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NASA NTRS1992

Gamma-ray bursts from colliding neutron stars

Three distance scales to gamma-ray bursters are discussed: about 300 pc, about 2 - 50 kpc, and about 1 Gpc, corresponding to the Galactic disk, Galactic halo, and extragalactic origin. No compelling evidence is found in favor of any of them. The BATSE experiment on GRO should determine the distance scale by determining the angular distribution of very weak bursts. The rate of collisions between the neutron stars is about 0.0001/yr in our Galaxy, and about 10 exp 5/yr within the Hubble distance. The collisions are the final phases of binary orbit decay driven by gravitational radiation, and may produce gamma-ray bursts detectable at extra-galactic distances. If strange stars exist then their collisions must release about 10 exp 49 erg in gamma-rays over about 10 seconds. Such events should be detectable out to about 1 Gpc with the current instruments.

Paczynski, Bohdan↗
NASA NTRS1992

Severe new limits on extragalactic models of gamma-ray bursts

A new and much more restrictive limit is imposed here on the distance of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) in extragalactic models of the bursts. This limit is based on the fact that deep optical and infrared surveys do not find any host galaxies in many GRB error boxes. It is shown that 10 of the brighter GRB sources must be farther than 1 gigaparsec and that eight of these must emit more than 10 exp 13 ergs during a burst. This result is about four orders of magnitude stricter in energy than the previous limit. Five of the sources have limits in that the energy must be greater than the binding energy of a neutron star.

Schaefer, Bradley E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Observations of X-ray jets with the Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope

The features of the multiple X-ray jets in the solar corona, revealed by the time series of the Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope images are described. The typical size of a jet was from 5 x 10 exp 3 to 4 x 10 exp 5 km, the translational velocity was 30-300 km/s, and the corresponding kinetic energy was estimated to be from 10 exp 25 to 10 exp 28 erg. Many of the jets were found to be associated with flares in X-ray bright points, emerging flux regions, or active regions, and they sometimes occurred several times from the same X-ray feature. One of the jets associated with a flaring bright point was identified as being an H-alpha surge.

Shibata, Kazunari↗
NASA NTRS1993

Measured and predicted effects of gravity level on directional dendritic solidification of NH4Cl-H2O

Dendritic growth front rates during vertical directional solidification are predicted for gravity levels of 10 exp 0 g sub e (where e is earth gravity), 10 exp -1 g sub e, 10 exp -2 g sub e, 10 exp -3 g sub e, 10 exp -4 g sub e, and 10 exp -5 g sub e (microgravity) for the physical conditions used for a recent ammonium chloride-water solidification experiment on the International Microgravity Laboratory I (IMLI). The growth front rates at 10 exp 0 g sub e and 10 exp -5 g sub e are validated using ground based laboratory and IMLI experimental data. As the gravity decreases, the growth rates increase until they approach a maximum at approximately 10 exp -4 g sub e. The 10 exp -4 and 10 exp -5 levels are equivalent. Liquid concentration and volume fraction, temperature profiles and fluid flow velocities are also calculated. Kinetic energy calculations for each of the six gravity levels indicate that the threshold for fluid flow to affect the growth front rate is in the range of 10 exp -8 ergs.

Mccay, T. D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Solar flares and avalanches in driven dissipative systems

The contention of Lu and Hamilton (1991) that the energy release process in solar flares can be understood as avalanches of many small reconnection events is further developed. The dynamics of the complex magnetized plasma of solar active regions is modeled with a simple driven dissipative system, consisting of a vector field with local instabilities that cause rapid diffusion of the field. It is argued that the avalanches in this model are analogous to solar flares. The distributions of avalanches in this model are compared with the solar flare frequency distributions obtained from ISEE 3/ICE satellite observations. Quantitative agreement is found with the energy, peak luminosity, and duration distributions over four orders of magnitude in flare energy, from the largest flares down to the completeness limit of the observations. It is predicted that the power-law solar flare frequency distributions will be found to continue downward with the same logarithmic slopes to an energy of about 3 x 10 exp 25 ergs and duration of about 0.3 s, with deviations from power-law behavior below these values.

Lu, Edward T.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A search for proton beams during flares on AU Microscopii

We report the results of a coordinated observing campaign on the active M dwarf star AU Mic. The purpose of the campaign was to search for evidence of proton beams during the impulsive phase of stellar flares and to determine whether the energy contained in these beams represented a significant fraction of the energy budget of the flare. During a total of 3.5 hr of monitoring a small flare was observed simultaneously by the HST, IUE, and the AAT. This event, which had a total optical + UV emission of 1.3 x 10 exp 32 ergs, occurred during the decay phase of a much larger event and showed no evidence for a proton beam with an energy greater than a few times 10 exp 29 ergs/s. This is comparable to the maximum energy flux released by the flare, though this energy release rate must occur over a time interval much shorter than that of the impulsive phase itself. We conclude that the proton beams may be capable of transporting some energy during the impulsive phase of a flare, but that they are unlikely to be the major contributor, at least for this particular event.

Robinson, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer deep survey observations of a large flare on AU Microscopii

We have made the first extended observation of a stellar flare in the EUV with 100 s time resolution. The flare was detected on AU Mic by the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer satellite at 12:38 UT on 1992 July 15 during a 4 d observation from 1992 July 14 to 18. This was a large flare detected in the Lexan/boron (65-190 A) band with an observed peak count rate of 7.0 +/- 0.5 counts/s, corresponding to a peak luminosity of 10 exp 30 erg/s in the Lexan/boron bandpass. This is significantly above the measured quiescent level of 0.4 +/- 0.2 counts/s. The flare consisted of a sharp peak lasting about 2 hr, followed by a decaying tail that lasted more than a day. The total EUV energy of the event is estimated to be 3 x 10 exp 34 ergs. A second, smaller flare was also observed and is described. We conclude that the large emission measures on order of 6 x 10 exp 53/cu cm are due to large volumes with characteristic length scales of order the stellar radius. We compare these EUV observations with stellar flare observations in other bandpasses and estimate the likelihood of seeing similar flares in future observations.

Cully, Scott L.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Relativistic shock spectra: A prediction

I argue that particles heated by relativistic shocks should assume an equilibrium energy distribution. This leads to a synchrotron spectrum F(sub nu) varies as nu(sup 1/3) up to approximately the critical frequency nu(sub 0) of an electron with the mean electron energy. Application to gamma ray bursts (GRB's) implies that a burst with 10(exp -5) erg/(sq cm s) of soft gamma-rays and h(nu(sub 0)) = 300 KeV should be about 18th magnitude in visible light and a few micro-Jy at 1 GHz (less if self-absorbed).

Katz, J. I.↗
NASA NTRS1993

An X-ray image of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy

A ROSAT X-ray observation of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy is presented. A total of 19 sources are identified, one of which is a probable background galaxy cluster. This is consistent with the number expected due to the extragalactic background. Scaling in luminosity from normal ellipticals and bulges, we would expect to see at most one accreting binary source. This is consistent with our results, and implies that the IMF was not heavily biased towards massive stars. Scaling instead from globular clusters, we would expect eight sources in Fornax in the energy range 10 exp 36 - 10 exp 38 erg/s. We observe none. The low-density environment of the dwarf galaxy evidently does not produce a population of accreting neutron stars through star-star collisions. We place an upper limit of 4 x 10 exp -12 erg sq cm s on any diffuse gas component, corresponding to 10 exp 5 solar mass of gas at 107 K. However, if heated to X-ray temperatures, gas could escape Fornax.

Gizis, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1994

X-ray emission from two nearby millisecond pulsars

This grant, titled 'X-Ray Emission from Two Nearby Millisecond Pulsars,' included ROSAT observations of the nearby pulsars PSR J2322+20 and PSR J2019+24. Neither was detected, although the observations were among the most sensitive ever made towards millisecond pulsars, reaching 1.5 x 10(exp 29) and 2.7 x 10(exp 29) erg s(exp -1) (0.1-2.4 keV), respectively. This is about, or slightly below, the predicted level of emission from the Seward and Wang empirical prediction, based on an extrapolation from slower pulsars. To understand the significance of this result, we have compared these limits with observations of four other millisecond pulsars, taken from the ROSAT archives. Except for the case of PSR B1821-21, where we identified a possible x-ray counterpart, only upper limits on x-ray flux were obtained. From these results, we conclude that x-ray emission beaming does not follow the same dependence on pulsar period as that of radio emission: while millisecond pulsars have beaming fractions near unity in the radio, x-ray emission is observed only for favorable viewing geometries.

Thorsett, S. E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

A catalogue of potentially bright close binary gravitational wave sources

This is a current print-out of results of a survey, undertaken in the spring of 1985, to identify those known binary stars which might produce significant gravitational wave amplitudes at earth, either dimensionless strain amplitudes exceeding a threshold h = 10(exp -21), or energy fluxes exceeding F = 10(exp -12) erg cm(exp -2) s(exp -1). All real or putative binaries brighter than a certain limiting magnitude (calculated as a function of primary spectral type, orbital period, orbital eccentricity, and bandpass) are included. All double degenerate binaries and Wolf-Rayet binaries with known or suspected orbital periods have also been included. The catalog consists of two parts: a listing of objects in ascending order of Right Ascension (Equinox B1950), followed by an index, listing of objects by identification number according to all major stellar catalogs. The object listing is a print-out of the spreadsheets on which the catalog is currently maintained. It should be noted that the use of this spreadsheet program imposes some limitations on the display of entries. Text entries which exceed the cell size may appear in truncated form, or may run into adjacent columns. Greek characters are not available; they are represented here by the first two or three letters of their Roman names, the first letter appearing as a capital or lower-case letter according to whether the capital or lower-case Greek character is represented. Neither superscripts nor subscripts are available; they appear here in normal position and type-face. The index provides the Right Ascension and Declination of objects sorted by catalogue number.

Webbink, Ronald F.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The terrestrial gravitational wave environment from known sources

The objective of this project was to produce a gravitational wave spectral line list of all known binary stars producing expected strain amplitudes at Earth in excess of h = 10 (exp -21), or gravitational wave fluxes in excess of F = 10 (exp -12) erg cm(exp -2) s(exp -1). These strain and flux limits lie above the anticipated detection thresholds for space-borne laser interferometers capable of detecting gravitational radiation in the 10 micron Hz to 1 Hz frequency range. The source list was intended to provide frequency (including each harmonic), amplitude and phase (for each polarization and harmonic), and celestial coordinates for each system, lacking only the orientation of the principal polarization axis with respect to the pole of the coordinate system, and the sign of the source phase and frequency (or, equivalently, of the sense of rotation of the strain tensor with time) from providing a complete source description. Such a spectral line list would lay essential groundwork for high-sensitivity, low-frequency searches for gravitational radiation.

Webbink, Ronald F.↗
NASA NTRS1994

An X-ray and optical study of the supernova remnant W44

We report the results of a 8000 s observation of the supernova remnant W44 using the ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC). The image shows the same centrally peaked morphology observed by the Einstein IPC and contrasts with the shell-like radio morphology. The eastern limb shows a lack of X-ray emission within the radio shell, probably due to the interaction between the Supernova Remnants (SNR) and a molecular cloud. No counterpart to the pulsar 1853 + 01 in W44 has been detected, with L(sub X) less than 1.3 x 10(exp 32) ergs/s in the 0.2 to 2.4 keV band. The spectral analysis of the central part of W44, combining EXOSAT ME and Einstein SSS data, shows that the shocked plasma has not reached ionization equilibrium. The best nonequilibrium fit to PSPC, ME, and SSS spectra gives Eta = 10(exp 51) ergs cm(exp -6), T(sub s) = 10(exp 7) K with T(sub e) = T(sub i), suggesting conditions are approaching ionization equilibrium. There is no evidence of enhanced abundances of Mg, Si, S, or Fe. The variation of temperature and column density was obtained region by region using the PSPC and Einstein IPC. The temperature is largely uniform over the remnant, but strong column density variations are found to be consistent with molecular clouds in the line of sight. An evaporation model with a two-phase interstellar medium structure of clumps and interclump gas (White & Long 1991) can explain the X-ray centrally peaked morphology of W44. The clumps remaining behind a SN shock provide a reservoir of material, and evaporat e to increase the density of X-ray emitting gas in the interior of a SNR. The uniform temperature distribution of W44 strongly supports the predictions of this model. In addition, mosaiced H alpha and (S II) images of W44, taken using the prime focus universal extragalactic instrument (PFUEI) camera on the Palomar 60 sec telescope, reveal the first discovery of optical filaments (both H alpha and (S II)) in the northwestern and southeastern portion of the remnant, within the X-ray emitting region. The optical filaments and the X-ray image showing locally brighter emission and clumps along the filaments suggest both are produced by the interaction between the supernova shock front and regions of enhanced ambient density.

Rho, Jeongee↗
NASA NTRS1994

Global oscillation amplitudes excited by the Jupiter-comet collision

The energy released during the collision of fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994 July may excite a spectrum of global oscillation modes. We estimate the maximum amplitudes to which the p-modes, discontinuity modes, inertial modes, and r-modes can be excited by assuming that the full kinetic energy of the fragment, which we take to be 10(exp 30) ergs, is converted into the energy of each individual mode. We have used two realistics Jovian models as the basis for our estimates: one with and one without the predicted 'plasma phase transition' (PPT) of hydrogen. A density discontinuity in the planet's hydrogen-helium envelope is associated with the PPT. We find that high-frequency p-modes, with periods approximately less than 15 minutes, may be excited to sufficiently large amplitudes to be observable as Doppler shifts (velocity amplitudes approximately greater than serveral m/s) or temperature variations (delta(T) approximately greater than 0.01 K) at the planetary surface. Inertial modes may also be observable. If the PPT exists in Jupiter, inertial modes with periods approximately 8 hr or approximately 2.2 days trapped in the surface region of the planet, above the PPT, may be detectable as temperature fluctuations of order delta(T) approximately 0.01 K. Inertial modes with periods of order 8-8.5 hr appear to be particularly strongly excited if the PPT exists. If the PPT does not exist in Jupiter, intertial modes with periods approximately 8-8.5 hr have much lower amplitudes. In this case, inertial modes with periods longer than approximately 18 hr may produce temperature fluctuations of order delta(T) approximately 0.01 K. Discontinuity modes associated with the PPT and r-modes unfortunately may not reach observable amplitudes.

Lee, U.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Supernova remnant candidates for the soft gamma-ray repeater 1900+14

Motivated by the association of two soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) with supernova remnants (SNR) we have carried out radio, optical and X-ray studies of two cataloged SNRs in the large KONUS error box 11 deg x 8 min of SGR 1900+14. Our very large array (VLA) observations of SNR G43.9+1.6 do not reveal any obvious plerionic component. A radio flat-spectrum source, close to, but outside the error box was found. We suggest this to be a distant H II region foreground to the SNR. A sensitive VLA image at meter wavelengths show that the other SNR, G42.8+0.6, is an ordinary typical SNR with a shell morphology with no peculiarities such as a plerionic component. No ROSAT source with an apparent flux greater than or approximately 10(exp -13) ergs cm(exp -2) s(exp -1) is found within the two SNRs. Recently, Hurley et al. have reported a new very small error box close to G42.8+0.6. There is no radio feature within or close to the error box. However, a ROSAT source is found just outside this localization. We speculate that this is the quiescent X-ray counterpart of SGR 1900+14. We suggest that SGR 1900+14 is a neutron star that was born with high speed which has now overtaken the expanding shell of SNR G42.8+0.6. Owing to the low confining pressure, there has been no development of a synchrotron bubble which explains the absence of the radio plerion. In our picture, SGR 1900+14 is the oldest known SGR.

Vasisht, G.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A gigantic coronal jet ejected from a compact active region in a coronal hole

A gigantic coronal jet greater than 3 x 10(exp 5) km long (nearly half the solar radius) has been found with the soft X-ray telescope (SXT) on board the solar X-ray satellite, Yohkoh. The jet was ejected on 1992 January 11 from an 'anemone-type' active region (AR) appearing in a coronal hole and is one of the largest coronal X-ray jets observed so far by SXT. This gigantic jet is the best observed example of many other smaller X-ray jets, because the spatial structures of both the jet and the AR located at its base are more easily resolved. The range of apparent translational velocities of the bulk of the jet was between 90 and 240 km s(exp -1), with the corresponding kinetic energy estimated to be of order of 10(exp 28) ergs. A detailed analysis reveals that the jet was associated with a loop brightening (a small flare) that occurred in the active region. Several features of this observation suggest and are consistent with a magnetic reconnection mechanism for the production of such a 'jet-loop-brightening' event.

Shibata, K.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The evolution of voids in the adhesion approximation

We apply the adhesion approximation to study the formation and evolution of voids in the universe. Our simulations-carried out using 128(exp 3) particles in a cubical box with side 128 Mpc-indicate that the void spectrum evolves with time and that the mean void size in the standard Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE)-normalized cold dark matter (CDM) model with H(sub 50) = 1 scals approximately as bar D(z) = bar D(sub zero)/(1+2)(exp 1/2), where bar D(sub zero) approximately = 10.5 Mpc. Interestingly, we find a strong correlation between the sizes of voids and the value of the primordial gravitational potential at void centers. This observation could in principle, pave the way toward reconstructing the form of the primordialpotential from a knowledge of the observed void spectrum. Studying the void spectrum at different cosmological epochs, for spectra with a built in k-space cutoff we find that the number of voids in a representative volume evolves with time. The mean number of voids first increases until a maximum value is reached (indicating that the formation of cellular structure is complete), and then begins to decrease as clumps and filaments erge leading to hierarchical clustering and the subsequent elimination of small voids. The cosmological epoch characterizing the completion of cellular structure occurs when the length scale going nonlinear approaches the mean distance between peaks of the gravitaional potential. A central result of this paper is that voids can be populated by substructure such as mini-sheets and filaments, which run through voids. The number of such mini-pancakes that pass through a given void can be measured by the genus characteristic of an individual void which is an indicator of the topology of a given void in intial (Lagrangian) space. Large voids have on an average a larger measure than smaller voids indicating more substructure within larger voids relative to smaller ones. We find that the topology of individual voids is strongly epoch dependent, with void topologies generally simplifying with time. This means that as voids grow older they become progressively more empty and have less structure within them. We evaluate the genus measure both for individual voids as well as for the entire ensemble of voids predicted by CDM model. As a result we find that the topology of voids when taken together with the void spectrum is a very useful statistical indicator of the evolution of the structure of the universe on large scales.

Sahni, Varun↗
NASA NTRS1994

Discovery of an obscured low luminosity active nucleus in the spiral galaxy NGC 4258

The spectra and images of the nearby jet galaxy NGC 4258 (M106) obtained with ASCA indicate presence of several distinct X-ray emission components. The emission above 3 keV is pointlike and coincident in position with the optical nucleus, exhibiting a hard (photon index approximately 1.78) and absorbed N(sub H) approximately 1.5 x 10(exp 23) cm(exp -2) spectrum. This provides clear evidence that NGC 4258 hosts an obscured active nucleus of low luminosity, about 4 x 10(exp 40) ergs s(exp -1) in 2-10 keV after removing the absorption. Iron K-line emission with an equivalent width 0.25 +/- 0.10 keV was detected. The emission below 1 keV is dominated by an extended approximately 4 min thin-thermal component with a temperature approximately 0.5 keV exhibiting atomic emission lines, possibly associated with the jet. There exists a third continuum component with an intermediate spectral hardness, which is brightest at approximately 1 min south-east of the nucleus.

Makishima, Kazuo↗