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At least 19 records

Late-time cosmological phase transitions

It is shown that the potential galaxy formation and large scale structure problems of objects existing at high redshifts (Z approx. greater than 5), structures existing on scales of 100 M pc as well as velocity flows on such scales, and minimal microwave anisotropies ((Delta)T/T) (approx. less than 10(exp -5)) can be solved if the seeds needed to generate structure form in a vacuum phase transition after decoupling. It is argued that the basic physics of such a phase transition is no more exotic than that utilized in the more traditional GUT scale phase transitions, and that, just as in the GUT case, significant random Gaussian fluctuations and/or topological defects can form. Scale lengths of approx. 100 M pc for large scale structure as well as approx. 1 M pc for galaxy formation occur naturally. Possible support for new physics that might be associated with such a late-time transition comes from the preliminary results of the SAGE solar neutrino experiment, implying neutrino flavor mixing with values similar to those required for a late-time transition. It is also noted that a see-saw model for the neutrino masses might also imply a tau neutrino mass that is an ideal hot dark matter candidate. However, in general either hot or cold dark matter can be consistent with a late-time transition.

Schramm, David N.↗

Domain wall formation in late-time phase transitions

We examine domain wall formulation in late time phase transitions. We find that in the invisible axion domain wall phenomenon, thermal effects alone are insufficient to drive different parts of the disconnected vacuum manifold. This suggests that domain walls do not form unless either there is some supplemental (but perhaps not unreasonable) dynamics to localize the scalar field responsible for the phase transition to the low temperature maximum (to an extraordinary precision) before the onset of the phase transition, or there is some non-thermal mechanism to produce large fluctuations in the scalar field. The fact that domain wall production is not a robust prediction of late time transitions may suggest future directions in model building.

Kolb, Edward W.↗

Causal compensated perturbations in cosmology

A theoretical framework is developed to calculate linear perturbations in the gravitational and matter fields which arise causally in response to the presence of stiff matter sources in a FRW cosmology. It is shown that, in order to satisfy energy and momentum conservation, the gravitational fields of the source must be compensated by perturbations in the matter and gravitational fields, and the role of such compensation in containing the initial inhomogeneities in their subsequent evolution is discussed. A complete formal solution is derived in terms of Green functions for the perturbations produced by an arbitrary source in a flat universe containing cold dark matter. Approximate Green function solutions are derived for the late-time density perturbations and late-time gravitational waves in a universe containing a radiation fluid. A cosmological energy-momentum pseudotensor is defined to clarify the nature of energy and momentum conservation in the expanding universe.

Veeraraghavan, Shoba↗

Thick strings, the liquid crystal blue phase, and cosmological large-scale structure

A phenomenological model based on the liquid crystal blue phase is proposed as a model for a late-time cosmological phase transition. Topological defects, in particular thick strings and/or domain walls, are presented as seeds for structure formation. It is shown that the observed large-scale structure, including quasi-periodic wall structure, can be well fitted in the model without violating the microwave background isotropy bound or the limits from induced gravitational waves and the millisecond pulsar timing. Furthermore, such late-time transitions can produce objects such as quasars at high redshifts. The model appears to work with either cold or hot dark matter.

Luo, Xiaochun↗

Analysis of transient, linear wave propagation in shells by the finite difference method

The applicability of the finite difference method to propagation problems in shells, and the response of a cylindrical shell with cutouts to both longitudinal and radial transient excitations are investigated. It is found that the only inherent limitation of the finite difference method is its inability to reproduce accurately response discontinuities. The short wave length limitations of thin shell theory create significant convergence difficulties may often be overcome through proper selection of finite difference mesh dimensions and temporal or spatial smoothing of the excitation. Cutouts produce moderate changes in early and intermediate time response of a cylindrical shell to axisymmetric pulse loads applied at one end. The cutouts may facilitate the undesirable late-time transfer of load-injected extensional energy into nonaxisymmetric flexural response.

Geers, T. L.↗

The propagation of solar cosmic-ray bursts.

Description of a model showing analytically the three phases of anisotropy which occur during solar cosmic-ray events in the 7.5 to 21 MeV kinetic-energy interval and reported by McCracken et al. (1971): (1) a highly anisotropic, near field-aligned, initial phase, (2) a convective phase, and (3) a late-time phase in which the anisotropy is approximately perpendicular to the mean interplanetary magnetic field. The model is based on the cosmic-ray particles being convectively transported out from the sun, undergoing anisotropic diffusion along the interplanetary magnetic-field lines, and losing energy by adiabatic deceleration or by collision processes. The event is seen simply as a pulse moving outward from the sun after a cosmic-ray burst with a negative density-gradient in front of it and a positive gradient behind.

Ng, C. K.↗

Test of the principle of operation of a wideband magnetic direction finder for lightning return strokes

The principle of operation of a wideband crossed-loop magnetic-field direction finder is studied by comparing the bearing determined from the NS and EW magnetic fields at various times up to 155 microsec after return stroke initiation with the TV-determined lightning channel base direction. For 40 lightning strokes in the 3 to 12 km range, the difference between the bearings found from magnetic fields sampled at times between 1 and 10 microsec and the TV channel-base data has a standard deviation of 3-4 deg. Included in this standard deviation is a 2-3 deg measurement error. For fields sampled at progressively later times, both the mean and the standard deviation of the difference between the direction-finder bearing and the TV bearing increase. Near 150 microsec, means are about 35 deg and standard deviations about 60 deg. The physical reasons for the late-time inaccuracies in the wideband direction finder and the occurrence of these effects in narrow-band VLF direction finders are considered.

Herrman, B. D.↗

Impact vaporization: Late time phenomena from experiments

While simple airflow produced by the outward movement of the ejecta curtain can be scaled to large dimensions, the interaction between an impact-vaporized component and the ejecta curtain is more complicated. The goal of these experiments was to examine such interaction in a real system involving crater growth, ejection of material, two phased mixtures of gas and dust, and strong pressure gradients. The results will be complemented by theoretical studies at laboratory scales in order to separate the various parameters for planetary scale processes. These experiments prompt, however, the following conclusions that may have relevance at broader scales. First, under near vacuum or low atmospheric pressures, an expanding vapor cloud scours the surrounding surface in advance of arriving ejecta. Second, the effect of early-time vaporization is relatively unimportant at late-times. Third, the overpressure created within the crater cavity by significant vaporization results in increased cratering efficiency and larger aspect ratios.

Schultz, P. H.↗

Is the great attractor really a great wall?

Some of the cosmological consequences of a late-time phase transition which produces light domain walls are discussed. The observed peculiar velocity field of the universe and the observed isotropy of the microwave backgroud radiation severely constrain the wall surface density in such as scenario: G(omega) less than about 0.0001 H0 (H0 is the present value of the Hubble parameter). The most interesting consequence of such a phase transition is the possibility that the local, coherent streaming motion of about 600 km/s reported by Dressler et al (1987) could be explained by the repulsive effect of a relic domain wall within the Hubble volume provided that G(omega)/H0 = 0.0001.

Stebbins, Albert↗

Characteristic microwave-background distortions from collapsing spherical domain walls

The redshift distortion induced by collapsing spherical domain walls is calculated. The most frequent microwave background distortions are found to occur at large angles in the form of blue disks. This is the angular region currently measured by the COBE satellite. COBE could therefore detect signals predicted here for domain walls with surface energy density of the order of MeV. Such values for sigma are proposed in the late-time phase-transition scenario of Hill et al. (1989).

Goetz, Guenter↗

Selective decay and coherent vortices in two-dimensional incompressible turbulence

Numerical solution of two-dimensional incompressible hydrodynamics shows that states of near minimal ratio of enstrophy to energy can be attained in times short compared with the flow decay time, confirming the simplest turbulent selective decay conjecture, and suggesting that coherent vortex structures do not terminate nonlinear processes. After all possible vortex mergers occur, the vorticity attains a particlelike character, suggested by the late-time similarity of the streamlines to Ewald potential contours.

Matthaeus, William H.↗

Late time cosmological phase transitions 1: Particle physics models and cosmic evolution

We described a natural particle physics basis for late-time phase transitions in the universe. Such a transition can seed the formation of large-scale structure while leaving a minimal imprint upon the microwave background anisotropy. The key ingredient is an ultra-light pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson with an astronomically large (O(kpc-Mpc)) Compton wavelength. We analyze the cosmological signatures of and constraints upon a wide class of scenarios which do not involve domain walls. In addition to seeding structure, coherent ultra-light bosons may also provide unclustered dark matter in a spatially flat universe, omega sub phi approx. = 1.

Frieman, Joshua A.↗

A stable procedure to calculate the transient scattering by conducting surfaces of arbitrary shape

In this paper, a solution procedure is presented to obtain the transient scattering by arbitrarily shaped conducting objects directly in the time-domain using the marching-on-in-time method. The late-time oscillations are eliminated by a simple stabilization procedure which involves negligible amount of extra computation. Numerical results for surface current density and far-scattered fields are given for various structures and compared with other methods.

Vechinski, Douglas A.↗

The three-dimensional evolution of a plane mixing layer - The Kelvin-Helmholtz rollup

The hydrodynamic evolution of an incompressible plane mixing layer is addressed to elucidate scalar mixing in free shear flows. A detailed description of the onset of three-dimensionality in a mixing layer before or in the absence of pairing is presented. Various simulations were performed to investigate the sensitivity of these results to variations in initial conditions. These variations included changes in amplitude, wavelength, functional form, and relative phasing of the initial low-wavenumber disturbances. Pierrehumber and Widnall's (1982) translative instability eigenfunctions are found to include rib vortices in the braid region and oppositely signed streamwise vorticity in the roller core. The translative instability is an instability of the late-time oversaturated flow. Three-dimensional perturbation growth similar to that of the translative instability can occur whenever spanwise vorticity is present in the braid region. The nonlinear effects that occur when the initial rib circulation is sufficiently high are discussed.

Rogers, Michael M.↗

Magellan observations of extended impact crater related features on the surface of Venus

The hydrodynamic evolution of an incompressible plane mixing layer is addressed to elucidate scalar mixing in free shear flows. A detailed description of the onset of three-dimensionality in a mixing layer before or in the absence of pairing is presented. Various simulations were performed to investigate the sensitivity of these results to variations in initial conditions. These variations included changes in amplitude, wavelength, functional form, and relative phasing of the initial low-wavenumber disturbances. Pierrehumber & Widnall's (1982) translative instability eigenfunctions are found to include rib vortices in the braid region and oppositely signed streamwise vorticity in the roller core. The translative instability is an instability of the late-time oversaturated flow. Three-dimensional perturbation growth similar to that of the translative instability can occur whenever spanwise vorticity is present in the braid region. The nonlinear effects that occur when the initial rib circulation is sufficiently high are discussed.

Campbell, D. B.↗

Photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 1990E in NGC 1035 - Observational constraints for models of type II supernovae

We present 126 photometric and 30 spectral observations of SN 1990E spanning from 12 days before B maximum to 600 days past discovery. These observations show that SN 1990E was of type II-P, displaying hydrogen in its spectrum, and the characteristic plateau in its light curve. SN 1990E is one of the few SNe II which has been well observed before maximum light, and we present evidence that this SN was discovered very soon after its explosion. In the earliest spectra we identify, for the first time, several N II lines. We present a new technique for measuring extinction to SNe II based on the evolution of absorption lines, and use this method to estimate the extinction to SN 1990E, A(V) = 1.5 +/- 0.3 mag. From our photometric data we have constructed a bolometric light curve for SN 1990E and show that, even at the earliest times, the bolometric luminosity was failing rapidly. We use the late-time bolometric light curve to show that SN 1990E trapped a majority of the gamma rays produced by the radioactive decay of Co-56, and estimate that SN 1990E ejected an amount of Ni-56 virtually identical to that of SN 1987A.

Schmidt, Brian P.↗

Long-lived artificial ion clouds in the earth's ionosphere

In two barium releases made over the Caribbean during the summer of 1991, the ion cloud was observed to last more than 10 hours. Observations were made with a low light level TV imager and a TV spectrograph operated onboard a Russian research vessel conducting ionospheric research and participating in the NASA-CRRES mission. The two clouds were observed near the release region for 15 to 25 minutes during the twilight following the initial release. One of the releases was made during evening twilight and the ion cloud reappeared the following morning, while the other was a morning release and the late-time observations made the next evening. The observations are highly surprising since, generally, it has been assumed that the ion cloud would dissipate within a few hours. However, the long life time appears consistent with current knowledge about dissipative processes. The long lifetime of barium ion clouds may provide for the most sensitive experimental testing of ionospheric convection models, a possibility with clear implications for future barium release experiments.

Milinevskij, G. P.↗