Theoretical astrophysics and plasma physics at RPC

Abstract:

We present an exact three-dimensional wave solution to the shearing-sheet equations of motion. The existence of this solution argues against transient amplification as a route to turbulence in unmagnetized disks. Moreover, because the solution covers an extensive dynamical range in wavenumber space, it is an excellent test of the dissipative properties of numerical codes. © 2006. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

We report new constraints on the local escape speed of our Galaxy. Our analysis is based on a sample of high velocity stars from the RAVE survey and two previously published datasets. We use cosmological simulations of disk galaxy formation to motivate our assumptions on the shape of the velocity distribution, allowing for a significantly more precise measurement of the escape velocity compared to previous studies. We find that the escape velocity lies within the range $498\kms < \ve < 608 \kms$ (90 per cent confidence), with a median likelihood of $544\kms$. The fact that $\ve^2$ is significantly greater than $2\vc^2$ (where $\vc=220\kms$ is the local circular velocity) implies that there must be a significant amount of mass exterior to the Solar circle, i.e. this convincingly demonstrates the presence of a dark halo in the Galaxy. For a simple isothermal halo, one can calculate that the minimum radial extent is $\sim58$ kpc. We use our constraints on $\ve$ to determine the mass of the Milky Way halo for three halo profiles. For example, an adiabatically contracted NFW halo model results in a virial mass of $1.42^{+1.14}_{-0.54}\times10^{12}M_\odot$ and virial radius of $305^{+66}_{-45}$ kpc (90 per cent confidence). For this model the circular velocity at the virial radius is $142^{+31}_{-21}\kms$. Although our halo masses are model dependent, we find that they are in good agreement with each other.

Abstract:

We analysed the long-term variability of four microquasars (GRS 1915+105, Cyg X-1, Cyg X-3, and Sco X-1) in radio and X rays. The results of our analysis indicate the existence of two distinct modes of energy output, which we refer to as the `coupled' mode and the `flaring' mode. The coupled mode is responsible for mildly fluctuating, flat-spectrum radio emission, coupled with the X-ray emission; the flaring mode produces powerful, steep-spectrum radio flares, with no significant counterpart in X rays. We find that the fraction of time spent by a typical microquasar in the flaring mode is similar to the fraction of quasars that are radio-loud. This is consistent with the hypothesis that radio-loudness of quasars is a function of the epoch at which the source is observed.