44,577 research outputs found
Magnetic fields and radiative feedback in the star formation process
Star formation is a complex process involving the interplay of many physical
effects, including gravity, turbulent gas dynamics, magnetic fields and
radiation. Our understanding of the process has improved substantially in
recent years, primarily as a result of our increased ability to incorporate the
relevant physics in numerical calculations of the star formation process. In
this contribution we present an overview of our recent studies of star cluster
formation in turbulent, magnetised clouds using self-gravitating
radiation-magnetohydrodynamics calculations (Price and Bate 2008, 2009). Our
incorporation of magnetic fields and radiative transfer into the Smoothed
Particle Hydrodynamics method are discussed. We highlight how magnetic fields
and radiative heating of the gas around newborn stars can solve several of the
key puzzles in star formation, including an explanation for why star formation
is such a slow and inefficient process. However, the presence of magnetic
fields at observed strengths in collapsing protostellar cores also leads to
problems on smaller scales, including a difficulty in forming protostellar
discs and binary stars (Price and Bate 2007, Hennebelle and Teyssier 2008),
which suggests that our understanding of the role of magnetic fields in star
formation is not yet complete.Comment: 14 pages aip conf. format, 5 figures, submitted to AIP conf proc. of
"Plasmas in the Laboratory and in the Universe: Interactions, Patterns and
Turbulence", Como, Italy 1st-4th Dec 2009, eds. Bertin et al. Relevant movies
at http://users.monash.edu.au/~dprice/mclusterRT/index.html#movie
CaSiO3 perovskite at lower mantle pressures
We investigate by first-principles the structural behavior of CaSiO3 perovskite up to lower mantle pressures. We confirm that the cubic perovskite modification is unstable at all pressures. The zero Kelvin structure is stabilized by SiO6 octahedral rotations that lower the symmetry to tetragonal, orthorhombic, rhombohedral, or to a cubic supercell. The resulting structures have comparable energies and equation of state parameters. This suggests that relatively small deviatoric/ shear stresses might induce phase transformations between these various structures softening some elastic moduli, primarily the shear modulus. The seismic signature accompanying a local increase in CaSiO3 content should be a positive density anomaly and a negative V-S anomaly
Continuous-flow laboratory simulation of stream water quality changes downstream of an untreated wastewater discharge.
In regions of the world with poor provision of wastewater treatment, raw sewage
is often discharged directly into surface waters. This paper describes an
experimental evaluation of the fate of two organic chemicals under these
conditions using an artificial channel cascade fed with a mix of settled sewage
and river water at its upstream end and operated under continuous steady-state
conditions. The experiments underpin an environmental risk assessment
methodology based on the idea of an “impact zone” (IZ) – the zone downstream of
wastewater emission in which water quality is severely impaired by high
concentrations of unionised ammonia, nitrite and biochemical oxygen demand
(BOD). Radiolabelled dodecane-6-benzene sulphonate (DOBS) and aniline
hydrochloride were used as the model chemical and reference compound
respectively. Rapid changes in 14C counts were observed with flow-time for both
these materials. These changes were most likely to be due to complete
mineralisation. A dissipation half-life of approximately 7.1 h was observed for
the 14C label with DOBS. The end of the IZ was defined as the point at which the
concentration of both unionised ammonia and nitrite fell below their respective
predicted no-effect concentrations for salmonids. At these points in the
cascade, approximately 83 and 90% of the initial concentration of 14C had been
removed from the water column, respectively. A simple model of mineral nitrogen
transformations based on Michaelis–Menten kinetics was fitted to observed
concentrations of NH4, NO2 and NO3. The cascade is intended to provide a
confirmatory methodology for assessing the ecological risks of chemicals under
direct discharge co
Smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamic simulations of protostellar outflows with misaligned magnetic field and rotation axes
We have developed a modified form of the equations of smoothed particle
magnetohydrodynamics which are stable in the presence of very steep density
gradients. Using this formalism, we have performed simulations of the collapse
of magnetised molecular cloud cores to form protostars and drive outflows. Our
stable formalism allows for smaller sink particles (< 5 AU) than used
previously and the investigation of the effect of varying the angle, {\theta},
between the initial field axis and the rotation axis. The nature of the
outflows depends strongly on this angle: jet-like outflows are not produced at
all when {\theta} > 30{\deg}, and a collimated outflow is not sustained when
{\theta} > 10{\deg}. No substantial outflows of any kind are produced when
{\theta} > 60{\deg}. This may place constraints on the geometry of the magnetic
field in molecular clouds where bipolar outflows are seen.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 13 pages, 14 figures. Animations
can be found at
http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/people/blewis/research/outflows_misaligned_fields.htm
Extending the Latent Multinomial Model with Complex Error Processes and Dynamic Markov Bases
The latent multinomial model (LMM) model of Link et al. (2010) provided a
general framework for modelling mark-recapture data with potential errors in
identification. Key to this approach was a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)
scheme for sampling possible configurations of the counts true capture
histories that could have generated the observed data. This MCMC algorithm used
vectors from a basis for the kernel of the linear map between the true and
observed counts to move between the possible configurations of the true data.
Schofield and Bonner (2015) showed that a strict basis was sufficient for some
models of the errors, including the model presented by Link et al. (2010), but
a larger set called a Markov basis may be required for more complex models. We
address two further challenges with this approach: 1) that models with more
complex error mechanisms do not fit easily within the LMM and 2) that the
Markov basis can be difficult or impossible to compute for even moderate sized
studies. We address these issues by extending the LMM to separately model the
capture/demographic process and the error process and by developing a new MCMC
sampling scheme using dynamic Markov bases. Our work is motivated by a study of
Queen snakes (Regina septemvittata) in Kentucky, USA, and we use simulation to
compare the use of PIT tags, with perfect identification, and brands, which are
prone to error, when estimating survival rates
Constrained hyperbolic divergence cleaning in smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics with variable cleaning speeds
We present an updated constrained hyperbolic/parabolic divergence cleaning
algorithm for smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics (SPMHD) that remains
conservative with wave cleaning speeds which vary in space and time. This is
accomplished by evolving the quantity instead of . Doing so
allows each particle to carry an individual wave cleaning speed, , that
can evolve in time without needing an explicit prescription for how it should
evolve, preventing circumstances which we demonstrate could lead to runaway
energy growth related to variable wave cleaning speeds. This modification
requires only a minor adjustment to the cleaning equations and is trivial to
adopt in existing codes. Finally, we demonstrate that our constrained
hyperbolic/parabolic divergence cleaning algorithm, run for a large number of
iterations, can reduce the divergence of the field to an arbitrarily small
value, achieving to machine precision.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of
Computational Physic
Design considerations for a LORAN-C timing receiver in a hostile signal to noise environment
The environment in which a LORAN-C Timing Receiver may function effectively depends to a large extent on the techniques utilized to insure that interfering signals within the pass band of the unit are neutralized. The baseline performance manually operated timing receivers is discussed and the basic design considerations and necessary parameters for an automatic unit utilizing today's technology are established. Actual performance data is presented comparing the results obtained from a present generation timing receiver against a new generation microprocessor controlled automatic acquisition receiver. The achievements possible in a wide range of signal to noise situations are demonstrated
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The role of right and left parietal lobes in the conceptual processing of numbers
Neuropsychological and functional imaging studies have associated the conceptual processing of numbers with bilateral parietal regions (including intraparietal sulcus). However, the processes driving these effects remain unclear because both left and right posterior parietal regions are activated by many other conceptual, perceptual, attention, and response-selection processes. To dissociate parietal activation that is number-selective from parietal activation related to other stimulus or response-selection processes, we used fMRI to compare numbers and object names during exactly the same conceptual and perceptual tasks while factoring out activations correlating with response times. We found that right parietal activation was higher for conceptual decisions on numbers relative to the same tasks on object names, even when response time effects were fully factored out. In contrast, left parietal activation for numbers was equally involved in conceptual processing of object names. We suggest that left parietal activation for numbers reflects a range of processes, including the retrieval of learnt facts that are also involved in conceptual decisions on object names. In contrast, number selectivity in right parietal cortex reflects processes that are more involved in conceptual decisions on numbers than object names. Our results generate a new set of hypotheses that have implications for the design of future behavioral and functional imaging studies of patients with left and right parietal damage
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