Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Astrophysical Relativistic Jets

Astrophysical relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, and pulsars is the main key subject of study in the field of high-energy astrophysics, especially regarding the jet interaction with the interstellar or intergalactic environment. In this work, we review studies of particle-in-cell simulations of relativistic electron–proton (e−−p+) and electron–positron (e±) jets, and we compare simulations that we have conducted with the relativistic 3D TRISTAN-MPI code for unmagnetized and magnetized jets. We focus on how the magnetic fields affect the evolution of relativistic jets of different compositions, how the jets interact with the ambient media, how the kinetic instabilities such as the Weibel instability, the kinetic Kelvin–Helmholtz instability and the mushroom instability develop, and we discuss possible particle acceleration mechanisms at reconnection sites.

High precision particle astrophysics as a new window on the universe with an Antimatter Large Acceptance Detector In Orbit (ALADInO)

Multimessenger astrophysics is based on the detection, with the highest possible accuracy, of the cosmic radiation. During the last 20 years, the advent space-borne magnetic spectrometers in space (AMS-01, Pamela, AMS-02), able to measure the charged cosmic radiation separating matter from antimatter, and to provide accurate measurement of the rarest components of Cosmic Rays (CRs) to the highest possible energies, have become possible, together with the ultra-precise measurement of ordinary CRs. These developments started the era of precision Cosmic Ray physics providing access to a rich program of high-energy astrophysics addressing fundamental questions like matter-antimatter asymmetry, indirect detection for Dark Matter and the detailed study of origin, acceleration and propagation of CRs and their interactions with the interstellar medium.In this paper we address the above-mentioned scientific questions, in the context of a second generation, large acceptance, superconducting magnetic spectrometer proposed as mission in the context of the European Space Agency’s Voyage2050 long-term plan: the Antimatter Large Acceptance Detector In Orbit (ALADInO) would extend by about two orders of magnitude in energy and flux sensitivity the separation between charged particles/anti-particles, making it uniquely suited for addressing and potentially solving some of the most puzzling issues of modern cosmology.

UVscope and its application aboard the ASTRI-Horn telescope

UVscope is an instrument, based on a multi-pixel photon detector, developed to support experimental activities for high-energy astrophysics and cosmic ray research. The instrument, working in single photon counting mode, is designed to directly measure light flux in the wavelengths range 300-650 nm. The instrument can be used in a wide field of applications where the knowledge of the nocturnal environmental luminosity is required. Currently, one UVscope instrument is allocated onto the external structure of the ASTRI-Horn Cherenkov telescope devoted to the gamma-ray astronomy at very high energies. Being co-aligned with the ASTRI-Horn camera axis, UVscope can measure the diffuse emission of the night sky background simultaneously with the ASTRI-Horn camera, without any interference with the main telescope data taking procedures. UVscope is properly calibrated and it is used as an independent reference instrument for test and diagnostic of the novel ASTRI-Horn telescope.

Powerful Jets from Radiatively Efficient Disks, a Decades-Old Unresolved Problem in High Energy Astrophysics

The discovery of 3C 273 in 1963, and the emergence of the Kerr solution shortly thereafter, precipitated the current era in astrophysics focused on using black holes to explain active galactic nuclei (AGN). But while partial success was achieved in separately explaining the bright nuclei of some AGN via thin disks, as well as powerful jets with thick disks, the combination of both powerful jets in an AGN with a bright nucleus, such as in 3C 273, remained elusive. Although numerical simulations have taken center stage in the last 25 years, they have struggled to produce the conditions that explain them. This is because radiatively efficient disks have proved a challenge to simulate. Radio quasars have thus been the least understood objects in high energy astrophysics. But recent simulations have begun to change this. We explore this milestone in light of scale-invariance and show that transitory jets, possibly related to the jets seen in these recent simulations, as some have proposed, cannot explain radio quasars. We then provide a road map for a resolution.

Mergers of Binary Neutron Star Systems: A Multimessenger Revolution

On August 17, 2017, less than two years after the direct detection of gravitational radiation from the merger of two∼30 M⊙ black holes, a binary neutron star merger was identified as the source of a gravitational wave signal of ∼100 s duration that occurred at less than 50 Mpc from Earth. A short gamma-ray burst was independently identified in the same sky area by the Fermi and INTEGRAL satellites for high energy astrophysics, which turned out to be associated with the gravitational event. Prompt follow-up observations at all wavelengths led first to the detection of an optical and infrared source located in the spheroidal Galaxy NGC4993 and, with a delay of ∼10 days, to the detection of radio and X-ray signals. This article revisits these observations and focusses on the early optical/infrared source, which was thermal in nature and powered by the radioactive decay of the unstable isotopes of elements synthesized via rapid neutron capture during the merger and in the phases immediately following it. The far-reaching consequences of this event for cosmic nucleosynthesis and for the history of heavy elements formation in the Universe are also illustrated.

Ambartsumian’s vision and further insight to key puzzles of ultra-high energy astrophysics

We review the Ambartsumian’s cosmogony, which involves his fundamental ideas on Stellar Associations and eruptive Activity of Galactic Nuclei, where the creation process is at work. Itis caused by the violent outburst events of transformations of superdense matter in supermassive compact bodies in galaxies, away from the accretion physics. We discuss the pioneering works of V.A. Armbartsumyan and G.S. Saakyan carried out at Byurakan Observatory in the earlier of 1960’s towards the physics of equilibrium configurations of degenerate superdense gas of elementary particles, particularity, the hyperon configurations of stellar masses. These issues have been comprehensively developed later on by G. Ter-Kazarian in the proposed theory of distortion of space-time continuum(DSTC) at huge energies (respectively, at short distances < 0.4fm), which underlies the microscopic theory of black hole (MTBH). The MTBH has further proved to be quite fruitful for ultra-high energy astrophysics. The MTBH explores the most important process of spontaneous breaking of gravitation gauge symmetry at huge energies, and thereof for that of re-arrangement of vacuum state. As a corollary, MTBH has smeared out the central singularities of BHs, and makes room for their growth and merging behavior, with implications of vital interest for high energy astrophysics.