Accreting Neutron Stars in Low-Mass X-Ray Binary Systems

Using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RossiXTE), astronomers have discovered that disk-accreting neutron stars with weak magnetic fields produce three distinct types of high-frequency X-ray oscillations. These oscillations are powered by release of the binding energy of matter falling into the strong gravitational field of the star or by the sudden nuclear burning of matter that has accumulated in the outermost layers of the star. The frequencies of the oscillations reflect the orbital frequencies of gas deep in the gravitational field of the star and/or the spin frequency of the star. These oscillations can therefore be used to explore fundamental physics, such as strong-field gravity and the properties of matter under extreme conditions, and important astrophysical questions, such as the formation and evolution of millisecond pulsars. Observations using RossiXTE have shown that some two dozen neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binary systems have the spin rates and magnetic fields required to become millisecond radio-emitting pulsars when accretion ceases, but that few have spin rates above about 600 Hz. The properties of these stars show that the paucity of spin rates greater than 600 Hz is due in part to the magnetic braking component of the accretion torque and to the limited amount of angular momentum that can be accreted in such systems. Further study will show whether braking by gravitational radiation is also a factor. Analysis of the kilohertz oscillations has provided the first evidence for the existence of the innermost stable circular orbit around dense relativistic stars that is predicted by strong-field general relativity. It has also greatly narrowed the possible descriptions of ultradense matter.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, updated list of sources and references, to appear in "Short-period Binary Stars: Observation, Analyses, and Results", eds. E.F. Milone, D.A. Leahy, and D. Hobill (Dordrecht: Springer, http://www.springerlink.com

The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems

We review the formation and evolution of compact binary stars consisting of white dwarfs (WDs), neutron stars (NSs), and black holes (BHs). Binary NSs and BHs are thought to be the primary astrophysical sources of gravitational waves (GWs) within the frequency band of ground-based detectors, while compact binaries of WDs are important sources of GWs at lower frequencies to be covered by space interferometers (LISA). Major uncertainties in the current understanding of properties of NSs and BHs most relevant to the GW studies are discussed, including the treatment of the natal kicks which compact stellar remnants acquire during the core collapse of massive stars and the common envelope phase of binary evolution. We discuss the coalescence rates of binary NSs and BHs and prospects for their detections, the formation and evolution of binary WDs and their observational manifestations. Special attention is given to AM CVn-stars -- compact binaries in which the Roche lobe is filled by another WD or a low-mass partially degenerate helium-star, as these stars are thought to be the best LISA verification binary GW sources.Comment: 105 pages, 18 figure

Performance of the ATLAS track reconstruction algorithms in dense environments in LHC Run 2

With the increase in energy of the Large Hadron Collider to a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV for Run 2, events with dense environments, such as in the cores of highenergy jets, became a focus for new physics searches as well as measurements of the Standard Model. These environments are characterized by charged-particle separations of the order of the tracking detectors sensor granularity. Basic track quantities are compared between 3.2 fb(-1) of data collected by the ATLAS experiment and simulation of protonproton collisions producing high-transverse-momentum jets at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The impact of chargedparticle separations and multiplicities on the track reconstruction performance is discussed. The track reconstruction efficiency in the cores of jets with transverse momenta between 200 and 1600 GeV is quantified using a novel, datadriven, method. The method uses the energy loss, dE/ dx, to identify pixel clusters originating from two charged particles. Of the charged particles creating these clusters, themeasured fraction that fail to be reconstructed is 0.061 +/- 0.006 (stat.) +/- 0.014 (syst.) and 0.093 +/- 0.017 (stat.) +/- 0.021 (syst.) for jet transverse momenta of 200-400GeV and 1400-1600GeV, respectively

Klinické zkoušení a optimalizace postupu při implantaci totální náhrady ramenního kloubu české provenience

A search with the ATLAS detector is presented for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced by vector-boson fusion and decaying to a pair of bottom quarks, using 20.2 fb 121 of LHC proton-proton collision data at s=8 TeV. The signal is searched for as a resonance in the invariant mass distribution of a pair of jets containing b-hadrons in vector-boson-fusion candidate events. The yield is measured to be 120.8 \ub1 2.3 times the Standard Model cross-section for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV. The upper limit on the cross-section times the branching ratio is found to be 4.4 times the Standard Model cross-section at the 95% confidence level, consistent with the expected limit value of 5.4 (5.7) in the background-only (Standard Model production) hypothesis