Related papers: Microarcsecond instability of the celestial refere…
An approach is suggested for treating multiscale fluctuations in macromolecular systems. The emphasis is on the statistical properties of such fluctuations. The approach is illustrated by a macromolecular system with mesoscopic fluctuations…
Microturbulence, i.e. enhanced fluctuations of plasma density, electric and magnetic fields, is of great interest in astrophysical plasmas, but occurs on spatial scales far too small to resolve by remote sensing, e.g., at ~ 1-100 cm in the…
Magnetic fields grown by instabilities driven by differential rotation are believed to be essential to accretion onto black holes. These instabilities saturate in a turbulent state; therefore, the spatial and temporal variability in the…
Surfaces of constant pressure and constant density do not coincide in differentially rotating stars. Stellar radiation zones with baroclinic stratification can be unstable. Instabilities in radiation zones are of crucial importance for…
We summarize some of the compelling new scientific opportunities for understanding stars and stellar systems that can be enabled by sub-milliarcsec (sub-mas) angular resolution, UV-Optical spectral imaging observations, which can reveal the…
Astrometric perturbations of critical curves in strong lens systems are thought to be one of the most promising probes of substructures down to small-mass scales. While a smooth mass distribution creates a symmetric geometry of critical…
One interesting class of gravitational radiation sources includes rapidly rotating astrophysical objects that encounter dynamical instabilities. We have carried out a set of simulations of rotationally induced instabilities in…
Radiation-pressure instability was identified soon after the seminal classical accretion disk models of Shakura-Sunyaev and Novikov-Thorne, yet its full implications remain an active area of investigation. These models form the backbone of…
The instability of ideal non-divergent zonal flows on the sphere is determined numerically by the instability criterion of Arnol'd (1966) for the sectional curvature. Zonal flows are unstable for all perturbations besides for a small set…
Elliptical instability is due to a parametric resonance of two inertial modes in a fluid velocity field with elliptical streamlines. This flow is a simple model of the motion in a tidally deformed, rotating body. Elliptical instability…
In order to extend our previous studies of the unexplained phenomenon of cyclic amplitude variations in pulsating red giants, we have used the AAVSO time-series analysis package VSTAR to analyze long-term AAVSO visual observations of 50…
We consider an influence of a non-stationary gravitational field of the Galaxy on the visible positions of extragalactic sources. A contribution of the baryonic component of the galactic matter as well as of the hidden matter (including a…
Because of the high eccentricities (~0.3) of two of the possible planets about the star Upsilon Andromeda, the stability of the system requires careful study. We present results of 1000 numerical simulations which explore the orbital…
We carry out 3-D numerical simulations of the dynamical instability in rapidly rotating stars initially modeled as polytropes with n = 1.5, 1.0, and 0.5. The calculations are done with a SPH code using Newtonian gravity, and the…
The growth of the population of space debris in the geostationary ring and the resulting threat to active satellites require insight into the dynamics of uncontrolled objects in the region. A Monte Carlo simulation analyzed the sensitivity…
Given the number of recently discovered galaxy-galaxy lens systems, we anticipate that a gravitationally lensed supernova will be observed within the next few years. We explore the possibility that stars in the lens galaxy will produce…
The distribution of stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram narrates their evolutionary history and directly assesses their properties. Placing stars in this diagram however requires the knowledge of their distances and interstellar…
The accuracy of astrometric observations conducted via a space-borne optical interferometer orbiting the Earth is expected to approach a few microarcseconds. Data processing of such extremely high-precision measurements requires access to a…
Random changes in pulsation period are well established in cool pulsating stars, in particular the red giant variables: Miras, semi-regulars of types A and B, and RV Tau variables. Such effects are also observed in a handful of Cepheids,…
Some accreting neutron stars and young stars show unexplained episodic flares in the form of quasi-periodic oscillations or recurrent outbursts. In a series of two papers we present new work on an instability that can lead to episodic…