Planetary growth with collisional fragmentation and gas drag

As planetary embryos grow, gravitational stirring of planetesimals by embryos strongly enhances random velocities of planetesimals and makes collisions between planetesimals destructive. The resulting fragments are ground down by successive collisions. Eventually the smallest fragments are removed by the inward drift due to gas drag. Therefore, the collisional disruption depletes the planetesimal disk and inhibits embryo growth. We provide analytical formulae for the final masses of planetary embryos, taking into account planetesimal depletion due to collisional disruption. Furthermore, we perform the statistical simulations for embryo growth (which excellently reproduce results of direct N-body simulations if disruption is neglected). These analytical formulae are consistent with the outcome of our statistical simulations. Our results indicate that the final embryo mass at several AU in the minimum-mass solar nebula can reach about ∼0.1 Earth mass within 10⁷ years. This brings another difficulty in formation of gas giant planets, which requires cores with ∼10 Earth masses for gas accretion. However, if the nebular disk is 10 times more massive than the minimum-mass solar nebula and the initial planetesimal size is larger than 100 km, as suggested by some models of planetesimal formation, the final embryo mass reaches about 10 Earth masses at 3-4 AU. The enhancement of embryos’ collisional cross sections by their atmosphere could further increase their final mass to form gas giant planets at 5-10 AU in the Solar System.     

Evolution of fibrils with special reference to flare activity

We show observational results on the pre-flare evolutions of H structures as well as the developments of H flares. It is shown that the chromospheric features are brought to a sheared state before flares due to motions of footpoints which correspond to particular sunspot motions. Generally in evolutions of the chromospheric features it is found that motions and reconnections of the footpoints play essential roles. The following three stages are found for development of the neutral line filament before flares: (1) formation of a filament as a result of reconnection; (2) increase of the shear of the filament due to the shear motion; and (3) reconnection of fine components of the filament to form an elongated component immediately before flares. We further show developments of two particular flares with and without the filament, and point out basic release processes of flares. The flare that occurred at the filament (July 5, 1974) started with the activation of the elongated component of the filament after the process (3). The main phase of a two-ribbon flare is considered as the rises of short components of the filament triggered by the rising motion of the elongated component. The flare of September 10, 1974 occurred at the region where fibrils connect the sunspots in distorted form. Pre-flare distortion was produced by translational rotation of the sunspot. Development of this two-ribbon flare is interpreted as being due to successive rises of the fibrils with a self-trigger mechanism.On leave from Tokyo Astronomical Observatory (present address).     

Size of the hard X-ray source in the Crab Nebula

The size of the hard X-ray source in the Crab Nebula was observed with scintillation counters on board two balloons at a lunar occulatation on 24 January, 1975. The Gaussian width of the source is 34 (+17, –14) and the center thereof is offset from the pulsar by 6±4 at position angle 102°. The observed time profile can also be fitted to an alternative model of two line sources whose intensities are 48% at 11 and 25.5% at 7 on both sides of the pulsar.Paper presented at the COSPAR Symposium on Fast Transients in X- and Gamma-Rays, held at Varna, Bulgaria, 29–31 May, 1975.     

Internal Gravity Waves Generated by a Local Thermal Source in an Irrotational Zonal－Vertical Plane：Numerical Analysis

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Efficiency of neutrino-induced radio measurements to inspect local areas of Enceladus

The Cassini probe observed a young and smooth surface around the south pole of Enceladus, while around the north pole the surface was found to be relatively old and inactive (Porco, C.C. et al. [2006]. Science 311, 1393–1401). This heterogeneous surface implies that the ice thickness of Enceladus is not uniform between the north and south polar regions. Determining the thickness of the icy layer is important to confirm the existence of an internal ocean as well as to reveal the heating mechanism of Enceladus. We show that the measurement of radio waves induced by cosmic neutrinos can be an effective method to constrain the ice thickness of a localized area where conventional gravity or electromagnetic field measurements cannot be used. This method could be used to constrain the thickness of the icy layer on Enceladus even if the ice is a few tens of kilometers thick, measuring over a period of several years, which greatly exceeds the ability of radar sounding, and hence could be used in future orbiter missions.     

Cyclic behavior of soils and numerical analyses in cold regions and seismic zones

The solutions of boundary value problems involving strain-softening material property contain serious difficulties from both modeling of strain-localization and a viewpoint of numerical procedure. Mesh size-dependent hardening modulus is considered to alleviate the mesh size-dependency of the solution. The elasto-plastic soil model with kinematic hardening model considering the cumulative deformation by cyclic loading is developed. In finite element analyses, the dynamic relaxation method combined with the generalized return-mapping algorithm is applied to the static drained and un-drained tri-axial tests and plane strain tests. The cyclic behavior of retaining wall problems by freeze and thaw in cold regions is also analyzed. Finally the dynamic progressive failure analysis of rockfill dam is carried out.     

High-resolution observations of solar radio bursts with multi-element compound interferometers at 3.75 and 9.4 GHz

High-resolution observations of solar radio bursts made simultaneously with multi-element compound interferometers at 3.75 and 9.4 GHz are presented.Preliminary results are: (1) The burst of December 16, 1967 showed a change in polarization distribution in the radio source, which suggests a magnetic field change in the source. (2) The existence of the multi-source burst is also confirmed at 3.75 GHz. (3) The source size of the impulsive burst is estimated to be 0.'5. (4) Among the GRF bursts there seem to be two kinds; one has a large angular size and the other has a small one.A brief discussion is given of the burst of December 16, 1967.