Numerical Investigation of the Aerodynamic Properties of a Flying Wing Configuration

The numerical investigations of a generic UCAV configuration are presented. These investigations are part of the DLR internal project UCAV-2010. Compressible speed conditions are considered and presented. The DLR-F17E UCAV configuration is a flying lambda delta wing with sweep angle of 53° and varying leading edge radius. The flow field of this UCAV configuration is dominated by vortex structures and vortex-to-vortex interaction. The paper aims to give a comparison between numerical- and experimental investigations in order to gain a deeper understanding of the complex flow physics. Furthermore, it will highlight the influence of Mach- and Reynolds number change on the flow and the overall aerodynamic behavior of the configuration. The DLR TAU-Code is used to simulate the flow field, using an unstructured grid and the turbulence model of Spalart-Allmaras. Forces and moment measurements taken in the DNW-TWG, Göttingen, on the DLR-F17E configuration serve as the experimental basis to validate the numerical findings. Findings on the SACCON configuration serve as a comparison case aiming to show possible portability between different model scales but also to find analogies between low speed (M=0.15) and compressible speed (M=0.5) scenarios. This paper builds up upon the finding within the NATO/RTO AVT-161 Research Task Group on “Assessment and Control Predictions for NATO Air and Sea Vehicles” and its findings shall serve as a basis for further experimental investigations of medium to high speed wind tunnel experiments. Furthermore, this paper addresses the importance of understanding and the ability to predict controlled- and uncontrolled flow separation and the interaction of vortex systems in order to estimate the aerodynamic behavior within the entire flight envelope and to meet Stability- and Control needs

The role of spatial averaging in the precision of gene expression patterns

During embryonic development, differentiating cells respond via gene expression to positional cues from morphogen gradients. While gene expression is often highly erratic, embryonic development is precise. We show by theory and simulations that diffusion of the expressed protein can enhance the precision of its expression domain. While diffusion lessens the sharpness of the expression boundary, it also reduces super-Poissonian noise by washing out bursts of gene expression. Balancing these effects yields an optimal diffusion constant maximizing the precision of the expression domain.Comment: 5 pages, 4 EPS figure

Feasibility of UV lasing without inversion in mercury vapor

We investigate the feasibility of UV lasing without inversion at a wavelength of $253.7$ nm utilizing interacting dark resonances in mercury vapor. Our theoretical analysis starts with radiation damped optical Bloch equations for all relevant 13 atomic levels. These master equations are generalized by considering technical phase noise of the driving lasers. From the Doppler broadened complex susceptibility we obtain the stationary output power from semiclassical laser theory. The finite overlap of the driving Gaussian laser beams defines an ellipsoidal inhomogeneous gain distribution. Therefore, we evaluate the intra-cavity field inside a ring laser self-consistently with Fourier optics. This analysis confirms the feasibility of UV lasing and reveals its dependence on experimental parameters.Comment: changes were made according to reviewer comments (accepted for publication in JOSA B

Fundamental Limits to Position Determination by Concentration Gradients

Position determination in biological systems is often achieved through protein concentration gradients. Measuring the local concentration of such a protein with a spatially-varying distribution allows the measurement of position within the system. In order for these systems to work effectively, position determination must be robust to noise. Here, we calculate fundamental limits to the precision of position determination by concentration gradients due to unavoidable biochemical noise perturbing the gradients. We focus on gradient proteins with first order reaction kinetics. Systems of this type have been experimentally characterised in both developmental and cell biology settings. For a single gradient we show that, through time-averaging, great precision can potentially be achieved even with very low protein copy numbers. As a second example, we investigate the ability of a system with oppositely directed gradients to find its centre. With this mechanism, positional precision close to the centre improves more slowly with increasing averaging time, and so longer averaging times or higher copy numbers are required for high precision. For both single and double gradients, we demonstrate the existence of optimal length scales for the gradients, where precision is maximized, as well as analyzing how precision depends on the size of the concentration measuring apparatus. Our results provide fundamental constraints on the positional precision supplied by concentration gradients in various contexts, including both in developmental biology and also within a single cell.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figure

OSIRIS Payload for DLR's BiROS Satellite

Direct optical communication links might offer a solution for the increasing demand of transmission capacity in satellite missions. Although direct space-to-ground links suffer from limited availability due to cloud coverage, the achievable data rates can be higher by orders of magnitude compared to traditional RF communication systems. DLR’s Institute for Communication and Navigation is currently developing an experimental communication payload for DLR’s BiROS satellite. The OSIRIS payload consists of a tracking sensor for a precise alignment between satellite and groundstation, an optical uplink channel, the two different and independent laser sources and the optical bench with the transmission optics. This paper will give an overview about the BiROS satellite, the OSIRIS payload and the performance of the system, including space-qualification of the hardware and transmission tests

Tau Appearance In Atmospheric Neutrino Interactions

If the correct interpretation of the Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino data is \nu_\mu -> \nu_\tau oscillation, the contained data sample should already have more than 10 tau appearance events. We study the challenging task of detecting the tau, focussing on the decay chain \tau^\pm -> \rho^\pm -> \pi^\pm \pi^0 in events with quasi-elastic tau production. The background level, which is currently quite uncertain because of a lack of relevant neutral current data, can be measured by the near detector in the K2K experiment. Our estimates of the background suggest that it may be possible to detect tau appearance in Super-Kamiokande with 5-10 years of running.Comment: 13 pages, uses psfi

Income Packaging and Economic Well-Being at the Income Last Stage of the Working Career

First considered, at a point in time, is how cross-country differences in the mix of income sources are related to three measures of economic well-being. Poverty, defined as 50 percent of mean-adjusted household income; relative adjusted disposable income of aged households with heads over 55 years of age relative to those under 55; and inequality as measured by the gini coefficient. Second, the broader question, namely that if the institutions providing social benefits are changing, over time, what is the likely redistributive impact of this development is addressed. The analysis focuses on income sources in the last stages of the working career. Starting at age 55, four different five-year age groups are identified to describe the last stage of the working career. LIS data is used to analyze the experience of ten countries: Australia 1994, Canada 1997, Finland 1995, Germany 1994, Netherlands 1994, Norway 1995, Sweden 1995, Switzerland 1992, United Kingdom 1995 and United States 1997. Data for Finland are available, but difficult to interpret, since the mandated earnings-related public social security is administered by a private life insurance company making the distinction between public and private especially difficult to draw. These are the only countries which had usable data on occupational pensions at the time of this first analysis. In this analysis we were able to include trends over time, broadly from 1980 to 1995, but actual available years varied by country

The Einstein-Vlasov sytem/Kinetic theory

The main purpose of this article is to guide the reader to theorems on global properties of solutions to the Einstein-Vlasov system. This system couples Einstein's equations to a kinetic matter model. Kinetic theory has been an important field of research during several decades where the main focus has been on nonrelativistic- and special relativistic physics, e.g. to model the dynamics of neutral gases, plasmas and Newtonian self-gravitating systems. In 1990 Rendall and Rein initiated a mathematical study of the Einstein-Vlasov system. Since then many theorems on global properties of solutions to this system have been established. The Vlasov equation describes matter phenomenologically and it should be stressed that most of the theorems presented in this article are not presently known for other such matter models (e.g. fluid models). The first part of this paper gives an introduction to kinetic theory in non-curved spacetimes and then the Einstein-Vlasov system is introduced. We believe that a good understanding of kinetic theory in non-curved spacetimes is fundamental in order to get a good comprehension of kinetic theory in general relativity.Comment: 31 pages. This article has been submitted to Living Rev. Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org

Flat galaxies with dark matter halos - existence and stability

We consider a model for a flat, disk-like galaxy surrounded by a halo of dark matter, namely a Vlasov-Poisson type system with two particle species, the stars which are restricted to the galactic plane and the dark matter particles. These constituents interact only through the gravitational potential which stars and dark matter create collectively. Using a variational approach we prove the existence of steady state solutions and their nonlinear stability under suitably restricted perturbations.Comment: 39 page