Narrow Results

We implement the so-called "complex-plane iterative technique" (CIT) to the computation of classical differentially rotating magnetic white dwarf and neutron star models. The program has been written in SCILAB (© INRIA-ENPC), a matrix-oriented high-level programming language, which can be downloaded free of charge from the site . Due to the advanced capabilities of this language, the code is short and understandable. Highlights of the program are: (a) time-saving character, (b) easy use due to the built-in graphics user interface, (c) easy interfacing with Fortran via online dynamic link. We interpret our numerical results in various ways by extensively using the graphics environment of SCILAB.

In recent years a number of white dwarfs have been observed with very high surface magnetic fields. We can expect that the magnetic field in the core of these stars would be much higher (~10¹⁴G). In this paper, we analytically study the effect of high magnetic field on relativistic cold electron, and hence its effect on the stability and the mass–radius relation of a magnetic white dwarf. In strong magnetic fields, the equation of state of the Fermi gas is modified and Landau quantization comes into play. For relatively very high magnetic fields (with respect to the average energy density of matter) the number of Landau levels is restricted to one or two. We analyze the equation of states for magnetized electron degenerate gas analytically and attempt to understand the conditions in which transitions from the zeroth Landau level to first Landau level occurs. We also find the effect of the strong magnetic field on the star collapsing to a white dwarf, and the mass–radius relation of the resulting star. We obtain an interesting theoretical result that it is possible to have white dwarfs with mass more than the mass set by Chandrasekhar limit.

We clarify important physics issues related to the recently established new mass limit for magnetized white dwarfs which is significantly super-Chandrasekhar. The issues include, justification of high magnetic field and the corresponding formation of stable white dwarfs, contribution of the magnetic field to the total density and pressure, flux freezing, variation of magnetic field and related currents therein. We also attempt to address the observational connection of such highly magnetized white dwarfs.

The binary system AR Scorpii hosts an M-type main sequence cool star orbiting around a magnetic white dwarf in the Milky Way Galaxy. The broadband non-thermal emission over radio, optical and X-ray wavebands observed from AR Scorpii indicates strong modulations on the spin frequency of the white dwarf as well as the spin-orbit beat frequency of the system. Therefore, AR Scorpii is also referred to as a white dwarf pulsar wherein a fast spinning white dwarf star plays very crucial role in the broadband non-thermal emission. Several interpretations for the observed features of AR Scorpii appear in the literature without firm conclusions. In this paper, we investigate connection between some of the important physical properties like spin-down power, surface magnetic field, equation of state, temperature and gravity associated with the white dwarf in the binary system AR Scorpii and its observational characteristics. We explore the plausible effects of white dwarf surface magnetic field on the absence of substantial accretion in this binary system and also discuss the gravitational wave emission due to magnetic deformation mechanism.

The crucial observation on the occurrence of subpulses (overtones) in the Power Spectral Density of the August 27 (1998) event from SGR1900+14, as discovered by BeppoSAX,⁷ has received no consistent explanation in the context of the competing theories to explain the SGRs phenomenology: the magnetar and accretion-driven models. Based on the ultra-relativistic, ultracompact X-ray binary model introduced in the accompanying paper,²⁰ I present here a self-consistent explanation for such an striking feature. I suggest that both the fundamental mode and the overtones observed in SGR1900+14 stem from pulsations of a massive white dwarf (WD). The fundamental mode (and likely some of its harmonics) is excited because of the mutual gravitational interaction with its orbital companion (a NS, envisioned here as point mass object) whenever the binary Keplerian orbital frequency is a multiple integer number (m) of that mode frequency.²⁸ Besides, a large part of the powerful irradiation from the fireball-like explosion occurring on the NS (after partial accretion of disk material) is absorbed in different regions of the star driving the excitation of other multipoles,^25,26 i.e., the overtones (fluid modes of higher frequency). Part of this energy is then reemitted into space from the WD surface or atmosphere. This way, the WD lightcurve carries with it the signature of these pulsations inasmuch the way as it happens with the Sun pulsations in Helioseismology. It is shown that our theoretical prediction on the pulsation spectrum agrees quite well with the one found by BeppoSAX,⁷ a feature confirmed by numerical simulations (Montgomery & Winget 2000).

A scenario for soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) is introduced in which gravitational radiation reaction (GRR) effects drive the dynamics of an ultrashort orbital period X-ray binary embracing a high-mass donor white dwarf (WD) to a rapidly rotating low magnetized massive neutron star (NS) surrounded by a thick, dense and massive accretion torus. Driven by GRR, over timescales of ΔT_rep ~ 10 years, the binary separation reduces, the WD overflows its Roche lobe and the mass transfer drives unstable the accretion disk around the NS. As the binary circular orbital period is a multiple integer number (m) of the period of the WD fundamental mode,³⁷ the WD is since long pulsating at its fundamental mode; and most of its harmonics, due to the tidal interaction with its NS orbital companion. Hence, when the powerful irradiation glows onto the WD; from the fireball ejected as part of the disk matter slumps onto the NS, it is partially absorbed. This huge energy excites other WD radial (p-mode) pulsations.^34,35 After each mass-transfer episode the binary separation (and orbital period) is augmented significantly^1,5 due to the binary's angular momentum redistribution. Thus a new adiabatic inspiral phase driven by GRR reaction starts which brings the binary close again, and the process repeats after a time span ΔT_rep. This model allows to explain most of SGRs observational features: their recurrent activity, energetics of giant superoutbursts and quiescent stages, and particularly the intriguing subpulses discovered by BeppoSAX,¹⁰ which are suggested here to be overtones of the WD radial fundamental mode (see the accompanying paper).³¹

We consider a relativistic, degenerate, electron gas under the influence of a strong magnetic field, which describes magnetized white dwarfs. Landau quantization changes the density of states available to the electrons, thus modifying the underlying equation of state. In the presence of very strong magnetic fields a maximum of either one, two or three Landau level(s) is/are occupied. We obtain the mass–radius relations for such white dwarfs and their detailed investigation leads us to propose the existence of white dwarfs having a mass ~2.3M_⊙, which overwhelmingly exceeds the Chandrasekhar mass limit.

We modify the Chandrasekhar model of white dwarfs by introducing some of the momentum-space features which have been considered in the quantum-gravity literature. We find that when the new effects are confined to high energies, one only finds significant corrections to the Chandrasekhar model in regimes where the model anyway lacks any contact with observations. But these high-energy effects could play an important role in cases where ultra-high densities are present, even when the relevant star is still gigantic in Planck-length units. If the effects are not confined to high energies, as a result of "ultraviolet/infrared mixing", there could be significant implications for white dwarfs whose mass is roughly half the mass of the Sun, some of which are described in the literature as "strange white dwarfs".

Is the Chandrasekhar mass limit for white dwarfs (WDs) set in stone? Not anymore, recent observations of over-luminous, peculiar type Ia supernovae can be explained if significantly super-Chandrasekhar WDs exist as their progenitors, thus barring them to be used as cosmic distance indicators. However, there is no estimate of a mass limit for these super-Chandrasekhar WD candidates yet. Can they be arbitrarily large? In fact, the answer is no! We arrive at this revelation by exploiting the flux freezing theorem in observed, accreting, magnetized WDs, which brings in Landau quantization of the underlying electron degenerate gas. This essay presents the calculations which pave the way for the ultimate (significantly super-Chandrasekhar) mass limit of WDs, heralding a paradigm shift 80 years after Chandrasekhar's discovery.

We establish the importance of modified Einstein’s gravity (MG) in white dwarfs (WDs) for the first time in the literature. We show that MG leads to significantly sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass WDs, depending on a single model parameter. However, conventional WDs on approaching Chandrasekhar’s limit are expected to trigger Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa), a key to unravel the evolutionary history of the universe. Nevertheless, observations of several peculiar, under- and over-luminous SNeIa argue for the limiting mass widely different from Chandrasekhar’s limit. Explosions of MG induced sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass WDs explain under- and over-luminous SNeIa respectively, thus unifying these two apparently disjoint sub-classes. Our discovery questions both the global validity of Einstein’s gravity and the uniqueness of Chandrasekhar’s limit.

Natures of progenitors of type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) have not yet been clarified. There has been long and intensive discussion on whether the so-called single degenerate (SD) scenario or the double degenerate (DD) scenario, or anything else, could explain a major population of SNe Ia, but the conclusion has not yet been reached. With rapidly increasing observational data and new theoretical ideas, the field of studying the SN Ia progenitors has been quickly developing, and various new insights have been obtained in recent years. This paper aims at providing a summary of the current situation regarding the SN Ia progenitors, both in theory and observations. It seems difficult to explain the emerging diversity seen in observations of SNe Ia by a single population, and we emphasize that it is important to clarify links between different progenitor scenarios and different sub-classes of SNe Ia.

Our concept of induced gravitational collapse (IGC paradigm) starting from a supernova occurring with a companion neutron star, has unlocked the understanding of seven different families of gamma ray bursts (GRBs), indicating a path for the formation of black holes in the universe. An authentic laboratory of relativistic astrophysics has been unveiled in which new paradigms have been introduced in order to advance knowledge of the most energetic, distant and complex systems in our universe. A novel cosmic matrix paradigm has been introduced at a relativistic cosmic level, which parallels the concept of an S-matrix introduced by Feynmann, Wheeler and Heisenberg in the quantum world of microphysics. Here the “in” states are represented by a neutron star and a supernova, while the “out” states, generated within less than a second, are a new neutron star and a black hole. This novel field of research needs very powerful technological observations in all wavelengths ranging from radio through optical, X-ray and gamma ray radiation all the way up to ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.

In this work we use Hartle’s formalism to study the effects of rotation in the structure of magnetized white dwarfs within the framework of general relativity. We describe the inner matter by means of an equation of state for electrons under the action of a constant magnetic field, which introduces an anisotropy in the pressures. Solutions correspond to typical densities of white dwarfs and values of magnetic field below $10^{13}$G considering perpendicular and parallel pressures independently, as if associated to two different equations of state. Rotation effects obtained account for an increase of the maximum mass for both magnetized and nonmagnetized stable configurations, up to about $1.5M_{\odot }$. Further effects studied include the deformation of the stars, which become oblate spheroids and the solutions for other quantities of interest, such as the moment of inertia, quadrupolar momentum and eccentricity. In all cases, rotation effects are dominant with respect to those of the magnetic field.

Gravitational waves have opened a new observational window through which some of the most exotic objects in the universe, as well as some of the secrets of gravitation itself, can now be revealed. Among all these new discoveries, we recently demonstrated¹⁵ that space-based gravitational wave observations will have the potential to detect a new population of massive circumbinary exoplanets everywhere inside our Galaxy. In this paper, we argue that these circumbinary planetary systems can also be detected outside the Milky Way, in particular within its satellite galaxies. Space-based gravitational wave observations might thus constitute the mean to detect the first extra-galactic planetary system, a target beyond the reach of standard electromagnetic searches.

The generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) is a common feature among several approaches related to quantum gravity. An approach to GUP was recently developed that contains both linear and quadratic terms of momenta, from which an infinitesimal phase space volume was derived up to the linear term of momenta. We studied the effects of this linear GUP approach on the structure equations and mass–radius relation of zero-temperature white dwarfs. We formulated a linear GUP-modified Chandrasekhar equation of state (EoS) by deriving exact forms of the thermodynamic properties of ideal Fermi gases. This was then used to obtain the analytical form of the modified Newtonian structure equations for the white dwarfs. By imposing a constraint on the momenta of the particles in the white dwarf due to linear GUP, the structure equations were solved and the modified mass–radius relation of the white dwarfs were obtained. This was then extended in the context of general relativity (GR), which, like linear GUP, affects white dwarfs significantly in the high-mass regime. We found that linear GUP displays a similar overall effect as in GR — linear GUP supports gravitational collapse of the white dwarf, by decreasing its limiting (maximum) mass and increasing its corresponding limiting (minimum radius). We also found that GUP effects become evident only at large values of the GUP parameter, but these values are still within the estimated bounds. This effect gets more prominent as we increase the as-of-yet unestablished value of the parameter.

Chandrasekhar made the startling discovery about nine decades back that the mass of compact object white dwarf has a limiting value once nuclear fusion reactions stop therein. This is the Chandrasekhar mass-limit, which is $\sim 1.4M_{\odot }$ for a nonrotating non-magnetized white dwarf. On approaching this limiting mass, a white dwarf is believed to spark off with an explosion called type Ia supernova, which is considered to be a standard candle. However, observations of several over-luminous, peculiar type Ia supernovae indicate the Chandrasekhar mass-limit to be significantly larger. By considering noncommutativity among the components of position and momentum variables, hence uncertainty in their measurements, at the quantum scales, we show that the mass of white dwarfs could be significantly super-Chandrasekhar and thereby arrive at a new mass-limit $\sim 2.6M_{\odot }$, explaining a possible origin of over-luminous peculiar type Ia supernovae. The idea of noncommutativity, apart from the Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, is there for quite sometime, without any observational proof however. Our finding offers a plausible astrophysical evidence of noncommutativity, arguing for a possible second standard candle, which has many far-reaching implications.

This work is motivated by the sign problem in a logarithmic parameter of black hole entropy and the existing more massive white dwarfs than the Chandrasekhar mass limit. We examine the quadratic, linear, and linear–quadratic generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) models within the virtue of recent masses and radii of white dwarfs. We consider the modification generated by introducing the minimal length on the degenerate Fermi gas equation of state (EoS) and the hydrostatic equation. For the latter, we applied Verlinde’s proposal regarding entropic gravity to derive the quantum corrected Newtonian gravity, which is responsible for modifying the hydrostatic equation. Through the models’ chi-square analysis, we have found that the observation data favor the quadratic than linear GUP models without mass limit. However, for the quadratic–linear GUP model, we can obtain the positive value of the free parameter ${\gamma }_0$ as well as we can get mass limit more massive than the Chandrasekhar limit. In the linear–quadratic GUP model, the formation of stable massive white dwarfs than the Chandrasekhar limit is possible only if both parameters are not equal.

The indirect evidence for at least a dozen massive white dwarfs (WDs) violating the Chandrasekhar mass limit is considered to be one of the wonderful discoveries in astronomy for more than a decade. Researchers have already proposed a diverse amount of models to explain this astounding phenomenon. However, each of these models always carries some drawbacks. On the other hand, noncommutative geometry is one of the best replicas of quantum gravity, which is yet to be proved from observations. Madore introduced the idea of a fuzzy sphere to describe a formalism of noncommutative geometry. This paper shows that the idea of a squashed fuzzy sphere can self-consistently explain the super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass WDs. We further show that the length scale beyond which the noncommutativity is prominent is an emergent phenomenon, and there is no prerequisite for an ad hoc length scale.

Following the GRB 170817A prompt emission lasting a fraction of a second, $10^8$s of data in the X-rays, optical, and radio wavelengths have been acquired. We here present a model that fits the spectra, flux, and time variability of all these emissions, based on the thermal and synchrotron cooling of the expanding matter ejected in a binary white dwarf merger. The $10^{-3}{M}_{\odot }$ of ejecta, expanding at velocities of $10^9$cms${}^{-1}$, are powered by the newborn massive, fast rotating, magnetized white dwarf with a mass of $1.3M_{\odot }$, a rotation period of $\gtrsim 12$s, and a dipole magnetic field $\sim 10^{10}$ G, born in the merger of a $1.0+0.8M_{\odot }$ white dwarf binary. Therefore, the long-lasting mystery of the GRB 170817A nature is solved by the merger of a white dwarf binary that also explains the prompt emission energetics.

We propose a question that why no late type M and much later type N white dwarfs (WDs) with surface temperatures less than 3000 K have ever been observed? On the basis of proton decay catalyzed by magnetic monopoles(MMs), we have presented four new energy-source models associated with MMs to discuss the cooling of WDs by some observations from seven red giant stars with LAMOST. It is found that the number of MMs captured by a WD can reach the maximum value of $9.5816\times 10^{17}$ when the MMs flux $\varphi =9.59\times 10^{-26}{\mathrm{\text{cm}}}^{-2}{\mathrm{\text{s}}}^{-1}{\mathrm{\text{sr}}}^{-1}$. The good agreement of our luminosities calculated for WDs with the observations shows that our models are rational due to the Rubakov Callan (RC) effect by MMs. It is concluded that the energy source of WDs is the proton decay catalyzed by MMs. We obtain a new limit of the MMs flux of $\varphi {〈{\sigma }_m{v}_{\mathrm{\text{T}}}〉}_{-28}\le 4.2242\times 10^{-13}{\mathrm{\text{cm}}}^{-2}{\mathrm{\text{s}}}^{-1}{\mathrm{\text{sr}}}^{-1}$ for WDs when the number density of nucleons $n_B^c=7.99\times 10^{33}{\mathrm{\text{cm}}}^{-3}$ and asteroseismic correction factor $f_{△\nu }=1.00$ due to the RC effect by MMs.