1,555 research outputs found
Impact of global seismicity on sea level change assessment
We analyze the effect of seismic activity on sealevel variations, by
computing the time-dependent vertical crustal movement and geoid change due to
coseismic deformations and postseismic relaxation effects. Seismic activity can
affect both the absolute sealevel, by changing the Earth gravity field and
hence the geoid height, and the relative sealevel, i.e. the radial distance
between seafloor and geoid level. By using comprehensive seismic catalogues we
assess the net effect of seismicity on tidal relative sealevel measurements as
well as on the global oceanic surfaces, and we obtain an estimate of absolute
sealevel variations of seismic origin.
Our results confirm that, on a global scale, most of the signal is associated
with few giant thrust events, and that RSL estimates obtained using tide-gauge
data can be sensibly affected by the seismic driven sealevel signal.
The recent measures of sealevel obtained by satellite altimetry show a wide
regional variation of sealevel trends over the oceanic surfaces, with the
largest deviations from the mean trend occurring in tectonically active
regions. While our estimates of average absolute sealevel variations turn out
to be orders of magnitude smaller than the satellite measured variations, we
can still argue that mass redistribution associated with aseismic tectonic
processes may contribute to the observed regional variability of sealevel
variations.Comment: 34 pages, submitted to Journal of Geophysical Researc
Heavy elements in Globular Clusters: the role of AGB stars
Recent observations of heavy elements in Globular Clusters reveal intriguing
deviations from the standard paradigm of the early galactic nucleosynthesis. If
the r-process contamination is a common feature of halo stars, s-process
enhancements are found in a few Globular Clusters only. We show that the
combined pollution of AGB stars with mass ranging between 3 to 6 M may
account for most of the features of the s-process overabundance in M4 and M22.
In these stars, the s process is a mixture of two different neutron-capture
nucleosynthesis episodes. The first is due to the 13C(a,n)16O reaction and
takes place during the interpulse periods. The second is due to the
22Ne(a,n)25Mg reaction and takes place in the convective zones generated by
thermal pulses. The production of the heaviest s elements (from Ba to Pb)
requires the first neutron burst, while the second produces large
overabundances of light s (Sr, Y, Zr). The first mainly operates in the
less-massive AGB stars, while the second dominates in the more-massive. From
the heavy-s/light-s ratio, we derive that the pollution phase should last for
Myr, a period short enough compared to the formation timescale of
the Globular Cluster system, but long enough to explain why the s-process
pollution is observed in a few cases only. With few exceptions, our theoretical
prediction provides a reasonable reproduction of the observed s-process
abundances, from Sr to Hf. However, Ce is probably underproduced by our models,
while Rb and Pb are overproduced. Possible solutions are discussed.Comment: Accepted by the Ap
On the need of the Light Elements Primary Process (LEPP)
Extant chemical evolution models underestimate the Galactic production of Sr,
Y and Zr as well as the Solar System abundances of s-only isotopes with
90<A<130. To solve this problem, an additional (unknown) process has been
invoked, the so-called LEPP (Light Element Primary Process). In this paper we
investigate possible alternative solutions. Basing on Full Network Stellar
evolutionary calculations, we investigate the effects on the Solar System
s-only distribution induced by the inclusion of some commonly ignored physical
processes (e.g. rotation) or by the variation of the treatment of convective
overshoot, mass-loss and the efficiency of nuclear processes. Our main findings
are: 1) at the epoch of the formation of the Solar System, our reference model
produces super-solar abundances for the whole s-only distribution, even in the
range 90<A<130; 2) within errors, the s-only distribution relative to 150Sm is
flat; 3) the s-process contribution of the less massive AGB stars (M<1.5 M_SUN)
as well as of the more massive ones (M>4.0 M_SUN) are negligible; 4) the
inclusion of rotation implies a downward shift of the whole distribution with
an higher efficiency for the heavy s-only isotopes, leading to a flatter s-only
distribution; 5) different prescriptions on convection or mass-loss produce
nearly rigid shifts of the whole distribution. In summary, a variation of the
standard paradigm of AGB nucleosynthesis would allow to reconcile models
predictions with Solar System s-only abundances. Nonetheless, the LEPP cannot
be definitely ruled out, because of the uncertainties still affecting stellar
and Galactic chemical evolution models.Comment: Accepted for publication on Ap
Numerical simulations for the dynamics of flexural shells
In this paper we study a model describing the displacement of a linearly elastic flexural shell subjected to given dynamic loads from the computational point of view. As expected, this model takes the form of a set of hyperbolic variational equations posed over the space of admissible linearized inextensional displacements, and a set of initial conditions. Since the original model is defined over spaces that are not amenable for the implementation of a finite element method, we conduct the experiments on the corresponding penalised model. It was recently shown that the solution to such a penalised model is a good approximation of the solution to the original model. The numerical tests are therefore conducted on the the penalised model; the approximation of the solution to the penalised model is obtained via Newmark's scheme, which is then implemented and tested for shells having the following middle surfaces: a portion of a cylinder, and a portion of a cone. For sake of completeness, we also present the results of the numerical tests related to a model describing the displacement of a linearly elastic elliptic membrane shell under the action of given dynamic loads
Observational Properties of SNe Ia Progenitors Close to the Explosion
We determine the expected signal in various observational bands of Supernovae
Ia progenitors just before the explosion by assuming the rotating Double
Degenerate scenario. Our results are valid also for all the evolutionary
scenarios invoking rotation as the driving mechanism of the accretion process
as well as the evolution up to the explosion. We find that the observational
properties depend mainly on the mass of the exploding object, even if the
angular momentum evolution after the end of the mass accretion phase and before
the onset of C-burning plays a non-negligible role. Just before the explosion
the magnitude M_V ranges between 9 and 11 mag, while the colour (F225W-F555W)
is about -1.64 mag. The photometric properties remain constant for a few
decades before the explosion. During the last few months the luminosity
decreases very rapidly. The corresponding decline in the optical bands varies
from few hundredths up to one magnitude, the exact value depending on both the
WD total mass and the braking efficiency at the end of the mass transfer. This
feature is related to the exponentially increasing energy production which
drives the formation of a convective core rapidly extending over a large part
of the exploding object. Also a drop in the angular velocity occurs. We find
that observations in the soft X band (0.5 -2 keV) may be used to check if the
SNe Ia progenitors evolution up to explosion is driven by rotation and, hence,
to discriminate among different progenitor scenarios.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for the publication on MNRA
Evolution, nucleosynthesis and yields of AGB stars at different metallicities (III): intermediate mass models, revised low mass models and the ph-FRUITY interface
We present a new set of models for intermediate mass AGB stars (4.0, 5.0 and,
6.0 Msun) at different metallicities (-2.15<=Fe/H]<=+0.15). This integrates the
existing set of models for low mass AGB stars (1.3<=M/M<=3.0) already included
in the FRUITY database. We describe the physical and chemical evolution of the
computed models from the Main Sequence up to the end of the AGB phase. Due to
less efficient third dredge up episodes, models with large core masses show
modest surface enhancements. The latter is due to the fact that the interpulse
phases are short and, then, Thermal Pulses are weak. Moreover, the high
temperature at the base of the convective envelope prevents it to deeply
penetrate the radiative underlying layers. Depending on the initial stellar
mass, the heavy elements nucleosynthesis is dominated by different neutron
sources. In particular, the s-process distributions of the more massive models
are dominated by the \nean~reaction, which is efficiently activated during
Thermal Pulses. At low metallicities, our models undergo hot bottom burning and
hot third dredge up. We compare our theoretical final core masses to available
white dwarf observations. Moreover, we quantify the weight that intermediate
mass models have on the carbon stars luminosity function. Finally, we present
the upgrade of the FRUITY web interface, now also including the physical
quantities of the TP-AGB phase of all the models included in the database
(ph-FRUITY).Comment: Accepted for publication on ApJ
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