1,319 research outputs found
The Numerical Simulation of Radiative Shocks I: The elimination of numerical shock instabilities using a localized oscillation filter
We address a numerical instability that arises in the directionally split
computation of hydrodynamic flows when shock fronts are parallel to a grid
plane. Transverse oscillations in pressure, density and temperature are
produced that are exacerbated by thermal instability when cooling is present,
forming post--shock `stripes'. These are orthogonal to the classic post--shock
'ringing' fluctuations. The resulting post--shock `striping' substantially
modifies the flow. We discuss three different methods to resolve this problem.
These include (1) a method based on artificial viscosity; (2) grid--jittering
and (3) a new localized oscillation filter that acts on specific grid cells in
the shock front. These methods are tested using a radiative wall shock problem
with an embedded shear layer. The artificial viscosity method is unsatisfactory
since, while it does reduce post--shock ringing, it does not eliminate the
stripes and the excessive shock broadening renders the calculation of cooling
inaccurate, resulting in an incorrect shock location. Grid--jittering
effectively counteracts striping. However, elsewhere on the grid, the shear
layer is unphysically diffused and this is highlighted in an extreme case. The
oscillation filter method removes stripes and permits other high velocity
gradient regions of the flow to evolve in a physically acceptable manner. It
also has the advantage of only acting on a small fraction of the cells in a two
or three dimensional simulation and does not significantly impair performance.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, revised version submitted to ApJ Supplement
Serie
The fish fauna of the Iwokrama Forest
Fishes were collected from the rivers in and around the Iwokrama Forest during January-February and November-December 1997. Four hundred species of fish were recorded from forty families in ten orders. Many of these fishes are newly recorded from Guyana and several are thought to be endemic. The number of species recorded for the area is surprising given the low level of effort and suggests that this area may be particularly important from a fish diversity perspective. This paper focuses on species of particular interest from a management perspective including those considered economically important, rare or endangered. The paper is also the basis for developing fisheries management systems in the Iwokrama Forest and Rupununi Wetlands
Instability of toroidal magnetic field in jets and plerions
Jets and pulsar-fed supernova remnants (plerions) tend to develop highly
organized toroidal magnetic field. Such a field structure could explain the
polarization properties of some jets, and contribute to their lateral
confinement. A toroidal field geometry is also central to models for the Crab
Nebula - the archetypal plerion - and leads to the deduction that the Crab
pulsar's wind must have a weak magnetic field. Yet this `Z-pinch' field
configuration is well known to be locally unstable, even when the magnetic
field is weak and/or boundary conditions slow or suppress global modes. Thus,
the magnetic field structures imputed to the interiors of jets and plerions are
unlikely to persist.
To demonstrate this, I present a local analysis of Z-pinch instabilities for
relativistic fluids in the ideal MHD limit. Kink instabilities dominate,
destroying the concentric field structure and probably driving the system
toward a more chaotic state in which the mean field strength is independent of
radius (and in which resistive dissipation of the field may be enhanced). I
estimate the timescales over which the field structure is likely to be
rearranged and relate these to distances along relativistic jets and radii from
the central pulsar in a plerion.
I conclude that a concentric toroidal field is unlikely to exist well outside
the Crab pulsar's wind termination shock. There is thus no dynamical reason to
conclude that the magnetic energy flux carried by the pulsar wind is much
weaker than the kinetic energy flux. Abandoning this inference would resolve a
long-standing puzzle in pulsar wind theory.Comment: 28 pages, plain TeX. Accepted for publication in Ap
Numerical wave optics and the lensing of gravitational waves by globular clusters
We consider the possible effects of gravitational lensing by globular
clusters on gravitational waves from asymmetric neutron stars in our galaxy. In
the lensing of gravitational waves, the long wavelength, compared with the
usual case of optical lensing, can lead to the geometrical optics approximation
being invalid, in which case a wave optical solution is necessary. In general,
wave optical solutions can only be obtained numerically. We describe a
computational method that is particularly well suited to numerical wave optics.
This method enables us to compare the properties of several lens models for
globular clusters without ever calling upon the geometrical optics
approximation, though that approximation would sometimes have been valid.
Finally, we estimate the probability that lensing by a globular cluster will
significantly affect the detection, by ground-based laser interferometer
detectors such as LIGO, of gravitational waves from an asymmetric neutron star
in our galaxy, finding that the probability is insignificantly small.Comment: To appear in: Proceedings of the Eleventh Marcel Grossmann Meetin
The Evolution of Shocks in Blazar Jets
We consider the shock structures that can arise in blazar jets as a
consequence of variations in the jet flow velocity. There are two possible
cases: (1) A double shock system consisting of both a forward and reverse shock
(2) A single shock (either forward or reverse) together with a rarefaction
wave. These possibilities depend upon the relative velocity of the two
different sections of jet. Using previously calculated spherical models for
estimates of the magnetic field and electron number density of the emission
region in the TeV blazar Markarian 501, we show that this region is in the form
of a thin disk, in the plasma rest frame. It is possible to reconcile spectral
and pair opacity constraints for MKN 501 for Doppler factors in the range of
10--20. This is easiest if the corrections for TeV absorption by the infrared
background are not as large as implied by recent models.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in PASA, 19, No.1, AGN
Variability across the Electromagnetic Spectru
- …