arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Feng Yuan.
We reply to the recent comments on our published papers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 (2012) 152005 and Phys. Lett. B717 (2012) 214. We point out that the criticisms about the transverse polarization parton sum rule we obtained are invalid.
The neutrino-dominated accretion flow (NDAF) with accretion rates \dot{M} = 0.01 - 10 M_{\sun} s^{-1} is a plausible candidate for the central engine of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). This hyperaccretion disk is optically thin to neutrinos in the radial direction, therefore the neutrinos produced at one radius can travel for a long distance in the disk. Those neutrinos can thus be absorbed with certain probability by the disk matter at the other radius and heat the disk there. The effect of this "global neutrino heating" has been ignored in previous works and is the focus of this paper. We find that around the "ignition" radius r_{ign}, the global neutrino heating rate could be comparable to or even larger than the local viscous heating rate thus must be an important process. Two possible consequences are in order if the "global neutrino heating" is taken into account: i) the temperature of the disk is slightly raised and the "ignition" radius r_{ign} slightly shifts to a larger radius, both lead to the increasing of the total neutrino flux; ii) what is more interesting is that, the temperature of the ADAF just beyond r_{ign} may be raised above the virial temperature thus the accretion will be suppressed. In this case, the activity of the black hole is expected to oscillate between an active and inactive phases. The timescale of the active phases is estimated to be \sim 1 second. If the timescale of the inactive phase is comparable to or less than this value, this intermittent activity may explain the slow variability component of the GRBs. Self-consistent global calculations of NDAFs with the "global neutrino heating" included are required in the future to more precisely evaluate this effect.
Numerical simulations of hot accretion flows have shown that the mass accretion rate decreases with decreasing radius. Two models have been proposed to explain this result. In the adiabatic inflow-outflow solution (ADIOS), it is thought to be due to the loss of gas in outflows. In the convection-dominated accretion flow (CDAF) model, it is explained as because that the gas is locked in convective eddies. In this paper we use hydrodynamical (HD) and magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations to investigate which one is physical. We calculate and compare various properties of inflow (gas with an inward velocity) and outflow (gas with an outward velocity). Systematic and significant differences are found. For example, for HD flows, the temperature of outflow is higher than inflow; while for MHD flows, the specific angular momentum of outflow is much higher than inflow. We have also analyzed the convective stability of MHD accretion flow and found that they are stable. These results suggest that systematic inward and outward motion must exist, i.e., the ADIOS model is favored. The different properties of inflow and outflow also suggest that the mechanisms of producing outflow in HD and MHD flows are buoyancy associated with the convection and the centrifugal force associated with the angular momentum transport mediated by the magnetic field, respectively. The latter mechanism is similar to the Blandford & Payne mechanism but no large-scale open magnetic field is required here. Possible observational applications are briefly discussed.
Through an explicit calculation of massive scalar particle (e.g., Higgs boson) production in high energy pA collisions up to one-loop order, we demonstrate that the Sudakov-type logarithms in hard processes in small-x saturation formalism can be systematically separated from the typical small-x logarithms. The generic feature of the Sudakov logarithms and all order resummation is derived. We further comment on the phenomenological implications and extension to other hard processes in the small-x calculations.
We present a systematic study of the proton spin structure in terms of measurable parton distributions. For a transversely-polarizedproton, we derive a polarization sum rule from the leading generalized parton distributions appearing in hard exclusive processes. For a longitudinally-polarized proton, we obtain a helicity decomposition from well-known quark and gluon helicity distributions and orbital angular-momentum contributions. The latter is shown to be related to measurable subleading generalized parton distributions and quantum-phase space Wigner distributions.
Numerical simulations of hot accretion flow have shown that the mass accretion rate decreases with decreasing radius; consequently the density profile of accretion flow becomes flatter compared to the case of a constant accretion rate. This result has important theoretical and observational implications. However, because of technical difficulties, the radial dynamic range in almost all previous simulations usually spans at most two orders of magnitude. This small dynamical range, combined with the effects of boundary conditions, makes the simulation results suspectable. Especially, the radial profiles of density and accretion rate may not be precise enough to be used to compare with observations. In this paper we present a "two-zone" approach to expand the radial dynamical range from two to four orders of magnitude. We confirm previous results and find that from $r_s$ to $ 10^4r_s$ the radial profiles of accretion rate and density can be well described by $\dot{M}(r)\propto r^s$ and $ρ\propto r^{-p}$. The values of (s, p) are (0.48, 0.65) and (0.4, 0.85), for viscous parameter $α=0.001$ and 0.01, respectively. We have looked up numerical simulation works in the literature and found that the values of $s$ and $p$ are all similar, no matter a magnetic field is included or not and what kind of initial conditions are adopted. The density profile we obtain is in good quantitative agreement with that obtained from the detailed observations and modeling to Sgr A* and NGC 3115. The origin of such a accretion rate profile will be investigated in a subsequent paper.
Previous hydrodynamical (HD) and magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) numerical simulations of hot accretion flows have shown that the mass accretion rate decreases with decreasing radius. Two models have been proposed to explain this result. In the ADIOS model, the inward decrease of accretion rate is because of the loss of gas in the outflow. In the CDAF model, the gas is assumed to be locked in convective eddies, which results in the inward decrease of the accretion rate. We investigate the nature of inward decrease of accretion rate using HD and MHD simulations. We calculate various properties of inflow and outflow, including the mass flux, radial and rotational velocities, temperature, and the Bernoulli parameter ($Be$). Systematic and significant differences between inflow and outflow are found. These results suggest that the inflow and outflow are not dominated by convective turbulence, but are systematic inward and outward motion. We have also analyzed the convective stability of MHD accretion flow and found that they are convectively stable. These results indicate that the ADIOS scenario is favored. The different properties of inflow and outflow also suggest that the mechanisms of producing outflow in HD and MHD flows are buoyancy and centrifugal force associated with the magnetic field, respectively. The latter mechanism is similar to the Blandford & Payne mechanism. We also study the effect of initial conditions in the simulations. We find that the value of $Be$ is mainly determined by the value of $Be$ of the initial condition. We discuss some possible observational applications of our outflow model. These observations include the Fermi bubble observed in the Galaxy center, and winds widely observed in AGNs and black hole X-ray binaries.
The proton's transverse polarization structure is examined in terms of the Lorentz-covariant Pauli-Lubanski vector in QCD. We find that there are contributions from leading, subleading, and next-to-subleading partonic contributions in the light-front system of coordinates. The subleading and next-to-subleading contributions are related to the leading one through Lorentz symmetry. And the leading contribution obeys a simple partonic angular momentum sum rule that gives a clear physical interpretation to a relation known previously.
Two significant progresses have been made in the past years on our understanding of hot accretion flows. One is that only a small fraction of accretion flow available at the outer boundary can finally falls onto the black hole while most of them is lost in outflow. Another one is that electrons may directly receive a large fraction of the viscously dissipated energy in the accretion flow, i.e, $δ\sim 0.1-0.5$. The radiative efficiency of hot accretion flow when these two progresses are taken into account has not been systematically studied and is the subject of the present paper. We consider two regimes of hot accretion model. One is the advection dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) which lie on low accretion rate regime, $\la 10α^2\ledd/c^2$; another being the luminous hot accretion flows (LHAFs) which lie above this accretion rate. For the latter, we assume that the accretion flow will has a two-phase structure above a certain accretion rate, and a simplification is adopted in our calculation of the dynamics. Our results indicate that the radiative efficiency of hot accretion flow increases with the accretion rate and is highly enhanced by the direct viscous heating to electrons compared to the previous case of $δ\ll 1$. When the accretion rate is high, the radiative efficiency of hot accretion flow is comparable to that of the standard thin disk. Fitting formulae of radiative efficiency as a function of accretion rate for various $δ$ values are presented.
Most Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have erratic light curves, which demand that the GRB central engine launches an episodic outflow. Recent Fermi observations of some GRBs indicate a lack of the thermal photosphere component as predicted by the baryonic fireball model, which suggests a magnetic origin of GRBs. In view that powerful episodic jets have been observed along with continuous jets in other astrophysical black hole systems, here we propose an intrinsically episodic, magnetically-dominated jet model for GRB central engine. Accumulation and eruption of free magnetic energy in the corona of a differentially-rotating, turbulent accretion flow around a hyperaccreting black hole lead to ejections of episodic, magnetically dominated plasma blobs. These blobs are accelerated magnetically, collide with each other at large radii, trigger rapid magnetic reconnection and turbulence, efficient particle acceleration and radiation, and power the observed episodic prompt gamma-ray emission from GRBs.
While the total orbital angular momentum (OAM) of a definite quark flavor in a longitudinally-polarized nucleon can be obtained through a sum rule involving twist-two generalized parton distribution (GPDs), its distribution as a function of parton momentum in light-front coordinates is more complicated to define and measure because it involves intrinsically twist-three effects. In this paper, we consider two different parton OAM distributions. The first is manifestly gauge invariant, and its moments are local operators and calculable in lattice QCD. We show that it can potentially be measured through twist-three GPDs. The second is the much-debated canonical OAM distribution natural in free-field theory and light-cone gauge. We show the latter in light-cone gauge can also be related to twist-three GPDs as well as quantum phase-space Wigner distributions, both being measurable in high-energy experiments.
The effects of viscosity on the circumplanetary disks residing in the vicinity of protoplanets are investigated through two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations with the shearing sheet model. We find that viscosity can affect properties of the circumplanetary disk considerably when the mass of the protoplanet is $M_p \lesssim 33M_\oplus$, where $M_\oplus$ is the Earth mass. However, effects of viscosity on the circumplanetary disk are negligibly small when the mass of the protoplanet $M_p \gtrsim 33M_\oplus$. We find that when $M_p \lesssim 33M_\oplus$, viscosity can disrupt the spiral structure of the gas around the planet considerably and make the gas smoothly distributed, which makes the torques exerted on the protoplanet weaker. Thus, viscosity can make the migration speed of a protoplanet lower. After including viscosity, size of the circumplanetary disk can be decreased by a factor of $\gtrsim 20%$. Viscosity helps to transport gas into the circumplanetary disk from the differentially rotating circumstellar disk. The mass of the circumplanetary disk can be increased by a factor of 50% after viscosity is taken into account when $M_p \lesssim 33M_\oplus$. Effects of viscosity on the formation of planets and satellites are briefly discussed.
We calculate inclusive hadron productions in pA collisions in the small-x saturation formalism at one-loop order. The differential cross section is written into a factorization form in the coordinate space at the next-to-leading order, while the naive form of the convolution in the transverse momentum space does not hold. The rapidity divergence with small-x dipole gluon distribution of the nucleus is factorized into the energy evolution of the dipole gluon distribution function, which is known as the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation. Furthermore, the collinear divergences associated with the incoming parton distribution of the nucleon and the outgoing fragmentation function of the final state hadron are factorized into the splittings of the associated parton distribution and fragmentation functions, which allows us to reproduce the well-known DGLAP equation. The hard coefficient function, which is finite and free of divergence of any kind, is evaluated at one-loop order.
The $B_c(^1S_0)$ meson to S-wave Charmonia transition form factors are calculated in next-to-leading order(NLO) accuracy of Quantum Chromodynamics(QCD). Our results indicate that the higher order corrections to these form factors are remarkable, and hence are important to the phenomenological study of the corresponding processes. For the convenience of comparison and use, the relevant expressions in asymptotic form at the limit of $m_c\rightarrow0$ for the radiative corrections are presented.
We perform a complete theoretical analysis of the azimuthal angular correlation of two-hadron productions in the forward $dAu$ collisions at RHIC in the saturation formalism, and obtain a very good agreement with the experimental data. It is demonstrated that the suppression and broadening of the away side peak provide a unique signal for the onset of the saturation mechanism at small-$x$ in a large nucleus. We emphasize that future experiments of di-hadron correlations in $pA$ collisions at both RHIC and LHC, and in $eA$ collisions at the planned electron-ion collider, shall provide us with a thorough study and understanding of the strong interaction dynamics in the saturation regime.
We show that the linearly polarized gluon distributions appear in the color dipole model as we derive the full cross sections of the DIS dijet production and the Drell-Yan dijet ($γ^*$ jet correlation) process. Together with the normal Weizsäcker-Williams gluon distribution, the linearly polarized one will contribute to the DIS dijet production cross section as the coefficient of the $\cos(2 Δϕ) $ term in the correlation limit. We also derive the exact results for the cross section of the Drell-Yan dijet process, and find that the linearly polarized dipole gluon distribution which is identical to the normal dipole gluon distribution involves in the cross section. The results obtained in this paper agree with the previous transverse momentum dependent factorization study. We further derive the small-$x$ evolution of these linearly polarized gluon distributions and find that they rise as $x$ gets small at high energy.
We study models of the gamma-ray emission of Cyg X-3 observed by Fermi. We calculate the average X-ray spectrum during the gamma-ray active periods. Then, we calculate spectra from Compton scattering of a photon beam into a given direction by isotropic relativistic electrons with a power-law distribution, both based on the Klein-Nishina cross section and in the Thomson limit. Applying the results to scattering of stellar blackbody radiation in the inner jet of Cyg X-3, we find that a low-energy break in the electron distribution at a Lorentz factor of ~ 300--1000 is required by the shape of the observed X-ray/gamma-ray spectrum in order to avoid overproducing the observed X-ray flux. The electrons giving rise to the observed \g-rays are efficiently cooled by Compton scattering, and the power-law index of the acceleration process is ~ 2.5--3. The bulk Lorentz factor of the jet and the kinetic power before the dissipation region depend on the fraction of the dissipation power supplied to the electrons; if it is ~ 1/2, the Lorentz factor is ~ 2.5, and the kinetic power is ~ 10^38 erg/s, which represents a firm lower limit on the jet power, and is comparable to the bolometric luminosity of Cyg X-3. Most of the power supplied to the electrons is radiated. The broad band spectrum constrains the synchrotron and self-Compton emission from the gamma-ray emitting electrons, which requires the magnetic field to be relatively weak, with the magnetic energy density < a few times 10^-3 of that in the electrons. The actual value of the magnetic field strength can be inferred from a future simultaneous measurement of the IR and gamma-ray fluxes.
We demonstrate the QCD factorization for inclusive hadron production in $pA$ collisions in the saturation formalism at one-loop order, with explicit calculation of both real and virtual gluon radiation diagrams. The collinear divergences associated with the incoming parton distribution of the nucleon and the outgoing fragmentation function of the final state hadron, as well as the rapidity divergence with small-$x$ dipole gluon distribution of the nucleus are factorized into the splittings of the associated parton distribution and fragmentation functions and the energy evolution of the dipole gluon distribution function. The hard coefficient function is evaluated at one-loop order, and contains no divergence.