Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2018 Joint Spring Meeting of the Texas Sections of APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 of the SPS
Volume 63, Number 8
Thursday–Saturday, March 22–24, 2018; Stephenville, Texas
Session G4: APS V - Astrophysics & Cosmology |
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Chair: Shaukat Goderya, Tarleton State University Room: Science 102 |
Saturday, March 24, 2018 11:50AM - 12:02PM |
G4.00001: Uncovering the Neutron Star Crust using Cooling Measurements Michael Ross, William Newton Neutron stars in binary star systems accrete matter from their neighboring star, causing their surface temperature to rise. When accretion stops, the neutron star cools. Using cooling data on neutron stars MXB1659-29 and KS1731-260 and the codes MESA and dStar, this research modeled neutron star cooling by varying attributes including radius, mass, density, pressure, core temperature, and impurity in order to determine the composition of the star. In this talk I will present the results of these simulations. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 24, 2018 12:02PM - 12:14PM |
G4.00002: Improving Habitability of Earth-sized Proxima Centauri b by its Exomoon Sergio Garza, Marialis Rosario-Franco, Niusha Davichi, Zdzislaw Musielak In an unprecedented discovery, an Earth-sized exoplanet was confirmed on a stable, low-eccentricity orbit within the habitable zone of our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri. While the exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b (PCb), is located within the region that may support liquid water on its surface, its habitability has been questioned due to dangerous flares generated by its M dwarf host star, as well as possible tidal locking. This work aims to understand the constraints under which an exomoon can maintain stable orbits around PCb, and improve the habitability of the exoplanet by its presence. We utilize the N-body integrator REBOUND, to explore in-situ and post-massive impact scenarios of exomoon formation, and perform orbital evolution studies of these satellites. In these studies, an initial disk mass is distributed across the system’s Roche and Hill radii as massive proto-satellites and smaller moonlets. We present the results of numerical simulations of exomoons of varying masses, determine locations of their stable orbits around Proxima Centauri b, and discuss the possible effects caused by their presence on the exoplanet’s habitability. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 24, 2018 12:14PM - 12:26PM |
G4.00003: The Depth of a Neutron Star Crust Lauren Balliet, Brianna Douglas, William Newton Neutron stars are a valuable asset to modern nuclear astrophysics in that they provide a unique environment to study matter under extreme conditions. Much of the observational data obtained from neutron stars contains information about the structure and dynamics of the crust. Using such observations to measure crust properties requires understanding the uncertainty range from models of the thickness of the different layers of the crust. These uncertainties arise from uncertainties in the properties of nuclear matter. In this talk, I will examine the correlations between the crust thickness and nuclear matter parameters. I will compare the results of a number of different ways to calculate the crust thickness, and use them to estimate the uncertainty in estimates of crust oscillation frequencies and the crust cooling time. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 24, 2018 12:26PM - 12:38PM |
G4.00004: The Cooling of the Crab Pulsar Brianna Douglas, Lauren Balliet, William Newton Neutron stars are one of the most exotic objects in the universe. They are complex due to their extremely high densities. Trying to find the equation of state (EOS) exceeding nuclear saturation density is one of the many quests of nuclear physics and astrophysics. One way to constrain the EOS is to learn more about the cooling processes of neutron stars over time. Stars cool from one of two ways: emission of thermal radiation from the surface or through the emission of neutrinos from the interior of the star. There’s some circumstantial evidence that the Crab pulsar was formed in an electron-capture supernova, which is one way stars about 8-10 solar masses die. In this type of supernova, the star’s core collapses at the ONeMg stage, and produces a relatively low mass neutron star of around 1.25 M$_{\odot}$. It is not certain the Crab formed this way, but in this talk we explore the possibility of ruling out the electron capture supernova scenario, and of placing constraints on the neutron star EOS, by calculating the cooling of low mass neutron stars and comparing with the measured upper limit on the Crab’s temperature. [Preview Abstract] |
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