Improved laboratory gradiometer can be a field survey instrument

Improvements made to quartz gradiometer minimize or eliminate disturbing effects from known error sources and permit sensitivity of + or - 1 times 10 to the minus 9th power/sec sq or better and measuring accuracy of + or - 5 times 10 to the minus 9th power/sec sq

Gravity gradient preliminary investigations on exhibit ''A'' Final report

Quartz microbalance gravity gradiometer performance test

The uncoupling limit of identical Hopf bifurcations with an application to perceptual bistability

We study the dynamics arising when two identical oscillators are coupled near a Hopf bifurcation where we assume a parameter $\epsilon$ uncouples the system at $\epsilon=0$. Using a normal form for $N=2$ identical systems undergoing Hopf bifurcation, we explore the dynamical properties. Matching the normal form coefficients to a coupled Wilson-Cowan oscillator network gives an understanding of different types of behaviour that arise in a model of perceptual bistability. Notably, we find bistability between in-phase and anti-phase solutions that demonstrates the feasibility for synchronisation to act as the mechanism by which periodic inputs can be segregated (rather than via strong inhibitory coupling, as in existing models). Using numerical continuation we confirm our theoretical analysis for small coupling strength and explore the bifurcation diagrams for large coupling strength, where the normal form approximation breaks down

Pulsar "Drifting"-Subpulse Polarization: No Evidence for Systematic Polarization-Angle Rotations

Polarization-angle density displays are given for pulsars B0809+74 and B2303+30, which exhibit no evidence of the systematic polarization-angle rotation within individual subpulses previously reported for these two stars. The ``drifting'' subpulses of both pulsars exhibit strikingly linear and circular polarization which appears to reflect the characteristics of two nearly orthogonally polarized emission ``modes''--along which the severe average-profile depolarization that is characteristic of their admixture at comparable overall intensities.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Revised Pulsar Spindown

We address the issue of electromagnetic pulsar spindown by combining our experience from the two limiting idealized cases which have been studied in great extent in the past: that of an aligned rotator where ideal MHD conditions apply, and that of a misaligned rotator in vacuum. We construct a spindown formula that takes into account the misalignment of the magnetic and rotation axes, and the magnetospheric particle acceleration gaps. We show that near the death line aligned rotators spin down much slower than orthogonal ones. In order to test this approach, we use a simple Monte Carlo method to simulate the evolution of pulsars and find a good fit to the observed pulsar distribution in the P-Pdot diagram without invoking magnetic field decay. Our model may also account for individual pulsars spinning down with braking index n < 3, by allowing the corotating part of the magnetosphere to end inside the light cylinder. We discuss the role of magnetic reconnection in determining the pulsar braking index. We show, however, that n ~ 3 remains a good approximation for the pulsar population as a whole. Moreover, we predict that pulsars near the death line have braking index values n > 3, and that the older pulsar population has preferentially smaller magnetic inclination angles. We discuss possible signatures of such alignment in the existing pulsar data.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures; accepted to Ap

Toward An Empirical Theory of Pulsar Emission. VII. On the Spectral Behavior of Conal Beam Radii and Emission Heights

In this paper we return to the old problem of conal component-pair widths and profile dimensions. Observationally, we consider a set of 10 pulsars with prominent conal component pairs, for which well measured profiles exist over the largest frequency range now possible. Apart from some tendency to narrow at high frequency, the conal components exhibit almost constant widths. We use all three profile measures, the component separation as well as the outside half-power and 10% widths, to determine conal beam radii, which are the focus of our subsequent analysis. These radii at different frequencies are well fitted by a relationship introduced by Thorsett (1991), but the resulting parameters are highly correlated. Three different types of behavior are found: one group of stars exhibits a continuous variation of beam radius which can be extrapolated down to the stellar surface along the ``last open field lines''; a second group exhibits beam radii which asymptotically approach a minimum high frequency value that is 3--5 times larger; and a third set shows almost no spectral change in beam radius at all. The first two behaviors are associated with outer-cone component pairs; whereas the constant separation appears to reflect inner-cone emission.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal, uses aaste

Chromatic number, clique subdivisions, and the conjectures of Haj\'os and Erd\H{o}s-Fajtlowicz

For a graph $G$, let $\chi(G)$ denote its chromatic number and $\sigma(G)$ denote the order of the largest clique subdivision in $G$. Let H(n) be the maximum of $\chi(G)/\sigma(G)$ over all $n$-vertex graphs $G$. A famous conjecture of Haj\'os from 1961 states that $\sigma(G) \geq \chi(G)$ for every graph $G$. That is, $H(n) \leq 1$ for all positive integers $n$. This conjecture was disproved by Catlin in 1979. Erd\H{o}s and Fajtlowicz further showed by considering a random graph that $H(n) \geq cn^{1/2}/\log n$ for some absolute constant $c>0$. In 1981 they conjectured that this bound is tight up to a constant factor in that there is some absolute constant $C$ such that $\chi(G)/\sigma(G) \leq Cn^{1/2}/\log n$ for all $n$-vertex graphs $G$. In this paper we prove the Erd\H{o}s-Fajtlowicz conjecture. The main ingredient in our proof, which might be of independent interest, is an estimate on the order of the largest clique subdivision which one can find in every graph on $n$ vertices with independence number $\alpha$.Comment: 14 page

Polarimetric Properties of the Crab Pulsar between 1.4 and 8.4 GHz

New polarimetric observations of the Crab pulsar at frequencies between 1.4 and 8.4 GHz are presented. Additional pulse components discovered in earlier observations (Moffett & Hankins 1996, astro-ph/9604163) are found to have high levels of linear polarization, even at 8.4 GHz. No abrupt sweeps in position angle are found within pulse components; however, the position angle and rotational phase of the interpulse do change dramatically between 1.4 and 4.9 GHz. The multi-frequency profile morphology and polarization properties indicate a non-standard origin of the emission. Several emission geometries are discussed, but the one favored locates sites of emission both near the pulsar surface and in the outer magnetosphere.Comment: 20 pages, 7 postscript figures, uses aaspp4 Latex style. To appear in Volume 522 of The Astrophysical Journa