Download or read book Neutron Stars and NuSTAR written by Varun B. Bhalerao and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 2012-11 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars written by Luciano Rezzolla and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-01-09 with total page 825 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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).
Download or read book Compact Stellar X ray Sources written by Walter Lewin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-04-06 with total page 667 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book New Worlds New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-02-04 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Commerce Justice Science and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2018 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 1190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Observations and Theory of Short GRBs at the Dawn of the Gravitational Wave Era written by Giulia Stratta and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book starts with a review of the established facts on the numerical simulations of binary neutron star mergers and simulations of short GRB jets that highlights the issues that need to be revised and further clarified, as the need to understand how the relativistic outflow was launched, what the initial structure of the outflow is, and how it evolved through its interaction with the binary ejecta. Constraints on a local population of faint short duration GRBs are then provided in light of the GW170817/GRB 170817A event at d~40 Mpc by considering statistical limits on a d < 200 Mpc population. Using past and current GRB detectors, results suggest that GRB 170817A-like events are likely to be rare in existing short GRB catalogues and, if binary neutron star merger rates are at the high end of current estimates, then at most a few percent will be accompanied by detectable gamma-ray flashes in the forthcoming LIGO/Virgo science runs. Indirect information on the nature of short GRBs can be obtained from their host galaxy. The host galaxies of most short GRBs are found to be star-forming, but an important fraction, ∼1/5, are elliptical with negligible star formation. Short bursts often occur at very large off-sets from their hosts, in regions where there is little or no underlying host light. These results provide evidence of progenitors associated with merger of compact object binaries with kick velocities of a few tens of km/s and merger times of ∼1 Gyr. The last two issues of the book tackle the physics of the short GRB radiative processes. Interestingly, it was already noted in the past that the prompt emission for short GRBs and the initial 2 s of long-duration GRBs show similarity in the low energy photon index. This result has been further confirmed using a larger sample of Fermi Gamma-ray burst monitor data. In particular, it has been found that for 25% of GRBs, the photon index is shallower than −2/3, challenging the standard synchrotron emission scenario. The extent up to which the reverse shock component is detectable for short GRBs in radio wavelengths is analyzed. Results show that early, radio bright reverse shock is expected in many cases, but more rapid follow-up observational campaigns are required in order to test these predictions.
Download or read book Supernova written by Or Graur and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise illustrated introduction to the history and physics of supernovae, the brilliant explosions of stars; with striking color illustrations. Supernovae are the explosions of stars. They are some of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe, rivaling the combined light of billions of stars. Supernovae have been studied for centuries, and they have also made appearances in popular culture: a glimpse of a supernova in a painting provides Sherlock Holmes with a crucial clue, for example. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, astrophysicist Or Graur offers a concise and accessible introduction to these awe-inspiring astronomical phenomena. Graur explains that a deep observational understanding of supernovae—why and how they shine and how their brightness changes over time—allows us to use them as tools for experiments in astrophysics and physics. A certain type of supernova, for example, brightens and fades in such a predictable manner that we can measure the distances to their host galaxies. We owe our existence to supernovae—they give us iron for our blood and calcium for our bones. But supernovae may also have caused a mass extinction event on Earth 2.6 million years ago. Graur shows how observations of supernovae played a role in the transformation of astronomy from astrology to astrophysics; surveys the tools used to study supernovae today; and describes the lives and deaths of stars and the supernova remnants, neutron stars, and black holes they leave behind. Illustrations in both color and black and white, many from Graur’s own Hubble Space Telescope data, make this account of supernovae particularly vivid.
Download or read book Science Technology Review written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Commerce Justice Science and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2017 Justification of the budget estimates written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 1266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Spectral Analysis of Ultraluminous X ray Sources Using the Chandra Xray Observatory written by Akram Chandrajit Singha, A Senorita Devi and published by Sankalp Publication. This book was released on with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a comprehensive introduction to the data analysis of ultraluminous X-ray sources. This book will provide the readers with a familiar environment in data analysis methods and the different software used in high energy astrophysical data analysis.
Download or read book Science With The Cherenkov Telescope Array written by The Cta Consortium and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2018-12-31 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarizes the science to be carried out by the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array, a major ground-based gamma-ray observatory that will be constructed over the next six to eight years. The major scientific themes, as well as core program of key science projects, have been developed by the CTA Consortium, a collaboration of scientists from many institutions worldwide.CTA will be the major facility in high-energy and very high-energy photon astronomy over the next decade and beyond. CTA will have capabilities well beyond past and present observatories. Thus, CTA's science program is expected to be rich and broad and will complement other major multiwavelength and multimessenger facilities. This book is intended to be the primary resource for the science case for CTA and it thus will be of great interest to the broader physics and astronomy communities. The electronic version (e-book) is available in open access.
Download or read book Timing Neutron Stars Pulsations Oscillations and Explosions written by Tomaso M. Belloni and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-23 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Commerce Justice Science and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2013 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 1276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Impact of Binary Stars on Stellar Evolution written by Giacomo Beccari and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stars are mostly found in binary and multiple systems, with at least 50% of all solar-like stars having companions; this fraction approaches 100% for the most massive stars. A large proportion of these systems interact and alter the structure and evolution of their components, leading to exotic objects such as Algol variables, blue stragglers and other chemically peculiar stars, but also to phenomena such as non-spherical planetary nebulae, supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. While it is understood that binaries play a critical role in the Initial Mass Function, the interactions among binary systems significantly affect the dynamical evolution of stellar clusters and galaxies. This interdisciplinary volume presents results from state-of-the-art models and observations aimed at studying the impact of binaries on stellar evolution in resolved and unresolved populations. Serving as a bridge between observational and theoretical astronomy, it is a comprehensive review for researchers and advanced students of astrophysics.
Download or read book Astroparticle Physics written by Claus Grupen and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-27 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the branch of astronomy in which processes in the universe are investigated with experimental methods employed in particle-physics experiments. After a historical introduction the basics of elementary particles, Explains particle interactions and the relevant detection techniques, while modern aspects of astroparticle physics are described in a chapter on cosmology. Provides an orientation in the field of astroparticle physics that many beginners might seek and appreciate because the underlying physics fundamentals are presented with little mathematics, and the results are illustrated by many diagrams. Readers have a chance to enter this field of astronomy with a book that closes the gap between expert and popular level.
Download or read book The Space Science Decadal Surveys written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-10-28 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Research Council has conducted 11 decadal surveys in the Earth and space sciences since 1964 and released the latest four surveys in the past 8 years. The decadal surveys are notable in their ability to sample thoroughly the research interest, aspirations, and needs of a scientific community. Through a rigorous process, a primary survey committee and thematic panels of community members construct a prioritized program of science goals and objectives and define an executable strategy for achieving them. These reports play a critical role in defining the nation's agenda in that science area for the following 10 years, and often beyond. The Space Science Decadal Surveys considers the lessons learned from previous surveys and presents options for possible changes and improvements to the process, including the statement of task, advanced preparation, organization, and execution. This report discusses valuable aspects of decadal surveys that could taken further, as well as some challenges future surveys are likely to face in searching for the richest areas of scientific endeavor, seeking community consensus of where to go next, and planning how to get there. The Space Science Decadal Surveys describes aspects in the decadal survey prioritization process, including balance in the science program and across the discipline; balance between the needs of current researchers and the development of the future workforce; and balance in mission scale - smaller, competed programs versus large strategic missions.
Download or read book Modified Gravity and Cosmology written by Emmanuel N. Saridakis and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-12-10 with total page 631 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a focus on modified gravity this book presents a review of the recent developments in the fields of gravity and cosmology, presenting the state of the art, high-lighting the open problems, and outlining the directions of future research. General Relativity and the ΛCDM framework are currently the standard lore and constitute the concordance paradigm of cosmology. Nevertheless, long-standing open theoretical issues, as well as possible new observational ones arising from the explosive development of cosmology in the last two decades, offer the motivation and lead a large amount of research to be devoted in constructing various extensions and modifications. In this review all extended theories and scenarios are first examined under the light of theoretical consistency, and are then applied in various geometrical backgrounds, such as the cosmological and the spherical symmetric ones. Their predictions at both the background and perturbation levels, and concerning cosmology at early, intermediate and late times, are then confronted with the huge amount of observational data that astrophysics and cosmology has been able to offer in the last two decades. Theories, scenarios and models that successfully and efficiently pass the above steps are classified as viable and are candidates for the description of Nature, allowing readers to get a clear overview of the state of the art and where the field of modified gravity is likely to go. This work was performed in the framework of the COST European Action “Cosmology and Astrophysics Network for Theoretical Advances and Training Actions” - CANTATA.
