5,315 research outputs found
The development of word recognition: The use of the possible-word constraint by 12-month-olds
Compression of Martian atmosphere for production of oxygen
The compression of CO2 from the Martian atmosphere for production of O2 via an electrochemical cell is addressed. Design specifications call for an oxygen production rate of 10 kg per day and for compression of 50 times that mass of CO2. Those specifications require a compression rate of over 770 cfm at standard Martian temperature and pressure (SMTP). Much of the CO2 being compressed represents waste, unless it can be recycled. Recycling can reduce the volume of gas that must be compressed to 40 cfm at SMTP. That volume reduction represents significant mass savings in the compressor, heating equipment, filters, and energy source. Successful recycle of the gas requires separation of CO (produced in the electrochemical cell) from CO2, N2, and Ar found in the Martian atmosphere. That aspect was the focus of this work
Regularization of the second-order gravitational perturbations produced by a compact object
The equations for the second-order gravitational perturbations produced by a
compact-object have highly singular source terms at the point particle limit.
At this limit the standard retarded solutions to these equations are
ill-defined. Here we construct well-defined and physically meaningful solutions
to these equations. These solutions are important for practical calculations:
the planned gravitational-wave detector LISA requires preparation of waveform
templates for the potential gravitational-waves. Construction of templates with
desired accuracy for extreme mass ratio binaries, in which a compact-object
inspirals towards a supermassive black-hole, requires calculation of the
second-order gravitational perturbations produced by the compact-object.Comment: 12 pages, discussion expanded, to be published in Phys. Rev. D Rapid
Communicatio
Estimating tropical forest biomass with a combination of SAR image texture and Landsat TM data:an assessment of predictions between regions
Construction of the second-order gravitational perturbations produced by a compact object
Accurate calculation of the gradual inspiral motion in an extreme mass-ratio
binary system, in which a compact-object inspirals towards a supermassive
black-hole requires calculation of the interaction between the compact-object
and the gravitational perturbations that it induces. These metric perturbations
satisfy linear partial differential equations on a curved background spacetime
induced by the supermassive black-hole. At the point particle limit the
second-order perturbations equations have source terms that diverge as
, where is the distance from the particle. This singular behavior
renders the standard retarded solutions of these equations ill-defined. Here we
resolve this problem and construct well-defined and physically meaningful
solutions to these equations. We recently presented an outline of this
resolution [E. Rosenthal, Phys. Rev. D 72, 121503 (2005)]. Here we provide the
full details of this analysis. These second-order solutions are important for
practical calculations: the planned gravitational-wave detector LISA requires
preparation of waveform templates for the expected gravitational-waves.
Construction of templates with desired accuracy for extreme mass-ratio binaries
requires accurate calculation of the inspiral motion including the interaction
with the second-order gravitational perturbations.Comment: 30 page
Regularization of second-order scalar perturbation produced by a point-particle with a nonlinear coupling
Accurate calculation of the motion of a compact object in a background
spacetime induced by a supermassive black hole is required for the future
detection of such binary systems by the gravitational-wave detector LISA.
Reaching the desired accuracy requires calculation of the second-order
gravitational perturbations produced by the compact object. At the point
particle limit the second-order gravitational perturbation equations turn out
to have highly singular source terms, for which the standard retarded solutions
diverge. Here we study a simplified scalar toy-model in which a point particle
induces a nonlinear scalar field in a given curved spacetime. The corresponding
second-order scalar perturbation equation in this model is found to have a
similar singular source term, and therefore its standard retarded solutions
diverge. We develop a regularization method for constructing well-defined
causal solutions for this equation. Notably these solutions differ from the
standard retarded solutions, which are ill-defined in this case.Comment: 14 page
LISA Response Function and Parameter Estimation
We investigate the response function of LISA and consider the adequacy of its
commonly used approximation in the high-frequency range of the observational
band. We concentrate on monochromatic binary systems, such as white dwarf
binaries. We find that above a few mHz the approxmation starts becoming
increasingly inaccurate. The transfer function introduces additional amplitude
and phase modulations in the measured signal that influence parameter estmation
and, if not properly accounted for, lead to losses of signal-to-noise ratio.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, amaldi 5 conference proceeding
English-learning infants’ perception of word stress patterns
Adult speakers of different free stress languages (e.g., English, Spanish) differ both in their sensitivity to lexical stress and in their processing of suprasegmental and vowel quality cues to stress. In a head-turn preference experiment with a familiarization phase, both 8-month-old and 12-month-old English-learning infants discriminated between initial stress and final stress among lists of Spanish-spoken disyllabic nonwords that were segmentally varied (e.g. [ˈnila, ˈtuli] vs [luˈta, puˈki]). This is evidence that English-learning infants are sensitive to lexical stress patterns, instantiated primarily by suprasegmental cues, during the second half of the first year of life
A Bayesian approach to the follow-up of candidate gravitational wave signals
Ground-based gravitational wave laser interferometers (LIGO, GEO-600, Virgo
and Tama-300) have now reached high sensitivity and duty cycle. We present a
Bayesian evidence-based approach to the search for gravitational waves, in
particular aimed at the followup of candidate events generated by the analysis
pipeline. We introduce and demonstrate an efficient method to compute the
evidence and odds ratio between different models, and illustrate this approach
using the specific case of the gravitational wave signal generated during the
inspiral phase of binary systems, modelled at the leading quadrupole Newtonian
order, in synthetic noise. We show that the method is effective in detecting
signals at the detection threshold and it is robust against (some types of)
instrumental artefacts. The computational efficiency of this method makes it
scalable to the analysis of all the triggers generated by the analysis
pipelines to search for coalescing binaries in surveys with ground-based
interferometers, and to a whole variety of signal waveforms, characterised by a
larger number of parameters.Comment: 9 page
Measuring black-hole parameters and testing general relativity using gravitational-wave data from space-based interferometers
Among the expected sources of gravitational waves for the Laser
Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is the capture of solar-mass compact stars
by massive black holes residing in galactic centers. We construct a simple
model for such a capture, in which the compact star moves freely on a circular
orbit in the equatorial plane of the massive black hole. We consider the
gravitational waves emitted during the late stages of orbital evolution,
shortly before the orbiting mass reaches the innermost stable circular orbit.
We construct a simple model for the gravitational-wave signal, in which the
phasing of the waves plays the dominant role. The signal's behavior depends on
a number of parameters, including , the mass of the orbiting star, ,
the mass of the central black hole, and , the black hole's angular momentum.
We calculate, using our simplified model, and in the limit of large
signal-to-noise ratio, the accuracy with which these quantities can be
estimated during a gravitational-wave measurement. Our simplified model also
suggests a method for experimentally testing the strong-field predictions of
general relativity.Comment: ReVTeX, 16 pages, 5 postscript figure
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