arXiv subjects

Sandip K. Chakrabarti

Publications and source records attributed to Sandip K. Chakrabarti.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Chemical evolution during the process of proto-star formation by considering a two dimensional hydrodynamic model

Chemical composition of a molecular cloud is highly sensitive to the physical properties of the cloud. In order to obtain the chemical composition around a star forming region, we carry out a two dimensional hydrodynamical simulation of the collapsing phase of a proto-star. A total variation diminishing scheme (TVD) is used to solve the set of equations governing hydrodynamics. This hydrodynamic code is capable of mimicking evolution of the physical properties during the formation of a proto-star. We couple our reasonably large gas-grain chemical network to study the chemical evolution during the collapsing phase of a proto-star. To have a realistic estimate of the abundances of bio-molecules in the interstellar medium, we include the recently calculated rate coefficients for the formation of several interstellar bio-molecules into our gas phase network. Chemical evolution is studied in detail by keeping grain at the constant temperature throughout the simulation as well as by using the temperature variation obtained from the hydrodynamical model. By considering a large gas-grain network with the sophisticated hydrodynamic model more realistic abundances are predicted. We find that the chemical composition are highly sensitive to the dynamic behavior of the collapsing cloud, specifically on the density and temperature distribution.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

Effects of Plasma Drag on Low Earth Orbiting Satellites due to Heating of Earth's Atmosphere by Coronal Mass Ejections

Solar events, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares, heat up the upper atmosphere and near-Earth space environment. Due to this heating and expansion of the outer atmosphere by the energetic ultraviolet, X-ray and particles expelled from the sun, the low Earth-Orbiting satellites (LEOS) become vulnerable to an enhanced drag force by the ions and molecules of the expanded atmosphere. Out of various types of perturbations, Earth directed CMEs play the most significant role. They are more frequent and intense during the active (solar maximum) phase of the sun's approximately 11-year cycle. As we are approaching another solar maximum later in 2013, it may be instructive to analyse the effects of the past solar cycles on the orbiting satellites using the archival data of space environment parameters as indicators. In this paper, we compute the plasma drag on a model LEOS due to the atmospheric heating by CMEs and other solar events as a function of the solar parameters. Using the current forecast on the time and strength of the next solar maximum, we predict how an existing satellite orbit may be affected in the forthcoming years.

physics.space-ph↗

arXiv2013

Comptonization efficiencies of the variability classes of GRS 1915+105

The Galactic microquasar GRS 1915+105 exhibits at least seventeen types of variability classes. Intra and inter class transitions are reported to be observed within seconds to hours. Since the observation was not continuous, these classes appeared to be exhibited in a random order. Our goal is to predict a sequence of these classes. In this paper, we compute the ratio of the photon counts obtained from the power-law component and the blackbody component of each class and call this ratio as the `Comptonizing efficiency' (CE) of that class. We sequence the classes in the ascending order of CE and find that this sequence matches with a few class transitions observed by RXTE satellite and IXAE instruments on board IRS-P3. A change in CE corresponds to a change in the optical depth of the Compton cloud. Our result implies that the optical depth of the Compton cloud gradually rises as the variability class becomes harder.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Hydrodynamic Simulation of Two Component Advective Flows around Black Holes

We carry out a series of numerical simulations of viscous accretion flows having a reasonable spatial distribution of the viscosity parameter. We add the power-law cooling throughout the flow. We show that, in agreement with the theoretical solutions of viscous transonic flows, matter having the viscosity parameter above a critical value becomes a Keplerian disk while matter having lesser viscosity remains a low angular momentum, sub-Keplerian flow. The latter component produces centrifugal pressure supported shock waves. Thus, for instance, a flow having sufficiently high viscosity on the equatorial plane and low viscosity above and below, would produce a Two Component Advective Flow (TCAF) where a Keplerian disk is surrounded by a rapidly infalling sub-Keplerian halo. We find that the post- shock region of the relatively cooler Keplerian disk is evaporated and the overall configuration is quite stable. This agrees with the theoretical model with two components which attempt to explain the spectral and timing properties of black hole candidates.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Study of the chemical evolution and spectral signatures of some interstellar precursor molecules of adenine, glycine alanine

We carry out a quantum chemical calculation to obtain the infrared and electronic absorption spectra of several complex molecules of the interstellar medium (ISM). These molecules are the precursors of adenine, glycine & alanine. They could be produced in the gas phase as well as in the ice phase. We carried out a hydro-chemical simulation to predict the abundances of these species in the gas as well as in the ice phase. Gas and grains are assumed to be interacting through the accretion of various species from the gas phase on to the grain surface and desorption (thermal evaporation and photo-evaporation) from the grain surface to the gas phase. Depending on the physical properties of the cloud, the calculated abundances varies. The influence of ice on vibrational frequencies of different pre-biotic molecules was obtained using Polarizable Continuum Model (PCM) model with the integral equation formalism variant (IEFPCM) as default SCRF method with a dielectric constant of 78.5. Time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is used to study the electronic absorption spectrum of complex molecules which are biologically important such as, formamide and precursors of adenine, alanine and glycine. We notice a significant difference between the spectra of the gas and ice phase (water ice). The ice could be mixed instead of simple water ice. We have varied the ice composition to find out the effects of solvent on the spectrum. We expect that our study could set the guidelines for observing the precursor of some bio-molecules in the interstellar space.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Hydro-chemical study of the evolution of interstellar pre-biotic molecules during the collapse of molecular clouds

One of the stumbling blocks for studying the evolution of interstellar molecules is the lack of adequate knowledge of the rate co-efficients of various reactions which take place in the Interstellar medium and molecular clouds. Some of the theoretical models of rate coefficients do exist in the literature for computing abundances of the complex pre-biotic molecules. So far these have been used to study the abundances of these molecules in space. However, in order to obtain more accurate final compositions in these media, we find out the rate coefficients for the formation of some of the most important interstellar pre-biotic molecules by using quantum chemical theory. We use these rates inside our hydro-chemical model to find out the chemical evolution and the final abundances of the pre-biotic species during the collapsing phase of a proto-star. We find that a significant amount of various pre-biotic molecules could be produced during the collapsing phase of a proto-star. We study extensively the formation these molecules via successive neutral-neutral and radical-radical/radical-molecular reactions. We present the time evolution of the chemical species with an emphasis on how the production of these molecules varies with the depth of a cloud. We compare the formation of adenine in the interstellar space using our rate-coefficients and using those obtained from the existing theoretical models. Formation routes of the pre-biotic molecules are found to be highly dependent on the abundances of the reactive species and the rate coefficients involved in the reactions. Presence of grains strongly affect the abundances of the gas phase species. We also carry out a comparative study between different pathways available for the synthesis of adenine, alanine, glycine and other molecules considered in our network.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Effects of Compton Cooling on Outflow in a Two Component Accretion Flow around a Black Hole: Results of a Coupled Monte Carlo-TVD Simulation

We wish to investigate the effects of cooling of the Compton cloud on the outflow formation rate in an accretion disk around a black hole. We carry out a time dependent numerical simulation where both the hydrodynamics and the radiative transfer processes are coupled together. We consider a two-component accretion flow in which the Keplerian disk is immersed into an accreting low-angular momentum flow (halo) around a black hole. The soft photons which originate from the Keplerian disk are inverse-Comptonized by the electrons in the halo and the region between the centrifugal pressure supported shocks and the horizon. We run several cases by changing the rate of the Keplerian disk and see the effects on the shock location and properties of the outflow and the spectrum. We show that as a result of Comptonization of the Compton cloud, the cloud becomes cooler with the increase in the Keplerian disk rate. As the resultant thermal pressure is reduced, the post-shock region collapses and the outflow rate is also reduced. Since the hard radiation is produced from the post-shock region, and the spectral slope increases with the reduction of the electron temperature, the cooling produces softer spectrum. We thus find a direct correlation between the spectral states and the outflow rates of an accreting black hole.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Accretion flow dynamics during the evolution of timing and spectral properties of GX 339-4 during its 2010-11 outburst

The Galactic black-hole candidate GX 339-4 exhibited several outbursts at regular intervals of \sim 2-3 years in the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) era. After remaining in an almost quiescent state for 3 years, it again became X-ray active in 2010 January, continuing to be so over the next \sim 14 months. We study the timing and spectral properties of the black hole candidate (BHC) during its recent outburst using RXTE PCA data, starting from 2010 January 12 to 2011 March 6. Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of the mass accretion processes and properties of the accretion disk of the black hole candidate. The PCA spectra of 2.5-25 keV are mainly fitted with a combination of two components, namely, a disk black body and a power-law. The entire outburst as observed by RXTE, is divided into 4 spectral states, namely, hard, hard-intermediate, soft-intermediate, and soft. Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) were found in 3 out of the 4 states, namely hard, hard-intermediate, and soft-intermediate. The QPO frequencies increase monotonically from 0.102 Hz to 5.692 Hz in the rising phase of the outburst, while during the declining phase QPO frequencies decrease monotonically from 6.420 to 1.149 Hz. The recent outburst of GX 339-4 gives us an opportunity to understand the evolution of the two-component accretion rates starting from the onset to the end of the outburst phase. We found that the QPO frequency variation could be explained by the propagating oscillatory shock model (POS) and the hardness versus intensity variation can be reproduced if we assume that higher viscosity causes the conversion of a low angular momentum disk component into a Keplerian component during the outburst phase. The decline phase starts because of the reduction in the viscosity.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Hydrodynamic simulations of viscous accretion flows around black holes

We study the time evolution of a rotating, axisymmetric, viscous accretion flow around black holes using a grid based finite difference method. We use the Shakura-Sunyaev viscosity prescription. However, we compare with the results obtained when all the three independent components of the viscous stress are kept. We show that the centrifugal pressure supported shocks became weaker with the inclusion of viscosity. The shock is formed farther out when the viscosity is increased. When the viscosity is above a critical value, the shock disappears altogether and the flow becomes subsonic and Keplerian everywhere except in a region close to the horizon, where it remains supersonic. We also find that as the viscosity is increased, the amount of outflowing matter in the wind is decreased to less than a percentage of the inflow matter. Since the post-shock region could act as a reservoir of hot electrons or the so-called 'Compton cloud', the size of which changes with viscosity, the spectral properties are expected to depend on viscosity strongly: the harder states are dominated by low-angular momentum and the low viscosity flow with a significant outflows while the softer states are dominated by the high viscosity Keplerian flow having very little outflows.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Composition and evolution of Interstellar Grain mantle under the effects of photo-dissociation

We study the chemical evolution of interstellar grain mantle by varying the physical parameters of the interstellar medium (ISM). To mimic the exact interstellar condition, gas grain interactions via accretion from the gas phase and desorption (thermal evaporation and photo-evaporation) from the grain surface are considered. We find that the chemical composition of the interstellar grain mantle is highly dependent on the physical parameters associated with a molecular cloud. Interstellar photons are seen to play an important role towards the growth and the structure of the interstellar grain mantle. We consider the effects of interstellar photons (photo-dissociation and photo-evaporation) in our simulation under various interstellar conditions. We notice that the effects of interstellar photons dominate around the region of lower visual extinction. These photons contribute significantly in the formation of the grain mantle. Energy of the incoming photon is attenuated by the absorption and scattering by the interstellar dust. Top most layers are mainly assumed to be affected by the incoming radiation. We have studied the effects of photo-dissociation by varying the number of layers which could be affected by it. Model calculations are carried out for the static (extinction parameter is changing with the density of the cloud) as well as the time dependent case (i.e., extinction parameter and number density of the cloud both are changing with time) and the results are discussed in details. Different routes to the formation of water molecules are studied and it is noticed that around the dense region, production of water molecules via O$_3$ and H$_2$O$_2$ contributes significantly. At the end, various observational evidences for the condensed phase species are summarized with their physical conditions and are compared with our simulation results.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2011

Permissible transitions of the variability classes of GRS 1915+105

The Galactic microquasar GRS 1915+105 exhibits at least sixteen types of variability classes. Transitions from one class to another could take place in a matter of hours. In some of the classes, the spectral state transitions (burst-off to burst-on and vice versa) were found to take place in a matter of few to few tens of seconds. In the literature, there is no attempt to understand in which order these classes were exhibited. Since the observation was not continuous, the appearances of these classes seem to be in random order. Our goal is to find a natural sequence of these classes and compare with the existing observations. We also wish to present a physical interpretation of the sequence so obtained using two component advective flow model of black hole accretion. In the present paper, we compute the ratios of the power-law photons and the black body photons in the spectrum of each class and call these ratios as the `Comptonizing efficiency'(CE). We sequence the classes from the low to the high value of CE. We clearly find that each variability class could be characterized by a unique average Comptonizing efficiency. The sequence of the classes based on this parameter seem to be corroborated by a handful of the observed transitions caught by Rossi X-ray timing explorer and the Indian payload Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment and we believe that future observation of the object would show that the transitions can only take place between consecutive classes in this sequence. Since the power-law photons are produced by inverse Comptonization of the intercepted soft-photons from the Keplerian disk, a change in CE actually corresponds to a change in geometry of the compton cloud. Thus we claim that the size of the Compton cloud gradually rises from very soft class to the very hard class.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Effects of Compton Cooling on the Hydrodynamic and the Spectral Properties of a Two Component Accretion Flow around a Black Hole

We carry out a time dependent numerical simulation where both the hydrodynamics and the radiative transfer are coupled together. We consider a two-component accretion flow in which the Keplerian disk is immersed inside an accreting low angular momentum flow (halo) around a black hole. The injected soft photons from the Keplerian disk are reprocessed by the electrons in the halo. We show that in presence of an axisymmetric soft-photon source, the spherically symmetric Bondi flow losses its symmetry and becomes axisymmetric. The low angular momentum flow was observed to slow down close to the axis and formed a centrifugal barrier which added new features into the spectrum. Using the Monte Carlo method, we generated the radiated spectra as functions of the accretion rates. We find that the transitions from a hard state to a soft state is determined by the mass accretion rates of the disk and the halo. We separate out the signature of the bulk motion Comptonization and discuss its significance. We study how the net spectrum is contributed by photons suffering different number of scatterings and spending different amounts of time inside the Compton cloud. We study the directional dependence of the emitted spectrum as well.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

First VLF detections of ionospheric disturbances due to Soft Gamma ray Repeater SGR J1550-5418 and Gamma Ray Burst GRB 090424

We present the first report of the detection of sudden ionospheric disturbances (SIDs) due to a Soft Gamma Ray Repeater (SGR) SGR J1550-5418 and a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) GRB 090424. These detections were made with receiving stations of Indian Centre for Space Physics which were monitoring Very Low Frequency signals (VLFs) from the VTX transmitter located at the southern tip of Indian sub-continent. These positive detections add to the list of a handful of similar detections of other GRBs and SGRs throughout the world.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2010

Instruments of RT-2 Experiment onboard CORONAS-PHOTON and their test and evaluation III: Coded Aperture Mask and Fresnel Zone Plates in RT-2/CZT Payload

Imaging in hard X-rays of any astrophysical source with high angular resolution is a challenging job. Shadow-casting technique is one of the most viable options for imaging in hard X-rays. We have used two different types of shadow-casters, namely, Coded Aperture Mask (CAM) and Fresnel Zone Plate (FZP) pair and two types of pixellated solid-state detectors, namely, CZT and CMOS in RT-2/CZT payload, the hard X-ray imaging instrument onboard the CORONAS-PHOTON satellite. In this paper, we present the results of simulations with different combinations of coders (CAM & FZP) and detectors that are employed in the RT-2/CZT payload. We discuss the possibility of detecting transient Solar flares with good angular resolution for various combinations. Simulated results are compared with laboratory experiments to verify the consistency of the designed configuration.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2010

Instruments of RT-2 Experiment onboard CORONAS-PHOTON and their test and evaluation V: Onboard software, Data Structure, Telemetry and Telecommand

The onboard software and data communication in the RT-2 Experiment onboard the Coronas-Photon satellite is organized in a hierarchical way to effectively handle and communicate asynchronous data generated by the X-ray detectors. A flexible data handling system is organized in the X-ray detector packages themselves and the processing electronic device, namely RT-2/E, has the necessary intelligence to communicate with the 3 scientific payloads by issuing commands and receiving data. It has direct interfacing with the Satellite systems and issues commands to the detectors and processes the detector data before sending to the satellite systems. The onboard software is configured with several novel features like a) device independent communication scheme, b) loss-less data compression and c) Digital Signal Processor. Functionality of the onboard software along with the data structure, command structure, complex processing scheme etc. are discussed in this paper.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2010

Instruments of RT-2 Experiment onboard CORONAS-PHOTON and their test and evaluation II: RT-2/CZT payload

Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detectors are high sensitivity and high resolution devices for hard X-ray imaging and spectroscopic studies. The new series of CZT detector modules (OMS40G256) manufactured by Orbotech Medical Solutions (OMS), Israel, are used in the RT-2/CZT payload onboard the CORONAS-PHOTON satellite. The CZT detectors, sensitive in the energy range of 20 keV to 150 keV, are used to image solar flares in hard X-rays. Since these modules are essentially manufactured for commercial applications, we have carried out a series of comprehensive tests on these modules so that they can be confidently used in space-borne systems. These tests lead us to select the best three pieces of the 'Gold' modules for the RT-2/CZT payload. This paper presents the characterization of CZT modules and the criteria followed for selecting the ones for the RT-2/CZT payload. The RT-2/CZT payload carries, along with three CZT modules, a high spatial resolution CMOS detector for high resolution imaging of transient X-ray events. Therefore, we discuss the characterization of the CMOS detector as well.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2010

Instruments of RT-2 Experiment onboard CORONAS-PHOTON and their test and evaluation IV: Background Simulations using GEANT-4 Toolkit

Hard X-ray detectors in space are prone to background signals due to the ubiquitous cosmic rays and cosmic diffuse background radiation that continuously bombards the satellites which carry the detectors. In general, the background intensity depends on the space environment as well as the material surrounding the detectors. Understanding the behavior of the background noise in the detector is very important to extract the precise source information from the detector data. In this paper, we carry out Monte Carlo simulations using the GEANT-4 toolkit to estimate the prompt background noise measured with the detectors of the RT-2 Experiment onboard the CORONAS-PHOTON satellite.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2010

Instruments of RT-2 Experiment onboard CORONAS-PHOTON and their test and evaluation I: Ground calibration of RT-2/S and RT-2/G

Phoswich detectors (RT-2/S & RT-2/G) are major scientific payloads of the RT-2 Experiment onboard the CORONAS-PHOTON mission, which was launched into a polar Low Earth Orbit of around 550 km on 2009 January 30. These RT-2 instruments are designed and developed to observe solar flares in hard X-rays and to understand the energy transport processes associated with these flares. Apart from this, these instruments are capable of observing Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and Cosmic diffuse X-ray background (CDXRB). Both detectors consist of identical NaI(Tl) and CsI(Na) scintillation crystals in a Phoswich combination, having the same diameter (116 mm) but different thicknesses. The normal working energy range is from 15 keV to 150 keV, but may be extendable up to ~ 1 MeV. In this paper, we present the RT-2/S and RT-2/G instruments and discuss their testing and calibration results. We used different radio-active sources to calibrate both detectors. The radio-active source Co^57 (122 keV) is used for onboard calibration of both instruments. During its lifetime (~ 3-5 years), RT-2 is expected to cover the peak of the 24th solar cycle.

astro-ph.IM↗