Modeling of load lifting process with unknown center of gravity position

Science.gov (United States)

Kamanin, Y. N.; Zhukov, M. I.; Panichkin, A. V.; Redelin, R. A.

2018-03-01

The article proposes a new type of lifting beams that allows one to lift loads where the position of the center of gravity is unknown beforehand. The benefit of implementing this type of traverse is confirmed by the high demand for this product from the industrial enterprises and lack of their availability on the market. In conducted studies, the main kinematic and dynamic dependencies of the load lifting process with an unknown position of the center of gravity were described allowing for design and verification calculations of the traverse with flexible slings and an adjustable bail to be carried out. The obtained results can be useful to engineers and employees of enterprises engaged in the design and manufacturing of the lifting equipment and scientists doing research in “Carrying and lifting machines”.

S2 like Star Orbits near the Galactic Center in Rn and Yukawa Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Borka, Dusko; Jovanović, Predrag; Jovanović Vesna Borka; Zakharov, Alexander F.

2015-01-01

In this chapter we investigate the possibility to provide theoretical explanation for the observed deviations of S2 star orbit around the Galactic Center using gravitational potentials derived from extended gravity models, but in absence of dark matter. Extended Theories of Gravity are alternative theories of gravitational interaction developed from the exact starting points investigated first by Einstein and Hilbert and aimed from one side to extend the positive results of General Relativity and, on the other hand, to cure its shortcomings. One of the aims of these theories is to explain galactic and extragalactic dynamics without introduction of dark matter. They are based on straightforward generalizations of the Einstein theory where the gravitational action (the Hilbert-Einstein action) is assumed to be linear in the Ricci curvature scalar R. The f(R) gravity is a type of modified gravity which generalizes Einstein's General Relativity, i.e. the simplest case is just the General Relativity. It is actually a family of models, each one defined by a different function of the Ricci scalar. Here, we consider Rn (power-law fourth-order theories of gravity) and Yukawa-like modified gravities in the weak field limit and discuss the constrains on these theories. For that purpose we simulate the orbit of S2 star around the Galactic Center in Rn and Yukawa-like gravity potentials and compare it with New Technology Telescope/Very Large Telescope (NTT/VLT) as well as by Keck telescope observations. Our simulations result in strong constraints on the range of gravity interaction and showed that both Rn and Yukawa gravity could satisfactorily explain the observed orbits of S2 star. However, we concluded that parameters of Rn and Yukawa gravity theories must be very close to those corresponding to the Newtonian limit of the theory. Besides, in contrast to Newtonian gravity, these two modified theories induce orbital precession, even in the case of point-like central mass. The

Joint Military Operations: Centers of Gravity and the War in Kosovo

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Milley, Mark

2000-01-01

... and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Even in this age of networked warfare, precision strike munitions and real time intelligence, Clausewitz's discussions of centers of gravity still provide fundamental insight into the conduct of war...

Weight Estimate and Centers of Gravity for JT-11 Nuclear Conversion Study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manning, R. W.

1958-01-01

Weight estimates and centers of gravity for the JT-11 nuclear conversion study are tabulated. Included in the radiator section are: diffuser, shrouds, supports, radiator, liquid metal, shafting and casing.

Properties of the center of gravity as an algorithm for position measurements: Two-dimensional geometry

CERN Document Server

Landi, Gregorio

2003-01-01

The center of gravity as an algorithm for position measurements is analyzed for a two-dimensional geometry. Several mathematical consequences of discretization for various types of detector arrays are extracted. Arrays with rectangular, hexagonal, and triangular detectors are analytically studied, and tools are given to simulate their discretization properties. Special signal distributions free of discretized error are isolated. It is proved that some crosstalk spreads are able to eliminate the center of gravity discretization error for any signal distribution. Simulations, adapted to the CMS em-calorimeter and to a triangular detector array, are provided for energy and position reconstruction algorithms with a finite number of detectors.

Method and apparatus for indicating electric charge remaining in batteries based on electrode weight and center of gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Rouhani, S.Z.

1996-12-03

In most electrochemical batteries which generate electricity through the reaction of a battery electrode with an electrolyte solution, the chemical composition, and thus the weight and density, of the electrode changes as the battery discharges. The invention measures a parameter of the battery which changes as the weight of the electrode changes as the battery discharges and relates that parameter to the value of the parameter when the battery is fully charged and when the battery is functionally discharged to determine the state-of-charge of the battery at the time the parameter is measured. In one embodiment, the weight of a battery electrode or electrode unit is measured to determine the state-of-charge. In other embodiments, where a battery electrode is located away from the geometrical center of the battery, the position of the center of gravity of the battery or shift in the position of the center of gravity of the battery is measured (the position of the center of gravity changes with the change in weight of the electrode) and indicates the state-of-charge of the battery. 35 figs.

Combination of monthly gravity field solutions from different processing centers

Science.gov (United States)

Jean, Yoomin; Meyer, Ulrich; Jäggi, Adrian

2015-04-01

Currently, the official GRACE Science Data System (SDS) monthly gravity field solutions are generated independently by the Centre for Space Research (CSR) and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Additional GRACE SDS monthly fields are provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for validation and outside the SDS by a number of other institutions worldwide. Although the adopted background models and processing standards have been harmonized more and more by the various processing centers during the past years, notable differences still exist and the users are more or less left alone with a decision which model to choose for their individual applications. Combinations are well-established in the area of other space geodetic techniques, such as the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), where regular comparisons and combinations of space-geodetic products have tremendously increased the usefulness of the products in a wide range of disciplines and scientific applications. In the frame of the recently started Horizon 2020 project European Gravity Service for Improved Emergency Management (EGSIEM), a scientific combination service shall therefore be established to deliver the best gravity products for applications in Earth and environmental science research based on the unified knowledge of the European GRACE community. In a first step the large variety of available monthly GRACE gravity field solutions shall be mutually compared spatially and spectrally. We assess the noise of the raw as well as filtered solutions and compare the secular and seasonal periodic variations fitted to the monthly solutions. In a second step we will explore ways to generate combined solutions, e.g., based on a weighted average of the individual solutions using empirical weights derived from pair-wise comparisons. We will also assess the quality of such a combined solution and discuss the

Gravity Plant Physiology Facility (GPPF) Team in the Spacelab Payload Operations Control Center (SL

Science.gov (United States)

1992-01-01

The primary payload for Space Shuttle Mission STS-42, launched January 22, 1992, was the International Microgravity Laboratory-1 (IML-1), a pressurized manned Spacelab module. The goal of IML-1 was to explore in depth the complex effects of weightlessness of living organisms and materials processing. Around-the-clock research was performed on the human nervous system's adaptation to low gravity and effects of microgravity on other life forms such as shrimp eggs, lentil seedlings, fruit fly eggs, and bacteria. Materials processing experiments were also conducted, including crystal growth from a variety of substances such as enzymes, mercury iodide, and a virus. The Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) Spacelab Payload Operations Control Center (SL POCC) at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was the air/ground communication channel used between the astronauts and ground control teams during the Spacelab missions. Featured is the Gravity Plant Physiology Facility (GPPF) team in the SL POCC during the IML-1 mission.

Construction Land Expansion and Transfer of Gravity Center from 1984 to 2016 : A study on Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei Urban Agglomeration

Science.gov (United States)

Lv, Jinxia; Jiang, Weiguo

2017-04-01

With the economic development and technological innovation, urban planning and construction has already broken through the shackles of the natural conditions such as topography and geomorphology, and the social factors such as politics and location have been affected by the urbanization process in the process of urbanization. At the same time, the synergies between urban development and local economy, national policy, industrial distribution and so on are also paid more attention. As the third pole of Chinese economy after the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolis Circle has attracted extensive attention on experts and scholars in its urban development and location. In recent years, studies on urban development have not only analyzed the spatial characteristics of urban or urban agglomerations, but also discussed the relationship between urban development and certain elements or phenomena. This paper presents a multi-threshold and multi-feature extraction method for building land using the optical characteristics of different landforms, based on Landsat remote sensing images from 1984 to 2016. The method selected Automated Water Extraction Index (AWEI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Extraction Index (SOEI) and Normalized Difference Built-up Index (BUEI) to extract the construction land. It is an example study area of Beijing to extract the construction land in 30 years and to do a examine research. Using the ArcGIS software to calculate, we can get the coordinates of the city center of gravity in Beijing in various years. It can be seen that the center of gravity of built-up area and the movement of the center of gravity in Beijing. The results showed that the construction land in Beijing has an increasing tendency in recent 30 years. The main characteristic of expansion is the way of high-speed outward development. From 1984 to 1999, the center of gravity of the city shifted to the northeast, and

The U.S. Army's Sioux Campaign of 1876: Identifying the Horse as the Center of Gravity of the Sioux

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Hoyt, Mark

2003-01-01

.... If the Army had a complete understanding of the Sioux they would have realized that the hub of all power or center of gravity of the Sioux was the horse, which every major aspect of Sioux life...

Progress in the global standardization of gravity: an analysis of the Woollard and Rose international gravity values

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woollard, G.P.; Godley, V.M.

1980-12-01

The history of improvements in the global standarization of gravity values since the advent of high range gravimeters in 1948 is reviewed. In particular the gravity base values given in SEG special publication International Gravity Measurements (Woolard and Rose, 1963) are evaluated against the most recent set of standarized gravity base values, The International Gravity Standardization Net, 1971 (Morelli et al, 1974). Adjunct IGSN 71 values prepared by the US Defense Mapping Agency Aerospace Center (unpublished) are also used to give a more comprehensive worldwide comparison of values

Explanation of observable secular variations of gravity and alternative methods of determination of drift of the center of mass of the Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Barkin, Yury

2010-05-01

The summary. On the basis of geodynamic model of the forced relative displacement of the centers of mass of the core and the mantle of the Earth the secular variations of a gravity and heights of some gravimetry stations on a surface of the Earth have ben studied. At the account of secular drift of the center of mass of the Earth which on our geodynamic model is caused by the unidirectional drift of the core of the Earth relatively to the mantle, the full explanation is given to observable secular variations of a gravity at stations Ny-Alesund (Norway), Churchill (Canada), Medicine (Italy), Sayowa (Antarctica), Strastburg (France), Membach (Belgium), Wuhan (China) and Metsahovi (Finland). Two new methods of determination of secular drift of the center of mass of the Earth, alternative to classical method of a space geodesy are offered: 1) on the basis of gravimetry data about secular trends of a gravity at the stations located on all basic regions of the Earth; 2) on the basis of the comparative analysis of altimetry and coastal data about secular changes of sea level also in basic regions of ocean. 1. Secular drift of the center of mass of the core and the center of mass of the Earth. A secular drift of the center of mass of the Earth to the North relatively to special center O on an axis of rotation of the Earth for which the coefficient of third zonal harmonic J3' = 0, has been predicted in the author work [1]. A drift in a direction to a geographical point (pole P) 70°0 N and 104°3 E has been established for the first time theoretically - as a result of the analysis of the global directed redistribution of masses of the Earth, explaining the observed secular drift of the pole of an axis of rotation of the Earth and not tidal acceleration of its axial rotation [2]. In [1] velocity of drift it has been estimated in 1-2 cm/yr. For specified center O the figure of a planet is as though deprived of pure-shaped form (J3' = 0). And in this sense the point O can be

Portfolio Evaluation Based on Efficient Frontier Superiority Using Center of Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Omar Samat

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Investing in portfolio of assets is the best way to reduce the investment risk. The most desired portfolio can be obtained when investors chose to invest in the portfolios that lay on the portfolio’s efficient frontier. However, the superiorities of the portfolios are difficult to differentiate especially when the efficient frontier curves are overlapping. This paper proposed the portfolio’s efficient frontier center of gravity (CoG and Euclidean distance to identify its superiority. A sample of 49 stocks of large-cap and small-cap were used to construct two hypothetical portfolios and its efficient frontiers. The Euclidean distance showed that the large-cap portfolio is superior and having wider feasible solutions compared to the small-cap portfolio. The results of new tool introduced are consistent with the conventional methods. Here the theoretical and practical implications are provided in light of the findings.

Gravity study of the Middle Aterno Valley

Science.gov (United States)

di Nezza, Maria; di Filippo, Michele; Cesi, Claudio; Ferri, Fernando

2010-05-01

A gravity study was carried out to identify the geological and structural features of the Middle Aterno Valley, and intramontane depression in the central Appennines, which was targeted to assess the seismic hazard of the city of L'Aquila and surrounding areas, after the Abruzzo 2009 earthquake. Gravity anomalies have been used for the construction of a 3D model of the area, and gravity data for the construction of Bouguer and residual anomaly maps. These data, together with geological surface data allowed for the understanding of the Plio-quaternary tectonic setting of the basins. The study area has been differentiated into different domains with respect to structural and morphological features of different styles of faults. Geology and gravity data show that the local amplification phenomena are due to the fact that the historical center of L'Aquila was built on a coarse breccias (debris-flow deposits with decameter scale limestone blocks) overlying sandy and clayey lacustrine sediments. As these sediments have a low density, gravity prospecting very easily identifies them. Residual anomalies, showing a relative gravity low corresponding to the historical center of L'Aquila, and surrounding areas, indicated that these sediments are up to 250 m-thick. Gravity prospecting also revealed the uprooting of the reliefs which outcrop in the area of Coppito. These reliefs, practically outcrop in the middle of the basin. Here, the gravity anomalies are negative and not positive as would be expected from outcropping geological bedrock.

Investigation of fuel savings for an aircraft due to optimization of the center of gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yitao; Yang, Zhenbo; Deng, Junxiang; Zhu, Junjie

2018-03-01

The aircraft’s center of gravity (CG) has a significant influence on the safety and efficiency, which are determined to a large degree by keeping the CG position within the forward and aft limits. Improper loading reduces the aerodynamics efficiency of an aircraft, resulting in higher flight drag. This paper focuses on the theoretical analysis of the influence of variable CG parameter on the fuel consumption. A new model is developed to predict the fuel consumption rate for an aircraft with it’s CG at different position. The numerical result indicates that a more aft CG position produces less drag and, in turn, requires less fuel consumption.

Collection of Observed Gravity Values, Absolute Gravity Measurements, Grids and Other Derived Summary Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) of NOAA, in cooperation with the National Geodetic Survey of NOAA, have published a Gravity CD-ROM containing observed...

Global detailed gravimetric geoid. [based on gravity model derived from satellite tracking and surface gravity data

Science.gov (United States)

Vincent, S.; Marsh, J. G.

1973-01-01

A global detailed gravimetric geoid has been computed by combining the Goddard Space Flight Center GEM-4 gravity model derived from satellite and surface gravity data and surface 1 deg-by-1 deg mean free air gravity anomaly data. The accuracy of the geoid is + or - 2 meters on continents, 5 to 7 meters in areas where surface gravity data are sparse, and 10 to 15 meters in areas where no surface gravity data are available. Comparisons have been made with the astrogeodetic data provided by Rice (United States), Bomford (Europe), and Mather (Australia). Comparisons have also been carried out with geoid heights derived from satellite solutions for geocentric station coordinates in North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Australia.

Colossal creations of gravity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skielboe, Andreas

Gravity governs the evolution of the universe on the largest scales, and powers some of the most extreme objects at the centers of galaxies. Determining the masses and kinematics of galaxy clusters provides essential constraints on the large-scale structure of the universe, and act as direct probes...

Pengenalan Bahasa Isyarat dengan Metode Segmentasi Warna Kulit dan Center of Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wawan Kurniawan

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Abstrak Bahasa isyarat (sign language merupakan bahasa yang menggunakan gerakan tangan dan gerak bibir untuk menjelaskan sebuah arti. Untuk itu perlu adanya dibuat suatu sistem yang dapat menghubungkan penderita cacat tunarungu dengan manusia normal. Penelitian aplikasi pengenalan bahasa isyarat secara real-time banyak mengalami kendala, faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi antara lain, besarnya tingkat kemiripan data citra latih, proses pelacakan (tracking terutama pada segmentasi objek dengan latar belakang (background sehingga hasil capture tidak terinterprestasikan maksimal. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode pelacakan (tracking yakni segmentasi warna kulit dan center of gravity (COG berhasil melacak (tracking gerakan tangan dari setiap frame, serta metode deteksi tepi dan PCA sebagai ekstraksi ciri, dan pengenalannya menggunakan pendekatan jaringan syaraf tiruan  back propagation. Hasil dari pengujian sistem ini dapat mengenali 26 huruf isyarat, tingkat akurasi pengenalan isyarat tangan 83,43%. Pada berbagai kondisi pencahayan dan jarak objek ke kamera, system ini mengalami perubahan tingkat pengenalan sehingga diperlukan jarak ideal dan tingkat penerangan yang baik. Aplikasi ini perlu adanya pengembangan lebih lanjut terutama pada proses pelacakan dan identifikasi. Kata kunci—Pelacakan, Ekstraksi ciri, Pengenalan isyarat tangan   Abstract Sign language is a language that uses hand gestures and lip movements to explain the meaning. For that there needs to be created a system that can connect the disabled with normal human hearing impairment. The study of sign language recognition applications in real-time experience any problems, the factors that affect, among others, high level of similarity of training image data, the process of tracking, especially on the segmentation of objects with the background so the results do not capture the maximum interpretation. This research uses the tracking method the skin color segmentation and center of

a Web-Based Framework for Visualizing Industrial Spatiotemporal Distribution Using Standard Deviational Ellipse and Shifting Routes of Gravity Centers

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Y.; Gui, Z.; Wu, H.; Wei, Y.

2017-09-01

Analysing spatiotemporal distribution patterns and its dynamics of different industries can help us learn the macro-level developing trends of those industries, and in turn provides references for industrial spatial planning. However, the analysis process is challenging task which requires an easy-to-understand information presentation mechanism and a powerful computational technology to support the visual analytics of big data on the fly. Due to this reason, this research proposes a web-based framework to enable such a visual analytics requirement. The framework uses standard deviational ellipse (SDE) and shifting route of gravity centers to show the spatial distribution and yearly developing trends of different enterprise types according to their industry categories. The calculation of gravity centers and ellipses is paralleled using Apache Spark to accelerate the processing. In the experiments, we use the enterprise registration dataset in Mainland China from year 1960 to 2015 that contains fine-grain location information (i.e., coordinates of each individual enterprise) to demonstrate the feasibility of this framework. The experiment result shows that the developed visual analytics method is helpful to understand the multi-level patterns and developing trends of different industries in China. Moreover, the proposed framework can be used to analyse any nature and social spatiotemporal point process with large data volume, such as crime and disease.

A WEB-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR VISUALIZING INDUSTRIAL SPATIOTEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION USING STANDARD DEVIATIONAL ELLIPSE AND SHIFTING ROUTES OF GRAVITY CENTERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Song

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Analysing spatiotemporal distribution patterns and its dynamics of different industries can help us learn the macro-level developing trends of those industries, and in turn provides references for industrial spatial planning. However, the analysis process is challenging task which requires an easy-to-understand information presentation mechanism and a powerful computational technology to support the visual analytics of big data on the fly. Due to this reason, this research proposes a web-based framework to enable such a visual analytics requirement. The framework uses standard deviational ellipse (SDE and shifting route of gravity centers to show the spatial distribution and yearly developing trends of different enterprise types according to their industry categories. The calculation of gravity centers and ellipses is paralleled using Apache Spark to accelerate the processing. In the experiments, we use the enterprise registration dataset in Mainland China from year 1960 to 2015 that contains fine-grain location information (i.e., coordinates of each individual enterprise to demonstrate the feasibility of this framework. The experiment result shows that the developed visual analytics method is helpful to understand the multi-level patterns and developing trends of different industries in China. Moreover, the proposed framework can be used to analyse any nature and social spatiotemporal point process with large data volume, such as crime and disease.

Exploring spatial change and gravity center movement for ecosystem services value using a spatially explicit ecosystem services value index and gravity model.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Yingbin; Chen, Youqi; Tang, Huajun; Yao, Yanmin; Yang, Peng; Chen, Zhongxin

2011-04-01

Spatially explicit ecosystem services valuation and change is a newly developing area of research in the field of ecology. Using the Beijing region as a study area, the authors have developed a spatially explicit ecosystem services value index and implemented this to quantify and spatially differentiate ecosystem services value at 1-km grid resolution. A gravity model was developed to trace spatial change in the total ecosystem services value of the Beijing study area from a holistic point of view. Study results show that the total value of ecosystem services for the study area decreased by 19.75% during the period 1996-2006 (3,226.2739 US$×10(6) in 1996, 2,589.0321 US$×10(6) in 2006). However, 27.63% of the total area of the Beijing study area increased in ecosystem services value. Spatial differences in ecosystem services values for both 1996 and 2006 are very clear. The center of gravity of total ecosystem services value for the study area moved 32.28 km northwestward over the 10 years due to intensive human intervention taking place in southeast Beijing. The authors suggest that policy-makers should pay greater attention to ecological protection under conditions of rapid socio-economic development and increase the area of green belt in the southeastern part of Beijing.

Center of buoyancy definition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sandberg, V.

1988-12-01

The center of buoyancy of an arbitrary shaped body is defined in analogy to the center of gravity. The definitions of the buoyant force and center of buoyancy in terms of integrals over the area of the body are converted to volume integrals and shown to have simple intuitive interpretations

Experimental Verification of a Simple Method for Accurate Center of Gravity Determination of Small Satellite Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dario Modenini

2018-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a simple and relatively inexpensive method for determining the center of gravity (CoG of a small spacecraft. This method, which can be ascribed to the class of suspension techniques, is based on dual-axis inclinometer readings. By performing two consecutive suspensions from two different points, the CoG is determined, ideally, as the intersection between two lines which are uniquely defined by the respective rotations. We performed an experimental campaign to verify the method and assess its accuracy. Thanks to a quantitative error budget, we obtained an error distribution with simulations, which we verified through experimental tests. The retrieved experimental error distribution agrees well with the results predicted through simulations, which in turn lead to a CoG error norm smaller than 2 mm with 95% confidence level.

New standards for reducing gravity data: The North American gravity database

Science.gov (United States)

Hinze, W. J.; Aiken, C.; Brozena, J.; Coakley, B.; Dater, D.; Flanagan, G.; Forsberg, R.; Hildenbrand, T.; Keller, Gordon R.; Kellogg, J.; Kucks, R.; Li, X.; Mainville, A.; Morin, R.; Pilkington, M.; Plouff, D.; Ravat, D.; Roman, D.; Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J.; Veronneau, M.; Webring, M.; Winester, D.

2005-01-01

The North American gravity database as well as databases from Canada, Mexico, and the United States are being revised to improve their coverage, versatility, and accuracy. An important part of this effort is revising procedures for calculating gravity anomalies, taking into account our enhanced computational power, improved terrain databases and datums, and increased interest in more accurately defining long-wavelength anomaly components. Users of the databases may note minor differences between previous and revised database values as a result of these procedures. Generally, the differences do not impact the interpretation of local anomalies but do improve regional anomaly studies. The most striking revision is the use of the internationally accepted terrestrial ellipsoid for the height datum of gravity stations rather than the conventionally used geoid or sea level. Principal facts of gravity observations and anomalies based on both revised and previous procedures together with germane metadata will be available on an interactive Web-based data system as well as from national agencies and data centers. The use of the revised procedures is encouraged for gravity data reduction because of the widespread use of the global positioning system in gravity fieldwork and the need for increased accuracy and precision of anomalies and consistency with North American and national databases. Anomalies based on the revised standards should be preceded by the adjective "ellipsoidal" to differentiate anomalies calculated using heights with respect to the ellipsoid from those based on conventional elevations referenced to the geoid. ?? 2005 Society of Exploration Geophysicists. All rights reserved.

Existence of relativistic stars in f(R) gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Upadhye, Amol; Hu, Wayne

2009-01-01

We refute recent claims in the literature that stars with relativistically deep potentials cannot exist in f(R) gravity. Numerical examples of stable stars, including relativistic (GM * /r * ∼0.1), constant density stars, are studied. As a star is made larger, nonlinear 'chameleon' effects screen much of the star's mass, stabilizing gravity at the stellar center. Furthermore, we show that the onset of this chameleon screening is unrelated to strong gravity. At large central pressures P>ρ/3, f(R) gravity, like general relativity, does have a maximum gravitational potential, but at a slightly smaller value: GM * /r * | max =0.345<4/9 for constant density and one choice of parameters. This difference is associated with negative central curvature R under general relativity not being accessed in the f(R) model, but does not apply to any known astrophysical object.

Center-of-gravity effects in the perception of high front vowels

Science.gov (United States)

Jacewicz, Ewa; Feth, Lawrence L.

2002-05-01

When two formant peaks are close in frequency, changing their amplitude ratio can shift the perceived vowel quality. This center-of-gravity effect (COG) was studied particularly in back vowels whose F1 and F2 are close in frequency. Chistovich and Lublinskaja (1979) show that the effect occurs when the frequency separation between the formants does not exceed 3.5 bark. The COG and critical distance effects were manifested when a two-formant reference signal was matched by a single-formant target of variable frequency. This study investigates whether the COG effect extends to closely spaced higher formants as in English /i/ and /I/. In /i/, the frequency separation between F2, F3, and F4 does not exceed 3.5 bark, suggesting the existence of one COG which may affect all three closely spaced formants (F2=2030, F3=2970, F4=3400 Hz). In /I/, each of the F2-F3 and F3-F4 separations is less than 3.5 bark but the F2-F4 separation exceeds the critical distance, indicating two COGs (F2=1780, F3=2578, F4=3400 Hz). We examine the COG effects using matching of four-formant reference signals, in which we change the amplitude ratios, by two-formant targets with variable frequency of F2. The double-staircase adaptive procedure is used. [Work supported by an INRS award from NIH to R. Fox.

Cross-correlation between EMG and center of gravity during quiet stance: theory and simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Kohn, André Fabio

2005-11-01

Several signal processing tools have been employed in the experimental study of the postural control system in humans. Among them, the cross-correlation function has been used to analyze the time relationship between signals such as the electromyogram and the horizontal projection of the center of gravity. The common finding is that the electromyogram precedes the biomechanical signal, a result that has been interpreted in different ways, for example, the existence of feedforward control or the preponderance of a velocity feedback. It is shown here, analytically and by simulation, that the cross-correlation function is dependent in a complicated way on system parameters and on noise spectra. Results similar to those found experimentally, e.g., electromyogram preceding the biomechanical signal may be obtained in a postural control model without any feedforward control and without any velocity feedback. Therefore, correct interpretations of experimentally obtained cross-correlation functions may require additional information about the system. The results extend to other biomedical applications where two signals from a closed loop system are cross-correlated.

Former Soviet Union (FSU) Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Gridded gravity anomaly data for the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and Eastern Europe has been received by the National Geophysical Data Center(NGDC). The data file...

Massive gravity from bimetric gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baccetti, Valentina; Martín-Moruno, Prado; Visser, Matt

2013-01-01

We discuss the subtle relationship between massive gravity and bimetric gravity, focusing particularly on the manner in which massive gravity may be viewed as a suitable limit of bimetric gravity. The limiting procedure is more delicate than currently appreciated. Specifically, this limiting procedure should not unnecessarily constrain the background metric, which must be externally specified by the theory of massive gravity itself. The fact that in bimetric theories one always has two sets of metric equations of motion continues to have an effect even in the massive gravity limit, leading to additional constraints besides the one set of equations of motion naively expected. Thus, since solutions of bimetric gravity in the limit of vanishing kinetic term are also solutions of massive gravity, but the contrary statement is not necessarily true, there is no complete continuity in the parameter space of the theory. In particular, we study the massive cosmological solutions which are continuous in the parameter space, showing that many interesting cosmologies belong to this class. (paper)

Centrifuge in Free Fall: Combustion at Partial Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Ferkul, Paul

2017-01-01

A centrifuge apparatus is developed to study the effect of variable acceleration levels in a drop tower environment. It consists of a large rotating chamber, within which the experiment is conducted. NASA Glenn Research Center 5.18-second Zero-Gravity Facility drop tests were successfully conducted at rotation rates up to 1 RPS with no measurable effect on the overall Zero-Gravity drop bus. Arbitrary simulated gravity levels from zero to 1-g (at a radius of rotation 30 cm) were produced. A simple combustion experiment was used to exercise the capabilities of the centrifuge. A total of 23 drops burning a simulated candle with heptane and ethanol fuel were performed. The effect of gravity level (rotation rate) and Coriolis force on the flames was observed. Flames became longer, narrower, and brighter as gravity increased. The Coriolis force tended to tilt the flames to one side, as expected, especially as the rotation rate was increased. The Zero-Gravity Centrifuge can be a useful tool for other researchers interested in the effects of arbitrary partial gravity on experiments, especially as NASA embarks on future missions which may be conducted in non-Earth gravity.

Gravity influences the visual representation of object tilt in parietal cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenberg, Ari; Angelaki, Dora E

2014-10-22

Sensory systems encode the environment in egocentric (e.g., eye, head, or body) reference frames, creating inherently unstable representations that shift and rotate as we move. However, it is widely speculated that the brain transforms these signals into an allocentric, gravity-centered representation of the world that is stable and independent of the observer's spatial pose. Where and how this representation may be achieved is currently unknown. Here we demonstrate that a subpopulation of neurons in the macaque caudal intraparietal area (CIP) visually encodes object tilt in nonegocentric coordinates defined relative to the gravitational vector. Neuronal responses to the tilt of a visually presented planar surface were measured with the monkey in different spatial orientations (upright and rolled left/right ear down) and then compared. This revealed a continuum of representations in which planar tilt was encoded in a gravity-centered reference frame in approximately one-tenth of the comparisons, intermediate reference frames ranging between gravity-centered and egocentric in approximately two-tenths of the comparisons, and in an egocentric reference frame in less than half of the comparisons. Altogether, almost half of the comparisons revealed a shift in the preferred tilt and/or a gain change consistent with encoding object orientation in nonegocentric coordinates. Through neural network modeling, we further show that a purely gravity-centered representation of object tilt can be achieved directly from the population activity of CIP-like units. These results suggest that area CIP may play a key role in creating a stable, allocentric representation of the environment defined relative to an "earth-vertical" direction. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/3414170-11$15.00/0.

Gravity data from the San Pedro River Basin, Cochise County, Arizona

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, Jeffrey R.; Winester, Daniel

2011-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey, Arizona Water Science Center in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Geodetic Survey has collected relative and absolute gravity data at 321 stations in the San Pedro River Basin of southeastern Arizona since 2000. Data are of three types: observed gravity values and associated free-air, simple Bouguer, and complete Bouguer anomaly values, useful for subsurface-density modeling; high-precision relative-gravity surveys repeated over time, useful for aquifer-storage-change monitoring; and absolute-gravity values, useful as base stations for relative-gravity surveys and for monitoring gravity change over time. The data are compiled, without interpretation, in three spreadsheet files. Gravity values, GPS locations, and driving directions for absolute-gravity base stations are presented as National Geodetic Survey site descriptions.

Updating of visual orientation in a gravity-based reference frame.

Science.gov (United States)

Niehof, Nynke; Tramper, Julian J; Doeller, Christian F; Medendorp, W Pieter

2017-10-01

The brain can use multiple reference frames to code line orientation, including head-, object-, and gravity-centered references. If these frames change orientation, their representations must be updated to keep register with actual line orientation. We tested this internal updating during head rotation in roll, exploiting the rod-and-frame effect: The illusory tilt of a vertical line surrounded by a tilted visual frame. If line orientation is stored relative to gravity, these distortions should also affect the updating process. Alternatively, if coding is head- or frame-centered, updating errors should be related to the changes in their orientation. Ten subjects were instructed to memorize the orientation of a briefly flashed line, surrounded by a tilted visual frame, then rotate their head, and subsequently judge the orientation of a second line relative to the memorized first while the frame was upright. Results showed that updating errors were mostly related to the amount of subjective distortion of gravity at both the initial and final head orientation, rather than to the amount of intervening head rotation. In some subjects, a smaller part of the updating error was also related to the change of visual frame orientation. We conclude that the brain relies primarily on a gravity-based reference to remember line orientation during head roll.

Emergency Flight Control Using Only Engine Thrust and Lateral Center-of-Gravity Offset: A First Look

Science.gov (United States)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Burken, John; Maine, Trindel A.; Bull, John

1997-01-01

Normally, the damage that results in a total loss of the primary flight controls of a jet transport airplane, including all engines on one side, would be catastrophic. In response, NASA Dryden has conceived an emergency flight control system that uses only the thrust of a wing-mounted engine along with a lateral center-of-gravity (CGY) offset from fuel transfer. Initial analysis and simulation studies indicate that such a system works, and recent high-fidelity simulation tests on the MD-11 and B-747 suggest that the system provides enough control for a survivable landing. This paper discusses principles of flight control using only a wing engine thrust and CGY offset, along with the amount of CGY offset capability of some transport airplanes. The paper also presents simulation results of the throttle-only control capability and closed-loop control of ground track using computer-controlled thrust.

Improving Realism in Reduced Gravity Simulators

Science.gov (United States)

Cowley, Matthew; Harvil, Lauren; Clowers, Kurt; Clark, Timothy; Rajulu, Sudhakar

2010-01-01

Since man was first determined to walk on the moon, simulating the lunar environment became a priority. Providing an accurate reduced gravity environment is crucial for astronaut training and hardware testing. This presentation will follow the development of reduced gravity simulators to a final comparison of environments between the currently used systems. During the Apollo program era, multiple systems were built and tested, with several NASA centers having their own unique device. These systems ranged from marionette-like suspension devices where the subject laid on his side, to pneumatically driven offloading harnesses, to parabolic flights. However, only token comparisons, if any, were made between systems. Parabolic flight allows the entire body to fall at the same rate, giving an excellent simulation of reduced gravity as far as the biomechanics and physical perceptions are concerned. While the effects are accurate, there is limited workspace, limited time, and high cost associated with these tests. With all mechanical offload systems only the parts of the body that are actively offloaded feel any reduced gravity effects. The rest of the body still feels the full effect of gravity. The Partial Gravity System (Pogo) is the current ground-based offload system used to training and testing at the NASA Johnson Space Center. The Pogo is a pneumatic type system that allows for offloaded motion in the z-axis and free movement in the x-axis, but has limited motion in the y-axis. The pneumatic system itself is limited by cylinder stroke length and response time. The Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) is a next generation groundbased offload system, currently in development, that is based on modern robotic manufacturing lines. This system is projected to provide more z-axis travel and full freedom in both the x and y-axes. Current characterization tests are underway to determine how the ground-based offloading systems perform, how they compare to parabolic

Adaptation effects in static postural control by providing simultaneous visual feedback of center of pressure and center of gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Takeda, Kenta; Mani, Hiroki; Hasegawa, Naoya; Sato, Yuki; Tanaka, Shintaro; Maejima, Hiroshi; Asaka, Tadayoshi

2017-07-19

The benefit of visual feedback of the center of pressure (COP) on quiet standing is still debatable. This study aimed to investigate the adaptation effects of visual feedback training using both the COP and center of gravity (COG) during quiet standing. Thirty-four healthy young adults were divided into three groups randomly (COP + COG, COP, and control groups). A force plate was used to calculate the coordinates of the COP in the anteroposterior (COP AP ) and mediolateral (COP ML ) directions. A motion analysis system was used to calculate the coordinates of the center of mass (COM) in both directions (COM AP and COM ML ). The coordinates of the COG in the AP direction (COG AP ) were obtained from the force plate signals. Augmented visual feedback was presented on a screen in the form of fluctuation circles in the vertical direction that moved upward as the COP AP and/or COG AP moved forward and vice versa. The COP + COG group received the real-time COP AP and COG AP feedback simultaneously, whereas the COP group received the real-time COP AP feedback only. The control group received no visual feedback. In the training session, the COP + COG group was required to maintain an even distance between the COP AP and COG AP and reduce the COG AP fluctuation, whereas the COP group was required to reduce the COP AP fluctuation while standing on a foam pad. In test sessions, participants were instructed to keep their standing posture as quiet as possible on the foam pad before (pre-session) and after (post-session) the training sessions. In the post-session, the velocity and root mean square of COM AP in the COP + COG group were lower than those in the control group. In addition, the absolute value of the sum of the COP - COM distances in the COP + COG group was lower than that in the COP group. Furthermore, positive correlations were found between the COM AP velocity and COP - COM parameters. The results suggest that the novel visual feedback

Center of gravity estimation using a reaction board instrumented with fiber Bragg gratings

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, Rui; Roriz, Paulo; Marques, Manuel B.; Frazão, Orlando

2018-03-01

The purpose of the present work is to construct a reaction board based on fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) that could be used for estimation of the 2D coordinates of the projection of center of gravity (CG) of an object. The apparatus is consisted of a rigid equilateral triangular board mounted on three supports at the vertices, two of which have cantilevers instrumented with FBGs. When an object of known weight is placed on the board, the bending strain of the cantilevers is measured by a proportional wavelength shift of the FBGs. Applying the equilibrium conditions of a rigid body and proper calibration procedures, the wavelength shift is used to estimate the vertical reaction forces and moments of force at the supports and the coordinates of the object's CG projection on the board. This method can be used on a regular basis to estimate the CG of the human body or objects with complex geometry and density distribution. An example is provided for the estimation of the CG projection coordinates of two orthopaedic femur bone models, one intact, and the other with a hip stem implant encased. The clinical implications of changing the normal CG location by means of a prosthesis have been discussed.

Influence of World and Gravity Model Selection on Surface Interacting Vehicle Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Madden, Michael M.

2007-01-01

A vehicle simulation is surface-interacting if the state of the vehicle (position, velocity, and acceleration) relative to the surface is important. Surface-interacting simulations perform ascent, entry, descent, landing, surface travel, or atmospheric flight. Modeling of gravity is an influential environmental factor for surface-interacting simulations. Gravity is the free-fall acceleration observed from a world-fixed frame that rotates with the world. Thus, gravity is the sum of gravitation and the centrifugal acceleration due to the world s rotation. In surface-interacting simulations, the fidelity of gravity at heights above the surface is more significant than gravity fidelity at locations in inertial space. A surface-interacting simulation cannot treat the gravity model separately from the world model, which simulates the motion and shape of the world. The world model's simulation of the world's rotation, or lack thereof, produces the centrifugal acceleration component of gravity. The world model s reproduction of the world's shape will produce different positions relative to the world center for a given height above the surface. These differences produce variations in the gravitation component of gravity. This paper examines the actual performance of world and gravity/gravitation pairs in a simulation using the Earth.

Scales of gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dvali, Gia; Kolanovic, Marko; Nitti, Francesco; Gabadadze, Gregory

2002-01-01

We propose a framework in which the quantum gravity scale can be as low as 10 -3 eV. The key assumption is that the standard model ultraviolet cutoff is much higher than the quantum gravity scale. This ensures that we observe conventional weak gravity. We construct an explicit brane-world model in which the brane-localized standard model is coupled to strong 5D gravity of infinite-volume flat extra space. Because of the high ultraviolet scale, the standard model fields generate a large graviton kinetic term on the brane. This kinetic term 'shields' the standard model from the strong bulk gravity. As a result, an observer on the brane sees weak 4D gravity up to astronomically large distances beyond which gravity becomes five dimensional. Modeling quantum gravity above its scale by the closed string spectrum we show that the shielding phenomenon protects the standard model from an apparent phenomenological catastrophe due to the exponentially large number of light string states. The collider experiments, astrophysics, cosmology and gravity measurements independently point to the same lower bound on the quantum gravity scale, 10 -3 eV. For this value the model has experimental signatures both for colliders and for submillimeter gravity measurements. Black holes reveal certain interesting properties in this framework

A Combined Gravity Compensation Method for INS Using the Simplified Gravity Model and Gravity Database.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Xiao; Yang, Gongliu; Wang, Jing; Wen, Zeyang

2018-05-14

In recent decades, gravity compensation has become an important way to reduce the position error of an inertial navigation system (INS), especially for a high-precision INS, because of the extensive application of high precision inertial sensors (accelerometers and gyros). This paper first deducts the INS's solution error considering gravity disturbance and simulates the results. Meanwhile, this paper proposes a combined gravity compensation method using a simplified gravity model and gravity database. This new combined method consists of two steps all together. Step 1 subtracts the normal gravity using a simplified gravity model. Step 2 first obtains the gravity disturbance on the trajectory of the carrier with the help of ELM training based on the measured gravity data (provided by Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics; Chinese Academy of sciences), and then compensates it into the error equations of the INS, considering the gravity disturbance, to further improve the navigation accuracy. The effectiveness and feasibility of this new gravity compensation method for the INS are verified through vehicle tests in two different regions; one is in flat terrain with mild gravity variation and the other is in complex terrain with fierce gravity variation. During 2 h vehicle tests, the positioning accuracy of two tests can improve by 20% and 38% respectively, after the gravity is compensated by the proposed method.

MX Siting Investigation, Gravity Survey - Delamar Valley, Nevada.

Science.gov (United States)

1981-07-20

reduces the data to Simple Bouguer Anomaly (see Section A1.4, Appendix A1.0). The Defense Mapping Agency Aerospace Center (DMAAC), St. Louis, Missouri...DRAWINGS Drawing Number 1 Complete Bouguer Anomaly Contours 2 Depth to Rock -Interpreted from In Pocket at Gravity Data End of Report iv E-TR-33-DM...ErtPX E-TR-3 3-DM 6 2.0 GRAVITY DATA REDUCTION DMAHTC/GSS obtained the basic observations for the new stations and reduced them to Simple Bouguer

Gravity anomalies without geomagnetic disturbances interfere with pigeon homing--a GPS tracking study.

Science.gov (United States)

Blaser, Nicole; Guskov, Sergei I; Entin, Vladimir A; Wolfer, David P; Kanevskyi, Valeryi A; Lipp, Hans-Peter

2014-11-15

The gravity vector theory postulates that birds determine their position to set a home course by comparing the memorized gravity vector at the home loft with the local gravity vector at the release site, and that they should adjust their flight course to the gravity anomalies encountered. As gravity anomalies are often intermingled with geomagnetic anomalies, we released experienced pigeons from the center of a strong circular gravity anomaly (25 km diameter) not associated with magnetic anomalies and from a geophysical control site, equidistant from the home loft (91 km). After crossing the border zone of the anomaly--expected to be most critical for pigeon navigation--they dispersed significantly more than control birds, except for those having met a gravity anomaly en route. These data increase the credibility of the gravity vector hypothesis. © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Temporal gravity field modeling based on least square collocation with short-arc approach

Science.gov (United States)

ran, jiangjun; Zhong, Min; Xu, Houze; Liu, Chengshu; Tangdamrongsub, Natthachet

2014-05-01

After the launch of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) in 2002, several research centers have attempted to produce the finest gravity model based on different approaches. In this study, we present an alternative approach to derive the Earth's gravity field, and two main objectives are discussed. Firstly, we seek the optimal method to estimate the accelerometer parameters, and secondly, we intend to recover the monthly gravity model based on least square collocation method. The method has been paid less attention compared to the least square adjustment method because of the massive computational resource's requirement. The positions of twin satellites are treated as pseudo-observations and unknown parameters at the same time. The variance covariance matrices of the pseudo-observations and the unknown parameters are valuable information to improve the accuracy of the estimated gravity solutions. Our analyses showed that introducing a drift parameter as an additional accelerometer parameter, compared to using only a bias parameter, leads to a significant improvement of our estimated monthly gravity field. The gravity errors outside the continents are significantly reduced based on the selected set of the accelerometer parameters. We introduced the improved gravity model namely the second version of Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGG-CAS 02). The accuracy of IGG-CAS 02 model is comparable to the gravity solutions computed from the Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ), the Center for Space Research (CSR) and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). In term of the equivalent water height, the correlation coefficients over the study regions (the Yangtze River valley, the Sahara desert, and the Amazon) among four gravity models are greater than 0.80.

Software Analysis of New Space Gravity Data for Geophysics and Climate Research

Science.gov (United States)

Deese, Rupert; Ivins, Erik R.; Fielding, Eric J.

2012-01-01

Both the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellites are returning rich data for the study of the solid earth, the oceans, and the climate. Current software analysis tools do not provide researchers with the ease and flexibility required to make full use of this data. We evaluate the capabilities and shortcomings of existing software tools including Mathematica, the GOCE User Toolbox, the ICGEM's (International Center for Global Earth Models) web server, and Tesseroids. Using existing tools as necessary, we design and implement software with the capability to produce gridded data and publication quality renderings from raw gravity data. The straight forward software interface marks an improvement over previously existing tools and makes new space gravity data more useful to researchers. Using the software we calculate Bouguer anomalies of the gravity tensor's vertical component in the Gulf of Mexico, Antarctica, and the 2010 Maule earthquake region. These maps identify promising areas of future research.

PPN-limit of Fourth Order Gravity inspired by Scalar-Tensor Gravity

OpenAIRE

Capozziello, S.; Troisi, A.

2005-01-01

Based on the {\\it dynamical} equivalence between higher order gravity and scalar-tensor gravity the PPN-limit of fourth order gravity is discussed. We exploit this analogy developing a fourth order gravity version of the Eddington PPN-parameters. As a result, Solar System experiments can be reconciled with higher order gravity, if physical constraints descending from experiments are fulfilled.

The Effects of Lever Arm (Instrument Offset) Error on GRAV-D Airborne Gravity Data

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, J. A.; Youngman, M.; Damiani, T.

2017-12-01

High quality airborne gravity collection with a 2-axis, stabilized platform gravity instrument, such as with a Micro-g LaCoste Turnkey Airborne Gravity System (TAGS), is dependent on the aircraft's ability to maintain "straight and level" flight. However, during flight there is constant rotation about the aircraft's center of gravity. Standard practice is to install the scientific equipment close to the aircraft's estimated center of gravity to minimize the relative rotations with aircraft motion. However, there remain small offsets between the instruments. These distance offsets, the lever arm, are used to define the rigid-body, spatial relationship between the IMU, GPS antenna, and airborne gravimeter within the aircraft body frame. The Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D) project, which is collecting airborne gravity data across the U.S., uses a commercial software package for coupled IMU-GNSS aircraft positioning. This software incorporates a lever arm correction to calculate a precise position for the airborne gravimeter. The positioning software must do a coordinate transformation to relate each epoch of the coupled GNSS-IMU derived position to the position of the gravimeter within the constantly-rotating aircraft. This transformation requires three inputs: accurate IMU-measured aircraft rotations, GNSS positions, and lever arm distances between instruments. Previous studies show that correcting for the lever arm distances improves gravity results, but no sensitivity tests have been done to investigate how error in the lever arm distances affects the final airborne gravity products. This research investigates the effects of lever arm measurement error on airborne gravity data. GRAV-D lever arms are nominally measured to the cm-level using surveying equipment. "Truth" data sets will be created by processing GRAV-D flight lines with both relatively small lever arms and large lever arms. Then negative and positive incremental

Antigravity: Spin-gravity coupling in action

Science.gov (United States)

Plyatsko, Roman; Fenyk, Mykola

2016-08-01

The typical motions of a spinning test particle in Schwarzschild's background which show the strong repulsive action of the highly relativistic spin-gravity coupling are considered using the exact Mathisson-Papapetrou equations. An approximated approach to choice solutions of these equations which describe motions of the particle's proper center of mass is developed.

Newtonian gravity in loop quantum gravity

OpenAIRE

Smolin, Lee

2010-01-01

We apply a recent argument of Verlinde to loop quantum gravity, to conclude that Newton's law of gravity emerges in an appropriate limit and setting. This is possible because the relationship between area and entropy is realized in loop quantum gravity when boundaries are imposed on a quantum spacetime.

Chiral gravity, log gravity, and extremal CFT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maloney, Alexander; Song Wei; Strominger, Andrew

2010-01-01

We show that the linearization of all exact solutions of classical chiral gravity around the AdS 3 vacuum have positive energy. Nonchiral and negative-energy solutions of the linearized equations are infrared divergent at second order, and so are removed from the spectrum. In other words, chirality is confined and the equations of motion have linearization instabilities. We prove that the only stationary, axially symmetric solutions of chiral gravity are BTZ black holes, which have positive energy. It is further shown that classical log gravity--the theory with logarithmically relaxed boundary conditions--has finite asymptotic symmetry generators but is not chiral and hence may be dual at the quantum level to a logarithmic conformal field theories (CFT). Moreover we show that log gravity contains chiral gravity within it as a decoupled charge superselection sector. We formally evaluate the Euclidean sum over geometries of chiral gravity and show that it gives precisely the holomorphic extremal CFT partition function. The modular invariance and integrality of the expansion coefficients of this partition function are consistent with the existence of an exact quantum theory of chiral gravity. We argue that the problem of quantizing chiral gravity is the holographic dual of the problem of constructing an extremal CFT, while quantizing log gravity is dual to the problem of constructing a logarithmic extremal CFT.

Coherence of structural visual cues and pictorial gravity paves the way for interceptive actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Zago, Myrka; La Scaleia, Barbara; Miller, William L; Lacquaniti, Francesco

2011-09-20

Dealing with upside-down objects is difficult and takes time. Among the cues that are critical for defining object orientation, the visible influence of gravity on the object's motion has received limited attention. Here, we manipulated the alignment of visible gravity and structural visual cues between each other and relative to the orientation of the observer and physical gravity. Participants pressed a button triggering a hitter to intercept a target accelerated by a virtual gravity. A factorial design assessed the effects of scene orientation (normal or inverted) and target gravity (normal or inverted). We found that interception was significantly more successful when scene direction was concordant with target gravity direction, irrespective of whether both were upright or inverted. This was so independent of the hitter type and when performance feedback to the participants was either available (Experiment 1) or unavailable (Experiment 2). These results show that the combined influence of visible gravity and structural visual cues can outweigh both physical gravity and viewer-centered cues, leading to rely instead on the congruence of the apparent physical forces acting on people and objects in the scene.

Recent developments in high-resolution global altimetric gravity field modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Knudsen, Per; Berry, P. A .M.

2010-01-01

older gravity fields show accuracy improvement of the order of 20-40% due to a combination of retracking, enhanced processing, and the use of the new EGM2008 geoid model. In coastal and polar regions, accuracy improved in many places by 40-50% (or more) compared with older global marine gravity fields.......In recent years, dedicated effort has been made to improve high-resolution global marine gravity fields. One new global field is the Danish National Space Center (DNSC) 1-minute grid called DNSC08GRA, released in 2008. DNSC08GRA was derived from double-retracked satellite altimetry, mainly from...... the ERS-1 geodetic mission data, augmented with new retracked GEOSAT data which have significantly enhanced the range and hence the gravity field accuracy. DNSC08GRA is the first high-resolution global gravity field to cover the entire Arctic Ocean all the way to the North Pole. Comparisons with other...

Structural modeling of the Vichada impact structure from interpreted ground gravity and magnetic anomalies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hernandez, Orlando; Khurama, Sait; Alexander, Gretta C

2011-01-01

A prominent positive free-air gravity anomaly mapped over a roughly 50-km diameter basin is consistent with a mascon centered on (4 degrades 30 minutes N, 69 degrades 15 minutes W) in the Vichada Department, Colombia, South America. Ground follow up gravity and magnetic anomalies were modeled confirming the regional free air gravity anomalies. These potential field anomalies infer a hidden complex impact basin structure filled with tertiary sedimentary rocks and recent quaternary deposits. Negative Bouguer anomalies of 8 mgals to 15 mgals amplitude are associated with a concentric sedimentary basin with a varying thickness from 100 m to 500 m in the outer rings to 700 m to 1000 m at the center of the impact crater basin. Strong positive magnetic anomalies of 100 nt to 300 nt amplitude infer the presence of a local Precambrian crystalline basement that was affected by intensive faulting producing tectonic blocks dipping to the center of the structure, showing a typical domino structure of impact craters such as that of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Basic to intermediate mineralized veins and dikes with contrasting density and magnetic susceptibility properties could be emplaced along these faulting zones, as inferred from local gravity and magnetic highs. The geologic mapping of the area is limited by the flat topography and absence of outcrops/ geomorphologic units. Nevertheless, local normal faults along the inner ring together with radially sparse irregular blocks over flat terrains can be associated with terraced rims or collapse of the inner crater structure and eject blanket, respectively. A detailed airborne electromagnetic survey is recommended to confirm the gravity and magnetic anomalies together with a seismic program to evaluate the economic implications for energy and mineral exploration of the Vichada impact structure.

Gravity anomalies of the Northern Hawaiian Islands: Implications on the shield evolutions of Kauai and Niihau

Science.gov (United States)

Flinders, Ashton F.; Ito, Garrett; Garcia, Michael O.

2010-08-01

New land and marine gravity data reveal two positive residual gravity anomalies in the Northern Hawaiian Islands: one over Kaua'i, the other between the islands of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau. These gravitational highs are similar in size and magnitude to those of other Hawaiian volcanoes, indicating local zones of high-density crust, attributed to olivine cumulates in solidified magma reservoirs. The residual gravity high over Kaua'i is located in the Līhu'e Basin, offset 8-12 km east of Kaua'i's geologically mapped caldera. This offset suggests that the mapped caldera is a collapsed feature later filled in with lava and not the long-term center of Kaua'i shield volcanism. A second residual gravity high, in the submarine channel between Kaua'i and Ni'ihau, marks the volcanic center of the Ni'ihau shield volcano. This second residual gravity anomaly implies that Ni'ihau's eastern boundary extended ˜20 km east of its present location. Through inversion, the residual gravity anomalies were modeled as being produced by two solidified magma reservoirs with average densities of 3100 kg/m3 and volumes between 2470 and 2540 km3. Considering the locations and sizes of the residual gravity anomalies/magma reservoirs, the extent of the two islands' paleoshorelines and potassium-argon dating of shield-stage lavas, we conclude that the two islands were not connected subaerially during their respective shield stages and that Ni'ihau's topographic summit was removed by an eastern flank collapse between 4.3 and 5.6 Ma. Continued constructional volcanism on western Kaua'i likely covered much of the submerged remains of eastern Ni'ihau.

The Cause of Gravity

OpenAIRE

Byrne, Michael

1999-01-01

Einstein said that gravity is an acceleration like any other acceleration. But gravity causes relativistic effects at non-relativistic speeds; so gravity could have relativistic origins. And since the strong force is thought to cause most of mass, and mass is proportional to gravity; the strong force is therefore also proportional to gravity. The strong force could thus cause relativistic increases of mass through the creation of virtual gluons; along with a comparable contraction of space ar...

Extreme neutron stars from Extended Theories of Gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Astashenok, Artyom V. [I. Kant Baltic Federal University, Institute of Physics and Technology, Nevskogo st. 14, Kaliningrad, 236041 (Russian Federation); Capozziello, Salvatore [Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Napoli ' ' Federico II' ' , Via Cinthia, 9, Napoli, I-80126 Italy (Italy); Odintsov, Sergei D., E-mail: artyom.art@gmail.com, E-mail: capozziello@na.infn.it, E-mail: odintsov@ieec.uab.es [Instituciò Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona (Spain)

2015-01-01

We discuss neutron stars with strong magnetic mean fields in the framework of Extended Theories of Gravity. In particular, we take into account models derived from f(R) and f(G) extensions of General Relativity where functions of the Ricci curvature invariant R and the Gauss-Bonnet invariant G are respectively considered. Dense matter in magnetic mean field, generated by magnetic properties of particles, is described by assuming a model with three meson fields and baryons octet. As result, the considerable increasing of maximal mass of neutron stars can be achieved by cubic corrections in f(R) gravity. In principle, massive stars with M > 4M{sub ☉} can be obtained. On the other hand, stable stars with high strangeness fraction (with central densities ρ{sub c} ∼ 1.5–2.0 GeV/fm{sup 3}) are possible considering quadratic corrections of f(G) gravity. The magnetic field strength in the star center is of order 6–8 × 10{sup 18} G. In general, we can say that other branches of massive neutron stars are possible considering the extra pressure contributions coming from gravity extensions. Such a feature can constitute both a probe for alternative theories and a way out to address anomalous self-gravitating compact systems.

Cloud's Center of Gravity – a compact approach to analyze convective cloud development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Koren

2009-01-01

Full Text Available As cloud resolving models become more detailed, with higher resolution outputs, it is often complicated to isolate the physical processes that control the cloud attributes. Moreover, due to the high dimensionality and complexity of the model output, the analysis and interpretation of the results can be very complicated. Here we suggest a novel approach to convective cloud analysis that yields more insight into the physical and temporal evolution of clouds, and is compact and efficient. The different (3-D cloud attributes are weighted and projected onto a single point in space and in time, that has properties of, or similar to, the Center Of Gravity (COG. The location, magnitude and spread of this variable are followed in time. The implications of the COG approach are demonstrated for a study of aerosol effects on a warm convective cloud. We show that in addition to reducing dramatically the dimensionality of the output, such an approach often enhances the signal, adds more information, and makes the physical description of cloud evolution clearer, allowing unambiguous comparison of clouds evolving in different environmental conditions. This approach may also be useful for analysis of cloud data retrieved from surface or space-based cloud radars.

High energy QCD scattering, the shape of gravity on an IR brane, and the Froissart bound

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giddings, Steven B.

2003-01-01

High-energy scattering in nonconformal gauge theories is investigated using the AdS/conformal field theory (CFT) dual string-gravity theory. It is argued that strong-gravity processes, such as black hole formation, play an important role in the dual dynamics. Further information about this dynamics is found by performing a linearized analysis of gravity for a mass near an infrared brane; this gives the far field approximation to black hole or other strong-gravity effects, and in particular allows us to estimate their shape. From this shape, one can infer a total scattering cross section that grows with center of mass energy as ln 2 E, saturating the Froissart bound

General aviation accidents related to exceedance of airplane weight/center of gravity limits.

Science.gov (United States)

Boyd, Douglas D

2016-06-01

Obesity, affects a third of the US population and its corollary occupant weight adversely impacts safe flight operations. Increased aircraft weight results in longer takeoff/landing distances, degraded climb gradients and airframe failure may occur in turbulence. In this study, the rate, temporal changes, and lethality of accidents in piston-powered, general aviation aircraft related to exceeding the maximum aircraft weight/center of gravity (CG) limits were determined. Nation-wide person body mass were from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The NTSB database was used to identify accidents related to operation of aircraft outside of their weight/CG envelope. Statistical analyses employed T-tests, proportion tests and a Poisson distribution. While the average body mass climbed steadily (p<0.001) between 1999 and 2014 the rate of accidents related to exceedance of the weight/CG limits did not change (p=0.072). However, 57% were fatal, higher (p<0.001) than the 21% for mishaps attributed to other causes/factors. The majority (77%) of accidents were due to an overloaded aircraft operating within its CG limits. As to the phase of flight, accidents during takeoff and those occurring enroute carried the lowest (50%) and highest (85%) proportion of fatal accidents respectively. While the rate of general aviation accidents related to operating an aircraft outside of its weight/CG envelope has not increased over the past 15 years, these types of accidents carry a high risk of fatality. Airmen should be educated as to such risks and to dispel the notion held by some that flights may be safely conducted with an overloaded aircraft within its CG limits. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Even-dimensional topological gravity from Chern-Simons gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merino, N.; Perez, A.; Salgado, P.

2009-01-01

It is shown that the topological action for gravity in 2n-dimensions can be obtained from the (2n+1)-dimensional Chern-Simons gravity genuinely invariant under the Poincare group. The 2n-dimensional topological gravity is described by the dynamics of the boundary of a (2n+1)-dimensional Chern-Simons gravity theory with suitable boundary conditions. The field φ a , which is necessary to construct this type of topological gravity in even dimensions, is identified with the coset field associated with the non-linear realizations of the Poincare group ISO(d-1,1).

The Crustal Thickness of the Philippine Sea Plate Derived from Gravity Data

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Horng-Yuan Yen

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We constructed a new free-air gravity anomaly map of the Philippine Sea Plate (PSP using ship-tracked gravity data from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC. Our results show that the isogals trend correlates well with the tectonic structures in the PSP. After removing the gravity induced by sea water from the free-air gravity data, we obtained the regional Bouguer gravity anomaly, which is later used to compute the Moho geometry in the PSP by applying the Parker-Oldenburg iterative method. Our results indicate that in the southern part of the West Philippine Basin (WPB the crustal thickness is nearly homogeneous with a value of about 5 km, which implies that the WPB is quite stable. The low-amplitude and near-zero free-air gravity anomalies clearly indicate that the whole WPB, except at trenches and island arcs, is nearly in a state of isostatic equilibrium. The average crustal thickness of the Palau Kyushu Ridge (PKR is more than 10 km. In the eastern PSP the crustal thickness gradually increases eastward. Our results also imply that a relatively thin and low density mantle exists beneath the Parece Vela Basin (PVB as a consequence of back-arc spreading and serpentinized upwells of the thin crustal thickness.

Influences of posterior-located center of gravity on lumbar extension strength, balance, and lumbar lordosis in chronic low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Dae-Hun; Park, Jin-Kyu; Jeong, Myeong-Kyun

2014-01-01

In patients with chronic low back pain, the center of gravity (COG) is abnormally located posterior to the center in most cases. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of posterior-located COG on the functions (lumbar extension strength, and static and dynamic balance) and structure (lumbar lordosis angle and lumbosacral angle) of the lumbar spine. In this study, the COG of chronic low back pain patients who complained of only low back pain were examined using dynamic body balance equipment. A total of 164 subjects participated in the study (74 males and 90 females), and they were divided into two groups of 82 patients each. One group (n=82) consisted of patients whose COG was located at the center (C-COG); the other group (n=82) consisted of patients whose COG was located posterior to the center (P-COG). The following measures assessed the lumber functions and structures of the two groups: lumbar extension strength, moving speed of static and dynamic COGs, movement distance of the static and dynamic COGs, lumbar lordosis angle, and lumbosacral angle. The measured values were analyzed using independent t-tests. The group of patients with P-COG showed more decreases in lumbar extension strength, lumbar lordosis angle, and lumbosacral angle compared to the group of patients with C-COG. Also this group showed increases in moving speed and movement distance of the static COG. However, there were no differences in moving speed and movement distance of the dynamic COG between the two groups. These findings suggest that chronic LBP patients with P-COG have some disadvantages to establish lumbar extension strength and static and dynamic balance, which require specific efforts to maintain a neutral position and to control posture.

Polar gravity fields from GOCE and airborne gravity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Forsberg, René; Olesen, Arne Vestergaard; Yidiz, Hasan

2011-01-01

Airborne gravity, together with high-quality surface data and ocean satellite altimetric gravity, may supplement GOCE to make consistent, accurate high resolution global gravity field models. In the polar regions, the special challenge of the GOCE polar gap make the error characteristics...... of combination models especially sensitive to the correct merging of satellite and surface data. We outline comparisons of GOCE to recent airborne gravity surveys in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. The comparison is done to new 8-month GOCE solutions, as well as to a collocation prediction from GOCE gradients...... in Antarctica. It is shown how the enhanced gravity field solutions improve the determination of ocean dynamic topography in both the Arctic and in across the Drake Passage. For the interior of Antarctica, major airborne gravity programs are currently being carried out, and there is an urgent need...

influence of gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Animesh Mukherjee

1991-01-01

Full Text Available Based upon Biot's [1965] theory of initial stresses of hydrostatic nature produced by the effect of gravity, a study is made of surface waves in higher order visco-elastic media under the influence of gravity. The equation for the wave velocity of Stonely waves in the presence of viscous and gravitational effects is obtained. This is followed by particular cases of surface waves including Rayleigh waves and Love waves in the presence of viscous and gravity effects. In all cases the wave-velocity equations are found to be in perfect agreement with the corresponding classical results when the effects of gravity and viscosity are neglected.

Cutoff for extensions of massive gravity and bi-gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matas, Andrew

2016-01-01

Recently there has been interest in extending ghost-free massive gravity, bi-gravity, and multi-gravity by including non-standard kinetic terms and matter couplings. We first review recent proposals for this class of extensions, emphasizing how modifications of the kinetic and potential structure of the graviton and modifications of the coupling to matter are related. We then generalize existing no-go arguments in the metric language to the vielbein language in second-order form. We give an ADM argument to show that the most promising extensions to the kinetic term and matter coupling contain a Boulware–Deser ghost. However, as recently emphasized, we may still be able to view these extensions as effective field theories below some cutoff scale. To address this possibility, we show that there is a decoupling limit where a ghost appears for a wide class of matter couplings and kinetic terms. In particular, we show that there is a decoupling limit where the linear effective vielbein matter coupling contains a ghost. Using the insight we gain from this decoupling limit analysis, we place an upper bound on the cutoff for the linear effective vielbein coupling. This result can be generalized to new kinetic interactions in the vielbein language in second-order form. Combined with recent results, this provides a strong uniqueness argument on the form of ghost-free massive gravity, bi-gravity, and multi-gravity. (paper)

Artificial gravity - The evolution of variable gravity research

Science.gov (United States)

Fuller, Charles A.; Sulzman, Frank M.; Keefe, J. Richard

1987-01-01

The development of a space life science research program based on the use of rotational facilities is described. In-flight and ground centrifuges can be used as artificial gravity environments to study the following: nongravitational biological factors; the effects of 0, 1, and hyper G on man; counter measures for deconditioning astronauts in weightlessness; and the development of suitable artificial gravity for long-term residence in space. The use of inertial fields as a substitute for gravity, and the relations between the radius of the centrifuge and rotation rate and specimen height and rotation radius are examined. An example of a centrifuge study involving squirrel monkeys is presented.

Gravity, Magnetism, and "Down": Non-Physics College Students' Conceptions of Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Asghar, Anila; Libarkin, Julie C.

2010-01-01

This study investigates how students enrolled in entry-level geology, most of whom would graduate from college without university-level physics courses, thought about and applied the concept of gravity while solving problems concerning gravity. The repercussions of students' gravity concepts are then considered in the context of non-physics…

Craniopelvic alignment in elderly asymptomatic individuals: analysis of 671 cranial centers of gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshida, Go; Yasuda, Tatsuya; Togawa, Daisuke; Hasegawa, Tomohiko; Yamato, Yu; Kobayashi, Sho; Arima, Hideyuki; Hoshino, Hironobu; Matsuyama, Yukihiro

2014-06-15

Prospective radiographical analysis using the cranial center of gravity (CCG) of sagittal vertical axis (SVA) in elderly asymptomatic individuals. To determine sex differences and age-related correlations of CCG and relationships between CCG and other spinopelvic parameters/health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measures. Few studies have investigated CCG in a relatively large sample of elderly asymptomatic individuals. Six hundred seventy-one healthy participants older than 50 years (mean age, 72.9 yr; range, 50-92 yr) were enrolled. Whole-spine standing radiographs were obtained. The following radiographical measurements were obtained: (1) CCG-C7 SVA, (2) C7-SVA, (3) CCG-SVA, (4) C2-C7 lordosis angle, (5) thoracic kyphosis, (6) lumbar lordosis, (7) pelvic incidence, and (8) sacral slope. HRQOL measures included the EuroQol-5D and Oswestry Disability Index. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated between pairs of radiographical measures and HRQOL. Sex differences were observed in CCG-C7 SVA, CCG-SVA, C2-C7 Cobb angle, thoracic kyphosis, and pelvic incidence. Three SVA parameters (CCG-C7 SVA, C7-SVA, CCG-SVA) rapidly increased between seventh and ninth decades and were approximately 40, 80, and 120 mm, respectively, in the ninth decade. Age-related correlations were observed for all parameters without pelvic incidence, and the CCG measurement correlated the most with age. Furthermore, CCG-SVA correlated with other spinopelvic measurements and HRQOL. Age-related changes and sex difference in craniopelvic alignment were analyzed. Craniopelvic alignment became rapidly positive with age, particularly in the eighth decade. The CCG measurement correlated the most with age and may be a useful index marker of global spinal balance in decision making for surgical treatment of adult deformity involving cervical and thoracolumbar lesions. 4.

Simultaneous measurement of gravity acceleration and gravity gradient with an atom interferometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sorrentino, F.; Lien, Y.-H.; Rosi, G.; Tino, G. M.; Bertoldi, A.; Bodart, Q.; Cacciapuoti, L.; Angelis, M. de; Prevedelli, M.

2012-01-01

We demonstrate a method to measure the gravitational acceleration with a dual cloud atom interferometer; the use of simultaneous atom interferometers reduces the effect of seismic noise on the gravity measurement. At the same time, the apparatus is capable of accurate measurements of the vertical gravity gradient. The ability to determine the gravity acceleration and gravity gradient simultaneously and with the same instrument opens interesting perspectives in geophysical applications.

Gravity Data Interpretation in the Northern Edge of the Congo Craton, South-Cameroon

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James Derek Fairhead

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Gravity data in the southern Cameroon are interpreted to better understand the organization of underlying structuresthroughout the northern edge of the Congo craton. The Bouguer anomaly maps of the region are characterized by an elongated trending trending negative gravity anomaly which correspond to a collapsed structure associated with a granitic intrusion beneath the cente center of the region r of the region of the region and limited by fault systems. �e applied 3�D gravity modelling and inversion in order to obtain the 3D density structure of the area. Our result demonstrated that observed gravity anomalies in the region are associated to tectonic structures in the subsurface. The resulting model agrees with the hypothesis of the existence of a major continental collision zone between the Congo Craton and the Pan�African belt. The presence of deep granulites structures in the northern part of the region expresses a continental collision.

The behavior of surface tension on steady-state rotating fluids in the low gravity environments

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, R. J.; Leslie, Fred W.

1987-01-01

The effect of surface tension on steady-state rotating fluids in a low gravity environment is studied. All the values of the physical parameters used in these calculations, except in the low gravity environments, are based on the measurements carried out by Leslie (1985) in the low gravity environment of a free-falling aircraft. The profile of the interface of two fluids is derived from Laplace's equation relating the pressure drop across an interface to the radii of curvature which has been applied to a low gravity rotating bubble that contacts the container boundary. The interface shape depends on the ratio of gravity to surface tension forces, the ratio of centrifugal to surface tension forces, the contact radius of the interface to the boundary, and the contact angle. The shape of the bubble is symmetric about its equator in a zero-gravity environment. This symmetry disappears and gradually shifts to parabolic profiles as the gravity environment becomes non-zero. The location of the maximum radius of the bubble moves upward from the center of the depth toward the top boundary of the cylinder as gravity increases. The contact radius of interface to the boundary r0 at the top side of cylinder increases and r0 at the bottom side of the cylinder decreases as the gravity environment increases from zero to 1 g.

Massive Gravity

OpenAIRE

de Rham, Claudia

2014-01-01

We review recent progress in massive gravity. We start by showing how different theories of massive gravity emerge from a higher-dimensional theory of general relativity, leading to the Dvali–Gabadadze–Porrati model (DGP), cascading gravity, and ghost-free massive gravity. We then explore their theoretical and phenomenological consistency, proving the absence of Boulware–Deser ghosts and reviewing the Vainshtein mechanism and the cosmological solutions in these models. Finally, we present alt...

Combined Influence of Visual Scene and Body Tilt on Arm Pointing Movements: Gravity Matters!

Science.gov (United States)

Scotto Di Cesare, Cécile; Sarlegna, Fabrice R.; Bourdin, Christophe; Mestre, Daniel R.; Bringoux, Lionel

2014-01-01

Performing accurate actions such as goal-directed arm movements requires taking into account visual and body orientation cues to localize the target in space and produce appropriate reaching motor commands. We experimentally tilted the body and/or the visual scene to investigate how visual and body orientation cues are combined for the control of unseen arm movements. Subjects were asked to point toward a visual target using an upward movement during slow body and/or visual scene tilts. When the scene was tilted, final pointing errors varied as a function of the direction of the scene tilt (forward or backward). Actual forward body tilt resulted in systematic target undershoots, suggesting that the brain may have overcompensated for the biomechanical movement facilitation arising from body tilt. Combined body and visual scene tilts also affected final pointing errors according to the orientation of the visual scene. The data were further analysed using either a body-centered or a gravity-centered reference frame to encode visual scene orientation with simple additive models (i.e., ‘combined’ tilts equal to the sum of ‘single’ tilts). We found that the body-centered model could account only for some of the data regarding kinematic parameters and final errors. In contrast, the gravity-centered modeling in which the body and visual scene orientations were referred to vertical could explain all of these data. Therefore, our findings suggest that the brain uses gravity, thanks to its invariant properties, as a reference for the combination of visual and non-visual cues. PMID:24925371

Expected Recovery of Europa's Geophysical Attributes with Clipper Gravity Science Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, Ashok Kumar; Margot, Jean-Luc

2017-10-01

The primary gravity science objective of NASA’s Clipper mission to Europa is to confirm the presence or absence of a global subsurface ocean beneath Europa's icy crust. Gravity field measurements obtained with a radio science investigation can reveal much about Europa's interior structure. Here, we conduct extensive simulations of the radio science measurements with the anticipated spacecraft trajectory and attitude (17F12V2) and assets on the spacecraft and the ground, including antenna orientations and beam patterns, transmitter characteristics, and receiver noise figures. In addition to two-way Doppler measurements, we also include radar altimeter crossover range measurements. We concentrate on +/-2 hour intervals centered on the closest approach of each one of the 46 flybys. Our covariance analyses reveal the precision with which the tidal Love number k2, second-degree gravity coefficients C20 and C22, and higher-order gravity coefficients can be determined. The results depend strongly on the Deep Space Network (DSN) assets that are deployed to track the spacecraft. We find that some DSN allocations are sufficient to conclusively confirm the presence or absence of a global ocean and to evaluate whether the ice shell is hydrostatic.

Airborne gravity tests in the Italian area to improve the geoid model of Italy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barzaghi, R; Borghi, A; Keller, K

2009-01-01

Airborne gravimetry is an important method for measuring gravity over large unsurveyed areas. This technology has been widely applied in Canada, Antarctica and Greenland to map the gravity fields of these regions and in recent years, in the oil industry. In 2005, two tests in the Italian area were...... performed by ENI in cooperation with the Politecnico di Milano and the Danish National Space Center. To the knowledge of the authors, these were the first experiments of this kind in Italy and were performed over the Ionian coasts of Calabria and the Maiella Mountains. The Calabria test field......, the collocation method applied to compare and merge ground-based and airborne data proved to be efficient and reliable. The standard deviation of the discrepancies between airborne data and collocation upward continued gravity is, in both cases, less than 8 mgal. In the Maiella test, the gravity field obtained...

Cineradiographic Analysis of Mouse Postural Response to Alteration of Gravity and Jerk (Gravity Deceleration Rate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katsuya Hasegawa

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The ability to maintain the body relative to the external environment is important for adaptation to altered gravity. However, the physiological limits for adaptation or the disruption of body orientation are not known. In this study, we analyzed postural changes in mice upon exposure to various low gravities. Male C57BL6/J mice (n = 6 were exposed to various gravity-deceleration conditions by customized parabolic flight-maneuvers targeting the partial-gravity levels of 0.60, 0.30, 0.15 and μ g (<0.001 g. Video recordings of postural responses were analyzed frame-by-frame by high-definition cineradiography and with exact instantaneous values of gravity and jerk. As a result, the coordinated extension of the neck, spine and hindlimbs was observed during the initial phase of gravity deceleration. Joint angles widened to 120%–200% of the reference g level, and the magnitude of the thoracic-curvature stretching was correlated with gravity and jerk, i.e., the gravity deceleration rate. A certain range of jerk facilitated mouse skeletal stretching efficiently, and a jerk of −0.3~−0.4 j (g/s induced the maximum extension of the thoracic-curvature. The postural response of animals to low gravity may undergo differential regulation by gravity and jerk.

Terrestrial gravity data analysis for interim gravity model improvement

Science.gov (United States)

1987-01-01

This is the first status report for the Interim Gravity Model research effort that was started on June 30, 1986. The basic theme of this study is to develop appropriate models and adjustment procedures for estimating potential coefficients from terrestrial gravity data. The plan is to use the latest gravity data sets to produce coefficient estimates as well as to provide normal equations to NASA for use in the TOPEX/POSEIDON gravity field modeling program.

Gravity effects on wind-induced flutter of leaves

Science.gov (United States)

Clemmer, Nickalaus; Kopperstad, Karsten; Solano, Tomas; Shoele, Kourosh; Ordonez, Juan

2017-11-01

Wind-Induced flutter of leaves depends on both wind velocity and the gravity. To study the gravitational effects on the oscillatory behavior of leaves in the wind, a wind tunnel that can be tilted about the center of the test section is created. This unique rotation capability allows systematic investigation of gravitational effects on the fluttering response of leaves. The flow-induced vibration will be studied for three different leaves at several different tilting angles including the wind travels horizontally, vertically downward and vertically upward. In each situation, the long axis of a leaf is placed parallel to the wind direction and its response is studied at different flow speed. Oscillation of the leaf is recorded via high-speed camera at each of setup, and the effect of the gravity on stabilizing or destabilizing the fluttering response is investigated. Summer REU student at Florida State University.

Development of a new generation gravity map of Antarctica: ADGRAV Antarctic Digital Gravity Synthesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. A. Arko

1999-06-01

Full Text Available The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF has agreed to support the development of a new generation gravity map of Antarctica (ADGRAV - Antarctic Digital Gravity Synthesis, funding the development of a web based access tool. The goal of this project is the creation of an on-line Antarctic gravity database which will facilitate access to improved high resolution satellite gravity models, in conjunction with shipboard, airborne, and land based gravity measurements for the continental regions. This database will complement parallel projects underway to develop new continental bedrock (BEDMAP and magnetic (ADMAP maps of Antarctica.

Superconducting gravity gradiometer for sensitive gravity measurements. I. Theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, H.A.; Paik, H.J.

1987-01-01

Because of the equivalence principle, a global measurement is necessary to distinguish gravity from acceleration of the reference frame. A gravity gradiometer is therefore an essential instrument needed for precision tests of gravity laws and for applications in gravity survey and inertial navigation. Superconductivity and SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) technology can be used to obtain a gravity gradiometer with very high sensitivity and stability. A superconducting gravity gradiometer has been developed for a null test of the gravitational inverse-square law and space-borne geodesy. Here we present a complete theoretical model of this instrument. Starting from dynamical equations for the device, we derive transfer functions, a common mode rejection characteristic, and an error model of the superconducting instrument. Since a gradiometer must detect a very weak differential gravity signal in the midst of large platform accelerations and other environmental disturbances, the scale factor and common mode rejection stability of the instrument are extremely important in addition to its immunity to temperature and electromagnetic fluctuations. We show how flux quantization, the Meissner effect, and properties of liquid helium can be utilized to meet these challenges

Dualities and emergent gravity: Gauge/gravity duality

Science.gov (United States)

de Haro, Sebastian

2017-08-01

In this paper I develop a framework for relating dualities and emergence: two notions that are close to each other but also exclude one another. I adopt the conception of duality as 'isomorphism', from the physics literature, cashing it out in terms of three conditions. These three conditions prompt two conceptually different ways in which a duality can be modified to make room for emergence; and I argue that this exhausts the possibilities for combining dualities and emergence (via coarse-graining). I apply this framework to gauge/gravity dualities, considering in detail three examples: AdS/CFT, Verlinde's scheme, and black holes. My main point about gauge/gravity dualities is that the theories involved, qua theories of gravity, must be background-independent. I distinguish two senses of background-independence: (i) minimalistic and (ii) extended. I argue that the former is sufficiently strong to allow for a consistent theory of quantum gravity; and that AdS/CFT is background-independent on this account; while Verlinde's scheme best fits the extended sense of background-independence. I argue that this extended sense should be applied with some caution: on pain of throwing the baby (general relativity) out with the bath-water (extended background-independence). Nevertheless, it is an interesting and potentially fruitful heuristic principle for quantum gravity theory construction. It suggests some directions for possible generalisations of gauge/gravity dualities. The interpretation of dualities is discussed; and the so-called 'internal' vs. 'external' viewpoints are articulated in terms of: (i) epistemic and metaphysical commitments; (ii) parts vs. wholes. I then analyse the emergence of gravity in gauge/gravity dualities in terms of the two available conceptualisations of emergence; and I show how emergence in AdS/CFT and in Verlinde's scenario differ from each other. Finally, I give a novel derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula based on

Cosmological tests of modified gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Koyama, Kazuya

2016-04-01

We review recent progress in the construction of modified gravity models as alternatives to dark energy as well as the development of cosmological tests of gravity. Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) has been tested accurately within the local universe i.e. the Solar System, but this leaves the possibility open that it is not a good description of gravity at the largest scales in the Universe. This being said, the standard model of cosmology assumes GR on all scales. In 1998, astronomers made the surprising discovery that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, not slowing down. This late-time acceleration of the Universe has become the most challenging problem in theoretical physics. Within the framework of GR, the acceleration would originate from an unknown dark energy. Alternatively, it could be that there is no dark energy and GR itself is in error on cosmological scales. In this review, we first give an overview of recent developments in modified gravity theories including f(R) gravity, braneworld gravity, Horndeski theory and massive/bigravity theory. We then focus on common properties these models share, such as screening mechanisms they use to evade the stringent Solar System tests. Once armed with a theoretical knowledge of modified gravity models, we move on to discuss how we can test modifications of gravity on cosmological scales. We present tests of gravity using linear cosmological perturbations and review the latest constraints on deviations from the standard [Formula: see text]CDM model. Since screening mechanisms leave distinct signatures in the non-linear structure formation, we also review novel astrophysical tests of gravity using clusters, dwarf galaxies and stars. The last decade has seen a number of new constraints placed on gravity from astrophysical to cosmological scales. Thanks to on-going and future surveys, cosmological tests of gravity will enjoy another, possibly even more, exciting ten years.

Contravariant gravity on Poisson manifolds and Einstein gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaneko, Yukio; Watamura, Satoshi; Muraki, Hisayoshi

2017-01-01

A relation between gravity on Poisson manifolds proposed in Asakawa et al (2015 Fortschr. Phys . 63 683–704) and Einstein gravity is investigated. The compatibility of the Poisson and Riemann structures defines a unique connection, the contravariant Levi-Civita connection, and leads to the idea of the contravariant gravity. The Einstein–Hilbert-type action yields an equation of motion which is written in terms of the analog of the Einstein tensor, and it includes couplings between the metric and the Poisson tensor. The study of the Weyl transformation reveals properties of those interactions. It is argued that this theory can have an equivalent description as a system of Einstein gravity coupled to matter. As an example, it is shown that the contravariant gravity on a two-dimensional Poisson manifold can be described by a real scalar field coupled to the metric in a specific manner. (paper)

Gravity signatures of terrane accretion

Science.gov (United States)

Franco, Heather; Abbott, Dallas

1999-01-01

In modern collisional environments, accreted terranes are bracketed by forearc gravity lows, a gravitational feature which results from the abandonment of the original trench and the initiation of a new trench seaward of the accreted terrane. The size and shape of the gravity low depends on the type of accreted feature and the strength of the formerly subducting plate. Along the Central American trench, the accretion of Gorgona Island caused a seaward trench jump of 48 to 66 km. The relict trench axes show up as gravity lows behind the trench with minimum values of -78 mgal (N of Gorgona) and -49 mgal (S of Gorgona) respectively. These forearc gravity lows have little or no topographic expression. The active trench immediately seaward of these forearc gravity lows has minimum gravity values of -59 mgal (N of Gorgona) and -58 mgal (S of Gorgona), respectively. In the north, the active trench has a less pronounced gravity low than the sediment covered forearc. In the Mariana arc, two Cretaceous seamounts have been accreted to the Eocene arc. The northern seamount is most likely a large block, the southern seamount may be a thrust slice. These more recent accretion events have produced modest forearc topographic and gravity lows in comparison with the topographic and gravity lows within the active trench. However, the minimum values of the Mariana forearc gravity lows are modest only by comparison to the Mariana Trench (-216 mgal); their absolute values are more negative than at Gorgona Island (-145 to -146 mgal). We speculate that the forearc gravity lows and seaward trench jumps near Gorgona Island were produced by the accretion of a hotspot island from a strong plate. The Mariana gravity lows and seaward trench jumps (or thrust slices) were the result of breaking a relatively weak plate close to the seamount edifice. These gravity lows resulting from accretion events should be preserved in older accreted terranes.

Prospects for Probing Strong Gravity with a Pulsar-Black Hole System

Science.gov (United States)

Wex, N.; Liu, K.; Eatough, R. P.; Kramer, M.; Cordes, J. M.; Lazio, T. J. W.

2012-01-01

The discovery of a pulsar (PSR) in orbit around a black hole (BH) is expected to provide a superb new probe of relativistic gravity and BH properties. Apart from a precise mass measurement for the BH, one could expect a clean verification of the dragging of space-time caused by the BH spin. In order to measure the quadrupole moment of the BH for testing the no-hair theorem of general relativity (GR), one has to hope for a sufficiently massive BH. In this respect, a PSR orbiting the super-massive BH in the center of our Galaxy would be the ultimate laboratory for gravity tests with PSRs. But even for gravity theories that predict the same properties for BHs as GR, a PSR-BH system would constitute an excellent test system, due to the high grade of asymmetry in the strong field properties of these two components. Here we highlight some of the potential gravity tests that one could expect from different PSR-BH systems.

Is nonrelativistic gravity possible?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kocharyan, A. A.

2009-01-01

We study nonrelativistic gravity using the Hamiltonian formalism. For the dynamics of general relativity (relativistic gravity) the formalism is well known and called the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) formalism. We show that if the lapse function is constrained correctly, then nonrelativistic gravity is described by a consistent Hamiltonian system. Surprisingly, nonrelativistic gravity can have solutions identical to relativistic gravity ones. In particular, (anti-)de Sitter black holes of Einstein gravity and IR limit of Horava gravity are locally identical.

Hořava-Lifshitz gravity and effective theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wu, Chaolun [Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago,Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States); Wu, Shao-Feng [Department of Physics, Shanghai University,Shanghai 200444 (China); Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago,Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States)

2015-01-22

We show that Hořava-Lifshitz gravity theory can be employed as a covariant framework to build an effective field theory for the fractional quantum Hall effect that respects all the spacetime symmetries such as non-relativistic diffeomorphism invariance and anisotropic Weyl invariance as well as the gauge symmetry. The key to this formalism is a set of correspondence relations that maps all the field degrees of freedom in the Hořava-Lifshitz gravity theory to external background (source) fields among others in the effective action of the quantum Hall effect, according to their symmetry transformation properties. We originally derive the map as a holographic dictionary, but its form is independent of the existence of holographic duality. This paves the way for the application of Hořava-Lifshitz holography on fractional quantum Hall effect. Using the simplest holographic Chern-Simons model, we compute the low energy effective action at leading orders and show that it captures universal electromagnetic and geometric properties of quantum Hall states, including the Wen-Zee shift, Hall viscosity, angular momentum density and their relations. We identify the shift function in Hořava-Lifshitz gravity theory as minus of guiding center velocity and conjugate to guiding center momentum. This enables us to distinguish guiding center angular momentum density from the internal one, which is the sum of Landau orbit spin and intrinsic (topological) spin of the composite particles. Our effective action shows that Hall viscosity is minus half of the internal angular momentum density and proportional to Wen-Zee shift, and Hall bulk viscosity is half of the guiding center angular momentum density.

Gravity-matter entanglement in Regge quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paunković, Nikola; Vojinović, Marko

2016-01-01

We argue that Hartle-Hawking states in the Regge quantum gravity model generically contain non-trivial entanglement between gravity and matter fields. Generic impossibility to talk about “matter in a point of space” is in line with the idea of an emergent spacetime, and as such could be taken as a possible candidate for a criterion for a plausible theory of quantum gravity. Finally, this new entanglement could be seen as an additional “effective interaction”, which could possibly bring corrections to the weak equivalence principle. (paper)

Gravity

CERN Document Server

Gamow, George

2003-01-01

A distinguished physicist and teacher, George Gamow also possessed a special gift for making the intricacies of science accessible to a wide audience. In Gravity, he takes an enlightening look at three of the towering figures of science who unlocked many of the mysteries behind the laws of physics: Galileo, the first to take a close look at the process of free and restricted fall; Newton, originator of the concept of gravity as a universal force; and Einstein, who proposed that gravity is no more than the curvature of the four-dimensional space-time continuum.Graced with the author's own draw

Euler–Chern–Simons gravity from Lovelock–Born–Infeld gravity

OpenAIRE

Izaurieta, F.; Rodriguez, E.; Salgado, P.

2004-01-01

In the context of a gauge theoretical formulation, higher dimensional gravity invariant under the AdS group is dimensionally reduced to Euler-Chern-Simons gravity. The dimensional reduction procedure of Grignani-Nardelli [Phys. Lett. B 300, 38 (1993)] is generalized so as to permit reducing D-dimensional Lanczos Lovelock gravity to d=D-1 dimensions.

Major results of gravity and magnetic studies at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliver, H.W.; Ponce, D.A.; Sikora, R.F.

1991-01-01

About 4000 gravity stations have been obtained at Yucca Mountain and vicinity since the beginning of radioactive-waste studies there in 1978. These data have been integrated with data from about 29,000 stations previously obtained in the surrounding region to produce a series of Bouguer and isostatic-residual-gravity maps of the Nevada Test Site and southeastern Nevada. Yucca Mountain is characterized by a WNW-dipping gravity gradient whereby residual values of -10 mGal along the east edge of Yucca Mountain decrease to about -38 mGal over Crater Flat. Using these gravity data, two-dimensional modeling predicted the depth to pre-Cenozoic rocks near the proposed repository to be about 1220 ± 150 m, an estimate that was subsequently confirmed by drilling to be 1244 m. Three-dimensional modeling of the gravity low over Crater Flat indicates the thickness of Cenozoic volcanic rocks and alluvial cover to be about 3000 m. Considerable aeromagnetic coverage of southwestern Nevada was obtained in 1978--1979 to help characterize Yucca Mountain and vicinity. One significant result is the discovery of a series of circular magnetic anomalies in Crater Flat and the northern Amargosa Desert that suggest the presence of buried volcanic centers there. Elongate magnetic highs and associated lows over Yucca Mountain correlate with mapped faults, some of which are only partially exposed. Thus, the data provide inforamtion on the extent and continuity of these faults. 31 refs., 3 figs

Study on the effect of micro-gravity on bio-functions; Seitai kino eno bisho juryoku no eikyo ni kansuru kenkyu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-03-01

The effect of micro-gravity on bio-functions and vital reaction was studied using the facility of Underground Gravity-free Experiment Center Co. On the effect on osteoblast shape and gene expression, although fluorochrome reacting with Ca was well taken into cells, no significant difference in Ca content in cells was observed before/after falling. Expression of genes related to cell propagation was controlled under micro-gravity. Protoplast fusion of Lentinus was unaffected by micro-gravity. The mRNA fragments of gravity sensitive mutant of rice plant were affected by micro-gravity. Paramecium was set swimming in solutions with different specific gravities. The reaction behavior of Paramecium was affected by the difference in specific gravity between cell bodies and solutions. The water content metabolism functions of a mouse with needle stimulus, in particular excretory, were slightly promoted by micro- gravity. The cortisol level in blood of a falling mouse group rose showing strong stress. As the preliminary study on the geotaxis of insects, motion of bagworm was observed. 12 refs., 38 figs., 4 tabs.

Lovelock gravities from Born-Infeld gravity theory

Science.gov (United States)

Concha, P. K.; Merino, N.; Rodríguez, E. K.

2017-02-01

We present a Born-Infeld gravity theory based on generalizations of Maxwell symmetries denoted as Cm. We analyze different configuration limits allowing to recover diverse Lovelock gravity actions in six dimensions. Further, the generalization to higher even dimensions is also considered.

Lower dimensional gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, J.D.

1988-01-01

This book addresses the subject of gravity theories in two and three spacetime dimensions. The prevailing philosophy is that lower dimensional models of gravity provide a useful arena for developing new ideas and insights, which are applicable to four dimensional gravity. The first chapter consists of a comprehensive introduction to both two and three dimensional gravity, including a discussion of their basic structures. In the second chapter, the asymptotic structure of three dimensional Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant is analyzed. The third chapter contains a treatment of the effects of matter sources in classical two dimensional gravity. The fourth chapter gives a complete analysis of particle pair creation by electric and gravitational fields in two dimensions, and the resulting effect on the cosmological constant

Effects of visual motion consistent or inconsistent with gravity on postural sway.

Science.gov (United States)

Balestrucci, Priscilla; Daprati, Elena; Lacquaniti, Francesco; Maffei, Vincenzo

2017-07-01

Vision plays an important role in postural control, and visual perception of the gravity-defined vertical helps maintaining upright stance. In addition, the influence of the gravity field on objects' motion is known to provide a reference for motor and non-motor behavior. However, the role of dynamic visual cues related to gravity in the control of postural balance has been little investigated. In order to understand whether visual cues about gravitational acceleration are relevant for postural control, we assessed the relation between postural sway and visual motion congruent or incongruent with gravity acceleration. Postural sway of 44 healthy volunteers was recorded by means of force platforms while they watched virtual targets moving in different directions and with different accelerations. Small but significant differences emerged in sway parameters with respect to the characteristics of target motion. Namely, for vertically accelerated targets, gravitational motion (GM) was associated with smaller oscillations of the center of pressure than anti-GM. The present findings support the hypothesis that not only static, but also dynamic visual cues about direction and magnitude of the gravitational field are relevant for balance control during upright stance.

Lovelock gravities from Born–Infeld gravity theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P.K. Concha

2017-02-01

Full Text Available We present a Born–Infeld gravity theory based on generalizations of Maxwell symmetries denoted as Cm. We analyze different configuration limits allowing to recover diverse Lovelock gravity actions in six dimensions. Further, the generalization to higher even dimensions is also considered.

Nonlocal gravity

CERN Document Server

Mashhoon, Bahram

2017-01-01

Relativity theory is based on a postulate of locality, which means that the past history of the observer is not directly taken into account. This book argues that the past history should be taken into account. In this way, nonlocality---in the sense of history dependence---is introduced into relativity theory. The deep connection between inertia and gravitation suggests that gravity could be nonlocal, and in nonlocal gravity the fading gravitational memory of past events must then be taken into account. Along this line of thought, a classical nonlocal generalization of Einstein's theory of gravitation has recently been developed. A significant consequence of this theory is that the nonlocal aspect of gravity appears to simulate dark matter. According to nonlocal gravity theory, what astronomers attribute to dark matter should instead be due to the nonlocality of gravitation. Nonlocality dominates on the scale of galaxies and beyond. Memory fades with time; therefore, the nonlocal aspect of gravity becomes wea...

A time-lapse gravity survey of the Coso geothermal field, China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, California

Science.gov (United States)

Phelps, Geoffrey; Cronkite-Ratcliff, Collin; Blake, Kelly

2018-04-19

We have conducted a gravity survey of the Coso geothermal field to continue the time-lapse gravity study of the area initiated in 1991. In this report, we outline a method of processing the gravity data that minimizes the random errors and instrument bias introduced into the data by the Scintrex CG-5 relative gravimeters that were used. After processing, the standard deviation of the data was estimated to be ±13 microGals. These data reveal that the negative gravity anomaly over the Coso geothermal field, centered on gravity station CER1, is continuing to increase in magnitude over time. Preliminary modeling indicates that water-table drawdown at the location of CER1 is between 65 and 326 meters over the last two decades. We note, however, that several assumptions on which the model results depend, such as constant elevation and free-water level over the study period, still require verification.

A Model of Gravity Vector Measurement Noise for Estimating Accelerometer Bias in Gravity Disturbance Compensation.

Science.gov (United States)

Tie, Junbo; Cao, Juliang; Chang, Lubing; Cai, Shaokun; Wu, Meiping; Lian, Junxiang

2018-03-16

Compensation of gravity disturbance can improve the precision of inertial navigation, but the effect of compensation will decrease due to the accelerometer bias, and estimation of the accelerometer bias is a crucial issue in gravity disturbance compensation. This paper first investigates the effect of accelerometer bias on gravity disturbance compensation, and the situation in which the accelerometer bias should be estimated is established. The accelerometer bias is estimated from the gravity vector measurement, and a model of measurement noise in gravity vector measurement is built. Based on this model, accelerometer bias is separated from the gravity vector measurement error by the method of least squares. Horizontal gravity disturbances are calculated through EGM2008 spherical harmonic model to build the simulation scene, and the simulation results indicate that precise estimations of the accelerometer bias can be obtained with the proposed method.

A Model of Gravity Vector Measurement Noise for Estimating Accelerometer Bias in Gravity Disturbance Compensation

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Juliang; Cai, Shaokun; Wu, Meiping; Lian, Junxiang

2018-01-01

Compensation of gravity disturbance can improve the precision of inertial navigation, but the effect of compensation will decrease due to the accelerometer bias, and estimation of the accelerometer bias is a crucial issue in gravity disturbance compensation. This paper first investigates the effect of accelerometer bias on gravity disturbance compensation, and the situation in which the accelerometer bias should be estimated is established. The accelerometer bias is estimated from the gravity vector measurement, and a model of measurement noise in gravity vector measurement is built. Based on this model, accelerometer bias is separated from the gravity vector measurement error by the method of least squares. Horizontal gravity disturbances are calculated through EGM2008 spherical harmonic model to build the simulation scene, and the simulation results indicate that precise estimations of the accelerometer bias can be obtained with the proposed method. PMID:29547552

Vector theory of gravity: Universe without black holes and solution of dark energy problem

Science.gov (United States)

Svidzinsky, Anatoly A.

2017-12-01

We propose an alternative theory of gravity which assumes that background geometry of the Universe is fixed four dimensional Euclidean space and gravity is a vector field A k in this space which breaks the Euclidean symmetry. Direction of A k gives the time coordinate, while perpendicular directions are spatial coordinates. Vector gravitational field is coupled to matter universally and minimally through the equivalent metric f ik which is a functional of A k . We show that such assumptions yield a unique theory of gravity, it is free of black holes and, to the best of our knowledge, passes all available tests. For cosmology our theory predicts the same evolution of the Universe as general relativity with cosmological constant and zero spatial curvature. However, the present theory provides explanation of the dark energy as energy of longitudinal gravitational field induced by the Universe expansion and yields, with no free parameters, the value of {{{Ω }}}{{Λ }}=2/3≈ 0.67 which is consistent with the recent Planck result {{{Ω }}}{{Λ }}=0.686+/- 0.02. Such close agreement with cosmological data indicates that gravity has a vector, rather than tensor, origin. We demonstrate that gravitational wave signals measured by LIGO are compatible with vector gravity. They are produced by orbital inspiral of massive neutron stars which can exist in the present theory. We also quantize gravitational field and show that quantum vector gravity is equivalent to QED. Vector gravity can be tested by making more accurate measurement of the time delay of radar signal traveling near the Sun; by improving accuracy of the light deflection experiments; or by measuring propagation direction of gravitational waves relative to laser interferometer arms. Resolving the supermassive object at the center of our Galaxy with VLBA could provide another test of gravity and also shed light on the nature of dark matter.

Dual geometric-gauge field aspects of gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huei Peng; Wang, K.

1992-01-01

We propose that the geometric and standard gauge field aspects of gravity are equally essential for a complete description of gravity and can be reconciled. We show that this dualism of gravity resolves the dimensional Newtonian constant problem in both quantum gravity and unification schemes involving gravity (i.e., the Newtonian constant is no longer the coupling constant in the gauge aspect of gravity) and reveals the profound similarity between gravity and other fields. 23 refs., 3 tabs

Geometric Liouville gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

La, H.

1992-01-01

A new geometric formulation of Liouville gravity based on the area preserving diffeo-morphism is given and a possible alternative to reinterpret Liouville gravity is suggested, namely, a scalar field coupled to two-dimensional gravity with a curvature constraint

Biomass Determination Using Wood Specific Gravity from Increment Cores

Science.gov (United States)

Michael C. Wiemann; G. Bruce Williamson

2013-01-01

Wood specific gravity (SG) is one of the most important variables used to determine biomass. Measurement of SG is problematic because it requires tedious, and often difficult, sampling of wood from standing trees. Sampling is complicated because the SG usually varies nonrandomly within trees, resulting in systematic errors. Off-center pith and hollow or decayed stems...

Inviscid evolution of large amplitude filaments in a uniform gravity field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Angus, J. R. [Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 (United States); Krasheninnikov, S. I. [University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States); National Research Nuclear University “MEPhl” Kashirskoe sh., 31, 115563 Moscow (Russian Federation)

2014-11-15

The inviscid evolution of localized density stratifications under the influence of a uniform gravity field in a homogeneous, ambient background is studied. The fluid is assumed to be incompressible, and the stratification, or filament, is assumed to be initially isotropic and at rest. It is shown that the center of mass energy can be related to the center of mass position in a form analogous to that of a solid object in a gravity field g by introducing an effective gravity field g{sub eff}, which is less than g due to energy that goes into the background and into non-center of mass motion of the filament. During the early stages of the evolution, g{sub eff} is constant in time and can be determined from the solution of a 1D differential equation that depends on the initial, radially varying density profile of the filament. For small amplitude filaments such that ρ{sub 0} ≪ 1, where ρ{sub 0} is the relative amplitude of the filament to the background, the early stage g{sub eff} scales linearly with ρ{sub 0}, but as ρ{sub 0}→∞, g{sub eff}→g and is thus independent of ρ{sub 0}. Fully nonlinear simulations are performed for the evolution of Gaussian filaments, and it is found that the time t{sub max}, which is defined as the time for the center of mass velocity to reach its maximum value U{sub max}, occurs very soon after the constant acceleration phase and so U{sub max}≈g{sub eff}(t=0)t{sub max}. The simulation results show that U{sub max}∼1/t{sub max}∼√(ρ{sub 0}) for ρ{sub 0} ≪ 1, in agreement with theory and results from previous authors, but that U{sub max} and t{sub max} both scale approximately with √(ρ{sub 0}) for ρ{sub 0} ≫ 1. The fact that U{sub max} and t{sub max} have the same scaling with ρ{sub 0} for large amplitude filaments is in agreement with the theory presented in this paper.

Major results of gravity and magnetic studies at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliver, H.W.; Ponce, D.A.; Sikora, R.F.

1991-01-01

About 4,000 gravity stations have been obtained at Yucca Mountain and vicinity since the beginning of radioactive-waste studies there in 1978. These data have been integrated with data from about 29,000 stations previously obtained in the surrounding region to produce a series of Bouguer and isostatic-residual-gravity maps of the Nevada Test Site and southeastern Nevada. Yucca Mountain is characterized by a WNW-dipping gravity gradient whereby residual values of -10 mGal along the east edge of Yucca Mountain decrease to about -38 mGal over Crater Flat. Using these gravity data, two-dimensional modeling predicted the depth to pre-Cenozoic rocks near the proposed repository to be about 1,220±150 m, an estimate that was subsequently confirmed by drilling to be 1,244 m. Three-dimensional modeling of the gravity low over Crater Flat indicates the thickness of Cenozoic volcanic rocks and alluvial cover to be about 3,000 m. Gravity interpretations also identified the Silent Canyon caldera before geologic mapping of Pahute Mesa and provided an estimate of the thickness of the volcanic section there of nearly 5 km. Considerable aeromagnetic coverage of southwestern Nevada was obtained in 1978-79 to help characterize Yucca Mountain and vicinity. One significant result is the discovery of a series of circular magnetic anomalies in Crater Flat and the northern Amargosa Desert that suggest the presence of buried volcanic centers there. If this interpretation is confirmed by drilling, the magnetic data can be used to help estimate the total volume of buried volcanic rocks, which, along with radiometric dating, could help provide a better prediction of future volcanism. Elongate magnetic highs and associated lows over Yucca Mountain correlate with mapped faults, some of which are only partially exposed. Thus, the data provide information on the extent and continuity of these faults

UV caps, IR modification of gravity, and recovery of 4D gravity in regularized braneworlds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kobayashi, Tsutomu

2008-01-01

In the context of six-dimensional conical braneworlds we consider a simple and explicit model that incorporates long-distance modification of gravity and regularization of codimension-2 singularities. To resolve the conical singularities we replace the codimension-2 branes with ringlike codimension-1 branes, filling in the interiors with regular caps. The six-dimensional Planck scale in the cap is assumed to be much greater than the bulk Planck scale, which gives rise to the effect analogous to brane-induced gravity. Weak gravity on the regularized brane is studied in the case of a sharp conical bulk. We show by a linear analysis that gravity at short distances is effectively described by the four-dimensional Brans-Dicke theory, while the higher dimensional nature of gravity emerges at long distances. The linear analysis breaks down at some intermediate scale, below which four-dimensional Einstein gravity is shown to be recovered thanks to the second-order effects of the brane bending.

Analogue Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Barceló

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Analogue gravity is a research programme which investigates analogues of general relativistic gravitational fields within other physical systems, typically but not exclusively condensed matter systems, with the aim of gaining new insights into their corresponding problems. Analogue models of (and for gravity have a long and distinguished history dating back to the earliest years of general relativity. In this review article we will discuss the history, aims, results, and future prospects for the various analogue models. We start the discussion by presenting a particularly simple example of an analogue model, before exploring the rich history and complex tapestry of models discussed in the literature. The last decade in particular has seen a remarkable and sustained development of analogue gravity ideas, leading to some hundreds of published articles, a workshop, two books, and this review article. Future prospects for the analogue gravity programme also look promising, both on the experimental front (where technology is rapidly advancing and on the theoretical front (where variants of analogue models can be used as a springboard for radical attacks on the problem of quantum gravity.

Gravity Field Interpretation for Major Fault Depth Detection in a Region Located SW- Qa’im / Iraq

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wadhah Mahmood Shakir Al-Khafaji

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This research deals with the qualitative and quantitative interpretation of Bouguer gravity anomaly data for a region located to the SW of Qa’im City within Anbar province by using 2D- mapping methods. The gravity residual field obtained graphically by subtracting the Regional Gravity values from the values of the total Bouguer anomaly. The residual gravity field processed in order to reduce noise by applying the gradient operator and 1st directional derivatives filtering. This was helpful in assigning the locations of sudden variation in Gravity values. Such variations may be produced by subsurface faults, fractures, cavities or subsurface facies lateral variations limits. A major fault was predicted to extend with the direction NE-SW. This fault is mentioned by previous studies as undefined subsurface fault depth within the sedimentary cover rocks. The results of this research that were obtained by gravity quantitative interpretation find that the depth to this major fault plane center is about 2.4 Km.

Covariant w∞ gravity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bergshoeff, E.; Pope, C.N.; Stelle, K.S.

1990-01-01

We discuss the notion of higher-spin covariance in w∞ gravity. We show how a recently proposed covariant w∞ gravity action can be obtained from non-chiral w∞ gravity by making field redefinitions that introduce new gauge-field components with corresponding new gauge transformations.

Physics of Trans-Planckian Gravity

CERN Document Server

Dvali, Gia; Germani, Cristiano

2011-01-01

We study aspects of the phenomenon of gravitational UV-self-completeness and its implications for deformations of Einstein gravity. In a ghost-free theory flowing to Einstein gravity in the IR trans-Planckian propagating quantum degrees of freedom cannot exist. The only physical meaning of a trans-Planckian pole is the one of a classical state (Black Hole) which is fully described by the light IR quantum degrees of freedom and gives exponentially-suppressed contributions to virtual processes. In this sense Einstein gravity is UV self-complete, although not Wilsonian. We show that this UV/IR correspondence puts a severe constraint on any attempt of conventional Wilsonian UV-completion of trans-Planckian gravity. In particular, there is no well-defined energy domain in which gravity could become asymptotically weak or safe.

The International Gravity Field Service (IGFS): Present Day Activities And Future Plans

Science.gov (United States)

Barzaghi, R.; Vergos, G. S.

2016-12-01

IGFS is a unified "umbrella" IAG service that coordinates the servicing of the geodetic and geophysical community with gravity field related data, software and information. The combined data of the IGFS entities will include global geopotential models, terrestrial, airborne, satellite and marine gravity observations, Earth tide data, GPS/levelling data, digital models of terrain and bathymetry, as well as ocean gravity field and geoid from satellite altimetry. The IGFS structure is based on the Gravity Services, the "operating arms" of IGFS. These Services related to IGFS are: BGI (Bureau Gravimetrique International), Toulouse, France ISG (International Service for the Geoid), Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy IGETS (International Geodynamics and Earth Tides Service), EOST, Strasbourg, France ICGEM (International Center for Global Earth Models), GFZ, Potsdam, Germany IDEMS (International Digital Elevation Model Service), ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA The Central Bureau, hosted at the Aristotle Thessaloniki University, is in charge for all the interactions among the services and the other IAG bodies, particularly GGOS. In this respect, connections with the GGOS Bureaus of Products and Standards and of Networks and Observations have been recently strengthened in order to align the Gravity services to the GGOS standards. IGFS is also strongly involved in the most relevant projects related to the gravity field such as the establishment of the new Global Absolute Gravity Reference System and of the International Height Reference System. These projects, along with the organization of Geoid Schools devoted to methods for gravity and geoid estimate, will play a central role in the IGFS future actions in the framework of GGOS.

Gravity is Geometry.

Science.gov (United States)

MacKeown, P. K.

1984-01-01

Clarifies two concepts of gravity--those of a fictitious force and those of how space and time may have geometry. Reviews the position of Newton's theory of gravity in the context of special relativity and considers why gravity (as distinct from electromagnetics) lends itself to Einstein's revolutionary interpretation. (JN)

Automated borehole gravity meter system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lautzenhiser, Th.V.; Wirtz, J.D.

1984-01-01

An automated borehole gravity meter system for measuring gravity within a wellbore. The gravity meter includes leveling devices for leveling the borehole gravity meter, displacement devices for applying forces to a gravity sensing device within the gravity meter to bring the gravity sensing device to a predetermined or null position. Electronic sensing and control devices are provided for (i) activating the displacement devices, (ii) sensing the forces applied to the gravity sensing device, (iii) electronically converting the values of the forces into a representation of the gravity at the location in the wellbore, and (iv) outputting such representation. The system further includes electronic control devices with the capability of correcting the representation of gravity for tidal effects, as well as, calculating and outputting the formation bulk density and/or porosity

Physics of trans-Planckian gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dvali, Gia; Folkerts, Sarah; Germani, Cristiano

2011-01-01

We study the field theoretical description of a generic theory of gravity flowing to Einstein general relativity in IR. We prove that, if ghost-free, in the weakly-coupled regime such a theory can never become weaker than general relativity. Using this fact, as a by-product, we suggest that in a ghost-free theory of gravity trans-Planckian propagating quantum degrees of freedom cannot exist. The only physical meaning of a trans-Planckian pole is the one of a classical state (black hole) which is described by the light IR quantum degrees of freedom and gives exponentially-suppressed contributions to virtual processes. In this picture Einstein gravity is UV self-complete, although not Wilsonian, and sub-Planckian distances are unobservable in any healthy theory of gravity. We then finally show that this UV/IR correspondence puts a severe constraint on any attempt of conventional Wilsonian UV-completion of trans-Planckian gravity. Specifically, there is no well-defined energy domain in which gravity could become asymptotically weak or safe.

Gravity brake

Science.gov (United States)

Lujan, Richard E.

2001-01-01

A mechanical gravity brake that prevents hoisted loads within a shaft from free-falling when a loss of hoisting force occurs. A loss of hoist lifting force may occur in a number of situations, for example if a hoist cable were to break, the brakes were to fail on a winch, or the hoist mechanism itself were to fail. Under normal hoisting conditions, the gravity brake of the invention is subject to an upward lifting force from the hoist and a downward pulling force from a suspended load. If the lifting force should suddenly cease, the loss of differential forces on the gravity brake in free-fall is translated to extend a set of brakes against the walls of the shaft to stop the free fall descent of the gravity brake and attached load.

Quantum Gravity Phenomenology

OpenAIRE

Amelino-Camelia, Giovanni

2003-01-01

Comment: 9 pages, LaTex. These notes were prepared while working on an invited contribution to the November 2003 issue of Physics World, which focused on quantum gravity. They intend to give a non-technical introduction (accessible to readers from outside quantum gravity) to "Quantum Gravity Phenomenology"

Gravity inversion code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burkhard, N.R.

1979-01-01

The gravity inversion code applies stabilized linear inverse theory to determine the topography of a subsurface density anomaly from Bouguer gravity data. The gravity inversion program consists of four source codes: SEARCH, TREND, INVERT, and AVERAGE. TREND and INVERT are used iteratively to converge on a solution. SEARCH forms the input gravity data files for Nevada Test Site data. AVERAGE performs a covariance analysis on the solution. This document describes the necessary input files and the proper operation of the code. 2 figures, 2 tables

Extended Theories of Gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Capozziello, Salvatore; De Laurentis, Mariafelicia

2011-01-01

Extended Theories of Gravity can be considered as a new paradigm to cure shortcomings of General Relativity at infrared and ultraviolet scales. They are an approach that, by preserving the undoubtedly positive results of Einstein’s theory, is aimed to address conceptual and experimental problems recently emerged in astrophysics, cosmology and High Energy Physics. In particular, the goal is to encompass, in a self-consistent scheme, problems like inflation, dark energy, dark matter, large scale structure and, first of all, to give at least an effective description of Quantum Gravity. We review the basic principles that any gravitational theory has to follow. The geometrical interpretation is discussed in a broad perspective in order to highlight the basic assumptions of General Relativity and its possible extensions in the general framework of gauge theories. Principles of such modifications are presented, focusing on specific classes of theories like f(R)-gravity and scalar–tensor gravity in the metric and Palatini approaches. The special role of torsion is also discussed. The conceptual features of these theories are fully explored and attention is paid to the issues of dynamical and conformal equivalence between them considering also the initial value problem. A number of viability criteria are presented considering the post-Newtonian and the post-Minkowskian limits. In particular, we discuss the problems of neutrino oscillations and gravitational waves in extended gravity. Finally, future perspectives of extended gravity are considered with possibility to go beyond a trial and error approach.

Centre of Gravity Plethysmography--A Means of Detecting Mass Transfer of Fluid within the Body.

Science.gov (United States)

Buck, Michael

1988-01-01

Describes the monitoring of the redistribution of blood by using a technique which detects changes in the center of gravity of the body. Provides information about the principles and application, construction of apparatus, operating routines, and use of the computer as a recorder. Includes suggested investigations, demonstrations, and diagrams.…

Density Relaxation of Liquid-Vapor Critical Fluids Examined in Earth's Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, R. Allen

2000-01-01

This work shows quantitatively the pronounced differences between the density equilibration of very compressible dense fluids in Earth's gravity and those in microgravity. The work was performed onsite at the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field and is complete. Full details are given in references 1 and 2. Liquid-vapor critical fluids (e.g., water) at their critical temperature and pressure, are very compressible. They collapse under their own weight in Earth's gravity, allowing only a thin meniscus-like layer with the critical pressure to survive. This critical layer, however, greatly slows down the equilibration process of the entire sample. A complicating feature is the buoyancy-driven slow flows of layers of heavier and lighter fluid. This work highlights the incomplete understanding of the hydrodynamics involved in these fluids.

Humans running in place on water at simulated reduced gravity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alberto E Minetti

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: On Earth only a few legged species, such as water strider insects, some aquatic birds and lizards, can run on water. For most other species, including humans, this is precluded by body size and proportions, lack of appropriate appendages, and limited muscle power. However, if gravity is reduced to less than Earth's gravity, running on water should require less muscle power. Here we use a hydrodynamic model to predict the gravity levels at which humans should be able to run on water. We test these predictions in the laboratory using a reduced gravity simulator. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We adapted a model equation, previously used by Glasheen and McMahon to explain the dynamics of Basilisk lizard, to predict the body mass, stride frequency and gravity necessary for a person to run on water. Progressive body-weight unloading of a person running in place on a wading pool confirmed the theoretical predictions that a person could run on water, at lunar (or lower gravity levels using relatively small rigid fins. Three-dimensional motion capture of reflective markers on major joint centers showed that humans, similarly to the Basilisk Lizard and to the Western Grebe, keep the head-trunk segment at a nearly constant height, despite the high stride frequency and the intensive locomotor effort. Trunk stabilization at a nearly constant height differentiates running on water from other, more usual human gaits. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results showed that a hydrodynamic model of lizards running on water can also be applied to humans, despite the enormous difference in body size and morphology.

A comparison of Horava-Lifshitz gravity and Einstein gravity through thin-shell wormhole construction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rahaman, F [Department of Mathematics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032 (India); Kuhfittig, P K F [Department of Mathematics, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WI 53202-3109 (United States); Kalam, M [Department of Physics, Aliah University, Sector V, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700091 (India); Usmani, A A [Department of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, Uttar Pradesh (India); Ray, S, E-mail: farook-rahaman@yahoo.com, E-mail: kuhfitti@msoe.edu, E-mail: mehedikalam@yahoo.co.in, E-mail: anisul@iucaa.ernet.in, E-mail: saibal@iucaa.ernet.in [Department of Physics, Govt College of Engineering and Ceramic Technology, Kolkata 700010 (India)

2011-08-07

In this paper, we have constructed a new class of thin-shell wormholes from black holes in Horava-Lifshitz gravity. Particular emphasis is placed on those aspects that allow a comparison of Horava-Lifshitz gravity to Einstein gravity. The former enjoys a number of advantages for small values of the throat radius.

Ocular Blood Flow Measured Noninvasively in Zero Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Ansari, Rafat R.; Manuel, Francis K.; Geiser, Martial; Moret, Fabrice; Messer, Russell K.; King, James F.; Suh, Kwang I.

2003-01-01

In spaceflight or a reduced-gravity environment, bodily fluids shift to the upper extremities of the body. The pressure inside the eye, or intraocular pressure, changes significantly. A significant number of astronauts report changes in visual acuity during orbital flight. To date this remains of unknown etiology. Could choroidal engorgement be the primary mechanism and a change in the curvature or shape of the cornea or lens be the secondary mechanism for this change in visual acuity? Perfused blood flow in the dense meshwork of capillaries of the choroidal tissue (see the preceding illustration) provides necessary nutrients to the outer layers of the retina (photoreceptors) to keep it healthy and maintain good vision. Unlike the vascular system, the choroid has no baroreceptors to autoregulate fluid shifts, so it can remain engorged, pushing the macula forward and causing a hyperopic (farsighted) shift of the eye. Experiments by researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center could help answer this question and facilitate planning for long-duration missions. We are investigating the effects of zero gravity on the choroidal blood flow of volunteer subjects. This pilot project plans to determine if choroidal blood flow is autoregulated in a reduced-gravity environment.

Gsolve, a Python computer program with a graphical user interface to transform relative gravity survey measurements to absolute gravity values and gravity anomalies

Science.gov (United States)

McCubbine, Jack; Tontini, Fabio Caratori; Stagpoole, Vaughan; Smith, Euan; O'Brien, Grant

2018-01-01

A Python program (Gsolve) with a graphical user interface has been developed to assist with routine data processing of relative gravity measurements. Gsolve calculates the gravity at each measurement site of a relative gravity survey, which is referenced to at least one known gravity value. The tidal effects of the sun and moon, gravimeter drift and tares in the data are all accounted for during the processing of the survey measurements. The calculation is based on a least squares formulation where the difference between the absolute gravity at each surveyed location and parameters relating to the dynamics of the gravimeter are minimized with respect to the relative gravity observations, and some supplied gravity reference site values. The program additionally allows the user to compute free air gravity anomalies, with respect to the GRS80 and GRS67 reference ellipsoids, from the determined gravity values and calculate terrain corrections at each of the surveyed sites using a prism formula and a user supplied digital elevation model. This paper reviews the mathematical framework used to reduce relative gravimeter survey observations to gravity values. It then goes on to detail how the processing steps can be implemented using the software.

The earth's shape and gravity

CERN Document Server

Garland, G D; Wilson, J T

2013-01-01

The Earth's Shape and Gravity focuses on the progress of the use of geophysical methods in investigating the interior of the earth and its shape. The publication first offers information on gravity, geophysics, geodesy, and geology and gravity measurements. Discussions focus on gravity measurements and reductions, potential and equipotential surfaces, absolute and relative measurements, and gravity networks. The text then elaborates on the shape of the sea-level surface and reduction of gravity observations. The text takes a look at gravity anomalies and structures in the earth's crust; interp

Gravity model improvement investigation. [improved gravity model for determination of ocean geoid

Science.gov (United States)

Siry, J. W.; Kahn, W. D.; Bryan, J. W.; Vonbun, F. F.

1973-01-01

This investigation was undertaken to improve the gravity model and hence the ocean geoid. A specific objective is the determination of the gravity field and geoid with a space resolution of approximately 5 deg and a height resolution of the order of five meters. The concept of the investigation is to utilize both GEOS-C altimeter and satellite-to-satellite tracking data to achieve the gravity model improvement. It is also planned to determine the geoid in selected regions with a space resolution of about a degree and a height resolution of the order of a meter or two. The short term objectives include the study of the gravity field in the GEOS-C calibration area outlined by Goddard, Bermuda, Antigua, and Cape Kennedy, and also in the eastern Pacific area which is viewed by ATS-F.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for EN08 (2013)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusettes, Maine, and Canada collected in 2013 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN08 (2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2016 over one survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum...

Teleparallel equivalent of Lovelock gravity

Science.gov (United States)

González, P. A.; Vásquez, Yerko

2015-12-01

There is a growing interest in modified gravity theories based on torsion, as these theories exhibit interesting cosmological implications. In this work inspired by the teleparallel formulation of general relativity, we present its extension to Lovelock gravity known as the most natural extension of general relativity in higher-dimensional space-times. First, we review the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity and Gauss-Bonnet gravity, and then we construct the teleparallel equivalent of Lovelock gravity. In order to achieve this goal, we use the vielbein and the connection without imposing the Weitzenböck connection. Then, we extract the teleparallel formulation of the theory by setting the curvature to null.

Representation of Gravity-Aligned Scene Structure in Ventral Pathway Visual Cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Vaziri, Siavash; Connor, Charles E

2016-03-21

The ventral visual pathway in humans and non-human primates is known to represent object information, including shape and identity [1]. Here, we show the ventral pathway also represents scene structure aligned with the gravitational reference frame in which objects move and interact. We analyzed shape tuning of recently described macaque monkey ventral pathway neurons that prefer scene-like stimuli to objects [2]. Individual neurons did not respond to a single shape class, but to a variety of scene elements that are typically aligned with gravity: large planes in the orientation range of ground surfaces under natural viewing conditions, planes in the orientation range of ceilings, and extended convex and concave edges in the orientation range of wall/floor/ceiling junctions. For a given neuron, these elements tended to share a common alignment in eye-centered coordinates. Thus, each neuron integrated information about multiple gravity-aligned structures as they would be seen from a specific eye and head orientation. This eclectic coding strategy provides only ambiguous information about individual structures but explicit information about the environmental reference frame and the orientation of gravity in egocentric coordinates. In the ventral pathway, this could support perceiving and/or predicting physical events involving objects subject to gravity, recognizing object attributes like animacy based on movement not caused by gravity, and/or stabilizing perception of the world against changes in head orientation [3-5]. Our results, like the recent discovery of object weight representation [6], imply that the ventral pathway is involved not just in recognition, but also in physical understanding of objects and scenes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AS01 (2008)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2008 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS04 (2009)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Texas collected in 2009 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN05 (2011)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2011 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for TS01 (2014)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands collected in 2009 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN06 (2011)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2011 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AS02 (2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for EN01 (2011)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for New York, Canada, and Lake Ontario collected in 2011 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN03 (2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 and 2012 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN04 (2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS05 (2014)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Texas collected in 2014 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for EN06 (2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Maine, Canada, and the Atlantic Ocean collected in 2012 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AN02 (2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for ES01 (2013)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Florida, the Bahamas, and the Atlantic Ocean collected in 2013 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of...

Analogue Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barceló Carlos

2005-12-01

Full Text Available Analogue models of (and for gravity have a long and distinguished history dating back to the earliest years of general relativity. In this review article we will discuss the history, aims, results, and future prospects for the various analogue models. We start the discussion by presenting a particularly simple example of an analogue model, before exploring the rich history and complex tapestry of models discussed in the literature. The last decade in particular has seen a remarkable and sustained development of analogue gravity ideas, leading to some hundreds of published articles, a workshop, two books, and this review article. Future prospects for the analogue gravity programme also look promising, both on the experimental front (where technology is rapidly advancing and on the theoretical front (where variants of analogue models can be used as a springboard for radical attacks on the problem of quantum gravity.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for ES02 (2013)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Florida and the Gulf of Mexico collected in 2013 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS08 (2015)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for CS08 collected in 2006 over 1 survey. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D)...

Self Completeness of Einstein Gravity

CERN Document Server

Dvali, Gia

2010-01-01

We argue, that in Einsteinian gravity the Planck length is the shortest length of nature, and any attempt of resolving trans-Planckian physics bounces back to macroscopic distances due to black hole formation. In Einstein gravity trans-Planckian propagating quantum degrees of freedom cannot exist, instead they are equivalent to the classical black holes that are fully described by lighter infra-red degrees of freedom and give exponentially-soft contribution into the virtual processes. Based on this property we argue that pure-Einstein (super)gravity and its high-dimensional generalizations are self-complete in deep-UV, but not in standard Wilsonian sense. We suggest that certain strong-coupling limit of string theory is built-in in pure Einstein gravity, whereas the role of weakly-coupled string theory limit is to consistently couple gravity to other particle species, with their number being set by the inverse string coupling. We also discuss some speculative ideas generalizing the notion of non-Wilsonian sel...

Classical Weyl transverse gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oda, Ichiro [University of the Ryukyus, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Nishihara, Okinawa (Japan)

2017-05-15

We study various classical aspects of the Weyl transverse (WTDiff) gravity in a general space-time dimension. First of all, we clarify a classical equivalence among three kinds of gravitational theories, those are, the conformally invariant scalar tensor gravity, Einstein's general relativity and the WTDiff gravity via the gauge-fixing procedure. Secondly, we show that in the WTDiff gravity the cosmological constant is a mere integration constant as in unimodular gravity, but it does not receive any radiative corrections unlike the unimodular gravity. A key point in this proof is to construct a covariantly conserved energy-momentum tensor, which is achieved on the basis of this equivalence relation. Thirdly, we demonstrate that the Noether current for the Weyl transformation is identically vanishing, thereby implying that the Weyl symmetry existing in both the conformally invariant scalar tensor gravity and the WTDiff gravity is a ''fake'' symmetry. We find it possible to extend this proof to all matter fields, i.e. the Weyl-invariant scalar, vector and spinor fields. Fourthly, it is explicitly shown that in the WTDiff gravity the Schwarzschild black hole metric and a charged black hole one are classical solutions to the equations of motion only when they are expressed in the Cartesian coordinate system. Finally, we consider the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmology and provide some exact solutions. (orig.)

Consistency of orthodox gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bellucci, S. [INFN, Frascati (Italy). Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati; Shiekh, A. [International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (Italy)

1997-01-01

A recent proposal for quantizing gravity is investigated for self consistency. The existence of a fixed-point all-order solution is found, corresponding to a consistent quantum gravity. A criterion to unify couplings is suggested, by invoking an application of their argument to more complex systems.

NGS Absolute Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The NGS Absolute Gravity data (78 stations) was received in July 1993. Principal gravity parameters include Gravity Value, Uncertainty, and Vertical Gradient. The...

Comparing scalar-tensor gravity and f(R)-gravity in the Newtonian limit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Capozziello, S.; Stabile, A.; Troisi, A.

2010-01-01

Recently, a strong debate has been pursued about the Newtonian limit (i.e. small velocity and weak field) of fourth order gravity models. According to some authors, the Newtonian limit of f(R)-gravity is equivalent to the one of Brans-Dicke gravity with ω BD =0, so that the PPN parameters of these models turn out to be ill-defined. In this Letter, we carefully discuss this point considering that fourth order gravity models are dynamically equivalent to the O'Hanlon Lagrangian. This is a special case of scalar-tensor gravity characterized only by self-interaction potential and that, in the Newtonian limit, this implies a non-standard behavior that cannot be compared with the usual PPN limit of General Relativity. The result turns out to be completely different from the one of Brans-Dicke theory and in particular suggests that it is misleading to consider the PPN parameters of this theory with ω BD =0 in order to characterize the homologous quantities of f(R)-gravity. Finally the solutions at Newtonian level, obtained in the Jordan frame for an f(R)-gravity, reinterpreted as a scalar-tensor theory, are linked to those in the Einstein frame.

Southern Africa Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data base (14,559 records) was received in January 1986. Principal gravity parameters include elevation and observed gravity. The observed gravity values are...

High-resolution gravity model of Venus

Science.gov (United States)

Reasenberg, R. D.; Goldberg, Z. M.

1992-01-01

The anomalous gravity field of Venus shows high correlation with surface features revealed by radar. We extract gravity models from the Doppler tracking data from the Pioneer Venus Orbiter by means of a two-step process. In the first step, we solve the nonlinear spacecraft state estimation problem using a Kalman filter-smoother. The Kalman filter has been evaluated through simulations. This evaluation and some unusual features of the filter are discussed. In the second step, we perform a geophysical inversion using a linear Bayesian estimator. To allow an unbiased comparison between gravity and topography, we use a simulation technique to smooth and distort the radar topographic data so as to yield maps having the same characteristics as our gravity maps. The maps presented cover 2/3 of the surface of Venus and display the strong topography-gravity correlation previously reported. The topography-gravity scatter plots show two distinct trends.

Einstein gravity emerging from quantum weyl gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zee, A.

1983-01-01

We advocate a conformal invariant world described by the sum of the Weyl, Dirac, and Yang-Mills action. Quantum fluctuations bring back Einstein gravity so that the long-distance phenomenology is as observed. Formulas for the induced Newton's constant and Eddington's constant are derived in quantized Weyl gravity. We show that the analogue of the trace anomaly for the Weyl action is structurally similar to that for the Yang-Mills action

Venus gravity - Analysis of Beta Regio

Science.gov (United States)

Esposito, P. B.; Sjogren, W. L.; Mottinger, N. A.; Bills, B. G.; Abbott, E.

1982-01-01

Radio tracking data acquired over Beta Regio were analyzed to obtain a surface mass distribution from which a detailed vertical gravity field was derived. In addition, a corresponding vertical gravity field was evaluated solely from the topography of the Beta region. A comparison of these two maps confirms the strong correlation between gravity and topography which was previously seen in line-of-sight gravity maps. It also demonstrates that the observed gravity is a significant fraction of that predicted from the topography alone. The effective depth of complete isostatic compensation for the Beta region is estimated to be 330 km, which is somewhat deeper than that found for other areas of Venus.

Modeling and estimation of a low degree geopotential model from terrestrial gravity data

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlis, Nikolaos K.

1988-01-01

The development of appropriate modeling and adjustment procedures for the estimation of harmonic coefficients of the geopotential, from surface gravity data was studied, in order to provide an optimum way of utilizing the terrestrial gravity information in combination solutions currently developed at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, for use in the TOPEX/POSEIDON mission. The mathematical modeling was based on the fundamental boundary condition of the linearized Molodensky boundary value problem. Atmospheric and ellipsoidal corrections were applied to the surface anomalies. Terrestrial gravity solutions were found to be in good agreement with the satellite ones over areas which are well surveyed (gravimetrically), such as North America or Australia. However, systematic differences between the terrestrial only models and GEMT1, over extended regions in Africa, the Soviet Union, and China were found. In Africa, gravity anomaly differences on the order of 20 mgals and undulation differences on the order of 15 meters, over regions extending 2000 km in diameter, occur. Comparisons of the GEMT1 implied undulations with 32 well distributed Doppler derived undulations gave an RMS difference of 2.6 m, while corresponding comparison with undulations implied by the terrestrial solution gave RMS difference on the order of 15 m, which implies that the terrestrial data in that region are substantially in error.

Tests of local Lorentz invariance violation of gravity in the standard model extension with pulsars.

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Lijing

2014-03-21

The standard model extension is an effective field theory introducing all possible Lorentz-violating (LV) operators to the standard model and general relativity (GR). In the pure-gravity sector of minimal standard model extension, nine coefficients describe dominant observable deviations from GR. We systematically implemented 27 tests from 13 pulsar systems to tightly constrain eight linear combinations of these coefficients with extensive Monte Carlo simulations. It constitutes the first detailed and systematic test of the pure-gravity sector of minimal standard model extension with the state-of-the-art pulsar observations. No deviation from GR was detected. The limits of LV coefficients are expressed in the canonical Sun-centered celestial-equatorial frame for the convenience of further studies. They are all improved by significant factors of tens to hundreds with existing ones. As a consequence, Einstein's equivalence principle is verified substantially further by pulsar experiments in terms of local Lorentz invariance in gravity.

Evaluation of Release-05 GRACE time-variable gravity coefficients over the ocean

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. P. Chambers

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The latest release of GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment gravity field coefficients (Release-05, or RL05 are evaluated for ocean applications. Data have been processed using the current methodology for Release-04 (RL04 coefficients, and have been compared to output from two different ocean models. Results indicate that RL05 data from the three Science Data Centers – the Center for Space Research (CSR, GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL – are more consistent among themselves than the previous RL04 data. Moreover, the variance of residuals with the output of an ocean model is 50–60% lower for RL05 data than for RL04 data. A more optimized destriping algorithm is also tested, which improves the results slightly. By comparing the GRACE maps with two different ocean models, we can better estimate the uncertainty in the RL05 maps. We find the standard error to be about 1 cm (equivalent water thickness in the low- and mid-latitudes, and between 1.5 and 2 cm in the polar and subpolar oceans, which is comparable to estimated uncertainty for the output from the ocean models.

The Future of Gravity

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2007-01-01

Of the four fundamental forces, gravity has been studied the longest, yet gravitational physics is one of the most rapidly developing areas of science today. This talk will give a broad brush survey of the past achievements and future prospects of general relativistic gravitational physics. Gravity is a two frontier science being important on both the very largest and smallest length scales considered in contemporary physics. Recent advances and future prospects will be surveyed in precision tests of general relativity, gravitational waves, black holes, cosmology and quantum gravity. The aim will be an overview of a subject that is becoming increasingly integrated with experiment and other branches of physics.

Gravity effects on endogenous movements

Science.gov (United States)

Johnsson, Anders; Antonsen, Frank

Gravity effects on endogenous movements A. Johnsson * and F. Antonsen *+ * Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,NO-7491, Trond-heim, Norway, E-mail: anders.johnsson@ntnu.no + Present address: Statoil Research Center Trondheim, NO-7005, Trondheim, Norway Circumnutations in stems/shoots exist in many plants and often consists of more or less regular helical movements around the plumb line under Earth conditions. Recent results on circumnu-tations of Arabidopsis in space (Johnsson et al. 2009) showed that minute amplitude oscilla-tions exist in weightlessness, but that centripetal acceleration (mimicking the gravity) amplified and/or created large amplitude oscillations. Fundamental mechanisms underlying these results will be discussed by modeling the plant tissue as a cylinder of cells coupled together. As a starting point we have modeled (Antonsen 1998) standing waves on a ring of biological cells, as first discussed in a classical paper (Turing 1952). If the coupled cells can change their water content, an `extension' wave could move around the ring. We have studied several, stacked rings of cells coupled into a cylinder that together represent a cylindrical plant tissue. Waves of extensions travelling around the cylinder could then represent the observable circumnutations. The coupling between cells can be due to cell-to-cell diffusion, or to transport via channels, and the coupling can be modeled to vary in both longitudinal and transversal direction of the cylinder. The results from ISS experiments indicate that this cylindrical model of coupled cells should be able to 1) show self-sustained oscillations without the impact of gravity (being en-dogenous) and 2) show how an environmental factor like gravity can amplify or generate the oscillatory movements. Gravity has been introduced in the model by a negative, time-delayed feed-back transport across the cylinder. This represents the physiological reactions to acceler

A Transportable Gravity Gradiometer Based on Atom Interferometry

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Nan; Thompson, Robert J.; Kellogg, James R.; Aveline, David C.; Maleki, Lute; Kohel, James M.

2010-01-01

A transportable atom interferometer-based gravity gradiometer has been developed at JPL to carry out measurements of Earth's gravity field at ever finer spatial resolutions, and to facilitate high-resolution monitoring of temporal variations in the gravity field from ground- and flight-based platforms. Existing satellite-based gravity missions such as CHAMP and GRACE measure the gravity field via precise monitoring of the motion of the satellites; i.e. the satellites themselves function as test masses. JPL's quantum gravity gradiometer employs a quantum phase measurement technique, similar to that employed in atomic clocks, made possible by recent advances in laser cooling and manipulation of atoms. This measurement technique is based on atomwave interferometry, and individual laser-cooled atoms are used as drag-free test masses. The quantum gravity gradiometer employs two identical atom interferometers as precision accelerometers to measure the difference in gravitational acceleration between two points (Figure 1). By using the same lasers for the manipulation of atoms in both interferometers, the accelerometers have a common reference frame and non-inertial accelerations are effectively rejected as common mode noise in the differential measurement of the gravity gradient. As a result, the dual atom interferometer-based gravity gradiometer allows gravity measurements on a moving platform, while achieving the same long-term stability of the best atomic clocks. In the laboratory-based prototype (Figure 2), the cesium atoms used in each atom interferometer are initially collected and cooled in two separate magneto-optic traps (MOTs). Each MOT, consisting of three orthogonal pairs of counter-propagating laser beams centered on a quadrupole magnetic field, collects up to 10(exp 9) atoms. These atoms are then launched vertically as in an atom fountain by switching off the magnetic field and introducing a slight frequency shift between pairs of lasers to create a moving

Is Gravity an Entropic Force?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shan Gao

2011-04-01

Full Text Available The remarkable connections between gravity and thermodynamics seem to imply that gravity is not fundamental but emergent, and in particular, as Verlinde suggested, gravity is probably an entropic force. In this paper, we will argue that the idea of gravity as an entropic force is debatable. It is shown that there is no convincing analogy between gravity and entropic force in Verlinde’s example. Neither holographic screen nor test particle satisfies all requirements for the existence of entropic force in a thermodynamics system. Furthermore, we show that the entropy increase of the screen is not caused by its statistical tendency to increase entropy as required by the existence of entropic force, but in fact caused by gravity. Therefore, Verlinde’s argument for the entropic origin of gravity is problematic. In addition, we argue that the existence of a minimum size of spacetime, together with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum theory, may imply the fundamental existence of gravity as a geometric property of spacetime. This may provide a further support for the conclusion that gravity is not an entropic force.

Strings and quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vega, H.J. de

1990-01-01

One of the main challenges in theoretical physics today is the unification of all interactions including gravity. At present, string theories appear as the most promising candidates to achieve such a unification. However, gravity has not completely been incorporated in string theory, many technical and conceptual problems remain and a full quantum theory of gravity is still non-existent. Our aim is to properly understand strings in the context of quantum gravity. Attempts towards this are reviewed. (author)

Gravity interpretation via EULDPH

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebrahimzadeh Ardestani, V.

2003-01-01

Euler's homogeneity equation for determining the coordinates of the source body especially to estimate the depth (EULDPH) is discussed at this paper. This method is applied to synthetic and high-resolution real data such as gradiometric or microgravity data. Low-quality gravity data especially in the areas with a complex geology structure has rarely been used. The Bouguer gravity anomalies are computed from absolute gravity data after the required corrections. Bouguer anomaly is transferred to residual gravity anomaly. The gravity gradients are estimated from residual anomaly values. Bouguer anomaly is the gravity gradients, using EULDPH. The coordinates of the perturbing body will be determined. Two field examples one in the east of Tehran (Mard Abad) where we would like to determine the location of the anomaly (hydrocarbon) and another in the south-east of Iran close to the border with Afghanistan (Nosrat Abad) where we are exploring chromite are presented

Data reduction and tying in regional gravity surveys—results from a new gravity base station network and the Bouguer gravity anomaly map for northeastern Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Hurtado-Cardador, Manuel; Urrutia-Fucugauchi, Jaime

2006-12-01

Since 1947 Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has conducted oil exploration projects using potential field methods. Geophysical exploration companies under contracts with Pemex carried out gravity anomaly surveys that were referred to different floating data. Each survey comprises observations of gravity stations along highways, roads and trails at intervals of about 500 m. At present, 265 separate gravimeter surveys that cover 60% of the Mexican territory (mainly in the oil producing regions of Mexico) are available. This gravity database represents the largest, highest spatial resolution information, and consequently has been used in the geophysical data compilations for the Mexico and North America gravity anomaly maps. Regional integration of gravimeter surveys generates gradients and spurious anomalies in the Bouguer anomaly maps at the boundaries of the connected surveys due to the different gravity base stations utilized. The main objective of this study is to refer all gravimeter surveys from Pemex to a single new first-order gravity base station network, in order to eliminate problems of gradients and spurious anomalies. A second objective is to establish a network of permanent gravity base stations (BGP), referred to a single base from the World Gravity System. Four regional loops of BGP covering eight States of Mexico were established to support the tie of local gravity base stations from each of the gravimeter surveys located in the vicinity of these loops. The third objective is to add the gravity constants, measured and calculated, for each of the 265 gravimeter surveys to their corresponding files in the Pemex and Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo database. The gravity base used as the common datum is the station SILAG 9135-49 (Latin American System of Gravity) located in the National Observatory of Tacubaya in Mexico City. We present the results of the installation of a new gravity base network in northeastern Mexico, reference of the 43 gravimeter surveys

Using the Gravity Model to Estimate the Spatial Spread of Vector-Borne Diseases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean-Marie Aerts

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The gravity models are commonly used spatial interaction models. They have been widely applied in a large set of domains dealing with interactions amongst spatial entities. The spread of vector-borne diseases is also related to the intensity of interaction between spatial entities, namely, the physical habitat of pathogens’ vectors and/or hosts, and urban areas, thus humans. This study implements the concept behind gravity models in the spatial spread of two vector-borne diseases, nephropathia epidemica and Lyme borreliosis, based on current knowledge on the transmission mechanism of these diseases. Two sources of information on vegetated systems were tested: the CORINE land cover map and MODIS NDVI. The size of vegetated areas near urban centers and a local indicator of occupation-related exposure were found significant predictors of disease risk. Both the land cover map and the space-borne dataset were suited yet not equivalent input sources to locate and measure vegetated areas of importance for disease spread. The overall results point at the compatibility of the gravity model concept and the spatial spread of vector-borne diseases.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CN02 (2013 & 2014)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Nebraska collected in 2013 & 2014 over 3 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical...

Gravity loop corrections to the standard model Higgs in Einstein gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yugo Abe; Masaatsu Horikoshi; Takeo Inami

2016-01-01

We study one-loop quantum gravity corrections to the standard model Higgs potential V(φ) à la Coleman-Weinberg and examine the stability question of V(φ) in the energy region of Planck mass scale, μ ≃ M_P_l (M_P_l = 1.22x10"1"9 GeV). We calculate the gravity one-loop corrections to V(φ) in Einstein gravity by using the momentum cut-off Λ. We have found that even small gravity corrections compete with the standard model term of V(φ) and affect the stability argument of the latter part alone. This is because the latter part is nearly zero in the energy region of M_P_l. (author)

Equivalence of two-dimensional gravities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohammedi, N.

1990-01-01

The authors find the relationship between the Jackiw-Teitelboim model of two-dimensional gravity and the SL(2,R) induced gravity. These are shown to be related to a two-dimensional gauge theory obtained by dimensionally reducing the Chern-Simons action of the 2 + 1 dimensional gravity. The authors present an explicit solution to the equations of motion of the auxiliary field of the Jackiw-Teitelboim model in the light-cone gauge. A renormalization of the cosmological constant is also given

Anomalies and gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mielke, Eckehard W.

2006-01-01

Anomalies in Yang-Mills type gauge theories of gravity are reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the relation between the Dirac spin, the axial current j5 and the non-covariant gauge spin C. Using diagrammatic techniques, we show that only generalizations of the U(1)- Pontrjagin four-form F and F = dC arise in the chiral anomaly, even when coupled to gravity. Implications for Ashtekar's canonical approach to quantum gravity are discussed

GRACE gravity field modeling with an investigation on correlation between nuisance parameters and gravity field coefficients

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Qile; Guo, Jing; Hu, Zhigang; Shi, Chuang; Liu, Jingnan; Cai, Hua; Liu, Xianglin

2011-05-01

The GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) monthly gravity models have been independently produced and published by several research institutions, such as Center for Space Research (CSR), GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Delft Institute of Earth Observation and Space Systems (DEOS). According to their processing standards, above institutions use the traditional variational approach except that the DEOS exploits the acceleration approach. The background force models employed are rather similar. The produced gravity field models generally agree with one another in the spatial pattern. However, there are some discrepancies in the gravity signal amplitude between solutions produced by different institutions. In particular, 10%-30% signal amplitude differences in some river basins can be observed. In this paper, we implemented a variant of the traditional variational approach and computed two sets of monthly gravity field solutions using the data from January 2005 to December 2006. The input data are K-band range-rates (KBRR) and kinematic orbits of GRACE satellites. The main difference in the production of our two types of models is how to deal with nuisance parameters. This type of parameters is necessary to absorb low-frequency errors in the data, which are mainly the aliasing and instrument errors. One way is to remove the nuisance parameters before estimating the geopotential coefficients, called NPARB approach in the paper. The other way is to estimate the nuisance parameters and geopotential coefficients simultaneously, called NPESS approach. These two types of solutions mainly differ in geopotential coefficients from degree 2 to 5. This can be explained by the fact that the nuisance parameters and the gravity field coefficients are highly correlated, particularly at low degrees. We compare these solutions with the official and published ones by means of spectral analysis. It is

Temporal variation of gravity field prior to the Ludian Ms6.5 and Kangding Ms6.3 earthquakes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongtao Hao

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Using mobile gravity data from the central area of Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, the relationship between gravity variation and earthquakes was studied based on the Ludian Ms6.5 earthquake that occurred on August 3rd, 2014, and the Kangding Ms6.3 earthquake that occurred on November 22nd, 2014; the mechanism of gravity variation was also explored. The results are as follows: (1 Prior to both earthquakes, gravity variation exhibited similar characteristics as those observed before both the Tangshan and Wenchuan earthquakes, in which typical precursor anomalies were positive gravity variation near the epicenter and the occurrence of a high-gravity-gradient zone across the epicenter prior to the earthquake. (2 A relatively accurate prediction of the occurrence locations of the two earthquakes was made by the Gravity Network Center of China (GNCC based on these precursor anomalies. In the gravity study report on the 2014 earthquake trends submitted at the end of 2013, the Daofu-Shimian section at the junction of the Xianshuihe and Longmenshan fault zones was noted as an earthquake-risk region with a predicted magnitude of 6.5, which covered the epicenter of the Kangding Ms6.3 earthquake. In another report on earthquake trends in southwestern China submitted in mid-2014, the Lianfeng, Zhaotong fault zone was also classified as an earthquake-risk region with a magnitude of 6.0, and the central area of this region basically overlapped with the epicenter of the Ludian Ms6.5 earthquake. (3 The gravity variation characteristics are reasonably consistent with crustal movements, and deep material migration is likely the primary cause of gravity variation.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS02 (2008-2009)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Louisana and Mississippi collected in 2008-2009 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American...

Quantum gravity from noncommutative spacetime

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Jungjai [Daejin University, Pocheon (Korea, Republic of); Yang, Hyunseok [Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2014-12-15

We review a novel and authentic way to quantize gravity. This novel approach is based on the fact that Einstein gravity can be formulated in terms of a symplectic geometry rather than a Riemannian geometry in the context of emergent gravity. An essential step for emergent gravity is to realize the equivalence principle, the most important property in the theory of gravity (general relativity), from U(1) gauge theory on a symplectic or Poisson manifold. Through the realization of the equivalence principle, which is an intrinsic property in symplectic geometry known as the Darboux theorem or the Moser lemma, one can understand how diffeomorphism symmetry arises from noncommutative U(1) gauge theory; thus, gravity can emerge from the noncommutative electromagnetism, which is also an interacting theory. As a consequence, a background-independent quantum gravity in which the prior existence of any spacetime structure is not a priori assumed but is defined by using the fundamental ingredients in quantum gravity theory can be formulated. This scheme for quantum gravity can be used to resolve many notorious problems in theoretical physics, such as the cosmological constant problem, to understand the nature of dark energy, and to explain why gravity is so weak compared to other forces. In particular, it leads to a remarkable picture of what matter is. A matter field, such as leptons and quarks, simply arises as a stable localized geometry, which is a topological object in the defining algebra (noncommutative *-algebra) of quantum gravity.

Quantum gravity from noncommutative spacetime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jungjai; Yang, Hyunseok

2014-01-01

We review a novel and authentic way to quantize gravity. This novel approach is based on the fact that Einstein gravity can be formulated in terms of a symplectic geometry rather than a Riemannian geometry in the context of emergent gravity. An essential step for emergent gravity is to realize the equivalence principle, the most important property in the theory of gravity (general relativity), from U(1) gauge theory on a symplectic or Poisson manifold. Through the realization of the equivalence principle, which is an intrinsic property in symplectic geometry known as the Darboux theorem or the Moser lemma, one can understand how diffeomorphism symmetry arises from noncommutative U(1) gauge theory; thus, gravity can emerge from the noncommutative electromagnetism, which is also an interacting theory. As a consequence, a background-independent quantum gravity in which the prior existence of any spacetime structure is not a priori assumed but is defined by using the fundamental ingredients in quantum gravity theory can be formulated. This scheme for quantum gravity can be used to resolve many notorious problems in theoretical physics, such as the cosmological constant problem, to understand the nature of dark energy, and to explain why gravity is so weak compared to other forces. In particular, it leads to a remarkable picture of what matter is. A matter field, such as leptons and quarks, simply arises as a stable localized geometry, which is a topological object in the defining algebra (noncommutative *-algebra) of quantum gravity.

MX Siting Investigation. Gravity Survey - Sevier Desert Valley, Utah.

Science.gov (United States)

1981-01-24

Cheyenne, Wyoming. DMAHTC reduces the data to Simple Bouguer Anomaly (see Section A1.4, Appendix Al.0). The Defense Mapping Agency Aerospace Center...Desert Valley, Utah ......... 2 2 Topographic Setting - Sevier Desert Valley, Utah . 3 LIST OF DRAWINGS Drawing Number 1 Complete Bouguer Anomaly...gravity stations were distributed throughout the valley at an approxi- mate interval of 1.4 miles (2.3 km). Drawing 1 is a Complete Bouguer Anomaly

Superconducting gravity gradiometer for sensitive gravity measurements. II. Experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, H.A.; Moody, M.V.; Paik, H.J.

1987-01-01

A sensitive superconducting gravity gradiometer has been constructed and tested. Coupling to gravity signals is obtained by having two superconducting proof masses modulate magnetic fields produced by persistent currents. The induced electrical currents are differenced by a passive superconducting circuit coupled to a superconducting quantum interference device. The experimental behavior of this device has been shown to follow the theoretical model closely in both signal transfer and noise characteristics. While its intrinsic noise level is shown to be 0.07 E Hz/sup -1/2/ (1 Eequivalent10/sup -9/ sec/sup -2/), the actual performance of the gravity gradiometer on a passive platform has been limited to 0.3--0.7 E Hz/sup -1/2/ due to its coupling to the environmental noise. The detailed structure of this excess noise is understood in terms of an analytical error model of the instrument. The calibration of the gradiometer has been obtained by two independent methods: by applying a linear acceleration and a gravity signal in two different operational modes of the instrument. This device has been successfully operated as a detector in a new null experiment for the gravitational inverse-square law. In this paper we report the design, fabrication, and detailed test results of the superconducting gravity gradiometer. We also present additional theoretical analyses which predict the specific dynamic behavior of the gradiometer and of the test

The Two-Phase Flow Separator Experiment Breadboard Model: Reduced Gravity Aircraft Results

Science.gov (United States)

Rame, E; Sharp, L. M.; Chahine, G.; Kamotani, Y.; Gotti, D.; Owens, J.; Gilkey, K.; Pham, N.

2015-01-01

Life support systems in space depend on the ability to effectively separate gas from liquid. Passive cyclonic phase separators use the centripetal acceleration of a rotating gas-liquid mixture to carry out phase separation. The gas migrates to the center, while gas-free liquid may be withdrawn from one of the end plates. We have designed, constructed and tested a breadboard that accommodates the test sections of two independent principal investigators and satisfies their respective requirements, including flow rates, pressure and video diagnostics. The breadboard was flown in the NASA low-gravity airplane in order to test the system performance and design under reduced gravity conditions.

The gravity field and GGOS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Forsberg, René; Sideris, M.G.; Shum, C.K.

2005-01-01

The gravity field of the earth is a natural element of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS). Gravity field quantities are like spatial geodetic observations of potential very high accuracy, with measurements, currently at part-per-billion (ppb) accuracy, but gravity field quantities are also...... unique as they can be globally represented by harmonic functions (long-wavelength geopotential model primarily from satellite gravity field missions), or based on point sampling (airborne and in situ absolute and superconducting gravimetry). From a GGOS global perspective, one of the main challenges...... is to ensure the consistency of the global and regional geopotential and geoid models, and the temporal changes of the gravity field at large spatial scales. The International Gravity Field Service, an umbrella "level-2" IAG service (incorporating the International Gravity Bureau, International Geoid Service...

Towards the map of quantum gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Mielczarek, Jakub; Trześniewski, Tomasz

2018-06-01

In this paper we point out some possible links between different approaches to quantum gravity and theories of the Planck scale physics. In particular, connections between loop quantum gravity, causal dynamical triangulations, Hořava-Lifshitz gravity, asymptotic safety scenario, Quantum Graphity, deformations of relativistic symmetries and nonlinear phase space models are discussed. The main focus is on quantum deformations of the Hypersurface Deformations Algebra and Poincaré algebra, nonlinear structure of phase space, the running dimension of spacetime and nontrivial phase diagram of quantum gravity. We present an attempt to arrange the observed relations in the form of a graph, highlighting different aspects of quantum gravity. The analysis is performed in the spirit of a mind map, which represents the architectural approach to the studied theory, being a natural way to describe the properties of a complex system. We hope that the constructed graphs (maps) will turn out to be helpful in uncovering the global picture of quantum gravity as a particular complex system and serve as a useful guide for the researchers.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for EN07 (2012-2013)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Maine and Canada collected in 2012 and 2013 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AS03 (2010-2012)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2010 and 2012 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum...

On Symmetries of Extremal Black Holes with One and Two Centers

CERN Document Server

Ferrara, Sergio

2013-01-01

After a brief introduction to the Attractor Mechanism, we review the appearance of groups of type E7 as generalized electric-magnetic duality symmetries in locally supersymmetric theories of gravity, with particular emphasis on the symplectic structure of fluxes in the background of extremal black hole solutions, with one or two centers. In the latter case, the role of an "horizontal" symmetry SL(2,R) is elucidated by presenting a set of two-centered relations governing the structure of two-centered invariant polynomials.

Gravity wave astronomy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinheiro, R.

1979-01-01

The properties and production of gravitational radiation are described. The prospects for their detection are considered including the Weber apparatus and gravity-wave telescopes. Possibilities of gravity-wave astronomy are noted

Observational constraints on transverse gravity: A generalization of unimodular gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lopez-Villarejo, J J

2010-01-01

We explore the hypothesis that the set of symmetries enjoyed by the theory that describes gravity is not the full group of diffeomorphisms (Diff(M)), as in General Relativity, but a maximal subgroup of it (TransverseDiff(M)), with its elements having a jacobian equal to unity; at the infinitesimal level, the parameter describing the coordinate change x μ → x μ + ξ μ (x) is transverse, i.e., δ μ ξ μ = 0. Incidentally, this is the smaller symmetry one needs to propagate consistently a graviton, which is a great theoretical motivation for considering these theories. Also, the determinant of the metric, g, behaves as a 'transverse scalar', so that these theories can be seen as a generalization of the better-known unimodular gravity. We present our results on the observational constraints on transverse gravity, in close relation with the claim of equivalence with general scalar-tensor theory. We also comment on the structure of the divergences of the quantum theory to the one-loop order.

Observing coseismic gravity change from the Japan Tohoku-Oki 2011 earthquake with GOCE gravity gradiometry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fuchs, M.J.; Bouman, J.; Broerse, D.B.T.; Visser, P.N.A.M.; Vermeersen, L.L.A.

2013-01-01

The Japan Tohoku-Oki earthquake (9.0 Mw) of 11 March 2011 has left signatures in the Earth's gravity field that are detectable by data of the Gravity field Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. Because the European Space Agency's (ESA) satellite gravity mission Gravity field and

Effect of External Disturbing Gravity Field on Spacecraft Guidance and Surveying Line Layout for Marine Gravity Survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HUANG Motao

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Centred on the support requirement of flying track control for a long range spacecraft, a detail research is made on the computation of external disturbing gravity field, the survey accuracy of gravity anomaly on the earth' surface and the program of surveying line layout for marine gravity survey. Firstly, the solution expression of navigation error for a long range spacecraft is analyzed and modified, and the influence of the earth's gravity field on flying track of spacecraft is evaluated. Then with a given limited quota of biased error of spacecraft drop point, the accuracy requirement for calculating the external disturbing gravity field is discussed and researched. Secondly, the data truncation error and the propagated data error are studied and estimated, and the quotas of survey resolution and computation accuracy for gravity anomaly on the earth' surface are determined. Finally, based on the above quotas, a corresponding program of surveying line layout for marine gravity survey is proposed. A numerical test has been made to prove the reasonableness and validity of the suggested program.

Terrestrial spreading centers under Venus conditions - Evaluation of a crustal spreading model for Western Aphrodite Terra

Science.gov (United States)

Sotin, C.; Senske, D. A.; Head, J. W.; Parmentier, E. M.

1989-01-01

The model of Reid and Jackson (1981) for terrestrial spreading centers is applied to Venus conditions. On the basis of spreading rate, mantle temperature, and surface temperature, the model predicts both isostatic topography and crustal thickness. The model and Pioneer Venus altimetry and gravity data are used to test the hypothesis of Head and Crumpler (1987) that Western Aphrodite Terra is the location of crustal spreading on Venus. It is concluded that a spreading center model for Ovda Regio in Western Aphrodite Terra could account for the observed topography and line-of-sight gravity anomalies found in the Pioneer data.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for ES05 (2015-2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Florida and the Atlantic Ocean collected in two surveys, FL15-1 and FL15-2. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of...

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for AS04 (2015-2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2015 and 2016 over 2 surveys, AK15 and AK16. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American...

Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer Studied Under Reduced-Gravity Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, David F.; Hasan, Mohammad M.

2000-01-01

Boiling is known to be a very efficient mode of heat transfer, and as such, it is employed in component cooling and in various energy-conversion systems. In space, boiling heat transfer may be used in thermal management, fluid handling and control, power systems, and on-orbit storage and supply systems for cryogenic propellants and life-support fluids. Recent interest in the exploration of Mars and other planets and in the concept of in situ resource utilization on the Martian and Lunar surfaces highlights the need to understand how gravity levels varying from the Earth's gravity to microgravity (1g = or > g/g(sub e) = or > 10(exp -6)g) affect boiling heat transfer. Because of the complex nature of the boiling process, no generalized prediction or procedure has been developed to describe the boiling heat transfer coefficient, particularly at reduced gravity levels. Recently, Professor Vijay K. Dhir of the University of California at Los Angeles proposed a novel building-block approach to investigate the boiling phenomena in low-gravity to microgravity environments. This approach experimentally investigates the complete process of bubble inception, growth, and departure for single bubbles formed at a well-defined and controllable nucleation site. Principal investigator Professor Vijay K. Dhir, with support from researchers from the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, is performing a series of pool boiling experiments in the low-gravity environments of the KC 135 microgravity aircraft s parabolic flight to investigate the inception, growth, departure, and merger of bubbles from single- and multiple-nucleation sites as a function of the wall superheat and the liquid subcooling. Silicon wafers with single and multiple cavities of known characteristics are being used as test surfaces. Water and PF5060 (an inert liquid) were chosen as test liquids so that the role of surface wettability and the magnitude of the effect of interfacial tension on boiling in reduced

BOOK REVIEW: Quantum Gravity: third edition Quantum Gravity: third edition

Science.gov (United States)

Rovelli, Carlo

2012-09-01

The request by Classical and Quantum Gravity to review the third edition of Claus Kiefer's 'Quantum Gravity' puts me in a slightly awkward position. This is a remarkably good book, which every person working in quantum gravity should have on the shelf. But in my opinion quantum gravity has undergone some dramatic advances in the last few years, of which the book makes no mention. Perhaps the omission only attests to the current vitality of the field, where progress is happening fast, but it is strange for me to review a thoughtful, knowledgeable and comprehensive book on my own field of research, which ignores what I myself consider the most interesting results to date. Kiefer's book is unique as a broad introduction and a reliable overview of quantum gravity. There are numerous books in the field which (often notwithstanding titles) focus on a single approach. There are also countless conference proceedings and article collections aiming to be encyclopaedic, but offering disorganized patchworks. Kiefer's book is a careful and thoughtful presentation of all aspects of the immense problem of quantum gravity. Kiefer is very learned, and brings together three rare qualities: he is pedagogical, he is capable of simplifying matter to the bones and capturing the essential, and he offers a serious and balanced evaluation of views and ideas. In a fractured field based on a major problem that does not yet have a solution, these qualities are precious. I recommend Kiefer's book to my students entering the field: to work in quantum gravity one needs a vast amount of technical knowledge as well as a grasp of different ideas, and Kiefer's book offers this with remarkable clarity. This novel third edition simplifies and improves the presentation of several topics, but also adds very valuable new material on quantum gravity phenomenology, loop quantum cosmology, asymptotic safety, Horava-Lifshitz gravity, analogue gravity, the holographic principle, and more. This is a testament

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for CS07 (2014 & 2016)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Texas collected in 2014 & 2016 over 3 surveys,TX14-2, TX16-1 and TX16-2. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of...

DNAG Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Decade of North American Geology (DNAG) gravity grid values, spaced at 6 km, were used to produce the Gravity Anomaly Map of North America (1987; scale...

Merging of airborne gravity and gravity derived from satellite altimetry: Test cases along the coast of greenland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Arne Vestergaard; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Tscherning, C.C.

2002-01-01

for the use of gravity data especially, when computing geoid models in coastal regions. The presence of reliable marine gravity data for independent control offers an opportunity to study procedures for the merging of airborne and satellite data around Greenland. Two different merging techniques, both based......The National Survey and Cadastre - Denmark (KMS) has for several years produced gravity anomaly maps over the oceans derived from satellite altimetry. During the last four years, KMS has also conducted airborne gravity surveys along the coast of Greenland dedicated to complement the existing...... onshore gravity coverage and fill in new data in the very-near coastal area, where altimetry data may contain gross errors. The airborne surveys extend from the coastline to approximately 100 km offshore, along 6000 km of coastline. An adequate merging of these different data sources is important...

Nonlinearities in modified gravity cosmology: Signatures of modified gravity in the nonlinear matter power spectrum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cui Weiguang; Zhang Pengjie; Yang Xiaohu

2010-01-01

A large fraction of cosmological information on dark energy and gravity is encoded in the nonlinear regime. Precision cosmology thus requires precision modeling of nonlinearities in general dark energy and modified gravity models. We modify the Gadget-2 code and run a series of N-body simulations on modified gravity cosmology to study the nonlinearities. The modified gravity model that we investigate in the present paper is characterized by a single parameter ζ, which determines the enhancement of particle acceleration with respect to general relativity (GR), given the identical mass distribution (ζ=1 in GR). The first nonlinear statistics we investigate is the nonlinear matter power spectrum at k < or approx. 3h/Mpc, which is the relevant range for robust weak lensing power spectrum modeling at l < or approx. 2000. In this study, we focus on the relative difference in the nonlinear power spectra at corresponding redshifts where different gravity models have the same linear power spectra. This particular statistics highlights the imprint of modified gravity in the nonlinear regime and the importance of including the nonlinear regime in testing GR. By design, it is less susceptible to the sample variance and numerical artifacts. We adopt a mass assignment method based on wavelet to improve the power spectrum measurement. We run a series of tests to determine the suitable simulation specifications (particle number, box size, and initial redshift). We find that, the nonlinear power spectra can differ by ∼30% for 10% deviation from GR (|ζ-1|=0.1) where the rms density fluctuations reach 10. This large difference, on one hand, shows the richness of information on gravity in the corresponding scales, and on the other hand, invalidates simple extrapolations of some existing fitting formulae to modified gravity cosmology.

Measuring Gravity in International Trade Flows

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Young Song

2004-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is two-fold. One is to clarify the concept of gravity in international trade flows. The other is to measure the strength of gravity in international trade flows in a way that is consistent with a well-defined concept of gravity. This paper shows that the widely accepted belief that specialization is the source of gravity is not well grounded on theory. We propose to define gravity in international trade as the force that makes the market shares of an exporting country constant in all importing countries, regardless of their sizes. In a stochastic context, we should interpret it as implying that the strength of gravity increases i as the correlation between market shares and market sizes gets weaker and ii as the variance of market shares gets smaller. We estimate an empirical gravity equation thoroughly based on this definition of gravity. We find that a strong degree of gravity exists in most bilateral trade, regardless of income levels of countries, and in trade of most manThe purpose of this paper is two-fold. One is to clarify the concept of gravity in international trade flows. The other is to measure the strength of gravity in international trade flows in a way that is consistent with a well-defined concept of gravity. This paper shows that the widely accepted belief that specialization is the source of gravity is not well grounded on theory. We propose to define gravity in international trade as the force that makes the market shares of an exporting country constant in all importing countries, regardless of their sizes. In a stochastic context, we should interpret it as implying that the strength of gravity increases i as the correlation between market shares and market sizes gets weaker and ii as the variance of market shares gets smaller. We estimate an empirical gravity equation thoroughly based on this definition of gravity. We find that a strong degree of gravity exists in most bilateral trade, regardless of

The dynamical simulation of transient three-dimensional cryogenic liquid sloshing oscillations under low-gravity and microgravity

Science.gov (United States)

Chi, Yong Mann

evolution of sloshing dynamics excited by fluid stress forces, fluid stress moments, and the arm of fluid moment exerted on the dewar container, is considered. This excitation was driven by the combined gravity gradient and gravity jitter acceleration inside the tank during the draining process and closing the tank outlet. The time evolution of the liquid-vapor interface profiles and the bubble mass center fluctuation, as well as liquid mass center and fluctuations of angular momentum caused by slosh wave excitations with 0.1 rpm in a reduced gravity, are also investigated and simulated. Force, angular momentum, and torque vector time histories and Power Spectral Density (PSD) are also plotted and discussed. The results of this investigation may be applied to determine the magnitude and nature of control forces and torques needed to minimize influence of slosh on the dynamics of liquid fueled vehicles in near earth orbit. Results show that induced fluid forces (or angular momentum) exerted on the container wall along x and y-axes, which are non-existent at the beginning, are introduced by the slosh waves excited by asymmetric gravity gradient and the gravity jitter acceleration.

Algebraic definition of topological W gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hosono, S.

1992-01-01

In this paper, the authors propose a definition of the topological W gravity using some properties of the principal three-dimensional subalgebra of a simple Lie algebra due to Kostant. In the authors' definition, structures of the two-dimensional topological gravity are naturally embedded in the extended theories. In accordance with the definition, the authors will present some explicit calculations for the W 3 gravity

GRACE gravity data help constraining seismic models of the 2004 Sumatran earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Cambiotti, G.; Bordoni, A.; Sabadini, R.; Colli, L.

2011-10-01

The analysis of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Level 2 data time series from the Center for Space Research (CSR) and GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) allows us to extract a new estimate of the co-seismic gravity signal due to the 2004 Sumatran earthquake. Owing to compressible self-gravitating Earth models, including sea level feedback in a new self-consistent way and designed to compute gravitational perturbations due to volume changes separately, we are able to prove that the asymmetry in the co-seismic gravity pattern, in which the north-eastern negative anomaly is twice as large as the south-western positive anomaly, is not due to the previously overestimated dilatation in the crust. The overestimate was due to a large dilatation localized at the fault discontinuity, the gravitational effect of which is compensated by an opposite contribution from topography due to the uplifted crust. After this localized dilatation is removed, we instead predict compression in the footwall and dilatation in the hanging wall. The overall anomaly is then mainly due to the additional gravitational effects of the ocean after water is displaced away from the uplifted crust, as first indicated by de Linage et al. (2009). We also detail the differences between compressible and incompressible material properties. By focusing on the most robust estimates from GRACE data, consisting of the peak-to-peak gravity anomaly and an asymmetry coefficient, that is given by the ratio of the negative gravity anomaly over the positive anomaly, we show that they are quite sensitive to seismic source depths and dip angles. This allows us to exploit space gravity data for the first time to help constraining centroid-momentum-tensor (CMT) source analyses of the 2004 Sumatran earthquake and to conclude that the seismic moment has been released mainly in the lower crust rather than the lithospheric mantle. Thus, GRACE data and CMT source analyses, as well as geodetic slip distributions aided

Circulation-based Modeling of Gravity Currents

Science.gov (United States)

Meiburg, E. H.; Borden, Z.

2013-05-01

Atmospheric and oceanic flows driven by predominantly horizontal density differences, such as sea breezes, thunderstorm outflows, powder snow avalanches, and turbidity currents, are frequently modeled as gravity currents. Efforts to develop simplified models of such currents date back to von Karman (1940), who considered a two-dimensional gravity current in an inviscid, irrotational and infinitely deep ambient. Benjamin (1968) presented an alternative model, focusing on the inviscid, irrotational flow past a gravity current in a finite-depth channel. More recently, Shin et al. (2004) proposed a model for gravity currents generated by partial-depth lock releases, considering a control volume that encompasses both fronts. All of the above models, in addition to the conservation of mass and horizontal momentum, invoke Bernoulli's law along some specific streamline in the flow field, in order to obtain a closed system of equations that can be solved for the front velocity as function of the current height. More recent computational investigations based on the Navier-Stokes equations, on the other hand, reproduce the dynamics of gravity currents based on the conservation of mass and momentum alone. We propose that it should therefore be possible to formulate a fundamental gravity current model without invoking Bernoulli's law. The talk will show that the front velocity of gravity currents can indeed be predicted as a function of their height from mass and momentum considerations alone, by considering the evolution of interfacial vorticity. This approach does not require information on the pressure field and therefore avoids the need for an energy closure argument such as those invoked by the earlier models. Predictions by the new theory are shown to be in close agreement with direct numerical simulation results. References Von Karman, T. 1940 The engineer grapples with nonlinear problems, Bull. Am. Math Soc. 46, 615-683. Benjamin, T.B. 1968 Gravity currents and related

Observational tests of modified gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jain, Bhuvnesh; Zhang Pengjie

2008-01-01

Modifications of general relativity provide an alternative explanation to dark energy for the observed acceleration of the Universe. Modified gravity theories have richer observational consequences for large-scale structures than conventional dark energy models, in that different observables are not described by a single growth factor even in the linear regime. We examine the relationships between perturbations in the metric potentials, density and velocity fields, and discuss strategies for measuring them using gravitational lensing, galaxy cluster abundances, galaxy clustering/dynamics, and the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. We show how a broad class of gravity theories can be tested by combining these probes. A robust way to interpret observations is by constraining two key functions: the ratio of the two metric potentials, and the ratio of the gravitational 'constant' in the Poisson equation to Newton's constant. We also discuss quasilinear effects that carry signatures of gravity, such as through induced three-point correlations. Clustering of dark energy can mimic features of modified gravity theories and thus confuse the search for distinct signatures of such theories. It can produce pressure perturbations and anisotropic stresses, which break the equality between the two metric potentials even in general relativity. With these two extra degrees of freedom, can a clustered dark energy model mimic modified gravity models in all observational tests? We show with specific examples that observational constraints on both the metric potentials and density perturbations can in principle distinguish modifications of gravity from dark energy models. We compare our result with other recent studies that have slightly different assumptions (and apparently contradictory conclusions).

Is there a quantum theory of gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strominger, A.

1984-01-01

The paper concerns attempts to construct a unitary, renormalizable quantum field theory of gravity. Renormalizability and unitarity in quantum gravity; the 1/N expansion; 1/D expansions; and quantum gravity and particle physics; are all discussed. (U.K.)

Weak lensing probes of modified gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmidt, Fabian

2008-01-01

We study the effect of modifications to general relativity on large-scale weak lensing observables. In particular, we consider three modified gravity scenarios: f(R) gravity, the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati model, and tensor-vector-scalar theory. Weak lensing is sensitive to the growth of structure and the relation between matter and gravitational potentials, both of which will in general be affected by modified gravity. Restricting ourselves to linear scales, we compare the predictions for galaxy-shear and shear-shear correlations of each modified gravity cosmology to those of an effective dark energy cosmology with the same expansion history. In this way, the effects of modified gravity on the growth of perturbations are separated from the expansion history. We also propose a test which isolates the matter-potential relation from the growth factor and matter power spectrum. For all three modified gravity models, the predictions for galaxy and shear correlations will be discernible from those of dark energy with very high significance in future weak lensing surveys. Furthermore, each model predicts a measurably distinct scale dependence and redshift evolution of galaxy and shear correlations, which can be traced back to the physical foundations of each model. We show that the signal-to-noise for detecting signatures of modified gravity is much higher for weak lensing observables as compared to the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, measured via the galaxy-cosmic microwave background cross-correlation.

A Multiscale Nested Modeling Framework to Simulate the Interaction of Surface Gravity Waves with Nonlinear Internal Gravity Waves

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-30

Interaction of Surface Gravity Waves with Nonlinear Internal Gravity Waves Lian Shen St. Anthony Falls Laboratory and Department of Mechanical...on studying surface gravity wave evolution and spectrum in the presence of surface currents caused by strongly nonlinear internal solitary waves...interaction of surface and internal gravity waves in the South China Sea. We will seek answers to the following questions: 1) How does the wind-wave

Quantum Gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giribet, G E

2005-01-01

Claus Kiefer presents his book, Quantum Gravity, with his hope that '[the] book will convince readers of [the] outstanding problem [of unification and quantum gravity] and encourage them to work on its solution'. With this aim, the author presents a clear exposition of the fundamental concepts of gravity and the steps towards the understanding of its quantum aspects. The main part of the text is dedicated to the analysis of standard topics in the formulation of general relativity. An analysis of the Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity and the canonical quantization of gravity is performed in detail. Chapters four, five and eight provide a pedagogical introduction to the basic concepts of gravitational physics. In particular, aspects such as the quantization of constrained systems, the role played by the quadratic constraint, the ADM decomposition, the Wheeler-de Witt equation and the problem of time are treated in an expert and concise way. Moreover, other specific topics, such as the minisuperspace approach and the feasibility of defining extrinsic times for certain models, are discussed as well. The ninth chapter of the book is dedicated to the quantum gravitational aspects of string theory. Here, a minimalistic but clear introduction to string theory is presented, and this is actually done with emphasis on gravity. It is worth mentioning that no hard (nor explicit) computations are presented, even though the exposition covers the main features of the topic. For instance, black hole statistical physics (within the framework of string theory) is developed in a pedagogical and concise way by means of heuristical arguments. As the author asserts in the epilogue, the hope of the book is to give 'some impressions from progress' made in the study of quantum gravity since its beginning, i.e., since the end of 1920s. In my opinion, Kiefer's book does actually achieve this goal and gives an extensive review of the subject. (book review)

Discretization of 3d gravity in different polarizations

Science.gov (United States)

Dupuis, Maïté; Freidel, Laurent; Girelli, Florian

2017-10-01

We study the discretization of three-dimensional gravity with Λ =0 following the loop quantum gravity framework. In the process, we realize that different choices of polarization are possible. This allows us to introduce a new discretization based on the triad as opposed to the connection as in the standard loop quantum gravity framework. We also identify the classical nontrivial symmetries of discrete gravity, namely the Drinfeld double, given in terms of momentum maps. Another choice of polarization is given by the Chern-Simons formulation of gravity. Our framework also provides a new discretization scheme of Chern-Simons, which keeps track of the link between the continuum variables and the discrete ones. We show how the Poisson bracket we recover between the Chern-Simons holonomies allows us to recover the Goldman bracket. There is also a transparent link between the discrete Chern-Simons formulation and the discretization of gravity based on the connection (loop gravity) or triad variables (dual loop gravity).

Lanczos–Lovelock models of gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Padmanabhan, T.; Kothawala, D.

2013-01-01

Lanczos–Lovelock models of gravity represent a natural and elegant generalization of Einstein’s theory of gravity to higher dimensions. They are characterized by the fact that the field equations only contain up to second derivatives of the metric even though the action functional can be a quadratic or higher degree polynomial in the curvature tensor. Because these models share several key properties of Einstein’s theory they serve as a useful set of candidate models for testing the emergent paradigm for gravity. This review highlights several geometrical and thermodynamical aspects of Lanczos–Lovelock models which have attracted recent attention

Butterfly effect in 3D gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Qaemmaqami, Mohammad M.

2017-11-01

We study the butterfly effect by considering shock wave solutions near the horizon of the anti-de Sitter black hole in some three-dimensional gravity models including 3D Einstein gravity, minimal massive 3D gravity, new massive gravity, generalized massive gravity, Born-Infeld 3D gravity, and new bigravity. We calculate the butterfly velocities of these models and also we consider the critical points and different limits in some of these models. By studying the butterfly effect in the generalized massive gravity, we observe a correspondence between the butterfly velocities and right-left moving degrees of freedom or the central charges of the dual 2D conformal field theories.

Free-air and Bouguer gravity anomalies and the Martian crustal dichotomy

Science.gov (United States)

Frey, Herbert; Bills, Bruce G.; Kiefer, Walter S.; Nerem, R. Steven; Roark, James H.; Zuber, Maria T.

1993-01-01

Free-air and Bouguer gravity anomalies from a 50x50 field, derived from re-analysis of Viking Orbiter and Mariner 9 tracking data and using a 50x50 expansion of the current Mars topography and the GSFC degree 50 geoid as the equipotential reference surface, with the Martian crustal dichotomy are compared. The spherical harmonic topography used has zero mean elevation, and differs from the USGS maps by about 2 km. In this field the dichotomy boundary in eastern Mars lies mostly at -1 to -2 km elevation. Bouguer gravity anomalies are shown on a map of Noachian, Hesperian, and Amazonian age terrains, simplified from current geologic maps. The map is centered at 300 deg W to show the continuity of the dichotomy boundary. Contour interval is 100 mgals. Gravity and topography were compared along approximately 40 profiles oriented parallel to the dichotomy boundary topographic gradient, to determine how the geophysical character of the boundary changes along its length and what this implies for its origin and development.

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Airborne Gravity Data for AN01 (2009-2010)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Airborne gravity data for Alaska collected in 2009-2010 over 2 surveys. This data set is part of the Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum...

Induced quantum conformal gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Novozhilov, Y.V.; Vassilevich, D.V.

1988-11-01

Quantum gravity is considered as induced by matter degrees of freedom and related to the symmetry breakdown in the low energy region of a non-Abelian gauge theory of fundamental fields. An effective action for quantum conformal gravity is derived where both the gravitational constant and conformal kinetic term are positive. Relation with induced classical gravity is established. (author). 15 refs

Nonsingular universe in massive gravity's rainbow

Science.gov (United States)

Hendi, S. H.; Momennia, M.; Eslam Panah, B.; Panahiyan, S.

2017-06-01

One of the fundamental open questions in cosmology is whether we can regard the universe evolution without singularity like a Big Bang or a Big Rip. This challenging subject stimulates one to regard a nonsingular universe in the far past with an arbitrarily large vacuum energy. Considering the high energy regime in the cosmic history, it is believed that Einstein gravity should be corrected to an effective energy dependent theory which could be acquired by gravity's rainbow. On the other hand, employing massive gravity provided us with solutions to some of the long standing fundamental problems of cosmology such as cosmological constant problem and self acceleration of the universe. Considering these aspects of gravity's rainbow and massive gravity, in this paper, we initiate studying FRW cosmology in the massive gravity's rainbow formalism. At first, we show that although massive gravity modifies the FRW cosmology, but it does not itself remove the big bang singularity. Then, we generalize the massive gravity to the case of energy dependent spacetime and find that massive gravity's rainbow can remove the early universe singularity. We bring together all the essential conditions for having a nonsingular universe and the effects of both gravity's rainbow and massive gravity generalizations on such criteria are determined.

Interior Alaska Bouguer Gravity Anomaly

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A 1 kilometer Complete Bouguer Anomaly gravity grid of interior Alaska. Only those grid cells within 10 kilometers of a gravity data point have gravity values....

Scalar geons in Born-Infeld gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Afonso, V.I. [Unidade Acadêmica de Física, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, 58109-970 Campina Grande, PB (Brazil); Olmo, Gonzalo J. [Departamento de Física Teórica and IFIC, Centro Mixto Universidad de Valencia—CSIC, Universidad de Valencia, Burjassot-46100, Valencia (Spain); Rubiera-Garcia, D., E-mail: viafonso@df.ufcg.edu.br, E-mail: gonzalo.olmo@uv.es, E-mail: drgarcia@fc.ul.pt [Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício C8, Campo Grande, P-1749-016 Lisbon (Portugal)

2017-08-01

The existence of static, spherically symmetric, self-gravitating scalar field solutions in the context of Born-Infeld gravity is explored. Upon a combination of analytical approximations and numerical methods, the equations for a free scalar field (without a potential term) are solved, verifying that the solutions recover the predictions of General Relativity far from the center but finding important new effects in the central regions. We find two classes of objects depending on the ratio between the Schwarzschild radius and a length scale associated to the Born-Infeld theory: massive solutions have a wormhole structure, with their throat at r ≈ 2 M , while for the lighter configurations the topology is Euclidean. The total energy density of these solutions exhibits a solitonic profile with a maximum peaked away from the center, and located at the throat whenever a wormhole exists. The geodesic structure and curvature invariants are analyzed for the various configurations considered.

The covariant formulation of f ( T ) gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krššák, Martin; Saridakis, Emmanuel N

2016-01-01

We show that the well-known problem of frame dependence and violation of local Lorentz invariance in the usual formulation of f ( T ) gravity is a consequence of neglecting the role of spin connection. We re-formulate f ( T ) gravity starting from, instead of the ‘pure tetrad’ teleparallel gravity, the covariant teleparallel gravity, using both the tetrad and the spin connection as dynamical variables, resulting in a fully covariant, consistent, and frame-independent version of f ( T ) gravity, which does not suffer from the notorious problems of the usual, pure tetrad, f ( T ) theory. We present the method to extract solutions for the most physically important cases, such as the Minkowski, the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) and the spherically symmetric ones. We show that in covariant f ( T ) gravity we are allowed to use an arbitrary tetrad in an arbitrary coordinate system along with the corresponding spin connection, resulting always in the same physically relevant field equations. (paper)

Fixed points of quantum gravity

OpenAIRE

Litim, D F

2003-01-01

Euclidean quantum gravity is studied with renormalisation group methods. Analytical results for a non-trivial ultraviolet fixed point are found for arbitrary dimensions and gauge fixing parameter in the Einstein-Hilbert truncation. Implications for quantum gravity in four dimensions are discussed.

Internal model of gravity influences configural body processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Barra, Julien; Senot, Patrice; Auclair, Laurent

2017-01-01

Human bodies are processed by a configural processing mechanism. Evidence supporting this claim is the body inversion effect, in which inversion impairs recognition of bodies more than other objects. Biomechanical configuration, as well as both visual and embodied expertise, has been demonstrated to play an important role in this effect. Nevertheless, the important factor of body inversion effect may also be linked to gravity orientation since gravity is one of the most fundamental constraints of our biology, behavior, and perception on Earth. The visual presentation of an inverted body in a typical body inversion paradigm turns the observed body upside down but also inverts the implicit direction of visual gravity in the scene. The orientation of visual gravity is then in conflict with the direction of actual gravity and may influence configural processing. To test this hypothesis, we dissociated the orientations of the body and of visual gravity by manipulating body posture. In a pretest we showed that it was possible to turn an avatar upside down (inversion relative to retinal coordinates) without inverting the orientation of visual gravity when the avatar stands on his/her hands. We compared the inversion effect in typical conditions (with gravity conflict when the avatar is upside down) to the inversion effect in conditions with no conflict between visual and physical gravity. The results of our experiment revealed that the inversion effect, as measured by both error rate and reaction time, was strongly reduced when there was no gravity conflict. Our results suggest that when an observed body is upside down (inversion relative to participants' retinal coordinates) but the orientation of visual gravity is not, configural processing of bodies might still be possible. In this paper, we discuss the implications of an internal model of gravity in the configural processing of observed bodies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Modifications of Einstein's theory of gravity at large distances

CERN Document Server

2015-01-01

In the last few years modified gravity theories have been proposed as extensions of Einstein's theory of gravity. Their main motivation is to explain the latest cosmological and astrophysical data on dark energy and dark matter. The study of general relativity at small scales has already produced important results (cf e.g. LNP 863 Quantum Gravity and Quantum Cosmology) while its study at large scales is challenging because recent and upcoming observational results will provide important information on the validity of these modified theories.   In this volume, various aspects of modified gravity at large scales will be discussed: high-curvature gravity theories; general scalar-tensor theories; Galileon theories and their cosmological applications; F(R) gravity theories; massive, new massive and topologically massive gravity; Chern-Simons modifications of general relativity (including holographic variants) and higher-spin gravity theories, to name but a few of the most important recent developments.   Edite...

Modeling human perception of orientation in altered gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Torin K.; Newman, Michael C.; Oman, Charles M.; Merfeld, Daniel M.; Young, Laurence R.

2015-01-01

Altered gravity environments, such as those experienced by astronauts, impact spatial orientation perception, and can lead to spatial disorientation and sensorimotor impairment. To more fully understand and quantify the impact of altered gravity on orientation perception, several mathematical models have been proposed. The utricular shear, tangent, and the idiotropic vector models aim to predict static perception of tilt in hyper-gravity. Predictions from these prior models are compared to the available data, but are found to systematically err from the perceptions experimentally observed. Alternatively, we propose a modified utricular shear model for static tilt perception in hyper-gravity. Previous dynamic models of vestibular function and orientation perception are limited to 1 G. Specifically, they fail to predict the characteristic overestimation of roll tilt observed in hyper-gravity environments. To address this, we have proposed a modification to a previous observer-type canal-otolith interaction model based upon the hypothesis that the central nervous system (CNS) treats otolith stimulation in the utricular plane differently than stimulation out of the utricular plane. Here we evaluate our modified utricular shear and modified observer models in four altered gravity motion paradigms: (a) static roll tilt in hyper-gravity, (b) static pitch tilt in hyper-gravity, (c) static roll tilt in hypo-gravity, and (d) static pitch tilt in hypo-gravity. The modified models match available data in each of the conditions considered. Our static modified utricular shear model and dynamic modified observer model may be used to help quantitatively predict astronaut perception of orientation in altered gravity environments. PMID:25999822

Modeling Human Perception of Orientation in Altered Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Torin K. Clark

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Altered gravity environments, such as those experienced by astronauts, impact spatial orientation perception and can lead to spatial disorientation and sensorimotor impairment. To more fully understand and quantify the impact of altered gravity on orientation perception, several mathematical models have been proposed. The utricular shear, tangent, and the idiotropic vector models aim to predict static perception of tilt in hyper-gravity. Predictions from these prior models are compared to the available data, but are found to systematically err from the perceptions experimentally observed. Alternatively, we propose a modified utricular shear model for static tilt perception in hyper-gravity. Previous dynamic models of vestibular function and orientation perception are limited to 1 G. Specifically, they fail to predict the characteristic overestimation of roll tilt observed in hyper-gravity environments. To address this, we have proposed a modification to a previous observer-type canal otolith interaction model based upon the hypothesis that the central nervous system treats otolith stimulation in the utricular plane differently than stimulation out of the utricular plane. Here we evaluate our modified utricular shear and modified observer models in four altered gravity motion paradigms: a static roll tilt in hyper-gravity, b static pitch tilt in hyper-gravity, c static roll tilt in hypo-gravity, and d static pitch tilt in hypo-gravity. The modified models match available data in each of the conditions considered. Our static modified utricular shear model and dynamic modified observer model may be used to help quantitatively predict astronaut perception of orientation in altered gravity environments.

Metastable gravity on classical defects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ringeval, Christophe; Rombouts, Jan-Willem

2005-01-01

We discuss the realization of metastable gravity on classical defects in infinite-volume extra dimensions. In dilatonic Einstein gravity, it is found that the existence of metastable gravity on the defect core requires violation of the dominant energy condition for codimension N c =2 defects. This is illustrated with a detailed analysis of a six-dimensional hyperstring minimally coupled to dilaton gravity. We present the general conditions under which a codimension N c >2 defect admits metastable modes, and find that they differ from lower codimensional models in that, under certain conditions, they do not require violation of energy conditions to support quasilocalized gravity

Toward Joint Inversion of Gravity and Dyanamics

Science.gov (United States)

Jacoby, W. R.

To better understand geodynamic processes as seafloor spreading, plumes, subduction, and isostatic adjustment, gravity is inverted with "a prioriinformation from topography/bathymetry, seismic structure and dynamic models. Examples are subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate below Vancouver Island, the passive Black Sea­Turkey margin and Iceland ridge-plume interaction. Gravity and other data are averaged 50 km wide strips. Mass balances are estimated (showing also that the free air anomaly is misleading for narrow structures). The mass balances represent plate forces and plate bending, affecting the gravity signals and the isostatic state of continental margins and ridge-plume effects, which are highly correlated in space and cannot be separated without a priori information from modelling. The examples from widely different tectonic situations demonstrate that the art of regional-scale gravity inversion requires extensive background knowledge and inclusion of dynamic processes. It is difficult to conceive any formal, globally applicable procedure taking care of this; it is even a question, what is data, what a priori information? They are not distinguishable if all are included as foreward routines. The "accuracy" of models cannot be perfectly determined, if the "real" mass distribution is not known ­ if known, gravity inversion would be unnecessary. In reality only guesses are possible on the basis of observations and physical laws governing geodynamics. A priori information and gravity data limit the resolution of gravity inversion. Different model types are indistinguishable because adjustments within their parameter uncertainties permit a good fit. But gravity excludes wrong models (Karl Popper: science evolves by falsification of wrong models), and precise gravity guides and defines aims, targets and strategies for new observations.

Scale-invariant gravity: geometrodynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, Edward; Barbour, Julian; Foster, Brendan; Murchadha, Niall O

2003-01-01

We present a scale-invariant theory, conformal gravity, which closely resembles the geometrodynamical formulation of general relativity (GR). While previous attempts to create scale-invariant theories of gravity have been based on Weyl's idea of a compensating field, our direct approach dispenses with this and is built by extension of the method of best matching w.r.t. scaling developed in the parallel particle dynamics paper by one of the authors. In spatially compact GR, there is an infinity of degrees of freedom that describe the shape of 3-space which interact with a single volume degree of freedom. In conformal gravity, the shape degrees of freedom remain, but the volume is no longer a dynamical variable. Further theories and formulations related to GR and conformal gravity are presented. Conformal gravity is successfully coupled to scalars and the gauge fields of nature. It should describe the solar system observations as well as GR does, but its cosmology and quantization will be completely different

Gravity measurements in southeastern Alaska reveal negative gravity rate of change caused by glacial isostatic adjustment

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, W.; Miura, S.; Sato, T.; Sugano, T.; Freymueller, J.; Kaufman, M.; Larsen, C. F.; Cross, R.; Inazu, D.

2010-12-01

For the past 300 years, southeastern Alaska has undergone rapid ice-melting and land uplift attributable to global warming. Corresponding crustal deformation (3 cm/yr) caused by the Little Ice Age retreat is detectable with modern geodetic techniques such as GPS and tidal gauge measurements. Geodetic deformation provides useful information for assessing ice-melting rates, global warming effects, and subcrustal viscosity. Nevertheless, integrated geodetic observations, including gravity measurements, are important. To detect crustal deformation caused by glacial isostatic adjustment and to elucidate the viscosity structure in southeastern Alaska, Japanese and U.S. researchers began a joint 3-year project in 2006 using GPS, Earth tide, and absolute gravity measurements. A new absolute gravity network was established, comprising five sites around Glacier Bay, near Juneau, Alaska. This paper reports the network's gravity measurements during 2006-2008. The bad ocean model in this area hindered ocean loading correction: Large tidal residuals remain in the observations. Accurate tidal correction necessitated on-site tidal observation. Results show high observation precision for all five stations: day ice thickness changes. A gravity bias of about -13.2 ± 0.1 mGal exists between the Potsdam and current FG5 gravity data.

Cosmological footprints of loop quantum gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Grain, J; Barrau, A

2009-02-27

The primordial spectrum of cosmological tensor perturbations is considered as a possible probe of quantum gravity effects. Together with string theory, loop quantum gravity is one of the most promising frameworks to study quantum effects in the early universe. We show that the associated corrections should modify the potential seen by gravitational waves during the inflationary amplification. The resulting power spectrum should exhibit a characteristic tilt. This opens a new window for cosmological tests of quantum gravity.

Semiclassical analysis of loop quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Conrady, F.

2005-01-01

In this Ph.D. thesis, we explore and develop new methods that should help in determining an effective semiclassical description of canonical loop quantum gravity and spin foam gravity. A brief introduction to loop quantum gravity is followed by three research papers that present the results of the Ph.D. project. In the first article, we deal with the problem of time and a new proposal for implementing proper time as boundary conditions in a sum over histories: we investigate a concrete realization of this formalism for free scalar field theory. In the second article, we translate semiclassical states of linearized gravity into states of loop quantum gravity. The properties of the latter indicate how semiclassicality manifests itself in the loop framework, and how this may be exploited for doing semiclassical expansions. In the third part, we propose a new formulation of spin foam models that is fully triangulation- and background-independent: by means of a symmetry condition, we identify spin foam models whose triangulation-dependence can be naturally removed. (orig.)

Semiclassical analysis of loop quantum gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Conrady, F.

2005-10-17

In this Ph.D. thesis, we explore and develop new methods that should help in determining an effective semiclassical description of canonical loop quantum gravity and spin foam gravity. A brief introduction to loop quantum gravity is followed by three research papers that present the results of the Ph.D. project. In the first article, we deal with the problem of time and a new proposal for implementing proper time as boundary conditions in a sum over histories: we investigate a concrete realization of this formalism for free scalar field theory. In the second article, we translate semiclassical states of linearized gravity into states of loop quantum gravity. The properties of the latter indicate how semiclassicality manifests itself in the loop framework, and how this may be exploited for doing semiclassical expansions. In the third part, we propose a new formulation of spin foam models that is fully triangulation- and background-independent: by means of a symmetry condition, we identify spin foam models whose triangulation-dependence can be naturally removed. (orig.)

Gravity gradient preprocessing at the GOCE HPF

Science.gov (United States)

Bouman, J.; Rispens, S.; Gruber, T.; Schrama, E.; Visser, P.; Tscherning, C. C.; Veicherts, M.

2009-04-01

One of the products derived from the GOCE observations are the gravity gradients. These gravity gradients are provided in the Gradiometer Reference Frame (GRF) and are calibrated in-flight using satellite shaking and star sensor data. In order to use these gravity gradients for application in Earth sciences and gravity field analysis, additional pre-processing needs to be done, including corrections for temporal gravity field signals to isolate the static gravity field part, screening for outliers, calibration by comparison with existing external gravity field information and error assessment. The temporal gravity gradient corrections consist of tidal and non-tidal corrections. These are all generally below the gravity gradient error level, which is predicted to show a 1/f behaviour for low frequencies. In the outlier detection the 1/f error is compensated for by subtracting a local median from the data, while the data error is assessed using the median absolute deviation. The local median acts as a high-pass filter and it is robust as is the median absolute deviation. Three different methods have been implemented for the calibration of the gravity gradients. All three methods use a high-pass filter to compensate for the 1/f gravity gradient error. The baseline method uses state-of-the-art global gravity field models and the most accurate results are obtained if star sensor misalignments are estimated along with the calibration parameters. A second calibration method uses GOCE GPS data to estimate a low degree gravity field model as well as gravity gradient scale factors. Both methods allow to estimate gravity gradient scale factors down to the 10-3 level. The third calibration method uses high accurate terrestrial gravity data in selected regions to validate the gravity gradient scale factors, focussing on the measurement band. Gravity gradient scale factors may be estimated down to the 10-2 level with this method.

Application of Cauchy-type integrals in developing effective methods for depth-to-basement inversion of gravity and gravity gradiometry data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cai, Hongzhu; Zhdanov, Michael

2015-01-01

to be discretized for the calculation of gravity field. This was especially significant in the modeling and inversion of gravity data for determining the depth to the basement. Another important result was developing a novel method of inversion of gravity data to recover the depth to basement, based on the 3D...... Cauchy-type integral representation. Our numerical studies determined that the new method is much faster than conventional volume discretization method to compute the gravity response. Our synthetic model studies also showed that the developed inversion algorithm based on Cauchy-type integral is capable......One of the most important applications of gravity surveys in regional geophysical studies is determining the depth to basement. Conventional methods of solving this problem are based on the spectrum and/or Euler deconvolution analysis of the gravity field and on parameterization of the earth...

Testing Gravity via Lunar Laser Ranging: Maximizing Data Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, Thomas

We propose to continue leading-edge observations with the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO), in an effort to subject gravity to the most stringent tests yet. APOLLO has delivered a dramatic improvement in the measurement of the lunar orbit: now at the millimeter level. Yet incomplete models are thus far unable to confirm the accuracy. We therefore seek to build a calibration system to ensure that APOLLO meets its millimeter measurement goal. Gravity--the most evident force of nature--is in fact the weakest of the fundamental forces, and consequently the most poorly tested. Einstein’s general relativity, which is currently our best description of gravity, is fundamentally incompatible with quantum mechanics and is likely to be replaced by a more complete theory in the future. A modified theory would predict small deviations in the solar system that could have profound consequences for our understanding of the Universe as a whole. Lunar laser ranging (LLR), in which short laser pulses launched from a telescope are bounced off of reflectors placed on the Moon by U.S. astronauts and Soviet landers, has for decades produced some of the leading tests of gravity by mapping the shape of the lunar orbit to high precision. These include tests of the strong equivalence principle, the time-rate-ofchange of Newton’s gravitational constant, gravitomagnetism, the inverse-square law, and many others. Among the attributes that contribute to APOLLO’s superior observations, routine ranging to all five lunar reflectors on timescales of minutes dramatically improves our ability to gauge lunar orientation and body distortion. This information produces insights into the interior structure and dynamics of the Moon, allowing a more precise determination of the path for the Moon’s center of mass, lending to tests of fundamental gravity. Simultaneously, higher precision range measurements, together with data from a superconducting gravimeter at the

Effect of Numerical Error on Gravity Field Estimation for GRACE and Future Gravity Missions

Science.gov (United States)

McCullough, Christopher; Bettadpur, Srinivas

2015-04-01

In recent decades, gravity field determination from low Earth orbiting satellites, such as the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), has become increasingly more effective due to the incorporation of high accuracy measurement devices. Since instrumentation quality will only increase in the near future and the gravity field determination process is computationally and numerically intensive, numerical error from the use of double precision arithmetic will eventually become a prominent error source. While using double-extended or quadruple precision arithmetic will reduce these errors, the numerical limitations of current orbit determination algorithms and processes must be accurately identified and quantified in order to adequately inform the science data processing techniques of future gravity missions. The most obvious numerical limitation in the orbit determination process is evident in the comparison of measured observables with computed values, derived from mathematical models relating the satellites' numerically integrated state to the observable. Significant error in the computed trajectory will corrupt this comparison and induce error in the least squares solution of the gravitational field. In addition, errors in the numerically computed trajectory propagate into the evaluation of the mathematical measurement model's partial derivatives. These errors amalgamate in turn with numerical error from the computation of the state transition matrix, computed using the variational equations of motion, in the least squares mapping matrix. Finally, the solution of the linearized least squares system, computed using a QR factorization, is also susceptible to numerical error. Certain interesting combinations of each of these numerical errors are examined in the framework of GRACE gravity field determination to analyze and quantify their effects on gravity field recovery.

Constraining the range of Yukawa gravity interaction from S2 star orbits II: bounds on graviton mass

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zakharov, A.F. [National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Datun Road 20A, Beijing, 100012 China (China); Jovanović, P. [Astronomical Observatory, Volgina 7, 11060 Belgrade (Serbia); Borka, D.; Jovanović, V. Borka, E-mail: zakharov@itep.ru, E-mail: pjovanovic@aob.rs, E-mail: dusborka@vin.bg.ac.rs, E-mail: vborka@vin.bg.ac.rs [Atomic Physics Laboratory (040), Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, P.O. Box 522, 11001 Belgrade (Serbia)

2016-05-01

Recently LIGO collaboration discovered gravitational waves [1] predicted 100 years ago by A. Einstein. Moreover, in the key paper reporting about the discovery, the joint LIGO and VIRGO team presented an upper limit on graviton mass such as m {sub g} < 1.2 × 10{sup −22} eV [2] (see also more details in another LIGO paper [3] dedicated to a data analysis to obtain such a small constraint on a graviton mass). Since the graviton mass limit is so small the authors concluded that their observational data do not show violations of classical general relativity. We consider another opportunity to evaluate a graviton mass from phenomenological consequences of massive gravity and show that an analysis of bright star trajectories could bound graviton mass with a comparable accuracy with accuracies reached with gravitational wave interferometers and expected with forthcoming pulsar timing observations for gravitational wave detection. It gives an opportunity to treat observations of bright stars near the Galactic Center as a wonderful tool not only for an evaluation specific parameters of the black hole but also to obtain constraints on the fundamental gravity law such as a modifications of Newton gravity law in a weak field approximation. In particular, we obtain bounds on a graviton mass based on a potential reconstruction at the Galactic Center.

The dynamic representation of gravity is suspended when the idiotropic vector is misaligned with gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

De Sá Teixeira, Nuno Alexandre; Hecht, Heiko

2014-01-01

When people are asked to indicate the vanishing location of a moving target, errors in the direction of motion (representational momentum) and in the direction of gravity (representational gravity) are usually found. These errors possess a temporal course wherein the memory for the location of the target drifts downwards with increasing temporal intervals between target's disappearance and participant's responses (representational trajectory). To assess if representational trajectory is a body-referenced or a world-referenced phenomenon. A behavioral localization method was employed with retention times between 0 and 1400 ms systematically imposed after the target's disappearance. The target could move horizontally (rightwards or leftwards) or vertically (upwards or downwards). Body posture was varied in a counterbalanced order between sitting upright and lying on the side (left lateral decubitus position). In the upright task, the memory for target location drifted downwards with time in the direction of gravity. This time course did not emerge for the decubitus task, where idiotropic dominance was found. The dynamic visual representation of gravity is neither purely body-referenced nor world-referenced. It seems to be modulated instead by the relationship between the idiotropic vector and physical gravity.

Focus on quantum Einstein gravity Focus on quantum Einstein gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Ambjorn, Jan; Reuter, Martin; Saueressig, Frank

2012-09-01

The gravitational asymptotic safety program summarizes the attempts to construct a consistent and predictive quantum theory of gravity within Wilson's generalized framework of renormalization. Its key ingredient is a non-Gaussian fixed point of the renormalization group flow which controls the behavior of the theory at trans-Planckian energies and renders gravity safe from unphysical divergences. Provided that the fixed point comes with a finite number of ultraviolet-attractive (relevant) directions, this construction gives rise to a consistent quantum field theory which is as predictive as an ordinary, perturbatively renormalizable one. This opens up the exciting possibility of establishing quantum Einstein gravity as a fundamental theory of gravity, without introducing supersymmetry or extra dimensions, and solely based on quantization techniques that are known to work well for the other fundamental forces of nature. While the idea of gravity being asymptotically safe was proposed by Steven Weinberg more than 30 years ago [1], the technical tools for investigating this scenario only emerged during the last decade. Here a key role is played by the exact functional renormalization group equation for gravity, which allows the construction of non-perturbative approximate solutions for the RG-flow of the gravitational couplings. Most remarkably, all solutions constructed to date exhibit a suitable non-Gaussian fixed point, lending strong support to the asymptotic safety conjecture. Moreover, the functional renormalization group also provides indications that the central idea of a non-Gaussian fixed point providing a safe ultraviolet completion also carries over to more realistic scenarios where gravity is coupled to a suitable matter sector like the standard model. These theoretical successes also triggered a wealth of studies focusing on the consequences of asymptotic safety in a wide range of phenomenological applications covering the physics of black holes, early

Gravity a very short introduction

CERN Document Server

Clifton, Timothy

2017-01-01

Gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions that exist in nature. It also has the distinction of being the oldest, weakest, and most difficult force to quantize. Understanding gravity is not only essential for understanding the motion of objects on Earth, but also the motion of all celestial objects, and even the expansion of the Universe itself. It was the study of gravity that led Einstein to his profound realizations about the nature of space and time. Gravity is not only universal, it is also essential for understanding the behavior of the Universe, and all astrophysical bodies within it. In this Very Short Introduction Timothy Clifton looks at the development of our understanding of gravity since the early observations of Kepler and Newtonian theory. He discusses Einstein's theory of gravity, which now supplants Newton's, showing how it allows us to understand why the frequency of light changes as it passes through a gravitational field, why GPS satellites need their clocks corrected as they orbi...

Quantum Gravity

OpenAIRE

Alvarez, Enrique

2004-01-01

Gravitons should have momentum just as photons do; and since graviton momentum would cause compression rather than elongation of spacetime outside of matter; it does not appear that gravitons are compatible with Swartzchild's spacetime curvature. Also, since energy is proportional to mass, and mass is proportional to gravity; the energy of matter is proportional to gravity. The energy of matter could thus contract space within matter; and because of the inter-connectedness of space, cause the...

Black holes in pure Lovelock gravities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cai Ronggen; Ohta, Nobuyoshi

2006-01-01

Lovelock gravity is a fascinating extension of general relativity, whose action consists of dimensionally extended Euler densities. Compared to other higher order derivative gravity theories, Lovelock gravity is attractive since it has a lot of remarkable features such as the fact that there are no more than second order derivatives with respect to the metric in its equations of motion, and that the theory is free of ghosts. Recently, in the study of black strings and black branes in Lovelock gravity, a special class of Lovelock gravity is considered, which is named pure Lovelock gravity, where only one Euler density term exists. In this paper we study black hole solutions in the special class of Lovelock gravity and associated thermodynamic properties. Some interesting features are found, which are quite different from the corresponding ones in general relativity

Modular Extended-Stay HyperGravity Facility Design Concept: An Artificial-Gravity Space-Settlement Ground Analogue

Science.gov (United States)

Dorais, Gregory A.

2015-01-01

This document defines the design concept for a ground-based, extended-stay hypergravity facility as a precursor for space-based artificial-gravity facilities that extend the permanent presence of both human and non-human life beyond Earth in artificial-gravity settlements. Since the Earth's current human population is stressing the environment and the resources off-Earth are relatively unlimited, by as soon as 2040 more than one thousand people could be living in Earthorbiting artificial-gravity habitats. Eventually, the majority of humanity may live in artificialgravity habitats throughout this solar system as well as others, but little is known about the longterm (multi-generational) effects of artificial-gravity habitats on people, animals, and plants. In order to extend life permanently beyond Earth, it would be useful to create an orbiting space facility that generates 1g as well as other gravity levels to rigorously address the numerous challenges of such an endeavor. Before doing so, developing a ground-based artificial-gravity facility is a reasonable next step. Just as the International Space Station is a microgravity research facility, at a small fraction of the cost and risk a ground-based artificial-gravity facility can begin to address a wide-variety of the artificial-gravity life-science questions and engineering challenges requiring long-term research to enable people, animals, and plants to live off-Earth indefinitely.

Allowance for influence of gravity field nonuniformity

Science.gov (United States)

Tsysar, A. P.

1987-03-01

The constants of a quartz-metal pendulum used in higher-order gravimetric networks have been determined and a formula has been derived for the total correction for gravity field nonuniformity measurements made with the pendulum. Nomograms were constructed on the basis of these formulas and are used in introducing corrections into pendulum measurements. A table was prepared giving the components of the correction for some values of the derivatives of gravity potential from surrounding masses. Errors can be caused by building walls, the pedestal on which the instrument sits and other factors, and these must be taken into account since they increase the normal gravity gradient. After introducing these correction components for the nonuniform gravity field, the gravity field at the measurement point is related to the instrument point coinciding with the middle of the pendulum knife blade.

No chiral truncation of quantum log gravity?

Science.gov (United States)

Andrade, Tomás; Marolf, Donald

2010-03-01

At the classical level, chiral gravity may be constructed as a consistent truncation of a larger theory called log gravity by requiring that left-moving charges vanish. In turn, log gravity is the limit of topologically massive gravity (TMG) at a special value of the coupling (the chiral point). We study the situation at the level of linearized quantum fields, focussing on a unitary quantization. While the TMG Hilbert space is continuous at the chiral point, the left-moving Virasoro generators become ill-defined and cannot be used to define a chiral truncation. In a sense, the left-moving asymptotic symmetries are spontaneously broken at the chiral point. In contrast, in a non-unitary quantization of TMG, both the Hilbert space and charges are continuous at the chiral point and define a unitary theory of chiral gravity at the linearized level.

Gravity Data for portions of Ohio

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The gravity station data (1,037 records) were compiled by Doctor Stierman. This data base was received in June 1992. Principal gravity parameters include Free-Air...

The quantization of gravity

CERN Document Server

Gerhardt, Claus

2018-01-01

A unified quantum theory incorporating the four fundamental forces of nature is one of the major open problems in physics. The Standard Model combines electro-magnetism, the strong force and the weak force, but ignores gravity. The quantization of gravity is therefore a necessary first step to achieve a unified quantum theory. In this monograph a canonical quantization of gravity has been achieved by quantizing a geometric evolution equation resulting in a gravitational wave equation in a globally hyperbolic spacetime. Applying the technique of separation of variables we obtain eigenvalue problems for temporal and spatial self-adjoint operators where the temporal operator has a pure point spectrum with eigenvalues $\\lambda_i$ and related eigenfunctions, while, for the spatial operator, it is possible to find corresponding eigendistributions for each of the eigenvalues $\\lambda_i$, if the Cauchy hypersurface is asymptotically Euclidean or if the quantized spacetime is a black hole with a negative cosmological ...

Gravity anomalies and flexure of the lithosphere at the Middle Amazon Basin, Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

Nunn, Jeffrey A.; Aires, Jose R.

1988-01-01

The Middle Amazon Basin is a large Paleozoic sedimentary basin on the Amazonian craton in South America. It contains up to 7 km of mainly shallow water sediments. A chain of Bouguer gravity highs of approximately +40 to +90 mGals transects the basin roughly coincident with the axis of maximum thickness of sediment. The gravity highs are flanked on either side by gravity lows of approximately -40 mGals. The observed gravity anomalies can be explained by a steeply sided zone of high density in the lower crust varying in width from 100 to 200 km wide. Within this region, the continental crust has been intruded/replaced by more dense material to more than half its original thickness of 45-50 km. The much wider sedimentary basin results from regional compensation of the subsurface load and the subsequent load of accumulated sediments by flexure of the lithosphere. The observed geometry of the basin is consistent with an elastic lithosphere model with a mechanical thickness of 15-20 km. Although this value is lower than expected for a stable cratonic region of Early Proterozoic age, it is within the accepted range of effective elastic thicknesses for the earth. Rapid subsidence during the late Paleozoic may be evidence of a second tectonic event or lithospheric relaxation which could lower the effective mechanical thickness of the lithosphere. The high-density zone in the lower crust, as delineated by gravity and flexural modeling, has a complex sinuous geometry which is narrow and south of the axis of maximum sediment thickness on the east and west margins and wide and offset to the north in the center of the basin. The linear trough geometry of the basin itself is a result of smoothing by regional compensation of the load in the lower crust.

Active Response Gravity Offload System

Science.gov (United States)

Valle, Paul; Dungan, Larry; Cunningham, Thomas; Lieberman, Asher; Poncia, Dina

2011-01-01

The Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) provides the ability to simulate with one system the gravity effect of planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and microgravity, where the gravity is less than Earth fs gravity. The system works by providing a constant force offload through an overhead hoist system and horizontal motion through a rail and trolley system. The facility covers a 20 by 40-ft (approximately equals 6.1 by 12.2m) horizontal area with 15 ft (approximately equals4.6 m) of lifting vertical range.

Consistency of canonical formulation of Horava gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soo, Chopin

2011-01-01

Both the non-projectable and projectable version of Horava gravity face serious challenges. In the non-projectable version, the constraint algebra is seemingly inconsistent. The projectable version lacks a local Hamiltonian constraint, thus allowing for an extra graviton mode which can be problematic. A new formulation (based on arXiv:1007.1563) of Horava gravity which is naturally realized as a representation of the master constraint algebra (instead of the Dirac algebra) studied by loop quantum gravity researchers is presented. This formulation yields a consistent canonical theory with first class constraints; and captures the essence of Horava gravity in retaining only spatial diffeomorphisms as the physically relevant non-trivial gauge symmetry. At the same time the local Hamiltonian constraint is equivalently enforced by the master constraint.

Consistency of canonical formulation of Horava gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Soo, Chopin, E-mail: cpsoo@mail.ncku.edu.tw [Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan (China)

2011-09-22

Both the non-projectable and projectable version of Horava gravity face serious challenges. In the non-projectable version, the constraint algebra is seemingly inconsistent. The projectable version lacks a local Hamiltonian constraint, thus allowing for an extra graviton mode which can be problematic. A new formulation (based on arXiv:1007.1563) of Horava gravity which is naturally realized as a representation of the master constraint algebra (instead of the Dirac algebra) studied by loop quantum gravity researchers is presented. This formulation yields a consistent canonical theory with first class constraints; and captures the essence of Horava gravity in retaining only spatial diffeomorphisms as the physically relevant non-trivial gauge symmetry. At the same time the local Hamiltonian constraint is equivalently enforced by the master constraint.

The evolution of Tharsis: Implications of gravity, topography, and tectonics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banerdt, W.B.; Golombek, M.P.

1990-01-01

Dominating the Western Hemisphere of Mars, the Tharsis rise is an elongate area centered on Syria Planum that ascends as much as 8 to 10 km above the datum. It is intensely fractured by long, narrow grabens that extend radially hundreds of kilometers beyond the rise and is ringed by mostly concentric wrinkle ridges that formed over 2,000 km from the center of the rise. Its size, involving a full hemisphere of Mars, gives it a central role in the thermo-tectonic evolution of the planet and has stimulated a number of studies attempting to determine the sequence of events responsible for this feature. The constraints that gravity and topography data place on the current structure of Tharsis, along with insights into its development derived from comparisons of detailed regional mapping of faulting with theoretical deformation models are reviewed. Finally, a self-consistent model for the structure of Tharsis is proposed

Polyhedral shape model for terrain correction of gravity and gravity gradient data based on an adaptive mesh

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Zhikui; Chen, Chao; Tao, Chunhui

2016-04-01

Since 2007, there are four China Da yang cruises (CDCs), which have been carried out to investigate polymetallic sulfides in the southwest Indian ridge (SWIR) and have acquired both gravity data and bathymetry data on the corresponding survey lines(Tao et al., 2014). Sandwell et al. (2014) published a new global marine gravity model including the free air gravity data and its first order vertical gradient (Vzz). Gravity data and its gradient can be used to extract unknown density structure information(e.g. crust thickness) under surface of the earth, but they contain all the mass effect under the observation point. Therefore, how to get accurate gravity and its gradient effect of the existing density structure (e.g. terrain) has been a key issue. Using the bathymetry data or ETOPO1 (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.html) model at a full resolution to calculate the terrain effect could spend too much computation time. We expect to develop an effective method that takes less time but can still yield the desired accuracy. In this study, a constant-density polyhedral model is used to calculate the gravity field and its vertical gradient, which is based on the work of Tsoulis (2012). According to gravity field attenuation with distance and variance of bathymetry, we present an adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening strategies to merge both global topography data and multi-beam bathymetry data. The local coarsening or size of mesh depends on user-defined accuracy and terrain variation (Davis et al., 2011). To depict terrain better, triangular surface element and rectangular surface element are used in fine and coarse mesh respectively. This strategy can also be applied to spherical coordinate in large region and global scale. Finally, we applied this method to calculate Bouguer gravity anomaly (BGA), mantle Bouguer anomaly(MBA) and their vertical gradient in SWIR. Further, we compared the result with previous results in the literature. Both synthetic model

Gravity studies of the Hanford Reservation, Richland, Washington

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richard, B.H.; Lillie, J.T.; Deju, R.A.

1977-07-01

Gravity studies over Hanford added to the understanding of the geology of the Pasco Basin. The Bouguer anomaly indicated the basin is the site of the greatest thickness of Columbia River Basalt. The residual gravity anomaly delineated the major anticlinal and synclinal structures under Hanford. Three-dimensional gravity models characterized these buried folds by indicating their shape and relief. Finally, two-dimensional gravity models further delineated the shape of these buried folds and suggested locations where ancestral rivers may have breached the Umtanum anticlinal folds within the basin. Analysis of the three-dimensional model studies indicates that one-fifth of the original data would have delineated the buried structures. Two- or three-body gravity models produced better results than a poly-body model. Gravity was found to be an effective and rapid reconnaissance method of studying buried bedrock structures

Reducing gravity takes the bounce out of running.

Science.gov (United States)

Polet, Delyle T; Schroeder, Ryan T; Bertram, John E A

2018-02-13

In gravity below Earth-normal, a person should be able to take higher leaps in running. We asked 10 subjects to run on a treadmill in five levels of simulated reduced gravity and optically tracked centre-of-mass kinematics. Subjects consistently reduced ballistic height compared with running in normal gravity. We explain this trend by considering the vertical take-off velocity (defined as maximum vertical velocity). Energetically optimal gaits should balance the energetic costs of ground-contact collisions (favouring lower take-off velocity), and step frequency penalties such as leg swing work (favouring higher take-off velocity, but less so in reduced gravity). Measured vertical take-off velocity scaled with the square root of gravitational acceleration, following energetic optimality predictions and explaining why ballistic height decreases in lower gravity. The success of work-based costs in predicting this behaviour challenges the notion that gait adaptation in reduced gravity results from an unloading of the stance phase. Only the relationship between take-off velocity and swing cost changes in reduced gravity; the energetic cost of the down-to-up transition for a given vertical take-off velocity does not change with gravity. Because lower gravity allows an elongated swing phase for a given take-off velocity, the motor control system can relax the vertical momentum change in the stance phase, thus reducing ballistic height, without great energetic penalty to leg swing work. Although it may seem counterintuitive, using less 'bouncy' gaits in reduced gravity is a strategy to reduce energetic costs, to which humans seem extremely sensitive. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

The wave of the future - Searching for gravity waves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldsmith, D.

1991-01-01

Research on gravity waves conducted by such scientists as Gamov, Wheeler, Weber and Zel'dovich is discussed. Particular attention is given to current trends in the theoretical analysis of gravity waves carried out by theorists Kip Thorne and Leonid Grishchuk. The problems discussed include the search for gravity waves; calculation of the types of gravity waves; the possibility of detecting gravity waves from localized sources, e.g., from the collision of two black holes in a distant galaxy or the collapse of a star, through the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory; and detection primordial gravity waves from the big bang

Airborne Gravity: NGS' Gravity Data for the US and Territories (2008-2022) - National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) Airborne Gravity (GRAV-D)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Gravity for the Re-definition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D) is a project initiated by NOAA's National Geodetic Survey to collect and monitor gravity data...

Physical properties of W gravities and W strings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Das, S.R.; Dhar, A.; Rama, S.K.

1991-01-01

This paper investigates some basic physical properties of W gravities and W strings, using a free field realization. The authors argue that the configuration space of W gravities have global characteristics in addition to the Euler characteristic. The authors identify one such global quantity to be a monopole charge and show how this charge appears in the exponents. The free energy would then involve a θ parameter. Using a BRST procedure the authors find all the physical states of W 3 and W 4 gravities, and show that physical operators are nonsingular composites of the screening charge operators. (The latter are not physical operators for N ≥ 3.) For W strings we show how the W constraints lead to the emergence of a single (and not many) extra dimension coming from the W-gravity sector. By analyzing the resulting dispersion relations the authors find that both the lower and upper critical dimensions are lowered compared to ordinary two-dimensional gravity. The pure W gravity spectrum reveals an intriguing numerological connection with unitary minimal models coupled to ordinary gravity

Vaidya spacetime in massive gravity's rainbow

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yaghoub Heydarzade

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we will analyze the energy dependent deformation of massive gravity using the formalism of massive gravity's rainbow. So, we will use the Vainshtein mechanism and the dRGT mechanism for the energy dependent massive gravity, and thus analyze a ghost free theory of massive gravity's rainbow. We study the energy dependence of a time-dependent geometry, by analyzing the radiating Vaidya solution in this theory of massive gravity's rainbow. The energy dependent deformation of this Vaidya metric will be performed using suitable rainbow functions.

Experimental tests of relativistic gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Damour, Thibault

2000-01-01

The confrontation between Einstein's gravitation theory and experimental results, notably binary pulsar data, is summarized and its significance discussed. Experiment and theory agree at the 10 -3 level or better. All the basic structures of Einstein's theory (coupling of gravity matter; propagation and self-interaction of the gravitational field, including in strong field conditions) have been verified. However, the theoretical possibility that scalar couplings be naturally driven toward zero by the cosmological expansion suggests that the present agreement between Einstein's theory and experiment might be compatible with the existence of a long-range scalar contribution to gravity (such as the dilation field, or a moduli field, of string theory). This provides a new theoretical paradigm, and new motivations for improving the experimental tests of gravity

Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hu Bei Lok

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Whereas semiclassical gravity is based on the semiclassical Einstein equation with sources given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of quantum fields, stochastic semiclassical gravity is based on the Einstein–Langevin equation, which has, in addition, sources due to the noise kernel. The noise kernel is the vacuum expectation value of the (operator-valued stress-energy bitensor, which describes the fluctuations of quantum-matter fields in curved spacetimes. A new improved criterion for the validity of semiclassical gravity may also be formulated from the viewpoint of this theory. In the first part of this review we describe the fundamentals of this new theory via two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. The axiomatic approach is useful to see the structure of the theory from the framework of semiclassical gravity, showing the link from the mean value of the stress-energy tensor to the correlation functions. The functional approach uses the Feynman–Vernon influence functional and the Schwinger–Keldysh closed-time-path effective action methods. In the second part, we describe three applications of stochastic gravity. First, we consider metric perturbations in a Minkowski spacetime, compute the two-point correlation functions of these perturbations and prove that Minkowski spacetime is a stable solution of semiclassical gravity. Second, we discuss structure formation from the stochastic-gravity viewpoint, which can go beyond the standard treatment by incorporating the full quantum effect of the inflaton fluctuations. Third, using the Einstein–Langevin equation, we discuss the backreaction of Hawking radiation and the behavior of metric fluctuations for both the quasi-equilibrium condition of a black-hole in a box and the fully nonequilibrium condition of an evaporating black hole spacetime. Finally, we briefly discuss the theoretical structure of stochastic gravity in relation to quantum gravity and point out

General relativity and gauge gravity theories of higher order

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konopleva, N.P.

1998-01-01

It is a short review of today's gauge gravity theories and their relations with Einstein General Relativity. The conceptions of construction of the gauge gravity theories with higher derivatives are analyzed. GR is regarded as the gauge gravity theory corresponding to the choice of G ∞4 as the local gauge symmetry group and the symmetrical tensor of rank two g μν as the field variable. Using the mathematical technique, single for all fundamental interactions (namely variational formalism for infinite Lie groups), we can obtain Einstein's theory as the gauge theory without any changes. All other gauge approaches lead to non-Einstein theories of gravity. But above-mentioned mathematical technique permits us to construct the gauge gravity theory of higher order (for instance SO (3,1)-gravity) so that all vacuum solutions of Einstein equations are the solutions of the SO (3,1)-gravity theory. The structure of equations of SO(3,1)-gravity becomes analogous to Weeler-Misner geometrodynamics one

Northern Oklahoma Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The gravity station data (710 records) were compiled by Professor Ahern. This data base was received in June 1992. Principal gravity parameters include latitude,...

Multi-centered AdS{sub 3} solutions from Virasoro conformal blocks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hulík, Ondřej [Institute of Physics of the ASCR,Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Prague 8 (Czech Republic); Institute of Particle Physics and Nuclear Physics,Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University,V Holešovičkách 2, 180 00 Prague 8 (Czech Republic); Procházka, Tomáš [Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics,Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich,Theresienstr. 37, D-80333 München (Germany); Raeymaekers, Joris [Institute of Physics of the ASCR,Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Prague 8 (Czech Republic)

2017-03-24

We revisit the construction of multi-centered solutions in three-dimensional anti-de Sitter gravity in the light of the recently discovered connection between particle worldlines and classical Virasoro conformal blocks. We focus on multi-centered solutions which represent the backreaction of point masses moving on helical geodesics in global AdS{sub 3}, and argue that their construction reduces to a problem in Liouville theory on the disk with Zamolodchikov-Zamolodchikov boundary condition. In order to construct the solution one needs to solve a certain monodromy problem which we argue is solved by a vacuum classical conformal block on the sphere in a particular channel. In this way we construct multi-centered gravity solutions by using conformal blocks special functions. We show that our solutions represent left-right asymmetric configurations of operator insertions in the dual CFT. We also provide a check of our arguments in an example and comment on other types of solutions.

Gravity Probe B Inspection

Science.gov (United States)

2000-01-01

The space vehicle Gravity Probe B (GP-B) is the relativity experiment developed at Stanford University to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. The experiment will measure, very precisely, the expected tiny changes in the direction of the spin axes of four gyroscopes contained in an Earth-orbiting satellite at a 400-mile altitude. So free are the gyroscopes from disturbance that they will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. They will measure how space and time are very slightly warped by the presence of the Earth, and, more profoundly, how the Earth's rotation very slightly drags space-time around with it. These effects, though small for the Earth, have far-reaching implications for the nature of matter and the structure of the Universe. GP-B is among the most thoroughly researched programs ever undertaken by NASA. This is the story of a scientific quest in which physicists and engineers have collaborated closely over many years. Inspired by their quest, they have invented a whole range of technologies that are already enlivening other branches of science and engineering. In this photograph, engineer Gary Reynolds is inspecting the inside of the probe neck during probe thermal repairs. GP-B is scheduled for launch in April 2004 and managed for NASA by the Marshall Space Flight Center. Development of the GP-B is the responsibility of Stanford University along with major subcontractor Lockheed Martin Corporation. (Image credit to Russ Leese, Gravity Probe B, Stanford University)

Tuning of gravity-dependent and gravity-independent vertical angular VOR gain changes by frequency of adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Yakushin, Sergei B

2012-06-01

The gain of the vertical angular vestibulo-ocular reflex (aVOR) was adaptively increased and decreased in a side-down head orientation for 4 h in two cynomolgus monkeys. Adaptation was performed at 0.25, 1, 2, or 4 Hz. The gravity-dependent and -independent gain changes were determined over a range of head orientations from left-side-down to right-side-down at frequencies from 0.25 to 10 Hz, before and after adaptation. Gain changes vs. frequency data were fit with a Gaussian to determine the frequency at which the peak gain change occurred, as well as the tuning width. The frequency at which the peak gravity-dependent gain change occurred was approximately equal to the frequency of adaptation, and the width increased monotonically with increases in the frequency of adaptation. The gravity-independent component was tuned to the adaptive frequency of 0.25 Hz but was uniformly distributed over all frequencies when the adaptation frequency was 1-4 Hz. The amplitude of the gravity-independent gain changes was larger after the aVOR gain decrease than after the gain increase across all tested frequencies. For the aVOR gain decrease, the phase lagged about 4° for frequencies below the adaptation frequency and led for frequencies above the adaptation frequency. For gain increases, the phase relationship as a function of frequency was inverted. This study demonstrates that the previously described dependence of aVOR gain adaptation on frequency is a property of the gravity-dependent component of the aVOR only. The gravity-independent component of the aVOR had a substantial tuning curve only at an adaptation frequency of 0.25 Hz.

The Superheavy Elements and Anti-Gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anastasovski, Petar K.

2004-01-01

The essence of any propulsion concept is to overcome gravity. Anti-gravity is a natural means to achieve this. Thus, the technology to pursue anti-gravity, by using superheavy elements, may provide a new propulsion paradigm. The theory of superluminal relativity provides a hypothesis for existence of elements with atomic number up to Z = 145, some of which may possess anti-gravity properties. Analysis results show that curved space-time exists demonstrating both gravitic and anti-gravitic properties not only around nuclei but inside the nuclei as well. Two groups of elements (Z < 64 and 63 < Z <145) exist that demonstrate these capabilities. The nuclei of the first group of elements have the masses with only the property of gravity. The nuclei of the elements of the second group have the masses with both properties: gravity and anti-gravity in two different ranges of curved space-time around the nuclei.. The hypothetical element with Z = 145 is the unique among all elements whose nucleus has only anti-gravity property. It is proposed that this element be named Hawking, in honour of Stephen W. Hawking

Accounting for time- and space-varying changes in the gravity field to improve the network adjustment of relative-gravity data

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, Jeffrey R.; Ferre, Ty P.A.

2015-01-01

The relative gravimeter is the primary terrestrial instrument for measuring spatially and temporally varying gravitational fields. The background noise of the instrument—that is, non-linear drift and random tares—typically requires some form of least-squares network adjustment to integrate data collected during a campaign that may take several days to weeks. Here, we present an approach to remove the change in the observed relative-gravity differences caused by hydrologic or other transient processes during a single campaign, so that the adjusted gravity values can be referenced to a single epoch. The conceptual approach is an example of coupled hydrogeophysical inversion, by which a hydrologic model is used to inform and constrain the geophysical forward model. The hydrologic model simulates the spatial variation of the rate of change of gravity as either a linear function of distance from an infiltration source, or using a 3-D numerical groundwater model. The linear function can be included in and solved for as part of the network adjustment. Alternatively, the groundwater model is used to predict the change of gravity at each station through time, from which the accumulated gravity change is calculated and removed from the data prior to the network adjustment. Data from a field experiment conducted at an artificial-recharge facility are used to verify our approach. Maximum gravity change due to hydrology (observed using a superconducting gravimeter) during the relative-gravity field campaigns was up to 2.6 μGal d−1, each campaign was between 4 and 6 d and one month elapsed between campaigns. The maximum absolute difference in the estimated gravity change between two campaigns, two months apart, using the standard network adjustment method and the new approach, was 5.5 μGal. The maximum gravity change between the same two campaigns was 148 μGal, and spatial variation in gravity change revealed zones of preferential infiltration and areas of relatively

Active Response Gravity Offload and Method

Science.gov (United States)

Dungan, Larry K. (Inventor); Valle, Paul S. (Inventor); Bankieris, Derek R. (Inventor); Lieberman, Asher P. (Inventor); Redden, Lee (Inventor); Shy, Cecil (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A variable gravity field simulator can be utilized to provide three dimensional simulations for simulated gravity fields selectively ranging from Moon, Mars, and micro-gravity environments and/or other selectable gravity fields. The gravity field simulator utilizes a horizontally moveable carriage with a cable extending from a hoist. The cable can be attached to a load which experiences the effects of the simulated gravity environment. The load can be a human being or robot that makes movements that induce swinging of the cable whereby a horizontal control system reduces swinging energy. A vertical control system uses a non-linear feedback filter to remove noise from a load sensor that is in the same frequency range as signals from the load sensor.

Idaho State Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The gravity station data (24,284 records) were compiled by the U. S. Geological Survey. This data base was received on February 23, 1993. Principal gravity...

Dilaton gravity, Poisson sigma models and loop quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bojowald, Martin; Reyes, Juan D

2009-01-01

Spherically symmetric gravity in Ashtekar variables coupled to Yang-Mills theory in two dimensions and its relation to dilaton gravity and Poisson sigma models are discussed. After introducing its loop quantization, quantum corrections for inverse triad components are shown to provide a consistent deformation without anomalies. The relation to Poisson sigma models provides a covariant action principle of the quantum-corrected theory with effective couplings. Results are also used to provide loop quantizations of spherically symmetric models in arbitrary D spacetime dimensions.

New classes of modified teleparallel gravity models

Science.gov (United States)

Bahamonde, Sebastian; Böhmer, Christian G.; Krššák, Martin

2017-12-01

New classes of modified teleparallel theories of gravity are introduced. The action of this theory is constructed to be a function of the irreducible parts of torsion f (Tax ,Tten ,Tvec), where Tax ,Tten and Tvec are squares of the axial, tensor and vector components of torsion, respectively. This is the most general (well-motivated) second order teleparallel theory of gravity that can be constructed from the torsion tensor. Different particular second order theories can be recovered from this theory such as new general relativity, conformal teleparallel gravity or f (T) gravity. Additionally, the boundary term B which connects the Ricci scalar with the torsion scalar via R = - T + B can also be incorporated into the action. By performing a conformal transformation, it is shown that the two unique theories which have an Einstein frame are either the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity or f (- T + B) = f (R) gravity, as expected.

Andes 1997 Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Central Andes gravity data (6,151 records) were compiled by Professor Gotze and the MIGRA Group. This data base was received in April, 1997. Principal gravity...

Zero-gravity movement studies

Science.gov (United States)

Badler, N. I.; Fishwick, P.; Taft, N.; Agrawala, M.

1985-01-01

The use of computer graphics to simulate the movement of articulated animals and mechanisms has a number of uses ranging over many fields. Human motion simulation systems can be useful in education, medicine, anatomy, physiology, and dance. In biomechanics, computer displays help to understand and analyze performance. Simulations can be used to help understand the effect of external or internal forces. Similarly, zero-gravity simulation systems should provide a means of designing and exploring the capabilities of hypothetical zero-gravity situations before actually carrying out such actions. The advantage of using a simulation of the motion is that one can experiment with variations of a maneuver before attempting to teach it to an individual. The zero-gravity motion simulation problem can be divided into two broad areas: human movement and behavior in zero-gravity, and simulation of articulated mechanisms.

Topics in Theories of Quantum Gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perelstein, M.

2005-01-01

In this thesis, the author addresses several issues involving gravity. The first half of the thesis is devoted to studying quantum properties of Einstein gravity and its supersymmetric extensions in the perturbative regime. String theory suggests that perturbative scattering amplitudes in the theories of gravity are related to the amplitudes in gauge theories. This connection has been studied at classical (tree) level by Kawai, Lewellen and Tye. Here, they will explore the relationship between gravity and gauge theory at quantum (loop) level. This relationship, together with the cut-based approach to computing loop amplitudes, allow us to obtain new non-trivial results for quantum gravity. IN particular, they present two infinite sequences of one-loop n-graviton scattering amplitudes: the maximally helicity violating amplitudes in N = 8 supergravity, and the ''all-plus'' helicity amplitudes in Einstein gravity with any minimally coupled massless matter content. The results for n (le) 6 will be obtained by an explicit calculation, while those for n > 6 is inferred from the soft and collinear properties of the amplitudes. They also present an explicit expression for the two-loop contribution to the four-particle scattering amplitude in N = 8 supergravity, and observe a simple relation between this result and its counterpart in N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory. Furthermore, the simple structure of the two-particle unitarity cuts in these theories suggests that similar relations exist to all loop orders. If this is the case, the first ultraviolet divergence in N = 8 supergravity should appear at five loops, contrary to the earlier expectation of a three-loop counterterm

No slip gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Linder, Eric V.

2018-03-01

A subclass of the Horndeski modified gravity theory we call No Slip Gravity has particularly interesting properties: 1) a speed of gravitational wave propagation equal to the speed of light, 2) equality between the effective gravitational coupling strengths to matter and light, Gmatter and Glight, hence no slip between the metric potentials, yet difference from Newton's constant, and 3) suppressed growth to give better agreement with galaxy clustering observations. We explore the characteristics and implications of this theory, and project observational constraints. We also give a simple expression for the ratio of the gravitational wave standard siren distance to the photon standard candle distance, in this theory and others, and enable a direct comparison of modified gravity in structure growth and in gravitational waves, an important crosscheck.

Cadiz, California Gravity Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The gravity station data (32 records) were gathered by Mr. Seth I. Gutman for AridTech Inc., Denver, Colorado using a Worden Prospector gravity meter. This data base...

Analysis of Alabama Airborne Gravity at Three Altitudes: Expected Accuracy and Spatial Resolution from a Future Tibetan Airborne Gravity Survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chi-Hsun Huang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In situ airborne gravity data at altitudes of 11, 6.3, and 1.7 km over a smooth area of Alabama are used to assess gravity accuracy and errors in upward and downward continuations. Analysis of the Alabama free-air anomaly gravity data at crossover points at the three altitudes suggests 1 - 2 mgal accuracy for the dataset. Gravity data at each altitude are then expanded into local 3D Fourier series, to prepare for continuation. This Fourier representation results in continuation errors at few-mgal level in Alabama, even in the extreme case of downward continuation from 11 km to sea level. The result in Alabama inspires an airborne gravity survey over the rough, inaccessible terrain of Tibet. Similar investigations as in Alabama are made in Tibet using EGM08-derived airborne gravity data at flight altitudes of 10, 5, and 0 km. Bouguer anomalies at the 10-km altitude preserve the major tectonic features of Tibet. Downward continuation errors increase with terrain roughness, but the survey can enhance local tectonic features. This study highlights the value of a future Tibetan airborne gravity survey and points out the expected gravity accuracy and spatial resolution from this survey.

Quantum Gravity Effects in Cosmology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gu Je-An

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Within the geometrodynamic approach to quantum cosmology, we studied the quantum gravity effects in cosmology. The Gibbons-Hawking temperature is corrected by quantum gravity due to spacetime fluctuations and the power spectrum as well as any probe field will experience the effective temperature, a quantum gravity effect.

Orion Crew Module / Service Module Structural Weight and Center of Gravity Simulator and Vehicle Motion Simulator Hoist Structure for Orion Service Module Umbilical Testing

Science.gov (United States)

Ascoli, Peter A.; Haddock, Michael H.

2014-01-01

An Orion Crew Module Service Module Structural Weight and Center of Gravity Simulator and a Vehicle Motion Simulator Hoist Structure for Orion Service Module Umbilical Testing were designed during a summer 2014 internship in Kennedy Space Centers Structures and Mechanisms Design Branch. The simulator is a structure that supports ballast, which will be integrated into an existing Orion mock-up to simulate the mass properties of the Exploration Mission-1 flight vehicle in both fueled and unfueled states. The simulator mimics these configurations through the use of approximately 40,000 lbf of steel and water ballast, and a steel support structure. Draining four water tanks, which house the water ballast, transitions the simulator from the fueled to unfueled mass properties. The Ground Systems Development and Operations organization will utilize the simulator to verify and validate equipment used to maneuver and transport the Orion spacecraft in its fueled and unfueled configurations. The second design comprises a cantilevered tripod hoist structure that provides the capability to position a large Orion Service Module Umbilical in proximity to the Vehicle Motion Simulator. The Ground Systems Development and Operations organization will utilize the Vehicle Motion Simulator, with the hoist structure attached, to test the Orion Service Module Umbilical for proper operation prior to installation on the Mobile Launcher. Overall, these two designs provide NASA engineers viable concepts worthy of fabricating and placing into service to prepare for the launch of Orion in 2017.

Evaluation of gravity field model EIGEN-6C4 by means of various functions of gravity potential, and by GNSS/levelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Kostelecký

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The combined gravity field model EIGEN-6C4 (Förste et al., 2014 is the latest combined global gravity field model of GFZ Potsdam and GRGS Toulouse. EIGEN-6C4 has been generated including the satellite gravity gradiometry data of the entire GOCE mission (November 2009 till October 2013 and is of maximum spherical degree and order 2190. In this study EIGEN-6C4 has been compared with EGM2008 to its maximum degree and order via gravity disturbances and Tzz part of the Marussi tensor of the second derivatives of the disturbing potential. The emphasis is put on such areas where GOCE data (complete set of gradiometry measurements after reductions in EIGEN-6C4 obviously contributes to an improvement of the gravity field description. GNSS/levelling geoid heights are independent data source for the evaluation of gravity field models. Therefore, we use the GNSS/levelling data sets over the territories of Europe, Czech Republic and Slovakia for the evaluation of EIGEN-6C4 w.r.t. EGM2008.

Failures in sand in reduced gravity environments

Science.gov (United States)

Marshall, Jason P.; Hurley, Ryan C.; Arthur, Dan; Vlahinic, Ivan; Senatore, Carmine; Iagnemma, Karl; Trease, Brian; Andrade, José E.

2018-04-01

The strength of granular materials, specifically sand is important for understanding physical phenomena on other celestial bodies. However, relatively few experiments have been conducted to determine the dependence of strength properties on gravity. In this work, we experimentally investigated relative values of strength (the peak friction angle, the residual friction angle, the angle of repose, and the peak dilatancy angle) in Earth, Martian, Lunar, and near-zero gravity. The various angles were captured in a classical passive Earth pressure experiment conducted on board a reduced gravity flight and analyzed using digital image correlation. The data showed essentially no dependence of the peak friction angle on gravity, a decrease in the residual friction angle between Martian and Lunar gravity, no dependence of the angle of repose on gravity, and an increase in the dilation angle between Martian and Lunar gravity. Additionally, multiple flow surfaces were seen in near-zero gravity. These results highlight the importance of understanding strength and deformation mechanisms of granular materials at different levels of gravity.

Evolution of curvature perturbation in generalized gravity theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuda, Tomohiro

2009-01-01

Using the cosmological perturbation theory in terms of the δN formalism, we find the simple formulation of the evolution of the curvature perturbation in generalized gravity theories. Compared with the standard gravity theory, a crucial difference appears in the end-boundary of the inflationary stage, which is due to the non-ideal form of the energy-momentum tensor that depends explicitly on the curvature scalar. Recent study shows that ultraviolet-complete quantum theory of gravity (Horava-Lifshitz gravity) can be approximated by using a generalized gravity action. Our paper may give an important step in understanding the evolution of the curvature perturbation during inflation, where the energy-momentum tensor may not be given by the ideal form due to the corrections from the fundamental theory.

Quantum W3 gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schoutens, K.; van Nieuwenhuizen, P.; State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook, NY

1991-11-01

We briefly review some results in the theory of quantum W 3 gravity in the chiral gauge. We compare them with similar results in the analogous but simpler cases of d = 2 induced gauge theories and d = 2 induced gravity

Radion and holographic brane gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kanno, Sugumi; Soda, Jiro

2002-01-01

The low energy effective theory for the Randall-Sundrum two-brane system is investigated with an emphasis on the role of the nonlinear radion in the brane world. The equations of motion in the bulk are solved using a low energy expansion method. This allows us, through the junction conditions, to deduce the effective equations of motion for gravity on the brane. It is shown that the gravity on the brane world is described by a quasi-scalar-tensor theory with a specific coupling function ω(Ψ)=3Ψ/2(1-Ψ) on the positive tension brane and ω(Φ)=-3Φ/2(1+Φ) on the negative tension brane, where Ψ and Φ are nonlinear realizations of the radion on the positive and negative tension branes, respectively. In contrast with the usual scalar-tensor gravity, the quasi-scalar-tensor gravity couples with two kinds of matter; namely, the matter on both positive and negative tension branes, with different effective gravitational coupling constants. In particular, the radion disguised as the scalar fields Ψ and Φ couples with the sum of the traces of the energy-momentum tensor on both branes. In the course of the derivation, it is revealed that the radion plays an essential role in converting the nonlocal Einstein gravity with generalized dark radiation to local quasi-scalar-tensor gravity. For completeness, we also derive the effective action for our theory by substituting the bulk solution into the original action. It is also shown that quasi-scalar-tensor gravity works as a hologram at low energy in the sense that the bulk geometry can be reconstructed from the solution of quasi-scalar-tensor gravity

Fundamental Structure of Loop Quantum Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Muxin; Ma, Yongge; Huang, Weiming

In the recent twenty years, loop quantum gravity, a background independent approach to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics, has been widely investigated. The aim of loop quantum gravity is to construct a mathematically rigorous, background independent, non-perturbative quantum theory for a Lorentzian gravitational field on a four-dimensional manifold. In the approach, the principles of quantum mechanics are combined with those of general relativity naturally. Such a combination provides us a picture of, so-called, quantum Riemannian geometry, which is discrete on the fundamental scale. Imposing the quantum constraints in analogy from the classical ones, the quantum dynamics of gravity is being studied as one of the most important issues in loop quantum gravity. On the other hand, the semi-classical analysis is being carried out to test the classical limit of the quantum theory. In this review, the fundamental structure of loop quantum gravity is presented pedagogically. Our main aim is to help non-experts to understand the motivations, basic structures, as well as general results. It may also be beneficial to practitioners to gain insights from different perspectives on the theory. We will focus on the theoretical framework itself, rather than its applications, and do our best to write it in modern and precise langauge while keeping the presentation accessible for beginners. After reviewing the classical connection dynamical formalism of general relativity, as a foundation, the construction of the kinematical Ashtekar-Isham-Lewandowski representation is introduced in the content of quantum kinematics. The algebraic structure of quantum kinematics is also discussed. In the content of quantum dynamics, we mainly introduce the construction of a Hamiltonian constraint operator and the master constraint project. At last, some applications and recent advances are outlined. It should be noted that this strategy of quantizing gravity can also be extended to

Urine specific gravity test

Science.gov (United States)

... medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003587.htm Urine specific gravity test To use the sharing features on this page, please enable JavaScript. Urine specific gravity is a laboratory test that shows the concentration ...

Topological gravity with minimal matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Keke

1991-01-01

Topological minimal matter, obtained by twisting the minimal N = 2 supeconformal field theory, is coupled to two-dimensional topological gravity. The free field formulation of the coupled system allows explicit representations of BRST charge, physical operators and their correlation functions. The contact terms of the physical operators may be evaluated by extending the argument used in a recent solution of topological gravity without matter. The consistency of the contact terms in correlation functions implies recursion relations which coincide with the Virasoro constraints derived from the multi-matrix models. Topological gravity with minimal matter thus provides the field theoretic description for the multi-matrix models of two-dimensional quantum gravity. (orig.)

Mars geodesy, rotation and gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosenblatt, Pascal; Dehant, Veronique

2010-01-01

This review provides explanations of how geodesy, rotation and gravity can be addressed using radioscience data of an orbiter around a planet or of the lander on its surface. The planet Mars is the center of the discussion. The information one can get from orbitography and radioscience in general concerns the global static gravitational field, the time variation of the gravitational field induced by mass exchange between the atmosphere and the ice caps, the time variation of the gravitational field induced by the tides, the secular changes in the spacecraft's orbit induced by the little moons of Mars named Phobos and Deimos, the gravity induced by particular targets, the Martian ephemerides, and Mars' rotation and orientation. The paper addresses as well the determination of the geophysical parameters of Mars and, in particular, the state of Mars' core and its size, which is important for understanding the planet's evolution. Indeed, the state and dimension of the core determined from the moment of inertia and nutation depend in turn on the percentage of light elements in the core as well as on the core temperature, which is related to heat transport in the mantle. For example, the radius of the core has implications for possible mantle convection scenarios and, in particular, for the presence of a perovskite phase transition at the bottom of the mantle. This is also important for our understanding of the large volcanic province Tharsis on the surface of Mars. (invited reviews)

Partial gravity - Human impacts on facility design

Science.gov (United States)

Capps, Stephen; Moore, Nathan

1990-01-01

Partial gravity affects the body differently than earth gravity and microgravity environments. The main difference from earth gravity is human locomotion; while the main dfference from microgravity is the specific updown orientation and reach envelopes which increase volume requirements. Much data are available on earth gravity and microgravity design; however, very little information is available on human reactions to reduced gravity levels in IVA situations (without pressure suits). Therefore, if humans commit to permanent lunar habitation, much research should be conducted in the area of partial gravity effects on habitat design.

Thermal infrared sounding observations of lower atmospheric variances at Mars and their implications for gravity wave activity: a preliminary examination

Science.gov (United States)

Heavens, N. G.

2017-12-01

It has been recognized for over two decades that the mesoscale statistical variance observed by Earth-observing satellites at temperature-sensitive frequencies above the instrumental noise floor is a measure of gravity wave activity. These types of observation have been made by a variety of satellite instruments have been an important validation tool for gravity wave parameterizations in global and mesoscale models. At Mars, the importance of topographic and non-topographic sources of gravity waves for the general circulation is now widely recognized and the target of recent modeling efforts. However, despite several ingenious studies, gravity wave activity near hypothetical lower atmospheric sources has been poorly and unsystematically characterized, partly because of the difficulty of separating the gravity wave activity from baroclinic wave activity and the thermal tides. Here will be presented a preliminary analysis of calibrated radiance variance at 15.4 microns (635-665 cm-1) from nadir, off-nadir, and limb observations by the Mars Climate Sounder on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The overarching methodology follows Wu and Waters (1996, 1997). Nadir, off-nadir, and lowest detector limb observations should sample variability with vertical weighting functions centered high in the lower atmosphere (20-30 km altitude) and full width half maximum (FWHM) 20 km but be sensitive to gravity waves with different horizontal wavelengths and slightly different vertical wavelengths. This work is supported by NASA's Mars Data Analysis Program (NNX14AM32G). References Wu, D.L. and J.W. Waters, 1996, Satellite observations of atmospheric variances: A possible indication of gravity waves, GRL, 23, 3631-3634. Wu D.L. and J.W. Waters, 1997, Observations of Gravity Waves with the UARS Microwave Limb Sounder. In: Hamilton K. (eds) Gravity Wave Processes. NATO ASI Series (Series I: Environmental Change), vol 50. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Human manual control performance in hyper-gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Torin K; Newman, Michael C; Merfeld, Daniel M; Oman, Charles M; Young, Laurence R

2015-05-01

Hyper-gravity provides a unique environment to study how misperceptions impact control of orientation relative to gravity. Previous studies have found that static and dynamic roll tilts are perceptually overestimated in hyper-gravity. The current investigation quantifies how this influences control of orientation. We utilized a long-radius centrifuge to study manual control performance in hyper-gravity. In the dark, subjects were tasked with nulling out a pseudo-random roll disturbance on the cab of the centrifuge using a rotational hand controller to command their roll rate in order to remain perceptually upright. The task was performed in 1, 1.5, and 2 G's of net gravito-inertial acceleration. Initial performance, in terms of root-mean-square deviation from upright, degraded in hyper-gravity relative to 1 G performance levels. In 1.5 G, initial performance degraded by 26 % and in 2 G, by 45 %. With practice, however, performance in hyper-gravity improved to near the 1 G performance level over several minutes. Finally, pre-exposure to one hyper-gravity level reduced initial performance decrements in a different, novel, hyper-gravity level. Perceptual overestimation of roll tilts in hyper-gravity leads to manual control performance errors, which are reduced both with practice and with pre-exposure to alternate hyper-gravity stimuli.

Identification of two-phase flow regimes under variable gravity conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamiel S Gabriel; Huawei Han

2005-01-01

Full text of publication follows: Two-phase flow is becoming increasingly important as we move into new and more aggressive technologies in the twenty-first century. Some of its many applications include the design of efficient heat transport systems, the transfer and storage of cryogenic fluids, and condensation and flow boiling processes in heat exchangers and energy transport systems. Two-phase flow has many applications in reduced gravity environments experienced in orbiting spacecraft and earth observation satellites. Examples are heat transport systems, the transfer and storage of cryogenic fluids, and condensation and flow boiling processes in heat exchangers. A concave parallel plate capacitance sensor has been developed to measure void fraction for the purpose of objectively identifying flow regimes. The sensor has been used to collect void-fraction data at microgravity conditions aboard the NASA and ESA zero-gravity aircraft. It is shown that the flow regimes can be objectively determined from the probability density functions of the void fraction signals. It was shown that under microgravity conditions four flow regimes exist: bubbly flow, characterized by discrete gas bubbles flowing in the liquid; slug flow, consisting of Taylor bubbles separated by liquid slugs which may or may not contain several small gas bubbles; transitional flow, characterized by the liquid flowing as a film at the tube wall, and the gas phase flowing in the center with the frequent appearance of chaotic, unstable slugs; and annular flow in which the liquid flows as a film along the tube wall and the gas flows uninterrupted through the center. Since many two-phase flow models are flow regime dependent, a method that can accurately and objectively determine flow regimes is required. (authors)

Identification of two-phase flow regimes under variable gravity conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kamiel S Gabriel [University of Ontario Institute of Technology 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4 (Canada); Huawei Han [Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Saskatchewan 57 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A9 (Canada)

2005-07-01

Full text of publication follows: Two-phase flow is becoming increasingly important as we move into new and more aggressive technologies in the twenty-first century. Some of its many applications include the design of efficient heat transport systems, the transfer and storage of cryogenic fluids, and condensation and flow boiling processes in heat exchangers and energy transport systems. Two-phase flow has many applications in reduced gravity environments experienced in orbiting spacecraft and earth observation satellites. Examples are heat transport systems, the transfer and storage of cryogenic fluids, and condensation and flow boiling processes in heat exchangers. A concave parallel plate capacitance sensor has been developed to measure void fraction for the purpose of objectively identifying flow regimes. The sensor has been used to collect void-fraction data at microgravity conditions aboard the NASA and ESA zero-gravity aircraft. It is shown that the flow regimes can be objectively determined from the probability density functions of the void fraction signals. It was shown that under microgravity conditions four flow regimes exist: bubbly flow, characterized by discrete gas bubbles flowing in the liquid; slug flow, consisting of Taylor bubbles separated by liquid slugs which may or may not contain several small gas bubbles; transitional flow, characterized by the liquid flowing as a film at the tube wall, and the gas phase flowing in the center with the frequent appearance of chaotic, unstable slugs; and annular flow in which the liquid flows as a film along the tube wall and the gas flows uninterrupted through the center. Since many two-phase flow models are flow regime dependent, a method that can accurately and objectively determine flow regimes is required. (authors)

Equations of motion in relativistic gravity

CERN Document Server

Lämmerzahl, Claus; Schutz, Bernard

2015-01-01

 The present volume aims to be a comprehensive survey on the derivation of the equations of motion, both in General Relativity as well as in alternative gravity theories. The topics covered range from the description of test bodies, to self-gravitating (heavy) bodies, to current and future observations. Emphasis is put on the coverage of various approximation methods (e.g., multipolar, post-Newtonian, self-force methods) which are extensively used in the context of the relativistic problem of motion. Applications discussed in this volume range from the motion of binary systems -- and the gravitational waves emitted by such systems -- to observations of the galactic center. In particular the impact of choices at a fundamental theoretical level on the interpretation of experiments is highlighted. This book provides a broad and up-do-date status report, which will not only be of value for the experts working in this field, but also may serve as a guideline for students with background in General Relativity who ...