159 research outputs found
Non-adiabatic oscillations of compact stars in general relativity
No full textWe have developed a formalism to study nonadiabatic, nonradial oscillations of nonrotating compact stars in the frequency domain, including the effects of thermal diffusion in the framework of general relativistic perturbation theory. When a general equation of state depending on temperature is used, the perturbations of the fluid result in heat flux which is coupled with the space-time geometry through the Einstein field equations. Our results show that the frequency of the first pressure (p) and gravity (g) oscillation modes is significantly affected by thermal diffusion, while that of the fundamental (f) mode is basically unaltered due to the global nature of that oscillation. The damping time of the oscillations is generally much smaller than in the adiabatic case (more than 2 orders of magnitude for the p- and g-modes) reflecting the effect of thermal dissipation. Both the isothermal and adiabatic limits are recovered in our treatment and we study in more detail the intermediate regime. Our formalism finds its natural astrophysical application in the study of the oscillation properties of newly born neutron stars, neutron stars with a deconfined quark core phase, or strange stars which are all promising sources of gravitational waves with frequencies in the band of the first generation and advanced ground-based interferometric detectors
Long-term wind-driven X-ray spectral variability of NGC 1365 with Swift
No full textWe present long-term (months–years) X-ray spectral variability of the Seyfert 1.8 galaxy NGC 1365 as observed by Swift, which provides well-sampled observations over a much longer time-scale (six years) and a much larger flux range than is afforded by other observatories. At very low luminosities, the spectrum is very soft, becoming rapidly harder as the luminosity increases and then, above a particular luminosity, softening again. At a given flux level, the scatter in hardness ratio is not very large, meaning that the spectral shape is largely determined by the luminosity. The spectra were therefore summed in luminosity bins and fitted with a variety of models. The best-fitting model consists of two power laws, one unabsorbed and another, more luminous, which is absorbed. In this model, we find a range of intrinsic 0.5–10.0 keV luminosities of approximately 1.1–3.5 erg s?1, and a very large range of absorbing columns, of approximately 1022–1024 cm?2. Interestingly, we find that the absorbing column decreases with increasing luminosity, but that this result is not due to changes in ionization. We suggest that these observations might be interpreted in terms of a wind model in which the launch radius varies as a function of ionizing flux and disc temperature and therefore moves out with increasing accretion rate, i.e. increasing X-ray luminosity. Thus, depending on the inclination angle of the disc relative to the observer, the absorbing column may decrease as the accretion rate goes up. The weaker, unabsorbed, component may be a scattered component from the wind
Gravitational signals emitted by a point mass orbiting a neutron star: a perturbative approach
No full textWe compute the energy spectra of the gravitational signals emitted when a pointlike mass moves on a closed orbit around a nonrotating neutron star, inducing a perturbation of its gravitational field and its internal structure. The Einstein equations and the hydrodynamical equations are perturbed and numerically integrated in the frequency domain. The results are compared with the energy spectra computed by the quadrupole formalism which assumes that both masses are pointlike, and accounts only for the radiation emitted because the orbital motion produces a time dependent quadrupole moment. The results of our perturbative approach show that, in general, the quadrupole formalism overestimates the amount of emitted radiation, especially when the two masses are close. However, if the pointlike mass is allowed to move on an orbit so tight that the Keplerian orbital frequency resonates with the frequency of the fundamental quasinormal mode of the star (2ωK=ωf), this mode can be excited and the emitted radiation can be considerably larger than that computed by the quadrupole approach
Relativistic disc reflection in the extreme NLS1 IRAS13224-3809
No full textWe present a spectral variability study of the XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations of one of the most extreme Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies, IRAS13224-3809. The X-ray spectrum is characterized by two main peculiar features, i) a strong soft excess with a steep rise below about 1.3 keV and ii) a deep drop in flux above 8.2 keV. We focus here on a reflection-based interpretation which interprets both features, as well as the large soft excess, in terms of partially ionized reflection off the inner accretion disc. We show that the two peculiar spectral features mentioned above can be reproduced by two relativistic emission lines due to Fe K and Fe L. The lines are produced in the inner accretion disc and independently yield consistent disc parameters. We argue that the high L/K intensity ratio is broadly consistent with expectations from an ionized accretion disc reflection, indicating that they belong to a single ionized reflection component. The spectral shape, X-ray flux, and variability properties are very similar in the XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations, performed about 5 years apart. The overall X-ray spectrum and variability can be described by a simple two-component model comprising a steep power law continuum plus its ionised reflection off the inner accretion disc. In this model, a rapidly rotating Kerr black hole and a steep emissivity profile are required to describe the data. The simultaneous detection of broad relativistic Fe L and K lines in IRAS 13224-3809 follows that in another extreme NLS1 galaxy, 1H0707-495. Although the data quality for IRAS13224-3809 does not allow us to rule out competing models as in 1H0707-495, we show here that our reflection-based interpretation describes in a self-consistent manner the available data and points towards IRAS13224-3809 being a very close relative of 1H0707-495 in terms of both spectral and variability properties. <br/
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