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Relativistic magnetized jets from active galaxies are among the most powerful cosmic accelerators, but their particle acceleration mechanisms remain a mystery. We present a new acceleration mechanism associated with the development of the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-12-19 E. Paulo Alves , Jonathan Zrake , Frederico Fiuza

We propose a system to optimize parametric designs subject to radiation pressure, \ie the effect of light on the motion of objects. This is most relevant in the design of spacecraft, where radiation pressure presents the dominant…

Graphics · Computer Science 2026-05-07 Charles Constant , Elizabeth Bates , Santosh Bhattarai , Marek Ziebart , Tobias Ritschel

Real Time Relativity is a computer program that lets students fly at relativistic speeds though a simulated world populated with planets, clocks, and buildings. The counterintuitive and spectacular optical effects of relativity are…

Physics Education · Physics 2011-11-10 C. M. Savage , A. Searle , L. McCalman

A propulsion concept in which a spacecraft interacts with high-velocity pellets and the interstellar medium is proposed. The pellets are slower than the spacecraft and are accelerated backwards as they are overtaken, imparting a forward…

Astrophysical jets, launched from the immediate vicinity of accreting black holes, carry away large amounts of power in a form of bulk kinetic energy of jet particles and electromagnetic flux. Here we consider a simple analytical model for…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-05-11 Dominika Ł. Król , Łukasz Stawarz , Mitchell C. Begelman , José-María Martí , Manel Perucho , Bohdan A. Petrenko

In this paper I show that the concept of relativistic beaming -- the process by which light emitted by a fast moving sources is lensed towards the direction of motion -- can be easily extended to model the signal from both the star and any…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-09-25 Zephyr Penoyre

It is now possible to partially deflect gravitation away from an object so that the gravitational attraction on the object is reduced. That effect makes it possible to extract energy from the gravitational field, which makes the generation…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2013-06-11 Roger Ellman

A null ray approaching a distant astronomical source appears to slow down, while a massive particle speeds up in accordance with Newtonian gravitation. The integration of these apparently incompatible aspects of motion in general relativity…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Bahram Mashhoon

For relativistic stars rotating slowly and differentially with a positive angular velocity, some properties in relation to the positiveness of the rate of rotational dragging and of the angular momentum density are derived. Also, a new…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-11-10 M. J. Pareja

In 2008 a group of NASA scientists reported an anomalous change in the speed of six spacecraft flybys of the Earth. The reported speed change for the NEAR spacecraft flyby is 13.46+-0.01 mm/s. It is known that general relativity theory…

General Physics · Physics 2011-03-01 J. C. Hafele

All known interstellar transportation methods encounter monumental technological or engineering roadblocks, or even rely on speculative unknown science. In particular light of the recent public excitement and ensuing disappointment…

Space Physics · Physics 2019-06-17 Drew Brisbin

We propose a straightforward and efficient mechanism for the high-energy emission of relativistic astrophysical jets associated with an exchange of interacting high-energy photons between the jet and the external environment. Physical…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 Boris E. Stern , Juri Poutanen

Current rocket technology can not send the spaceship very far, because the amount of the chemical fuel it can take is limited. We try to use dark matter (DM) as fuel to solve this problem. In this work, we give an example of DM engine using…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-09 Jia Liu

It is shown how, within the framework of general relativity and without the introduction of wormholes, it is possible to modify a spacetime in a way that allows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed. By a purely local…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2010-04-06 Miguel Alcubierre

Imagine a swarm of free particles near a point P outside a gravitating mass M and a free reference particle at P that is on a radial escape trajectory away from M. Relative to this reference particle and in a Fermi normal coordinate system…

Astrophysics · Physics 2015-10-28 C. Chicone , B. Mashhoon

Kipping (2017) discusses relativistic reflection from light sails. As an extension to this work, we present a new formula for relativistic reflection of sunlight from a light sail moving at a velocity inclined at an arbitrary angle, using…

Classical Physics · Physics 2024-01-22 Refath Bari

Ratchets are dynamic systems where particle transport is induced by zero-average forces due to the interplay between nonlinearity and asymmetry. Generally, they rely on the effect of a strong external driving. We show that stationary…

Other Condensed Matter · Physics 2009-10-16 I. Zapata , S. Albaladejo , J. M. R. Parrondo , J. J. Sáenz , F. Sols

The exploration of interstellar space will require autonomous navigation systems that do not rely on tracking from the Earth. Here I develop a method to determine the 3D position and 3D velocity of a spacecraft in deep space using a star…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2021-07-22 Coryn A. L. Bailer-Jones

In a previous paper \cite{MTAY1} we have shown that Newton'n third law cannot strictly hold in a distributed system of which the different parts are at a finite distance from each other. This is due to the finite speed of signal propagation…

General Physics · Physics 2017-08-01 Asher Yahalom

Relativistic electron beams produced by intense lasers over short distances have important applications in high energy density physics and medical technologies. Vacuum laser acceleration with plasma mirrors injectors has garnered…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2025-11-19 Jiaxin Liu , Zeyue Pang , Hehanlin Wang , Zi-Yu Chen