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Physical Processes Commons™

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2022

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Articles 1 - 15 of 15

Full-Text Articles in Physical Processes

The Evolution Of X-Ray Binaries And Their Accretion States, Lacey A. West Dec 2022

The Evolution Of X-Ray Binaries And Their Accretion States, Lacey A. West

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

X-ray binary systems (XRBs) consist of a compact object component (e.g., black hole or neutron star) that accretes matter from a companion star. Although the extent to which XRBs contributed to the early heating of the intergalactic medium is still under investigation, it is estimated that XRBs dominated the X-ray radiation field before the reionization epoch. The study of XRB emission is therefore crucial to our understanding of the very early universe. Furthermore, studying the abundance and radial distribution of each XRB type within a galaxy can be revealing of the host galaxy’s local properties, structure, and evolution. XRB spectra …


A Method For Exploring The Habitability Of Earth-Like Exoplanets: Applications To Tess Objects Of Interest 203 B, 256 B, And 700 D, Paul Bonney Dec 2022

A Method For Exploring The Habitability Of Earth-Like Exoplanets: Applications To Tess Objects Of Interest 203 B, 256 B, And 700 D, Paul Bonney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has and is continuing to discover a multitude of potentially habitable planet candidates. As more planets are detected and confirmed, it becomes increasingly important to strategically search for signs of habitability with which to differentiate and prioritize them for further observation, in particular with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). To facilitate this, I have created a method for prioritizing TESS planet candidates based on parameters derived from their light curves and have applied the method to the TESS Candidate Target List (CTL). This data set uses preliminary fits to transit modeling which can …


Dynamics Of Atmospheric Gravity Wave Breaking In The Mesopause Region, Fan Yang Oct 2022

Dynamics Of Atmospheric Gravity Wave Breaking In The Mesopause Region, Fan Yang

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

GWs significantly impact the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT), and as a consequence of GW breaking, atmospheric turbulence plays an essential role in the mixing and transport of momentum, mass, and chemical materials in MLT. The main focus of this research for the fulfillment of the proposed Ph.D. dissertation is to improve the understanding of the dynamic process of wave breaking and their effects in the mesopause region above Andes Lidar Observatory (30.2◦ S, 70.7◦ W). A few scientific topics related to GW break- ing are addressed. What are the probabilities of the atmosphere becoming convectively or dynamically unstable in …


A Wind Environment And Lorentz Factors Of Tens Explain Gamma-Ray Bursts X-Ray Plateau, Hüsne Dereli-Bégué, Asaf Pe’Er, Felix Ryde, Samantha R. Oates, Bing Zhang, Maria G. Dainotti Sep 2022

A Wind Environment And Lorentz Factors Of Tens Explain Gamma-Ray Bursts X-Ray Plateau, Hüsne Dereli-Bégué, Asaf Pe’Er, Felix Ryde, Samantha R. Oates, Bing Zhang, Maria G. Dainotti

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are known to have the most relativistic jets, with initial Lorentz factors in the order of a few hundreds. Many GRBs display an early X-ray light-curve plateau, which was not theoretically expected and therefore puzzled the community for many years. Here, we show that this observed signal is naturally obtained within the classical GRB fireball model, provided that the initial Lorentz factor is rather a few tens, and the expansion occurs into a medium-low density wind. The range of Lorentz factors in GRB jets is thus much wider than previously thought and bridges an observational gap between …


Continuum Damping Effects In Nuclear Collisions, Hossein Sadeghi, Mahdieh Ghafouri Aug 2022

Continuum Damping Effects In Nuclear Collisions, Hossein Sadeghi, Mahdieh Ghafouri

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

The Time-Dependent Skyrme Hartree-Fock (TDSHF) calculations have been conducted to study 100Sn+16O, 116Sn+16O, and 122Sn+16O collisions on a 3-Dimensional (3D) mesh with SV-bas SF. For the 100Sn+16O collision, the continuum damping width of the rotational amplitudes in Ecm = 100, 150, 200, and 250 MeV has been achieved around 108, 185, 277, and 318, with the time evolution width for z2 around 15/5, 13/5, 13/9, or 14/3 fm2. The quadrupole deformation, kinetic energy, and rotational amplitude are studied. It is seen that the compound nucleus becomes uniform and spherical as time grows. The results of the time evolution show the …


The Pursuit For Gamma-Ray Emitting Pulsar Wind Nebulae With The Fermi-Large Area Telescope, Jordan Eagle Aug 2022

The Pursuit For Gamma-Ray Emitting Pulsar Wind Nebulae With The Fermi-Large Area Telescope, Jordan Eagle

All Dissertations

Pulsar wind nebulae are highly magnetized particle winds, descending from core collapse supernovae (CC SNe), and each powered by an energetic, rapidly rotating neutron star. There are at least 125 Galactic pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) that have been discovered from radio wavelengths to TeV gamma-rays, the majority of which were first identified in radio or X-ray surveys. An increasing number of PWNe are being identified in the TeV band by ground-based air Cherenkov Telescopes such as HESS, MAGIC, and VERITAS such that they constitute the dominant source class of Galactic TeV emitters. High-energy sources like PWNe may be responsible for …


Chandra Spectral Constraints Of The Low-Metallicity Collision Ring Cartwheel Galaxy, Chloë Benton May 2022

Chandra Spectral Constraints Of The Low-Metallicity Collision Ring Cartwheel Galaxy, Chloë Benton

Physics Undergraduate Honors Theses

With the sophistication of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, many observations of the behaviors of binary systems have been researched and studied. As an excellent example, for the low metallicity Cartwheel Galaxy, some fraction of the X-ray photons emitted from X-ray binaries have been intercepted by the detectors on the telescope and have been compiled into “events file.” When modeled properly, this data can produce insight into the behavior of the stellar populations in this object. The primary goal of this project is to use these events files to measure the X-ray properties of the X-ray binaries in the Cartwheel Galaxy …


Exploring The Glow Of The Universe In Gamma-Rays And Hunting Distant Agn, Changam Meenakshi Rajagopal May 2022

Exploring The Glow Of The Universe In Gamma-Rays And Hunting Distant Agn, Changam Meenakshi Rajagopal

All Dissertations

The entirety of the γ-ray radiation permeating our Universe is encoded in the extragalactic γ-ray background. This is a superposition of resolved sources, mostly powerful relativistic jets powered by supermassive black holes, i.e., blazars, and an unresolved isotropic component, aka, the diffuse isotropic gamma-ray background (IGRB). Studying the IGRB can help unveil its composition, as well as unearth multi-messenger relationships between the intensities of PeV neutrinos, ultra high energy cosmic rays (> 1018 eV), and sub-TeV γ-rays. The comparable energy budgets of these three phenomena (neutrinos, UHECR, and γ-rays) indicates a physical connection or a common source amongst them. On …


Mms Observations Of The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability And Associated Ion Scale Waves, Rachel C. Rice Apr 2022

Mms Observations Of The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability And Associated Ion Scale Waves, Rachel C. Rice

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The detailed mechanisms coupling the solar wind to Earth's magnetosphere are not yet fully understood. Solar wind plasma is heated non-adiabatically as it penetrates the magnetosphere, and this process must span scale sizes. Reconnection alone is not able to account for the observed heating; other mechanisms must be at work. One potential process is the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). The KHI is a convective instability which operates at the fluid scale in plasmas, but is capable of driving secondary process at smaller scales. Previous work has shown evidence of magnetic reconnection, various ion scale wave modes, mode conversion, and turbulence associated …


The Spectra Of Hydrogen-Deficient Carbon Stars: The Effects Of Evolution And Nucleosynthesis, Courtney Lauren Crawford Mar 2022

The Spectra Of Hydrogen-Deficient Carbon Stars: The Effects Of Evolution And Nucleosynthesis, Courtney Lauren Crawford

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The rare class of stars known as the Hydrogen-deficient Carbon (HdC) stars includes the R Coronae Borealis (RCB) variables and the non-variable Dustless HdC (dLHdC) stars. These stars are believed to be formed via the merger of two white dwarf (WD) stars. They are known to exhibit many spectral peculiarities, such as partial helium burning products, enhancement of s-processed material and severe hydrogen-deficiency. In this work I explore many facets of HdC evolution. I begin by creating 18 HdC models in the stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) by merging two WD progenitors and evolving the …


Physical Characteristics And Classification Of The Large Amplitude Variable Star V1719 Cygni, Ashley Lieber, Logan Siems, Julia Kennefick, Michael Fitzgerald Jan 2022

Physical Characteristics And Classification Of The Large Amplitude Variable Star V1719 Cygni, Ashley Lieber, Logan Siems, Julia Kennefick, Michael Fitzgerald

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Pulsating stars are used as standard candles which are helpful in determining distances to stellar objects along with the relationship between their period and apparent luminosity. The focus of this study was the variable star, V1719 Cygni, which is often classified as a Delta (δ) Scuti star, but there exists debate that it should be classified as a RR Lyrae star due to its abnormal light curve and similar characteristics between the two variable star categories. Observational data was taken in 2019 using the Las Cumbres Observatory international telescope network. The resulting data were calibrated using comparison stars in the …


Development Of A Fluxgate Magnetometer Model, Eleonora Olsmats Jan 2022

Development Of A Fluxgate Magnetometer Model, Eleonora Olsmats

Honors Theses and Capstones

As a part of the UNH SWFO-L1 mission to monitor space weather and the sun’s behavior, the fluxgate magnetometer is an important component to measure external magnetic fields. The basic principle of a fluxgate magnetometer is to detect changes in the ambient magnetic field by inducing a magnetic field in a ferromagnetic material via a drive winding. Each magnetometer is unique due to the ferromagnetic properties of the core material which can be seen in the hysteresis loop which is a relationship between the magnetic field strength (H) and the induced magnetic field (B). Measuring the hysteresis of a fluxgate …


Investigating Signs Of Orbital Decay In The Tres-1 Exoplanetary System, Amanda F. Wester Jan 2022

Investigating Signs Of Orbital Decay In The Tres-1 Exoplanetary System, Amanda F. Wester

Honors Theses and Capstones

Transit observations of exoplanetary systems can be used to investigate orbital decay. TrES-1b is an exoplanet hypothesized to be experiencing orbital decay due to observed transit timing variations (TTVs) [12]. Numerous transits must be observed to establish a long term pattern to conclusively determine if the planet’s orbit is decaying. Measurements were made using the UNH Observatory where 2 transits were observed of the TrES-1b transiting system on February 27, 2022 and March 5, 2022. A CCD camera was used to image the transit and capture calibration images. The software AstroImageJ (AIJ) was used to calibrate the images and perform …


Searching For Anomalous Extensive Air Showers Using The Pierre Auger Observatory Fluorescence Detector, Andrew Puyleart Jan 2022

Searching For Anomalous Extensive Air Showers Using The Pierre Auger Observatory Fluorescence Detector, Andrew Puyleart

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Anomalous extensive air showers have yet to be detected by cosmic ray observatories. Fluorescence detectors provide a way to view the air showers created by cosmic rays with primary energies reaching up to hundreds of EeV . The resulting air showers produced by these highly energetic collisions can contain features that deviate from average air showers. Detection of these anomalous events may provide information into unknown regions of particle physics, and place constraints on cross-sectional interaction lengths of protons. In this dissertation, I propose measurements of extensive air shower profiles that are used in a machine learning pipeline to distinguish …


Understanding The Physics Of Galaxy Clusters Out To Their Virial Radii And Beyond, Arnab Sarkar Jan 2022

Understanding The Physics Of Galaxy Clusters Out To Their Virial Radii And Beyond, Arnab Sarkar

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

In the hierarchical structure formation model, galaxy clusters grow and evolve via mergers and accretion from the surrounding cosmic web, leaving distinctive marks in the gas properties, metallicity, and dynamical state at the outskirts of clusters, which needs to be probed to better understand the growth of a cluster. I probed the gas properties of four nearby galaxy groups MKW4, Antlia, RXJ1159, and ESO3060170 out to their virial radii using deep Suzaku and mostly snapshot Chandra observations. I found the gas entropy profiles of MKW4 follow a power-law at its outskirts - as expected from purely gravitational structure formation model. …