Circumstellar Disks Around Binary Stars in Taurus

We have conducted a survey of 17 wide (> 100 AU) young binary systems in Taurus with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) at two wavelengths. The observations were designed to measure the masses of circumstellar disks in these systems as an aid to understanding the role of multiplicity in star and planet formation. The ALMA observations had sufficient resolution to localize emission within the binary system. Disk emission was detected around all primaries and ten secondaries, with disk masses as low as $10^{-4} M_{\odot}$. We compare the properties of our sample to the population of known disks in Taurus and find that the disks from this binary sample match the scaling between stellar mass and millimeter flux of $F_{mm} \propto M_{\ast}^{1.5-2.0}$ to within the scatter found in previous studies. We also compare the properties of the primaries to those of the secondaries and find that the secondary/primary stellar and disk mass ratios are not correlated; in three systems, the circumsecondary disk is more massive than the circumprimary disk, counter to some theoretical predictions.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journal, 12 page

Protoplanetary Disk Mass Distribution in Young Binaries

We present millimeter-wave continuum images of four wide (separations 210-800 AU) young stellar binary systems in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region. For all four sources, the resolution of our observations is sufficient to determine the mm emission from each of the components. In all four systems, the primary star's disk has stronger millimeter emission than the secondary and in three of the four, the secondary is undetected; this is consistent with predictions of recent models of binary formation by fragmentation. The primaries' circumstellar disk masses inferred from these observations are comparable to those found for young single stars, confirming that the presence of a wide binary companion does not prevent the formation of a protoplanetary disk. Some of the secondaries show signatures of accretion (H-alpha emission and K - L excesses), yet their mm fluxes suggest that very little disk mass is present.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, to appear Feb. 2003; 9 pages, 5 postscript figures, uses aastex, emulateapj5, and apjfonts style files. Also available at http://astro.swarthmore.edu/~jensen/publications.htm

NECAP 4.1: NASA's Energy-Cost Analysis Program fast input manual and example

NASA's Energy-Cost Analysis Program (NECAP) is a powerful computerized method to determine and to minimize building energy consumption. The program calculates hourly heat gain or losses taking into account the building thermal resistance and mass, using hourly weather and a response factor method. Internal temperatures are allowed to vary in accordance with thermostat settings and equipment capacity. NECAP 4.1 has a simplified input procedure and numerous other technical improvements. A very short input method is provided. It is limited to a single zone building. The user must still describe the building's outside geometry and select the type of system to be used

Vanishing of Gravitational Particle Production in the Formation of Cosmic Strings

We consider the gravitationally induced particle production from the quantum vacuum which is defined by a free, massless and minimally coupled scalar field during the formation of a gauge cosmic string. Previous discussions of this topic estimate the power output per unit length along the string to be of the order of $10^{68}$ ergs/sec/cm in the s-channel. We find that this production may be completely suppressed. A similar result is also expected to hold for the number of produced photons.Comment: 10 pages, Plain LaTex. Minor improvements. To appear in PR

A Connection between Submillimeter Continuum Flux and Separation in Young Binaries

We have made sensitive 800-micron continuum observations of low-mass, pre-main sequence (PMS) binary stars with projected separations less than 25 AU in Taurus-Auriga to study disks in the young binary environment. We did not detect any of the observed binaries, with typical 3-sigma upper limits of about 30 mJy. Combining our observations with previous 1300-micron observations of PMS Taurus binaries by Beckwith et al. (1990) and others, we find that the submillimeter fluxes from binaries with projected separations between 1 AU and 50 AU are significantly lower than fluxes from binaries with projected separations > 50 AU. The submillimeter fluxes from the wider binaries are consistent with those of PMS single stars. This may indicate lower disk surface densities and masses in the close binaries. Alternatively, dynamical clearing of gaps by close binaries is marginally sufficient to lower their submillimeter fluxes to the observed levels, even without reduction of surface densities elsewhere in the disks.Comment: 12 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript with figures; Wisconsin Astrophysics 526; to appear in ApJ Letter

Honeycomb lattice polygons and walks as a test of series analysis techniques

We have calculated long series expansions for self-avoiding walks and polygons on the honeycomb lattice, including series for metric properties such as mean-squared radius of gyration as well as series for moments of the area-distribution for polygons. Analysis of the series yields accurate estimates for the connective constant, critical exponents and amplitudes of honeycomb self-avoiding walks and polygons. The results from the numerical analysis agree to a high degree of accuracy with theoretical predictions for these quantities.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, jpconf style files. Presented at the conference "Counting Complexity: An international workshop on statistical mechanics and combinatorics." In celebration of Prof. Tony Guttmann's 60th birthda

Can Post T Tauri Stars Be Found? Yes!

I review the observational challenges of finding post T Tauri stars (PTTS), defined here as low-mass, pre-main-sequence stars with ages of 10^7-10^8 yr. Such stars are difficult to find because they are less active than younger T Tauri stars, and they may not be associated with molecular gas. They are useful for studying the evolution of circumstellar disks and stellar activity between the 10^6-yr ages of nearby star-forming regions and the main sequence. However, care must be taken in the search process so that the selection criteria used to locate such stars do not bias the sample used for subsequent evolutionary studies