Kinematics of Gas and Stars in 20 Disc Galaxies

In this paper we present the kinematics of the gas and/or the stars of a sample of 20 disc galaxies. We investigate whether there is any relation between the kinematics of the gas and stars and the classical morphological type of the galaxies in the sample. We deduce that, in most of the late-type spirals we have studied, the stars and the ionized gas are moving with virtually circular velocity, except when the spectroscopic slit crosses a bar region. On the other hand, we found in the central parts of early-type disc galaxies a wider variety of different behaviour of stars and gas. We find many possible factors that complicate the classification of the kinematical properties of the galaxies by their morphological type: the presence of counter-rotations (star vs. stars or star vs. gas), misalignment between the different kinematic components present in the galaxy, the presence of a bar structure and its orientation with respect to the line of nodes of the galaxy, and interactions and mergers or external accretion processes are some of the problems we find in the study of the kinematics of a galaxy.     

Importance of footing–soil separation on dynamic stiffness of piled embedded footings

Different phenomena such as soil consolidation, erosion, and scour beneath an embedded footing supported on piles may lead to loss of contact between soil and the pile cap underside. The importance of this separation on the dynamic stiffness and damping of the foundation is assessed in this work. To this end, a numerical parametric analysis in the frequency domain is performed using a rigorous three‐dimensional elastodynamic boundary element–finite element coupling scheme. Dimensionless plots relating dynamic stiffness functions computed with and without separation effects are presented for different pile–soil configurations. Vertical, horizontal and rocking modes of oscillation are analyzed for a wide range of dimensionless frequencies. It is shown that the importance of separation is negligible for frequencies below those for which dynamic pile group effects start to become apparent. Redistribution of stiffness contributions between piles and footing is also addressed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long–term Photometry of RT Lacertae: 2. Further Evidence fo a Circumstellar Envelope and MAss Accretion

The light curves, obtained by the authors of the present paper during the period 1978–1992, of the chromospherically active binary system RT Lac were examined. The average (B–V) colour indices were obtained and corrected for the interstellar extinction. Spectroscopic studies indicate that the less massive component may be taken as G8. The light curve analysis indicates that the less massive, larger component fills its corresponding Roche lobe. Both photometric and spectroscopic observations compel one to draw a conclusion that circumstellar matter does exist around the binary system. A colour excess caused by this matter is found to be 0.278 for B–V colour at mid–secondary eclipse. On the basis of photometric colour indices alone, the components of RT Lac are classified as G3–4 and G8. If we use the observed radial velocities of the less massive subgiant star from Ca II emission lines and from other optical lines we find for the mass of the more massive component as 1.34–1.70 M. This mass range corresponds to the main sequence late F stars. The common envelope hypothesis and mass function and also blending of the spectral lines of more massive component point out that it should be at most a late F type main sequence star.     

Space Charge Potentials in Cylindrical Geometries Including Temperature Effects

The analysis of space-charge in cylindrical geometries has been performed using kinetic theory. The current collected by central electrodes inmersed in plasmas with a discriminant grid has been determined through the Poisson equation and truncated Maxwellian distribution functions for the ions. The electrons are assumed to be repelled by the entrance grid. The non-linear adimensional equations have been solved approximately using linear expansion around the point with zero potential.     

Magnetization of celestial bodies with special application to the primeval Earth and Moon

The magnetic fields of celestial bodies are usually supposed to be due to a ‘hydromagnetic dynamo’. This term refers to a number of rather speculative processes which are supposed to take place in the liquid core of a celestial body. In this paper we shall follow another approach which is more closely connected with hydromagnetic processes well-known from the laboratory, and hence basically less speculative. The paper should be regarded as part of a general program to connect cosmical phenomena with phenomena studied in the laboratory. As has been demonstrated by laboratory experiments, a poloidal magnetic field may be increased by the transfer of energy from a toroidal magnetic field through kink instability of the current system. This mechanism can be applied to the fluid core of a celestial body. Any differential rotation will produce a toroidal field from an existing poloidal field, and the kink instability will feed toroidal energy back to the poloidal field, and hence amplify it. In the Earth-Moon system the tidal braking of the Earth's mantle acts to produce a differential angular velocity between core and mantle. The braking will be transferred to the core by hydromagnetic forces which at the same time give rise to a strong magnetic field. The strength of the field will be determined by the rate of tidal braking. It is suggested that the magnetization of lunar rocks from the period ?4 to ?3 Gyears derives from the Earth's magnetic field. As the interior of the Moon immediately after accretion probably was too cool to be melted, the Moon could not produce a magnetic field by hydromagnetic effects in its core. The observed lunar magnetization could be produced by such an amplified Earth field even if the Moon never came closer than 10 or 20 Earth's radii. This hypothesis might be checked by magnetic measurements on the Earth during the same period.     

Dust particle and solar radiation

Influence of the solar radiation (electromagnetic and corpuscular - solar wind) on the motion of the interplanetary dust particle is investigated. The ratio time of inspiralling toward the Sun: time of inspiralling neglecting the change of mass of the particle is presented as a function of initial eccentricities.     

Variations of Magnetic Bright Point Properties with Longitude and Latitude as Observed by Hinode/SOT G-band Data

Small-scale magnetic fields can be observed on the Sun in high-resolution G-band filtergrams as magnetic bright points (MBPs). We study Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) longitude and latitude scans of the quiet solar surface taken in the G-band in order to characterise the centre-to-limb dependence of MBP properties (size and intensity). We find that the MBP’s sizes increase and their intensities decrease from the solar centre towards the limb. The size distribution can be fitted using a log–normal function. The natural logarithm of the mean (μ parameter) of this function follows a second-order polynomial and the generalised standard deviation (σ parameter) follows a fourth-order polynomial or equally well (within statistical errors) a sine function. The brightness decrease of the features is smaller than one would expect from the normal solar centre-to-limb variation; that is to say, the ratio of a MBP’s brightness to the mean intensity of the image increases towards the limb. The centre-to-limb variations of the intensities of the MBPs and the quiet-Sun field can be fitted by a second-order polynomial. The detailed physical process that results in an increase of a MBP’s brightness and size from Sun centre to the limb is not yet understood and has to be studied in more detail in the future.     

Periodic orbits in the restricted four-body problem with two equal masses

The restricted (equilateral) four-body problem consists of three bodies of masses m ₁, m ₂ and m ₃ (called primaries) lying in a Lagrangian configuration of the three-body problem i.e., they remain fixed at the apices of an equilateral triangle in a rotating coordinate system. A massless fourth body moves under the Newtonian gravitation law due to the three primaries; as in the restricted three-body problem (R3BP), the fourth mass does not affect the motion of the three primaries. In this paper we explore symmetric periodic orbits of the restricted four-body problem (R4BP) for the case of two equal masses where they satisfy approximately the Routh’s critical value. We will classify them in nine families of periodic orbits. We offer an exhaustive study of each family and the stability of each of them.     

Universe models with negative bulk viscosity

The concept of negative temperatures has occasionally been used in connection with quantum systems. A recent example of this sort is reported in the paper of S. Braun et al. (Science 339:52, 2013), where an attractively interacting ensemble of ultracold atoms is investigated experimentally and found to correspond to a negative-temperature system since the entropy decreases with increasing energy at the high end of the energy spectrum. As the authors suggest, it would be of interest to investigate whether a suitable generalization of standard cosmological theory could be helpful, in order to elucidate the observed accelerated expansion of the universe usually explained in terms of a positive tensile stress (negative pressure). In the present note we take up this basic idea and investigate a generalization of the standard viscous cosmological theory, not by admitting negative temperatures but instead by letting the bulk viscosity take negative values. Evidently, such an approach breaks standard thermodynamics, but may actually be regarded to lead to the same kind of bizarre consequences as the standard approach of admitting the equation-of-state parameter w to be less than ?1. In universe models dominated by negative viscosity we find that the fluid’s entropy decreases with time, as one would expect. Moreover, we find that the fluid transition from the quintessence region into the phantom region (thus passing the phantom divide w=?1) can actually be reversed. Also in generalizations of the ΛCDM-universe models with a fluid having negative bulk viscosity we find that the viscosity decreases the expansion of the universe.     

Galaxy destruction and diffuse light in clusters

Deep images of the Centaurus and Coma clusters reveal two spectacular arcs of diffuse light that stretch for over 100 kpc, yet are just a few kiloparsecs wide. At a surface brightness of m _b ∼27–28 mag arcsec⁻² , the Centaurus arc is the most striking example known of structure in the diffuse light component of a rich galaxy cluster. We use numerical simulations to show that the Centaurus feature can be reproduced by the tidal debris of a spiral galaxy that has been tidally disrupted by the gravitational potential of NGC 4709. The surface brightness and narrow dimensions of the diffuse light suggest that the disc was corotating with its orbital path past pericentre. Features this prominent in clusters will be relatively rare, although at fainter surface brightness levels the diffuse light will reveal a wealth of structure. Deeper imaging surveys may be able to trace this feature for several times its presently observed extent, and somewhere along the tidal debris, a fraction of the original stellar component of the disc will remain bound, but transformed into a faint spheroidal galaxy. It should be possible to confirm the galactic origin of the Centaurus arc by observing planetary nebulae along its length with redshifts close to that of NGC 4709.