Possible mass distributions in the nebulae of other solar systems

The supernova shell fragmentation model of solar system formation — previously shown to be successful in describing the mass distribution of our solar system — is used to calculate the mass distributions of other solar nebulae.Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Dept. of Energy under Contract W-7405-ENG-36.     

A model of the formation of elliptical galaxies

An analytical model of elliptical galaxy formation is formulated that yields predicted mass distributions. A good fit is obtained when the model is tested against the luminosity profile of NGC 3379. The present theory is identical to a parallel theory of solar system formation which suggests that the mass distribution of the solar system should be similar to that of NGC 3379. Comparison supports this conjecture.Work performed under the auspices of the USERDA.     

A revision of the solar neighbourhood metallicity distribution

We present a revised metallicity distribution of dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood. This distribution is centred on solar metallicity. We show that previous metallicity distributions, selected on the basis of spectral type, are biased against stars with solar metallicity or higher. A selection of G-dwarf stars is inherently biased against metal-rich stars and is not representative of the solar neighbourhood metallicity distribution. Using a sample selected on colour, we obtain a distribution where approximately half the stars in the solar neighbourhood have metallicities higher than [Fe/H]=0 . The percentage of mid-metal-poor stars ([Fe/H]<−0.5) is approximately 4 per cent, in agreement with present estimates of the thick disc.
In order to have a metallicity distribution comparable to chemical evolution model predictions, we convert the star fraction to mass fraction, and show that another bias against metal-rich stars affects dwarf metallicity distributions, due to the colour (or spectral type) limits of the samples. Reconsidering the corrections resulting from the increasing thickness of the stellar disc with age, we show that the simple closed-box model with no instantaneous recycling approximation gives a reasonable fit to the observed distribution. Comparisons with the age–metallicity relation and abundance ratios suggest that the simple closed-box model may be a viable model of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy at solar radius.     

Modelling the outcomes of high-velocity impacts between small solar system bodies

We present a self-consistent numerical algorithm aimed at predicting the outcomes of high-velocity impacts between asteroids (or other small bodies of the solar system), based on a set of model input parameters which can be estimated from the available experimental evidence, and including the possible gravitational reaccumulation of ejected fragments whose velocity is less than a suitably defined escape velocity. All the fragment mass distributions are modelled by truncated power laws, and a possible correlation between fragment ejection velocity and mass is taken into account in different ways, including a probabilistic one. We analyze in particular the effectiveness of the gravitational reaccumulation process in terms of different choices of the collisional parameters and the assumed relationship between fragment speed and mass. Both the transition size beyond which solid targets are likely to reaccumulate a large fraction of the fragment mass and the collision energy needed to disperse most of the fragments are sensitive functions of the assumed fragment velocity versus mass relationship. We also give some examples of how our algorithm can be applied to study the origin and collisional history of small solar system bodies, including the asteroid 951 Gaspra (recently imaged by the Galileo probe) and the asteroid families.     

Populating the asteroid belt from two parent source regions due to the migration of giant planets—“The Grand Tack”

Abstract– The asteroid belt is found today in a dramatically different state than that immediately following its formation. It is estimated that it has been depleted in total mass by a factor of at least 1000 since its formation, and that the asteroids’ orbits evolved from having near‐zero eccentricity and inclination to the complex distributions we find today. The asteroid belt also hosts a wide range of compositions, with the inner regions dominated by S‐type and other water‐poor asteroids and the outer regions dominated by C‐type and other primitive asteroids. We discuss a model of early inner solar system evolution whereby the gas‐driven migration of Jupiter and Saturn brings them inwards to 1.5 AU, truncating the disk of planetesimals in the terrestrial planet region, before migrating outwards toward their current locations. This model, informally titled “The Grand Tack,” examines the planetary dynamics of the solar system bodies during the final million years of the gaseous solar nebula lifetime—a few million years (Myr) after the formation of the first solids, but 20–80 Myr before the final accretion of Earth, and approximately 400–600 Myr before the Late Heavy Bombardment of the inner solar system. The Grand Tack attempts to solve some outstanding problems for terrestrial planet formation, by reproducing the size of Mars, but also has important implications for the asteroid population. The migration of Jupiter causes a very early depletion of the asteroid belt region, and this region is then repopulated from two distinct source regions, one inside the formation region of Jupiter and one between and beyond the giant planets. The scattered material reforms the asteroid belt, producing a population the appropriate mass, orbits, and with overlapping distributions of material from each parent source region.     

Charge States of Krypton and Xenon in the Solar Wind

We calculate charge state distributions of Kr and Xe in a model for two different types of solar wind using the effective ionization and recombination rates provided from the OPEN_ADAS data base. The charge states of heavy elements in the solar wind are essential for estimating the efficiency of Coulomb drag in the inner corona. We find that xenon ions experience particularly low Coulomb drag from protons in the inner corona, comparable to the notoriously weak drag of protons on helium ions. It has been found long ago that helium in the solar wind can be strongly depleted near interplanetary current sheets, whereas coronal mass ejecta are sometimes strongly enriched in helium. We argue that if the extraordinary variability of the helium abundance in the solar wind is due to inefficient Coulomb drag, the xenon abundance must vary strongly. In fact, a secular decrease of the solar wind xenon abundance relative to the other heavier noble gases (Ne, Ar, Kr) has been postulated based on a comparison of noble gases in recently irradiated and ancient samples of ilmenite in the lunar regolith. We conclude that decreasing solar activity and decreasing frequency of coronal mass ejections over the solar lifetime might be responsible for a secularly decreasing abundance of xenon in the solar wind.     

Potential of interplanetary torques and solar modulation for triggering terrestrial atmospheric and lithospheric events

The Sun is forced into an orbit around the barycenter of the solar system because of the changing mass distributions of the planets. Solar-planetary-lunar dynamic relationships may form a new basis for understanding and predicting cyclic solar forcing functions on the Earth's climate.     

BATSEγ射线暴和太阳硬X射线暴的强度和时间特征

本文研究了CGRO卫星上BATSE探测器对硬X天空监测过程中触发和记录到的1 0 0 0多个γ暴和 40 0 0多个太阳硬X射线暴的强度和时间性质 ,发现它们的强度分布相似 ,这也许意味着硬X射线天空中两种主要的爆发现象机制相似 ,同时对将γ暴的强度分布作为其宇宙学起源的证据提出了疑问 .对太阳暴的持续时间分析表明 ,其强度和持续时间呈正相关 ,而γ暴是弱负相关 .太阳暴的强度和持续时间在BATSE运行过程中有长时标变化 ,最近对γ暴的研究也发现了这种现象     

Atmospheric ion wakes of Venus and Mars in the solar wind

A model has been developed for the currents induced in the ionospheres of Venus and Mars by the flowing magnetized solar wind in a previous paper (Cloutier and Daniell, 1973). The altitudes of the ionopauses on both planets, determined from the electrodynamical models of the previous paper, are used here to calculate the total rates of atmospheric mass loss to the solar wind for Venus and Mars. These loss rates are compared to the rates calculated by Michel (1971) based upon the limit of mass loading of the solar wind flow determined from hydrodynamic constraints. The distributions of planetary ions in the downstream wakes of Venus and Mars are calculated, and the interpretation of ion spectrometer measurements from close planetary encounters is discussed.     

Values of densities and their variations at the barycenters of ellipsoidal planets

A formula for determining density at the barycenter of a planet is derived. The calculated values of densities correspond well to observational data, with the obtained range of density variation facilitating the construction of more reliable mass distributions. This is particularly topical in the study of the interior structure of the solar system planets.     

The Effect of Helicity Dissipation on the Critical State of an Avalanche Model for Solar Flares

We perform numerical simulations using an avalanche model for solar flares, in which the effect of avalanche event duration is included and the lateral boundary condition can be either open or periodic. The results from the simulations show that self-organized criticality (SOC) exists under a variety of conditions of helicity dissipation, and they are similar in the sense that the indices of power-law distributions of avalanche sizes are the same, while the duration and waiting time distributions differ little. Of interest are: (1) if there exists helicity dissipation in the course of avalanches, SOC exists only when the amount of helicity dissipation per avalanche is small; (2) sudden reductions in the total helicity of the system do not severely disturb SOC, if the amount reduced is moderate; (3) the distribution of waiting times is shown to be exponential, in consistent with the Poisson statistics other avalanche models have predicted, and the exponent increases as the effect of event duration becomes larger. The self-similar structure of the avalanche time series is also examined. These results imply that, although helicity is dissipated in resistive diffusion of flares, the amount of dissipation should be small and the conservation law of helicity thus holds in an approximate sense. Also, the coronal mass ejections (CMEs), observed to take helicity out of the solar corona in an eruptive way, may disrupt the statistical equilibrium of the corona only temporarily.     

Interstellar Dust in the Solar System

We deduce the mass distribution and total mass density of interstellar dust streaming into the solar system and compare the results to the conditions of the very local interstellar medium (VLISM). The mass distribution derived from in situ measurements shows a gentler slope and includes larger grains, compared to a model distribution proposed for the wavelength dependence of the interstellar extinction. The mass density of grains in the solar system is consistent with that expected from measurements of the visible interstellar extinction and the abundance constraints of elements in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM), instead of those in the VLISM. This may imply that interstellar dust grains are not associated with the VLISM and that the conditions of the grains are better represented by the ones expected in the diffuse ISM. If this is the case, then the flatter slope in the mass distribution and the detection of larger interstellar grains in the solar system may even indicate that coagulation growth of dust in the diffuse ISM is more effective than previously inferred. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Automatic Determination of the Conic Coronal Mass Ejection Model Parameters

Characterization of the three-dimensional structure of solar transients using incomplete plane of sky data is a difficult problem whose solutions have potential for societal benefit in terms of space weather applications. In this paper transients are characterized in three dimensions by means of conic coronal mass ejection (CME) approximation. A novel method for the automatic determination of cone model parameters from observed halo CMEs is introduced. The method uses both standard image processing techniques to extract the CME mass from white-light coronagraph images and a novel inversion routine providing the final cone parameters. A bootstrap technique is used to provide model parameter distributions. When combined with heliospheric modeling, the cone model parameter distributions will provide direct means for ensemble predictions of transient propagation in the heliosphere. An initial validation of the automatic method is carried by comparison to manually determined cone model parameters. It is shown using 14 halo CME events that there is reasonable agreement, especially between the heliocentric locations of the cones derived with the two methods. It is argued that both the heliocentric locations and the opening half-angles of the automatically determined cones may be more realistic than those obtained from the manual analysis.     

Temperature distribution in the solar nebula at successive stages of its evolution

We have constructed a model of the solar nebula that allows for the temperature and pressure distributions at various stages of its evolution to be calculated. The mass flux from the accretion envelope to the disk and from the disk to the Sun, the turbulent viscosity parameter α, the opacity of the disk material, and the initial angular momentum of the protosun are the input model parameters that are varied. We also take into account the changes in the luminosity and radius of the young Sun. The input model parameters are based mostly on data obtained from observations of young solar-type stars with disks. To correct the input parameters, we use the mass and chemical composition of Jupiter, as well as models of its internal structure and formation that allow constraints to be imposed on the temperature and surface density of the protoplanetary disk in Jupiter’s formation zone. Given the derived constraints on the input parameters, we have calculated models of the solar nebula at successive stages of its evolution: the formation inside the accretion envelope, the evolution around the young Sun going through the T Tauri stage, and the formation and compaction of a thin dust layer (subdisk) in the disk midplane. We have found the following evolutionary trend: an increase in the temperature of the disk at the stage of its formation, cooling at the T Tauri stage, and the subsequent internal heating of the dust subdisk by turbulence dissipation that causes a temperature rise in the formation zone of the terrestrial planets at the high subdisk density and the opacity in this zone. We have obtained the probable ranges of temperatures in the disk midplane, i.e., the temperatures of the protoplanetary material in the formation region of the terrestrial planets at the initial stage of their formation.     

Rotational evolution of the Sun

The evolutionary behaviour of rotating solar models with different initial angular-momentum distributions has been investigated through the pre-Main-Sequence and Main-Sequence phases. The angular momentum was removed from the convective evelope of the solar models according to the Kawaler's model of magnetic stellar wind (Kawaler, 1988). The models show that (i) the surface rotational velocities of the solar mass stars are independent of initial angular momentum for ages greater than 10⁸ years and (ii) it is not possible to explain the neutrino problem and the sufficient depletion of lithium in the Sun.     

Influence of solar activity on the state of the wheat market in medieval England

The database of professor Rogers (1887), which includes wheat prices in England in the Middle Ages, was used to search for a possible influence of solar activity on the wheat market. Our approach was based on the following: (1) Existence of the correlation between cosmic ray flux entering the terrestrial atmosphere and cloudiness of the atmosphere. (2) Cosmic ray intensity in the solar system changes with solar activity, (3) Wheat production depends on weather conditions as a nonlinear function with threshold transitions. (4) A wheat market with a limited supply (as it was in medieval England) has a highly nonlinear sensitivity to variations in wheat production with boundary states, where small changes in wheat supply could lead to bursts of prices or to prices falling. We present a conceptual model of possible modes for sensitivity of wheat prices to weather conditions, caused by solar cycle variations, and compare expected price fluctuations with price variations recorded in medieval England. We compared statistical properties of the intervals between wheat price bursts during the years 1249-1703 with statistical properties of the intervals between the minima of solar cycles during the years 1700-2000. We show that statistical properties of these two samples are similar, both for characteristics of the distributions and for histograms of the distributions. We analyze a direct link between wheat prices and solar activity in the 17^th century, for which wheat prices and solar activity data (derived from ¹⁰Be isotope) are available. We show that for all 10 time moments of the solar activity minima the observed prices were higher than prices for the corresponding time moments of maximal solar activity (100% sign correlation, on a significance level < 0.2%). We consider these results a direct evidence of the causal connection between wheat prices bursts and solar activity.     

Influence of solar activity on the state of the wheat market in medieval England

The database of professor Rogers (1887), which includes wheat prices in England in the Middle Ages, was used to search for a possible influence of solar activity on the wheat market. Our approach was based on the following: (1) Existence of the correlation between cosmic ray flux entering the terrestrial atmosphere and cloudiness of the atmosphere. (2) Cosmic ray intensity in the solar system changes with solar activity, (3) Wheat production depends on weather conditions as a nonlinear function with threshold transitions. (4) A wheat market with a limited supply (as it was in medieval England) has a highly nonlinear sensitivity to variations in wheat production with boundary states, where small changes in wheat supply could lead to bursts of prices or to prices falling. We present a conceptual model of possible modes for sensitivity of wheat prices to weather conditions, caused by solar cycle variations, and compare expected price fluctuations with price variations recorded in medieval England. We compared statistical properties of the intervals between wheat price bursts during the years 1249-1703 with statistical properties of the intervals between the minima of solar cycles during the years 1700-2000. We show that statistical properties of these two samples are similar, both for characteristics of the distributions and for histograms of the distributions. We analyze a direct link between wheat prices and solar activity in the 17^th century, for which wheat prices and solar activity data (derived from ¹⁰Be isotope) are available. We show that for all 10 time moments of the solar activity minima the observed prices were higher than prices for the corresponding time moments of maximal solar activity (100% sign correlation, on a significance level < 0.2%). We consider these results a direct evidence of the causal connection between wheat prices bursts and solar activity.     

Dust in the solar system and in extra-solar planetary systems

Among the observed circumstellar dust envelopes a certain population, planetary debris disks, is ascribed to systems with optically thin dust disks and low gas content. These systems contain planetesimals and possibly planets and are believed to be systems that are most similar to our solar system in an early evolutionary stage. Planetary debris disks have been identified in large numbers by a brightness excess in the near-infrared, mid-infrared and/or submillimetre range of their stellar spectral energy distributions. In some cases, spatially resolved observations are possible and reveal complex spatial structures. Acting forces and physical processes are similar to those in the solar system dust cloud, but the observational approach is obviously quite different: overall spatial distributions for systems of different ages for the planetary debris disks, as opposed to detailed local information in the case of the solar system. Comparison with the processes of dust formation and evolution observed in the solar system therefore helps understand the planetary debris disks. In this paper, we review our present knowledge of observations, acting forces, and major physical interactions of the dust in the solar system and in similar extra-solar planetary systems.     

The State of Self-organized Criticality of the Sun during the Last Three Solar Cycles. II. Theoretical Model

The observed power-law distributions of solar-flare parameters can be interpreted in terms of a nonlinear dissipative system in a state of self-organized criticality (SOC). We present a universal analytical model of an SOC process that is governed by three conditions: i) a multiplicative or exponential growth phase, ii) a randomly interrupted termination of the growth phase, and iii) a linear decay phase. This basic concept approximately reproduces the observed frequency distributions. We generalize it to a randomized exponential growth model, which also includes a (log-normal) distribution of threshold energies before the instability starts, as well as randomized decay times, which can reproduce both the observed occurrence-frequency distributions and the scatter of correlated parameters more realistically. With this analytical model we can efficiently perform Monte-Carlo simulations of frequency distributions and parameter correlations of SOC processes, which are simpler and faster than the iterative simulations of cellular automaton models. Solar-cycle modulations of the power-law slopes of flare-frequency distributions can be used to diagnose the thresholds and growth rates of magnetic instabilities responsible for solar flares.     

Solving the G-dwarf problem with a three-component model of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy

A three-component chemical evolution model of the Galaxy is presented, which we believe will cast a new light on the G-dwarf problem. The model is based on a scenario of the Galaxy consisting of three major evolutionary phases: halo, thick disk and thin disk, separated by two short interludes of rapid collapse. The evolution of different stellar populations are treated separately, the combination of which yields an overall metallicity distribution function for the solar neighbourhood. We tested three different models using the same set of basic equations: the “prompt initial enrichment” (PIE) model, the “proportional yield” (PPY) model and the “collapse” (CLP) model. Best-fit parameters are derived. The results show that the different populations have remarkably different IMFs, while mass exchange has only minimally affected the chemical evolution in the solar vicinity, so that the solar vicinity can be regarded as a closed system, at least in the late stage of the Galactic evolution.