Related papers: The L to T Dwarf Transition
The nature of an instability that controls the transition from static to dynamical friction is studied in the the context of an array of frictional disks that are pressed from above on a substrate. In this case the forces are all explicit…
Understanding surface temperature is important for habitability. Recent work on Mars has found that the dependence of surface temperature on elevation (surface lapse rate) converges to zero in the limit of a thin CO2 atmosphere. However,…
Based on a simple thermodynamical argument, we proposed a unified cloudy model (UCM) with a warm dust cloud deep in the photosphere. We showed, for the first time, that a single grid of model photospheres (Teff between 800 and 2600K) offers…
Ultracool subdwarfs are low luminosity, late-type M and L dwarfs that exhibit spectroscopic indications of subsolar metallicity and halo kinematics. Their recent discovery and ongoing investigation have led to new insights into the role of…
We solve exactly a Terrace-Ledge-Kink (TLK) model describing a crystal surface at a microscopic level. We show that there is a faceting transition driven either by temperature or by the chemical potential that controls the slope of the…
A conclusive model for the formation of dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies still remains elusive. Owing to their proximity to the massive spirals Milky Way (MW) and M31, various environmental processes have been invoked to explain their…
We have investigated the nature of the dynamical behaviour in low autocorrelation binary sequences. These models do have a glass transition $T_G$ of a purely dynamical nature. Above the glass transition the dynamics is not fully ergodic and…
Since the discovery of brown dwarfs in 1994, and the discovery of dust cloud formation in the latest Very Low Mass Stars (VLMs) and Brown Dwarfs (BDs) in 1996, the most important challenge in modeling their atmospheres as become the…
This is a brief review of the recent progress in understanding the evolution of the accretion disks in tidal disruption events (TDEs). Special attention is paid to (1) thermal-viscous instability that causes the disk to transition from a…
The eddy-driven jet stream and storm tracks in the mid-latitude atmosphere are known to shift in latitude on various timescales, but the physical processes that cause these shifts are still unclear. In this study, we introduce a minimal…
The effect of long wavelength fluctuations on the Mode-Coupling-Theory (MCT) dynamical singularity at $T_c$ in the $\beta$ regime is studied by means of the standard field-theoretical procedure for a genuine second-order phase transition.…
Thunderstorms and the lightning that they produce are inherently interesting phenomena that have intrigued scientists and mankind in general for many years. The study of thunderstorms has rapidly advanced during the past century and many…
White dwarf (WD) pollution is thought to arise from the tidal disruption of planetary bodies. The initial fragment stream is extremely eccentric, while observational evidence suggest that discs are circular or nearly so. Here we propose a…
We study the thermodynamics of helium at densities relevant for white dwarf physics. We find evidence that, as the temperature is increased, there is first a first order transition between two superconducting phases followed by a second…
The thermodynamic and kinetic anomalies of supercooled liquids are analyzed from the perspective of energy landscapes. A mean field model, a generalized random energy model of liquids is developed, which exhibits a dynamical transition of…
We present JHK photometry and spectroscopy for a sample of newly identified L and T dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and known dwarfs from the SDSS and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). Spectral classification has been…
Planet formation is accompanied by the formation of comet clouds. In systems where planets migrate on rapid timescales, the diffusive evolution of comet orbits may stall, resulting in a comet cloud intermediate between a flattened Kuiper…
Growing evidence has been accumulated for that some gas-rich dwarf galaxies are formed from material liberated by galaxy collisions and/or mergers. Also, gas-poor dwarf elliptical galaxies are often found in the central regions of clusters…
Directed percolation (DP), a universality class of continuous phase transitions, has recently been established as a possible route to turbulence in subcritical wall-bounded flows. In canonical straight pipe or planar flows, the transition…
How molecular clouds fragment and create the dense structures which go on to form stars is an open question. We investigate the relative importance of different energy terms (kinetic, thermal, magnetic, and gravity - both self-gravity and…