2,370 research outputs found
The surface signature of the tidal dissipation of the core in a two-layer planet
Tidal dissipation, which is directly linked to internal structure, is one of
the key physical mechanisms that drive systems evolution and govern their
architecture. A robust evaluation of its amplitude is thus needed to predict
evolution time for spins and orbits and their final states. The purpose of this
paper is to refine recent model of the anelastic tidal dissipation in the
central dense region of giant planets, commonly assumed to retain a large
amount of heavy elements, which constitute an important source of dissipation.
The previous paper evaluated the impact of the presence of the static fluid
envelope on the tidal deformation of the core and on the associated anelastic
tidal dissipation, through the tidal quality factor Qc. We examine here its
impact on the corresponding effective anelastic tidal dissipation, through the
effective tidal quality factor Qp. We show that the strength of this mechanism
mainly depends on mass concentration. In the case of Jupiter- and Saturn-like
planets, it can increase their effective tidal dissipation by, around, a factor
2.4 and 2 respectively. In particular, the range of the rheologies compatible
with the observations is enlarged compared to the results issued from previous
formulations. We derive here an improved expression of the tidal effective
factor Qp in terms of the tidal dissipation factor of the core Qc, without
assuming the commonly used assumptions. When applied to giant planets, the
formulation obtained here allows a better match between the an elastic core's
tidal dissipation of a two-layer model and the observations.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Dynamical Tide in Solar-Type Binaries
Circularization of late-type main-sequence binaries is usually attributed to
turbulent convection, while that of early-type binaries is explained by
resonant excitation of g modes. We show that the latter mechanism operates in
solar-type stars also and is at least as effective as convection, despite
inefficient damping of g modes in the radiative core. The maximum period at
which this mechanism can circularize a binary composed of solar-type stars in
10 Gyr is as low as 3 days, if the modes are damped by radiative diffusion only
and g-mode resonances are fixed; or as high as 6 days, if one allows for
evolution of the resonances and for nonlinear damping near inner turning
points. Even the larger theoretical period falls short of the observed
transition period by a factor two.Comment: 17 pages, 2 postscript figures, uses aaspp4.sty. Submitted to Ap
Strong influence of the complex bandstructure on the tunneling electroresistance: A combined model and ab-initio study
The tunneling electroresistance (TER) for ferroelectric tunnel junctions
(FTJs) with BaTiO_{3} (BTO) and PbTiO}_{3} (PTO) barriers is calculated by
combining the microscopic electronic structure of the barrier material with a
macroscopic model for the electrostatic potential which is caused by the
ferroelectric polarization. The TER ratio is investigated in dependence on the
intrinsic polarization, the chemical potential, and the screening properties of
the electrodes. A change of sign in the TER ratio is obtained for both barrier
materials in dependence on the chemical potential. The inverse imaginary Fermi
velocity describes the microscopic origin of this effect; it qualitatively
reflects the variation and the sign reversal of the TER. The quantity of the
imaginary Fermi velocity allows to obtain detailed information on the transport
properties of FTJs by analyzing the complex bandstructure of the barrier
material.Comment: quality of figures reduce
Thermoelectric transport in strained Si and Si/Ge heterostructures
The anisotropic thermoelectric transport properties of bulk silicon strained
in [111]-direction were studied by detailed first-principles calculations
focussing on a possible enhancement of the power factor. Electron as well as
hole doping were examined in a broad doping and temperature range. At low
temperature and low doping an enhancement of the power factor was obtained for
compressive and tensile strain in the electron-doped case and for compressive
strain in the hole-doped case. For the thermoelectrically more important high
temperature and high doping regime a slight enhancement of the power factor was
only found under small compressive strain with the power factor overall being
robust against applied strain. To extend our findings the anisotropic
thermoelectric transport of an [111]-oriented Si/Ge superlattice was
investigated. Here, the cross-plane power factor under hole-doping was
drastically suppressed due to quantum-well effects, while under electron-doping
an enhanced power factor was found. With that, we state a figure of merit of
ZT and ZT at T=\unit[300]{K} and T=\unit[900]{K} for the
electron-doped [111]-oriented Si/Ge superlattice. All results are discussed in
terms of band structure features
: Implications of the rhombohedral k-space texture on the evaluation of the in-plane/out-of-plane conductivity anisotropy
Different computational scheme for calculating surface integrals in
anisotropic Brillouin zones are compared. The example of the transport
distribution function (plasma frequency) of the thermoelectric Material \BiTe
near the band edges will be discussed. The layered structure of the material
together with the rhombohedral symmetry causes a strong anisotropy of the
transport distribution function for the directions in the basal (in-plane) and
perpendicular to the basal plane (out-of-plane). It is shown that a thorough
reciprocal space integration is necessary to reproduce the
in-plane/out-of-plane anisotropy. A quantitative comparison can be made at the
band edges, where the transport anisotropy is given in terms of the anisotropic
mass tensor.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figs., subm. to J. Phys. Cond. Ma
CP and related phenomena in the context of Stellar Evolution
We review the interaction in intermediate and high mass stars between their
evolution and magnetic and chemical properties. We describe the theory of
Ap-star `fossil' fields, before touching on the expected secular diffusive
processes which give rise to evolution of the field. We then present recent
results from a spectropolarimetric survey of Herbig Ae/Be stars, showing that
magnetic fields of the kind seen on the main-sequence already exist during the
pre-main sequence phase, in agreement with fossil field theory, and that the
origin of the slow rotation of Ap/Bp stars also lies early in the pre-main
sequence evolution; we also present results confirming a lack of stars with
fields below a few hundred gauss. We then seek which macroscopic motions
compete with atomic diffusion in determining the surface abundances of AmFm
stars. While turbulent transport and mass loss, in competition with atomic
diffusion, are both able to explain observed surface abundances, the interior
abundance distribution is different enough to potentially lead to a test using
asterosismology. Finally we review progress on the turbulence-driving and
mixing processes in stellar radiative zones.Comment: Proceedings of IAU GA in Rio, JD4 on Ap stars; 10 pages, 7 figure
Tidal Evolution of Close-in Extra-Solar Planets
The distribution of eccentricities e of extra-solar planets with semi-major
axes a > 0.2 AU is very uniform, and values for e are relatively large,
averaging 0.3 and broadly distributed up to near 1. For a < 0.2 AU,
eccentricities are much smaller (most e < 0.2), a characteristic widely
attributed to damping by tides after the planets formed and the protoplanetary
gas disk dissipated. Most previous estimates of the tidal damping considered
the tides raised on the planets, but ignored the tides raised on the stars.
Most also assumed specific values for the planets' poorly constrained tidal
dissipation parameter Qp. Perhaps most important, in many studies, the strongly
coupled evolution between e and a was ignored. We have now integrated the
coupled tidal evolution equations for e and a over the estimated age of each
planet, and confirmed that the distribution of initial e values of close-in
planets matches that of the general population for reasonable Q values, with
the best fits for stellar and planetary Q being ~10^5.5 and ~10^6.5,
respectively. The accompanying evolution of a values shows most close-in
planets had significantly larger a at the start of tidal migration. The earlier
gas disk migration did not bring all planets to their current orbits. The
current small values of a were only reached gradually due to tides over the
lifetimes of the planets. These results may have important implications for
planet formation models, atmospheric models of "hot Jupiters", and the success
of transit surveys.Comment: accepted to Ap
Interacting Binaries with Eccentric Orbits. Secular Orbital Evolution Due To Conservative Mass Transfer
We investigate the secular evolution of the orbital semi-major axis and
eccentricity due to mass transfer in eccentric binaries, assuming conservation
of total system mass and orbital angular momentum. Assuming a delta function
mass transfer rate centered at periastron, we find rates of secular change of
the orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity which are linearly proportional to
the magnitude of the mass transfer rate at periastron. The rates can be
positive as well as negative, so that the semi-major axis and eccentricity can
increase as well as decrease in time. Adopting a delta-function mass-transfer
rate of 10^{-9} M_\sun {\rm yr}^{-1} at periastron yields orbital evolution
timescales ranging from a few Myr to a Hubble time or more, depending on the
binary mass ratio and orbital eccentricity. Comparison with orbital evolution
timescales due to dissipative tides furthermore shows that tides cannot, in all
cases, circularize the orbit rapidly enough to justify the often adopted
assumption of instantaneous circularization at the onset of mass transfer. The
formalism presented can be incorporated in binary evolution and population
synthesis codes to create a self-consistent treatment of mass transfer in
eccentric binaries.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, Accepted by The Astrophysical Journa
Detection of Gravitational Lensing in the Cosmic Microwave Background
Gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), a
long-standing prediction of the standard cosmolgical model, is ultimately
expected to be an important source of cosmological information, but first
detection has not been achieved to date. We report a 3.4 sigma detection, by
applying quadratic estimator techniques to all sky maps from the Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite, and correlating the result with
radio galaxy counts from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). We present our
methodology including a detailed discussion of potential contaminants. Our
error estimates include systematic uncertainties from density gradients in
NVSS, beam effects in WMAP, Galactic microwave foregrounds, resolved and
unresolved CMB point sources, and the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figure
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