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Kratika Mazde

Publications and source records attributed to Kratika Mazde.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

On the Physical Origins of the Millimeter Fundamental Plane in Active Galactic Nuclei

Observations of active galactic nuclei have revealed a correlation between millimeter luminosity, X-ray luminosity, and mass, suggesting the emission in each of these bands is powered by a common source. Starting with a set of five general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations with dynamically important magnetic fields, we perform ray-tracing calculations to produce spectra including synchrotron emission, bremsstrahlung emission, and Compton scattering. Our models with similar Eddington ratios to the objects for which the relationship was inferred naturally reproduce observations without tuning. Our lower Eddington ratio models depart from this relationship, likely attributable to an observational bias against extremely low accretion rates. We find that inverse Compton scattering dominates the production of X-rays over bremsstrahlung radiation in almost all models, and in all models consistent with the observed correlation. We find only a modest spin dependence in this relationship. This study demonstrates that a compact, hot accretion flow with dynamically important magnetic fields can naturally explain observed millimeter and X-ray properties in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei. Future work should explore the impacts of non-thermal electron populations, weaker magnetic fields, and radiative cooling.

astro-ph.HE

Quantum cosmological background superposition and perturbation predictions

Predictions from early universe cosmology typically concern primordial perturbations generated during epochs where effects arising from the quantum nature of gravity may be important; quantum vacuum fluctuations being stretched to cosmological scales during a phase of inflation. Quantizing the background is then done by assuming a single close-to-classical state over which perturbations grow, as well as a Born-Oppenheimer factorization throughout the relevant phase. We present a scenario in which although the latter factorization remains valid at all times, we allow the background state to be very non-classical by defining quantum trajectories through an eikonal approximation. We find that these trajectories asymptotically reproduce an almost classical behavior for the background, but the predictions for the power spectrum of perturbations can significantly differ.

gr-qc

Statistical analysis of long GRBs' prompt emission and X-ray flares: multivariate clustering and correlations

The extensive observations done by the X-ray telescope onboard Neil Gehrels Swift observatory has revealed the presence of late time flares concurrent with the decaying afterglow emission. However, the origin of these flares are elusive. In this work, we made use of the large database of Swift observations (2005 - 2020) of long GRBs to conduct a systematic statistical study between the prompt gamma ray emission and X-ray flares by characterising their temporal and spectral properties in terms of duration, quiescent period, peak flux, fluence, minimum variability timescale and spectral power-law index. The multi-dimensional database of parameters, thereby, generated was investigated by the principal component analysis which revealed there is no evident correlation between the different parameters of the prompt emission and X-ray flares. Furthermore, the correlation studies reveal that while there is a trend of positive correlation between the minimum variability timescale of flare and its duration, and a strong negative correlation with its peak flux, there are no such correlations observed in the prompt emission. Similarly, we find a positive correlation between the quiescent period and flare duration, and a negative correlation with the flare peak flux, while no such correlations are observed for the prompt emission of GRBs. Finally, among the X-ray flares, we find two dominant classes whose variations are driven by the minimum variability timescale, peak flux and fluences of the flares. A catalog of these different parameters characterising the prompt and flare emissions is presented.

astro-ph.HE

The Interplay between the Dark Matter Axion and Primordial Black Holes

If primordial black holes (PBHs) had come to dominate the energy density of the early Universe when oscillations in the axion field began, we show that the relic abundance and expected mass range of the QCD axion would be greatly modified. Since the QCD axion is a potential candidate for dark matter (DM), we refer to it as the DM axion. We predominantly explore PBHs in the mass range $(10^6 - 5\times 10^8)\,$g. We investigate the relation between the relic abundance of DM axions and the parameter space of PBHs. We numerically solve the set of Boltzmann equations, that governs the cosmological evolution during both radiation and PBH-dominated epochs, providing the bulk energy content of the early Universe. We further solve the equation of motion of the DM axion field to obtain its present abundance. Alongside non-relativistic production mechanisms, light QCD axions are generated from evaporating PBHs through the Hawking mechanism and could make up a fraction of the dark radiation (DR). If the QCD axion is ever discovered, it will give us insight into the early Universe and probe into the physics of the PBH-dominated era. We estimate the bounds on the model from DR axions produced via PBH evaporation and thermal decoupling, and we account for isocurvature bounds for the period of inflation where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is broken. We assess the results obtained against the available CMB data and we comment on the forecasts from gravitational wave searches. We briefly state the consequences of PBH accretion and the uncertainties this may further add to cosmology and astroparticle physics modeling.

astro-ph.CO