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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
11

Transients From Rare, Violent Stellar Deaths

Adithan Kathirgamaraju (6726401) 16 October 2019 (has links)
Some of the brightest and most energetic events in the Universe are associated with the death of stars. These stellar deaths power transient electromagnetic emission which are routinely observed on Earth. This dissertation presents our research on various such transients. Its topics includes, supernova remnants, kilonovae, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs): The "long'' type produced from core-collapse supernovae and the "short'' type associated with neutron star merger events. It also focuses on the disruption of stars by the tidal forces of supermassive black holes i.e., tidal disruption events (TDEs). We model the emission from these transients and compare them to observations in order to draw a number of conclusions and make predictions for future detections. For example, we find that the non-thermal emission from supernovae and kilonovae associated with GRBs can produce long term emission which may be detected as a re-brightening in the overall emission. The sharp cut off observed in some TDE flares can be caused by a pre-existing accretion disk present around a supermassive black hole, which is expected in active galactic nuclei. Our work successfully predicted the nature of the very first electromagnetic detection from a neutron star merger, and was able to reproduce the emission that had been observed for more than one hundred days after the merger. This dissertation also provides frameworks on how the observable features of these transients can be leveraged to probe the properties of the progenitor system and their environment. <br>
12

Wide Field Aperture Synthesis Radio Astronomy

Bock, Douglas Carl-Johan January 1998 (has links)
This thesis is focussed on the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST), reporting on two primary areas of investigation. Firstly, it describes the recent upgrade of the MOST to perform an imaging survey of the southern sky. Secondly, it presents a MOST survey of the Vela supernova remnant and follow-up multiwavelength studies. The MOST Wide Field upgrade is the most significant instrumental upgrade of the telescope since observations began in 1981. It has made possible the nightly observation of fields with area ~5 square degrees, while retaining the operating frequency of 843 MHz and the pre-existing sensitivity to point sources and extended structure. The MOST will now be used to make a sensitive (rms approximately 1 mJy/beam) imaging survey of the sky south of declination -30&deg. This survey consists of two components: an extragalactic survey, which will begin in the south polar region, and a Galactic survey of latitudes |b| &lt 10&deg. These are expected to take about ten years. The upgrade has necessitated the installation of 352 new preamplifiers and phasing circuits which are controlled by 88 distributed microcontrollers, networked using optic fibre. The thesis documents the upgrade and describes the new systems, including associated testing, installation and commissioning. The thesis continues by presenting a new high-resolution radio continuum survey of the Vela supernova remnant (SNR), made with the MOST before the completion of the Wide Field upgrade. This remnant is the closest and one of the brightest SNRs. The contrast between the structures in the central pulsar-powered nebula and the synchrotron radiation shell allows the remnant to be identified morphologically as a member of the composite class. The data are the first of a composite remnant at spatial scales comparable with those available for the Cygnus Loop and the Crab Nebula, and make possible a comparison of radio, optical and soft X-ray emission from the resolved shell filaments. The survey covers an area of 50 square degrees at a resolution of 43&quot x 60&quot, while imaging structures on scales up to 30'. It has been used for comparison with Wide Field observations to evaluate the performance of the upgraded MOST. The central plerion of the Vela SNR (Vela X) contains a network of complex filamentary structures. The validity of the imaging of these filaments has been confirmed with Very Large Array (VLA) observations at 1.4 GHz. Unlike the situation in the Crab Nebula, the filaments are not well correlated with H-alpha emission. Within a few parsec of the Vela pulsar the emission is much more complex than previously seen: both very sharp edges and more diffuse emission are present. It has been postulated that one of the brightest filaments in Vela X is associated with the X-ray feature (called a `jet') which appears to be emanating from the region of the pulsar. However, an analysis of the MOST and VLA data shows that this radio filament has a flat spectral index similar to another more distant filament within the plerion, indicating that it is probably unrelated to the X-ray feature.
13

Wide Field Aperture Synthesis Radio Astronomy

Bock, Douglas Carl-Johan January 1998 (has links)
This thesis is focussed on the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST), reporting on two primary areas of investigation. Firstly, it describes the recent upgrade of the MOST to perform an imaging survey of the southern sky. Secondly, it presents a MOST survey of the Vela supernova remnant and follow-up multiwavelength studies. The MOST Wide Field upgrade is the most significant instrumental upgrade of the telescope since observations began in 1981. It has made possible the nightly observation of fields with area ~5 square degrees, while retaining the operating frequency of 843 MHz and the pre-existing sensitivity to point sources and extended structure. The MOST will now be used to make a sensitive (rms approximately 1 mJy/beam) imaging survey of the sky south of declination -30&deg. This survey consists of two components: an extragalactic survey, which will begin in the south polar region, and a Galactic survey of latitudes |b| &lt 10&deg. These are expected to take about ten years. The upgrade has necessitated the installation of 352 new preamplifiers and phasing circuits which are controlled by 88 distributed microcontrollers, networked using optic fibre. The thesis documents the upgrade and describes the new systems, including associated testing, installation and commissioning. The thesis continues by presenting a new high-resolution radio continuum survey of the Vela supernova remnant (SNR), made with the MOST before the completion of the Wide Field upgrade. This remnant is the closest and one of the brightest SNRs. The contrast between the structures in the central pulsar-powered nebula and the synchrotron radiation shell allows the remnant to be identified morphologically as a member of the composite class. The data are the first of a composite remnant at spatial scales comparable with those available for the Cygnus Loop and the Crab Nebula, and make possible a comparison of radio, optical and soft X-ray emission from the resolved shell filaments. The survey covers an area of 50 square degrees at a resolution of 43&quot x 60&quot, while imaging structures on scales up to 30'. It has been used for comparison with Wide Field observations to evaluate the performance of the upgraded MOST. The central plerion of the Vela SNR (Vela X) contains a network of complex filamentary structures. The validity of the imaging of these filaments has been confirmed with Very Large Array (VLA) observations at 1.4 GHz. Unlike the situation in the Crab Nebula, the filaments are not well correlated with H-alpha emission. Within a few parsec of the Vela pulsar the emission is much more complex than previously seen: both very sharp edges and more diffuse emission are present. It has been postulated that one of the brightest filaments in Vela X is associated with the X-ray feature (called a `jet') which appears to be emanating from the region of the pulsar. However, an analysis of the MOST and VLA data shows that this radio filament has a flat spectral index similar to another more distant filament within the plerion, indicating that it is probably unrelated to the X-ray feature.
14

Modeling the emission of the Galactic very high energy [gamma]-ray sources G1.9+0.3, G330.2+1.0, HESS J1303-631 and PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 observed with H.E.S.S.

Sushch, Iurii 29 January 2013 (has links)
Abbildende Cherenkov-Teleskope haben in den letzten Jahren eine groẞe Anzahl neuer Gammastrahlungsquellen im Bereich sehr hoher Energien (VHE, very high energy, E>100 GeV) entdeckt. Diese Studie behandelt Vertreter von drei unterschiedlichen Klassen von galaktischen Gammastrahlungsquellen: die Supernova-Überreste G1.9+0.3 und G330.2+1.0, den Pulsarwind-Nebel HESS J1303-631 und das Binärsystem PSR B1259-63/LS 2883. Für alle Objekte werden die Analyse der H.E.S.S.-Daten und die Modellierung der Emission unter Einbeziehung von Daten aus anderen Wellenlängenbereichen dargestellt. / Recently, imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes have discovered numerous new sources representing various source classes in the very high energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) sky. This work presents studies of representatives of three types of Galactic VHE emitters: the Supernova remnants G1.9+0.3 and G330.2+1.0, the pulsar wind nebula HESS J1303-631 and the binary system PSR B1259-63/LS 2883. The analysis of the H.E.S.S. data and the broadband emission modeling are presented.
15

Numerical modelling of stellar winds for supernova progenitors / Stefanus Petrus van den Heever.

Van den Heever, Stefanus Petrus January 2011 (has links)
A two-dimensional hydrodynamic numerical model is extended and applied to simulate the interaction between stellar winds and the interstellar medium (ISM). In particular, the stellar wind evolution of O- and B-type stars is calculated. First, the evolution of a stellar wind into the ambient interstellar medium and also a more dense molecular cloud are considered for the case of no relative motion between the star and the interstellar medium. This interaction results in a cavity being blown into the ISM. Of importance in this work is the boundary radius (astropause) of the stellar wind and also the location where the outflow speed decreases from supersonic to subsonic speeds, called the termination shock. Different parameters like ISM density, outflow speed and mass-loss rate were varied to study the effect these have on the computed astropause (AP) and termination shock (TS) radii. The evolution of these structures is presented up to a simulation time of 1 My. However, stars are not stationary relative to the ISM, and the evolution of stellar winds into the interstellar medium including relative motion is also considered. It is shown that the positions of the TS and AP are dependent on the mass-loss rate and stellar wind outflow speed of the star and the interstellar medium density and relative speed. When these massive stars reach the end of their life, they end their life in a supernova explosion. The explosion results in a blast wave moving outward, called the forward shock (FS) and a reverse shock (RS) also forms which moves inward. Previous work done by Ferreira and de Jager (2008) to simulate supernova remnant (SNR) evolution, was only done for the case of evolution into the undisturbed ISM (no cavity). In this work, the evolution of SNR is simulated taking also into account the pre-existing cavity blown out by the stellar winds of these massive stars. The results of this study showed that the evolution of the SNR is definitely influenced by the presence of a stellar wind cavity even if the cavity is only a few pc in extent. / Thesis (MSc (Space Physics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.
16

Numerical modelling of stellar winds for supernova progenitors / Stefanus Petrus van den Heever.

Van den Heever, Stefanus Petrus January 2011 (has links)
A two-dimensional hydrodynamic numerical model is extended and applied to simulate the interaction between stellar winds and the interstellar medium (ISM). In particular, the stellar wind evolution of O- and B-type stars is calculated. First, the evolution of a stellar wind into the ambient interstellar medium and also a more dense molecular cloud are considered for the case of no relative motion between the star and the interstellar medium. This interaction results in a cavity being blown into the ISM. Of importance in this work is the boundary radius (astropause) of the stellar wind and also the location where the outflow speed decreases from supersonic to subsonic speeds, called the termination shock. Different parameters like ISM density, outflow speed and mass-loss rate were varied to study the effect these have on the computed astropause (AP) and termination shock (TS) radii. The evolution of these structures is presented up to a simulation time of 1 My. However, stars are not stationary relative to the ISM, and the evolution of stellar winds into the interstellar medium including relative motion is also considered. It is shown that the positions of the TS and AP are dependent on the mass-loss rate and stellar wind outflow speed of the star and the interstellar medium density and relative speed. When these massive stars reach the end of their life, they end their life in a supernova explosion. The explosion results in a blast wave moving outward, called the forward shock (FS) and a reverse shock (RS) also forms which moves inward. Previous work done by Ferreira and de Jager (2008) to simulate supernova remnant (SNR) evolution, was only done for the case of evolution into the undisturbed ISM (no cavity). In this work, the evolution of SNR is simulated taking also into account the pre-existing cavity blown out by the stellar winds of these massive stars. The results of this study showed that the evolution of the SNR is definitely influenced by the presence of a stellar wind cavity even if the cavity is only a few pc in extent. / Thesis (MSc (Space Physics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.
17

Implementation and Analysis of Co-Located Virtual Reality for Scientific Data Visualization

Jordan M McGraw (8803076) 07 May 2020 (has links)
<div>Advancements in virtual reality (VR) technologies have led to overwhelming critique and acclaim in recent years. Academic researchers have already begun to take advantage of these immersive technologies across all manner of settings. Using immersive technologies, educators are able to more easily interpret complex information with students and colleagues. Despite the advantages these technologies bring, some drawbacks still remain. One particular drawback is the difficulty of engaging in immersive environments with others in a shared physical space (i.e., with a shared virtual environment). A common strategy for improving collaborative data exploration has been to use technological substitutions to make distant users feel they are collaborating in the same space. This research, however, is focused on how virtual reality can be used to build upon real-world interactions which take place in the same physical space (i.e., collaborative, co-located, multi-user virtual reality).</div><div><br></div><div>In this study we address two primary dimensions of collaborative data visualization and analysis as follows: [1] we detail the implementation of a novel co-located VR hardware and software system, [2] we conduct a formal user experience study of the novel system using the NASA Task Load Index (Hart, 1986) and introduce the Modified User Experience Inventory, a new user study inventory based upon the Unified User Experience Inventory, (Tcha-Tokey, Christmann, Loup-Escande, Richir, 2016) to empirically observe the dependent measures of Workload, Presence, Engagement, Consequence, and Immersion. A total of 77 participants volunteered to join a demonstration of this technology at Purdue University. In groups ranging from two to four, participants shared a co-located virtual environment built to visualize point cloud measurements of exploded supernovae. This study is not experimental but observational. We found there to be moderately high levels of user experience and moderate levels of workload demand in our results. We describe the implementation of the software platform and present user reactions to the technology that was created. These are described in detail within this manuscript.</div>

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