arXiv subjects

William E. East

Publications and source records attributed to William E. East.

72 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Kinetic study of radiation-reaction-limited particle acceleration during the relaxation of unstable force-free equilibria

Many powerful and variable gamma-ray sources, including pulsar wind nebulae, active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts, seem capable of accelerating particles to gamma-ray emitting energies efficiently over very short time scales. These are likely due to rapid dissipation of electromagnetic energy in a highly magnetized, relativistic plasma. In order to understand the generic features of such processes, we have investigated simple models based on relaxation of unstable force-free magnetostatic equilibria. In this work, we make the connection between the corresponding plasma dynamics and the expected radiation signal, using 2D particle-in-cell simulations that self-consistently include synchrotron radiation reaction. We focus on the lowest order unstable force-free equilibrium in a 2D periodic box. We find that rapid variability, with modest apparent radiation efficiency as perceived by a fixed observer, can be produced during the evolution of the instability. The "flares" are accompanied by an increased polarization degree in the high energy band, with rapid variation in the polarization angle. Furthermore, the separation between the acceleration sites and the synchrotron radiation sites for the highest energy particles facilitates acceleration beyond the synchrotron radiation reaction limit. We also discuss the dynamical consequences of radiation reaction, and some astrophysical applications of this model. Our current simulations with numerically tractable parameters are not yet able to reproduce the most dramatic gamma-ray flares, e.g., from Crab Nebula. Higher magnetization studies are promising and will be carried out in the future.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Kinetic simulations of the lowest-order unstable mode of relativistic magnetostatic equilibria

We present the results of particle-in-cell numerical pair plasma simulations of relativistic 2D magnetostatic equilibria known as the 'ABC' fields. In particular, we focus on the lowest-order unstable configuration consisting of two minima and two maxima of the magnetic vector potential. Breaking of the initial symmetry leads to exponential growth of the electric energy and to the formation of two current layers, which is consistent with the picture of 'X-point collapse' first described by Syrovatskii. Magnetic reconnection within the layers heats a fraction of particles to very high energies. After the saturation of the linear instability, the current layers are disrupted and the system evolves chaotically, diffusing the particle energies in a stochastic second-order Fermi process leading to the formation of power-law energy distributions. The power-law slopes harden with the increasing mean magnetization, but they are significantly softer than those produced in simulations initiated from Harris-type layers. The maximum particle energy is proportional to the mean magnetization, which is attributed partly to the increase of the effective electric field and partly to the increase of the acceleration time scale. We describe in detail the evolving structure of the dynamical current layers, and report on the conservation of magnetic helicity. These results can be applied to highly magnetized astrophysical environments, where ideal plasma instabilities trigger rapid magnetic dissipation with efficient particle acceleration and flares of high-energy radiation.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Relativistic Simulations of Eccentric Binary Neutron Star Mergers: One-arm Spiral Instability and Effects of Neutron Star Spin

We perform general-relativistic hydrodynamical simulations of dynamical capture binary neutron star mergers, emphasizing the role played by the neutron star spin. Dynamical capture mergers may take place in globular clusters, as well as other dense stellar systems, where most neutron stars have large spins. We find significant variability in the merger outcome as a function of initial neutron star spin. For cases where the spin is aligned with the orbital angular momentum, the additional centrifugal support in the remnant hypermassive neutron star can prevent the prompt collapse to a black hole, while for antialigned cases the decreased total angular momentum can facilitate the collapse to a black hole. We show that even moderate spins can significantly increase the amount of ejected material, including the amount unbound with velocities greater than half the speed of light, leading to brighter electromagnetic signatures associated with kilonovae and interaction of the ejecta with the interstellar medium. Furthermore, we find that the initial neutron star spin can strongly affect the already rich phenomenology in the postmerger gravitational wave signatures that arise from the oscillation modes of the hypermassive neutron star. In several of our simulations, the resulting hypermassive neutron star develops the one-arm ($m=1$) spiral instability, the most pronounced cases being those with small but non-negligible neutron star spins. For long-lived hypermassive neutron stars, the presence of this instability leads to improved prospects for detecting these events through gravitational waves, and thus may give information about the neutron star equation of state.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Freely decaying turbulence in force-free electrodynamics

Freely decaying relativistic force-free turbulence is studied for the first time. We initiate the magnetic field at a short wavelength and simulate its relaxation toward equilibrium on two and three dimensional periodic domains, in both helical and non-helical settings. Force-free turbulent relaxation is found to exhibit an inverse cascade in all settings, and in 3D to have a magnetic energy spectrum consistent with the Kolmogorov $5/3$ power law. 3D relaxations also obey the Taylor hypothesis; they settle promptly into the lowest energy configuration allowed by conservation of the total magnetic helicity. But in 2D, the relaxed state is a force-free equilibrium whose energy greatly exceeds the Taylor minimum, and which contains persistent force-free current layers and isolated flux tubes. We explain this behavior in terms of additional topological invariants that exist only in two dimensions, namely the helicity enclosed within each level surface of the magnetic potential function. The speed and completeness of turbulent magnetic free energy discharge could help account for rapidly variable gamma-ray emission from the Crab Nebula, gamma-ray bursts, blazars, and radio galaxies.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

One-arm Spiral Instability in Hypermassive Neutron Stars Formed by Dynamical-Capture Binary Neutron Star Mergers

Using general-relativistic hydrodynamical simulations, we show that merging binary neutron stars can form hypermassive neutrons stars that undergo the one-arm spiral instability. We study the particular case of a dynamical capture merger where the stars have a small spin, as may arise in globular clusters, and focus on an equal-mass scenario where the spins are aligned with the orbital angular momentum. We find that this instability develops when post-merger fluid vortices lead to the generation of a toroidal remnant - a configuration whose maximum density occurs in a ring around the center-of-mass - with high vorticity along its rotation axis. The instability quickly saturates on a timescale of $\sim 10$ ms, with the $m=1$ azimuthal density multipole mode dominating over higher modes. The instability also leaves a characteristic imprint on the post-merger gravitational wave signal that could be detectable if the instability persists in long-lived remnants.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Spontaneous decay of periodic magnetostatic equilibria

In order to understand the conditions which lead a highly magnetized, relativistic plasma to become unstable, and in such cases how the plasma evolves, we study a prototypical class of magnetostatic equilibria where the magnetic field satisfies $\nabla \times\mathbf B = α\mathbf B$, where $α$ is spatially uniform, on a periodic domain. Using numerical solutions we show that generic examples of such equilibria are unstable to ideal modes (including incompressible ones) which are marked by exponential growth in the linear phase. We characterize the unstable mode, showing how it can be understood in terms of merging magnetic and current structures, and explicitly demonstrate its instability using the energy principle. Following the nonlinear evolution of these solutions, we find that they rapidly develop regions with relativistic velocities and electric fields of comparable magnitude to the magnetic field, liberating magnetic energy on dynamical timescales and eventually settling into a configuration with the largest allowable wavelength. These properties make such solutions a promising setting for exploring the mechanisms behind extreme cosmic sources of gamma rays.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Eccentric mergers of black holes with spinning neutron stars

We study dynamical capture binary black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) mergers focusing on the effects of the neutron star spin. These events may arise in dense stellar regions, such as globular clusters, where the majority of neutron stars are expected to be rapidly rotating. We initialize the BH-NS systems with positions and velocities corresponding to marginally unbound Newtonian orbits, and evolve them using general-relativistic hydrodynamical simulations. We find that even moderate spins can significantly increase the amount of mass in unbound material. In some of the more extreme cases, there can be up to a third of a solar mass in unbound matter. Similarly, large amounts of tidally stripped material can remain bound and eventually accrete onto the BH---as much as a tenth of a solar mass in some cases. These simulations demonstrate that it is important to treat neutron star spin in order to make reliable predictions of the gravitational wave and electromagnetic transient signals accompanying these sources.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Gravitational waves from the collision of tidally disrupted stars with massive black holes

We use simulations of hydrodynamics coupled with full general relativity to investigate the gravitational waves produced by a star colliding with a massive black hole when the star's tidal disruption radius lies far outside of the black hole horizon. We consider both main-sequence and white-dwarf compaction stars, and nonspinning black holes, as well as those with near-extremal spin. We study the regime in between where the star can be accurately modeled by a point particle, and where tidal effects completely suppress the gravitational wave signal. We find that nonnegligible gravitational waves can be produced even when the star is strongly affected by tidal forces, as well as when it collides with large angular momentum. We discuss the implications that these results have for the potential observation of gravitational waves from these sources with future detectors.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Black Hole Superradiance in Dynamical Spacetime

We study the superradiant scattering of gravitational waves by a nearly extremal black hole (dimensionless spin $a=0.99$) by numerically solving the full Einstein field equations, thus including backreaction effects. This allows us to study the dynamics of the black hole as it loses energy and angular momentum during the scattering process. To explore the nonlinear phase of the interaction, we consider gravitational wave packets with initial energies up to $10%$ of the mass of the black hole. We find that as the incident wave energy increases, the amplification of the scattered waves, as well as the energy extraction efficiency from the black hole, is reduced. During the interaction the apparent horizon geometry undergoes sizable nonaxisymmetric oscillations. The largest amplitude excitations occur when the peak frequency of the incident wave packet is above where superradiance occurs, but close to the dominant quasinormal mode frequency of the black hole.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Simulating extreme-mass-ratio systems in full general relativity

We introduce a new method for numerically evolving the full Einstein field equations in situations where the spacetime is dominated by a known background solution. The technique leverages the knowledge of the background solution to subtract off its contribution to the truncation error, thereby more efficiently achieving a desired level of accuracy. We demonstrate the method by applying it to the radial infall of a solar-type star into supermassive black holes with mass ratios $\geq 10^6$. The self-gravity of the star is thus consistently modeled within the context of general relativity, and the star's interaction with the black hole computed with moderate computational cost, despite the over five orders of magnitude difference in gravitational potential (as defined by the ratio of mass to radius). We compute the tidal deformation of the star during infall, and the gravitational wave emission, finding the latter is close to the prediction of the point-particle limit.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Ultrarelativistic black hole formation

We study the ultrarelativistic head-on collision of equal mass particles, modeled as self-gravitating fluid spheres, by numerically solving the coupled Einstein-hydrodynamic equations. We focus on cases well within the kinetic energy dominated regime, where between 88-92% ($γ=8$ to 12) of the initial net energy of the spacetime resides in the translation kinetic energy of the particles. We find that for sufficiently large boosts, black hole formation occurs. Moreover, near yet above the threshold of black hole formation, the collision initially leads to the formation of two distinct apparent horizons that subsequently merge. We argue that this can be understood in terms of a focusing effect, where one boosted particle acts as a gravitational lens on the other and vice versa, and that this is further responsible for the threshold being lower (by a factor of a few) compared to simple hoop conjecture estimates. Cases slightly below threshold result in complete disruption of the model particles. The gravitational radiation emitted when black holes form reaches luminosities of 0.014 $c^5/G$, carrying $16\pm2%$ of the total energy.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Observing complete gravitational wave signals from dynamical capture binaries

We assess the detectability of the gravitational wave signals from highly eccentric compact binaries. We use a simple model for the inspiral, merger, and ringdown of these systems. The model is based on mapping the binary to an effective single black hole system described by a Kerr metric, thereby including certain relativistic effects such as zoom-whirl-type behavior. The resultant geodesics source quadrupolar radiation and, in turn, are evolved under its dissipative effects. At the light ring, we attach a merger model that was previously developed for quasicircular mergers but also performs well for eccentric mergers with little modification. We apply this model to determine the detectability of these sources for initial, Enhanced, and Advanced LIGO across the parameter space of nonspinning close capture compact binaries. We conclude that, should these systems exist in nature, the vast majority will be missed by conventional burst searches or by quasicircular waveform templates in the advanced detector era. Other methods, such as eccentric templates or, more practically, a stacked excess power search, must be developed to avoid losing these sources. These systems would also have been missed frequently in the initial LIGO data analysis. Thus, previous null coincidence results with detected gamma-ray bursts cannot exclude the possibility of coincident gravitational wave signals from eccentric binaries.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

Conformal Thin-Sandwich Solver for Generic Initial Data

We present a new scheme for constructing initial data for the Einstein field equations using the conformal thin-sandwich formulation that does not assume conformal flatness or approximate Killing vectors. This includes a method for determining free data based on superposition, as well as a way to handle black hole singularities without excision. We numerically solve the constraint equations using a multigrid algorithm with mesh refinement. We demonstrate the efficacy of the method with initial data solutions for several applications: a quasicircular binary black hole merger, a dynamical capture black hole-neutron star merger, and an ultrarelativistic collision.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

Dynamical Capture Binary Neutron Star Mergers

We study dynamical capture binary neutron star mergers as may arise in dense stellar regions such as globular clusters. Using general-relativistic hydrodynamics, we find that these mergers can result in the prompt collapse to a black hole or in the formation of a hypermassive neutron star, depending not only on the neutron star equation of state but also on impact parameter. We also find that these mergers can produce accretion disks of up to a tenth of a solar mass and unbound ejected material of up to a few percent of a solar mass. We comment on the gravitational radiation and electromagnetic transients that these sources may produce.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Hydrodynamics in full general relativity with conservative AMR

There is great interest in numerical relativity simulations involving matter due to the likelihood that binary compact objects involving neutron stars will be detected by gravitational wave observatories in the coming years, as well as to the possibility that binary compact object mergers could explain short-duration gamma-ray bursts. We present a code designed for simulations of hydrodynamics coupled to the Einstein field equations targeted toward such applications. This code has recently been used to study eccentric mergers of black hole-neutron star binaries. We evolve the fluid conservatively using high-resolution shock-capturing methods, while the field equations are solved in the generalized-harmonic formulation with finite differences. In order to resolve the various scales that may arise, we use adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) with grid hierarchies based on truncation error estimates. A noteworthy feature of this code is the implementation of the flux correction algorithm of Berger and Colella to ensure that the conservative nature of fluid advection is respected across AMR boundaries. We present various tests to compare the performance of different limiters and flux calculation methods, as well as to demonstrate the utility of AMR flux corrections.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

Eccentric black hole-neutron star mergers: effects of black hole spin and equation of state

There is a high level of interest in black hole-neutron star binaries, not only because their mergers may be detected by gravitational wave observatories in the coming years, but also because of the possibility that they could explain a class of short duration gamma-ray bursts. We study black hole-neutron star mergers that occur with high eccentricity as may arise from dynamical capture in dense stellar regions such as nuclear or globular clusters. We perform general relativistic simulations of binaries with a range of impact parameters, three different initial black hole spins (zero, aligned and anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum), and neutron stars with three different equations of state. We find a rich diversity across these parameters in the resulting gravitational wave signals and matter dynamics, which should also be reflected in the consequent electromagnetic emission. Before tidal disruption, the gravitational wave emission is significantly larger than perturbative predictions suggest for periapsis distances close to effective innermost stable separations, exhibiting features reflecting the zoom-whirl dynamics of the orbit there. Guided by the simulations, we develop a simple model for the change in orbital parameters of the binary during close encounters. Depending upon the initial parameters of the system, we find that mass transfer during non-merging close encounters can range from essentially zero to a sizable fraction of the initial neutron star mass. The same holds for the amount of material outside the black hole post-merger, and in some cases roughly half of this material is estimated to be unbound. We also see that non-merging close encounters generically excite large oscillations in the neutron star that are qualitatively consistent with f-modes.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Eccentric Black Hole-Neutron Star Mergers

Within the next few years gravitational waves (GWs) from merging black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs) may be directly detected, making a thorough theoretical understanding of these systems a high priority. As an additional motivation, these systems may represent a subset of short-duration gamma-ray burst (sGRB) progenitors. BH-NS mergers are expected to result from primordial, quasi-circular inspiral as well as dynamically formed capture binaries. The latter channel allows mergers with high eccentricity, resulting in a richer variety of outcomes. We perform general relativistic simulations of BH-NS interactions with a range of impact parameters, and find significant variation in the properties of these events that have potentially observable consequences, namely the GW signature, remnant accretion disk mass, and amount of unbound material.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2008

Heating and Acceleration of Intracluster Medium Electrons by Turbulence

In this paper we investigate the feasibility of bremsstrahlung radiation from `nonthermal' electrons as a source of hard X-rays from the intracluster medium of clusters of galaxies. With an exact treatment of the Coulomb collisions in a Fokker-Planck analysis of the electron distribution we find that the severe difficulties with lifetimes of `nonthermal' particles found earlier by Petrosian (2001) using a cold target model remain problematic. We then address possible acceleration of background electrons into a nonthermal tail. We assume a simplified but generic acceleration rate and determine the expected evolution of an initially Maxwellian distribution of electrons. We find that strong nonthermal components arise only for rapid rate of acceleration which also heats up the entire plasma. These results confirm the conclusion that if the observed `nonthermal' excesses are due to some process accelerating the background thermal electrons this process must be short lived.

astro-ph↗