The use of invariant manifolds for transfers between unstable periodic orbits of different energies

Techniques from dynamical systems theory have been applied to the construction of transfers between unstable periodic orbits that have different energies. Invariant manifolds, trajectories that asymptotically depart or approach unstable periodic orbits, are used to connect the initial and final orbits. The transfer asymptotically departs the initial orbit on a trajectory contained within the initial orbit’s unstable manifold and later asymptotically approaches the final orbit on a trajectory contained within the stable manifold of the final orbit. The manifold trajectories are connected by the execution of impulsive maneuvers. Two-body parameters dictate the selection of the individual manifold trajectories used to construct efficient transfers. A bounding sphere centered on the secondary, with a radius less than the sphere of influence of the secondary, is used to study the manifold trajectories. A two-body parameter, κ, is computed within the bounding sphere, where the gravitational effects of the secondary dominate. The parameter κ is defined as the sum of two quantities: the difference in the normalized angular momentum vectors and eccentricity vectors between a point on the unstable manifold and a point on the stable manifold. It is numerically demonstrated that as the κ parameter decreases, the total cost to complete the transfer decreases. Preliminary results indicate that this method of constructing transfers produces a significant cost savings over methods that do not employ the use of invariant manifolds.     

Thermal instability in ionized plasma

We study the magneto-thermal instability in ionized plasmas including the effects of Ohmic, ambipolar and Hall diffusion. The magnetic field in the single-fluid approximation does not allow for transverse thermal condensations; however, non-ideal effects highly diminish the stabilizing role of the magnetic field in thermally unstable plasmas. Therefore, the enhanced growth rate of thermal condensation modes in the presence of the diffusion mechanisms speed up the rate of structure formation.     

Environmental Effects in Galaxies: Molecular Gas and Nuclear Activity

Galactic X-ray emitters have been described by Giovannelli andSabau-Graziati (1993). We would address the bulk of this paper on HighMass X-Ray Binaries (HMXBs) and particularly in demonstrating theimportance of these systems as powerful laboratories to test the propertiesof high-energy physical processes through the multi-frequency studies oftheir behavior. Interactions between the two components of those systemsoriginate processes that manifest themselves along a large part of theelectromagnetic spectrum. Therefore it is possible to study indirectlyhigh-energy phenomena through the analysis oflow-energy phenomena with enormous advantages since the latter can bemainly studied via ground-based experiments, meanwhile the former can bestudied only by mean of space-based experiments, at least up to energiesof order 100 GeV.Moreover, since HMXBs are galactic, their emissions are the highestmeasurable; this renders such systems the most powerful laboratories to testtheories on collapsed objects, which can be scaled to extra-galactic distancesand dimensions. This fact suggests that HMXBs can be in general useful targetseven for small satellites, and in particular, in the X-ray energy range,very suitable targets for experiments like SIXE (Spanish Italian X-rayExperiment) to be launched in small satellites such as the Spanish MINISAT-02.     

Characteristics of coronal mass ejection associated with DH type II radio bursts (All and Limb events)

We have studied the characteristics of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) associated with Deca-Hectometric (DH) type II radio bursts (1–14 MHz) in the interplanetary medium during the year 1997–2005. The DH CMEs are divided into two parts: (i) DH CMEs (All) and (ii) DH CMEs (Limb). We found that 65% (177/273) of all events have the speed >900 km?s^?1 and the remaining 35% (96/273) events have the speed below 900 km?s^?1. The average speed of all and limb DH CMEs are 1230 and 1288 km?s^?1, respectively, which is nearly three times the average speed of general population of CMEs (473 km?s^?1). The average widths of all and limb DH CMEs are 105° and 106°, respectively, which is twice the average width (52°) of the general population of CMEs. We found a better correlation between the speed and width of limb DH CMEs (R=?0.61) than all DH CMEs (R=?0.53). Only 28% (177/637) of fast >900 km?s^?1 general population of CMEs are reported with DH type II bursts counterpart. The above results gives that the relation between the CME properties is better for limb events.     

Observations of GRS 1915+105 from the USA Experiment on ARGOS

We present first results from a monitoring campaign of GRS 1915+105 undertaken with the USA X-ray timing experiment on the ARGOS satellite. A variety of behaviour has been observed, ranging from low, steady X-ray emission to rapid quasi-periodic flaring on timescales of approximately 10–120 seconds.     

Accretion disk spectra of super-luminal jet sources and ultra-luminous compact X-ray sources in nearby spiral galaxies

The Ultra-luminous Compact X-ray Sources (ULXs)in nearby spiral galaxies and the Galactic super-luminaljet sources sharethe common spectral characteristic that they haveextremely high disk temperatures which cannot be explainedin the framework of the standard accretion disk modelin the Schwarzschild metric. We have calculated an extreme Kerr disk model to examine if the Kerr disk model can instead explain the observed `too hot' accretion disk spectra.We found that the Kerr disk spectrum becomes significantly hardercompared to the Schwarzschild disk only when the disk is highlyinclined.For super-luminal jet sources, which are known to beinclined systems, the Kerr disk model may thuswork if we choose proper values for the black hole angular momentum. For the ULXs, however, the Kerr disk interpretation will be problematic,as is is highly unlikely that their accretion disks are preferentiallyinclined.     

Evolution of the Fine Structure of Magnetic Fields in the Quiet Sun: Observations from Sunrise/IMaX and Extrapolations

Observations with the balloon-borne Sunrise/Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) provide high spatial resolution (roughly 100 km at disk center) measurements of the magnetic field in the photosphere of the quiet Sun. To investigate the magnetic structure of the chromosphere and corona, we extrapolate these photospheric measurements into the upper solar atmosphere and analyze a 22-minute long time series with a cadence of 33 seconds. Using the extrapolated magnetic-field lines as tracer, we investigate temporal evolution of the magnetic connectivity in the quiet Sun’s atmosphere. The majority of magnetic loops are asymmetric in the sense that the photospheric field strength at the loop foot points is very different. We find that the magnetic connectivity of the loops changes rapidly with a typical connection recycling time of about 3±1 minutes in the upper solar atmosphere and 12±4 minutes in the photosphere. This is considerably shorter than previously found. Nonetheless, our estimate of the energy released by the associated magnetic-reconnection processes is not likely to be the sole source for heating the chromosphere and corona in the quiet Sun.     

恒星演化晚期核素K壳层连续态电子俘获过程中微子能量损失

基于Weinberg-Salam理论,考虑Coulomb效应对连续态电子气体的影响,对恒星演化晚期核素12C、16O、20Ne、24Mg、28Si和56Fe在完全电离环境下的K壳层连续态自由电子俘获过程的中微子能量损失进行了讨论.根据Beaudet、Petrosian和Salpeter (BPS)的方法所得结果与我们的结果进行了比较.结果表明:相对较高温度环境(如T9=0.1和T9=1.T9是以109 K为单位的温度),两种结果符合很好;而低温环境(如T9=0.01和T9=0.001)核素16O、20Ne、24Mg和28Si的中微子能量损失,BPS的结果比我们的结果高10～70倍,对核素12C甚至高出2个数量级.我们的研究可能对恒星演化晚期尤其是白矮星核坍塌到相对低温和中等密度阶段冷却机制的研究具有重要意义.     

Instrumental and Observational Artifacts in Quiet Sun Magnetic Flux Cancellation Functions

Under the assumption that the photospheric quiet Sun magnetic field is turbulent, the cancellation function has previously been used to estimate the true, resolution-independent mean, unsigned vertical flux 〈|B _z |〉_true. We show that the presence of network elements, noise, and seeing complicate the measurement of accurate cancellation functions and their power law exponents κ. Failure to exclude network elements previously led to estimates that were too low for both the cancellation exponent κ and 〈|B _z |〉_true. However, both κ and 〈|B _z |〉_true are overestimated due to noise in magnetograms. While no conclusive value can be derived with data from current instruments, our Hinode/SP results of κ?0.38 and 〈|B _z |〉_true?270 gauss can be taken as upper bounds.