Neutron Stars and NuSTAR

Neutron Stars and NuSTAR PDF Author: Varun B. Bhalerao
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1612339441
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book centers around the study of neutron stars, especially those in massive binary systems. To this end, it has two distinct components: the observational study of neutron stars in massive binaries with a goal of measuring neutron star masses and participation in NuSTAR, the first imaging hard X-ray mission, one that is extremely well suited to the study of massive binaries and compact objects in our Galaxy. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is a NASA Small Explorer mission that will carry the first focusing high energy X-ray telescope to orbit. NuSTAR has an order-of-magnitude better angular resolution and has two orders of magnitude higher sensitivity than any currently orbiting hard X- ray telescope. I worked to develop, calibrate, and test CdZnTe detectors for NuSTAR. I describe the CdZnTe detectors in comprehensive detail here-from readout procedures to data analysis. Detailed calibration of detectors is necessary for analyzing astrophysical source data obtained by the NuSTAR. I discuss the design and implementation of an automated setup for calibrating flight detectors, followed by calibration procedures and results. Neutron stars are an excellent probe of fundamental physics. The maximum mass of a neutron star can put stringent constraints on the equation of state of matter at extreme pressures and densities. From an astrophysical perspective, there are several open questions in our understanding of neutron stars. What are the birth masses of neutron stars? How do they change in binary evolution? Are there multiple mechanisms for the formation of neutron stars? Measuring masses of neutron stars helps answer these questions. Neutron stars in high-mass X-ray binaries have masses close to their birth mass, providing an opportunity to disentangle the role of "nature" and "nurture" in the observed mass distributions. In 2006, masses had been measured for only six such objects, but this small sample showed the greatest diversity in masses among all classes of neutron star binaries. Intrigued by this diversity-which points to diverse birth masses-we undertook a systematic survey to measure the masses of neutron stars in nine high-mass X-ray binaries. In this book, I present results from this ongoing project.

Neutron Stars and NuSTAR

Neutron Stars and NuSTAR PDF Author: Varun B. Bhalerao
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1612339441
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book centers around the study of neutron stars, especially those in massive binary systems. To this end, it has two distinct components: the observational study of neutron stars in massive binaries with a goal of measuring neutron star masses and participation in NuSTAR, the first imaging hard X-ray mission, one that is extremely well suited to the study of massive binaries and compact objects in our Galaxy. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is a NASA Small Explorer mission that will carry the first focusing high energy X-ray telescope to orbit. NuSTAR has an order-of-magnitude better angular resolution and has two orders of magnitude higher sensitivity than any currently orbiting hard X- ray telescope. I worked to develop, calibrate, and test CdZnTe detectors for NuSTAR. I describe the CdZnTe detectors in comprehensive detail here-from readout procedures to data analysis. Detailed calibration of detectors is necessary for analyzing astrophysical source data obtained by the NuSTAR. I discuss the design and implementation of an automated setup for calibrating flight detectors, followed by calibration procedures and results. Neutron stars are an excellent probe of fundamental physics. The maximum mass of a neutron star can put stringent constraints on the equation of state of matter at extreme pressures and densities. From an astrophysical perspective, there are several open questions in our understanding of neutron stars. What are the birth masses of neutron stars? How do they change in binary evolution? Are there multiple mechanisms for the formation of neutron stars? Measuring masses of neutron stars helps answer these questions. Neutron stars in high-mass X-ray binaries have masses close to their birth mass, providing an opportunity to disentangle the role of "nature" and "nurture" in the observed mass distributions. In 2006, masses had been measured for only six such objects, but this small sample showed the greatest diversity in masses among all classes of neutron star binaries. Intrigued by this diversity-which points to diverse birth masses-we undertook a systematic survey to measure the masses of neutron stars in nine high-mass X-ray binaries. In this book, I present results from this ongoing project.

Accretion Processes in Astrophysics

Accretion Processes in Astrophysics PDF Author: Ignacio González Martínez-País
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107067634
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book Here

Book Description
It has been more than fifty years since the first significant paper on accretion flows was written. In recent years, X-ray satellites capable of identifying accretion disks and radiation jets - indications that accretion has taken place - have significantly advanced our understanding of these phenomena. This volume presents a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the major theoretical and observational topics associated with accretion processes in astrophysics. Comprising lectures presented at the twenty-first Winter School of the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics, the text emphasises the physical aspects of accretion, investigating how radiation jets are produced, how accretion power is divided between jets and radiated energy, the geometry of accretion flow, and the accretion processes of active galactic nuclei. Written by an international team of experienced scientists, chapters offer young researchers key analytical tools for supporting and carrying out the next generation of front-line research.

Rotation and Accretion Powered Pulsars

Rotation and Accretion Powered Pulsars PDF Author: Pranab Ghosh
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9812708464
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 793

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is an introduction to pulsars, a key area in high energy astrophysics with continuing potential for fundamental discoveries. Throughout the book runs the unifying thread of the evolutionary link between rotation-powered pulsars and accretion-powered pulsars OCo a milestone of modern astrophysics. Early textbooks on pulsars dealt almost entirely with rotation-powered ones, while accounts of pulsars in volumes on X-ray binaries focused almost exclusively on accretion-powered ones. This is the first textbook to treat these two kinds of pulsars simultaneously with equal importance, stressing the fact that both are rotating, magnetic neutron stars, operating under different conditions during different parts of their lives. It describes the observational properties of both kinds of pulsars, summarizes our physical understanding of these properties, and pays detailed attention to the physics of superdense matter which neutron stars are composed of, as well as to the superfluidity which is expected to occur in neutron stars. Evolution from rotation-power to accretion-power, and vice versa, are carefully described. The effects of the strong magnetic fields of neutron stars on themselves, their emission properties, and their environments are discussed, as are the origin and evolution of such magnetic fields. Also treated is the superbly accurate verification of Einstein''s theory of general relativity through timing studies of binary pulsars, which led to the award of the Nobel Prize to Hulse and Taylor in 1993. On each topic, the book starts with simple, basic physical concepts, and builds up the exposition to the point where the latest and most exciting developments become accessible to the reader."

Compact Stellar X-ray Sources

Compact Stellar X-ray Sources PDF Author: Walter Lewin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139451774
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 667

Get Book Here

Book Description
X-ray astronomy is the prime available window on astrophysical compact objects: black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs. In this book, prominent experts provide a comprehensive overview of the observations and astrophysics of these objects. This is a valuable reference for graduate students and active researchers.

The Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars

The Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars PDF Author: Luciano Rezzolla
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319976168
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 825

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book summarizes the recent progress in the physics and astrophysics of neutron stars and, most importantly, it identifies and develops effective strategies to explore, both theoretically and observationally, the many remaining open questions in the field. Because of its significance in the solution of many fundamental questions in nuclear physics, astrophysics and gravitational physics, the study of neutron stars has seen enormous progress over the last years and has been very successful in improving our understanding in these fascinating compact objects. The book addresses a wide spectrum of readers, from students to senior researchers. Thirteen chapters written by internationally renowned experts offer a thorough overview of the various facets of this interdisciplinary science, from neutron star formation in supernovae, pulsars, equations of state super dense matter, gravitational wave emission, to alternative theories of gravity. The book was initiated by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action MP1304 “Exploring fundamental physics with compact stars” (NewCompStar).

New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics

New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309157994
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
Driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imagination, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically during the course of the last few decades. The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are making new connections to physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Based on a broad and comprehensive survey of scientific opportunities, infrastructure, and organization in a national and international context, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics outlines a plan for ground- and space- based astronomy and astrophysics for the decade of the 2010's. Realizing these scientific opportunities is contingent upon maintaining and strengthening the foundations of the research enterprise including technological development, theory, computation and data handling, laboratory experiments, and human resources. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics proposes enhancing innovative but moderate-cost programs in space and on the ground that will enable the community to respond rapidly and flexibly to new scientific discoveries. The book recommends beginning construction on survey telescopes in space and on the ground to investigate the nature of dark energy, as well as the next generation of large ground-based giant optical telescopes and a new class of space-based gravitational observatory to observe the merging of distant black holes and precisely test theories of gravity. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics recommends a balanced and executable program that will support research surrounding the most profound questions about the cosmos. The discoveries ahead will facilitate the search for habitable planets, shed light on dark energy and dark matter, and aid our understanding of the history of the universe and how the earliest stars and galaxies formed. The book is a useful resource for agencies supporting the field of astronomy and astrophysics, the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over those agencies, the scientific community, and the public.

Astrophysics In The Xxi Century With Compact Stars

Astrophysics In The Xxi Century With Compact Stars PDF Author: Cesar Augusto Zen Vasconcellos
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811220956
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
There are reasons to believe the 21st century will be the best ever for astrophysics: the James Webb Space Telescope will extend nearly twenty times the present observational limit of visible light; neutrino massiveness opens a new window for exploration on dark energy and dark matter physics and is expected to provide insights into the fate of the Universe; the Higgs boson may allow for an understanding of the weakness of gravity; gravitational waves produced at the birth of the Universe and by compact stellar objects (supermassive black holes, black hole/neutron star mergers, gamma-ray bursts, white dwarf inspirals) have unveiled a new area of astronomy. Against this background, compact stars, the theme of this volume, present unique astrophysical laboratories for probing the fabric of space-time and the building blocks of matter and their interactions at physical regimes not attainable in terrestrial laboratories.

Timing Neutron Stars: Pulsations, Oscillations and Explosions

Timing Neutron Stars: Pulsations, Oscillations and Explosions PDF Author: Tomaso M. Belloni
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 366262110X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book Here

Book Description
Neutron stars, whether isolated or in a binary system, display a varied and complex phenomenology, often accompanied by extreme variability of many time scales, which takes the form of pulsations due to the object rotation, quasi-periodicities associated to accretion of matter, and explosions due to matter accreted on the surface or to starquakes of highly magnetized objects. This book gives an overview of the current observational and theoretical standpoint in the research on the physics under the extreme conditions that neutron stars naturally provide. The six chapters explore three physical regions of a neutron star: the space around it, where accretion and pulsar companions allow testing of general relativity its surface, where millisecond pulsation and X-ray burts provide clues about general relativistic effects and the equation of state of neutron matter its interior, of course, inaccessible to direct observations, can nevertheless, be probed with all observational parameters related to neutron star variability.

Astrophysics of Black Holes

Astrophysics of Black Holes PDF Author: Cosimo Bambi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3662528592
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book discusses the state of the art of the basic theoretical and observational topics related to black hole astrophysics. It covers all the main topics in this wide field, from the theory of accretion disks and formation mechanisms of jet and outflows, to their observed electromagnetic spectrum, and attempts to measure the spin of these objects. Black holes are one of the most fascinating predictions of general relativity and are currently a very hot topic in both physics and astrophysics. In the last five years there have been significant advances in our understanding of these systems, and in the next five years it should become possible to use them to test fundamental physics, in particular to predict the general relativity in the strong field regime. The book is both a reference work for researchers and a textbook for graduate students.

Discovering the Cosmos with Small Spacecraft

Discovering the Cosmos with Small Spacecraft PDF Author: Brian Harvey
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319681400
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explorer was the original American space program and Explorer 1 its first satellite, launched in 1958. Sixty years later, it is the longest continuously running space program in the world, demonstrating to the world how we can explore the cosmos with small spacecraft. Almost a hundred Explorers have already been launched. Explorers have made some of the fundamental discoveries of the Space Age. Explorer 1 discovered Earth’s radiation belts. Later Explorers surveyed the Sun, the X-ray and ultraviolet universes, black holes, magnetars and gamma ray bursts. An Explorer found the remnant of the Big Bang. One Explorer chased and was the first to intercept a comet. The program went through a period of few launches during the crisis of funding for space science in the 1980s. However, with the era of ‘faster, cheaper, better,’ the program was reinvented, and new exiting missions began to take shape, like Swift and the asteroid hunter WISE. Discovering the Cosmos with Small Spacecraft gives an account of each mission and its discoveries. It breaks down the program into its main periods of activity and examines the politics and debate on the role of small spacecraft in space science. It introduces the launchers (Juno, Thor, etc.), the launch centers, the ground centers and key personalities like James Van Allen who helped develop and run the spacecraft’s exciting programs.