The Fate of a WD Accreting H-Rich Material at High Rates

We study C/O white dwarfs with masses of 1.0 to 1.4 Msun accreting solar-composition material at very high accretion rates. We address the secular changes in the WDs, and in particular, the question whether accretion and the thermonuclear runaways result is net accretion or erosion. The present calculation is unique in that it follows a large number of cycles, thus revealing the secular evolution of the WD system. We find that counter to previous studies, accretion does not give rise to steady state burning. Instead, it produces cyclic thermonuclear runaways of two types. During most of the evolution, many small cycles of hydrogen ignition and burning build a helium layer over the surface of the white dwarf. This He layer gradually thickens and progressively becomes more degenerate. Once a sufficient amount of He has accumulated, several very large helium burning flashes take place and expel the accreted envelope, leaving no net mass accumulation. The results imply that such a system will not undergo an accretion induced collapse, nor will it lead to a SN Type Ia, unless a major new physical process is found.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, submitted to MNRA

Universally Near Optimal Online Power Control for Energy Harvesting Nodes

We consider online power control for an energy harvesting system with random i.i.d. energy arrivals and a finite size battery. We propose a simple online power control policy for this channel that requires minimal information regarding the distribution of the energy arrivals and prove that it is universally near-optimal for all parameter values. In particular, the policy depends on the distribution of the energy arrival process only through its mean and it achieves the optimal long-term average throughput of the channel within both constant additive and multiplicative gaps. Existing heuristics for online power control fail to achieve such universal performance. This result also allows us to approximate the long-term average throughput of the system with a simple formula, which sheds some light on the qualitative behavior of the throughput, namely how it depends on the distribution of the energy arrivals and the size of the battery.Comment: the proposed scheme is shown to be optimal both within constant additive and multiplicative gaps; submitted to Journal on Selected Areas in Communications - Series on Green Communications and Networking (Issue 3); revised following reviewers' comment

Super Eddington Slim Accretion Disks with Winds

We construct Super-Eddington Slim Disks models around both stellar and super-massive black holes by allowing the formation of a porous layer with a reduced effective opacity. We show that at high accretion rates, the inner part of the disks become radiation pressure dominated. However, unlike the standard scenario in which the disks become thick, super-Eddington disks remain slim. In addition, they accelerate a significant wind with a "thick disk" geometry. We show that above about 1.5 times the standard critical mass accretion rate (needed to release the Eddington luminosity), the net luminosity released is above Eddington. At above about 5 times the standard critical rate, the central BH accretes more than the Eddington accretion rate. Above about 20 m-dot_crit, the disk remains slim but the wind becomes spherical, and the present model breaks down.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRA

Can Nonlinear Structure Form at the Era of Decoupling?

The effects that large scale fluctuations had on small scale isothermal modes at the epoch of recombination are analysed. We find that: (a) Albeit the fact that primordial fluctuations were at this epoch still well in the linear regime, a significant nonlinear radiation hydrodynamic interaction could have taken place. (b) Short wavelength isothermal fluctuations are unstable. Their growth rate is exponential in the amplitude of the large scale fluctuations and is therefore very sensitive to the initial conditions. (c) The observed CMBR fluctuations are of order the limit above which the effect should be significant. Thus, according to their exact value, the effect may be negligible or lead to structure formation out of isothermal fluctuations within the period of recombination. (d) If the cosmological parameters are within the prescribed regime, the effect should be detectable through induced deviations in the Planck spectrum. (e) The sensitivity of the effect to the initial conditions provides a tool to set limits on various cosmological parameters with emphasis on the type and amplitude of the primordial fluctuation spectrum. (f) Under proper conditions, the effect may be responsible for the formation of sub-globular cluster sized objects at particularly high red shifts. (g) Under certain circumstances, it can also affect horizon sized large scale structure.Comment: To appear in MNRAS, 17 pages, 8 figure