相关论文: Astrophysics in 2006
How stars are born from clouds of gas is a rich physics problem whose solution will inform our understanding of not just stars but also planets, galaxies, and the universe itself. Star formation is stupendously inefficient. Take the Milky…
Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered and the search for life outside Earth is at the forefront of astrophysical research. The planets we observe show a mind-blowing diversity that current theories strive to explain as part of the…
Neutron stars and black holes are the astrophysical systems with the strongest gravitational fields in the universe. In this article, I review the prospect of probing with observations of such compact objects some of the most intriguing…
Cosmic explosions are observed in many astrophysical environments. They range in scale from hydromagnetic instabilities in the terrestrial magnetotail and solar ``nanoflares'' to cosmological gamma ray bursts, supernovae and the protracted…
The existence of life is one of the most fundamental problems of astrophysics. The intriguing existence of progressively complex and apparently improbable living beings should be a general tendency of life in the Universe. We are looking…
We present some recent highlights and prospects for the study of hot astrophysical plasmas. Hot plasmas can be studied primarily through their X-ray emission and absorption. Most astrophysical objects, from solar system objects to the…
In this work we shortly review several aspects of the physics of neutron stars. After the introduction we present a brief historical overview of the idea of neutron stars as well as of the theoretical and observational developments that…
We argue that pulsars may be spin-polarized neutron stars, i.e. cosmic permanent magnets. This would simply explain several observational facts about pulsars, including the 'beacon effect' itself i.e. the static/stable misalignment of…
We explore the unique and fascinating structure of neutron stars. Although neutron stars are of interest in many areas of Physics, our aim is to provide an intellectual bridge between Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. We argue against the…
This paper reviews the physics of stars, the type, structure, evolution and stability. Simple thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are used to show the inner working of white dwarf and neutron stars. The major concentration of the paper…
Only a few red dwarf flaring stars in the solar neighbourhood have undergone exceptional events called superflares. They have been detected with high-energy satellites (i.e. Swift) and have been proven to be powerful events (both in…
Low-mass particles such as neutrinos, axions, other Nambu-Goldstone bosons and gravitons are produced in the hot and dense interior of stars. Therefore, astrophysical arguments constrain the properties of these particles in ways which are…
The prospects for the habitability of M-dwarf planets have long been debated, due to key differences between the unique stellar and planetary environments around these low-mass stars, as compared to hotter, more luminous Sun-like stars.…
Supernovae are nature's grandest explosions and an astrophysical laboratory in which unique conditions exist that are not achievable on Earth. They are also the furnaces in which most of the elements heavier than carbon have been forged.…
In this PhD Thesis we study the occurrence of powerful stellar outbursts in the late phases of evolution of stars like the Sun. This is one of the most controversial topics in the field, as the extraordinary variety of shapes revealed by…
We are still far from understanding how pulsars pulse, how neutron stars are born, what neutron stars can emit, and in which way they do this. In this short communication, I list 18 alternatives -- several of them old, a few of them new --…
A possibility of existence of ultra-heavy (quasi)stable particles, mechanisms leading to their large life-time, their production in the early universe, and cosmological manifestations are reviewed.
The cosmological constant problem represents an evident tension between our present description of gravity and particle physics. Many solutions have been proposed, but experimental tests are always difficult or impossible to perform and…
Within the context of hot big-bang cosmology, a cosmic background of presently low energy neutrinos is predicted to exist in concert with the photons of the cosmic background radiation. The number density of the cosmological neutrinos is of…
Cosmic radiation backgrounds are a constraint on life, and their distribution will affect the Galactic Habitable Zone. Life on Earth has developed in the context of these backgrounds, and characterizing event rates will elaborate the…