arXiv subjects

S. Sengupta

Publications and source records attributed to S. Sengupta.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

The MPIfR-MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey II. The eccentric double neutron star system PSR J1208-5936 and a neutron star merger rate update

The MMGPS-L is the most sensitive pulsar survey in the Southern Hemisphere. We present a follow-up study of one of these new discoveries, PSR J1208-5936, a 28.71-ms recycled pulsar in a double neutron star system with an orbital period of Pb=0.632 days and an eccentricity of e=0.348. Through timing of almost one year of observations, we detected the relativistic advance of periastron (0.918(1) deg/yr), resulting in a total system mass of Mt=2.586(5) Mo. We also achieved low-significance constraints on the amplitude of the Einstein delay and Shapiro delay, in turn yielding constraints on the pulsar mass (Mp=1.26(+0.13/-0.25) Mo), the companion mass (Mc=1.32(+0.25/-0.13) Mo, and the inclination angle (i=57(12) degrees). This system is highly eccentric compared to other Galactic field double neutron stars with similar periods, possibly hinting at a larger-than-usual supernova kick during the formation of the second-born neutron star. The binary will merge within 7.2(2) Gyr due to the emission of gravitational waves. With the improved sensitivity of the MMGPS-L, we updated the Milky Way neutron star merger rate to be 25(+19/-9) Myr$^{-1}$ within 90% credible intervals, which is lower than previous studies based on known Galactic binaries owing to the lack of further detections despite the highly sensitive nature of the survey. This implies a local cosmic neutron star merger rate of 293(+222/-103} Gpc/yr, consistent with LIGO and Virgo O3 observations. With this, we predict the observation of 10(+8/-4) neutron star merger events during the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4 run. We predict the uncertainties on the component masses and the inclination angle will be reduced to 5x10$^{-3}$ Mo and 0.4 degrees after two decades of timing, and that in at least a decade from now the detection of the shift in Pb and the sky proper motion will serve to make an independent constraint of the distance to the system.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

The MPIfR-MeerKAT Galactic Plane survey I -- System setup and early results

Galactic plane radio surveys play a key role in improving our understanding of a wide range of astrophysical phenomena. Performing such a survey using the latest interferometric telescopes produces large data rates necessitating a shift towards fully or quasi-real-time data analysis with data being stored for only the time required to process them. We present here the overview and setup for the 3000 hour Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie (MPIfR) MeerKAT Galactic Plane survey (MMGPS). The survey is unique by operating in a commensal mode, addressing key science objectives of the survey including the discovery of new pulsars and transients as well as studies of Galactic magnetism, the interstellar medium and star formation rates. We explain the strategy coupled with the necessary hardware and software infrastructure needed for data reduction in the imaging, spectral and time domains. We have so far discovered 78 new pulsars including 17 confirmed binary systems of which two are potential double neutron star systems. We have also developed an imaging pipeline sensitive to the order of a few tens of micro-Jansky with a spatial resolution of a few arcseconds. Further science operations with an in-house built S-Band receiver operating between 1.7-3.5 GHz are about to commence. Early spectral line commissioning observations conducted at S-Band, targeting transitions of the key molecular gas tracer CH at 3.3 GHz already illustrate the spectroscopic capabilities of this instrument. These results lay a strong foundation for future surveys with telescopes like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Discovery and timing of three millisecond pulsars in radio and gamma-rays with the GMRT and Fermi-LAT

We performed deep observations to search for radio pulsations in the directions of 375 unassociated Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) gamma-ray sources using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at 322 and 607 MHz. In this paper we report the discovery of three millisecond pulsars (MSPs), PSR J0248+4230, PSR J1207$-$5050 and PSR J1536$-$4948. We conducted follow up timing observations for around 5 years with the GMRT and derived phase coherent timing models for these MSPs. PSR J0248$+$4230 and J1207$-$5050 are isolated MSPs having periodicities of 2.60 ms and 4.84 ms. PSR J1536-4948 is a 3.07 ms pulsar in a binary system with orbital period of around 62 days about a companion of minimum mass 0.32 solar mass. We also present multi-frequency pulse profiles of these MSPs from the GMRT observations. PSR J1536-4948 is an MSP with an extremely wide pulse profile having multiple components. Using the radio timing ephemeris we subsequently detected gamma-ray pulsations from these three MSPs, confirming them as the sources powering the gamma-ray emission. For PSR J1536-4948 we performed combined radio-gamma-ray timing using around 11.6 years of gamma-ray pulse times of arrivals (TOAs) along with the radio TOAs. PSR J1536-4948 also shows evidence for pulsed gamma-ray emission out to above 25 GeV, confirming earlier associations of this MSP with a >10 GeV point source. The multi-wavelength pulse profiles of all three MSPs offer challenges to models of radio and gamma-ray emission in pulsar magnetospheres.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

BIDEAL: A Toolbox for Bicluster Analysis -- Generation, Visualization and Validation

This paper introduces a novel toolbox named BIDEAL for the generation of biclusters, their analysis, visualization, and validation. The objective is to facilitate researchers to use forefront biclustering algorithms embedded on a single platform. A single toolbox comprising various biclustering algorithms play a vital role to extract meaningful patterns from the data for detecting diseases, biomarkers, gene-drug association, etc. BIDEAL consists of seventeen biclustering algorithms, three biclusters visualization techniques, and six validation indices. The toolbox can analyze several types of data, including biological data through a graphical user interface. It also facilitates data preprocessing techniques i.e., binarization, discretization, normalization, elimination of null and missing values. The effectiveness of the developed toolbox has been presented through testing and validations on Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle, Leukemia cancer, Mammary tissue profile, and Ligand screen in B-cells datasets. The biclusters of these datasets have been generated using BIDEAL and evaluated in terms of coherency, differential co-expression ranking, and similarity measure. The visualization of generated biclusters has also been provided through a heat map and gene plot.

cs.OH↗

arXiv2020

Tunable two-dimensional electron system at the (110) surface of SnO$_2$

We report the observation of a two-dimensional electron system (2DES) at the $(110)$ surface of the transparent bulk insulator SnO$_2$, and the tunability of its carrier density by means of temperature or Eu deposition. The 2DES is insensitive to surface reconstructions and, surprisingly, it survives even after exposure to ambient conditions --an extraordinary fact recalling the well known catalytic properties SnO$_2$. Our data show that surface oxygen vacancies are at the origin of such 2DES, providing key information about the long-debated origin of $n$-type conductivity in SnO$_2$, at the basis of a wide range of applications. Furthermore, our study shows that the emergence of a 2DES in a given oxide depends on a delicate interplay between its crystal structure and the orbital character of its conduction band.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Long- to short-junction crossover and field-reentrant critical current in Al/Ag-nanowires/Al Josephson junctions

We have probed the superconducting proximity effect through long high-quality monocrystalline Ag nanowires, by realizing Josephson junctions of different lengths, with different superconducting materials. Thanks to the high number of junctions probed, both the contact resistance and electron diffusion constant could be determined, enabling a comparison of the measured critical current to theoretical expectation, over the entire regime from short to long diffusive junction. Although the length dependence of the critical current is as expected, the amplitude of the $R_{N}I_c$ product is smaller than predicted by theory. We also address the magnetic field dependence of the critical current. The quasi-gaussian decay of the critical current with field expected of a long narrow junction is observed for all superconducting contacts we used except for aluminum. We present the striking non-monotonous effect of field on the critical current of junctions with aluminum contacts, and analyze it in terms of improved quasiparticle thermalization by a magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

The effect of rotation on fingering convection in stellar interiors

We study the effects of rotation on the growth and saturation of the double-diffusive fingering (thermohaline) instability at low Prandtl number. Using direct numerical simulations, we estimate the compositional transport rates as a function of the relevant non-dimensional parameters - the Rossby number, inversely proportional to the rotation rate, and the density ratio which measures the relative thermal and compositional stratifications. Within our explored range of parameters, we generally find rotation to have little effect on vertical transport. However, we also present one exceptional case where a cyclonic large scale vortex (LSV) is observed at low density ratio and fairly low Rossby number. The LSV leads to significant enhancement in the fingering transport rates by concentrating compositionally dense downflows at its core. We argue that the formation of such LSVs could be relevant to solving the missing mixing problem in RGB stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Colloids Exposed to Random Potential Energy Landscapes: from Particle Number Density to Particle-Potential and Particle-Particle Interactions

Colloidal particles were exposed to a random potential energy landscape (rPEL) that has been created optically via a speckle pattern. The mean particle density as well as the potential roughness, i.e. the disorder strength, were varied. The local probability density of the particles as well as its main characteristics were determined. For the first time, the disorder-averaged pair density correlation function and an analogue of the Edwards-Anderson order parameter, which quantifies the correlation of the mean local density among disorder realisations, were measured experimentally and shown to be consistent with replica liquid state theory results.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2013

A nova re-accretion model for J-type carbon stars

The J-type carbon (J)-stars constitute 10-15% of the observed carbon stars in both our Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). They are characterized by strong 13C absorption bands with low 12C/13C ratios along with other chemical signatures peculiar for typical carbon stars, e.g. a lack of s-process enhancement. Most of the J-stars are dimmer than the N-type carbon stars some of which, by hot-bottom burning, make 13C only in a narrow range of masses. We investigate a binary-star formation channel for J-stars involving re-accretion of carbon-rich nova ejecta on main-sequence companions to low-mass carbon-oxygen white-dwarfs. The subsequent evolution of the companion stars in such systems is studied with a rapid binary evolutionary code to predict chemical signatures of nova pollution in systems which merge into giant single stars. A detailed population synthesis study is performed to estimate the number of these mergers and compare their properties with observed J-stars. Our results predict that such nova polluted mergers evolve with low luminosities as well as low 12C/13C ratios like the majority of observed J-stars (e.g. in the LMC) but cannot account for the observed fraction of J-stars in existing surveys of carbon stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2012

Langevin Dynamics simulations of a 2-dimensional colloidal crystal under confinement and shear

Langevin Dynamics simulations are used to study the effect of shear on a two-dimensional colloidal crystal confined by structured parallel walls. When walls are sheared very slowly, only two or three crystalline layers next to the walls move along with them, while the inner layers of the crystal are only slightly tilted. At higher shear velocities, this inner part of the crystal breaks into several pieces with different orientations. The velocity profile across the slit is reminiscent of shear-banding in flowing soft materials, where liquid and solid regions coexist; the difference, however, is that in the latter case the solid regions are glassy while here they are crystalline. At even higher shear velocities, the effect of the shearing becomes smaller again. Also the effective temperature near the walls (deduced from the velocity distributions of the particles) decreases again when the wall velocity gets very large. When the walls are placed closer together, thereby introducing a misfit, a structure containing a soliton staircase arises in simulations without shear. Introducing shear increases the disorder in these systems until no solitons are visible any more. Instead, similar structures like in the case without misfit result. At high shear rates, configurations where the incommensurability of the crystalline structure is compensated by the creation of holes become relevant.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2010

Quantitative model for efficient temporal targeting of tumor cells and neovasculature

The combination of cytotoxic therapies and anti-angiogenic agents is emerging as a most promising strategy in the treatment of malignant tumors. However, the timing and sequencing of these treatments seem to play essential roles in achieving a synergic outcome. Using a mathematical modeling approach that is grounded on available experimental data, we investigate the spatial and temporal targeting of tumor cells and neovasculature with a nanoscale delivery system. Our model suggests that the experimental success of the nanoscale delivery system depends crucially on the trapping of chemotherapeutic agents within the tumor tissue. The numerical results also indicate that substantial further improvements in the efficiency of the nanoscale delivery system can be achieved through an adjustment of the temporal targeting mechanism.

q-bio.TO↗

arXiv2009

Coarse-graining microscopic strains in a harmonic, two-dimensional solid and its implications for elasticity: non-local susceptibilities and non-affine noise

In soft matter systems the local displacement field can be accessed directly by video microscopy enabling one to compute local strain fields and hence the elastic moduli using a coarse-graining procedure. We study this process for a simple triangular lattice of particles connected by harmonic springs in two-dimensions. Coarse-graining local strains obtained from particle configurations in a Monte Carlo simulation generates non-trivial, non-local strain correlations (susceptibilities), which may be understood within a generalized, Landau type elastic Hamiltonian containing up to quartic terms in strain gradients (K. Franzrahe et al., Phys. Rev. E 78, 026106 (2008)). In order to demonstrate the versatility of the analysis of these correlations and to make our calculations directly relevant for experiments on colloidal solids, we systematically study various parameters such as the choice of statistical ensemble, presence of external pressure and boundary conditions. We show that special care needs to be taken for an accurate application of our results to actual experiments, where the analyzed area is embedded within a larger system, to which it is mechanically coupled. Apart from the smooth, affine strain fields, the coarse-graining procedure also gives rise to a noise field made up of non-affine displacements. Several properties of this noise field may be rationalized for the harmonic solid using a simple "cell model" calculation. Furthermore the scaling behavior of the probability distribution of the noise field is studied and a master curve is obtained.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2009

Optical linear polarization in ultra cool dwarfs: A tool to probe dust in the ultra cool dwarf atmospheres

Aims.Recent studies have detected linear polarization in L dwarfs in the optical I band. Theoretical models have been developed to explain this polarization. These models predict higher polarization at shorter wavelengths. We discuss the polarization in the R and I band of 4 ultra cool dwarfs. Methods.We report linear polarization measurements of 4 ultra cool dwarfs in the R and I bands using the Intermediate dispersion Spectrograph and Imaging System (ISIS) mounted on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope (WHT). Results.As predicted by theoretical models, we find a higher degree of polarization in the R band when compared to polarization in the I band for 3/4 of these ultra cool dwarfs. This suggests that dust scattering asymmetry is caused by oblateness >.We also show how these measurements fit the theoretical models. A case for variability of linear polarization is found, which suggests the presence of randomly distributed dust clouds. We also discuss one case for the presence of a cold debris disk.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2007

The D0 Run II Impact Parameter Trigger

Many physics topics to be studied by the D0 experiment during Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron ppbar collider give rise to final states containing b--flavored particles. Examples include Higgs searches, top quark production and decay studies, and full reconstruction of B decays. The sensitivity to such modes has been significantly enhanced by the installation of a silicon based vertex detector as part of the DO detector upgrade for Run II. Interesting events must be identified initially in 100-200 microseconds to be available for later study. This paper describes custom electronics used in the DO trigger system to provide the real--time identification of events having tracks consistent with the decay of b--flavored particles.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2004

Multifragmentation Studies in 84Kr Interactions with Nuclear Emulsion at around 1 A GeV

Projectile fragmentation of 84Kr in three different energy intervals has been studied. Many aspects of multifragmentation process have been examined in depth. It is observed that multifragmentation is a general low energy phenomenon associated with heavy beam. The number of Intermediate-Mass-Fragments (IMF's) shows strong projetile mass dependence.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2004

Estimation of Impact Parameter on event-by-event basis in Nuclear Emulsion Detector

Photographic Nuclear Emulsion Detector (PNED) has been in use in nuclear and particle physics experiments from the begining, often as the major detector system. However, direct measurement of impact parameter in this detector does not seem possible due to some limitations. This paper discribe a simple yet strong method to estimate the impact parameter of events on event-by-event basis. Though this method is develpoed specifically for the photographic nuclear emulsion detector, we envision that it should also be applicable to other multi-target detector systems.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2004

Observation of R-Band Variability of L Dwarfs

We report, for the first time, photometric variability of L dwarfs in $R$ band. Out of three L1 dwarfs (2MASS 1300+19, 2MASS 1439+19, and 2MASS 1658+70) observed, we have detected R band variability in 2MASS 1300+19 and 2MASS 1439+19. The objects exhibit variability of amplitude ranging from 0.01 mag to 0.02 mag. Object 2MASS 1658+70, turns out to be non-variable in both $R$ and $I$ band. However, more observations are needed to infer its variability. No periodic behaviour in the variability is found from the two L1 dwarfs that are variable. All the three L1 dwarfs have either negligible or no $H_α$ activity. In the absence of any direct evidence for the presence of sufficiently strong magnetic field, the detection of polarization at the optical favors the presence of dust in the atmosphere of L dwarfs. We suggest that the observed $R$ band photometric variability is most likely due to atmospheric dust activity.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Comment on "Memory Effects in an Interacting Magnetic Nanoparticle System" by Sun et. al, prl, 91, 167206 (2003)

In this Comment we report a phenomenon identical to that observed in ({Y. Sun, M. B. Salamon, K. Garnier and R. S. Averback, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 167206 (2003)}) for systems of NiFe{$_2$}O{$_4$} particles (mean size $\approx$ 3nm) embedded in a SiO{$_2$} matrix with two different interparticle spacings 4 nm (1) and 15 nm (2), which controls the strength of the dipolar interactions. Not only do we find the memory effect to be present in the non-interacting sample (2), indeed we find it to be {\em more} prominent than in the interacting case (1). We demonstrate that this effect can be simply attributed to a superposition of relaxation times of two sets of particles.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗