55 research outputs found
Is tidal heating sufficient to explain bloated exoplanets? Consistent calculations accounting for finite initial eccentricity
In this paper, we present the consistent evolution of short-period exoplanets
coupling the tidal and gravothermal evolution of the planet. Contrarily to
previous similar studies, our calculations are based on the complete tidal
evolution equations of the Hut model, valid at any order in eccentricity,
obliquity and spin. We demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that,
except if the system was formed with a nearly circular orbit (e<0.2), solving
consistently the complete tidal equations is mandatory to derive correct tidal
evolution histories. We show that calculations based on tidal models truncated
at second order in eccentricity, as done in all previous studies, lead to
erroneous tidal evolutions. As a consequence, tidal energy dissipation rates
are severely underestimated in all these calculations and the characteristic
timescales for the various orbital parameters evolutions can be wrong by up to
three orders in magnitude.
Based on these complete, consistent calculations, we revisit the viability of
the tidal heating hypothesis to explain the anomalously large radius of
transiting giant planets. We show that, even though tidal dissipation does
provide a substantial contribution to the planet's heat budget and can explain
some of the moderately bloated hot-Jupiters, this mechanism can not explain
alone the properties of the most inflated objects, including HD 209458b.
Indeed, solving the complete tidal equations shows that enhanced tidal
dissipation and thus orbit circularization occur too early during the planet's
evolution to provide enough extra energy at the present epoch. In that case
another mechanisms, such as stellar irradiation induced surface winds
dissipating in the planet's tidal bulges, or inefficient convection in the
planet's interior must be invoked, together with tidal dissipation, to provide
all the pieces of the abnormally large exoplanet puzzle.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics
Pulmonary Abnormalities and Carotid Atherosclerosis in Ex-Smokers without Airflow Limitation.
Abstract It is well-established that COPD patients have a burden of vascular disease that cannot be fully-explained by smoking history but the mechanistic links between atherosclerosis and pulmonary disease in COPD patients are not well-understood. Moreover, in ex-smokers without symptoms or other evidence of COPD, subclinical pulmonary and vascular disease, although potentially present, has not been described or evaluated. Hence our aim was to use sensitive three-dimensional (3D) pulmonary and carotid imaging to quantify pulmonary airway/parenchyma abnormalities and atherosclerosis in ex-smokers without airflow limitation or symptoms consistent with COPD. We evaluated 61 subjects without airflow limitation including 34 never- (72 ± 6 years) and 27 ex-smokers (73 ± 9 years), who provided written informed consent to spirometry, plethysmography, (3)He magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and carotid ultrasound (US) and, for ex-smokers alone, thoracic X-ray computed tomography (CT). Ex-smokers had significantly greater (3)He ventilation defect percent (VDP = 7%, p = 0.001) and carotid total plaque volume (TPV = 250 mm(3), p = 0.002) than never-smokers, although there were no significant differences for spirometry or plethysmography, and CT airway and emphysema measurements were normal. There were univariate relationships for (3)He VDP with carotid intima media thickness (IMT, r = 0.42, p = 0.004), TPV (r = 0.41, p = 0.006) and vessel wall volume (VWV, r = 0.40, p = 0.007). Multivariate models that included age, BMI, FEV1, DLCO and VDP showed that only VDP significantly predicted IMT (β = 0.41, p = 0.001), VWV (β = 0.45, p = 0.003) and TPV (β = 0.38, p = 0.005). In summary, there was imaging evidence of mild airways disease and carotid plaque burden that were related and significantly greater in ex-smokers without airflow limitation than in never-smokers
Tidal torques. A critical review of some techniques
We point out that the MacDonald formula for body-tide torques is valid only
in the zeroth order of e/Q, while its time-average is valid in the first order.
So the formula cannot be used for analysis in higher orders of e/Q. This
necessitates corrections in the theory of tidal despinning and libration
damping.
We prove that when the inclination is low and phase lags are linear in
frequency, the Kaula series is equivalent to a corrected version of the
MacDonald method. The correction to MacDonald's approach would be to set the
phase lag of the integral bulge proportional to the instantaneous frequency.
The equivalence of descriptions gets violated by a nonlinear
frequency-dependence of the lag.
We explain that both the MacDonald- and Darwin-torque-based derivations of
the popular formula for the tidal despinning rate are limited to low
inclinations and to the phase lags being linear in frequency. The
Darwin-torque-based derivation, though, is general enough to accommodate both a
finite inclination and the actual rheology.
Although rheologies with Q scaling as the frequency to a positive power make
the torque diverge at a zero frequency, this reveals not the impossible nature
of the rheology, but a flaw in mathematics, i.e., a common misassumption that
damping merely provides lags to the terms of the Fourier series for the tidal
potential. A hydrodynamical treatment (Darwin 1879) had demonstrated that the
magnitudes of the terms, too, get changed. Reinstating of this detail tames the
infinities and rehabilitates the "impossible" scaling law (which happens to be
the actual law the terrestrial planets obey at low frequencies).Comment: arXiv admin note: sections 4 and 9 of this paper contain substantial
text overlap with arXiv:0712.105
The role of chaotic resonances in the solar system
Our understanding of the Solar System has been revolutionized over the past
decade by the finding that the orbits of the planets are inherently chaotic. In
extreme cases, chaotic motions can change the relative positions of the planets
around stars, and even eject a planet from a system. Moreover, the spin axis of
a planet-Earth's spin axis regulates our seasons-may evolve chaotically, with
adverse effects on the climates of otherwise biologically interesting planets.
Some of the recently discovered extrasolar planetary systems contain multiple
planets, and it is likely that some of these are chaotic as well.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure
Needle & knot : binder boilerplate tied up
To lighten the burden of programming language mechanization, many approaches have been developed that tackle the substantial boilerplate which arises from variable binders. Unfortunately, the existing approaches are limited in scope. They typically do not support complex binding forms (such as multi-binders) that arise in more advanced languages, or they do not tackle the boilerplate due to mentioning variables and binders in relations. As a consequence, the human mechanizer is still unnecessarily burdened with binder boilerplate and discouraged from taking on richer languages.
This paper presents Knot, a new approach that substantially extends the support for binder boilerplate. Knot is a highly expressive language for natural and concise specification of syntax with binders. Its meta-theory constructively guarantees the coverage of a considerable amount of binder boilerplate for well-formed specifications, including that for well-scoping of terms and context lookups. Knot also comes with a code generator, Needle, that specializes the generic boilerplate for convenient embedding in COQ and provides a tactic library for automatically discharging proof obligations that frequently come up in proofs of weakening and substitution lemmas of type-systems.
Our evaluation shows, that Needle & Knot significantly reduce the size of language mechanizations (by 40% in our case study). Moreover, as far as we know, Knot enables the most concise mechanization of the POPLmark Challenge (1a + 2a) and is two-thirds the size of the next smallest. Finally, Knot allows us to mechanize for instance dependentlytyped languages, which is notoriously challenging because of dependent contexts and mutually-recursive sorts with variables
Characterization of cladded glass fibers using acoustic microscopy
Spatial distribution profiles of leaky surface acoustic wave velocity V(LSAW) and attenuation across the diameters of cladded glass fibers are presented. The profiles are obtained by using a novel V(x,z) analysis with a reflection scanning acoustic microscope operated at 775 MHz, and are compared with optical refractive index profiles. Optical fibers with different dopants and dopant concentrations have been investigated. The role of acoustic property profiles in the design of optical and acoustic fibers is outlined
The co-administration of quetiapine or placebo to cognitive-behavior therapy in treatment refractory depression: A preliminary trial
A seven-planet resonant chain in TRAPPIST-1
The TRAPPIST-1 system is the first transiting planet system found orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star1. At least seven planets similar to Earth in radius were previously found to transit this host star2. Subsequently, TRAPPIST-1 was observed as part of the K2 mission and, with these new data, we report the measurement of an 18.77 d orbital period for the outermost transiting planet, TRAPPIST-1h, which was unconstrained until now. This value matches our theoretical expectations based on Laplace relations3 and places TRAPPIST-1h as the seventh member of a complex chain, with three-body resonances linking every member. We find that TRAPPIST-1h has a radius of 0.727 R⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 169 K. We have also measured the rotational period of the star at 3.3 d and detected a number of flares consistent with a low-activity, middle-aged, late M dwarf
Molecular Evolution of the Neuropeptide S Receptor
The neuropeptide S receptor (NPSR) is a recently deorphanized member of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily and is activated by the neuropeptide S (NPS). NPSR and NPS are widely expressed in central nervous system and are known to have crucial roles in asthma pathogenesis, locomotor activity, wakefulness, anxiety and food intake. The NPS-NPSR system was previously thought to have first evolved in the tetrapods. Here we examine the origin and the molecular evolution of the NPSR using in-silico comparative analyses and document the molecular basis of divergence of the NPSR from its closest vertebrate paralogs. In this study, NPSR-like sequences have been identified in a hemichordate and a cephalochordate, suggesting an earlier emergence of a NPSR-like sequence in the metazoan lineage. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the NPSR is most closely related to the invertebrate cardioacceleratory peptide receptor (CCAPR) and the group of vasopressin-like receptors. Gene structure features were congruent with the phylogenetic clustering and supported the orthology of NPSR to the invertebrate NPSR-like and CCAPR. A site-specific analysis between the vertebrate NPSR and the well studied paralogous vasopressin-like receptor subtypes revealed several putative amino acid sites that may account for the observed functional divergence between them. The data can facilitate experimental studies aiming at deciphering the common features as well as those related to ligand binding and signal transduction processes specific to the NPSR
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