arXiv subjects

Jorge Cuadra

Publications and source records attributed to Jorge Cuadra.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Colliding Winds in and around the Stellar Group IRS 13E at the Galactic Center

IRS~13E is an enigmatic compact group of massive stars located in projection only 3.6 arcseconds away from Sgr A*. This group has been suggested to be bounded by an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH). We present a multi-wavelength study of the group and its interplay with the environment. Based on Chandra observations, we find the X-ray spectrum of IRS~13E can be well characterized by an optically thin thermal plasma. The emission peaks between two strongly mass-losing Wolf-Rayet stars of the group. These properties can be reasonably well reproduced by simulated colliding winds of these two stars. However, this scenario under-predicts the X-ray intensity in outer regions. The residual emission likely results from the ram-pressure confinement of the IRS~13E group wind by the ambient medium and is apparently associated with a shell-like warm gas structure seen in Pa-alpha and in ALMA observations. These latter observations also show strongly peaked thermal emission with unusually large velocity spread between the two stars. These results indicate that the group is colliding with the bar of the dense cool gas mini-spiral around Sgr A*. The extended X-ray morphology of IRS~13E and its association with the bar further suggest that the group is physically much farther away than the projected distance from Sgr A*. The presence of an IMBH, while favorable to keep the stars bound together, is not necessary to explain the observed stellar and gas properties of IRS~13E.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Stellar winds pump the heart of the Milky Way

The central super-massive black hole of the Milky Way, Sgr A*, accretes at a very low rate making it a very underluminous galactic nucleus. Despite the tens of Wolf-Rayet stars present within the inner parsec supplying ${\sim}10^{-3}\rm\ M_{\odot}\ yr^{-1}$ in stellar winds, only a negligible fraction of this material ($<10^{-4}$) ends up being accreted onto Sgr A*. The recent discovery of cold gas (${\sim}10^4\rm\ K$) in its vicinity raised questions about how such material could settle in the hostile (${\sim}10^7\rm\ K$) environment near Sgr A*. In this work we show that the system of mass-losing stars blowing winds can naturally account for both the hot, inefficient accretion flow, as well as the formation of a cold disk-like structure. We run hydrodynamical simulations using the grid-based code Ramses starting as early in the past as possible to observe the state of the system at the present time. Our results show that the system reaches a quasi-steady state in about ${\sim}500\rm\ yr$ with material being captured at a rate of ${\sim}10^{-6}\rm\ M_{\odot}\ yr^{-1}$ at scales of ${\sim}10^{-4}\rm\ pc$, consistent with the observations and previous models. However, on longer timescales ($\gtrsim3000\rm\ yr$) the material accumulates close to the black hole in the form of a disk. Considering the duration of the Wolf-Rayet phase (${\sim}10^5\rm\ yr$), we conclude that this scenario likely has already happened, and could be responsible for the more active past of Sgr A*, and/or its current outflow. We argue that the hypothesis of the mass-losing stars being the main regulator of the activity of the black hole deserves further consideration.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Flybys in protoplanetary discs: II. Observational signatures

Tidal encounters in star clusters perturb discs around young protostars. In Cuello et al. (2019a, Paper I) we detailed the dynamical signatures of a stellar flyby in both gas and dust. Flybys produce warped discs, spirals with evolving pitch angles, increasing accretion rates, and disc truncation. Here we present the corresponding observational signatures of these features in optical/near-infrared scattered light and (sub-) millimeter continuum and CO line emission. Using representative prograde and retrograde encounters for direct comparison, we post-process hydrodynamical simulations with radiative transfer methods to generate a catalogue of multi-wavelength observations. This provides a reference to identify flybys in recent near-infrared and sub-millimetre observations (e.g., RW Aur, AS 205, HV Tau & DO Tau, FU Ori, V2775 Ori, and Z CMa).

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2019

From scattered-light to millimeter emission: A comprehensive view of the Gyr-old system of HD 202628 and its eccentric debris ring

We present here new observations of the eccentric debris ring surrounding the Gyr-old solar-type star HD 202628: at millimeter wavelengths with ALMA, at far-infrared wavelengths with \textit{Herschel}, and in scattered light with \textit{HST}. The ring inner edge is found to be consistent between ALMA and \textit{HST} data. As radiation pressure affects small grains seen in scattered-light, the ring appears broader at optical than at millimeter wavelengths. The best fit to the ring seen with ALMA has inner and outer edges at $143.1 \pm 1.7$ AU and $165.5 \pm 1.4$, respectively, and an inclination of $57.4^\circ \pm 0.4$ from face-on. The offset of the ring centre of symmetry from the star allows us to quantify its eccentricity to be $e=0.09_{-0.01}^{+0.02}$. This eccentric feature is also detected in low resolution \textit{Herschel}/PACS observations, under the form of a pericenter-glow. Combining the infrared and millimeter photometry, we retrieve a disk grain size distribution index of $\sim -3.4$, and therefore exclude in-situ formation of the inferred belt-shaping perturber, for which we provide new dynamical constraints. Finally, ALMA images show four point-like sources that exceed 100$\,μ$Jy, one of them being just interior to the ring. Although the presence of a background object cannot be excluded, we cannot exclude either that this source is circumplanetary material surrounding the belt-shaper, in which case degeneracies between its mass and orbital parameters could be lifted, allowing us to fully characterize such a distant planet in this mass and age regime for the very first time.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2019

Dusty clumps in circumbinary discs

Recent observations have revealed that protoplanetary discs often exhibit cavities and azimuthal asymmetries such as dust traps and clumps. The presence of a stellar binary system in the inner disc regions has been proposed to explain the formation of these structures. Here, we study the dust and gas dynamics in circumbinary discs around eccentric and inclined binaries. This is done through two-fluid simulations of circumbinary discs, considering different values of the binary eccentricity and inclination. We find that two kinds of dust structures can form in the disc: a single horseshoe-shaped clump, on top of a similar gaseous over-density; or numerous clumps, distributed along the inner disc rim. The latter features form through the complex interplay between the dust particles and the gaseous spirals caused by the binary. All these clumps survive between one and several tens of orbital periods at the feature location. We show that their evolution strongly depends on the gas-dust coupling and the binary parameters. Interestingly, these asymmetric features could in principle be used to infer or constrain the orbital parameters of a stellar companion - potentially unseen - inside the inner disc cavity. Finally, we apply our findings to the disc around AB Aurigae.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2019

Visualizing plasmon-exciton polaritons at the nanoscale using electron microscopy

Polaritons are compositional light-matter quasiparticles that have recently enabled remarkable breakthroughs in quantum and nonlinear optics, as well as in material science. Despite the enormous progress, however, a direct nanometer-scale visualization of polaritons has remained an open challenge. Here, we demonstrate that plasmon-exciton polaritons, or plexcitons, generated by a hybrid system composed of an individual silver nanoparticle and a few-layer transition metal dichalcogenide can be spectroscopically mapped with nanometer spatial resolution using electron energy loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope. Our experiments reveal important insights about the coupling process, which have not been reported so far. These include nanoscale variation of Rabi splitting and plasmon-exciton detuning, as well as absorption-dominated extinction signals, which in turn provide the ultimate evidence for the plasmon-exciton hybridization in the strong coupling regime. These findings pioneer new possibilities for in-depth studies of polariton-related phenomena with nanometer spatial resolution.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Transition metal dichalcogenide nanodisks as high-index dielectric Mie nanoresonators

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have recently been proposed as a unique excitonic platform for advanced optical and electronic functionalities. However, in spite of intense research efforts, it has been largely overlooked that, in addition to displaying rich exciton physics, TMDCs also possess a very high refractive index. This opens a possibility to utilize these materials for constructing resonant nanoantennas based on subwavelength geometrical modes. Here we show that nanodisks fabricated from exfoliated multilayer WS$_2$ support distinct Mie resonances and so-called anapole states that can be easily tuned in wavelength over the visible and near-infrared spectral range by varying the nanodisks' size and aspect ratio. We argue that the TMDC material anisotropy and the presence of excitons substantially enrich nanophotonics by complementing traditional approaches based on plasmonics and well-known high-index materials such as silicon. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate a novel regime of light-matter interaction, anapole-exciton polaritons, which we realize within a single WS$_2$ nanodisk. Our results thus suggest that nanopatterned TMDCs are promising materials for high-index nanophotonics applications with enriched functionalities and superior prospects.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Flybys in protoplanetary discs: I. Gas and dust dynamics

We present 3D smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of protoplanetary discs undergoing a flyby by a stellar perturber on a parabolic orbit lying in a plane inclined relative to the disc mid-plane. We model the disc as a mixture of gas and dust, with grains ranging from 1 μm to 10 cm in size. Exploring different orbital inclinations, periastron distances and mass ratios, we investigate the disc dynamical response during and after the flyby. We find that flybys induce evolving spiral structure in both gas and dust which can persist for thousands of years after periastron. Gas and dust structures induced by the flyby differ because of drag-induced effects on the dust grains. Variations in the accretion rate by up to an order of magnitude occur over a time-scale of order 10 years or less, inducing FU Orionis-like outbursts. The remnant discs are truncated and warped. The dust disc is left more compact than the gas disc, both because of disc truncation and accelerated radial drift of grains induced by the flyby.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2018

Dusty spirals triggered by shadows in transition discs

Context. Despite the recent discovery of spiral-shaped features in protoplanetary discs in the near-infrared and millimetric wavelengths, there is still an active discussion to understand how they formed. In fact, the spiral waves observed in discs around young stars can be due to different physical mechanisms: planet/companion torques, gravitational perturbations or illumination effects. Aims. We study the spirals formed in the gaseous phase due to two diametrically opposed shadows cast at fixed disc locations. The shadows are created by an inclined non-precessing disc inside the cavity, which is assumed to be optically thick. In particular, we analyse the effect of these spirals on the dynamics of the dust particles and discuss their detectability in transition discs. Methods. We perform gaseous hydrodynamical simulations with shadows, then we compute the dust evolution on top of the gaseous distribution, and finally we produce synthetic ALMA observations of the dust emission based on radiative transfer calculations. Results. Our main finding is that mm- to cm-sized dust particles are efficiently trapped inside the shadow-triggered spirals. We also observe that particles of various sizes starting at different stellocentric distances are well mixed inside these pressure maxima. This dynamical effect would favour grain growth and affect the resulting composition of planetesimals in the disc. In addition, our radiative transfer calculations show spiral patterns in the disc at 1.6 μm and 1.3 mm. Due to their faint thermal emission (compared to the bright inner regions of the disc) the spirals cannot be detected with ALMA. Our synthetic observations prove however that shadows are observable as dips in the thermal emission.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2018

F.S.I.: Flyby Scene Investigation

We present a methodology to interpret observations of protoplanetary discs where a flyby, also called a tidal encounter, is suspected. In case of a flyby, protoplanetary discs can be significantly disturbed. The resulting dynamical and kinematical signatures can last for several thousands of years after the flyby and hence deeply affect the evolution of the disc. These effects are stronger for closer encounters and more massive perturbers. For the very same flyby parameters, varying the inclination of the perturber's orbit produces a broad range of disc structures: spirals, bridges, warps and cavities. We study this kind of features both in the gas and in the dust for grains ranging from 1 μm to 10 cm in size. Interestingly, the dust exhibits a different dynamical behaviour compared to the gas because of gas-drag effects. Finally, flybys can also trigger high accretion events in the disc-hosting star, readily similar to FU Orionis-type outbursts. All this information can be used to infer the flyby parameters from an incomplete set of observations at different wavelengths. Therefore, the main scope of our flyby scene investigation (FSI) methodology is to help to interpret recent "puzzling" disc observations.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2018

Non-steady-state long-term evolution of supermassive black hole binaries surrounded by accretion discs

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) pair and form bound binaries after their host galaxies merge. In a gas-rich merger, accretion discs are expected to form around the binary and its components. These discs control the binary orbital evolution until the system is compact enough for gravitational waves to drive the SMBHs to coalescence. In this work, we implemented a time-dependent 1D model to follow the long-term evolution of the coupled binary + discs system, from a separation of 10^5 down to 20 Schwarzschild radii. We run different models changing the system parameters, including the binary mass ratio q \leq 0.3 and a factor γ that controls the inflow across the gap created by the secondary. We find that our implementation yields higher residual masses and longer binary residence times than previous studies. Our main conclusion is the non-steady-state nature of the evolution of the system: the properties the disc had when the binary was still at large separations influence its whole evolution. To recover steady state, the binary residence time would have to be much longer than the inflow time-scale of the disc throughout their entire history, which in general is not satisfied.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

NPF: mirror development in Chile

In the era of high-angular resolution astronomical instrumentation, where long and very long baseline interferometers (constituted by many, $\sim$ 20 or more, telescopes) are expected to work not only in the millimeter and submillimeter domain, but also at near and mid infrared wavelengths (experiments such as the Planet Formation Imager, PFI, see Monnier et al. 2018 for an update on its design); any promising strategy to alleviate the costs of the individual telescopes involved needs to be explored. In a recent collaboration between engineers, experimental physicists and astronomers in Valparaiso, Chile, we are gaining expertise in the production of light carbon fiber polymer reinforced mirrors. The working principle consists in replicating a glass, or other substrate, mandrel surface with the mirrored adequate curvature, surface characteristics and general shape. Once the carbon fiber base has hardened, previous studies have shown that it can be coated (aluminum) using standard coating processes/techniques designed for glass-based mirrors. The resulting surface quality is highly dependent on the temperature and humidity control among other variables. Current efforts are focused on improving the smoothness of the resulting surfaces to meet near/mid infrared specifications, overcoming, among others, possible deteriorations derived from the replication process. In a second step, at the validation and quality control stage, the mirrors are characterized using simple/traditional tools like spherometers (down to micron precision), but also an optical bench with a Shack-Hartman wavefront sensor. This research line is developed in parallel with a more classical glass-based approach, and in both cases we are prototyping at the small scale of few tens of cms. We here present our progress on these two approaches.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2018

Accretion of clumpy cold gas onto massive black hole binaries: a possible fast route to binary coalescence

In currently favoured hierarchical cosmologies, the formation of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) following galaxy mergers is unavoidable. Still, due the complex physics governing the (hydro)dynamics of the post-merger dense environment of stars and gas in galactic nuclei, the final fate of those MBHBs is still unclear. In gas-rich environments, it is plausible that turbulence and gravitational instabilities feed gas to the nucleus in the form of a series of cold incoherent clumps, thus providing a way to exchange energy and angular momentum between the MBHB and its surroundings. Within this context, we present a suite of smoothed-particle-hydrodynamical models to study the evolution of a sequence of near-radial turbulent gas clouds as they infall towards equal-mass, circular MBHBs. We focus on the dynamical response of the binary orbit to different levels of anisotropy of the incoherent accretion events. Compared to a model extrapolated from a set of individual cloud-MBHB interactions, we find that accretion increases considerably and the binary evolution is faster. This occurs because the continuous infall of clouds drags inwards circumbinary gas left behind by previous accretion events, thus promoting a more effective exchange of angular momentum between the MBHB and the gas. These results suggest that sub-parsec MBHBs efficiently evolve towards coalescence during the interaction with a sequence of individual gas pockets.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Universal method for realization of strong light-matter coupling in hierarchical microcavity-plasmon-exciton systems

Polaritons are compositional light-matter quasiparticles that arise as a result of strong coupling between a vacuum field of a resonant optical cavity and electronic excitations in quantum emitters. Reaching such a regime is often hard, as it requires materials possessing high oscillator strengths to interact with the relevant optical mode. Two dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have recently emerged as promising candidates for realization of the strong coupling regime at room temperature. However, these materials typically provide coupling strengths in the range of 10-40 meV, which may be insufficient for reaching strong coupling with low quality factor resonators. Here, we demonstrate a universal scheme that allows a straightforward realization of strong and ultra-strong coupling regime with 2D materials and beyond. By intermixing plasmonic excitations in nanoparticle arrays with excitons in a WS2 monolayer inside a resonant metallic microcavity, we fabricate a hierarchical system with the combined Rabi splitting exceeding 500 meV at room temperature. Photoluminescence measurements of the coupled systems show dominant emission from the lower polariton branch, indicating the participation of excitons in the coupling process. Strong coupling has been recently suggested to affect numerous optical- and material-related properties including chemical reactivity, exciton transport and optical nonlinearities. With the universal scheme presented here, strong coupling across a wide spectral range is within easy reach and therefore exploring these exciting phenomena can be further pursued in a much broader class of materials.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

The Galactic Centre source G2 was unlikely born in any of the known massive binaries

The source G2 has already completed its pericentre passage around Sgr A*, the super-massive black hole in the centre of our Galaxy. Although it has been monitored for 15 years, its astrophysical nature and origin still remain unknown. In this work, we aim to test the hypothesis of G2 being the result of a stellar wind collision. To do so, we study the motion and final fate of gas clumps formed as a result of collisions of stellar winds in massive binaries. Our approach is based on a test-particle model in order to describe the trajectories of such clumps. The model takes into account the gravitational field of Sgr A*, the interaction of the clumps with the interstellar medium as well as their finite lifetimes. Our analysis allows us to reject the hypothesis based on four arguments: i) if G2 has followed a purely Keplerian orbit since its formation, it cannot have been produced in any of the known massive binaries since their motions are not consistent; ii) in general, gas clumps are evaporated through thermal conduction on very short timescale (< 100yr) before getting close enough to Sgr A*; iii) IRS 16SW, the best candidate for the origin of G2, cannot generate clumps as massive as G2; and iv) clumps ejected from IRS 16SW describe trajectories significantly different to the observed motion of G2.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Circumbinary, not transitional: On the spiral arms, cavity, shadows, fast radial flows, streamers and horseshoe in the HD142527 disc

We present 3D hydrodynamical models of the HD142527 protoplanetary disc, a bright and well studied disc that shows spirals and shadows in scattered light around a 100 au gas cavity, a large horseshoe dust structure in mm continuum emission, together with mysterious fast radial flows and streamers seen in gas kinematics. By considering several possible orbits consistent with the observed arc, we show that all of the main observational features can be explained by one mechanism - the interaction between the disc and the observed binary companion. We find that the spirals, shadows and horseshoe are only produced in the correct position angles by a companion on an inclined and eccentric orbit approaching periastron - the 'red' family from Lacour et al. (2016). Dust-gas simulations show radial and azimuthal concentration of dust around the cavity, consistent with the observed horseshoe. The success of this model in the HD142527 disc suggests other mm-bright transition discs showing cavities, spirals and dust asymmetries may also be explained by the interaction with central companions.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

Infalling clouds on to supermassive black hole binaries - II. Binary evolution and the final parsec problem

The formation of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) is an unavoidable outcome of galaxy evolution via successive mergers. However, the mechanism that drives their orbital evolution from parsec separations down to the gravitational wave (GW) dominated regime is poorly understood, and their final fate is still unclear. If such binaries are embedded in gas-rich and turbulent environments, as observed in remnants of galaxy mergers, the interaction with gas clumps (such as molecular clouds) may efficiently drive their orbital evolution. Using numerical simulations, we test this hypothesis by studying the dynamical evolution of an equal-mass, circular MBHB accreting infalling molecular clouds. We investigate different orbital configurations, modelling a total of 13 systems to explore different possible impact parameters and relative inclinations of the cloud-binary encounter. We focus our study on the prompt, transient phase during the first few orbits when the dynamical evolution of the binary is fastest, finding that this evolution is dominated by the exchange of angular momentum through gas capture by the individual black holes and accretion. Building on these results, we construct a simple model for evolving a MBHB interacting with a sequence of clouds, which are randomly drawn from reasonable populations with different levels of anisotropy in their angular momenta distributions. We show that the binary efficiently evolves down to the GW emission regime within a few hundred million years, overcoming the 'final parsec' problem regardless of the stellar distribution.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

Modelling the thermal X-ray emission around the Galactic Centre from colliding Wolf-Rayet winds

The Galactic Centre is a hotbed of astrophysical activity, with the injection of wind material from $\sim$30 massive Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars orbiting within 12 arcsec of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) playing an important role. Hydrodynamic simulations of such colliding and accreting winds produce a complex density and temperature structure of cold wind material shocking with the ambient medium, creating a large reservoir of hot, X-ray-emitting gas. This work aims to confront the 3 Ms of Chandra X-ray Visionary Program observations of this diffuse emission by computing the X-ray emission from these hydrodynamic simulations of the colliding WR winds, amid exploring a variety of SMBH feedback mechanisms. The major success of the model is that it reproduces the spectral shape from the 2-5 arcsec ring around the SMBH, where most of the stellar wind material that is ultimately captured by Sgr A* is shock-heated and thermalised. This naturally explains that the hot gas comes from colliding WR winds, and that the wind speeds of these stars are, in general, well constrained. The flux level of these spectra, as well as 12 $\times$ 12-arcsec$^2$ images of 4-9 keV, shows that the X-ray flux is tied to the SMBH feedback strength; stronger feedback clears out more hot gas, thereby decreasing the thermal X-ray emission. The model in which Sgr A* produced an intermediate-strength outflow during the last few centuries best matches the observations to within about 10 per cent, showing that SMBH feedback is required to interpret the X-ray emission in this region.

astro-ph.HE↗