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At least 217 records · Page 12
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DOE OSTI2013

FARADAY ROTATION DISTRIBUTIONS FROM STELLAR MAGNETISM IN WIND-BLOWN BUBBLES

Faraday rotation is a valuable tool for detecting magnetic fields. Here, the technique is considered in relation to wind-blown bubbles. In the context of spherical winds with azimuthal or split monopole stellar magnetic field geometries, we derive maps of the distribution of position angle (P.A.) rotation of linearly polarized radiation across projected bubbles. We show that the morphology of maps for split monopole fields are distinct from those produced by the toroidal field topology; however, the toroidal case is the one most likely to be detectable because of its slower decline in field strength with distance from the star. We also consider the important case of a bubble with a spherical sub-volume that is field-free to approximate crudely a 'swept-up' wind interaction between a fast wind (or possibly a supernova ejecta shell) overtaking a slower magnetized wind from a prior state of stellar evolution. With an azimuthal field, the resultant P.A. map displays two arc-like features of opposite rotation measure, similar to observations of the supernova remnant G296.5+10.0. We illustrate how P.A. maps can be used to disentangle Faraday rotation contributions made by the interstellar medium versus the bubble. Although our models involve simplifying assumptions, their consideration leads to a number of general robust conclusions for use in the analysis of radio mapping data sets.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

HIERARCHICAL FRAGMENTATION OF THE ORION MOLECULAR FILAMENTS

We present a high angular resolution map of the 850 {mu}m continuum emission of the Orion Molecular Cloud-3 (OMC 3) obtained with the Submillimeter Array (SMA); the map is a mosaic of 85 pointings covering an approximate area of 6.'5 Multiplication-Sign 2.'0 (0.88 Multiplication-Sign 0.27 pc). We detect 12 spatially resolved continuum sources, each with an H{sub 2} mass between 0.3-5.7 M {sub Sun} and a projected source size between 1400-8200 AU. All the detected sources are on the filamentary main ridge (n{sub H{sub 2}}{>=}10{sup 6} cm{sup -3}), and analysis based on the Jeans theorem suggests that they are most likely gravitationally unstable. Comparison of multi-wavelength data sets indicates that of the continuum sources, 6/12 (50%) are associated with molecular outflows, 8/12 (67%) are associated with infrared sources, and 3/12 (25%) are associated with ionized jets. The evolutionary status of these sources ranges from prestellar cores to protostar phase, confirming that OMC-3 is an active region with ongoing embedded star formation. We detect quasi-periodical separations between the OMC-3 sources of Almost-Equal-To 17''/0.035 pc. This spatial distribution is part of a large hierarchical structure that also includes fragmentation scales of giant molecular cloud ( Almost-Equal-To 35 pc), large-scale clumps ( Almost-Equal-To 1.3 pc), and small-scale clumps ( Almost-Equal-To 0.3 pc), suggesting that hierarchical fragmentation operates within the Orion A molecular cloud. The fragmentation spacings are roughly consistent with the thermal fragmentation length in large-scale clumps, while for small-scale cores it is smaller than the local fragmentation length. These smaller spacings observed with the SMA can be explained by either a helical magnetic field, cloud rotation, or/and global filament collapse. Finally, possible evidence for sequential fragmentation is suggested in the northern part of the OMC-3 filament.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

RECOLLIMATION SHOCKS IN MAGNETIZED RELATIVISTIC JETS

We have performed two-dimensional special-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of non-equilibrium over-pressured relativistic jets in cylindrical geometry. Multiple stationary recollimation shock and rarefaction structures are produced along the jet by the nonlinear interaction of shocks and rarefaction waves excited at the interface between the jet and the surrounding ambient medium. Although initially the jet is kinematically dominated, we have considered axial, toroidal, and helical magnetic fields to investigate the effects of different magnetic-field topologies and strengths on the recollimation structures. We find that an axial field introduces a larger effective gas pressure and leads to stronger recollimation shocks and rarefactions, resulting in larger flow variations. The jet boost grows quadratically with the initial magnetic field. On the other hand, a toroidal field leads to weaker recollimation shocks and rarefactions, significantly modifying the jet structure after the first recollimation rarefaction and shock. The jet boost decreases systematically. For a helical field, instead, the behavior depends on the magnetic pitch, with a phenomenology that ranges between the one seen for axial and toroidal magnetic fields, respectively. In general, however, a helical magnetic field yields a more complex shock and rarefaction substructure close to the inlet that significantly modifies the jet structure. The differences in shock structure resulting from different field configurations and strengths may have observable consequences for disturbances propagating through a stationary recollimation shock.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Full sky harmonic analysis hints at large ultra-high energy cosmic ray deflections

The full-sky multipole coefficients of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) flux have been measured for the first time by the Pierre Auger and Telescope Array collaborations using a joint data set with E > 10 EeV. We calculate these harmonic coefficients in the model where UHECR are protons and sources trace the local matter distribution, and compare our results with observations. We find that the expected power for low multipoles (dipole and quadrupole, in particular) is sytematically higher than in the data: the observed flux is too isotropic. We then investigate to which degree our predictions are influenced by UHECR deflections in the regular Galactic magnetic field. It turns out that the UHECR power spectrum coefficients C{sub l} are quite insensitive to the effects of the Galactic magnetic field, so it is unlikely that the discordance can be reconciled by tuning the Galactic magnetic field model. On the contrary, a sizeable fraction of uniformly distributed flux (representing for instance an admixture of heavy nuclei with considerably larger deflections) can bring simulations and observations to an accord.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Photometric study on stellar magnetic activity. I. Flare variability of red dwarf stars in the open cluster M37

Based on one-month long MMT time-series observations of the open cluster M37, we monitored light variations of nearly 2500 red dwarfs and successfully identified 420 flare events from 312 cluster M dwarf stars. For each flare light curve, we derived observational and physical parameters, such as flare shape, peak amplitude, duration, energy, and peak luminosity. We show that cool stars produce serendipitous flares energetic enough to be observed in the r-band, and their temporal and peak characteristics are almost the same as those in traditional U-band observations. We also found many large-amplitude flares with inferred Δu>6 mag in the cluster sample which had been rarely reported in previous ground-based observations. Following the ergodic hypothesis, we investigate in detail statistical properties of flare parameters over a range of energy (E{sub r} ≃ 10{sup 31}–10{sup 34} erg). As expected, there are no statistical differences in the distributions of flare timescales, energies, and frequencies among stars of the same age and mass group. We note that our sample tend to have longer rise and decay timescales compared to those seen in field flare stars of the same spectral type and be more energetic. Flare frequency distributions follow power-law distributions with slopes β∼0.62–1.21 for all flare stars and β∼0.52–0.97 for stars with membership information (P{sub mem}⩾0.2). These are in general agreement with previous works on flare statistics of young open clusters and nearby field stars. Our results give further support to the classical age–activity relations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

THERMAL PLASMA IN THE GIANT LOBES OF THE RADIO GALAXY CENTAURUS A

We present a Faraday rotation measure (RM) study of the diffuse, polarized, radio emission from the giant lobes of the nearest radio galaxy, Centaurus A. After removal of the smooth Galactic foreground RM component, using an ensemble of background source RMs located outside the giant lobes, we are left with a residual RM signal associated with the giant lobes. We find that the most likely origin of this residual RM is from thermal material mixed throughout the relativistic lobe plasma. The alternative possibility of a thin-skin/boundary layer of magnetoionic material swept up by the expansion of the lobes is highly unlikely since it requires, at least, an order of magnitude enhancement of the swept-up gas over the expected intragroup density on these scales. Strong depolarization observed from 2.3 to 0.96 GHz also supports the presence of a significant amount of thermal gas within the lobes; although depolarization solely due to RM fluctuations in a foreground Faraday screen on scales smaller than the beam cannot be ruled out. Considering the internal Faraday rotation scenario, we find a thermal gas number density of {approx}10{sup -4} cm{sup -3}, implying a total gas mass of {approx}10{sup 10} M {sub Sun} within the lobes. The thermal pressure associated with this gas (with temperature kT {approx} 0.5 keV, obtained from recent X-ray results) is approximately equal to the non-thermal pressure, indicating that over the volume of the lobes, there is approximate equipartition between the thermal gas, radio-emitting electrons, and magnetic field (and potentially any relativistic protons present).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Numerical Study of Erosion, Heating, and Acceleration of the Magnetic Cloud as Impacted by Fast Shock

The impact of an overtaking fast shock on a magnetic cloud (MC) is a pivotal process in CME–CME (CME: coronal mass ejection) interactions and CME–SIR (SIR: stream interaction region) interactions. MC with a strong and rotating magnetic field is usually deemed a crucial part of CMEs. To study the impact of a fast shock on an MC, we perform a 2.5 dimensional numerical magnetohydrodynamic simulation. Two cases are run in this study: without and with impact by fast shock. In the former case, the MC expands gradually from its initial state and drives a relatively slow magnetic reconnection with the ambient magnetic field. Analyses of forces near the core of the MC as a whole body indicates that the solar gravity is quite small compared to the Lorentz force and the pressure gradient force. In the second run, a fast shock propagates, relative to the background plasma, at a speed twice that of the perpendicular fast magnetosonic speed, catches up with and takes over the MC. Due to the penetration of the fast shock, the MC is highly compressed and heated, with the temperature growth rate enhanced by a factor of about 10 and the velocity increased to about half of the shock speed. The magnetic reconnection with ambient magnetic field is also sped up by a factor of two to four in reconnection rate as a result of the enhanced density of the current sheet, which is squeezed by the forward motion of the shocked MC.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

ENHANCED DISSIPATION RATE OF MAGNETIC FIELD IN STRIPED PULSAR WINDS BY THE EFFECT OF TURBULENCE

In this paper, we report on turbulent acceleration of the dissipation of the magnetic field in the post-shock region of a Poynting flux-dominated flow, such as the Crab pulsar wind nebula. We have performed two-dimensional resistive relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations of subsonic turbulence driven by the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability at the shock fronts of the Poynting flux-dominated flows in pulsar winds. We find that turbulence stretches current sheets which substantially enhances the dissipation of the magnetic field, and that most of the initial magnetic field energy is dissipated within a few eddy-turnover times. We also develop a simple analytical model for turbulent dissipation of the magnetic field that agrees well with our simulations. The analytical model indicates that the dissipation rate does not depend on resistivity even in the small resistivity limit. Our findings can possibly alleviate the {sigma}-problem in the Crab pulsar wind nebulae.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

MODELING OF THE NON-GAUSSIAN PDFs OF FIELD VARIATIONS AND INTERMITTENCY IN THE TURBULENT SOLAR WIND

The probability distribution functions (PDFs) of magnetic field variations display strong scale-dependent non-Gaussianity in the turbulent solar wind. This is a typical signature of intermittent turbulence. Physical modeling of the turbulent field variations based on the characteristics of the observed turbulence, including the variability of its power level, produces, free of parameter adjustment and over a broad range of inertial scales, accurate fits of the non-Gaussian PDFs. The effects of phase randomization and time resolution of the Fourier power spectra are further tested to determine which of the phase correlation or the spectral variability is responsible for the strong non-Gaussianity of the observed PDFs of field variations. The periods of enhanced power level are found to be responsible for the non-Gaussian tails of the PDFs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

ON THE DIFFERENT ANALYTICAL RESULTS OBTAINED FOR THE PARALLEL DIFFUSION COEFFICIENT OF COSMIC PARTICLES WITH ADIABATIC FOCUSING

A spatially varying mean magnetic field gives rise to so-called adiabatic focusing of energetic particles propagating through the universe. In the past, different analytical approaches have been proposed to calculate the particle diffusion coefficient along the mean field with focusing. In the present paper, we show how these different results are related to each other. New results for the parallel diffusion coefficient that are more general than previous results are also presented.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

MULTI-WAVELENGTH POLARIMETRY AND SPECTRAL STUDY OF THE M87 JET DURING 2002–2008

We present a multi-wavelength polarimetric and spectral study of the M87 jet obtained at sub-arcsecond resolution between 2002 and 2008. The observations include multi-band archival VLA polarimetry data sets along with Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) imaging polarimetry. These observations have better angular resolution than previous work by factors of 2–3 and in addition, allow us to explore the time domain. These observations envelop the huge flare in HST-1 located 0.″86 from the nucleus. The increased resolution enables us to view more structure in each knot, showing several resolved sub-components. We also see apparent helical structure in the polarization vectors in several knots, with polarization vectors turning either clockwise or counterclockwise near the flux maxima in various places as well as showing filamentary undulations. Some of these characteristics are correlated with flux and polarization maxima while others are not. We also examine the total flux and fractional polarization and look for changes in both radio and optical since the observations of Perlman et al. (1999) and test them against various models based on shocks and instabilities in the jet. Our results are broadly consistent with previous spine-sheath models and recollimation shock models; however, they require additional combinations of features to explain the observed complexity, e.g., shearing of magnetic field lines near the jet surface and compression of the toroidal component near shocks. In particular, in many regions we find apparently helical features both in total flux and polarization. We discuss the physical interpretation of these features.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

AXISYMMETRIC, NONSTATIONARY BLACK HOLE MAGNETOSPHERES: REVISITED

An axisymmetric, stationary, general-relativistic, electrodynamic engine model of an active galactic nucleus was formulated by Macdonald and Thorne that consisted of a supermassive black hole surrounded by a plasma magnetosphere and a magnetized accretion disk. Based on this initial formulation, a nonstationary, force-free version of their model was constructed by Park and Vishniac (PV), with the simplifying assumption that the poloidal component of the magnetic field line velocity be confined along the radial direction in cylindrical polar coordinates. In this paper, we derive the new, nonstationary “Transfield Equation,” which was not specified in PV. If we can solve this “Transfield Equation” numerically, then we will understand the axisymmetric, nonstationary black hole magnetosphere in more rigorous ways.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

SPITZER OBSERVATIONS OF LONG-TERM INFRARED VARIABILITY AMONG YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS IN CHAMAELEON I

Infrared variability is common among young stellar objects, with surveys finding daily to weekly fluctuations of a few tenths of a magnitude. Space-based observations can produce highly sampled infrared light curves, but are often limited to total baselines of about 1 month due to the orientation of the spacecraft. Here we present observations of the Chameleon I cluster, whose low declination makes it observable by the Spitzer Space Telescope over a 200-day period. We observe 30 young stellar objects with a daily cadence to better sample variability on timescales of months. We find that such variability is common, occurring in ∼80% of the detected cluster members. The change in [3.6]–[4.5] color over 200 days for many of the sources falls between that expected for extinction and fluctuations in disk emission. With our high cadence and long baseline we can derive power spectral density curves covering two orders of magnitude in frequency and find significant power at low frequencies, up to the boundaries of our 200-day survey. Such long timescales are difficult to explain with variations driven by the interaction between the disk and stellar magnetic field, which has a dynamical timescale of days to weeks. The most likely explanation is either structural or temperature fluctuations spread throughout the inner ∼0.5 au of the disk, suggesting that the intrinsic dust structure is highly dynamic.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

CSI 2264: CHARACTERIZING YOUNG STARS IN NGC 2264 WITH SHORT-DURATION PERIODIC FLUX DIPS IN THEIR LIGHT CURVES

We identify nine young stellar objects (YSOs) in the NGC 2264 star-forming region with optical CoRoT light curves exhibiting short-duration, shallow periodic flux dips. All of these stars have infrared excesses that are consistent with their having inner disk walls near the Keplerian co-rotation radius. The repeating photometric dips have FWHMs generally less than 1 day, depths almost always less than 15%, and periods (3 < P < 11 days) consistent with dust near the Keplerian co-rotation period. The flux dips vary considerably in their depth from epoch to epoch, but usually persist for several weeks and, in two cases, were present in data collected in successive years. For several of these stars, we also measure the photospheric rotation period and find that the rotation and dip periods are the same, as predicted by standard “disk-locking” models. We attribute these flux dips to clumps of material in or near the inner disk wall, passing through our line of sight to the stellar photosphere. In some cases, these dips are also present in simultaneous Spitzer IRAC light curves at 3.6 and 4.5 microns. We characterize the properties of these dips, and compare the stars with light curves exhibiting this behavior to other classes of YSOs in NGC 2264. A number of physical mechanisms could locally increase the dust scale height near the inner disk wall, and we discuss several of those mechanisms; the most plausible mechanisms are either a disk warp due to interaction with the stellar magnetic field or dust entrained in funnel-flow accretion columns arising near the inner disk wall.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

SELF-GRAVITATING BODY WITH AN INTERNAL MAGNETIC FIELD. I. NEW ANALYTICAL EQUILIBRIA

We construct exact analytical solutions of the equations describing the equilibrium of a self-gravitating magnetized fluid body, possibly rigidly rotating, by superposing two solutions of finite energy defined in the whole space, one describing a non-magnetized gravitating equilibrium (ST1) and the other describing a magnetized non-gravitating equilibrium (ST2). A large number of ST1s can be found in the literature and directly used for our constructions, and we thus concentrate on ST2s, which are difficult to obtain. We derive some of their general properties and exhibit two explicit classes of axisymmetric 'elementary' such equilibria. The first one is extracted from the stellar models proposed by Prendergast and by Kutvitskii and Solov'ev, respectively. The second one is constructed by using Palumbo's theory of isodynamic equilibria, for which the magnetic pressure is constant on each flux surface. Both types of ST2s have their magnetic field confined within a bounded region, respectively, of spherical and toroidal shapes. A much more general ST2 can be obtained by juxtaposing n+q elementary ST2s, with n of the first type and q of the second type, in such a way that the magnetic regions do not pairwise overlap. The specific equilibria we obtain by superposition thus have no external field extending to infinity, and may be three dimensional (3D), which invalidates a recent nonexistence conjecture. Moreover, they may be arranged to contain force-free regions. Our superposition method can be considered as a 3D generalization of the axisymmetric splitting method previously developed by Kutvitskii and Solov'ev.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

PLASMA ENVIRONMENT AROUND COMET 67P/CHURYUMOV–GERASIMENKO AT PERIHELION: MODEL COMPARISON WITH ROSETTA DATA

The plasma environment near comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P/CG) is dynamically affected by various factors, including the incident solar wind and outgassing from the nucleus. The Rosetta spacecraft MAGnetometer (MAG) instrument observations near perihelion showed crossing events into a magnetic field-free region at about 170 km from the nucleus in 2015 July at 1.26 au from the Sun. At each crossing, the magnitude of the magnetic field dropped by more than 20 nT to near zero. We compared the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES) electron differential flux energy spectrum inside and outside the crossing boundaries. The IES observations show a modest but consistent drop in electron flux for energies between 40 eV and a few hundred eV at each cavity crossing event. This drop in the electron spectra might be due to the absence or attenuation of solar wind electrons inside the observed diamagnetic regions, which might or might not be a diamagnetic cavity. There is no apparent simple linear correlation between the electron count rate measured by the IES at different energies and the magnitude of the magnetic field, however; at all energies, the highest electron count rates are recorded at the highest magnetic field magnitudes. From model-data comparisons it seems that inside diamagnetic regions, pure coma photoelectrons are not sufficient to explain the observations and that a trapping mechanism and/or infused solar wind electrons are necessary to explain the observed electron fluxes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

SEARCH FOR ANISOTROPY OF ULTRAHIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS WITH THE TELESCOPE ARRAY EXPERIMENT

We study the anisotropy of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) events collected by the Telescope Array (TA) detector in the first 40 months of operation. Following earlier studies, we examine event sets with energy thresholds of 10 EeV, 40 EeV, and 57 EeV. We find that the distributions of the events in right ascension and declination are compatible with an isotropic distribution in all three sets. We then compare with previously reported clustering of the UHECR events at small angular scales. No significant clustering is found in the TA data. We then check the events with E > 57 EeV for correlations with nearby active galactic nuclei. No significant correlation is found. Finally, we examine all three sets for correlations with the large-scale structure (LSS) of the universe. We find that the two higher-energy sets are compatible with both an isotropic distribution and the hypothesis that UHECR sources follow the matter distribution of the universe (the LSS hypothesis), while the event set with E > 10 EeV is compatible with isotropy and is not compatible with the LSS hypothesis at 95% CL unless large deflection angles are also assumed. We show that accounting for UHECR deflections in a realistic model of the Galactic magnetic field can make this set compatible with the LSS hypothesis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Universal upper limit on inflation energy scale from cosmic magnetic field

Recently observational lower bounds on the strength of cosmic magnetic fields were reported, based on γ-ray flux from distant blazars. If inflation is responsible for the generation of such magnetic fields then the inflation energy scale is bounded from above as ρ{sub inf}{sup 1/4} < 2.5 × 10{sup −7}M{sub Pl} × (B{sub obs}/10{sup −15}G){sup −2} in a wide class of inflationary magnetogenesis models, where B{sub obs} is the observed strength of cosmic magnetic fields. The tensor-to-scalar ratio is correspondingly constrained as r < 10{sup −19} × (B{sub obs}/10{sup −15}G){sup −8}. Therefore, if the reported strength B{sub obs} ≥ 10{sup −15}G is confirmed and if any signatures of gravitational waves from inflation are detected in the near future, then our result indicates some tensions between inflationary magnetogenesis and observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗