Related papers: Astrophysics in 2006
The widely accepted description of the present cosmic acceleration and the neutrino oscillations in terms of a cosmological constant and neutrino masses, respectively, seems conceptually not very satisfactory. From a phenomenological…
The stellar astronomy has always been considered the fundamental source of knowledge about the basic building blocks of the universe - the stars. It has proved correctness of many physical theories - like e.g. the idea of nuclear fusion in…
Magnetars are the most magnetic objects in the Universe, serving as unique laboratories to test physics under extreme magnetic conditions that cannot be replicated on Earth. They were discovered in the late 1970s through their powerful…
If strange matter is absolutely stable, the ordinary nuclei decay to strangelets, while neutron stars convert into strange stars. Lifetimes of the ordinary nuclei are constrained experimentally to be above $\sim 10^{33}$ years, while…
Orbits of 44 close and fast visual binaries are computed using the latest speckle observations; 23 orbits are determined for the first time, the rest are revisions, some quite substantial. Six combined orbits use radial velocities. The…
Neutrino astronomy is on the verge of discovering new sources, and this will lead to important advances in astrophysics, cosmology, particle physics, and nuclear physics. This paper is meant for non-experts, so that they might better…
Black holes are the elementary particles of gravity, the final state of sufficiently massive stars and of energetic collisions. With a forty-year long history, black hole physics is a fully-blossomed field which promises to embrace several…
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are the densest stellar systems in the Universe. They can be found at the center of all galaxy types, but tend to favor galaxies of intermediate stellar mass around 10$^9\,$M$_{\odot}$[1, 2]. Currently, two main…
The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the workings of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. Current observations show a spectrum consistent with an…
Astrophysics gives evidence for the existence of Dark Matter and puts constraints on its nature. The Cold Dark Matter model has become "standard" cosmology combined with a cosmological constant. There are indications that "Cold" Dark Matter…
During its active lifetime a star burns its nuclear fuel and gravitation is held off by the pressure of the heated gas. Gravity should take over once this fuel is exhausted unless some other agency saves the star from such a fate. Low mass…
Dwarf galaxies are the least massive, most abundant, and most widely distributed type of galaxies. Hence, they are key to testing theories of galaxy and Universe evolution. Dwarf galaxies sufficiently close to have their gas and stellar…
An impressive bulk of multiple astronomical observations indicates that there are plenty of objects in the universe with the age which cannot be explained by the conventional theory. A model is considered which successfully describes all…
The high-quality cosmological data, which became available in the last decade, have thrusted upon us a rather preposterous composition for the universe which poses one of the greatest challenges theoretical physics has ever faced: the…
Astrophysical compact objects, viz., white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, are the remnants of stellar deaths at the end of their life cycles. They are ideal testbeds for various fundamental physical processes under extreme…
We present a review of the most recent improvements in the theory of low-mass star-like objects, in the stellar and sub-stellar domains. Comparison is made with various recent observations.
Neutron stars are one of the most extreme objects in the universe, with densities that can exceed those of atomic nuclei and gravitational fields that are among the strongest known. Theoretical and observational research on neutron stars…
A century ago, nuclear physics entered astrophysics, giving birth to a new field of science referred to as "Nuclear Astrophysics". With time, it developed at an impressive pace into a vastly inter- and multidisciplinary discipline bringing…
This century has seen a dramatic increase in observational possibilities of the physics of the universe. Several of the very recent new developments with emphasis on the particle physics aspect and in particular Gamma-Gamma interactions are…
In the last few years it has been recognized that two apparently distinct classes of peculiar high-energy sources are actually related and can be explained as young neutron stars with magnetic fields as high as 10e14 - 10e15 Gauss. One of…