arXiv subjects

David F. Chernoff

Publications and source records attributed to David F. Chernoff.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2000

Pulsar Jets: Implications for Neutron Star Kicks and Initial Spins

We study implications for the apparent alignment of the spin axes, proper-motions, and polarization vectors of the Crab and Vela pulsars. The spin axes are deduced from recent Chandra X-ray Observatory images that reveal jets and nebular structure having definite symmetry axes. The alignments indicate these pulsars were born either in isolation or with negligible velocity contributions from binary motions. We examine the effects of rotation and the conditions under which spin-kick alignment is produced for various models of neutron star kicks. If the kick is generated when the neutron star first forms by asymmetric mass ejection or/and neutrino emission, then the alignment requires that the protoneutron star possesses an original spin with period $P_s$ much less than the kick timescale, thus spin-averaging the kick forces. The kick timescale ranges from 100 ms to 10 s depending on whether the kick is hydrodynamically driven or neutrino-magnetic field driven. For hydrodynamical models, spin-kick alignment further requires the rotation period of an asymmetry pattern at the radius near shock breakout (>100 km) to be much less than ~100 ms; this is difficult to satisfy unless rotation plays a dynamically important role in the core collapse and explosion ($P_s\lo 1$ ms). Aligned kick and spin vectors are inherent to the slow process of asymmetric electromagnetic radiation from an off-centered magnetic dipole. We reassess the viability of this effect, correcting a factor of 4 error in Harrison and Tademaru's calculation that increases the size of the effect. To produce a kick velocity of order a few hundred km/s requires that the neutron star be born with an initial spin close to 1 ms and that spindown due to r-mode driven gravitational radiation be inefficient compared to standard magnetic braking.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1997

Effects of magnetic fields on radiatively overstable shock waves

We discuss high-resolution simulations of one-dimensional, plane-parallel shock waves with mean speeds between 150 and 240 km/s propagating into gas with Alfven velocities up to 40 km/s and outline the conditions under which these radiative shocks experience an oscillatory instability in the cooling length, shock velocity, and position of the shock front. We investigate two forms of postshock cooling: a truncated single power law and a more realistic piecewise power law. The degree of nonlinearity of the instability depends strongly on the cooling power law and the Alfven Mach number: for power-law indices α< 0 typical magnetic field strengths may be insufficient either to stabilize the fundamental oscillatory mode or to prevent the oscillations from reaching nonlinear amplitudes.

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arXiv1997

Neutron Star Population Dynamics.II: 3D Space Velocities of Young Pulsars

We use astrometric, distance and spindown data on pulsars to: (1) estimate three-dimensional velocity components, birth distances from the galactic plane, and ages of individual objects; (2) determine the distribution of space velocities and the scale height of pulsar progenitors; (3) test spindown laws for pulsars; (4) test for correlations between space velocities and other pulsar parameters; and (5) place empirical requirements on mechanisms than can produce high velocity neutron stars. Our approach incorporates measurement errors, uncertainties in distances, deceleration in the Galactic potential, and differential galactic rotation. We find that the scale height of the progenitors is approximately 0.13 kpc, that the 3D velocities are distributed in two components with characteristic speeds of 175(+20,-30) km/s and 700(+200,-150) km/s representing 83% and 17% of the population respectively. These results are insensitive to the explicit relation of chronological and spindown ages. We infer that the most probable chronological ages are typically smaller than conventional spindown ages by factors as large as two. We assess mechanisms for producing high-velocity neutron stars in view of the derived velocity distribution function.

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arXiv1997

Molecule Formation In and On Grains.I: Physical Regimes

We study molecular hydrogen formation in and on solids. We construct a model with surface sites and bulk sites capable of describing (1) the motion and exchange of H and H_2 between surface and bulk, (2) the recombination of H and dissociation of H_2 in and on the solid, and (3) the injection of H from the gas phase and the loss of H and H_2 from the solid. The basic physical processes include thermally activated reactions, collisionally induced reactions, and tunneling reactions. Our main application is to the astronomical problem of H_2 formation on grains in space but the model has more general applicability. We investigate the steady-state H and H_2 concentrations in and on the solid when gas phase atoms or ions stick to the surface or penetrate the body of the grain. The model identifies ranges of physical parameters for which the solid becomes saturated (surface and/or bulk) with particles (H and/or H_2) and facilitates the calculation of the efficiency of molecule formation (the fraction of the gas phase atoms that leave as molecules). These solutions are highly degenerate in the sense that they depend only on a small number of dimensionless parameters. We find that a variety of recombination pathways operate under a broad range of conditions. As an example we study H_2 formation in and on carbon grains.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1997

Neutron Star Population Dynamics.I: Millisecond Pulsars

We study the field millisecond pulsar (MSP) population to infer its intrinsic distribution in spin period and luminosity and to determine its spatial distribution within the Galaxy. Our likelihood analysis on data from extant surveys (22 pulsars with periods <20 ms) accounts for important selection effects. We infer a minimum period cutoff P(min) > 0.65 ms (99% confidence), a period distribution proportional to P^{-2.0 +- 0.33} and a pseudo-luminosity distribution proportional to L_p^{-2.0 +- 0.2} (where L_p = flux density times distance^2, for L_p >= 1.1 mJy kpc^2). We find a vertical scale height 0.65{+0.16,-0.12} kpc. We use our results to estimate the total number and birthrate of MSPs in the disk of the Galaxy. We limit the density contribution of a diffuse halo-like component to <1% of the midplane value. The MSP velocity dispersion is smaller that that of young, long-period pulsars by about a factor of 5. Our best estimate of the 1D velocity kick that is unique to MSP evolution is approximately 40 km s^-1. We discuss the evolutionary relationship of MSPs and low-mass X-ray binaries and prospects for future searches for MSPs.

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arXiv1997

Radiative instabilities in simulations of spherically symmetric supernova blast waves

High-resolution simulations of the cooling regions of spherically symmetric supernova remnants demonstrate a strong radiative instability. This instability, whose presence is dependent on the shock velocity, causes large-amplitude fluctuations in the shock velocity. The fluctuations begin almost immediately after the radiative phase begins (upon shell formation) if the shock velocity lies in the unstable range; they last until the shock slows to speeds less than approximately 130 km/s. We find that shock-velocity fluctuations from the reverberations of waves within the remnant are small compared to those due to the instability. Further, we find (in plane-parallel simulations) that advected inhomogeneities from the external medium do not interfere with the qualitative nature of the instability-driven fluctuations. Large-amplitude inhomogeneities may alter the phases of shock-velocity fluctuations, but do not substantially reduce their amplitudes.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1996

An adaptive hierarchical particle-mesh code with isolated boundary conditions

This article describes a new, fully adaptive Particle-Multiple-Mesh numerical simulation code developed primarily for simulations of small regions (such as a group of galaxies) in a cosmological context. It integrates the equations of motion of a set of particles subject to their mutual gravitational interaction and to an arbitrary external field. The interactions are computed using a hierarchy of nested grids constructed anew at each integration step to enhance the spatial resolution in high-density regions of interest. Significant effort has gone into supporting isolated boundary conditions at the top grid level. This makes our method also applicable to non-cosmological problems, at the cost of some complications which we discuss. We point out the implications of some differences between our approach and those of other authors of similar codes, in particular with respect to the handling of the interface between regions of different spatial resolution. We present a selection of tests performed to verify the correctness and performance of our implementation. The conclusion suggests possible further improvements in the areas of independent time steps and particle softening lengths.

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arXiv1993

Convergence properties of finite-difference hydrodynamics schemes in the presence of shocks

We investigate asymptotic convergence in the~$Δx \!\rightarrow\! 0$ limit as a tool for determining whether numerical computations involving shocks are accurate. We use one-dimensional operator-split finite-difference schemes for hydrodynamics with a von Neumann artificial viscosity. An internal-energy scheme converges to demonstrably wrong solutions. We associate this failure with the presence of discontinuities in the limiting solution. Our extension of the Lax-Wendroff theorem guarantees that certain conservative, operator-split schemes converge to the correct continuum solution. For such a total-energy scheme applied to the formation of a single shock, convergence of a Cauchy error approaches the expected rate slowly. We relate this slowness to the effect of varying diffusion, due to varying linear artificial-viscous length, on small-amplitude waves. In an appendix we discuss the scaling of shock-transition regions with viscous lengths, and exhibit several difficulties for attempts to make extrapolations.

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arXiv1993

Gravitational Radiation, Inspiraling Binaries, and Cosmology

We show how to measure cosmological parameters using observations of inspiraling binary neutron star or black hole systems in one or more gravitational wave detectors. To illustrate, we focus on the case of fixed mass binary systems observed in a single Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)-like detector. Using realistic detector noise estimates, we characterize the rate of detections as a function of a threshold signal-to-noise ratio $ρ_0$, the Hubble constant $H_0$, and the binary ``chirp'' mass. For $ρ_0 = 8$, $H_0 = 100$ km/s/Mpc, and $1.4 \msun$ neutron star binaries, the sample has a median redshift of $0.22$. Under the same assumptions but independent of $H_0$, a conservative rate density of coalescing binaries ($8\times10^{-8}\,{\rm yr}^{-1}\,{\rm Mpc}^{-3}$) implies LIGO will observe $\sim 50\,{\rm yr}^{-1}$ binary inspiral events. The precision with which $H_0$ and the deceleration parameter $q_0$ may be determined depends on the number of observed inspirals. For fixed mass binary systems, $\sim 100$ observations with $ρ_0 = 10$ in the LIGO detector will give $H_0$ to 10\% in an Einstein-DeSitter cosmology, and 3000 will give $q_0$ to 20\%. For the conservative rate density of coalescing binaries, 100 detections with $ρ_0 = 10$ will require about 4~yrs.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1993

Observing binary inspiral in gravitational radiation: One interferometer

We investigate the sensitivity of individual LIGO/VIRGO-like interferometers and the precision with which they can determine the characteristics of an inspiralling binary system. Since the two interferometers of the LIGO detector share nearly the same orientation, their joint sensitivity is similar to that of a single, more sensitive interferometer. We express our results for a single interferometer of both initial and advanced LIGO design, and also for the LIGO detector in the limit that its two interferometers share exactly the same orientation. We approximate the evolution of a binary system as driven exclusively by leading order quadrupole gravitational radiation. To assess the sensitivity, we calculate the rate at which sources are expected to be observed, the range to which they are observable, and the precision with which characteristic quantities describing the observed binary system can be determined. Assuming a conservative rate density for coalescing neutron star binary systems we expect that the advanced LIGO detector will observe approximately 69~yr${}^{-1}$ with an amplitude SNR greater than 8. Of these, approximately 7~yr${}^{-1}$ will be from binaries at distances greater than 950~Mpc. We explore the sensitivity of these results to a tunable parameter in the interferometer design (the recycling frequency). The optimum choice of the parameter is dependent on the goal of the observations, e.g., maximizing the rate of detections or maximizing the precision of measurement. We determine the optimum parameter values for these two cases.

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