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Hsiang-Kuang Chang

Publications and source records attributed to Hsiang-Kuang Chang.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
arXiv2017

Lepton acceleration in the vicinity of the event horizon: Very-high-energy emissions from super-massive black holes

Around a rapidly rotating black hole (BH), when the plasma accretion rate is much less than the Eddington rate, the radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) cannot supply enough MeV photons that are capable of materializing as pairs. In such a charge-starved BH magnetosphere, the force-free condition breaks down in the polar funnels. Applying the pulsar outer-magnetospheric lepton accelerator theory to super-massive BHs, we demonstrate that a strong electric field arises along the magnetic field lines in the direct vicinity of the event horizon in the funnels, that the electrons and positrons are accelerated up to 100~TeV in this vacuum gap, and that these leptons emit copious photons via inverse-Compton (IC) process between 0.1~TeV and 30~TeV for a distant observer. It is found that these IC fluxes will be detectable with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes, provided that a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus is located within 1~Mpc for a million-solar-mass central BH or within 30~Mpc for a billion-solar-mass central BH. These very-high-energy fluxes are beamed in a relatively small solid angle around the rotation axis because of the inhomogeneous and anisotropic distribution of the RIAF photon field, and show an anti-correlation with the RIAF submillimeter fluxes. The gap luminosity little depends on the three-dimensional magnetic-field configuration, because the Goldreich-Julian charge density, and hence the exerted electric field is essentially governed by the frame-dragging effect, not by the magnetic field configuration.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2017

The 2016 Super Pressure Balloon flight of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a balloon-borne, soft-gamma ray imager, spectrometer, and polarimeter with sensitivity from 0.2 to 5 MeV. Utilizing a compact Compton telescope design with twelve cross-strip, high-purity germanium detectors, COSI has three main science goals: study the 511 keV positron annihilation line from the Galactic plane, image diffuse emission from stellar nuclear lines, and perform polarization studies of gamma-ray bursts and other extreme astrophysical environments. COSI has just completed a successful 46-day flight on NASA's new Super Pressure Balloon, launched from Wanaka, New Zealand, in May 2016. We present an overview of the instrument and the 2016 flight, and discuss COSI's main science goals, predicted performance, and preliminary results.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2017

Benchmarking COSI's detector effects engine

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a balloon-borne gamma-ray (0.2-5 MeV) telescope with inherent sensitivity to polarization. COSI's main goal is to study astrophysical sources such as $γ$-ray bursts, positron annihilation, Galactic nucleosynthesis, and compact objects. COSI employs a compact Compton telescope design utilizing 12 high-purity cross strip germanium detectors (size: $8\times8\times1.5$ cm$^3$, 2 mm strip pitch). We require well-benchmarked simulations to simulate the full instrument response used for data analysis, to optimize our analysis algorithms, and to better understand our instrument and the in-flight performance. In order to achieve a reasonable agreement, we have built a comprehensive mass model of the instrument and developed a detailed detector effects engine, which takes into account the individual performance of each strip as well as the characteristics of the overall detector system. We performed detailed Monte-Carlo simulations with Cosima/Geant4, applied the detector effects engine, and benchmarked the results with pre-flight calibrations using radioactive sources. After applying the detector effects engine, the simulations closely resemble the measurements, and the standard calibration, event reconstruction, and imaging pipeline used for measurements can also be applied to the simulations. In this manuscript, we will describe the detector effects engine, the benchmarking tests with calibrations, and the application to preliminary results from COSI's 46-day balloon flight in 2016.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2016

Lepton acceleration in the vicinity of the event horizon: High-energy and Very-high-energy emissions from rotating black holes with various masses

We investigate the electrostatic acceleration of electrons and positrons in the vicinity of the event horizon, applying the pulsar outer-gap model to black hole magnetospheres. During a low accretion phase, the radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) cannot emit enough MeV photons that are needed to sustain the force-free magnetosphere via two-photon collisions. In such a charge-starved region (or a gap), an electric field arises along the magnetic field lines to accelerate electrons and positrons into ultra-relativistic energies. These relativistic leptons emit copious gamma-rays via curvature and inverse-Compton (IC) processes. Some of such gamma-rays collide with the submillimeter-IR photons emitted from the RIAF to materialize as pairs, which polarize to partially screen the original acceleration electric field. It is found that the gap gamma-ray luminosity increases with decreasing accretion rate. However, if the accretion rate decreases too much, the diminished RIAF soft photon field can no longer sustain a stationary pair production within the gap. As long as a stationary gap is formed, the magnetosphere becomes force-free outside the gap by the cascaded pairs, irrespective of the BH mass. If a nearby stellar-mass black hole (BH) is in quiescence, or if a galactic intermediate-mass BH is in a very low accretion state, its curvature and IC emissions are found to be detectable with Fermi/LAT and imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT). If a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus is located within a few tens of Mpc, the IC emission from its super-massive BH is marginally detectable with IACT.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2016

Upper limits to the number of Oort Cloud Objects based on serendipitous occultation events search in X-rays

Using all the RXTE archival data of Sco X-1 and GX 5-1, which amount to about 1.6 mega seconds in total, we searched for possible occultation events caused by Oort Cloud Objects. The detection efficiency of our searching approach was studied with simulation. Our search is sensitive to object size of about 300 m in the inner Oort Cloud, taking 4000 AU as a representative distance, and of 900 m in the outer Oort Cloud, taking 36000 AU as the representative distance. No occultation events were found in the 1.6 Ms data. We derived upper limits to the number of Oort Cloud Objects, which are about three orders of magnitude higher than the highest theoretical estimates in the literature for the inner Oort Cloud, and about six orders higher for the outer Oort Cloud. Although these upper limits are not constraining enough, they are the first obtained observationally, without making any model assumptions about comet injection. They also provide guidance to such serendipitous occultation event search in the future.

astro-ph.EP↗
arXiv2015

Effects of Turbulent Viscosity on A Rotating Gas Ring Around A Black Hole: Results in Numerical Simulation

In this paper, we present the time evolution of a rotationally axisymmetric gas ring around a non rotating black hole using two dimensional grid-based hydrodynamic simulation. We show the way in which angular momentum transport is included in simulations of non-self-gravitating accretion of matter towards a black hole. We use the Shakura-Sunyaev α viscosity prescription to estimate the turbulent viscosity for all major viscous stress tensors. We investigate how a gas ring which is initially assumed to rotate with Keplerian angular velocity is accreted on to a black hole and hence forms accretion disc in the presence of turbulent viscosity. We show that the centrifugal pressure supported sub-Keplerian flow with shocks forms when the ring starts to disperse with inclusion of relatively small amount of viscosity. But, if the viscosity is above the critical value, the shock disappears altogether and the whole disc becomes Kepleiran which is subsonic everywhere except in a region close to the horizon, where it supersonically enters to the black hole. We discovered a multiple valued Mach number solution and the corresponding density distributions that connects matter (a) from the initial Keplerian gas ring to a sub-Keplerian disc with shocks in presence of small amount of viscosity and (b) from the sub-Keplerian flow to a Keplerian disc in presence of huge amount of viscosity. We calculate the temporal variations of the magnitude of various time scales which ensure us about the stability of the flow.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2014

Neutron star high mass binaries as the origin of SGR/AXP

A close high-mass binary system consisting of a neutron star (NS) and a massive OB supergiant companion is expected to lead to a TZO structure, which consists of a NS core and a stellar envelope. We use the scenario machine program to calculate the formation tracks of TZOs in close high mass NS binaries and their subsequent evolution. We propose and demonstrate that the explosion and instant contraction of a TZO structure leave its stellar remnant as a soft gamma ray repeater and an anomalous X-ray pulsar respectively.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2014

Hunting for Gravitational Waves with Massive Gravitons from Inspiralling Double Neutron Star Systems with Pulsar Clocks

Pulsars, especially millisecond pulsars, are intrinsically very stable celestial clocks, and their great pulse period stability open up a wide range of potential applications to astronomical phenomena, such as a natural detector for very low frequency ($10^{-7}-10^{-9}$ Hz) gravitational waves (GWs) background from supermassive black hole binaries. Double neutron star (DNS) binary systems, containing one or two radio pulsars, lose orbital energy by gravitational radiation, which leads to the orbital shrink. As a result, two neutron stars get closer and closer, during which it contributes to the emission of high frequency GWs of $1-10^4$ Hz. In this paper, we investigate the frequency shift of pulse signal for radio pulsars in DNS system that is induced by the emission of GWs from the system. We point out that the pulse frequency shift of radio signal in these systems can be a potential tool to hunt for the high-frequency GWs, with massive gravitons, from DNS systems, which resorts to a temporal shift of gravitational constant $δG(t)/G$. The sensitivity to high-frequency GWs from DNS by radio pulse frequency shift is discussed. The correlation between timing residuals of pulsar pair in double radio pulsars, such as the system PSR 0737-3039 A(B), is also considered.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2014

Quasi-quantized Disk Structure around Rotating Neutron Stars

In accreting neutron star (NS) low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) systems, NS accretes material from its low-mass companion via a Keplerian disk. In a viscous accretion disk, inflows orbit the NS and spiral in due to dissipative processes, such as the viscous process and collisions of elements. The dynamics of accretion flows in the inner region of an accretion disk is significantly affected by the rotation of NS. The rotation makes NS, thus the space-time metric, deviate from the originally spherical symmetry, and leads to gravitational quadrupole, on one hand. On the other hand, a rotating NS drags the local inertial frame in its vicinity, which is known as the rotational frame-dragging effect. In this paper, {\bf we investigate the orbital motion of accretion flows of accreting NS/LMXBs and demonstrate that the rotational effects of NS result in a band of quasi-quantized structure in the inner region of the accretion disk, which is different, in nature, from the scenario in the strong gravity of black hole arising from the resonance for frequencies related to epicyclic and orbital motions. We also demonstrate that such a disk structure may account for frequencies seen in X-ray variability, such as quasi-periodic oscillations, and can be a potential promising tool of investigation for photon polarization.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2012

Search for serendipitous TNO occultation in X-rays

To study the population properties of small, remote objects beyond Neptune's orbit in the outer solar system, of kilometer size or smaller, serendipitous occultation search is so far the only way. For hectometer-sized Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), optical shadows actually disappear because of diffraction. Observations at shorter wave lengths are needed. Here we report the effort of TNO occultation search in X-rays using RXTE/PCA data of Sco X-1 taken from June 2007 to October 2011. No definite TNO occultation events were found in the 334 ks data. We investigate the detection efficiency dependence on the TNO size to better define the sensible size range of our approach and suggest upper limits to the TNO size distribution in the size range from 30 m to 300 m. A list of X-ray sources suitable for future larger facilities to observe is proposed.

astro-ph.EP↗
arXiv2012

Two Types of Ergospheric Jets from Accreting Black Holes: The Dichotomy of Fanaroff-Riley Galaxies

We investigate the extraction of the rotational energy of a black hole under different accreting environment. When the accretion rate is moderate, the accretion disk consists of an outer thin disk and an inner advection-dominated accretion flow. In such a combined disk, the outer thin disk can sustain a magnetic field with moderate strength at the event horizon, leading to the formation of relativistic jets with moderate luminosity and speed via the magnetohrodynamic Penrose process. When the accretion rate increases enough, on the other hand, the disk becomes geometrically thin near the horizon. In this slim disk, the denser plasmas can sustain a stronger magnetic field than that in a combined disk, leading to the formation of jets with greater luminosity and speed via the Blandford-Znajek processs. It is discussed that the former jets are associated with the Fanaroff-Riley (FR) I galaxies and the latter with FR II galaxies.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2012

Launching and Quenching of Black Hole Relativistic Jets at Low Accretion Rate

Relativistic jets are launched from black hole (BH) X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei when the disk accretion rate is below a certain limit (i.e., when the ratio of the accretion rate to the Eddingtion accretion rate, $\dot{m}$, is below about 0.01) but quenched when above. We propose a new paradigm to explain this observed coupling between the jet and the accretion disk by investigating the extraction of the rotational energy of a BH when it is surrounded by different types of accretion disk. At low accretion rates (e.g., when $\dot{m}\lesssim0.1$), the accretion near the event horizon is quasi-spherical. The accreting plasmas fall onto the event horizon in a wide range of latitudes, breaking down the force-free approximation near the horizon. To incorporate the plasma inertia effect, we consider the magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) extraction of the rotational energy from BHs by the accreting MHD fluid, as described by the MHD Penrose process. It is found that the energy extraction operates, and hence a relativistic jet is launched, preferentially when the accretion disk consists of an outer Shakura-Sunyaev disk (SSD) and an inner advection-dominated accretion flow. When the entire accretion disk type changes into an SSD, the jet is quenched because the plasmas brings more rest-mass energy than what is extracted from the hole electromagnetically to stop the extraction. Several other observed BH disk-jet couplings, such as why the radio luminosity increases with increasing X-ray luminosity until the radio emission drops, are also explained.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2012

On Spin Dependence of Relativistic Acoustic Geometry

This work makes the first ever attempt to understand the influence of the black hole background space-time in determining the fundamental properties of the embedded relativistic acoustic geometry. To accomplish such task, the role of the spin angular momentum of the astrophysical black hole (the Kerr parameter $a$ -- a representative feature of the background black hole metric) in estimating the value of the acoustic surface gravity (the representative feature of the corresponding analogue space time) has been investigated for axially symmetric inflow of hydrodynamic fluid onto a rotating black hole. Since almost all astrophysical black holes are supposed to posses some degree of intrinsic rotation, the influence of the Kerr parameter on classical analogue models is very important to understand. For certain values of the initial boundary conditions describing the aforementioned flow, more than one acoustic horizons, namely two black hole type and one white hole type, may form, where the surface gravity may become formally infinite at the acoustic white hole. The connection between the corresponding analogue Hawking temperature with astrophysically relevant observables associated with the spectral signature has been discussed.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2010

Millisecond dips in the 2007-2009 RXTE/PCA lightcurve of Sco X-1 and one possible occultation event

Serendipitous stellar occultation search is so far the only way to detect the existence of very small, very dim, remote objects in the solar system. To date, however, there are only very few reported detections for trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) in optical bands. In the X-ray band, with the RXTE/PCA data of Sco X-1 taken from June 2007 to October 2009, we found one possible X-ray occultation event. We discuss the veracity and properties of this event, and suggest upper limits to the size distribution of TNOs at hectometer size and of Main-Belt Asteroids (MBAs) at decameter size.

astro-ph.EP↗
arXiv2010

Alfven node-free vibrations of white dwarf in the model of solid star with toroidal magnetic field

In the context of the white dwarf asteroseismology, we investigate vibrational properties of a non-convective solid star with an axisymmetric purely toroidal intrinsic magnetic field of two different shapes. Focus is laid on regime of node-free global Lorentz-force-driven vibrations about symmetry axis at which material displacements have one and the same form as those for nodeless spheroidal and torsional vibrations restored by Hooke's force of elastic shear stresses. Particular attention is given to the even-parity poloidal Alfven modes whose frequency spectra are computed in analytic form showing how the purely toroidal magnetic fields completely buried beneath the star surface can manifest itself in seismic vibrations of non-magnetic white dwarfs. The obtained spectral formulae are discussed in juxtaposition with those for Alfven modes in the solid star model with the poloidal, homogeneous internal and dipolar external, magnetic field whose inferences are relevant to Alfven vibrations in magnetic white dwarfs.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2009

Neptune migration model with one extra planet

We explore conventional Neptune migration model with one additional planet of mass at 0.1-2.0 Me. This planet inhabited in the 3:2 mean motion resonance with Neptune during planet migration epoch, and then escaped from the Kuiper belt when Jovian planets parked near the present orbits. Adding this extra planet and assuming the primordial disk truncated at about 45 AU in the conventional Neptune migration model, it is able to explain the complex structure of the observed Kuiper belt better than the usual Neptune migration model did in several respects. However, numerical experiments imply that this model is a low-probability event. In addition to the low probability, two features produced by this model may be inconsistent with the observations. They are small number of low-inclination particles in the classical belt, and the production of a remnant population with near-circular and low-inclination orbit within a = 50-52 AU. According to our present study, including one extra planet in the conventional Neptune migration model as the scenario we explored here may be unsuitable because of the low probability, and the two drawbacks mentioned above, although this model can explain better several features which is hard to produce by the conventional Neptune migration model. The issues of low-probability event and the lack of low-inclination KBOs in the classical belt are interesting and may be studied further under a more realistic consideration.

astro-ph.EP↗
arXiv2008

Millisecond dip events in the 2007 RXTE/PCA data of Sco X-1 and the TNO size distribution

Millisecond dips in the RXTE/PCA archival data of Sco X-1 taken from 1996 to 2002 were reported recently. Those dips were found to be most likely caused by instrumental dead time but may also contain some true astronomical events, which were interpreted as the occultation of X-rays from Sco X-1 by Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO) of 100-m size. Here we report the results of search for millisecond dip events with the new RXTE/PCA data of Sco X-1 taken in year 2007. Adopting the same selection criteria as that in the previous study, we found only 3 dip events in 72-ks data, much fewer than the 107 events found in the 560-ks data taken from 1996 to 2002 reported earlier. The new data provides more detailed information of individual `very large events' (VLEs), which is not available in the old archival data. Although the number of VLEs does not obviously increase during the occurrence of dip events, all the 3 dip events are coincident in time with VLEs that have no flags set for any of the propane or the 6 main xenon anodes. It is a strong indication of instrumental effects. No significant dips which might be real occultation by 60 -- 100 m TNOs were observed. With only 72-ks data, however, the previously proposed possibility that about 10 percent of the dip events might not be instrumental still cannot be strictly excluded. Using the absence of those anomalous VLEs as the criterion for identifying non-instrumental dip events, we found, at a lower confidence level, 4 dip events of duration 8 - 10 ms in the 72-ks data. Upper limits to the size distribution of TNOs at the small size end are suggested.

astro-ph↗