36,231 research outputs found
Plasma interactions and surface/material effects
A discussion on plasma interactions and surface/material effects is summarized. The key issues in this area were: (1) the lack of data on the material properties of common spacecraft surface materials; (2) lack of understanding of the contamination and decontamination processes; and (3) insufficient analytical tools to model synergistic phenomena related to plasma interactions. Without an adequate database of material properties, accurate system performance predictions cannot be made. The interdisciplinary nature of the surface-plasma interactions area makes it difficult to plan and maintain a coherent theoretical and experimental program. The shuttle glow phenomenon is an excellent example of an unanticipated, complex interaction involving synergism between surface and plasma effects. Building an adequate technology base for understanding and predicting surface-plasma interactions will require the coordinated efforts of engineers, chemists, and physicists. An interdisciplinary R and D program should be organized to deal with similar problems that the space systems of the 21st century may encounter
Surface Brightness of Starbursts at Low and High Redshifts
Observations in the rest frame ultraviolet from various space missions are
used to define the nearby starburst regions having the highest surface
brightness on scales of several hundred pc. The bright limit is found to be
6x10^-16 ergs/cm^2-s-A-arcsec^2 for rest frame wavelength of 1830 A. Surface
brightness in the brightest pixel is measured for 18 galaxies in the Hubble
Deep Field having z > 2.2. After correcting for cosmological dimming, we find
that the high redshift starbursts have intrinsic ultraviolet surface brightness
that is typically four times brighter than low redshift starbursts. It is not
possible to conclude whether this difference is caused by decreased dust
obscuration in the high redshift starburst regions or by intrinsically more
intense star formation. Surface brightness enhancement of starburst regions may
be the primary factor for explaining the observed increase with redshift of the
ultraviolet luminosity arising from star formation.Comment: accepted for publication in AJ; 11 pages text, 3 tables, 3 figures
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Asymptotic behavior of the number of Eulerian orientations of graphs
We consider the class of simple graphs with large algebraic connectivity (the
second-smallest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix). For this class of graphs
we determine the asymptotic behavior of the number of Eulerian orientations. In
addition, we establish some new properties of the Laplacian matrix, as well as
an estimate of a conditionality of matrices with the asymptotic diagonal
predominanceComment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1104.304
Removal of spacecraft-surface particulate contaminants by simulated micrometeoroid impacts
A series of hypervelocity impacts has been conducted in an exploding lithium-wire accelerator to examine with a far-field holographic system the removal of particulate contaminants from external spacecraft surfaces subjected to micrometeoroid bombardment. The impacting projectiles used to simulate the micrometeoroids were glass spheres nominally 37 microns in diameter, having velocities between 4 and 17 km/sec. The particulates were glass spheres nominally 25, 50, and 75 microns in diameter which were placed on aluminum targets. For these test, particulates detached had velocities that were log-normally distributed. The significance of the log-normal behavior of the ejected-particulate velocity distribution is that the geometric mean velocity and the geometric standard deviation are the only two parameters needed to model completely the process of particles removed or ejected from a spacecraft surface by a micrometeoroid impact
The star-formation history of the universe - an infrared perspective
A simple and versatile parameterized approach to the star formation history
allows a quantitative investigation of the constraints from far infrared and
submillimetre counts and background intensity measurements.
The models include four spectral components: infrared cirrus (emission from
interstellar dust), an M82-like starburst, an Arp220-like starburst and an AGN
dust torus. The 60 m luminosity function is determined for each chosen
rate of evolution using the PSCz redshift data for 15000 galaxies. The
proportions of each spectral type as a function of 60 m luminosity are
chosen for consistency with IRAS and SCUBA colour-luminosity relations, and
with the fraction of AGN as a function of luminosity found in 12 m
samples. The luminosity function for each component at any wavelength can then
be calculated from the assumed spectral energy distributions. With assumptions
about the optical seds corresponding to each component and, for the AGN
component, the optical and near infrared counts can be accurately modelled.
A good fit to the observed counts at 0.44, 2.2, 15, 60, 90, 175 and 850
m can be found with pure luminosity evolution in all 3 cosmological models
investigated: = 1, = 0.3 ( = 0), and
= 0.3, = 0.7.
All 3 models also give an acceptable fit to the integrated background
spectrum. Selected predictions of the models, for example redshift
distributions for each component at selected wavelengths and fluxes, are shown.
The total mass-density of stars generated is consistent with that observed,
in all 3 cosmological models.Comment: 20 pages, 25 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Full details
of models can be found at http://astro.ic.ac.uk/~mrr/countmodel
Superconductivity, magnetic order, and quadrupolar order in the filled skutterudite system PrNdOsSb
Superconductivity, magnetic order, and quadrupolar order have been
investigated in the filled skutterudite system
PrNdOsSb as a function of composition in magnetic
fields up to 9 tesla and at temperatures between 50 mK and 10 K. Electrical
resistivity measurements indicate that the high field ordered phase (HFOP),
which has been identified with antiferroquadruoplar order, persists to
0.5. The superconducting critical temperature of PrOsSb
is depressed linearly with Nd concentration to 0.55, whereas the
Curie temperature of NdOsSb is depressed linearly with Pr
composition to () 0.45. In the superconducting region, the upper
critical field is depressed quadratically with in the range 0
0.3, exhibits a kink at 0.3, and then
decreases linearly with in the range 0.3 0.6. The
behavior of appears to be due to pair breaking caused by the
applied magnetic field and the exhange field associated with the polarization
of the Nd magnetic moments, in the superconducting state. From magnetic
susceptibility measurements, the correlations between the Nd moments in the
superconducting state appear to change from ferromagnetic in the range 0.3
0.6 to antiferromagnetic in the range 0
0.3. Specific heat measurements on a sample with 0.45
indicate that magnetic order occurs in the superconducting state, as is also
inferred from the depression of with .Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, currently submitted to Phys. Rev.
Development and application of the GIM code for the Cyber 203 computer
The GIM computer code for fluid dynamics research was developed. Enhancement of the computer code, implicit algorithm development, turbulence model implementation, chemistry model development, interactive input module coding and wing/body flowfield computation are described. The GIM quasi-parabolic code development was completed, and the code used to compute a number of example cases. Turbulence models, algebraic and differential equations, were added to the basic viscous code. An equilibrium reacting chemistry model and implicit finite difference scheme were also added. Development was completed on the interactive module for generating the input data for GIM. Solutions for inviscid hypersonic flow over a wing/body configuration are also presented
Zeno Dynamics in Quantum Statistical Mechanics
We study the quantum Zeno effect in quantum statistical mechanics within the
operator algebraic framework. We formulate a condition for the appearance of
the effect in W*-dynamical systems, in terms of the short-time behaviour of the
dynamics. Examples of quantum spin systems show that this condition can be
effectively applied to quantum statistical mechanical models. Further, we
derive an explicit form of the Zeno generator, and use it to construct Gibbs
equilibrium states for the Zeno dynamics. As a concrete example, we consider
the X-Y model, for which we show that a frequent measurement at a microscopic
level, e.g. a single lattice site, can produce a macroscopic effect in changing
the global equilibrium.Comment: 15 pages, AMSLaTeX; typos corrected, references updated and added,
acknowledgements added, style polished; revised version contains corrections
from published corrigend
The Dipole Anisotropy of the First All-Sky X-ray Cluster Sample
We combine the recently published CIZA galaxy cluster catalogue with the
XBACs cluster sample to produce the first all-sky catalogue of X-ray clusters
in order to examine the origins of the Local Group's peculiar velocity without
the use of reconstruction methods to fill the traditional Zone of Avoidance.
The advantages of this approach are (i) X-ray emitting clusters tend to trace
the deepest potential wells and therefore have the greatest effect on the
dynamics of the Local Group and (ii) our all-sky sample provides data for
nearly a quarter of the sky that is largely incomplete in optical cluster
catalogues. We find that the direction of the Local Group's peculiar velocity
is well aligned with the CMB as early as the Great Attractor region 40 h^-1 Mpc
away, but that the amplitude of its dipole motion is largely set between 140
and 160 h^-1 Mpc. Unlike previous studies using galaxy samples, we find that
without Virgo included, roughly ~70% of our dipole signal comes from mass
concentrations at large distances (>60 h^-1 Mpc) and does not flatten,
indicating isotropy in the cluster distribution, until at least 160 h^-1 Mpc.
We also present a detailed discussion of our dipole profile, linking observed
features to the structures and superclusters that produce them. We find that
most of the dipole signal can be attributed to the Shapley supercluster
centered at about 150 h^-1 Mpc and a handful of very massive individual
clusters, some of which are newly discovered and lie well in the Zone of
Avoidance.Comment: 15 Pages, 9 Figures. Accepted by Ap
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