Stone run (block stream) formation in the Falkland Islands over several cold stages,deduced from cosmogenic isotope (10Be and 26Al) surface exposure dating

Cosmogenic isotope (¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al) surface exposure dating has been applied to valley‐axis and hillslope stone runs (relict periglacial block streams) and their source outcrops in the Falkland Islands, South Atlantic. The data indicate that stone runs are considerably older landforms than previously envisaged and afford no evidence that they are a product of the Last Glacial Maximum; the samples range in apparent ¹⁰Be age from 42k to 731k yr BP, but some of these are minima. The results indicate that valley‐axis stone runs may be up to 700–800k yr old, have simple exposure histories and are composite landforms that developed over several cold stages. Analyses of some hillslope and outcrop samples also demonstrate simple exposure histories with ¹⁰Be ages from 42k to 658k yr BP. In contrast, isotopic ratios from other hillslope and outcrop samples reveal they have had a complex exposure history involving periods of burial or shielding; the samples range in ¹⁰Be age from 59k to 569k yr BP and these are regarded as minimum age estimates. Larger stone runs may be older than smaller runs and there is a possibility that stone runs older than 800k yr exist in other parts of the Falklands. The assertion that glaciation in the Falklands was restricted to the highest uplands is supported by the data, and the potential for age determination of other boulder‐strewn and bedrock landforms, using cosmogenic isotope analysis, in order to extend the geochronology of Quaternary events and processes is noted. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Plasma instability at the inner edge of the accretion disk—I

In this paper, the analytical and numerical results of the stability analysis of the accretion disk at the inner boundary is presented. Including the effect of finite conductivity in the disk dynamics, a simple calculation considering only the radial perturbation has been carried out. Within local approximation, it is concluded that the disk is stable to Kelvin-Helmholtz and resistive electromagnetic modes whereas the magnetosonic mode can destabilise the disk structure.     

Plasma instability at the inner edge of the accretion disk— II

A two-dimensional instability analysis for a magneto-keplerian disk flow around a compact object is presented here. Using the eigenvalue technique, linearly coupled perturbed equations have been numerically solved within the local approximation. It is concluded that Kelvin-Helmholtz, magnetosonic (fast and slow) and resistive electromagnetic modes exist. However, only the magnetosonic mode can destabilise the disk structure. Further, we discuss the properties of different modes as a function of disk parameters and plot the eigenmode structures for different physical quantities.     

Magnetohydrodynamic instabilities and turbulence in accretion disks

In this paper we review the possibilities for magnetohydrodynamic processes to handle the angular momentum transport in accretion disks. Traditionally the angular momentum transport has been considered to be the result of turbulent viscosity in the disk, although the Keplerian flow in accretion disks is linearly stable towards hydrodynamic perturbations. It is on the other hand linearly unstable to some magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities. The most important instabilities are the Parker and Balbus-Hawley instabilities that are related to the magnetic buoyancy and the shear flow, respectively. We discuss these instabilities not only in the traditional MHD framework, but also in the context of slender flux tubes, that reduce the complexity of the problem while keeping most of the stability properties of the complete problem. In the non-linear regime the instabilities produce turbulence. Recent numerical simulations describe the generation of magnetic fields by a dynamo in the resulting turbulent flow. Eventually such a dynamo may generate a global magnetic field in the disk. The relation of the MHD-turbulence to observations of accretion disks is still obscure. It is commonly believed that magnetic fields can be highly efficient in transporting the angular momentum, but emission lines, short-time scale variability and non-thermal radiation, which a stellar astronomer would take as signs of magnetic variability, are more commonly observed during periods of low accretion rates. Received October 12, 1995 / Accepted November 16, 1995     

Broad Iron Lines in AGN and X-Ray Binaries

Several AGN and black hole X-ray binaries show a clear very broad iron line, which is strong evidence that the black holes are rapidly spinning. Detailed analysis of these objects shows that the emission line is not significantly affected by absorption and that the source variability is principally due to variation in amplitude of a power-law. Underlying this is a much less variable, relativistically-smeared, reflection-dominated, component which carries the imprint of strong gravity at a few gravitational radii. The strong gravitational light bending in these regions then explains the power-law variability as due to changes in height of the primary X-ray source above the disc. The reflection component, in particular its variability and the profile of the iron line, enables us to study the innermost regions around an accreting, spinning, black hole.     

Anomalous X-ray pulsars: persistent states with fallback disks

The anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61 was recently detected in the mid infrared bands with the SPITZER Observatory (Wang, Chakrabarty and Kaplan: Nature 440, 772 (2006)). This observation is the first instance for a disk around an AXP. From a reanalysis of optical and infrared data, we show that the observations indicate that the disk is likely to be an active disk rather than a passive dust disk beyond the light cylinder, as proposed in the discovering paper. Furthermore, we show that the irradiated accretion disk model can also account for all the optical and infrared observations of the anomalous X-ray pulsars in the persistent state.     

用钢粒取心钻进钻穿孤石的方法

本文通过在厦门地区大直径桩孔钻遇“孤石”的施工实践，总结了一套利用钢粒取心钻进“孤石”的技术方法，有效地解决了钻进“孤石”效率低，易偏斜，事故多的技术难题。