32,163 research outputs found
Low-Altitude Reconnection Inflow-Outflow Observations during a 2010 November 3 Solar Eruption
For a solar flare occurring on 2010 November 3, we present observations using
several SDO/AIA extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) passbands of an erupting flux rope
followed by inflows sweeping into a current sheet region. The inflows are soon
followed by outflows appearing to originate from near the termination point of
the inflowing motion - an observation in line with standard magnetic
reconnection models. We measure average inflow plane-of-sky speeds to range
from ~150-690 km/s with the initial, high-temperature inflows being the
fastest. Using the inflow speeds and a range of Alfven speeds, we estimate the
Alfvenic Mach number which appears to decrease with time. We also provide
inflow and outflow times with respect to RHESSI count rates and find that the
fast, high-temperature inflows occur simultaneously with a peak in the RHESSI
thermal lightcurve. Five candidate inflow-outflow pairs are identified with no
more than a minute delay between detections. The inflow speeds of these pairs
are measured to be 10^2 km/s with outflow speeds ranging from 10^2-10^3 km/s -
indicating acceleration during the reconnection process. The fastest of these
outflows are in the form of apparently traveling density enhancements along the
legs of the loops rather than the loop apexes themselves. These flows could
either be accelerated plasma, shocks, or waves prompted by reconnection. The
measurements presented here show an order of magnitude difference between the
retraction speeds of the loops and the speed of the density enhancements within
the loops - presumably exiting the reconnection site.Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, Accepted to ApJ (expected publication
~July 2012
Relation between phase and dwell times for quantum tunneling of a relativistically propagating particle
The general and explicit relation between the phase time and the dwell time
for quantum tunneling of a relativistically propagating particle is
investigated and quantified. In analogy with previously obtained
non-relativistic results, it is shown that the group delay can be described in
terms of the dwell time and a self-interference delay. Lessons concerning the
phenomenology of the relativistic tunneling are drawn
Strange meson-nucleon states in the quark potential model
The quark potential model and resonating group method are used to investigate
the bound states and/or resonances. The model potential consists of
the t-channel and s-channel one-gluon exchange potentials and the confining
potential with incorporating the QCD renormalization correction and the
spin-orbital suppression effect in it. It was shown in our previous work that
by considering the color octet contribution, use of this model to investigate
the low energy elastic scattering leads to the results which are in pretty
good agreement with the experimental data. In this paper, the same model and
method are employed to calculate the masses of the bound systems.
For this purpose, the resonating group equation is transformed into a standard
Schr\"odinger equation in which a nonlocal effective interaction
potential is included. Solving the Schr\"odinger equation by the variational
method, we are able to reproduce the masses of some currently concerned
states and get a view that these states possibly exist as
molecular states. For the system, the same calculation gives no support to
the existence of the resonance which was announced
recently.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
Infrared Emission by Dust Around lambda Bootis Stars: Debris Disks or Thermally Emitting Nebulae?
We present a model that describes stellar infrared excesses due to heating of
the interstellar (IS) dust by a hot star passing through a diffuse IS cloud.
This model is applied to six lambda Bootis stars with infrared excesses.
Plausible values for the IS medium (ISM) density and relative velocity between
the cloud and the star yield fits to the excess emission. This result is
consistent with the diffusion/accretion hypothesis that lambda Bootis stars (A-
to F-type stars with large underabundances of Fe-peak elements) owe their
characteristics to interactions with the ISM. This proposal invokes radiation
pressure from the star to repel the IS dust and excavate a paraboloidal dust
cavity in the IS cloud, while the metal-poor gas is accreted onto the stellar
photosphere. However, the measurements of the infrared excesses can also be fit
by planetary debris disk models. A more detailed consideration of the
conditions to produce lambda Bootis characteristics indicates that the majority
of infrared-excess stars within the Local Bubble probably have debris disks.
Nevertheless, more distant stars may often have excesses due to heating of
interstellar material such as in our model.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, accepted by ApJ, emulateap
A sequential regularization method for time-dependent incompressible Navier--Stokes equations
The objective of the paper is to present a method, called sequential regularization method (SRM), for the nonstationary incompressible Navier-Stokes equations from the viewpoint of regularization of differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) , and to provide a way to apply a DAE method to partial differential-algebraic equations (PDAEs). The SRM is a functional iterative procedure. It is proved that its convergence rate is O(ffl m ), where m is the number of the SRM iterations and ffl is the regularization parameter. The discretization and implementation issues of the method are considered. In particular, a simple explicit difference scheme is analyzed and its stability is proved under the usual step size condition of explicit schemes. It appears that the SRM formulation is new in the Navier-Stokes context. Unlike other regularizations or pseudo-compressibility methods in the Navier-Stokes context, the regularization parameter ffl in the SRM need not be very small, and the regularized..
Critical behavior of charmonia across the phase transition: A QCD sum rule approach
We investigate medium-induced change of mass and width of J/psi and eta_c
across the phase transition in hot gluonic matter using QCD sum rules. In the
QCD sum rule approach, the medium effect on heavy quarkonia is induced by the
change of both scalar and twist-2 gluon condensates, whose temperature
dependences are extracted from the lattice calculations of energy density and
pressure. Although the stability of the operator product expansion side seems
to break down at T > 1.06Tc for the vector channel and T>1.04Tc for the
pseudoscalar channel, we find a sudden change of the spectral property across
the critical temperature Tc, which originates from an equally rapid change of
the scalar gluon condensate characterized by e-3p. By parameterizing the ground
state of the spectral density by the Breit-Wigner form, we find that for both
J/psi and eta_c, the masses suddenly decrease maximally by a few hundreds of
MeV and the widths broaden to ~100 MeV slightly above Tc. Implications for
recent and future heavy ion experiments are discussed.
We also carry out a similar analysis for charmonia in nuclear matter, which
could serve as a testing ground for observing the precursor phenomena of the
QCD phase transition. We finally discuss the possibility of observing the mass
shift at nuclear matter at the FAIR project at GSI.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures, 2 figures are added and discussion on effect of
dynamical quarks is extended. version to appear in Phys.Rev.
Cosmic ray feedback in the FIRE simulations: constraining cosmic ray propagation with GeV gamma ray emission
We present the implementation and the first results of cosmic ray (CR)
feedback in the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations. We
investigate CR feedback in non-cosmological simulations of dwarf, sub-
starburst, and galaxies with different propagation models, including
advection, isotropic and anisotropic diffusion, and streaming along field lines
with different transport coefficients. We simulate CR diffusion and streaming
simultaneously in galaxies with high resolution, using a two moment method. We
forward-model and compare to observations of -ray emission from nearby
and starburst galaxies. We reproduce the -ray observations of dwarf and
galaxies with constant isotropic diffusion coefficient . Advection-only and streaming-only
models produce order-of-magnitude too large -ray luminosities in dwarf
and galaxies. We show that in models that match the -ray
observations, most CRs escape low-gas-density galaxies (e.g.\ dwarfs) before
significant collisional losses, while starburst galaxies are CR proton
calorimeters. While adiabatic losses can be significant, they occur only after
CRs escape galaxies, so they are only of secondary importance for -ray
emissivities. Models where CRs are ``trapped'' in the star-forming disk have
lower star formation efficiency, but these models are ruled out by -ray
observations. For models with constant that match the -ray
observations, CRs form extended halos with scale heights of several kpc to
several tens of kpc.Comment: 31 pages, 26 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Contrasting trends of mass and optical properties of aerosols over the Northern Hemisphere from 1992 to 2011
Atmospheric aerosols affect both human health and climate. PMX is the mass concentration of aerosol particles that have aerodynamic diameters less than X μm, PM<sub>10</sub> was initially selected to measure the environmental impact of aerosols. Recently, it was realized that fine particles are more hazardous than larger ones and should be measured. Consequently, observational data for PM<sub>2.5</sub> have been obtained but only for a much shorter period than that of PM<sub>10</sub>. Optical extinction of aerosols, the inverse of meteorological visibility, is sensitive to particles less than 1.0 μm. These fine particles only account for a small part of total mass of aerosols although they are very efficient in light extinction. Comparisons are made between PM<sub>10</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub> over the period when the latter is available and with visibility data for a longer period. PM<sub>10</sub> has decreased by 44% in Europe from 1992 to 2009, 33% in the US from 1993 to 2010, 10% in Canada from 1994 to 2009, and 26% in China from 2000 to 2011. However, in contrast, aerosol optical extinction has increased 7% in the US, 10% in Canada, and 18% in China during the above study periods. The reduction of optical extinction over Europe of 5% is also much less than the 44% reduction in PM<sub>10</sub>. Over its short period of record PM<sub>2.5</sub> decreased less than PM<sub>10</sub>. Hence, PM<sub>10</sub> is neither a good measure of changes in smaller particles nor of their long-term trends, a result that has important implications for both climate impact and human health effects. The increased fraction of anthropogenic aerosol emission, such as from vehicle exhaust, to total atmospheric aerosols partly explains this contrasting trend of optical and mass properties of aerosols
- …