Constraints on Slim Accretion Discs

We show that when the gravitational force in the vertical direction is correctly calculated, the well-known S- shaped sequence of thermal equilibrium solutions can be constructed only for small radii of black hole accretion flows, such that slim accretion discs can possibly exist only in the inner regions of these flows.     

年轻恒星形成过程的分子谱线诊断

恒星是宇宙的基本天体,理解恒星的起源和早期演化是天体物理最有举的课题之一,目前了解的恒星形成的一个基本图象是,恒星是由一个足够大质量的星际分子气体云在其其自引力作用下塌缩而形成。在早期塌缩过程中形成一颗原恒星（胚胎）,并且伴随该原恒星的吸积盘,原恒星吸积星际介质中的分子物质,通过吸积盘转移到原恒星表面,原恒星的质量随着增大。在吸积过程中也同时伴随物质向外的剧烈喷发,由于盘的存在,这种喷发通常沿垂直于盘的方向进行,出现双极的空间分布。在天文观测上,一种典型的表现是分子气体的外向流,观测表现为从原恒星双极的红蓝移气体运动^[1]。由于恒星形成了星际分子中,因此,对星际分子的谱线探测是研究恒星形成的强有力手段,现在已经发现和证认的星际分子总数有一百多种,其中丰富度最高的气体是H2。在所有的星际分子中,丰度仅次于H2的CO分子的转动跃迁谱易激发,相对于星际介质的不透明度小,观测上易于实现,因此,CO分子就成为探索原恒星形成的有力探针,在毫米波段出现的J＝1－0和J＝2－1跃迁变线以及CO同位素的谱线是最常使用的观测探针,八十年代以来又陆续发现了环形分子SiC2,C3H,C3H2及含磷分子PN和CN等,给宇宙中有机世界的探测提供了丰富的线索。我们对恒形成区内存在的低温原恒星天体进行毫米 波射电谱线观测,测量该原恒星周围分子气体的分布,其物理化学参数,以及速度场分布。根据这些测量结果并运用成熟的数量方法,分析正在发生的物理化学过程,特别是原恒星质量外流的过程。根据观测分析结果得出所观测天体的形成和演化状况。     

Standing Rankine-Hugoniot Shocks in Black Hole Accretion Discs

We study the problem of standing shocks in viscous disc-like accretion flows around black holes. For the first time we parametrize such a flow with two physical constants, namely the specific angular momentum accreted by the black hole j and the energy quantity K. By providing the global dependence of shock formation in the j- K parameter space, we show that a significant parameter region can ensure solutions with Rankine-Hugoniot shocks; and that the possibilities of shock formation are the largest for inviscid flows, decreasing with increasing viscosity, and ceasing to exist for a strong enough viscosity. Our results support the view that the standing shock is an essential ingredient in black hole accretion discs and is a general phenomenon in astrophysics, and that there should be a continuous change from the properties of inviscid flows to those of viscous ones.     

Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows with Outflow

We construct a family of self-similar solutions to describe radiatively inefficient accretion flows with outflow. We show that outflow has important effects on the dynamical structure of accretion flows. In particular, we prove that outflow can be an effective mechanism of removing the released gravitational energy of accreted gas.     

Maximal possible accretion rates for slim disks

It was proved in the previous work that there must be a maximal possible accretion rate $ \dot M_{max} $ \dot M_{max} for a slim disk. Here we discuss how the value of $ \dot M_{max} $ \dot M_{max} depends on the two fundamental parameters of the disk, namely the mass of the central black hole M and the viscosity parameter α. It is shown that $ \dot M_{max} $ \dot M_{max} increases with decreasing α, but is almost independent of M if $ \dot M_{max} $ \dot M_{max} is measured by the Eddington accretion rate $ \dot M_{Edd} $ \dot M_{Edd} , which is in turn proportional to M.     

Nearly frictionless transport of glassy solid helium at low temperature regime

Glassy matter, as subjected to high shear rates, exhibit shear-thinning: i.e., the viscosity diminishes with increasing shear rate. One possible outcome for almost vanishing viscosity is the nearly frictionless transport in micropores subjected to some surface conditions. Here we show that, by treating the glass as a shear-thinning matter and using the transition rate dependent model together with the boundary perturbation method, we can observe a sudden change of the shearing characteristics (which directly relates to the resistance and the time or rate dependent shear modulus) at low temperature regime (ranged from 30 to 50 mK) for corresponding physical activation energy. If the solid helium could be treated as glassy matter at very low temperature regime then our results resemble those recently reported by Day and Beamish [J. Day, J. Beamish, Nature 450 (2007) 853].     

Effect of vacuum energy on evolution of primordial black holes in Einstein gravity

We study the evolution of primordial black holes by considering present universe is no more matter dominated rather vacuum energy dominated. We also consider the accretion of radiation, matter and vacuum energy during respective dominance period. In this scenario, we found that radiation accretion efficiency should be less than 0.366 and accretion rate is much larger than previous analysis by Nayak et al. (2009) [1]. Thus here primordial black holes live longer than previous works Nayak and Singh (2011) [1]. Again matter accretion slightly increases the mass and lifetime of primordial black holes. However, the vacuum energy accretion is slightly complicated one, where accretion is possible only up to a critical time. If a primordial black hole lives beyond critical time, then its? lifespan increases due to vacuum energy accretion. But for presently evaporating primordial black holes, critical time comes much later than their evaporating time and thus vacuum energy could not affect those primordial black holes.     

Convection-Dominated Accretion Flows with Radiative Cooling

By numerically solving the set of basic equations describing black hole accretion flows with low accretion rates, we show that although the dynamical structure of these flows is essentially unaffected by radiative processes in comparison with the case in which the radiation is not considered, the radiative cooling can be more important than the advective cooling in the flow＇s convection-dominated zone, and this result may have implications to distinguish observationally convection-dominated accretion flows from advection-dominated accretion flows.     

On the effect of injection of gas in the numerical simulation of accretion flows

We investigate the effects of various ways of injection of gas at the outer boundary in the numerical simulations of non-viscous accretion flows. We study three models. In Model A, we inject material around the equatorial plane. In Models B and C, fullrange θ injection is used (we employ spherical coordinates). In all three models, the injected material has the same density distribution with polar angle θ. From the equatorial region to the polar regions, angular momentum of the injected material of Model B decreases faster than that in Model C. For all of the models, after a transient episode of infall at the beginning of the simulations, the gas piles up in the equatorial regions outside the black hole and forms a thick torus bounded by a centrifugal barrier. We find that the accretion rates of Models B and C are more than ten times higher than that in Model A. In Model A, there is weak accretion only in the torus and outflows are found on the surface of the torus. In Model B, we find strong inflows on the surface of its torus, and the accretion in the torus is weak. In Model C, strong inflows also occur on the surface of its torus, but the accretion regions are narrower and there are strong outflows in its torus. In all of our models, the time-averaged density, pressure and angular momentum in the equatorial region can be described by a radial power law, with P ∝r ^−3/2, P ∝r ⁻² and l∝r ⁰.

     

Searching for protostars

Summary We present molecular-line observations of young stellar objects (YSOs) suspected to be protostars in the main accretion phase. The aim of this work is to define a list of the best protostellar candidates to be observed in the near future with the ISO spectrometers with the precise scope of searching for the final proof of the infall, theHoly Grail of astrophysics. The sources were mapped in the CS 3?2 and CO 3?2 lines; our data were used to investigate the presence of clumps of materials around these objects and the amount of this material, as well as to detect outflows associated with these objects that would enormously complicate the interpretation of further dynamics studies. Only one of our sources suspected to be protostars resulted to have a good chance of being in the accretion phase and to deserve further spectroscopic measurements. Paper presented at the 6th Cosmic Physics National Conference, Palermo, 3–7 November 1992.     

Density dependence of nucleon radius and mass in the global color symmetry model of QCD with a sophisticated effective gluon propagator

Making use of the global color symmetry model (GCM) at finite chemical potential and with a sophisticated effective gluon propagator, the density dependence of the bag constant, the total energy and the radius of a nucleon in nuclear matter is investigated. A maximal nuclear matter density for the existence of the bag with three quarks confined within is given as about 8 times the normal nuclear matter density. The calculated results indicate that, before the maximal density is reached, the bag constant and the total energy of a nucleon decrease, and the radius of a nucleon increases, with the increasing of the nuclear matter density. As the maximal nuclear matter density is reached, the mass and the bag constant of the nucleon vanish and the radius becomes infinite suddenly. It manifests that a phase transition from nucleons to quarks takes place. Meanwhile, shortening the interaction range among quarks can induce the phase transition to happen easier.     

New insights into AGNs with low-mass black holes and high accretion rates: the case of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies

Narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies are believed to harbor low-mass black holes accreting at high rates, and they are therefore important targets when studying the nature of black hole growth, galaxy evolution, and accretion physics. We have rigorously studied the physical properties of a sample of NLS1 galaxies. We briefly review previous findings and present new results, including: (1) The locus of NLS1 galaxies on the M _BH-σ plane, which we find to follow the relation of non-active galaxies after removing objects obviously dominated by outflows. (2) The presence of “blue outliers” which hint at extreme outflows as they would be predicted from merger models. (3) More subtle evidence for winds and outflows across the whole NLS1 population. (4) New correlations and trends which link black hole mass, Eddington ratio and physical parameters of the emission-line region. A new element is added to the eigenvector 1 space based on a principal component analysis, which aims at identifying the main drivers of AGN correlation properties.

     

Dark matter, neutron stars, and strange quark matter

We show that self-annihilating weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter accreted onto neutron stars may provide a mechanism to seed compact objects with long-lived lumps of strange quark matter, or strangelets, for WIMP masses above a few GeV. This effect may trigger a conversion of most of the star into a strange star. We use an energy estimate for the long-lived strangelet based on the Fermi-gas model combined with the MIT bag model to set a new limit on the possible values of the WIMP mass that can be especially relevant for subdominant species of massive neutralinos.     

Self-consistently thermodynamic treatment for strange quark matter in the effective mass bag model

In the framework of the effective mass bag model (EMBM) we have performed the thermodynamical treatment for strange quark matter (SQM) self-consistently, which overcomes the inconsistencies in the thermodynamical properties of the system. Because of the existence of the pressure extra term, the SQM equation of state (EOS) becomes stiffer comparing with the one for the original EMBM. It is interesting to find that in our treatment the SQM EOS is almost independent of the strong coupling constant g . In this case the SQM EOS seems to get back to the EOS for the original MIT bag model. However, this treatment still has influence on the EOS for hybrid star matter and the corresponding mass-radius relations. With the increase of the strong coupling constant g , the EOS for hybrid star matter gets obviously stiff. From our treatment we notice that the pressure extra term can make a hybrid star more compact than the one described in the original EMBM and this model is more suitable to describe the hybrid stars with small radii.     

Discovery of two broad absorption line quasars at redshift about 4.75 using the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope

The ultraviolet broad absorption lines have been seen in the spectra of quasars at high redshift, and are generally considered to be caused by outflows with velocities from thousands kilometers per second to one tenth of the speed of light. They provide crucial implications for the cosmological structures and physical evolutions related to the feedback of active galactic nuclei(AGNs).Recently, through a dedicated program of optically spectroscopic identifications of selected quasar candidates at redshift 5 by using the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope, we discovered two luminous broad absorption line quasars(BALQSOs) at redshift about 4.75. One of them may even have the potentially highest absorption Balnicity Index(BI) ever found to date, which is remarkably characterized by its deep, broad absorption lines and sub-relativistic outflows. Further physical properties, including the metal abundances,variabilities, evolutions of the supermassive black holes(SMBH) and accretion disks associated with the feedback process, can be investigated with multi-wavelength follow-up observations in the future.     

Phantom energy accretion onto a black hole in Horava-Lifshitz gravity

In this Letter,we examine the phantom energy accretion onto a Kehagias-Sfetsos black hole in Horava-Lifshitz gravity.To discuss the accretion process onto the black hole,the equations of phantom flow near the black hole have been derived.It is found that mass of the black hole decreases because of phantom accretion.We discuss the conditions for critical accretion.Graphically,it has been found that the critical accretion phenomena is possible for different values of parameters.The results for the Schwarzschild black hole can be recovered in the limiting case.     

The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes in the Near Universe

A fundamental role is attributed to supermassive black holes (SMBH), and the feedback they generate, in the evolution of galaxies. But theoretical models trying to reproduce the M_SMBH vs. sigma relation (between the SMBH mass and stellar velocity dispersion of the galaxy bulge) make broad assumptions about the physical processes involved. These assumptions are needed due to the scarcity of observational constraints on the relevant physical processes which occur when the SMBH is being fed via mass accretion in active galactic nuclei (AGN). In search for these constraints, our group—AGN integral field spectroscopy (AGNIFS)—has been mapping the gas kinematics as well as the stellar population properties of the inner few hundred parsecs of a sample of nearby AGN hosts. In this contribution, I report on results obtained so far which show gas inflows along nuclear spirals and compact disks in the inner tens to hundreds of pc in nearby AGN hosts which seem to be the sources of fuel to the AGN. As the inflow rates are much larger than the AGN accretion rate, the excess gas must be depleted via formation of new stars in the bulge. Indeed, in many cases, we find ～100 pc circumnuclear rings of recent star formation (ages ～10–500 Myr) that can be interpreted as a signature of coevolution of the host galaxy and its AGN. I also report on the mapping of outflows in ionized gas, which are ubiquitous in Seyfert galaxies, and discuss mass outflow rates and powers.     

Spontaneous decay rates in active waveguides

We present a new method of measuring the guided, radiated, and total decay rates in uniform waveguides. It is also shown theoretically that large modifications of the total decay rate can be achieved in realistic erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers with effective mode area radii smaller than approximately 1 microm.     

The correlation timescale of the X-ray flux during the outbursts of soft X-ray transients

Recent studies of black hole and neutron star low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) show a positive correlation between the X-ray flux at which the low/hard(LH)-to-high/soft(HS) state transition occurs and the peak flux of the following HS state. By analyzing the data from the All Sky Monitor (ASM) onboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), we show that the HS state flux after the source reaches its HS flux peak still correlates with the transition flux during soft X-ray transient (SXT) outbursts. By studying large outbursts or flares of GX 339-4, Aql X-1 and 4U 1705-44, we have found that the correlation holds up to 250, 40, and 50 d after the LH-to-HS state transition, respectively. These time scales correspond to the viscous time scale in a standard accretion disk around a stellar mass black hole or a neutron star at a radius of ∼10^4–5 R _g, indicating that the mass accretion rates in the accretion flow either correlate over a large range of radii at a given time or correlate over a long period of time at a given radius. If the accretion geometry is a two-flow geometry composed of a sub-Keplerian inflow or outflow and a disk flow in the LH state, the disk flow with a radius up to ∼10⁵ R _g would have contributed to the nearly instantaneous non-thermal radiation directly or indirectly, and therefore affects the time when the state transition occurs.