14620141
Evolution of Debris of a Tidally Disrupted Star by a Massive Black Hole: Development of a Hybrid Scheme of the SPH and TVD Methods
The evolution of the stellar debris after tidal disruption due to the super massive black hole's tidal force is difficult to solve numerically because of the large dynamical range of the problem. We developed an SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) - TVD (Total Variation Diminishing) hybrid code in which the SPH is used to cover a widely spread debris and the TVD is used to compute the stream collision more accurately. While the code in the present form is not sufficient to obtain desired resoultion, it could provide a useful tool in studying the aftermath of the stellar disruption by a massive black hole.
16066531
Dynamical Friction on Galactic Center Star Clusters with an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole
Numerical simulations of the dynamical friction suffered by a Galactic center star cluster harboring an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) have been performed. Gerhard has suggested that dynamical friction, which causes a cluster to lose orbital energy and spiral in toward the Galactic center, may explain the presence of a cluster of very young stars in the central parsec, where star formation might be prohibitively difficult because of strong tidal forces. However, numerical simulations by Kim & Morris showed that this is possible only if the cluster initially has an extremely dense core. Hansen & Milosavljevic recently suggested that the presence of an IMBH in the cluster core might stabilize the core against tidal disruption during the inspiral through dynamical friction and thus might easily deliver young stars down to the central parsec. We find that the presence of an IMBH does lower the minimum initial core density required to transport young stars down to the central parsec, but this is possible only when the mass of the IMBH is at least ~10% of the total cluster mass. This fraction is significantly higher than that estimated by Portegies Zwart & McMillan with numerical simulations of IMBH formation by successive merging of stars in the cluster core, so it does not appear that a realistic IMBH can help transport young stars into the central parsec.
119489565
Core-Collapse Times of Two-Component Clusters
We examine the corecollapse times of isolated, two-mass-component star clusters using Fokker-Planck models. With initial condition of Plummer models, we find that the corecollapse times of clusters with M_1/M_2 >> 1 are well correlated with (N_1/N_2)^{1/2}(m_1/m_2)^{2} t_{rh}, where M_1/M_2 and m_1/m_2 are the light to heavy component total and individual mass ratios, respectively, N_1/N_2 is the number ratio, and t_{rh} is the initial half-mass relaxation time scale. We also find two-component cluster parameters that best match multi-component (thus more realistic) clusters with power-law mass functions.
16004057
Spatial diffusion of stars in the inner galactic bulge
Star formation in the inner few hundred parsecs of the Galactic bulge occurs in a flattened molecular layer called the central molecular zone (CMZ). It has been suggested that star formation in the CMZ has been sustained for the lifetime of the Galaxy and that the resulting agglomeration of stars formed in the CMZ has resulted in the prominent r-2 stellar density cusp at the Galactic center having about the same physical extent as the CMZ. This "central cusp" is somewhat less flat than the CMZ; thus, the population of stars formed in the CMZ appears to have diffused out to larger latitudes. We hypothesize that such vertical diffusion is driven by the scattering of stars off the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the CMZ and perform numerical simulations of the scattering between stars and GMCs in the presence of the nonaxisymmetric background potential. The simulation results show that the timescale for an initially flattened stellar population to achieve an aspect ratio of the observed OH/IR stars in the inner bulge, 1-2 Gyr, agrees well with the estimated age of those OH/IR stars.
17473739
Stellar collisions and mergers in the galactic center
Stars are most likely to merge or collide in regions of the highest stellar densities, and our own Galactic Center contains many stars packed into a relatively small volume -- even the ambient stellar number density in the central 50 pc is quite high, ~10^3 stars pc^{-3}. More striking, the three compact young clusters in this region have central densities as high as 10^6 stars pc^{-3}. We discuss these extreme environments and the possibility that stellar mergers and collisions have recently occured there. In particular, we predict that at least one massive star in the Arches cluster has already experienced a stellar merger in its short lifetime. Further, the Pistol Star, in the nearby Quintuplet cluster, might owe its apparent relative youth to a rejuvinating stellar merger. Finally, the apparently young stars in the central arcsecond could be products of either collisions, inducing atmospheric stripping, or mergers.
13909300
The Stream-Stream Collision after the Tidal Disruption of a Star around a Massive Black Hole
A star can be tidally disrupted around a massive black hole. It is known that the debris forms a precessing stream, which may collide with itself. The stream collision is a key process in determining the subsequent evolution of the stellar debris: if the orbital energy is efficiently dissipated, the debris will eventually form a circular disk (or torus). In this paper, we have numerically studied such a stream collision resulting from the encounter between a 106 M☉ black hole and a 1 M☉ normal star with a pericenter radius of 100 R☉. A simple treatment for radiative cooling has been adopted for both optically thick and optically thin regions. We have found that approximately 10% to 15% of the initial kinetic energy of the streams is converted into thermal energy during the collision. The spread in angular momentum of the incoming stream is increased by a factor of 2 to 3, and such an increase, together with the decrease in kinetic energy, significantly helps the circularization process. The initial luminosity burst produced by the collision may reach as high as 1041 ergs s-1 in 104 s, after which the luminosity increases again (but slowly this time) to a steady value of a few 1040 ergs s-1 in a few times 105 s. The radiation from the system is expected to be close to Planckian, with an effective temperature of ~105 K.
119231020
Maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills in five dimensions in light-cone superspace
We formulate maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in five dimensions in light-cone superspace. The light-cone Hamiltonian is of the quadratic form and the theory can be understood as an oxidation of the $ \mathcal{N} = 4 $ Super Yang-Mills Theory in four dimensions. We specifically study three-point counterterms and show how these counterterms vanish on-shell. This study is a preliminary to set up the technique in order to study possible four-point counterterms.
120898350
Surplus Solid Angle in Horava-Lifshitz Gravity
We consider Hořava-Lifshitz gravity coupled to the electrostatic field of a point charge, and show that the static solutions describe a space with a surplus (or deficit) solid angle. Unlike in general relativity, appearance of a surplus angle seems generic in Hořava-Lifshitz gravity. We discuss possible astrophysical effects due to a surplus angle.
119282193
Expanding universe as a classical solution in the Lorentzian matrix model for nonperturbative superstring theory
Recently we have shown by Monte Carlo simulation that expanding (3+1)-dimensional universe appears dynamically from a Lorentzian matrix model for type IIB superstring theory in (9+1)-dimensions. The mechanism for the spontaneous breaking of rotational symmetry relies crucially on the noncommutative nature of the space. Here we study the classical equations of motion as a complementary approach. In particular, we find a unique class of SO(3) symmetric solutions, which exhibits the time-dependence compatible with the expanding universe. The space-space noncommutativity is exactly zero, whereas the space-time noncommutativity becomes significant only towards the end of the expansion. We interpret the Monte Carlo results and the classical solution as describing the behavior of the model at earlier time and at later time, respectively.
119303854
Time and Amplitude of Afterpulse Measured with a Large Size Photomultiplier Tube
Abstract We have studied the afterpulse of a hemispherical photomultiplier tube for an upcoming reactor neutrino experiment. The timing, the amplitude, and the rate of the afterpulse for a 10 in. photomultiplier tube were measured with a 400 MHz FADC up to 16 μ s time window after the initial signal generated by an LED light pulse. The time and amplitude correlation of the afterpulse shows several distinctive groups. We describe the dependencies of the afterpulse on the applied high voltage and the amplitude of the main light pulse. The present data could shed light upon the general mechanism of the afterpulse.
17211178
N-flation: Non-Gaussianity in the horizon-crossing approximation
We analyze the cosmic nongaussianity produced in inflation models with multiple uncoupled fields with monomial potentials, such as Nflation. Using the horizon-crossing approximation to compute the nongaussianity, we show that when each field has the same form of potential, the prediction is independent the number of fields, their initial conditions, and the spectrum of masses/couplings. It depends only on the number of $e$-foldings after the horizon crossing of observable perturbations. We also provide a further generalization to the case where the fields can have monomial potentials with different powers. Unless the horizon-crossing approximation is substantially violated, the predicted nongaussianity is too small to ever be observed.