Alfven solitons in the solar wind

A nonlinear Alfven soliton solution of the MHD equations is presented. This solution represents the final state of modulationally unstable Alfven waves. A model of the expected turbulent spectrum due to a collection of such solitons is briefly described

The potential impact of new power system technology on the design of a manned space station

Larger, more complex spacecraft of the future such as a manned Space Station will require electric power systems of 100 kW and more, orders of magnitude greater than the present state of the art. Power systems at this level will have a significant impact on the spacecraft design. Historically, long-lived spacecraft have relied on silicon solar cell arrays, a nickel-cadmium storage battery and operation at 28 V dc. These technologies lead to large array areas and heavy batteries for a Space Station application. This, in turn, presents orbit altitude maintenance, attitude control, energy management and launch weight and volume constraints. Size (area) and weight of such a power system can be reduced if new higher efficiency conversion and lighter weight storage technologies are used. Several promising technology options including concentrator solar photovoltaic arrays, solar thermal dynamic and ultimately nuclear dynamic systems to reduce area are discussed. Also, higher energy storage systems such as nickel-hydrogen and the regenerative fuel cell (RFC) and higher voltage power distribution which add system flexibility, simplicity and reduce weight are examined. Emphasis is placed on the attributes and development status of emerging technologies that are sufficiently developed so that they could be available for flight use in the early to mid 1990's

Rigidized inflatable solar energy concentrators, 1 august 1963 - 25 december 1964

Processes for fabrication in space environment of five-foot diameter inflatable rigidized solar energy concentrator

A Relativistic Quaternionic Wave Equation

We study a one-component quaternionic wave equation which is relativistically covariant. Bi-linear forms include a conserved 4-current and an antisymmetric second rank tensor. Waves propagate within the light-cone and there is a conserved quantity which looks like helicity. The principle of superposition is retained in a slightly altered manner. External potentials can be introduced in a way that allows for gauge invariance. There are some results for scattering theory and for two-particle wavefunctions as well as the beginnings of second quantization. However, we are unable to find a suitable Lagrangian or an energy-momentum tensor.Comment: 19 pages; minor corrections in Section 11 and Appendix

Current status of one- and two-dimensional numerical models: Successes and limitations

The capabilities of one and two-dimensional numerical solar cell modeling programs (SCAP1D and SCAP2D) are described. The occasions when a two-dimensional model is required are discussed. The application of the models to design, analysis, and prediction are presented along with a discussion of problem areas for solar cell modeling

Effects of low energy electron irradiation on formation of nitrogen-vacancy centers in single-crystal diamond

Exposure to beams of low energy electrons (2 to 30 keV) in a scanning electron microscope locally induces formation of NV-centers without thermal annealing in diamonds that have been implanted with nitrogen ions. We find that non-thermal, electron beam induced NV-formation is about four times less efficient than thermal annealing. But NV-center formation in a consecutive thermal annealing step (800C) following exposure to low energy electrons increases by a factor of up to 1.8 compared to thermal annealing alone. These observations point to reconstruction of nitrogen-vacancy complexes induced by electronic excitations from low energy electrons as an NV-center formation mechanism and identify local electronic excitations as a means for spatially controlled room-temperature NV-center formation

Ion kinetic energy conservation and magnetic field strength constancy in multi-fluid solar wind Alfv\'enic turbulence

We investigate properties of the plasma fluid motion in the large amplitude low frequency fluctuations of highly Alfv\'enic fast solar wind. We show that protons locally conserve total kinetic energy when observed from an effective frame of reference comoving with the fluctuations. For typical properties of the fast wind, this frame can be reasonably identified by alpha particles, which, owing to their drift with respect to protons at about the Alfv\'en speed along the magnetic field, do not partake in the fluid low frequency fluctuations. Using their velocity to transform proton velocity into the frame of Alfv\'enic turbulence, we demonstrate that the resulting plasma motion is characterized by a constant absolute value of the velocity, zero electric fields, and aligned velocity and magnetic field vectors as expected for unidirectional Alfv\'enic fluctuations in equilibrium. We propose that this constraint, via the correlation between velocity and magnetic field in Alfv\'enic turbulence, is at the origin of the observed constancy of the magnetic field: while the constant velocity corresponding to constant energy can be only observed in the frame of the fluctuations, the correspondingly constant total magnetic field, invariant for Galilean transformations, remains the observational signature, in the spacecraft frame, of the constant total energy in the Alfv\'en turbulence frame.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Sneutrino as Lightest Supersymmetric Particle in B3 mSUGRA Models and Signals at the LHC

We consider B3 mSUGRA models where we have one lepton number violating LQD operator at the GUT scale. This can alter the supersymmetric mass spectrum leading to a sneutrino as the lightest supersymmetric particle in a large region of parameter space. We take into account the restrictions from neutrino masses, the muon anomalous magnetic moment, b -> s gamma and other precision measurements. We furthermore investigate existing restrictions from direct searches at LEP, the Tevatron and the CERN p\bar p collider. We then give examples for characteristic signatures at the LHC.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure

Spacecraft potential effects on electron moments derived from a perfect plasma detector

International audienceA complete computation of the effect of the spacecraft potential on electron moments is presented. We adopt the perfect detector concept to estimate how measured density, velocity and temperature are affected by the constraints imposed by the detector, such as the finite lower energy cutoff and the spacecraft potential. We investigate the role of the potential in different plasma regimes usually crossed by satellites. It appears that the solar wind is the region where the moments are most compromised, as the particle temperature is low. To a lesser extent the moments calculated in the magnetosheath may also deviate from the real moments, displaying up to 40% overestimation for the density under typical detector operation. The analysis allows us to identify a range of spacecraft potential values which minimizes the variation in the estimation; it is found that it corresponds to the common value adopted by potential controlling experiments