50 research outputs found
A Comment on "The Far Future of Exoplanet Direct Characterization" - the Case for Interstellar Space Probes
Following on from ideas presented in a recent paper by Schneider et al.
(2010) on "The Far Future of Exoplanet Direct Characterization", I argue that
they have exaggerated the technical obstacles to performing such 'direct
characterization' by means of fast (order 0.1c) interstellar space probes. A
brief summary of rapid interstellar spaceflight concepts that may be found in
the literature is presented. I argue that the presence of interstellar dust
grains, while certainly something which will need to be allowed for in
interstellar vehicle design, is unlikely to be the kind of 'show stopper'
suggested by Schneider et al. Astrobiology as a discipline would be a major
beneficiary of developing an interstellar spaceflight capability, albeit in the
longer term, and I argue that astrobiologists should keep an open mind to the
possibilities.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrobiolog
Mars climate engineering using orbiting solar reflectors
The manned mission is seen as a first step towards a Mars surface exploration base-station and, later, establishing permanent settlement. The location and use of Mars's natural resources is vital to enable cost-effective long-duration human exploration and exploitation missions as well as subsequent human colonization. Planet resources include various crust-lodged materials, a low-pressure natural atmosphere, assorted forms of utilizable energy, lower gravity than Earth's, and ground placement advantages relative to human operability and living standards. Power resources may include using solar and wind energy, importation of nuclear reactors and the harvesting of geothermal potential. In fact, a new branch of human civilization could be established permanently on Mars in the next century. But, meantime, an inventory and proper social assessment of Mars's prospective energy and material resources is required. This book investigates the possibilities and limitations of various systems supplying manned bases on Mars with energy and other vital resources. The book collects together recent proposals and innovative options and solutions. It is a useful source of condensed information for specialists involved in current and impending Mars-related activities and a good starting point for young researchers
Coupling of Linearized Gravity to Nonrelativistic Test Particles: Dynamics in the General Laboratory Frame
The coupling of gravity to matter is explored in the linearized gravity
limit. The usual derivation of gravity-matter couplings within the
quantum-field-theoretic framework is reviewed. A number of inconsistencies
between this derivation of the couplings, and the known results of tidal
effects on test particles according to classical general relativity are pointed
out. As a step towards resolving these inconsistencies, a General Laboratory
Frame fixed on the worldline of an observer is constructed. In this frame, the
dynamics of nonrelativistic test particles in the linearized gravity limit is
studied, and their Hamiltonian dynamics is derived. It is shown that for
stationary metrics this Hamiltonian reduces to the usual Hamiltonian for
nonrelativistic particles undergoing geodesic motion. For nonstationary metrics
with long-wavelength gravitational waves (GWs) present, it reduces to the
Hamiltonian for a nonrelativistic particle undergoing geodesic
\textit{deviation} motion. Arbitrary-wavelength GWs couple to the test particle
through a vector-potential-like field , the net result of the tidal forces
that the GW induces in the system, namely, a local velocity field on the system
induced by tidal effects as seen by an observer in the general laboratory
frame. Effective electric and magnetic fields, which are related to the
electric and magnetic parts of the Weyl tensor, are constructed from that
obey equations of the same form as Maxwell's equations . A gedankin
gravitational Aharonov-Bohm-type experiment using to measure the
interference of quantum test particles is presented.Comment: 38 pages, 7 figures, written in ReVTeX. To appear in Physical Review
D. Galley proofs corrections adde
Natural and sail-displaced doubly-symmetric Lagrange point orbits for polar coverage
This paper proposes the use of doubly-symmetric, eight-shaped orbits in the circular restricted three-body problem for continuous coverage of the high-latitude regions of the Earth. These orbits, for a range of amplitudes, spend a large fraction of their period above either pole of the Earth. It is shown that they complement Sun-synchronous polar and highly eccentric Molniya orbits, and present a possible alternative to low thrust pole-sitter orbits. Both natural and solar-sail displaced orbits are considered. Continuation methods are described and used to generate families of these orbits. Starting from ballistic orbits, other families are created either by increasing the sail lightness number, varying the period or changing the sail attitude. Some representative orbits are then chosen to demonstrate the visibility of high-latitude regions throughout the year. A stability analysis is also performed, revealing that the orbits are unstable: it is found that for particular orbits, a solar sail can reduce their instability. A preliminary design of a linear quadratic regulator is presented as a solution to stabilize the system by using the solar sail only. Finally, invariant manifolds are exploited to identify orbits that present the opportunity of a ballistic transfer directly from low Earth orbit
A Gravitational Aharonov-Bohm Effect, and its Connection to Parametric Oscillators and Gravitational Radiation
A thought experiment is proposed to demonstrate the existence of a
gravitational, vector Aharonov-Bohm effect. A connection is made between the
gravitational, vector Aharonov-Bohm effect and the principle of local gauge
invariance for nonrelativistic quantum matter interacting with weak
gravitational fields. The compensating vector fields that are necessitated by
this local gauge principle are shown to be incorporated by the DeWitt minimal
coupling rule. The nonrelativistic Hamiltonian for weak, time-independent
fields interacting with quantum matter is then extended to time-dependent
fields, and applied to problem of the interaction of radiation with
macroscopically coherent quantum systems, including the problem of
gravitational radiation interacting with superconductors. But first we examine
the interaction of EM radiation with superconductors in a parametric oscillator
consisting of a superconducting wire placed at the center of a high Q
superconducting cavity driven by pump microwaves. We find that the threshold
for parametric oscillation for EM microwave generation is much lower for the
separated configuration than the unseparated one, which then leads to an
observable dynamical Casimir effect. We speculate that a separated parametric
oscillator for generating coherent GR microwaves could also be built.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, YA80 conference (Chapman University, 2012
On the Detection of a Scalar Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves
In the near future we will witness the coming to a full operational regime of
laser interferometers and resonant mass detectors of spherical shape. In this
work we study the sensitivity of pairs of such gravitational wave detectors to
a scalar stochastic background of gravitational waves. Our computations are
carried out both for minimal and non minimal coupling of the scalar fields.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure
The Sensitivity of Ligo to a Stochastic Background, and its Dependance on the Detector Orientations
We analyze the sensitivity of a network of interferometer gravitational-wave
detectors to the gravitational-wave stochastic background, and derive the
dependence of this sensitivity on the orientations of the detector arms. We
build on and extend the recent work of Christensen, but our conclusion for the
optimal choice of orientations of a pair of detectors differs from his. For a
pair of detectors (such as LIGO) that subtends an angle at the center of the
earth of \,\alt 70^\circ, we find that the optimal configuration is for each
detector to have its arms make an angle of (modulo ) with
the arc of the great circle that joins them. For detectors that are farther
separated, each detector should instead have one arm aligned with this arc. We
also describe in detail the optimal data-analysis algorithm for searching for
the stochastic background with a detector network, which is implicit in earlier
work of Michelson. The LIGO pair of detectors will be separated by . The minimum detectable stochastic energy-density for these
detectors with their currently planned orientations is greater than
what it would be if the orientations were optimal.Comment: 56 pages, 10 figures, Caltech preprint GRP-347, submitted to Phys Rev
D, uses revtex macro
Comparação da eficiência dos caldos de enriquecimento seletivo no isolamento de Salmonella Dublin
Field Measurements of Terrestrial and Martian Dust Devils
Surface-based measurements of terrestrial and martian dust devils/convective vortices provided from mobile and stationary platforms are discussed. Imaging of terrestrial dust devils has quantified their rotational and vertical wind speeds, translation speeds, dimensions, dust load, and frequency of occurrence. Imaging of martian dust devils has provided translation speeds and constraints on dimensions, but only limited constraints on vertical motion within a vortex. The longer mission durations on Mars afforded by long operating robotic landers and rovers have provided statistical quantification of vortex occurrence (time-of-sol, and recently seasonal) that has until recently not been a primary outcome of more temporally limited terrestrial dust devil measurement campaigns. Terrestrial measurement campaigns have included a more extensive range of measured vortex parameters (pressure, wind, morphology, etc.) than have martian opportunities, with electric field and direct measure of dust abundance not yet obtained on Mars. No martian robotic mission has yet provided contemporaneous high frequency wind and pressure measurements. Comparison of measured terrestrial and martian dust devil characteristics suggests that martian dust devils are larger and possess faster maximum rotational wind speeds, that the absolute magnitude of the pressure deficit within a terrestrial dust devil is an order of magnitude greater than a martian dust devil, and that the time-of-day variation in vortex frequency is similar. Recent terrestrial investigations have demonstrated the presence of diagnostic dust devil signals within seismic and infrasound measurements; an upcoming Mars robotic mission will obtain similar measurement types