371 research outputs found
The formation of magnetic depletions and flux annihilation due to reconnection in the heliosheath
The misalignment of the solar rotation axis and the magnetic axis of the Sun produces a periodic reversal of the Parker spiral magnetic field and the sectored solar wind. The compression of the sectors is expected to lead to reconnection in the heliosheath (HS). We present particle-in-cell simulations of the sectored HS that reflect the plasma environment along the Voyager 1 and 2 trajectories, specifically including unequal positive and negative azimuthal magnetic flux as seen in the Voyager data. Reconnection proceeds on individual current sheets until islands on adjacent current layers merge. At late time, bands of the dominant flux survive, separated by bands of deep magnetic field depletion. The ambient plasma pressure supports the strong magnetic pressure variation so that pressure is anticorrelated with magnetic field strength. There is little variation in the magnetic field direction across the boundaries of the magnetic depressions. At irregular intervals within the magnetic depressions are long-lived pairs of magnetic islands where the magnetic field direction reverses so that spacecraft data would reveal sharp magnetic field depressions with only occasional crossings with jumps in magnetic field direction. This is typical of the magnetic field data from the Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 2 data reveal that fluctuations in the density and magnetic field strength are anticorrelated in the sector zone, as expected from reconnection, but not in unipolar regions. The consequence of the annihilation of subdominant flux is a sharp reduction in the number of sectors and a loss in magnetic flux, as documented from the Voyager 1 magnetic field and flow data.This work has been supported by NASA Grand Challenge NNX14AIB0G, NASA awards NNX14AF42G, NNX13AE04G, and NNX13AE04G, and NASA contract 959203 from JPL to MIT. The simulations were performed at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. We acknowledge fruitful discussions with Dr. Len Burlaga on the Voyager observations and with Dr. Obioma Ohia on outer heliosphere reconnection. This research benefited greatly from discussions held at the meetings of the Heliopause International Team Facing the Most Pressing Challenges to Our Understanding of the Heliosheath and its Outer Boundaries at the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland. (NNX14AIB0G - NASA; NNX14AF42G - NASA; NNX13AE04G - NASA; 959203 - NASA)Accepted manuscrip
Facility for studying the effects of elevated carbon dioxide concentration and increased temperature on crops
The requirements for the experimental study of the effects of global climate change conditions on plants are outlined. A semi-controlled plant growth facility is described which allows the study of elevated CO2 and temperature, and their interaction on the growth of plants under radiation and temperature conditions similar to the field. During an experiment on winter wheat (cv. Mercia), which ran from December 1990 through to August 1991, the facility maintained mean daytime CO2 concentrations of 363 and 692 cm3 m-3 for targets of 350 and 700 cm3 m-3 respectively. Temperatures were set to follow outside ambient or outside ambient +4-degrees-C, and hourly means were within 0.5-degrees-C of the target for 92% of the time for target temperatures greater than 6-degrees-C. Total photosynthetically active radiation incident on the crop (solar radiation supplemented by artifical light with natural photoperiod) was 2% greater than the total measured outside over the same period
Recent Advances in Understanding Particle Acceleration Processes in Solar Flares
We review basic theoretical concepts in particle acceleration, with
particular emphasis on processes likely to occur in regions of magnetic
reconnection. Several new developments are discussed, including detailed
studies of reconnection in three-dimensional magnetic field configurations
(e.g., current sheets, collapsing traps, separatrix regions) and stochastic
acceleration in a turbulent environment. Fluid, test-particle, and
particle-in-cell approaches are used and results compared. While these studies
show considerable promise in accounting for the various observational
manifestations of solar flares, they are limited by a number of factors, mostly
relating to available computational power. Not the least of these issues is the
need to explicitly incorporate the electrodynamic feedback of the accelerated
particles themselves on the environment in which they are accelerated. A brief
prognosis for future advancement is offered.Comment: This is a chapter in a monograph on the physics of solar flares,
inspired by RHESSI observations. The individual articles are to appear in
Space Science Reviews (2011
Abundance analysis, spectral variability, and search for the presence of a magnetic field in the typical PGa star HD 19400
The aim of this study is to carry out an abundance determination, to search for spectral variability and for the presence of a weak magnetic field in the typical PGa star HD 19400. High-resolution, high signal-to-noise High Accuracy Radial-velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectropolarimetric observations of HD 19400 were obtained at three different epochs in 2011 and 2013. For the first time, we present abundances of various elements determined using an ATLAS12 model, including the abundances of a number of elements not analysed by previous studies, such as Ne I, Ga II, and Xe II. Several lines of As II are also present in the spectra of HD 19400. To study the variability, we compared the behaviour of the line profiles of various elements. We report on the first detection of anomalous shapes of line profiles belonging to Mn and Hg, and the variability of the line profiles belonging to the elements Hg, P, Mn, Fe, and Ga. We suggest that the variability of the line profiles of these elements is caused by their non-uniform surface distribution, similar to the presence of chemical spots detected in HgMn stars. The search for the presence of a magnetic field was carried out using the moment technique and the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) method. Our measurements of the magnetic field with the moment technique using 22 Mn II lines indicate the potential existence of a weak variable longitudinal magnetic field on the first epoch. The SVD method applied to the Mn II lines indicates <Bz> = -76 ± 25 G on the first epoch, and at the same epoch the SVD analysis of the observations using the Fe II lines shows <Bz> = -91 ± 35 G. The calculated false alarm probability values, 0.008 and 0.003, respectively, are above the value 10-3, indicating no detection.</p
RX J1856.5-3754 as a possible Strange Star candidate
RX J1856.5-3754 has been proposed as a strange star candidate due to its very
small apparent radius measured from its X-ray thermal spectrum. However, its
optical emission requires a much larger radius and thus most of the stellar
surface must be cold and undetectable in X-rays. In the case the star is a
neutron star such a surface temperature distribution can be explained by the
presence of a strong toroidal field in the crust (Perez-Azorin et al. 2006,
Geppert et al. 2006). We consider a similar scenario for a strange star with a
thin baryonic crust to determine if such a magnetic field induced effect is
still possible.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; to appear in proceedings of the conference
"Isolated Neutron Stars: From the Interior to the Surface", eds. S. Zane, R.
Turolla, D. Page; Astrophysics & Space Science in pres
Study of flare energy release using events with numerous type III-like bursts in microwaves
The analysis of narrowband drifting of type III-like structures in radio
bursts dynamic spectra allows to obtain unique information about primary energy
release mechanisms in solar flares. The SSRT spatially resolved images and a
high spectral and temporal resolution allow direct determination not only the
positions of its sources but also the exciter velocities along the flare loop.
Practically, such measurements are possible during some special time intervals
when the SSRT (about 5.7 GHz) is observing the flare region in two high-order
fringes; thus, two 1D scans are recorded simultaneously at two frequency bands.
The analysis of type III-like bursts recorded during the flare 14 Apr 2002 is
presented. Using-muliwavelength radio observations recorded by SSRT, SBRS,
NoRP, RSTN we study an event with series of several tens of drifting microwave
pulses with drift rates in the range from -7 to 13 GHz/s. The sources of the
fast-drifting bursts were located near the top of the flare loop in a volume of
a few Mm in size. The slow drift of the exciters along the flare loop suggests
a high pitch-anisotropy of the emitting electrons.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, Solar Physics, in press, 201
Spallation Neutron Production by 0.8, 1.2 and 1.6 GeV Protons on various Targets
Spallation neutron production in proton induced reactions on Al, Fe, Zr, W,
Pb and Th targets at 1.2 GeV and on Fe and Pb at 0.8, and 1.6 GeV measured at
the SATURNE accelerator in Saclay is reported. The experimental
double-differential cross-sections are compared with calculations performed
with different intra-nuclear cascade models implemented in high energy
transport codes. The broad angular coverage also allowed the determination of
average neutron multiplicities above 2 MeV. Deficiencies in some of the models
commonly used for applications are pointed out.Comment: 20 pages, 32 figures, revised version, accepted fpr publication in
Phys. Rev.
Two lectures on color superconductivity
The first lecture provides an introduction to the physics of color
superconductivity in cold dense quark matter. The main color superconducting
phases are briefly described and their properties are listed. The second
lecture covers recent developments in studies of color superconducting phases
in neutral and beta-equilibrated matter. The properties of gapless color
superconducting phases are discussed.Comment: 56 pages, 9 figures. Minor corrections and references added. Lectures
delivered at the IARD 2004 conference, Saas Fee, Switzerland, June 12 - 19,
2004, and at the Helmholtz International Summer School and Workshop on Hot
points in Astrophysics and Cosmology, JINR, Dubna, Russia, August 2 - 13,
200
Theory and Applications of Non-Relativistic and Relativistic Turbulent Reconnection
Realistic astrophysical environments are turbulent due to the extremely high
Reynolds numbers. Therefore, the theories of reconnection intended for
describing astrophysical reconnection should not ignore the effects of
turbulence on magnetic reconnection. Turbulence is known to change the nature
of many physical processes dramatically and in this review we claim that
magnetic reconnection is not an exception. We stress that not only
astrophysical turbulence is ubiquitous, but also magnetic reconnection itself
induces turbulence. Thus turbulence must be accounted for in any realistic
astrophysical reconnection setup. We argue that due to the similarities of MHD
turbulence in relativistic and non-relativistic cases the theory of magnetic
reconnection developed for the non-relativistic case can be extended to the
relativistic case and we provide numerical simulations that support this
conjecture. We also provide quantitative comparisons of the theoretical
predictions and results of numerical experiments, including the situations when
turbulent reconnection is self-driven, i.e. the turbulence in the system is
generated by the reconnection process itself. We show how turbulent
reconnection entails the violation of magnetic flux freezing, the conclusion
that has really far reaching consequences for many realistically turbulent
astrophysical environments. In addition, we consider observational testing of
turbulent reconnection as well as numerous implications of the theory. The
former includes the Sun and solar wind reconnection, while the latter include
the process of reconnection diffusion induced by turbulent reconnection, the
acceleration of energetic particles, bursts of turbulent reconnection related
to black hole sources as well as gamma ray bursts. Finally, we explain why
turbulent reconnection cannot be explained by turbulent resistivity or derived
through the mean field approach.Comment: 66 pages, 24 figures, a chapter of the book "Magnetic Reconnection -
Concepts and Applications", editors W. Gonzalez, E. N. Parke
Particle Acceleration in Pulsar Wind Nebulae: PIC modelling
We discuss the role of particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations in unveiling the
origin of the emitting particles in PWNe. After describing the basics of the
PIC technique, we summarize its implications for the quiescent and the flaring
emission of the Crab Nebula, as a prototype of PWNe. A consensus seems to be
emerging that, in addition to the standard scenario of particle acceleration
via the Fermi process at the termination shock of the pulsar wind, magnetic
reconnection in the wind, at the termination shock and in the Nebula plays a
major role in powering the multi-wavelength signatures of PWNe.Comment: 32 pages, 16 figures, to appear in the book "Modelling Nebulae"
edited by D. Torres for Springer, based on the invited contributions to the
workshop held in Sant Cugat (Barcelona), June 14-17, 201
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