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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Orbital Dynamics And Stability Of Circumbinary Planetary Systems And Small Bodies In The Solar System, Cheng Chen
Orbital Dynamics And Stability Of Circumbinary Planetary Systems And Small Bodies In The Solar System, Cheng Chen
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
My main research focuses on the dynamics and stability of circumbinary planetary systems and of small bodies in the solar system. Unlike the two-body problem, the three-body problem is more complex as there are stronger interactions with two massive bodies in the system. In the outer solar system, the apsidal precession secular resonance with Neptune makes comets in the Kuiper belt unstable in the early stages of the solar system. This resonance a likely origin for the nitrogen-delivering comets that impacted the Earth bringing some of the nitrogen in the Earth’s atmosphere today. Beyond the solar system, we have observed …
The Evolution Of A Circumplanetary Disc With A Dead Zone, Cheng Chen, Chao Chin Yang, Rebecca G. Martin, Zhaohuan Zhu
The Evolution Of A Circumplanetary Disc With A Dead Zone, Cheng Chen, Chao Chin Yang, Rebecca G. Martin, Zhaohuan Zhu
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research
© 2021 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. We investigate whether the regular Galilean satellites could have formed in the dead zone of a circumplanetary disc. A dead zone is a region of weak turbulence in which the magnetorotational instability is suppressed, potentially an ideal environment for satellite formation. With the grid-based hydrodynamic code FARGO3D, we examine the evolution of a circumplanetary disc model with a dead zone. Material accumulates in the dead zone of the disc leading to a higher total mass and but a similar temperature profile compared to a fully turbulent disc model. The tidal torque increases …
Morphological Signatures Induced By Dust Back Reactions In Discs With An Embedded Planet, Chao-Chin Yang, Zhaohuan Zhu
Morphological Signatures Induced By Dust Back Reactions In Discs With An Embedded Planet, Chao-Chin Yang, Zhaohuan Zhu
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research
Recent observations have revealed a gallery of substructures in the dust component of nearby protoplanetary discs, including rings, gaps, spiral arms, and lopsided concentrations. One interpretation of these substructures is the existence of embedded planets. Not until recently, however, most of the modelling effort to interpret these observations ignored the dust back reaction to the gas. In this work, we conduct local-shearing-sheet simulations for an isothermal, inviscid, non-self-gravitating, razor-thin dusty disc with a planet on a fixed circular orbit. We systematically examine the parameter space spanned by planet mass (0.1Mth ≤ Mp ≤ 1Mth, where Mth is the thermal mass), …
Photoionization Calculations Of The Radiation Force Due To Spectral Lines In Agns, Randall C. Dannen, Daniel Proga, Timothy R. Kallman, Tim Waters
Photoionization Calculations Of The Radiation Force Due To Spectral Lines In Agns, Randall C. Dannen, Daniel Proga, Timothy R. Kallman, Tim Waters
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research
One of the main mechanisms that could drive mass outflows in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is radiation pressure due to spectral lines. Although straightforward to understand, the actual magnitude of the radiation force is challenging to compute because the force depends on the physical conditions in the gas, as well as the strength, spectral energy distribution (SED), and geometry of the radiation field. We present results from our photoionization and radiation transfer calculations of the force multiplier, M(ξ, t), using the same radiation field to compute the gas photoionization and thermal balance. We assume low gas density (n = 104 …
Propagation Of A Short Grb Jet In The Ejecta: Jet Launching Delay Time, Jet Structure, And Gw170817/Grb 170817a, Jin-Jun Geng, Bing Zhang, Anders Kölligan, Rolf Kuiper, Yong-Feng Huang
Propagation Of A Short Grb Jet In The Ejecta: Jet Launching Delay Time, Jet Structure, And Gw170817/Grb 170817a, Jin-Jun Geng, Bing Zhang, Anders Kölligan, Rolf Kuiper, Yong-Feng Huang
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research
We perform a series of relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations to investigate how a hot magnetic jet propagates within the dynamical ejecta of a binary neutron star merger, focusing on how the jet structure depends on the delay time of jet launching with respect to the merger time, Δt jet. We find that regardless of the jet-launching delay time, a structured jet with an angle-dependent luminosity and Lorentz factor is always formed after the jet breaks out of the ejecta. On the other hand, the jet-launching delay time has an impact on the jet structure. If the jet-launching delay time is relatively …
Dynamical Instability And Its Implications For Planetary System Architecture, Dong-Hong Wu, Rachel C. Zang, Ji-Lin Zhou, Jason H. Steffen
Dynamical Instability And Its Implications For Planetary System Architecture, Dong-Hong Wu, Rachel C. Zang, Ji-Lin Zhou, Jason H. Steffen
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research
We examine the effects that dynamical instability has on shaping the orbital properties of exoplanetary systems. Using N-body simulations of non-EMS (Equal Mutual Separation), multiplanet systems we find that the lower limit of the instability time-scale t is determined by the minimal mutual separation Kmin in units of the mutual Hill radius. Planetary systems showing instability generally include planet pairs with period ratio... (See abstract in article).
Diffusion And Concentration Of Solids In The Dead Zone Of A Protoplanetary Disk, Chao-Chin Yang, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Anders Johansen
Diffusion And Concentration Of Solids In The Dead Zone Of A Protoplanetary Disk, Chao-Chin Yang, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Anders Johansen
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research
The streaming instability is a promising mechanism to drive the formation of planetesimals in protoplanetary disks. To trigger this process, it has been argued that sedimentation of solids onto the mid-plane needs to be efficient, and therefore that a quiescent gaseous environment is required. It is often suggested that dead-zone or disk-wind structure created by non-ideal magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) effects meets this requirement. However, simulations have shown that the mid-plane of a dead zone is not completely quiescent. In order to examine the concentration of solids in such an environment, we use the local-shearing-box approximation to simulate a particlegas system with …
Survivability Of Moon Systems Around Ejected Gas Giants, Ian Rabago, Jason H. Steffen
Survivability Of Moon Systems Around Ejected Gas Giants, Ian Rabago, Jason H. Steffen
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research
We examine the effects that planetary encounters have on the moon systems of ejected gas giant planets. We conduct a suite of numerical simulations of planetary systems containing three Jupiter-mass planets (with the innermost planet at 3 AU) up to the point where a planet is ejected from the system. The ejected planet has an initial system of 100 test-particle moons. We determine the survival probability of moons at different distances from their host planet, measure the final distribution of orbital elements, examine the stability of resonant configurations, and characterize the properties of moons that are stripped from the planets. …