2,316 research outputs found
Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Convective Boundaries, Element Diffusion, and Massive Star Explosions
We update the capabilities of the software instrument Modules for Experiments
in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) and enhance its ease of use and availability.
Our new approach to locating convective boundaries is consistent with the
physics of convection, and yields reliable values of the convective core mass
during both hydrogen and helium burning phases. Stars with
become white dwarfs and cool to the point where the electrons are degenerate
and the ions are strongly coupled, a realm now available to study with MESA due
to improved treatments of element diffusion, latent heat release, and blending
of equations of state. Studies of the final fates of massive stars are extended
in MESA by our addition of an approximate Riemann solver that captures shocks
and conserves energy to high accuracy during dynamic epochs. We also introduce
a 1D capability for modeling the effects of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities that,
in combination with the coupling to a public version of the STELLA radiation
transfer instrument, creates new avenues for exploring Type II supernovae
properties. These capabilities are exhibited with exploratory models of
pair-instability supernova, pulsational pair-instability supernova, and the
formation of stellar mass black holes. The applicability of MESA is now widened
by the capability of importing multi-dimensional hydrodynamic models into MESA.
We close by introducing software modules for handling floating point exceptions
and stellar model optimization, and four new software tools -- MESAWeb,
MESA-Docker, pyMESA, and mesastar.org -- to enhance MESA's education and
research impact.Comment: 64 pages, 61 figures; Accepted to AAS Journal
Simulating radiative shocks in nozzle shock tubes
We use the recently developed Center for Radiative Shock Hydrodynamics
(CRASH) code to numerically simulate laser-driven radiative shock experiments.
These shocks are launched by an ablated beryllium disk and are driven down
xenon-filled plastic tubes. The simulations are initialized by the
two-dimensional version of the Lagrangian Hyades code which is used to evaluate
the laser energy deposition during the first 1.1ns. The later times are
calculated with the CRASH code. This code solves for the multi-material
hydrodynamics with separate electron and ion temperatures on an Eulerian
block-adaptive-mesh and includes a multi-group flux-limited radiation diffusion
and electron thermal heat conduction. The goal of the present paper is to
demonstrate the capability to simulate radiative shocks of essentially
three-dimensional experimental configurations, such as circular and elliptical
nozzles. We show that the compound shock structure of the primary and wall
shock is captured and verify that the shock properties are consistent with
order-of-magnitude estimates. The produced synthetic radiographs can be used
for comparison with future nozzle experiments at high-energy-density laser
facilities.Comment: submitted to High Energy Density Physic
Synthesis of 3-D coronal-solar wind energetic particle acceleration modules
1. Introduction Acute space radiation hazards pose one of the most serious risks to future human and robotic exploration. Large solar energetic particle (SEP) events are dangerous to astronauts and equipment. The ability to predict when and where large SEPs will occur is necessary in order to mitigate their hazards. The Coronal-Solar Wind Energetic Particle Acceleration (C-SWEPA) modeling effort in the NASA/NSF Space Weather Modeling Collaborative [Schunk, 2014] combines two successful Living With a Star (LWS) (http://lws. gsfc.nasa.gov/) strategic capabilities: the Earth-Moon-Mars Radiation Environment Modules (EMMREM) [Schwadron et al., 2010] that describe energetic particles and their effects, with the Next Generation Model for the Corona and Solar Wind developed by the Predictive Science, Inc. (PSI) group. The goal of the C-SWEPA effort is to develop a coupled model that describes the conditions of the corona, solar wind, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and associated shocks, particle acceleration, and propagation via physics-based modules. Assessing the threat of SEPs is a difficult problem. The largest SEPs typically arise in conjunction with X class flares and very fast (\u3e1000 km/s) CMEs. These events are usually associated with complex sunspot groups (also known as active regions) that harbor strong, stressed magnetic fields. Highly energetic protons generated in these events travel near the speed of light and can arrive at Earth minutes after the eruptive event. The generation of these particles is, in turn, believed to be primarily associated with the shock wave formed very low in the corona by the passage of the CME (injection of particles from the flare site may also play a role). Whether these particles actually reach Earth (or any other point) depends on their transport in the interplanetary magnetic field and their magnetic connection to the shock
Enhanced Momentum Feedback from Clustered Supernovae
Young stars typically form in star clusters, so the supernovae (SNe) they
produce are clustered in space and time. This clustering of SNe may alter the
momentum per SN deposited in the interstellar medium (ISM) by affecting the
local ISM density, which in turn affects the cooling rate. We study the effect
of multiple SNe using idealized 1D hydrodynamic simulations which explore a
large parameter space of the number of SNe, and the background gas density and
metallicity. The results are provided as a table and an analytic fitting
formula. We find that for clusters with up to ~100 SNe the asymptotic momentum
scales super-linearly with the number of SNe, resulting in a momentum per SN
that can be an order of magnitude larger than for a single SN, with a maximum
efficiency for clusters with 10-100 SNe. We argue that additional physical
processes not included in our simulations -- self-gravity, breakout from a
galactic disk, and galactic shear -- can slightly reduce the momentum
enhancement from clustering, but the average momentum per SN still remains a
factor of 4 larger than the isolated SN value when averaged over a realistic
cluster mass function for a star-forming galaxy. We conclude with a discussion
of the possible role of mixing between hot and cold gas, induced by
multi-dimensional instabilities or preexisting density variations, as a
limiting factor in the buildup of momentum by clustered SNe, and suggest future
numerical experiments to explore these effects.Comment: 19 pages, 26 figures, revised to reflect accepted version. Discussion
regarding resolution effects has changed; additional analysis into galactic
and gravitational effects has been adde
Breaks, trends and the attribution of climate change: a time-series analysis
Climate change detection and attribution have been the subject of intense research and debate over at least four decades. However, direct attribution of climate change to anthropogenic activities using observed climate and forcing variables through statistical methods has remained elusive, partly caused by difficulties to correctly identify the time-series properties of these variables and by the limited availability of methods to relate nonstationary variables. This paper provides strong evidence concerning the direct attribution of observed climate change to anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions by first investigating the univariate time-series properties of observed global and hemispheric temperatures and forcing variables and then by proposing statistically adequate multivariate models. The results show that there is a clear anthropogenic fingerprint on both global and hemispheric temperatures. The signal of the well-mixed Greenhouse Gases (GHG) forcing in all temperature series is very clear and accounts for most of their secular movements since the beginning of observations. Both temperature and forcing variables are characterized by piecewise linear trends with abrupt changes in their slopes estimated to occur at different dates. Nevertheless, their long-term movements are so closely related that the observed temperature and forcing trends cancel out. The warming experimented during the last century was mainly due to the increase in GHG which was partially offset by the effect of tropospheric aerosols. Other forcing sources, such as solar, are shown to only contribute to (shorter-term) variations around the GHG forcing trend.Published versio
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