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# 15 Years Going Steady – Timing the Magnetar 1E 1841-045

## 1. Introduction

1E 1841$``$045 is perhaps the best candidate for a magnetar – an isolated neutron star (NS) with an extreme magnetic field whose energy loss is dominated by magnetic field decay (Vasisht & Gotthelf 1997; see Duncan & Thompson 1992 for theory of magnetars). This interpretation is based primarily on initial studies which showed that the pulsar is slowing down rapidly ($`\dot{P}=4.1\times 10^{11}`$ s/s), with an inferred equivalent magnetic dipole field of $`B_p7.0\times 10^{14}`$ G, nearly twenty times the quantum critical field, while producing steady emission at a rate far in excess of its rotational kinetic energy loss (Vasisht & Gotthelf 1997). Further evidence for an isolated system is the absence of Doppler shifts, detectable companion or accretion disk, and a spectrum which differs greatly from those of known accretion-powered binary systems.

Here we report on a two-year monitoring campaign of 1E 1841$``$045 made with RXTE. We have obtained a spin ephemeris derived from a phase-connected timing solution which is found to be consistent with nearly two decades of observations of the pulsar. We are able to characterize rotational stability of 1E 1841$``$045, including a search for timing noise, pulsed flux variability, and frequency glitches. These results provide important observational constraints on both the magnetar and any accretion model for 1E 1841$``$045.

## 2. Observations and Results

We acquired a total of 45 observations of 1E 1841$``$045, spaced nearly uniformly, during the interval spanning 1999 February 15 through 2001 April 2, with a typical observation lasting $``$7 ks. These observations were made with the Proportional Counter Array (PCA; Jahoda et al. 1996) aboard RXTE. The PCA consists of 5 collimated proportional counter units (PCUs) with a total effective area of $`6500`$ cm2 in the energy range $`260`$ keV and a resolution of $`18\%`$ at 6 keV over its $`1^{}`$ field of view (FWHM).

Data were collected in GoodXenonwithPropane data mode with the photon arrival times recorded at 1 $`\mu `$s resolution and the energy binned into 256 spectral channels. To maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of the pulsar given the spectral properties of the source and background we restricted the energy range to 2.1–5.4 keV and used events from the top Xenon layer only. All arrival times were corrected to the solar system barycenter.

To determine the average pulse time-of-arrival (TOA) for each observation we folding the photon arrival times into 32 bins modulo the test frequency. This frequency was determined initially from a Fast Fourier transform and later from an approximate timing ephemeris. The resulting pulse profiles were then cross-correlated with a high signal-to-noise template and the measured TOAs fitted to a polynomial using the TEMPO timing software package. The uncertainty on the best-fit model parameters, the pulse frequency $`\nu `$ and its time derivatives, were small enough to allow prediction of the phase of the next observation to within $`0.2`$, given the spacing of our monitoring observations. This is only practical for a very stable rotator.

Figure 1 presents the results of our fit. Complete modeling of the pulse arrival times required four time derivatives of $`\nu `$ to produce residuals from this fit whose RMS variability are comparable with the TOA arrival times uncertainties. These residuals, defined as the difference between the observed and model-predicted pulse arrival times, have RMS deviations of only 3% of the pulse period. We find that 1E 1841$``$045 has maintained phase coherence over the $`2`$ year duration of our observations with no indication of any glitch activity, i.e., no sudden changes in the pulse period. The data are well modeled for all but three observations which took place near the start of our monitoring campaign. These $`5\sigma `$ points, however, deviate by only a small fraction of the pulse period. For all cases, we estimated the uncertainties on the pulse arrival times by means of Monte-Carlo simulations of the pulse profiles.

In Figure 2, we compare our derived ephemeris with pulse frequency measurements spanning 15 yrs obtained with the Ginga, ASCA, RXTE, & BeppoSAX observatories as reported in Gotthelf et al. (1999). Despite the need for four frequency derivatives to fully model the pulse arrival times, the linear ephemeris “predicts” the historic data consistent with their measured errors; in contrast, when higher order derivatives are included in the ephemeris, large departures from the earlier data points result. We conclude that these higher order terms ($`>\dot{\nu }`$) are likely random wandering of the timing residuals about an otherwise very stable, constant spin-down. Timing residuals of this nature are often measured for radio pulsars and are generally referred to as radio “timing noise” (see, e.g., Cordes & Helfand 1980). The magnitude of second derivative gives the strength of the timing noise observed from 1E 1841$``$045.

## 3. Discussion

Observationally 1E 1841$``$045 is characterized as an Anomalous X-ray Pulsar (AXP; see Mereghetti 2001 for a review). This small group ($`6`$ members) of seemingly isolated pulsars are observed exclusively in the X-ray energy band111There is recent evidence for IR emission from two AXPs, see Hulleman et al 2000, 2001., are underluminous for an accreting X-ray binary system, and are, except for the characteristic burst activity, otherwise similar observationally to the SGRs. This is the fourth AXP, after 1E 2259+586, 1E 0142+615, and RXS J1708$``$4009, for which long-term phase-connected timing is possible, characterizing these objects as rotators of great stability (see Gavriil & Kaspi 2001). In contrast, the AXP 1E 1048.1$``$5937 is much less stable, as a phase-connected timing solution cannot be maintained for more than a few months (Kaspi et al. 2001). The measured strength of the torque noise for 1E 1841$``$045 is comparable to that found for 1E 1048.1$``$5937, during its intervals of relative stability, but substantially weaker than the torque noise measured for most accreting pulsars (Bildsten et al. 1997). Still, it is a factor of two quieter than even the most exceptionally quiet accreting pulsars (e.g., 4U 1626$``$67, Chakrabarty et al. 1997).

The leading theory for the nature of AXPs is the magnetar model as first proposed by Thompson & Duncan (1996). In this model, in the absence of soft-gamma-repeater-like outbursts, one expects generally smooth spin-down. The lack of deviations from a simple spin-down model found for 1E 1841$``$045 is consistent with the magnetar model. An alternative model proposed for AXPs is that they are accreting from a disk of material that formed shortly after the supernova explosion that gave birth to the neutron star. Severe constraints have been placed on the plausibility of this scenario by optical/IR observations of AXPs (Hulleman et al. 2000). Both the constant, long-term spin-down of 1E 1841$``$045, as well as the fact that phase-connected timing is possible for this source, provide evidence against accretion scenarios, as spin-up episodes, as well as considerably more torque noise, are in general to be expected.

### Acknowledgments.

This research is supported by NASA LTSA grants NAG 5-22250 and NAG 5-8063, NSERC Rgpin 228738$``$00, and Sloan Fellowship. V.M.K. is a Canada Research Chair.

## References

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Duncan, R. C. & Thompson, C. 1992, ApJ, 392, 9

Gotthelf, E. V., Vasisht, G. 1997, ApJ, 486, L133

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Hulleman, F., van Kerkwijk, M. H., Kulkarni, S. R. 2000, Nature, 408, 689

Hulleman, F. et al. 2001, in press

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Vasisht, G. & Gotthelf, E. V. 1997, ApJ, 486, L129


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# Compact AdS space, Brane geometry and the AdS/CFT correspondence

## 1 Introduction

According to the Maldacena conjecture the large $`N`$ limit of $`SU(N)`$ superconformal field theories in $`n`$ dimensions can be described by supergravity on anti de Sitter ($`AdS`$) space-time in $`n+1`$ dimensions. This is known as the $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence. By supergravity one means the tree level approximation of string or M-theory defined on $`AdS_{n+1}\times M_d`$, where $`M_d`$ is some $`d`$-dimensional compactification space. In this correspondence (see also refs.  ) the $`AdS`$ space shows up both as a near horizon geometry of a set of coincident D3-branes or as a solution of ten dimensional supergravity (a Dirichlet $`p`$-brane or D$`p`$-brane is a $`p+1`$ dimensional hyperplane where strings are allowed to end).

Precise prescriptions for the realization of the $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence were presented in  by considering Poincare patches of $`AdS`$ space. The Poincare coordinate system allows a simple definition for the flat boundary where the conformal field theory is defined. However there are some differences in the spaces considered in these references that we will discuss in this article. Gubser, Klebanov and Polyakov  started with a space generated by a large number $`N`$ of coincident D3-branes. This space can be approximated by an $`AdS`$ near the branes and a flat space far from them. On the other side, Witten  has considered an $`AdS`$ space in Poincare coordinates but compactified by the inclusion of the boundary. These two formulations lead to equivalent results in the sense that conformal boundary correlation functions are the same (see also ).

The approximation of the D3-brane metric as an $`AdS`$ space near the branes is valid as long as the axial $`AdS`$ coordinate is smaller than a parameter that increases with $`N`$. In the Maldacena conjecture the large $`N`$ limit is considered. So one might think that in this case the D3-brane space becomes a pure $`AdS`$ (without the boundary). However a consistent quantization is not possible in an $`AdS`$ space without boundary because of the absence of a well defined Cauchy problem. In the formulation of  the $`AdS`$ space is always complemented by the flat space asymptotic region far from the branes. We will see that this guarantees a well posed Cauchy problem. In the work of  there is no asymptotic flat region so it is necessary to introduce a compactification of the $`AdS`$ space for physical consistency, as we will discuss in section 3.

Recently we have investigated the quantization of scalar fields in the $`AdS`$ bulk in terms of Poincare coordinates. The compactification in this coordinate system requires the introduction of a point at infinity which can only be properly accommodated in a second coordinate chart. The two coordinate charts must match at some finite value of the axial coordinates implying a discretization of the field spectrum. Then it is possible to find a one to one mapping between bulk and boundary quantum states, at least for scalar fields. One can then ask: Does this extra point at infinity has any physical role or is it just a mathematical tool for a consistent quantization? We answer this question in section 2 by constructing explicitly a second coordinate chart complementing the original Poincare one. We will see that the point at infinity represents, in the pure $`AdS`$ space, the horizon that is found in the D3-brane metric. Curiously the complete compactification of $`AdS`$ space in Poincare coordinates introduces a new horizon not present in the brane system. We also find an interpretation for this horizon.

## 2 $`AdS`$ space and compactification

We will start considering a pure $`AdS`$ space of $`n+1`$ dimensions. This space can be represented as the hyperboloid ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }=`$constant)

$$X_0^2+X_{n+1}^2\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}X_i^2=\mathrm{\Lambda }^2$$
(1)
in a flat $`n+2`$ dimensional space with measure

$$ds^2=dX_0^2dX_{n+1}^2+\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}dX_i^2.$$
(2)
The so called global coordinates $`\rho ,\tau ,\mathrm{\Omega }_i`$ for $`AdS_{n+1}`$ can be defined by

$`X_0`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{sec}\rho \mathrm{cos}\tau `$
$`X_i`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{tan}\rho \mathrm{\Omega }_i;({\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\mathrm{\Omega }_i^2=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1})`$
$`X_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{sec}\rho \mathrm{sin}\tau ,`$ (3)
with ranges $`0\rho <\pi /2`$ and $`0\tau <2\pi `$. The line element has the form

$$ds^2=\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{cos^2(\rho )}\left(d\tau ^2+d\rho ^2+sin^2(\rho )d\mathrm{\Omega }^2\right).$$
(4)
In order to identify $`\tau `$ as an usual time coordinate it is necessary to unwrap it. This can be done by taking copies of the original $`AdS`$ space that together represent the $`AdS`$ covering space. For simplicity we will continue to call this covering space as $`AdS`$ as is usual in the literature.

A consistent quantum field theory in $`AdS`$ space requires the addition of a boundary at spatial infinity: $`\rho =\pi /2`$ in global coordinates. This compactification of the space makes it possible to impose appropriate conditions and find a well defined Cauchy problem. (Otherwise massless particles could go to or come from spatial infinity in finite times.) This result was established in .

On the other hand, $`AdS`$ space can be represented by Poincaré coordinates $`z,\stackrel{}{x},t`$ that are more useful for the study of the $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence. These coordinates are defined by

$`X_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2z}}\left(z^2+\mathrm{\Lambda }^2+\stackrel{}{x}^2t^2\right)`$
$`X_j`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }x^j}{z}};(j=1,\mathrm{},n1)`$
$`X_n`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2z}}\left(z^2\mathrm{\Lambda }^2+\stackrel{}{x}^2t^2\right)`$
$`X_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }t}{z}},`$ (5)
where $`\stackrel{}{x}`$ has $`n1`$ components and $`0z<\mathrm{}`$. In this case the $`AdS_{n+1}`$ measure with Lorentzian signature reads

$$ds^2=\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{(z)^2}\left(dz^2+(d\stackrel{}{x})^2dt^2\right).$$
(6)
It is important to see how the compactification discussed in global coordinates can be realized in this system. The $`AdS`$ boundary ($`\rho =\pi /2`$ in global coordinates) corresponds to the region $`z=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}`$ described by usual Minkowski coordinates $`\stackrel{}{x}`$ , $`t`$ plus a “point” at infinity ($`z\mathrm{}`$). The point at infinity can not be accommodated in the original Poincare chart so that we have to introduce a second coordinate system to represent it properly.

It is convenient to introduce first an auxiliary variable that will connect the two charts. Let us define the auxiliary variable $`u`$ as the argument of a monotonic function $`f(u)`$ such that

$$z=\frac{1}{f(u)}.$$
(7)
This way the point $`z\mathrm{}`$ is mapped at the zero of $`f(u)`$. The simplest choice for this function is a linear one as

$$f(u)=c_o+c_1u$$
(8)
with $`c_0,c_1`$ constants. The relation (7) is not defined for $`u=c_0/c_1`$ that corresponds to the point at infinity. Also the variables $`z`$ and $`u`$ are not related at the point $`z=0`$. As the zero value of $`z`$ would be reached for infinite $`u`$ we can take relation (7) to be valid in the interval $`\delta z<\mathrm{}`$ for some small positive $`\delta `$. This implies a finite range for $`u`$. For convenience we choose $`c_0=1/\delta ,c_1=1`$ so that $`0u1/\delta `$ and

$$z=\frac{1}{\frac{1}{\delta }u}.$$
(9)
Then we can define the second coordinate chart $`(z^{},\stackrel{}{x},t)`$ with

$$z^{}=\frac{1}{u}.$$
(10)
Now the point $`z\mathrm{}`$ is represented in the second chart at $`z^{}=\delta `$. The coordinates $`z`$ and $`z^{}`$ of the two charts are related by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{z^{}}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\delta }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{z}}`$ (11)
with range $`\delta z^{}<\mathrm{}`$.

The metric of the second coordinate system involves a Poincare like factor

$$ds^2=\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{z^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}}\left[\frac{\delta ^2}{(z^{}\delta )^2}dz^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}+\frac{(z^{}\delta )^2}{\delta ^2}\left((d\stackrel{}{x})^2dt^2\right)\right]$$
(12)
Now the compact $`AdS`$ space is described by the coordinate charts corresponding to eqs. (6) and (12). For example, for an $`AdS_5`$ we can calculate the Ricci scalar curvature for the two charts finding

$$R=20\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}$$
(13)
for both, as expected since they describe parts of the same $`AdS`$ space.

Further, with this second chart we find a horizon (infinite singularity in the spatial part of $`ds^2`$) at $`z^{}=\delta `$. This was not apparent in the original Poincare chart. We are going to see in the next section that this horizon corresponds to the one found in the D3-brane system. Some other aspects of Poincare coordinate description of $`AdS`$ space have been studied in .

## 3 Branes and $`AdS`$ space

The brane system is one of the Physical settings for the $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence. Let us now study the ten dimensional geometry generated by $`N`$ coincident D3-branes and its relation to the compactified $`AdS`$ space. The metric can be written as

$$ds^2=\left(1+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^4}{r^4}\right)^{1/2}(dt^2+d\stackrel{}{x}^2)+\left(1+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^4}{r^4}\right)^{1/2}(dr^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_5^2)$$
(14)
where we are using the same symbol $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ for a constant that now satisfies $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^4=N/2\pi ^2T_3`$ where $`T_3`$ is the tension of a single D3-brane. The metric (14) has a horizon at $`r=0`$ with zero perpendicular area (apart from the $`S_5`$ term).

It is interesting to look at the space corresponding to (14) in two limiting cases where it assumes simpler asymptotic forms: large and small $`r`$ compared to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Considering first the region $`r>>\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (far from the horizon) the space is asymptotically a ten dimensional Minkowski space:

$$(ds^2)_{far}=dt^2+d\stackrel{}{x}^2+dr^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_5^2$$
(15)
Now looking at the near horizon region $`r<<\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ we can approximate the metric (14) as:

$$(ds^2)_{near}=\frac{r^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}(dt^2+d\stackrel{}{x}^2)+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{r^2}dr^2+\mathrm{\Lambda }^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_5^2$$
(16)
Changing the axial coordinate according to: $`z=\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/r`$, as in ref., the metric that will describe the brane system as long as $`r/\mathrm{\Lambda }<<1`$ takes the form

$$ds^2=\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{z^2}\left(dz^2+(d\stackrel{}{x})^2dt^2\right)+\mathrm{\Lambda }^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_5^2.$$
(17)
corresponding to $`AdS_5\times S_5`$. This corresponds to the Poincaré chart (6) apart from the $`S_5`$ factor. Note however that the horizon $`r=0`$ which corresponds to the limit $`z\mathrm{}`$ is not included in this chart as a consequence of the lack of a relation between $`z`$ and $`r`$ at $`r=0`$. It is interesting to note that from the point of view of a pure $`AdS`$ space, one has to include this point as a requirement for a consistent quantization. Considering the brane space this point is already present, corresponding to the brane location. The inclusion of this point in the $`AdS`$ space is possible by introducing one more coordinate chart as discussed in the previous section. Explicitly: the point $`r=0`$ corresponds to $`z^{}=\delta `$. So, indeed the horizon found in the second chart at $`z^{}=\delta `$ corresponds to the brane horizon.

Let us now examine the large $`r`$ region of the D3-branes space. A massless particle moving in the $`r\mathrm{}`$ direction will arrive at an asymptotically Minkowski space as in eq.(15). Then it would spend an infinite time to reach spatial infinity. So, the Cauchy problem is well posed for the D3-branes space and it is geodesically complete. This is the physical setting of Gubser, Klebanov and Polyakov.

Further it is interesting to consider the limit $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{}`$ as suggested by the Maldacena conjecture. The larger we take $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ the larger is the range of $`r`$ for which the $`AdS`$ approximation (17) for the brane metric (14) holds. So one could naively disregard the asymptotic flat space region in this limit. Then one would find an $`AdS`$ space without the boundary, where particles could enter or leave the space in finite times. This would lead to the absence of a well defined Cauchy problem.

If one chooses to disregard the flat space region, boundary conditions should be imposed at $`r\mathrm{}`$ in order to recover physical consistency. That means, in the limit $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{}`$ we should not represent the branes space by just a pure $`AdS`$ space but rather by a compactified $`AdS`$ including the hypersurface at $`z=0`$ besides the point $`z`$ at infinity. This is the Witten’s  physical setting for the $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence.

It is interesting to note that if we consider the whole space to be of the $`AdS`$ form (eq. (17)) there is a horizon with infinite area at $`z=0`$. This is not present in the D3-branes model and it is a consequence of closing the $`AdS`$ space as required for physical consistency once the asymptotic flat space region has been removed. This emphasizes the differences between the spaces considered in equivalent formulations of $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence.

Note also that the boundary of the space defined by the metric (17), apart form the point at $`z\mathrm{}`$, corresponds to $`z=0`$ which naively has $`8+1`$ dimensions. But as $`z`$ approaches zero the term $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_5^2`$ becomes irrelevant with respect to the $`AdS`$ part. So we can think of the $`z=0`$ hypersurface as just $`3+1`$ dimensional. Then naturally the $`CFT`$ lives in 4 dimensions, although the brane model is defined in 10 dimensions.

## 4 Conclusions

The $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence can be realized in different spaces. One of them is the space generated by $`N`$ coincident D3-branes and another is a compact $`AdS`$ space. We have discussed the physical consistency of these two formulations from the point of view of the Cauchy problem. The brane space is consistent thanks to the existence of a flat asymptotic region far from the branes and of a horizon on their location.

For the compact $`AdS`$ space, consistency comes from the inclusion of its boundary: a hypersurface at $`z=0`$ plus a point at $`z\mathrm{}`$. As this point at infinity is not properly represented in the Poincare patch we introduced a second coordinate chart. In this chart that point is found at $`z^{}=\delta `$ which corresponds to a horizon. This horizon was not apparent in the Poincare patch although it is present in the brane system. This provides a nice physical interpretation for the inclusion of the point at infinity in the $`AdS`$ case. We have also found a horizon at $`z=0`$ that is not present in the brane system. The two horizons together are responsible for the physical consistency of the pure $`AdS`$ case. In fact one can think that the $`AdS`$ boundary corresponds just to a single horizon which confines particles inside the space. This can be seen by looking at global coordinates where this boundary is represented simply as the hypersurface $`\rho =\pi /2`$. In this regard it is important to mention that the connectedness of the $`AdS`$ boundary was proved in .

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Marcelo Alves for interesting discussions. The authors are partially supported by CNPq, FINEP and FAPERJ \- Brazilian research agencies.


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# The New Mexico alpha-omega Dynamo Experiment: Modeling Astrophysical Dynamos

## Introduction

Recent years have been marked by exciting developments in the field of MHD dynamos, in particular the experimental realization of homogeneous dynamos was achieved. After many years of research and preparations, an exponentially growing dynamo mode was observed in the experiment conducted in a liquid-sodium facility in Riga, Latvia . This experiment reproduces the simplest dynamo flow proposed by  and also subsequently by  in the laboratory. Another successful dynamo experiment of a different type was built in Karlsruhe, Germany. This experiment verifies the ability of a regular spatial arrangement of vortices to amplify the magnetic field. The growth of the magnetic field starting from the initial seed value of $`1\text{Gauss}`$ up to $`70\text{Gauss}`$ was observed in Karlsruhe experiment . The magnetic field reached the back-reaction, saturated limit, and the excitation of the non-axisymmetric mode predicted by the theory was observed. There are a number of other dynamo experiments, which are under preparation or discussion. Each of these experiments is designed to test different flow patterns capable of dynamo action. All these experiments (except Karlsruhe experiment) are designed to use axisymmetric rotating flows, either stationary or non-stationary. We designed another kind of dynamo experiment, which will use essentially non-axisymmetric, non-stationary flows.

Here, because the flow is non-stationary and non-axisymmetric, then in both cases the field averaged over many plume ejections will approach a near steady state of axisymmetric symmetry. The flux from such a dynamo thus may simulate the astrophysical fluxes observed on large scales.

Real dynamos operate in Nature on astrophysical scales, in planets, convective envelopes of stars, galactic discs, accretion discs, and, possibly, on the largest scale in the clusters of galaxies. Parker , suggested the $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo as an explanation of the large scale fields of many astrophysical dynamos. Here, cyclonic or anticyclonic plumes are the primary source of the helicity. In the case of planetary and stellar dynamos such plumes are believed to be rising and sinking convective cells . Here we invoke for both the experiment and the theory of the accretion disk dynamo, anticyclonic plumes because of their finite rotation angle, $`\pi /2`$ radians.

In the case of Galactic dynamos, supernovae explosions can also produce the necessary anticyclonic motions . Finally, the most energetic dynamos in the present day universe should exist in the accretion discs around black holes in the nuclei of active galaxies . The magnetic dynamo in the black hole accretion discs in the centers of galaxies could be due the stars passing through the accretion disc and producing the plumes of heated gas. These plumes rise above the disc plane, expand and produce anticyclonic motion necessary for the operation of an $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo . The New Mexico dynamo experiment is designed to demonstrate the excitation of the astrophysical-type dynamo due to non-axisymmetric plumes rising through the differentially rotating liquid sodium. The design and initial construction phase of this experiment is underway at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology located in Socorro (USA). Those involved in the conceptual design, engineering, mechanical design, and theoretical considerations of the experiment are associated with the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and Los Alamos National Laboratory both located in the State of New Mexico, and so we refer to the experiment as the New Mexico Dynamo Experiment.

The experiment was designed after a water visualization experiment confirmed the existence of the two fundamental fluid motions necessary for a laboratory experiment to demonstrate the $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo. These are: (1) the maximum differential shear and stability of Couette flow and (2) the production of axially aligned diverging plumes from pulsed jets and their subsequent anticyclonic and limited rotation relative to a rotating frame. Far more accurate measurements will be possible of both these flows in the completed dynamo apparatus, but we include here the qualitative confirmation of these fundamental flows as a basis of the design. In the Theory section we will show how these two orthogonal flows make an $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo when produced in a conducting fluid of sufficiently large magnetic Reynolds number.

The plan of this paper is to briefly discuss how such an $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo works in Sec. 2 and then in Sec. 3 to briefly review the practicality of creating the necessary flow geometry as demonstrated in water visualization experiments. In Sec. 4 we review the actual design and construction features of the experiment. In Sec. 5 we develop the all important numerical simulation of the dynamo growth rate with boundary conditions expected to be achieved in the experiment. We conclude in Sec. 6 with the status of the construction and conclusion.

## 1. How the $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo works:

Fig. 1(a) shows how the $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo works in the New Mexico Dynamo Experiment and Fig. 1(b) shows how the $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo works in the accretion disk forming the massive, central galactic black hole. In Fig. 1(a) differential rotation is established in the liquid sodium between two rotating cylinders as limiting stable Couette flow, $`\mathrm{\Omega }1/R^2`$, by driving $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1=4\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ where $`R_0=2R_1`$ and for the disk Fig. 1(b) as Keplerian rotation, $`\mathrm{\Omega }1/R^{3/2}`$, around the central mass or the black hole. This differential rotation wraps up the radial component of an initial poloidal field Fig. 1(b(A)) either made with coils or an infinitesimally small, $`<10^{19}`$ G seed field from density structure at decoupling. The resulting toroidal field becomes stronger than the initial poloidal field Fig. 1(b(B)) by $`B_{toroidal}/B_{poloidal}=n_\mathrm{\Omega }B_{poloidal}`$, where in equilibrium with resistive decay, the limiting number of turns becomes $`n_\mathrm{\Omega }R_{m,\mathrm{\Omega }}/2\pi `$, and $`R_{m,\mathrm{\Omega }}=v_0(R_0R_1)/\eta `$ is the magnetic Reynolds number. This multiplication factor depends upon the resistivity of liquid sodium or for the disk, upon the resistivity of the ionized and turbulent plasma. Then a driven pulsed jet or a collision with the disk by a star, Fig. 1(b(C))\] causes a plume to rise either towards the end plate or above the disk with the corresponding displaced toroidal flux forming a loop of toroidal flux. The radial expansion of the plume material causes the plane of this loop to untwist or rotate differentially about its own axis relative to the rotating frame so that the initial toroidal orientation of the loop is transformed to a poloidal one, Fig. 1(b(D)).

Resistive diffusion in liquid sodium metal or reconnection in the ionized plas-
ma of the disk allows this now poloidal loop to merge with the original poloidal field. For positive dynamo gain, the rate of addition of poloidal flux must be greater than its decay. It is only because the toroidal multiplication can be so large or that $`R_{m,\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ can be so large that the helicity necessary for gain of the $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo can be much smaller and episodic.

## 2. The Water Visualization Experiment:

The water visualization experiment consists of two parts, the first establishing the Couette flow and showing that it is stable, and the second demonstrating the plume-like behavior produced by pulsed jets. Fig. 2(A) shows a photograph of the experiment where two cylinders of plexiglassR of diameter 15 and 30 cm are rotated at various speeds of the order of 1 Hz and pulsed jets of water are injected from a plenum, in turn supplied by pulses of low pressure air. Digital video recording of the surface contour is shown from an angle and from the side in Fig. 2(B)&(C), which demonstrates the hyperbolic contour expected from limiting, maximum shear, stable Couette flow, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1=\mathrm{\Omega }_0(R_0/R_1)^2`$. The parabolic profile of the water in solid body rotation within the inner cylinder is just visible. Fig. 3(A) shows a schematic of the apparatus for observing the plumes with a co-rotating camera. When plumes are injected in stationary flow with an imbedded linear array or ”line” of hydrogen bubbles, Fig. 3(B), one observes from the side the outline of a rising, diverging vortex, which in turn simulates a diverging plume. When the same plume is observed from the top or axial end and when both the camera and plume are rotating at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, then one observes the differential, anticyclonic rotation of the same imbedded line of bubbles, Fig. 3(C). In addition, one observes that the differential rotation of Couette flow both speeds up the anticyclonic rotation and the dispersal of the plume. With these observations, the design of the experiment was undertaken.

## 3. Design of the experiment

The experiment consists of two coaxial cylinders rotating with different angular velocities, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ at $`R_0`$, the outer radius and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1`$ at $`R_1`$, the inner radius, where $`R_0/R_1=2`$. The space between cylinders will be filled with liquid sodium with a small ”topping” of mineral oil. The volume of sodium between the cylinders is limited by two end plates. One of the plates is solid while the other plate (referred to as the port plate) has two circular openings symmetric with respect to the rotation axis of the apparatus and of diameter $`R_{port}=(1/3)R_0`$. These ports are in turn connected to a plenum, supplied with pulsed pressurized liquid sodium, that forms the pulsed jets. There is also an annular space between the outer cylinder and the plenum. These periodic pulses of sodium flow are driven through the ports by a piston inside the plenum. Sodium flows out of the circular ports and returns back to the plenum volume through the annular space between the plenum cylinder and the outer cylinder. During injection of the jets, the resulting plume expands. Due to the Coriolis force acting on the expanding plume in the rotating frame, the plume rotates in the direction opposite to the direction of the rotation of the vessel in the same fashion as shown in Fig. 3(C). Such a rotating motion of the plume in the rotating frame and its axial translation corresponds to an unwinding helical motion. This helical motion produces the poloidal magnetic flux out of toroidal magnetic flux or $`\alpha `$-effect. The design drawings of the experiment are shown in Fig. 4 & Fig. 5.

In both figures the magneto active volume with fluid sodium is the annular space between the differentially rotating inner and outer cylinders and between the left hand end plate and the middle port plate. Figure 4 is the first stage, the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$-Phase of the experiment and presently under construction. The plume generating mechanism or $`\alpha `$-Phase will be added in the second stage, Fig. 5. The purpose of first stage, without the plumes, is to demonstrate the production of the toroidal field from the velocity shear and the applied poloidal field. In addition some experiments will be performed to investigate the magneto rotation instability (MRI) using an axial applied field rather that a poloidal field with a radial component.

The second stage of the experiment will add the drive mechanism to produce the plumes and possibly lead to positive dynamo gain. Here the solid mid-plate has two ports for producing the pulsed jets from pressure generated in the plenum by a driven piston on the right. The port plate, plenum and drive mechanism are rigidly connected and rotate at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$. The inner cylinder will be rotating faster, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1`$, than the outer cylinder in order to create the differential rotation. It is driven by its own high speed shaft. The secondary drive shaft, gears, belts and motor are not shown. Initially a 50 kW motor, pulsed to 100 kW will be used. Greater power can be applied if needed, but the basic limitation is the mechanical strength of the outer cylinder which contains the centrifugal pressure of the sodium. We have used aluminum for the construction contrary to the usual practice of stainless steel in reactor coolant technology. Here the temperatures are very much less and water vapor is excluded by mineral oil. In addition the useful experimental life of the apparatus is short such that the aluminum corrosion by NaOH will be negligible.

Since the end walls rotate at a different rate from the sodium in Couette flow, the velocity shear at the walls would produce eddy currents between the sodium and the conducting aluminum walls whenever an axial field component penetrates both. Thus in this case, no conduction is desired between the end walls and sodium and so this interface will be insulated. This condition particularly applies when the field is made purely axial as for the measurements of the magneto rotational instability, or MRI measurements. On the other hand, electrical conduction between the sodium and the inner and outer conducting aluminum cylinders is desired in order to maximize the magnetic shear for the production of the enhanced toroidal field. Finally we recognize that the Ekman layer flow at the end walls, a fast radial flow in a thickness $`\delta _{Eckman}R_0Rey^{1/2}`$, is so thin, $`\delta _{Eckman}3\times 10^4R_0`$, that its electrical conduction current is negligable compared to the primary currents induced by the Couette flow.

The sodium will be heated and liquefied by the hot mineral oil driven by a recirculating system through the space inside the inner cylinder. This oil flow also serves to maintain the thermal balance of the sodium, slightly above the melting temperature and also to prevent the further heating of the sodium due to the friction heat produced primarily in the Ekman layers. In addition, the non-recirculating mineral oil, used to “top” the sodium metal in the apparatus, isolates the liquid sodium from the rotating seals and the one internal bearing. This isolation of liquid sodium from the seals and bearing takes place because the density of oil is $`0.86`$ of the density of the sodium at $`110^{}\text{C}`$, and so the oil will float to the central axis of the rotating device. The resulting oil coating will also ensure the isolation of liquid sodium from the air in the case of a minor spill as previous experience has shown, .

The maximum shear is desired in the rotational flow between the cylinders, yet maintaining stable flow. Therefore, in order to maximize the shear and maintain minimum fluid drag, or minimize the torque with the walls and hence, power, one should use Couette flow at the margin of stability, i.e. when $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1R_1^2=\mathrm{\Omega }_0R_0^2`$. The New Mexico Dynamo Experiment is designed to have this marginally stable ratio of angular velocities of the cylinders. Namely, $`R_0/R_1=2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1/\mathrm{\Omega }_0=4`$. In the case of marginally stable Couette flow the angular velocity profile becomes

$$\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_1R_1^2}{r^2}=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_0R_0^2}{r^2}\text{.}$$
(1)
The geometrical parameters of the experiment are: inside radius of the outer cylinder is $`R_0=30.5\text{cm}`$, wall thickness of the outer cylinder is $`\mathrm{\Delta }R=3.2\text{cm}`$, length of the test-volume is $`L=30.5\text{cm}`$, wall thickness of the port and end plates is $`\mathrm{\Delta }L=3.2\text{cm}`$, radius of the inner cylinder is $`R_1=15.25\text{cm}`$, the length of the space filled with liquid sodium in the plenum behind the port plate is $`L_1=35.6\text{cm}`$, radius of the plume ports is $`r_p=4.9\text{cm}`$, the radial distance from the center of the plume port to the rotation axis of the cylinder is $`r_0=R_1+r_p=20.15\text{cm}`$, the width of the annular space between the outer cylinder and the plenum is $`s=2.6\text{cm}`$. One desires a size as large as possible, but is limited by the costs implied by available standard bearings, drive belts, material handling and machine tools.

The material for both cylinders, port and end plates, and the two ported reservoir plenum cylinders is aluminum alloy 5083-H3. This alloy has the necessary strength to sustain the centrifugal pressure of rotating sodium at the required temperatures. It is widely used in industry and properties well known. The high- and low-speed drive shafts, left and right flanges are made of steel. The kinematic viscosity coefficient of liquid sodium at $`110^{}\text{C}`$ is $`\nu =7.110^3\text{cm}^2\text{s}^1`$. The magnetic diffusivity of liquid sodium is $`\eta =810\text{cm}^2\text{s}^1`$, the magnetic diffusivity of the aluminum alloy walls is $`\eta _{Al}=650\text{cm}^2\text{s}^1`$.

The analysis of stresses and energy dissipation in the experiment indicates that the maximum frequency of rotation of the outer cylinder is limited by the yield strength due to the centrifugal pressure and is $`33\text{Hz}`$. This corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0207\text{s}^1`$. The angular velocity of the inner cylinder is always four times larger than the rest of the device and is limited by $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1828\text{s}^1`$. At this angular velocity the average wall stress in the outer wall, $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ at $`R_0`$ is $`1/4`$ of the yield strength.

We define the global hydrodynamic Reynolds number of the Couette flow in the experiment as

$$\text{Re}_\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_0R_0(R_0R_1)}{\nu }\text{.}$$
(2)
The magnetic Reynolds number for the rotational Couette flow is defined in a similar way as

$$\text{Rm}_\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_0R_0(R_0R_1)}{\eta }\text{.}$$
(3)
Then, the ratio $`\text{Re}_\mathrm{\Omega }/\text{Rm}_\mathrm{\Omega }=\nu /\eta =\text{Pm}`$ is a magnetic Prandtl number. For sodium at $`110^{}\text{C}`$ one has $`\text{Pm}=8.810^6`$. The maximum Reynolds numbers corresponding to the maximum possible frequency of rotation are $`\text{Re}_\mathrm{\Omega }1.310^7`$ and $`\text{Rm}_\mathrm{\Omega }120`$. This magnetic Reynolds number is higher than the one achieved in the successful dynamo experiments carried out so far, and we hope that this will allow us to investigate a wider spectrum of the behavior of conducting liquids. Particularly, the observations of MHD turbulence may be possible. At the same time, slower rotation rates can produce flows with as low magnetic Reynolds number as desired.

The experiment will also have current coils to produce an external magnetic field within the magneto active volume. These fields will be both with primarily radial (poloidal) or primarily axial components depending upon the emphasis of the the experiment, i.e., toroidal gain or MRI. All three components of the magnetic field will be measured by miniature Hall-effect detectors placed at a various radii inside an aerodynamically shaped probe inside the sodium. In the second stage, with driven plumes, we hope to measure the flux and its orientation transported by the plumes or $`\alpha `$ effect. These measurements will be performed by an array of magnetic detectors placed on the surface of the end plate opposite a plume. The fast response of the Hall-effect detectors, micro seconds, will allow one to record the detailed time evolution of the magnetic field produced by a single plume. A radial array of 5 pressure transducers will allow an accurate measurement of the pressure profile and thus a measurement of the Couette profile.

## 4. Numerical simulations of the dynamo

At the current stage of numerical modeling of the New Mexico Dynamo Experiment we assumed the following simplified model. We consider the flow of the liquid sodium only inside the cylindrical, annular, space bounded by the radii $`R_1`$ and $`R_0`$ and the end plate and port plate at $`z=L/2`$ and $`z=L/2`$. The walls are assumed perfectly conducting. In view of the conductivity of aluminum walls being higher than the sodium, this assumption qualitatively predicts the evolution of magnetic fields and the growth rate of the dynamo. However, to obtain more accurate results, one needs to consider more realistic boundary conditions taking into account the finite thickness of the walls, the insulating air, i.e., vacuum, outside the device, and the plenum filled with liquid sodium at one end. We also assume a simplified kinematic model for the flow and do not actually solve the hydrodynamic equations. In other words we do not take into account the pondermotive force ($`𝐣\times 𝐁`$).

The kinematic dynamo equation is

$$\frac{𝐁}{t}=\times \left(\eta \times 𝐁\right)+\times (𝐯\times 𝐁)\text{,}$$
(4)
where $`\eta `$ is the a coefficient of magnetic diffusivity, $`\eta ={\displaystyle \frac{c^2}{4\pi \sigma }}`$. Instead of solving the dynamo equation for $`𝐁`$ we introduce potentials $`𝐀`$ and $`\phi `$. Using the gauge condition $`c\phi 𝐯𝐀+\eta 𝐀=0`$ one can derive the following equation for the evolution of the vector potential $`𝐀`$

$$\frac{A^i}{t}=A_k\frac{v^k}{x^i}v^k\frac{A^i}{x^k}+\eta \frac{^2A^i}{x^kx_k}\text{,}$$
(5)
where the magnetic diffusivity $`\eta `$ is assumed to be constant throughout the cylinder and the coordinate notations refer to a Cartesian coordinate system $`x^i`$. We use our 3D kinematic dynamo code to solve Eq. (5). Then, the magnetic field can be obtained at any time by taking the curl of $`𝐀`$. The code is written in cylindrical coordinates and uses an explicit scheme with the central spatial differencing in the advection term and the standard nine points stencil for the diffusion term. We assume all boundaries of the cylinder ($`r=R`$, $`z=L/2`$, and $`z=L/2`$) to be perfect conductors. Then, the boundary conditions for $`𝐀`$ at perfectly conducting boundaries compatible with the gauge can be chosen as follows: the components of $`𝐀`$ parallel to the boundary are zeros and the divergence of $`𝐀`$ at the boundaries is zero. This gives three boundary conditions for three components of the vector potential.

We use the following dimensionless units: the unit of length is the outer radius of the test volume, $`R_0`$, the unit of velocity is the azimuthal velocity of the outer cylinder, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0R_0`$. Therefore, the outer cylinder makes one revolution during the dimensionless time $`2\pi `$, the inner cylinder makes one revolution during the dimensionless time $`\pi /2`$. The critical Couette velocity profile is assumed, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1/r^2`$ in our units. The inner radius is $`1/2`$ in our units, the length of the test volume is $`1`$. In order to account for the conducting material inside the inner cylinder we extended our computational region toward $`r=0.5`$ and assumed solid body rotation for $`r<0.2`$ with the angular velocity equal to the angular velocity of the inner cylindrical wall of the test volume. We work in cylindrical coordinates with the axis of rotation centered on the axis of symmetry of the device. The $`z=0.5`$ plane is the port plate of the test volume, the $`z=0.5`$ plane is the end plate of the test volume.

We assume that there is a bias magnetic field produced by external coils and frozen in the ideally conducting boundaries. To approximate this field we choose the initial conditions in the form $`A_r=0`$, $`A_z=0`$, $`A_\varphi =r(z+0.5)`$. Then, the initial magnetic field is $`B_r=r`$, $`B_z=2(z+0.5)`$, $`B_\varphi =0`$. This poloidal field satisfies the equation $`^2𝐁=0`$ and, therefore, is unchanged if only rotation is present.

First, we do simulations without plumes, when the flow velocity inside the device is Couette flow given by Eq. (1). Both the poloidal and stationary state toroidal fields are shown in Fig. 6 for $`\text{Rm}_\mathrm{\Omega }=120`$. The ratio of the toroidal field to the poloidal field is $`20`$ and depends on the position of measurement inside the test volume. The toroidal field near the end plate has the opposite sign from the toroidal field in the middle of the test volume. The reversal of the sign of the toroidal magnetic field can be understood in terms of the conservation of total flux of the toroidal magnetic field through the cross section of the cylindrical computational space. Since this space is bounded by an ideal conductor, the total magnetic flux cannot change. Initially, the toroidal magnetic field was zero, so the total net flux of the toroidal magnetic field should remain zero. Therefore, regions of the magnetic field with different signs must exist in the rotating liquid. Of course, there is no actual discontinuity of the fluid velocity near the end plates of the test volume. Instead, the Eckman boundary layers develop at the end plates. However, the approximation of the Eckman layer by a mathematical discontinuity of the toroidal velocity near the end plates has very little effect on the structure of the magnetic fields excited in the conducting rotating fluid under the conditions of the experiment.

Next, we modeled the kinematic dynamo produced by jets of sodium together with the Couette differential rotation. The plume flow is interposed onto a background Couette differential rotation occupying the whole computational domain $`𝐯_c={\displaystyle \frac{1}{r}}𝐞_\varphi `$. A jet of liquid sodium is simulated by a vertically progressing cylinder of radius $`r_p`$ in the co-rotation frame that starts at the port plate of the disk located at $`z=L/2`$ and emerges to a height of $`z=L/2`$. At the same time the cylinder axis moves with the local Couette velocity. By the time the plume reaches its highest point the jet cylinder rotates by $`\pi `$ radians. The cylinder does not rotate with respect to the rest frame. Therefore, in the frame rotating with the Keplerian velocity, it untwists by $`\pi `$ radians during the time it rises. At the same time the axis of the cylinder moves by $`\pi `$ radians around the central axis participating in the rotation with the Couette speed. The length of the cylinder increases with time and its velocity, $`v_{pz}v_c`$. The vertical velocity of the liquid inside the cylinder is constant and is equal to $`v_{pz}`$. After the time the plume rotates by $`\pi `$ it is stopped and the velocity field is restored to be pure Couette differential rotation everywhere. This very simplified flow field captures the basic features of the actual and complicated flow produced by the driven sodium jets. We note, however, that in view of the water visualization experiments, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, that this approximation of constant radius plumes may be a conservative approximation, because the actural plumes diverge in radius leading to a progressive increase in $`R_{m,plume}`$.

Since Eq. (5) requires spatial derivatives of the velocity components, we apply smoothing of discontinuities in the flow field described above. Also we introduce smooth switching on and off of the jets in time. For all three components of velocity $`v^k`$ we use the same interpolation rule, which for two plumes is

$$v^k=v_{in1}^ks_1+v_{in2}^ks_2+(1s_1s_2)v_{out}^k\text{.}$$
(6)
Here $`s_1(r,\varphi ,z,t)`$ and $`s_2(r,\varphi ,z,t)`$ are smoothing functions for plume $`1`$ and $`2`$ correspondingly. Each function $`s`$ is close to $`1`$ in the region of space and time occupied by the plume and is close to $`0`$ in the rest of space and during times when the plume is off. Transition from $`1`$ to $`0`$ happen in a narrow layer at the boundary of the plume and during the interval of time short compared to the characteristic time of the plume rise. $`v_{in1}^k`$ and $`v_{in2}^k`$ are velocities of the flow of plumes $`1`$ and $`2`$, $`v_{out}^k`$ is the velocity of the flow outside the regions occupied by the plumes. For spatial derivatives of the velocity components, one has from expression (6)

$`{\displaystyle \frac{v^k}{x^i}}={\displaystyle \frac{s_1}{x^i}}\left(v_{in1}^kv_{out}^k\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{s_2}{x^i}}\left(v_{in2}^kv_{out}^k\right)+`$
$`s_1{\displaystyle \frac{v_{in1}^k}{x^i}}+s_2{\displaystyle \frac{v_{in2}^k}{x^i}}+(1s_1s_2){\displaystyle \frac{v_{out}^k}{x^i}}\text{.}`$ (7)
It is easy to extend this approach for the case of arbitrary number of plumes.

Let us assume that the cylindrical jet, going in the positive direction of the $`z`$ axis, is launched at the position of the axis of the jet at $`r=r_0`$ and $`\varphi =\varphi _0`$. Let us denote this plume as number $`1`$ and the symmetric plume also ejected at the same time as number $`2`$. Then, after time $`(tt_p)`$ from the starting moment of the plume $`t=t_p`$, its position is

$$\varphi _1=\varphi _0+(tt_p)r_0\mathrm{\Omega }_{c0}\text{,}$$
(8)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{c0}=\mathrm{\Omega }_c(r_0)`$ is the Couette angular rotational velocity at $`r=r_0`$. The position of the axis of the symmetric plume is

$$\varphi _2=\varphi _1+\pi \text{.}$$
(9)
The radii of both plumes are $`r_p`$. The originating surface of the plumes $`1`$ and $`2`$ is at the port plate at $`z=L/2`$. The leading surface of the plume $`1`$ is at $`z_1=L/2+v_{pz}(tt_p)`$ and the leading surface of the plume $`2`$ is $`z_2=z_1`$. The velocity field inside the upward jet number $`1`$ is

$`v_1^r=r_0\mathrm{\Omega }_{c0}\mathrm{sin}(\varphi \varphi _1)\text{,}`$ (10)
$`v_1^\varphi =r_0\mathrm{\Omega }_{c0}\mathrm{cos}(\varphi \varphi _1)\text{,}`$ (11)
$`v_1^z=v_{pz}\text{.}`$ (12)
The same velocity field given by expressions (1012) is inside the jet number $`2`$ with the obvious replacement of $`\varphi _1`$ by $`\varphi _2`$. We choose the following interpolation functions

$$s_1=\left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{\pi }\mathrm{arctan}\frac{r_p^2r_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{2r_p\mathrm{\Delta }}\right)\left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{\pi }\mathrm{arctan}\frac{(z+L/2)(z_1z)}{\mathrm{\Delta }\sqrt{(z_1+L/2)^2+\mathrm{\Delta }^2}}\right)S(t)$$
(13)
and

$$s_2=\left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{\pi }\mathrm{arctan}\frac{r_p^2r_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{2r_p\mathrm{\Delta }}\right)\left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{\pi }\mathrm{arctan}\frac{(z+L/2)(z_2z)}{\mathrm{\Delta }\sqrt{(z_2+L/2)^2+\mathrm{\Delta }^2}}\right)S(t)\text{.}$$
(14)
Here $`r_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}=r_0^2+r^22r_0r\mathrm{cos}(\varphi \varphi _1)`$ is the distance from the axis of the plume $`1`$, $`r_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}=r_0^2+r^22r_0r\mathrm{cos}(\varphi \varphi _2)`$ is the distance from the axis of the plume $`2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the thickness of the transition layer of the functions $`s_1`$ and $`s_2`$ from their value $`1`$ inside the plume to $`0`$ outside the plume, $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_p`$. The square root expressions in $`z`$–parts of $`s_1`$ and $`s_2`$ ensure that the thickness of the transition layer in the $`z`$ direction is never less than $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, even just after the plumes are started, when the differences $`(z_1+L/2)`$ and $`(z_2+L/2)`$ are zero. We choose $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.01`$.

The function $`S(t)`$ ensures a smooth “turning on” and “turning off” of the plumes at prescribed moments of time. If the plumes are to be started at $`t=t_p`$ and to be terminated at $`t=t_d`$ ($`t_d>t_p`$), then we adopt the following form of the function $`S(t)`$

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}S(t)=0\text{,}\hfill & \text{for}t<t_p\delta t/2\text{,}\hfill \\ S(t)=\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{sin}\left(\pi \frac{tt_p}{\delta t}\right)\text{,}\hfill & \text{for}t_p\delta t/2<t<t_p+\delta t/2\text{,}\hfill \\ S(t)=1\text{,}\hfill & \text{for}t_p+\delta t/2<t<t_d\delta t/2\text{,}\hfill \\ S(t)=\frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{sin}\left(\pi \frac{tt_d}{\delta t}\right)\text{,}\hfill & \text{for}t_d\delta t/2<t<t_d+\delta t/2\text{,}\hfill \\ S(t)=0\text{,}\hfill & \text{for}t>t_d+\delta t/2\text{.}\hfill \end{array}$$

where $`\delta t`$ is the length of the transition period. $`S=0`$ corresponds to the flow without plumes, $`S=1`$ corresponds to the flow with plumes. One needs to ensure that $`\delta t<t_dt_p`$. We took $`\delta t=(t_dt_p)/5`$. The cycles with the cylindrical jets present are interchanged periodically with the cycles without such jets and with the pure Couette rotation only. The time between two subsequent ejections is $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_p`$ and we always have $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_p>t_dt_p`$, such that at any time only one pair of plumes are present.

We take the radius of the jet $`r_p=0.21`$, the position of the center of the jet at $`r_0=0.71`$, and the vertical velocity of the flow inside the rising cylinder $`v_{pz}=0.63`$. This geometry corresponds to the experimental setup described in Sec. 3.. The radius of the jet is chosen to be the maximum possible, and the vertical velocity of the liquid in the jet requires only moderate power of the piston driving mechanism. The vertical velocity of the plume is chosen such that the plume reaches the end plate during the time when the fluid at the radius of the plume rotates by the angle $`\pi `$. During this same time the plume rotates clockwise by $`\pi `$ radians in the local Couette rotating frame. Such a timing should maximize the release of the poloidal magnetic flux due to the diffusion out of the twisting plume into surrounding conducting fluid. After the plume reaches the end plate, the velocity field of the flow is smoothly set back to the pure Couette profile without further poloidal motions. There are two identical plumes ejected simultaneously through the two orifices located symmetrically with respect to the rotation axis of the device. We performed simulations with different time intervals between subsequent plume ejections. We looked at the various rates of: (1) one pair of plumes per one revolution of the outer cylinder (i.e., per $`2\pi `$ units of time), (2) one pair of plumes per two revolutions of the outer cylinder, (3) one pair of plumes per three revolutions of the outer cylinder, and so on, until the dynamo could no longer be excited. The typical curve of the energy growth of the magnetic field is presented in Fig. 7. The dependence of the growth rate of the dynamo vs. the rate of plumes (the rate is the inverse of the number of revolutions of the outer cylinder, $`N`$, per one ejected pair of plumes) is shown in Fig. 8. One can see that the threshold for the dynamo excitation is somewhere between one pair of plumes per 4 revolutions and one pair of plumes per 5 revolutions. The smallest point on the graph for $`N=5`$ may not have converged numerically, and so is likely to be below the axis where $`\gamma =0`$.

## 5. Present Status

The first phase of the experiment, the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$-Phase, is largely completed, Fig. 9. The electronics are still a major consideration where the data from roughly 120 detectors, magnetic, pressure and temperature, must be transmitted digitally to a computer from the rotating equipment.

## 6. Conclusions

The numerical simulations along with the engineering design feasibility give us confidence that, with a continuing effort a positive gain $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo can be made in the laboratory.

## Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the US Department of Energy, under contract W-7405-ENG-36 and NSF Grant 9900661. We particularly acknowledge the initial support of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, (NMIMT) through the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC) that allowed this project to begin.

We would like to express our gratitude to J. M. Finn, LANL for numerous discussions on magnetic dynamos and help with the numerical code and Hui Li, LANL, for discussions on how this work joins to astrophysics.

* Received


text:
# High–resolution simulations of stellar collisions between equal-mass main-sequence stars in globular clusters

## 1 Introduction and Motivation

It has been shown that the products of main-sequence – main-sequence collisions appear in the colour-magnitude diagrams of clusters as blue stragglers \[Sills et al. 1997, Sandquist et al. 1997\]. Since blue stragglers are readily observable in clusters, they form an ideal population with which to probe the dynamical evolution of the cluster. The dynamical state of a globular cluster (its density profile, velocity dispersion, amount of mass segregation etc.) will determine the rate and nature of the collisions which occur in the cluster. As the cluster evolves, the kinds of collision that occur will change. Therefore, the population of collision products in a cluster can be used to probe the history of the cluster \[Sills et al. 2000, Hurley et al. 2001\]. However, in order to use collision products in this way, there are two issues which must first be understood. First, we know that blue stragglers can also be formed through the merger of two components of a binary system. These blue stragglers will probably have different properties than those formed from collisions. We must either be confident that the population we are observing is collisional in origin (e.g. from cluster density considerations), or be able to distinguish between the two populations. Secondly, we also need to be sure that we understand the formation and evolution of the collision products themselves. This paper is concerned with addressing the second point.

In this paper, we present the highest resolution smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) simulations of collisions between main-sequence stars to date. Most recent computations have $`10^4`$ particles \[Lombardi et al. 1996, Sandquist et al. 1997\], with the highest resolution simulation using $`10^5`$ particles \[Sills et al. 2001\]. In this paper, we increase the number of particles to $`10^6`$. There are three main reasons to extend this kind of simulation to such high resolution. The first, and simplest, is to make sure that no fundamental change in our understanding of blue stragglers occurs. In earlier work, Benz & Hills \[Benz & Hills 1987\] performed an SPH simulation using 1024 particles, and concluded that collision products are fully mixed (i.e. the resulting star is chemically homogeneous). Ten years later, these simulations were repeated but with a factor of 10-50 more particles \[Lombardi et al. 1996\]. Because of the higher resolution, it became clear that collision products are NOT chemically homogeneous, but instead retain some memory of the chemical profile of the parent stars of the collision. We feel confident that such a fundamental change in our understanding will not happen again when we increase the resolution, but we want to be sure.

More importantly, we performed these high resolution calculations to answer two fundamental questions about the structure of the collision products immediately after the collision. The first involves the structure of the outer layers of the star, and the second is concerned with the material which is thrown off by the star during the collision itself. There has been some debate in the literature recently about whether the collision product has a surface convection zone shortly after the end of the collision. The presence of such a convection zone could have ramifications for both the surface chemical abundances and the rotation rate of the star when it reaches its main sequence \[Leonard & Livio 1995\]. Previous SPH simulations and subsequent evolution calculations have shown that no convection zone exists at the end of the collision, nor does it appear during the initial thermal relaxation of the star \[Lombardi et al. 1996, Sills et al. 1997\]. However, members of the community argue that the previous simulations are unable to resolve the outermost regions of the star well at all, due to their low particle number and use of equal-mass particles (Livio, private communication). In this paper, we resolve this issue by increasing the resolution of our simulations in the outer regions of the parent stars in particular, and by using variable mass particles.

We are also interested in following the material which is thrown off from the stars during the collision. We have discovered, using previous generation simulations, that blue stragglers which are formed by an off-axis collision have an angular momentum problem \[Sills et al. 2001\]. Namely, these stars retain too much of their angular momentum, and have no apparent way of losing it during their thermal relaxation phase after the collision. As a result, the collision products spin up during their collapse to the main sequence, and inevitably rotate faster than their break-up velocity. Such collision products can never become blue stragglers, since they tear themselves apart before they reach the main sequence. We wish to follow the lost material with greater resolution, to study the amount of angular momentum that this material carries away with it. We also wish to follow the outermost material of the parent stars to see if some of it forms a disk around the collision product. If so, then we can plausibly suggest that magnetic locking to a disk is responsible for removing angular momentum from the collision product.

In §2 we describe the methods used to model the stellar collisions and their subsequent evolution. We present our results in §3, and discuss their implications in §4.

## 2 Method

The simulations of stellar collisions discussed in this paper were performed using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method \[Benz 1990, Monaghan 1992\]. Our three dimensional code uses a tree to solve for the gravitational forces and to find the nearest neighbours \[Benz et al. 1990\]. We use the standard form of artificial viscosity with $`\alpha =1`$ and $`\beta =2.5`$, and an adiabatic equation of state. The thermodynamic quantities are evolved by following the change in internal energy. Both the smoothing length and the number of neighbours can change in time and space. The smoothing length is varied to keep the number of neighbours approximately constant ($``$ 50 for the low resolution runs, and $``$ 200 for the million particle run). The code is the parallel version of the code described in detail in Bate, Bonnell & Price \[Bate et al. 1995\]. It was parallelized using OpenMP, and was run on the SGI Origin 3000 operated by the UK Astrophysical Fluids Facility (UKAFF) based at the University of Leicester.

We modelled collisions between two equal–mass stars. We chose a mass of 0.6 $`M_{}`$ as a representative, but not extreme, mass for globular cluster stars. The initial stellar models were calculated using the Yale stellar evolution code (YREC, Guenther et al. 1992), and had a metallicity of Z=0.001 and an age of 15 Gyr. If the goal of the simulation is to investigate the detailed structure of the collision product, then it is crucial to begin with a realistic stellar model rather than a polytrope or other approximation \[Sills & Lombardi 1997\]. The particles were initially distributed on an equally–spaced grid, and their masses were varied until the density profile matched that of the stellar model. By using unequal mass particles, we increase the resolution in the outer, low density regions of the star. This is important for resolving the outer layers of the collision products (to determine if there is a convection zone or not) and for following the material which is thrown off during the collision.

The stars were given a relative velocity at infinity of $`v_{\mathrm{}}`$=10 km/s, which is a reasonable value for globular cluster stars. They were set up on almost parabolic orbits with a pericentre separation $`r_p=0`$ for the head-on collisions, and $`r_p`$=0.25 $`R_{}`$ for the off-axis collisions. (The radius of the main sequence star is $`0.61R_{}`$.) Most collisions are expected to happen during interactions involving binary stars \[Hut & Bahcall 1983\], so the stars are on bound, and usually highly elliptical, orbits. For both the head-on and off-axis collisions, the number of particles was varied between 10 000 and 300 000. We also ran one head-on collision with $`10^6`$ particles. The details of the collisions are shown in Table 1. We give a single letter name for each run, the pericentre separation $`r_p`$ in solar radii, the number of particles, the initial value of the smoothing length $`h_0`$ in solar radii, the minimum and ¡maximum particle masses in solar masses, and the amount of mass lost from the system during the collision in solar masses.

The results of these three dimensional SPH simulations were converted to one dimensional models suitable for starting models for the Yale stellar evolution code, YREC. The entropy of the particles and their chemical abundances were averaged over surfaces of constant gravitational potential and binned into $``$ 100 bins. The structure of the collision product is determined from these profiles using the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium. The temperature profile is calculated using the ideal gas equation of state. For more details of the conversion between SPH results and stellar evolution models, see Sills et al. \[Sills et al. 1997, Sills et al. 2001\].

We used YREC to calculate the evolution of the collision products. Using the starting models described above, we followed their evolution during the thermal relaxation phase (analogous to the pre-main-sequence of normal stars), through their main-sequence lifetimes and to the giant branch.

## 3 Results

We performed five simulations of head-on stellar collisions, with the number of particles ranging from $`10^4`$ to $`10^6`$. The average resolution elements for these collisions ranged from $`2h=0.116R_{}`$ to $`2h=0.027R_{}`$ respectively. Figure 1 shows the profiles of the important structural parameters as a function of mass fraction in the product of a head-on collision between two 0.6 M stars. The different line styles denote increasing particle numbers in the following order: 10 000 (solid), 30 000 (dotted), 100 000 (short dashed), 300 000 (long dashed), 1 000 000 (dot–dashed). The low resolution simulations do a reasonable job of producing the correct structure for the collision products. However, as the resolution increases, the models converge to an answer different from that seen in the low resolution runs. This is best seen in the plot of hydrogen abundance as a function of mass fraction. The 100 000 and 300 000 particle simulations have converged to a solution for the structure of this collision product. The higher resolution simulations also produce smoother profiles. This is expected, since we have the information from more particles contributing to the values of the structural quantities (pressure, density, etc.) in each shell. Therefore, we suggest that the optimum number of particles for studying the structure of stellar collision products is around 100 000.

In Figure 2, we present the evolutionary tracks which result from the starting models shown in Figure 1. The stars begin their post-collision lives at position A. They are quite bright, and are significantly out of thermal equilibrium because of the energy deposited into their envelopes by the collision. They contract to the main sequence (position B), where core hydrogen burning begins. The stars look like normal main-sequence stars, except that their central hydrogen abundance is less than it would be for a normal star of that mass. Therefore, their main-sequence lifetime is shorter than that of a normal 1.1 $`M_{}`$ star (3.3 Gyr). The collision products reach the turnoff, where hydrogen is exhausted in their core, and evolve towards the giant branch (position C), exactly like normal stars. The time since the collision at three benchmark positions along the evolutionary track is given in Table 2. Both the post-collision structure and the evolutionary tracks agree with previous simulations of the same collision \[Sills et al. 1997\].

The different line styles in Figure 2 indicate the different number of particles in the simulation, with the line styles having the same meaning as in Figure 1. We see the same trend with increasing resolution of the simulation – the tracks converge to a common solution around 100 000 particles. This is expected, since the evolution of a star is determined by its structure. The same trend of convergence is seen in the evolutionary timescales in Table 2. Note that the largest differences between simulations show up in the thermal relaxation phase, and that by the main sequence, all the simulations are almost indistinguishable. The exception is the lowest resolution simulation. The solid black line begins its main sequence quite close to the dotted line (30 000 particle simulation), but has a hook near the turnoff, indicating the presence of a central convection zone. As the resolution increases, we see that this convection zone disappears. Simulations with $`10^4`$ particles are not quite detailed enough to accurately depict the true structure of these collision products.

The criterion for convective stability in stellar models is the Schwarzschild criterion:

$$_{ad}0$$
(1)
where $`_{ad}`$ is the adiabatic temperature gradient in the star, and $``$ is the radiative temperature gradient:

$$=\frac{d\mathrm{ln}T}{d\mathrm{ln}P}=\frac{3}{64\pi \sigma G}\frac{\kappa LP}{MT^4}$$
(2)
where $`\sigma `$ is the Stefan Boltzmann constant, $`G`$ is the gravitational constant, and $`\kappa ,L,P,M`$ and $`T`$ are the opacity, luminosity, pressure, enclosed mass and temperature at that position in the star. The models taken from the SPH results were used as starting models in the stellar evolution code, and allowed to relax, so that all the equations of stellar structure are satisfied. Since our SPH code does not allow for energy transport, the luminosity distribution in the star can only be determined from the other structure parameters using the equations of stellar structure. The temperature gradients were calculated, and their difference is plotted as a function of mass fraction in Figure 3. The line styles are the same as in Figure 1. We can clearly see a convective core in these stars, where $`_{ad}>0`$. However, the entire star outside of the inner 0.1 $`M_{}`$ is not convective. The outermost shell in all our stellar models is at a mass fraction $`M/M_{}=0.99667`$. This value is the same for all models, regardless of the number of SPH particles, because of the way we have transformed the SPH information to the stellar evolution starting model. The total mass of these stars is 1.12 $`M_{}`$, so only the outer 0.004 $`M_{}`$ is not resolved. Therefore, we can say with certainty that this stellar collision product does not have a surface convection zone larger than 0.004 $`M_{}`$. Our evolutionary models show that the stellar collision products do not develop surface convection zones during their thermal contraction to the main sequence.

As well as studying the head-on collisions, we performed one off-axis collision with a pericentre separation of 0.25 R. Figure 4 shows the structure profiles of the collision products at various resolutions. The line styles are the same as in Figure 1, except that we have not run a million-particle off-axis simulation. In addition to profiles of pressure, temperature, density and hydrogen mass fraction, we show the angular velocity and radius profiles. Again, there is clearly a convergence of the structural properties as the number of particles increases. The 100 000 particle (short dashed line) and 300 000 particle (long dashed line) simulations are almost indistinguishable.

The final question we wish to investigate with these high resolution simulations involves the material which is thrown off during the collision. Between 1 and 10% of the original stellar material becomes unbound from the system as it is shock-heated during these kinds of collisions, depending on the masses of the parent stars and the impact parameter \[Lombardi et al. 1996\]. Other material is thrown to large distances but remains bound and falls back onto the collision product. If some of this material has sufficient angular momentum, it will form a disk around the collision product. The existence of such a disk could prove important for transporting angular momentum from the central collision product.

Figure 5 is a snapshot of the 300 000 particle off-axis stellar collision taken 50 dynamical times after the collision began. The star has reached hydrostatic equilibrium and is settled down to its post-collision state. The contours show the density of the material in a slice through the x-z plane of the collision product. The collisions were constrained to occur in the x-y plane, so the product is rotating around the z axis. It is rotating rapidly, and therefore is highly flattened by rotation. However, there is no indication that a circumstellar disk is present. This is in agreement with the results of Benz & Hills (1987), who find that disks are present only for simulations with larger impact parameters.

## 4 Summary and Discussion

We have performed the highest resolution SPH simulations of collisions between main-sequence stars to date, using up to $`10^6`$ SPH particles. The collisions were between equal mass main-sequence stars in globular clusters – the stars have masses of 0.6 $`M_{}`$, metallicity Z=0.001, age of 15 Gyr and a relative velocity at infinity of 10 km/s. We varied the resolution of our simulations from $`10^4`$ to $`10^6`$ SPH particles, and we looked at a head-on collision and an off-axis collision. These simulations took between $`6`$ CPU hours and $`5000`$ CPU hours, and the CPU time scaled approximately linearly with N $`\mathrm{log}`$ N. We had three goals for performing this research.

Our first goal was to determine the optimal resolution for SPH simulations of this kind. Since we want to use the results of the SPH simulations to study the detailed structure and evolution of the collision products, we need to have an accurate model of the distribution of the SPH particles and their properties. On the other hand, we do not want to waste valuable computer resources going to a higher resolution than is necessary. We have shown that both head-on and off-axis simulations with $``$ 100 000 particles give essentially the same information as runs with higher resolution, and therefore we suggest that most simulations with similar requirements can confidently use on order $`10^5`$ particles.

Our second goal was to use these high resolution simulations to study the outer few percent of the collision products. In particular, we were interested in the existence of a surface convection zone, for two reasons. One consequence of a convection zone is mixing of elements in the convection zone. If the zone reaches deep enough in a star to dredge up nuclear processed material, for example, the surface abundances of elements like C, N and O will be different from what we would expect for primordial material. In blue stragglers and other collision products, surface abundances could be used to determine, perhaps, the masses of the parent stars. However, this can only be done if we understand whether the abundances should be mixed by convection or not. The second consequence of a surface convection zone is angular momentum loss. Stars can lose angular momentum through a magnetic wind \[Kawaler 1988\]. This process is most effective in stars with deep convection zones, since they can support stronger magnetic fields and since the angular momentum is drained out of the entire (uniformly rotating) convection zone.

We have shown that the product of the head-on stellar collision investigated in this paper does not have a surface convection zone larger than 0.004 $`M_{}`$. For comparison, the Sun is considered to have a fairly shallow convection zone, with a mass of 0.02 $`M_{}`$ \[Guenther et al. 1992\]. A convection zone less than about 0.01 $`M_{}`$ is certainly not deep enough to substantially modify the surface abundances of any element, with the possible exception of lithium, beryllium and boron (which are destroyed at low temperatures). Angular momentum loss is also going to be very small for stars with such small convection zones.

Our final goal was to determine whether the off-axis stellar collision products had a circumstellar disk. If a rotating star has a disk with a mass of about 0.01 $`M_{}`$, and it is locked to the disk by a magnetic field, then angular momentum will be transported from the star to the disk by the field \[Konigl 1991\]. The net effect of the angular momentum transport will be to slow the star’s rotation rate. This effect is thought to operate in pre-main-sequence stars \[Sills, Pinsonneault & Terndrup 2000, and references therein\]. Unfortunately, our simulations do not show any evidence for a disk. Based on previous work \[Benz & Hills 1987\], we expect that blue stragglers which were formed from collisions with larger impact parameters will have circumstellar disks. However, the low impact parameter collision we modelled in this simulation is still rotating too quickly to contract to the main sequence without losing some angular momentum.

Sills et al. \[Sills et al. 2001\] showed that blue stragglers that are formed by stellar collisions have an angular momentum problem. The collision products are formed with large total angular momentum, and some of them are rotating near their break-up velocity. The collision products are large objects, and they start to contract to the main sequence. As they contract, they spin up since they have no way to lose any angular momentum. They begin to reach break-up velocities and become unstable. Even by shedding material, they cannot remove enough angular momentum to remain bound, and they tear themselves apart. We are forced to one of two conclusions; either blue stragglers are not made by stellar collisions (since head-on collisions are very rare, and all off-axis collisions have too much angular momentum), or collision products have some way of losing their angular momentum. The two standard ways stars are thought to lose angular momentum is through a magnetic wind, or through disk-locking. We have shown that both these scenarios are not viable, since these collision products do not have surface convection zones or circumstellar disks immediately after the collision. However, it is interesting to note the work of Durisen et al. \[Durisen et al. 1986\], who show that if a polytrope is rotating very rapidly, some outer material is thrown off into a disk, leaving a stable (but non–axisymmetric) central object. In order for this to happen, the star has to have a ratio of rotational kinetic energy to gravitational energy $`\beta 0.3`$. At the end of the collision, our off-axis collision product has $`\beta 0.045`$, and is therefore stable against any bar instability. However, as the star evolves and contracts, it is possible that $`\beta `$ could becomes high enough to trigger some of these hydrodynamic rotational instabilities.

In this paper, we have limited ourselves to two very specific collisions. The two stars involved in the collision were of equal mass, and we only investigated two choices of impact parameter. There have been other studies of main-sequence star stellar collisions which covered more parameter space \[Benz & Hills 1987, Lombardi et al. 1996, Sandquist et al. 1997\]. These studies have clearly and carefully outlined the properties of collisions under different circumstances. These high resolution simulations were meant to answer some specific questions about the details of stellar collisions and the resulting collision products. We can generalize our current results to all main-sequence star collisions in globular clusters under the limitations outlined in the previous papers. Therefore, we feel justified in claiming that no collision products have surface convection zones, and that collisions do not create long–lived circumstellar disks. The search to understand the angular momentum evolution of blue stragglers will have to turn to other avenues, possibly involving a more detailed look at the combination of stellar evolution and hydrodynamic instabilities after the collision.

## 5 Acknowledgments

This work was supported by PPARC. The computations reported here were performed using the UK Astrophysical Fluids Facility (UKAFF). Development work was performed using the University of Leicester Mathematical Modelling Centre’s supercomputer which was purchased through the EPSRC strategic equipment initiative. MBD gratefully acknowledges the support of a URF from the Royal Society, and TA gratefully acknowledges support through a PPARC research studentship. The authors would like to thank the referee, Marc Freitag, for his helpful reading of the manuscript.