supernova is calculated. The supernova often explodes inside a dense circumstellar medium, which is established due to the progenitor star losing its outermost envelope in a stellar wind or mass transfer in a binary system. The nature of the circumstellar medium and the ejecta of the supernova and their dynamics are revealed by observations in the optical, IR, radio, and X-ray bands, and I discuss some of these observations and their interpretations.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2009

Radio pulsar binaries in globular clusters: their orbital eccentricities and stellar interactions

High sensitivity searches of globular clusters (GC) for radio pulsars by improved pulsar search algorithms and sustained pulsar timing observations have so far yielded some 140 pulsars in more than two dozen GCs. The observed distribution of orbital eccentricity and period of binary radio pulsars in GCs have imprints of the past interaction between single pulsars and binary systems or of binary pulsars and single passing non-compact stars. It is seen that GCs have different groups of pulsars. These may have arisen out of exchange or merger of a component of the binary with the incoming star or a "fly-by" in which the original binary remains intact but undergoes a change of eccentricity and orbital period. We consider the genesis of the distribution of pulsars using analytical and computational tools such as STARLAB, which performs numerical scattering experiments with direct N-body integration. Cluster pulsars with intermediate eccentricities can mostly be accounted for by fly-bys whereas those with high eccentricities are likely to be the result of exchanges and/or mergers of single stars with the binary companion of the pulsar, although there are a few objects which do not easily fit into this description. The corresponding distribution for galactic field pulsars shows notable differences from the GC pulsar orbital period and eccentricity distribution. The long orbital period pulsars in the galactic field with frozen out low eccentricities are largely missing from the globular clusters, and we show that ionization of these systems in GCs cannot alone account for the peculiarities.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2009

X-rays from the explosion site: Fifteen years of light curves of SN 1993J

We present a comprehensive analysis of the X-ray light curves of SN 1993J in a nearby galaxy M81. This is the only supernova other than SN 1987A, which is so extensively followed in the X-ray bands. Here we report on SN 1993J observations with the {\it Chandra} in the year 2005 and 2008, and Swift observations in 2005, 2006 and 2008. We combined these observations with all available archival data of SN 1993J, which includes ROSAT, ASCA, {\it Chandra}, and XMM-{\it Newton} observations from 1993 April to 2006 August. In this paper we report the X-ray light curves of SN 1993J, extending up to fifteen years, in the soft (0.3--2.4 keV), hard (2--8 keV) and combined (0.3--8 keV) bands. The hard and soft-band fluxes decline at different rates initially, but after about 5 years they both undergo a $t^{-1}$ decline. The soft X-rays, which are initially low, start dominating after a few hundred days. We interpret that most of the emission below 8 keV is coming from the reverse shock which is radiative initially for around first 1000-2000 days and then turn into adiabatic shock. Our hydrodynamic simulation also confirms the reverse shock origin of the observed light curves. We also compare the H$α$ line luminosity of SN 1993J with its X-ray light curve and note that the H$α$ line luminosity has a fairly high fraction of the X-ray emission, indicating presence of clumps in the emitting plasma.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Orbital eccentricity of binary radio pulsars in globular clusters and interaction between stars

We analyze the observed distribution of the orbital eccentricity and period of binary radio pulsars in globular clusters using computational tools to simulate binary-single star interactions. Globular clusters have different groups of pulsars arising from separate interaction scenarios. Intermediate eccentricities of cluster pulsars can be mostly accounted by fly-bys although locally lower stellar densities at pulsar positions may alter the situation. Very high eccentricities are likely to be results of exchanges and/or mergers of single stars with the binary companion of the pulsar.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2008

Eleven years of radio monitoring of the Type IIn supernova SN 1995N

We present radio observations of the optically bright Type IIn supernova SN 1995N. We observed the SN at radio wavelengths with the Very Large Array (VLA) for 11 years. We also observed it at low radio frequencies with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at various epochs within $6.5-10$ years since explosion. Although there are indications of an early optically thick phase, most of the data are in the optically thin regime so it is difficult to distinguish between synchrotron self absorption (SSA) and free-free absorption (FFA) mechanisms. However, the information from other wavelengths indicates that the FFA is the dominant absorption process. Model fits of radio emission with the FFA give reasonable physical parameters. Making use of X-ray and optical observations, we derive the physical conditions of the shocked ejecta and the shocked CSM.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Chandra's tryst with SN 1995N

We present the spectroscopic and imaging analysis of a type IIn supernova SN 1995N observed with the Chandra X-ray observatory on 2004 March 27. We compare the spectrum obtained from our Chandra observation with that of the previous observation with ASCA in 1998. We find the presence of Neon lines in the Chandra spectrum that were not reported in the ASCA observation. We see no evidence of Iron in both epochs. The observed absorption column depth indicates an extra component over and above the galactic absorption component and is possibly due to a cool dense shell between the reverse-shock and the contact discontinuity in the ejecta. The ASCA and the ROSAT observations suggested a non-linear behavior of the X-ray light curve. However, with the higher spatial resolution and sensitivity of Chandra, we separate out many nearby sources in the supernova field-of-view that had additionally contributed to the supernova flux due to the large Point Spread Function of the ASCA. Taking out the contribution of those nearby sources, we find that the light curves are consistent with a linear decline profile. We consider the light curve in the high energy band separately. We discuss our results in the context of models of nucleosynthesis and the interaction of the shock waves with the circumstellar medium in core collapse supernovae.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Baby supernovae through the looking glass at long wavelengths

We emphasize the importance of observations of young supernovae in wide radio band. We argue on the basis of observational results that only high or only low frequency data is not sufficient to get full physical picture of the shocked plasma. In the SN 1993J composite spectrum obtained with Very Large Array (VLA) and Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), around day 3200, we see observational evidence of synchrotron cooling, which leads us to the direct determination of the magnetic field independent of the equipartition assumption, as well as the relative strengths of the magnetic field and relativistic particles energy densities. The GMRT low frequency SN 1993J light curves suggests the modification in the radio emission models developed on the basis of VLA data alone. The composite radio spectrum of SN 2003bg on day 350 obtained with GMRT plus VLA strongly supports the internal synchrotron self absorption as the dominant absorption mechanism.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Implications of aging in young supernovae

We present here the combined radio spectrum from the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and Very Large Array (VLA) of type-IIb SN 1993J (age 11 years) and a type-Ic SN 2003bg (age 1 year). In SN 1993J, we find a break in the spectrum at 4 GHz and associate it with Synchrotron cooling break. Hence, we determine the magnetic field independent of equipartition assumption between relativistic electrons and magnetic energy. We also see a hint of break in the spectrum of SN 2003bg between 22-40 GHz. The spectrum of SN 2003bg is well described by the synchrotron self absorption model.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Synchrotron aging and the radio spectrum of SN 1993J

We combine the GMRT low frequency radio observations of SN 1993J with the VLA high frequency radio data to get a near simultaneous spectrum around day 3200 since explosion. The low frequency measurements of the supernova determine the turnover frequency and flux scale of the composite spectrum and help reveal a steepening in the spectral index, $Δα\sim 0.6$, in the optically thin part of the spectrum. This is the first observational evidence of a break in the radio spectrum of a young supernova. We associate this break with the phenomenon of synchrotron aging of radiating electrons. From the break in the spectrum we calculate the magnetic field in the shocked region independent of the equipartition assumption between energy density of relativistic particles and magnetic energy density. We determine the ratio of these two energy densities and find that this ratio is in the range: $8\times 10^{-6}-5\times 10^{-4}$. We also predict the nature of the evolution of the synchrotron break frequency with time, with competing effects due to diffusive Fermi acceleration and adiabatic expansion of the radiative electron plasma.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Radio Studies of Young Core Collapse Supernovae

Multi-frequency observations of two radio bright SNe (SN1993J, SN1979C) carried out over a year with GMRT are presented. Their radio light curves trace the evolution of the mass loss in the stellar wind before the pre-supernova star exploded. Their spectra at low frequencies distinguish between the synchrotron self-absorption and free-free absorption based models. Two very similar type IIp SN1999gi and SN1999em were also observed and we comment on their progenitor mass. These observations of different subclasses of core-collapse supernovae will aid in defining their progenitors.

astro-ph↗