Radio Images of 3C 58: Expansion and Motion of its Wisp

New 1.4 GHz VLA observations of the pulsar-powered supernova remnant 3C 58 have resulted in the highest-quality radio images of this object to date. The images show filamentary structure over the body of the nebula. The present observations were combined with earlier ones from 1984 and 1991 to investigate the variability of the radio emission on a variety of time-scales. No significant changes are seen over a 110 day interval. In particular, the upper limit on the apparent projected velocity of the wisp is 0.05c. The expansion rate of the radio nebula was determined between 1984 and 2004, and is 0.014+/-0.003%/year, corresponding to a velocity of 630+/-70 km/s along the major axis. If 3C 58 is the remnant of SN 1181, it must have been strongly decelerated, which is unlikely given the absence of emission from the supernova shell. Alternatively, the low expansion speed and a number of other arguments suggest that 3C 58 may be several thousand years old and not be the remnant of SN 1181.Comment: 12 pages; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Linear sawtooth voltage-wave generator employing transistor timing circuit having capacitor-zener diode combination feedback Patent

Linear sawtooth voltage wave generator with transistor timing circuit having capacitor and zener diode feedback loop

Lifting Grobner bases from the exterior algebra

In the article "Non-commutative Grobner bases for commutative algebras", Eisenbud-Peeva-Sturmfels proved a number of results regarding Grobner bases and initial ideals of those ideals in the free associative algebra which contain the commutator ideal. We prove similar results for ideals which contains the anti-commutator ideal (the defining ideal of the exterior algebra). We define one notion of generic initial ideals in the free assoicative algebra, and show that gin's of ideals containing the commutator ideal, or the anti-commutator ideal, are finitely generated.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX2

A charging model for three-axis stabilized spacecraft

A charging model was developed for geosynchronous, three-axis stabilized spacecraft when under the influence of a geomagnetic substorm. The differential charging potentials between the thermally coated or blanketed outer surfaces and metallic structure of a spacecraft were determined when the spacecraft was immersed in a dense plasma cloud of energetic particles. The spacecraft-to-environment interaction was determined by representing the charged particle environment by equivalent current source forcing functions and by representing the spacecraft by its electrically equivalent circuit with respect to the plasma charging phenomenon. The charging model included a sun/earth/spacecraft orbit model that simulated the sum illumination conditions of the spacecraft outer surfaces throughout the orbital flight on a diurnal as well as a seasonal basis. Transient and steady-state numerical results for a three-axis stabilized spacecraft are presented

Gravity as elasticity of spacetime: a paradigm to understand horizon thermodynamics and cosmological constant

It is very likely that the quantum description of spacetime is quite different from what we perceive at large scales, $l\gg (G\hbar/c^3)^{1/2}$. The long wave length description of spacetime, based on Einstein's equations, is similar to the description of a continuum solid made of a large number of microscopic degrees of freedom. This paradigm provides a novel interpretation of coordinate transformations as deformations of "spacetime solid" and allows one to obtain Einstein's equations as a consistency condition in the long wavelength limit. The entropy contributed by the microscopic degrees of freedom reduces to a pure surface contribution when Einstein's equations are satisfied. The horizons arises as "defects" in the "spacetime solid" (in the sense of well defined singular points) and contributes an entropy which is one quarter of the horizon area. Finally, the response of the microstructure to vacuum energy leads to a near cancellation of the cosmological constant, leaving behind a tiny fluctuation which matches with the observed value.Comment: This essay received an ``honorable mention'' in the 2004 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation; accepted for publication in IJMP

Analysis of aircraft spectrometer data with logarithmic residuals

Spectra from airborne systems must be analyzed in terms of their mineral-related absorption features. Methods for removing backgrounds and extracting these features one at a time from reflectance spectra are discussed. Methods for converting radiance spectra into a form similar to reflectance spectra so that the feature extraction procedures can be implemented on aircraft spectrometer data are also discussed

Evaluation of the infrared test method for the olympus thermal balance tests

The performance of the infrared (IR) rig used for the thermal balance testing of the Olympus S/C thermal model is discussed. Included in this evaluation are the rig effects themselves, the IRFLUX computer code used to predict the radiation inputs, the Monitored Background Radiometers (MBR's) developed to measure the absorbed radiation flux intensity, the Uniform Temperature Reference (UTR) based temperature measurement system and the data acquisition system. A preliminary set of verification tests were performed on a 1 m x 1 m zone to assess the performance of the IR lamps, calrods, MBR's and aluminized baffles. The results were used, in part, to obtain some empirical data required for the IRFLUX code. This data included lamp and calrod characteristics, the absorptance function for various surface types, and the baffle reflectivities