arXiv subjects

Banibrata Mukhopadhyay

Publications and source records attributed to Banibrata Mukhopadhyay.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Massive neutron stars as mass gap candidates: Exploring equation of state and magnetic field

The densities in the cores of the neutron stars (NSs) can reach several times that of the nuclear saturation density. The exact nature of matter at these densities is still virtually unknown. We consider a number of proposed, phenomenological relativistic mean-field equations of state to construct theoretical models of NSs. We find that, based on our selected set of models, the emergence of exotic matter at these high densities restricts the mass of NSs to $\simeq 2.2 M_\odot$. However, the presence of magnetic fields and a model anisotropy significantly increases the star's mass, placing it within the observational mass gap that separates the heaviest NSs from the lightest black holes. Therefore, we propose that gravitational wave observations, like GW190814, and other potential candidates within this mass gap, may actually represent massive, magnetized NSs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Geometric phase in Taub-NUT spacetime

Constructing the Hamiltonian in the $η$-representation, we explore the geometric phase in the Taub-NUT spacetime, which is spherically symmetric and stationary. The geometric phase around a non-rotating Taub-NUT spacetime reveals both the gravitational analog of Aharonov-Bohm effect and Pancharatnam-Berry phase, similar to the rotating Kerr background. On the other hand, only the latter emerges in the spherically symmetric Schwarzschild geometry as well as in the axisymmetric magnetized Schwarzschild geometry. With this result, we argue that the Aharonov-Bohm effect and Pancharatnam-Berry phase both can emerge in the stationary spacetime, whereas only the latter emerges in the static spacetime. We outline plausible measurements of these effects/phases, mostly for primordial black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

QPOs in compact sources as a non-linear hydrodynamical resonance: Determining spin of compact objects

Origin of wide varieties of quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) observed in compact sources is still not well established. Its frequencies range from mHz to kHz spanning all compact objects. Are different QPOs, with different frequencies, originating from different Physics? We propose that the emergence of QPOs is the result of nonlinear resonance of fundamental modes present in accretion disks forced by external modes including that of the spin of the underlying compact object. Depending on the properties of accreting flow, e.g. its velocity and gradient, resonances, and any mode locking, take place at different frequencies, exhibiting low to high frequency QPOs. We explicitly demonstrate the origin of higher frequency QPOs for black holes and neutron stars by a unified model and outline how the same physics could be responsible to produce lower frequency QPOs. The model also predicts the spin of black holes, and constrains the radius of neutron stars and the mass of both.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Detection possibility of continuous gravitational waves from rotating magnetized neutron stars

In the past decades, several neutron stars (NSs), particularly pulsars, with mass $M>2M_\odot$ have been observed. On the other hand, the existence of massive white dwarfs (WDs), even violating Chandrasekhar mass-limit, was inferred from the peak luminosities of type Ia supernovae. Hence, there is a generic question of the origin of massive compact objects. Here we explore the existence of massive, magnetized, rotating NSs with soft and steep equation of states (EoSs) by solving axisymmetric stationary stellar equilibria in general relativity. For our purpose, we consider the Einstein equation solver for stellar structure XNS code. Such rotating NSs with magnetic field and rotation axes misaligned, hence with non-zero obliquity angle, can emit continuous gravitational waves (GW), which can be detected by upcoming detectors, e.g., Einstein Telescope, etc. We discuss the decays of magnetic field, angular velocity and obliquity angle with time, due to angular momentum extraction by GW and dipole radiation, which determine the timescales related to the GW emission. Further, in the Alfvén timescale, a differentially rotating, massive proto-NS rapidly settles into an uniformly rotating, less massive NS due to magnetic braking and viscosity. These explorations suggest that detecting massive NSs is challenging and sets a timescale for detection. We calculate the signal-to-noise ratio of GW emission, which confirms that any detector cannot detect them immediately, but detectable by Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer over months of integration time, leading to direct detection of NSs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Covariant formalism for the Berry connection due to gravity

It is well-known that Dirac particles gain geometric phase, namely Berry phase, while moving in an electromagnetic field. Researchers have already shown covariant formalism for the Berry connection due to an electromagnetic field. A similar effect is expected to happen due to the presence of Gravity. We use WKB approximation to develop a covariant formalism of Berry-like connection in the presence of Einstein gravity, which can be further used to describe the Berry-like phase or simply Berry phase. We also extend this formalism for massless Dirac particles (Weyl particles).Then we further show that this connection can be split into two parts, one of which vanishes when the metric is spherically symmetric and thus can be linked to the Aharonov-Bohm-like effect in the 3 + 1 formalism. At the same time, the other term can be related to the Pancharatnam-Berry like effect.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Formation, Possible Detection and Consequences of Highly Magnetized Compact Stars

Over the past several years, there has been enormous interest in massive neutron stars and white dwarfs due to either their direct or indirect evidence. The recent detection of gravitational wave event GW190814 has confirmed the existence of compact stars with masses as high as $\sim2.5-2.67M_{\odot}$ within the so-called mass gap, indicating the existence of highly massive neutron stars. One of the primary goals to invoke massive compact objects was to explain the recent detections of over a dozen Type Ia supernovae, whose peculiarity lies with their unusual light curve, in particular the high luminosity and low ejecta velocity. In a series of recent papers, our group has proposed that highly magnetised white dwarfs with super-Chandrasekhar masses can be promising candidates for the progenitors of these peculiar supernovae. The mass-radius relations of these magnetised stars are significantly different from those of their non-magnetised counterparts, which leads to a revised super-Chandrasekhar mass-limit. These compact stars have wider ranging implications, including those for soft gamma-ray repeaters, anomalous X-ray pulsars, white dwarf pulsars and gravitational radiation. Here we review the development of the subject over the last decade or so, describing the overall state of the art of the subject as it stands now. We mainly touch upon the possible formation channels of these intriguing stars as well as the effectiveness of direct detection methods. These magnetised stars can have many interesting consequences, including reconsideration of them as possible standard candles.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Asymptotically flat vacuum solution for a rotating black hole in a modified gravity theory

The theory of f(R)-gravity is one of the theories of modified Einstein gravity. The vacuum solution, on the other hand, of the field equation is the solution for black hole geometry. We establish here an asymptotically flat rotating black hole solution in an f(R)-gravity. This essentially leads to the modified solution to the Kerr black hole. This solution exhibits the change in fundamental properties of the black hole and its geometry. It particularly shows that radii of marginally stable and bound orbits and black hole event horizon increase compared to those in Einstein gravity, depending on the modified gravity parameter. It further argues for faster spinning black holes with spin (Kerr) parameter greater than unity, without any naked singularity. This supports the weak cosmic censorship hypothesis.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Non-uniform magnetic field as a booster for quantum speed limit: faster quantum information processing

We probe the quantum speed limit (QSL) of an electron when it is trapped in a non-uniform magnetic field. We show that the QSL increases to a large value, but within the regime of causality, by choosing a proper variation in magnetic fields. We also probe the dependence of QSL on spin of electron and find that it is higher for spin-down electron in the relativistic regime. This can be useful in achieving a faster speed of transmission of quantum information. Further, we use the Bremermann--Bekenstein bound to find a critical magnetic field that bridges the gap between non-relativistic and relativistic treatments and relates to the stability of matter. An analytical framework is developed. We also provide a plausible experimental design to supplement our theory.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Massive Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs as Noncommutative Fuzzy Spheres

Over the last couple of decades, there are direct and indirect evidences for massive compact objects than their conventional counterparts. A couple of such examples are super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs and massive neutron stars. The observations of more than a dozen peculiar over-luminous type Ia supernovae predict their origins from super-Chandrasekhar white dwarf progenitors. On the other hand, recent gravitational wave detection and some pulsar observations argue for massive neutron stars, lying in the famous mass-gap between lowest astrophysical black hole and conventional highest neutron star masses. We show that the idea of a squashed fuzzy sphere, which brings in noncommutative geometry, can self-consistently explain either of the massive objects as if they are actually fuzzy or squashed fuzzy spheres. Noncommutative geometry is a branch of quantum gravity. If the above proposal is correct, it will provide observational evidences for noncommutativity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

The competition between the hydrodynamic instability from noise and magnetorotational instability in the Keplerian disks

We venture for the comparison between growth rates for magnetorotational instability (MRI) and hydrodynamics instability in the presence of an extra force in the local Keplerian accretion flow. The underlying model is described by the Orr-Sommerfeld and Squire equations in the presence of rotation, magnetic field and an extra force, plausibly noise with a nonzero mean. We obtain MRI using Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation without extra force for purely vertical magnetic field and vertical wavevector of the perturbations. Expectedly, MRI is active within a range of magnetic field, which changes depending on the perturbation wavevector magnitude. Next, to check the effect of noise on the growth rates, a quartic dispersion relation has been obtained. Among those four solutions for growth rate, the one that reduces to MRI growth rate at the limit of vanishing mean of noise in the MRI active region of the magnetic field, is mostly dominated by MRI. However, in MRI inactive region, in the presence of noise the solution turns out to be unstable, which are almost independent of the magnetic field. Another growth rate, which is almost complementary to the previous one, leads to stability at the limit of vanishing noise. The remaining two growth rates, which correspond to the hydrodynamical growth rates at the limit of the vanishing magnetic field, are completely different from the MRI growth rate. More interestingly, the latter growth rates are larger than that of the MRI. If we consider viscosity, the growth rates decrease depending on the Reynolds number.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Angular momentum transport and thermal stabilization of optically thin, advective accretion flows through large-scale magnetic fields

Outward transport of angular momentum, as well as viscous and thermal stability, are the necessary criteria for the formation of accretion disc and to radiate steadily. Turbulent motions originating from magneto-rotational instability or hydrodynamic instability can do the required transport. We explore the effect of a large-scale magnetic field (LSMF) over the turbulent transport in an optically thin advective disc. In this work, turbulent transport is represented through the usual Shakura-Sunyaev $α$-viscosity. The evolution of the magnetic field and other variables is found by solving vertically integrated height averaged magnetohydrodynamic equations. Depending on its configuration, the LSMF can support or oppose $α$ in outward transport of angular momentum. Once outward transport of angular momentum is assured, i.e., formation of the disc is confirmed through the combined effect of $α$-viscosity and the LSMF, we explore the impact of the LSMF in thermally stabilizing the disc. As found earlier, we also find that the advection of heat energy becomes zero or negative with increasing accretion rate. That is why at or above a critical accretion rate, the optically thin advective disc becomes thermally unstable. We show however that with the addition of a strong enough magnetic field, the disc regains its thermal stability and Joule heating turns out to play the key role in that. Throughout our analysis the plasma-$β$ ($β_\mathrm{m}$) remains within the range of 5-$10^3$, which does not impose any restriction in the simultaneous operation of the LSMF and the turbulent transport.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Spin precession in the gravity wave analogue black hole spacetime

It was predicted that the spin precession frequency of a stationary gyroscope shows various anomalies in the strong gravity regime if its orbit shrinks, and eventually its precession frequency becomes arbitrarily high very close to the horizon of a rotating black hole. Considering the gravity waves of a flowing fluid with vortex in a shallow basin, that acts as a rotating analogue black hole, one can observe the predicted strong gravity effect on the spin precession in the laboratory. Attaching a thread with the buoyant particles and anchored it to the bottom of the fluid container with a short length of miniature chain, one can construct a simple local test gyroscope to measure the spin precession frequency in the vicinity of the gravity wave analogue black hole. The thread acts as the axis of the gyroscope. By regulating the orbital frequency of the test gyroscope, one can also be able to measure the strong gravity Lense-Thirring effect and geodetic/de-Sitter effect with this experimental set-up, as the special cases. For example, to measure the Lense-Thirring effect, the length of the miniature chain can be set to zero, so that the gyroscope becomes static. One can also measure the geodetic precession with this system by orbiting the test gyroscope in the so-called Keplerian frequency around the non-rotating analogue black hole that can be constructed by making the rotation of the fluid/vortex negligible compared to its radial velocity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Effect of field dissipation and cooling on the mass-radius relation of strongly magnetised white dwarfs

We investigate the luminosity suppression and its effect on the mass-radius relation as well as cooling evolution of highly magnetised white dwarfs. Based on the effect of magnetic field relative to gravitational energy, we suitably modify our treatment of the radiative opacity, magnetostatic equilibrium and degenerate core equation of state to obtain the structural properties of these stars. Although the Chandrasekhar mass limit is retained in the absence of magnetic field and irrespective of the luminosity, strong central fields of about $10^{14}\, {\rm G}$ can yield super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs with masses up to $1.9\, M_{\odot}$. Smaller white dwarfs tend to remain super-Chandrasekhar for sufficiently strong central fields even when their luminosity is significantly suppressed to $10^{-16}\ L_{\odot}$. Owing to the cooling evolution and simultaneous field decay over $10\ {\rm Gyr}$, the limiting masses of small magnetised white dwarfs can fall to $1.5\ M_{\odot}$ over time. However the majority of these systems still remain practically hidden throughout their cooling evolution because of their high fields and correspondingly low luminosities. Utilising the stellar evolution code $\textit{STARS}$, we obtain close agreement with the analytical mass limit estimates and this suggests that our analytical formalism is physically motivated. Our results argue that super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs born due to strong field effects may not remain so for long. This explains their apparent scarcity in addition to making them hard to detect because of their suppressed luminosities.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2021

Anisotropic magnetized white dwarfs: Unifying under- and over-luminous peculiar and standard type Ia supernovae

Ever since the observation of peculiar over-luminous type Ia supernovae (SNeIa), exploring possible violations of the canonical Chandrasekhar mass-limit (CML) has become a pressing research area of modern astrophysics. Since its first detection in 2003, more than a dozen of peculiar over-luminous SNeIa has been detected, but the true nature of the underlying progenitors is still under dispute. Furthermore, there are also under-luminous SNeIa whose progenitor masses appear to be well below the CML (sub-Chandrasekhar progenitors). These observations call into question how sacrosanct the CML is. We have shown recently in Paper I that the presence of a strong magnetic field, the anisotropy of dense matter, as well as the orientation of the magnetic field itself significantly influence the properties of neutron and quark stars. Here, we study these effects for white dwarfs, which shows that their properties are also severely impacted. Most importantly, we arrive at a variety of mass-radius relations of white dwarfs which accommodate sub- to super-Chandrasekhar mass limits. This urges caution when using white dwarfs associated with SNeIa as standard candles.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Dynamics of relativistic electrons in non-uniform magnetic fields and its applications in quantum computing and astrophysics

We explore the two-dimensional motion of relativistic electrons when they are trapped in magnetic fields having spatial power-law variation. Its impacts include lifting of degeneracy that emerged in the case of the constant magnetic field, special alignment of Landau levels of spin-up and spin-down electrons depending on whether the magnetic field is increasing or decreasing from the centre, splitting of Landau levels of electrons with zero angular momentum from that of positive one and the change in the equation of state of matter. Landau quantization (LQ) in variable magnetic fields has interdisciplinary applications in a variety of disciplines ranging from condensed matter to quantum information. As examples, we discuss the increase in quantum speed of the electron in presence of spatially increasing magnetic field; and the attainment of super Chandrasekhar mass of white dwarfs by taking into account LQ and Lorentz force simultaneously.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Hydrodynamical transport of angular momentum in accretion disks in the presence of nonlinear perturbations due to noise

The origin of hydrodynamical instability and turbulence in the Keplerian accretion disk is a long-standing puzzle. The flow therein is linearly stable. Here we explore the evolution of perturbation in this flow in the presence of an additional force. Such a force, which is expected to be stochastic in nature hence behaving as noise, could result from thermal fluctuations (however small be), grain-fluid interactions, feedback from outflows in astrophysical disks, etc. We essentially establish the evolution of nonlinear perturbation in the presence of Coriolis and external forces, which is the modified Landau equation. We obtain that even in the linear regime, under suitable forcing and Reynolds number, the otherwise least stable perturbation evolves to a very large saturated amplitude, leading to nonlinearity and plausible turbulence. Hence, forcing essentially leads a linear stable mode to unstable. We further show that nonlinear perturbation diverges at a shorter time-scale in the presence of force, leading to a fast transition to turbulence. Interestingly, the emergence of nonlinearity depends only on the force but not on the initial amplitude of perturbation, unlike the original Landau equation-based solution.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Asymptotically flat black hole solution in modified gravity

From time to time, different observations suggest that Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) may not be the ultimate theory of gravity. Various researchers have suggested that the $f(R)$ theory of gravity is the best alternative to replace GR. Using $f(R)$ gravity, one can elucidate the various unexplained physics of compact objects, such as black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs. Researchers have already put effort into finding the vacuum solution around a black hole in $f(R)$ gravity. However, for a long time, they could not find an asymptotically flat vacuum solution. In this article, we show that the asymptotically flat vacuum solution of $f(R)$ gravity is possible and thereby use it to explain the spherical accretion flow around the black hole.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Natural evidence for fuzzy sphere noncommutative geometry: super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs

Noncommutative geometry is one of the quantum gravity theories, which various researchers have been using to describe different physical and astrophysical systems. However, so far, no direct observations can justify its existence, and this theory remains a hypothesis. On the other hand, over the past two decades, more than a dozen over-luminous type Ia supernovae have been observed, which indirectly predict that they originate from white dwarfs with super-Chandrasekhar masses $2.1-2.8 \rm\,M_\odot$. In this article, we discuss that considering white dwarfs as squashed fuzzy spheres, a class of noncommutative geometry, helps in accumulating more mass than the Chandrasekhar mass-limit. The length-scale beyond which the effect of noncommutativity becomes prominent is an emergent phenomenon, which depends only on the inter-electron separations in the white dwarf.

gr-qc↗