Origin and evolution of planetary atmospheres

Spacecraft and groundbased observations of the atmospheres of solar system objects have provided a definition of their present characteristics and have yielded clues about their past history. Table 1 presents a summary of our current knowledge of the atmospheric properties of all the planets, except Pluto, and several satellites. The masses of these atmospheres range from the very miniscule values for the Moon, Mercury, and Io, to the more substantial values for the Earth, Venus, Mars, and Titan, to the very large values for the giant planets, where the atmosphere constitutes a significant fraction of the total planetary mass. The compositions of these atmospheres encompass ones dominated by rare gases (the Moon and Mercury), ones containing highly oxidized compounds of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur (the outer three terrestrial planets and Io), and ones with highly reduced gases (Titan and the giant planets). What factors account for this enormous diversity in properties

Acoustic controlled rotation and orientation

Acoustic energy is applied to a pair of locations spaced about a chamber, to control rotation of an object levitated in the chamber. Two acoustic transducers applying energy of a single acoustic mode, one at each location, can (one or both) serve to levitate the object in three dimensions as well as control its rotation. Slow rotation is achieved by initially establishing a large phase difference and/or pressure ratio of the acoustic waves, which is sufficient to turn the object by more than 45 deg, which is immediately followed by reducing the phase difference and/or pressure ratio to maintain slow rotation. A small phase difference and/or pressure ratio enables control of the angular orientation of the object without rotating it. The sphericity of an object can be measured by its response to the acoustic energy

Single mode levitation and translation

A single frequency resonance mode is applied by a transducer to acoustically levitate an object within a chamber. This process allows smooth movement of the object and suppression of unwanted levitation modes that would urge the object to a different levitation position. A plunger forms one end of the chamber, and the frequency changes as the plunger moves. Acoustic energy is applied to opposite sides of the chamber, with the acoustic energy on opposite sides being substantially 180 degrees out of phase

Isomorphism in expanding families of indistinguishable groups

For every odd prime $p$ and every integer $n\geq 12$ there is a Heisenberg group of order $p^{5n/4+O(1)}$ that has $p^{n^2/24+O(n)}$ pairwise nonisomorphic quotients of order $p^{n}$. Yet, these quotients are virtually indistinguishable. They have isomorphic character tables, every conjugacy class of a non-central element has the same size, and every element has order at most $p$. They are also directly and centrally indecomposable and of the same indecomposability type. The recognized portions of their automorphism groups are isomorphic, represented isomorphically on their abelianizations, and of small index in their full automorphism groups. Nevertheless, there is a polynomial-time algorithm to test for isomorphisms between these groups.Comment: 28 page

On the origins of approximations for stochastic chemical kinetics

This paper considers the derivation of approximations for stochastic chemical kinetics governed by the discrete master equation. Here, the concepts of (1) partitioning on the basis of fast and slow reactions as opposed to fast and slow species and (2) conditional probability densities are used to derive approximate, partitioned master equations, which are Markovian in nature, from the original master equation. Under different conditions dictated by relaxation time arguments, such approximations give rise to both the equilibrium and hybrid (deterministic or Langevin equations coupled with discrete stochastic simulation) approximations previously reported. In addition, the derivation points out several weaknesses in previous justifications of both the hybrid and equilibrium systems and demonstrates the connection between the original and approximate master equations. Two simple examples illustrate situations in which these two approximate methods are applicable and demonstrate the two methods' efficiencies

Circumpolar hoods and clouds and their relation to the Martian H2O cycle

Water exists in both vapor and solid phases in the Martian atmosphere. The polar hoods are shrouds of condensate clouds which obscure both polar regions at times during their respective fall and winter seasons. The hemispheric asymmetries in the polar hood clouds are reviewed and their significance to the seasonal water cycle is discussed. Comparisons of images acquired using short wavelength filters, which provide maximum cloud contrast, and long wavelength filters, which are sensitive to surface features including the surface cap, provide correlations between cloud formation and large scale planetary dynamics

The Impact of Collective Bargaining: Illusion or Reality?

This paper reviews a significant body of evidence regarding the impact of trade unionism on economic performance and seeks to evaluate antithetical views regarding whether estimated differences between union and nonunion workers and firms represent: illusions created by poor experiments, real effects explicable solely in price-theoretic terms, or real effects which reflect the non wage-related dimensions of trade unions. The review yields conclusions on both the substantive questions at hand and the methodologies which have been used to address their validity. With respect to the illusion/reality debate, the preponderance of extant evidence indicates that union effects on a wide variety of economic variables estimated with cross-sectional data are real. Moreover, since the effects of unions on nonwage outcomes generally come from models which hold fixed the level of wages and variables affected by wages, the evidence supports the view that unions do much more than simply raise wages as an economic monopolist. While, in this study, we do not examine interpretations of these nonwage effects, the effects represent an empirical foundation for the "institutional" view of unionism, which is described in Section I. With respect to methods for evaluating the quality of standard cross-sectional experiments, some techniques appear more useful than others. In particular, we find that sensitivity analyses of single-equation results and longitudinal experiments provide valuable checks on cross-sectional findings while multiple-equations approaches produce results which are much too unstable to help resolve the questions of concern.