SS Ari: a shallow-contact close binary system

Two CCD epochs of light minimum and a complete R light curve of SS Ari are presented. The light curve obtained in 2007 was analyzed with the 2003 version of the W-D code. It is shown that SS Ari is a shallow contact binary system with a mass ratio $q=3.25$ and a degree of contact factor f=9.4(\pm0.8%). A period investigation based on all available data shows that there may exist two distinct solutions about the assumed third body. One, assuming eccentric orbit of the third body and constant orbital period of the eclipsing pair results in a massive third body with $M_3=1.73M_{\odot}$ and P_3=87.0$yr. On the contrary, assuming continuous period changes of the eclipsing pair the orbital period of tertiary is 37.75yr and its mass is about$0.278M_{\odot}$. Both of the cases suggest the presence of an unseen third component in the system.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures and 5 table

Vibration and noise analysis of a gear transmission system

This paper presents a comprehensive procedure to predict both the vibration and noise generated by a gear transmission system under normal operating conditions. The gearbox vibrations were obtained from both numerical simulation and experimental studies using a gear noise test rig. In addition, the noise generated by the gearbox vibrations was recorded during the experimental testing. A numerical method was used to develop linear relationships between the gearbox vibration and the generated noise. The hypercoherence function is introduced to correlate the nonlinear relationship between the fundamental noise frequency and its harmonics. A numerical procedure was developed using both the linear and nonlinear relationships generated from the experimental data to predict noise resulting from the gearbox vibrations. The application of this methodology is demonstrated by comparing the numerical and experimental results from the gear noise test rig

The triangular Ising model with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor couplings in a field

We study the Ising model on the triangular lattice with nearest-neighbor couplings $K_{\rm nn}$, next-nearest-neighbor couplings $K_{\rm nnn}>0$, and a magnetic field $H$. This work is done by means of finite-size scaling of numerical results of transfer matrix calculations, and Monte Carlo simulations. We determine the phase diagram and confirm the character of the critical manifolds. The emphasis of this work is on the antiferromagnetic case $K_{\rm nn}<0$, but we also explore the ferromagnetic regime $K_{\rm nn}\ge 0$ for H=0. For $K_{\rm nn}<0$ and H=0 we locate a critical phase presumably covering the whole range $-\infty < K_{\rm nn}<0$. For $K_{\rm nn}<0$, $H\neq 0$ we locate a plane of phase transitions containing a line of tricritical three-state Potts transitions. In the limit $H \to \infty$ this line leads to a tricritical model of hard hexagons with an attractive next-nearest-neighbor potential

Influence of fluid temperature gradient on the flow within the shaft gap of a PLR pump

In nuclear power plants the primary-loop recirculation (PLR) pump circulates the high temperature/high-pressure coolant in order to remove the thermal energy generated within the reactor. The pump is sealed using the cold purge flow in the shaft seal gap between the rotating shaft and stationary casing, where different forms of Taylor–Couette flow instabilities develop. Due to the temperature difference between the hot recirculating water and the cold purge water (of order of 200 °C), the flow instabilities in the gap cause temperature fluctuations, which can lead to shaft or casing thermal fatigue cracks. The present work numerically investigated the influence of temperature difference and rotating speed on the structure and dynamics of the Taylor–Couette flow instabilities. The CFD solver used in this study was extensively validated against the experimental data published in the open literature. Influence of temperature difference on the fluid dynamics of Taylor vortices was investigated in this study. With large temperature difference, the structure of the Taylor vortices is greatly stretched at the interface region between the annulus gap and the lower recirculating cavity. Higher temperature difference and rotating speed induce lower fluctuating frequency and smaller circumferential wave number of Taylor vortices. However, the azimuthal wave speed remains unchanged with all the cases tested. The predicted axial location of the maximum temperature fluctuation on the shaft is in a good agreement with the experimental data, identifying the region potentially affected by the thermal fatigue. The physical understandings of such flow instabilities presented in this paper would be useful for future PLR pump design optimization

Long-term monitoring of Molonglo calibrators

Before and after every 12 hour synthesis observation, the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST) measures the flux densities of ~5 compact extragalactic radio sources, chosen from a list of 55 calibrators. From 1984 to 1996, the MOST made some 58 000 such measurements. We have developed an algorithm to process this dataset to produce a light curve for each source spanning this thirteen year period. We find that 18 of the 55 calibrators are variable, on time scales between one and ten years. There is the tendency for sources closer to the Galactic Plane to be more likely to vary, which suggests that the variability is a result of refractive scintillation in the Galactic interstellar medium. The sources with the flattest radio spectra show the highest levels of variability, an effect possibly resulting from differing orientations of the radio axes to the line of sight.Comment: 18 pages, 9 embedded EPS files. To appear in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Data available electronically at http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/astrop/scan

The most plausible explanation of the cyclical period changes in close binaries: the case of the RS CVn-type binary WW Dra

We searched the orbital period changes in 182 EA-type (including the 101 Algol systems used by \cite{hal89}), 43 EB-type and 53 EW-type binaries with known both the mass ratio and the spectral type of their secondary components. We reproduced and improved the same diagram as Hall's (1989) according to the new collected data. Our plots do not support the conclusion derived by \cite{hal89} that all cases of cyclical period changes are restricted to binaries having the secondary component with spectral types later than F5. The presence of period changes also among stars with secondary component of early type indicates that the magnetic activity is one cause, but not the only one, for the period variation. It is discovered that cyclic period changes, likely due to the presence of a third body are more frequent in EW-type binaries among close binaries. Therefore, the most plausible explanation of the cyclical period changes is the LTTE via the presence of a third body. By using the century-long historical record of the times of light minimum, we analyzed the cyclical period change in the Algol binary WW Dra. It is found that the orbital period of the binary shows a $\sim112.2 \textbf{\textrm{yr}}$ cyclic variation with an amplitude of $\sim0.1977\textbf{\textrm{days}}$. The cyclic oscillation can be attributed to the LTTE via a third body with a mass no less than $6.43 M_{\odot}$. However, no spectral lines of the third body were discovered indicating that it may be a candidate black hole. The third body is orbiting the binary at a distance shorter than 14.4 AU and it may play an important role in the evolution of this system.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, published by MNRA

Pattern formation in oscillatory complex networks consisting of excitable nodes

Oscillatory dynamics of complex networks has recently attracted great attention. In this paper we study pattern formation in oscillatory complex networks consisting of excitable nodes. We find that there exist a few center nodes and small skeletons for most oscillations. Complicated and seemingly random oscillatory patterns can be viewed as well-organized target waves propagating from center nodes along the shortest paths, and the shortest loops passing through both the center nodes and their driver nodes play the role of oscillation sources. Analyzing simple skeletons we are able to understand and predict various essential properties of the oscillations and effectively modulate the oscillations. These methods and results will give insights into pattern formation in complex networks, and provide suggestive ideas for studying and controlling oscillations in neural networks.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Nonsaturating magnetoresistance and nontrivial band topology of type-II Weyl semimetal NbIrTe4

Weyl semimetals, characterized by nodal points in the bulk and Fermi arc states on the surface, have recently attracted extensive attention due to the potential application on low energy consumption electronic materials. In this report, the thermodynamic and transport properties of a theoretically predicted Weyl semimetal NbIrTe4 is measured in high magnetic fields up to 35 T and low temperatures down to 0.4 K. Remarkably, NbIrTe4 exhibits a nonsaturating transverse magnetoresistance which follows a power-law dependence in B. Low-field Hall measurements reveal that hole-like carriers dominate the transport for T $>$ 80 K, while the significant enhancement of electron mobilities with lowering T results in a non-negligible contribution from electron-like carriers which is responsible for the observed non-linear Hall resistivity at low T. The Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations of the Hall resistivity under high B give the light effective masses of charge carriers and the nontrivial Berry phase associated with Weyl fermions. Further first-principles calculations confirm the existence of 16 Weyl points located at kz = 0, $\pm$0.02 and $\pm$0.2 planes in the Brillouin zone.Comment: 5 figures, 1 tabl

A unified approach for the solution of the Fokker-Planck equation

This paper explores the use of a discrete singular convolution algorithm as a unified approach for numerical integration of the Fokker-Planck equation. The unified features of the discrete singular convolution algorithm are discussed. It is demonstrated that different implementations of the present algorithm, such as global, local, Galerkin, collocation, and finite difference, can be deduced from a single starting point. Three benchmark stochastic systems, the repulsive Wong process, the Black-Scholes equation and a genuine nonlinear model, are employed to illustrate the robustness and to test accuracy of the present approach for the solution of the Fokker-Planck equation via a time-dependent method. An additional example, the incompressible Euler equation, is used to further validate the present approach for more difficult problems. Numerical results indicate that the present unified approach is robust and accurate for solving the Fokker-Planck equation.Comment: 19 page