Non-LTE Monte Carlo radiative transfer. II. Nonisothermal solutions for viscous Keplerian disks

We discuss the basic hydrodynamics that determines the density structure of the disks around hot stars. Observational evidence supports the idea that these disks are Keplerian (rotationally supported) gaseous disks. A popular scenario in the literature, which naturally leads to the formation of Keplerian disks, is the viscous decretion model. According to this scenario, the disks are hydrostatically supported in the vertical direction, while the radial structure is governed by the viscous transport. This suggests that the temperature is one primary factor that governs the disk density structure. In a previous study we demonstrated, using three-dimensional non-LTE Monte Carlo simulations, that viscous Keplerian disks can be highly nonisothermal. In this paper we build on our previous work and solve the full problem of the steady state nonisothermal viscous diffusion and vertical hydrostatic equilibrium. We find that the self-consistent solution departs significantly from the analytic isothermal density, with potentially large effects on the emergent spectrum. This implies that nonisothermal disk models must be used for a detailed modeling of Be star disks.

Metallicity effects on the modified wind momentum of CSPN

Recent investigations on the central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPN) indicate that the masses based on model atmospheres can be much larger than the masses derived from theoretical mass-luminosity relations. Also, the dispersion in the relation between the modified wind momentum and the luminosity depends on the mass spread of the CSPN, and is larger than observed in massive hot stars. Since the wind characteristics probably depend on the metallicity, we analyze the effects on the modified wind momentum by considering the dispersion in this quantity caused by the stellar metallicity. Our CSPN masses are based on a relation between the core mass and the nebular abundances. We conclude that these masses agree with the known mass distribution both for CSPN and white dwarfs, and that the spread in the modified wind momentum can be explained by the observed metallicity variations.

TOWARD UNDERSTANDING THE B[e] PHENOMENON. IV. MODELING OF IRAS 00470+6429

FS CMa type stars are a recently described group of objects with the B[e] phenomenon which exhibits strong emission-line spectra and strong IR excesses. In this paper, we report the first attempt for a detailed modeling of IRAS 00470+6429, for which we have the best set of observations. Our modeling is based on two key assumptions: the star has a main-sequence luminosity for its spectral type (B2) and the circumstellar (CS) envelope is bimodal, composed of a slowly outflowing disklike wind and a fast polar wind. Both outflows are assumed to be purely radial. We adopt a novel approach to describe the dust formation site in the wind that employs timescale arguments for grain condensation and a self-consistent solution for the dust destruction surface. With the above assumptions we were able to satisfactorily reproduce many observational properties of IRAS 00470+6429, including the Hi line profiles and the overall shape of the spectral energy distribution. Our adopted recipe for dust formation proved successful in reproducing the correct amount of dust formed in the CS envelope. Possible shortcomings of our model, as well as suggestions for future improvements, are discussed.

Instabilities in thermal gravity with a cosmological constant

It is shown that in quantum gravity at finite temperature, the effective potential evaluated in the tadpole approximation can have a local minimum below a certain critical temperature. However, when the leading higher order thermal loop corrections are included, one finds that no static solution exists at high temperature. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Critical behavior of a contact process with aperiodic transition rates

We performed Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the steady-state critical behavior of a one-dimensional contact process with an aperiodic distribution of rates of transition. As in the presence of randomness, spatial fluctuations can lead to changes of critical behavior. For sufficiently weak fluctuations, we give numerical evidence to show that there is no departure from the universal critical behavior of the underlying uniform model. For strong spatial fluctuations, the analysis of the data indicates a change of critical universality class.

Finite temperature effective actions

We present, from first principles, a direct method for evaluating the exact fermion propagator in the presence of a general background held at finite temperature, which can be used to determine the finite temperature effective action for the system. As applications, we determine the complete one loop finite temperature effective actions for (0 + 1)-dimensional QED as well as the Schwinger model. These effective actions, which are derived in the real time (closed time path) formalism, generate systematically all the Feynman amplitudes calculated in thermal perturbation theory and also show that the retarded (advanced) amplitudes vanish in these theories. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Precise Formulation of the Third Law of Thermodynamics

The third law of thermodynamics is formulated precisely: all points of the state space of zero temperature I""(0) are physically adiabatically inaccessible from the state space of a simple system. In addition to implying the unattainability of absolute zero in finite time (or ""by a finite number of operations""), it admits as corollary, under a continuity assumption, that all points of I""(0) are adiabatically equivalent. We argue that the third law is universally valid for all macroscopic systems which obey the laws of quantum mechanics and/or quantum field theory. We also briefly discuss why a precise formulation of the third law for black holes remains an open problem.

On S-matrix factorization of the Landau-Lifshitz model

We consider the three-particle scattering S-matrix for the Landau-Lifshitz model by directly computing the set of the Feynman diagrams up to the second order. We show, following the analogous computations for the non-linear Schrdinger model [1, 2], that the three-particle S-matrix is factorizable in the first non-trivial order.

Borel-Leroy summability of a nonpolynomial potential

We investigate the perturbation series for the spectrum of a class of Schrodinger operators with potential V = 1/2 x(2) + g(m-1)x(2m)/(1 + alpha gx(2)) which generalize particular cases investigated in the literature in connection with models in laser theory and quantum field theory of particles and fields. It is proved that the series obey a modified strong asymptotic condition of order (m - 1) and have an order (m - 1) strong asymptotic series in g which are shown to be summable in the sense of Borel-Leroy method.

Stability and related properties of vacua and ground states

We consider the formal non-relativistic limit (nrl) of the : phi(4):(s+1) relativistic quantum field theory (rqft), where s is the space dimension. Following the work of R. Jackiw [R. Jackiw, in: A. Ali, P. Hood-bhoy (Eds.), Beg Memorial Volume, World Scientific, Singapore, 1991], we show that, for s = 2 and a given value of the ultraviolet cutoff K, there are two ways to perform the nrl: (i) fixing the renormalized mass m(2) equal to the bare mass m(0)(2); (ii) keeping the renormalized mass fixed and different from the bare mass mo. In the (infinite-volume) two-particle sector the scattering amplitude tends to zero as K -> infinity in case (i) and, in case (ii), there is a bound state, indicating that the interaction potential is attractive. As a consequence, stability of matter fails for our boson system. We discuss why both alternatives do not reproduce the low-energy behaviour of the full rqft. The singular nature of the nrl is also nicely illustrated for s = 1 by a rigorous stability/instability result of a different nature. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Infrared chiral anomaly at finite temperature

We study the Schwinger model at finite temperature and show that a temperature dependent chiral anomaly may arise from the long distance behavior of the electric field. At high temperature this anomaly depends linearly on the temperature T and is present not only in the two point function, but also in all even point amplitudes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dynamical noncommutativity

The model of dynamical noncommutativity is proposed. The system consists of two interrelated parts. The first of them describes the physical degrees of freedom with the coordinates q(1) and q(2), and the second corresponds to the noncommutativity eta which has a proper dynamics. After quantization, the commutator of two physical coordinates is proportional to the function of eta. The interesting feature of our model is the dependence of nonlocality on the energy of the system. The more the energy, the more the nonlocality. The leading contribution is due to the mode of noncommutativity; however, the physical degrees of freedom also contribute in nonlocality in higher orders in theta .

The effect of additional Si and SiGe layers on the confinement potential of GeMn diluted ferromagnetic semiconductor

In this work we analyze the spin-polarized charge density distribution in the GeMn diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors (DFS). The calculations are performed within a self-consistent k.p method, in which the exchange correlation effects in the local density approximation, as well as the strain effects due to the lattice mismatch, are taken into account. Our findings show that the extra confinement potential provided by the barriers and the variation of the Mn content in the DFS are responsible for a separation between the different spin charge densities, giving rise to higher mobility spin-polarized currents or high ferromagnetism transition temperatures systems. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Spacetime noncommutativity with a bifermionic parameter

We consider a Moyal plane and propose to make the noncommutativity parameter Theta(mu nu) bifermionic, i.e. composed of two fermionic (Grassmann odd) parameters. The Moyal product then contains a finite number of derivatives, which avoid the difficulties of the standard approach. As an example, we construct a two-dimensional noncommutative field theory model based on the Moyal product with a bifermionic parameter and show that it has a locally conserved energy-momentum tensor. The model has no problem with the canonical quantization and appears to be renormalizable.

Path integral representations in noncommutative quantum mechanics and noncommutative version of Berezin-Marinov action

It is known that the actions of field theories on a noncommutative space-time can be written as some modified (we call them theta-modified) classical actions already on the commutative space-time (introducing a star product). Then the quantization of such modified actions reproduces both space-time noncommutativity and the usual quantum mechanical features of the corresponding field theory. In the present article, we discuss the problem of constructing theta-modified actions for relativistic QM. We construct such actions for relativistic spinless and spinning particles. The key idea is to extract theta-modified actions of the relativistic particles from path-integral representations of the corresponding noncommutative field theory propagators. We consider the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations for the causal propagators in such theories. Then we construct for the propagators path-integral representations. Effective actions in such representations we treat as theta-modified actions of the relativistic particles. To confirm the interpretation, we canonically quantize these actions. Thus, we obtain the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations in the noncommutative field theories. The theta-modified action of the relativistic spinning particle is just a generalization of the Berezin-Marinov pseudoclassical action for the noncommutative case.