arXiv subjects

Nikolaos Stergioulas

Publications and source records attributed to Nikolaos Stergioulas.

108 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

Black hole formation through fragmentation of toroidal polytropes

We investigate new paths to black hole formation by considering the general relativistic evolution of a differentially rotating polytrope with toroidal shape. We find that this polytrope is unstable to nonaxisymmetric modes, which leads to a fragmentation into self-gravitating, collapsing components. In the case of one such fragment, we apply a simplified adaptive mesh refinement technique to follow the evolution to the formation of an apparent horizon centered on the fragment. This is the first study of the one-armed instability in full general relativity.

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arXiv2004

Nonlinear Pulsations in Differentially Rotating Neutron Stars: Mass-Shedding-Induced Damping and Splitting of the Fundamental Mode

We study small-amplitude, nonlinear pulsations of uniformly and differentially rotating neutron stars employing a two-dimensional evolution code for general-relativistic hydrodynamics. Using Fourier transforms at several points inside the star, both the eigenfrequencies and two-dimensional eigenfunctions of pulsations are extracted. The centrifugal forces and the degree of differential rotation have significant effects on the mode-eigenfunction. We find that near the mass-shedding limit, the pulsations are damped due to shocks forming at the surface of the star. This new damping mechanism may set a small saturation amplitude for modes that are unstable to the emission of gravitational waves. After correcting for the assumption of the Cowling approximation (used in our numerical code), we construct empirical relations that predict the range of gravitational-wave frequencies from quasi-periodic post-bounce oscillations in the core collapse of massive stars. We also find that the fundamental quasi-radial mode is split, at least in the Cowling approximation and mainly in differentially rotating stars, into two different sequences.

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arXiv2004

Approximate Matching of Analytic and Numerical Solutions for Rapidly Rotating Neutron Stars

We investigate the properties of a closed-form analytic solution recently found by Manko et al. (2000) for the exterior spacetime of rapidly rotating neutron stars. For selected equations of state we numerically solve the full Einstein equations to determine the neutron star spacetime along constant rest mass sequences. The analytic solution is then matched to the numerical solutions by imposing the condition that the quadrupole moment of the numerical and analytic spacetimes be the same. For the analytic solution we consider, such a matching condition can be satisfied only for very rapidly rotating stars. When solutions to the matching condition exist, they belong to one of two branches. For one branch the current octupole moment of the analytic solution is very close to the current octupole moment of the numerical spacetime; the other branch is more similar to the Kerr solution. We present an extensive comparison of the radii of innermost stable circular orbits (ISCOs) obtained with a) the analytic solution, b) the Kerr metric, c) an analytic series expansion derived by Shibata and Sasaki (1998) and d) a highly accurate numerical code. In most cases where a corotating ISCO exists, the analytic solution has an accuracy consistently better than the Shibata-Sasaki expansion. The numerical code is used for tabulating the mass-quadrupole and current-octupole moments for several sequences of constant rest mass.

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arXiv2003

Non-linear resonance in the accretion disk of a millisecond pulsar

Twin quasi-periodic millisecond modulations of the X-ray flux (kHz QPOs) have recently been reported from an accreting 2.5 ms X-ray pulsar. We identify modes of disk oscillations whose frequencies are in agreement with the observed ones when the rotating neutron star is modeled with realistic equations of state. The frequency difference of the twin QPOs, equal to about one half of the neutron-star spin rate, clearly indicates that resonant oscillations of the accretion disk have been observed. Similar non-linear resonances may also be spontaneously excited in the accretion disk. The two QPO frequencies in the pulsar system are close to a 5:7 ratio and this suggests a link with the QPOs in black hole systems, where frequency ratios of 2:3 and 3:5 have been reported.

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arXiv2003

Rotating Stars in Relativity

Rotating relativistic stars have been studied extensively in recent years, both theoretically and observationally, because of the information one could obtain about the equation of state of matter at extremely high densities and because they are considered to be promising sources of gravitational waves. The latest theoretical understanding of rotating stars in relativity is reviewed in this updated article. The sections on the equilibrium properties and on the nonaxisymmetric instabilities in f-modes and r-modes have been updated and several new sections have been added on analytic solutions for the exterior spacetime, rotating stars in LMXBs, rotating strange stars, and on rotating stars in numerical relativity.

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arXiv2001

Torsional Oscillations of Magnetized Relativistic Stars

Strong magnetic fields in relativistic stars can be a cause of crust fracturing, resulting in the excitation of global torsional oscillations. Such oscillations could become observable in gravitational waves or in high-energy radiation, thus becoming a tool for probing the equation of state of relativistic stars. As the eigenfrequency of torsional oscillation modes is affected by the presence of a strong magnetic field, we study torsional modes in magnetized relativistic stars. We derive the linearized perturbation equations that govern torsional oscillations coupled to the oscillations of a magnetic field, when variations in the metric are neglected (Cowling approximation). The oscillations are described by a single two-dimensional wave equation, which can be solved as a boundary value problem to obtain eigenfrequencies. We find that in the non-magnetized case, typical oscillation periods of the fundamental l=2 torsional modes can be nearly a factor of two larger for relativistic stars than previously computed in the Newtonian limit. For magnetized stars, we show that the influence of the magnetic field is highly dependent on the assumed magnetic field configuration and simple estimates obtained previously in the literature cannot be used for identifying normal modes observationally.

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arXiv2001

Axisymmetric Modes of Rotating Relativistic Stars in the Cowling Approximation

Axisymmetric pulsations of rotating neutron stars can be excited in several scenarios, such as core-collapse, crust and core-quakes and binary mergers and could become detectable either in gravitational waves or high-energy radiation. Here, we present a comprehensive study of all low-order axisymmetric modes of uniformly and rapidly rotating relativistic stars. Initial stationary configurations are appropriately perturbed and are numerically evolved using an axisymmetric, nonlinear relativistic hydrodynamics code, assuming time-independence of the gravitational field (Cowling approximation). The simulations are performed using a high-resolution shock-capturing finite-difference scheme accurate enough to maintain the initial rotation law for a large number of rotational periods, even for stars at the mass-shedding limit. Through Fourier transforms of the time evolution of selected fluid variables, we compute the frequencies of quasi-radial and non-radial modes with spherical harmonic indices l=0,1,2 and 3, for a sequence of rotating stars from the non-rotating limit to the mass-shedding limit. The frequencies of the axisymmetric modes are affected significantly by rotation only when the rotation rate exceeds about 50% of the maximum allowed. As expected, at large rotation rates, apparent mode crossings between different modes appear. In addition to the above modes, several axisymmetric inertial modes are also excited in our numerical evolutions.

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arXiv2000

Nonlinear r-modes in Rapidly Rotating Relativistic Stars

The r-mode instability in rotating relativistic stars has been shown recently to have important astrophysical implications (including the emission of detectable gravitational radiation, the explanation of the initial spins of young neutron stars and the spin-distribution of millisecond pulsars and the explanation of one type of gamma-ray bursts), provided that r-modes are not saturated at low amplitudes by nonlinear effects or by dissipative mechanisms. Here, we present the first study of nonlinear r-modes in isentropic, rapidly rotating relativistic stars, via 3-D general-relativistic hydrodynamical evolutions. Our numerical simulations show that (1) on dynamical timescales, there is no strong nonlinear coupling of r-modes to other modes at amplitudes of order one -- unless nonlinear saturation occurs on longer timescales, the maximum r-mode amplitude is of order unity (i.e., the velocity perturbation is of the same order as the rotational velocity at the equator). An absolute upper limit on the amplitude (relevant, perhaps, for the most rapidly rotating stars) is set by causality. (2) r-modes and inertial modes in isentropic stars are predominantly discrete modes and possible associated continuous parts were not identified in our simulations. (3) In addition, the kinematical drift associated with r-modes, recently found by Rezzolla, Lamb and Shapiro (2000), appears to be present in our simulations, but an unambiguous confirmation requires more precise initial data. We discuss the implications of our findings for the detectability of gravitational waves from the r-mode instability.

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arXiv2000

Nonlinear evolution of r-modes in rotating relativistic stars

A numerical study of nonlinear r-modes in isentropic, rapidly rotating relativistic stars, via 3-D general-relativistic hydrodynamical evolutions, is presented. On dynamical timescales, we find no evidence for strong coupling of r-modes to other modes at amplitudes of order one or larger. Therefore, unless nonlinear saturation sets in on longer timescales, the maximum r-mode amplitude is of order one. An absolute upper limit on the amplitude is set by causality. Our simulations also show that r-modes and inertial modes in isentropic stars are discrete modes, with no evidence for the existence of a continuous part in the spectrum.

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arXiv2000

Towards a Stable Numerical Evolution of Strongly Gravitating Systems in General Relativity: The Conformal Treatments

We study the stability of three-dimensional numerical evolutions of the Einstein equations, comparing the standard ADM formulation to variations on a family of formulations that separate out the conformal and traceless parts of the system. We develop an implementation of the conformal-traceless (CT) approach that has improved stability properties in evolving weak and strong gravitational fields, and for both vacuum and spacetimes with active coupling to matter sources. Cases studied include weak and strong gravitational wave packets, black holes, boson stars and neutron stars. We show under what conditions the CT approach gives better results in 3D numerical evolutions compared to the ADM formulation. In particular, we show that our implementation of the CT approach gives more long term stable evolutions than ADM in all the cases studied, but is less accurate in the short term for the range of resolutions used in our 3D simulations.

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arXiv1999

Nonlinear hydrodynamical evolution of rotating relativistic stars: Numerical methods and code tests

We present numerical hydrodynamical evolutions of rapidly rotating relativistic stars, using an axisymmetric, nonlinear relativistic hydrodynamics code. We use four different high-resolution shock-capturing (HRSC) finite-difference schemes (based on approximate Riemann solvers) and compare their accuracy in preserving uniformly rotating stationary initial configurations in long-term evolutions. Among these four schemes, we find that the third-order PPM scheme is superior in maintaining the initial rotation law in long-term evolutions, especially near the surface of the star. It is further shown that HRSC schemes are suitable for the evolution of perturbed neutron stars and for the accurate identification (via Fourier transforms) of normal modes of oscillation. This is demonstrated for radial and quadrupolar pulsations in the nonrotating limit, where we find good agreement with frequencies obtained with a linear perturbation code. The code can be used for studying small-amplitude or nonlinear pulsations of differentially rotating neutron stars, while our present results serve as testbed computations for three-dimensional general-relativistic evolution codes.

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arXiv1998

On the relevance of the r-mode instability for accreting neutron stars and white dwarfs

We present a case study for the relevance of the r-mode instability for accreting compact stars. Our estimates are based on approximations that facilitate back-of-the-envelope calculations. We discuss two different cases: 1) For recycled millisecond pulsars we argue that the r-mode instability may be active at rotation periods longer than the Kepler period (which provides the dynamical limit on rotation) as long as the core temperature is larger than about $2\times10^5$ K. Our estimates suggest that the instability may have played a role in the evolution of the fastest spinning pulsars, and that it may be presently active in the recently discovered 2.49 ms X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 as well as the rapidly spinning neutron stars observed in low mass X-ray binaries. This provides a new explanation for the remarkably similar rotation periods inferred from kHz quasi-periodic oscillations in the LMXBs. The possibility that the rotation of recycled pulsars may be gravitational-radiation limited is interesting because the gravitational waves from a neutron star rotating at the instability limit may well be detectable with the new generation of interferometric detectors. 2) We also consider white dwarfs, and find that the r-mode instability may possibly be active in short period white dwarfs. Our order of magnitude estimates (for a white dwarf of $M=M_\odot$ and $R=0.01 R_\odot$ composed of $C^{12}$) show that the instability could be operating for rotational periods shorter than $P\approx 27-33$ s. This number is in interesting agreement with the observed periods ($>28$ s) of the rapidly spinning DQ Herculis stars. However, we find that the instability grows too slowly to affect the rotation of these stars significantly .

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arXiv1998

Rotating Stars in Relativity

Rotating relativistic stars are receiving significant attention in recent years, because of the information they can yield about the equation of state of matter at extremely high densities and because they are one of the more possible sources of detectable gravitational waves. We review the latest theoretical and numerical methods for modeling rotating relativistic stars, including stars with a strong magnetic field and hot proto-neutron stars. We also review nonaxisymmetric oscillations and instabilities in rotating stars and summarize the latest developments regarding the gravitational wave-driven (CFS) instability in both polar and axial quasi-normal modes.

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arXiv1998

Quasi-normal modes of rotating relativistic stars - neutral modes for realistic equations of state

We compute zero-frequency (neutral) quasi-normal f-modes of fully relativistic and rapidly rotating neutron stars, using several realistic equations of state (EOSs) for neutron star matter. The zero-frequency modes signal the onset of the gravitational radiation-driven instability. We find that the l=m=2 (bar) f-mode is unstable for stars with gravitational mass as low as 1.0 - 1.2 M_\odot, depending on the EOS. For 1.4 M_\odot neutron stars, the bar mode becomes unstable at 83 % - 93 % of the maximum allowed rotation rate. For a wide range of EOSs, the bar mode becomes unstable at a ratio of rotational to gravitational energies T/W \sim 0.07-0.09 for 1.4 M_\odot stars and T/W \sim 0.06 for maximum mass stars. This is to be contrasted with the Newtonian value of T/W \sim 0.14. We construct the following empirical formula for the critical value of T/W for the bar mode, (T/W)_2 = 0.115 - 0.048 M / M_{max}^{sph}, which is insensitive to the EOS to within 4 - 6 %. This formula yields an estimate for the neutral mode sequence of the bar mode as a function only of the star's mass, M, given the maximum allowed mass, M_{max}^{sph}, of a nonrotating neutron star. The recent discovery of the fast millisecond pulsar in the supernova remnant N157B, supports the suggestion that a fraction of proto-neutron stars are born in a supernova collapse with very large initial angular momentum. Thus, in a fraction of newly born neutron stars the instability is a promising source of continuous gravitational waves. It could also play a major role in the rotational evolution (through the emission of angular momentum) of merged binary neutron stars, if their post-merger angular momentum exceeds the maximum allowed to form a Kerr black hole.

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arXiv1998

Construction of Highly Accurate Models of Rotating Neutron Stars - Comparison of Three Different Numerical Schemes

We conduct a direct comparison of three different representative numerical codes for constructing models of rapidly rotating neutron stars in general relativity. Our aim is to evaluate the accuracy of the codes and to investigate how the accuracy is affected by the choice of interpolation, domain of integration and equation of state. In all three codes, the same physical parameters, equations of state and interpolation method are used. We construct 25 selected models for polytropic equations of state and 22 models with realistic neutron star matter equations of state. The three codes agree well with each other (typical agreement is better than 0.1% to 0.01%) for most models, except for the extreme assumption of uniform density stars. We conclude that the codes can be used for the construction of highly accurate initial data configurations for polytropes of index N > 0.5 (which typically correspond to realistic neutron stars), when the domain of integration includes all space and for realistic equations with no phase transitions. With the exception of the uniform density case, the obtained values of physical parameters for the models considered in this paper can be regarded as ``standard'' and we display them in detail for all models.

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arXiv1997

Nonaxisymmetric Neutral Modes in Rotating Relativistic Stars

We study nonaxisymmetric perturbations of rotating relativistic stars. modeled as perfect-fluid equilibria. Instability to a mode with angular dependence $\exp(imϕ)$ sets in when the frequency of the mode vanishes. The locations of these zero-frequency modes along sequences of rotating stars are computed in the framework of general relativity. We consider models of uniformly rotating stars with polytropic equations of state, finding that the relativistic models are unstable to nonaxisymmetric modes at significantly smaller values of rotation than in the Newtonian limit. Most strikingly, the m=2 bar mode can become unstable even for soft polytropes of index $N \leq 1.3$, while in Newtonian theory it becomes unstable only for stiff polytropes of index $N \leq 0.808$. If rapidly rotating neutron stars are formed by the accretion-induced collapse of white dwarfs, instability associated with these nonaxisymmetric, gravitational-wave driven modes may set an upper limit on neutron-star rotation. Consideration is restricted to perturbations that correspond to polar perturbations of a spherical star. A study of axial perturbations is in progress.

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arXiv1996

Upper Limit Set by Causality on the Rotation and Mass of Uniformly Rotating Relativistic Stars

Causality alone suffices to set a lower bound on the period of rotation of relativistic stars as a function of their maximum observed mass. That is, by assuming a one-parameter equation of state (EOS) that satisfies v_sound < c and that allows stars with masses as large as the largest observed neutron-star mass, M_sph^max, we find P[ms] > 0.282 + 0.196 ( M_sph^max/M_odot-1.442). The limit does not assume that the EOS agrees with a known low-density form for ordinary matter, but if one adds that assumption, the minimum period is raised by a few percent. Thus the current minimum period of uniformly rotating stars, set by causality, is 0.28ms (0.29ms for stars with normal crust). The minimizing EOS yields models with a maximally soft exterior supported by a maximally stiff core. An analogous upper limit set by causality on the maximum mass of rotating neutron stars requires a low-density match and the limit depends on the matching density, epsilon_m. We recompute it, obtaining a slightly revised value, M_rot^max \sim 6.1( 2 * 10^14 g/cm^3 epsilon_m )^1/2 M_odot.

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arXiv1994

Comparing Models of Rapidly Rotating Relativistic Stars Constructed by Two Numerical Methods

We present the first direct comparison of codes based on two different numerical methods for constructing rapidly rotating relativistic stars. A code based on the Komatsu-Eriguchi-Hachisu (KEH) method (Komatsu et al. 1989), written by Stergioulas, is compared to the Butterworth-Ipser code (BI), as modified by Friedman, Ipser and Parker. We compare models obtained by each method and evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of the two codes. The agreement is surprisingly good. A relatively large discrepancy recently reported (Eriguchi et al. 1994) is found to arise from the use of two different versions of the equation of state. We find, for a given equation of state, that equilibrium models with maximum values of mass, baryon mass, and angular momentum are (generically) all distinct and either all unstable to collapse or are all stable. Our implementation of the KEH method will be available as a public domain program for interested users.

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