The Fresh Start Policy in Consumer Bankruptcy: A Historical Inventory and An Interpretive Theory

In part II, the article traces the historical development of the idea of providing relief to troubled debtors in bankruptcy, an idea usually summarized as the fresh start policy of bankruptcy law. The article catalogs and describes the empirical assumptions and normative judgments underlying the various explanations offered for the availability of a discharge or fresh start in bankruptcy. In part II, the article examines the existing Bankruptcy Code in the light of these various theories. The article concludes that the Code\u27s debtor relief provisions are best understood as a form of compulsory insurance for debtors. The nature of insurance and the grounds for compelling it are employed to provide a detailed framework both for understanding and for interpreting specific aspects of the Code\u27s discharge provisions

Space station WP-04 power system. Volume 2: Study results

Results of the phase B study contract for the definition of the space station Electric Power System (EPS) are presented in detail along with backup information and supporting data. Systems analysis and trades, preliminary design, advanced development, customer accommodations, operations planning, product assurance, and design and development phase planning are addressed. The station design is a hybrid approach which provides user power of 25 kWe from the photovoltaic subsystem and 50 kWe from the solar dynamic subsystem. The electric power is distributed to users as a utility service; single phase at a frequency of 20 kHz and voltage of 440VAC. The solar array NiH2 batteries of the photovoltaic subsystem are based on commonality to those used on the co-orbiting and solar platforms

Space station WP-04 power system. Volume 1: Executive summary

Major study activities and results of the phase B study contract for the preliminary design of the space station Electrical Power System (EPS) are summarized. The areas addressed include the general system design, man-tended option, automation and robotics, evolutionary growth, software development environment, advanced development, customer accommodations, operations planning, product assurance, and design and development phase planning. The EPS consists of a combination photovoltaic and solar dynamic power generation subsystem and a power management and distribution (PMAD) subsystem. System trade studies and costing activities are also summarized

Electron beam induced radio emission from ultracool dwarfs

We present the numerical simulations for an electron-beam-driven and loss-cone-driven electron-cyclotron maser (ECM) with different plasma parameters and different magnetic field strengths for a relatively small region and short time-scale in an attempt to interpret the recent discovered intense radio emission from ultracool dwarfs. We find that a large amount of electromagnetic field energy can be effectively released from the beam-driven ECM, which rapidly heats the surrounding plasma. A rapidly developed high-energy tail of electrons in velocity space (resulting from the heating process of the ECM) may produce the radio continuum depending on the initial strength of the external magnetic field and the electron beam current. Both significant linear polarization and circular polarization of electromagnetic waves can be obtained from the simulations. The spectral energy distributions of the simulated radio waves show that harmonics may appear from 10 to 70$\nu_{\rm pe}$ ($\nu_{\rm pe}$ is the electron plasma frequency) in the non-relativistic case and from 10 to 600$\nu_{\rm pe}$ in the relativistic case, which makes it difficult to find the fundamental cyclotron frequency in the observed radio frequencies. A wide frequency band should therefore be covered by future radio observations.Comment: 10 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Constraints on the Growth and Spin of the Supermassive Black Hole in M32 From High Cadence Visible Light Observations

We present 1-second cadence observations of M32 (NGC221) with the CHIMERA instrument at the Hale 200-inch telescope of the Palomar Observatory. Using field stars as a baseline for relative photometry, we are able to construct a light curve of the nucleus in the g-prime and r-prime band with 1sigma=36 milli-mag photometric stability. We derive a temporal power spectrum for the nucleus and find no evidence for a time-variable signal above the noise as would be expected if the nuclear black hole were accreting gas. Thus, we are unable to constrain the spin of the black hole although future work will use this powerful instrument to target more actively accreting black holes. Given the black hole mass of (2.5+/-0.5)*10^6 Msun inferred from stellar kinematics, the absence of a contribution from a nuclear time-variable signal places an upper limit on the accretion rate which is 4.6*10^{-8} of the Eddington rate, a factor of two more stringent than past upper limits from HST. The low mass of the black hole despite the high stellar density suggests that the gas liberated by stellar interactions was primarily at early cosmic times when the low-mass black hole had a small Eddington luminosity. This is at least partly driven by a top-heavy stellar initial mass function at early cosmic times which is an efficient producer of stellar mass black holes. The implication is that supermassive black holes likely arise from seeds formed through the coalescence of 3-100 Msun mass black holes that then accrete gas produced through stellar interaction processes.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, comments welcom

On associating Fast Radio Bursts with afterglows

A radio source that faded over six days, with a redshift of $z\approx0.5$ host, has been identified by Keane et al. (2016) as the transient afterglow to a fast radio burst (FRB 150418). We report follow-up radio and optical observations of the afterglow candidate and find a source that is consistent with an active galactic nucleus. If the afterglow candidate is nonetheless a prototypical FRB afterglow, existing slow-transient surveys limit the fraction of FRBs that produce afterglows to 0.25 for afterglows with fractional variation, $m=2|S_1-S_2|/(S_1+S_2)\geq0.7$, and 0.07 for $m\geq1$, at 95% confidence. In anticipation of a barrage of bursts expected from future FRB surveys, we provide a simple framework for statistical association of FRBs with afterglows. Our framework properly accounts for statistical uncertainties, and ensures consistency with limits set by slow-transient surveys.Comment: Accepted version (ApJL

Sporadic Long-term Variability in Radio Activity from a Brown Dwarf

Radio activity has been observed in a large variety of stellar objects, including in the last few years, ultra-cool dwarfs. To explore the extent of long-term radio activity in ultra-cool dwarfs, we use data taken over an extended period of 9 hr from the Very Large Array of the source 2MASS J05233822-1403022 in September 2006, plus data taken in 2004. The observation taken in September 2006 failed to detect any radio activity at 8.46 GHz. A closer inspection of earlier data reveals that the source varied from a null detection on 3 May 2004, to $\approx$95 $\mu$Jy on 17 May 2004, to 230 $\mu$Jy on 18 June 2004. The lack of detection in September 2006 suggests at least a factor of ten flux variability at 8.46 GHz. Three short photometric runs did not reveal any optical variability. In addition to the observed pulsing nature of the radio flux from another ultra-cool source, the present observations suggests that ultra-cool dwarfs may not just be pulsing but can also display long-term sporadic variability in their levels of quiescent radio emission. The lack of optical photometric variability suggests an absence of large-scale spots at the time of the latest VLA observations, although small very high latitude spots combined with a low inclination could cause very low amplitude rotational modulation which may not be measurable. We discuss this large variability in the radio emission within the context of both gyrosynchrotron emission and the electron-cyclotron maser, favoring the latter mechanism.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&A Letter

A Mini-survey of Ultracool Dwarfs at 4.9 GHz

A selection of ultracool dwarfs are known to be radio active, with both gyrosynchrotron emission and the electron cyclotron maser instability being given as likely emission mechanisms. To explore whether ultracool dwarfs previously undetected at 8.5 GHz may be detectable at a lower frequency. We select a sample of fast rotating ultracool dwarfs with no detectable radio activity at 8.5 GHz, observing each of them at 4.9 GHz. From the 8 dwarfs in our sample, we detect emission from 2MASS J07464256+2000321, with a mean flux level of 286 $\pm$ 24 $\mu Jy$. The light-curve of 2MASS J07464256+2000321, is dominated towards the end of the observation by a very bright, $\approx$100 % left circularly polarized burst during which the flux reached 2.4 mJy. The burst was preceded by a raise in the level of activity, with the average flux being $\approx$ 160 $\mu Jy$ in the first hour of observation rising to $\approx$ 400 $\mu Jy$ in the 40 minutes before the burst. During both periods, there is significant variability. The detection of 100% circular polarization in the emission at 4.9 GHz points towards the electron cyclotron maser as the emission mechanism. However, the observations at 4.9 GHz and 8.5 GHz were not simultaneous, thus the actual fraction of dwarfs capable of producing radio emission, as well as the fraction of those that show periodic pulsations is still unclear, as indeed are the relative roles played by the electron cyclotron maser instability versus gyrosynchrotron emission, therefore we cannot assert if the previous non-detection at 8.5 GHz was due to a cut-off in emission between 4.9 and 8.4 GHz, or due to long term variability

Mapping radio emitting-region on low-mass stars and brown dwarfs

Strong magnetic activity in ultracool dwarfs (UCDs, spectral classes later than M7) have emerged from a number of radio observations, including the periodic beams. The highly (up to 100%) circularly polarized nature of the emission point to an effective amplification mechanism of the high-frequency electromagnetic waves – the electron cyclotron maser (ECM) instability. Several anisotropic velocity distibution models of electrons, including the horseshoe distribution, ring shell distribution and the loss-cone distribution, are able to generate the ECM instability. A magnetic-field-aligned electric potential would play an significant role in the ECM process. We are developing a theoretical model in order to simulate ECM and apply this model to map the radio-emitting region on low-mass stars and brown dwarfs