基于EMCCD的成像系统的构建

为了探索对较暗目标进行成像的新方法，我们在TI公司生产的带有增益寄存器的EMCCD（Electron Multiply CCD）芯片基础上，构建了一套成像系统，主要用于对此芯片进行性能测试，为将来构建天文观测用相机做准备。本文主要介绍了EMCCD的结构特点、工作原理，并且详细介绍实验室采用TI公司的EMCCD搭建的成像系统，以及在此系统基础上对EMCCD进行地评测。     

Decoupling treatment of linear non-adiabatic non-radial pulsations of stars

A decoupling method is developed in this paper to deal with linear non-adiabatic non-radial pulsations of stars. The sixth order differential equation of linear pulsation is decomposed into a fourth order and a second order differential equations. The decoupling overcomes such difficulties encountered in the numerical solution as small domain and slowness of convergence and provides a natural guess solution needed in Henyey's method.     

On Potential Spectroscopic Detection of Microfossils on Mars

There is much evidence about the ancient presence of water on Mars and it is reasonable to suppose that simple forms of life may have developed during the geological evolution of the planet. In such a case traces of this extinct life could still be present on the planet in form of microfossils included into some geological layer. The rover payloads planned for the next decades will include spectrometers in order to accomplish various scientific tasks. In this respect, we have developed a quantitative model for microfossil inclusions into a crystalline matrix. Such a method foresees some visible effects on measurements obtained via spectroscopic techniques such as infrared reflectance and Raman spectroscopy. In this work we present the quantitative model of the fossilization process and the effects that the microfossil inclusions should have in the real spectra, evaluated by means of computer simulations. Preliminary measurements, in order to provide examples of future model testing, have been performed on samples of homogeneous composition, but with detectable microfossils content, collected at the K–T sequence placed near Gubbio (Italy). The preliminary results are presented and discussed in order to investigate the potential application of such spectroscopic techniques for the detection of extinct life.     

The low-eccentricity earth satellite orbit at the critical inclination

A solution to the orbital motion of an Earth satellite at the critical inclination and with near-zero eccentricity is developed by the von Zeipel method to the first order in the eccentricity, and to the first order in the higher gravitational harmonics, using elements which do not degenerate at zero eccentricity.     

Trajectories followed by U-like solar radio bursts

Radiospectrographic observations of some U-like bursts have been employed in combination with a model coronal condensation due to Waldmeier to derive trajectories along which the disturbing agency, which excites the radio emission, may have travelled. Such trajectories as connect regions of opposite magnetic polarity within one centre of activity should have a parachute-like shape in order to account for the observations. Travelling velocities are of the order of 35000 to 55000 km/sec. Moreover, the distribution of U-like bursts in heliographic longitude is investigated and an attempt is made to explain the fact that the second branches of U-like bursts are less developed than the first branches.     

Uniformly rotating homogeneous and polytropic rings in Newtonian gravity

An analytical method is presented for treating the problem of a uniformly rotating, self-gravitating ring without a central body in Newtonian gravity. The method is based on an expansion about the thin ring limit, where the cross-section of the ring tends to a circle. The iterative scheme developed here is applied to homogeneous rings up to the 20th order and to polytropes with the index   n = 1  up to the third order. For other polytropic indices no analytic solutions are obtainable, but one can apply the method numerically. However, it is possible to derive a simple formula relating mass to the integrated pressure to leading order without specifying the equation of state. Our results are compared with those generated by highly accurate numerical methods to test their accuracy.     

High-Speed Data Acquisition System Messia for Subaru

We have developed a high-speed data acquisition system, Messia-III (Modularized Extensible SyStem for Image Acquisition) for Subaru, Japanese 8.2m telescope. Messia has a direct 1-Gbps link to a host UNIX workstation. Messia is a VMEbus-based system but it does not have local OS nor CPU's in order to minimize software development and maintenance.     

Gravitational perturbations of equatorial orbits

Asymptotic solutions are developed for the motion of a geocentric satellite in the equatorial plane due to gravitational perturbations such as nonsphericity (especially oblateness) of the primary body. Axisymmetric potentials are considered. A class of transformations is developed and the equations of motion are solved by the method of generalized multiple scales. Further it is shown that the equations of motion can be transformed into the required form to within any specified degree of accuracy. The transformations form an Abelian group of infinite order which leaves the differential equations of motion invariant. Solutions are developed in terms of elementary functions instead of elliptic or other higher transcendental functions and are shown to agree with known results.This investigation was carried out under NASA Grant NGR-31-001-152 with the author as a consultant to Princeton University.     

Analytical theories of satellite motion constructed with a new package of formula manipulation and compared with numerical integration

Specialized to the Lie series based perturbation method of Kirchgraber and Stiefel (1978) a new computer algebra package called ANALYTOS has been developed for constructing analytical orbital theories either in noncanonical or canonical form. We present results on the (extended) Main Problem of orbital theory of artificial earth satellites and related issues. The order of the solutions achieved is generally one order higher than those known from literature. Moreover, the analytical orbits have been checked succesfully against precise numerical ephemerides. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The effect of aerodynamic lift on near-circular satellite orbits

Theory is developed to evaluate the effect of aerodynamic lift on near circular satellite orbits for: (i) flat surfaces at constant attitude to the velocity vector and (ii) sun-oriented plates. In both cases, the gas-surface interaction is restricted to diffuse or specular reflection; the former being particularly relevant to the height band where atomic oxygen predominates.An order of magnitude study is undertaken to determine the effect of lift on the solar panels of the ERS 1 satellite, due for launch around 1990. Calculations reveal radial perturbations of order 1 cm over a 5-day period for low to moderate solar activity. High solar activity, however, leads to a 10-fold increase in the order of this effect. Effects on stabilised satellites at lower altitudes are illustrated by a hypothetical study of the orbital inclination of Skylab 1.     

Structure-distortion of polytropic stars by differential rotation: Third-order perturbation theory

In order to specify the structure of a rapidly and differentially rotating gaseous polytrope, we extend Chandrasekhar's perturbation theory to include third-order terms in the perturbation parameter. In the present paper, the theory developed is required for a subsequent numerical treatment of the structure-determination.This research was supported by the Research Development Project of the University of Patras, Greece.     

Third Order Effect of Rotation on Stellar Oscillations of a B Star

We aim at investigating the effect of rotation up to the third order in the angular velocity of a star on the p and g modes, based on the formalism developed by Soufi et al. Our ultimate goal is the study of oscillations of β Cephei stars which are often rapidly rotating stars. Our results show that the third-order perturbation formalism presented by Soufi et al. should be corrected for some missing terms and some misprints in the equations. As a first step in our study of β Cephei stars, we quantify by numerical calculations the effect of rotation on the oscillation frequencies of a uniformly rotating zero-age main-sequence star with 12 M<,??>. For an equatorial velocity of 100km s-1, it is found that the second-and third-order corrections for (l, m)=(2, 2), for instance, are of the order of 0.01% of the frequency for radial order n=6 and reaches up to 0.5% for n=14.     

A grid search for three-dimensional motions and three new types of such motions

A grid search method aimed at locating ‘all’ doubly symmetric orbits of the three-dimensional restricted problems of one, two, etc. revolutions is developed and applied numerically on the CDC-3300 computer. Three new types of orbits have thus been located and a second order ‘predictorcorrector’ method is applied in order to determine a certain number of members of the families of which the ‘located’ orbits are members. The stability of these members is also discussed.     

An asymptotic representation of unstable gravity modes in stars

An asymptotic representation is developed for high order unstable gravity modes in a star which are associated with a convective zone enclosed between two radiative layers. In the domain which contains both turning points of the differential equation, the solutions are represented by a single asymptotic expansion in terms of Weber functions.     

The Complete Zeldovich Approximation

We have developed a generalization of the Zeldovich approximation that is exact in a wide variety of situations, including planar, spherical, and cylindrical symmetries. We have shown that this generalization, which we call the complete Zeldovich approximation (CZA), is exact to second order at an arbitrary point within any field. For Gaussian fields, the third-order error has been obtained and shown to be very small. For statistical purposes, the CZA leads to results exact to the third order.     

A new iterative technique for the deconvolution of real data

A fast new deconvolution technique has been developed which employs a complex iterative scheme in order to deconvolve severely broadened noisy data. A great many computer-simulated experiments have been made using the iterative scheme in order to test its reliability and stability in many different situations. It is found to be extremely reliable in the reclaiming of partially resolved multi-featured spectra and can be used with any type of instrumental profile. Deconvolution of single Gaussian features are achieved in 5% noise conditions, where the instrumental profile is 5 times broader than the spectral features to be reclaimed.     

Angular momentum and kinetic energy of rotating deformable bodies

The general equations of angular momentum and kinetic energy of a rotating deformable (or not rigid) body are discussed for a fixed and a rotating coordinate system. A new system of equations is developed for a deformable body of arbitrary form using the Lagrangian (vector) cisplacement up to the first order terms. The equations are, then, illustrated for a self-gravitating ceformable body perturbed by tides.     

Closest Approach in Universal Variables

In this paper, universal formulations of the closest approach problem are established and solved by two methods. The first method uses the technique of one-dimensional unconstraint minimization and needs the solution of the universal Kepler's equation twice, while for the second method, a constraint minimization technique is developed and needs the solution of two nonlinear simultaneous equations. Flexible iterative schemes of quadratic up to any positive integer order are developed for the solution of the universal Kepler's equation. The two methods of the minimization process are applied for the closest approach of Hyakutake and Hale–Bopp comets, while the first method is applied to obtain the minimum angular separation of ADS 9159, ADS 2959 and ADS 11632 visual binaries as typical examples of elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic orbits. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Generation of ionospheric irregularities by thermal-source: A new mechanism

A new mechanism for the generation of ionospheric irregularities of scale sizes of the order of 100 m or more, has been developed on the basis of thermal energy source due to collisional current dissipation. The important role is played by the diffusion of particles along and across the magnetic field. The threshold condition for the instability has been obtained and it is shown that these irregularities can be generated in the F-region height of auroral ionosphere when the electric field is enhanced to about 10 mV m^?1.