2,745 research outputs found
How speed of sound measurements could bring constraints on the composition of Titan's seas
The hydrocarbons seas of Titan, discovered by Cassini/Huygens mission are
among the most mysterious and interesting features of this moon. In the future,
a possible dedicated planetary probe, will certainly measure the speed of sound
in this cryogenic liquid, as it was planned in the case of a Huygens landing
into a sea. Previous theoretical studies of such acoustic measurements were
based on rather simple models, leading in some cases to unphysical situations.
Employed in a vast body of chemical engineering works, the state of the art
PC-SAFT model has been recently introduced in studies aimed at Titan. Here, I
revisit the issue of the speed of sound in Titan's liquids, in the light of
this theory. I describe, in detail, the derivation of the speed of sound from
the chosen equation of state and the potential limitations of the approach. To
make estimations of the composition of a ternary liquid mixture N2:CH4:C2H6
from speed of sound measurements an original inversion algorithm is proposed.
It is shown that 50 measures between 90 K and 100 K are enough to ensure an
accuracy of the derived compositions better than 10%. The influence of the
possible presence of propane is also investigated.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted in MNRA
Dust photophoretic transport around a T Tauri star: Implications for comets composition
There is a growing body of evidences for the presence of crystalline material
in comets. These crystals are believed to have been annealed in the inner part
of the proto-solar nebula, while comets should have been formed in the outer
regions. Several transport processes have been proposed to reconcile these two
facts; among them a migration driven by photophoresis. The primarily goal of
this work is to assess whether disk irradiation by a Pre-Main Sequence star
would influence the photophoretic transport. To do so, we have implemented an
evolving 1+1D model of an accretion disk, including advanced numerical
techniques, undergoing a time-dependent irradiation, consistent with the
evolution of the proto-Sun along the Pre-Main Sequence. The photophoresis is
described using a formalism introduced in several previous works. Adopting the
opacity prescription used in these former studies, we find that the disk
irradiation enhances the photophoretic transport: the assumption of a disk
central hole of several astronomical units in radius is no longer strictly
required, whereas the need for an ad hoc introduction of photoevaporation is
reduced. However, we show that a residual trail of small particles could
annihilate the photophoretic driven transport via their effect on the opacity.
We have also confirmed that the thermal conductivity of transported aggregates
is a crucial parameter which could limit or even suppress the photophoretic
migration and generate several segregation effects
Volatile inventories in clathrate hydrates formed in the primordial nebula
Examination of ambient thermodynamic conditions suggest that clathrate
hydrates could exist in the martian permafrost, on the surface and in the
interior of Titan, as well as in other icy satellites. Clathrate hydrates
probably formed in a significant fraction of planetesimals in the solar system.
Thus, these crystalline solids may have been accreted in comets, in the forming
giant planets and in their surrounding satellite systems. In this work, we use
a statistical thermodynamic model to investigate the composition of clathrate
hydrates that may have formed in the primordial nebula. In our approach, we
consider the formation sequence of the different ices occurring during the
cooling of the nebula, a reasonable idealization of the process by which
volatiles are trapped in planetesimals. We then determine the fractional
occupancies of guests in each clathrate hydrate formed at given temperature.
The major ingredient of our model is the description of the guest-clathrate
hydrate interaction by a spherically averaged Kihara potential with a nominal
set of parameters, most of which being fitted on experimental equilibrium data.
Our model allows us to find that Kr, Ar and N can be efficiently encaged in
clathrate hydrates formed at temperatures higher than 48.5 K in the
primitive nebula, instead of forming pure condensates below 30 K. However, we
find at the same time that the determination of the relative abundances of
guest species incorporated in these clathrate hydrates strongly depends on the
choice of the parameters of the Kihara potential and also on the adopted size
of cages. Indeed, testing different potential parameters, we have noted that
even minor dispersions between the different existing sets can lead to
non-negligible variations in the determination of the volatiles trapped in
clathrate hydrates formed in the primordial nebula.Comment: Accepted for publication in Faraday Discussion
The spectral catalogue of INTEGRAL gamma-ray bursts: results of the joint IBIS/SPI spectral analysis
We present the updated INTEGRAL catalogue of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed
between December 2002 and February 2012. The catalogue contains the spectral
parameters for 59 GRBs localized by the INTEGRAL Burst Alert System (IBAS). We
used the data from the two main instruments on board the INTEGRAL satellite:
the spectrometer SPI (SPectrometer on INTEGRAL) nominally covering the energy
range 18 keV - 8 MeV, and the imager IBIS (the Imager on Board the INTEGRAL
Satellite) operating in the range from 15 keV to 10 MeV. For the spectral
analysis we applied a new data extraction technique, developed in order to
explore the energy regions of highest sensitivity for both instruments, SPI and
IBIS. It allowed us to perform analysis of the GRB spectra over a broad energy
range and to determine the bursts' spectral peak energies. The spectral
analysis was performed on the whole sample of GRBs triggered by IBAS, including
all the events observed in period December 2002 - February 2012. The catalogue
contains the trigger times, burst coordinates, positional errors, durations and
peak fluxes for 28 unpublished GRBs observed between September 2008 and
February 2012. The light curves in 20 - 200 keV energy band of these events
were derived using IBIS data. We compare the prompt emission properties of the
INTEGRAL GRB sample with the BATSE and Fermi samples.Comment: 16 pages, 40 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
An estimate of the chemical composition of Titan's lakes
Hundreds of radar-dark patches interpreted as lakes have been discovered in
the north and south polar regions of Titan. We have estimated the composition
of these lakes by using the direct abundance measurements from the Gas
Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) aboard the Huygens probe and recent
photochemical models based on the vertical temperature profile derived by the
Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI). Thermodynamic equilibrium is
assumed between the atmosphere and the lakes, which are also considered as
nonideal solutions. We find that the main constituents of the lakes are ethane
(C2H6) (~76-79%), propane (C3H8) (~7-8%), methane (CH4) (~5-10%), hydrogen
cyanide (HCN) (~2-3%), butene (C4H8) (~1%), butane (C4H10) (~1%) and acetylene
(C2H2) (~1%). The calculated composition of lakes is then substantially
different from what has been expected from models elaborated prior to the
exploration of Titan by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted in ApJ
Monte-Carlo simulations of the background of the coded-mask camera for X- and Gamma-rays on-board the Chinese-French GRB mission SVOM
For several decades now, wide-field coded mask cameras have been used with
success to localise Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). In these instruments, the event
count rate is dominated by the photon background due to their large field of
view and large effective area. It is therefore essential to estimate the
instrument background expected in orbit during the early phases of the
instrument design in order to optimise the scientific performances of the
mission. We present here a detailed study of the instrument background and
sensitivity of the coded-mask camera for X- and Gamma-rays (CXG) to be used in
the detection and localisation of high-redshift GRBs on-board the international
GRB mission SVOM. To compute the background spectrum, a Monte-Carlo approach
was used to simulate the primary and secondary interactions between particles
from the main components of the space environment that SVOM will encounter
along its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) (with an altitude of 600 km and an inclination
of ~ 30 deg) and the body of the CXG. We consider the detailed mass model of
the CXG in its latest design. According to our results, i) the design of the
passive shield of the camera ensures that in the 4-50 keV imaging band the
cosmic X-Gamma-ray background is dominant whilst the internal background should
start to become dominant above 70-90 keV; ii) the current camera design ensures
that the CXG camera will be more sensitive to high-redshift GRBs than the Swift
Burst Alert Telescope thanks to a low-energy threshold of 4 keV.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures (1 colour), accepted for publication in Nuclear
Instruments and Methods in Physics Research: Section
Quantum transport of two-dimensional Dirac fermions in SrMnBi2
We report two-dimensional quantum transport in SrMnBi single crystals.
The linear energy dispersion leads to the unusual nonsaturated linear
magnetoresistance since all Dirac fermions occupy the lowest Landau level in
the quantum limit. The transverse magnetoresistance exhibits a crossover at a
critical field from semiclassical weak-field dependence to the
high-field linear-field dependence. With increase in the temperature, the
critical field increases and the temperature dependence of
satisfies quadratic behavior which is attributed to the Landau level splitting
of the linear energy dispersion. The effective magnetoresistant mobility
cm/Vs is derived. Angular dependent magnetoresistance
and quantum oscillations suggest dominant two-dimensional (2D) Fermi surfaces.
Our results illustrate the dominant 2D Dirac fermion states in SrMnBi and
imply that bulk crystals with Bi square nets can be used to study low
dimensional electronic transport commonly found in 2D materials like graphene.Comment: 5 papges, 4 figure
The INTEGRAL/SPI response and the Crab observations
The Crab region was observed several times by INTEGRAL for calibration
purposes. This paper aims at underlining the systematic interactions between
(i) observations of this reference source, (ii) in-flight calibration of the
instrumental response and (iii) the development and validation of the analysis
tools of the SPI spectrometer. It first describes the way the response is
produced and how studies of the Crab spectrum lead to improvements and
corrections in the initial response. Then, we present the tools which were
developed to extract spectra from the SPI observation data and finally a Crab
spectrum obtained with one of these methods, to show the agreement with
previous experiments. We conclude with the work still ahead to understand
residual uncertainties in the response.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Proc. of the 5th INTEGRAL Workshop (Feb. 16-20
2004), to be published by ES
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