1,424 research outputs found
Detailed Structure and Dynamics in Particle-in-Cell Simulations of the Lunar Wake
The solar wind plasma from the Sun interacts with the Moon, generating a wake
structure behind it, since the Moon is to a good approximation an insulator,
has no intrinsic magnetic field and a very thin atmosphere. The lunar wake in
simplified geometry has been simulated via a 1-1/2-D electromagnetic
particle-in-cell code, with high resolution in order to resolve the full phase
space dynamics of both electrons and ions. The simulation begins immediately
downstream of the moon, before the solar wind has infilled the wake region,
then evolves in the solar wind rest frame. An ambipolar electric field and a
potential well are generated by the electrons, which subsequently create a
counter-streaming beam distribution, causing a two-stream instability which
confines the electrons. This also creates a number of electron phase space
holes. Ion beams are accelerated into the wake by the ambipolar electric field,
generating a two stream distribution with phase space mixing that is strongly
influenced by the potentials created by the electron two-stream instability.
The simulations compare favourably with WIND observations.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Physics of Plasma
Kinetic Scale Density Fluctuations in the Solar Wind
We motivate the importance of studying kinetic scale turbulence for
understanding the macroscopic properties of the heliosphere, such as the
heating of the solar wind. We then discuss the technique by which kinetic scale
density fluctuations can be measured using the spacecraft potential, including
a calculation of the timescale for the spacecraft potential to react to the
density changes. Finally, we compare the shape of the density spectrum at ion
scales to theoretical predictions based on a cascade model for kinetic
turbulence. We conclude that the shape of the spectrum, including the ion scale
flattening, can be captured by the sum of passive density fluctuations at large
scales and kinetic Alfven wave turbulence at small scales
A zone of preferential ion heating extends tens of solar radii from Sun
The extreme temperatures and non-thermal nature of the solar corona and solar
wind arise from an unidentified physical mechanism that preferentially heats
certain ion species relative to others. Spectroscopic indicators of unequal
temperatures commence within a fraction of a solar radius above the surface of
the Sun, but the outer reach of this mechanism has yet to be determined. Here
we present an empirical procedure for combining interplanetary solar wind
measurements and a modeled energy equation including Coulomb relaxation to
solve for the typical outer boundary of this zone of preferential heating.
Applied to two decades of observations by the Wind spacecraft, our results are
consistent with preferential heating being active in a zone extending from the
transition region in the lower corona to an outer boundary 20-40 solar radii
from the Sun, producing a steady state super-mass-proportional
-to-proton temperature ratio of . Preferential ion heating
continues far beyond the transition region and is important for the evolution
of both the outer corona and the solar wind. The outer boundary of this zone is
well below the orbits of spacecraft at 1 AU and even closer missions such as
Helios and MESSENGER, meaning it is likely that no existing mission has
directly observed intense preferential heating, just residual signatures. We
predict that {Parker Solar Probe} will be the first spacecraft with a perihelia
sufficiently close to the Sun to pass through the outer boundary, enter the
zone of preferential heating, and directly observe the physical mechanism in
action.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal on 1 August 201
Structure determination in 55-atom LiâNa and NaâK nanoalloys
ProducciĂłn CientĂficaThe structure of 55-atom LiâNa and NaâK nanoalloys is determined through combined empirical potential (EP) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The potential energy surface generated by the EP model is extensively sampled by using the basin hopping technique, and a wide diversity of structural motifs is reoptimized at the DFT level. A composition comparison technique is applied at the DFT level in order to make a final refinement of the global minimum structures. For dilute concentrations of one of the alkali atoms, the structure of the pure metal cluster, namely, a perfect Mackay icosahedron, remains stable, with the minority component atoms entering the host cluster as substitutional impurities. At intermediate concentrations, the nanoalloys adopt instead a core-shell polyicosahedral (p-Ih) packing, where the element with smaller atomic size and larger cohesive energy segregates to the cluster core. The p-Ih structures show a marked prolate deformation, in agreement with the predictions of jelliumlike models. The electronic preference for a prolate cluster shape, which is frustrated in the 55-atom pure clusters due to the icosahedral geometrical shell closing, is therefore realized only in the 55-atom nanoalloys. An analysis of the electronic densities of states suggests that photoelectron spectroscopy would be a sufficiently sensitive technique to assess the structures of nanoalloys with fixed size and varying compositions
Use of ERTS-1 data to assess and monitor change in the Southern California environment
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
HEMOGLOBIN LABELED BY RADIOACTIVE LYSINE : ERYTHROCYTE LIFE CYCLE
A dog, doubly depleted of blood cells and plasma proteins, was fed dl-lysine labeled with C14 in the epsilon carbon position. In the first 8 hours 28 per cent of the administered C14 was excreted in the urine; in the first 72 hours, 35 per cent. Twenty-four hours after feeding, 4.2 per cent of the fed C14 was circulating in the plasma, decreasing to 1 per cent at the end of 17 days. The C14 content of the blood cells increased from 1 per cent at 24 hours to 5.5 per cent in 5 days and 6.8 per cent in 22 days. Evidence based on the rate of decrease of the C14 content of circulating blood cells is presented indicating an average life of 115 days for the erythrocyte protein as an entity not interchanging with extracellular constituents. This corresponds closely to the life span of the dog erythrocyte, 112 to 133 days according to the best evidence otherwise available and indicates that this experiment has actually measured the life span of the dog erythrocyte. Following breakdown of blood erythrocytes the protein comprising them is not used preferentially for the formation of new erythrocytes
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