4,243 research outputs found
Dissipation in intercluster plasma
We discuss dissipative processes in strongly gyrotropic, nearly collisionless
plasma in clusters of galaxies (ICM). First, we point out that Braginsky
theory, which assumes that collisions are more frequent that the system's
dynamical time scale, is inapplicable to fast, sub-viscous ICM motion. Most
importantly, the electron contribution to collisional magneto-viscosity
dominates over that of ions for short-scale Alfvenic motions. Thus, if a
turbulent cascade develops in the ICM and propagates down to scales
kpc, it is damped collisionally not on ions, but on electrons. Second, in high
beta plasma of ICM, small variations of the magnetic field strength, of
relative value , lead to development of anisotropic pressure
instabilities (firehose, mirror and cyclotron). Unstable wave modes may provide
additional resonant scattering of particles, effectively keeping the plasma in
a state of marginal stability. We show that in this case the dissipation rate
of a laminar, subsonic, incompressible flows scales as inverse of plasma beta
parameter. We discuss application to the problem of ICM heating.Comment: 4 pages, accepted by ApJ Let
Shearing Box Simulations of the MRI in a Collisionless Plasma
We describe local shearing box simulations of turbulence driven by the
magnetorotational instability (MRI) in a collisionless plasma. Collisionless
effects may be important in radiatively inefficient accretion flows, such as
near the black hole in the Galactic Center. The MHD version of ZEUS is modified
to evolve an anisotropic pressure tensor. A fluid closure approximation is used
to calculate heat conduction along magnetic field lines. The anisotropic
pressure tensor provides a qualitatively new mechanism for transporting angular
momentum in accretion flows (in addition to the Maxwell and Reynolds stresses).
We estimate limits on the pressure anisotropy due to pitch angle scattering by
kinetic instabilities. Such instabilities provide an effective ``collision''
rate in a collisionless plasma and lead to more MHD-like dynamics. We find that
the MRI leads to efficient growth of the magnetic field in a collisionless
plasma, with saturation amplitudes comparable to those in MHD. In the saturated
state, the anisotropic stress is comparable to the Maxwell stress, implying
that the rate of angular momentum transport may be moderately enhanced in a
collisionless plasma.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Ap
On the Abundance of Circumbinary Planets
We present here the first observationally based determination of the rate of
occurrence of circumbinary planets. This is derived from the publicly available
Kepler data, using an automated search algorithm and debiasing process to
produce occurrence rates implied by the seven systems already known. These
rates depend critically on the planetary inclination distribution: if
circumbinary planets are preferentially coplanar with their host binaries, as
has been suggested, then the rate of occurrence of planets with
orbiting with \ d is \% (95\% confidence limits),
higher than but consistent with single star rates. If on the other hand the
underlying planetary inclination distribution is isotropic, then this
occurrence rate rises dramatically, to give a lower limit of 47\%. This implies
that formation and subsequent dynamical evolution in circumbinary disks must
either lead to largely coplanar planets, or proceed with significantly greater
ease than in circumstellar disks. As a result of this investigation we also
show that giant planets () are significantly less common in
circumbinary orbits than their smaller siblings, and confirm that the proposed
shortfall of circumbinary planets orbiting the shorter period binaries in the
Kepler sample is a real effect.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (1st August 2014). 12 pages. Update
to match final version, including clarifications and new figures. Results are
unchange
Hartmann flow with Braginsky viscosity: a test problem for intercluster plasma
We consider a Hartmann layer, stationary flow of a viscose and resistive
fluid between two plates with superimposed transverse magnetic field, in the
limit of gyrotropic plasma, when viscosity across the field is strongly
suppressed. For zero cross-field viscosity, the problem is not well posed,
since viscosity then vanishes on the boundaries and in the middle of the layer,
where there is no longitudinal field. An additional arbitrarily small isotropic
viscosity allows one to find magnetic field and velocity profiles which are
independent of this viscosity floor and different from flows with isotropic
viscosity. Velocity sharply rises in a thin boundary layer, which thickness
depends both on the Hartmann number and on the Lundquist number of the flow.
The implication of the work is that, in simulating ICM dynamics it is
imperative to use numerical schemes which take into account anisotropic
viscosity. Although magnetic fields are dynamically subdominant in the ICM they
do determine its the dissipative properties, stability of embedded structures
and the transition to turbulence.Comment: 3 pages, accepted by Ap
Precise nondivergent analytic formulas for the radiative corrections to the beta energy spectrum in hyperon semileptonic decays over the entire Dalitz plot
Very accurate analytical expressions for the radiative corrections of
unpolarized hyperons semileptonic decays of charged and neutral baryons have
been obtained in the recent past. Some of these formulas contain logarithmic
singularities at the edges of the Dalitz plot for the three- and four-body
decays. These singularities are analyzed and integrated analytically to obtain
new divergentless formulas for the energy spectrum of the produced beta
particle. The new equations contain terms of the order alpha times the momentum
transfer, are applicable to any beta decay process and are suitable for a
model-independent experimental analysis.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure
Measuring longitudinal amplitudes for electroproduction of pseudoscalar mesons using recoil polarization in parallel kinematics
We propose a new method for measuring longitudinal amplitudes for
electroproduction of pseudoscalar mesons that exploits a symmetry relation for
polarization observables in parallel kinematics. This polarization technique
does not require variation of electron scattering kinematics and avoids the
major sources of systematic errors in Rosenbluth separation.Comment: intended for Phys. Rev. C as a Brief Repor
Properties of Regge Trajectories
Early Chew-Frautschi plots show that meson and baryon Regge trajectoies are
approximately linear and non-intersecting. In this paper, we reconstruct all
Regge trajectories from the most recent data. Our plots show that meson
trajectories are non-linear and intersecting. We also show that all current
meson Regge trajectories models are ruled out by data.Comment: 30 pages, latex, 18 figures, to be published in Physical Review
The Threshold Pion-Photoproduction of Nucleons In The Chiral Quark Model
In this paper, we show that the low energy theorem (LET) of the threshold
pion-photoproduction can be fully recovered in the quark model. An essential
result of this investigation is that the quark-pion operators are obtained from
the effective chiral Lagrangian, and the low energy theorem does not require
the constraints on the internal structures of the nucleon. The pseudoscalar
quark-pion coupling generates an additional term at order only
in the isospin amplitude . The role of the transitions between the
nucleon and the resonance and P-wave baryons are also discussed,
we find that the leading contributions to the isospin amplitudes at
are from the transition between the P-wave baryons and the nucleon and the
charge radius of the nucleon. The leading contribution from the P-wave baryons
only affects the neutral pion production, and improve the agreement with data
significantly. The transition between the resonance and the
nucleon only gives an order corrections to
Statistical properties of thermodynamically predicted RNA secondary structures in viral genomes
By performing a comprehensive study on 1832 segments of 1212 complete genomes
of viruses, we show that in viral genomes the hairpin structures of
thermodynamically predicted RNA secondary structures are more abundant than
expected under a simple random null hypothesis. The detected hairpin structures
of RNA secondary structures are present both in coding and in noncoding regions
for the four groups of viruses categorized as dsDNA, dsRNA, ssDNA and ssRNA.
For all groups hairpin structures of RNA secondary structures are detected more
frequently than expected for a random null hypothesis in noncoding rather than
in coding regions. However, potential RNA secondary structures are also present
in coding regions of dsDNA group. In fact we detect evolutionary conserved RNA
secondary structures in conserved coding and noncoding regions of a large set
of complete genomes of dsDNA herpesviruses.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
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