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W. Kluzniak

Publications and source records attributed to W. Kluzniak.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2003

Non-linear resonance in nearly geodesic motion in low-mass X-ray binaries

We have explored the ideas that parametric resonance affects nearly geodesic motion around a black hole or a neutron star, and that it may be relevant to the high frequency (twin) quasi-periodic oscillations occurring in some low-mass X-ray binaries. We have assumed the particles or fluid elements of an accretion disc to be subject to an isotropic perturbation of a hypothetical but rather general form. We find that the parametric resonance is indeed excited close to the radius where epicyclic frequencies of radial and meridional oscillations are in a 2:3 ratio. The location and frequencies of the highest amplitude excitation vary with the strength of the perturbation. These results agree with actual frequency ratios of twin kHz QPOs that have been reported in some black hole candidates, and they may be consistent also with correlation of the twin peaks in Sco X-1.

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arXiv2002

Evidence for a 2:3 resonance in Sco X-1 kHz QPOs

We find evidence that the two high frequency QPOs in Sco X-1 are, more often than not, approximately in the 2:3 frequency ratio familiar from studies of black hole candidates (e.g., XTE J1550-564, Remillard et al. 2002). This implies that the double kHz QPO phenomenon in neutron stars has its origin in properties of strong-field gravity and has little to do with the rotation of a stellar surface or any magnetic field structure anchored in the star.

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arXiv2002

An unusually low mass of some "neutron" stars?

The X-ray emission of RXJ1856.5-3754 has been found to coincide to unprecedented accuracy with that of a blackbody, of radius 5.8+-0.9 km for the measured parallax distance of 140 pc (Burwitz et al. 2001, Drake et al. 2002). If the emission is uniform over the whole surface of a non-rotating star, the mass of the star cannot exceed 0.75+-0.12 solar mass regardless of its composition. If the compact object is a quark star described by the MIT-bag equation of state (a ``strange star''), the mass is no more than 0.3 solar mass. Comparably small masses are also obtained for the X-ray bursters Aql X-1 and KS1731-260 for some fits to their spectra.

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arXiv2002

Maximum orbital frequencies for rotating quark stars and neutron stars--implications for the resonance theory of kHz QPOs

The spin-up of a neutron star crucially depends on the maximum orbital frequency around it, as do a host of other high energy accretion phenomena in low mass X-ray binaries, including quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in the X-ray flux. We compare the maximum orbital frequencies for MIT-bag quark stars and for neutron stars modeled with the FPS equation of state. The results are based on relativistic calculations of constant baryon sequences of uniformly rotating strange star models, and are presented as a function of the stellar rotational frequency. The marginally stable orbit is present outside quark stars for a wide range of parameters, but outside the neutron stars it is present only for the highest values of mass. This allows a discrimination between quark stars and neutron stars in the resonance theory of kHz QPOs.

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arXiv2002

Parametric epicyclic resonance in black hole disks: QPOs in micro-quasars

Non-linear acoustic coupling of modes in accretion disks allows a parametric resonance between epicyclic motions. In black hole disks, such a resonance first occurs, and is strongest, when the radial and vertical epicyclic frequencies are approximately in a 2:3 ratio, in agreement with the 300 and 450 Hz frequencies reported in GRO J1655-40 and the 184 and 276 Hz frequencies reported in XTE J1550-564. The first overtone in the same resonance is in a 5:3 ratio with the fundamental, in agreement with the 69.2 and 41.5 Hz frequencies reported in GRS 1915+105. The narrow width and the frequency stability of the corresponding QPOs follow from general properties of parametric resonance.

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arXiv2001

Lower limits on the maximum orbital frequency around rotating strange stars

Observations of kHz quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in the X-ray fluxes of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) have been used in attempts to constrain the external metric of the compact members of these binaries, as well as their masses and the equation of state of matter at supranuclear denisties. We compute the maximum orbital frequency of stable circular motion around uniformly rotating strange stars described by the MIT bag model. The calculations are performed for both normal and supramassive constant baryon mass sequences of strange stars rotating at all possible rates. We find the lower limits on the maximum orbital frequency and discuss them for a range of masses and for all rotational frequencies allowed in the model considered. We show that for slowly and moderately rotating strange stars the maximum value of orbital frequency can be a good indicator of the mass of the compact object. However, for rapidly rotating strange stars the same value of orbital frequency in the innermost stable circular orbit is obtained for stars with masses ranging from that of a planetoid to about three solar masses. At sufficiently high rotation rates of the strange star, the rotational period alone constrains the stellar mass to a surprisingly narrow range.

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arXiv2001

The centrifugal force reversal and X-ray bursts

Heyl (2000) made an interesting suggestion that the observed shifts in QPO frequency in type I X-ray bursts could be influenced by the same geometrical effect of strong gravity as the one that causes centrifugal force reversal discovered by Abramowicz and Lasota (1974). However, his main result contains a sign error. Here we derive the correct formula and conclude that constraints on the M(R) relation for neutron stars deduced from the rotational-modulation model of QPO frequency shifts are of no practical interest because the correct formula implies a weak condition R* > 1.3 Rs, where Rs is the Schwarzschild radius. We also argue against the relevance of the rotational-modulation model to the observed frequency modulations.

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arXiv2000

Relativistic models of kHz QPOs

After reviewing the general-relativistic ``gap'' model of accretion, I discuss its relation to the high frequency quasi-periodic oscillations observed in low-mass X-ray binaries. The ``300'' Hz frequency seen in some X-ray bursts may be a relativistic signature of keplerian rotation of the neutron star.

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arXiv2000

Low-mass quark stars as Maclaurin spheroids

We show that in the limit of low masses (M<0.1M solar), the orbital and rotational frequencies in exact relativistic numerical models of rotating, axially symmetric, quark stars coincide with those for Maclaurin spheroids. In particular, when the eccentricity of the spheroid exceeds a critical value (e>0.83458318), circular orbits in the equatorial plane are unstable for a range of orbital radii outside the stellar surface. The orbital frequency in the marginally stable orbit, and all other orbits, around Maclaurin spheroids goes to zero in the limit e=1. Maximum orbital frequencies in accreting Galactic X-ray sources may be a poor indication of the source mass.

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arXiv2000

Three-dimensional structure of an alpha accretion disk

An analytic solution is presented to the three-dimensional problem of steady axisymmetric fluid flow through an accretion disk. The solution has been obtained through a systematic expansion in the small parameter epsilon =H/R (the ratio of disk thickness to its radial dimension) of the equations of viscous hydrodynamics. The equation of state was assumed to be polytropic. For all values alpha< 0.685 of the viscosity parameter, we find significant backflow in the midplane of the disk occuring at all radii larger than a certain value; however, in the inner regions of the disk the fluid always flows toward the accreting object. The region of backflow is separated from the region of inflow by a surface flaring outwards from a circular locus of stagnation points situated in the midplane of the disk.

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arXiv2000

A Central Engine for Cosmic Gamma-Ray Burst Sources

One of a family previously proposed ``central engines'' for cosmic gamma-ray burst sources (Kluźniak & Ruderman 1998) is considered in some detail. A steadily accreting $10^6$ Gauss magnetic white dwarf should ultimately collapse to a strongly differentially rotating, millisecond-rotation-period neutron star for a wide range of steady accretion rates and initial masses if the accreting white dwarf has an evolved O-Ne-Mg composition. A similar neutron star could also result from an initial C-O white dwarf but only for more constrained accretion rates. Because the collapsing white dwarf begins as a $γ=4/3$ polytrope, the final neutron star's spin-rate increases strongly with cylindrical radius. A stable wind-up of the neutron star's poloidal magnetic field then produces buoyant magnetic toroids which grow, break loose, rise, and partly penetrate the neutron star surface to form a transient, $B\approx 10^{17}$ G millisecond spin-period pulsar with a powerful pulsar wind (Usov 1992). This pulsar wind emission is then rapidly suppressed by the surface shear motion from the strong stellar differential rotation. This wind-up and transient pulsar formation can occur at other times on different cylinders and/or repeat on the same one, with (re-)wind up and surface penetration time scales hugely longer han the neutron star's millisecond spin period. In this way, differential rotation both opens and closes the doors which allow neutron star spin-energy to be emitted in powerful bursts of pulsar wind. Predictions of this model compare favorably to needed central engine properties of gamma-ray burst sources (total energy, duration, sub-burst fluctuations and time scales, variability among burst events, and baryon loading).

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arXiv1999

Keplerian frequencies and innermost stable circular orbits of rapidly rotating strange stars

It has been suggested that the frequency in the co-rotating innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) about a compact stellar remnant can be determined through X-ray observations of low-mass X-ray binaries, and that its value can be used to constrain the equation of state of ultradense matter. Upon constructing numerical models of rapidly rotating strange (quark) stars in general relativity, we find that for stars rotating at the equatorial mass-shedding limit, the ISCO is indeed above the stellar surface, for a wide range of central energy densities at a height equal to 11% of the circumferential stellar radius, which scales inversely with the square root of the energy density, of self-bound quark matter at zero presure. In contrast to static stars, the ISCO frequencies of rapidly rotating strange stars can be as low as 0.9 kHz for a 1.3 solar mass strange star. Hence, the presence of strange stars in low-mass X-ray binaries cannot be excluded on the basis of the currently observed frequencies of kHz QPOs, such as the cut-off frequency of 1066 Hz in 4U 1820-30.

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arXiv1999

Is the Universe transparent to TeV photons?

If Lorentz invariance is broken at an energy scale Eq, as has recently been suggested in the context of attempts to quantize gravity, the kinematics of photon-photon collisions would be profoundly affected at lower energies. Specifically, electron-positron pair creation on soft photons may be forbidden at photon energies as low as 30 TeV times square root of (Eq/10**17 GeV) and the Universe would then be transparent to high energy photons. The proposition that Lorentz invariance is broken may be falsified by the techniques of TeV astronomy.

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arXiv1998

Neutrino oscillations and gamma-ray bursts

If the ordinary neutrinos oscillate into a sterile flavor in a manner consistent with the Super-Kamiokande data on the zenith-angle dependence of atmospheric mu-neutrino flux, an energy sufficient to power a typical cosmic gamma-ray burst (GRB) (about 10^{52} erg) can be carried by sterile neutrinos away from the source and deposited in a region relatively free of baryons. Hence, ultra-relativistic bulk motion (required by the theory of and observations of GRBs and their afterglows) can easily be achieved in the vicinity of plausible sources of GRBs. Oscillations between sterile and ordinary neutrinos would thus provide a solution to the ``baryon-loading problem'' in the theory of GRBs.

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arXiv1997

The central engine of gamma-ray bursters

GRBs are thought to arise in relativistic blast-wave shocks at distances of 10 to 1000 AU from the point where the explosive energy is initially released. To account for the observed duration and variability of the gamma-ray emission in most GRBs, a central engine powering the shocks must remain active for several seconds to many minutes but must strongly fluctuate in its output on much shorter timescales. We show how a neutron star differentially rotating at millisecond periods (DROMP) could be such an engine. A magnetized DROMP would repeatedly wind up toroidal magnetic fields to about 10**17 G and only release the corresponding magnetic energy, when each buoyant magnetic field torus floats up to, and breaks through, the stellar surface. The resulting rapid sub-bursts, separated by relatively quiescent phases, repeat until the kinetic energy of differential rotation is exhausted by these events. Calculated values of the energy released and of the various timescales are in agreement with observations of GRBs. The baryon loading in each sub-burst may also be consistent with theoretical requirements for a blast wave capable of giving the X-ray, optical and radio afterglows recently observed from cosmological distances. DROMPs could be created in several kinds of astrophysical events; some of these would be expected to occur at about the observed GRB rate. The requisite differential rotation could be imparted to neutron stars as they are born or at the end of their existence: some DROMPs may be created close to star forming regions while others may arise far from galaxies.

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arXiv1997

General-relativistic constraints on the equation of state of dense matter implied by kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations in neutron-star X-ray binaries

If the observed millisecond variability in the X-ray flux of several neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) is interpreted within a general-relativistic framework (Kluzniak, Michelson \& Wagoner 1990) extant at the time of discovery, severe constraints can be placed on the equation of state (e.o.s.) of matter at supranuclear densities. The reported maximum frequency (1.14 +- 0.01 kHz) of quasiperiodic oscillations observed in sources as diverse as Sco X-1 and 4U 1728-34 would imply that the neutron star masses in these LMXBs are M > 1.9 M_solar, and hence many equations of state would be excluded. Among the very few still viable equations of state are the e.o.s. of Phandaripande and Smith (1975), and e.o.s. AV14 + UVII of Wiringa, Fiks \& Fabrocini (1988).

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arXiv1997

Simulations of binary coalescence of a neutron star and a black hole

We present the results of Newtonian hydrodynamic simulations of the coalescence of a binary consisting of a black hole with a neutron star. The calculations show that for a wide range of initial conditions the core of the neutron star survives the initial mass transfer episode. We therefore identify black hole-neutron star binaries as the astrophysical production site of low mass neutron stars unstable to explosion. The relevance of the simulations to the theory of gamma-ray bursts is also discussed.

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