Engineering topics

Katz, J. I.

Publications and source records attributed to Katz, J. I..

At least 37 records · Page 2

NASA NTRS1988

Predictions for arc polarization

Maps for the prediction of the polarization of light echo arcs are presented. It is noted that the results can be compared with observations in order to test the light-echo model of Katz (1987) and Milgrom (1987) and to determine its parameters. As long as the model assumptions of single scattering and planar geometry remain valid, the polarization is shown to be independent of the geometrical thickness and the optical depth of the dust layer. Cases such as the light source being in the plane of scatterers and arcs consisting of nearly forward scattered light are considered.

Katz, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Particle acceleration in accreting magnetospheres

The possibility that energetic protons are accelerated within the closed magnetosphere of accelerating neutron stars is considered. The accelerating mechanism is suggested to be plasma turbulence excited by the accretion flow. Rough estimates show that this mechanism may be capable of accelerating protons to the energies of about 10 to the 16th eV required to explain observations of about 10 to the 15th eV gamma rays from some thermal X-ray sources. Proton synchrotron radiation may be observable at energies ranging from the infrared to about GeV gamma rays.

Katz, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Positron annihilation at the Galactic center

The efficiency of production of positrons by gamma-gamma interaction under conditions which may occur in the Galactic center. Their annihilation line and three-photon annihilation continuum contribute to the emitted radiation. If a geometrical model is assumed, it will be possible to determine the parameters of the gamma-ray source region. By comparing the computed spectra to observations, a rough estimate is made using extant data.

Carrigan, B. J.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Comets, X-ray bursts, and gamma-ray bursts

The proposal, revived by Tremaine and Zytkow (1985), that accretion of comets by neutron stars may be the origin of gamma-ray bursts is considered. This mechanism has difficulty accounting for the observed gamma-ray spectrum and optical counterparts of the bursts. The survival of comets near supernovae is investigated. Ablation rates and the thermal structure of an ablating surface layer are calculated. In some circumstances, mechanical disruption will erode a comet more rapidly than evaporation. The accretion of comets by neutron stars may produce a class of X-ray burst sources with novel properties.

Katz, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Jet production in super-Eddington accretion disks

A two-dimensional, radiation-coupled, Newtonian hydrodynamic simulation is reported for a super-Eddington, mass accretion rate, M = 4 M(E) disk accretion flow onto a 3-solar mass pseudoblack hole. Near the disk midplane, convection cells effectively block the accretion flow, even though viscous heating maximizes there. Accretion predominantly occurs in a supersonic inflow which follows streamlines of approximately constant angular momentum. The optically thick inflow traps radiation so that 80 percent of the luminosity is absorbed by the black hole; the emergent power is sub-Eddington. An axial jet self consistently forms just outside a conical photosphere which bounds the accretion zone; radiation pressure accelerates the jet to about 10 to the 10th cm/s. The jet's mass efflux is only 0.4 percent of the total mass accretion rate.

Eggum, G. E.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Fluxes and distances of gamma-ray bursts

Gamma-gamma pair production and annihilation in gamma-ray burst source regions are calculated. These processes do not produce effective collimation of the flux above pair production threshold, but when repeated approximately 1/alpha times, higher order processes soften the spectrum and permit escape of intense fluxes.

Carrigan, B. J.↗

NASA NTRS1983

The Eddington limit and supercritical accretion. II - Time-dependent calculations

Spherically symmetric, time-dependent accretion of an ionized hydrogen plasma onto a neutron star is calculated for accretion rates in excess of the Eddington limit. The coupled hydrodynamic and frequency integrated radiative transfer equations are solved on an Eulerian grid for these supercritical accretion flows. Our results indicate that steady state flows are limited to rates at or below the critical rate, with emergent luminosities equal to or less than the Eddington luminosity. Initially supercritical accretion rates generate a large pulse of radiation which reduces the accretion rate to the critical value and produces an extended quasi-static envelope.

Burger, H. L.↗

NASA NTRS1982

The passage of a star by a massive black hole

The gridless, smoothed particle hydrodynamic method of Lucy (1977) and Gingold and Monaghan (1977, 1980, a, b, 1981) is used to solve the three-dimensional problem posed by the effects on a 1.0 solar mass star of a 10,000 solar mass black hole's passage, in an initially parabolic orbit with a variety of pericenter distances. It is found that the tidal forces induce rotation and radial and nonradial pulsations in the star, and that the loss of orbital energy to these internal motions leads to the star's capture by the black hole. While the outer layers of the star are disrupted at small pericenter distances, the entire star is destroyed at even smaller distances. These results are applicable to X-ray sources, active galactic nuclei, and quasars

Nolthenius, R. A.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Nodding motions of accretion rings and disks - A short-term period in SS 433

It is pointed out that accretion disks and rings in mass transfer binaries have been observed spectroscopically and calculated theoretically for many years. The present investigation is partly based on the availability of several years of spectroscopic observations of the Doppler shifts of the moving lines in SS433. A formalism is presented to compute frequencies and amplitudes of short-term 'nodding' motions in precessing accretion disks in close binary systems. This formalism is applied to an analysis of the moving-line Doppler shifts in SS433. The 35d X-ray cycle of Hercules X-1 is also discussed. In the considered model, the companion star exerts a gravitational torque on the disk rim. Averaged over the binary orbit, this yields a steady torque which results in the mean driven counterprecession of the disk.

Katz, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Physical processes in gamma-ray bursts

Physical processes occurring in gamma-ray bursts are discussed, with special attention to the event of March 5, 1979 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The source of that event's extraordinary intense line and continuum radiation has been explained as a pair plasma confined in a strong magnetic field, as in a neutron star magnetosphere, and some consequences of that model are studied. The magnetic field (approximately 10 to the 13th gauss) affects both plasma physical processes and annihilation, so that accurate measurements of the annihilation line shape may lead to quantitative field determinations. A simple model for gamma-gamma pair production and annihilation is calculated, implying that this process will not prevent escape of intense gamma-ray fluxes. Finally, energetic considerations suggest that the magnetospheric energy may be regenerated from internal sources, either during or between bursts.

Katz, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Jitter in SS 433-A clue to the collimation mechanism

The blue and red shift jitter observed in SS 433 is examined with a view to determining its sources. The jitter is characterized by a Delta-z rms amplitude of 0.01, corresponding to a 3000 km/sec Doppler velocity, which is larger than either the width or the error of measurement of the shifted lines. In addition, the amplitude of the jumps is not strongly dependent on the phase in the 164-day cycle, and the amplitudes of the jitter in the redshifted and blueshifted branches are comparable. It is shown that these features set strong constraints on models proposed for SS 433 by Sarazin et al. (1980), Katz (1980), and Van den Heuvel et al. (1980).

Katz, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Implications of photometric and spectroscopic periods of SS433

It is suggested that a comparison of the periodicities inferred from spectroscopic and photometric observations of SS433 may help clarify its structure. The interaction between the orbital and beam motions may produce sideband periods in the photometry. It is found that Lense-Thirring and slaved disk models make differing predictions.

Katz, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS1980

A lower limit on the magnitude of the companion to HDE 226868 /Cygnus X-1/

High-precision digital spectra of the HDE 226868/Cygnus X-1 system have been obtained at a variety of orbital phases, using a Digicon photon counting array at the coude focus of the Lick Shane reflector. The spectra have been cross-correlated to search for evidence for the existence of a luminous stellar companion to HDE 226868, as has been suggested by several models where the secondary star is not a black hole. We find no evidence for such a star and place a lower limit on the difference between HDE 226868 and its companion of 4 magnitudes. This limit rules out all of the models for the Cygnus X-1 system calculated by Avni and Bahcall which include main-sequence stars as secondaries rather than black holes. A merit function generally useful for cross-correlation of digital spectra is described.

Shafter, A. W.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Flux distributions and colors of accretion disks

The disk model of Shakura and Sunyaev (1973) and Novikov and Thorne (1973) is used to calculate temperature distributions and integrated spectral fluxes for disks around a typical white dwarf and a typical neutron star, under the assumption that each element of the disk locally radiates as a blackbody. In addition, the disks' integrated UBV colors are calculated using the grid colors for real model atmospheres calculated by Buser and Kurucz (1978) and the observed colors given by Allen (1973). In all the calculations the effect of radiation from one part of the disk on all the other parts is included.

Pacharintanakul, P.↗

NASA NTRS1980

The Eddington limit and supercritical accretion. I - Time-independent calculations

Spherically symmetric, steady state accretion of an ionized hydrogen plasma onto a neutron star is considered for accretion rates which exceed a critical rate at which the Eddington limiting luminosity is produced. The coupled hydrodynamic and frequency integrated, radiative transfer equations are solved for accretion rates up to 10 times the nominal limit. Steady state solutions are presented that imply a multiplicity of different luminosity solutions for a single accretion rate in this 'supercritical' regime.

Burger, H. L.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Acceleration, radiation and precession in SS 433

Some theoretical problems posed by the observations of SS 433 are considered. The monoenergetic beams point toward a gas-dynamic acceleration process. In this model the collimation implies that the acceleration occurs in a region of slab symmetry, possibly the surface layers of an accretion disk. The 164 day rotation of the beam pattern may be explained as a precession period.

Katz, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Semi-empirical estimates of gravitational wave generation by stellar collapse

The problems of the generation and detection of gravitational waves and the difficulty of detecting the burst of gravitational radiation produced by a stellar collapse in our Galaxy, or in neighbouring clusters of galaxies where such collapses are expected to occur frequently, have been reviewed elsewhere. As stellar collapses, explosions, or supernovae are poorly understood, the values of the strength of these sources depend on uncertain assumptions. However, it is possible to make some independent estimates on semi-empirical grounds, using observed facts concerning the remnants of stellar evolution. These estimates, reported here, have serious weaknesses. They must involve oversimplified models and very crude standard calculations of the collapse and radiation processes. Also, because they are based on observed properties of stellar remnants, they say nothing about collapses which do not produce observable remnants. Although this selection may introduce a strong bias, these estimates deserve consideration because they are tied to real data.

Katz, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Viscosity in accretion discs

Both HerX-1 and SS433 may contain accretion disks slaved to a precessing companion star. If so, it is possible to bound the effective viscosity in these disks. The results, in terms of the disk parameter alpha, are lower bounds of 0.01 for HerX-1 and of 0.1 for SS433.

Katz, J. I.↗