Solar Models with Revised Abundances and Opacities

Using reconstructed opacities, we construct solar models with low heavy-element abundance. Rotational mixing and enhanced diffusion of helium and heavy elements are used to reconcile the recently observed abundances with helioseismology. The sound speed and density of models where the relative and absolute diffusion coefficients for helium and heavy elements have been increased agree with seismically inferred values at better than the 0.005 and 0.02 fractional level respectively. However, the surface helium abundance of the enhanced diffusion model is too low. The low helium problem in the enhanced diffusion model can be solved to a great extent by rotational mixing. The surface helium and the convection zone depth of rotating model M04R3, which has a surface Z of 0.0154, agree with the seismic results at the levels of 1 $\sigma$ and 3 $\sigma$ respectively. M04R3 is almost as good as the standard model M98. Some discrepancies between the models constructed in accord with the new element abundances and seismic constraints can be solved individually, but it seems difficult to resolve them as a whole scenario.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

The Burst Mode of Accretion in Primordial Star Formation

We present simulation results for the formation and long-term evolution of a primordial protostellar disk harbored by a first star. Using a 2+1D nonaxisymmetric thin disk numerical simulation, together with a barotropic relation for the gas, we are able to probe ~20 kyr of the disk's evolution. During this time period we observe fragmentation leading to loosely bound gaseous clumps within the disk. These are then torqued inward and accreted onto the growing protostar, giving rise to a burst phenomenon. The luminous feedback produced by this mechanism may have important consequences for the subsequent growth of the protostar.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, to appear in proceedings of First Stars IV meeting (Kyoto, Japan; 2012

Seismic Zonation of India

The Himalayan belt, Indo-Gangetic Plains and Peninsular shield divide India in three major regions with decreasing seismic potential. The Indian Standard Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures (IS: 1893-19841) incorporate a seismic zoning map (SZM) demarcating five seismic zones, which show zones with many islands, and prescribed design parameters for the delineated zones do not show consistent exceedance probability. A probabilistic analysis has been carried out and seismic design ground motion parameters have been estimated for 100 years’ service life, which do not support delineation of five zones with uniform ratio of seismic hazard among various zones. Four seismic zones have been delineated expressing gross areal hazard and weighted average of design response acceleration have been evaluated for firm ground conditions in each zone. Guidelines to take into consideration effects on design ground motion parameters due to rock and soil cover overlying underground structures, and excitation of hill ranges bordering deep valleys in mountainous terrains have been indicated

Testing equality of variances in the analysis of repeated measurements

The problem of comparing the precisions of two instruments using repeated measurements can be cast as an extension of the Pitman-Morgan problem of testing equality of variances of a bivariate normal distribution. Hawkins (1981) decomposes the hypothesis of equal variances in this model into two subhypotheses for which simple tests exist. For the overall hypothesis he proposes to combine the tests of the subhypotheses using Fisher's method and empirically compares the component tests and their combination with the likelihood ratio test. In this paper an attempt is made to resolve some discrepancies and puzzling conclusions in Hawkins's study and to propose simple modifications.\ud \ud The new tests are compared to the tests discussed by Hawkins and to each other both in terms of the finite sample power (estimated by Monte Carlo simulation) and theoretically in terms of asymptotic relative efficiencies