5,965 research outputs found
The observable effects of tidally induced warps in protostellar discs
We consider the response of a protostellar disc to a tidally induced warp and
the resultant changes in the spectral energy distribution (SED). We argue that
for typical protostellar disc parameters the warp is communicated through the
disc in a wave-like fashion. We find that the main effects of the warp tend to
be at large radii (greater than 30 AU) and, for sufficiently small viscosity,
can be quite long-lived. This can result in non-uniform illumination of the
disc at these radii and can induce significant changes to the SED at
wavelengths greater than 100 microns.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures. Accepted by MNRA
Rigidity of Frameworks Supported on Surfaces
A theorem of Laman gives a combinatorial characterisation of the graphs that
admit a realisation as a minimally rigid generic bar-joint framework in
\bR^2. A more general theory is developed for frameworks in \bR^3 whose
vertices are constrained to move on a two-dimensional smooth submanifold \M.
Furthermore, when \M is a union of concentric spheres, or a union of parallel
planes or a union of concentric cylinders, necessary and sufficient
combinatorial conditions are obtained for the minimal rigidity of generic
frameworks.Comment: Final version, 28 pages, with new figure
Retrograde Accretion and Merging Supermassive Black Holes
We investigate whether a circumbinary gas disc can coalesce a supermassive
black hole binary system in the centre of a galaxy. This is known to be
problematic for a prograde disc. We show that in contrast, interaction with a
retrograde circumbinary disc is considerably more effective in shrinking the
binary because there are no orbital resonances. The binary directly absorbs
negative angular momentum from the circumbinary disc by capturing gas into a
disc around the secondary black hole, or discs around both holes if the binary
mass ratio is close to unity. In many cases the binary orbit becomes eccentric,
shortening the pericentre distance as the eccentricity grows. In all cases the
binary coalesces once it has absorbed the angular momentum of a gas mass
comparable to that of the secondary black hole. Importantly, this conclusion is
unaffected even if the gas inflow rate through the disc is formally
super--Eddington for either hole. The coalescence timescale is therefore always
, where is the secondary black hole mass and
the inflow rate through the circumbinary disc.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Movies of the
simulations can be found at:
http://www.astro.le.ac.uk/users/cjn12/RetroBinaryMovies.htm
Disabled people’s experiences of anti-social behaviour and harassment in social housing: a critical review
Do stiffness and asymmetries predict change of direction performance?
Change of direction speed (CODS) underpins performance in a wide range of sports but little is known about how stiffness and asymmetries affect CODS. Eighteen healthy males performed unilateral drop jumps to determine vertical, ankle, knee and hip stiffness, and a CODS test to evaluate left and right leg cutting performance during which ground reaction force data were sampled. A step-wise regression analysis was performed to ascertain the determinants of CODS time. A two-variable regression model explained 63% (R-2 = 0.63; P = 0.001) of CODS performance. The model included the mean vertical stiffness and jump height asymmetry determined during the drop jump. Faster athletes (n = 9) exhibited greater vertical stiffness (F = 12.40; P = 0.001) and less asymmetry in drop jump height (F = 6.02; P = 0.026) than slower athletes (n = 9); effect sizes were both "large" in magnitude. Results suggest that overall vertical stiffness and drop jump height asymmetry are the strongest predictors of CODS in a healthy, non-athletic population
Modeling quasar accretion disc temperature profiles
Microlensing observations indicate that quasar accretion discs have
half-light radii larger than expected from standard theoretical predictions
based on quasar fluxes or black hole masses. Blackburne and colleagues have
also found a very weak wavelength dependence of these half-light radii. We
consider disc temperature profile models that might match these observations.
Nixon and colleagues have suggested that misaligned accretion discs around
spinning black holes will be disrupted at radii small enough for the
Lense-Thirring torque to overcome the disc's viscous torque. Gas in precessing
annuli torn off a disc will spread radially and intersect with the remaining
disc, heating the disc at potentially large radii. However, if the intersection
occurs at an angle of more than a degree or so, highly supersonic collisions
will shock-heat the gas to a Compton temperature of T~10^7 K, and the spectral
energy distributions (SEDs) of discs with such shock-heated regions are poor
fits to observations of quasar SEDs. Torn discs where heating occurs in
intermittent weak shocks that occur whenever the intersection angle reaches a
tenth of a degree pose less of a conflict with observations, but do not have
significantly larger half-light radii than standard discs. We also study two
phenomenological disc temperature profile models. We find that discs with a
temperature spike at relatively large radii and lowered temperatures at radii
inside the spike yield improved and acceptable fits to microlensing sizes in
most cases. Such temperature profiles could in principle occur in sub-Keplerian
discs partially supported by magnetic pressure. However, such discs overpredict
the fluxes from quasars studied with microlensing except in the limit of
negligible continuum emission from radii inside the temperature spike.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcome. 20 pages, 5 figure
Methods of editing cloud and atmospheric layer affected pixels from satellite data
Subvisible cirrus clouds (SCi) were easily distinguished in mid-infrared (MIR) TIROS-N daytime data from south Texas and northeast Mexico. The MIR (3.55-3.93 micrometer) pixel digital count means of the SCi affected areas were more than 3.5 standard deviations on the cold side of the scene means. (These standard deviations were made free of the effects of unusual instrument error by factoring out the Ch 3 MIR noise on the basis of detailed examination of noisy and noise-free pixels). SCi affected areas in the IR Ch 4 (10.5-11.5 micrometer) appeared cooler than the general scene, but were not as prominent as in Ch 3, being less than 2 standard deviations from the scene mean. Ch 3 and 4 standard deviations and coefficients of variation are not reliable indicators, by themselves, of the presence of SCi because land features can have similar statistical properties
Methods of editing cloud and atmospheric layer affected pixels from satellite data
The location and migration of cloud, land and water features were examined in spectral space (reflective VIS vs. emissive IR). Daytime HCMM data showed two distinct types of cloud affected pixels in the south Texas test area. High altitude cirrus and/or cirrostratus and "subvisible cirrus" (SCi) reflected the same or only slightly more than land features. In the emissive band, the digital counts ranged from 1 to over 75 and overlapped land features. Pixels consisting of cumulus clouds, or of mixed cumulus and landscape, clustered in a different area of spectral space than the high altitude cloud pixels. Cumulus affected pixels were more reflective than land and water pixels. In August the high altitude clouds and SCi were more emissive than similar clouds were in July. Four-channel TIROS-N data were examined with the objective of developing a multispectral screening technique for removing SCi contaminated data
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