arXiv subjects

D. I. Jones

Publications and source records attributed to D. I. Jones.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Non-rigid precession of magnetic stars

Stars are, generically, rotating and magnetised objects with a misalignment between their magnetic and rotation axes. Since a magnetic field induces a permanent distortion to its host, it provides effective rigidity even to a fluid star, leading to bulk stellar motion which resembles free precession. This bulk motion is however accompanied by induced interior velocity and magnetic field perturbations, which are oscillatory on the precession timescale. Extending previous work, we show that these quantities are described by a set of second-order perturbation equations featuring cross-terms scaling with the product of the magnetic and centrifugal distortions to the star. For the case of a background toroidal field, we reduce these to a set of differential equations in radial functions, and find a method for their solution. The resulting magnetic-field and velocity perturbations show complex multipolar structure and are strongest towards the centre of the star.

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arXiv2017

On the free-precession candidate PSR B1828-11: Evidence for increasing deformation

We observe that the periodic variations in spin-down rate and beam-width of the radio pulsar PSR B1828-11 are getting faster. In the context of a free precession model, this corresponds to a decrease in the precession period $P_{\mathrm{fp}}$. We investigate how a precession model can account for such a decrease in $P_{\mathrm{fp}}$, in terms of an increase over time in the absolute biaxial deformation ($|ε_{\mathrm{p}}|{\sim}10^{-8}$) of this pulsar. We perform a Bayesian model comparison against the 'base' precession model (with constant $ε_{\mathrm{p}}$) developed in Ashton et al (2016), and we obtain decisive odds in favour of a time-varying deformation. We study two types of time-variation: (i) a linear drift with a posterior estimate of $\dotε_{\mathrm{p}}{\sim}10^{-18}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ and odds of $10^{75}$ compared to the base-model, and (ii) $N$ discrete positive jumps in $ε_{\mathrm{p}}$ with very similar odds to the linear $ε_{\mathrm{p}}$-drift model. The physical mechanism explaining this behaviour is unclear, but the observation could provide a crucial probe of the interior physics of neutron stars. We also place an upper bound on the rate at which the precessional motion is damped, and translate this into a bound on a dissipative mutual friction-type coupling between the star's crust and core.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

A new method to probe the thermal electron content of the Galaxy through spectral analysis of background sources

We present a new method for probing the thermal electron content of the Galaxy by spectral analysis of background point sources in the absorption-only limit to the radiative transfer equation. In this limit, calculating the spectral index, $α$, of these sources using a natural logarithm results in an additive factor, which we denote $α_\mathrm{EM}$, resulting from the absorption of radiation due to the Galactic thermal electron population. We find that this effect is important at very low frequencies ($ν\lesssim200$ MHz), and that the frequency spacing is critical. We model this effect by calculating the emission measure across the sky. A (smooth) thermal electron model for the Galaxy does not fit the observed emission measure distribution, but a simple, cloud-based model to represent the clumpy nature of the warm interstellar medium does. This model statistically reproduces the Galactic emission measure distribution as obtained independently from $H_α$ data well. We find that at the lowest frequencies ($\sim10-50$ MHz), the observed spectral index for a large segment of the Galaxy below Galactic latitudes of $\lesssim15^\circ$ could be changed significantly (i.e., $α_\mathrm{EM}\gtrsim0.1$). This method therefore provides a correction to low-frequency spectral index measurements of extragalactic sources, and provides a sensitive probe of the thermal electron distribution of the Galaxy using current and next-generation low-frequency radio telescopes. We show that this effect should be robustly detectable individually in the strongest sources, and statistically in source samples at a level of $α_\mathrm{EM}\gtrsim0.18,0.06$, and 0.02 for source densities of 10, 100 and 1,000 sources per square degree.

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arXiv2016

Comparing models of the periodic variations in spin-down and beam-width for PSR B1828-11

We build a framework using tools from Bayesian data analysis to evaluate models explaining the periodic variations in spin-down and beam-width of PSR B1828-11. The available data consists of the time averaged spin-down rate, which displays a distinctive double-peaked modulation, and measurements of the beam-width. Two concepts exist in the literature that are capable of explaining these variations; we formulate predictive models from these and quantitatively compare them. The first concept is phenomenological and stipulates that the magnetosphere undergoes periodic switching between two meta-stable states as first suggested by Lyne et al. The second concept, precession, was first considered as a candidate for the modulation of B1828-11 by Stairs et al.. We quantitatively compare models built from these concepts using a Bayesian odds-ratio. Because the phenomenological switching model itself was informed by this data in the first place, it is difficult to specify appropriate parameter-space priors that can be trusted for an unbiased model comparison. Therefore we first perform a parameter estimation using the spin-down data, and then use the resulting posterior distributions as priors for model comparison on the beam-width data. We find that a precession model with a simple circular Gaussian beam geometry fails to appropriately describe the data, while allowing for a more general beam geometry provides a good fit to the data. The resulting odds between the precession model (with a general beam geometry) and the switching model are estimated as $10^{2.7 \pm 0.5}$ in favour of the precession model.

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arXiv2015

First results and future prospects for dual-harmonic searches for gravitational waves from spinning neutron stars

We investigate a method to incorporate signal models that allow an additional frequency harmonic in searches for gravitational waves from spinning neutron stars. We assume emission is given by the general triaxial non-aligned model of Jones, whose waveform under certain conditions reduces to that of a biaxial precessing star, or a simple rigidly rotating triaxial aligned star. The triaxial non-aligned and biaxial models can produce emission at both the star's rotation frequency ($f$) and $2f$, whilst the latter only emits at $2f$. We have studied parameter estimation for signal models using both a set of physical source parameters, and a set of waveform parameters that remove a degeneracy. We have assessed the signal detection efficiency, and used Bayesian model selection to investigate how well we can distinguish between the three models. We found that for signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) $\gtrsim 6$ there is no significant loss in efficiency if performing a search for a signal at $f$ and $2f$ when the source is only producing emission at $2f$. However, for sources with emission at both $f$ and $2f$ signals could be missed by a search only at $2f$. We also find that for a triaxial aligned source, the correct model is always favoured, but for a triaxial non-aligned source it can be hard to distinguish between the triaxial non-aligned model and the biaxial model, even at high SNR. Finally, we apply the method to a selection of known pulsars using data from the LIGO fifth science run. We give the first upper limits on gravitational wave amplitude at both $f$ and $2f$ and apply the model selection criteria on real data.

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arXiv2015

Parameter choices and ranges for continuous gravitational wave searches for steadily spinning neutron stars

We consider the issue of selecting parameters and their associated ranges for carrying out searches for continuous gravitational waves from steadily rotating neutron stars. We consider three different cases (i) the "classic" case of a star spinning about a principal axis; (ii) a biaxial star, not spinning about a principal axis; (iii) a triaxial star spinning steady, but not about a principal axis (as described in Jones, MNRAS vol 402, 2503 (2010)). The first of these emits only at one frequency; the other two at a pair of harmonically related frequencies. We show that in all three cases, when written in terms of the original "source parameters", there exist a number of discrete degeneracies, with different parameter values giving rise to the same gravitational wave signal. We show how these can be removed by suitably restricting the source parameter ranges. In the case of the model as written down by Jones, there is also a continuous degeneracy. We show how to remove this through a suitable rewriting in terms of "waveform parameters", chosen so as to make the specialisations to the other stellar models particularly simple. We briefly consider the (non-trivial) relation between the assignment of prior probabilities on one set of parameters verses the other. The results of this paper will be of use when designing strategies for carrying out searches for such multi-harmonic gravitational wave signals, and when performing parameter estimation in the event of a detection.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

The effect of timing noise on targeted and narrow-band coherent searches for continuous gravitational waves from pulsars

Most searches for continuous gravitational-waves from pulsars use Taylor expansions in the phase to model the spin-down of neutron stars. Studies of pulsars demonstrate that their electromagnetic (EM) emissions suffer from \emph{timing noise}, small deviations in the phase from Taylor expansion models. How the mechanism producing EM emission is related to any continuous gravitational-wave (CW) emission is unknown; if they either interact or are locked in phase then the CW will also experience timing noise. Any disparity between the signal and the search template used in matched filtering methods will result in a loss of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), referred to as `mismatch'. In this work we assume the CW suffers a similar level of timing noise to its EM counterpart. We inject and recover fake CW signals, which include timing noise generated from observational data on the Crab pulsar. Measuring the mismatch over durations of order $\sim 10$ months, the effect is for the most part found to be small. This suggests recent so-called `narrow-band' searches which placed upper limits on the signals from the Crab and Vela pulsars will not be significantly affected. At a fixed observation time, we find the mismatch depends upon the observation epoch. Considering the averaged mismatch as a function of observation time, we find that it increases as a power law with time, and so may become relevant in long baseline searches.

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arXiv2015

SKA studies of in-situ synchrotron radiation from molecular clouds

Observations of the properties of dense molecular clouds are critical in understanding the process of star-formation. One of the most important, but least understood, is the role of the magnetic fields. We discuss the possibility of using high-resolution, high-sensitivity radio observations with the SKA to measure for the first time the in-situ synchrotron radiation from these molecular clouds. If the cosmic-ray (CR) particles penetrate clouds as expected, then we can measure the B-field strength directly using radio data. So far, this signature has never been detected from the collapsing clouds themselves and would be a unique probe of the magnetic field. Dense cores are typically ~0.05 pc in size, corresponding to ~arcsec at ~kpc distances, and flux density estimates are ~mJy at 1 GHz. The SKA should be able to readily detect directly, for the first time, along lines-of-sight that are not contaminated by thermal emission or complex foreground/background synchrotron emission. Polarised synchrotron may also be detectable providing additional information about the regular/turbulent fields.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Discovery of Luminous Star Formation in PMN1452-5910/IRAS14482-5857: the Pterodactyl Nebula

We present sensitive 1-3 GHz ATCA radio continuum observations of the hitherto unresolved star forming region known as either IRAS14482-5857 or PMN1452-5910. At radio continuum frequencies, this source is characterised by a "filled-bubble" structure reminiscent of a classical HII region, dominated by three point sources, and surrounded by low-surface-brightness emission out to the $3'\times4'$ source extent observed at other frequencies in the literature. The infrared emission corresponds well to the radio emission, with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission surrounding regions of hot dust towards the radio bubbles. A bright 4.5 $μ$m point source is seen towards the centre of the radio source, suggesting a young stellar object. There is also a linear, outflow-like structure radiating brightly at 8 and 24 $μ$m towards the brightest peak of the radio continuum. In order to estimate the distance to this source, we have used Mopra Southern Galactic Plane CO Survey $^{12}$CO(1-0) and $^{13}$CO(1-0) molecular line emission data. Integrated-intensity, velocity at peak intensity and line-fitting of the spectra all point towards the peak centred at $v_{LSR}$=-1.1 km/s being connected to this cloud. This infers a distance to this cloud of ~12.7 kpc. Assuming this distance, we estimate a column density and mass towards IRAS14482-5857 of ~$1.5\times10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$ and $2\times10^4$ $M_\odot$, implying that this source is a site of massive star formation. Reinforcing this conclusion, our broadband spectral fitting infers dust temperatures of 19 and 110K, emission measures for the sub-pc radio point-source of emission measure $EM\sim10^{6-7}$ pc cm$^{-6}$, electron densities of $n_e\sim10^3$ cm$^{-3}$ and photon ionisation rates of $N_{Ly}~10^{46-48}$ s$^{-1}$. The evidence strongly suggests that IRAS14482-5857 is a distant, and hence intense site of massive star-formation.

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arXiv2014

Developing a model for neutron star oscillations following starquakes

Glitches -- sudden increases in spin rate -- are observed in many pulsars. One mechanism advanced to explain glitches in the youngest pulsars is that they are caused by a starquake, a sudden rearrangement of the crust of the neutron star. Starquakes have the potential to excite some of the oscillation modes of the neutron star, which means that they are of interest as a source of gravitational waves. These oscillations could also have an impact on radio emission. In this paper we make upper estimates of the amplitude of the oscillations produced by a starquake, and the corresponding gravitational wave emission. We then develop a more detailed framework for calculating the oscillations excited by the starquake, using a toy model of a solid, incompressible star where all strain is lost instantaneously from the star at the glitch. For this toy model, we give plots of the amplitudes of the modes excited, as the shear modulus and rotation rate of the star are varied. We find that for our specific model, the largest excitation is generally of a mode similar to the $f$-mode of an incompressible fluid star, but that other modes of the star are excited to a significant degree over small parameter ranges of the rotation rate.

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arXiv2014

Prospects for Detection of Synchrotron Emission from Secondary Electrons and Positrons in Starless Cores: Application to G0.216+0.016

We investigate the diffusion of cosmic rays into molecular cloud complexes. Using the cosmic-ray diffusion formalism of Protheroe, et al. (2008), we examine how cosmic rays diffuse into clouds exhibiting different density structures, including a smoothed step-function, as well as Gaussian and inverse-$r$ density distributions, which are well known to trace the structure of star-forming regions. These density distributions were modelled as an approximation to the Galactic centre cloud G0.216+0.016, a recently-discovered massive dust clump that exhibits limited signs of massive star formation and thus may be the best region in the Galaxy to observe synchrotron emission from secondary electrons and positrons. Examination of the resulting synchrotron emission, produced by the interaction of cosmic ray protons interacting with ambient molecular matter producing secondary electrons and positrons reveals that, due to projection effects, limb-brightened morphology results in all cases. However, we find that the Gaussian and inverse-$r$ density distributions show much broader flux density distributions than step-function distributions. Significantly, some of the compact (compared to the $2.2''$ resolution, 5.3 GHz JVLA observations) sources show non-thermal emission, which may potentially be explained by the density structure and the lack of diffusion of cosmic rays into the cloud. We find that we can match the 5.3 and 20 GHz flux densities of the non-thermal source JVLA~1 and 6 from Rodr\'ıguez & Zapata (2014) with a local cosmic ray flux density, a diffusion coefficient suppression factor of $χ=0.1-0.01$ for a coefficient of $3\times10^{27}$ cm$^2$ s$^{-1}$, and a magnetic field strength of 470 $μ$G.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Implications of an r-mode in XTE J1751-305: Mass, radius and spin evolution

Recently Strohmayer and Mahmoodifar presented evidence for a coherent oscillation in the X-ray light curve of the accreting millisecond pulsar XTE J1751-305, using data taken by RXTE during the 2002 outburst of this source. They noted that a possible explanation includes the excitation of a non-radial oscillation mode of the neutron star, either in the form of a g-mode or an r-mode. The r-mode interpretation has connections with proposed spin-evolution scenarios for systems such as XTE J1751-305. Here we examine in detail this interesting possible interpretation. Using the ratio of the observed oscillation frequency to the star's spin frequency, we derive an approximate neutron star mass-radius relation which yields reasonable values for the mass over the range of expected stellar radius (as constrained by observations of radius-expansion burst sources). However, we argue that the large mode amplitude suggested by the Strohmayer and Mahmoodifar analysis would inevitably lead to a large spin-down of the star, inconsistent with its observed spin evolution, regardless of whether the r-mode itself is in a stable or unstable regime. We therefore conclude that the r-mode interpretation of the observed oscillation is not consistent with our current understanding of neutron star dynamics and must be considered unlikely. Finally we note that, subject to the availability of a sufficiently accurate timing model, a direct gravitational-wave search may be able to confirm or reject an r-mode interpretation unambiguously, should such an event, with a similar inferred mode amplitude, recur during the Advanced detector era.

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arXiv2014

Three evolutionary paths for magnetar oscillations

Quasi-periodic oscillations have been seen in the light curves following several magnetar giant flares. These oscillations are of great interest as they probably provide our first ever view of the normal modes of oscillation of neutron stars. The state-of-the-art lies in the study of the oscillations of elastic-magnetic stellar models, mainly with a view to relating the observed frequencies to the structure and composition of the star itself. We advance this programme by considering several new physical mechanisms that are likely to be important for magnetar oscillations. These relate to the superfluid/superconducting nature of the stellar interior, and the damping of the modes, both through internal dissipation mechanisms and the launching of waves into the magnetosphere. We make simple order-of-magnitude estimates to show that both the frequencies and the damping time of magnetar oscillations can evolve in time, identifying three distinct `pathways' that can be followed, depending upon the initial magnitude of the mode excitation. These results are interesting as they show that the information buried in magnetar QPOs may be even richer than previously thought, and motivate more careful examination of magnetar light curves, to search for signatures of the different types of evolution that we have identified.

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arXiv2012

Gravitational waves from color-magnetic `mountains' in neutron stars

Neutron stars may harbour the true ground state of matter in the form of strange quark matter. If present, this type of matter is expected to be a color superconductor, a consequence of quark pairing with respect to the color/flavor degrees of freedom. The stellar magnetic field threading the quark core becomes a color-magnetic admixture and, in the event that superconductivity is of type II, leads to the formation of color-magnetic vortices. In this Letter we show that the volume-averaged color-magnetic vortex tension force should naturally lead to a significant degree of non-axisymmetry in systems like radio pulsars. We show that gravitational radiation from such color-magnetic `mountains' in young pulsars like the Crab and Vela could be observable by the future Einstein Telescope, thus becoming a probe of paired quark matter in neutron stars. The detectability threshold can be pushed up toward the sensitivity level of Advanced LIGO if we invoke an interior magnetic field about a factor ten stronger than the surface polar field.

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arXiv2012

Are there any stable magnetic fields in barotropic stars?

We construct barotropic stellar equilibria, containing magnetic fields with both poloidal and toroidal field components. We extend earlier results by exploring the effect of different magnetic field and current distributions. Our results suggest that the boundary treatment plays a major role in whether the poloidal or toroidal field component is globally dominant. Using time evolutions we provide the first stability test for mixed poloidal-toroidal fields in barotropic stars, finding that all these fields suffer instabilities due to one of the field components: these are localised around the pole for toroidal-dominated equilibria and in the closed-field line region for poloidal-dominated equilibria. Rotation provides only partial stabilisation. There appears to be very limited scope for the existence of stable magnetic fields in barotropic stars. We discuss what additional physics from real stars may allow for stable fields.

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arXiv2012

Prospects for transient gravitational waves at r-mode frequencies associated with pulsar glitches

Glitches in pulsars are likely to trigger oscillation modes in the fluid interior of neutron stars. We examined these oscillations specifically at r-mode frequencies. The excited r-modes will emit gravitational waves and can have long damping time scales O(minutes - days). We use simple estimates of how much energy the glitch might put into the r-mode and assess the detectability of the emitted gravitational waves with future interferometers.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

Constraints on the non-thermal emission from Eta Carinae's blast wave of 1843

Non-thermal hard X-ray and high-energy (HE; 1 MeV < E < 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission in the direction of Eta Carinae has been recently detected using the INTEGRAL, AGILE and Fermi satellites. This emission has been interpreted either in the framework of particle acceleration in the colliding wind region between the two massive stars or in the very fast moving blast wave which originates in the historical 1843 "Great Eruption". Archival Chandra data has been reanalysed to search for signatures of particle acceleration in Eta Carinae's blast wave. No shell-like structure could be detected in hard X-rays and a limit has been placed on the non-thermal X-ray emission from the shell. The time dependence of the target radiation field of the Homunculus is used to develop a single zone model for the blast wave. Attempting to reconcile the X-ray limit with the HE -ray emission using this model leads to a very hard electron injection spectrum dN/dE ~ E^-Gamma with Gamma < 1.8, harder than the canonical value expected from diffusive shock acceleration.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Pulsar state switching, timing noise and free precession

Recent radio pulsar observations have shown that a number of pulsars display interesting long term periodicities in their spin-down rates. At least some of these pulsars also undergo sharp changes in pulse profile. This has been convincingly attributed to the stars abruptly switching between two different magnetospheric states. The sharpness of these transitions has been taken as evidence against free precession as the mechanism behind the long term variations. We argue that such a conclusion is premature. By performing a simple best-fit analysis to the data, we show that the relationship between the observed spin and modulation periods is of approximately the correct form to be accounted for by the free precession of a population of neutron stars with strained crusts, the level of strain being similar in all of the stars, and consistent with the star retaining a memory of a former faster rotation rate. We also provide an argument as to why abrupt magnetospheric changes can occur in precessing stars, and how such changes would serve to magnify the effect of precession in the timing data, making the observation of the precession more likely in those stars where such switching occurs. We describe how future observations could further test the precession hypothesis advanced here.

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