9,413 research outputs found
Light-like Signals in General relativity and Cosmology
The modelling of light-like signals in General Relativity taking the form of
impulsive gravitational waves and light-like shells of matter is examined.
Systematic deductions from the Bianchi identities are made. These are based
upon Penrose's hierarchical classification of the geometry induced on the null
hypersurface history of the surface by its imbedding in the space-times to the
future and to the past of it. The signals are not confined to propagate in a
vacuum and thus their interaction with matter (a burst of radiation propagating
through a cosmic fluid, for example) is also studied. Results are accompanied
by illustrative examples using cosmological models, vacuum space-times, the de
sitter univers and Minkowskian space-time.Comment: 21 pages, latex, no figure
Interplanetary propulsion using inertial fusion
Inertial fusion can be used to power spacecraft within the solar system and beyond. Such spacecraft have the potential for short-duration manned-mission performance exceeding other technologies. We are conducting a study to assess the systems aspects of inertial fusion as applied to such missions, based on the conceptual engine design of Hyde (1983) we describe the required systems for an entirely new spacecraft design called VISTA that is based on the use of DT fuel. We give preliminary design details for the power conversion and power conditioning systems for manned missions to Mars of total duration of about 100 days. Specific mission performance results will be published elsewhere, after the study has been completed
Recommended from our members
Entrapment: an important mechanism to explain the shortwave 3D radiative effect of clouds
Several mechanisms have previously been proposed to explain differences between the shortwave reflectance of realistic cloud scenes computed using the 1D independent column approximation (ICA) and 3D solutions of the radiative transfer equation. When the sun is low in the sky, interception of sunlight by cloud sides tends to increase reflectance relative to ICA estimates that neglect this effect. When the sun is high, 3D radiative transfer tends to make clouds less reflective, which we argue is explained by the mechanism of âentrapmentâ whereby horizontal transport of radiation beneath a cloud layer increases the chances, relative to the ICA, of light being absorbed by cloud or the surface. It is especially important for multilayered cloud scenes. We describe modifications to the previously described Speedy Algorithm for Radiative Transfer through Cloud Sides (SPARTACUS) to represent different entrapment assumptions, and test their impact on 65 contrasting scenes from a cloud-resolving model. When entrapment is represented explicitly via a calculation of the mean horizontal distance traveled by reflected light, SPARTACUS predicts a mean â3D radiative effectâ (the difference in top-of-atmosphere irradiances between 3D and ICA calculations) of 8.1 W mâ2 for overhead sun. This is within 2% of broadband Monte Carlo calculations on the same scenes. The importance of entrapment is highlighted by the finding that the extreme assumptions in SPARTACUS of âzero entrapmentâ and âmaximum entrapmentâ lead to corresponding mean 3D radiative effects of 1.7 and 19.6 W mâ2, respectively
Peeling properties of lightlike signals in General Relativity
The peeling properties of a lightlike signal propagating through a general
Bondi-Sachs vacuum spacetime and leaving behind another Bondi-Sachs vacuum
space-time are studied. We demonstrate that in general the peeling behavior is
the conventional one which is associated with a radiating isolated system and
that it becomes unconventional if the asymptotically flat space-times on either
side of the history of the light-like signal tend to flatness at future null
infinity faster than the general Bondi-Sachs space-time. This latter situation
occurs if, for example, the space-times in question are static Bondi-Sachs
space- times.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX2
A photoelectron diffraction investigation of vanadyl phthalocyanine on Au(1 1 1)
Scanned-energy mode photoelectron diffraction using the O 1s and V 2p emission perpendicular to the surface has been used to investigate the orientation and internal conformation of vanadyl phthalocyanine (VOPc) adsorbed on Au(1 1 1). The results confirm earlier indications from scanning tunnelling microscopy that the Vdouble bond; length as m-dashO vanadyl bond points out of, and not into, the surface. The Vdouble bond; length as m-dashO bondlength is 1.60 ± 0.04 Ă
, not significantly different from its value in bulk crystalline VOPc. However, the V atom in the adsorbed molecule is almost coplanar with the surrounding N atoms and is thus pulled down into the approximately planar region defined by the N and C atoms by 0.52 (+0.14/â0.10) Ă
, relative to its location in crystalline VOPc. This change must be attributed to the bonding interaction between the molecule and the underlying metal surface
Gravitational Waves from Mesoscopic Dynamics of the Extra Dimensions
Recent models which describe our world as a brane embedded in a higher
dimensional space introduce new geometrical degrees of freedom: the shape
and/or size of the extra dimensions, and the position of the brane. These modes
can be coherently excited by symmetry breaking in the early universe even on
``mesoscopic'' scales as large as 1 mm, leading to detectable gravitational
radiation. Two sources are described: relativistic turbulence caused by a
first-order transition of a radion potential, and Kibble excitation of
Nambu-Goldstone modes of brane displacement. Characteristic scales and spectral
properties are estimated and the prospects for observation by LISA are
discussed. Extra dimensions with scale between 10 \AA and 1 mm, which enter the
3+1-D era at cosmic temperatures between 1 and 1000 TeV, produce backgrounds
with energy peaked at observed frequencies in the LISA band, between
and Hz. The background is detectable above instrument and
astrophysical foregrounds if initial metric perturbations are excited to a
fractional amplitude of or more, a likely outcome for the
Nambu-Goldstone excitations.Comment: Latex, 5 pages, plus one figure, final version to appear in Phys.
Rev. Let
Multistage Zeeman deceleration of metastable neon
A supersonic beam of metastable neon atoms has been decelerated by exploiting
the interaction between the magnetic moment of the atoms and time-dependent
inhomogeneous magnetic fields in a multistage Zeeman decelerator. Using 91
deceleration solenoids, the atoms were decelerated from an initial velocity of
580m/s to final velocities as low as 105m/s, corresponding to a removal of more
than 95% of their initial kinetic energy. The phase-space distribution of the
cold, decelerated atoms was characterized by time-of-flight and imaging
measurements, from which a temperature of 10mK was obtained in the moving frame
of the decelerated sample. In combination with particle-trajectory simulations,
these measurements allowed the phase-space acceptance of the decelerator to be
quantified. The degree of isotope separation that can be achieved by multistage
Zeeman deceleration was also studied by performing experiments with pulse
sequences generated for Ne and Ne.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure
The evolution of antiferromagnetic susceptibility to uniaxial pressure in Ba(Fe{1-x}Co{x})2As2
Neutron diffraction measurements are presented measuring the responses of
both magnetic and structural order parameters of parent and lightly Co-doped
Ba(Fe{1-x}Co{x})2As2 under the application of uniaxial pressure. We find that
the uniaxial pressure induces a thermal shift in the onset of antiferromagnetic
order that grows as a percentage of T_N as Co-doping is increased and the
superconducting phase is approached. Additionally, as uniaxial pressure is
increased within parent and lightly-doped Ba(Fe{1-x}Co{x})2As2 on the first
order side of the tricritical point, we observe a decoupling between the onsets
of the orthorhombic structural distortion and antiferromagnetism. Our findings
place needed constraints on models exploring the nematic susceptibility of the
bilayer pnictides in the tetragonal, paramagnetic regime.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
Adsorption structure of glycine on TiO2(1 1 0): a photoelectron diffraction determination
High-resolution core-level photoemission and scanned-energy mode photoelectron diffraction (PhD) of the O 1s and N 1s states have been used to investigate the interaction of glycine with the rutile TiO2(1 1 0) surface. Whilst there is clear evidence for the presence of the zwitterion View the MathML sourceCH2COOâ with multilayer deposition, at low coverage only the deprotonated glycinate species, NH2CH2COO is present. Multiple-scattering simulations of the O 1s PhD data show the glycinate is bonded to the surface through the two carboxylate O atoms which occupy near-atop sites above the five-fold-coordinated surface Ti atoms, with a TiâO bondlength of 2.12 ± 0.06 Ă
. Atomic hydrogen arising from the deprotonation is coadsorbed to form hydroxyl species at the bridging oxygen sites with an associated TiâO bondlength of 2.01 ± 0.03 Ă
. Absence of any significant PhD modulations of the N 1s emission is consistent with the amino N atom not being involved in the surface bonding, unlike the case of glycinate on Cu(1 1 0) and Cu(1 0 0)
- âŠ