16,595 research outputs found
Self-forces on extended bodies in electrodynamics
In this paper, we study the bulk motion of a classical extended charge in
flat spacetime. A formalism developed by W. G. Dixon is used to determine how
the details of such a particle's internal structure influence its equations of
motion. We place essentially no restrictions (other than boundedness) on the
shape of the charge, and allow for inhomogeneity, internal currents,
elasticity, and spin. Even if the angular momentum remains small, many such
systems are found to be affected by large self-interaction effects beyond the
standard Lorentz-Dirac force. These are particularly significant if the
particle's charge density fails to be much greater than its 3-current density
(or vice versa) in the center-of-mass frame. Additional terms also arise in the
equations of motion if the dipole moment is too large, and when the
`center-of-electromagnetic mass' is far from the `center-of-bare mass' (roughly
speaking). These conditions are often quite restrictive. General equations of
motion were also derived under the assumption that the particle can only
interact with the radiative component of its self-field. These are much simpler
than the equations derived using the full retarded self-field; as are the
conditions required to recover the Lorentz-Dirac equation.Comment: 30 pages; significantly improved presentation; accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
High-precision radiocarbon dating of the construction phase of Oakbank Crannog, Loch Tay, Perthshire
Many of the Loch Tay crannogs were built in the Early Iron Age and so calibration of the radiocarbon ages produces
very broad calendar age ranges due to the well-documented Hallstatt plateau in the calibration curve. However, the
large oak timbers that were used in the construction of some of the crannogs potentially provide a means of improving the precision of the dating through subdividing them into decadal or subdecadal increments, dating them to high precision and wiggle-matching the resulting data to the master <sup>14</sup>C calibration curve. We obtained a sample from 1 oak timber from Oakbank Crannog comprising 70 rings (Sample OB06 WMS 1, T103) including sapwood that was complete to the bark edge. The timber is situated on the northeast edge of the main living area of the crannog and as a large and strong oak pile would have been a useful support in more than 1 phase of occupation and may be related to the earliest construction phase of the site. This was sectioned into 5-yr increments and dated to a precision of approximately ±8–16 <sup>14</sup>C yr (1 σ). The wiggle-match predicts that the last ring dated was formed around 500 BC (maximum range of 520–465 BC) and should be taken as indicative of the likely time of construction of Oakbank Crannog. This is a considerable improvement on the estimates based on single <sup>14</sup>C ages made on oak samples, which typically encompassed the period from around 800–400 BC
The Dynamics of a Classical Spinning Particle in Vaidya Space-Time
Based on the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon (MPD) equations and the Vaidya
metric, the motion of a spinning point particle orbiting a non-rotating star
while undergoing radiation-induced gravitational collapse is studied in detail.
A comprehensive analysis of the orbital dynamics is performed assuming distinct
central mass functions which satisfy the weak energy condition, in order to
determine a correspondence between the choice of mass function and the spinning
particle's orbital response, as reflected in the gravitational waves emitted by
the particle. The analysis presented here is likely most beneficial for the
observation of rotating solar mass black holes or neutron stars in orbit around
intermediate-sized Schwarzschild black holes undergoing radiation collapse. The
possibility of detecting the effects of realistic mass accretion based on this
approach is considered. While it seems unlikely to observe such effects based
on present technology, they may perhaps become observable with the advent of
future detectors.Comment: REVTeX file, 20 pages, 26 figure
Fuels treatment and wildfire effects on runoff from Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests
We applied an eco-hydrologic model (Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System [RHESSys]), constrained with spatially distributed field measurements, to assess the impacts of forest-fuel treatments and wildfire on hydrologic fluxes in two Sierra Nevada firesheds. Strategically placed fuels treatments were implemented during 2011–2012 in the upper American River in the central Sierra Nevada (43 km2) and in the upper Fresno River in the southern Sierra Nevada (24 km2). This study used the measured vegetation changes from mechanical treatments and modelled vegetation change from wildfire to determine impacts on the water balance. The well-constrained headwater model was transferred to larger catchments based on geologic and hydrologic similarities. Fuels treatments covered 18% of the American and 29% of the Lewis catchment. Averaged over the entire catchment, treatments in the wetter central Sierra Nevada resulted in a relatively light vegetation decrease (8%), leading to a 12% runoff increase, averaged over wet and dry years. Wildfire with and without forest treatments reduced vegetation by 38% and 50% and increased runoff by 55% and 67%, respectively. Treatments in the drier southern Sierra Nevada also reduced the spatially averaged vegetation by 8%, but the runoff response was limited to an increase of less than 3% compared with no treatment. Wildfire following treatments reduced vegetation by 40%, increasing runoff by 13%. Changes to catchment-scale water-balance simulations were more sensitive to canopy cover than to leaf area index, indicating that the pattern as well as amount of vegetation treatment is important to hydrologic response
Spinning test particles and clock effect in Schwarzschild spacetime
We study the behaviour of spinning test particles in the Schwarzschild
spacetime. Using Mathisson-Papapetrou equations of motion we confine our
attention to spatially circular orbits and search for observable effects which
could eventually discriminate among the standard supplementary conditions
namely the Corinaldesi-Papapetrou, Pirani and Tulczyjew. We find that if the
world line chosen for the multipole reduction and whose unit tangent we denote
as is a circular orbit then also the generalized momentum of the
spinning test particle is tangent to a circular orbit even though and
are not parallel four-vectors. These orbits are shown to exist because the spin
induced tidal forces provide the required acceleration no matter what
supplementary condition we select. Of course, in the limit of a small spin the
particle's orbit is close of being a circular geodesic and the (small)
deviation of the angular velocities from the geodesic values can be of an
arbitrary sign, corresponding to the possible spin-up and spin-down alignment
to the z-axis. When two spinning particles orbit around a gravitating source in
opposite directions, they make one loop with respect to a given static observer
with different arrival times. This difference is termed clock effect. We find
that a nonzero gravitomagnetic clock effect appears for oppositely orbiting
both spin-up or spin-down particles even in the Schwarzschild spacetime. This
allows us to establish a formal analogy with the case of (spin-less) geodesics
on the equatorial plane of the Kerr spacetime. This result can be verified
experimentally.Comment: IOP macros, eps figures n. 2, to appear on Classical and Quantum
gravity, 200
Integrated technology rotor/flight research rotor hub concept definition
Two variations of the helicopter bearingless main rotor hub concept are proposed as bases for further development in the preliminary design phase of the Integrated Technology Rotor/Flight Research Rotor (ITR/FRR) program. This selection was the result of an evaluation of three bearingless hub concepts and two articulated hub concepts with elastomeric bearings. The characteristics of each concept were evaluated by means of simplified methodology. These characteristics included the assessment of stability, vulnerability, weight, drag, cost, stiffness, fatigue life, maintainability, and reliability
Radiation-induced nucleic acid synthesis in L cells under energy deprivation
Radiation induced nucleic acid synthesis in energy deprived L cell
Associating object names with descriptions of shape that distinguish possible from impossible objects.
Five experiments examine the proposal that object names are closely linked torepresentations of global, 3D shape by comparing memory for simple line drawings of structurally possible and impossible novel objects.Objects were rendered impossible through local edge violations to global coherence (cf. Schacter, Cooper, & Delaney, 1990) and supplementary observations confirmed that the sets of possible and impossible objects were matched for their distinctiveness. Employing a test of explicit recognition memory, Experiment 1 confirmed that the possible and impossible objects were equally memorable. Experiments 2–4 demonstrated that adults learn names (single-syllable non-words presented as count nouns, e.g., “This is a dax”) for possible objectsmore easily than for impossible objects, and an item-based analysis showed that this effect was unrelated to either the memorability or the distinctiveness of the individual objects. Experiment 3 indicated that the effects of object possibility on name learning were long term (spanning at least 2months), implying that the cognitive processes being revealed can support the learning of object names in everyday life. Experiment 5 demonstrated that hearing someone else name an object at presentation improves recognition memory for possible objects, but not for impossible objects. Taken together, the results indicate that object names are closely linked to the descriptions of global, 3D shape that can be derived for structurally possible objects but not for structurally impossible objects. In addition, the results challenge the view that object decision and explicit recognition necessarily draw on separate memory systems,with only the former being supported by these descriptions of global object shape. It seems that recognition also can be supported by these descriptions, provided the original encoding conditions encourage their derivation. Hearing an object named at encoding appears to be just such a condition. These observations are discussed in relation to the effects of naming in other visual tasks, and to the role of visual attention in object identification
Second-order gravitational self-force
We derive an expression for the second-order gravitational self-force that
acts on a self-gravitating compact-object moving in a curved background
spacetime. First we develop a new method of derivation and apply it to the
derivation of the first-order gravitational self-force. Here we find that our
result conforms with the previously derived expression. Next we generalize our
method and derive a new expression for the second-order gravitational
self-force. This study also has a practical motivation: The data analysis for
the planned gravitational wave detector LISA requires construction of waveforms
templates for the expected gravitational waves. Calculation of the two leading
orders of the gravitational self-force will enable one to construct highly
accurate waveform templates, which are needed for the data analysis of
gravitational-waves that are emitted from extreme mass-ratio binaries.Comment: 35 page
Dynamics of test bodies with spin in de Sitter spacetime
We study the motion of spinning test bodies in the de Sitter spacetime of
constant positive curvature. With the help of the 10 Killing vectors, we derive
the 4-momentum and the tensor of spin explicitly in terms of the spacetime
coordinates. However, in order to find the actual trajectories, one needs to
impose the so-called supplementary condition. We discuss the dynamics of
spinning test bodies for the cases of the Frenkel and Tulczyjew conditions.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex forma
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