163,043 research outputs found
The Alignment of Clusters using Large Scale Simulations
The alignment of clusters of galaxies with their nearest neighbours and
between clusters within a supercluster is investigated using simulations of
512^{3} dark matter particles for \LambdaCDM and \tauCDM cosmological models.
Strongly significant alignments are found for separations of up to 15h^{-1}Mpc
in both cosmologies, but for the \LambdaCDM model the alignments extend up to
separations of 30h^{-1}Mpc. The effect is strongest for nearest neighbours, but
is not significant enough to be useful as an observational discriminant between
cosmologies. As a check of whether this difference in alignments is present in
other cosmologies, smaller simulations with 256^{3} particles are investigated
for 4 different cosmological models. Because of poor number statistics, only
the standard CDM model shows indications of having different alignments from
the other models.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures Submitted to MNRA
Ground vibration tests of a high fidelity truss for verification of on orbit damage location techniques
This paper describes a series of modal tests that were performed on a cantilevered truss structure. The goal of the tests was to assemble a large database of high quality modal test data for use in verification of proposed methods for on orbit model verification and damage detection in flexible truss structures. A description of the hardware is provided along with details of the experimental setup and procedures for 16 damage cases. Results from selected cases are presented and discussed. Differences between ground vibration testing and on orbit modal testing are also described
Minkowski Vacuum Stress Tensor Fluctuations
We study the fluctuations of the stress tensor for a massless scalar field in
two and four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime in the vacuum state. Covariant
expressions for the stress tensor correlation function are obtained as sums of
derivatives of a scalar function. These expressions allow one to express
spacetime averages of the correlation function as finite integrals. We also
study the correlation between measurements of the energy density along a
worldline. We find that these measurements may be either positively correlated
or anticorrelated. The anticorrelated measurements can be interpreted as
telling us that if one measurement yields one sign for the averaged energy
density, a successive measurement with a suitable time delay is likely to yield
a result with the opposite sign.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures; Some additional comments added in Sect. IIB and
a more compact argument given in App.
On-orbit damage detection and health monitoring of large space trusses: Status and critical issues
The long lifetimes, delicate nature and stringent pointing requirements of large space structures such as Space Station Freedom and geostationary Earth sciences platforms might require that these spacecraft be monitored periodically for possible damage to the load carrying structures. A review of the literature in damage detection and health monitoring of such structures is presented, along with a candidate structure to be used as a testbed for future work in this field. A unified notation and terminology is also proposed to facilitate comparisons between candidate methods
Conservative buffering of approximate nonlinear constraints
In engineering design practice behavior is usually predicted based on some known nominal design. However, when the design is fabricated it will differ from the nominal design because of manufacturing tolerances. In order to generate nominal designs that will still satisfy behavior constraints in the presence of manufacturing tolerances, engineers resort to the use of safety factors, over and above those introduced to account for other uncertainties (e.g., in load conditions, material properties, analysis modeling). The accurate selection of the values of these manufacturing tolerances safety factors is dependent on the capability of the engineer to determine the sensitivity of the critical constraints to changes in the design variables. This process usually leads to overly conservative designs. The task of choosing safety factors is much more difficult in structural synthesis because: (1) it is not known which constraints will be active at the final design, (2) as the design changes during the synthesis process the sensitivities of the constraints with respect to the design variables also change, and (3) the imposition of the safety factors themselves may change the set of critical constraints. These difficulties can be overcome with the approximation concepts approach to structural synthesis by buffering the approximate constraints with quantities that are related to the design variable tolerances and the accurate sensitivities of the constraints with respect to the design variable. Designs generated by this approach tend to be feasible but not overly conservative
Mineralogy and Surface Composition of Asteroids
Methods to constrain the surface mineralogy of asteroids have seen
considerable development during the last decade with advancement in laboratory
spectral calibrations and validation of our interpretive methodologies by
spacecraft rendezvous missions. This has enabled the accurate identification of
several meteorite parent bodies in the main asteroid belt and helped constrain
the mineral chemistries and abundances in ordinary chondrites and basaltic
achondrites. With better quantification of spectral effects due to temperature,
phase angle, and grain size, systematic discrepancies due to non-compositional
factors can now be virtually eliminated for mafic silicate-bearing asteroids.
Interpretation of spectrally featureless asteroids remains a challenge. This
paper presents a review of all mineralogical interpretive tools currently in
use and outlines procedures for their application.Comment: Chapter to appear in the Space Science Series Book: Asteroids IV, 51
pages, 7 figures, 2 table
Aspects of Neutrino Interactions (Scattering at small - Region)
The article begins with a description of chiral symmetry and its application
to neutrino induced reactions. For small (forward direction) the process
is dominated by the amplitute with helicity zero where the pion pole disappears
when multiplied with the polarization vector. The remaining part of the
amplitude is determined by PCAC. For GeV the computed cross
sections are in good agreement with data. In coherent pion production we expect
equal yields for neutrinos and antineutrinos a relation which for
GeV is fulfilled. We discuss specific features of the data and suggest methods
for improving them by presenting new estimates for the incoherent background.Comment: Presented at the CETUP-Workshop on Neutrino Interactions, July 22-31,
2014 at Lead/Dead Wood, South Dakota, USA. The resubmission contains minor
correction
Input inefficiency in commercial banks: a normalized quadratic input distance approach
A normalized quadratic input distance function is proposed with which to estimate technical efficiency on commercial banks regulated by the Federal Reserve System. The study period covers 1990 to 2000 using individual bank information from the Call and Banking Holding Company Database. A stochastic frontier model is specified to estimate the input normalized distance function and obtain measures of technical efficiency.Banks and banking
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