7,030 research outputs found
Polyhedral vesicles
Polyhedral vesicles with a large bending modulus of the membrane such as the
gel phase lipid membrane were studied using a Brownian dynamics simulation. The
vesicles exhibit various polyhedral morphologies such as tetrahedron and cube
shapes. We clarified two types of line defects on the edges of the polyhedrons:
cracks of both monolayers at the spontaneous curvature of monolayer , and a crack of the inner monolayer at . Around the
latter defect, the inner monolayer curves positively. Our results suggested
that the polyhedral morphology is controlled by .Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Robustly Unstable Eigenmodes of the Magnetoshearing Instability in Accretion Disk
The stability of nonaxisymmetric perturbations in differentially rotating
astrophysical accretion disks is analyzed by fully incorporating the properties
of shear flows. We verify the presence of discrete unstable eigenmodes with
complex and pure imaginary eigenvalues, without any artificial disk edge
boundaries, unlike Ogilvie & Pringle(1996)'s claim. By developing the
mathematical theory of a non-self-adjoint system, we investigate the nonlocal
behavior of eigenmodes in the vicinity of Alfven singularities at
omega_D=omega_A, where omega_D is the Doppler-shifted wave frequency and
omega_A=k_// v_A is the Alfven frequency. The structure of the spectrum of
discrete eigenmodes is discussed and the magnetic field and wavenumber
dependence of the growth rate are obtained. Exponentially growing modes are
present even in a region where the local dispersion relation theory claims to
have stable eigenvalues. The velocity field created by an eigenmode is
obtained, which explains the anomalous angular momentum transport in the
nonlinear stage of this stability.Comment: 11pages, 11figures, to be published in ApJ. For associated eps files,
see http://dino.ph.utexas.edu/~knoguchi
Self-consistent radiative effect on relativistic electromagnetic particle acceleration
We study the radiation damping effect on the relativistic acceleration of
electron-positron plasmas with two-and-half-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC)
simulation. Particles are accelerated by Poynting flux via the diamagnetic
relativistic pulse accelerator (DRPA), and decelerated by the self-consistently
solved radiation damping force. With , the
Lorentz factor of the highest energy particles reaches gamma>100, and the
acceleration still continues. The emitted radiation is peaked within few
degrees from the direction of Poynting flux and strongly linearly polarized,
which may be detectable in gamma-ray burst(GRB) observations. We also show that
the DRPA is insensitive to the initial supporting currents.Comment: 6pages, 4figures. Accepted for publication in Il nuovo cimento
The Frequency of Active and Quiescent Galaxies with Companions: Implications for the Feeding of the Nucleus
We analyze the idea that nuclear activity, either AGN or star formation, can
be triggered by interactions, studying the percentage of active, HII and
quiescent galaxies with companions. Our sample was selected from the Palomar
survey, and avoids selection biases faced by previous studies. The comparison
between the local galaxy density distributions showed that in most cases there
is no statistically significant difference among galaxies of different activity
types. The comparison of the percentage of galaxies with nearby companions
showed that there is a higher percentage of LINERs, transition, and absorption
line galaxies with companions than Seyferts and HII galaxies. However, we find
that when we consider only galaxies of similar morphological types (ellipticals
or spirals), there is no difference in the percentage of galaxies with
companions among different activity types, indicating that the former result
was due to the morphology-density effect. Also, only small differences are
found when we consider galaxies with similar Halpha luminosities. The
comparison between HII galaxies of different Halpha luminosities shows that
there is a significantly higher percentage of galaxies with companions among
the higher luminosity HII galaxies, indicating that interactions increase the
amount of circumnuclear star formation, in agreement with previous results. The
fact that we find that galaxies of different activity types have the same
percentage of companions, suggests that interactions between galaxies is not a
necessary condition to trigger the nuclear activity in AGNs. We compare our
results with previous ones and discuss their implications. (abridged)Comment: 30 pages, including 6 figures and 3 tables. To appear in The
Astronomical Journal, November issu
The Star Clusters in the Irregular Galaxy NGC 4449
We examine the star clusters in the irregular galaxy NGC 4449. We use a
near-infrared spectrum and broad-band images taken with the HST to place a
limit of 8--15 Myrs on the age of the bright central ojbect in NGC 4449. Its
luminosity and size suggest that it is comparable to young super star clusters.
However, there is a peculiar nucleated-bar structure at the center of this star
cluster, and we suggest that this structure is debris from the interaction that
has produced the counter-rotating gas systems and extended gas streamers in the
galaxy.
From the images we identify 60 other candidate compact star clusters in NGC
4449. Fourteen of these could be background elliptical galaxies or old globular
star clusters. Of the star clusters, three, in addition to the central object,
are potentially super star clusters, and many others are comparable to the
populous clusters found in the LMC. The star clusters span a large range in
ages with no obvious peak in cluster formation that might be attributed to the
interaction that the galaxy has experienced.Comment: To be published in PASP, Feb. 2001; also attainable from
ftp.lowell.edu, cd pub/dah/n4449pape
Magnetorotational Instability in Liquid Metal Couette Flow
Despite the importance of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) as a
fundamental mechanism for angular momentum transport in magnetized accretion
disks, it has yet to be demonstrated in the laboratory. A liquid sodium
alpha-omega dynamo experiment at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology provides an ideal environment to study the MRI in a rotating metal
annulus (Couette flow). A local stability analysis is performed as a function
of shear, magnetic field strength, magnetic Reynolds number, and turbulent
Prandtl number. The later takes into account the minimum turbulence induced by
the formation of an Ekman layer against the rigidly rotating end walls of a
cylindrical vessel. Stability conditions are presented and unstable conditions
for the sodium experiment are compared with another proposed MRI experiment
with liquid gallium. Due to the relatively large magnetic Reynolds number
achievable in the sodium experiment, it should be possible to observe the
excitation of the MRI for a wide range of wavenumbers and further to observe
the transition to the turbulent state.Comment: 12 pages, 22 figures, 1 table. To appear in the Astrophysical Journa
Evidence for a Molecular Cloud Origin for Gamma-Ray Bursts: Implications for the Nature of Star Formation in the Universe
It appears that the majority of rapidly-, well-localized gamma-ray bursts
with undetected, or dark, optical afterglows, or `dark bursts' for short, occur
in clouds of size R > 10L_{49}^{1/2} pc and mass M > 3x10^5L_{49} M_{sun},
where L is the isotropic-equivalent peak luminosity of the optical flash. We
show that clouds of this size and mass cannot be modeled as a gas that is bound
by pressure equilibrium with a warm or hot phase of the interstellar medium
(i.e., a diffuse cloud): Such a cloud would be unstable to gravitational
collapse, resulting in the collapse and fragmentation of the cloud until a
burst of star formation re-establishes pressure equilibrium within the
fragments, and the fragments are bound by self-gravity (i.e., a molecular
cloud). Consequently, dark bursts probably occur in molecular clouds, in which
case dark bursts are probably a byproduct of this burst of star formation if
the molecular cloud formed recently, and/or the result of lingering or latter
generation star formation if the molecular cloud formed some time ago. We then
show that if bursts occur in Galactic-like molecular clouds, the column
densities of which might be universal, the number of dark bursts can be
comparable to the number of bursts with detected optical afterglows: This is
what is observed, which suggests that the bursts with detected optical
afterglows might also occur in molecular clouds. We confirm this by modeling
and constraining the distribution of column densities, measured from absorption
of the X-ray afterglow, of the bursts with detected optical afterglows: We find
that this distribution is consistent with the expectation for bursts that occur
in molecular clouds, and is not consistent with the expectation for bursts that
occur in diffuse clouds. More...Comment: Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal, 22 pages, 6 figures, LaTe
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