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B. Harms

Publications and source records attributed to B. Harms.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

A two-step strategy to identify episodic sources of gravitational waves and high energy neutrinos in starburst galaxies

Supermassive black hole mergers with spin-flips accelerate energetic particles through their precessing relativistic jets, producing high energy neutrinos and finally gravitational waves. In star formation massive stars come in pairs, triplets and quadruplets, allowing second generation mergers of the remnants with discrepant spin directions. The Gravitational Wave (GW) data support such a scenario. Earlier we suggested that stellar mass black hole mergers (visible in M82) with an associated spin-flip analogously allow the acceleration of energetic particles, with ensuing high energy neutrinos and high energy photons, and finally producing gravitational waves. At cosmic distances only the gravitational waves and the neutrinos remain detectable. Here we generalize the argument to starburst and normal galaxies throughout their cosmic evolution, and show that these galaxies may dominate over Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the flux of ultra-high energy particles observed at Earth. All these sources contribute to the cosmic neutrino background, as well as the gravitational wave background (they detected the lower frequencies). We outline a search strategy to find such episodic sources, which requires to include both luminosity and flux density.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2024

Cosmic ray contributions from rapidly rotating stellar mass black holes: Cosmic Ray GeV to EeV proton and anti-proton sources

In Radio Super Novae (RSNe) a magnetic field of $(B \, \times \, r) \, = \, 10^{16.0 \pm 0.12} \, {\rm Gauss \, \times \, cm}$ is observed; these are the same numbers for Blue Super Giant (BSG) star explosions as for Red Super Giant (RSG) star explosions, despite their very different wind properties. The EHT data for M87 as well for low power radio galaxies all show consistency with just this value of the quantity $(B \, \times \, r )$, key for angular momentum and energy transport, and can be derived from the radio jet data. We interpret this as a property of the near surroundings of a black hole (BH) at near maximal rotation, independent of BH mass. In the commonly used green onion model, in which a $2 \, \pi$ flow changes over to a jet flow we interpret this as a wind emanating from the BH/accretion disk system and its surroundings. Near the BH collisions in the wind can produce a large fraction of anti-protons. In this scenario the cosmic Ray (CR) population from the wind/jet is proposed to be visible as EeV protons and anti-protons in the CR data to EeV energy, with a $E^{-7/3}$ spectrum. This can be connected to a concept of inner and outer Penrose zones in the ergo-region. The observed numbers for the magnetic field imply the Planck time as the governing time scale: A BH rotating near maximum can accept a proton per log bin of energy in an extended spectrum with the associated pions every Planck time.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2024

Loaded layer-cake model for cosmic ray interaction around exploding super-giant stars making black holes

The AMS experiment on the International Space Station has provided detailed cosmic ray spectra for various elements, revealing that interactions significantly reduce fluxes up to about 100 GV rigidity. This necessitates revisiting current cosmic ray interaction models. A new model proposed here involves cosmic ray interactions first in the wind shock shell of supergiant stars and second in the OB-Superbubble around supernovae. These stars, including red and blue supergiants, produce black holes and drive electric currents in winds and jets. Variability in these winds creates temporary electric fields that accelerate particles, resulting in steep spectra with synchrotron losses, and analogous hadron spectra produce a flat magnetic irregularity spectrum. This model matches AMS data, explaining cosmic ray spectra below 100 GV. The model predicts a secondary/primary ratio slope of -1/3 and a primary flux reduction below 100 GV relative to a power-law spectrum with slope +2. Key aspects are: a larger interaction column due to heavy element enrichment and a minor secondary contribution even for elements like He, C, and O, as indicated by the $^3$He/$^4$He ratio. This model also accounts for cosmic ray anti-protons, gamma-ray spectra, and high-energy neutrinos, including contributions from ISM-SNe.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2018

The Radio Synchrotron Background: Conference Summary and Report

We summarize the radio synchrotron background workshop that took place July 19-21, 2017 at the University of Richmond. This first scientific meeting dedicated to the topic was convened because current measurements of the diffuse radio monopole reveal a surface brightness that is several times higher than can be straightforwardly explained by known Galactic and extragalactic sources and processes, rendering it by far the least well understood photon background at present. It was the conclusion of a majority of the participants that the radio monopole level is at or near that reported by the ARCADE 2 experiment and inferred from several absolutely calibrated zero level lower frequency radio measurements, and unanimously agreed that the production of this level of surface brightness, if confirmed, represents a major outstanding question in astrophysics. The workshop reached a consensus on the next priorities for investigations of the radio synchrotron background.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2017

Growing Hair on the extremal $BTZ$ black hole

We show that the nonlinear $σ-$model in an asymptotically $AdS_3$ space-time admits a novel local symmetry. The field action is assumed to be quartic in the nonlinear $σ-$model fields and minimally coupled to gravity. The local symmetry transformation simultaneously twists the nonlinear $σ-$model fields and changes the space-time metric, and it can be used to map an extremal $BTZ$ black hole to infinitely many hairy black hole solutions.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2016

Spinning $σ$-model solitons in $2+1$ Anti-de Sitter space

We obtain numerical solutions for rotating topological solitons of the nonlinear $σ$-model in three-dimensional Anti-de Sitter space. Two types of solutions, $i)$ and $ii)$, are found. The $σ$-model fields are everywhere well defined for both types of solutions, but they differ in their space-time domains. Any time slice of the space-time for the type $i)$ solution has a causal singularity, despite the fact that all scalars constructed the curvature tensor are bounded functions. No evidence of a horizon is seen for any of the solutions, and therefore the type $i)$ solutions have naked singularities. On the other hand, the space-time domain, along with the fields, for the type $ii)$ solutions are singularity free. Multiple families of solutions exhibiting bifurcation phenomena are found for this case.

hep-th↗
arXiv2011

Microcanonical description of (micro) black holes

The microcanonical ensemble is the proper ensemble to describe black holes which are not in thermodynamic equilibrium, such as radiating black holes. This choice of ensemble eliminates the problems, e.g. negative specific heat and loss of unitarity, encountered when the canonical ensemble is used. In this review we present an overview of the weaknesses of the standard thermodynamic description of black holes and show how the microcanonical approach can provide a consistent description of black holes and their Hawking radiation at all energy scales. Our approach is based on viewing the horizon area as yielding the ensemble density at fixed system energy. We then compare the decay rates of black holes in the two different pictures. Our description is particularly relevant for the analysis of micro-black holes whose existence is predicted in models with extra- spatial dimensions.

hep-th↗
arXiv2008

Noncommutative Corrections to the Robertson-Walker metric

Upon applying Chamseddine's noncommutative deformation of gravity we obtain the leading order noncommutative corrections to the Robertson-Walker metric tensor. We get an isotropic inhomogeneous metric tensor for a certain choice of the noncommutativity parameters. Moreover, the singularity of the commutative metric at $t=0$ is replaced by a more involved space-time structure in the noncommutative theory. In a toy model we construct a scenario where there is no singularity at $t=0$ at leading order in the noncommutativity parameter. Although singularities may still be present for nonzero $t$, they need not be the source of all time-like geodesics and the result resembles a bouncing cosmology.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Zero point energy on extra dimension: Noncommutative Torus

In this paper we calculate the zero point energy density experienced by observers on M^4 due to a massless scalar field defined throughout M^4 x T^2_F, where T^2_F are fuzzy extra dimensions. Using the Green's function approach we calculate the energy density for the commutative torus and the fuzzy torus. We calculate then the energy density for the fuzzy torus using the Hamiltonian approach. Agreement is shown between Green's function and Hamiltonian approaches.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Noncommutative Quantum Hall Effect and Aharonov-Bohm Effect

We study a system of electrons moving on a noncommutative plane in the presence of an external magnetic field which is perpendicular to this plane. For generality we assume that the coordinates and the momenta are both noncommutative. We make a transformation from the noncommutative coordinates to a set of commuting coordinates and then we write the Hamiltonian for this system. The energy spectrum and the expectation value of the current can then be calculated and the Hall conductivity can be extracted. We use the same method to calculate the phase shift for the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Precession measurements could allow strong upper limits to be imposed on the noncommutativity coordinate and momentum parameters $Θ$ and $Ξ$.

hep-th↗
arXiv2006

Dark Energy from Casimir Energy on Noncommutative Extra Dimensions

We study the possibility that dark energy is a manifestation of the Casimir energy on extra dimensions with the topology of $S^2$. We consider our universe to be $M^4 \times S^2$ and modify the geometry by introducing noncommutativity on the extra dimensions only, i.e. replacing $S^2$ with the fuzzy version $S_{F}^2$. We find the energy density as a function of the size of the representation $M+1$ of the algebra of $S_{F}^2$, and we calculate its value for the $M+1=2$ case. The value of the energy density turns out to be positive, i.e. provides dark energy, and the size of the extra dimensions agrees with the experimental limit. We also recover the correct commutative limit as the noncommutative parameter goes to zero.

hep-th↗
arXiv2005

Moving mirrors and black hole evaporation in non-commutative space-times

We study the evaporation of black holes in non-commutative space-times. We do this by calculating the correction to the detector's response function for a moving mirror in terms of the noncommutativity parameter $Θ$ and then extracting the number density as modified by this parameter. We find that allowing space and time to be non-commutative increases the decay rate of a black hole.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2002

Can black holes and naked singularities be detected in accelerators?

We study the conditions for the existence of black holes that can be produced in colliders at TeV-scale if the space-time is higher dimensional. On employing the microcanonical picture, we find that their life-times strongly depend on the details of the model. If the extra dimensions are compact (ADD model), microcanonical deviations from thermality are in general significant near the fundamental TeV mass and tiny black holes decay more slowly than predicted by the canonical expression, but still fast enough to disappear almost instantaneously. However, with one warped extra dimension (RS model), microcanonical corrections are much larger and tiny black holes appear to be (meta)stable. Further, if the total charge is not zero, we argue that naked singularities do not occur provided the electromagnetic field is strictly confined on an infinitely thin brane. However, they might be produced in colliders if the effective thickness of the brane is of the order of the fundamental length scale (~1/TeV).

hep-th↗
arXiv2001

Black Hole Decay Rates in Large Extra Dimensions

We study the evaporation of black holes in space-times with extra dimensions of size L. We show that the luminosity is greatly damped when the horizon becomes smaller than L and black holes born with an initial size smaller than L are almost stable. This effect is due to the dependence of both the occupation number density of Hawking quanta and the grey-body factor of a black hole on the dimensionality of space.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2000

Three dimensional gravity from ISO(2,1) coset models

Starting from a WZWN action in the ISO(2,1) Poincare' group which describes a bosonized spinning string in 2+1 Minkowski space-time, we show that a sequence of non-trivial compactifications leads to the description of a spinless string which moves in a (linear dilaton) vacuum, AdS_3 or BTZ black hole background. Other solutions are also obtained and their T-duals analyzed.

hep-th↗
arXiv1999

Energy Absorption by the Dilaton Field around a Rotating Black Hole in a Binary System

In this paper we analyze a binary system consisting of a star and a rotating black hole. The electromagnetic radiation emitted by the star interacts with the background of the black hole and stimulates the production of dilaton waves. We then estimate the energy transferred from the electromagnetic radiation of the star to the dilaton field as a function of the frequency. The resulting picture is a testable signature of the existence of dilaton fields as predicted by string theory in an astrophysical context.

gr-qc↗
arXiv1999

Charged Dilatonic Black Holes: String frame vs Einstein frame

The descriptions of Reissner-Nordstroem and Kerr-Newman dilatonic black holes in the Einstein frame are compared to those in the string frame. We describe various physical measurements in the two frames and show which experiments can distinguish between the two frames. In particular we discuss the gyromagnetic ratios of black holes, the decay law via Hawking radiation and the propagation of light on black hole backgrounds.

gr-qc↗