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At least 307 records · Page 17

Self-interacting dark scalar spikes around black holes via relativistic Bondi accretion

For this work, we consider the spike mass density profile in a dark halo by self-consistently solving the relativistic Bondi accretion of dark matter onto a non-spining black hole of mass M. We assume that the dominant component of the dark matter in the halo is a Standard model gauge-singlet scalar. Its mass m ≃ 10 -5 eV and quartic self-coupling λ ≲ 10 19 are constrained to be compatible with the properties of galactic dark halos. In the hydrodynamic limit, we find that the accretion rate is bounded from below, M min = 96πG 2 M 2 m 4 /λ$\hbar$ 3 . Therefore, for M = 10 6 M ⊙ we have M min ≃ 1.41 x 10 -9 M ⊙ yr -1 , which is subdominant compared to the Eddington accretion of baryons. The spike density profile ρ0(r) within the self-gravitating regime cannot be fitted well by a single-power law but a double-power one. Despite that, we can fit ρ 0 (r) piecewise and find that ρ 0 (r) ∝ r -1.20 near the sound horizon, ρ 0 (r) ∝ r -1.00 towards the Bondi radius and ρ 0 (r) ∝ r -1.08 for the region in between. This contrasts with more cuspy ρ 0 (r) ∝ r -1.75 for dark matter with Coulomb-like self-interaction.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Searching for relativistic axions in the sky

Relativistic axions produced in decays of $\mathcal{O}$(10 -7 –10 -2 eV) dark matter (DM) partially convert to photons after traversing the galactic magnetic field, giving rise to a signal observable by the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope. In this work, we show that for axions lighter than a few × 10 -13 eV a 100 h SKA observation of the local dwarf galaxy Seg I would probe parameter space not constrained by stellar cooling and cosmological observations, with sensitivity several orders of magnitude better than the planned dedicated axion dark matter search experiments. We quantify the uncertainties in the SKA sensitivity projections due to two effects that enhance the radio flux: the presence of turbulent magnetic fields inside the galaxy, and the Bose enhancement of the DM decays to axions, where the latter, in particular, warrants further study.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Kink-driven magnetic reconnection in relativistic jets: consequences for X-ray polarimetry of BL Lacs

ABSTRACT We investigate with relativistic MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) simulations the dissipation physics of BL Lac jets, by studying the synchrotron polarization signatures of particles accelerated by the kink instability in a magnetically dominated plasma column. The non-linear stage of the kink instability generates current sheets, where particles can be efficiently accelerated via magnetic reconnection. We identify current sheets as regions where s = Jδ/B is above some predefined threshold (where B is the field strength, J is the current density, and δ is the grid scale), and assume that the particle injection efficiency scales as ∝J2. X-ray emitting particles have short cooling times, so they only probe the field geometry of their injection sites. In contrast, particles emitting in the optical band, which we follow self-consistently as they propagate away from their injection sites while cooling, sample a larger volume, and so they may be expected to produce different polarimetric signatures. We find that the degree of polarization is roughly the same between X-ray and optical bands, because even the optical emitting particles do not travel far from the current sheet where they were injected, due to lack of sufficient kink-generated turbulence. The polarization angle shows a different temporal evolution between the two bands, due to the different regions probed by X-ray and optical emitting particles. In view of the upcoming IXPE satellite, our results can help constrain whether kink-induced reconnection (as opposed to shocks) can be the source of multiwavelength emission from BL Lacs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Synchrotron self-Compton radiation from magnetically dominated turbulent plasmas in relativistic jets

ABSTRACT Relativistic jets launched by rotating black holes are powerful emitters of non-thermal radiation. Extraction of the rotational energy via electromagnetic stresses produces magnetically dominated jets, which may become turbulent. Studies of magnetically dominated plasma turbulence from first principles show that most of the accelerated particles have small pitch angles, i.e. the particle velocity is nearly aligned with the local magnetic field. We examine synchrotron self-Compton radiation from anisotropic particles in the fast cooling regime. The small pitch angles reduce the synchrotron cooling rate and promote the role of inverse Compton (IC) cooling, which can occur in two different regimes. In the Thomson regime, both synchrotron and IC components have soft spectra, νFν ∝ ν1/2. In the Klein–Nishina regime, synchrotron radiation has a hard spectrum, typically νFν ∝ ν, over a broad range of frequencies. Our results have implications for the modelling of BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). BL Lacs produce soft synchrotron and IC spectra, as expected when Klein–Nishina effects are minor. The observed synchrotron and IC luminosities are typically comparable, which indicates a moderate anisotropy with pitch angles θ ≳ 0.1. Rare orphan gamma-ray flares may be produced when θ ≪ 0.1. The hard spectra of GRBs may be consistent with synchrotron radiation when the emitting particles are IC cooling in the Klein–Nishina regime, as expected for pitch angles θ ∼ 0.1. Blazar and GRB spectra can be explained by turbulent jets with a similar electron plasma magnetization parameter, σe ∼ 104, which for electron–proton plasmas corresponds to an overall magnetization σ = (me/mp)σe ∼ 10.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The role of plasma instabilities in relativistic radiation-mediated shocks: stability analysis and particle-in-cell simulations

ABSTRACT Relativistic radiation-mediated shocks are likely formed in prodigious cosmic explosions. The structure and emission of such shocks are regulated by copious production of electron–positron pairs inside the shock-transition layer. It has been pointed out recently that substantial abundance of positrons inside the shock leads to a velocity separation of the different plasma constituents, which is expected to induce a rapid growth of plasma instabilities. In this paper, we study the hierarchy of plasma microinstabilities growing in an electron-ion plasma loaded with pairs and subject to a radiation force. Linear stability analysis indicates that such a system is unstable to the growth of various plasma modes which ultimately become dominated by a current filamentation instability driven by the relative drift between the ions and the pairs. These results are validated by particle-in-cell simulations that further probe the non-linear regime of the instabilities, and the pair-ion coupling in the microturbulent electromagnetic field. Based on this analysis, we derive a reduced-transport equation for the particles via pitch-angle scattering in the microturbulence and demonstrate that it can couple the different species and lead to non-adiabatic compression via a Joule-like heating. The heating of the pairs and, conceivably, the formation of non-thermal distributions, arising from the microturbulence, can affect the observed shock-breakout signal in ways unaccounted for by current single-fluid models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Long-term general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations of magnetic field in isolated neutron stars

ABSTRACT Strong magnetic fields play an important role in powering the emission of neutron stars. Nevertheless, a full understanding of the interior configuration of the field remains elusive. In this work, we present general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations of the magnetic field evolution in neutron stars lasting ${\sim } {880}\,$ms (∼6.5 Alfvén crossing periods) and up to resolutions of $0.1155\,$km using Athena++. We explore two different initial conditions, one with purely poloidal magnetic field and the other with a dominant toroidal component, and study the poloidal and toroidal field energies, the growth times of the various instability-driven oscillation modes, and turbulence. We find that the purely poloidal setup generates a toroidal field, which later decays exponentially reaching $1{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the total magnetic energy, showing no evidence of reaching equilibrium. The initially stronger toroidal field setup, on the other hand, loses up to 20 per cent of toroidal energy and maintains this state till the end of our simulation. We also explore the hypothesis, drawn from previous MHD simulations, that turbulence plays an important role in the quasi-equilibrium state. An analysis of the spectra in our higher resolution setups reveals, however, that in most cases we are not observing turbulence at small scales, but rather a noisy velocity field inside the star. We also observe that the majority of the magnetic energy gets dissipated as heat increasing the internal energy of the star, while a small fraction gets radiated away as electromagnetic radiation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

High-energy synchrotron flares powered by strongly radiative relativistic magnetic reconnection: 2D and 3D PIC simulations

ABSTRACT The time evolution of high-energy synchrotron radiation generated in a relativistic pair plasma energized by reconnection of strong magnetic fields is investigated with 2D and 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The simulations in this 2D/3D comparison study are conducted with the radiative PIC code OSIRIS, which self-consistently accounts for the synchrotron radiation reaction on the emitting particles, and enables us to explore the effects of synchrotron cooling. Magnetic reconnection causes compression of the plasma and magnetic field deep inside magnetic islands (plasmoids), leading to an enhancement of the flaring emission, which may help explain some astrophysical gamma-ray flare observations. Although radiative cooling weakens the emission from plasmoid cores, it facilitates additional compression there, further amplifying the magnetic field B and plasma density n, and thus partially mitigating this effect. Novel simulation diagnostics utilizing 2D histograms in the n-B space are developed and used to visualize and quantify the effects of compression. The n-B histograms are observed to be bounded by relatively sharp power-law boundaries marking clear limits on compression. Theoretical explanations for some of these compression limits are developed, rooted in radiative resistivity or 3D kinking instabilities. Systematic parameter-space studies with respect to guide magnetic field, system size, and upstream magnetization are conducted and suggest that stronger compression, brighter high-energy radiation, and perhaps significant quantum electrodynamic effects such as pair production, may occur in environments with larger reconnection-region sizes and higher magnetization, particularly when magnetic field strengths approach the critical (Schwinger) field, as found in magnetar magnetospheres.

Schoeffler, K. M. (ORCID:0000000276447381)↗

Linear analysis of the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in relativistic magnetized symmetric flows

ABSTRACT We study the linear stability of a planar interface separating two fluids in relative motion, focusing on the symmetric configuration where the two fluids have the same properties (density, temperature, magnetic field strength, and direction). We consider the most general case with arbitrary sound speed cs, Alfvén speed vA, and magnetic field orientation. For the instability associated with the fast mode, we find that the lower bound of unstable shear velocities is set by the requirement that the projection of the velocity on to the fluid-frame wavevector is larger than the projection of the Alfvén speed on to the same direction, i.e. shear should overcome the effect of magnetic tension. In the frame where the two fluids move in opposite directions with equal speed v, the upper bound of unstable velocities corresponds to an effective relativistic Mach number $M_{\rm re}\equiv v/v_{\rm {f}\perp }\sqrt{(1-v_{\rm {f}\perp }^2)/(1-v^2)} \cos \theta =\sqrt{2}$, where $v_{\rm {f}\perp }=[v_{\rm {A}}^2+c_{\rm s}^2(1-v_{\rm {A}}^2)]^{1/2}$ is the fast speed assuming a magnetic field perpendicular to the wavevector (here, all velocities are in units of the speed of light), and θ is the laboratory-frame angle between the flow velocity and the wavevector projection on to the shear interface. Our results have implications for shear flows in the magnetospheres of neutron stars and black holes – both for single objects and for merging binaries – where the Alfvén speed may approach the speed of light.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

A near magnetic-to-kinetic energy equipartition flare from the relativistic jet in AO 0235 + 164 during 2013–2019

ABSTRACT We present the multiwavelength flaring activity of the blazar AO 0235 + 164 during its recent active period from 2013 to 2019. From a discrete correlation function analysis, we find a significant ($\gt 95~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) correlation between radio and gamma-ray light curves with flares at longer wavelengths following flares at shorter wavelengths. We identify a new jet component in 43 GHz Very Long Baseline Array data that was ejected from the radio core on MJD $57246^{+26}_{-30}$ (2015 August 12), during the peak of the 2015 radio flare. From the analysis of the jet component, we derived a Doppler factor of δvar = 28.5 ± 8.4, a bulk Lorentz factor of $\Gamma =16.8^{+3.6}_{-3.1}$, and an intrinsic viewing angle of $\theta _{\rm v}=1.42^{+1.07}_{-0.52}\textrm {~degrees}$. Investigation of the quasi-simultaneous radio data revealed a partially absorbed spectrum with the turnover frequency varying in the range of 10−70 GHz and the peak flux density varying in the range of 0.7−4 Jy. We find the synchrotron self-absorption magnetic field strength to be $B_{\rm SSA}=15.3^{+12.6}_{-14.0}\textrm {~mG}$ at the peak of the 2015 radio flare, which is comparable to the equipartition magnetic field strength of $B_{\rm EQ}=43.6^{+10.6}_{-10.4}\textrm {~mG}$ calculated for the same epoch. Additional analysis of the radio emission region in the relativistic jet of AO 0235 + 164 suggests that it did not significantly deviate from equipartition during its recent flaring activity.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

The luminous, slow-rising orphan afterglow AT2019pim as a candidate moderately relativistic outflow

ABSTRACT Classical gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have two distinct emission episodes: prompt emission from ultrarelativistic ejecta and afterglow from shocked circumstellar material. While both components are extremely luminous in known GRBs, a variety of scenarios predict the existence of luminous afterglow emission with little or no associated high-energy prompt emission. We present AT 2019pim, the first spectroscopically confirmed afterglow with no observed high-energy emission to be identified. Serendipitously discovered during follow-up observations of a gravitational-wave trigger and located in a contemporaneous TESS sector, it is hallmarked by a fast-rising ($t \approx 2$ h), luminous ($M_{\rm UV,peak} \approx -24.4$ mag) optical transient with accompanying luminous X-ray and radio emission. No gamma-ray emission consistent with the time and location of the transient was detected by Fermi-GBM or by Konus, placing constraining limits on an accompanying GRB. We investigate several independent observational aspects of the afterglow in the context of constraints on relativistic motion and find all of them are consistent with an initial Lorentz factor of $\Gamma _0 \approx$ 10–30 for the on-axis material, significantly lower than in any well-observed GRB and consistent with the theoretically predicted ‘dirty fireball’ scenario in which the high-energy prompt emission is stifled by pair production. However, we cannot rule out a structured jet model in which only the line-of-sight material was ejected at low-$\Gamma$, off-axis from a classical high-$\Gamma$ jet core, and an on-axis GRB with below-average gamma-ray efficiency also remains a possibility. This event represents a milestone in orphan afterglow searches, demonstrating that luminous optical afterglows lacking detected GRB counterparts can be identified and spectroscopically confirmed in real time.

Perley, Daniel A. (ORCID:0000000184721996)↗

Experimental demonstration of accelerating a beam with a large transverse emittance ratio in the relativistic heavy ion collider for the electron-ion collider

The electron-ion collider (EIC), to be constructed at Brookhaven National Laboratory, will collide polarized high-energy electron beams with hadron beams, achieving luminosities of up to 1.0 × 10 34 cm −2 s −1 in the center-of-mass energy range of 20–140 GeV. To reach such high luminosity, the EIC will employ small, flat beams at the interaction point. According to the design of the EIC hadron storage ring (HSR), hadron beams with a large transverse emittance ratio of 11:1 will be generated at the injection energy using an electron cooling technique and then accelerated to high energies for collisions. Accelerating hadron beams with such a large emittance ratio had never been demonstrated elsewhere—until our recent beam experiment at the relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC). In this experiment, we successfully generated a large transverse emittance ratio of 13:1 with a gold-ion beam at 31 GeV/nucleon using stochastic cooling. We then accelerated this beam, with a transverse emittance ratio of 11:1, from 31 to 100 GeV/nucleon. Thanks to RHIC’s high-performance orbit, tune, and decoupling feedback systems, the large emittance ratio was well maintained throughout the 5-min-long acceleration process. This experiment fully validated the EIC/HSR design assumptions—namely, that large-emittance-ratio hadron beams can be generated at injection energy and then accelerated to high energies for collisions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

High energy particle production from proton synchrotron radiation in strong magnetic fields in relativistic quantum field theory

We investigate photon, pion, and 𝜌-meson production from proton synchrotron radiation in the presence of strong magnetic fields. The proton decay widths and the luminosities of the emitted particles are calculated within a relativistic quantum framework that incorporates Landau quantization. A scaling rule is derived for the transition probability between different Landau levels. This allows an evaluation of transitions for extremely high Landau numbers exceeding 10 15 . Furthermore, we calculate the momentum distribution of the emitted particles by properly including the proton recoil effect associated with particle emission. The results differ significantly from conventional semiclassical approaches.

Cosmic ray sources↗

Probing a New Regime of Neutrino Self-Interactions with Astrophysical Neutrinos and the Relativistic Cosmic Neutrino Background

Neutrino self-interactions beyond the standard model have profound implications in astrophysics and cosmology. In this Letter, we study an uncharted scenario in which one of the three neutrino species has a mass smaller than the temperature of the cosmic neutrino background. This results in a relativistic component that significantly broadens the absorption feature on the astrophysical neutrino spectra, in contrast to the sharply peaked absorption expected in the extensively studied scenarios assuming a fully nonrelativistic cosmic neutrino background. By solving the Boltzmann equations for neutrino absorption and regeneration, we demonstrate that this mechanism provides novel sensitivity to sub-keV mediator masses, well below the traditional ∼1–100 MeV range. Future observations of the diffuse supernova neutrino background with Hyper-Kamiokande could probe coupling strengths down to 𝑔 ∼10 −8 , surpassing existing constraints by orders of magnitude. These findings open new directions for discoveries and offer crucial insights into the interplay between neutrinos and the dark sector.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Mass radius and D-term of atomic nuclei in relativistic mean field theory

Based on relativistic mean field theory for atomic nuclei, we compute the mass radius and other radii associated with the energy momentum tensor for dozens of spin-0 nuclei across the nuclear chart. We also compute the D-term of these nuclei, the forward limit of the gravitational form factor 𝐷⁡(𝑡=0)=𝐷. The dependence on the neutron number 𝑁 is systematically studied for calcium (Ca), nickel (Ni), zirconium (Zr), tin (Sn), and lead (Pb) isotopes. Remarkably, |𝐷| does not monotonically increase with 𝑁. Instead, it exhibits local maxima and minima when 𝑁 equals a magic number and even a submagic number. This results in characteristic kinks in the mass, scalar, tensor, and shear radii of these isotopes. Our work for the first time elucidates the strong sensitivity of the various mechanical properties of nuclei to the nuclear shell structure.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

First Demonstration of Resonant Pitch-Angle Scattering of Relativistic Electrons by Externally Launched Helicon Waves

Helicon waves (a.k.a whistler waves) satisfying the normal wave-particle cyclotron resonance are observed to limit the growth and maximum energy of relativistic electrons (REs) in low-density Ohmic DIII-D tokamak plasmas. Following the application of helicon waves, pitch-angle scattering of high-energy REs causes an increase in both synchrotron and electron-cyclotron emissions. The hard x-ray emission, a proxy for the RE population, ceases to grow. Energy-resolved hard x-ray measurements also show a striking decrease in the number of high-energy REs (above the resonance at approximately 8MeV) to below the noise floor and an increase in low-energy (∼ 4 MeV) REs. This occurs despite the toroidal electric field remaining high enough to drive exponential RE growth in the absence of helicon waves. Furthermore, these results open new directions for limiting the maximum energy of RE populations in laboratory and fusion plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Halo removal experiments with hollow electron lens in the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

A hollow electron beam has been proposed as an active control tool to remove the beam halo from high-energy, high-current hadron or ion machines (such as the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider). To study the halo removal rate and assess the effect on the ion beam core, one of the two electron lenses in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider was changed from a Gaussian beam profile to a hollow profile. We describe the design and verification of the hollow electron beam parameters as well as the methods to minimize the hollow beam profile distortions, which can result in an ion beam emittance increase. The hollow beam alignment with the ion beam by using a backscattered electron detector has been demonstrated. Furthermore, experiments were carried out to explore the efficiency of the halo removal by scanning the current and inner radius of the hollow electron beam, which is pulsed either every turn or every nth turn. The effects of the hollow electron beam on the ion beam emittance and luminosity were also assessed experimentally by scanning the inner radius of the electron beam.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Imposing strong correlated energy spread on relativistic bunches with transverse deflecting cavities

We demonstrate a novel scheme for imposing or removing large energy chirp on relativistic electron bunches. This method relies on the transverse-to-longitudinal mixing accomplished with a set of transverse deflecting cavities. The working principles of the new concept are explained using the first-order matrix formalism in the approximation of the linear single-particle dynamics. The scheme demonstrates versatility regarding the average beam energy and, hence, positioning along the accelerator beam line. The performance of the scheme is numerically investigated with the elegant particle-tracking code. It is shown that the associated nonlinear effects causing emittance deterioration for the extreme quantities of the total energy spread can be effectively compensated by optimization of the Twiss parameters while relying on the eigenemittance analysis. The impact of the longitudinal space charge effects on the beam dynamics in the proposed scheme is also investigated.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Achieving a large transverse emittance ratio in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider: Beam experiments, analytical estimates, and implications for the Electron-Ion Collider

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), to be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory, will collide a polarized high-energy electron beam with polarized proton and light ion beams in the center-of-mass energy range of 20–140 GeV, achieving a maximum peak luminosity of up to 1 × 10 34 cm − 2 s − 1 for the proton and electron collisions. To achieve such a high luminosity, the EIC will employ small, flat beams at the interaction point, which requires a transverse emittance ratio of about 11:1. Since 2017, we have carried out a series of beam experiments to test the feasibility of achieving such a large emittance ratio in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Thanks to the existing stochastic cooling and decoupling feedback system in RHIC, we successfully demonstrated a large transverse emittance ratio of 11:1 with gold ion beams in 2023. In this article, we will present more details and data analysis for these experiments, along with analytical estimates and numerical multiparticle simulations, and provide an outlook for future EIC coupling compensation. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗