Evidence for a low-density inflationary universe?

The inflationary unvierse model predicts the density parameter ₀ to be 1.0 with the cosmological constant ₀ usually taken to be zero, whereas observational estimates give ₀0.2 and ₀10^-57 cm^–2. It was found, however, that the observed variation of angular diameter with redshift for extragalactic radio sources could be interpreted in terms of a low density universe with linear size evolution of the sources for either an inflationary model with 0 or an open model with =0.     

Kinetic Alfvén waves in extended radio sources

We study a model of extended radio sources (ERS), in particular, extragalactic jets and radio lobes, which are inhomogeneous and where noncompressive Alfvén and surface Alfvén waves (and not shocks and magnetosonic waves) are primarily excited. We assume that a negligible thermal population exists (i.e., the ion density at the low-energy cut-off of the power law distribution is greater than the ion density of the thermal population, if present). Due to internal instabilities and/or the interaction of the ERS with the ambient medium, surface Alfvén waves (SAW) are created. We show that even very small amplitude SAW are mode converted to kinetic Alfvén waves (KAW) which produce large moving accelerating potentials , parallel to the magnetic field. Neglecting nonlinear perturbations, and for typical physical parameters of ERS, we obtaine1 MeV. Wesuggest that these potentials are important in acceleration (e.g., injection energy) and reacceleration of electrons in ERS. We show that energy losses by synchrotron radiation can be compensated by reacceleration by KAW. The relation between KAW acceleration, and previously studied cyclotron-resonance acceleration by Alfvén waves, is discussed.     

Group Doppler effect in anisotropic plasmas

In anisotropic plasmas, the radiative power emitted and the power observed per unit solid angle should be calculated along the direction of the group velocityv _g . The two power functions referred differ by a product of two factors: one is the group Doppler factor and the other is the squeezing effect of the radiative energy due to the dependence ofv _g on direction. In this paper, the group Doppler factor is derived using two different methods, and the relevant physical concepts are analyzed in details. A number of numerical examples pertaining to astrophysical situations are presented, to illustrate the significance of the group Doppler effect with respect to the wave Doppler effect which is valid in isotropic media.     

Reviews

OFFICE DEVELOPMENT: A Geographical Analysis by M. Bateman. 14 × 22 cm, xvi and 175 pages. Croom Helm: London 1985 (ISBN 0 7099 0697 8) $A35.95 (cloth).

ATLAS OF YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT, 1981: The Geographic Distribution of Youth Unemployment in Australian Cities from the 1981 Census According to Birthplace and Gender by P. Matwijiw with E. Bamford and C. Maher. 21 × 29 cm, 127 pages. Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs: Melbourne 1985 (ISBN 949890 33 2) $A12.00 (limp).

ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH by A. J. Rowland and P. Cooper. 23 × 16 cm, vi and 205 pages. Edward Arnold: London 1983 (ISBN 0 7131 2855 0) $A27.95 (limp).

FAMINE AS A GEOGRAPHICAL PHENOMENON edited by B. Currey and G. Hugo. 17 × 24 cm, vi and 202 pages. Reidel: Dordrecht 1984 (ISBN 90 277 1762 1) Dfl 95.00, $US37.00 (cloth).

SOUTH AUSTRALIA'S CHANGING POPULATION (South Australian Geographical Papers No. 1) by G. J. Hugo. 25 × 18 cm, 71 pages. Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (SA Branch): Adelaide 1983 (ISBN 0 909112 05 03) $A4.00 (limp).

DEVELOPMENTS IN POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY edited by M. A. Busteed. 23 × 15 cm, 340 pages. Academic Press: London 1983 (ISBN 0 12 148420 3) $US42.00 (cloth).

NEITHER JUSTICE NOR REASON: A Legal and Anthropological Analysis of Aboriginal Land Rights by M. Gumbert. 22 × 14 cm, xv and 215 pages. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia 1984 (ISBN 0 7022 1746 8) $A20.00 (cloth).

RURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT by P. J. Cloke and C. C. Park. 14 × 22 cm, xiii and 473 pages. Croom Helm: London 1985 (ISBN 0 7099 2037 7) $A44.95 (cloth).

FARM POLICY IN AUSTRALIA by R. K. Hefford. 14 × 22 cm, xviii and 415 pages. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia 1985 (ISBN 0 7022 1698 4) $A40.00 (cloth).

TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS FOR PACIFIC MICROSTATES: Issues in Organisation and Management edited by C. C. Kissling. 14 × 21 cm, 192 pages. Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific: Suva 1984. $A10.00 (cloth), $A8.00 (limp).

TIMES OF CRISIS: Epidemics in Sydney 1788–1900 by P. H. Curson. 15 × 25 cm, xii and 195 pages. Sydney University Press: Sydney 1985 (ISBN 0 424 00112 8). $A35.00 (cloth).

PEASANTS, SUBSISTENCE, ECOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA by L. S. Grossman. 24 × 16 cm, xxi and 302 pages. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ 1984 (ISBN 0 691 09406 3) $US45.50.

THE WORLD FOOD PROBLEM 1950–1980 by D. Grigg. 15 × 24 cm, 276 pages. Basil Blackwell: Oxford 1985 (ISBN 0 631 13481 6) $A58.50 (cloth).

POPULATION REDISTRIBUTION AND DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH ASIA edited by L. A. Kosinski and K. M. Elahi. 17 × 24 cm, 243 pages. Reichel: Dordrecht 1985 (ISBN 90 277 1938 1) Dfl 120.00, $US44.00, £30.50 (cloth).

GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNIC PLURALISM edited by C. Clarke, D. Ley and C. Peach. 15 × 23 cm, xvii and 294 pages. Allen & Unwin: London 1984 (ISBN 0 04 309107 5) $A45.00 (cloth); (ISBN 0 04 309108 3) $A24.95 (limp).

SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE edited by J. Eyles. 14 × 22 cm, 295 pages. Croom Helm: London 1986 (ISBN 0 7099 0944 6) $A49.95 (cloth).

THE GENTRIFICATION OF INNER MELBOURNE: A Political Geography of Inner City Housing by W. S. Logan. 14 × 22 cm, xvi and 328 pages. University of Queensland Press: St. Lucia 1985 (ISBN 0 7022 1729 8) $A50.00 (cloth).

YELLOWCAKE AND CROCODILES: Town Planning, Government and Society in Northern Australia by J. Lea and R. Zehner. 14 × 22 cm, xxvi and 200 pages. Allen & Unwin: Sydney 1986 (ISBN 0 86861 875 6) $A24.95 (cloth); (ISBN 0 86861 843 8) $A 14.95 (limp).

THE BUNGALOW: The Production of a Global Culture by A. D. King. 20 × 25 cm, xii and 310 pages. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London 1984 (ISBN 0 7100 9538 4) $A62.50 (cloth).

THE WEST EUROPEAN CITY: A Social Geography by P. White. 15 × 23 cm, xviii and 269 pages. Longman: London 1984 (ISBN 0 582 30047 9) $A22.95 (limp).

THE SHAPING OF AMERICA: A Geographical Perspective on 500 years of History. Volume 1. Atlantic America, 1492–1800 by D. W. Meinig. 18 × 25 cm, xii and 500 pages. Yale University Press: New Haven 1986 (ISBN 0 300 03548 9) $US35.00 (cloth).

CANBERRA: MYTHS AND MODELS. Forces at Work in the Formation of the Australian Capital by K. F. Fischer. 21 × 30 cm, 166 pages. Institute of Asian Studies: Hamburg 1984 (ISBN 3 88910 009 0).

THE GEOGRAPHY OF PEACE AND WAR edited by D. Pepper and A. Jenkins. 15 × 23 cm, vi and 222 pages. Basil Blackwell: Oxford 1985 (ISBN 0 631 13559 6) $A75.00 (cloth); (ISBN 0 631 14069 7) $A23.95 (limp).

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY: World‐economy, Nation‐state and Locality by P. J. Taylor. 15 × 23 cm, × and 238 pages. Longman: London 1985 (ISBN 0 582 30088 6) $A24.95 (limp).

THE INDUSTRIAL GEOGRAPHY OF CANADA by A. Blackbourn and R. G. Putnam 14 × 22 cm, 201 pages. Croom Helm: London 1984 (ISBN 0 7099 0622 6) $A42.50 (cloth).

THE FOODMAKERS by S. Sargent. 13 × 20 cm, 296 pages. Penguin: Ringwood 1985 (ISBN 0 14 007359 0) $A8.95 (limp).

LIMITS TO PREDICTION edited by R. B. McKern and G. C. Lowenthal. 13 × 19 cm, xiii and 163 pages. Australian Professional Publications: Sydney 1985 (ISBN 0 949416 029) $A14.95 (limp).

THE KANGAROO KEEPERS edited by H. J. Lavery. 18 × 25 cm, xxvi and 211 pages. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia 1985 (ISBN 0 7022 1875 8).

PRACTICAL ECOLOGY by D. D. Gilbertson, M. Kent and F. B. Pyatt. 15 × 23 cm, 320 pages, Hutchinson: London 1985 (ISBN 0 09 162651 X) £8.95.

BASIC BIOGEOGRAPHY (Second edition) by N. Pears. 15 × 24 cm, × and 358 pages. Longman: London 1985 (ISBN 0 582 30120 3) $A24.95 (limp).

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE (Second edition) by A. Goudie. 23 × 15 cm, xi and 258 pages. Oxford University Press: Oxford 1983 (ISBN 0 19 874135 9) A16.00 (limp).

MEGA‐GEOMORPHOLOGY edited by R. Gardner and H. Scoging. 16 × 24 cm, xiii and 240 pages. Oxford University Press: Oxford (ISBN 0 19 823244 6) $A48.00.

GRANITE LANDFORMS by C. R. Twidale. 25 × 17 cm, xxiii and 372 pages. Elsevier: Amsterdam 1982 (ISBN 0 444 42116 5) $A148.25.     

Surface drag and turbulence over an inhomogeneous land surface

Data collected over an inhomogeneous semi-rural area are presented. The data are compared with previous surface-layer data to determine how representative the fixed-point flux measurements are of area averages. Departures from the standard surface-layer results are found to be relatively small (~10–20%), which supports the concept of a blending height above which the flow ceases to respond to variations in the underlying surface and becomes horizontally homogeneous.Effective roughness lengths are derived for different wind directions and the relationship between the effective roughness length and upwind surface is examined in the light of recent ideas on averaging surface roughness lengths. It is found that by averaging drag coefficients, realistic values of the effective roughness length can be calculated which are not very sensitive to the precise choice of the component roughness lengths.     

A note on the total mass of comets in the solar system

The assumption that the very low albedo determined for Halley's comet is typical of all short period comets, taken together with the assumption that the average sizes of long and short period comets are approximately equal, leads to an increase in the total mass of comets in the solar system by almost two orders of magnitude. If gravitational ejection from the Uranus - Neptune zone during the later phases of planet formation is indeed responsible for the classical Oort cloud between 10⁴–10¹⁵ AU, then the mass of comets in this transplanetary region during cosmogonie times has to exceed the combined masses of Uranus and Neptune by over an order of magnitude. Furthermore, if the recent arguments for as many as 10¹⁴ comets in an inner Oort cloud between ~40– 10⁴AU are valid, then the total mass of comets in the solar system approaches 2% of a solar mass.     

The skin friction in the unsteady free-convection flow past an accelerated plate

In this paper the unsteady laminar free-convection flow of a viscous incompressible fluid, past an accelerated infinite vertical porous plate subjected to a constant suction (or injection) in considered. Numerical results for the skin-friction on the plate are obtained for the class of accelerated motions whose velocity is of the formU ₀ t ⁿ wheret is time,U ₀ a constant, andn is a positive integer. The skin friction tends to zero with increasingt when the Grashof number Gr=², the Prandtl number =1,n=0, and >0 which corresponds to suction.On leave of absence from the Department of Mathematics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.On leave from absence from the Department of Mathematics, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.     

The frequency of binaries with a degenerate component

The frequency of binaries with degenerate secondary components was evaluated according to the spectral types of the primaries. It appears that this proportion is 25% for binaries with giant primary components, and less than about 17% for dwarfs.Communication presented at the International Conference on Astrometric Binaries, held on 13–15 June, 1984, at the Remeis-Sternwarte Bamberg, Germany, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784–1846).     

Nuclear reactions on accreting neutron star surface

The production of X-rays and gamma-rays in bursts is believed to be due to the rapid burning of matter accreted onto a neutron star surface from its companion, most probably a giant star. The accreted matter consists mainly of hydrogen and helium and a very small amount of heavy elements. Due to the infall of matter, the temperature at the bottom layers is raised to a value of the order of 10⁸ K. The neutron star surface density is>10⁷ g cm^–3. As hydrogen burning is a slow process under any temperature and density conditions, we consider the helium-burning reactions as the source of gamma-rays in the neutron star surface. Under high-density conditions the ordinary laboratory reaction rates should become modified. At high-density conditions, the strong screening effect due to the polarising cloud of electrons around the ions become important and enhances the reaction rates considerably. The helium-burning reactions are calculated under such conditions. The abundances of helium-burning products such as¹²C, 1¹⁶O, and²⁰Ne, etc., are computed. Under high-density and temperature conditions carbon is found to be more abundant than oxygen. Neon is completely absent in almost all the relevant physical conditions in which a strong screening effect is operative. It is suggested that explosive burning of accreted helium of 10^–13 M will account for the observed energy of gamm-ray burst.