The age of white dwarf companions

Original paper can be found at: http://www.iop.org/EJ/conf DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/172/1/012019 [16th European White Dwarfs Workshop]We carried out a spectroscopic investigation of single lined white dwarfs (WDs) in double degenerate (DD) systems and discuss their binary evolution. Simulated spectra of the Hα region are used to derive upper limits on the temperature of the invisible component and thus lower limits on the cooling age. This is done for a range of hypothetical secondary masses and a minimum cooling age deduced. Results are compared with the well known parameters of the visible primary, which allows us to determine a lower limit for the cooling age difference of both WDs. Most of the ten systems in our sample have a minimum age difference of not larger than 0.5 Gyr and their small orbital separation is highly suggestive of at least one unstable mass transfer phase. However, a stable first mass transfer phase is feasible as the age difference is less then 1 Gyr. The results imply that unstable mass transfer is the most likely final contact binary scenario to have occurred in DD systems but the first mass transfer phase is not constrained.Peer reviewe

Field trials of the Wolf Trap engineering breadboard

Field trials of Wolf Trap engineering breadboar

Exact and Scaling Form of the Bipartite Fidelity of the Infinite XXZ Chain

We find an exact expression for the bipartite fidelity f=|'|^2, where |vac> is the vacuum eigenstate of an infinite-size antiferromagnetic XXZ chain and |vac>' is the vacuum eigenstate of an infinite-size XXZ chain which is split in two. We consider the quantity -ln(f) which has been put forward as a measure of quantum entanglement, and show that the large correlation length xi behaviour is consistent with a general conjecture -ln(f) ~ c/8 ln(xi), where c is the central charge of the UV conformal field theory (with c=1 for the XXZ chain). This behaviour is a natural extension of the existing conformal field theory prediction of -ln(f) ~ c/8 ln(L) for a length L bipartite system with 0<< L <<xi.Comment: 6 page

A mathematical model of the effect of a predator on species diversity

Mathematical model determines reaction between new predator and microbe competitor when the competitor is the predator's sole nutrient resource. The model utilizes differential equations to describe the interactions with the specific growth rates, and analyzes these growth rates as they are affected by population density and nutrient concentration

Heat shield Patent

Compact heat shielding for interplanetary space vehicle

On the freeness of anticyclotomic selmer groups of modular forms

We establish the freeness of certain anticyclotomic Selmer groups of modular forms. The freeness of these Selmer groups plays a key role in the Euler system arguments introduced by Bertolini and Darmon in their work on the anticyclotomic main conjecture for modular forms. In particular, our result fills some implicit gaps which appeared in generalizations of the Bertolini-Darmon result to the case where the associated residual representation is not minimally ramified. The removal of such a minimal ramification hypothesis is essential for applications involving congruences of modular forms.Accepted manuscrip

Induced velocity field of a jet in a crossflow

An experimental investigation of a subsonic round jet exhausting perpendicularly from a flat plate into a subsonic crosswind of the same temperature was conducted. Velocity and pressure measurements were made in planes perpendicular to the path of the jet for ratios of jet velocity to crossflow velocity ranging from 3 to 10. The results of these measurements are presented in tabular and graphical forms. A pair of diffuse contrarotating vortices is identified as a significant feature of the flow, and the characteristics of the vortices are discussed

Velocity field of a round jet in a cross flow for various jet injection angles and velocity ratios

A subsonic round jet injected from a flat plate into a subsonic crosswind of the same temperature was investigated. Velocity and pressure measurements in planes perpendicular to the path of the jet were made for nominal jet injection angles of 45 deg, 60 deg, 75 deg, 90 deg, and 105 deg and for jet/cross flow velocity ratios of four and eight. The velocity measurements were obtained to infer the properties of the vortex pair associated with a jet in a cross flow. Jet centerline and vortex trajectories were determined and fit with an empirical equation that includes the effects of jet injection angle, jet core length, and jet/cross flow velocity ratios

Induced pressure distribution of a jet in a crossflow

The turbulent flow of a subsonic round jet exhausting perpendicularly from a flat plate into a subsonic crosswind of the same temperature was investigated in the Langley V/STOL tunnel. The large test section of this tunnel made it possible to use a jet with the relatively large diameter of 10.16 cm. Pressures were measured on the flat plate at over 400 locations to provide a detailed description of the static pressure distribution. Results are presented in tabular and graphical forms for jet to crossflow velocity ratios ranging from 2 to 10, and comparisons are made with results of other experiments. The results indicate that the dominant flow parameter affecting the pressure distributions is the ratio of jet to crossflow velocities. The distribution of turbulence on the plate also appears to be a function of velocity ratio