Future solar systems

Widely regarded as pathological variable stars – with erratic photometric and spectroscopic behavior of unknown physical origin – 20 years ago, T Tauri stars (TTSs) turned out in the last decade to be promising laboratories for observing the formation of solar systems such as ours. This is because circumstellar, presumably protoplanetary disks were found to surround a large fraction of them. While evidence for disks was primarily indirect until 1995, recent high resolution imaging confirmed earlier claims that the infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) excesses seen in the spectral energy distribution (SED) of these stars were due to disk emission. The activity displayed by young stellar objects at all wavelengths is due to the interaction between the circumstellar disk and the magnetized star and to non-stationary accretion/ejection phenomena. In this review, we briefly summarize properties of these young solar-type stars and describe their circumstellar disks in some detail, focusing on current optical, infrared and millimeter high angular resolution observations that now allow us to resolve the disks.     

大质量恒星的形成:理论与观测

文章简要叙述了有关大质量恒星形成的理论以及相关观测证据。目前大质量恒星形成的理论主要有两种，即吸积说和并合说．吸积说认为，大质量星可能与小质量星形成于相似的过程；并合说主张大质量星可能是由小质量年轻星碰撞合并而成．解决这两种理论争论的关键在于在大质量星附近能否观测到吸积盘的存在，最新的观测表明大质量星更有可能是通过吸积增加自身的质量，但最终解决这一问题可能还需要更多的观测证据。文章还提出了一些本领域尚未解决的问题，为感兴趣的研究者提供参考。     

Magnetic fields in spiral galaxies

Radio polarization observations have revealed large-scale magnetic fields in spiral galaxies. The average total field strength most probably increases with the rate of star formation. The uniform field generally follows the orientation of the optical spiral arms, but is often strongest outside the arms. Long magnetic-field filaments are seen, sometimes up to a 30 kpc length. The field seems to be anchored in large gas clouds and is inflated out of the disk, e.g. by a galactic wind. The field in radio halos around galaxies is highly uniform in limited regions, resembling the structure of the solar corona. The detection of Faraday rotation in spiral galaxies excludes the existence of large amounts of antimatter. The distribution of Faraday rotation in the disks shows two different large-scale structures of the interstellar field; axisymmetric-spiral and bisymmetric-spiral, which are interpreted as two modes of the galactic dynamo driven by differential rotation     

对原行星盘中易挥发物质缺失问题的简要综述

年轻恒星周围存在盘状的气体和尘埃分布,称为原行星盘,行星在其中形成. 为了认识恒星和行星的形成和演化以及构成行星的原材料,对这些盘的观测是必须的. 数值模型有助于从观测数据提取出重要的物理参数,包括盘的尘埃和气体的质量. 这些参数可以作为进一步模拟的输入参数,预期热化学模拟能复现各种分子的观测数据. 但是,对于许多原行星盘,模型算出的多种分子的发射强度高于观测值. 真实的盘中这些分子的丰度比理论预期低,这是易挥发物质的缺失问题. 本文指出在这个问题上理论与观测的差异意味着尘埃的演化对气体化学有重要影响,提示在这些盘中行星形成的早期阶段已经开始了.     

年轻恒星形成过程的分子谱线诊断

恒星是宇宙的基本天体,理解恒星的起源和早期演化是天体物理最有举的课题之一,目前了解的恒星形成的一个基本图象是,恒星是由一个足够大质量的星际分子气体云在其其自引力作用下塌缩而形成。在早期塌缩过程中形成一颗原恒星（胚胎）,并且伴随该原恒星的吸积盘,原恒星吸积星际介质中的分子物质,通过吸积盘转移到原恒星表面,原恒星的质量随着增大。在吸积过程中也同时伴随物质向外的剧烈喷发,由于盘的存在,这种喷发通常沿垂直于盘的方向进行,出现双极的空间分布。在天文观测上,一种典型的表现是分子气体的外向流,观测表现为从原恒星双极的红蓝移气体运动^[1]。由于恒星形成了星际分子中,因此,对星际分子的谱线探测是研究恒星形成的强有力手段,现在已经发现和证认的星际分子总数有一百多种,其中丰富度最高的气体是H2。在所有的星际分子中,丰度仅次于H2的CO分子的转动跃迁谱易激发,相对于星际介质的不透明度小,观测上易于实现,因此,CO分子就成为探索原恒星形成的有力探针,在毫米波段出现的J＝1－0和J＝2－1跃迁变线以及CO同位素的谱线是最常使用的观测探针,八十年代以来又陆续发现了环形分子SiC2,C3H,C3H2及含磷分子PN和CN等,给宇宙中有机世界的探测提供了丰富的线索。我们对恒形成区内存在的低温原恒星天体进行毫米 波射电谱线观测,测量该原恒星周围分子气体的分布,其物理化学参数,以及速度场分布。根据这些测量结果并运用成熟的数量方法,分析正在发生的物理化学过程,特别是原恒星质量外流的过程。根据观测分析结果得出所观测天体的形成和演化状况。     

Brightness temperature of synchronic exoplanets measured by infrared photometry from the ground: Method and perspective

We explore a method to measure the temperature at the surface of “hot Jupiter” type exoplanets by relative photometry in the infrared at around 10 μm in N spectral band. The method is described and validated by numerical simulations. Thermal radiation from an exoplanet and its parent star are analysed. Geometrical configurations of extra-solar planet rotating synchronously around parent star are explored for a feasibility study of the detection. A Jupiter size planet in orbit at 0.025 astronomical unit from Sun-like parent star should have a harmonic signature of up to 0.2% in amplitude with a period of the planets orbital duration. Such a signature is difficult to detect when making absolute measurements, but by differential methods of analyses, and using a radiative transfer model to take into account background sky contribution of the Earth’s atmosphere, this relative accuracy can be reached. Some results of simulations of observation are also presented.     

Searching for protostars

Summary We present molecular-line observations of young stellar objects (YSOs) suspected to be protostars in the main accretion phase. The aim of this work is to define a list of the best protostellar candidates to be observed in the near future with the ISO spectrometers with the precise scope of searching for the final proof of the infall, theHoly Grail of astrophysics. The sources were mapped in the CS 3?2 and CO 3?2 lines; our data were used to investigate the presence of clumps of materials around these objects and the amount of this material, as well as to detect outflows associated with these objects that would enormously complicate the interpretation of further dynamics studies. Only one of our sources suspected to be protostars resulted to have a good chance of being in the accretion phase and to deserve further spectroscopic measurements. Paper presented at the 6th Cosmic Physics National Conference, Palermo, 3–7 November 1992.     

Terahertz single pixel imaging based on a Nipkow disk

We describe a terahertz single pixel imaging system based on a Nipkow disk. Nipkow disks have been used for fast scanning imaging systems since the first experimental television was invented in 1926. In our work, a Nipkow disk with 24 scanning lines was used to provide an axial resolution of 2 mm/pixel. We also show that by implementing a microscanning technique the axial resolution can be further improved to 0.5 mm/pixel. Imaging of several objects was demonstrated to show that this simple scanning system is promising for fast or real time terahertz imaging applications.     

Formation and dynamics of Saturn and its disk simulated by using a new N-body model

The formation of Saturn and its disk is simulated using a new N-body self-gravitational model. It is demonstrated that the formation of the disk and the planet is the result of gravitational contraction of a slowly rotated particle cloud that have a shape of slightly deformed sphere. The sphere was flattened by a coefficient of 0.8 along the axis of rotation. During the gravitational contraction, the major part of the cloud transformed into a planet and a minor part transformed into a disk. The thin structured disk is a result of the electromagnetic interaction in which the magnetic forces acting on charged particles of the cloud originate in the core of the planet. The simulation program gives such parameters of Saturn as the escape velocity of about 35 km/s at the surface, density, rotational velocities of the rings and temperature distribution.     

Colloidal dipolar interactions in 2D smectic-C films

We use a two-dimensional (2D) elastic free energy to calculate the effective interaction between two circular disks immersed in smectic-C films. For strong homeotropic anchoring, the distortion of the director field caused by the disks generates topological defects that induce an effective interaction between the disks. We use finite elements, with adaptive meshing, to minimize the 2D elastic free energy. The method is shown to be accurate and efficient for inhomogeneities on the length scales set by the disks and the defects, that differ by up to 3 orders of magnitude. We compute the effective interaction between two disk-defect pairs in a simple (linear) configuration. For large disk separations, D, the elastic free energy scales as ∼D ^-2, confirming the dipolar character of the long-range effective interaction. For small D the energy exhibits a pronounced minimum. The lowest energy corresponds to a symmetrical configuration of the disk-defect pairs, with the inner defect at the mid-point between the disks. The disks are separated by a distance that is twice the distance of the outer defect from the nearest disk. The latter is identical to the equilibrium distance of a defect nucleated by an isolated disk. Received 26 October 2001 and Received in final form 14 December 2001     

The gravitational bending of light by stars: a continuing story of curiosity,scepticism, surprise,and fascination

Driven entirely by human curiosity, the effect of the gravitational bending of light has evolved on unforeseen paths, in an interplay between shifts in prevailing paradigms and advance of technology, into the most unusual way to study planet populations. The confirmation of the bending angle predicted by Einstein with the Solar Eclipse measurements from 1919 marked the breakthrough of the theory of General Relativity, but it was not before the detection of the double image of the quasar 0957+561 that ‘gravitational lensing’ really entered the observational era. The observation of a characteristic transient brightening of a star caused by the gravitational deflection of its light by an intervening foreground star, constituting a ‘microlensing event’, required even further advance in technology before it could first emerge in 1993. While it required more patience in waiting before ‘Einstein’s blip’ for the first time revealed the presence of a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun, such detections can now be monitored live, and gravitational microlensing is not only sensitive to masses as low as that of the Moon, but can even reveal planets around stars in galaxies other than the Milky Way.     

The correlation timescale of the X-ray flux during the outbursts of soft X-ray transients

Recent studies of black hole and neutron star low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) show a positive correlation between the X-ray flux at which the low/hard(LH)-to-high/soft(HS) state transition occurs and the peak flux of the following HS state. By analyzing the data from the All Sky Monitor (ASM) onboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), we show that the HS state flux after the source reaches its HS flux peak still correlates with the transition flux during soft X-ray transient (SXT) outbursts. By studying large outbursts or flares of GX 339-4, Aql X-1 and 4U 1705-44, we have found that the correlation holds up to 250, 40, and 50 d after the LH-to-HS state transition, respectively. These time scales correspond to the viscous time scale in a standard accretion disk around a stellar mass black hole or a neutron star at a radius of ∼10^4–5 R _g, indicating that the mass accretion rates in the accretion flow either correlate over a large range of radii at a given time or correlate over a long period of time at a given radius. If the accretion geometry is a two-flow geometry composed of a sub-Keplerian inflow or outflow and a disk flow in the LH state, the disk flow with a radius up to ∼10⁵ R _g would have contributed to the nearly instantaneous non-thermal radiation directly or indirectly, and therefore affects the time when the state transition occurs.

     

Accretion disks around the Gibbons–Maeda–Garfinkle–Horowitz–Strominger charged black holes

It seems surprising that the emissivity properties of the accretion disk (à la Page and Thorne) surrounding the Gibbons–Maeda–Garfinkle–Horowitz–Strominger (GMGHS) black holes of heterotic string theory have not yet been studied. To fill this gap in the literature, we study the emissivity properties of the thin accretion disks around these black holes both in the Einstein and in the string frame using the Page–Thorne model. For illustration, we choose as a toy model a stellar-sized spherically symmetric black hole and find that, while the emissivity properties do not significantly differ from those of Reissner–Nordström and Schwarzschild black holes, they remarkably differ at GMGHS extreme limits corresponding to naked singularity and wormhole at higher frequencies. These differences provide a novel way to speculatively conclude about different types of objects from the observational point of view.     

Quantification of growth asymmetries in developing epithelia

Many developmental processes of multicellular organisms involve the patterning and growth of two-dimensional tissues, so called epithelia. We have quantified the growth of the wing imaginal disk, which is the precursor of the adult wing, of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. We find that growth follows a simple rule with exponentially decreasing area growth rate. Anisotropies of growth can be precisely determined by comparing experimental results to a continuum theory. Growth anisotropies are to good approximation constant in space and time. They are weak in wild-type wing disks but threefold increased in GFP-Dpp disks in which the morphogen Dpp is overexpressed. Our findings indicate that morphogens such as Dpp control tissue shape via oriented cell divisions that generate anisotropic growth.     

A novel drum piezoelectric-actuator

This paper presents a large displacement, piezoelectric-metal structure actuator, named the piezoelectric drum actuator. The drum actuator consists of a short, thick-walled steel cylinder sandwiched by two thin composite disks, which are fabricated from a brass disk bonded with a piezoceramic disk. The piezoceramic disk, which is polarized in its thickness direction, has a large diameter thickness ratio, producing a large radial displacement under an applied voltage in the thickness, leading to a large transverse deflection of the composite disks in the drum. The drum (outer diameter: 12.0 mm) has a displacement that is about eight times larger than that of a cymbal actuator made with the same ceramic material and comparable dimensions under the same dc driving voltage of 270 V. The drum actuator also showed a large resonance displacement of 56.7 μm under an ac voltage of 90 V. The effective piezoelectric charge coefficient d’₃₃ of the drum is about twice as large as that reported for the cymbal. PACS 77.65 -j; 85.50.+k; 43.38.fx     

Rotating-disk diode-pumped continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser

Continuous-Wave (CW) diode-laser-pumped experiments using rotating Nd: YAG disk(s) have been performed in the input-power range of 1–6 W and rotation-speed range of 0–25 Hz. With a single Nd: YAG disk in the laser cavity, about 1.56 W of output power at 1.06 µm due to the Nd³⁺ (⁴ F _3/2–⁴ I _11/2) transition at an absorbed input power of 4.2 W has been observed, leading to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of over 37% and slope efficiency of 52% using 7.5% transmission output coupler. The laser output power has been observed to decrease by either increasing the number of Nd:YAG disks in the cavity or increasing the rotation speed of the disk(s).     

Effect of the surface crystallographic orientation and thickness of Fe-3 wt%Si single crystals on magnetic losses in rotating magnetic fields

The response of magnetic losses to rotation-induced magnetization reversal in single-crystal Fe-3 wt%Si disks is studied as a function of the disk thickness and magnetic induction. It is shown that the loss power varies nonmonotonically with disk thickness d, exhibiting a minimum at d = 0.15 mm. The crystallographic orientation of the disk surface significantly influences the amount of the losses. The variation of the losses is discussed with regard to the effect a rotating magnetic field has on the domain structure.     

Multiarc Generator

A multiarc generator, comprised of stacked metal contact disks, has been tested. Arc formation occurred in the gaps between each cylindrically shaped contact piece during 3-to 30-kA discharges through various stacked disk configurations. Severe current limiting was demonstrated by stacked disks whose axial length was less than their diameter. Current extinction time periods for discharges through the stacked disks were as much as 80 percent less than those measured for similar amplitude discharges through a solid metal rod. The energy dissipated per gap by arcing was calculated and found to increase as contact disk mass decreased. The i2dt action integral calculated for 3- to 12-kA discharges ranged from 53 A2s to 4210 A2s, respectively. The multiarc formation process is attributed to longitudinal electrodynamic forces separating the contact disks during current discharge.     

Application of the Undefined Frequency Method for the Analysis of a Two Planet Problem

Doklady Physics - The problem of motion of two bodies (planets) with comparable masses around a massive сentral body (star) is considered in proposition that planet masses are significantly...     

A solution for galactic disks with Yukawian gravitational potential

We present a new solution for the rotation curves of galactic disks with gravitational potential of the Yukawa type. We follow the technique employed by Toomre in 1963 in the study of galactic disks in the Newtonian theory. This new solution allows an easy comparison between the Newtonian solution and the Yukawian one. Therefore, constraints on the parameters of theories of gravitation can be imposed, which in the weak field limit reduce to Yukawian potentials. We then apply our formulae to the study of rotation curves for a zero-thickness exponential disk and compare it with the Newtonian case studied by Freeman in 1970. As an application of the mathematical tool developed here, we show that in any theory of gravity with a massive graviton (this means a gravitational potential of the Yukawa type), a strong limit can be imposed on the mass (m _g) of this particle. For example, in order to obtain a galactic disk with a scale length of b∼ 10 kpc, we should have a massive graviton of m _g ≪ 10⁻⁵⁹g. This result is much more restrictive than those inferred from solar system observations.