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Yuri Lyubarsky

Bio: Yuri Lyubarsky is an academic researcher from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The author has contributed to research in topics: Pulsar & Magnetohydrodynamics. The author has an hindex of 41, co-authored 97 publications receiving 5200 citations.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that the wind accelerates significantly in the course of reconnection, which dilates the timescale over which the reconnection process operates, and requires a much larger distance than was previously thought to convert the Poynting flux to particle flux.
Abstract: It is generally thought that most of the spin-down power of a pulsar is carried away in an MHD wind dominated by Poynting flux. In the case of an oblique rotator, a significant part of this energy can be considered to be in a low-frequency wave, consisting of stripes of a toroidal magnetic field of alternating polarity propagating in a region around the equatorial plane. Magnetic reconnection in such a structure has been proposed as a mechanism for transforming the Poynting flux into particle energy in the pulsar wind. We have reexamined this process and conclude that the wind accelerates significantly in the course of reconnection. This dilates the timescale over which the reconnection process operates so that the wind requires a much larger distance than was previously thought in order to convert the Poynting flux to particle flux. In the case of the Crab pulsar, the wind is still Poynting-dominated at the radius at which a standing shock is inferred from observation. An estimate of the radius of the termination shock for other pulsars implies that all except the millisecond pulsars have Poynting flux-dominated winds all the way out to the shock front.

433 citations

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TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the observed radio bursts could be generated at shocks formed via the interaction of the magnetic pulse with the plasma within the nebula, which could be observed even from distant galaxies.
Abstract: Bursts of millisecond duration were recently discovered in the 1 GHz band. There is a strong evidence that they come from $\sim 1 $ Gpc distances, which implies extraordinary high brightness temperature. I propose that these bursts could be attributed to synchrotron maser emission from relativistic, magnetized shocks. At the onset of the magnetar flare, a strongly magnetized pulse is formed, which propagates away through the relativistic magnetar wind and eventually reaches the nebula inflated by the wind within the surrounding medium. I show that the observed radio bursts could be generated at shocks formed via the interaction of the magnetic pulse with the plasma within the nebula. The model predicts strong millisecond bursts in the TeV band, which could be observed even from distant galaxies.

420 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a detailed description of the properties of the flow produced by a magnetized pulsar wind within a plerionic nebula via fully relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations is given.
Abstract: In this paper, we give a detailed description of the first attempt to study the properties of the flow produced by a magnetized pulsar wind within a plerionic nebula via fully relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. Following the current theoretical models of pulsar winds, we assume that in the equatorial direction the magnetization of the wind drops to zero but its energy flux reaches a maximum. The results of our 2D axisymmetric simulations reveal complex dynamics of the post-shock flow, very different from the steady quasi-radial outflow assumed in earlier analytical models for plerions. The termination shock has the shape of a distorted torus and most of the downstream flow is initially confined to the equatorial plane. Provided the wind magnetization is higher than a certain value, the magnetic hoop stress stops the outflow in the surface layers of the equatorial disc and redirects it into magnetically confined polar jets. The outflow in the inner layers of the equatorial disc continues until it reaches the slowly expanding outer shell and then turns back and forms the vortex flow filling the nebular volume at intermediate latitudes. We simulated the synchrotron images of the nebula taking into account the relativistic beaming effect and the particle energy losses. These images are strikingly similar to the well-known images of the Crab and other pulsar wind nebulae obtained by Chandra and the Hubble Space Telescope. They exhibit both a system of rings, which makes an impression of an equatorial disc-like or even a toroidal structure, and well-collimated polar jets, which appear to originate from the pulsar. A number of fine details of the inner Crab nebula find natural explanation including the bright knot discovered by Hester et al. in 1995 very close to the Crab pulsar.

220 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors generalized the classical Sweet-Parker and Petschek models to this case and estimated the reconnection rate by substituting the Alfven velocity in the classical formulae with the speed of light.
Abstract: Reconnection of the magnetic lines of force is considered in case the magnetic energy exceeds the rest energy of the matter. It is shown that the classical Sweet-Parker and Petschek models are generalized straightforwardly to this case and the reconnection rate may be estimated by substituting the Alfven velocity in the classical formulae with the speed of light. The outflow velocity in the Sweet-Parker configuration is mildly relativistic. In the Petschek configuration, the outflow velocity is ultrarelativistic whereas the angle between the slow shocks is very small. As a result of the strong compression, the plasma outflow in the Petschek configuration may become strongly magnetized if the reconnecting fields are not exactly antiparallel.

211 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors derived the asymptotic equations describing relativistic, axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic flows far beyond the light cylinder and showed that there are generally two collimation regimes.
Abstract: In relativistic, Poynting-dominated outflows, acceleration and collimation are intimately connected. An important point is that the Lorentz force is nearly compensated by the electric force; therefore the acceleration zone spans a large range of scales. We derived the asymptotic equations describing relativistic, axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic flows far beyond the light cylinder. These equations do not contain either intrinsic small scales (like the light cylinder radius) or terms that nearly cancel each other (like the electric and magnetic forces); therefore they could be easily solved numerically. They also suit well for qualitative analysis of the flow and, in many cases, they could even be solved analytically or semianalytically. We show that there are generally two collimation regimes. In the first regime, the residual of the hoop stress and the electric force is counterbalanced by the pressure of the poloidal magnetic field so that, at any distance from the source, the structure of the flow is the same as the structure of an appropriate cylindrical equilibrium configuration. In the second regime, the pressure of the poloidal magnetic field is negligibly small so that the flow could be conceived as composed from coaxial magnetic loops. In the two collimation regimes, the flow is accelerated in different ways. We study in detail the structure of jets confined by the external pressure with a power-law profile. In particular, we obtained simple scalings for the extent of the acceleration zone, for the terminal Lorentz factor, and for the collimation angle.

202 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The theoretical and observational studies of short-hard gamma-ray bursts (SHBs) are reviewed in this article, along with new theoretical results that are presented here for the first time.

916 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
10 Mar 2016-Nature
TL;DR: These repeat bursts with high dispersion measure and variable spectra specifically seen from the direction of FRB 121102 support an origin in a young, highly magnetized, extragalactic neutron star.
Abstract: Observations of repeated fast radio bursts, having dispersion measures and sky positions consistent with those of FRB 121102, show that the signals do not originate in a single cataclysmic event and may come from a young, highly magnetized, extragalactic neutron star. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are transient radio pulses that last a few milliseconds. They are thought to be extragalactic, and are of unknown physical origin. Many FRB models have proposed the cause to be one-time-only cataclysmic events. Follow-up monitoring of detected bursts did not reveal repeat bursts, consistent with such models. However, this paper reports ten additional bursts from the direction of FRB 121102, demonstrating that its source survived the energetic events that caused the bursts. Although there may be multiple physical origins for the burst, the repeating bursts seen from FRB 121102 support an origin in a young, highly magnetized, extragalactic neutron star. Fast radio bursts are millisecond-duration astronomical radio pulses of unknown physical origin that appear to come from extragalactic distances1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Previous follow-up observations have failed to find additional bursts at the same dispersion measure (that is, the integrated column density of free electrons between source and telescope) and sky position as the original detections9. The apparent non-repeating nature of these bursts has led to the suggestion that they originate in cataclysmic events10. Here we report observations of ten additional bursts from the direction of the fast radio burst FRB 121102. These bursts have dispersion measures and sky positions consistent with the original burst4. This unambiguously identifies FRB 121102 as repeating and demonstrates that its source survives the energetic events that cause the bursts. Additionally, the bursts from FRB 121102 show a wide range of spectral shapes that appear to be predominantly intrinsic to the source and which vary on timescales of minutes or less. Although there may be multiple physical origins for the population of fast radio bursts, these repeat bursts with high dispersion measure and variable spectra specifically seen from the direction of FRB 121102 support an origin in a young, highly magnetized, extragalactic neutron star11,12.

883 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A comprehensive review of major developments in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts, with particular focus on the discoveries made within the last fifteen years when their true nature was uncovered, can be found in this paper.

864 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A comprehensive review of major developments in the understanding of gamma-ray bursts can be found in this article, with particular focus on the discoveries made within the last fifteen years when their true nature was uncovered.
Abstract: We provide a comprehensive review of major developments in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts, with particular focus on the discoveries made within the last fifteen years when their true nature was uncovered. We describe the observational properties of photons from the radio to multi-GeV bands, both in the prompt emission and the afterglow phases. Mechanisms for the generation of these photons in GRBs are discussed and confronted with observations to shed light on the physical properties of these explosions, their progenitor stars and the surrounding medium. After presenting observational evidence that a powerful, collimated, jet moving at close to the speed of light is produced in these explosions, we describe our current understanding regarding the generation, acceleration, and dissipation of the jet and compare these properties with jets associated with AGNs and pulsars. We discuss mounting observational evidence that long duration GRBs are produced when massive stars die, and that at least some short duration bursts are associated with old, roughly solar mass, compact stars. The question of whether a black-hole or a strongly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron star is produced in these explosions is also discussed. We provide a brief summary of what we have learned about relativistic collisionless shocks and particle acceleration from GRB afterglow studies, and discuss the current understanding of radiation mechanism during the prompt emission phase. We discuss theoretical predictions of possible high-energy neutrino emission from GRBs and the current observational constraints. Finally, we discuss how these explosions may be used to study cosmology, e.g. star formation, metal enrichment, reionization history, as well as the formation of first stars and galaxies in the universe.

814 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the ICMART model is proposed for gamma-ray burst (GRB) prompt emission in the PFD regime, which predicts a decrease of gamma-rays polarization degree and a moderate magnetic turbulence in the emission region.
Abstract: The recent Fermi observation of GRB 080916C shows that the bright photosphere emission associated with a putative fireball is missing, which suggests that the central engine likely launches a Poynting-flux-dominated (PFD) outflow. We propose a model of gamma-ray burst (GRB) prompt emission in the PFD regime, namely, the InternalCollision-induced MAgnetic Reconnection and Turbulence (ICMART) model. It is envisaged that the GRB central engine launches an intermittent, magnetically dominated wind, and that in the GRB emission region, the ejecta is still moderately magnetized (e.g., 1 σ 100). Similar to the internal shock (IS) model, the mini-shells interact internally at the radius RIS ∼ Γ 2 cΔt. Most of these early collisions, however, have little energy dissipation, but serve to distort the ordered magnetic field lines entrained in the ejecta. At a certain point, the distortion of magnetic field configuration reaches the critical condition to allow fast reconnection seeds to occur, which induce relativistic MHD turbulence in the interaction regions. The turbulence further distorts field lines easing additional magnetic reconnections, resulting in a runway release of the stored magnetic field energy (an ICMART event). Particles are accelerated either directly in the reconnection zone, or stochastically in the turbulent regions, which radiate synchrotron photons that power the observed gamma rays. Each ICMART event corresponds to a broad pulse in the GRB light curve, and a GRB is composed of multiple ICMART events. This model retains the merits of IS and other models, but may overcome several difficulties/issues faced by the IS model (e.g., low efficiency, fast cooling, electron number excess, Amati/Yonetoku relation inconsistency, and missing bright photosphere). Within this model, the observed GRB variability timescales could have two components, one slow component associated with the central engine time history, and another fast component associated with relativistic magnetic turbulence in the emission region. The model predicts a decrease of gamma-ray polarization degree and Ep in each ICMART event (broad pulse) during the prompt GRB phase, as well as a moderately magnetized external reverse shock. The model may be applied to the GRBs that have time-resolved, featureless Band-function spectra, such as GRB 080916C and most GRBs detected by Fermi LAT.

804 citations