5,695 research outputs found
Preliminary test results of the joint FAA-USAF-NASA runway research program. Part 1: Traction measurements of several runways under wet and dry conditions with a Boeing 727, a diagonal-braked vehicle, and a mu-meter
The stopping distance, brake application velocity, and time of brake application were measured for two modern jet transports, along with the NASA diagonal-braked vehicle and the British Mu-Meter on several runways, which when wetted, cover the range of slipperiness likely to be encountered in the United States. Tests were designed to determine if correlation between the aircraft and friction measuring vehicles exists. The test procedure, data reduction techniques, and preliminary test results obtained with the Boeing 727, the Douglas DC-9, and the ground vehicles are given. Time histories of the aircraft test run parameters are included
Performance of the Colorado wind-profiling network, part 1.5A
The Wave Propagation Laboratory (WPL) has operated a network of radar wind Profilers in Colorado for about 1 year. The network consists of four VHF (50-MHz) radars and a UHF (915-MHz) radar. The Platteville VHF radar was developed by the Aeronomy Laboratory (AL) and has been operated jointly by WPL and AL for several years. The other radars were installed between February and May 1983. Experiences with these radars and some general aspects of tropospheric wind measurements with Doppler radar are discussed
Studies of Tiros and Nimbus radiometric observations Final report
Data analyses of Tiros and Nimbus radiometric observation
Meteorological interpretation of Nimbus High Resolution Infrared /HRIR/ data
Nimbus satellite high resolution infrared photographic data analysi
Gravitational waves from galaxy encounters
We discuss the emission of gravitational radiation produced in encounters of
dark matter galactic halos. To this aim we perform a number of numerical
simulations of typical galaxy mergers, computing the associated gravitational
radiation waveforms as well as the energy released in the processes. Our
simulations yield dimensionless gravitational wave amplitudes of the order of
and gravitational wave frequencies of the order of Hz,
when the galaxies are located at a distance of 10 Mpc. These values are of the
same order as those arising in the gravitational radiation originated by strong
variations of the gravitational field in the early Universe, and therefore,
such gravitational waves cannot be directly observed by ground-based detectors.
We discuss the feasibility of an indirect detection by means of the B-mode
polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) induced by such waves.
Our results show that the gravitational waves from encounters of dark matter
galactic halos leave much too small an imprint on the CMB polarization to be
actually observed with ongoing and future missions.Comment: 9 pages with revtex style, 3 ps figures; to be published in Physical
Review
Note and Comment
The Power of a Court to Compel a jury to Render its Verdict in Accordance with a Peremptory Instruction; The Liability of Municipal Corporations in the Discharge of Public or Governmental Duties and of Private or Corporate Duties; Some views of the Nature and Effect of Corporateness; Mitigation of Damages or Substituted Contract; Limitation of the Amount of a Carrier\u27s Liabilit
On gravitational-wave spectroscopy of massive black holes with the space interferometer LISA
Newly formed black holes are expected to emit characteristic radiation in the
form of quasi-normal modes, called ringdown waves, with discrete frequencies.
LISA should be able to detect the ringdown waves emitted by oscillating
supermassive black holes throughout the observable Universe. We develop a
multi-mode formalism, applicable to any interferometric detectors, for
detecting ringdown signals, for estimating black hole parameters from those
signals, and for testing the no-hair theorem of general relativity. Focusing on
LISA, we use current models of its sensitivity to compute the expected
signal-to-noise ratio for ringdown events, the relative parameter estimation
accuracy, and the resolvability of different modes. We also discuss the extent
to which uncertainties on physical parameters, such as the black hole spin and
the energy emitted in each mode, will affect our ability to do black hole
spectroscopy.Comment: 44 pages, 21 figures, 10 tables. Minor changes to match version in
press in Phys. Rev.
A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
We report on the discovery of a supermassive binary black hole system in the
radio galaxy 0402+379, with a projected separation between the two black holes
of just 7.3 pc. This is the closest black hole pair yet found by more than two
orders of magnitude. These results are based upon recent multi-frequency
observations using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) which reveal two
compact, variable, flat-spectrum, active nuclei within the elliptical host
galaxy of 0402+379. Multi-epoch observations from the VLBA also provide
constraints on the total mass and dynamics of the system. Low spectral
resolution spectroscopy using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope indicates two velocity
systems with a combined mass of the two black holes of ~1.5 x 10^8 solar
masses. The two nuclei appear stationary while the jets emanating from the
weaker of the two nuclei appear to move out and terminate in bright hot spots.
The discovery of this system has implications for the number of close binary
black holes that might be sources of gravitational radiation. Green Bank
Telescope observations at 22 GHz to search for water masers in this interesting
system are also presented.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures, Accepted to The Astrophysical Journa
A Systematic Search for High Surface Brightness Giant Arcs in a Sloan Digital Sky Survey Cluster Sample
We present the results of a search for gravitationally-lensed giant arcs
conducted on a sample of 825 SDSS galaxy clusters. Both a visual inspection of
the images and an automated search were performed and no arcs were found. This
result is used to set an upper limit on the arc probability per cluster. We
present selection functions for our survey, in the form of arc detection
efficiency curves plotted as functions of arc parameters, both for the visual
inspection and the automated search. The selection function is such that we are
sensitive only to long, high surface brightness arcs with g-band surface
brightness mu_g 10. Our upper limits on
the arc probability are compatible with previous arc searches. Lastly, we
report on a serendipitous discovery of a giant arc in the SDSS data, known
inside the SDSS Collaboration as Hall's arc.Comment: 34 pages,8 Fig. Accepted ApJ:Jan-200
Integral Field Spectroscopy of 23 Spiral Bulges
We have obtained Integral Field Spectroscopy for 23 spiral bulges using
INTEGRAL on the William Herschel Telescope and SPIRAL on the Anglo-Australian
Telescope. This is the first 2D survey directed solely at the bulges of spiral
galaxies. Eleven galaxies of the sample do not have previous measurements of
the stellar velocity dispersion (sigma*). These data are designed to complement
our Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph program for estimating black hole
masses in the range 10^6-10^8M_sun using gas kinematics from nucleated disks.
These observations will serve to derive the stellar dynamical bulge properties
using the traditional Mgb and CaII triplets. We use both Cross Correlation and
Maximum Penalized Likelihood to determine projected sigma* in these systems and
present radial velocity fields, major axis rotation curves, curves of growth
and sigma* fields. Using the Cross Correlation to extract the low order 2D
stellar dynamics we generally see coherent radial rotation and irregular
velocity dispersion fields suggesting that sigma* is a non-trivial parameter to
estimate.Comment: 11 pages, 30 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
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