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Dany Page

Publications and source records attributed to Dany Page.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2011

Rapid Cooling of the Neutron Star in Cassiopeia A Triggered by Neutron Superfluidity in Dense Matter

We propose that the observed cooling of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A is due to enhanced neutrino emission from the recent onset of the breaking and formation of neutron Cooper pairs in the 3P2 channel. We find that the critical temperature for this superfluid transition is ~0.5x10^9 K. The observed rapidity of the cooling implies that protons were already in a superconducting state with a larger critical temperature. Our prediction that this cooling will continue for several decades at the present rate can be tested by continuous monitoring of this neutron star.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2010

Hypercritical accretion onto a magnetized neutron star surface: a numerical approach

The properties of a new-born neutron star, produced in a core-collapse supernova, can be strongly affected by the possible late fallback which occurs several hours after the explosion. This accretion occurs in the regime dominated by neutrino cooling, explored initially in this context by Chevalier (1989). Here we revisit this approach in a 1D spherically symmetric model and carry out numerical simulations in 2D in an accretion column onto a neutron star considering detailed microphysics, neutrino cooling and the presence of magnetic fields in ideal MHD. We compare our numerical results to the analytic solutions and explore how the purely hydrodynamical as well as the MHD solutions differ from them, and begin to explore how this may affect the appearance of the remnant as a typical radio pulsar.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2009

Neutrino Emission from Cooper Pairs and Minimal Cooling of Neutron Stars

The minimal cooling paradigm for neutron star cooling assumes that enhanced cooling due to neutrino emission from any direct Urca process, due either to nucleons or to exotica such as hyperons, Bose condensates, or deconfined quarks, does not occur. This scenario was developed to replace and extend the so-called standard cooling scenario to include neutrino emission from the Cooper pair breaking and formation processes that occur near the critical temperature for superfluid/superconductor pairing. Recently, it has been found that Cooper-pair neutrino emission from the vector channel is suppressed by a large factor compared to the original estimates that violated vector current conservation. We show that Cooper-pair neutrino emission remains, nevertheless, an efficient cooling mechanism through the axial channel. As a result, the elimination of neutrino emission from Cooper-paired nucleons through the vector channel has only minor effects on the long-term cooling of neutron stars within the minimal cooling paradigm. We further quantify precisely the effect of the size of the neutron 3P2 gap and demonstrate that consistency between observations and the minimal cooling paradigm requires that the critical temperature T_c for this gap covers a range of values between T_c^min < 0.2 x 10^9 K up to T_c^max > 0.5 \times 10^9 K in the core of the star. In addition, it is required that young neutron stars have heterogenous envelope compositions: some must have light-element compositions and others must have heavy-element compositions. Unless these two conditions are fulfilled, about half of the observed young cooling neutron stars are inconsistent with the minimal cooling paradigm and provide evidence for the existence of enhanced cooling.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2007

RX J1856.5-3754 as a possible Strange Star candidate

RX J1856.5-3754 has been proposed as a strange star candidate due to its very small apparent radius measured from its X-ray thermal spectrum. However, its optical emission requires a much larger radius and thus most of the stellar surface must be cold and undetectable in X-rays. In the case the star is a neutron star such a surface temperature distribution can be explained by the presence of a strong toroidal field in the crust (Perez-Azorin et al. 2006, Geppert et al. 2006). We consider a similar scenario for a strange star with a thin baryonic crust to determine if such a magnetic field induced effect is still possible.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2007

Cooling of Neutron Stars with Strong Toroidal Magnetic Fields

We present models of temperature distribution in the crust of a neutron star in the presence of a strong toroidal component superposed to the poloidal component of the magnetic field. The presence of such a toroidal field hinders heat flow toward the surface in a large part of the crust. As a result, the neutron star surface presents two warm regions surrounded by extended cold regions and has a thermal luminosity much lower than in the case the magnetic field is purely poloidal. We apply these models to calculate the thermal evolution of such neutron stars and show that the lowered photon luminosity naturally extends their life-time as detectable thermal X-ray sources.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Temperature distribution in magnetized neutron star crusts. II. The effect of a strong toroidal component

We continue the study of the effects of a strong magnetic field on the temperature distribution in the crust of a magnetized neutron star (NS) and its impact on the observable surface temperature. Extending the approach initiated in Geppert et al.(2004), we consider more complex and, hence, more realistic, magnetic field structures but still restrict ourselves to axisymmetric configurations. We put special emphasis on the heat blanketing effect of a toroidal field component. We show that asymmetric temperature distributions can occur and a crustal field consisting of dipolar poloidal and toroidal components will cause one polar spot to be larger than the opposing one. These two warm regions can be separated by an extended cold equatorial belt. We present an internal magnetic field structure which can explain both the X-ray and optical spectra of the isolated NS RXJ 1856-3754. We investigate the effects of the resulting surface temperature profiles on the observable lightcurve which an isolated thermally emitting NS would produce for different field geometries. The lightcurves will be both qualitatively (deviations from sinusoidal shape) and quantitatively (larger pulsed fraction for the same observational geometry) different from those of a NS with an isothermal crust. This opens the possibility to determine the interna} magnetic field strengths and structures in NSs by modeling their X-ray lightcurves and spectra. The striking similarities of our model calculations with the observed spectra and pulse profiles of isolated thermally emitting NSs is an indication for the existence of strong magnetic field components maintained by crustal currents.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Bremsstrahlung neutrinos from electron-electron scattering in a relativistic degenerate electron plasma

We present a calculation of neutrino pair bremsstrahlung due to electron-electron scattering in a relativistic degenerate plasma of electrons. Proper treatment of the in-medium photon propagator, i.e., inclusion of Debye screening of the longitudinal part and Landau damping of the transverse part, leads to a neutrino emissivity which is several orders of magnitude larger than when Debye screening is imposed for the tranverse part. Our results show that this in-medium process can compete with other sources of neutrino radiation and can, in some cases, even be the dominant neutrino emission mechanism. We also discuss the natural extension to quark-quark bremsstrahlung in gapped and ungapped quark matter.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Long Type I X-ray Bursts and Neutron Star Interior Physics

Superbursts are very energetic Type I X-ray bursts discovered in recent years by long term monitoring of X-ray bursters, believed to be due to unstable ignition of carbon in the deep ocean of the neutron star. A number of "intermediate duration" bursts have also been observed, probably associated with ignition of a thick helium layer. We investigate the sensitivity of these long X-ray bursts to the thermal profile of the neutron star crust and core. We first compare cooling models of superburst lightcurves with observations, and derive constraints on the ignition mass and energy release, and then calculate ignition models for superbursts and pure helium bursts, and compare to observations. The superburst lightcurves and ignition models imply that the carbon mass fraction is approximately 20% or greater in the fuel layer, constraining models of carbon production. However, the most important result is that when Cooper pairing neutrino emission is included in the crust, the temperature is too low to support unstable carbon ignition at the observed column depths. Some additional heating mechanism is required in the accumulating fuel layer to explain the observed properties of superbursts. If Cooper pair emission is less efficient than currently thought, the observed ignition depths for superbursts imply that the crust is a poor conductor, and the core neutrino emission is not more efficient than modified URCA. The observed properties of helium bursts support these conclusions, requiring inefficient crust conductivity and core neutrino emission.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Superbursts from Strange Stars

Recent models of carbon ignition on accreting neutron stars predict superburst ignition depths that are an order of magnitude larger than observed. We explore a possible solution to this problem, that the compact stars in low mass X-ray binaries that have shown superbursts are in fact strange stars with a crust of normal matter. We calculate the properties of superbursts on strange stars, and the resulting constraints on the properties of strange quark matter. We show that the observed ignition conditions exclude fast neutrino emission in the quark core, for example by the direct Urca process, which implies that strange quark matter at stellar densities should be in a color superconducting state. For slow neutrino emission in the quark matter core, we find that reproducing superburst properties requires a definite relation between three poorly constrained properties of strange quark matter: its thermal conductivity, its slow neutrino emissivity and the energy released by converting a nucleon into strange quark matter.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

The Cooling of Compact Stars

The cooling of a compact star depends very sensitively on the state of dense matter at supranuclear densities, which essentially controls the neutrino emission, as well as on the structure of the stellar outer layers which control the photon emission. Open issues concern the hyperon population, the presence of meson condensates, superfluidity and superconductivity, and the transition of confined hadronic matter to quark matter. This paper describes these issues and presents cooling calculations based on a broad collection of equations of state for neutron star matter and strange matter. These results are tested against the body of observed cooling data.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Dynamical evolution of neutrino--cooled accretion disks: detailed microphysics, lepton-driven convection, and global energetics

We present a detailed, two dimensional numerical study of the microphysical conditions and dynamical evolution of accretion disks around black holes when neutrino emission is the main source of cooling. Such structures are likely to form after the gravitational collapse of massive rotating stellar cores, or the coalescence of two compact objects in a binary (e.g., the Hulse--Taylor system). The physical composition is determined self consistently by considering two regimes: neutrino--opaque and neutrino--transparent, with a detailed equation of state which takes into account neutronization, nuclear statistical equilibrium of a gas of free nucleons and alpha particles, blackbody radiation and a relativistic Fermi gas of arbitrary degeneracy. Various neutrino emission processes are considered, with electron/positron capture onto free nucleons providing the dominant contribution to the cooling rate. We find that important temporal and spatial scales, related to the optically thin/optically thick transition are present in the disk, and manifest themselves clearly in the energy output in neutrinos. This transition produces an inversion of the lepton gradient in the innermost regions of the flow which drives convective motions, and affects the density and disk scale height radial profiles. The electron fraction remains low in the region close to the black hole, and if preserved in an outflow, could give rise to heavy element nucleosynthesis. Our specific initial conditions arise from the binary merger context, and so we explore the implications of our results for the production of gamma ray bursts.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2004

Minimal Cooling of Neutron Stars: A New Paradigm

A new classification of neutron star cooling scenarios, involving either ``minimal'' cooling or ``enhanced'' cooling is proposed. The minimal cooling scenario replaces and extends the so-called standard cooling scenario to include neutrino emission from the Cooper pair breaking and formation process. This emission dominates that due to the modified Urca process for temperatures close to the critical temperature for superfluid pairing. Minimal cooling is distinguished from enhanced cooling by the absence of neutrino emission from any direct Urca process, due either to nucleons or to exotica. Within the minimal cooling scenario, theoretical cooling models can be considered to be a four parameter family involving the equation of state of dense matter, superfluid properties of dense matter, the composition of the neutron star envelope, and the mass of the neutron star. Consequences of minimal cooling are explored through extensive variations of these parameters. Results are compared with the inferred properties of thermally-emitting neutron stars in order to ascertain if enhanced cooling occurs in any of them. All stars for which thermal emissions have been clearly detected are at least marginally consistent with the lack of enhanced cooling. The two pulsars PSR 0833-45 (Vela) and PSR 1706-44 would require enhanced cooling in case their ages and/or temperatures are on the lower side of their estimated values whereas the four stars PSR 0656+14, PSR 1055-52, Geminga, and RX J0720.4-3125 may require some source of internal heating in case their age and/or luminosity are on the upper side of their estimated values. The new upper limits on the thermal luminosity of PSR J0205+6449 and RX J0007.0+7302 are indicative of the occurrence of some enhanced neutrino emission beyond the minimal scenario.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2004

Distinguishing Bare Quark Stars from Neutron Stars

Observations to date cannot distinguish neutron stars from self-bound bare quark stars on the basis of their gross physical properties such as their masses and radii alone. However, their surface luminosity and spectral characteristics can be significantly different. Unlike a normal neutron star, a bare quark star can emit photons from its surface at super-Eddington luminosities for an extended period of time. We present a calculation of the photon bremsstrahlung rate from the bare quark star's surface, and indicate improvements that are required for a complete characterization of the spectrum. The observation of this distinctive photon spectrum would constitute an unmistakable signature of a strange quark star and shed light on color superconductivity at stellar densities.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2004

The Minimal Cooling of Neutron Stars

A general overview of the main physical processes driving the cooling of an isolated neutron star is presented. Among the most important ones are the various possible neutrino emission processes and the occurrence of baryon pairing. Special emphasis is also put on the importance of the chemical composition of the upper layers of the star. A detailed analysis of a Minimal Scenario, which explicitly postulates that no ``exotic'' form of matter be present, is summarized and compared with presently available observational data. No striking incompatibility of the data with the predictions of the Minimal Scenario is found. Nevertheless, two, possibly three, conspicuous stars are identified which may, when better data are available, constitute strong astrophysical evidence for the occurrence of a new state of matter at high density.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2004

Opaque or transparent? A link between neutrino optical depths and the characteristic duration of short gamma-ray bursts

Cosmological gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to occur from violent hypercritical accretion onto stellar mass black holes, either following core collapse in massive stars or compact binary mergers. This dichotomy may be reflected in the two classes of bursts having different durations. Dynamical calculations of the evolution of these systems are essential if one is to establish characteristic, relevant timescales. We show here for the first time the result of dynamical simulations, lasting approximately one second, of post--merger accretion disks around black holes, using a realistic equation of state and considering neutrino emission processes. We find that the inclusion of neutrino optical depth effects produces important qualitative temporal and spatial transitions in the evolution and structure of the disk, which may directly reflect upon the duration and variability of short GRBs.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2004

Bremsstrahlung photons from the bare surface of a strange quark star

The photon emissivity from the bremsstrahlung process ee-> eeγoccuring in the electrosphere at the bare surface of a strange quark star is calculated. For surface temperatures T<10^9K, the photon flux exceeds that of e+e- pairs that are produced via the Schwinger mechanism in the presence of a strong electric field that binds electrons to the surface of the quark star. The average energy of photons emitted from the bremsstrahlung process can be 0.5 MeV or more, which is larger than that in e+e- pair annihilation. The observation of this distinctive photon spectrum would constitute an unmistakable signature of a strange quark star and shed light on color superconductivity at stellar densities.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2002

Observability of Neutron Stars with Quarks

Recent Chandra observations have raised expectations that the objects RX J185635-3754 and 3C58 are either bare strange quark stars or stars with extended quark cores. However, these observations can also be interpreted in terms of normal neutron stars. Essential requirements for either explanation are that they simultaneously account for the observed (i) spectral features (i.e., thermal or nonthermal, possible lines), (ii) bounds on the inferred mass (M) and radius (R), and (iii) the cooling curves (effective temperatures T and luminosities L vs. age). Compact stars offer the promise of delineating QCD at finite baryon density (Lattimer and Prakash, 2001) in a fashion complementary to relativistic heavy ion collider experiments, which largely address the finite temperature, but baryon poor regime.

astro-ph↗