2,569 research outputs found
The effects of magnetic nozzle configurations on plasma thrusters
Magnetoplasmadynamics (MPD) arc devices have been operated at power levels from 10 KW to 0.1 MW. When these devices have magnetic fields applied to them, they show marked increases in thrust in direct proportion to the magnitide of the applied field. Electrode erosion may be influenced by applied fields. This proposal will study the application of variable magnetic fields over a range of thruster powers, gas densities, and thruster configurations. It is proposed to examine this behavior with numerical codes and limited but relevant experimental tests
The effects of magnetic nozzle configurations on plasma thrusters
Plasma thrusters have been operated at power levels from 10kW to 0.1MW. When these devices have had magnetic fields applied to them which form a nozzle configuration for the expanding plasma, they have shown marked increases in exhaust velocity which is in direct proportion to the magnitude of the applied field. Further, recent results have shown that electrode erosion may be influenced by applied magnetic fields. This research is directed to the experimental and computational study of the effects of applied magnetic field nozzles in the acceleration of plasma flows. Plasma source devices which eliminate the plasma interaction in normal thrusters are studied as most basic. Normal thruster configurations will be studied without applied fields and with applied magnetic nozzle fields. Unique computational studies will utilize existing codes which accurately include transport processes. Unique diagnostic studies will support the experimental studies to generate new data. Both computation and diagnostics will be combined to indicate the physical mechanisms and transport properties that are operative in order to allow scaling and accurate prediction of thruster performance
Scaling and applied field studies of MPD thrusters with laser diagnostics
The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: self-field magnetoplasmadynamics; 1/4-scale applied-field MPD; scaling of arcs and MPD-arcs; magnetic nozzle studies; advanced diagnostic techniques needed for obtaining particle velocity, temperature, and current distributions in plasma thrusters; nonintrusive laser diagnostics for arcs and MPD-arcs; and schematic of multi-beam interferometer for electron density profile determination
And the winner is: galaxy mass
The environment is known to affect the formation and evolution of galaxies
considerably best visible through the well-known morphology-density
relationship. We study the effect of environment on the evolution of early-type
galaxies for a sample of 3,360 galaxies morphologically selected by visual
inspection from the SDSS in the redshift range 0.05<z<0.06, and analyse
luminosity-weighted age, metallicity, and alpha/Fe ratio as function of
environment and galaxy mass. We find that on average 10 per cent of early-type
galaxies are rejuvenated through minor recent star formation. This fraction
increases with both decreasing galaxy mass and decreasing environmental
density. However, the bulk of the population obeys a well-defined scaling of
age, metallicity, and alpha/Fe ratio with galaxy mass that is independent of
environment. Our results contribute to the growing evidence in the recent
literature that galaxy mass is the major driver of galaxy formation. Even the
morphology-density relationship may actually be mass-driven, as the consequence
of an environment dependent characteristic galaxy mass coupled with the fact
that late-type galaxy morphologies are more prevalent in low-mass galaxies.Comment: 5 pages, proceedings of JENAM 2010, Symposium 2: "Environment and the
formation of galaxies: 30 years later
Nesting behaviour influences species-specific gas exchange across avian eggshells
Carefully controlled gas exchange across the eggshell is essential for the development of the avian embryo. Water vapour conductance (GH2O) across the shell, typically measured as mass loss during incubation, has been demonstrated to optimally ensure the healthy development of the embryo while avoiding desiccation. Accordingly, eggs exposed to sub-optimal gas exchange have reduced hatching success. We tested the association between eggshell GH2O and putative life-history correlates of adult birds, ecological nest parameters and physical characteristics of the egg itself to investigate how variation in GH2O has evolved to maintain optimal water loss across a diverse set of nest environments. We measured gas exchange through eggshell fragments in 151 British breeding bird species and fitted phylogenetically controlled, general linear models to test the relationship between GH2O and potential predictor parameters of each species. Of our 17 life-history traits, only two were retained in the final model: wet-incubating parent and nest type. Eggs of species where the parent habitually returned to the nest with wet plumage had significantly higher GH2O than those of parents that returned to the nest with dry plumage. Eggs of species nesting in ground burrows, cliffs and arboreal cups had significantly higher GH2O than those of species nesting on the ground in open nests or cups, in tree cavities and in shallow arboreal nests. Phylogenetic signal (measured as Pagel's λ) was intermediate in magnitude, suggesting that differences observed in the GH2O are dependent upon a combination of shared ancestry and species-specific life history and ecological traits. Although these data are correlational by nature, they are consistent with the hypothesis that parents constrained to return to the nest with wet plumage will increase the humidity of the nest environment, and the eggs of these species have evolved a higher GH2O to overcome this constraint and still achieve optimal water loss during incubation. We also suggest that eggs laid in cup nests and burrows may require a higher GH2O to overcome the increased humidity as a result from the confined nest microclimate lacking air movements through the nest. Taken together, these comparative data imply that species-specific levels of gas exchange across avian eggshells are variable and evolve in response to ecological and physical variation resulting from parental and nesting behaviours
Positivity of Entropy in the Semi-Classical Theory of Black Holes and Radiation
Quantum stress-energy tensors of fields renormalized on a Schwarzschild
background violate the classical energy conditions near the black hole.
Nevertheless, the associated equilibrium thermodynamical entropy by
which such fields augment the usual black hole entropy is found to be positive.
More precisely, the derivative of with respect to radius, at fixed
black hole mass, is found to vanish at the horizon for {\it all} regular
renormalized stress-energy quantum tensors. For the cases of conformal scalar
fields and U(1) gauge fields, the corresponding second derivative is positive,
indicating that has a local minimum there. Explicit calculation
shows that indeed increases monotonically for increasing radius and
is positive. (The same conclusions hold for a massless spin 1/2 field, but the
accuracy of the stress-energy tensor we employ has not been confirmed, in
contrast to the scalar and vector cases). None of these results would hold if
the back-reaction of the radiation on the spacetime geometry were ignored;
consequently, one must regard as arising from both the radiation
fields and their effects on the gravitational field. The back-reaction, no
matter how "small",Comment: 19 pages, RevTe
Effective Potential of a Black Hole in Thermal Equilibrium with Quantum Fields
Expectation values of one-loop renormalized thermal equilibrium stress-energy
tensors of free conformal scalars, spin- fermions and U(1) gauge
fields on a Schwarzschild black hole background are used as sources in the
semi-classical Einstein equation. The back-reaction and new equilibrium metric
are solved for at for each spin field. The nature of the modified
black hole spacetime is revealed through calculations of the effective
potential for null and timelike orbits. Significant novel features affecting
the motions of both massive and massless test particles show up at lowest order
in , where is the renormalized black hole mass,
and is the Planck mass. Specifically, we find the tendency for
\underline{stable} circular photon orbits, an increase in the black hole
capture cross sections, and the existence of a gravitationally repulsive region
associated with the black hole which is generated from the U(1) back-reaction.
We also consider the back-reaction arising from multiple fields, which will be
useful for treating a black hole in thermal equilibrium with field ensembles
belonging to gauge theories.Comment: 25 pages (not including seven figures), VAND-TH-93-6. Typed in Latex,
uses RevTex macro
The Einstein constraints: uniqueness and non-uniqueness in the conformal thin sandwich approach
We study the appearance of multiple solutions to certain decompositions of
Einstein's constraint equations. Pfeiffer and York recently reported the
existence of two branches of solutions for identical background data in the
extended conformal thin-sandwich decomposition. We show that the Hamiltonian
constraint alone, when expressed in a certain way, admits two branches of
solutions with properties very similar to those found by Pfeiffer and York. We
construct these two branches analytically for a constant-density star in
spherical symmetry, but argue that this behavior is more general. In the case
of the Hamiltonian constraint this non-uniqueness is well known to be related
to the sign of one particular term, and we argue that the extended conformal
thin-sandwich equations contain a similar term that causes the breakdown of
uniqueness.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
Can a combination of the conformal thin-sandwich and puncture methods yield binary black hole solutions in quasi-equilibrium?
We consider combining two important methods for constructing
quasi-equilibrium initial data for binary black holes: the conformal
thin-sandwich formalism and the puncture method. The former seeks to enforce
stationarity in the conformal three-metric and the latter attempts to avoid
internal boundaries, like minimal surfaces or apparent horizons. We show that
these two methods make partially conflicting requirements on the boundary
conditions that determine the time slices. In particular, it does not seem
possible to construct slices that are quasi-stationary and avoid physical
singularities and simultaneously are connected by an everywhere positive lapse
function, a condition which must obtain if internal boundaries are to be
avoided. Some relaxation of these conflicting requirements may yield a soluble
system, but some of the advantages that were sought in combining these
approaches will be lost.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX2e, 2 postscript figure
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