12,770 research outputs found
Intrinsic Variability and Field Statistics for the Vela Pulsar: 2. Systematics and Single-Component Fits
Individual pulses from pulsars have intensity-phase profiles that differ
widely from pulse to pulse, from the average profile, and from phase to phase
within a pulse. Widely accepted explanations do not exist for this variability
or for the mechanism producing the radiation. The variability corresponds to
the field statistics, particularly the distribution of wave field amplitudes,
which are predicted by theories for wave growth in inhomogeneous media. This
paper shows that the field statistics of the Vela pulsar (PSR B0833-45) are
well-defined and vary as a function of pulse phase, evolving from Gaussian
intensity statistics off-pulse to approximately power-law and then lognormal
distributions near the pulse peak to approximately power-law and eventually
Gaussian statistics off-pulse again. Detailed single-component fits confirm
that the variability corresponds to lognormal statistics near the peak of the
pulse profile and Gaussian intensity statistics off-pulse. The lognormal field
statistics observed are consistent with the prediction of stochastic growth
theory (SGT) for a purely linear system close to marginal stability. The
simplest interpretations are that the pulsar's variability is a direct
manifestation of an SGT state and the emission mechanism is linear (either
direct or indirect), with no evidence for nonlinear mechanisms like
modulational instability and wave collapse which produce power-law field
statistics. Stringent constraints are placed on nonlinear mechanisms: they must
produce lognormal statistics when suitably ensemble-averaged. Field statistics
are thus a powerful, potentially widely applicable tool for understanding
variability and constraining mechanisms and source characteristics of coherent
astrophysical and space emissions.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures. Accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronmical Society in April 200
Intrinsic Variability and Field Statistics for the Vela Pulsar: 3. Two-Component Fits and Detailed Assessment of Stochastic Growth Theory
The variability of the Vela pulsar (PSR B0833-45) corresponds to well-defined
field statistics that vary with pulsar phase, ranging from Gaussian intensity
statistics off-pulse to approximately power-law statistics in a transition
region and then lognormal statistics on-pulse, excluding giant micropulses.
These data are analyzed here in terms of two superposed wave populations, using
a new calculation for the amplitude statistics of two vectorially-combined
transverse fields. Detailed analyses show that the approximately power-law and
lognormal distributions observed are fitted well at essentially all on-pulse
phases by Gaussian-lognormal and double-lognormal combinations, respectively.
These good fits, plus the smooth but significant variations in fit parameters
across the source, provide strong evidence that the approximately power-law
statistics observed in the transition region are not intrinsic. Instead, the
data are consistent with normal pulsar emission having lognormal statistics at
all phases. This is consistent with generation in an inhomogeneous source
obeying stochastic growth theory (SGT) and with the emission mechanism being
purely linear (either direct or indirect). A nonlinear mechanism is viable only
if it produces lognormal statistics when suitably ensemble-averaged. Variations
in the SGT fit parameters with phase imply that the radiation is relatively
more variable near the pulse edges than near the center, as found in earlier
work. In contrast, Vela's giant micropulses come from a very restricted phase
range and have power-law statistics with indices () not
inconsistent with nonlinear wave collapse. These results imply that normal
pulses have a different source and generation mechanism than giant micropulses,
as suggested previously on other grounds.Comment: 10 pages and 14 figures. Accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society in April 200
Class dealignment and the neighbourhood effect: Miller revisited
The concept of a neighbourhood effect within British voting patterns has largely been discarded, because no data have been available for testing it at the appropriate spatial scales. To undertake such tests, bespoke neighbourhoods have been created around the home of each respondent to the 1997 British Election Study survey in England and Wales, and small-area census data have been assembled for these to depict the socio-economic characteristics of voters' local contexts.
Analyses of voting in these small areas, divided into five equal-sized status areas, provides very strong evidence that members of each social class were much more likely to vote Labour than Conservative in the low-status than in the high-status areas. This is entirely consistent with the concept of the neighbourhood effect, but alternative explanations are feasible. The data provide very strong evidence of micro-geographical variations in voting patterns, for which further research is necessary to identify the processes involved
Ultrasonic detection and identification of fabrication defects in composites
Methods for deliberate fabrication of porosity into carbon/epoxy composite panels and the influence of three-dimensional stitching on the detection of porosity were investigated. Two methods of introducing porosity were investigated. Porosity was simulated by inclusion of glass microspheres, and a more realistic form of porosity was introduced by using low pressure during consolidation. The panels were ultrasonically scanned and the frequency slope of the ultrasonic attenuation coefficient was used to evaluate the two forms of porosity. The influence of stitching on the detection of porosity was studied using panels which were resin transfer molded from stitched plies of knitted carbon fabric and epoxy resin
Magnetic susceptibility of a CuO2 plane in the La2CuO4 system: I. RPA treatment of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interactions
Motivated by recent experiments on undoped La2CuO4, which found pronounced
temperature-dependent anisotropies in the low-field magnetic susceptibility, we
have investigated a two-dimensional square lattice of S=1/2 spins that interact
via Heisenberg exchange plus the symmetric and anti-symmetric
Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya anisotropies. We describe the transition to a state with
long-ranged order, and find the spin-wave excitations, with a mean-field
theory, linear spin-wave analysis, and using Tyablikov's RPA decoupling scheme.
We find the different components of the susceptibility within all of these
approximations, both below and above the N'eel temperature, and obtain evidence
of strong quantum fluctuations and spin-wave interactions in a broad
temperature region near the transition.Comment: 20 pages, 2 column format, 22 figure
Constraining the History of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy Using Observations of its Tidal Debris
We present a comparison of semi-analytic models of the phase-space structure
of tidal debris with observations of stars associated with the Sagittarius
dwarf galaxy (Sgr). We find that many features in the data can be explained by
these models. The properties of stars 10-15 degrees away from the center of Sgr
--- in particular, the orientation of material perpendicular to Sgr's orbit
(c.f. Alard 1996) and the kink in the velocity gradient (Ibata et al 1997) ---
are consistent with those expected for unbound material stripped during the
most recent pericentric passage ~50 Myrs ago. The break in the slope of the
surface density seen by Mateo, Olszewski & Morrison (1998) at ~ b=-35 can be
understood as marking the end of this material. However, the detections beyond
this point are unlikely to represent debris in a trailing streamer, torn from
Sgr during the immediately preceding passage ~0.7 Gyrs ago, but are more
plausibly explained by a leading streamer of material that was lost more that 1
Gyr ago and has wrapped all the way around the Galaxy. The observations
reported in Majewski et al (1999) also support this hypothesis. We determine
debris models with these properties on orbits that are consistent with the
currently known positions and velocities of Sgr in Galactic potentials with
halo components that have circular velocities v_circ=140-200 km/s. The best
match to the data is obtained in models where Sgr currently has a mass of ~10^9
M_sun and has orbited the Galaxy for at least the last 1 Gyr, during which time
it has reduced its mass by a factor of 2-3, or luminosity by an amount
equivalent to ~10% of the total luminosity of the Galactic halo. These numbers
suggest that Sgr is rapidly disrupting and unlikely to survive beyond a few
more pericentric passages.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, accepted to Astronomical Journa
Magnetic susceptibility study of hydrated and non-hydrated NaxCoO2-yH2O single crystals
We have measured the magnetic susceptibility of single crystal samples of
non-hydrated NaxCoO2 (x ~ 0.75, 0.67, 0.5, and 0.3) and hydrated Na0.3CoO2-yH2O
(y ~ 0, 0.6, 1.3). Our measurements reveal considerable anisotropy between the
susceptibilities with H||c and H||ab. The derived anisotropic g-factor ratio
(g_ab/g_c) decreases significantly as the composition is changed from the
Curie-Weiss metal with x = 0.75 to the paramagnetic metal with x = 0.3. Fully
hydrated Na0.3CoO2-1.3H2O samples have a larger susceptibility than
non-hydrated Na0.3CoO2 samples, as well as a higher degree of anisotropy. In
addition, the fully hydrated compound contains a small additional fraction of
anisotropic localized spins.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Comparisons of various configurations of the edge delamination test for interlaminar fracture toughness
Various configurations of Edge Delamination Tension (EDT) test specimens, of both brittle (T300/5208) and toughened-matrix (T300/BP907) graphite reinforced composite laminates, were manufactured and tested. The mixed-mode interlaminar fracture toughness, G sub C, was measured using (30/30 sub 2/30/90 sub N)sub s, n=1 or 2, (35/-35/0/90) sub s and (35/0/-35/90) sub s layups designed to delaminate at low tensile strains. Laminates were made without inserts so that delaminations would form naturally between the central 90 deg plies and the adjacent angle plies. Laminates were also made with Teflon inserts implanted between the 90 deg plies and the adjacent angle (theta) plies at the straight edge to obtain a planar fracture surface. In addition, interlaminar tension fracture toughness, GIc, was measured from laminates with the same layup but with inserts in the midplane, between the central 90 deg plies, at the straight edge. All of the EDT configurations were useful for ranking the delamination resistance of composites with different matrix resins. Furthermore, the variety of layups and configurations available yield interlaminar fracture toughness measurements needed to generate delamination failure criteria. The influence of insert thickness and location, and coupon size on G sub c values were evaluated
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