1,111 research outputs found
The evolution and energetics of large amplitude nonlinear internal waves on the Portuguese shelf
Intensive in-situ observations of nonlinear internal waves on the Portuguese shelf were made in August 1994, including measurements of the same wavepacket at three locations as it propagated on-shelf. The waves were characterized by sudden isotherm depressions of up to 45 m lasting 10-35 minutes, accompanied by current surges of up to 0.45 m s-1 and shears of up to 0.7 m s-1 over 60 m. The waves propagated away from the shelf break with an estimated phase speed of 0.57 m s-1. The amplitude of the waves was comparable to the theoretical maximum. The kinetic and potential energies of the waves were calculated directly from the observed current and density structures. Individual waves were associated with a total energy of up to approximately 3.0 M J m-1 per unit crest length. The depth integrated on-shelf internal wave energy flux approached 2000 W m-1 per unit crest length near the shelf break and decreased on-shore at a depth integrated rate of approximately 7.7 × 10-2 W m-2. The internal waves provided an important source of vertical mixing where they occurred on the Portuguese shelf throughout most of August 1994, represented by a sustained vertical eddy diffusivity profile which peaked at Kz ≈ 2.2 × 10-3 m2 s-1 at 30 m depth. Internal mixing would have to be parameterized by such a Kz profile in any model of the Portuguese shelf in which the stratification were to be accurately represented
On the Gravitational Collapse of a Gas Cloud in Presence of Bulk Viscosity
We analyze the effects induced by the bulk viscosity on the dynamics
associated to the extreme gravitational collapse. Aim of the work is to
investigate whether the presence of viscous corrections to the evolution of a
collapsing gas cloud influence the fragmentation process. To this end we study
the dynamics of a uniform and spherically symmetric cloud with corrections due
to the negative pressure contribution associated to the bulk viscosity
phenomenology. Within the framework of a Newtonian approach (whose range of
validity is outlined), we extend to the viscous case either the Lagrangian,
either the Eulerian motion of the system and we treat the asymptotic evolution
in correspondence to a viscosity coefficient of the form ( being the cloud density and ). We show how,
in the adiabatic-like behavior of the gas (i.e. when the politropic index takes
values ), density contrasts acquire, asymptotically, a
vanishing behavior which prevents the formation of sub-structures. We can
conclude that in the adiabatic-like collapse the top down mechanism of
structures formation is suppressed as soon as enough strong viscous effects are
taken into account. Such a feature is not present in the isothermal-like (i.e.
) collapse because the sub-structures formation is yet present
and outlines the same behavior as in the non-viscous case. We emphasize that in
the adiabatic-like collapse the bulk viscosity is also responsible for the
appearance of a threshold scale beyond which perturbations begin to increase.Comment: 13 pages, no figur
Slow relaxation to equipartition in spring-chain systems
In this study, one-dimensional systems of masses connected by springs, i.e.,
spring-chain systems, are investigated numerically. The average kinetic energy
of chain-end particles of these systems is larger than that of other particles,
which is similar to the behavior observed for systems made of masses connected
by rigid links. The energetic motion of the end particles is, however,
transient, and the system relaxes to thermal equilibrium after a while, where
the average kinetic energy of each particle is the same, that is, equipartition
of energy is achieved. This is in contrast to the case of systems made of
masses connected by rigid links, where the energetic motion of the end
particles is observed in equilibrium. The timescale of relaxation estimated by
simulation increases rapidly with increasing spring constant. The timescale is
also estimated using the Boltzmann-Jeans theory and is found to be in quite
good agreement with that obtained by the simulation
The Formation of the First Stars. I. The Primordial Star Forming Cloud
To constrain the nature of the very first stars, we investigate the collapse
and fragmentation of primordial, metal-free gas clouds. We explore the physics
of primordial star formation by means of three-dimensional simulations of the
dark matter and gas components, using smoothed particle hydrodynamics, under a
wide range of initial conditions, including the initial spin, the total mass of
the halo, the redshift of virialization, the power spectrum of the DM
fluctuations, the presence of HD cooling, and the number of particles employed
in the simulation. We find characteristic values for the temperature, T ~ a few
100 K, and the density, n ~ 10^3-10^4 cm^-3, characterising the gas at the end
of the initial free-fall phase. These values are rather insensitive to the
initial conditions. The corresponding Jeans mass is M_J ~ 10^3 M_sun. The
existence of these characteristic values has a robust explanation in the
microphysics of H2 cooling, connected to the minimum temperature that can be
reached with the H2 coolant, and to the critical density at which the
transition takes place betweeb levels being populated according to NLTE, and
according to LTE.
In all cases, the gas dissipatively settles into an irregular, central
configuration which has a filamentary and knotty appearance. The fluid regions
with the highest densities are the first to undergo runaway collapse due to
gravitational instability, and to form clumps with initial masses ~ 10^3 M_sun,
close to the characteristic Jeans scale. These results suggest that the first
stars might have been quite massive, possibly even very massive with M_star >
100 M_sun.Comment: Minor revisions. 26 pages, including 24 figures and 5 tables. ApJ, in
press. To appear in the Dec. 20, 2001 issue (v563
Kirchhoff's Loop Law and the maximum entropy production principle
In contrast to the standard derivation of Kirchhoff's loop law, which invokes
electric potential, we show, for the linear planar electric network in a
stationary state at the fixed temperature,that loop law can be derived from the
maximum entropy production principle. This means that the currents in network
branches are distributed in such a way as to achieve the state of maximum
entropy production.Comment: revtex4, 5 pages, 2 figure
Consistent Modeling of Rotational Nonequilibrium in a Hybrid Particle-Continuum Method
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106474/1/AIAA2013-3145.pd
Phase transitions in self-gravitating systems and bacterial populations with a screened attractive potential
We consider a system of particles interacting via a screened Newtonian
potential and study phase transitions between homogeneous and inhomogeneous
states in the microcanonical and canonical ensembles. Like for other systems
with long-range interactions, we obtain a great diversity of microcanonical and
canonical phase transitions depending on the dimension of space and on the
importance of the screening length. We also consider a system of particles in
Newtonian interaction in the presence of a ``neutralizing background''. By a
proper interpretation of the parameters, our study describes (i)
self-gravitating systems in a cosmological setting, and (ii) chemotaxis of
bacterial populations in the original Keller-Segel model
Singular Isothermal Disks: II. Nonaxisymmetric Bifurcations and Equilibria
We review the difficulties of the classical fission and fragmentation
hypotheses for the formation of binary and multiple stars. A crucial missing
ingredient in previous theoretical studies is the inclusion of dynamically
important levels of magnetic fields. As a minimal model for a candidate
presursor to the formation of binary and multiple stars, we therefore formulate
and solve the problem of the equilibria of isopedically magnetized, singular
isothermal disks, without the assumption of axial symmetry. Considerable
analytical progress can be made if we restrict our attention to models that are
scale-free, i.e., that have surface densities that vary inversely with distance
from the rotation axis of the system. In agreement with earlier analysis by
Syer and Tremaine, we find that lopsided (M=1) configurations exist at any
dimensionless rotation rate, including zero. Multiple-lobed (M = 2, 3, 4, ...)
configurations bifurcate from an underlying axisymmetric sequence at
progressively higher dimensionless rates of rotation, but such nonaxisymmetric
sequences always terminate in shockwaves before they have a chance to fission
into M=2, 3, 4, ... separate bodies. On the basis of our experience in this
paper, and the preceding Paper I, we advance the hypothesis that binary and
multiple star-formation from smooth (i.e., not highly turbulent) starting
states that are supercritical but in unstable mechanical balance requires the
rapid (i.e., dynamical) loss of magnetic flux at some stage of the ensuing
gravitational collapse.Comment: 49 pages, 11 figures, LaTeX, needs aaspp4.sty. The Astrophysical
Journal, in pres
Measurement of the W-pair Production Cross-section and W Branching Ratios at =205 and 207 GeV
The cross-section for the process e+e-->W+W- was measured with the data sample collected by DELPHI at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV and corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of about 209 pb^-1. The branching ratios of the W decay were also measured; from them the value of |Vcs| was extracted. The results are compared with the most recent calculations in the frame of the Standard Model
On Validating an Astrophysical Simulation Code
We present a case study of validating an astrophysical simulation code. Our
study focuses on validating FLASH, a parallel, adaptive-mesh hydrodynamics code
for studying the compressible, reactive flows found in many astrophysical
environments. We describe the astrophysics problems of interest and the
challenges associated with simulating these problems. We describe methodology
and discuss solutions to difficulties encountered in verification and
validation. We describe verification tests regularly administered to the code,
present the results of new verification tests, and outline a method for testing
general equations of state. We present the results of two validation tests in
which we compared simulations to experimental data. The first is of a
laser-driven shock propagating through a multi-layer target, a configuration
subject to both Rayleigh-Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities. The second
test is a classic Rayleigh-Taylor instability, where a heavy fluid is supported
against the force of gravity by a light fluid. Our simulations of the
multi-layer target experiments showed good agreement with the experimental
results, but our simulations of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability did not agree
well with the experimental results. We discuss our findings and present results
of additional simulations undertaken to further investigate the Rayleigh-Taylor
instability.Comment: 76 pages, 26 figures (3 color), Accepted for publication in the ApJ
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