12,952 research outputs found
Angular momentum transport and element mixing in the stellar interior I. Application to the rotating Sun
The purpose of this work was to obtain diffusion coefficient for the magnetic
angular momentum transport and material transport in a rotating solar model. We
assumed that the transport of both angular momentum and chemical elements
caused by magnetic fields could be treated as a diffusion process. The
diffusion coefficient depends on the stellar radius, angular velocity, and the
configuration of magnetic fields. By using of this coefficient, it is found
that our model becomes more consistent with the helioseismic results of total
angular momentum, angular momentum density, and the rotation rate in a
radiative region than the one without magnetic fields. Not only can the
magnetic fields redistribute angular momentum efficiently, but they can also
strengthen the coupling between the radiative and convective zones. As a
result, the sharp gradient of the rotation rate is reduced at the bottom of the
convective zone. The thickness of the layer of sharp radial change in the
rotation rate is about 0.036 in our model. Furthermore, the
difference of the sound-speed square between the seismic Sun and the model is
improved by mixing the material that is associated with angular momentum
transport.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
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
and 3 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 Evolution of Optical Depth in the Ly-alpha Forest: Evidence Against Reionization at z~6
We examine the evolution of the IGM Ly-alpha optical depth distribution using
the transmitted flux probability distribution function (PDF) in a sample of 63
QSOs spanning absorption redshifts 1.7 < z < 5.8. The data are compared to two
theoretical optical depth distributions: a model distribution based on the
density distribution of Miralda-Escude et al. (2000) (MHR00), and a lognormal
distribution. We assume a uniform UV background and an isothermal IGM for the
MHR00 model, as has been done in previous works. Under these assumptions, the
MHR00 model produces poor fits to the observed flux PDFs at redshifts where the
optical depth distribution is well sampled, unless large continuum corrections
are applied. However, the lognormal optical depth distribution fits the data at
all redshifts with only minor continuum adjustments. We use a simple
parametrization for the evolution of the lognormal parameters to calculate the
expected mean transmitted flux at z > 5.4. The lognormal optical depth
distribution predicts the observed Ly-alpha and Ly-beta effective optical
depths at z > 5.7 while simultaneously fitting the mean transmitted flux down
to z = 1.6. If the evolution of the lognormal distribution at z < 5 reflects a
slowly-evolving density field, temperature, and UV background, then no sudden
change in the IGM at z ~ 6 due to late reionization appears necessary. We have
used the lognormal optical depth distribution without any assumption about the
underlying density field. If the MHR00 density distribution is correct, then a
non-uniform UV background and/or IGM temperature may be required to produce the
correct flux PDF. We find that an inverse temperature-density relation greatly
improves the PDF fits, but with a large scatter in the equation of state index.
[Abridged]Comment: 45 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Ap
Comments on photonic shells
We investigate in detail the special case of an infinitely thin static
cylindrical shell composed of counter-rotating photons on circular geodetical
paths separating two distinct parts of Minkowski spacetimes--one inside and the
other outside the shell--and compare it to a static disk shell formed by null
particles counter-rotating on circular geodesics within the shell located
between two sections of flat spacetime. One might ask whether the two cases are
not, in fact, merely one
Exact Relativistic Static Charged Dust Disks and Non-axisymmetric Structures
The well-known ``displace, cut and reflect'' method used to generate disks
from given solutions of Einstein field equations is applied to the
superposition of twoextreme Reissner-Nordstrom black holes to construct disks
made of charged dust and alsonon-axisymmetric planar distributions of charged
dust on the z=0 plane. They are symmetric with respect to twoor one coordinate
axes, depending whether the black holes have equal or unequal masses,
respectively.For these non-axisymmetric distributions of matter we also study
the effective potential for geodesic motion of neutral test particles.Comment: Classical and Quantum Gravity (in press). 15 pages, LaTex, 8 .eps
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The Temporal and Spectral Characteristics of "Fast Rise and Exponential Decay" Gamma-Ray Burst Pulses
In this paper we have analyzed the temporal and spectral behavior of 52 Fast
Rise and Exponential Decay (FRED) pulses in 48 long-duration gamma-ray bursts
(GRBs) observed by the CGRO/BATSE, using a pulse model with two shape
parameters and the Band model with three shape parameters, respectively. It is
found that these FRED pulses are distinguished both temporally and spectrally
from those in long-lag pulses. Different from these long-lag pulses only one
parameter pair indicates an evident correlation among the five parameters,
which suggests that at least 4 parameters are needed to model burst
temporal and spectral behavior. In addition, our studies reveal that these FRED
pulses have correlated properties: (i) long-duration pulses have harder spectra
and are less luminous than short-duration pulses; (ii) the more asymmetric the
pulses are the steeper the evolutionary curves of the peak energy () in
the spectrum within pulse decay phase are. Our statistical
results give some constrains on the current GRB models.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Equilibrium Properties of Temporally Asymmetric Hebbian Plasticity
A theory of temporally asymmetric Hebb (TAH) rules which depress or
potentiate synapses depending upon whether the postsynaptic cell fires before
or after the presynaptic one is presented. Using the Fokker-Planck formalism,
we show that the equilibrium synaptic distribution induced by such rules is
highly sensitive to the manner in which bounds on the allowed range of synaptic
values are imposed. In a biologically plausible multiplicative model, we find
that the synapses in asynchronous networks reach a distribution that is
invariant to the firing rates of either the pre- or post-synaptic cells. When
these cells are temporally correlated, the synaptic strength varies smoothly
with the degree and phase of synchrony between the cells.Comment: 3 figures, minor corrections of equations and tex
Robustness and Enhancement of Neural Synchronization by Activity-Dependent Coupling
We study the synchronization of two model neurons coupled through a synapse
having an activity-dependent strength. Our synapse follows the rules of
Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP). We show that this plasticity of the
coupling between neurons produces enlarged frequency locking zones and results
in synchronization that is more rapid and much more robust against noise than
classical synchronization arising from connections with constant strength. We
also present a simple discrete map model that demonstrates the generality of
the phenomenon.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in PR
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Flicker Sensitivity in Normal Aging-Monocular Tests of Retinal Function at Photopic and Mesopic Light Levels
Purpose: Aging can affect many aspects of visual performance. In general, the effects become more significant in those older than 40 to 50 years, with increased intersubject variability and stronger dependence on ambient illumination. This study aimed to establish how healthy aging of the retina affects the detection of 15-Hz flicker under photopic and mesopic lighting.
Methods: We investigated 71 participants aged 20 to 75 years. Thresholds were measured for detection of 15-Hz flicker at the fovea (0°) and at an eccentricity of 4° in each of the four quadrants. The background luminance ranged from 0.6 to 60 cd/m2 and pupil size was measured continuously. Participants were excluded if they had signs/history of ocular disease, substantial interocular differences in flicker thresholds, or were unable to detect 100% flicker modulation in the high mesopic range.
Results: Mesopic and photopic flicker thresholds were used to calculate an index, the health of the retina index, to determine the limits of flicker sensitivity in healthy aging. Log flicker thresholds changed bilinearly with age; they remained stable until 40 to 50 years, with a linear decline with increasing age. This bilinear pattern of the change in flicker thresholds with age is consistent across photopic and mesopic light levels.
Conclusions: The health of the retina index captures the lowest threshold, usually obtained under photopic conditions, as well as the loss of flicker sensitivity with decreasing light level. The established limits of healthy aging may benefit from future studies in patients with ocular hypertension and/or glaucoma that are known to experience loss of flicker sensitivity
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