Capture and escape in the elliptic restricted three-body problem

Several families of irregular moons orbit the giant planets. These moons are thought to have been captured into planetocentric orbits after straying into a region in which the planet's gravitation dominates solar perturbations (the Hill sphere). This mechanism requires a source of dissipation, such as gas-drag, in order to make capture permanent. However, capture by gas-drag requires that particles remain inside the Hill sphere long enough for dissipation to be effective. Recently we have proposed that in the circular restricted three-body problem particles may become caught up in `sticky' chaotic layers which tends to prolong their sojourn within the planet's Hill sphere thereby assisting capture. Here we show that this mechanism survives perturbations due to the ellipticity of the planet's orbit. However, Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the planet's ability to capture moons decreases with increasing orbital eccentricity. At the actual Jupiter's orbital eccentricity, this effects in approximately an order of magnitude lower capture probability than estimated in the circular model. Eccentricities of planetary orbits in the Solar System are moderate but this is not necessarily the case for extrasolar planets which typically have rather eccentric orbits. Therefore, our findings suggest that these extrasolar planets are unlikely to have substantial populations of irregular moons.Comment: This is a preprint of an Article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, (C) 2004 The Royal Astronomical Societ

Intrinsic defects in silicon carbide LED as a perspective room temperature single photon source in near infrared

Generation of single photons has been demonstrated in several systems. However, none of them satisfies all the conditions, e.g. room temperature functionality, telecom wavelength operation, high efficiency, as required for practical applications. Here, we report the fabrication of light emitting diodes (LEDs) based on intrinsic defects in silicon carbide (SiC). To fabricate our devices we used a standard semiconductor manufacturing technology in combination with high-energy electron irradiation. The room temperature electroluminescence (EL) of our LEDs reveals two strong emission bands in visible and near infrared (NIR), associated with two different intrinsic defects. As these defects can potentially be generated at a low or even single defect level, our approach can be used to realize electrically driven single photon source for quantum telecommunication and information processing

Production of trans-Neptunian binaries through chaos-assisted capture

The recent discovery of binary objects in the Kuiper-belt opens an invaluable window into past and present conditions in the trans-Neptunian part of the Solar System. For example, knowledge of how these objects formed can be used to impose constraints on planetary formation theories. We have recently proposed a binary-object formation model based on the notion of chaos-assisted capture. Here we present a more detailed analysis with calculations performed in the spatial (three-dimensional) three- and four-body Hill approximations. It is assumed that the potential binary partners are initially following heliocentric Keplerian orbits and that their relative motion becomes perturbed as these objects undergo close encounters. First, the mass, velocity, and orbital element distribu- tions which favour binary formation are identified in the circular and elliptical Hill limits. We then consider intruder scattering in the circular Hill four-body problem and find that the chaos-assisted capture mechanism is consistent with observed, apparently randomly distributed, binary mutual orbit inclinations. It also predicts asymmetric distributions of retrograde versus prograde orbits. The time-delay induced by chaos on particle transport through the Hill sphere is analogous to the formation of a resonance in a chemical reaction. Implications for binary formation rates are considered and the 'fine-tuning' problem recently identified by Noll et al. (2007) is also addressed.Comment: submitted to MNRA