5533361
The Range of Masses and Periods Explored by Radial Velocity Searches for Planetary Companions
Radial velocity measurements have proven a powerful tool for finding planets in short-period orbits around other stars. In this paper we develop an analytical expression relating the sensitivity to a periodic signal to the duration and accuracy of a given set of data. The effects of windowing and the sensitivity to periods longer than the total length of observations are explored. We show that current observations are not yet long or accurate enough to make unambiguous detection of planets with the same mass and period as Jupiter. However, if measurements are continued at the current levels of accuracy (5 m s-1) for a decade, then planets of Jovian mass and brown dwarfs will either be detected or ruled out for orbits with periods less than ~15 yr. As specific examples, we outline the performance of our technique on large-amplitude and large-eccentricity radial velocity signals recently discussed in the literature, and we delineate the region explored by the measurements of 14 single stars made over a 12 yr period by Walker et al. Had any of these stars shown motion like that caused by the exoplanets recently detected, it would have been easily detected. The data set interesting limits on the presence of brown dwarfs at orbital radii of 5-10 AU. The most significant features in the Walker et al. data are apparent long-term velocity trends in 36 UMa and β Vir, consistent with super planets of mass of 2 MJ in a 10 yr period, or 20-30 MJ in a 50 yr period. If the data are free of long-term systematic errors, the probability of just one of the 14 stars showing this signal by chance is about 15%. Finally, we suggest an observing strategy for future large radial velocity surveys that, if implemented, will allow coverage of the largest range of parameter space with the smallest amount of observing time per star. We suggest that about 10-15 measurements be made of each star in the first 2 yr of the survey, then 2-3 measurements yr-1 thereafter, provided no (or slow) variation is observed. More frequent observations would of course be indicated if such variations were present.
16491613
VINE—A NUMERICAL CODE FOR SIMULATING ASTROPHYSICAL SYSTEMS USING PARTICLES. II. IMPLEMENTATION AND PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS
We continue our presentation of VINE. In this paper, we begin with a description of relevant architectural properties of the serial and shared memory parallel computers on which VINE is intended to run, and describe their influences on the design of the code itself. We continue with a detailed description of a number of optimizations made to the layout of the particle data in memory and to our implementation of a binary tree used to access that data for use in gravitational force calculations and searches for SPH neighbor particles. We describe the modifications to the code necessary to obtain forces efficiently from special purpose ‘GRAPE’ hardware, the interfaces required to allow transparent substitution of those forces in the code instead of those obtained from the tree, and the modifications necessary to use both tree and GRAPE together as a fused GRAPE/tree combination. We conclude with an extensive series of performance tests, which demonstrate that the code can be run efficiently and without modification in serial on small workstations or in parallel using the OpenMP compiler directives on large scale, shared memory parallel machines. We analyze the effects of the code optimizations and estimate that they improve its overall performance by more than an order of magnitude over that obtained by many other tree codes. Scaled parallel performance of the gravity and SPH calculations, together the most costly components of most simulations, is nearly linear up to at least 120 processors on moderate sized test problems using the Origin 3000 architecture, and to the maximum machine sizes available to us on several other architectures. At similar accuracy, performance of VINE, used in GRAPE-tree mode, is approximately a factor two slower than that of VINE, used in host-only mode. Further optimizations of the GRAPE/host communications could improve the speed by as much as a factor of three, but have not yet been implemented in VINE. Finally, we find that although parallel performance on small problems may reach a plateau beyond which more processors bring no additional speedup, performance never decreases, a factor important for running large simulations on many processors with individual time steps, where only a small fraction of the total particles require updates at any given moment. Subject headings: methods: numerical — methods: N-body simulations
117045776
Dynamics and observational appearance of circumstellar disks
In my thesis I present a study of the dynamics and observational characteristics of massive circumstellar disks in two dimensions ($r$, $\phi$) using two complimentary hydrodynamic codes: a `Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic' (SPH) code and a `Piecewise Parabolic Method' (PPM) code. I also study the detection limits available to radial velocity searches for low mass companions to main sequence stars. The thesis is organized as a series of published or submitted papers, connected by introductory and concluding material and is archived `for posterity'. I recommend that readers of this abstract obtain the published versions of each of these papers. I first outline the progress which has been made in the modeling of the structure and origins of the solar system, then in chapter 2 (ApJ 502,p342) I proceed with numerical simulations of circumstellar disks using both hydrodynamic codes assuming a `locally isothermal' equation of state. In chapter 4 (ApJ submitted) I relax the locally isothermal evolution assumption and instead include simple heating and cooling prescriptions for the system. In chapter 6 (ApJ 500,p940) I examine the limits which may be placed upon the detection of planets, brown dwarfs and low mass stellar companions using radial velocity measurements. In chapter 7, I outline several problems which may be profitably addressed by building on this work.
64863479
Dynamics of Core Accretion
We perform 3-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of gas flowing around a plan- etary core of mass Mpl=10Membedded in a near Keplerian background flow, using a modified shearing box approximation. We assume an ideal gas behavior following an equation of state with a fixed ratio of the specific heats, γ = 1.42, consistent with the conditions of a moderate temperature background disk with solar composition. No radiative heating or cooling is included in the models. We employ a nested grid hydrodynamic code implementing the 'Piecewise Parabolic Method' with as many as six fixed nested grids, providing spatial resolution on the finest grid comparable to the present day diameters of Neptune and Uranus. We find that a strongly dynamically active flow develops such that no static en- velope can form. The activity is not sensitive to plausible variations in the rotation curve of the underlying disk. It is sensitive to the thermodynamic treatment of the gas, as modeled by prescribed equations of state (either 'locally isothermal' or 'locally isentropic') and the temperature of the background disk material. The activity is also sensitive to the shape and depth of the core's gravitational potential, through its mass and gravitational softening coefficient. Each of these factors influence the magnitude and character of hydrodynamic feedback of the small scale flow on the background, and we conclude that accurate modeling of such feedback is critical to a complete understanding of the core accretion process. The varying flow pattern gives rise to large, irregular eruptions of matter from the region around the core which return matter to the background flow: mass in the envelope at one time may not be found in the envelope at any later time. No net mass accretion into the envelope is observed over the course of the simulation and none is expected, due to our neglect of cooling. Except in cases of very rapid cooling however, as defined by locally isothermal or isentropic treatments, any cooling that does affect the envelope material will have limited consequences for the dynamics, since the flow quickly carries cooled material out of the core's environment entirely. The angular momentum of material in the envelope, relative to the core, varies both in magnitude and in sign on time scales of days to months near the core and on time scales a few years at distances comparable to the Hill radius. The dynamical activity contrasts with the largely static behavior typically assumed within the framework of the core accretion model for Jovian planet formation. We show that material entering the dynamically active environment may suffer intense heating and cooling events the durations of which are as short as a few hours to a few days. Shorter durations are not observable in our work due to the limits of our resolution. Peak temperatures in these events range from T � 1000 K to as high as T � 3 4000 K, with densities ρ � 10 9 10 8 g/cm 3 . These time scales, densities and temperatures span a range consistent with those required for chondrule formation in the nebular shock model. We therefore propose that dynamical activity in the Jovian planet formation environment could be responsible for the production of chondrules and other annealed silicates in the solar nebula.
15725335
A Resolution Requirement for Disk Simulations Modeling Collapse
The accurate simulation of collapsed objects requires that a huge range of spatial scales be well resolved if the result is not to be contaminated by numerically induced fragmentation. In this context, `insufficient resolution' means comparable to the local instability wavelength in the system. I define a minimum resolution criterion for simulations of disk systems, using the critical wavelength appropriate for disks.
8914218
Rossby Wave Instability of Keplerian Accretion Disks
We find a linear instability of nonaxisymmetric Rossby waves in a thin nonmagnetized Keplerian disk when there is a local maximum in the radial profile of a key function (r)≡(r)S2/Γ(r), where −1=(∇×v)/Σ is the potential vorticity, S=P/ΣΓ is the entropy, Σ is the surface mass density, P is the vertically integrated pressure, and Γ is the adiabatic index. We consider in detail the special case where there is a local maximum in the disk entropy profile S(r). This maximum acts to trap the waves in its vicinity if its height-to-width ratio max(S)/Δr is larger than a threshold value. The pressure gradient derived from this entropy variation provides the restoring force for the wave growth. We show that the trapped waves act to transport angular momentum outward. A plausible way to produce an entropy variation is when an accretion disk is starting from negligible mass and temperature, therefore, negligible entropy. As mass accumulates by either tidal torquing, magnetic torquing, or Roche-lobe overflow, confinement of heat will lead to an entropy maximum at the outer boundary of the disk. Possible nonlinear developments from this instability include the formation of Rossby vortices and the formation of spiral shocks. What remains to be determined from hydrodynamic simulations is whether or not Rossby wave packets (or vortices) "hold together" as they propagate radially inward.
14275092
Horizontal, anomalous U(1) symmetry for the more minimal supersymmetric standard model
We construct explicit examples with a horizontal, {open_quotes}anomalous{close_quotes} U(1) gauge group, which, in a supersymmetric extension of the standard model, reproduce qualitative features of the fermion spectrum and CKM matrix, and suppress FCNC and proton decay rates without the imposition of global symmetries. We review the motivation for such {open_quotes}more{close_quotes} minimal supersymmetric standard models and their predictions for the sparticle spectrum. There is a mass hierarchy in the scalar sector which is the inverse of the fermion mass hierarchy. We show in detail why {Delta}S=2 FCNCs are greatly suppressed when compared with naive estimates for nondegenerate squarks. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
115621679
The MSSM without mu term
We propose a supersymmetric extension of the standard model which does not have a ``mu'' supersymmetric Higgs mass parameter. The matter content of the MSSM is extended with three additional chiral superfields: one singlet, an SU(2) triplet and a color octet, and an approximate U(1)_R symmetry naturally guarantees that tan(beta) is large, explaining the top/bottom quark mass hierarchy. Unlike in the MSSM, there are significant upper bounds on the masses of superpartners, including an upper bound of 114 GeV on the mass of the lightest chargino. However the MSSM bound on the lightest Higgs mass does not apply.
17751666
Lattice calculations for physics beyond the standard model
I review some recent theories of Physics Beyond the Standard Model whose development could benefit from lattice simulations.
119095145
Extended anomaly mediation and new physics at 10-TeV
In the MSSM, an unfortunate prediction of minimal anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking is that the slepton masses squared are negative. This problem is particularly intractable because of the insensitivity of anomaly mediation to ultraviolet physics. In this paper we note that tree level couplings to the conformal compensator in the Kahler potential give 10 TeV as a natural mass scale for physics beyond the MSSM, and, moreover, that the SUSY breaking effects from physics at this scale do not generically decouple from the low-energy spectrum. We consider particular extensions, including the effects of vector-like matter at 10 TeV, and a specific model in which the leptons are placed in a triplet of an asymptotically free SU(3). We find that the features of minimal anomaly mediation are not a robust prediction of the general framework, and that the problem of negative slepton masses squared can easily be avoided.
118507404
MeV dark matter in the 3+1+1 model
The existence of light sterile neutrinos in the eV mass range with relatively large mixing angles with the active neutrinos has been proposed for a variety of reasons, including to improve the fit to the LSND and MiniBooNE neutrino oscillation experiments, and reactor disappearance experiments. In ref. Phys. Rev. D 84, 053001 (2011), it was shown that neutrino mixing with a heavier sterile neutrino, in the mass range between 33 eV and several GeV, could significantly affect and improve the agreement between neutrino oscillation models with light sterile neutrinos and short baseline experimental results, allowing for a new source of CP violation in appearance experiments and for different apparent mixing angles in appearance and disappearance experiments. However in refs. Phys. Rev. D 86, 033015 (2012) and JHEP 1204, 083 (2012) it was shown that various collider experiment, supernovae, and cosmological constraints can eliminate most of the parameter region where such a heavy sterile neutrino can have a significant effect on neutrino oscillations. In this paper we consider the effects of allowing a new light scalar in the MeV mass region, which is a potential dark matter candidate, to interact with the sterile neutrinos, and show that the resulting model is a consistent theory of neutrino oscillation anomalies and dark matter which can also potentially explain the INTEGRAL excess of 511 keV gamma rays in the central region of the galaxy.