Tohoku University · Physics and Astronomy
Professor Shigeo S. Kimura's research lab specializes in high-energy astrophysics, focusing on particle acceleration and emission processes in extreme astrophysical environments such as active galactic nuclei, compact binary mergers, and relativistic jets. The lab investigates the production of high-energy neutrinos, cosmic rays, and electromagnetic counterparts in connection with gravitational wave events and transient phenomena. Key research directions include stochastic and shear particle acceleration mechanisms, transrelativistic reacceleration in jet-cocoon systems, and the multi-messenger signatures of compact object mergers in AGN disks.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
We study high-energy neutrino and cosmic-ray (CR) emission from the cores of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGN). In LLAGN, the thermalization of particles is expected to be incomplete in radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAF), allowing the existence of non-thermal particles. In this work, assuming stochastic particle acceleration due to turbulence in RIAFs, we solve the Fokker–Planck equation and calculate spectra of escaping neutrinos and CRs. The RIAF in LLAGN can emit CR pr
Abstract We investigate current and future prospects for coincident detection of high-energy neutrinos and gravitational waves (GWs). Short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) are believed to originate from mergers of compact star binaries involving neutron stars. We estimate high-energy neutrino fluences from prompt emission, extended emission (EE), X-ray flares, and plateau emission, and we show that neutrino signals associated with the EE are the most promising. Assuming that the cosmic-ray loading fact
The observations of a macronova/kilonova accompanied by gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger (GW170817) confirmed that neutron star coalescences produce copious ejecta. The coincident gamma-ray detection implies the existence of a relativistic jet in this system. During the jet's propagation within the ejecta, high-energy photons and neutrinos can be produced. The photons are absorbed by the ejecta, while the neutrinos escape and can be detected. Here, we estimate such transejec
We perform Monte Carlo simulations of transrelativistic shear acceleration dedicated to a jet-cocoon system of active galactic nuclei. A certain fraction of galactic cosmic rays in a halo is entrained, and sufficiently high-energy particles can be injected to the reacceleration process and further accelerated up to 100 EeV. We show that the shear reacceleration mechanism leads to a hard spectrum of escaping cosmic rays, $d{L}_{E}/dE\ensuremath{\propto}{E}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\ensuremath{-}{E}^{0}$,
The formation, evolution and dispersal processes of protoplanetary discs are investigated and the disc lifetime is estimated. The gravitational collapse of a pre-stellar core forms both a central star and a protoplanetary disc. The central star grows by accretion from the disc and irradiation by the central star heats up the disc and generates a thermal wind, which results in the disc's dispersal. Using the one-dimensional diffusion equation, we calculate the evolution of protoplanetary discs nu
Abstract We propose a novel scenario for possible electromagnetic (EM) emission by compact binary mergers in the accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Nuclear star clusters in AGNs are a plausible formation site of compact-stellar binaries (CSBs) whose coalescences can be detected through gravitational waves (GWs). We investigate the accretion onto and outflows from CSBs embedded in AGN disks. We show that these outflows are likely to create outflow cavities in the AGN disks before t
Abstract We investigate acceleration and propagation processes of high-energy particles inside hot accretion flows. The magnetorotational instability (MRI) creates turbulence inside accretion flows, which triggers magnetic reconnection and may produce non-thermal particles. They can be further accelerated stochastically by the turbulence. To probe the properties of such relativistic particles, we perform magnetohydrodynamic simulations to obtain the turbulent fields generated by the MRI, and cal
ABSTRACT We investigate stochastic particle acceleration in accretion flows. It is believed that magnetorotational instability (MRI) generates turbulence inside accretion flows and that cosmic rays (CRs) are accelerated by the turbulence. We calculate equations of motion for CRs in the turbulent fields generated by MRI with the shearing box approximation and without back reaction to the field. Our results show that the CRs randomly gain or lose their energy through interaction with the turbulent
The cores of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been suggested as the sources of IceCube neutrinos, and recent numerical simulations have indicated that hot AGN coronae of Seyfert galaxies and radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs) of low-luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) may be promising sites of ion acceleration. We present detailed studies on detection prospects of high-energy multimessenger emissions from RIAFs in nearby LLAGNs. We construct a model of RIAFs that can reproduce the observatio
Abstract We propose a novel interpretation that gamma rays from nearby radio galaxies are hadronic emission from magnetically arrested disks (MADs) around central black holes (BHs). The magnetic energy in MADs is higher than the thermal energy of the accreting plasma, where the magnetic reconnection or turbulence may efficiently accelerate nonthermal protons. They emit gamma rays via hadronic processes, which can account for the observed gamma rays for M87 and NGC 315. Nonthermal electrons are a
The Universe is filled with a diffuse background of MeV gamma-rays and PeV neutrinos, whose origins are unknown. Here, we propose a scenario that can account for both backgrounds simultaneously. Low-luminosity active galactic nuclei have hot accretion flows where thermal electrons naturally emit soft gamma rays via Comptonization of their synchrotron photons. Protons there can be accelerated via turbulence or reconnection, producing high-energy neutrinos via hadronic interactions. We demonstrate
We investigate evolution of an accretion disc in binary black hole (BBH) systems and possible electromagnetic counterparts of the gravitational waves from mergers of BBHs. Perna et al. proposed a novel evolutionary scenario of an accretion disc in BBHs in which a disc eventually becomes ‘dead’, i.e. the magnetorotational instability (MRI) becomes inactive. In their scenario, the dead disc survives until a few seconds before the merger event. We improve the dead disc model and propose another sce
Abstract We propose magnetically arrested disks (MADs) in quiescent (low-luminosity) black hole (BH) binaries as the origin of multiwavelength emission, and argue that this class of sources can dominate the cosmic-ray spectrum around the knee. X-ray luminosities of Galactic BH binaries in the quiescent state are far below the Eddington luminosity, and thus radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs) are formed in the inner region. Strong thermal and turbulent pressures in RIAFs produce outfl
Abstract We investigate prolonged engine activities of short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs), such as extended and/or plateau emissions, as high-energy gamma-ray counterparts to gravitational waves (GWs). Binary neutron-star mergers lead to relativistic jets and merger ejecta with r -process nucleosynthesis, which are observed as SGRBs and kilonovae/macronovae, respectively. Long-term relativistic jets may be launched by the merger remnant as hinted in X-ray light curves of some SGRBs. The prolonged je
We study effects of high-energy particles on the accretion flows onto a supermassive black hole and luminosities of escaping particles such as protons, neutrons, gamma-rays, and neutrinos. We formulate a one-dimensional model of the two-component accretion flow consisting of thermal particles and high-energy particles, supposing that some fraction of the released energy is converted to the acceleration of the high-energy particles. The thermal component is governed by fluid dynamics while the hi
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