ABSTRACT
Understanding the evolution of the angle χ between a magnetar’s rotation and magnetic axes sheds light on the star’s birth properties. This evolution is coupled with that of the stellar ...rotation Ω, and depends on the competing effects of internal viscous dissipation and external torques. We study this coupled evolution for a model magnetar with a strong internal toroidal field, extending previous work by modelling – for the first time in this context – the strong protomagnetar wind acting shortly after birth. We also account for the effect of buoyancy forces on viscous dissipation at late times. Typically, we find that χ → 90° shortly after birth, then decreases towards 0° over hundreds of years. From observational indications that magnetars typically have small χ, we infer that these stars are subject to a stronger average exterior torque than radio pulsars, and that they were born spinning faster than ∼100–300 Hz. Our results allow us to make quantitative predictions for the gravitational and electromagnetic signals from a newborn rotating magnetar. We also comment briefly on the possible connection with periodic fast radio burst sources.
ABSTRACT
This work explores whether gravitational waves (GWs) from neutron star (NS) mountains can be detected with current second-generation and future third-generation GW detectors. In particular, ...we focus on a scenario where transient mountains are formed immediately after an NS glitch. In a glitch, an NS’s spin frequency abruptly increases and then often exponentially recovers back to, but never quite reaches, the spin frequency prior to the glitch. If the recovery is ascribed to an additional torque due to a transient mountain, we find that GWs from that mountain are marginally detectable with Advanced LIGO at design sensitivity and is very likely to be detectable for third-generation detectors such as the Einstein Telescope. Using this model, we are able to find analytical expressions for the GW amplitude and its duration in terms of observables.
Modelling neutron star mountains Gittins, F; Andersson, N; Jones, D I
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
02/2021, Letnik:
500, Številka:
4
Journal Article
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ABSTRACT
As the era of gravitational-wave astronomy has well and truly begun, gravitational radiation from rotating neutron stars remains elusive. Rapidly spinning neutron stars are the main targets ...for continuous-wave searches since, according to general relativity, provided they are asymmetrically deformed, they will emit gravitational waves. It is believed that detecting such radiation will unlock the answer to why no pulsars have been observed to spin close to the break-up frequency. We review existing studies on the maximum mountain that a neutron star crust can support, critique the key assumptions and identify issues relating to boundary conditions that need to be resolved. In light of this discussion, we present a new scheme for modelling neutron star mountains. The crucial ingredient for this scheme is a description of the fiducial force which takes the star away from sphericity. We consider three examples: a source potential which is a solution to Laplace’s equation, another solution which does not act in the core of the star and a thermal pressure perturbation. For all the cases, we find that the largest quadrupoles are between a factor of a few to two orders of magnitude below previous estimates of the maximum-mountain size.
Curcumin is a highly pleiotropic molecule found in the rhizomes of Curcuma longa (turmeric). It is responsible for the yellow color of turmeric and has been shown to inhibit the proliferation of ...cancer cells and to be of use in preventing or treating a number of diseases. Curcumin has been shown to modulate multiple cell-signaling pathways simultaneously, thereby mitigating or preventing many different types of cancers, including multiple myeloma and colorectal, pancreatic, breast, prostate, lung, head, and neck cancers, in both animal models and humans. Current therapeutic approaches using a single cancer drug for a single target can be expensive, have serious side effects, or both. Consequently, new approaches to the treatment and prevention of cancer, including the integration of curcumin as a viable treatment strategy where dysregulation of many pathways is involved, are warranted. A methodical review of the evidence was performed to evaluate the effects of curcumin in support of a health claim, as established through the regulatory framework of Health Canada, for a relationship between the consumption of curcumin and the prevention and treatment of cancer.
ABSTRACT
It was recently reported that there exists a population of ‘glitch candidates’ and ‘antiglitch candidates’ which are effectively small spin-ups and spin-downs of a neutron star with ...magnitudes smaller than those seen in typical glitches. The physical origin of these small events is not yet understood. In this paper, we outline a model that can account for the changes in spin, and crucially, is independently testable with gravitational wave observations. In brief, the model posits that small spin-up/spin-down events are caused by the excitation and decay of non-axisymmetric f-modes which radiate angular momentum away in a burst-like way as gravitational waves. The model takes the change in spin frequency as an input and outputs the initial mode amplitude and the signal-to-noise ratio achievable from gravitational wave detectors. We find that the model presented here will become falsifiable once third generation gravitational wave detectors, like the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, begin taking data.
ABSTRACT
Many low-mass X-ray binary systems are observed to contain rapidly spinning neutron stars. The spin frequencies of these systems may be limited by the emission of gravitational waves. This ...can happen if their mass distribution is sufficiently non-axisymmetric. It has been suggested that such ‘mountains’ may be created via temperature non-axisymmetries, but estimates of the likely level of temperature asymmetry have been lacking. To remedy this, we examine a simple symmetry breaking mechanism, where an internal magnetic field perturbs the thermal conductivity tensor, making it direction-dependent. We find that the internal magnetic field strengths required to build mountains of the necessary size are very large, several orders of magnitude larger than the inferred external field strengths, pushing into the regime where our assumption of the magnetic field having a perturbative effect on the thermal conductivity breaks down. We also examine how non-axisymmetric surface temperature profiles, as might be caused by magnetic funnelling of the accretion flow, lead to internal temperature asymmetries, but find that for realistic parameters the induced non-axisymmetries are very small. We conclude that, in the context of this work at least, very large internal magnetic fields are required to generate mountains of the necessary size.
We consider the issue of selecting parameters and their associated ranges for carrying out searches for continuous gravitational waves from steadily rotating neutron stars. We consider three ...different cases: (i) the ‘classic’ case of a star spinning about a principal axis; (ii) a biaxial star, not spinning about a principal axis; (iii) a triaxial star spinning steady, but not about a principal axis as described by Jones. The first of these emits only at one frequency; the other two at a pair of harmonically related frequencies. We show that in all three cases, when written in terms of the original ‘source parameters’, there exist a number of discrete degeneracies, with different parameter values giving rise to the same gravitational wave signal. We show how these can be removed by suitably restricting the source parameter ranges. In the case of the model as written down by Jones, there is also a continuous degeneracy. We show how to remove this through a suitable rewriting in terms of ‘waveform parameters’, chosen so as to make the specializations to the other stellar models particularly simple. We briefly consider the (non-trivial) relation between the assignments of prior probabilities on one set of parameters verses the other. The results of this paper will be of use when designing strategies for carrying out searches for such multiharmonic gravitational wave signals, and when performing parameter estimation in the event of a detection.
Continuous gravitational waves from neutron stars could provide an invaluable resource to learn about their interior physics. A common search method involves matched filtering a modeled template ...against the noisy gravitational-wave data to find signals. This method suffers a mismatch (i.e., relative loss of the signal-to-noise ratio) if the signal deviates from the template. One possible instance in which this may occur is if the neutron star undergoes a glitch, a sudden rapid increase in the rotation frequency seen in the timing of many radio pulsars. In this work, we use a statistical characterization of the glitch rate and size in radio pulsars to estimate how often neutron star glitches would occur within the parameter space of continuous gravitational-wave searches and how much mismatch putative signals would suffer in the search due to these glitches. We find that for many previous and potential future searches continuous-wave signals have an elevated probability of undergoing one or more glitches and that these glitches will often lead to a substantial fraction of the signal-to-noise ratio being lost. This could lead to a failure to identify candidate gravitational-wave signals in the initial stages of a search and also to the false dismissal of candidates in subsequent follow-up stages.
We introduce a new method for synthesizing kinematic relationships for a general class of continuous backbone, or continuum , robots. The resulting kinematics enable real-time task and shape control ...by relating workspace (Cartesian) coordinates to actuator inputs, such as tendon lengths or pneumatic pressures, via robot shape coordinates. This novel approach, which carefully considers physical manipulator constraints, avoids artifacts of simplifying assumptions associated with previous approaches, such as the need to fit the resulting solutions to the physical robot. It is applicable to a wide class of existing continuum robots and models extension, as well as bending, of individual sections. In addition, this approach produces correct results for orientation, in contrast to some previously published approaches. Results of real-time implementations on two types of spatial multisection continuum manipulators are reported.
Neutron stars spin down over time due to a number of energy-loss processes. We provide tantalizing population-based evidence that millisecond pulsars (MSPs) have a minimum ellipticity of ϵ 10−9 ...around their spin axis and that, consequently, some spin down mostly through gravitational-wave emission. We discuss the implications of such a minimum ellipticity in terms of the internal magnetic field strengths and nuclear matter composition of neutron stars and show it would result in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors, or their upgrades, detecting gravitational waves from some known MSPs in the near future.
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