148,804 research outputs found
The multi-scale dust formation in substellar atmospheres
Substellar atmospheres are observed to be irregularly variable for which the
formation of dust clouds is the most promising candidate explanation. The
atmospheric gas is convectively unstable and, last but not least, colliding
convective cells are seen as cause for a turbulent fluid field. Since dust
formation depends on the local properties of the fluid, turbulence influences
the dust formation process and may even allow the dust formation in an
initially dust-hostile gas. A regime-wise investigation of dust forming
substellar atmospheric situations reveals that the largest scales are
determined by the interplay between gravitational settling and convective
replenishment which results in a dust-stratified atmosphere. The regime of
small scales is determined by the interaction of turbulent fluctuations.
Resulting lane-like and curled dust distributions combine to larger and larger
structures. We compile necessary criteria for a subgrid model in the frame of
large scale simulations as result of our study on small scale turbulence in
dust forming gases.Comment: 22 Pages, 5 Figures, to appear in "Analysis and Numerics of
Conservation Laws", ed. G. Warnecke (Springer-Verlag
Approximated Computation of Belief Functions for Robust Design Optimization
This paper presents some ideas to reduce the computational cost of
evidence-based robust design optimization. Evidence Theory crystallizes both
the aleatory and epistemic uncertainties in the design parameters, providing
two quantitative measures, Belief and Plausibility, of the credibility of the
computed value of the design budgets. The paper proposes some techniques to
compute an approximation of Belief and Plausibility at a cost that is a
fraction of the one required for an accurate calculation of the two values.
Some simple test cases will show how the proposed techniques scale with the
dimension of the problem. Finally a simple example of spacecraft system design
is presented.Comment: AIAA-2012-1932 14th AIAA Non-Deterministic Approaches Conference.
23-26 April 2012 Sheraton Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawai
How motifs condition critical thresholds for tipping cascades in complex networks: Linking Micro- to Macro-scales
In this study, we investigate how specific micro interaction structures
(motifs) affect the occurrence of tipping cascades on networks of stylized
tipping elements. We compare the properties of cascades in Erd\"os-R\'enyi
networks and an exemplary moisture recycling network of the Amazon rainforest.
Within these networks, decisive small-scale motifs are the feed forward loop,
the secondary feed forward loop, the zero loop and the neighboring loop.
Of all motifs, the feed forward loop motif stands out in tipping cascades
since it decreases the critical coupling strength necessary to initiate a
cascade more than the other motifs. We find that for this motif, the reduction
of critical coupling strength is 11% less than the critical coupling of a pair
of tipping elements. For highly connected networks, our analysis reveals that
coupled feed forward loops coincide with a strong 90% decrease of the critical
coupling strength.
For the highly clustered moisture recycling network in the Amazon, we observe
regions of very high motif occurrence for each of the four investigated motifs
suggesting that these regions are more vulnerable. The occurrence of motifs is
found to be one order of magnitude higher than in a random Erd\"os-R\'enyi
network.
This emphasizes the importance of local interaction structures for the
emergence of global cascades and the stability of the network as a whole
Segmentation of Loops from Coronal EUV Images
We present a procedure which extracts bright loop features from solar EUV
images. In terms of image intensities, these features are elongated ridge-like
intensity maxima. To discriminate the maxima, we need information about the
spatial derivatives of the image intensity. Commonly, the derivative estimates
are strongly affected by image noise. We therefore use a regularized estimation
of the derivative which is then used to interpolate a discrete vector field of
ridge points ``ridgels'' which are positioned on the ridge center and have the
intrinsic orientation of the local ridge direction. A scheme is proposed to
connect ridgels to smooth, spline-represented curves which fit the observed
loops. Finally, a half-automated user interface allows one to merge or split,
eliminate or select loop fits obtained form the above procedure. In this paper
we apply our tool to one of the first EUV images observed by the SECCHI
instrument onboard the recently launched STEREO spacecraft. We compare the
extracted loops with projected field lines computed from
almost-simultaneously-taken magnetograms measured by the SOHO/MDI Doppler
imager. The field lines were calculated using a linear force-free field model.
This comparison allows one to verify faint and spurious loop connections
produced by our segmentation tool and it also helps to prove the quality of the
magnetic-field model where well-identified loop structures comply with
field-line projections. We also discuss further potential applications of our
tool such as loop oscillations and stereoscopy.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, Solar Physics, online firs
Chance and Necessity in Evolution: Lessons from RNA
The relationship between sequences and secondary structures or shapes in RNA
exhibits robust statistical properties summarized by three notions: (1) the
notion of a typical shape (that among all sequences of fixed length certain
shapes are realized much more frequently than others), (2) the notion of shape
space covering (that all typical shapes are realized in a small neighborhood of
any random sequence), and (3) the notion of a neutral network (that sequences
folding into the same typical shape form networks that percolate through
sequence space). Neutral networks loosen the requirements on the mutation rate
for selection to remain effective. The original (genotypic) error threshold has
to be reformulated in terms of a phenotypic error threshold. With regard to
adaptation, neutrality has two seemingly contradictory effects: It acts as a
buffer against mutations ensuring that a phenotype is preserved. Yet it is
deeply enabling, because it permits evolutionary change to occur by allowing
the sequence context to vary silently until a single point mutation can become
phenotypically consequential. Neutrality also influences predictability of
adaptive trajectories in seemingly contradictory ways. On the one hand it
increases the uncertainty of their genotypic trace. At the same time neutrality
structures the access from one shape to another, thereby inducing a topology
among RNA shapes which permits a distinction between continuous and
discontinuous shape transformations. To the extent that adaptive trajectories
must undergo such transformations, their phenotypic trace becomes more
predictable.Comment: 37 pages, 14 figures; 1998 CNLS conference; high quality figures at
http://www.santafe.edu/~walte
Adaptive identification and control of structural dynamics systems using recursive lattice filters
A new approach for adaptive identification and control of structural dynamic systems by using least squares lattice filters thar are widely used in the signal processing area is presented. Testing procedures for interfacing the lattice filter identification methods and modal control method for stable closed loop adaptive control are presented. The methods are illustrated for a free-free beam and for a complex flexible grid, with the basic control objective being vibration suppression. The approach is validated by using both simulations and experimental facilities available at the Langley Research Center
Pion photoproduction off the proton in a gauge-invariant chiral unitary framework
We investigate pion photoproduction off the proton in a manifestly
gauge-invariant chiral unitary extension of chiral perturbation theory. In a
first step, we consider meson-baryon scattering taking into account all
next-to-leading order contact interactions. The resulting low-energy constants
are determined by a fit to s-wave pion-nucleon scattering and the low-energy
data for the reaction pi- p --> eta n. To assess the theoretical uncertainty,
we perform two different fit strategies. Having determined the low-energy
constants, we then analyse the data on the s-wave multipole amplitudes E0+ of
pion and eta photoproduction. These are parameter-free predictions, as the two
new low-energy constants are determined by the neutron and proton magnetic
moments.Comment: 23 pages, 17 figure
A low-power circuit for piezoelectric vibration control by synchronized switching on voltage sources
In the paper, a vibration damping system powered by harvested energy with
implementation of the so-called SSDV (synchronized switch damping on voltage
source) technique is designed and investigated. In the semi-passive approach,
the piezoelectric element is intermittently switched from open-circuit to
specific impedance synchronously with the structural vibration. Due to this
switching procedure, a phase difference appears between the strain induced by
vibration and the resulting voltage, thus creating energy dissipation. By
supplying the energy collected from the piezoelectric materials to the
switching circuit, a new low-power device using the SSDV technique is proposed.
Compared with the original self-powered SSDI (synchronized switch damping on
inductor), such a device can significantly improve its performance of vibration
control. Its effectiveness in the single-mode resonant damping of a composite
beam is validated by the experimental results.Comment: 11 page
Generic dijet soft functions at two-loop order: correlated emissions
We present a systematic algorithm for the perturbative computation of soft
functions that are defined in terms of two light-like Wilson lines. Our method
is based on a universal parametrisation of the phase-space integrals, which we
use to isolate the singularities in Laplace space. The observable-dependent
integrations can then be performed numerically, and they are implemented in the
new, publicly available package SoftSERVE that we use to derive all of our
numerical results. Our algorithm applies to both SCET-1 and SCET-2 soft
functions, and in the current version it can be used to compute two out of
three NNLO colour structures associated with the so-called correlated-emission
contribution. We confirm existing two-loop results for about a dozen
and hadron-collider soft functions, and we obtain new predictions for the
C-parameter as well as thrust-axis and broadening-axis angularities.Comment: 58 pages, 8 figures, associated package can be found at
https://softserve.hepforge.org/. Minor revisio
- …