arXiv subjects

Patrick Das Gupta

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick Das Gupta.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Mystery of the Cosmological Constant

The 2011 Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to S. Perlmutter, A. Riess and B. Schmidt for their path breaking discovery that the rate of expansion of the universe is increasing with time. The trio used Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) as standard candles to estimate their luminosity-distances. To appreciate some of the far reaching implications of their work, I have provided an elementary exposition of general theory of relativity, accelerated expansion of the universe, luminosity-distance, SNe Ia and the cosmological constant problem.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2011

Born Rule and Finkelstein-Hartle Frequency Operator Revisited

Character of observables in classical physics and quantum theory is reflected upon. Born rule in the context of measurement being an interaction between two quantum systems is discussed. A pedagogical introduction to Finkelstein-Hartle frequency operator is presented.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Some exact stationary state solutions of a nonlinear Dirac equation in 2+1 dimensions

Graphene's honeycomb lattice structure is quite remarkable in the sense that it leads, in the long wavelength limit, to a massless Dirac equation description of nonrelativistic quasiparticles associated with electrons and holes present in the two dimensional crystallite. In the case of cold bosonic atoms trapped in a honeycomb optical lattice, Haddad and Carr (2009) have recently shown, by taking into account binary contact interactions, that the dynamics of these Bose-Einstein condensates is governed by a nonlinear Dirac equation (NLDE). In this paper, we study exact stationary solutions of such a NLDE. After proving that the energy eigenvalues are real, we show that the sum of orbital angular momentum and pseudospin angular momentum normal to the crystal commutes with the nonlinear Hamiltonian whenever magnitudes of the pseudospin components do not depend on the polar angle $ϕ$. We obtain some exact stationary and localized solutions of the NLDE.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

On Chern-Simons corrections to magnetohydrodynamics equations

We study the effect of a (3+1)-dimensional Chern-Simons electrodynamics on the equations governing the dynamics of magnetized plasma and fields. In this model, the Chern-Simons (CS) part consists of a dynamical pseudo-scalar field whose space-time derivatives couple with the electromagnetic field. We explore the CS corrections to the evolution equation for the magnetic field in a plasma with non-zero electrical resistivity. We revisit Cowling's theorem in this context and observe that the CS corrections lead to possibly small but non-zero source terms for axisymmetric magnetic field. The scalar product of electric and magnetic fields play the role of source of the pseudo-scalar field, and therefore, pulsars and magnetars are likely astrophysical candidates to generate propagating pseudo-scalar waves. Although aligned electric field gets shorted out by flowing charges in large parts of the magnetosphere, there are vacuum gaps in the vicinity of pulsars where strong $\vec E. \vec B$ is expected to be present. We derive a wave solution for the pseudo-scalar field generated by the time-varying $\vec E. \vec B$ associated with a pulsar.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2002

Study of Spectral Lag for Short GRBs

This paper reports statistically significant correlations between various burst parameters, observed in a sample of 156 GRBs belonging to BATSE 4B catalog with T90 less than 2 s. The number of subpulses in a burst is strongly correlated not only with the object's duration but also with its fluence and hardness ratio, suggesting that when the central engine is more powerful, ejecting matter with typically higher values of Lorentz factor, the bulk energy is dissipated on longer time scales in the form of larger number of gamma pulses. We estimate hard-to-soft lag in bursts by taking the difference between centroids corresponding to time profiles at energies $> 100$ keV and $<100$ keV. The number of short GRBs that show soft-to-hard spectral evolution is slightly over one quarter of the total, in the sample considered here. Bursts that exhibit hard-to-soft spectral change appear to form a distinct class, with strength as well as hardness of individual subpeaks tending to decrease with peak position. Opposite is true for objects with softer photons arriving earlier than the harder ones, implying some kind of a rejuvenation of the central engine (may be due to enhanced accretion of matter towards the end). The two classes also show other diverging trends. For instance, objects belonging to the larger of the two classes display strong correlations between spectral lag and the fluence, the hardness ratio as well as the number of pulse, respectively. While no such correlations are seen in bursts that evolve from soft to hard. However, the magnitude of lag is strongly correlated with burst duration in both the classes.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1999

Morphological properties of Short Duration GRBs

In this paper, we study a sample of 65 short duration bursts contained in the 3B catalogue. We fit the time profiles of these GRBs with lognormal functions and study various temporal properties. In most of the multi-peaked bursts, our analysis leads to a statistical evidence for the evolution of temporal asymmetry in individual pulses i.e. subsequent pulses in a GRB, on an average, tend to be more symmetric. Using a peak asymmetry evolution parameter, we find that 90% of short duration GRBs with 3 or more peaks exhibit the above trend individually.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1999

Baryogenesis from Primordial Blackholes after Electroweak Phase Transition

Incorporating a realistic model for accretion of ultra-relativistic particles by primordial blackholes (PBHs), we study the evolution of an Einstein-de Sitter universe consisting of PBHs embedded in a thermal bath from the epoch $\sim 10^{-33}$ sec to $\sim 5\times 10^{-9}$ sec. In this paper we use Barrow et al's ansatz to model blackhole evaporation in which the modified Hawking temperature goes to zero in the limit of the blackhole attaining a relic state with mass $\sim m_{pl}$. Both single mass PBH case as well as the case in which blackhole masses are distributed in the range $8\times 10^2 - 3\times 10^5$ gm have been considered in our analysis. Blackholes with mass larger than $\sim 10^5$ gm appear to survive beyond the electroweak phase transition and, therefore, successfully manage to create baryon excess via $X-\bar X$ emissions, averting the baryon number wash-out due to sphalerons. In this scenario, we find that the contribution to the baryon-to-entropy ratio by PBHs of initial mass $m$ is given by $\sim εζ(m/1 {gm})^{-1}$, where $ε$ and $ζ$ are the CP-violating parameter and the initial mass fraction of the PBHs, respectively. For $ε$ larger than $\sim 10^{-4}$, the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe can be attributed to the evaporation of PBHs.

astro-ph↗