Engine-driven Relativistic Supernovae as Sources of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays

Understanding the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays is a crucial step in probing new physics at energies unattainable by terrestrial accelerators. Their sources remain an enigma half a century after their discovery. They must be accelerated in the local universe as otherwise interaction with cosmic background radiations would severely deplete the flux of protons and nuclei at energies above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) limit. Hypernovae, nearby GRBs, AGNs and their flares have all been suggested and debated in the literature as possible sources. Type Ibc supernovae have a local sub-population with mildly relativistic ejecta which are known to be sub-energetic GRBs or X-Ray Flashes for sometime and more recently as those with radio afterglows but without detected GRB counterparts, such as SN 2009bb. In this work we measure the size-magnetic field evolution, baryon loading and energetics of SN 2009bb using its radio spectra obtained with VLA and GMRT. We show that the engine-driven SNe lie above the Hillas line and they can explain the characteristics of post-GZK UHECRs.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of the GRB 2010 conference in Annapolis, US

Inferring the composition of super-Jupiter mass companions of pulsars with radio line spectroscopy

We propose using radio line spectroscopy to detect molecular absorption lines (such as OH at 1.6-1.7 GHz) before and after the total eclipse of black widow (BW) and other short orbital period binary pulsars with low mass companions. The companion in such a binary may be ablated away by energetic particles and high energy radiation produced by the pulsar wind. The observations will probe the eclipsing wind being ablated by the pulsar and constrain the nature of the companion and its surroundings. Maser emission from the interstellar medium stimulated by a pulsar beam might also be detected from the intrabinary medium. The short temporal resolution allowed by the millisecond pulsars can probe this medium with the high angular resolution of the pulsar beam.Comment: Accepted for publication, ApJ. This version extends the discussion of equivalent width of molecular gas or HI absorption and the required signal to noise ratio. Molecule formation in the environment of ultra-low mass companions around pulsars and ways to distinguish interstellar vs in situ binary gas are discussed. A possible search through pulse gated spectral line interferometry is mentione

Afterglows of Mildly Relativistic Supernovae: Baryon Loaded Blastwaves

Relativistic supernovae have been discovered until recently only through their association with long duration Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB). As the ejecta mass is negligible in comparison to the swept up mass, the blastwaves of such explosions are well described by the Blandford-McKee (in the ultra relativistic regime) and Sedov-Taylor (in the non-relativistic regime) solutions during their afterglows. However, the recent discovery of the relativistic supernova SN 2009bb, without a detected GRB, has indicated the possibility of highly baryon loaded mildly relativistic outflows which remains in nearly free expansion phase during the radio afterglow. In this work, we consider the dynamics and emission from a massive, relativistic shell, launched by a Central Engine Driven EXplosion (CEDEX), decelerating adiabatically due to its collision with the pre-explosion circumstellar wind profile of the progenitor. We show that this model explains the observed radio evolution of the prototypical SN 2009bb and demonstrate that SN 2009bb had a highly baryon loaded, mildly relativistic outflow.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure, proceedings of the GRB 2010 conference in Annapolis, US

Detecting gravitational waves from the galactic center with Pulsar Timing

Black holes orbiting the Super Massive Black Hole (SMBH) Sgr A* in the Milky-way galaxy center (GC) generate gravitational waves. The spectrum, due to stars and black holes, is continuous below 40 nHz while individual BHs within about 200 AU of the central SMBH stick out in the spectrum at higher frequencies. The GWs can be detected by timing radio pulsars within a few parsecs of this region. Future observations with the Square Kilometer Array of such pulsars with sufficient timing accuracy may be sensitive to signals from intermediate mass BHs (IMBH) in a 3 year observation baseline. The recent detection of radio pulsations from the magnetar SGR J1745-29 very near the GC opens up the possibilities of detecting millisecond pulsars (which can be used as probes of the GWs) through lines of sight with only moderate pulse and angular broadening due to scattering.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Paper presented at the IAU Symposium 303 on the Galactic Center at Santa Fe, N.M., USA, October 2013. A similar version was also read at the Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy Workshop 2013 at IUCAA, Pune, India, December 17-20, 201