85,644 research outputs found
Tentative civil airworthiness flight criteria for powered-lift transports
Representatives of the U.S., British, French, and Canadian airworthiness authorities participated in a NASA/FAA program to formulate tentative civil airworthiness flight criteria for powered-lift transports. The ultimate limits of the flight envelope are defined by boundaries in the airspeed/path-angle plane. Angle of attack and airspeed margins applied to these ultimate limits provide protection against both atmospheric disturbances and disturbances resulting from pilot actions or system variability, but do not ensure maneuvering capability directly, as the 30% speed margin does for conventional transports. Separate criteria provide for direct demonstration of adequate capability for approach path control, flare and landing, and for go-around. Demonstration maneuvers are proposed, and appropriate abuses and failures are suggested. Taken together, these criteria should permit selection of appropriate operating points within the flight envelopes for the approach, landing, and go-around flight phases which are likely to be most critical for powered-lift aircraft
Sub-mm counterparts to Lyman-break galaxies
We summarize the main results from our SCUBA survey of Lyman-break galaxies
(LBGs) at z~3. Analysis of our sample of LBGs reveals a mean flux of
S850=0.60.2 mJy, while simple models of emission based on the UV
properties predict a mean flux about twice as large. Known populations of LBGs
are expected to contribute flux to the weak sub-mm source portion of the far-IR
background, but are not likely to comprise the bright source (S850>5 mJy) end
of the SCUBA-detected source count. The detection of the LBG, Westphal-MM8, at
1.9 mJy suggests that deeper observations of individual LBGs in our sample
could uncover detections at similar levels, consistent with our UV-based
predictions. By the same token, many sub-mm selected sources with S850<2 mJy
could be LBGs. The data are also consistent with the FarIR/ relation
holding at z=3.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, contributed talk at UMass/INAOE Conference ``Deep
Millimeter Surveys'
Quantum signatures of breather-breather interactions
The spectrum of the Quantum Discrete Nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation on a
periodic 1D lattice shows some interesting detailed band structure which may be
interpreted as the quantum signature of a two-breather interaction in the
classical case. We show that this fine structure can be interpreted using
degenerate perturbation theory.Comment: 4 pages, 4 fig
Stellar Mergers Are Common
The observed Galactic rate of stellar mergers or the initiation of common
envelope phases brighter than M_V=-3 (M_I=-4) is of order 0.5 (0.3)/year with
90% confidence statistical uncertainties of 0.24-1.1 (0.14-0.65) and factor of
2 systematic uncertainties. The (peak) luminosity function is roughly dN/dL
L^(-1.4+/-0.3), so the rates for events more luminous than V1309 Sco (M_V=-7
mag) or V838Mon (M_V=-10 mag) are lower at r~0.1/year and 0.03/year,
respectively. The peak luminosity is a steep function of progenitor mass, L
M^(2-3). This very roughly parallels the scaling of luminosity with mass on the
main sequence, but the transients are ~2000-4000 times more luminous at peak.
Combining these, the mass function of the progenitors, dN/dM M^(-2.0+/-0.8), is
consistent with the initial mass function, albeit with broad uncertainties.
These observational results are also broadly consistent with the estimates of
binary population synthesis models. While extragalactic variability surveys can
better define the rates and properties of the high luminosity events,
systematic, moderate depth (I>16 mag) surveys of the Galactic plane are needed
to characterize the low luminosity events. The existing Galactic samples are
only ~20% complete and Galactic surveys are (at best) reaching a typical
magnitude limit of <13 mag.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS (13 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables
Developments in GRworkbench
The software tool GRworkbench is an ongoing project in visual, numerical
General Relativity at The Australian National University. Recently, GRworkbench
has been significantly extended to facilitate numerical experimentation in
analytically-defined space-times. The numerical differential geometric engine
has been rewritten using functional programming techniques, enabling objects
which are normally defined as functions in the formalism of differential
geometry and General Relativity to be directly represented as function
variables in the C++ code of GRworkbench. The new functional differential
geometric engine allows for more accurate and efficient visualisation of
objects in space-times and makes new, efficient computational techniques
available. Motivated by the desire to investigate a recent scientific claim
using GRworkbench, new tools for numerical experimentation have been
implemented, allowing for the simulation of complex physical situations.Comment: 14 pages. To appear A. Moylan, S.M. Scott and A.C. Searle,
Developments in GRworkbench. Proceedings of the Tenth Marcel Grossmann
Meeting on General Relativity, editors M. Novello, S. Perez-Bergliaffa and R.
Ruffini. Singapore: World Scientific 200
A head-up display format for transport aircraft approach and landing
An electronic flight-guidance display format was designed for use in evaluations of the collimated head-up display concept applied to transport aircraft landing. In the design process of iterative evaluation and modification, some general principles, or guidelines, applicable to electronic flight displays were suggested. The usefulness of an indication of instantaneous inertial flightpath was clearly demonstrated. Evaluator pilot acceptance of the unfamiliar display concepts was very positive when careful attention was given to indoctrination and training
Soliton crystals in Kerr resonators
Strongly interacting solitons confined to an optical resonator would offer
unique capabilities for experiments in communication, computation, and sensing
with light. Here we report on the discovery of soliton crystals in monolithic
Kerr microresonators-spontaneously and collectively ordered ensembles of
co-propagating solitons whose interactions discretize their allowed temporal
separations. We unambiguously identify and characterize soliton crystals
through analysis of their 'fingerprint' optical spectra, which arise from
spectral interference between the solitons. We identify a rich space of soliton
crystals exhibiting crystallographic defects, and time-domain measurements
directly confirm our inference of their crystal structure. The crystallization
we observe is explained by long-range soliton interactions mediated by
resonator mode degeneracies, and we probe the qualitative difference between
soliton crystals and a soliton liquid that forms in the absence of these
interactions. Our work explores the rich physics of monolithic Kerr resonators
in a new regime of dense soliton occupation and offers a way to greatly
increase the efficiency of Kerr combs; further, the extreme degeneracy of the
configuration space of soliton crystals suggests an implementation for a robust
on-chip optical buffer
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