Related papers: Explosive Chrysopoeia
The chemistry of the early Universe is a fascinating field of study. Even in the absence of any elements heavier than lithium, a surprising degree of chemical complexity proves to be possible, giving the topic considerable interest in its…
The basic notion of percolation in physics assumes the emergence of a giant connected (percolation) cluster in a large disordered system when the density of connections exceeds some critical value. Until recently, the percolation phase…
The cores of stars are the cosmic furnaces where light elements are fused into heavier nuclei. The fusion of hydrogen to helium initially powers all stars. The ashes of the fusion reactions are then predicted to serve as fuel in a series of…
The emergence of the first black holes during the first billion years of cosmic history marks a key event in cosmology. Their formation is part of the overall process of ending the cosmic dark ages, when the first stars appeared in low-mass…
Hot gaseous haloes surrounding galaxies and extending well beyond the distribution of stars are a ubiquitous prediction of galaxy formation scenarios. The haloes are believed to consist of gravitationally trapped gas with a temperature of…
We consider possible observable signals from explosive events in the very early universe, ``bursts". These could be expected in connection with massive black hole or ``baby universe'' formation. We anticipate that such major disruptions of…
The phenomenon of ball lightning has been observed for a long time, but the nature of these luminous balls has been unknown. It is proposed here that they consist of highy excited Rydberg atoms with large polarizabilities that bind them…
A few topics concerning the early chemical evolution of the Milky Way are critically discussed. In particular, it is argued that: 1) Observed abundance patterns of extremely metal poor stars (of Pop. II) do not constrain the mass range of…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are sudden, intense flashes of gamma-rays which, for a few blinding seconds, light up in an otherwise fairly dark gamma-ray sky. They are detected at the rate of about once a day, and while they are on, they outshine…
Normal baryonic matter inside an evolved massive star can be intensely compressed by gravity after a supernova. General relativity predicts formation of a black hole if the core material is compressed into a singularity, but the real state…
We present a model for the early optical afterglow of GRB 021004. This burst had one of the earliest detected optical afterglows, allowing a dense optical sampling. The lightcurve was peculiar, since bright bumps were superimposed to the…
The phenomenon of time resonances (or explosions) can explain the exponential reduction of the energy, which is accompanied for the certain degree by slight fluctuations under some conditions in the range of the energy strongly overlapped…
Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) are generally believed to be the result of the thermonuclear disruption of Chandrasekhar-mass carbon-oxygen white dwarfs, mainly because such thermonuclear explosions can account for the right amount of nickel,…
Since the 1980's discovery of the large (2x10^9 Msun) intergalactic cloud known as the Leo Ring, this object has been the center of a lively debate about its origin. Determining the origin of this object is still important as we develop a…
We speculate that the early Universe was inside a primordial black hole. The interior of the the black hole is a dS background and the two spacetimes are separated on the surface of black hole's event horizon. We argue that this picture…
At high energy, the gluon distribution in nuclei reaches large densities and eventually saturates due to recombinations, that play an important role in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC. The Color Glass Condensate provides a…
The hot gas in clusters and groups of galaxies is continuously being enriched with metals from supernovae and stars. It is well established that the enrichment of the gas with elements from oxygen to iron is mainly caused by supernova…
We investigate the evolution of cosmological low mass (low virial temperature) objects and the formation of the first luminous objects. First, the `cooling diagram' for low mass objects is shown. We assess the cooling rate taking into…
The recent discovery of a large number of massive black holes within the first two billion years after the Big Bang, as well as their peculiar properties, have been largely unexpected based on the extrapolation of the properties of luminous…
We present a detailed molecular-dynamics study of the melting, freezing, and coalescence of gold nanoclusters within the framework of the embedded-atom method. Concerning melting, we find the process to first affect the surface…