Dark matter is thought to be at least an order of magnitude more abundant than luminous matter in the Universe, but there has yet to be an unambiguous identification of a wholly dark, galactic-scale structure. There is, however, increasing evidence that VIRGOHI 21 may be a dark galaxy. If VIRGOHI 21 turns out to be composed of dark stars, having approximately the mass of stars found in luminous...

There have been numerous independent suggestions to use high speed shocks to heat deuterium gas to thermonuclear temperature (E. Teller, R. R. Wilson, H. Grad, W. Marshall), and extensive experimental work in this field is being carried on by, e.g., Kolb, and Janes. Our own work in this field has been directed towards a fundamental understanding of the strong shock process, in the limit of no p...

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Recently we have made measurements of thermonuclear burst energetics and recurrence times which are unprecedented in their precision, largely thanks to the sensitivity of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). In the "Clocked Burster", GS 1826−24, hydrogen burns during the burst via the rapid-proton (rp) process, which has received particular attention in recent years through theoretical and m...

A configuration made up of two nested magnetically insulated transmission lines, the inner one carrying a high voltage lower current – and the outer one a high current lower voltage – pulse, was in a previous communication proposed for the ignition of a magnetic field assisted thermonuclear detonation wave. Unlike the fast ignition concept, it does not require the compression of the DT fusion f...

Motivated primarily by the large uncertainties in thermonuclear rate of $^{30}$P$(p,\gamma)^{31}$S reaction that limit our understanding classical novae, we carried out lifetime measurements $^{31}$S excited states using Doppler Shift Lifetimes (DSL) facility at TRIUMF Isotope Separator and Accelerator (ISAC-II) facility. The were populated $^{3}$He$(^{32}$S$,\alpha)^{31}$S reaction. deexcitati...

We report the discovery with the proportional counter array (PCA) onboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) of a decrease in the frequency of X-ray brightness oscillations in the cooling tail of an X-ray burst from 4U 1636-53. This is the first direct evidence for a spin down of the pulsations seen during thermonuclear bursts. We find that the spin down episode is correlated with the appea...

We study the plasma correlation effects on nonresonant thermonuclear reactions of carbon and oxygen in the interiors of white dwarfs and liquid envelopes of neutron stars. We examine the effects of electron screening on thermodynamic enhancement of thermonuclear reactions in dense plasmas beyond the linear mixing rule. Using these improved enhancement factors, we calculate carbon and oxygen ign...