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At least 235 records · Page 13

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NASA NTRS1990

A technique for detecting massive collapsed objects in the dark halo of the Galaxy

If the Galaxy possesses a dark halo of massive objects, they will produce small but potentially detectable distortions in the images of distant, extended objects due to gravitational lensing effects. An illustrative analytic and a more realistic numerical model are presented for calculating the number and angular sizes of these distortions, and a specific example of a digital filter is described which could be used for the identification of such distortions. The sensitivity of possible searches for the effect in the image of M31 and the Galactic Center are discussed in some detail. Simulated images of distortions of various angular sizes in these fields as they would be expected to appear in ground-based and Space Telescope CCD frames are presented. A Galactic halo of black holes such as that proposed by Lacey and Ostriker might well be detectable ina practically realizable experiment.

Turner, Edwin L.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Tables and intercomparisons of evolutionary sequences of models for massive stars

Tables of evolutionary sequences of models for massive stars have been prepared for a variety of physical input parameters that are normally treated as free. These parameters include the interior convective mixing scheme, the mixing length in the outer convective envelope, the rate of stellar-wind mass loss, the initial stellar mass, and the initial chemical composition. Ranges of specified initial mass and initial chemical composition are M = 10-120 solar masses, Xe = 0.602-0.739, and Ze = 0.021-0.044. The tables cover evolution of the star from the ZAMS to either the end of core H burning or the end of core He burning. Differences among the evolutionary tracks are illustrated primarily in terms of the interior mixing scheme, since the amount and timing of stellar wind mass loss are still very uncertain for initial masses above about 30 solar masses.

Chin, Chao-Wen↗

NASA NTRS1989

Computational fluid dynamics on a massively parallel computer

A finite difference code was implemented for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations on the Connection Machine, a massively parallel computer. The code is based on the ARC2D/ARC3D program and uses the implicit factored algorithm of Beam and Warming. The codes uses odd-even elimination to solve linear systems. Timings and computation rates are given for the code, and a comparison is made with a Cray XMP.

Jespersen, Dennis C.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Performance effects of irregular communications patterns on massively parallel multiprocessors

A detailed study of the performance effects of irregular communications patterns on the CM-2 was conducted. The communications capabilities of the CM-2 were characterized under a variety of controlled conditions. In the process of carrying out the performance evaluation, extensive use was made of a parameterized synthetic mesh. In addition, timings with unstructured meshes generated for aerodynamic codes and a set of sparse matrices with banded patterns on non-zeroes were performed. This benchmarking suite stresses the communications capabilities of the CM-2 in a range of different ways. Benchmark results demonstrate that it is possible to make effective use of much of the massive concurrency available in the communications network.

Saltz, Joel↗

NASA NTRS1991

A biconjugate gradient type algorithm on massively parallel architectures

The biconjugate gradient (BCG) method is the natural generalization of the classical conjugate gradient algorithm for Hermitian positive definite matrices to general non-Hermitian linear systems. Unfortunately, the original BCG algorithm is susceptible to possible breakdowns and numerical instabilities. Recently, Freund and Nachtigal have proposed a novel BCG type approach, the quasi-minimal residual method (QMR), which overcomes the problems of BCG. Here, an implementation is presented of QMR based on an s-step version of the nonsymmetric look-ahead Lanczos algorithm. The main feature of the s-step Lanczos algorithm is that, in general, all inner products, except for one, can be computed in parallel at the end of each block; this is unlike the other standard Lanczos process where inner products are generated sequentially. The resulting implementation of QMR is particularly attractive on massively parallel SIMD architectures, such as the Connection Machine.

Freund, Roland W.↗

NASA NTRS1990

The Wolf-Rayet star population in the most massive giant H II regions of M33

Narrow-band images of NGC 604, NGC 595, and NGC 592, the most massive giant H II regions (GHRs) in M33 have been obtained, in order to study their Wolf-Rayet content. These images reveal the presence of nine candidates in NGC 604 (seven WN, two WC), 10 in NGC 595 (nine WN, one WC), and two in NGC 592 (two WN). Precise positions and estimated magnitudes are given for the candidates, half of which have so far been confirmed spectroscopically as genuine W-R stars. The flux in the emission lines of all candidates is comparable to that of normal Galactic W-R stars of similar subtype. A few of the putative superluminous W-R stars are shown to be close visual double or multiple stars; their newly estimated luminosities are now more compatible with those of normal W-R stars. NGC 595 seems to be overabundant in W-R stars for its mass compared to other GHRs, while NGC 604 is normal. Factors influencing the W-R/O number ratio in GHRs are discussed: metallicity and age appear to be the most important.

Drissen, Laurent↗

NASA NTRS1990

A search for charged massive particles in IMP 8 data

Data from the IMP 8 satellite are used here to rule out charged massive particles (CHAMPs) with masses between 2.4 and 56,000 TeV as the source of the dark matter in the Galactic halo. This limit is achieved under the assumption that CHAMPs are virialized.

Snowden-Ifft, D. P.↗

NASA NTRS1990

X-ray illuminated stellar winds - Ionization effects in the radiative driving of stellar winds in massive X-ray binary systems

This paper presents calculations of the effect of changing X-ray ionization conditions on the radiative force experienced by the stellar wind material in a massive X-ray binary system. The radiative line force from the radiation field of the primary is parameterized in terms of the Castor et al. (1975) force multiplier. The results show that the line force decreases sharply, but in a nonlinear way, with increasing X-ray ionization. The dynamic consequences of this effect are discussed.

Stevens, Ian R.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Circumstellar material around the massive close binary DH Cephei

The expanding atmosphere of the massive close binary DH Cephei is analyzed on the basis of data from ground-based polarimetry and spaceborne UV observations obtained with the IUE satellite. The mass loss from the system is estimated to be about 2 x 10 to the -6th solar mass/yr. This material can be divided into three classes: (1) wind material, which is hot gas driven from the stars via radiation pressure and reaching terminal velocity at a distance of 5a or greater; (2) scattering material, which may be the result of colliding winds or instabilities in the wind flow; and (3) small (0.1 micron) dust grains. The latter may originate in the cold high-density boundary formed as the wind from the binary plows into the ambient interstellar medium or, alternatively, may be the residue of the formation of stellar components.

Corcoran, M. F.↗

NASA NTRS1991

An efficient massively parallel Euler solver for unstructured grids

A data parallel mesh-vertex upwind finite-volume scheme for solving the Euler equations on triangular unstructured meshes is described. A novel vertex-based partitioning of the problem is introduced which minimizes the computation and communication costs associated with distributing the computation to the processors of a massively parallel computer. Finally, the performance of this unstructured computation on 8K processors of the Connection Machine CM-2 is compared with one processor of a Cray-YMP. The experiments show that 8K processors of the CM-2 achieve approximately 70 percent of the performance of one processor of the Cray-YMP on the unstructured mesh computations described here.

Hammond, Steven W.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Coincidence probabilities for spacecraft gravitational wave experiments - Massive coalescing binaries

Massive coalescing binary systems are candidate sources of gravitational radiation in the millihertz frequency band accessible to spacecraft Doppler tracking experiments. This paper discusses signal processing and detection probability for waves from coalescing binaries in the regime where the signal frequency increases linearly with time, i.e., 'chirp' signals. Using known noise statistics, thresholds with given false alarm probabilities are established for one- and two-spacecraft experiments. Given the threshold, the detection probability is calculated as a function of gravitational wave amplitude for both one- and two-spacecraft experiments, assuming random polarization states and under various assumptions about wave directions. This allows quantitative statements about the detection efficiency of these experiments and the utility of coincidence experiments. In particular, coincidence probabilities for two-spacecraft experiments are insensitive to the angle between the directions to the two spacecraft, indicating that near-optical experiments can be done without constraints on spacecraft trajectories.

Tinto, Massimo↗

NASA NTRS1991

Ordered fast Fourier transforms on a massively parallel hypercube multiprocessor

The present evaluation of alternative, massively parallel hypercube processor-applicable designs for ordered radix-2 decimation-in-frequency FFT algorithms gives attention to the reduction of computation time-dominating communication. A combination of the order and computational phases of the FFT is accordingly employed, in conjunction with sequence-to-processor maps which reduce communication. Two orderings, 'standard' and 'cyclic', in which the order of the transform is the same as that of the input sequence, can be implemented with ease on the Connection Machine (where orderings are determined by geometries and priorities. A parallel method for trigonometric coefficient computation is presented which does not employ trigonometric functions or interprocessor communication.

Tong, Charles↗

NASA NTRS1991

Massively parallel computing for the simulation of unsteady flows in turbomachinery

This paper deals with evaluating the capabilities of the massively parallel Connection Machine CM2 in predicting unsteady flows in turbomachines. The implementation on the CM2 of an implicit, time-accurate, zonal algorithm for the Navier-Stokes equations in two dimensions is described. Programming issues and modifications made to the original sequential algorithm to improve performance on the CM2 are briefly discussed. Performance is compared to a functionally equivalent code for the Cray YMP.

Madavan, Nateri K.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Computations on the massively parallel processor at the Goddard Space Flight Center

Described are four significant algorithms implemented on the massively parallel processor (MPP) at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Two are in the area of image analysis. Of the other two, one is a mathematical simulation experiment and the other deals with the efficient transfer of data between distantly separated processors in the MPP array. The first algorithm presented is the automatic determination of elevations from stereo pairs. The second algorithm solves mathematical logistic equations capable of producing both ordered and chaotic (or random) solutions. This work can potentially lead to the simulation of artificial life processes. The third algorithm is the automatic segmentation of images into reasonable regions based on some similarity criterion, while the fourth is an implementation of a bitonic sort of data which significantly overcomes the nearest neighbor interconnection constraints on the MPP for transferring data between distant processors.

Strong, James P.↗

NASA NTRS1991

X-ray-illuminated stellar winds - Optically thick wind models for massive X-ray binaries

The work of Stevens and Kallman (1990) on the effect of accretion-powered X-rays from the neutron star on the dynamics of the line-driven stellar wind of the early-type primary is extended. Radiative force multipliers that now depend on the column of attenuating material, as well as the ionization parameter, are calculated. Optical depth effects are found to suppress the effects of X-ray ionization on the force multipliers. A number of dynamical models for the winds of massive X-ray binary systems (MXRBs) are calculated with these force multipliers. Unlike the optically thin models, self-consistent dynamical solutions are found for reasonable values of the X-ray luminosity. These solutions also reveal the presence of nonlinear mechanisms that affect wind dynamics, whereby relatively small changes in the force multipliers can lead to significant changes in the wind structure. The models find the existence of a self-consistent region of solution at an X-ray luminosity of about 10 to the 36th ergs/s and suggest the possible existence of high-luminosity states.

Stevens, Ian R.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Performance effects of irregular communications patterns on massively parallel multiprocessors

Saltz, Joel↗

NASA NTRS1991

Wolf-Rayet stars of type WN/WC and mixing processes during core helium burning of massive stars

Consequences of the recent finding that most WN/WC spectra probably originate from individual Wolf-Rayet stars for the internal structure of massive stars are discussed. Numerical models including the effect of slow-down or prevention of convective mixing due to molecular weight gradients are presented, in which a transition layer with a composition mixture of H- and He-burning ashes is formed above the convective He-burning core. These models are able to qualitatively account for the observed WN/WC frequency and agree quantitatively with the only WN/WC-composition determination so far. It is argued that the same transition layer may be responsible for the final blue loop which the SN 1987 A progenitor performed some 10,000 yr before explosion. These results indicate that composition barriers may be efficient in restricting convection during central helium burning, in contrast to computations relying on the Schwarzschild criterion for convection, with or without overshooting.

Langer, N.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Ordered fast fourier transforms on a massively parallel hypercube multiprocessor

Design alternatives for ordered Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) algorithms were examined on massively parallel hypercube multiprocessors such as the Connection Machine. Particular emphasis is placed on reducing communication which is known to dominate the overall computing time. To this end, the order and computational phases of the FFT were combined, and the sequence to processor maps that reduce communication were used. The class of ordered transforms is expanded to include any FFT in which the order of the transform is the same as that of the input sequence. Two such orderings are examined, namely, standard-order and A-order which can be implemented with equal ease on the Connection Machine where orderings are determined by geometries and priorities. If the sequence has N = 2 exp r elements and the hypercube has P = 2 exp d processors, then a standard-order FFT can be implemented with d + r/2 + 1 parallel transmissions. An A-order sequence can be transformed with 2d - r/2 parallel transmissions which is r - d + 1 fewer than the standard order. A parallel method for computing the trigonometric coefficients is presented that does not use trigonometric functions or interprocessor communication. A performance of 0.9 GFLOPS was obtained for an A-order transform on the Connection Machine.

Tong, Charles↗