Telemetry coding study for the international magnetosphere explorers mother-daughter and heliocentric missions. Volume 1: Summary

The convolutional coding study on the IME Mother-Daughter and Heliocentric spacecraft is reported. The three major tasks involved in the study are summarized

Power spectrum analysis of staggered quadriphase-shift-keyed signals

Mathematical analysis of power spectrum of outputs from high-reliability communication system is used to determine system bandwidth. Analysis provides mathematical relationships of signal power spectrum at output of hard limiter for any type of baseband pulse input subjected only to output parameter constraints

The graceful exit in pre-big bang string cosmology

We re-examine the graceful exit problem in the pre-big bang scenario of string cosmology, by considering the most general time-dependent classical correction to the Lagrangian with up to four derivatives. By including possible forms for quantum loop corrections we examine the allowed region of parameter space for the coupling constants which enable our solutions to link smoothly the two asymptotic low-energy branches of the pre-big bang scenario, and observe that these solutions can satisfy recently proposed entropic bounds on viable singularity free cosmologies.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, JHEP class. Added new section on the classical correction and reference

Cosmological perturbations and the transition from contraction to expansion

We investigate both analytically and numerically the evolution of scalar perturbations generated in models which exhibit a smooth transition from a contracting to an expanding Friedmann universe. We find that the resulting spectral index in the late radiation dominated universe depends on which of the $\Psi$ or \$zeta$ variables passes regularly through the transition. The results can be parameterized through the exponent $q$ defining the rate of contraction of the universe. For $q \geq -1/2$ we find that there are no stable cases where both variables are regular during the transition. In particular, for $0<q\ll 1$, we find that the resulting spectral index is close to scale invariant if $\Psi$ is regular, whereas it has a steep blue behavior if $\zeta$ is regular. We also show that as long as $q\leqslant 1$, perturbations arising from the Bardeen potential remain small during contraction in the sense that there exists a gauge in which all the metric and matter perturbation variables are small.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figures. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D. Slight modifications, but no change in the conclusio

Supermanifolds - Application to Supersymmetry

Parity is ubiquitous, but not always identified as a simplifying tool for computations. Using parity, having in mind the example of the bosonic/fermionic Fock space, and the framework of Z_2-graded (super) algebra, we clarify relationships between the different definitions of supermanifolds proposed by various people. In addition, we work with four complexes allowing an invariant definition of divergence: - an ascending complex of forms, and a descending complex of densities on real variables - an ascending complex of forms, and descending complex of densities on Grass mann variables. This study is a step towards an invariant definition of integrals of superfunctions defined on supermanifolds leading to an extension to infinite dimensions. An application is given to a construction of supersymmetric Fock spaces.Comment: to appear in the "Michael Marinov Memorial Volume

Telemetry coding study for the international magnetosphere explorers, mother/daughter and heliocentric missions. Volume 2: Final report

A convolutional coding theory is given for the IME and the Heliocentric spacecraft. The amount of coding gain needed by the mission is determined. Recommendations are given for an encoder/decoder system to provide the gain along with an evaluation of the impact of the system on the space network in terms of costs and complexity

Shuttle communications design study

The design and development of a space shuttle communication system are discussed. The subjects considered include the following: (1) Ku-band satellite relay to shuttle, (2) phased arrays, (3) PN acquisition, (4) quadriplexing of direct link ranging and telemetry, (5) communications blackout on launch and reentry, (6) acquisition after blackout on reentry, (7) wideband communications interface with the Ku-Band rendezvous radar, (8) aeroflight capabilities of the space shuttle, (9) a triple multiplexing scheme equivalent to interplex, and (10) a study of staggered quadriphase for use on the space shuttle

Operations on integral lifts of K(n)

This very rough sketch is a sequel to arXiv:1808.08587; it presents evidence that operations on lifts of the functors K(n) to cohomology theories with values in modules over valuation rings of local number fields, indexed by Lubin-Tate groups of such fields, are extensions of the groups of automorphisms of the indexing group laws, by the exterior algebras on the normal bundle to the orbits of the group laws in the space of lifts.Comment: \S 2.0 hopefully less cryptic. To appear in the proceedings of the 2015 Nagoya conference honoring T Ohkawa. Comments very welcome

The QUEST-La Silla AGN Variability Survey

We present the characterization and initial results from the QUEST-La Silla AGN variability survey. This is an effort to obtain well sampled optical light curves in extragalactic fields with unique multi-wavelength observations. We present photometry obtained from 2010 to 2012 in the XMM-COSMOS field, which was observed over 150 nights using the QUEST camera on the ESO-Schmidt telescope. The survey uses a broadband filter, the $Q$-band, similar to the union of the $g$ and the $r$ filters, achieving an intrinsic photometric dispersion of $0.05$ mag, and a systematic error of $0.05$ mag in the zero-point. Since some detectors of the camera show significant non-linearity, we use a linear correlation to fit the zero-points as a function of the instrumental magnitudes, thus obtaining a good correction to the non-linear behavior of these detectors. We obtain good photometry to an equivalent limiting magnitude of $r\sim 20.5$. Studying the optical variability of X-ray detected sources in the XMM-COSMOS field, we find that the survey is $\sim75-80$% complete to magnitudes $r\sim20$, and $\sim67$% complete to a magnitude $r\sim21$. The determination and parameterization of the structure function (${SF}_{norm}(\tau) = A \tau^{\gamma}$) of the variable sources shows that most BL AGN are characterized by $A > 0.1$ and $\gamma > 0.025$. It is further shown that variable NL AGN and GAL sources occupying the same parameter space in $A$ and $\gamma$ are very likely to correspond to obscured or low luminosity AGN. Our samples are, however, small, and we expect to revisit these results using larger samples with longer light curves obtained as part of our ongoing survey.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap