Stars and bars

Bars are a common feature of disc galaxies and, as such, must be taken into account in understanding the evolution of structure within galaxies, argues Johan H Knapen.     

Solar-Activity Indices for the Ionosphere in Cycles 23 and 24: the Form of Cycles

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - Analysis of the features of the form of low solar cycles 23 and 24 for the solar-activity indices (F is the solar radio flux at a wavelength of 10.7 cm, Rz and Ri are...     

Software provides Window to the Stars

Robert Izzard and Evert Glebbeek demonstrate the working of their user-friendly stellar modelling tool, Window to the Stars.     

Hydrodynamics and Thermodynamics of Newtonian Stars

We investigated spherically symmetric solution for nonrelativistic cosmological fluid equations and thermodynamic equation of state for Newtonian stars. It was shown that the assumption of a polytropic equation, , at the center of the star only suffices to integrate the equations explicitly. Our exact solution yields many fruitful results such as stellar stability, spherical oscillation and collapses of stars. Pressure, temperature, and density profiles inside stars were obtained. Central densities, pressures and temperatures of the Newtonian stars such as Sun, Jupiter and Saturn were also calculated. Collapse and expansion mechanism was explained by the heat transfer mechanism inside star. The upper bound value of white dwarf mass obtained by the Newtonian cosmological fluid equations turns out to be comparable to the static limit of Chandrasekhar one. Motion of the Universe was also discussed within the framework of Newtonian mechanics. Our calculation results without considering nuclear reactions inside stars may be applicable to the formation of protostars.     

Stars in stone: the Annenberg Courtyard fountains

The transformation of the courtyard at Burlington House involves more than just new paving. Margaret Penston explains the astronomical theme that underpins the design and layout of the fountains and lighting.     

Coronal Loops and Optical Radiation from Flaring Stars

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - The possibility that large-scale coronal loops of solar-type stars and M dwarfs make a significant contribution to the white-light continuum emission is considered. It...     

Properties of Kepler Stars with the Most Powerful Flares

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - We analyze physical characteristics of late-type stars wherein the Kepler mission registered superflares. We use the revised stellar fundamental parameters, i.e....     

Cycles in the scaling properties of length-of-day variations

Variations in the length-of-day (LOD) reflect the effects of several mechanisms in the Earth's rotation dynamics, including Earth–Sun and Earth–Moon line-up, geomagnetic effects and gravitational changes. Several studies showed that signatures of cycles occurring over a wide range of time scales are present in the LOD variations. The present work uses a fractal scaling study based on detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) to study persistence of LOD variations and to provide insights in the different cycling mechanisms. The results showed that that the LOD variations are persistent over a wide range of time scales, meaning that an increment (resp., decrement) is more likely to be followed by an increment (resp., decrement). The temporal variation of the scaling exponent obtained from the DFA showed that several cycles already reported from the direct LOD variations analysis are inherited by the scaling properties. Inter-annual cycles, including 4.3 and 18.6 years cycles, are linked to the variations of the stochastic dynamics of LOD fluctuations. In this way, the 18.6 years cycle attains a period where variations are mostly affected by white noise effects, reducing the predictability of the LOD anomalies. The results are discussed in terms of the different lunar tidal and core–mantle mechanisms and related to recent results in the literature.     

Polar Wander, Sea-level Variations and Ice Age Cycles

There exist close connections between changes in the position of theearth's rotation axis with respect to the earth's surface (polarwander), variations in sea level, the rise and decline of Ice Ages andglobal change on geological time scales. The modeling of theseinterrelationships has received renewed attention in the last few years,after initial attempts to relate these phenomena by means ofviscoelastic solid earth relaxation models had shown its feasibility.An overview is given of the models, and several aspects of the variousinterrelationships are discussed. It is shown that the radial mantleviscosity profile and the layering of the solid earth have importantinfluences on these interactions.     

Repeated Intermittent Earthquake Cycles in the San Francisco Bay Region

Forecasts of future earthquake hazard in the San Francisco Bay region (SFBR) are dependent on the distribution used for the possible magnitude of future events. Based on the limited observed data, it is not possible to statistically distinguish between many distributions with very different tail behavior. These include the modified and truncated Gutenberg–Richter distributions, and a composite distribution assembled by the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities. There is consequent ambiguity in the estimated probability of very large, and hence damaging, events. A related question is whether the energy released in earthquakes is a small or large proportion of the stored energy in the crust, corresponding loosely to the ideas of self-organized criticality, and intermittent criticality, respectively. However, the SFBR has experienced three observed accelerating moment release (AMR) cycles, terminating in the 1868 Hayward, 1906 San Andreas and 1989 Loma Prieta events. A simple stochastic model based on elastic rebound has been shown to be capable of producing repeated AMR cycles in large synthetic catalogs. We propose that such catalogs can provide the basis of a test of a given magnitude distribution, via comparisons between the AMR properties of the real and synthetic data. Our results show that the truncated Gutenberg–Richter distribution produces AMR behavior closest to the observed AMR behavior. The proviso is that the magnitude parameters b and m _max are such that a sequence of large events that suppresses activity for several centuries is unlikely to occur. Repeated simulation from the stochastic model using such distributions produces 30-year hazard estimates at various magnitudes, which are compared with the estimates from the 2003 Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities.     

Nonlinear Dependence of the Solar Flux on Wolf Numbers and Its Variation for Different 11-Year Cycles

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - The statistical, nonlinear, nonmonotonic dependence of the daily mean values of the solar “constant” on the daily Wolf numbers has been established. The...     

Solar-Type Stars with the Suppression of Convection at an Early Stage of Evolution

The evolution of a solar-mass star before and on the main sequence is analyzed in light of the diminished efficiency of convection in the first 500 Myr. A numerical simulation has been performed with the CESAM2k code. It is shown that the suppression of convection in the early stages of evolution leads to a somewhat higher lithium content than that predicted by the classical solar model. In addition, the star’s effective temperature decreases. Ignoring this phenomenon may lead to errors in age and mass determinations for young stars (before the main sequence) from standard evolutionary tracks in the temperature–luminosity diagram. At a later stage of evolution, after 500 Myr, the efficiency of convection tends to the solar value. At this stage, the star’s inner structure becomes classical; it does not depend on the previous history. On the contrary, the photospheric lithium abundance contains information about the star’s past. In other words, there may exist main-sequence solar-mass stars of the same age (above 500 Myr), radius, and luminosity, yet with different photospheric lithium contents. The main results of this work add considerably to the popular method for determining the age of solar-type stars from lithium abundances.

     

干湿循环条件下镇江下蜀土的变形特性研究

镇江地区的下蜀土常作为路基填料,然而在干湿循环作用下其变形特性如何还缺少系统研究.以镇江南徐大道附近的下蜀土为试样,开展不同干湿循环次数下的固结压缩试验,研究下蜀土的变形特性与干湿循环次数的变化规律,并以此为基础,分析干湿循环对下蜀土路基沉降的影响.研究结果表明:随着干湿循环次数的增加,镇江下蜀土的压缩系数逐渐增大,经...     

Solar Activity Indices for Ionospheric Parameters in the 23rd and 24th Cycles

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - Characteristics of changes in the solar activity indices (the flux of the solar radio emission at a wavelength of 10.7 cm F and the new version of the relative sunspot...     

Slip- and Time-dependent Fault Constitutive Law and its Significance in Earthquake Generation Cycles

-- By integrating effects of microscopic interactions between statistically self-similar fault surfaces, we succeeded in deriving a slip- and time-dependent fault constitutive law that rationally unifies the slip-dependent law and the rate- and state-dependent law. In this constitutive law the slip-weakening results from the abrasion of surface asperities that proceeds irreversibly with fault slip. On the other hand, the restoration of shear strength after the arrest of faulting results from the adhesion of surface asperities that proceeds with contact time. At the limit of high slip-rate the unified constitutive law is reduced to the slip-weakening law. At the limit of low slip-rate it shows the well-known log t strengthening of faults over the wide range of contact time t. In the steady state with a constant slip-rate V the shear strength has the negative log V dependence, known as the velocity-weakening. Another important property expected from the unified constitutive law is the gradual increase of the critical weakening displacement D_c with stationary contact time. We numerically examined behavior of a single degree of freedom elastic system following the slip- and time-dependent constitutive law, and found that the periodic stick-slip motion is realized when the adhesion rate is high in comparison with the loading rate. If the adhesion rate is very low, behavior of the system gradually changes from stick-slip motion to steady sliding with time.     

Seismic Cycles and the Evolution of Stress Correlation in Cellular Automaton Models of Finite Fault Networks

—A cellular automaton is used to study the relation between the structure of a regional fault network and the temporal and spatial patterns of regional seismicity. Automata in which the cell sizes form discrete fractal hierarchies are compared with those having a uniform cell size. Conservative models in which all the stress is transferred at each step of a cascade are compared with nonconservative ("lossy") models in which a specified fraction of the stress energy is lost from each step. Particular attention is given to the behavior of the system as it is driven toward the critical state by uniform external loading. All automata exhibit a scaling region at times close to the critical state in which the events become larger and energy release increases as a power-law of the time to the critical state. For the hierarchical fractal automata, this power-law behavior is often modulated by fluctuations that are periodic in the logarithm of the time to criticality. These fluctuations are enhanced in the nonconservative models, but are not robust. The degree to which they develop appears to depend on the particular distribution of stresses in the larger cells which varies from cycle to cycle. Once the critical state is reached, seismicity in the uniform conservative automaton remains random in time, space, and magnitude. Large events do not significantly perturb the stress distribution in the system. However, large events in the nonconservative uniform automaton and in the fractal systems produce large stress perturbations that move the system out of the critical state. The result is a seismic cycle in which a large event is followed by a shadow period of quiescence and then a new approach back toward the critical state. This seismic cycle does not depend on the fractal structure, but is a direct consequence of large-scale heterogeneity of these systems in which the size of the largest cell (or the size of the largest nonconservative event) is a significant fraction of the size of the network. In essence, seismic cycles in these models are boundary effects. The largest events tend to cluster in time and the rate of small events remains relatively constant throughout a cycle in agreement with observed seismicity.     

The Change in Outgoing Long-wave Radiation before the Ludian MS6.5 Earthquake Based on Tidal Force Niche Cycles

The cycle process of the tidal force niche for the Ludian M_S6.5 earthquake occurring in Ludian County, Yunnan Province, China on August 3, 2014 was calculated. The earthquake occurred near the middle point phase. It indicates that the type of seismogenic fault that the tide force acted on belongs to the thrust fault. According to the tidal niche cycle,the abnormal OLR( Outgoing Long-wave Radiation) change was analyzed based on NOAA satellite data around the whole land area of China before and after the earthquake.The result shows that the OLR changed evidently with tide force change. Temporally,the change went through the evolution process of initial OLR rise → strengthening → abnormal peaking → attenuation → returning to normal; and spatially,the abnormal area wound its way along the Zhaotong-Ludian fault and went through a scattered → conversion →scattered process. This process is similar to the change process of rock breaking under stress loading. The results indicate that the tidal force of a celestial body could trigger an earthquake when the tectonic stress reaches its critical breaking point and the OLR anomaly is proportional to the seismic tectonic stress change. It is of great use to combine OLR and tidal force in earthquake precursory observation.     

Energetics of X-Class Flares at the Minima of 22, 23, and 24 Solar Cycles

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - Quite often powerful flares occur during a decrease of solar activity. In this work, we make an attempt to consider X-class flares at the minima of solar activity cycles...