86,397 research outputs found
Long-Term Stability of Horseshoe Orbits
Unlike Trojans, horseshoe coorbitals are not generally considered to be
long-term stable (Dermott and Murray, 1981; Murray and Dermott, 1999). As the
lifetime of Earth's and Venus's horseshoe coorbitals is expected to be about a
Gyr, we investigated the possible contribution of late-escaping inner planet
coorbitals to the lunar Late Heavy Bombardment. Contrary to analytical
estimates, we do not find many horseshoe objects escaping after first 100 Myr.
In order to understand this behaviour, we ran a second set of simulations
featuring idealized planets on circular orbits with a range of masses. We find
that horseshoe coorbitals are generally long lived (and potentially stable) for
systems with primary-to-secondary mass ratios larger than about 1200. This is
consistent with results of Laughlin and Chambers (2002) for equal-mass pairs or
coorbital planets and the instability of Jupiter's horseshoe companions (Stacey
and Connors, 2008). Horseshoe orbits at smaller mass ratios are unstable
because they must approach within 5 Hill radii of the secondary. In contrast,
tadpole orbits are more robust and can remain stable even when approaching
within 4 Hill radii of the secondary.Comment: Accepted for MNRA
Prediction of long term stability by extrapolation
This paper studies the possibility of using the survival function to predict
long term stability by extrapolation. The survival function is a function of
the initial coordinates and is the number of turns a particle will survive for
a given set of initial coordinates. To determine the difficulties in
extrapolating the survival function, tracking studies were done to compute the
survival function. The survival function was found to have two properties that
may cause difficulties in extrapolating the survival function. One is the
existence of rapid oscillations, and the second is the existence of plateaus.
It was found that it appears possible to extrapolate the survival function to
estimate long term stability by taking the two difficulties into account. A
model is proposed which pictures the survival function to be a series of
plateaus with rapid oscillations superimposed on the plateaus. The tracking
studies give results for the widths of these plateaus and for the seperation
between adjacent plateaus which can be used to extrapolate and estimate the
location of plateaus that indicate survival for longer times than can be found
by tracking.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure
Nutrient recycling facilitates long-term stability of marine microbial phototroph–heterotroph interactions
Biological interactions underpin the functioning of marine ecosystems, be it via competition, predation, mutualism or symbiosis processes. Microbial phototroph–heterotroph interactions propel the engine that results in the biogeochemical cycling of individual elements, and they are critical for understanding and modelling global ocean processes. Unfortunately, studies thus far have focused on exponentially growing cultures in nutrient-rich media, meaning knowledge of such interactions under in situ conditions is rudimentary at best. Here, we have performed long-term phototroph–heterotroph co-culture experiments under nutrient-amended and natural seawater conditions, and show that it is not the concentration of nutrients but rather their circulation that maintains a stable interaction and a dynamic system. Using the Synechococcus–Roseobacter interaction as a model phototroph–heterotroph case study, we show that although Synechococcus is highly specialized for carrying out photosynthesis and carbon fixation, it relies on the heterotroph to remineralize the inevitably leaked organic matter, making nutrients circulate in a mutualistic system. In this sense we challenge the general belief that marine phototrophs and heterotrophs compete for the same scarce nutrients and niche space, and instead suggest that these organisms more probably benefit from each other because of their different levels of specialization and complementarity within long-term stable-state systems
Long-Term Stability of Planets in Binary Systems
A simple question of celestial mechanics is investigated: in what regions of
phase space near a binary system can planets persist for long times? The
planets are taken to be test particles moving in the field of an eccentric
binary system. A range of values of the binary eccentricity and mass ratio is
studied, and both the case of planets orbiting close to one of the stars, and
that of planets outside the binary orbiting the system's center of mass, are
examined. From the results, empirical expressions are developed for both 1) the
largest orbit around each of the stars, and 2) the smallest orbit around the
binary system as a whole, in which test particles survive the length of the
integration (10^4 binary periods). The empirical expressions developed, which
are roughly linear in both the mass ratio mu and the binary eccentricity e, are
determined for the range 0.0 <= e <= 0.7-0.8 and 0.1 <= mu <= 0.9 in both
regions, and can be used to guide searches for planets in binary systems. After
considering the case of a single low-mass planet in binary systems, the
stability of a mutually-interacting system of planets orbiting one star of a
binary system is examined, though in less detail.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, 7 tables, accepted by the Astronomical Journa
Long-term stability of amorphous-silicon modules
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) program of developing qualification tests necessary for amorphous silicon modules, including appropriate accelerated environmental tests reveal degradation due to illumination. Data were given which showed the results of temperature-controlled field tests and accelerated tests in an environmental chamber
Long-term stability test of a triple GEM detector
The main aim of the study is to perform the long-term stability test of gain
of the single mask triple GEM detector. A simple method is used for this long-
term stability test using a radioactive X-ray source with high activity. The
test is continued till accumulation of charge per unit area > 12.0 mC/mm2. The
details of the chamber fabrication, the test set-up, the method of measurement
and the test results are presented in this paper.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Resonant planetary dynamics: Periodic orbits and long-term stability
Many exo-solar systems discovered in the last decade consist of planets
orbiting in resonant configurations and consequently, their evolution should
show long-term stability. However, due to the mutual planetary interactions a
multi-planet system shows complicated dynamics with mostly chaotic
trajectories. We can determine possible stable configurations by computing
resonant periodic trajectories of the general planar three body problem, which
can be used for modeling a two-planet system. In this work, we review our model
for both the planar and the spatial case. We present families of symmetric
periodic trajectories in various resonances and study their linear horizontal
and vertical stability. We show that around stable periodic orbits there exist
regimes in phase space where regular evolution takes place. Unstable periodic
orbits are associated with the existence of chaos and planetary
destabilization.Comment: Proceedings of 10th HSTAM International Congress on Mechanics,
Chania, Crete, Greece, 25-27 May, 201
Investigation of long term stability in metal hydrides
It is apparent from the literature and the results of this study that cyclic degradation of AB(5) type metal hydrides varies widely according to the details of how the specimens are cycled. The Rapid Cycle Apparatus (RCA) used produced less degradation in 5000 to 10000 cycles than earlier work with a Slow Cycle Apparatus (SCA) produced in 1500 cycles. Evidence is presented that the 453 K (356 F) Thermal Aging (TA) time spent in the saturated condition causes hydride degradation. But increasing the cooling (saturation) period in the RCA did not greatly increase the rate of degradation. It appears that TA type degradation is secondary at low temperatures to another degradation mechanism. If rapid cycles are less damaging than slow cycles when the saturation time is equal, the rate of hydriding/dehydriding may be an important factor. The peak temperatures in the RCA were about 30 C lower than the SCA. The difference in peak cycle temperatures (125 C in the SCA, 95 C in RCA) cannot explain the differences in degradation. TA type degradation is similar to cyclic degradation in that nickel peaks and line broadening are observed in X ray diffraction patterns after either form of degradation
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