Asteroid motion near the 3 : 1 resonance

A mapping model is constructed to describe asteroid motion near the 3 : 1 mean motion resonance with Jupiter, in the plane. The topology of the phase space of this mapping coincides with that of the real system, which is considered to be the elliptic restricted three body problem with the Sun and Jupiter as primaries. This model is valid for all values of the eccentricity. This is achieved by the introduction of a correcting term to the averaged Hamiltonian which is valid for small values of the ecentricity.We start with a two dimensional mapping which represents the circular restricted three body problem. This provides the basic framework for the complete model, but cannot explain the generation of a gap in the distribution of the asteroids at this resonance. The next approximation is a four dimensional mapping, corresponding to the elliptic restricted problem. It is found that chaotic regions exist near the 3 : 1 resonance, due to the interaction between the two degrees of freedom, for initial conditions close to a critical curve of the circular model. As a consequence of the chaotic motion, the eccentricity of the asteroid jumps to high values and close encounters with Mars and even Earth may occur, thus generating a gap. It is found that the generation of chaos depends also on the phase (i.e. the angles andv) and as a consequence, there exist islands of ordered motion inside the sea of chaotic motion near the 3 : 1 resonance. Thus, the model of the elliptic restricted three body problem cannot explain completely the generation of a gap, although the density in the distribution of the asteroids will be much less than far from the resonance. Finally, we take into account the effect of the gravitational attraction of Saturn on Jupiter's orbit, and in particular the variation of the eccentricity and the argument of perihelion. This generates a mixing of the phases and as a consequence the whole phase space near the 3 : 1 resonance becomes chaotic. This chaotic zone is in good agreement with the observations.     

H2 in interstellar and extragalactic ices: infrared characteristics, ultraviolet production, and implications

H2 is the most abundant molecule in the universe. We demonstrate that this molecule may be an important component of interstellar and possibly intergalactic ices, both because it can be formed in situ, within the ices, and because gas phase H2 can freeze out onto dust grains in some astrophysical environments. The condensation-sublimation and infrared spectral properties of ices containing H2 are presented. We show that solid H2 in H20-rich ices can be detected by an infrared absorption band at 4137 cm-1 (2.417 micrometers). The surface binding energy of H2 to H2O ice was measured to the delta Hs/k = 555 +/- 35 K. Surface binding energies can be used to calculate the residence times of H2 on grain surfaces as a function of temperature. Some of the implications of these results are considered.     

Origin of the hydrocarbon component of carbonaceous chondrites: the star-meteorite connection

We report the results of an experiment that produced a residue which closely matches the hydrocarbon component of the Murchison carbonaceous chondrite. This experiment suggests that the parent material of the meteoritic component originated as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon species in carbon stars during their later stages of evolution. The experiments also indicate that the pathway from those formation sites to eventual incorporation into the meteorite parent body involved hydrogenation in a plasma in the solar nebula or in H II regions prior to the solar nebula. This model is consistent with what is known about the meteoritic hydrocarbon component including deuterium abundance, the observation of cosmic infrared emission bands best attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules, and the inherent stability of these molecules that allows their formation in stars and subsequent survival in the interstellar medium.     

Morphology and variability of helium line profiles in the P Cygni spectrum

The morphology and variability of 13 helium lines in the P Cygni optical spectrum have been studied in detail over a period of three years. It is found that most lines in the sample have often shown profiles with a complicated structure: discrete components are superposed on a broader underlying P Cyg profile. Multiple sets of components were frequently observed. The radial velocity of the discrete components varies with time. In this article the velocity evolution of two sets of components is studied in detail and the corresponding velocity laws are derived. It is found that the velocity variations in the helium and hydrogen discrete components are correlated. The recurrence timescale for the appearance of new helium components is estimated.An attempt is made for a qualitative interpretation of the obtained results.     

Propagation and absorption of cyclotron maser radiation in solar microwave spike bursts

It has been argued that the loss-cone-driven electron cyclotron maser instability can account for the properties of millisecond microwave spike bursts observed during some solar flares. However, as it propagates outward from the corona, maser radiation undergoes gyroresonance absorption when its frequency is a harmonic of the local electron-cyclotron frequency. Existing analytical models using slab geometries predict that this absorption should be sufficiently strong to prevent the radiation from being seen at the observed levels, except under highly restrictive conditions or for unrealistic plasma parameters. A more comprehensive analysis is presented here to determine if and when maser radiation can escape to produce microwave spike bursts. This analysis employs numerical raytracing and incorporates propagation and absorption of fundamental maser emission in a realistic model of a coronal flux loop. It is found that ranges of physical conditions do exist under which maser radiation can escape to an observer and that these conditions are much more limiting for fundamental emission in the extraordinary ()-mode than in the ordinary (o)-mode. Detailed investigation implies that escaping radiation in the -mode is highly directional and chiefly observable toward the center of the solar disk, while escapingo-mode radiation is found to emerge from the corona over a much wider range of directions, with some cases corresponding to radiation observable near the solar limb.     

The inverse planetary problem: a numerical treatment

The so-called inverse planetary problem can be stated as follows: given the distances from the centre, masses, and radii of (say) three planets of a planetary system, find the optimum polytropic index, mass, and radius of their star, and also other quantities of interest, which depend either explicitly or implicitly on the foregoing ones (e.g., central and mean density, central and mean pressure, central and mean temperature, etc.). It is hereafter tacitly assumed that the system is opaque with respect to observations concerning periods of planetary otbits; hence, we cannot have any relevant estimates due to the well-known period laws. In the present paper, the inverse planetary problem is treated numerically on the basis of the so-called global polytropic model, developed recently by the first author.     

The effect of non-thermal excitation and ionization on the hydrogen emission in impulsive solar flares

This is a quantitative investigation of the electron beam effect on the hydrogen line profiles and continuum intensity distribution during the impulsive phase of flares. The flaring atmosphere is suggested to be a hydrogenic one and its physical condition corresponds to the gas dynamics problem solution. The radiative transfer, steady-state and particle conservation equations are solved for the three-level hydrogen model atoms with continua. Return-current losses were neglected. Hydrogen line profiles are found to be slightly sensitive to nonthermal impacts with beam electrons in the cores and more sensitive in the wings. With the initial energy flux,F ₀, rising and energy spectral index, , decreasing, the wing intensities begin to increase, and the H lines are shown to have rather extended wings as is often observed. The hydrogen continua are shown to be strongly affected by nonthermal impacts. The bigger the value ofF ₀ and the smaller the value of , the greater absolute intensities of the hydrogen continua heads. This effect is more noticeable for the Balmer and Paschen continua. The head intensity slopes of them can be used for determination of these electron beam parameters on depths of the hydrogen emission origin and their following comparison with the same parameters for the coronal heights from the X-ray observations.     

Thermal conduction and modeling of static stellar coronal loops

We have modeled stellar coronal loops in static conditions for a wide range of loop length, plasma pressure at the base of the loop and stellar surface gravity, so as to describe physical conditions that can occur in coronae of stars ranging from low mass dwarfs to giants as well as on a significant fraction of the Main-Sequence stars.Three alternative formulations of heat conduction have been used in the energy balance equation, depending on the ratio ₀/L _Tbetween electron mean free path and temperature scale height: Spitzer's formulation for ₀/L _Tless than 2 × 10^–3, the Luciani, Mora, and Virmont non-local formulation for ₀/L _Tbetween 2 × 10^–3 and 6.67 × 10^–3 and the limited free-streaming formulation for ₀/L _Tlarger than 6.67 × 10^–3.We report the characteristics of all loop models studied, and present examples to illustrate how the temperature and density stratification can be drastically altered by the different conductivity regimes. Significant differences are evident in the differential emission measure distribution vs temperature, an important observable quantity. We also show how physical conditions of coronal plasma, and in particular thermal conduction, change with stellar surface gravity.We have found that, for fixed loop length and stellar gravity, a minimum of loop-top plasma temperature occurs, corresponding to the highest value of base plasma pressure for which the limited free-streaming conduction occurs. This value of temperature satisfies the appropriate scalingT 10^–9 L g, in cgs units.     

Radiation pressure effects in the oscillations of compressible rotating homogeneous spheroids

Earlier models of compressible, rotating, and homogeneous ellipsoids with gas pressure are generalized to include the presence of radiation pressure. Under the assumptions of a linear velocity field of the fluid and a bounded ellipsoidal surface, the dynamical behaviour of these models can be described by ordinary differential equations. These equations are used to study the finite oscillations of massive radiative models with masses 10M and 30M in which the effects of radiation pressure are expected to be important.Models with two different degrees of equilibrium are chosen: an equilibrium (i.e., dynamically stable) model with an initial asymmetric inward velocity, and a nonequilibrium model with a nonequilibrium central temperature and which falls inwards from rest. For each of these two degrees of equilibrium, two initial configurations are considered: rotating spheroidal and nonrotating spherical models.From the numerical integration of the differential equations for these models, we obtain the time evolution of their principal semi-diametersa ₁ anda ₃, and of their central temperatures, which are graphically displayed by making plots of the trajectories in the (a ₁,a ₃) phase space, and of botha ₁ and the total central pressureP _c against time.It is found that in all the equilibrium radiative models (in which radiation pressure is taken into account), the periods of the oscillations of botha ₁ andP _c are longer than those of the corresponding nonradiative models, while the reverse is true for the nonequilibrium radiative models. The envelopes of thea ₁ oscillations of the equilibrium radiative models also have much longer periods; this result also holds for the nonequilibrium models whenever the envelope is well defined. Further, as compared to the nonradiative models, almost all the radiative models collapse to smaller volumes before rebouncing, with the more massive model undergoing a larger collapse and attaining a correspondingly larger peakP _c.When the mass is increased, the dynamical behavior of the radiative model generally becomes more nonperiodic. The ratio of the central radiation pressure to the central gas pressure, which is small for low mass models, increases with mass, and at the center of the more massive model, the radiation pressure can be comparable in magnitude to the gas pressure. In all the radiative models, the average periods as well as the average amplitudes of both thea ₁ andP _c oscillations also increase with mass.When either rotation or radiation pressure effects or both are included in the equilibrium nonradiative model, the period of the envelope of thea ₁ oscillations is increased. The presence of rotation in the equilibrium radiative model, however, decreases this period.Some astrophysical implications of this work are briefly discussed.     

The effect of Antarctic O3 decline on night airglow intensity of Na5893Å, O5577Å, OH emissions and its correlation with total solar flare numbers

The paper presents the effect of O₃ depletion on different night airglow emission lines. Calculations based on chemical kinetics show that the airglow intensity of Na5893Å, O5577Å and OH band emissions will also be affected due to the depletion of O₃ concentration. Intensity of Na5893Å is calculated theoretically for Halley Bay (76° S,27° W), British Antarctic Survey Station, during the period 1973 to 1984. It is concluded from the covariation of different emission lines that O5577Å and OH emissions also follow the same trend of variation. A study has been made to find the correlation between the depletion of O₃ concentration and total solar flare numbers. Important results are as follows: