George B. Rybicki

Time-dependent models of radiatively driven stellar winds. I - Nonlinear evolution of instabilities for a pure absorption model

Numerical radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of the nonlinear evolution of instabilities in radiatively driven stellar winds have been performed. The results show a strong tendency for the unstable flow to form rather sharp rarefactions in which the highest speed material has very low density. The qualitative features of the model agree well with the reqirements of displaced narrow absorption components in UV lines. 56 references.

A Hydrogen Atmosphere Spectral Model Applied to the Neutron Star X7 in the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae

Current X-ray missions are providing high-quality X-ray spectra from neutron stars (NSs) in quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries (qLMXBs). This has motivated us to calculate new hydrogen atmosphere models, including opacity due to free-free absorption and Thomson scattering, thermal electron conduction, and self-irradiation by photons from the compact object. We have constructed a self-consistent grid of neutron star models covering a wide range of surface gravities, as well as effective temperatures, which we make available to the scientific community. We present multiepoch Chandra X-ray observations of the qLMXB X7 in the globular cluster 47 Tuc, which is remarkably nonvariable on timescales from minutes to years. Its high-quality X-ray spectrum is adequately fitted by our hydrogen atmosphere model without any hard power-law component or narrow spectral features. If a mass of 1.4 M☉ is assumed, our spectral fits require that its radius be in the range Rns = 14.5 km (90% confidence), which is larger than that expected from currently preferred models of NS interiors. If its radius is assumed to be 10 km, then a mass of Mns = 2.20 M☉ is required. Using models with the appropriate surface gravity for each value of the mass and radius becomes important for interpretation of the highest quality data.

Interpolation, realization, and reconstruction of noisy, irregularly sampled data

Various statistical procedures related to linear prediction and optimal filtering are developed for general, irregularly sampled, data sets. The data set may be a function of time, a spatial sample, or an unordered set. In the case of time series, the underlying process may be low-frequency divergent (weakly nonstationary)

Properties of high-redshift Lyman-alpha clouds. I: Statistical analysis of the Schneider-Schmidt-Gunn quasars

Techniques for statistical analysis of the Lyman-alpha forest in high-redshift quasars are developed, and applied to the low-resolution (25 A) spectra of 29 of the 33 quasars in the Schneider-Schmidt-Gunn sample. We extrapolate each quasars continuum shortward of Lyman-alpha emission, then consider each spectral bin of each quasar to be an (approximately) independent measurement of the absorption due to the Lyman-alpha clouds. With several thousand such measurements thus available, we can obtain good determinations of some interesting properties of clouds in the redshift range 2.5-4.3 without actually resolving any single cloud. We find that the mean absorption increases with z approximately as a power law (1 + z) exp (gamma + 1) with gamma = 2.46 +/- 0.37. The mean ratio of Lyman-alpha to Lyman-beta absorption in the clouds is 0.476 +/- 0.054. We also detect, and obtain ratios, for Lyma-gamma, delta, and possibly epsilon.

On the Lack of Thermal Emission from the Quiescent Black Hole XTE J1118+480: Evidence for the Event Horizon

A soft component of thermal emission is very commonly observed from the surfaces of quiescent, accreting neutron stars. We searched with Chandra for such a surface component of emission from the dynamical black hole candidate XTE J1118+480 (=J1118), which has a primary mass M1 ≈ 8 M☉. None was found, as one would expect if the compact X-ray source is a bona fide black hole that possesses an event horizon. The spectrum of J1118 is well fitted by a simple power-law model that implies an unabsorbed luminosity of LX ≈ 3.5 × 1030 ergs s-1 (0.3-7 keV). In our search for a thermal component, we fitted our Chandra data to a power-law model (with slope and NH fixed) plus a series of nine hydrogen atmosphere models with radii ranging from 9/8 to 2.8 Schwarzschild radii. For the more compact models, we included the important effect of self-irradiation of the atmosphere. Because of the remarkably low column density to J1118, NH ≈ 1.2 × 1020 cm-2, we obtained very strong limits on a hypothetical thermal source: kT∞ < 0.011 keV and L∞,th < 9.4 × 1030 ergs s-1 (99% confidence level). In analogy with neutron stars, there are two possible sources of thermal radiation from a hypothetical surface of J1118: deep crustal heating and accretion. The former mechanism predicts a thermal luminosity that exceeds the above luminosity limit by a factor of 25, which implies that either one must resort to contrived models or, as we favor, J1118 is a true black hole with an event horizon. In addition to neutron stars, we also consider emission from several exotic models of compact stars that have been proposed as alternatives to black holes. As we have shown previously, accreting black holes in quiescent X-ray binaries are very much fainter than neutron stars. One potential explanation for this difference is the larger and hence cooler surface of an 8 M☉ compact object that might be masked by the interstellar medium. However, our upper limit on the total luminosity of J1118 of 1.3 × 1031 ergs s-1 is far below the luminosities observed for neutron stars. This result strengthens our long-held position that black holes are faint relative to neutron stars because they possess an event horizon.

CONSTRAINTS ON NEUTRON STAR PROPERTIES FROM X-RAY OBSERVATIONS OF MILLISECOND PULSARS

We present a model of thermal X-ray emission from hot spots on the surface of a rotating compact star with an unmagnetized light-element atmosphere. An application to ROSAT, Chandra, and XMMNewton X-ray observations of the nearest known rotation-powered millisecond pulsar (MSP) PSR J0437–4715 reveals that the thermal emission from this pulsar is fully consistent with such a model, enabling constraints on important properties of the underlying neutron star. We confirm that the observed thermal X-ray pulsations from J0437–4715 are incompatible with blackbody emission and require the presence of an optically thick, light element (most likely hydrogen) atmosphere on the neutron star surface. The morphology of the X-ray pulse profile is consistent with a global dipole configuration of the pulsar magnetic field but suggests an off-center magnetic axis, with a displacement of 0.8 −3 km from the stellar center. For an assumed mass of 1.4 M⊙, the model restricts the allowed stellar radii to R = 6.8 − 13.8 km (90% confidence) and R > 6.7 km (99.9% confidence), which is consistent with standard NS equations of state and rules out an ultracompact star smaller than its photon sphere. Deeper spectroscopic and timing observations of this and other nearby radio MSPs with current and future X-ray facilities (Constellation-X and XEUS) can provide further insight into the fundamental properties of neutron stars. Subject headings: pulsars: general — pulsars: individual (PSR J0437–4715) — stars: neutron — X-rays: stars — gravitation — relativity

BONDI ACCRETION AND THE PROBLEM OF THE MISSING ISOLATED NEUTRON STARS

A large number of neutron stars (NSs), ~109, populate the Galaxy, but only a tiny fraction of them is observable during the short radio pulsar lifetime. The majority of these isolated NSs, too cold to be detectable by their own thermal emission, should be visible in X-rays as a result of accretion from the interstellar medium. The ROSAT All-Sky Survey has, however, shown that such accreting isolated NSs are very elusive: only a few tentative candidates have been identified, contrary to theoretical predictions that up to several thousand should be seen. We suggest that the fundamental reason for this discrepancy lies in the use of the standard Bondi formula to estimate the accretion rates. We compute the expected source counts using updated estimates of the pulsar velocity distribution, realistic hydrogen atmosphere spectra, and a modified expression for the Bondi accretion rate, as suggested by recent MHD simulations and supported by direct observations in the case of accretion around supermassive black holes in nearby galaxies and in our own. We find that, whereas the inclusion of atmospheric spectra partly compensates for the reduction in the counts due to the higher mean velocities of the new distribution, the modified Bondi formula dramatically suppresses the source counts. The new predictions are consistent with a null detection at the ROSAT sensitivity.

Instabilities in line-driven stellar winds. II - Effect of scattering

An earlier analysis (Owocki and Rybicki) of the linear instability of line-driven stellar winds is extended to take proper account of the dynamical effect of scattered radiation. The principal findings are as follows: (1) the drag effect of the mean scattered radiation does indeed greatly reduce the contribution of scattering lines to the instability at the very base of the wind, but the instability growth rate associated with such lines rapidly increases as the flow moves outward from the base, reaching more than 50 percent of the growth rate for pure absorption lines within a stellar radius of the surface, and eventually reaching 80 percent of that rate at large radii; (2) perturbations in the scattered radiation field may be important for the propagation of wind disturbances, but they have little effect on the wind instability; (3) the contribution of a strongly shadowed line to the wind instability is often reduced compared to that of an unshadowed line, but its effect is not one of damping in the outer parts of the wind. The primary conclusion derived from these results is thus that, even when all scattering effects are taken into account, the bulk of the flow in a line-driven stellar wind is still highly unstable.

Radiative transfer and starless cores

We develop a method of analyzing radio-frequency spectral line observations to derive data on the temperature, density, velocity, and molecular abundance of the emitting gas. The method incorporates a radiative transfer code with a new technique for handling overlapping hyperfine emission lines within the accelerated � -iteration algorithm and a heuristic search algorithm based on simulated annealing. We apply this method to new observations of N2H + in three Lynds clouds thought to be starless cores in the first stages of star formation and determine their density structure. A comparison of the gas densities derived from the molecular line emission and the millimeter dust emission suggests that the required dust mass opacity is about � 1: 3m m ¼ 0:04 cm 2 g � 1 , consistent with models of dust grains that have opacities enhanced by ice mantles and fluffy aggregrates. Subject heading gs: ISM: individual (L1489, L1517, L1544) — ISM: molecules — radiative transfer — stars: formation

THE TIME DEVELOPMENT OF A RESONANCE LINE IN THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE

The time-dependent spectral profile of a resonance line in a homogeneous expanding medium is studied by numerically solving an improved Fokker-Planck diffusion equation. The solutions are used to determine the time required to reach a quasi-static solution near the line center. A simple scaling law for this relaxation time is derived and is fitted to the numerical results. The results are applied to the case of Lyman alpha scattering during primordial recombination of hydrogen. For a wide range of cosmological models it is found that the relaxation times are smaller than the recombination timescale, although not by a very large factor. Thus the standard assumption of a quasi-static solution in cosmological recombination calculations is reasonably valid, and should not cause substantial errors in the solutions.