Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity Commons^™

Experimental Constraint On Axionlike Particles Over Seven Orders Of Magnitude In Mass, Tanya S. Roussy, Daniel A. Palken, William B. Cairncross, Benjamin M. Brubaker, Daniel N. Gresh, Matt Grau, Kevin C. Cossel, Kia Boon Ng, Yuval Shagam, Yan Zhou, Victor V. Flambaum, Konrad W. Lehnert, Jun Ye, Eric A. Cornell

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We use our recent electric dipole moment (EDM) measurement data to constrain the possibility that the HfF+ EDM oscillates in time due to interactions with candidate dark matter axionlike particles (ALPs). We employ a Bayesian analysis method which accounts for both the look-elsewhere effect and the uncertainties associated with stochastic density fluctuations in the ALP field. We find no evidence of an oscillating EDM over a range spanning from 27 nHz to 400 mHz, and we use this result to constrain the ALP-gluon coupling over the mass range 10-22-10-15 eV. This is the first laboratory constraint on the ALP-gluon coupling …

A Mildly Relativistic Outflow From The Energentic, Fast-Rising Blue Optical Transient Css161010 In A Dwarf Galaxy, Deanne L. Coppejans, R. Margutti, G. Terreran, A. J. Nayana, E. R. Coughlin, T. Laskar, K. D. Alexander, M. Bietenholz, D. Caprioli, P. Chandra, M. R. Drout, D. Frederiks, C. Frohmaier, K. H. Hurley, C. S. Kochanek, M. Macleod, A. Meisner, P. E. Nugent, A. Ridnaia, D. J. Sand, D. Svinkin, C. Ward, S. Yang, A. Baldeschi, I. V. Chilingarian, Y. Dong, C. Esquivia, W. Fong, C. Guidorzi, P. Lundqvist, D. Milisavljevic

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We present X-ray and radio observations of the Fast Blue Optical Transient CRTS-CSS161010 J045834−081803 (CSS161010 hereafter) at t = 69–531 days. CSS161010 shows luminous X-ray (L x ~ 5 × 1039 erg s−1) and radio (L ν ~ 1029 erg s−1 Hz−1) emission. The radio emission peaked at ~100 days post-transient explosion and rapidly decayed. We interpret these observations in the context of synchrotron emission from an expanding blast wave. CSS161010 launched a mildly relativistic outflow with velocity Γβc ≥ 0.55c at ~100 days. This is faster than the non-relativistic AT 2018cow (Γβc ~ 0.1c) and closer to ZTF18abvkwla (Γβc …

Swift Spectroscopy Of The Accretion Disk Wind In The Black Hole Gro J1655-40, M. Balakrishnan, J. M. Miller, N. Trueba, M. Reynolds, J. Raymond, Daniel Proga, A. C. Fabian, T. Kallman, J. Kaastra

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

Chandra obtained two High Energy Transmission Grating spectra of the stellar-mass black hole GRO J1655−40 during its 2005 outburst, revealing a rich and complex disk wind. Soon after its launch, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory began monitoring the same outburst. Some X-ray Telescope (XRT) observations were obtained in a mode that makes it impossible to remove strong Mn calibration lines, so the Fe Kα line region in the spectra was previously neglected. However, these lines enable a precise calibration of the energy scale, facilitating studies of the absorption-dominated disk wind and its velocity shifts. Here we present fits to 15 …

Mass Determinations Of The Three Mini-Neptunes Transiting Toi-125, Louise D. Nielsen, D. Gandolfi, D. J. Armstrong, J. S. Jenkins, M. Fridlund, N. C. Santos, F. Dai, V. Adibekyan, R. Luque, Jason H. Steffen, M. Esposito, F. Meru, S. Sabotta, E. Bolmont, D. Kossakowski, J. F. Otegi, F. Murgas, M. Stalport, F. Rodler, M. R. Diaz, N. T. Kurtovic, G. Ricker, R. Vanderspek, D. W. Latham, S. Seager, J. N. Winn, J. M. Jenkins, R. Allart, J. M. Almenara, D. Barrado, S. C.C. Barros

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, is currently carrying out an all-sky search for small planets transiting bright stars. In the first year of the TESS survey, a steady progress was made in achieving the mission’s primary science goal of establishing bulk densities for 50 planets smaller than Neptune. During that year, the TESS’s observations were focused on the southern ecliptic hemisphere, resulting in the discovery of three mini-Neptunes orbiting the star TOI-125, a V = 11.0 K0 dwarf. We present intensive HARPS radial velocity observations, yielding precise mass measurements for TOI-125b, TOI-125c, and TOI-125d. TOI-125b has an orbital period …

Relation Between Gravitational Mass And Baryonic Mass For Non-Rotating And Rapidly Rotating Neutron Stars, He Gao, Shun-Ke Ai, Zhou-Jian Cao, Bing Zhang, Zhen-Yu Zhu, Ang Li, Nai-Bo Zhang, Andreas Bauswein

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

With a selected sample of neutron star (NS) equations of state (EOSs) that are consistent with the current observations and have a range of maximum masses, we investigate the relations between NS gravitational mass Mg and baryonic mass Mb, and the relations between the maximum NS mass supported through uniform rotation (Mmax) and that of nonrotating NSs (MTOV). We find that for an EOS-independent quadratic, universal transformation formula (Mb=Mg+A×M2g)(Mb=Mg+A×Mg2), the best-fit A value is 0.080 for non-rotating NSs, 0.064 for maximally rotating NSs, and 0.073 when NSs with arbitrary rotation are considered. The residual error of the transformation is ∼ …

Morphological Signatures Induced By Dust Back Reactions In Discs With An Embedded Planet, Chao-Chin Yang, Zhaohuan Zhu

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

Recent observations have revealed a gallery of substructures in the dust component of nearby protoplanetary discs, including rings, gaps, spiral arms, and lopsided concentrations. One interpretation of these substructures is the existence of embedded planets. Not until recently, however, most of the modelling effort to interpret these observations ignored the dust back reaction to the gas. In this work, we conduct local-shearing-sheet simulations for an isothermal, inviscid, non-self-gravitating, razor-thin dusty disc with a planet on a fixed circular orbit. We systematically examine the parameter space spanned by planet mass (0.1Mth ≤ Mp ≤ 1Mth, where Mth is the thermal mass), …

Nonideal Mhd Simulation Of Hl Tau Disk: Formation Of Rings, Xiao Hu, Zhaohuan Zhu, Satoshi Okuzumi, Xue-Ning Bai, Lile Wang, Kengo Tomida, James M. Stone

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

Recent high-resolution observations unveil ring structures in circumstellar disks. The origin of these rings has been widely investigated under various theoretical scenarios. In this work we perform global 3D nonideal MHD simulations including effects from both ohmic resistivity and ambipolar diffusion (AD) to model the HL Tau disk. The nonideal MHD diffusion profiles are calculated based on the global dust evolution calculation including sintering effects. Disk ionization structure changes dramatically across the snow line due to the change of dust size distribution close to the snow line of major volatiles. We find that accretion is mainly driven by disk wind. …

Diagnosing 0.1–10 Au Scale Morphology Of The Fu Ori Disk Using Alma And Vlti/Gravity, Hauyu Baobab Liu, Antoine Merand, Joel D. Green, Sebastian Perez, Antonio S. Hales, Yao-Lun Yang, Michael M. Dunham, Yasuhiro Hasegawa, Thomas Henning, Roberto Galvin-Madrid, Agnes Kospal, Michihiro Takami, Eduardo I. Vorobyov, Zhaohuan Zhu

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We report new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Band 3 (86–100 GHz; ~80 mas angular resolution) and Band 4 (146–160 GHz; ~50 mas angular resolution) observations of the dust continuum emission toward the archetypal and ongoing accretion burst young stellar object FU Ori, which simultaneously covered its companion, FU Ori S. In addition, we present near-infrared (2–2.45 μm) observations of FU Ori taken with the General Relativity Analysis via VLT InTerferometrY (GRAVITY; ~1 mas angular resolution) instrument on the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). We find that the emission in both FU Ori and FU Ori S at (sub)millimeter and near-infrared …

A Global View Of The Inner Accretion And Ejection Flow Around Super Massive Black Holes, Margherita Giustini, Daniel Proga

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

Context. Understanding the physics and geometry of accretion and ejection around super massive black holes (SMBHs) is important to understand the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and therefore of the large scale structures of the Universe. Aims. We aim at providing a simple, coherent, and global view of the sub-parsec accretion and ejection flow in AGN with varying Eddington ratio, ṁ, and black hole mass, MBH. Methods. We made use of theoretical insights, results of numerical simulations, as well as UV and X-ray observations to review the inner regions of AGN by including different accretion and ejection modes, with …

Photoionization Calculations Of The Radiation Force Due To Spectral Lines In Agns, Randall C. Dannen, Daniel Proga, Timothy R. Kallman, Tim Waters

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

One of the main mechanisms that could drive mass outflows in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is radiation pressure due to spectral lines. Although straightforward to understand, the actual magnitude of the radiation force is challenging to compute because the force depends on the physical conditions in the gas, as well as the strength, spectral energy distribution (SED), and geometry of the radiation field. We present results from our photoionization and radiation transfer calculations of the force multiplier, M(ξ, t), using the same radiation field to compute the gas photoionization and thermal balance. We assume low gas density (n = 104 …

Viewing Angle Constraints On S190425z And S190426c And The Joint Gravitational-Wave/Gamma-Ray Detection Fractions For Binary Neutron Star Mergers, Hao-Ran Song, Shun-Ke Ai, Min-Hao Wang, Nan Xing, He Gao, Bing Zhang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo scientific collaboration (LVC) detected two binary neutron star (BNS) merger candidates, S190425z and S190426c. The Fermi-Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) observed 55.6% (for S190425z) and 100% (for S190426c) of the probability regions of both events at the respective merger times, but no gamma-ray burst (GRB) was detected in either case. The derived luminosity upper limits suggest that a short GRB similar to GRB 170817A would not be detectable for both cases due to their distances, which are larger than that of GW170817. Assuming that the jet profile obtained from GW170817/GRB 170817A is quasi-universal …

Propagation Of A Short Grb Jet In The Ejecta: Jet Launching Delay Time, Jet Structure, And Gw170817/Grb 170817a, Jin-Jun Geng, Bing Zhang, Anders Kölligan, Rolf Kuiper, Yong-Feng Huang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We perform a series of relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations to investigate how a hot magnetic jet propagates within the dynamical ejecta of a binary neutron star merger, focusing on how the jet structure depends on the delay time of jet launching with respect to the merger time, Δt jet. We find that regardless of the jet-launching delay time, a structured jet with an angle-dependent luminosity and Lorentz factor is always formed after the jet breaks out of the ejecta. On the other hand, the jet-launching delay time has an impact on the jet structure. If the jet-launching delay time is relatively …

A Tight Relation Between Spiral Arm Pitch Angle And Protplanetary Disk Mass, Si-Yue Yu, Luis C. Ho, Zhaohuan Zhu

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We use two-dimensional Fourier transformation to measure the pitch angle () of the dominant spiral Fourier mode of well-defined spiral arms in 13 protoplanetary disks, making use of near-infrared scattered-light images of AB Aur, SAO 206462, MWC 758, V1247 Ori, HD 142527, DZ Cha, LkHα 330, and HD 100453, and ALMA millimeter continuum images of Elias 2-27, IM Lup, AS 205, and HT Lup. We find that the measured pitch angle correlates strongly with disk mass (M D ), such that more massive protoplanetary disks have smaller pitch angles, following . Interestingly, four disks with a known companion (HD 142527, …

Cosmology-Independent Estimate Of The Fraction Of Baryon Mass In The Igm From Fast Radio Burst Observations, Zhengxiang Li, He Gao, Jun-Jie Wei, Yuan-Pei Yang, Bing Zhang, Zong-Hong Zhu

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The excessive dispersion measure (DM) of fast radio bursts (FRBs) has been proposed to be a powerful tool to study intergalactic medium (IGM) and to perform cosmography. One issue is that the fraction of baryons in the IGM, f IGM, is not properly constrained. Here, we propose a method of estimating f IGM using a putative sample of FRBs with the measurements of both DM and luminosity distance d L. The latter can be obtained if the FRB is associated with a distance indicator (e.g., a gamma-ray burst or a gravitational-wave event), or the redshift z of the FRB is …

Physics Of Gamma-Ray Bursts And Multi-Messenger Signals From Double Neutron Star Mergers, He Gao

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My dissertation includes two parts:

Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs): Gamma-ray bursts are multi-wavelength transients, with both prompt gamma-ray emission and late time afterglow emission observed by telescopes in different wavelengths. I have carried out three investigations to understand GRB prompt emission and afterglow. Chapter 2 develops a new method, namely, "Stepwise Filter Correlation" method, to decompose the variability components in a light curve. After proving its reliability through simulations, we apply this method to 266 bright GRBs and find that the majority of the bursts have clear evidence of superposition of fast and slow variability components. Chapter 3 gives …

Molecular Processes In Astrophysics: Calculations Of H + H2 Excitation, De-Excitation, And Cooling, Matthew Kelley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The implications of H+H2 cooling in astrophysics is important to several applications. One of the most significant and pure applications is its role in cooling in the early universe. Other applications would include molecular dynamics in nebulae and their collapse into stars and astrophysical shocks. Shortly after the big bang, the universe was a hot primordial gas of photons, electrons, and nuclei among other ingredients. By far the most dominant nuclei in the early universe was hydrogen. In fact, in the early universe the matter density was 90 percent hydrogen and only 10 percent helium with small amounts of lithium …

Topics In Galaxy Formation: Pairwise Velocities Of Dark Matter Halos And Molecular Hydrogen Regulated Star Formation In Cosmological Simulations, Robert Jo Thompson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this dissertation we investigate two distinct challenges within the concordance LCDM model and an unrelated project.

The first is a discrepancy between theory and observation. A massive galaxy sub-cluster known as the `bullet' has fallen through a more massive parent galaxy cluster at a redshift of z=0.296.

Theory finds that in order to reproduce the observational quantities of this cluster, an unusually high relative velocity of v12=3000 km/s between the two cluster's parent halos is required.

We quantify the statistical probability of producing a `bullet-like' halo pair within large N-body simulations, and

conclude that either the LCDM model is …

Oral Presentation: The Universe In A Box, Jason Jaacks

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

When and how galaxies formed throughout the history of the Universe is one of the most fundamental questions of astronomy and astrophysics. As technology improves, astronomers are able to push the frontier of galaxy observation to a period when the Universe was less than 1 billion years old. This is when the first galaxies are beginning to form. However, beyond the limits of observational technology lies data fundamental to our complete understanding of these processes. Using state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamic computer codes combined with access to the nation’s largest and fastest supercomputers, we are able to simulate the formation and evolution …

Integral Neutron Multiplicity Measurements From Cosmic Ray Interactions In Lead, Thomas E. Ward, Alexander A. Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai A. Kudryashev, Denis E. Beller

Transmutation Sciences Physics (TRP)

Sixty element ³He neutron multiplicity detector systems were designed, constructed and tested for use in cosmic ray experiments with a 30-cm cube lead target. A series of measurements were performed for the cosmic ray configuration at ground level (3 meters water equivalent, mwe), in the St. Petersburg metro tunnel (185 mwe), and in the Pyhäsalmi mine in Finland (583 and 1185 mwe). Anomalous coincidence events with charged cosmic ray particles at sea level produced events with 100-120 neutrons due possibly to the total disintegration of the Pb nucleus. These events were also detected at 185 mwe, but the particles …