5,270 research outputs found

    An evaluation of oxygen-hydrogen propulsion systems for the Space Station

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    Conceptual designs for O2/H2 chemical and resistojet propulsion systems for the space station was developed and evaluated. The evolution of propulsion requirements was considered as the space station configuration and its utilization as a space transportation node change over the first decade of operation. The characteristics of candidate O2/H2 auxiliary propulsion systems are determined, and opportunities for integration with the OTV tank farm and the space station life support, power and thermal control subsystems are investigated. OTV tank farm boiloff can provide a major portion of the growth station impulse requirements and CO2 from the life support system can be a significant propellant resource, provided it is not denied by closure of that subsystem. Waste heat from the thermal control system is sufficient for many propellant conditioning requirements. It is concluded that the optimum level of subsystem integration must be based on higher level space station studies

    Partial breakdown of quantum thermalization in a Hubbard-like model

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    We study the possible breakdown of quantum thermalization in a model of itinerant electrons on a one-dimensional chain without disorder, with both spin and charge degrees of freedom. The eigenstates of this model exhibit peculiar properties in the entanglement entropy, the apparent scaling of which is modified from a "volume law" to an "area law" after performing a partial, site-wise measurement on the system. These properties and others suggest that this model realizes a new, non-thermal phase of matter, known as a quantum disentangled liquid (QDL). The putative existence of this phase has striking implications for the foundations of quantum statistical mechanics.Comment: As accepted to PR

    Clinical ophthalmic ultrasound improvements

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    The use of digital synthetic aperture techniques to obtain high resolution ultrasound images of eye and orbit was proposed. The parameters of the switched array configuration to reduce data collection time to a few milliseconds to avoid eye motion problems in the eye itself were established. An assessment of the effects of eye motion on the performance of the system was obtained. The principles of synthetic techniques are discussed. Likely applications are considered

    Circuit QED and sudden phase switching in a superconducting qubit array

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    Superconducting qubits connected in an array can form quantum many-body systems such as the quantum Ising model. By coupling the qubits to a superconducting resonator, the combined system forms a circuit QED system. Here, we study the nonlinear behavior in the many-body state of the qubit array using a semiclassical approach. We show that sudden switchings as well as a bistable regime between the ferromagnetic phase and the paramagnetic phase can be observed in the qubit array. A superconducting circuit to implement this system is presented with realistic parameters .Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted for publication

    Taking Care of Business in a Flash: Constraining the Timescale for Low-Mass Satellite Quenching with ELVIS

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    The vast majority of dwarf satellites orbiting the Milky Way and M31 are quenched, while comparable galaxies in the field are gas-rich and star-forming. Assuming that this dichotomy is driven by environmental quenching, we use the ELVIS suite of N-body simulations to constrain the characteristic timescale upon which satellites must quench following infall into the virial volumes of their hosts. The high satellite quenched fraction observed in the Local Group demands an extremely short quenching timescale (~ 2 Gyr) for dwarf satellites in the mass range Mstar ~ 10^6-10^8 Msun. This quenching timescale is significantly shorter than that required to explain the quenched fraction of more massive satellites (~ 8 Gyr), both in the Local Group and in more massive host halos, suggesting a dramatic change in the dominant satellite quenching mechanism at Mstar < 10^8 Msun. Combining our work with the results of complementary analyses in the literature, we conclude that the suppression of star formation in massive satellites (Mstar ~ 10^8 - 10^11 Msun) is broadly consistent with being driven by starvation, such that the satellite quenching timescale corresponds to the cold gas depletion time. Below a critical stellar mass scale of ~ 10^8 Msun, however, the required quenching times are much shorter than the expected cold gas depletion times. Instead, quenching must act on a timescale comparable to the dynamical time of the host halo. We posit that ram-pressure stripping can naturally explain this behavior, with the critical mass (of Mstar ~ 10^8 Msun) corresponding to halos with gravitational restoring forces that are too weak to overcome the drag force encountered when moving through an extended, hot circumgalactic medium.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures; resubmitted to MNRAS after referee report (August 25, 2015

    Under Pressure: Quenching Star Formation in Low-Mass Satellite Galaxies via Stripping

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    Recent studies of galaxies in the local Universe, including those in the Local Group, find that the efficiency of environmental (or satellite) quenching increases dramatically at satellite stellar masses below ~ 108 M10^8\ {\rm M}_{\odot}. This suggests a physical scale where quenching transitions from a slow "starvation" mode to a rapid "stripping" mode at low masses. We investigate the plausibility of this scenario using observed HI surface density profiles for a sample of 66 nearby galaxies as inputs to analytic calculations of ram-pressure and viscous stripping. Across a broad range of host properties, we find that stripping becomes increasingly effective at $M_{*} < 10^{8-9}\ {\rm M}_{\odot},reproducingthecriticalmassscaleobserved.However,forcanonicalvaluesofthecircumgalacticmediumdensity(, reproducing the critical mass scale observed. However, for canonical values of the circumgalactic medium density (n_{\rm halo} < 10^{-3.5} {\rm cm}^{-3}$), we find that stripping is not fully effective; infalling satellites are, on average, stripped of < 40 - 70% of their cold gas reservoir, which is insufficient to match observations. By including a host halo gas distribution that is clumpy and therefore contains regions of higher density, we are able to reproduce the observed HI gas fractions (and thus the high quenched fraction and short quenching timescale) of Local Group satellites, suggesting that a host halo with clumpy gas may be crucial for quenching low-mass systems in Local Group-like (and more massive) host halos.Comment: updated version after review, now accepted to MNRAS; Accepted 2016 August 22. Received 2016 August 18; in original form 2016 June 2

    The GNSS-R Eddy Experiment II: L-band and Optical Speculometry for Directional Sea-Roughness Retrieval from Low Altitude Aircraft

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    We report on the retrieval of directional sea-roughness (the full directional mean square slope, including MSS, direction and isotropy) through inversion of Global Navigation Satellite System Reflections (GNSS-R) and SOlar REflectance Speculometry (SORES)data collected during an experimental flight at 1000 m. The emphasis is on the utilization of the entire Delay-Doppler Map (for GNSS-R) or Tilt Azimuth Map (for SORES) in order to infer these directional parameters. Obtained estimations are analyzed and compared to Jason-1 measurements and the ECMWF numerical weather model.Comment: Proceedings from the 2003 Workshop on Oceanography with GNSS Reflections, Barcelona, Spain, 200

    Suppression of combustion oscillations with mechanical devices Interim report

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    Static rocket thrust chamber simulator for cylindrical cold flow-type apparatus desig
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