20,561 research outputs found
Secular Instability and Planetesimal Formation in the Dust Layer
Late in the gaseous phase of a protostellar disk, centimeter-sized bodies
probably settle into a thin ``dust layer'' at the midplane. A velocity
difference between the dust layer and the gas gives rise to turbulence, which
prevents further settling and direct gravitational instability of the layer.
The associated drag on the surface of the layer causes orbital decay in a few
thousand years---as opposed to a few hundred years for an isolated meter-sized
body. Within this widely-accepted theoretical framework, we show that the
turbulent drag causes radial instabilities even if the selfgravity of the layer
is negligible. We formulate axisymmetric, height-integrated dynamical equations
for the layer that incorporate turbulent diffusion of mass and momentum in
radius and height, vertical settling, selfgravity, and resistance to
compression due to gas entrained within the dust layer. In steady-state, the
equations describe the inward radial drift of a uniform dust layer. In
perturbation, overdense rings form on an orbital timescale with widths
comparable to the dust-layer thickness. Selfgravity is almost irrelevant to the
linear growth rate but will eventually fragment and collapse the rings into
planetesimals larger than a kilometer. We estimate that the drag instability is
most efficient at 1 AU when most of the ``dust'' mass lies in the size range
0.1-10 meters.Comment: 25 pp., 2 figures. Uses aastex version 5.0
Scintillation Caustics in Planetary Occultation Light Curves
We revisit the GSC5249-01240 light curve obtained during its occultation by
Saturn's North polar region. In addition to refractive scintillations, the
power spectrum of intensity fluctuations shows an enhancement of power between
refractive and diffractive regimes. We identify this excess power as due to
high amplitude spikes in the light curve and suggest that these spikes are due
to caustics associated with ray crossing situations. The flux variation in
individual spikes follows the expected caustic behavior, including diffraction
fringes which we have observed for the first time in a planetary occultation
light curve. The presence of caustics in scintillation light curves require an
inner scale cut off to the power spectrum of underlying density fluctuations
associated with turbulence. Another possibility is the presence of gravity
waves in the atmosphere. While occultation light curves previously showed the
existence of refractive scintillations, a combination of small projected
stellar size and a low relative velocity during the event have allowed us to
identify caustics in this occultation. This has led us to re-examine previous
data sets, in which we have also found likely examples of caustics.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; ApJL submitte
A geometric approach to high resolution TVD schemes
A geometric approach, similar to Van Leer's MUSCL schemes, is used to construct a second-order accurate generalization of Godunov's method for solving scalar conservation laws. By making suitable approximations, a scheme is obtained which is easy to implement and total variation diminishing. The entropy condition is also investigated from the standpoint of the spreading of rarefaction waves. Quantitative information is obtained for Godunov's method on the rate of spreading which explain the kinks in rarefaction waves often observed at the sonic point
Correlations and fluctuations of a confined electron gas
The grand potential and the response of a phase-coherent confined noninteracting electron gas depend
sensitively on chemical potential or external parameter . We compute
their autocorrelation as a function of , and temperature. The result
is related to the short-time dynamics of the corresponding classical system,
implying in general the absence of a universal regime. Chaotic, diffusive and
integrable motions are investigated, and illustrated numerically. The
autocorrelation of the persistent current of a disordered mesoscopic ring is
also computed.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Interstellar Scintillations of Polarization of Compact Sources
We demostrate that the measurement of fluctuations of polarization due to the
galactic interstellar scintillations may be used to study the structure of the
radiation field at compact radio sources. We develop a mathematical formalism
and demonstrate it on a simple analytical model in which the scale of the
polarization variation through the source is comparable to the source size. The
predicted amplitude of modulation of the polarized radiation flux is ~20% x
(pi_s) x (m_sc), where (pi_s) is the characteristic degree of polarization of
radiation at the source and (m_sc) is the typical modulation index due to
scattering, i.e., (m_sc)~1 for diffractive scintillations and (m_sc)<1 for
refractive scintillations.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, emilateapj.sty. Submitted to ApJ
The stationary phase point method for transitional scattering: diffractive radio scintillation for pulsar
The stationary phase point (SPP) method in one-dimensional case is introduced
to treat the diffractive scintillation. From weak scattering, where the SPP
number N=1, to strong scattering (N1), via transitional scattering regime
(N2,3), we find that the modulation index of intensity experiences the
monotonically increasing from 0 to 1 with the scattering strength,
characterized by the ratio of Fresnel scale \rf to diffractive scale
\rdiff.Comment: Hanas Meeting paper, appear in ChJAA, 2006, 6, Su
Radio Scintillation due to Discontinuities in the Interstellar Plasma Density
We develop the theory of interstellar scintillation as caused by an irregular
plasma having a power-law spatial density spectrum with a spectral exponent of
4 corresponding to a medium with abrupt changes in its density. An ``outer
scale'' is included in the model representing the typical scale over which the
density of the medium remains uniform. Such a spectrum could be used to model
plasma shock fronts in supernova remnants or other plasma discontinuities. We
investigate and develop equations for the decorrelation bandwidth of
diffractive scintillations and the refractive scintillation index and compare
our results with pulsar measurements. We consider both a medium concentrated in
a thin layer and an extended irregular medium. We conclude that the
discontinuity model gives satisfactory agreement for many diffractive
measurements, in particular the VLBI meaurements of the structure function
exponent between 5/3 and 2. However, it gives less satisfactory agreement for
the refractive scintillation index than does the Kolmogorov turbulence
spectrum. The comparison suggests that the medium consists of a pervasive
background distribution of turbulence embedded with randomly placed discrete
plasma structures such as shocks or HII regions. This can be modeled by a
composite spectrum following the Kolmogorov form at high wavenumbers and
steepening at lower wavenumbers corresponding to the typical (inverse) size of
the discrete structures. Such a model can also explain the extreme scattering
events. However, lines of sight through the enhanced scattering prevalent at
low galactic latitudes are accurately described by the Kolmogorov spectrum in
an extended medium and do not appear to have a similar low-wavenumber
steepening.Comment: Accpeted for ApJ vol 531, March 200
Multiangle static and dynamic light scattering in the intermediate scattering angle range
We describe a light scattering apparatus based on a novel optical scheme
covering the scattering angle range 0.5\dg \le \theta \le 25\dg, an
intermediate regime at the frontier between wide angle and small angle setups
that is difficult to access by existing instruments. Our apparatus uses
standard, readily available optomechanical components. Thanks to the use of a
charge-coupled device detector, both static and dynamic light scattering can be
performed simultaneously at several scattering angles. We demonstrate the
capabilities of our apparatus by measuring the scattering profile of a variety
of samples and the Brownian dynamics of a dilute colloidal suspension
Surface-Enhanced Plasmon Splitting in a Liquid-Crystal-Coated Gold Nanoparticle
We show that, when a gold nanoparticle is coated by a thin layer of nematic
liquid crystal, the deformation produced by the nanoparticle surface can
enhance the splitting of the nanoparticle surface plasmon. We consider three
plausible liquid crystal director configurations in zero electric field: boojum
pair (north-south pole configuration), baseball (tetrahedral), and homogeneous.
From a calculation using the Discrete Dipole Approximation, we find that the
surface plasmon splitting is largest for the boojum pair, intermediate for the
homogeneous, and smallest for the baseball configuration. The boojum pair
results are in good agreement with experiment. We conclude that the
nanoparticle surface has a strong effect on the director orientation, but,
surprisingly, that this deformation can actually enhance the surface plasmon
splitting.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures To be published in PR
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