990 research outputs found
THE SPIRAL WAVE INSTABILITY INDUCED BY A GIANT PLANET. I. PARTICLE STIRRING IN THE INNER REGIONS OF PROTOPLANETARY DISKS
We have recently shown that spiral density waves propagating in accretion
disks can undergo a parametric instability by resonantly coupling with and
transferring energy into pairs of inertial waves (or inertial-gravity waves
when buoyancy is important). In this paper, we perform inviscid
three-dimensional global hydrodynamic simulations to examine the growth and
consequence of this instability operating on the spiral waves driven by a
Jupiter-mass planet in a protoplanetary disk. We find that the spiral waves are
destabilized via the spiral wave instability (SWI), generating hydrodynamic
turbulence and sustained radially-alternating vertical flows that appear to be
associated with long wavelength inertial modes. In the interval , where denotes the semi-major axis of the planetary orbit
(assumed to be 5~au), the estimated vertical diffusion rate associated with the
turbulence is characterized by . For the disk model considered here, the diffusion rate is such that
particles with sizes up to several centimeters are vertically mixed within the
first pressure scale height. This suggests that the instability of spiral waves
launched by a giant planet can significantly disperse solid particles and trace
chemical species from the midplane. In planet formation models where the
continuous local production of chondrules/pebbles occurs over Myr time scales
to provide a feedstock for pebble accretion onto these bodies, this stirring of
solid particles may add a time constraint: planetary embryos and large
asteroids have to form before a gas giant forms in the outer disk, otherwise
the SWI will significantly decrease the chondrule/pebble accretion efficiency.Comment: Accepted for publication in the The Astrophysical Journal, 19 pages,
12 figures, 1 tabl
Solution-space structure of (some) optimization problems
We study numerically the cluster structure of random ensembles of two NP-hard
optimization problems originating in computational complexity, the vertex-cover
problem and the number partitioning problem. We use branch-and-bound type
algorithms to obtain exact solutions of these problems for moderate system
sizes. Using two methods, direct neighborhood-based clustering and hierarchical
clustering, we investigate the structure of the solution space. The main result
is that the correspondence between solution structure and the phase diagrams of
the problems is not unique. Namely, for vertex cover we observe a drastic
change of the solution space from large single clusters to multiple nested
levels of clusters. In contrast, for the number-partitioning problem, the phase
space looks always very simple, similar to a random distribution of the
lowest-energy configurations. This holds in the ``easy''/solvable phase as well
as in the ``hard''/unsolvable phase.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, Fig. 4 in reduced quality to reduce size,
Proceedings of the International Workshop on Statistical-Mechanical
Informatics 2007, Kyoto (Japan) September 16-19, 200
Radioactive 26Al and massive stars in the Galaxy
Gamma-rays from radioactive 26Al (half life ~7.2 10^5 yr) provide a
'snapshot' view of ongoing nucleosynthesis in the Galaxy. The Galaxy is
relatively transparent to such gamma-rays, and emission has been found
concentrated along the plane of the Galaxy. This led to the conclusion1 that
massive stars throughout the Galaxy dominate the production of 26Al. On the
other hand, meteoritic data show locally-produced 26Al, perhaps from spallation
reactions in the protosolar disk. Furthermore, prominent gamma-ray emission
from the Cygnus region suggests that a substantial fraction of Galactic 26Al
could originate in localized star-forming regions. Here we report high spectral
resolution measurements of 26Al emission at 1808.65 keV, which demonstrate that
the 26Al source regions corotate with the Galaxy, supporting its Galaxy-wide
origin. We determine a present-day equilibrium mass of 2.8 (+/-0.8) M_sol of
26Al. We use this to estimate that the frequency of core collapse (i.e. type
Ib/c and type II) supernovae to be 1.9(+/- 1.1) events per century.Comment: accepted for publication in Nature, 24 pages including Online
Supplements, 11 figures, 1 tabl
SELF-DESTRUCTING SPIRAL WAVES: GLOBAL SIMULATIONS OF A SPIRAL-WAVE INSTABILITY IN ACCRETION DISKS
This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation grant number ACI-1053575. The authors acknowledge the San Diego Supercomputer Center at University of California, San Diego and the Texas Advanced Computing Center at The University of Texas at Austin for providing HPC resources that have contributed to the research results reported within this paper. This work used the DiRAC Complexity system, operated by the University of Leicester IT Services, which forms part of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). The equipment is funded by BIS National E-Infrastructure capital grant ST/K000373/1 and STFC Operations grant ST/K0003259/1. DiRAC is part of the national E-Infrastructure
Climatic warming in China during 1901-2015 based on an extended dataset of instrumental temperature records
Monthly mean instrumental surface air temperature (SAT) observations back to the nineteenth century in China are synthesized from different sources via specific quality-control, interpolation, and homogenization. Compared with the first homogenized long-term SAT dataset for China by Cao et al. (2013), which contained 18 stations mainly located in the middle and eastern part of China, the present dataset includes homogenized monthly SAT series at 32 stations, with an extended coverage especially towards western China. Missing values are interpolated by using observations at nearby stations including those from neighboring countries. Cross validation shows that the mean bias error (MBE) is generally small and falls between 0.45°C and -0.35°C. Multiple homogenization methods and available metadata are applied to assess the consistency of the time series and to adjust inhomogeneity biases. The homogenized annual mean SAT series show a range of trends between 1.1 and 4.0°C/century in northeastern China, between 0.4 and 1.9°C/century in southeastern China, and between 1.4 and 3.7°C/century in western China to the west of 105E (from the beginning years of the stations to 2015). The unadjusted data include unusually warm records during the 1940s and hence tend to underestimate the warming trends at a number of stations. The mean SAT series for China based on the Climate Anomaly Method shows a warming trend of 1.56°C/century during 1901-2015, larger than those based on other currently available datasets
Attribution of extreme precipitation in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during May 2016
May 2016 was the third wettest May on record since 1961 over central eastern China based on station observations, with total monthly rainfall 40% more than the climatological mean for 1961–2013.
Accompanying disasters such as waterlogging, landslides and debris flow struck part of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Causal influence of anthropogenic forcings on this event is investigated using the newly updated Met Office Hadley Centre system for attribution of extreme weather and climate events. Results indicate that there is a significant increase in May 2016 rainfall in model simulations relative to the climatological period, but this increase is largely attributable to natural variability. El Ni ̃no years have been found to be correlatedwith extreme rainfall in the Yangtze River region in previous studies—the strong El Ni ̃no of 2015–2016 may account for the extreme precipitation event in 2016. However, on smaller spatial scales we find that anthropogenic forcing has likely played a role in increasing the risk of extreme rainfall to the north of the Yangtze and decreasing it to the south
A mathematical model for breath gas analysis of volatile organic compounds with special emphasis on acetone
Recommended standardized procedures for determining exhaled lower respiratory
nitric oxide and nasal nitric oxide have been developed by task forces of the
European Respiratory Society and the American Thoracic Society. These
recommendations have paved the way for the measurement of nitric oxide to
become a diagnostic tool for specific clinical applications. It would be
desirable to develop similar guidelines for the sampling of other trace gases
in exhaled breath, especially volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which reflect
ongoing metabolism. The concentrations of water-soluble, blood-borne substances
in exhaled breath are influenced by: (i) breathing patterns affecting gas
exchange in the conducting airways; (ii) the concentrations in the
tracheo-bronchial lining fluid; (iii) the alveolar and systemic concentrations
of the compound. The classical Farhi equation takes only the alveolar
concentrations into account. Real-time measurements of acetone in end-tidal
breath under an ergometer challenge show characteristics which cannot be
explained within the Farhi setting. Here we develop a compartment model that
reliably captures these profiles and is capable of relating breath to the
systemic concentrations of acetone. By comparison with experimental data it is
inferred that the major part of variability in breath acetone concentrations
(e.g., in response to moderate exercise or altered breathing patterns) can be
attributed to airway gas exchange, with minimal changes of the underlying blood
and tissue concentrations. Moreover, it is deduced that measured end-tidal
breath concentrations of acetone determined during resting conditions and free
breathing will be rather poor indicators for endogenous levels. Particularly,
the current formulation includes the classical Farhi and the Scheid series
inhomogeneity model as special limiting cases.Comment: 38 page
Climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide and moist greenhouse threshold of earth-like planets under an increasing solar forcing
Carbon dioxide is one of the major contributors to the radiative forcing, increasing both the temperature and the humidity of Earth's atmosphere. If the stellar irradiance increases and water becomes abundant in the stratosphere of an Earth-like planet, it will be dissociated and the resultant hydrogen will escape from the atmosphere. This state is called the moist greenhouse threshold (MGT). Using a global climate model (GCM) of intermediate complexity, we explore how to identify this state for different CO2 concentrations and including the radiative effect of atmospheric ozone for the first time. We show that the MGT correlates with the in
ection point in the water vapor mixing ratio in the stratosphere and a peak in the climate sensitivity. For CO2 concentrations between 560 and 200 ppm, the MGT
is reached at a surface temperature of 320 K. Despite the higher simplicity of our model, our results are consistent with similar simulations without ozone by complex GCMs, suggesting that they are robust indicators of the MGT. We discuss the implications for the inner edge of the habitable zone as well as the water loss timescales for Earth analog planets
THE GOULD’S BELT DISTANCES SURVEY (GOBELINS). II. DISTANCES AND STRUCTURE TOWARD THE ORION MOLECULAR CLOUDS
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