Keitaro Takahashi

Explosion mechanism, neutrino burst and gravitational wave in core-collapse supernovae

Core-collapse supernovae are among the most energetic explosions in the universe marking the catastrophic end of massive stars. In spite of rigorous studies for several decades, we still do not understand the explosion mechanism completely. Since they are related to many astrophysical phenomena such as nucleosynthesis, gamma-ray bursts and acceleration of cosmic rays, understanding of their physics has been of wide interest to the astrophysical community.In this paper, we review recent progress in the study of core-collapse supernovae focusing on the explosion mechanism, supernova neutrinos and the gravitational waves. Regarding the explosion mechanism, we present a review paying particular attention to the roles of multidimensional aspects, such as convection, rotation and magnetic fields, on the neutrino heating mechanism.Next, we discuss supernova neutrino, which is a powerful tool to probe not only deep inside the supernovae but also the intrinsic properties of neutrinos. For this purpose, it is necessary to understand neutrino oscillation which has been established recently by many experiments. Gravitational astronomy is also now becoming a reality. We present an extensive review on the physical foundations and the emission mechanism of gravitational waves in detail and discuss the possibility of their detections.

Cosmological Magnetic Field: A Fossil of Density Perturbations in the Early Universe

The origin of the substantial magnetic fields that are found in galaxies and on even larger scales, such as in clusters of galaxies, is yet unclear. If the second-order couplings between photons and electrons are considered, then cosmological density fluctuations, which explain the large-scale structure of the universe, can also produce magnetic fields on cosmological scales before the epoch of recombination. By evaluating the power spectrum of these cosmological magnetic fields on a range of scales, we show here that magnetic fields of 10–18.1 gauss are generated at a 1-megaparsec scale and can be even stronger at smaller scales (10–14.1 gauss at 10 kiloparsecs). These fields are large enough to seed magnetic fields in galaxies and may therefore have affected primordial star formation in the early universe.

Gravitational wave spectrum induced by primordial scalar perturbations

We derive the complete spectrum of gravitational waves induced by primordial scalar perturbations ranging over all observable wavelengths. This scalar-induced contribution can be computed directly from the observed scalar perturbations and general relativity and is, in this sense, independent of the cosmological model for generating the perturbations. The spectrum is scale invariant on small scales, but has an interesting scale dependence on large and intermediate scales, where scalar-induced gravitational waves do not redshift and are hence enhanced relative to the background density of the Universe. This contribution to the tensor spectrum is significantly different in form from the direct model-dependent primordial tensor spectrum and, although small in magnitude, it dominates the primordial signal for some cosmological models. We confirm our analytical results by direct numerical integration of the equations of motion.

Magnetic field generation from cosmological perturbations.

In this Letter, we discuss the generation of magnetic field from cosmological perturbations. We consider the evolution of three component plasma (electron, proton, and photon) evaluating the collision term between electrons and photons up to the second order. The collision term is shown to induce electric current, which then generates magnetic field. There are three contributions, two of which can be evaluated from the first-order quantities, while the other one is fluid vorticity, which is purely second order. We estimate the magnitudes of the former contributions and show that the amplitude of the produced magnetic field is about approximately 10(-19) G at 10 Mpc comoving scale at the decoupling. Compared to astrophysical and inflationary mechanisms for seed-field generation, our study suffers from much less ambiguities concerning unknown physics and/or processes.

LOWER BOUNDS ON INTERGALACTIC MAGNETIC FIELDS FROM SIMULTANEOUSLY OBSERVED GeV-TeV LIGHT CURVES OF THE BLAZAR Mrk 501

We derive lower bounds on intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMFs) from upper limits on the pair echo emission from the blazar Mrk 501, that is, delayed GeV emission from secondary e{sup -}e{sup +} pairs produced via interactions of primary TeV gamma rays with the cosmic infrared background. Utilizing only simultaneous GeV-TeV light curves observed by VERITAS, MAGIC, and the Fermi Large Area Telescope during a multiwavelength campaign in 2009 that included a TeV flare, bounds are deduced on the IGMF strength of B {approx}> 10{sup -20} G at the 90% confidence level for a field coherence length of 1 kpc. Since our analysis is based firmly on the observational data alone and is nearly free of assumptions concerning the primary TeV flux in unobserved periods or spectral bands, our evaluation of the pair echo flux is conservative and the evidence for a non-zero IGMF is more robust compared to previous studies.

Active Galactic Nuclei under the scrutiny of CTA

Abstract Active Galactic Nuclei (hereafter AGN) produce powerful outflows which offer excellent conditions for efficient particle acceleration in internal and external shocks, turbulence, and magnetic reconnection events. The jets as well as particle accelerating regions close to the supermassive black holes (hereafter SMBH) at the intersection of plasma inflows and outflows, can produce readily detectable very high energy gamma-ray emission. As of now, more than 45 AGN including 41 blazars and 4 radiogalaxies have been detected by the present ground-based gamma-ray telescopes, which represents more than one third of the cosmic sources detected so far in the VHE gamma-ray regime. The future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) should boost the sample of AGN detected in the VHE range by about one order of magnitude, shedding new light on AGN population studies, and AGN classification and unification schemes. CTA will be a unique tool to scrutinize the extreme high-energy tail of accelerated particles in SMBH environments, to revisit the central engines and their associated relativistic jets, and to study the particle acceleration and emission mechanisms, particularly exploring the missing link between accretion physics, SMBH magnetospheres and jet formation. Monitoring of distant AGN will be an extremely rewarding observing program which will inform us about the inner workings and evolution of AGN. Furthermore these AGN are bright beacons of gamma-rays which will allow us to constrain the extragalactic infrared and optical backgrounds as well as the intergalactic magnetic field, and will enable tests of quantum gravity and other “exotic” phenomena.

Non-Gaussianity in the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature fluctuations from cosmic (super-)strings

We compute analytically the small-scale temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background from cosmic (super-)strings and study the dependence on the string intercommuting probability P. We develop an analytical model which describes the evolution of a string network and calculate the numbers of string segments and kinks in a horizon volume. Then we derive the probability distribution function (pdf) which takes account of finite angular resolution of observation. The resultant pdf consists of a Gaussian part due to frequent scatterings by long string segments and a non-Gaussian tail due to close encounters with kinks. The dispersion of the Gaussian part is reasonably consistent with that obtained by numerical simulations by Fraisse et al.. On the other hand, the non-Gaussian tail contains two phenomenological parameters which are determined by comparison with the numerical results for P = 1. Extrapolating the pdf to the cases with P < 1, we predict that the non-Gaussian feature is suppressed for small P.

Earth effects on supernova neutrinos and their implications for neutrino parameters

We perform a detailed study of the Earth matter effects on supernova neutrinos with neutrino oscillation parameter LMA and small

Effects of neutrino oscillation on the supernova neutrino spectrum

\theta_{13}

Lower Bounds on Magnetic Fields in Intergalactic Voids from Long-term GeV-TeV Light Curves of the Blazar Mrk 421

. The Earth effects show significant dependences on the neutrino path length inside the Earth and the value of