Cross-scale: multi-scale coupling in space plasmas

Most of the visible universe is in the highly ionised plasma state, and most of that plasma is collision-free. Three physical phenomena are responsible for nearly all of the processes that accelerate particles, transport material and energy, and mediate flows in systems as diverse as radio galaxy jets and supernovae explosions through to solar flares and planetary magnetospheres. These processes in turn result from the coupling amongst phenomena at macroscopic fluid scales, smaller ion scales, and down to electron scales. Cross-Scale, in concert with its sister mission SCOPE (to be provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency—JAXA), is dedicated to quantifying that nonlinear, time-varying coupling via the simultaneous in-situ observations of space plasmas performed by a fleet of 12 spacecraft in near-Earth orbit. Cross-Scale has been selected for the Assessment Phase of Cosmic Vision by the European Space Agency.      

Averaging on the motion of a fast revolving body. Application to the stability study of a planetary system

Exploring the global dynamics of a planetary system involves computing integrations for an entire subset of its parameter space. This becomes time-consuming in presence of a planet close to the central star, and in practice this planet will be very often omitted. We derive for this problem an averaged Hamiltonian and the associated equations of motion that allow us to include the average interaction of the fast planet. We demonstrate the application of these equations in the case of the μ Arae system where the ratio of the two fastest periods exceeds 30. In this case, the effect of the inner planet is limited because the planet’s mass is one order of magnitude below the other planetary masses. When the inner planet is massive, considering its averaged interaction with the rest of the system becomes even more crucial.     

Results from the Huygens probe on Titan

The Cassini–Huygens mission, comprising the NASA Saturn Orbiter and the ESA Huygens Probe, arrived at Saturn in late June 2004. The Huygens probe descended under parachute in Titan’s atmosphere on 14 January 2005, 3 weeks after separation from the Orbiter. We discuss here the breakthroughs that the Huygens probe, in conjunction with the Cassini spacecraft, brought to Titan science. We review the achievements ESA’s Huygens probe put forward and the context in which it operated. The findings include new localized information on several aspects of Titan science: the atmospheric structure and chemical composition; the aerosols distribution and content; the surface morphology and composition at the probe’s landing site; the winds, the electrical properties, and the implications on the origin and evolution of the satellite.     

The 2006/2007 photometric activity of three chromospherically active stars: V2075 Cyg,FG UMa and BM CVn

We present new multiband CCD photometric observations of three chromospherically active stars with long periods (V2075 Cyg, FG UMa and BM CVn). The observations were made at the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Observatory in 2006 and 2007. We analyzed BVRI (Bessell) CCD observations of these three RS CVn-type SB1 binaries with the following three steps: (i) Photometric rotation periods were obtained by analyzing their light variations with a differential corrections method and a Fourier transform technique. (ii) Light variations, observed over three or more consecutive orbital cycles, were investigated by using dark (cool) spot models with the program SPOT. (iii) Surface differential rotation coefficients for the primary components of these binaries were derived using our own photometric periods together with orbital periods taken from the literature.     

High-temporal resolution multimode photospectropolarimeter

A hardware and software complex of the MANIA experiment designed to search for and study the photometric variability of astrophysical objects with a temporal resolution of 10^?6 s is described. The panoramic photospectropolarimeter uses interchangeable optical units, which allow the observations to be performed in four modes—spectroscopic, spectropolarimetric, photometric, and polarimetric. A coordinate—sensitive detector equipped with a set of microchannel plates is capable of recording flux fluctuations from objects and comparison stars simultaneously in different photometric bands and in different polarization planes. The Quantochron 4–48 data acquisition facility operating on line with a computer acquires observational data with a temporal resolution of 1microsecond. The methods of analysis of panoramic data with high temporal resolution are discussed.     

Near-IR age-dating of red supergiant-dominated stellar populations

We present new spectral synthesis models for solar metallicity stellar populations, based on a library of stellar spectra that extends across near-IR wavelengths out to 2.4 µm at a resolution approaching 1000. We show that the spectra of massive star clusters in the starburst galaxy M 82 can be reproduced very well with these models. We compare near-IR spectroscopic ages with optical ages, and discuss the main sources of (systematic) errors that still affect those ages.     

The mass-to-light ratio of rich star clusters

We point out a strong time evolution of the mass-to-light conversion factor, η, commonly used to estimate masses of unresolved star clusters from observed cluster spectrophotometric measures. We present a series of gas-dynamical models, coupled with the Cambridge stellar evolution tracks, to compute line-of-sight velocity dispersions and half-light radii weighted by the luminosity. We explore a range of initial conditions, varying in turn the cluster mass and/or density, and the stellar population’s initial mass function. We find that η, and hence the estimated cluster mass, may increase by as much as a factor of three over time-scales of 50 million yr. We apply these results to an hypothetic cluster mass distribution function (d.f.), and show that the d.f. shape may be strongly affected at the low-mass end by this effect. Fitting truncated isothermal (Michie–King) models to the projected light profile leads to over-estimates of the concentration parameter, c, of δ c≈0.3 compared to the same functional fit applied to the projected mass density.     

Scalar field cosmology with polytropic and causal viscous fluids

In this paper, we have considered a model for FRW space-time in the presence of coupled scalar field φ and potential V(φ) with causal viscous fluid and polytropic fluid. We have shown that irrespective of fluid the causality theory provides late time acceleration of the universe. In all cases, the potential always decreases due to evolution of the universe.     

Characterization of stabilized waste: Evaluation of pollution risk

This study relates to the characterization of stabilized waste. Various parameters such as granulometric distribution, percentage of mineral and organic matter were estimated to appreciate environmental hazard potential and possibility of metal leaching of the samples of waste from Grange site in France. From the results, it was shown that the granulometric distribution was variable. Therefore, a strong proportion of fines (44.6 %) and medium (45.9 %) was observed due to the age of waste that supports the degradation of a great quantity of organic matter. That was confirmed by the strong mineral matter rate (63.8 %) obtained to determine the organic percentage of matter (36.2 %). The amount of heavy metals such as iron, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium and lead was also studied. The results obtained were in a good agreement with the ones of the literature. Indeed, it appeared that iron, lead, copper, nickel and zinc are in relative strong proportion while cadmium was not very present. Iron represents 78 % of the metals. From the leaching tests, it was shown that the heavy metals concentration were very weak. Moreover, the deposit of studied waste could be a potential source of organic pollution (COD = 150 Mg C/L on average) in the case of precipitation and flood.     

浙江江山石炭-二叠系碳酸盐岩碳氧同位素特征研究

对浙江江山石头山剖面船山组、栖霞组碳酸盐岩进行了 C、O同位素测定. Mn/Sr比值、δ18O值和δ18O-δ13C散点图检验表明,所得同位素数据反映了碳酸盐岩的原始沉积特征.δ13C和δ18O值变化范围分别为- 5.4‰～ 4.4‰和- 12.2‰～- 5.6‰,平均值分别为 0.5‰和- 8.4‰ .在石炭纪-二叠纪分界线附近没有发生明显的同位素漂移现象.本区碳同位素地层曲线与根据沉积微相推断的海平面变化曲线十分吻合,表现为δ13C高值区海水变深.海水在剖面上的变化规律是浅-中等-较深-中等,相应的δ13C演化曲线表现为波谷段-具次级起伏的相对平缓段-波峰段-平缓段.栖霞组台坪相δ13C值大于船山组台坪相,而且曲线较平直,反映海水较深且环境较稳定.研究区地层记录中的海平面从早到晚逐渐增高,与全球海平面变化曲线不一致,可能与浙皖海盆发生过整体沉降有关.这一区域性差异也在碳同位素记录中得到印证,本区晚石炭世晚期-早二叠世早期δ13C值从老到新慢慢增大,最后再略为下降,演化趋势与 Veizer et al.的碳同位素年代演化曲线相反,说明碳同位素演化在一定程度上能反映区域地壳演变状况.