13,784 research outputs found
Mechanism of Magnetic Flux Loss in Molecular Clouds
We investigate the detailed processes working in the drift of magnetic fields
in molecular clouds. To the frictional force, whereby the magnetic force is
transmitted to neutral molecules, ions contribute more than half only at cloud
densities , and charged grains contribute more
than 90% at . Thus grains play a decisive role
in the process of magnetic flux loss. Approximating the flux loss time by
a power law , where is the mean field strength in
the cloud, we find , characteristic to ambipolar diffusion,
only at . At higher densities,
decreases steeply with , and finally at , where magnetic fields
effectively decouple from the gas, is attained, reminiscent of
Ohmic dissipation, though flux loss occurs about 10 times faster than by Ohmic
dissipation. Ohmic dissipation is dominant only at . While ions and electrons drift in the direction of
magnetic force at all densities, grains of opposite charges drift in opposite
directions at high densities, where grains are major contributors to the
frictional force. Although magnetic flux loss occurs significantly faster than
by Ohmic dissipation even at very high densities as , the process going on at high densities is quite different from ambipolar
diffusion in which particles of opposite charges are supposed to drift as one
unit.Comment: 34 pages including 9 postscript figures, LaTex, accepted by
Astrophysical Journal (vol.573, No.1, July 1, 2002
On the mechanism for breaks in the cosmic ray spectrum
The proof of cosmic ray (CR) origin in supernova remnants (SNR) must hinge on
full consistency of the CR acceleration theory with the observations; direct
proof is impossible because of the orbit stochasticity of CR particles. Recent
observations of a number of galactic SNR strongly support the SNR-CR connection
in general and the Fermi mechanism of CR acceleration, in particular. However,
many SNR expand into weakly ionized dense gases, and so a significant revision
of the mechanism is required to fit the data. We argue that strong ion-neutral
collisions in the remnant surrounding lead to the steepening of the energy
spectrum of accelerated particles by \emph{exactly one power}. The spectral
break is caused by a partial evanescence of Alfven waves that confine particles
to the accelerator. The gamma-ray spectrum generated in collisions of the
accelerated protons with the ambient gas is also calculated. Using the recent
Fermi spacecraft observation of the SNR W44 as an example, we demonstrate that
the parent proton spectrum is a classical test particle power law , steepening to at .Comment: APS talk to appear in PoP, 4 figure
Fragmentation Instability of Molecular Clouds: Numerical Simulations
We simulate fragmentation and gravitational collapse of cold, magnetized
molecular clouds. We explore the nonlinear development of an instability
mediated by ambipolar diffusion, in which the collapse rate is intermediate to
fast gravitational collapse and slow quasistatic collapse. Initially uniform
stable clouds fragment into elongated clumps with masses largely determined by
the cloud temperature, but substantially larger than the thermal Jeans mass.
The clumps are asymmetric, with significant rotation and vorticity, and lose
magnetic flux as they collapse. The clump shapes, intermediate collapse rates,
and infall profiles may help explain observations not easily fit by
contemporary slow or rapid collapse models.Comment: 25pp, 20 small eps figures, in press ApJ, April 1, 200
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
Lexicographic cones and the ordered projective tensor product
We introduce lexicographic cones, a method of assigning an ordered vector
space \Lex(S) to a poset , generalising the standard lexicographic cone.
These lexicographic cones are then used to prove that the projective tensor
cone of two arbitrary cones is a cone, and to find a new characterisation of
finite-dimensional vector lattices.Comment: 8 page
Thermodynamic properties of a classical d-dimensional spin-S Heisenberg ferromagnet with long-range interactions via the spectral density method
The thermodynamic properties of a classical d-dimensional spin-S Heisenberg
ferromagnet, with long-range interactions decaying as and in the
presence of an external magnetic field, is investigated by means of the
spectral density method in the framework of classical statistical mechanics. We
find that long-range order exists at finite temperature for with
and for with , consistently with known theorems. Besides,
the related critical temperature is determined and a study of the critical
properties is performed.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures, Submitted to Physica
N N bar,Delta bar N, Delta N bar excitation for the pion propagator in nuclear matter
The particle-hole and Delta -hole excitations are well-known elementary
excitation modes for the pion propagator in nuclear matter. But, the excitation
also involves antiparticles, namely, nucleon-antinucleon, anti-Delta-nucleon
and Delta-antinucleon excitations. These are important for high-energy momentum
as well, and have not been studied before, to our knowledge. In this paper, we
give both the formulas and the numerical calculations for the real and the
imaginary parts of these excitations.Comment: Latex, 3 eps file
Sub-Alfvenic Non-Ideal MHD Turbulence Simulations with Ambipolar Diffusion: I. Turbulence Statistics
Most numerical investigations on the role of magnetic fields in turbulent
molecular clouds (MCs) are based on ideal magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD). However,
MCs are weakly ionized, so that the time scale required for the magnetic field
to diffuse through the neutral component of the plasma by ambipolar diffusion
(AD) can be comparable to the dynamical time scale. We have performed a series
of 256^3 and 512^3 simulations on supersonic but sub-Alfvenic turbulent systems
with AD using the Heavy-Ion Approximation developed in Li, McKee, & Klein
(2006). Our calculations are based on the assumption that the number of ions is
conserved, but we show that these results approximately apply to the case of
time-dependent ionization in molecular clouds as well. Convergence studies
allow us to determine the optimal value of the ionization mass fraction when
using the heavy-ion approximation for low Mach number, sub-Alfvenic turbulent
systems. We find that ambipolar diffusion steepens the velocity and magnetic
power spectra compared to the ideal MHD case. Changes in the density PDF, total
magnetic energy, and ionization fraction are determined as a function of the AD
Reynolds number. The power spectra for the neutral gas properties of a strongly
magnetized medium with a low AD Reynolds number are similar to those for a
weakly magnetized medium; in particular, the power spectrum of the neutral
velocity is close to that for Burgers turbulence.Comment: 37 pages, 11 figures, 4 table
Quasiparticle Effective Mass for the Two- and Three-Dimensional Electron Gas
We calculate the quasiparticle effective mass for the electron gas in two and
three dimensions in the metallic region. We employ the single particle
scattering potential coming from the Sj\"{o}lander-Stott theory and enforce the
Friedel sum rule by adjusting the effective electron mass in a scattering
calculation. In 3D our effective mass is a monotonically decreasing function of
throughout the whole metallic domain, as implied by the most recent
numerical results. In 2D we obtain reasonable agreement with the experimental
data, as well as with other calculations based on the Fermi liquid theory. We
also present results of a variety of different treatments for the effective
mass in 2D and 3D.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
Ground State Properties of One Dimensional S=1/2 Heisenberg Model with Dimerization and Quadrumerization
The one dimensional S=1/2 Heisenberg model with dimerization and
quadrumerization is studied by means of the numerical exact diagonalization of
finite size systems. Using the phenomenological renormalization group and
finite size scaling law, the ground state phase diagram is obtained in the
isotropic case. It exhibits a variety of the ground states which contains the
S=1 Haldane state, S=1 dimer state and S=1/2 dimer state as limiting cases. The
gap exponent is also calculated which coincides with the value for the
dimerization transition of the isotropic Heisenberg chain. In the XY limit, the
phase diagram is obtained analytically and the comparison is made with the
isotropic case.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure
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