29,255 research outputs found
COLD-SAT: An orbital cryogenic hydrogen technology experiment
The COLD-SAT spacecraft will perform subcritical liquid hydrogen storage and transfer experiments under low-gravity conditions to provide engineering data for future space transportation missions. Consisting of an experiment module mated to a spacecraft bus, COLD-SAT will be placed in an initial 460 km circular orbit by an Atlas I commercial launch vehicle. After deployment, the three-axis-controlled spacecraft bus will provide electric power, experiment control and data management, communications, and attitude control along with propulsive acceleration levels ranging from 10(-6) to 10(-4)g. These accelerations are an important aspect of some of the experiments, as it is desired to know the effects that low gravity levels might have on the heat and mass transfer processes involved. The experiment module will contain the three liquid hydrogen tanks, valves, pressurization equipment, and instrumentation. At launch all the hydrogen will be in the largest tank, which has helium-purged MLI and is loaded and topped off by the hydrogen tanking system used for the Centaur upper stage of the Atlas. The two smaller tanks will be utilized in orbit for performing some of the experiments. The experiments are grouped into two classes on the basis of their priority, and include six regarded as enabling technology and nine regarded as enhancing technology
Phase Space Models for Stochastic Nonlinear Parabolic Waves: Wave Spread and Singularity
We derive several kinetic equations to model the large scale, low Fresnel
number behavior of the nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation with a rapidly
fluctuating random potential. There are three types of kinetic equations the
longitudinal, the transverse and the longitudinal with friction. For these
nonlinear kinetic equations we address two problems: the rate of dispersion and
the singularity formation.
For the problem of dispersion, we show that the kinetic equations of the
longitudinal type produce the cubic-in-time law, that the transverse type
produce the quadratic-in-time law and that the one with friction produces the
linear-in-time law for the variance prior to any singularity.
For the problem of singularity, we show that the singularity and blow-up
conditions in the transverse case remain the same as those for the homogeneous
NLS equation with critical or supercritical self-focusing nonlinearity, but
they have changed in the longitudinal case and in the frictional case due to
the evolution of the Hamiltonian
Probability distributions for polymer translocation
We study the passage (translocation) of a self-avoiding polymer through a
membrane pore in two dimensions. In particular, we numerically measure the
probability distribution Q(T) of the translocation time T, and the distribution
P(s,t) of the translocation coordinate s at various times t. When scaled with
the mean translocation time , Q(T) becomes independent of polymer length,
and decays exponentially for large T. The probability P(s,t) is well described
by a Gaussian at short times, with a variance that grows sub-diffusively as
t^{\alpha} with \alpha~0.8. For times exceeding , P(s,t) of the polymers
that have not yet finished their translocation has a non-trivial stable shape.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Factorizing twists and R-matrices for representations of the quantum affine algebra U_q(\hat sl_2)
We calculate factorizing twists in evaluation representations of the quantum
affine algebra U_q(\hat sl_2). From the factorizing twists we derive a
representation independent expression of the R-matrices of U_q(\hat sl_2).
Comparing with the corresponding quantities for the Yangian Y(sl_2), it is
shown that the U_q(\hat sl_2) results can be obtained by `replacing numbers by
q-numbers'. Conversely, the limit q -> 1 exists in representations of U_q(\hat
sl_2) and both the factorizing twists and the R-matrices of the Yangian Y(sl_2)
are recovered in this limit.Comment: 19 pages, LaTe
On factorizing -matrices in and spin chains
We consider quantum spin chains arising from -fold tensor products of the
fundamental evaluation representations of and .
Using the partial -matrix formalism from the seminal work of Maillet and
Sanchez de Santos, we derive a completely factorized expression for the
-matrix of such models and prove its equivalence to the expression obtained
by Albert, Boos, Flume and Ruhlig. A new relation between the -matrices and
the Bethe eigenvectors of these spin chains is given.Comment: 30 page
The Stellar Populations of NGC 3109: Another Dwarf Irregular Galaxy with a Population II Stellar Halo
We have obtained V and I-band photometry for about 17500 stars in the field
of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC3109, located in the outskirts of the Local
Group. The photometry allows us to study the stellar populations present inside
and outside the disk of this galaxy. From the VI color-magnitude diagram we
infer metallicities and ages for the stellar populations in the main body and
in the halo of NGC3109. The stars in the disk of this galaxy have a wide
variety of ages, including very young stars with approximately 10^7 yr. Our
main result is to establish the presence of a halo consisting of population II
stars, extending out to about 4.5 arcmin (or 1.8 kpc) above and below the plane
of this galaxy. For these old stars we derive an age of > 10 Gyr and a
metallicity of [Fe/H] = -1.8 +/- 0.2. We construct a deep luminosity function,
obtaining an accurate distance modulus (m-M)_0 = 25.62 +/- 0.1 for this galaxy
based on the I-magnitude of the red giant branch (RGB) tip and adopting E(V-I)
= 0.05.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal 23 pages, latex,
12 Figures (Fig 1 not available in electronic format
Fifth-order susceptibility unveils growth of thermodynamic amorphous order in glass-formers
Glasses are ubiquitous in daily life and technology. However the microscopic
mechanisms generating this state of matter remain subject to debate: Glasses
are considered either as merely hyper-viscous liquids or as resulting from a
genuine thermodynamic phase transition towards a rigid state. We show that
third- and fifth-order susceptibilities provide a definite answer to this
longstanding controversy. Performing the corresponding high-precision nonlinear
dielectric experiments for supercooled glycerol and propylene carbonate, we
find strong support for theories based upon thermodynamic amorphous order.
Moreover, when lowering temperature, we find that the growing transient domains
are compact - that is their fractal dimension d_f = 3. The glass transition may
thus represent a class of critical phenomena different from canonical
second-order phase transitions for which d_f < 3.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Growing Cayley trees described by Fermi distribution
We introduce a model for growing Cayley trees with thermal noise. The
evolution of these hierarchical networks reduces to the Eden model and the
Invasion Percolation model in the limit , respectively.
We show that the distribution of the bond strengths (energies) is described by
the Fermi statistics. We discuss the relation of the present results with the
scale-free networks described by Bose statistics
An X-ray measurement of Titan's atmospheric extent from its transit of the Crab Nebula
Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, transited the Crab Nebula on 5 January
2003. We observed this astronomical event with the {\it Chandra} X-ray
Observatory. An ``occultation shadow'' has clearly been detected and is found
to be larger than the diameter of Titan's solid surface. The difference gives a
thickness for Titan's atmosphere of 880 60 km. This is the first
measurement of Titan's atmospheric extent at X-ray wavelengths. The value
measured is consistent with or slightly larger than those estimated from
earlier Voyager observations at other wavelengths. We discuss the possibility
of temporal variations in the thickness of Titan's atmosphere.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, AASTeX preprint. Accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
Mass Density Profiles of LSB Galaxies
We derive the mass density profiles of dark matter halos that are implied by
high spatial resolution rotation curves of low surface brightness galaxies. We
find that at small radii, the mass density distribution is dominated by a
nearly constant density core with a core radius of a few kpc. For rho(r) ~ r^a,
the distribution of inner slopes a is strongly peaked around a = -0.2. This is
significantly shallower than the cuspy a < -1 halos found in CDM simulations.
While the observed distribution of alpha does have a tail towards such extreme
values, the derived value of alpha is found to depend on the spatial resolution
of the rotation curves: a ~ -1 is found only for the least well resolved
galaxies. Even for these galaxies, our data are also consistent with constant
density cores (a = 0) of modest (~ 1 kpc) core radius, which can give the
illusion of steep cusps when insufficiently resolved. Consequently, there is no
clear evidence for a cuspy halo in any of the low surface brightness galaxies
observed.Comment: To be published in ApJ Letters. 6 pages. Uses aastex and
emulateapj5.sty Typo in Eq 1 fixe
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