Gamma-ray bursts from stellar remnants: probing the Universe at high redshift     

Ralph A. M. J. Wijers  Joshua S. Bloom  Jasjeet S. Bagla  & Priyamvada Natarajan 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,294(1):L13-L17

A gamma-ray burst (GRB) releases an amount of energy similar to that of a supernova explosion, which combined with its rapid variability suggests an origin related to neutron stars or black holes. Since these compact stellar remnants form from the most massive stars not long after their birth, GRBs should trace the star formation rate in the Universe; we show that the GRB flux distribution is consistent with this. Because of the strong evolution of the star formation rate with redshift, it follows that the dimmest known bursts have z  ∼ 6, much above the value usually quoted and beyond the most distant quasars. This explains the absence of bright galaxies in well-studied GRB error boxes. The increased distances imply a peak luminosity of 8.3 × 10⁵¹ erg s⁻¹ and a rate density of 0.025 per million years per galaxy. These values are 20 times higher and 150 times lower, respectively, than are implied by fits with non-evolving GRB rates. This means either that GRBs are caused by a much rarer phenomenon than mergers of binary neutron stars, or that their gamma-ray emission is often invisible to us due to beaming. Precise burst locations from optical transients will discriminate between the various models for GRBs from stellar deaths, because the distance between progenitor birth place and burst varies greatly among them. The dimmest GRBs are then the most distant known objects, and may probe the Universe at an age when the first stars were forming.  相似文献   

Light curves of SN 1998A and comparison with similar unusual SNe     

Simon J. Woodings  rew J. Williams  Ralph Martin  Ronald R. Burman  & David G. Blair 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,301(1):L5-L9

Following the proposal by Damineli that the central object of Eta Carinae may be an early-type binary, we perform numerical simulations of the X-ray emission from colliding stellar winds. A synthetic light curve has been generated which qualitatively agrees with the recent X-ray variability, and provides further support for the binary model. In particular, the model predicts a rise in the observed X-ray emission towards periastron, followed by a sharp drop and subsequent recovery. This is indeed what is seen in the RXTE light curve, although some problems concerning the X-ray spectrum at periastron still need to be explained. The simulations suggest that the width of the periastron dip will provide strong constraints on the binary and stellar wind properties of the components of Eta Car.  相似文献   

A near-bottom geophysical traverse of the Reykjanes Ridge     

John S.F. Shih  Tanya Atwater  Marcia McNutt 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1978,39(1):75-83

We report here the results of a near-bottom geophysical survey of the Reykjanes Ridge, a mid-ocean ridge that is oriented obliquely to the perpendicular spreading direction. From a combination of the bathymetric profiles, side-scan sonar data, and regional bathymetric maps we infer that the present center of spreading is made up of a number of N15°E-trending en echelon ridge segments in the southern half of our survey area. Insufficient data prevent the identification of the spreading pattern in the northern half. The side-scan records show that the ridge flanks are highly fractured by inward-facing faults displaced 40 m or less and trending in a N21°E direction. The lack of side-scan features parallel to the spreading direction except in the southernmost portion of the survey area suggests that the ridge segments are not connected by transform faults in the usual sense. Although the mechanism by which en echelon ridge segments can be maintained during sea-floor spreading over time is unclear, similar patterns of crustal accretion have been reported on Iceland. It appears that the accretionary processes along the Reykjanes Ridge are more related to those of Iceland than to those of typical mid-ocean ridges.  相似文献   

Compaction of Argillaceous Sediments (Developments in Sedimentology 16): H.H. Rieke III and G.V. Chilingarian. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1974, 424 pp., Dfl. 85.00     

Ralph E. Grim 《Journal of Geochemical Exploration》1975,4(3):389-390

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An aircraft study of turbulence dissipation rate and temperature structure function in the unstable marine atmospheric boundary layer     

C. W. Fairall  Ralph Markson  G. E. Schacher  K. L. Davidson 《Boundary-Layer Meteorology》1980,19(4):453-469

The dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy, , and the temperature structure function parameter, C _T ², have been measured over water from the near surface (Z = 3 m) to the top of the boundary layer. The near surface values of and C _T ² were used to calculate the velocity and temperature Monin-Obukhov scaling parameters u _* and T _*. The data collected during unstable lapse rates were used to evaluate the feasibility of extrapolating the values of and C _T ² as a function of height with empirical scaling formulae. The dissipation rate scaling formula of Wyngaard et al. (l971 a) gave a good fit to an average of the data for Z < 0.8 Z _i. In the surface layer the scaling formula of Wyngaard et al. (1971b) disagreed with the C _T ² values by as much as 50%. This disagreement is due to an unexpected reduction in the measured values of C _T ² forZ < 30 m. At this point it is not clear if the discrepancy is a unique property of the marine boundary layer or if it is simply some unknown instrumental or analytical problem. The mixed layer scaling results were similar to the overland results of Kaimal et al. (1976).  相似文献   

Depositional environments of some Pleistocene coastal terrace deposits,southwestern Oregon—case history of a progradational beach and dune sequence     

Ralph E. Hunter 《Sedimentary Geology》1980,27(4):241-262

Pleistocene coastal terrace deposits exposed in sea cliffs near Gold Beach, Oregon can be divided into four stratigraphic units: a basal gravelly unit and three overlying sandy units, each with mud beds, a paleosol, or the modern soil in its uppermost part. The gravelly unit consists of gravel and sand in its lower part, sand, in part pebbly or cobbly, in its middle part, and mud and sand in its upper part. Black sand and transported pieces of wood are common in the middle part of the unit, and wood is common in the mud. This unit is interpreted as a progradational deposit including environments ranging from lower forebeach at the base to backbeach flats and streams at the top.The main sandy parts of the sandy units are made up of a crossbedded sand facies, the dominant structure in which is medium-scale crossbedding, and an irregularly bedded sand facies, which is locally pebbly and is dominated by scour-and-fill structures. Deciding between shallow marine and eolian interpretations of the sandy units proved exceptionally difficult until modern analogues were found in the fine details of the internal structures. Largely on the basis of such structural details, the crossbedded sand facies is interpreted as the product of small eolian dunes, and the irregularly bedded sand facies is interpreted as deposits of interdune ephemeral streams, ephemeral ponds, and wet to dry subaerial flats. The mud beds and paleosols at the tops of the sandy units represent times of temporary stabilization of the dune field.  相似文献   

Letter to the Editor     

Ralph L. Seiler 《Ground water》1998,36(5):710-710

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Design of Ground–Water Level Observation–Well Programs     

Ralph C. Heath 《Ground water》1976,14(2):71-77

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Détermination de ${}^{87}\text{Sr}{}^{86}$Sr dans les andésites cénozoïques et les laves associées de Sardaigne Nord occidentale (Italie)     

C Dupuy  R.H McNutt  C Coulon 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》1974,38(8):1287-1296

Initial isotopic ratios of strontium have been determined in some calc-alkali rocks of Sardinia. The values of these ratios are from 0.7044 and 0.7047 in two basalts, and from 0.7063 to 0.7081 in five andesites. A dacite and a rhyolite have intermediate values of 0.7056 and 0.7058.It is suggested that increase of radiogenic strontium in andesite is most likely related to a contamination process involving water expelled from an underthrusting plate. This water also contributes to the increase in the potassium and related trace element contents in andesites.In spite of the${}^{87}\text{Sr}{}^{86}$Sr difference between basalt and andesite, a cogenetic relationship between these two kinds of rocks cannot be precluded  相似文献   

Hydrocarbon lakes on Titan     

Giuseppe Mitri  Adam P. Showman  Ralph D. Lorenz 《Icarus》2007,186(2):385-394

The Huygens Probe detected dendritic drainage-like features, methane clouds and a high surface relative humidity (∼50%) on Titan in the vicinity of its landing site [Tomasko, M.G., and 39 colleagues, 2005. Nature 438, 765-778; Niemann, H.B., and 17 colleagues, 2005. Nature 438, 779-784], suggesting sources of methane that replenish this gas against photo- and charged-particle chemical loss on short (10-100) million year timescales [Atreya, S.K., Adams, E.Y., Niemann, H.B., Demick-Montelara, J.E., Owen, T.C., Fulchignoni, M., Ferri, F., Wilson, E.H., 2006. Planet. Space Sci. In press]. On the other hand, Cassini Orbiter remote sensing shows dry and even desert-like landscapes with dunes [Lorenz, R.D., and 39 colleagues, 2006a. Science 312, 724-727], some areas worked by fluvial erosion, but no large-scale bodies of liquid [Elachi, C., and 34 colleagues, 2005. Science 308, 970-974]. Either the atmospheric methane relative humidity is declining in a steady fashion over time, or the sources that maintain the relative humidity are geographically restricted, small, or hidden within the crust itself. In this paper we explore the hypothesis that the present-day methane relative humidity is maintained entirely by lakes that cover a small part of the surface area of Titan. We calculate the required minimum surface area coverage of such lakes, assess the stabilizing influence of ethane, and the implications for moist convection in the atmosphere. We show that, under Titan's surface conditions, methane evaporates rapidly enough that shorelines of any existing lakes could potentially migrate by several hundred m to tens of km per year, rates that could be detected by the Cassini orbiter. We furthermore show that the high relative humidity of methane in Titan's lower atmosphere could be maintained by evaporation from lakes covering only 0.002-0.02 of the whole surface.  相似文献