5,226 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
An Annotated List of Phytophagous Insects Collected on Immature Black Walnut Trees in Southern Illinois
An annotated list of phytophagous insects on immature black walnut in southern Illinois was compiled between 26 April, 1974, and 9 October, 1975. Approximately 300 species, in 10 orders, were collected by hand-picking and sweeping. Notes taken on the various species included types of feeding damage, instars present, predators and parasites, and distribution in southern Illinois. Lepidoptera (about 80 species collected) were responsible for the majority of damage observed
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
On some new South African Proctotrupoidea (Hymenoptera)
The present paper is a further attempt to work out some of the
material collected by Mr. R. E. Turner in South Africa, and presented
by him to the British Museum, in which the types of all new species
described in the following pages are contained.Peer reviewe
Violence against women: public health or law enforcement problem or both?
Despite on-going research spanning many years, the police investigation of different forms of violence against women remains under review. The most recent reviews exploring sexual and domestic violence suggest that vulnerable victims are not identified effectively and that this subsequently impacts on the investigation, level of attrition and the provision of correct support for victims. The authors suggest that some of the current methods, aimed at improving these issues, can further compound problems within a police culture that often remains focused on narrow quantifiable performance targets. Violence against women involves a range of very complex issues and for most victims there are a number of vulnerabilities involved.
Considering these factors are often related to public health concerns the authors argue for a more consistent and joined up approach to supporting victims through the Criminal Justice System. In the short term this is necessary for keeping victims on board with the process and in the longer term this is essential when dealing effectively with the broader, longer term issues impacting on their victimisation. It is crucial given the current fiscal climate that these issues are dealt with universally, with a focus on longer term outcomes
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
Texas Forestry Paper No. 28
Plants following timber harvest: importance to songbirdshttps://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/texas_forestry_papers/1016/thumbnail.jp
Abundance Measurements of Titan's Stratospheric HCN, HCN, CH, and CHCN from ALMA Observations
Previous investigations have employed more than 100 close observations of
Titan by the Cassini orbiter to elucidate connections between the production
and distribution of Titan's vast, organic-rich chemical inventory and its
atmospheric dynamics. However, as Titan transitions into northern summer, the
lack of incoming data from the Cassini orbiter presents a potential barrier to
the continued study of seasonal changes in Titan's atmosphere. In our previous
work (Thelen et al., 2018), we demonstrated that the Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is well suited for measurements of
Titan's atmosphere in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere (~100-500 km)
through the use of spatially resolved (beam sizes <1'') flux calibration
observations of Titan. Here, we derive vertical abundance profiles of four of
Titan's trace atmospheric species from the same 3 independent spatial regions
across Titan's disk during the same epoch (2012 to 2015): HCN, HCN,
CH, and CHCN. We find that Titan's minor constituents exhibit large
latitudinal variations, with enhanced abundances at high latitudes compared to
equatorial measurements; this includes CHCN, which eluded previous
detection by Cassini in the stratosphere, and thus spatially resolved abundance
measurements were unattainable. Even over the short 3-year period, vertical
profiles and integrated emission maps of these molecules allow us to observe
temporal changes in Titan's atmospheric circulation during northern spring. Our
derived abundance profiles are comparable to contemporary measurements from
Cassini infrared observations, and we find additional evidence for subsidence
of enriched air onto Titan's south pole during this time period. Continued
observations of Titan with ALMA beyond the summer solstice will enable further
study of how Titan's atmospheric composition and dynamics respond to seasonal
changes.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Icarus,
September 201
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