1,720,982 research outputs found

    UV Signatures of Magnetar Formation and Their Crucial Role for GW Detection

    Full text link
    The emission from shock breakouts (SBOs) represents the earliest electromagnetic (EM) signal emitted by cataclysmic events involving the formation or the merger of neutron stars (NSs). As such, SBOs carry unique information on the structure of their progenitors and on the explosion energy. The characteristic SBO emission is expected in the UV range, and its detection is one of the key targets of the ULTRASAT satellite. Among SBO sources, we focus on a specific class involving the formation of fast-spinning magnetars in the core-collapse of massive stars. Fast-spinning magnetars are expected to produce a specific signature in the early UV supernova light curve, powered by the extra spin energy quickly released by the NS. Moreover, they are considered as optimal candidates for the emission of long-transient gravitational wave (GW) signals, the detection of which requires early EM triggers to boost the sensitivity of dedicated GW search pipelines. We calculate early supernova UV light curves in the presence of a magnetar central engine, as a function of the explosion energy, ejecta mass, and magnetar parameters. We then estimate the ULTRASAT detection horizon ( z < 0.15) as a function of the same physical parameters, and the overall expected detection rate, finding that magnetar-powered SBOs may represent up to 1/5 of the total events detected by ULTRASAT. Moreover, at the expected sensitivity of the LIGO/Virgo/Kagra O5 science run, one such event occurring within 5 Mpc will provide an ideal trigger for a GW long-transient search. Future GW detectors like the Einstein Telescope will push the horizon for joint EM-GW detections to 35–40 Mpc

    Magnetar central engines in gamma-ray busts follow the universal relation of accreting magnetic stars

    Full text link
    Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), both long and short, are explosive events whose inner engine is generally expected to be a black hole or a highly magnetic neutron star (magnetar) accreting high density matter. Recognizing the nature of GRB central engines, and in particular the formation of neutron stars (NSs), is of high astrophysical significance. A possible signature of NSs in GRBs is the presence of a plateau in the early X-ray afterglow. Here we carefully select a subset of long and short GRBs with a clear plateau, and look for an additional NS signature in their prompt emission, namely a transition between accretion and propeller in analogy with accreting, magnetic compact objects in other astrophysical sources. We estimate from the prompt emission the minimum accretion luminosity below which the propeller mechanism sets in, and the NS magnetic field and spin period from the plateau. We demonstrate that these three quantities obey the same universal relation in GRBs as in other accreting compact objects switching from accretion to propeller. This relation provides also an estimate of the radiative efficiency of GRBs, which we find to be several times lower than radiatively efficient accretion in X-ray binaries and in agreement with theoretical expectations. These results provide additional support to the idea that at least some GRBs are powered by magnetars surrounded by an accretion disc.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

    Gravitational Self-lensing of Fast Radio Bursts in Neutron Star Magnetospheres. I. The Model

    No full text
    Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are cosmological subsecond bursts of coherent radio emission, whose source is still unknown. To date, the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935 + 2154 is the only astrophysical object known to emit radio bursts akin to FRBs, albeit less powerful, supporting suggestions that FRBs originate from magnetars. Many remarkable properties of FRBs—e.g., the dichotomy between repeaters and one-off sources, and their power-law energy distributions (with typical index ∼2-3)—are not well understood yet. Moreover, the huge radio power released by the most active repeaters is challenging even for the magnetic energy reservoir of magnetars. Here, we assume that FRBs originate from corotating hotspots anchored in neutron star (NS) magnetospheres and occasionally get amplified by large factors via gravitational self-lensing in the strong NS field. We evaluate the probability of amplification and show that: (i) a power-law energy distribution of events ∝E −(2−3) is generally expected; (ii) all FRB sources may be regarded as repeating, their appearance as one-off sources or repeaters being determined by the critical dependence of the amplification probability on the emission geometry and source orientation relative to Earth; and (iii) the most active repeaters, in particular, correspond to extremely rare and finely tuned orientations (∼1 in 106), leading to large probabilities of amplification that make their bursts frequently detectable. At the same time, their power release appears enhanced, typically by factors ≳10, easing their energy budget problem

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

    Full text link
    The 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 link
    We 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 link
    We 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

    Author Index

    No full text
    Nao informado

    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

    No full text
    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
    corecore