arXiv subjects

Yuri Levin

Publications and source records attributed to Yuri Levin.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Magnetically-levitating disks around supermassive black holes

In this paper we report on the formation of magnetically-levitating accretion disks around supermassive black holes. The structure of these disks is calculated by numerically modelling tidal disruption of magnetized interstellar gas clouds. We find that the resulting disks are entirely supported by the pressure of the magnetic fields against the component of gravitational force directed perpendicular to the disks. The magnetic field shows ordered large-scale geometry that remains stable for the duration of our numerical experiments extending over 10% of the disk lifetime. Strong magnetic pressure allows high accretion rate and inhibits disk fragmentation. This in combination with the repeated feeding of manetized molecular clouds to a supermassive black hole yields a possible solution to the long-standing puzzle of black hole growth in the centres of galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Secular Dynamical Anti-Friction in Galactic Nuclei

We identify a gravitational-dynamical process in near-Keplerian potentials of galactic nuclei that occurs when an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) is migrating on an eccentric orbit through the stellar cluster towards the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). We find that, apart from conventional dynamical friction, the IMBH experiences an often much stronger systematic torque due to the secular (i.e., orbit-averaged) interactions with the cluster's stars. The force which results in this torque is applied, counterintuitively, in the same direction as the IMBH's precession and we refer to its action as "secular-dynamical anti-friction" (SDAF). We argue that SDAF, and not the gravitational ejection of stars, is responsible for the IMBH's eccentricity increase seen in the initial stages of previous N-body simulations. Our numerical experiments, supported by qualitative arguments, demonstrate that (1) when the IMBH's precession direction is artificially reversed, the torque changes sign as well, which decreases the orbital eccentricity, (2) the rate of eccentricity growth is sensitive to the IMBH migration rate, with zero systematic eccentricity growth for an IMBH whose orbit is artificially prevented from inward migration, and (3) SDAF is the strongest when the central star cluster is rapidly rotating. This leads to eccentricity growth/decrease for the clusters rotating in the opposite/same direction relative to the IMBH's orbital motion.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

On the dynamics of mechanical failures in magnetized neutron-star crusts

We consider the dynamics of a mechanical failure induced by a shear stress in a strongly magnetized neutron-star crust. We show that even if the elastic properties of the crust allow the creation of a shear crack, the strongly sheared magnetic field around the crack leads to a back-reaction from the Lorentz force which does not allow large relative displacement of the crack surfaces. Instead, the global evolution of the crack proceeds on a slow resistive time scale, and is unable to release any substantial mechanical energy. Our calculations demostrate that for {\it some} magnetic-field configurations, the magnetic forces cause, effectively, a plastic deformation of the crust when the resulting elastic shear stress exceeds the critical value for mechanical failure.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Magnetar Oscillations II: spectral method

The seismological dynamics of magnetars is largely determined by a strong hydro-magnetic coupling between the solid crust and the fluid core. In this paper we set up a "spectral" computational framework in which the magnetar's motion is decomposed into a series of basis functions which are associated with the crust and core vibrational eigenmodes. A general-relativistic formalism is presented for evaluation of the core Alfven modes in the magnetic-flux coordinates, as well for eigenmode computation of a strongly magnetized crust of finite thickness. By considering coupling of the crustal modes to the continuum of Alfven modes in the core, we construct a fully relativistic dynamical model of the magnetar which allows: i) Fast and long simulations without numerical dissipation. ii) Very fine sampling of the stellar structure. We find that the presence of strong magnetic field in the crust results in localizing of some high-frequency crustal elasto-magnetic modes with the radial number n>1 to the regions of the crust where the field is nearly horizontal. While the hydro-magnetic coupling of these localized modes to the Alfven continuum in the core is reduced, their energy is drained on a time-scale much less than 1 second. Therefore the puzzle of the observed QPOs with frequencies larger than 600 Hz still stands.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Secular Stellar Dynamics near a Massive Black Hole

The angular momentum evolution of stars close to massive black holes (MBHs) is driven by secular torques. In contrast to two-body relaxation, where interactions between stars are incoherent, the resulting resonant relaxation (RR) process is characterized by coherence times of hundreds of orbital periods. In this paper, we show that all the statistical properties of RR can be reproduced in an autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model. We use the ARMA model, calibrated with extensive N-body simulations, to analyze the long-term evolution of stellar systems around MBHs with Monte Carlo simulations. We show that for a single-mass system in steady-state, a depression is carved out near an MBH as a result of tidal disruptions. Using Galactic center parameters, the extent of the depression is about 0.1 pc, of similar order to but less than the size of the observed "hole" in the distribution of bright late-type stars. We also find that the velocity vectors of stars around an MBH are locally not isotropic. In a second application, we evolve the highly eccentric orbits that result from the tidal disruption of binary stars, which are considered to be plausible precursors of the "S-stars" in the Galactic center. We find that RR predicts more highly eccentric (e > 0.9) S-star orbits than have been observed to date.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2011

On the excitation of f-modes and torsional modes by magnetar giant flares

Magnetar giant flares may excite vibrational modes of neutron stars. Here we compute an estimate of initial post-flare amplitudes of both the torsional modes in the magnetar's crust and of the global f-modes. We show that while the torsional crustal modes can be strongly excited, only a small fraction of the flare's energy is converted directly into the lowest-order f-modes. For a conventional model of a magnetar, with the external magnetic field of about 10^{15} Gauss, the gravitational-wave detection of these f-modes with advanced LIGO is unlikely.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

Global Gravitational Instabilities in Discs with Infall

Gravitational instability plays an important role in driving gas accretion in massive protostellar discs. Particularly strong is the global gravitational instability, which arises when the disc mass is of order 0.1 of the mass of the central star and has a characteristic spatial scale much greater than the disc's vertical scale-height. In this paper we use three-dimensional numerical hydrodynamics to study the development of gravitational instabilities in a disc which is embedded in a dense, gaseous envelope. We find that global gravitational instabilities are the dominant mode of angular momentum transport in the disc with infall, in contrast to otherwise identical isolated discs. The accretion torques created by low-order, global modes of the gravitational instability in a disc subject to infall are larger by a factor of several than an isolated disc of the same mass. We show that this global gravitational instability is driven by the strong vertical shear at the interface between the disc and the envelope, and suggest that this process may be an important means of driving accretion on to young stars.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2010

Magnetar Oscillations I: strongly coupled dynamics of the crust and the core

Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs) observed during Soft Gamma Repeaters giant flares are commonly interpreted as the torsional oscillations of magnetars. The oscillatory motion is influenced by the strong interaction between the shear modes of the crust and Alfven-like modes in the core. We study the dynamics which arises through this interaction, and present several new results: (1) We show that global {\it edge modes} frequently reside near the edges of the core Alfven continuum. (2) We compute the magnetar's oscillatory motion for realistic axisymmetric magnetic field configurations and core density profiles, but with a simplified model of the elastic crust. We show that one may generically get multiple gaps in the Alfven continuum. One obtains discrete global {\it gap modes} if the crustal frequencies belong to the gaps. (3) We show that field tangling in the core enhances the role of the core discrete Alfven modes and reduces the role of the core Alfven continuum in the overall oscillatory dynamics of the magnetar. (4) We demonstrate that the system displays transient and/or drifting QPOs when parts of the spectrum of the core Alfven modes contain discrete modes which are densely and regularly spaced in frequency. (5) We show that if the neutrons are coupled into the core Alfven motion, then the post-flare crustal motion is strongly damped and has a very weak amplitude. Thus magnetar QPOs give evidence that the proton and neutron components in the core are dynamically decoupled and that at least one of them is a quantum fluid. (6) We show that it is difficult to identify the high-frequency 625 Hz QPO as being due to the physical oscillatory mode of the magnetar, if the latter's fluid core consists of the standard proton-neutron-electron mixture and is magnetised to the same extent as the crust. (Abstract abridged)

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

The European Pulsar Timing Array: current efforts and a LEAP toward the future

The European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) is a multi-institutional, multi-telescope collaboration, with the goal of using high-precision pulsar timing to directly detect gravitational waves. In this article we discuss the EPTA member telescopes, current achieved timing precision, and near-future goals. We report a preliminary upper limit to the amplitude of a gravitational wave background. We also discuss the Large European Array for Pulsars, in which the five major European telescopes involved in pulsar timing will be combined to provide a coherent array that will give similar sensitivity to the Arecibo radio telescope, and larger sky coverage.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

Gravitational-wave memory and pulsar timing arrays

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are designed to detect gravitational waves with periods from several months to several years, e.g. those produced by by wide supermassive black-hole binaries in the centers of distant galaxies. Here we show that PTAs are also sensitive to mergers of supermassive black holes. While these mergers occur on a timescale too short to be resolvable by a PTA, they generate a change of metric due to non-linear gravitational-wave memory which persists for the duration of the experiment and could be detected. We develop the theory of the single-source detection by PTAs, and derive the sensitivity of PTAs to the gravitational-wave memory jumps. We show that mergers of $10^8M_{\odot}$ black holes are $2-σ$-detectable (in a direction, polarization, and time-dependent way) out to co-moving distances of $\sim 1$ billion light years. Modern prediction for black-hole merger rates imply marginal to modest chance of an individual jump detection by currently developed PTAs. The sensitivity is expected to be somewhat higher for futuristic PTA experiments with SKA.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2009

Thermo-refractive and thermo-chemical noise in the beamsplitter of GEO600 gravitational-wave interferometer

Braginsky, Gorodetsky, and Vyatchanin have shown that thermo-refractive fluctuations are an important source of noise in interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. In particular, the thermo-refractive noise in the GEO600 beamsplitter is expected to make a substantial contribution to the interferometer's total noise budget. Here we present a new computation of the GEO600 thermo-refractive noise which takes into account the beam's elliptical profile and, more importantly, the fact that the laser beam induces a standing electromagnetic wave in the beamsplitter. The use of updated parameters results in the overall reduction of the calculated noise amplitude by a factor of about 5 in the low-frequency part of the GEO600 band, compared to the previous estimates. We also find, by contrast with previous calculations, that thermo-refractive fluctuations result in white noise between 600 Hz and 39 MHz, at a level of $8.5\cdot 10^{-24}$Hz$^{-1/2}$. Finally, we describe a new type of thermal noise, which we call the thermo-chemical noise. This is caused by a random motion of optically-active chemical impurities or structural defects in the direction along a steep intensity gradient of the standing wave. We discuss the potential relevance of the thermo-chemical noise for GEO600.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2009

A New Secular Instability of Eccentric Stellar Disks Around Supermassive Black Holes, with Application to the Galactic Center

We identify a new secular instability of eccentric stellar disks around supermassive black holes. We show that retrograde precession of the stellar orbits, due to the presence of a stellar cusp, induces coherent torques that amplify deviations of individual orbital eccentricities from the average, and thus drive all eccentricities away from their initial value. We investigate the instability using N-body simulations, and show that it can drive individual orbital eccentricities to significantly higher or lower values on the order of a precession time-scale. This physics is relevant for the Galactic center, where massive stars are likely to form in eccentric disks around the SgrA* black hole. We show that the observed bimodal eccentricity distribution of disk stars in the Galactic center is in good agreement with the distribution resulting from the eccentricity instability and demonstrate how the dynamical evolution of such a disk results in several of its stars acquiring high (1-e < 0.1) orbital eccentricity. Binary stars on such highly eccentric orbits would get tidally disrupted by the SgrA* black hole, possibly producing both S-stars near the black hole and high-velocity stars in the Galactic halo.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2009

On measuring the gravitational-wave background using Pulsar Timing Arrays

Long-term precise timing of Galactic millisecond pulsars holds great promise for measuring the long-period (months-to-years) astrophysical gravitational waves. Several gravitational-wave observational programs, called Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTA), are being pursued around the world. Here we develop a Bayesian algorithm for measuring the stochastic gravitational-wave background (GWB) from the PTA data. Our algorithm has several strengths: (1) It analyses the data without any loss of information, (2) It trivially removes systematic errors of known functional form, including quadratic pulsar spin-down, annual modulations and jumps due to a change of equipment, (3) It measures simultaneously both the amplitude and the slope of the GWB spectrum, (4) It can deal with unevenly sampled data and coloured pulsar noise spectra. We sample the likelihood function using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations. We extensively test our approach on mock PTA datasets, and find that the algorithm has significant benefits over currently proposed counterparts. We show the importance of characterising all red noise components in pulsar timing noise by demonstrating that the presence of a red component would significantly hinder a detection of the GWB. Lastly, we explore the dependence of the signal-to-noise ratio on the duration of the experiment, number of monitored pulsars, and the magnitude of the pulsar timing noise. These parameter studies will help formulate observing strategies for the PTA experiments.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

High accretion rates in magnetised Keplerian discs mediated by a Parker instability driven dynamo

Hydromagnetic stresses in accretion discs have been the subject of intense theoretical research over the past one and a half decades. Most of the disc simulations have assumed a small initial magnetic field and studied the turbulence that arises from the magnetorotational instability. However, gaseous discs in galactic nuclei and in some binary systems are likely to have significant initial magnetisation. Motivated by this, we performed ideal magnetohydrodynamic simulations of strongly magnetised, vertically stratified discs in a Keplerian potential. Our initial equilibrium configuration, which has an azimuthal magnetic field in equipartion with thermal pressure, is unstable to the Parker instability. This leads to the expelling of magnetic field arcs, anchored in the midplane of the disc, to around five scale heights from the midplane. Transition to turbulence happens primarily through magnetorotational instability in the resulting vertical fields, although magnetorotational shear instability in the unperturbed azimuthal field plays a significant role as well, especially in the midplane where buoyancy is weak. High magnetic and hydrodynamical stresses arise, yielding an effective $α$-value of around 0.1 in our highest resolution run. Azimuthal magnetic field expelled by magnetic buoyancy from the disc is continuously replenished by the stretching of a radial field created as gas parcels slide in the linear gravity field along inclined magnetic field lines. This dynamo process, where the bending of field lines by the Parker instability leads to re-creation of the azimuthal field, implies that highly magnetised discs are astrophysically viable and that they have high accretion rates.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Hydromagnetic waves in a superfluid neutron star with strong vortex pinning

Neutron-star cores may be hosts of a unique mixture of a neutron superfluid and a proton superconductor. Compelling theoretical arguments have been presented over the years that if the proton superconductor is of type II, than the superconductor fluxtubes and superfluid vortices should be strongly coupled and hence the vortices should be pinned to the proton-electron plasma in the core. We explore the effect of this pinning on the hydromagnetic waves in the core, and discuss 2 astrophysical applications of our results: 1. We show that even in the case of strong pinning, the core Alfven waves thought to be responsible for the low-frequency magnetar quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO) are not significantly mass-loaded by the neutrons. The decoupling of about 0.95 of the core mass from the Alfven waves is in fact required in order to explain the QPO frequencies, for simple magnetic geometries and for magnetic fields not greater than 10^{15} Gauss. 2. We show that in the case of strong vortex pinning, hydromagnetic stresses exert stabilizing influence on the Glaberson instability, which has recently been proposed as a potential source of superfluid turbulence in neutron stars.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Fluctuation-dissipation theorem for thermo-refractive noise

We introduce a simple prescription for calculating the spectra of thermal fluctuations of temperature-dependent quantities of the form $\hat{δT}(t)=\int d^3\vec{r} δT(\vec{r},t) q(\vec{r})$. Here $T(\vec{r}, t)$ is the local temperature at location $\vec{r}$ and time $t$, and $q(\vec{r})$ is an arbitrary function. As an example of a possible application, we compute the spectrum of thermo-refractive coating noise in LIGO, and find a complete agreement with the previous calculation of Braginsky, Gorodetsky and Vyatchanin. Our method has computational advantage, especially for non-regular or non-symmetric geometries, and for the cases where $q(\vec{r})$ is non-negligible in a significant fraction of the total volume.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Evolution of the bursting-layer wave during a Type 1 X-ray burst

In a popular scenario due to Heyl, quasi periodic oscillations (QPOs) which are seen during type 1 X-ray bursts are produced by giant travelling waves in neutron-star oceans. Piro and Bildsten have proposed that during the burst cooling the wave in the bursting layer may convert into a deep crustal interface wave, which would cut off the visible QPOs. This cut-off would help explain the magnitude of the QPO frequency drift, which is otherwise overpredicted by a factor of several in Heyl's scenario. In this paper, we study the coupling between the bursting layer and the deep ocean. The coupling turns out to be weak and only a small fraction of the surface-wave energy gets transferred to that of the crustal-interface wave during the burst. Thus the crustal-interface wave plays no dynamical role during the burst, and no early QPO cut-off should occur.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

On the theory of magnetar QPOs

We consider torsional oscillations of magnetars. This problem features rich dynamics due to the strong interaction between the normal modes of a magnetar's crust and a continuum of Magneto-Hydro-Dynamic (MHD) modes in its fluid core. We study the dynamics using a simple model of a magnetar possessing a uniform magnetic field and a thin spherical crust. Firstly, we show that global torsional modes only exist when one introduces unphysically large dissipative terms into the equations of motion; thus global modes are not helpful for understanding the magnetar Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs). Secondly, we solve the initial-value problem by simulating the sudden release of an initially strained crust and monitoring the subsequent crustal motion. We find that the crustal torsional modes quickly exchange their energy with the MHD continuum in the core, and decay by several orders of magnitude over the course of about 10 oscillation periods. After the initial rapid decay, the crustal motion is stabilized and several time-varying QPOs are observed. The dynamical spectrum of the simulated crustal motion is in qualitative agreement with that of the x-ray light-curve in the tail of a giant magnetar flare. The asymptotic frequencies of some of the QPOs are associated with the special spectral points--the turning points or edges--of the MHD continuum, and are not related to those of the crust. The observed steady low-frequency QPO at 18 Hz is almost certainly associated with the lowest frequency of the MHD continuum, or its first overtone. We also find that drifting QPOs get amplified when they come near the frequencies of the crustal modes. This explains why some of the observed QPOs have frequencies close to the expected crustal frequencies, and why these QPOs are highly variable with time.

astro-ph↗