1,721,303 research outputs found
On low mass X-ray binaries and millisecond pulsar
Full text linkThe detection, in 1998, of the first Accreting Millisecond Pulsar, started an exiciting season of continuing discoveries in the fashinating field of compact binary systems harbouring a neutron star. Indeed, in these last three lustres, thanks to the extraordinary performances of astronomical detectors, on ground as well as on board of satellites, mainly in the radio, optical, x-ray, and gamma-ray bands, astrophysicists had the opportunity to thoroughly investigate the so-called Recycling Scenario: the evolutionary path leading to the formation of a Millisecond Radio Pulsar. The most intriguing phase is certainly the spin-up stage during which, because of the accretion of matter and angular momentum, the neutron star accumulates an extraordinary amount of mechanical rotational energy, up to 1% of its whole rest-mass energy. These millisecond spinning neutron stars are truly extreme physical objects: General and Special Relativity are fully in action, since their surfaces, attaining speeds close to one fifth of the speed of light, are located just beyond their Schwartzscild Radius, and electrodynamical forces, caused by the presence of huge surface magnetic fields of several hundred million Gauss, display their spectacular properties accelerating electrons up to such energies to promote pair creation in a cascade process responsible for the emission in Radio and Gamma-ray. The rotational energy is swiftly converted and released into electromagnetic power which, in some cases, causes the neutron star to outshine with a luminosity of one hundred suns. Along these fifteen years, a fruitful collaboration was established, at the Rome Astronomical Observatory, between my group and Franca D'Antona: her profound knowledge of the complex phases of stellar evolution, in particular of low-mass stars in close binary systems, was the key ingredient which boosted our theoretical and experimental studies of different evolutionary stages of these intriguing and fashinating systems. In this paper we review some of the most recent discoveries on (accreting) millisecond pulsars, highlighting the role played by our proficuous collaboration
A model to interpret pulse phase shifts in AMXPs: SAX J1808.4-3658 as a proof of concept
No full textAbstract: Observational evidences of erratic 1(st) harmonic pulse phase shifts in accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars pulse phase evolution was reported by several authors. This effect always go together with much more stable 2(nd) harmonics pulse phase delays. Different possible explanations of these phase shifts have been given in literature. But all these interpretations do not explain why the 2(nd) harmonic are more stable than the 1(st) harmonic. The explanation of such a behaviour is of fundamental importance in order to gain an insight on the NS rotational behaviour and to remove the still present interpretative ambiguity on the results of timing analysis. We propose a simple toy-model to interpret these phenomena as effect of small variations of the ratio between the fluxes from the two hot-spots. We show how it affects the phase of the overall pulse profile, when the two amplitudes are similar and the two hot-spots are not perfectly antipodal. Using this model, we give a detailed explanation of the phase jump observed in the 2002 outburst of SAX J1808.4-3658
Quantum clock: A critical discussion on spacetime
Full text linkWe critically discuss the measure of very short time intervals. By means of a Gedankenexperiment, we describe an ideal clock based on the occurrence of completely random events. Many previous thought experiments have suggested fundamental Planck-scale limits on measurements of distance and time. Here we present a new type of thought experiment, based on a different type of clock, that provide further support for the existence of such limits. We show that the minimum time interval Δ t that this clock can measure scales as the inverse of its size Δ r. This implies an uncertainty relation between space and time: Δ r Δ t > G ħ / c4, where G, ħ, and c are the gravitational constant, the reduced Planck constant, and the speed of light, respectively. We outline and briefly discuss the implications of this uncertainty conjecture
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
High Resolution and Broad Band Spectra of Low Mass X-ray Binaries: a Comparison between Black Holes and Neutron Stars
No full textA common question about compact objects in high energy astrophysics is whether it is possible to distinguish black hole from neutron star systems with some other property that is not the mass of the compact object. Up to now a few characteristics have been found which are typical of neutron stars (like quasi periodic oscillations at kHz frequencies or type-I X-ray bursts), but in many respects black hole and neutron star systems show very similar behaviors. We present here a spectral study of low mass X-ray binaries containing neutron stars and show that these systems have spectral characteristics that are very similar to what is found for black hole systems. This implies that it is unlikely we can distinguish between black holes and neutron stars from their X-ray spectra, except for the fact that black hole systems show sometimes a more extreme behavior with respect to neutron star systems
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