Several models for type Ia-like supernovae events rely on the production of a self-sustained detonation powered by nuclear reactions. In the absence of hydrogen, the fuel that powers these detonations typically consists of either pure helium (He) or a mixture of carbon and oxygen (C/O). Studies that systematically determine the conditions required to initiate detonations in C/O material exist, but until now no analogous investigation of He matter has been conducted. We perform one-dimensional reactive hydrodynamical simulations at a variety of initial density and temperature combinations and find critical length scales for the initiation of He detonations that range between 1 -10 10 cm. A simple estimate of the length scales over which the total consumption of fuel will occur for steadystate detonations is provided by the Chapman-Jouguet (CJ) formalism. Our initiation lengths are consistently smaller than the corresponding CJ length scales by a factor of ∼100, providing opportunities for thermonuclear explosions in a wider range of low-mass white dwarfs (WDs) than previously thought possible. We find that virialized WDs with as little mass as 0.24 M ⊙ can be detonated, and that even less massive WDs can be detonated if a sizable fraction of their mass is raised to a higher adiabat. That the initiation length is exceeded by the CJ length implies that certain systems may not reach nuclear statistical equilibrium within the time it takes a detonation to traverse the object. In support of this hypothesis, we demonstrate that incomplete burning will occur in the majority of He WD detonations and that 40 Ca, 44 Ti, or 48 Cr, rather than 56 Ni, is the predominant burning product for many of these events. We anticipate that a measure of the quantity of the intermediate mass elements and 56 Ni produced in a helium-rich thermonuclear explosion can potentially be used to constrain the nature of the progenitor system.

The self-regulation of cosmic ray (CR) transport in the interstellar and intracluster media has long been viewed through the lenses of linear and quasilinear kinetic plasma physics. Such theories are believed to capture the essence of CR behavior in the presence of self-generated turbulence, but cannot describe potentially critical details arising from the nonlinearities of the problem. We utilize the particle-in-cell numerical method to study the time-dependent nonlinear behavior of the gyroresonant streaming instabilities, self-consistently following the combined evolution of particle distributions and self-generated wave spectra in one-dimensional periodic simulations. We demonstrate that the early growth of instability conforms to the predictions from linear physics, but that the late-time behavior can vary depending on the properties of the initial CR distribution. We emphasize that the nonlinear stages of instability depend strongly on the initial anisotropy of CRs -highly anisotropic CR distributions do not efficiently reduce to Alfvénic drift velocities, owing to reduced production of left-handed resonant modes. We derive estimates for the wave amplitudes at saturation and the time scales for nonlinear relaxation of the CR distribution, then demonstrate the applicability of these estimates to our simulations. Bulk flows of the background plasma due to the presence of resonant waves are observed in our simulations, confirming the microphysical basis of CR-driven winds.

A unique CMOS chip has been designed to serve as the front-end of the tracking detector data acquisition system of a pre-clinical prototype scanner for proton computed tomography (pCT). The scanner is to be capable of measuring one to two million proton tracks per second, so the chip must be able to digitize the data and send it out rapidly while keeping the front-end amplifiers active at all times. One chip handles 64 consecutive channels, including logic for control, calibration, triggering, buffering, and zero suppression. It outputs a formatted cluster list for each trigger, and a set of field programmable gate arrays merges those lists from many chips to build the events to be sent to the data acquisition computer. The chip design has been fabricated, and subsequent tests have demonstrated that it meets all of its performance requirements, including excellent low-noise performance.

Short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) are widely believed to result from the mergers of compact binaries. This model predicts an afterglow that bears the characteristic signatures of a constant, low density medium, including a smooth prompt-afterglow transition, and a simple temporal evolution. However, these expectations are in conflict with observations for a non-negligible fraction of sGRB afterglows. In particular, the onset of the afterglow phase for some of these events appears to be delayed and, in addition, a few of them exhibit latetime rapid fading in their lightcurves. We show that these peculiar observations can be explained independently of ongoing central engine activity if some sGRB progenitors are compact binaries hosting at least one pulsar. The Poynting flux emanating from the pulsar companion can excavate a bow-shock cavity surrounding the binary. If this cavity is larger than the shock deceleration length scale in the undisturbed interstellar medium, then the onset of the afterglow will be delayed. Should the deceleration occur entirely within the swept-up thin shell, a rapid fade in the lightcurve will ensue. We identify two types of pulsar that can achieve the conditions necessary for altering the afterglow: low field, long lived pulsars, and high field pulsars. We find that a sizable fraction (≈20-50%) of low field pulsars are likely to reside in neutron star binaries based on observations, while their high field counterparts are not. Hydrodynamical calculations motivated by this model are shown to be in good agreement with observations of sGRB afterglow lightcurves.