Lecture 19 Black Holes and Gamma-Ray Bursts
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The Optical Afterglow of GRB 000911: Evidence for an Associated Supernova??
A&A 378, 996–1002 (2001) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011282 & c ESO 2001 Astrophysics The optical afterglow of GRB 000911: Evidence for an associated supernova?? D. Lazzati1,S.Covino2, G. Ghisellini2,D.Fugazza2,S.Campana2,P.Saracco2,P.A.Price3,4,E.Berger3, S. Kulkarni3, E. Ramirez–Ruiz1,A.Cimatti5, M. Della Valle5, S. di Serego Alighieri5,A.Celotti6, F. Haardt7,G.L.Israel8, and L. Stella8 1 Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, CB3 0HA Cambridge, UK 2 Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate (Lc), Italy 3 Palomar Observatory, 105-24, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 4 Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Mount Stromlo Observatory, Cotter Road, Weston, ACT 2611, Australia 5 Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy 6 SISSA/ISAS, via Beirut 4, 34014 Trieste, Italy 7 Universit`a dell’Insubria, Via Lucini 3, 22100 Como, Italy 8 Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, 00040 Monteporzio Catone, Italy Received 12 July 2001 / Accepted 12 September 2001 Abstract. We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of the late afterglow of GRB 000911, starting ∼1 day after the burst event and lasting ∼8 weeks. We detect a moderately significant re–brightening in the R, I and J lightcurves, associated with a sizable reddening of the spectrum. This can be explained through the presence of an underlying supernova, outshining the afterglow ∼30 days after the burst event. Alternative explanations are discussed. Key words. gamma rays: bursts – supernovae: general 1. Introduction (Djorgovskij et al. 1999), a moderate amount of multiband data but lacked spectroscopic coverge. -
Squashing and Spaghettification in Newtonian Gravitation
Revista Brasileira de Ensino de F´ısica, vol. 42, e20200278 (2020) Artigos Gerais www.scielo.br/rbef c b DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9126-RBEF-2020-0278 Licenc¸aCreative Commons Squashing and spaghettification in Newtonian gravitation R. R. Machado*1 , A. C. Tort2 , C. A. D. Zarro2 1Centro Federal de Educa¸c˜aoTecnol´ogicaCelso Suckow da Fonseca, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil 2Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de F´ısica,Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil Received on July 06, 2020. Revised on September 07, 2020. Accepted on October 08, 2020. Action films and sci-fi novels should be common resources in classrooms since they serve as examples and references involving physical situations. This is due to the abstract nature of many physical concepts, and the lack of references in students’ daily lives makes them more difficult to be visualized or imagined. In this work we bring a discussion of how we can resort to films and literary works in order to elucidate the concepts regarding tidal forces. To this effect, we have used the action film Total Recall (2012) to present the squashing effect and the classic of juvenile literature From Earth to the Moon (1865) to discuss the effect of spaghettification in the context of Newtonian mechanics. Keywords: Newtonian gravitation, non-inertial frames, tidal forces. 1. Introduction Earth to the Moon [3], see Figure 2. On Verne’s chap- ter XXIII, he describes the Projectile-Vehicle, to which Action movies and sci-fi novels can always be resorted to we will refer as Verne’s projectile, designed to trans- whenever we look for situations, or examples, capable of port adventurous people through space; more precisely motivating our students. -
Evidence for Supernova Light in All Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow A
Clemson University TigerPrints Publications Physics and Astronomy Winter 12-13-2004 Evidence for Supernova Light in all Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow A. Zeh Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg S. Klose Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg Dieter H. Hartmann Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/physastro_pubs Recommended Citation Please use publisher's recommended citation. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Physics and Astronomy at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in Publications by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 22nd Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics at Stanford University, Dec. 13-17, 2004 Evidence for Supernova Light in All Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows A. Zeh, S. Klose Thur¨ inger Landessternwarte Tautenburg, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany D. H. Hartmann Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-0978 We present an update of our systematic analyses of all Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) afterglow data, now published through the end of 2004, in an attempt to detect the predicted supernova light component. We fit the observed photometric light curves as the sum of an afterglow, an underlying host galaxy, and a supernova component. The latter is modeled using published UBV RI light curves of SN 1998bw as a template. The total sample of afterglows with established redshifts contains now 29 bursts (GRB 970228 - GRB 041006). For 13 of them a weak supernova excess (scaled to SN 1998bw) was found. In agreement with our earlier result [47] we find that also in the updated sample all bursts with redshift ∼< 0.7 show a supernova excess in their afterglow light curves. -
BLACK HOLES: the OTHER SIDE of INFINITY General Information
BLACK HOLES: THE OTHER SIDE OF INFINITY General Information Deep in the middle of our Milky Way galaxy lies an object made famous by science fiction—a supermassive black hole. Scientists have long speculated about the existence of black holes. German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild theorized that black holes form when massive stars collapse. The resulting gravity from this collapse would be so strong that the matter would become more and more dense. The gravity would eventually become so strong that nothing, not even radiation moving at the speed of light, could escape. Schwarzschild’s theories were predicted by Einstein and then borne out mathematically in 1939 by American astrophysicists Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder. WHAT EXACTLY IS A BLACK HOLE? First, it’s not really a hole! A black hole is an extremely massive concentration of matter, created when the largest stars collapse at the end of their lives. Astronomers theorize that a point with infinite density—called a singularity—lies at the center of black holes. SO WHY IS IT CALLED A HOLE? Albert Einstein’s 1915 General Theory of Relativity deals largely with the effects of gravity, and in essence predicts the existence of black holes and singularities. Einstein hypothesized that gravity is a direct result of mass distorting space. He argued that space behaves like an invisible fabric with an elastic quality. Celestial bodies interact with this “fabric” of space-time, appearing to create depressions termed “gravity wells” and drawing nearby objects into orbit around them. Based on this principle, the more massive a body is in space, the deeper the gravity well it will create. -
Spacetime Warps and the Quantum World: Speculations About the Future∗
Spacetime Warps and the Quantum World: Speculations about the Future∗ Kip S. Thorne I’ve just been through an overwhelming birthday celebration. There are two dangers in such celebrations, my friend Jim Hartle tells me. The first is that your friends will embarrass you by exaggerating your achieve- ments. The second is that they won’t exaggerate. Fortunately, my friends exaggerated. To the extent that there are kernels of truth in their exaggerations, many of those kernels were planted by John Wheeler. John was my mentor in writing, mentoring, and research. He began as my Ph.D. thesis advisor at Princeton University nearly forty years ago and then became a close friend, a collaborator in writing two books, and a lifelong inspiration. My sixtieth birthday celebration reminds me so much of our celebration of Johnnie’s sixtieth, thirty years ago. As I look back on my four decades of life in physics, I’m struck by the enormous changes in our under- standing of the Universe. What further discoveries will the next four decades bring? Today I will speculate on some of the big discoveries in those fields of physics in which I’ve been working. My predictions may look silly in hindsight, 40 years hence. But I’ve never minded looking silly, and predictions can stimulate research. Imagine hordes of youths setting out to prove me wrong! I’ll begin by reminding you about the foundations for the fields in which I have been working. I work, in part, on the theory of general relativity. Relativity was the first twentieth-century revolution in our understanding of the laws that govern the universe, the laws of physics. -
Page 1 of 45 “Journey to a Black Hole”
“Journey to a Black Hole” Demonstration Manual What is a black hole? How are they made? Where can you find them? How do they influence the space and time around them? Using hands-on activities and visual resources from NASA's exploration of the universe, these activities take audiences on a mind-bending adventure through our universe. 1. How to Make a Black Hole [Stage Demo, Audience Participation] (Page 3) 2. The Little Black Hole That Couldn’t [Stage Demo, Audience Participation] (Page 6) 3. It’s A Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Supernova! [Stage Demo] (Page 10) 4. Where Are the Black Holes? [Stage Demo, Audience Participation] (Page 14) 5. Black Holes for Breakfast [Make-and-Take…and eat!] (Page 17) 6. Modeling a Black Hole [Cart Activity] (Page 19) 7. How to Spot a Black Hole [Stage Demo, Audience Participation] (Page 25) 8. Black Hole Hide and Seek [Cart Activity] (Page 29) 9. Black Hole Lensing [Stage Demo, Audience Participation] (Page 32) 10. Spaghettification [Make-and-Take] (Page 35) Many of these activities were inspired by or adapted from existing activities. Each such write-up contains a link to these original sources. In addition to supply lists, procedure and discussion, each activity lists a supplemental visualization and/or presentation that illustrates a key idea from the activity. Although many of these supplemental resources are available from the “Inside Einstein’s Universe” web site, specific links are given, along with a brief annotated description of each resource. http://www.universeforum.org/einstein/ Note: the science of black holes may not be immediately accessible to the younger members of your audience, but each activity includes hands-on participatory aspects to engage these visitors (pre-teen and below). -
1 the X-Ray Telescope on Board Swift
1 THE X-RAY TELESCOPE ON BOARD SWIFT: STATUS AND MAIN RESULTS G. Tagliaferri1, S. Campana1, G. Chincarini1,2, P. Giommi3, G. Cusumano4, D.N. Burrows5, J.E. Hill5,6, J.A. Kennea5, J.A. Nousek5, J.P. Osborne7, P.T. O’Brien7, A. Wells7, L. Angelini6, and on behalf of the XRT team1 1INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate, Italy 2Universita` degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, P.za delle Scienze 3, 20126 Milano, Italy 3ASI Science Data Center, Via G. Galilei, 00044 Frascati, Italy 4INAF-IASF Palermo, Via U. La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy 5Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA 6NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD 20771, USA 7University of Leicester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Leicester, LE 17 RH, UK ABSTRACT of the GRBs, if not all, had an associated X-ray after- glow only about 60% of them had also an optical after- glow, i.e. a good fraction of them were dark–GRBs. For The X-ray Telescope (XRT), on board the Swift satellite, a general review on these topics see Zhang & Meszaros provides: automated source detection and position with (2004) and Piran (2005). Therefore, it was clear that to few arcsecond accuracy within few seconds from target properly study the GRBs, and in particular the associ- acquisition; CCD spectroscopy and imaging capability ated afterglows, we needed a fast-reaction satellite capa- (0.2-10 keV), with the capability of detecting a milliCrab ble of detecting GRBs and of performing immediate mul- source in about 10 seconds; automatic adjusting of the tiwavelength follow-up observations, in particular in the CCD readout mode to optimize the science return as the X-ray and optical bands. -
Introduction to Black Hole Astrophysics, 2010 Gustavo E
Lecture Notes Introduction to Black Hole Astrophysics, 2010 Gustavo E. Romero Introduction to black hole astrophysics Gustavo E. Romero Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía, C.C. 5, Villa Elisa (1894), and Facultad de Cs. Astronómicas y Geofísicas, UNLP, Paseo del Bosque S/N, (1900) La Plata, Argentina, [email protected] Es cosa averiguada que no se sabe nada, y que todos son ignorantes; y aun esto no se sabe de cierto, que, a saberse, ya se supiera algo: sospéchase. Quevedo Abstract. Black holes are perhaps the most strange and fascinating objects in the universe. Our understanding of space and time is pushed to its limits by the extreme conditions found in these objects. They can be used as natural laboratories to test the behavior of matter in very strong gravitational fields. Black holes seem to play a key role in the universe, powering a wide variety of phenomena, from X-ray binaries to active galactic nuclei. In these lecture notes the basics of black hole physics and astrophysics are reviewed. 1. Introduction Strictly speaking, black holes do not exist. Moreover, holes, of any kind, do not exist. You can talk about holes of course. For instance you can say: “there is a hole in the wall”. You can give many details of the hole: it is big, it is round shaped, light comes in through it. Even, perhaps, the hole could be such that you can go through to the outside. But I am sure that you do not think that there is a thing made out of nothingness in the wall. -