High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

Abstract: Can pulsar-like compact objects release further huge free energy besides the kinematic energy of rotation? This is actually relevant to the equation of states of cold supra-nuclear matter, which is still under hot debate. Enormous energy is surely needed to understand various observations, such as $\gamma-$ray bursts, fast radio bursts and soft $\gamma-$ray repeaters. The elastic/gravitational-free energy of solid strangeon star is revisited, with two approaches to calculate in general relativity. It is found that huge free energy (> $10^{46}$ erg) could be released via starquakes, given an extremely small anisotropy ($(p_{\rm t}-p_{\rm r})/p_{\rm r} \sim 10^{-4}$, with $p_{\rm t}$/$p_{\rm r}$ the tangential/radial pressures).

Abstract: We reconstruct the extragalactic dispersion measure \ -- redshift relation (${\rm DM_E}-z$ relation) from well-localized fast radio bursts (FRBs) using Bayesian inference method. Then the ${\rm DM_E}-z$ relation is used to infer the redshift and energy of the first CHIME/FRB catalog. We find that the distributions of extragalactic dispersion measure and inferred redshift of the non-repeating CHIME/FRBs follow cut-off power law, but with a significant excess at the low-redshift range. We apply a set of criteria to exclude events which are susceptible to selection effect, but find that the excess at low redshift still exists in the remaining FRBs (which we call Gold sample). The cumulative distributions of fluence and energy for both the full sample and the Gold sample do not follow the simple power law, but they can be well fitted by the bent power law. The underlying physical implications remain to be further investigated.

Abstract: The detection of a sub-solar mass black hole could yield dramatic new insights into the nature of dark matter and early-Universe physics, as such objects lack a traditional astrophysical formation mechanism. Gravitational waves allow for the direct measurement of compact object masses during binary mergers, and we expect the gravitational-wave signal from a low-mass coalescence to remain within the LIGO frequency band for thousands of seconds. However, it is unclear whether one can confidently measure the properties of a sub-solar mass compact object and distinguish between a sub-solar mass black hole or other exotic objects. To this end, we perform Bayesian parameter estimation on simulated gravitational-wave signals from sub-solar mass black hole mergers to explore the measurability of their source properties. We find that the LIGO/Virgo detectors during the O4 observing run would be able to confidently identify sub-solar component masses at the threshold of detectability; these events would also be well-localized on the sky and may reveal some information on their binary spin geometry. Further, next-generation detectors such as Cosmic Explorer and the Einstein Telescope will allow for precision measurement of the properties of sub-solar mass mergers and tighter constraints on their compact-object nature.