Analysis of on-orbit thermal characteristics of the 15-meter hoop/column antenna

In recent years, interest in large deployable space antennae has led to the development of the 15 meter hoop/column antenna. The thermal environment the antenna is expected to experience during orbit is examined and the temperature distributions leading to reflector surface distortion errors are determined. Two flight orientations corresponding to: (1) normal operation, and (2) use in a Shuttle-attached flight experiment are examined. A reduced element model was used to determine element temperatures at 16 orbit points for both flight orientations. The temperature ranged from a minimum of 188 K to a maximum of 326 K. Based on the element temperatures, orbit position leading to possible worst case surface distortions were determined, and the subsequent temperatures were used in a static finite element analysis to quantify surface control cord deflections. The predicted changes in the control cord lengths were in the submillimeter ranges

Environmental Quenching of Low-Mass Field Galaxies

In the local Universe, there is a strong division in the star-forming properties of low-mass galaxies, with star formation largely ubiquitous amongst the field population while satellite systems are predominantly quenched. This dichotomy implies that environmental processes play the dominant role in suppressing star formation within this low-mass regime (${M}_{\star} \sim 10^{5.5-8}~{\rm M}_{\odot}$). As shown by observations of the Local Volume, however, there is a non-negligible population of passive systems in the field, which challenges our understanding of quenching at low masses. By applying the satellite quenching models of Fillingham et al. (2015) to subhalo populations in the Exploring the Local Volume In Simulations (ELVIS) suite, we investigate the role of environmental processes in quenching star formation within the nearby field. Using model parameters that reproduce the satellite quenched fraction in the Local Group, we predict a quenched fraction -- due solely to environmental effects -- of $\sim 0.52 \pm 0.26$ within $1< R/R_{\rm vir} < 2$ of the Milky Way and M31. This is in good agreement with current observations of the Local Volume and suggests that the majority of the passive field systems observed at these distances are quenched via environmental mechanisms. Beyond $2~R_{\rm vir}$, however, dwarf galaxy quenching becomes difficult to explain through an interaction with either the Milky Way or M31, such that more isolated, field dwarfs may be self-quenched as a result of star-formation feedback.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, MNRAS accepted version, comments welcome - RIP Ducky...gone but never forgotte

Taking Care of Business in a Flash: Constraining the Timescale for Low-Mass Satellite Quenching with ELVIS

The vast majority of dwarf satellites orbiting the Milky Way and M31 are quenched, while comparable galaxies in the field are gas-rich and star-forming. Assuming that this dichotomy is driven by environmental quenching, we use the ELVIS suite of N-body simulations to constrain the characteristic timescale upon which satellites must quench following infall into the virial volumes of their hosts. The high satellite quenched fraction observed in the Local Group demands an extremely short quenching timescale (~ 2 Gyr) for dwarf satellites in the mass range Mstar ~ 10^6-10^8 Msun. This quenching timescale is significantly shorter than that required to explain the quenched fraction of more massive satellites (~ 8 Gyr), both in the Local Group and in more massive host halos, suggesting a dramatic change in the dominant satellite quenching mechanism at Mstar < 10^8 Msun. Combining our work with the results of complementary analyses in the literature, we conclude that the suppression of star formation in massive satellites (Mstar ~ 10^8 - 10^11 Msun) is broadly consistent with being driven by starvation, such that the satellite quenching timescale corresponds to the cold gas depletion time. Below a critical stellar mass scale of ~ 10^8 Msun, however, the required quenching times are much shorter than the expected cold gas depletion times. Instead, quenching must act on a timescale comparable to the dynamical time of the host halo. We posit that ram-pressure stripping can naturally explain this behavior, with the critical mass (of Mstar ~ 10^8 Msun) corresponding to halos with gravitational restoring forces that are too weak to overcome the drag force encountered when moving through an extended, hot circumgalactic medium.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures; resubmitted to MNRAS after referee report (August 25, 2015

Under Pressure: Quenching Star Formation in Low-Mass Satellite Galaxies via Stripping

Recent studies of galaxies in the local Universe, including those in the Local Group, find that the efficiency of environmental (or satellite) quenching increases dramatically at satellite stellar masses below ~ $10^8\ {\rm M}_{\odot}$. This suggests a physical scale where quenching transitions from a slow "starvation" mode to a rapid "stripping" mode at low masses. We investigate the plausibility of this scenario using observed HI surface density profiles for a sample of 66 nearby galaxies as inputs to analytic calculations of ram-pressure and viscous stripping. Across a broad range of host properties, we find that stripping becomes increasingly effective at $M_{*} < 10^{8-9}\ {\rm M}_{\odot}$, reproducing the critical mass scale observed. However, for canonical values of the circumgalactic medium density ($n_{\rm halo} < 10^{-3.5}$${\rm cm}^{-3}$), we find that stripping is not fully effective; infalling satellites are, on average, stripped of < 40 - 70% of their cold gas reservoir, which is insufficient to match observations. By including a host halo gas distribution that is clumpy and therefore contains regions of higher density, we are able to reproduce the observed HI gas fractions (and thus the high quenched fraction and short quenching timescale) of Local Group satellites, suggesting that a host halo with clumpy gas may be crucial for quenching low-mass systems in Local Group-like (and more massive) host halos.Comment: updated version after review, now accepted to MNRAS; Accepted 2016 August 22. Received 2016 August 18; in original form 2016 June 2

Canonical and kinetic forms of the electromagnetic momentum in an ad hoc quantization scheme for a dispersive dielectric

An ad hoc quantization scheme for the electromagnetic field in a weakly dispersive, transparent dielectric leads to the definition of canonical and kinetic forms for the momentum of the electromagnetic field in a dispersive medium. The canonical momentum is uniquely defined as the operator that generates spatial translations in a uniform medium, but the quantization scheme suggests two possible choices for the kinetic momentum operator, corresponding to the Abraham or the Minkowski momentum in classical electrodynamics. Another implication of this procedure is that a wave packet containing a single dressed photon travels at the group velocity through the medium. The physical significance of the canonical momentum has already been established by considerations of energy and momentum conservation in the atomic recoil due to spontaneous emission, the Cerenkov effect, the Doppler effect, and phase matching in nonlinear optical processes. In addition, the data of the Jones and Leslie radiation pressure experiment is consistent with the assignment of one ?k unit of canonical momentum to each dressed photon. By contrast, experiments in which the dielectric is rigidly accelerated by unbalanced electromagnetic forces require the use of the Abraham momentum.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure, aip style, submitted to PR

Modelling and simulation of Space Station Freedom berthing dynamics and control

A large-angle, flexible, multibody, dynamic modeling capability has been developed to help validate numerical simulations of the dynamic motion and control forces which occur during berthing of Space Station Freedom to the Shuttle Orbiter in the early assembly flights. This paper outlines the dynamics and control of the station, the attached Shuttle Remote Manipulator System, and the orbiter. The simulation tool developed for the analysis is described and the results of two simulations are presented. The first is a simulated maneuver from a gravity-gradient attitude to a torque equilibrium attitude using the station reaction control jets. The second simulation is the berthing of the station to the orbiter with the station control moment gyros actively maintaining an estimated torque equilibrium attitude. The influence of the elastic dynamic behavior of the station and of the Remote Manipulator System on the attitude control of the station/orbiter system during each maneuver was investigated. The flexibility of the station and the arm were found to have only a minor influence on the attitude control of the system during the maneuvers

Locality and digital quantum simulation of power-law interactions

The propagation of information in non-relativistic quantum systems obeys a speed limit known as a Lieb-Robinson bound. We derive a new Lieb-Robinson bound for systems with interactions that decay with distance $r$ as a power law, $1/r^\alpha$. The bound implies an effective light cone tighter than all previous bounds. Our approach is based on a technique for approximating the time evolution of a system, which was first introduced as part of a quantum simulation algorithm by Haah et al., FOCS'18. To bound the error of the approximation, we use a known Lieb-Robinson bound that is weaker than the bound we establish. This result brings the analysis full circle, suggesting a deep connection between Lieb-Robinson bounds and digital quantum simulation. In addition to the new Lieb-Robinson bound, our analysis also gives an error bound for the Haah et al. quantum simulation algorithm when used to simulate power-law decaying interactions. In particular, we show that the gate count of the algorithm scales with the system size better than existing algorithms when $\alpha>3D$ (where $D$ is the number of dimensions).Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure