130 research outputs found
Computation of the Halo Mass Function Using Physical Collapse Parameters: Application to Non-Standard Cosmologies
In this article we compare the halo mass function predicted by the excursion
set theory with a drifting diffusive barrier against the results of N-body
simulations for several cosmological models. This includes the standard LCDM
case for a large range of halo masses, models with different types of
primordial non-Gaussianity, and the Ratra-Peebles quintessence model of Dark
Energy. We show that in all those cosmological scenarios, the abundance of dark
matter halos can be described by a drifting diffusive barrier, where the two
parameters describing the barrier have physical content. In the case of the
Gaussian LCDM, the statistics are precise enough to actually predict those
parameters at different redshifts from the initial conditions. Furthermore, we
found that the stochasticity in the barrier is nonnegligible making the simple
deterministic spherical collapse model a bad approximation even at very high
halo masses. We also show that using the standard excursion set approach with a
barrier inspired by peak patches leads to inconsistent predictions of the halo
mass function.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figure
Toward the utilisation of resources in space: knowledge gaps, open questions, and priorities
There are many open science questions in space resource utilisation due to the novelty and relative immaturity of the field. While many potential technologies have been proposed to produce usable resources in space, high confidence, large-scale design is limited by gaps in the knowledge of the local environmental conditions, geology, mineralogy, and regolith characteristics, as well as specific science questions intrinsic to each process. Further, the engineering constraints (e.g. energy, throughput, efficiency etc.) must be incorporated into the design. This work aims to summarise briefly recent activities in the field of space resource utilisation, as well as to identify key knowledge gaps, and to present open science questions. Finally, future exploration priorities to enable the use of space resources are highlighted
The beneficiation of lunar regolith for space resource utilisation: A review
Space Resource Utilisation (SRU) technology will enable further exploration and habitation of space by humankind. The production of oxygen on the Moon is one of the first objectives for SRU; this can be achieved through the thermo-chemical reduction of the lunar regolith. Several techniques, such as hydrogen reduction and molten salt electrolysis, have been proposed. All reduction techniques require a consistent feedstock from the regolith to reliably and consistently produce oxygen. The preparation of this feedstock, known as beneficiation, is a critical intermediate stage of the SRU flowsheet, however it has received little consideration relative to the preceding excavation, and the subsequent oxygen production stage. This review describes the physics of the main beneficiation methods suitable for SRU. Further, we collate and review all of the previous studies on the beneficiation of lunar regolith
Introducing the Dark Energy Universe Simulation Series (DEUSS)
In this "Invisible Universe" proceedings, we introduce the Dark Energy
Universe Simulation Series (DEUSS) which aim at investigating the imprints of
realistic dark energy models on cosmic structure formation. It represents the
largest dynamical dark energy simulation suite to date in term of spatial
dynamics. We first present the 3 realistic dark energy models (calibrated on
latest SNIa and CMB data): LambdaCDM, quintessence with Ratra-Peebles
potential, and quintessence with Sugra potential. We then isolate various
contributions for non-linear matter power spectra from a series of pre-DEUSS
high-resolution simulations (130 million particles). Finally, we introduce
DEUSS which consist in 9 Grand Challenge runs with 1 billion particles each
thus probing scales from 4 Gpc down to 3 kpc at z=0. Our goal is to make these
simulations available to the community through the "Dark Energy Universe
Virtual Observatory" (DEUVO), and the "Dark Energy Universe Simulations" (DEUS)
consortium.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the AIP proceedings of the
'Invisible Universe International Conference', UNESCO-Paris, June 29-July 3,
200
Buoyancy Instabilities in Galaxy Clusters: Convection Due to Adiabatic Cosmic Rays and Anisotropic Thermal Conduction
Using a linear stability analysis and two and three-dimensional nonlinear
simulations, we study the physics of buoyancy instabilities in a combined
thermal and relativistic (cosmic ray) plasma, motivated by the application to
clusters of galaxies. We argue that cosmic ray diffusion is likely to be slow
compared to the buoyancy time on large length scales, so that cosmic rays are
effectively adiabatic. If the cosmic ray pressure is of
the thermal pressure, and the cosmic ray entropy (;
is the thermal plasma density) decreases outwards, cosmic rays drive an
adiabatic convective instability analogous to Schwarzschild convection in
stars. Global simulations of galaxy cluster cores show that this instability
saturates by reducing the cosmic ray entropy gradient and driving efficient
convection and turbulent mixing. At larger radii in cluster cores, the thermal
plasma is unstable to the heat flux-driven buoyancy instability (HBI), a
convective instability generated by anisotropic thermal conduction and a
background conductive heat flux. Cosmic-ray driven convection and the HBI may
contribute to redistributing metals produced by Type 1a supernovae in clusters.
Our calculations demonstrate that adiabatic simulations of galaxy clusters can
artificially suppress the mixing of thermal and relativistic plasma;
anisotropic thermal conduction allows more efficient mixing, which may
contribute to cosmic rays being distributed throughout the cluster volume.Comment: submitted to ApJ; 15 pages and 12 figures; abstract shortened to < 24
lines; for high resolution movies see
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~psharma/clustermovie.htm
Convection and AGN Feedback in Clusters of Galaxies
A number of studies have shown that the convective stability criterion for
the intracluster medium (ICM) is very different from the Schwarzchild criterion
due to the effects of anisotropic thermal conduction and cosmic rays. Building
on these studies, we develop a model of the ICM in which a central active
galactic nucleus (AGN) accretes hot intracluster plasma at the Bondi rate and
produces cosmic rays that cause the ICM to become convectively unstable. The
resulting convection heats the intracluster plasma and regulates its
temperature and density profiles. By adjusting a single parameter in the model
(the size of the cosmic-ray acceleration region), we are able to achieve a good
match to the observed density and temperature profiles in a sample of eight
clusters. Our results suggest that convection is an important process in
cluster cores. An interesting feature of our solutions is that the cooling rate
is more sharply peaked about the cluster center than is the convective heating
rate. As a result, in several of the clusters in our sample, a compact cooling
flow arises in the central region with a size R that is typically a few kpc.
The cooling flow matches onto a Bondi flow at smaller radii. The mass accretion
rate in the Bondi flow is equal to, and controlled by, the rate at which mass
flows in through the cooling flow. Our solutions suggest that the AGN regulates
the mass accretion rate in these clusters by controlling R: if the AGN power
rises above the equilibrium level, R decreases, the mass accretion rate drops,
and the AGN power drops back down to the equilibrium level.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ. Changes in this
version: extended discussion of Bondi accretion in clusters, better mass
model, new numerical solution
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A universal framework for Space Resource Utilisation (SRU)
Space Resource Utilisation (SRU) or In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) is the use of natural resources from the Moon, Mars and other bodies for use in situ or elsewhere in the Solar System. The implementation of SRU technologies will provide the breakthrough for humankind to explore further into space. A range of extraction processes to produce usable resources have been proposed, such as oxygen production from lunar regolith, extraction of lunar ice and construction of habitation by 3D printing. Practical and successful implementation of SRU requires that all the stages of the process flowsheet (excavation, beneficiation and extraction) are considered. This requires a complete ‘mine-to-market’ type approach, analogous to that of terrestrial mineral extraction.
One of the key challenges is the unique cross-disciplinary nature of SRU; it integrates space systems, robotics, materials handling and beneficiation, and chemical process engineering. This is underpinned by knowledge of the lunar or planetary geology, including mineralogy, physical characteristics, and the variability in local materials. Combining such diverse fields in a coordinated way requires the use of a universal framework. The framework will enable integration of operations and comparison of technologies, and will define a global terminology to be used across all fields. In this paper, a universal SRU flowsheet and terminology are described, and a matrix approach to describing regolith characteristics specifically for SRU is proposed. This is the first time that such an approach has been taken to unify this rapidly-developing sector
Imprints of dark energy on cosmic structure formation: II) Non-Universality of the halo mass function
The universality of the halo mass function is investigated in the context of
dark energy cosmologies. This widely used approximation assumes that the mass
function can be expressed as a function of the matter density omega_m and the
rms linear density fluctuation sigma only, with no explicit dependence on the
properties of dark energy or redshift. In order to test this hypothesis we run
a series of 15 high-resolution N-body simulations for different cosmological
models. These consists of three LCDM cosmologies best fitting WMAP-1, 3 and 5
years data, and three toy-models characterized by a Ratra-Peebles quintessence
potential with different slopes and amounts of dark energy density. These toy
models have very different evolutionary histories at the background and linear
level, but share the same sigma8 value. For each of these models we measure the
mass function from catalogues of halos identified in the simulations using the
Friend-of-Friend (FoF) algorithm. We find redshift dependent deviations from a
universal behaviour, well above numerical uncertainties and of non-stochastic
origin, which are correlated with the linear growth factor of the investigated
cosmologies. Using the spherical collapse as guidance, we show that such
deviations are caused by the cosmology dependence of the non-linear collapse
and virialization process. For practical applications, we provide a fitting
formula of the mass function accurate to 5 percents over the all range of
investigated cosmologies. We also derive an empirical relation between the FoF
linking parameter and the virial overdensity which can account for most of the
deviations from an exact universal behavior. Overall these results suggest that
the halo mass function contains unique cosmological information since it
carries a fossil record of the past cosmic evolution.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, 5 tables, published in MNRAS. Paper I:
arXiv:0903.549
A methodology for tribocharger design optimisation using the Discrete Element Method (DEM)
Tribocharger design optimisations presented in the literature are based typically on experimental investigations. While this approach is useful and necessary to evaluate the performance of a design, experimental investigations are limited to studying a finite matrix of parameters. Computational approaches, such as the discrete element method (DEM), offer greater flexibility, however they have not been used previously for tribocharger design optimisation. This work presents a novel approach using the DEM to study the effect of different tribocharger designs on the charging process using particle–wall and particle–particle contact areas as proxies for charge transfer. The bulk sample charge output from the model are compared with bulk charges measured experimentally, showing good agreement. Furthermore, a method to predict approximately the charging behaviour of complex mixtures from linear combinations of the simulation outputs of single species, single size particle samples is presented, demonstrating good agreement
Experimental investigation of an optimised tribocharger design for space resource utilisation
Triboelectric charging and free-fall separation are attractive technologies for lunar mineral beneficiation. Here, an optimised tribocharger design was built and evaluated under terrestrial conditions. The charging behaviour of pure silica and ilmenite were tested using the optimised design, as were mixtures of silica and ilmenite, and samples of lunar regolith simulant JSC-1. Pure silica and ilmenite acquired negative and positive charge, respectively, through contact with the tribocharger. The tribocharger affected significantly the movement of the pure minerals in the electrostatic field. Results from the binary mixtures indicate that ilmenite recovery is independent of initial ilmenite concentration, and can be predicted from the mass distribution of pure ilmenite samples. For JSC-1, the tribocharger was found to increase the density of the material in certain collectors, indicating an upgrading of denser constituents. The optimised tribocharger design has a significant effect on the charging and separation performance
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