Search

Relativistic jets are observed around accreting black holes, from stellar mass to super massive black holes. But Its origin has not been fully understood. Although Blanford-Payne process has been considered as most reliable theory of jet production It has no observational proof or supports. In this problem, We suggested the way to display that Bardeen-Petterson effect can become a supporter as providing observational idea of Blanford-Payne process. And we studied black hole jet production by Blanford-Payne process and Bardeen-Peterson effect. As a result, we could calculate observable timescale of black hole jet preccetion

In this paper we report the first close, high-resolution observations of downward-directed terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) detected by the large-area Telescope Array cosmic ray observatory, obtained in conjunction with broadband VHF interferometer and fast electric field change measurements of the parent discharge. The results show that the TGFs occur during strong initial breakdown pulses (IBPs) in the first few milliseconds of negative cloud-to-ground and low-altitude intracloud flashes, and that the IBPs are produced by a newly-identified streamer-based discharge process called fast negative breakdown. The observations indicate the relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREAs) responsible for producing the TGFs are initiated by embedded spark-like transient conducting events (TCEs) within the fast streamer system, and potentially also by individual fast streamers themselves. The TCEs are inferred to be the cause of impulsive sub-pulses that are characteristic features of classic IBP sferics. Additional development of the avalanches would be facilitated by the enhanced electric field ahead of the advancing front of the fast negative breakdown. In addition to showing the nature of IBPs and their enigmatic sub-pulses, the observations also provide a possible explanation for the unsolved question of how the streamer to leader transition occurs during the initial negative breakdown, namely as a result of strong currents flowing in the final stage of successive IBPs, extending backward through both the IBP itself and the negative streamer breakdown preceding the IBP., Comment: Typo fixed and reference added. Manuscript is 36 pages. Supplemental Information is 42 pages. This paper is to be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. Online data repository: Open Science Framework DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/Z3XDA

The latest generation of Galactic-plane surveys is enhancing our ability to study the effects of galactic environment upon the process of star formation. We present the first data from CO Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey 2 (CHIMPS2). CHIMPS2 is a survey that will observe the Inner Galaxy, the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), and a section of the Outer Galaxy in $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O $(J = 3\rightarrow2)$ emission with the Heterodyne Array Receiver Program on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The first CHIMPS2 data presented here are a first look towards the CMZ in $^{12}$CO J = 3$\rightarrow$2 and cover $-3^{\circ}\leq\,\ell\,\leq\,5^{\circ}$ and $\mid$b$\mid \leq 0.5^{\circ}$ with angular resolution of 15 arcsec, velocity resolution of 1 km s$^{-1}$, and rms $\Delta T_A ^\ast =$ 0.58 K at these resolutions. Such high-resolution observations of the CMZ will be a valuable data set for future studies, whilst complementing the existing Galactic Plane surveys, such as SEDIGISM, the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey, and ATLASGAL. In this paper, we discuss the survey plan, the current observations and data, as well as presenting position-position maps of the region. The position-velocity maps detect foreground spiral arms in both absorption and emission., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Motivated by the detection of a significant dipole structure in the arrival directions of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays above 8 EeV reported by the Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger), we search for a large-scale anisotropy using data collected with the surface detector array of the Telescope Array Experiment (TA). With 11 years of TA data, a dipole structure in a projection of the right ascension is fitted with an amplitude of 3.3+- 1.9% and a phase of 131 +- 33 degrees. The corresponding 99% confidence-level upper limit on the amplitude is 7.3%. At the current level of statistics, the fitted result is compatible with both an isotropic distribution and the dipole structure reported by Auger., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, Proofed title. Added journal reference and DOI

In the general accretion disk model theory, the accretion disk surrounding an astronomical object comprises fluid rings obeying Keplerian motion. However, we should consider relativistic and rotational effects as we close in toward the center of accretion disk surrounding spinning compact massive objects such as a black hole or a neutron star. In this study, we explore the geometry of the inner portion of the accretion disk in the context of Mukhopadhyay’s pseudo-Newtonian potential approximation for the full general relativity theory. We found that the shape of the accretion disk “puffs up” or becomes thicker and the luminosity of the disk could exceed the Eddington luminosity near the surface of the compact spinning black hole.

Bursts of gamma ray showers have been observed in coincidence with downward propagating negative leaders in lightning flashes by the Telescope Array Surface Detector (TASD). The TASD is a 700~square kilometer cosmic ray observatory located in southwestern Utah, U.S.A. In data collected between 2014 and 2016, correlated observations showing the structure and temporal development of three shower-producing flashes were obtained with a 3D lightning mapping array, and electric field change measurements were obtained for an additional seven flashes, in both cases co-located with the TASD. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) information was also used throughout. The showers arrived in a sequence of 2--5 short-duration ($\le$10~$\mu$s) bursts over time intervals of several hundred microseconds, and originated at an altitude of $\simeq$3--5 kilometers above ground level during the first 1--2 ms of downward negative leader breakdown at the beginning of cloud-to-ground lightning flashes. The shower footprints, associated waveforms and the effect of atmospheric propagation indicate that the showers consist primarily of downward-beamed gamma radiation. This has been supported by GEANT simulation studies, which indicate primary source fluxes of $\simeq$$10^{12}$--$10^{14}$ photons for $16^{\circ}$ half-angle beams. We conclude that the showers are terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), similar to those observed by satellites, but that the ground-based observations are more representative of the temporal source activity and are also more sensitive than satellite observations, which detect only the most powerful TGFs.

TARA (Telescope Array Radar) is a cosmic ray radar detection experiment colocated with Telescope Array, the conventional surface scintillation detector (SD) and fluorescence telescope detector (FD) near Delta, Utah, U.S.A. The TARA detector combines a 40 kW, 54.1 MHz VHF transmitter and high-gain transmitting antenna which broadcasts the radar carrier over the SD array and within the FD field of view, towards a 250 MS/s DAQ receiver. TARA has been collecting data since 2013 with the primary goal of observing the radar signatures of extensive air showers (EAS). Simulations indicate that echoes are expected to be short in duration (~10 microseconds) and exhibit rapidly changing frequency, with rates on the order of 1 MHz/microsecond. The EAS radar cross-section (RCS) is currently unknown although it is the subject of over 70 years of speculation. A novel signal search technique is described in which the expected radar echo of a particular air shower is used as a matched filter template and compared to waveforms obtained by triggering the radar DAQ using the Telescope Array fluorescence detector. No evidence for the scattering of radio frequency radiation by EAS is obtained to date. We report the first quantitative RCS upper limits using EAS that triggered the Telescope Array Fluorescence Detector., Comment: 21 pages, 30 figures

We present an upper limit on the flux of ultra-high-energy down-going neutrinos for $E > 10^{18}\ \mbox{eV}$ derived with the nine years of data collected by the Telescope Array surface detector (05-11-2008 -- 05-10-2017). The method is based on the multivariate analysis technique, so-called Boosted Decision Trees (BDT). Proton-neutrino classifier is built upon 16 observables related to both the properties of the shower front and the lateral distribution function., 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted to JETP

The surface detector (SD) of the Telescope Array (TA) experiment allows one to indirectly detect photons with energies of order $10^{18}$ eV and higher and to separate photons from the cosmic-ray background. In this paper we present the results of a blind search for point sources of ultra-high energy (UHE) photons in the Northern sky using the TA SD data. The photon-induced extensive air showers (EAS) are separated from the hadron-induced EAS background by means of a multivariate classifier based upon 16 parameters that characterize the air shower events. No significant evidence for the photon point sources is found. The upper limits are set on the flux of photons from each particular direction in the sky within the TA field of view, according to the experiment's angular resolution for photons. Average 95% C.L. upper limits for the point-source flux of photons with energies greater than $10^{18}$, $10^{18.5}$, $10^{19}$, $10^{19.5}$ and $10^{20}$ eV are $0.094$, $0.029$, $0.010$, $0.0073$ and $0.0058$ km$^{-2}$yr$^{-1}$ respectively. For the energies higher than $10^{18.5}$ eV, the photon point-source limits are set for the first time. Numerical results for each given direction in each energy range are provided as a supplement to this paper., Comment: accepted to MNRAS, 11 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables; results in text-file format are supplemented to paper source

We report on a measurement of the cosmic ray composition by the Telescope Array Low-Energy Extension (TALE) air fluorescence detector (FD). By making use of the Cherenkov light signal in addition to air fluorescence light from cosmic ray (CR) induced extensive air showers, the TALE FD can measure the properties of the cosmic rays with energies as low as $\sim 2$ PeV and exceeding 1 EeV. In this paper, we present results on the measurement of $X_{\rm max}$ distributions of showers observed over this energy range. Data collected over a period of $\sim 4$ years was analyzed for this study. The resulting $X_{\rm max}$ distributions are compared to the Monte Carlo (MC) simulated data distributions for primary cosmic rays with varying composition and a 4-component fit is performed. The comparison and fit are performed for energy bins, of width 0.1 or 0.2 in $\log_{10} (E/{\rm eV})$, spanning the full range of the measured energies. We also examine the mean $X_{\rm max}$ value as a function of energy for cosmic rays with energies greater than $10^{15.8}$ eV. Below $10^{17.3}$ eV, the slope of the mean $X_{\rm max}$ as a function of energy (the elongation rate) for the data is significantly smaller than that of all elements in the models, indicating that the composition is becoming heavier with energy in this energy range. This is consistent with a rigidity-dependent cutoff of events from galactic sources. Finally, an increase in the $X_{\rm max}$ elongation rate is observed at energies just above $10^{17}$ eV indicating another change in the cosmic rays composition., 20 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Thanks to the recent developments in observational technology, the study of cosmology today is often called precision cosmology. Nevertheless, present cosmology still involves a big mystery. That is, among the Universe's energy budget, cosmologists have known for some time that dark matter occupies 23% of the Universe, dark energy occupies 73%, and the baryon occupies the remaining 4%. That is, 76% of the Universe still remains a complete mystery. In the present work, therefore, we would like to present our current understanding of dark matter, as well as the puzzle associated with its existence. That the nature of dark matter in the present Universe still remains a complete mystery or puzzle is fair to say. In the present work, however, we challenge a brief, albeit reliable, summary of up-to-date observational evidence for the existence of dark matter and introduce the theories underlying it.

The Pierre Auger Collaboration (Auger) recently reported a correlation between the arrival directions of cosmic rays with energies above 39 EeV and the flux pattern of 23 nearby starburst galaxies (SBGs). In this Letter, we tested the same hypothesis using cosmic rays detected by the Telescope Array experiment (TA) in the 9-year period from May 2008 to May 2017. Unlike the Auger analysis, we did not optimize the parameter values but kept them fixed to the best-fit values found by Auger, namely 9.7% for the anisotropic fraction of cosmic rays assumed to originate from the SBGs in the list and 12.9{\deg} for the angular scale of the correlations. The energy threshold we adopted is 43 EeV, corresponding to 39 EeV in Auger when taking into account the energy-scale difference between two experiments. We find that the TA data is compatible with isotropy to within 1.1{\sigma} and with the Auger result to within 1.4{\sigma}, meaning that it is not capable to discriminate between these two hypotheses., Comment: More accurate title, fixed an inconsistency in the declination range used, with a few figures slightly changing as a result, other minor revisions

One of the uncertainties in interpretation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) data comes from the hadronic interaction models used for air shower Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The number of muons observed at the ground from UHECR-induced air showers is expected to depend upon the hadronic interaction model. One may therefore test the hadronic interaction models by comparing the measured number of muons with the MC prediction. In this paper, we present the results of studies of muon densities in UHE extensive air showers obtained by analyzing the signal of surface detector stations which should have high $\it{muon \, purity}$. The muon purity of a station will depend on both the inclination of the shower and the relative position of the station. In 7 years' data from the Telescope Array experiment, we find that the number of particles observed for signals with an expected muon purity of $\sim$65% at a lateral distance of 2000 m from the shower core is $1.72 \pm 0.10{\rm (stat.)} \pm 0.37 {\rm (syst.)}$ times larger than the MC prediction value using the QGSJET II-03 model for proton-induced showers. A similar effect is also seen in comparisons with other hadronic models such as QGSJET II-04, which shows a $1.67 \pm 0.10 \pm 0.36$ excess. We also studied the dependence of these excesses on lateral distances and found a slower decrease of the lateral distribution of muons in the data as compared to the MC, causing larger discrepancy at larger lateral distances.

The Telescope Array observatory utilizes fluorescence detectors and surface detectors to observe air showers produced by ultra high energy cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere. Cosmic ray events observed in this way are termed hybrid data. The depth of air shower maximum is related to the mass of the primary particle that generates the shower. This paper reports on shower maxima data collected over 8.5 years using the Black Rock Mesa and Long Ridge fluorescence detectors in conjunction with the array of surface detectors. We compare the means and standard deviations of the observed $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ distributions with Monte Carlo $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ distributions of unmixed protons, helium, nitrogen, and iron, all generated using the QGSJet~II-04 hadronic model. We also perform an unbinned maximum likelihood test of the observed data, which is subjected to variable systematic shifting of the data $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ distributions to allow us to test the full distributions, and compare them to the Monte Carlo to see which elements are not compatible with the observed data. For all energy bins, QGSJet~II-04 protons are found to be compatible with Telescope Array hybrid data at the 95% confidence level after some systematic $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ shifting of the data. Three other QGSJet~II-04 elements are found to be compatible using the same test procedure in an energy range limited to the highest energies where data statistics are sparse., Comment: 39 pages, 18 figures, 5 tables, published in The Astrophysical Journal. This is a peer-reviewed, un-copyedited version of an article published in The Astrophysical Journal. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aabad7

An intermediate-scale energy spectrum anisotropy has been found in the arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays of energies above $10^{19.2}$ eV in the northern hemisphere, using 7 years of data from the Telescope Array surface detector. A relative energy distribution test is done comparing events inside oversampled spherical caps of equal exposure, to those outside, using the Poisson likelihood ratio. The center of maximum significance is at $9^h$$16^m$, $45^{\circ}$. and has a deficit of events with energies $10^{19.2}$$\leq$$E$$

We present the results of the search for ultra-high-energy photons with nine years of data from the Telescope Array surface detector. A multivariate classifier is built upon 16 reconstructed parameters of the extensive air shower. These parameters are related to the curvature and the width of the shower front, the steepness of the lateral distribution function, and the timing parameters of the waveforms sensitive to the shower muon content. A total number of two photon candidates found in the search is fully compatible with the expected background. The $95\%\,$CL limits on the diffuse flux of the photons with energies greater than $10^{18.0}$, $10^{18.5}$, $10^{19.0}$, $10^{19.5}$ and $10^{20.0}$ eV are set at the level of $0.067$, $0.012$, $0.0036$, $0.0013$, $0.0013~\mbox{km}^{-2}\mbox{yr}^{-1}\mbox{sr}^{-1}$ correspondingly., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

The results on ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR) mass composition obtained with the Telescope Array surface detector are presented. The analysis employs the boosted decision tree (BDT) multivariate analysis built upon 14 observables related to both the properties of the shower front and the lateral distribution function. The multivariate classifier is trained with Monte-Carlo sets of events induced by the primary protons and iron. An average atomic mass of UHECR is presented for energies $10^{18.0}-10^{20.0}\ \mbox{eV}$. The average atomic mass of primary particles shows no significant energy dependence and corresponds to $\langle \ln A \rangle = 2.0 \pm 0.1 (stat.) \pm 0.44 (syst.)$. The result is compared to the mass composition obtained by the Telescope Array with $\mbox{X}_{\mbox{max}}$ technique along with the results of other experiments. Possible systematic errors of the method are discussed., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

The stability of the gain of the photomultiplier (PMT) camera for the Fluorescence Detector (FD) of the Telescope Array experiment was monitored using an 241 Am loaded scintillator pulsers (YAP) and a diffused xenon flasher (TXF) for a selected set of 35 PMT-readout channels. From the monitoring of YAP pulses over four years of FD operation, we found slow monotonic drifts of PMT gains at a rate of −1.7~+1.7%/year. An average of the PMT gains over the 35 channels stayed nearly constant with a rate of change measured at −0.01±0.31(stat)±0.21(sys)%/year. No systematic decrease of the PMT gain caused by the night sky background was observed. Monitoring by the TXF also tracked the PMT gain drift of the YAP at 0.88±0.14(stat)%/year.

We present a measurement of the energy spectrum of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays performed by the Telescope Array experiment using monocular observations from its two new FADC-based fluorescence detectors. After a short description of the experiment, we describe the data analysis and event reconstruction procedures. Since the aperture of the experiment must be calculated by Monte Carlo simulation, we describe this calculation and the comparisons of simulated and real data used to verify the validity of the aperture calculation. Finally, we present the energy spectrum calculated from the merged monocular data sets of the two FADC-based detectors, and also the combination of this merged spectrum with an independent, previously published monocular spectrum measurement performed by Telescope Array’s third fluorescence detector [T. Abu-Zayyad et al., The energy spectrum of Telescope Array’s middle drum detector and the direct comparison to the high resolution fly’s eye experiment, Astroparticle Physics 39 (2012) 109-119, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2012.05.012 , Available from: ]. This combined spectrum corroborates the recently published Telescope Array surface detector spectrum [T. Abu-Zayyad, et al., The cosmic-ray energy spectrum observed with the surface detector of the Telescope Array experiment, ApJ 768 (2013) L1, http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/768/1/L1 , Available from: ] with independent systematic uncertainties.

In the present work, we explored the effect of the radiation on the effective impact parameter for capture in a fully general relativistic manner. To summarize our results, evidently due to the radiation drag (the Poynting–Robertson effect), critical impact parameter of point particle gets larger by the factor of two, thus, the effective cross section of the luminous relativistic star becomes 4 times larger than that of the star without radiation emission. In addition, the finite size effect of the star adds up to this growth of the effective cross section.

A simple yet systematic new algorithm to investigate the global structure of the Kerr-Newman spacetime is suggested. Namely, the global structures of θ = const timelike submanifolds of the Kerr-Newman metric starting from the symmetry axis all the way down to the equatorial plane are studied by introducing a new time coordinate slightly different from the usual Boyer-Lindquist time coordinate. The maximal analytic extension of θ = θ0 (0 ≤ θ0 < π/2) timelike submanifolds turns out to be the same as that of the symmetry axis first studied by Carter whereas the θ = π/2 equatorial plane has a topology identical to that of the Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime. The general applicability of this method to the Kerr-Newman-de Sitter solution is discussed as well.

The conformal structure of the Brans-Dicke gravity action is carefully studied. We discuss the fact that the Brans-Dicke gravity action definitely has no conformal invariance. We show, however, that this lack of conformal invariance enables us to demonstrate that the Brans-Dicke theory appears to have a better short-distance behavior than Einstein gravity as far as the Euclidean path integral formulation for quantum gravity is concerned.

The tributary water quality and flowrate monitoring result, which is fundamental data for the establishment of the water environmental policy, is used as very important data for the implementation of TMDL. This study introduced how to use the tributary water quality and flowrate monitoring data for the analysis of the watersheds, the satisfactory assessment of water quality standards in the watersheds, the selection of watersheds for the establishment of the implementation plan, and the selection of the tributary catchments for improving the water quality using a stream grouping method. According to the analytical results of tributary catchment using water quality and flowrate monitoring data of thirty-seven tributaries in the Geum-River watershed at Chungcheongnam-do, the value of flowrate in the tributaries, which is located in the middle-lower Geum-River watershed, was greater than the other areas and the concentration of the water pollutants regardless of water quality parameters in the tributaries at Nonsancheon catchment was relatively higher than the other areas. The problems, which have the determination of satisfaction of water quality standards and selection of target watersheds for establishment of the implementation plan regardless of the water quality of tributary in the watershed due to the water quality and flowrate monitoring results of the main river, were improved use of the results of tributary water quality and flowrate monitoring. Also, the tributary catchments for improving the water quality, according to stream grouping method based on the results of tributary water quality and flowrate monitoring, were selected. In the GeumRiver watershed at Chungcheongnam-do, the tributary in the Nonsancheon, Byeongcheoncheon, Seokseongcheon, Jocheon catchments, which has a large flow and a high concentration of water pollutants, should be preferentially selected for improving the water quality of the tributary in accordance with the reduction of the source of pollution.

The major 81 tributaries in Chungcheongnam-do were monitored for flowrate and water quality in order to understand the characteristics of the watershed and to select the tributary catchment for improving water quality. The value of flowrate in the tributaries at Nonsancheon catchment at the Geum-River watershed and Gokgyocheon, Muhancheon, Sapgyocheon at the SapgyoReservoir watershed, which is located in the southern and northern area in Chungcheongnam-do, was relatively greater than the other watersheds. The concentration of water pollutants regardless of water quality parameters in Nonsancheon catchment at the Geum-River watershed, Gokgyocheon catchment at the Sapgyo-Reservoir watershed and the Anseongcheon watershed, which have a dense source of pollution, were higher than the other watersheds. However, 64 percent of the tributaries at the Geum-River watershed, 45 percent of tributaries at the Sapgyo-Reservoir watershed, 26 percent of tributaries at the Geum-River watershed all satisfied the Class II regulations in the Framework Act on Environment Policy, but all of the tributaries located in the Anseongcheon watershed exceeded the Class II regulations. Therefore, the policy for improving the water quality of the tributary in Chungcheongnam-do should be established in the following order: Anseongcheon, Seohae, Sapgyo-Reservoir watersheds. Consequently, the tributary catchment for improving water quality, which has a large flowrate and a high concentration of water pollutants, was selected at Ganggyeongcheon, Geumcheon, Nonsancheon, Seokseongcheon, Seungcheoncheon, Jeongancheon, Jeungsancheon (so far Geum-River watershed), Gokgyocheon, Namwoncheon, Maegokcheon, Muhancheon, Sapgyocheon Oncheoncheon, Cheonancheon (so far Sapgyo-Reservoir watershed), Gwangcheoncheon, Dangjincheon, Daecheoncheon, Dodangcheon, Waryongcheon, Cheongjicheon, Pangyocheon, Heungincheon (so far Seohae watershed), Dunpocheon, Seonghwancheon, Ipjangcheon (so far Anseongcheon watershed). The plans as installation of environmental facilities to reduce the source of pollution for improving the water quality of these tributary catchments should be urgently established and implemented.

The pure Brans-Dicke (BD) gravity with or without the cosmological constant Λ has been taken as a model theory for dark matter. Indeed, there has been a consensus that unless one modifies either the standard theory of gravity, namely, general relativity, or the standard model for particle physics, or both, one can never achieve a satisfying understanding of the phenomena associated with dark matter and dark energy. Along this line, our dark matter model in this work can be thought of as an attempt to modify the gravity side alone in the simplest fashion to achieve the goal. Among others, it is demonstrated that our model theory can successfully predict the emergence of a dark matter halo-like configuration in terms of a self-gravitating spacetime solution to the BD field equations and reproduce the flattened rotation curve in this dark halo-like object in terms of the non-trivial energy density of the BD scalar field, which was absent in the context of general relativity, where Newton’s constant is strictly a “constant” having no dynamics. Our model theory, however, is not entirely without flaw, such as the prediction of relativistic jets in all types of galaxies, which actually is not the case.

The stability of 12 small dark globules has been analyzed by using the full scalar virial theorem without magnetic field. We have applied the virial theorem to 18 sub-condensations identified from the column density maps of 12 globules. The sub-condensations are approximated by a uniform sphere of equivalent mass for simplicity. Based on the conventional simplified version of virial theorem, where the viral mass is compared with the LTE mass, we can only say that almost all the sub-condensations are approximately in a virial equilibrium. When we apply the full scalar virial theorem, where the sum of all the energy terms does not vanish and the time variation of the moment of inertia should be kept, one third of our sample cores are likely to collapse, one sixth of them are expected to expand, and the rest half of them are in a dense phase of an oscillatory equilibrium. The globules in the diffuse phase of the oscillatory equilibrium may not be detected by conventional means, because they are too rarefied to get CO molecules excited or to shield molecules from UV photons, or because they may not withstand the tidal disruption by neighboring clouds.

The pure Brans-Dicke (BD) gravity with or without the cosmological constant $\Lambda $ has been taken as a model theory for the dark matter. Indeed, there has been a consensus that unless one modifies either the standard theory of gravity, namely, general relativity, or the standard model for particle physics, or both, one can never achieve a satisfying understanding of the phenomena associated with dark matter and dark energy. Along this line, our dark matter model in this work can be thought of as an attempt to modify the gravity side alone in the simplest fashion to achieve the goal. Among others, it is demonstrated that our model theory can successfully predict the emergence of dark matter halo-like configuration in terms of a self-gravitating spacetime solution to the BD field equations and reproduce the flattened rotation curve in this dark halo-like object in terms of the non-trivial energy density of the BD scalar field, which was absent in the context of general relativity where Newton's constant is strictly a ``constant'' having no dynamics. Our model theory, however, is not entirely without flaw, such as the prediction of relativistic jets in all types of galaxies which actually is not the case., Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures, Revtex4, version appeared in J. Korean Phy. Soc

By intersecting the RR charged D_p - bar{D}_p pair (p=6, 4, 2, 0) with the RR F7-brane and by intersecting the NSNS charged F1-bar{F1} and NS5-bar{NS5} pairs with the NSNS F6-branes, the possibility of stabilizing the brane-antibrane systems is considered. The behavior of the corresponding supergravity solutions indicates that the RR F7-brane content of the solution plays the role of keeping the brane and the antibrane from annihilating each other completely since the two-brane configuration structure still persists in the vanishing inter-brane distance limit of the supergravity solution. In terms of the stringy description, we interpret this as representing that the RR F7-brane ``delays'' the brane-antibrane annihilation process but only until this non-supersymmetric and hence unstable F7-brane itself decays. Then next, the behavior of the supergravity solutions representing F1-bar{F1} and NS5-bar{NS5} again for vanishing inter-brane separation reveals that as they approach, these ``NS''-charged brane and antibrane always collide and annihilate irrespective of the presence or the absence of the NSNS F6-brane. And we have essentially attributed this to the absence of (open) stringy description of the instability in the ``NS''-charged case. This interpretation may provide a resolution to the contrasting features between the instability of ``R''-charged brane-antibrane systems and that of `NS''-charged ones. Certainly, however, it poses another puzzle that in the ``NS''-charged case, the quantum entity, that should take over the semi-classical instability as the inter-brane distance gets smaller, is missing. This is rather an embarrassing state of affair that needs to be treated with great care., Comment: 35 pages, Latex, References added

Previous measurements of the composition of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays(UHECRs) made by the High Resolution Fly's Eye(HiRes) and Pierre Auger Observatory(PAO) are seemingly contradictory, but utilize different detection methods, as HiRes was a stereo detector and PAO is a hybrid detector. The five year Telescope Array(TA) Middle Drum hybrid composition measurement is similar in some, but not all, respects in methodology to PAO, and good agreement is evident between data and a light, largely protonic, composition when comparing the measurements to predictions obtained with the QGSJetII-03 and QGSJet-01c models. These models are also in agreement with previous HiRes stereo measurements, confirming the equivalence of the stereo and hybrid methods. The data is incompatible with a pure iron composition, for all models examined, over the available range of energies. The elongation rate and mean values of Xmax are in good agreement with Pierre Auger Observatory data. This analysis is presented using two methods: data cuts using simple geometrical variables and a new pattern recognition technique., Comment: 23 pages, 30 figures

We search for ultra-high energy photons by analyzing geometrical properties of shower fronts of events registered by the Telescope Array surface detector. By making use of an event-by-event statistical method, we derive upper limits on the absolute flux of primary photons with energies above ${10}^{19}$, ${10}^{19.5}$, and ${10}^{20}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ based on the first three years of data taken.

Wormhole spacetimes may be responsible for the possible loss of quantum coherence and the introduction of additional fundamental quantum indeterminancy of the values of constants of nature. As a system which is known to admit such classical wormhole solutions, Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) theory is revisited. Since the classical wormhole instanton solution in this theory has been studied extensively thus far, in the present work, ``quantum wormholes'' are explored. Namely in the context of a minisuperspace quantum cosmology model based on this EYM theory, ``quantum wormhole'', defined as a state represented by a solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation satisfying an appropriate wormhole boundary condition, is discussed. Finally, it is proposed that the minisuperspace model based on this theory in the presence of the cosmological constant may serve as a simple yet interesting system displaying an overall picture of entire universe's history from the deep quantum domain all the way to the classical domain., 30 pages, includes 4-figures, Revtex

In this paper, we explore the nucleation of vacuum bubbles in the Brans-Dicke type theory of gravity. In the Euclidean signature, we evaluate the fields at the vacuum bubbles as solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion as well as the bubble nucleation probabilities by integrating the Euclidean action. We illustrate three possible ways to obtain vacuum bubbles: true vacuum bubbles for \omega>-3/2, false vacuum bubbles for \omega-3/2 when the vacuum energy of the false vacuum in the potential of the Einstein frame is less than that of the true vacuum. After the bubble is nucleated at the t=0 surface, we can smoothly interpolate the field combinations to some solutions in the Lorentzian signature and consistently continue their subsequent evolutions. Therefore, we conclude that, in general scalar-tensor theories like this Brans-Dicke type theories, which may include and represent certain features of string theory, vacuum bubbles come in false vacuum bubbles as well as in true vacuum bubbles, as long as a special condition is assumed on the potential., Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures

Ever since the first discovery of Poynting and Robertson, the radiation source has been treated as merely a point. Even in a very few studies where the size of the source has been taken into account, the treatment of the problem remained largely non-relativistic. In the present work, we address the issue of the finite size effects on the Poynting-Robertson effect in a fully relativistic manner for the first time. As a result, the emergence and the characteristic of the critical point/suspension orbit can be studied in a systematic and detailed manner., 11pages, 3figures

We explored the motion of test particles near slowly rotating relativistic star having a uniform luminosity. In order to derive the test particle's equations of motion, we made use of the radiation stress-energy tensor first constructed by Miller and Lamb \cite{ML96}. From the particle's trajectory obtained through the numerical integration of the equations of motion, it is found that for sufficiently high luminosity, "suspension orbit" exists, where the test particle hovers around at uniform angular velocity in the same direction as the star's spin. Interestingly, it turned out that the radial position of the "suspension orbit" was determined by the luminosity and the angular momentum of the star alone and was independent of the initial positions and the specific angular momentum of the particle. Also found is that there exist not only the radiation drag but also "radiation counter-drag" which depends on the stellar radius and the angular momentum and it is this radiation counter-drag that makes the test particle in the "suspension orbit" to hover around at uniform angular velocity which is greater than that induced by the Lense-Thirring effect (i.e., general relativistic dragging of inertial frame)., 23 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. D.

A fully general relativistic description of the pulsar magnetosphere is provided. To be more concrete, a study of the pulsar magnetosphere is performed in the context of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) employing the so-called Grad-Shafranov approach. Not surprisingly, the resulting Grad-Shafranov equations and all the other related general relativistic MHD equations turn out to take essentially the same structures as those for the (rotating) black hole magnetosphere. Other different natures between the two cases including the structure of singular surfaces of MHD flows in each magnetosphere are essentially encoded in the different spacetime (metric) contents. In this way, the pulsar and the black hole magnetospheres can be described in an unified fashion. Particularly, the direction of poloidal currents circulating in the neutron star magnetosphere turns out to be the same as that of currents circulating in the black hole magnetosphere which, in turn, leads to the pulsar and the black hole spin-downs via the ``magnetic braking''., 42 pages, 3 figures, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.(MNRAS), in press

Core-collapse in massive stars is believed to produce a rapidly spinning black hole surrounded by a compact disk or torus. This forms an energetic MeV-nucleus inside a remnant He-core, powered by black hole-spin energy. The output produces a GRB-supernova, while most of the energy released is in gravitational radiation. The intrinsic gravitational-wave spectrum is determined by multipole mass-moments in the torus. Quadrupole gravitational radiation is radiated at about twice the Keplerian frequency of the torus, which is non-axisymmetric when sufficiently slender, representing a ``{\em black hole-blob}" binary system or a "{\em blob-blob}" binary bound to the central black hole. We here discuss line-broadening in the observed spectrum due to Lense-Thirring precession, which modulates the orientation of the torus to the line-of-sight. This spectral feature is long-lived, due to weak damping of precessional motion. These events are believed to occur perhaps once per year within a distance of 100Mpc, which provides a candidate source for Advanced LIGO.

The Brans-Dicke (BD) theory of gravity is taken as a possible theory of k-essence coupled to gravity. It then has been realized that the BD scalar field does indeed play a role of a k-essence, but in a very unique way which distinguishes it from other k-essence fields studied in the literature. That is, first in the BD scalar field-dominated era when the contribution from this k-essence overwhelms those from other types of matter, the BD theory predicts the emergence of a yet-unknown {\it zero acceleration} epoch which is an intermediate stage acting as a ``crossing bridge'' between the decelerating matter-dominated era and the accelerating phase. Upon realizing this, next, closer study of the effects of this k-essence on the evolutionary behavior of the matter-dominated and the accelerating eras has been performed. The result of the study indicates that the BD scalar field appears to interpolate {\it smoothly} between these two late-time stages by speeding up the expansion rate of the matter-dominated era somewhat while slowing down that of the accelerating phase to some degree. Thus with the newly found BD scalar field-dominated era in between these two, the late-time of the universe evolution appears to be mixed sequence of the three stages., Comment: 25 pages, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.(MNRAS), in press

In the present work, the Brans-Dicke theory of gravity is taken as a possible theory of k-essence coupled to gravity and then the role played by the Brans-Dicke scalar field in relation to the unified model for dark matter and dark energy is explored. It has been realized that the BD scalar field does indeed play a role of a k-essence, but in a very unique way which distinguishes it from other k-essence fields studied in the literature such as the (generalized) Chaplygin gas or the purely kinetic k-essence studied recently by Scherrer. That is, instead of providing an interpolation between the dark matter-like evolution and the dark energy-like evolution, the BD theory predicts the emergence of a yet-unknown {\it zero acceleration} epoch which is an intermediate stage acting as a ``crossing bridge'' between the decelerating matter-dominated era and the accelerating phase., Comment: 18 pages, Accepted for publication in Phys. Lett. B

It was originally thought that Bonnor's solution in Einstein-Maxwell theory describes a singular point-like magnetic dipole. Lately, however, it has been demonstrated that indeed it may describe a black {\it dihole}, i.e., a pair of static, oppositely-charged extremal black holes with regular horizons. Motivated particularly by this new interpretation, in the present work, the construction and extensive analysis of a solution in the context of the Brans-Dicke-Maxwell theory representing a black dihole are attempted. It has been known for some time that the solution-generating algorithm of Singh and Rai produces stationary, axisymmetric, charged solutions in Brans-Dicke-Maxwell theory from the known such solutions in Einstein-Maxwell theory. Thus this algorithm of Singh and Rai's is employed in order to construct a Bonnor-type magnetic black dihole solution in Brans-Dicke-Maxwell theory from the known Bonnor solution in Einstein-Maxwell theory. The peculiar feature of the new solution including internal infinity nature of the symmetry axis and its stability issue have been discussed in full detail., Comment: 29 pages, Revtex4, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A (IJMPA), in press

In association with the Blanford-Znajek mechanism for rotational energy extraction from Kerr black holes, it is of some interest to explore how much of magnetic flux can actually penetrate the horizon at least in idealized situations. For completely uncharged Kerr hole case, it has been known for some time that the magnetic flux gets entirely expelled when the hole is maximally-rotating. In the mean time, it is known that when the rotating hole is immersed in an originally uniform magnetic field surrounded by an ionized interstellar medium (plasma), which is a more realistic situation, the hole accretes certain amount of electric charge. In the present work, it is demonstrated that as a result of this accretion charge small enough not to disturb the geometry, the magnetic flux through this slightly charged Kerr hole depends not only on the hole’s angular momentum but on the hole’s charge as well such that it never vanishes for any value of the hole’s angular e-mail : hongsu@hepth.hanyang.ac.kr e-mail : chlee@hepth.hanyang.ac.kr e-mail : hklee@hepth.hanyang.ac.kr

Using an exact supergravity solution representing the Dp-\bar{Dp} system, it is demonstrated that one can construct a supergravity analogue of the tachyon potential. Remarkably, the (regularized) minimum value of the potential turns out to be V(T_{0})=-2m with m denoting the ADM mass of a single Dp-brane. This result, in a sense, appears to confirm that Sen's conjecture for the tachyon condensation on unstable D-branes is indeed correct although the analysis used here is semi-classical in nature and hence should be taken with some care. Also shown is the fact that the tachyon mass squared m^2_{T} (which has started out as being negative) can actually become positive definite and large as the tachyon rolls down toward the minimum of its potential. It indeed signals the possibility of successful condensation of the tachyon since it shows that near the minimum of its potential, tachyon can become heavy enough to disappear from the massless spectrum. Some cosmological implications of this tachyon potential in the context of ``rolling tachyons'' is also discussed., 26 pages, 2 eps figures, Corrected reference, To appear in JHEP

The stringy description for the instabilities in the $RR$ charged $D_{p}-\bar{D}_{p}$ pairs is now well understood in terms of the open string tachyon condensation. The quantum interpretation presumably via the stringy description for the instabilities in the $NSNS$-charged $F1-\bar{F1}$ and $NS5-\bar{NS5}$ pairs in IIA/IIB theories, however, has not been established yet. This would be partly because of the absence (for the $F1-\bar{F1}$ case) or our relatively poor understanding (for the $NS5-\bar{NS5}$ case) of their worldvolume (gauge theory) dynamics. In the present work, using the well-known quantum description for instabilities in the $RR$-charged $D_{p}-\bar{D}_{p}$ systems and in the M-theory brane-antibrane systems and invoking appropriate string dualities, the stringy nature of the instabilities in the $NSNS$-charged $F1-\bar{F1}$ and $NS5-\bar{NS5}$ systems has been uncovered. For the annihilations to string vacua, the quantum, stringy interpretations are simple extensions of Sen's conjecture for those in $RR$-charged brane-antibrane systems., Comment: 22 pages, 4 eps figures, Latex, comments and references added