375 research outputs found
Nanodust detection near 1 AU from spectral analysis of Cassini/RPWS radio data
Nanodust grains of a few nanometer in size are produced near the Sun by
collisional break-up of larger grains and picked-up by the magnetized solar
wind. They have so far been detected at 1 AU by only the two STEREO spacecraft.
Here we analyze the spectra measured by the radio and plasma wave instrument
onboard Cassini during the cruise phase close to Earth orbit; they exhibit
bursty signatures similar to those observed by the same instrument in
association to nanodust stream impacts on Cassini near Jupiter. The observed
wave level and spectral shape reveal impacts of nanoparticles at about 300
km/s, with an average flux compatible with that observed by the radio and
plasma wave instrument onboard STEREO and with the interplanetary flux models
On the charge of nanograins in cold environments and Enceladus dust
In very-low energy plasmas, the size of nanograins is comparable to the
distance (the so-called Landau length) at which the interaction energy of two
electrons equals their thermal energy. In that case, the grain's polarization
induced by approaching charged particles increases their fluxes and reduces the
charging time scales. Furthermore, for grains of radius smaller than the Landau
length, the electric charge no longer decreases linearly with size, but has a
most probable equilibrium value close to one electron charge. We give
analytical results that can be used for nanograins in cold dense planetary
environments of the outer solar system. Application to the nanodust observed in
the plume of Saturn's moon Enceladus shows that most grains of radius about 1
nm should carry one electron, whereas an appreciable fraction of them are
positively charged by ion impacts. The corresponding electrostatic stresses
should destroy smaller grains, which anyway may not exist as crystals since
their number of molecules is close to the minimum required for crystallization.Comment: Revised version of paper submitted to Icaru
Radio pulses from cosmic ray air showers - Boosted Coulomb and Cherenkov fields
High-energy cosmic rays passing through the Earth's atmosphere produce
extensive showers whose charges emit radio frequency pulses. Despite the low
density of the Earth's atmosphere, this emission should be affected by the air
refractive index because the bulk of the shower particles move roughly at the
speed of radio waves, so that the retarded altitude of emission, the
relativistic boost and the emission pattern are modified. We consider in this
paper the contribution of the boosted Coulomb and the Cherenkov fields and
calculate analytically the spectrum using a very simplified model in order to
highlight the main properties. We find that typically the lower half of the
shower charge energy distribution produces a boosted Coulomb field, of
amplitude comparable to the levels measured and to those calculated previously
for synchrotron emission. Higher energy particles produce instead a
Cherenkov-like field, whose amplitude may be smaller because both the negative
charge excess and the separation between charges of opposite signs are small at
these energies.Comment: 10 figures - Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
The Solar Wind Energy Flux
The solar-wind energy flux measured near the ecliptic is known to be
independent of the solar-wind speed. Using plasma data from Helios, Ulysses,
and Wind covering a large range of latitudes and time, we show that the
solar-wind energy flux is independent of the solar-wind speed and latitude
within 10%, and that this quantity varies weakly over the solar cycle. In other
words the energy flux appears as a global solar constant. We also show that the
very high speed solar-wind (VSW > 700 km/s) has the same mean energy flux as
the slower wind (VSW < 700 km/s), but with a different histogram. We use this
result to deduce a relation between the solar-wind speed and density, which
formalizes the anti-correlation between these quantities.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Dust detection by the wave instrument on STEREO: nanoparticles picked up by the solar wind?
The STEREO/WAVES instrument has detected a very large number of intense
voltage pulses. We suggest that these events are produced by impact ionisation
of nanoparticles striking the spacecraft at a velocity of the order of
magnitude of the solar wind speed. Nanoparticles, which are half-way between
micron-sized dust and atomic ions, have such a large charge-to-mass ratio that
the electric field induced by the solar wind magnetic field accelerates them
very efficiently. Since the voltage produced by dust impacts increases very
fast with speed, such nanoparticles produce signals as high as do much larger
grains of smaller speeds. The flux of 10-nm radius grains inferred in this way
is compatible with the interplanetary dust flux model. The present results may
represent the first detection of fast nanoparticles in interplanetary space
near Earth orbit.Comment: In press in Solar Physics, 13 pages, 5 figure
Measurement of macroscopic plasma parameters with a radio experiment: Interpretation of the quasi-thermal noise spectrum observed in the solar wind
The ISEE-3 SBH radio receiver has provided the first systematic observations of the quasi-thermal (plasma waves) noise in the solar wind plasma. The theoretical interpretation of that noise involves the particle distribution function so that electric noise measurements with long antennas provide a fast and independent method of measuring plasma parameters: densities and temperatures of a two component (core and halo) electron distribution function have been obtained in that way. The polarization of that noise is frequency dependent and sensitive to the drift velocity of the electron population. Below the plasma frequency, there is evidence of a weak noise spectrum with spectral index -1 which is not yet accounted for by the theory. The theoretical treatment of the noise associated with the low energy (thermal) proton population shows that the moving electrical antenna radiates in the surrounding plasma by Carenkov emission which becomes predominant at the low frequencies, below about 0.1 F sub P
Dust in the Interplanetary Medium
The mass density of dust particles that form from asteroids and comets in the
interplanetary medium of the solar system is, near 1 AU, comparable to the mass
density of the solar wind. It is mainly contained in particles of micrometer
size and larger. Dust and larger objects are destroyed by collisions and
sublimation and hence feed heavy ions into the solar wind and the solar corona.
Small dust particles are present in large number and as a result of their large
charge to mass ratio deflected by electromagnetic forces in the solar wind. For
nano dust particles of sizes 1 - 10 nm, recent calculations show trapping near
the Sun and outside from about 0.15 AU ejection with velocities close to solar
wind velocity. The fluxes of ejected nano dust are detected near 1AU with the
plasma wave instrument onboard the STEREO spacecraft. Though such electric
signals have been observed during dust impacts before, the interpretation
depends on several different parameters and data analysis is still in progress.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Plasma Physics and
Controlled Fusion, special issue 37th EPS Conference on Plasma Physic
Acceleration of weakly collisional solar-type winds
One of the basic properties of the solar wind, that is the high speed of the
fast wind, is still not satisfactorily explained. This is mainly due to the
theoretical difficulty of treating weakly collisional plasmas. The fluid
approach implies that the medium is collision dominated and that the particle
velocity distributions are close to Maxwellians. However the electron velocity
distributions observed in the solar wind depart significantly from Maxwellians.
Recent kinetic collisionless models (called exospheric) using velocity
distributions with a suprathermal tail have been able to reproduce the high
speeds of the fast solar wind. In this letter we present new developments of
these models by generalizing them over a large range of corona conditions. We
also present new results obtained by numerical simulations that include
collisions. Both approaches calculate the heat flux self-consistently without
any assumption on the energy transport. We show that both approaches - the
exospheric and the collisional one - yield a similar variation of the wind
speed with the basic parameters of the problem; both produce a fast wind speed
if the coronal electron distribution has a suprathermal tail. This suggests
that exospheric models contain the necessary ingredients for the powering of a
transonic stellar wind, including the fast solar one.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
(accepted: 13 May 2005
Maximum relative speeds of living organisms: why do bacteria perform as fast as ostriches?
International audienceSelf-locomotion is central to animal behaviour and survival. It is generally analysed by focusing on preferred speeds and gaits under particular biological and physical constraints. In the present paper we focus instead on the maximum speed and we study its order-of-magnitude scaling with body size, from bacteria to the largest terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Using data for about 460 species of various taxonomic groups, we find a maximum relative speed of the order of magnitude of ten body lengths per second over a 10 20-fold mass range of running and swimming animals. This result implies a locomotor time scale of the order of one tenth of second, virtually independent on body size, anatomy and locomotion style, whose ubiquity requires an explanation building on basic properties of motile organisms. From first-principle estimates, we relate this generic time scale to other basic biological properties, using in particular the recent generalisation of the muscle specific tension to molecular motors. Finally, we go a step further by relating this time scale to still more basic quantities, as environmental conditions at Earth in addition to fundamental physical and chemical constants
Force per cross-sectional area from molecules to muscles: a general property of biological motors
International audienceWe propose to formally extend the notion of specific tension, i.e. force per cross-sectional area—classically used for muscles, to quantify forces in molecular motors exerting various biological functions. In doing so, we review and compare the maximum tensions exerted by about 265 biological motors operated by about 150 species of different taxonomic groups. The motors considered range from single molecules and motile appendages of microorganisms to whole muscles of large animals. We show that specific tensions exerted by molecular and non-molecular motors follow similar statistical distributions, with in particular, similar medians and (logarithmic) means. Over the 10 19 mass (M) range of the cell or body from which the motors are extracted, their specific tensions vary as M α with α not significantly different from zero. The typical specific tension found in most motors is about 200 kPa, which generalizes to individual molecular motors and microorganisms a classical property of macroscopic muscles. We propose a basic order-of-magnitude interpretation of this result
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