Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “STAR MODELS”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,297 records · Page 72

Spectral energy distributions of T Tauri stars - Disk flaring and limits on accretion

The Adams et al. (1987) conclusion that much of the IR excess emission in the spectral energy distribution of T Tauri stars arises from reprocessing of stellar radiation by a dusty circumstellar disk is presently supported by analyses conducted in light of various models of these stars' spectra. A low mass reprocessing disk can, however, produce these spectra as well as a massive accretion disk. The detection of possible boundary layer radiation in the optical and near-UV regions poses the strongest limits on accretion rates. Disk accretion in the T Tauri phase does not significantly modify stellar evolution.

Kenyon, S. J.↗

Plasma physics of accreting neutron stars

Plasma concepts and phenomena that are needed to understand X- and gamma-ray sources are discussed. The capture of material from the wind or from the atmosphere or envelope of a binary companion star is described and the resulting types of accretion flows discussed. The reasons for the formation of a magnetosphere around the neutron star are explained. The qualitative features of the magnetospheres of accreting neutron stars are then described and compared with the qualitative features of the geomagnetosphere. The conditions for stable flow and for angular and linear momentum conservation are explained in the context of accretion by magnetic neutron stars and applied to obtain rough estimates of the scale of the magnetosphere. Accretion from Keplerian disks is then considered in some detail. The radial structure of geometrically thin disk flows, the interaction of disk flows with the neutron star magnetosphere, and models of steady accretion from Keplerian disks are described. Accretion torques and the resulting changes in the spin frequencies of rotating neutron stars are considered. The predicted behavior is then compared with observations of accretion-powered pulsars. Magnetospheric processes that may accelerate particles to very high energies, producing GeV and, perhaps, TeV gamma-rays are discussed. Finally, the mechanisms that decelerate and eventually stop accreting plasma at the surfaces of strongly magnetic neutron stars are described.

Ghosh, Pranab↗

Realistic 3D Radiative Modeling of Turbulent Structure of Moderate-Mass Stars and Sun

Understanding the turbulent dynamics of the Sun and stars is a critical element for interpreting observed processes and phenomena on different scales and for predicting extreme events such as flares and super flares. High-­‐resolution observations of the Sun and high-­‐fidelity radiative MHD numerical simulations have substantially advanced our understanding of solar and stellar local dynamics and magnetism from the upper convection zone to the atmosphere and corona. However, global modeling of the Sun with such a high degree of realism is currently not affordable due to the extremely high computational cost of resolving the scales in the convection zone. The physics of the deep solar dynamics can be effectively addressed through modeling more massive solar-­‐type stars where the convection zone is shallower and the convective overturning time is much shorter than those on the Sun. We present recent 3D realistic simulation results of moderate-­‐mass stars and discuss links between solar and stellar dynamics, such as the multiscale structure of granulation, convective overshoot, and others. In particular, these simulations have provided better understanding of the dynamics of the tachocline (the overshoot layer at the bottom of the convection zone) and have explained long-­‐ standing results from helioseismology.

Realistic↗

COOLING OF COMPACT STARS WITH COLOR SUPERCONDUCTING PHASE IN QUARK-HADRON MIXED PHASE

We present a new scenario for the cooling of compact stars considering the central source of Cassiopeia A (Cas A). The Cas A observation shows that the central source is a compact star that has high effective temperature, and it is consistent with the cooling without exotic phases. The observation also gives the mass range of M {>=} 1.5 M {sub Sun }, which may conflict with the current plausible cooling scenario of compact stars. There are some cooled compact stars such as Vela or 3C58, which can barely be explained by the minimal cooling scenario, which includes the neutrino emission by nucleon superfluidity (PBF). Therefore, we invoke the exotic cooling processes, where a heavier star cools faster than lighter one. However, the scenario seems to be inconsistent with the observation of Cas A. Therefore, we present a new cooling scenario to explain the observation of Cas A by constructing models that include a quark color superconducting (CSC) phase with a large energy gap; this phase appears at ultrahigh density regions and reduces neutrino emissivity. In our model, a compact star has a CSC quark core with a low neutrino emissivity surrounded by high emissivity region made by normal quarks. We present cooling curves obtained from the evolutionary calculations of compact stars: while heavier stars cool slowly, and lighter ones indicate the opposite tendency without considering nucleon superfluidity. Furthermore, we show that our scenario is consistent with the recent observations of the effective temperature of Cas A during the last 10 years, including nucleon superfluidity.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

THE STAR FORMATION LAWS OF EDDINGTON-LIMITED STAR-FORMING DISKS

Two important avenues into understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies are the Kennicutt-Schmidt (K-S) and Elmegreen-Silk (E-S) laws. These relations connect the surface densities of gas and star formation ({Sigma}{sub gas} and {Sigma}-dot{sub *}, respectively) in a galaxy. To elucidate the K-S and E-S laws for disks where {Sigma}{sub gas} {approx}> 10{sup 4} M{sub Sun} pc{sup -2}, we compute 132 Eddington-limited star-forming disk models with radii spanning tens to hundreds of parsecs. The theoretically expected slopes ( Almost-Equal-To 1 for the K-S law and Almost-Equal-To 0.5 for the E-S relation) are relatively robust to spatial averaging over the disks. However, the star formation laws exhibit a strong dependence on opacity that separates the models by the dust-to-gas ratio that may lead to the appearance of a erroneously large slope. The total infrared luminosity (L{sub TIR}) and multiple carbon monoxide (CO) line intensities were computed for each model. While L{sub TIR} can yield an estimate of the average {Sigma}-dot{sub *} that is correct to within a factor of two, the velocity-integrated CO line intensity is a poor proxy for the average {Sigma}{sub gas} for these warm and dense disks, making the CO conversion factor ({alpha}{sub CO}) all but useless. Thus, observationally derived K-S and E-S laws at these values of {Sigma}{sub gas} that uses any transition of CO will provide a poor measurement of the underlying star formation relation. Studies of the star formation laws of Eddington-limited disks will require a high-J transition of a high density molecular tracer, as well as a sample of galaxies with known metallicity estimates.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Model independent tests of the standard cosmological model

The dark energy problem has led to speculation that not only may {Lambda}CDM be wrong, but that the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker models themselves may not even provide the correct family of background models. We discuss how direct measurements of H(z) can be used to formulate tests of the standard paradigm in cosmology. On their own, such measurements can be used to test for deviations from flat {Lambda}CDM. When combined with supernovae distances, Hubble rate measurements provide a test of the Copernican principle and the homogeneity assumption of the standard model, which is independent of dark energy or a metric based the theory of gravity. A modification of this test also provides a model independent observable for flatness which decorrelates curvature determination from dark energy. We investigate these tests using Hubble rate measurements from age data, as well as from a Hubble rate inferred from recent measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillations. While the current data are too weak to say anything significant, these tests are exciting prospects for the future.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Diffstar: a fully parametric physical model for galaxy assembly history

We present Diffstar, a smooth parametric model for the in situ star formation history (SFH) of galaxies. The Diffstar model is distinct from traditional SFH models because it is parametrized directly in terms of basic features of galaxy formation physics. Diffstar includes ingredients for: the halo mass assembly history; the accretion of gas into the dark matter halo; the fraction of gas that is eventually transformed into stars, ϵ ms ; the time-scale over which this transformation occurs, τ cons ; and the possibility that some galaxies will experience a quenching event at time t q , and may subsequently experience rejuvenated star formation. We show that our model is sufficiently flexible to describe the average stellar mass histories of galaxies in both the IllustrisTNG (TNG) and UniverseMachine (UM) simulations with an accuracy of ~0.1 dex across most of cosmic time. We use Diffstar to compare TNG to UM in common physical terms, finding that: (i) star formation in UM is less efficient and burstier relative to TNG; (ii) UM galaxies have longer gas consumption time-scales, relative to TNG; (iii) rejuvenated star formation is ubiquitous in UM, whereas quenched TNG galaxies rarely experience sustained rejuvenation; and (iv) in both simulations, the distributions of ϵ ms , τ cons , and t q share a common characteristic dependence upon halo mass, and present significant correlations with halo assembly history. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of how Diffstar can be used in future applications to fit the SEDs of individual observed galaxies, as well as in forward-modelling applications that populate cosmological simulations with synthetic galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Massive neutron stars and Λ-hypernuclei in relativistic mean field models

Based on relativistic mean field (RMF) models, we study finite Λ-hypernuclei and massive neutron stars. Here, the effective N-N interactions PK1 and TM1 are adopted, while the N-Λ interactions are constrained by reproducing the binding energy of Λ-hyperon at 1s orbit of ${}_{{\rm{\Lambda }}}{}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$. It is found that the Λ-meson couplings follow a simple relation, indicating a fixed Λ potential well for symmetric nuclear matter at saturation densities, i.e., around ${V}_{{\rm{\Lambda }}}=-29.786\,\mathrm{MeV}$. With those interactions, a large mass range of Λ-hypernuclei can be described well. Furthermore, the masses of PSR J1614-2230 and PSR J0348+0432 can be attained adopting the Λ-meson couplings ${g}_{{\rm{\sigma }}{\rm{\Lambda }}}/{g}_{{\rm{\sigma }}N}\gtrsim 0.73$, ${g}_{{\rm{\omega }}{\rm{\Lambda }}}/{g}_{{\rm{\omega }}N}\gtrsim 0.80$ for PK1 and ${g}_{{\rm{\sigma }}{\rm{\Lambda }}}/{g}_{{\rm{\sigma }}N}\gtrsim 0.81$, ${g}_{{\rm{\omega }}{\rm{\Lambda }}}/{g}_{{\rm{\omega }}N}\gtrsim 0.90$ for TM1, respectively. This resolves the hyperon puzzle without introducing any additional degrees of freedom.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Ultraviolet and optical observations of metal deficient red giants and chromospheric models

Three metal deficient field stars were observed in the ultraviolet and optical spectral regions: HD 165195, HD 110281, and HD 232078. High dispersion spectra near H alpha, and low dispersion, long wavelength IUE spectra were obtained. The H alpha profiles have strong asymmetric emission with absorption cores that are frequently asymmetric. The surface flux of Mg II lines is similar to that of luminous Pop I stars in spite of the lower metal abundance. Semi-empirical atmospheric models suggest that the characteristic emission in the wings of the H alpha line can arise within static chromospheres. Radial expansion gives an asymmetric, blue-shifted H alpha core accompanied by greater emission in the red line wing than the blue wing. Wind models with extended atmospheres suggest mass loss rates - 2 billion M/yr. Thus H alpha provides no evidence that steady mass loss is substantial enough to significantly affect the evolution of stars on the red giant branch of globular clusters.

Duprele, A. K.↗

Striped Jets in Post–Neutron Star Merger Systems

Abstract Models invoking magnetic reconnection as the particle acceleration mechanism within relativistic jets often adopt a gradual energy dissipation profile within the jet. However, such a profile has yet to be reproduced in first-principles simulations. Here we perform a suite of 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of post–neutron star merger disks with an initially purely toroidal magnetic field. We explore the variations in both the microphysics (e.g., nuclear recombination, neutrino emission) and system parameters (e.g, disk mass). In all of our simulations, we find the formation of magnetically striped jets. The stripes result from the reversals in the poloidal magnetic flux polarity generated in the accretion disk. The simulations display large variations in the distributions of stripe duration, τ , and power, 〈 P Φ 〉. We find that more massive disks produce more powerful stripes, the most powerful of which reaches 〈 P Φ 〉 ∼ 10 49 erg s −1 at τ ∼ 20 ms. The power and variability that result from the magnetic reconnection of the stripes agree with those inferred in short-duration gamma-ray bursts. We find that the dissipation profile of the cumulative energy is roughly a power law in both radial distance, z , and τ , with a slope in the range of ∼1.7–3; more massive disks display larger slopes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Gravastars with higher dimensional spacetimes

Highlights: • A model of compact star in the higher dimensional spacetime is studied. • Cosmological constant is included in its purely constant character. • The star is described by interior region, intermediate thin spherical shell and exterior region. • Exact solutions are obtained which provide non-singular stable stellar system. - Abstract: We present a new model of gravastar in the higher dimensional Einsteinian spacetime including Einstein’s cosmological constant Λ. Following Mazur and Mottola (2001, 2004) we design the star with three specific regions, as follows: (I) Interior region, (II) Intermediate thin spherical shell and (III) Exterior region. The pressure within the interior region is equal to the negative matter density which provides a repulsive force over the shell. This thin shell is formed by ultra relativistic plasma, where the pressure is directly proportional to the matter-energy density which does counter balance the repulsive force from the interior whereas the exterior region is completely vacuum assumed to be de Sitter spacetime which can be described by the generalized Schwarzschild solution. With this specification we find out a set of exact non-singular and stable solutions of the gravastar which seems physically very interesting and reasonable.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

CASL VMA Milestone Report FY16 (L3:VMA.VUQ.P13.08): Westinghouse Mixing with STAR-CCM+

STAR-CCM+ (STAR) is a high-resolution computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code developed by CD-adapco. STAR includes validated physics models and a full suite of turbulence models including ones from the k-ε and k-ω families. STAR is currently being developed to be able to do two phase flows, but the current focus of the software is single phase flow. STAR can use imported meshes or use the built in meshing software to create computation domains for CFD. Since the solvers generally require a fine mesh for good computational results, the meshes used with STAR tend to number in the millions of cells, with that number growing with simulation and geometry complexity. The time required to model the flow of a full 5x5 Mixing Vane Grid Assembly (5x5MVG) in the current STAR configuration is on the order of hours, and can be very computationally expensive. COBRA-TF (CTF) is a low-resolution subchannel code that can be trained using high fidelity data from STAR. CTF does not have turbulence models and instead uses a turbulent mixing coefficient β. With a properly calibrated β, CTF can be used a low-computational cost alternative to expensive full CFD calculations performed with STAR. During the Hi2Lo work with CTF and STAR, STAR-CCM+ will be used to calibrate β and to provide high-resolution results that can be used in the place of and in addition to experimental results to reduce the uncertainty in the CTF results.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

CONSEQUENCES OF THE EJECTION AND DISRUPTION OF GIANT PLANETS

The discovery of Jupiter-mass planets in close orbits about their parent stars has challenged models of planet formation. Recent observations have shown that a number of these planets have highly inclined, sometimes retrograde orbits about their parent stars, prompting much speculation as to their origin. It is known that migration alone cannot account for the observed population of these misaligned hot Jupiters, which suggests that dynamical processes after the gas disk dissipates play a substantial role in yielding the observed inclination and eccentricity distributions. One particularly promising candidate is planet-planet scattering, which is not very well understood in the nonlinear regime of tides. Through three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of multi-orbit encounters, we show that planets that are scattered into an orbit about their parent stars with closest approach distance being less than approximately three times the tidal radius are either destroyed or completely ejected from the system. We find that as few as 9 and as many as 12 of the currently known hot Jupiters have a maximum initial apastron for scattering that lies well within the ice line, implying that these planets must have migrated either before or after the scattering event that brought them to their current positions. If stellar tides are unimportant (Q{sub *} {approx}> 10{sup 7}), disk migration is required to explain the existence of the hot Jupiters present in these systems. Additionally, we find that the disruption and/or ejection of Jupiter-mass planets deposits a Sun's worth of angular momentum onto the host star. For systems in which planet-planet scattering is common, we predict that planetary hosts have up to a 35% chance of possessing an obliquity relative to the invariable plane of greater than 90{sup 0}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The formation of supermassive black holes from Population III.1 seeds. I. Cosmic formation histories and clustering properties

We calculate cosmic distributions in space and time of the formation sites of the first, ‘Pop III.1’ stars, exploring a model in which these are the progenitors of all supermassive black holes (SMBHs), seen in the centres of most large galaxies. Pop III.1 stars are defined to form from primordial composition gas in dark matter minihaloes with |${\sim }10^6\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$| that are isolated from neighbouring astrophysical sources by a given isolation distance, d_iso. We assume Pop III.1 sources are seeds of SMBHs, based on protostellar support by dark matter annihilation heating that allows them to accrete a large fraction of their minihalo gas, i.e. |${\sim }10^5\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$|⁠. Exploring d_iso from 10 to |$100\, \rm {kpc}$| (proper distances), we predict the redshift evolution of Pop III.1 source and SMBH remnant number densities. The local, |$z$| = 0 density of SMBHs constrains |$d_{\rm {iso}}\lesssim 100\, \rm {kpc}$| (i.e. |$3\, \rm {Mpc}$| comoving distance at |$z$| ≃ 30). In our simulated (⁠|${\sim }60\, \rm {Mpc})^3$| comoving volume, Pop III.1 stars start forming just after |$z$| = 40. Their formation is largely complete by |$z$| ≃ 25–20 for d_iso = 100–|$50\, \rm {kpc}$|⁠. We follow source evolution to |$z$| = 10, by which point most SMBHs reside in haloes with |${\gtrsim }10^8\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$|⁠. Over this period, there is relatively limited merging of SMBHs for these values of d_iso. We also predict SMBH clustering properties at |$z$| = 10: feedback suppression of neighbouring sources leads to relatively flat angular correlation functions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Period variations in pulsating X-ray sources. II - Torque variations and stellar response

A statistical description of variations in the torque acting on a rotating neutron star is developed in terms of stationary random processes and is used to calculate the torque power spectrum, stellar response power spectrum, and the total mean square variation in the crustal angular velocity of the star. The response of a star with a finite frequency internal mode is calculated with the aid of phenomenological equations which correspond to a generalized two-component model of the star. The form of the stellar response functions is examined in a number of limiting cases of physical interest, and the dependence of the response power on both the period of observation and the time over which fluctuating torques have been acting is discussed.

Lamb, F. K.↗

Durability of the accretion disk of millisecond pulsars

Pulsars with pulsation periods in the millisecond range are thought to be neutron stars that have acquired an extraordinarily short spin period through the accretion of stellar material spiraling down onto the neutron star from a nearby companion. Nearly all the angular momentum and most of the mass of the companion star is transferred to the neutron star. During this process, wherein the neutron star consumes its companion, it is required that a disk of stellar material be formed around the neutron star. In conventional models it is supposed that the disk is somehow lost when the accretion phase is finished, so that only the rapidly spinning neutron star remains. However, it is possible that, after the accretion phase, a residual disk remains in stable orbit around the neutron star. The end result of such an accretion process is an object that looks much like a miniature (about 100 kilometers), heavy version of Saturn: a central object (the neutron star) surrounded by a durable disk.

Michel, F. C.↗

Neutron Star Structure In The Presence of Scalar Fields

Motivated by the possible presence of scalar fields on astrophysical scales, suggested by the recent measurement of the deceleration parameter by supernovae surveys, we present models of neutron star structure under the assumption that a scalar field makes a significant contribution to the stress energy momentum tensor, in addition to that made by the normal matter. To that end we solve the coupled Einstein - scalar field - hydrostatic balance equations to compute the effect of the presence of the scalar field on the neutron star structure. We find that the presence of the scalar field does change the structure of the neutron star, especially in cases of strong coupling between the scalar field and the matter density. We present the neutron star radius as a function of the matter-scalar field coupling constant for different values of the neutron star central density. The presence of the scalar field does affect both the maximum neutron star mass and its radius, the latter increasing with the value of the above coupling constant. Our results may be testable with the recent timing observations of accreting neutron stars.

Crawford, James P.↗

THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF POST-STARBURST GALAXIES IN THE NEWFIRM MEDIUM-BAND SURVEY: A LOW CONTRIBUTION FROM TP-AGB STARS

Stellar population synthesis (SPS) models are a key ingredient of many galaxy evolution studies. Unfortunately, the models are still poorly calibrated for certain stellar evolution stages. Of particular concern is the treatment of the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase, as different implementations lead to systematic differences in derived galaxy properties. Post-starburst galaxies are a promising calibration sample, as TP-AGB stars are thought to be most prominently visible during this phase. Here, we use post-starburst galaxies in the NEWFIRM medium-band survey to assess different SPS models. The available photometry allows the selection of a homogeneous and well-defined sample of 62 post-starburst galaxies at 0.7 {approx_lt} z {approx_lt} 2.0, from which we construct a well-sampled composite spectral energy distribution (SED) over the range 1200-40000 A. The SED is well fit by the Bruzual and Charlot SPS models, while the Maraston models do not reproduce the rest-frame optical and near-infrared parts of the SED simultaneously. When the fitting is restricted to {lambda} < 6000 A, the Maraston models overpredict the near-infrared luminosity, implying that these models give too much weight to TP-AGB stars. Using the flexible SPS models by Conroy et al. and assuming solar metallicity, we find that the contribution of TP-AGB stars to the integrated SED is a factor of {approx}3 lower than predicted by the latest Padova TP-AGB models. Whether this is due to lower bolometric luminosities, shorter lifetimes, and/or heavy dust obscuration of TP-AGB stars remains to be addressed. Altogether, our data demand a low contribution from TP-AGB stars to the SED of post-starburst galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗