arXiv subjects

Armen Sedrakian

Publications and source records attributed to Armen Sedrakian.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Relativistic Dissipative Fluid Dynamics from Non-Equilibrium Statistical Operator

We present a new derivation of second-order relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics for quantum systems using Zubarev's formalism for the non-equilibrium statistical operator. In particular, we discuss the shear-stress tensor to second order in gradients and argue that the relaxation terms for the dissipative quantities arise from memory effects contained in the statistical operator. We also identify new transport coefficients which describe the relaxation of dissipative processes to second order and express them in terms of equilibrium correlation functions, thus establishing Kubo-type formulae for the second-order transport coefficients.

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arXiv2018

Competition between delta isobars and hyperons and properties of compact stars

The $Δ$-isobar degrees of freedom are included in the covariant density functional (CDF) theory to study the equation of state (EoS) and composition of dense matter in compact stars. In addition to $Δ$'s we include the full octet of baryons, which allows us to study the interplay between the onset of delta isobars and hyperonic degrees of freedom. Using both the Hartree and Hartree-Fock approximation we find that $Δ$'s appear already at densities slightly above the saturation density of nuclear matter for a wide range of the meson-$Δ$ coupling constants. This delays the appearance of hyperons and significantly affects the gross properties of compact stars. Specifically, $Δ$'s soften the EoS at low densities but stiffen it at high densities. This softening reduces the radius of a canonical $1.4 M_\odot$ star by up to 2~km for a reasonably attractive $Δ$ potential in matter, while the stiffening results in larger maximum masses of compact stars. We conclude that the hypernuclear CDF parametrizations that satisfy the 2$M_\odot$ maximum mass constraint remain valid when $Δ$ isobars are included, with the important consequence that the resulting stellar radii are shifted toward lower values, which is in agreement with the analysis of neutron star radii.

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arXiv2018

Implications from GW170817 and I-Love-Q relations for relativistic hybrid stars

Gravitational wave observations of GW170817 placed bounds on the tidal deformabilities of compact stars allowing one to probe equations of state for matter at supranuclear densities. Here we design new parametrizations for hybrid hadron-quark equations of state, that give rise to low-mass twin stars, and test them against GW170817. We find that GW170817 is consistent with the coalescence of a binary hybrid star--neutron star. We also test and find that the I-Love-Q relations for hybrid stars in the third family agree with those for purely hadronic and quark stars within $\sim 3\%$ for both slowly and rapidly rotating configurations, implying that these relations can be used to perform equation-of-state independent tests of general relativity and to break degeneracies in gravitational waveforms for hybrid stars in the third family as well.

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arXiv2018

Color superconductivity from the chiral quark-meson model

We study the two-flavor color superconductivity of low-temperature quark matter in the vicinity of chiral phase transition in the quark-meson model where the interactions between quarks are generated by pion and sigma exchanges. Starting from the Nambu-Gor'kov propagator in real-time formulation we obtain finite temperature (real axis) Eliashberg-type equations for the quark self-energies (gap functions) in terms of the in-medium spectral function of mesons. Exact numerical solutions of the coupled nonlinear integral equations for the real and imaginary parts of the gap function are obtained in the zero temperature limit using a model input spectral function. We find that these components of the gap display a complicated structure with the real part being strongly suppressed above $2Δ_0$, where $Δ_0$ is its on-shell value. We find $Δ_0\simeq 40$ MeV close to the chiral phase transition.

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arXiv2018

Cooling of hypernuclear compact stars

We study the thermal evolution of hypernuclear compact stars constructed from covariant density functional theory of hypernuclear matter and parameterizations which produce sequences of stars containing two-solar-mass objects. For the input in the simulations, we solve the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer gap equations in the hyperonic sector and obtain the gaps in the spectra of $Λ$, $Ξ^0$ and $Ξ^-$ hyperons. For the models with masses $M/M_{\odot} \ge 1.5$ the neutrino cooling is dominated by hyperonic direct Urca processes in general. In the low-mass stars the $(Λp)$ plus leptons channel is the dominant direct Urca process, whereas for more massive stars the purely hyperonic channels $(Σ^-Λ)$ and $(Ξ^-Λ)$ are dominant. Hyperonic pairing strongly suppresses the processes on $Ξ^-$s and to a lesser degree on $Λ$s. We find that intermediate-mass $1.5 \le M/M_{\odot} \le 1.8$ models have surface temperatures which lie within the range inferred from thermally emitting neutron stars, if the hyperonic pairing is taken into account. Most massive models with $M/M_{\odot} \simeq 2$ may cool very fast via the direct Urca process through the $(Λp)$ channel because they develop inner cores where the $S$-wave pairing of $Λ$s and proton is absent.

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arXiv2017

Toward electrodynamics of unconventional phases of dilute nuclear matter

The phase diagram of isospin-asymmetrical nuclear matter may feature a number of unconventional phases, which include the translationally and rotationally symmetric, but isospin-asymmetrical BCS condensate, the current-carrying Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) phase, and the heterogeneous phase-separated phase. Because the Cooper pairs of the condensate carry a single unit of charge, these phases are charged superconductors and respond to electromagnetic gauge fields by either forming domains (type-I superconductivity) or quantum vortices (type-II superconductivity). We evaluate the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) parameter across the phase diagram and find that the unconventional phases of isospin-asymmetrical nuclear matter are good type-II superconductors and should form Abrikosov vortices with twice the quantum of magnetic flux. We also find that the LOFF phase at the boundary of the transition to the type-I state, with the GL parameter being close to the critical value $1/\sqrt{2}$.

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arXiv2017

Compact stars with sequential QCD phase transitions

Compact stars may contain quark matter in their interiors at densities exceeding several times the nuclear saturation density. We explore models of such compact stars where there are two first-order phase transitions: the first from nuclear matter to a quark-matter phase, followed at higher density by another first-order transition to a different quark matter phase [e.g., from the two-flavor color superconducting (2SC) to the color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase). We show that this can give rise to two separate branches of hybrid stars, separated from each other and from the nuclear branch by instability regions and, therefore, to a new family of compact stars, denser than the ordinary hybrid stars. In a range of parameters, one may obtain twin hybrid stars (hybrid stars with the same masses but different radii) and even triplets where three stars, with inner cores of nuclear matter, 2SC matter, and CFL matter, respectively, all have the same mass but different radii.

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arXiv2017

Superfluidity and Superconductivity in Neutron Stars

This review focuses on applications of the ideas of superfluidity and superconductivity in neutron stars in a broader context, ranging from the microphysics of pairing in nucleonic superfluids to macroscopic manifestations of superfluidity in pulsars. The exposition of the basics of pairing, vorticity and mutual friction can serve as an introduction to the subject. We also review some topics of recent interest, including the various types of pinning of vortices, glitches, and oscillations in neutron stars containing superfluid phases of baryonic matter.

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arXiv2017

Bulk viscosity of two-flavor quark matter from the Kubo formalism

We study the bulk viscosity of quark matter in the strong coupling regime within the two-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. The dispersive effects that lead to non-zero bulk viscosity arise from quark-meson fluctuations above the Mott transition temperature, where meson decay into two quarks is kinematically allowed. We adopt the Kubo-Zubarev formalism and compute the equilibrium imaginary-time correlation function for pressure in the $O(1/N_c)$ power counting scheme. The bulk viscosity of matter is expressed in terms of the Lorentz components of the quark spectral function and includes multi-loop contributions which arise via re-summation of infinite geometrical series of loop diagrams. We show that the multi-loop contributions dominate the single-loop contribution close to the Mott line, whereas at high temperatures the one-loop contribution is dominant. The multi-loop bulk viscosity dominates the shear viscosity close to the Mott temperature by factors 5 to 20, but with increasing temperature the shear viscosity becomes the dominant dissipation mechanism of stresses as the one-loop contribution becomes the main source of bulk viscosity.

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arXiv2017

Composition of nuclear matter with light clusters and Bose-Einstein condensation of $α$ particles

The Bose-Einstein condensation of $α$ partciles in the multicomponent environment of dilute, warm nuclear matter is studied. We consider the cases of matter composed of light clusters with mass numbers $A\leq 4$ and matter that in addition these clusters contains $\isotope[56]{Fe}$ nuclei. We apply the quasiparticle gas model which treats clusters as bound states with infinite life-time and binding energies independent of temperature and density. We show that the $α$ particles can form a condensate at low temperature $T\le 2$ MeV in such matter in the first case. When the $\isotope[56]{Fe}$ nucleus is added to the composition the cluster abundances are strongly modified at low temperatures, with an important implication that the $α$ condensation at these temperatures is suppressed.

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arXiv2017

From microphysics to dynamics of magnetars

MeV-scale magnetic fields in the interiors of magnetars suppress the pairing of neutrons and protons in the $S$-wave state. In the case of a neutron condensate the suppression is the consequence of the Pauli-paramagnetism of the neutron gas, i.e., the alignment of the neutron spins along the magnetic field. The proton $S$-wave pairing is suppressed because of the Landau diamagnetic currents of protons induced by the field. The Ginzburg-Landau and BCS theories of the critical magnetic fields for unpairing are reviewed. The macrophysical implications of the suppression (unpairing) of the condensates are discussed for the rotational crust-core coupling in magnetars and the neutrino-dominated cooling era of their thermal evolution.

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arXiv2016

Exploring phases of dense QCD with compact stars

I review a number of recent developments in the physics of compact stars containing deconfined quark matter, including (a)~their cooling with possible phase transition from a fully gapped to a gapless phase of QCD at low temperatures and large isospin, (b)~the transport coefficients of the 2SC phase and the role played by the Aharonov-Bohm interactions between flux-tubes and unpaired fermions; (c)~rapidly rotating compact stars and spin-down and spin-up induced phase transition between hadronic and QCD matter as well as between different phases of QCD.

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arXiv2016

Electrical conductivity of a warm neutron star crust in magnetic fields

We study the electrical conductivity of finite-temperature crust of a warm compact star which may be formed in the aftermath of a supernova explosion or a binary neutron star merger as well as when a cold neutron star is heated by accretion of material from a companion. We focus on the temperature-density regime where plasma is in the liquid state and, therefore, the conductivity is dominated by the electron scattering off correlated nuclei. The dynamical screening of this interaction is implemented in terms of the polarization tensor computed in the hard-thermal-loop effective field theory of QED plasma. The correlations of the background ionic component are accounted for via a structure factor derived from Monte Carlo simulations of one-component plasma. With this input we solve the Boltzmann kinetic equation in relaxation time approximation taking into account the anisotropy of transport due to the magnetic field. The electrical conductivity tensor is studied numerically as a function of temperature and density for carbon and iron nuclei as well as density-dependent composition of zero-temperature dense matter in weak equilibrium with electrons. We also provide accurate fit formulas to our numerical results as well as supplemental tables which can be used in dissipative magneto-hydrodynamics simulations of warm compact stars.

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arXiv2016

Carbon-oxygen-neon mass nuclei in superstrong magnetic fields

The properties of $\isotope[12]{C}$, $\isotope[16]{O}$, and $\isotope[20]{Ne}$ nuclei in strong magnetic fields $B\simeq 10^{17}\,$G are studied in the context of strongly magnetized neutron stars and white dwarfs. The SKY3D code is extended to incorporate the interaction of nucleons with the magnetic field and is utilized to solve the time-independent Hartree-Fock equations with a Skyrme interaction on a Cartesian three-dimensional grid. The numerical solutions demonstrate a number of phenomena, which include a splitting of the energy levels of spin-up and -down nucleons, spontaneous rearrangment of energy levels in $\isotope[16]{O}$ at a critical field, which leads to jump-like increases of magnetization and proton current in this nucleus, and evolution of the intrinsically deformed $\isotope[20]{Ne}$ nucleus towards a more spherical shape under increasing field strength. Many of the numerical features can be understood within a simple analytical model based on the occupation by the nucleons of the lowest states of the harmonic oscillator in a magnetic field.

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arXiv2016

Electrical conductivity tensor of dense plasma in magnetic fields

Electrical conductivity of finite-temperature plasma in neutron star crusts is studied for applications in magneto-hydrodynamical description of compact stars. We solve the Boltzmann kinetic equation in relaxation time approximation taking into account the anisotropy of transport due to the magnetic field, the effects of dynamical screening in the scattering matrix element and corre- lations among the nuclei. We show that conductivity has a minimum at a non-zero temperature, a low-temperature decrease and a power-law increase with increasing temperature. Selected numerical results are shown for matter composed of carbon, iron, and heavier nuclei present in the outer crusts of neutron star.

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arXiv2016

Cooling compact stars and phase transitions in dense QCD

We report new simulations of cooling of compact stars containing quark cores and updated fits to the Cas A fast cooling data. Our model is built on the assumption that the transient behaviour of the star in Cas A is due to a phase transition within the dense QCD matter in the core of the star. Specifically, the fast cooling is attributed to an enhancement in the neutrino emission triggered by a transition from a fully gapped, two-flavor, red-green color-superconducting quark condensate to a superconducting crystalline or an alternative gapless, color-superconducting phase. The blue colored condensate is modeled as a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS)-type color superconductor with spin-one pairing order parameter. We study the sensitivity of the fits to the phase transition temperature, the pairing gap of blue quarks and the time-scale characterizing the phase transition (the latter modelled in terms of a width parameter). Relative variations in these parameter around their best fit values larger than $10^{-3}$ spoil the fit to the data. We confirm the previous finding that the cooling curves show significant variations as a function of compact star mass, which allows one to account for dispersion in the data on the surface temperatures of thermally emitting neutron stars.

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arXiv2016

Axion cooling of neutron stars

Cooling simulations of neutron stars and their comparison with the data from thermally emitting x-ray sources put constraints on the properties of axions, and by extension of any light pseudoscalar dark matter particles, whose existence has been postulated to solve the strong-CP problem of QCD. We incorporate the axion emission by pair-breaking and formation processes by $S$- and $P$-wave nucleonic condensates in a benchmark code for cooling simulations as well as provide fit formulas for the rates of these processes. Axion cooling of neutron stars has been simulated for 24 models covering the mass range 1 to 1.8 solar masses, featuring nonaccreted iron and accreted light-element envelopes, and a range of nucleon-axion couplings. The models are based on an equation state predicting conservative physics of superdense nuclear matter that does not allow for the onset of fast cooling processes induced by phase transitions to non-nucleonic forms of matter or high proton concentration. The cooling tracks in the temperature vs age plane were confronted with the (time-averaged) measured surface temperature of the central compact object in the Cas A supernova remnant as well as surface temperatures of three nearby middle-aged thermally emitting pulsars.We find that the axion coupling is limited to $f_a/10^{7}\textrm{GeV} \ge (5$--$10)$, which translates into an upper bound on axion mass $m_a \le (0.06$--$0.12)~\textrm{eV}$ for Peccei-Quinn charges of the neutron $\vert C_n \vert \sim 0.04$ and proton $\vert C_p \vert \sim 0.4$ characteristic for hadronic models of axions.

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arXiv2016

Rapid rotational crust-core relaxation in magnetars

If a magnetar interior $B$-field exceeds $10^{15}$~G, it will unpair the proton superconductor in the stellar core by inducing diamagnetic currents that destroy the Cooper pair coherence. Then, the $P$-wave neutron superfluid in these non-superconducting regions will couple to the stellar plasma by scattering of protons off the quasiparticles that are confined in the cores of neutron vortices by the strong (nuclear) force. The dynamical timescales associated with this interaction span from several minutes at the crust-core interface to a few seconds in the deep core. We show that (a) the rapid crust-core coupling is incompatible with oscillation models of magnetars that completely decouple the core superfluid from the crust and (b) magnetar precession is damped by the coupling of normal fluids to the superfluid core and, if observed, needs to be forced or continuously excited by seismic activity.

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