The second order characteristic condition for plastic flow

In this paper the second order characteristic (discontinuous bifurcation) condition is derived for the granular flow (fully plastic) equations. This second order bifurcation equation is shown to be formally identical to the first order localization requirement during steady elastoplastic deformation provided the elastic compliance tensor is substituted for the product of the plastic multiplier with the flow Hessian. For isotropic yield and flow functions the invariant form of the characteristic condition is given in detail, as well as an alternative expression in adapted co‐ordinates. The characteristic condition can be regarded as defining a hardening function which is maximized to identify the critical angles. When the method is applied to 3D Coulomb flow, Mohr's 3D fracture plane conditions are obtained uniquely. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cosmic structure growth and dark energy

Dark energy has a dramatic effect on the dynamics of the Universe, causing the recently discovered acceleration of the expansion. The dynamics are also central to the behaviour of the growth of large-scale structure, offering the possibility that observations of structure formation provide a sensitive probe of the cosmology and dark energy characteristics. In particular, dark energy with a time-varying equation of state can have an influence on structure formation stretching back well into the matter-dominated epoch. We analyse this impact, first calculating the linear perturbation results, including those for weak gravitational lensing. These dynamical models possess definite observable differences from constant equation of state models. Then we present a large-scale numerical simulation of structure formation, including the largest volume to date involving a time-varying equation of state. We find the halo mass function is well described by the Jenkins et al. mass function formula. We also show how to interpret modifications of the Friedmann equation in terms of a time-variable equation of state. The results presented here provide steps toward realistic computation of the effect of dark energy in cosmological probes involving large-scale structure, such as cluster counts, the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect or weak gravitational lensing.     

20颗依巴谷碳星的近红外测光

对20颗依巴谷(Hipparcos)卫星所观测的碳星作了近红外JHK测光，由近红外观测结果估算了其在K波段的热改正BCK和视热星等mbpl以及有效温度Te，结合依巴谷卫星所得视差，得到其中一些星的绝对热星等Mbol。     

Cosmological constraints from Chandra X-ray observations of galaxy clusters

Chandra X-ray observations of rich, dynamically relaxed galaxy clusters allow the properties of the X-ray gas and the total gravitating mass to be determined precisely. Here, we discuss how Chandra observations may be used as a powerful tool for cosmological studies. By combining Chandra X-ray results on the X-ray gas mass fractions in clusters with independent measurements of the Hubble constant and the mean baryonic matter density of the universe, we obtain a tight constraint on the mean total matter density of the universe, Ο_m, and an interesting constraint on the cosmological constant, Ο_Λ. Using these results, together with the observed local X-ray luminosity function of the most X-ray luminous galaxy clusters, a mass-luminosity relation determined from Chandra and ROSAT X-ray data and weak gravitational lensing observations, and the mass function predicted by numerical simulations, we obtain a precise constraint on the normalization of the power spectrum of density fluctuations in the nearby universe,σ₈. We compare our results with those obtained from other, independent methods. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.