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Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

1979

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Full-Text Articles in Astrophysics and Astronomy

Sporadic Mass Ejection In Red Supergiants, Menas Kafatos, A. G. Michalitsianos Jan 1979

Sporadic Mass Ejection In Red Supergiants, Menas Kafatos, A. G. Michalitsianos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We have applied a general mechanism first proposed by J. A. Burke to red supergiants for determining the spin-down rate and angular momentum loss of rotating stars. This model relies principally on sporadic mass ejection, which is assumed to be the result of turbulent elements accelerating material in cool supergiant.atmospheres. Mass is preferentially expelled in the forward direction of rotation, resulting in a rapid loss of angular momentum on time scales of 1Q^4-10^6 years in the supergiant evolutionary phase. Such rotational breaking will occur if the turbulent elements have characteristic sizes a few percent of the stellar radius, and rms …


Penrose Pair Production As A Power Source Of Quasars And Active Galactic Nuclei, Menas Kafatos, D. Leiter Jan 1979

Penrose Pair Production As A Power Source Of Quasars And Active Galactic Nuclei, Menas Kafatos, D. Leiter

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper we propose a new mechanism, Penrose pair production in massive, canonical (with a/M = 0.998) Kerr black holes, as a power source in quasars, Seyfert galaxies, radio galaxies, and BL Lac objects (i.e., what one usually refers to as active nuclei). As a working hypothesis, we postulate that massive (10^8 M0 or around this value) Kerr black holes reside in the centers of these objects. We also postulate that an accretion disk is formed. In a variety of models, hot, inner disks are expected. If the temperature is sufficiently high-as, for example, in the two-temperature model-then MeV …