Volatile-Rich Circumstellar Gas in the Unusual 49 Ceti Debris Disk

We present Hubble Space Telescope STIS far-UV spectra of the edge-on disk around 49 Ceti, one of the very few debris disks showing sub-mm CO emission. Many atomic absorption lines are present in the spectra, most of which arise from circumstellar gas lying along the line-of-sight to the central star. We determined the line-of-sight CI column density, estimated the total carbon column density, and set limits on the OI column density. Surprisingly, no line-of-sight CO absorption was seen. We discuss possible explanations for this non-detection, and present preliminary estimates of the carbon abundances in the line-of-sight gas. The C/Fe ratio is much greater than the solar value, suggesting that 49 Cet harbors a volatile-rich gas disk similar to that of Beta Pictoris.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. 5 pages, 4 figure

Black hole radiation with high frequency dispersion

We consider one model of a black hole radiation, in which the equation of motion of a matter field is modified to cut off high frequency modes. The spectrum in the model has already been analytically derived in low frequency range, which has resulted in the Planckian distributin of the Hawking temperature. On the other hand, it has been numerically shown that its spectrum deviates from the thermal one in high frequency range. In this paper, we analytically derive the form of the deviation in the high frequency range. Our result can qualitatively explain the nature of the numerically calculated spectrum. The origin of the deviation is clarified by a simple discussion.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.

Rank-Ordering Statistics of Extreme Events: Application to the Distribution of Large Earthquakes

Rank-ordering statistics provides a perspective on the rare, largest elements of a population, whereas the statistics of cumulative distributions are dominated by the more numerous small events. The exponent of a power law distribution can be determined with good accuracy by rank-ordering statistics from the observation of only a few tens of the largest events. Using analytical results and synthetic tests, we quantify the systematic and the random errors. We also study the case of a distribution defined by two branches, each having a power law distribution, one defined for the largest events and the other for smaller events, with application to the World-Wide (Harvard) and Southern California earthquake catalogs. In the case of the Harvard moment catalog, we make more precise earlier claims of the existence of a transition of the earthquake magnitude distribution between small and large earthquakes; the $b$-values are $b_2 = 2.3 \pm 0.3$ for large shallow earthquakes and $b_1 = 1.00 \pm 0.02$ for smaller shallow earthquakes. However, the cross-over magnitude between the two distributions is ill-defined. The data available at present do not provide a strong constraint on the cross-over which has a $50\%$ probability of being between magnitudes $7.1$ and $7.6$ for shallow earthquakes; this interval may be too conservatively estimated. Thus, any influence of a universal geometry of rupture on the distribution of earthquakes world-wide is ill-defined at best. We caution that there is no direct evidence to confirm the hypothesis that the large-moment branch is indeed a power law. In fact, a gamma distribution fits the entire suite of earthquake moments from the smallest to the largest satisfactorily. There is no evidence that the earthquakes of the Southern California catalog have a distribution with tw

Simultaneous ground and satellite observations of an isolated proton arc at subauroral latitudes

We observed an isolated proton arc at the Athabasca station MLAT: 62◦N) in Canada on 5 September, 2005, using a ground-based allsky imager at wavelengths of 557.7 nm, 630.0 nm, and 486.1 nm (Hβ). This arc is similar to the detached proton arc observed recently by the IMAGE satellite [Immel et al., 2002]. The arc appeared at 0500-0700 UT (2100-2300 MLT) coincident with strong Pc 1 geomagnetic pulsations in the frequency range of the electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave. A small substorm took place at 0550 UT, while the isolated arc did not change its structure and intensity before and after the substorm onset. From particle data obtained by the NOAA 17 satellite, we found that the isolated arc was located in the localized (L ∼4) enhancement of ion precipitation fluxes at an energy range of 30-80 keV. Trapped ion flux enhancements (ring current ions) were also observed at two latitudinally separated regions. The localized ion precipitation was located at the outer boundary of the inner ring current ions. The DMSP F13 satellite observed signatures of ionospheric plasma trough near the conjugate point of the arc in the southern hemisphere. The trough is considered to be connected to the plasmapause. These results indicate that the source region of the isolated arc was located near the plasmapause and in the ring current. We conclude that the observed isolated proton arc at subauroral latitudes were driven by the EMIC waves, which were generated near the plasmapause and scattered the ring current protons resonantly into the loss cone

Hyperbolic formulations and numerical relativity II: Asymptotically constrained systems of the Einstein equations

We study asymptotically constrained systems for numerical integration of the Einstein equations, which are intended to be robust against perturbative errors for the free evolution of the initial data. First, we examine the previously proposed "$\lambda$-system", which introduces artificial flows to constraint surfaces based on the symmetric hyperbolic formulation. We show that this system works as expected for the wave propagation problem in the Maxwell system and in general relativity using Ashtekar's connection formulation. Second, we propose a new mechanism to control the stability, which we call the ``adjusted system". This is simply obtained by adding constraint terms in the dynamical equations and adjusting its multipliers. We explain why a particular choice of multiplier reduces the numerical errors from non-positive or pure-imaginary eigenvalues of the adjusted constraint propagation equations. This ``adjusted system" is also tested in the Maxwell system and in the Ashtekar's system. This mechanism affects more than the system's symmetric hyperbolicity.Comment: 16 pages, RevTeX, 9 eps figures, added Appendix B and minor changes, to appear in Class. Quant. Gra

Climate of Earth-Like Planets With and Without Ocean Heat Transport Orbiting a Range of M and K Stars

The mean surface temperature of a planet is now acknowledged as insufficient to surmise its full potential habitability. Advancing our understanding requires exploration with 3D general circulation models (GCMs), which can take into account how gradients and fluxes across a planet's surface influence the distribution of heat, clouds, and the potential for heterogeneous distribution of liquid water. Here we present 3D GCM simulations of the effects of alternative stellar spectra, instellation, model resolution, and ocean heat transport, on the simulated distribution of heat and moisture of an Earth-like planet (ELP)