arXiv subjects

Juergen Schmidt

Publications and source records attributed to Juergen Schmidt.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2018

Density Waves and the Viscous Overstability in Saturn's Rings

This paper addresses resonantly forced spiral density waves in a dense planetary ring which is close to the threshold for viscous overstability. We solve numerically the hydrodynamical equations for a dense, axisymmetric thin disk in the vicinity of an inner Lindblad resonance with a perturbing satellite. The spiral shape of a density wave is taken into account through a suitable approximation of the advective terms arising from the fluid orbital motion. This paper is a first attempt to model the co-existence of resonantly forced density waves and short-scale axisymmetric overstable wavetrains in Saturn's rings by conducting large-scale hydrodynamical integrations. These integrations reveal that the two wave types undergo complex interactions, not taken into account in existing models for the damping of density waves. In particular it is found that, depending on the relative magnitude of both wave types, the presence of viscous overstability can lead to a damping of an unstable density wave and vice versa. The damping of viscous overstability by a density wave is investigated further by employing a simplified model of an axisymmetric ring perturbed by a nearby Lindblad resonance. A linear hydrodynamic stability analysis as well as local N-body simulations of this model system are performed and support the results of our large-scale hydrodynamical integrations.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2018

Stable Periodic Orbits for Spacecrafts around Minor Celestial Bodies

We are interested in stable periodic orbits for spacecrafts in the gravitational field of minor celestial bodies. The stable periodic orbits around minor celestial bodies are useful not only for the mission design of the deep space exploration, but also for studying the long-time stability of small satellites in the large-size-ratio binary asteroids. The irregular shapes and gravitational fields of the minor celestial bodies are modeled by the polyhedral model. Using the topological classifications of periodic orbits and the grid search method, the stable periodic orbits can be calculated and the topological cases can be determined. Furthermore, we find five different types of stable periodic orbits around minor celestial bodies: A) Stable periodic orbits generated from the stable equilibrium points outside the minor celestial body, B) Stable periodic orbits continued from the unstable periodic orbits around the unstable equilibrium points, C) Retrograde and nearly circular periodic orbits with zero-inclination around minor celestial bodies, D) Resonance periodic orbits, E) Near-surface inclined periodic orbits. We take asteroid 243 Ida, 433 Eros, 6489 Golevka, 101955 Bennu, and the comet 1P/Halley for examples.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2018

Viscous Overstability in Saturn's Rings: Influence of Collective Self-gravity

We investigate the influence of collective self-gravity forces on the nonlinear, large-scale evolution of the viscous overstability in Saturn's rings. We numerically solve the axisymmetric hydrodynamic equations in the isothermal and non-isothermal approximation, including radial self-gravity and employing transport coefficients derived by Salo et al. We assume optical depths of 1.5-2 to model Saturn's dense rings. Furthermore, local N-body simulations, incorporating vertical and radial collective self-gravity are performed. Vertical self-gravity is mimicked through an increased frequency of vertical oscillations, while radial self-gravity is approximated by solving the Poisson equation for an axisymmetric thin disk with a Fourier method. Direct particle-particle forces are omitted, which prevents small-scale gravitational instabilities (self-gravity wakes) from forming, an approximation that allows us to study long radial scales and to compare directly the hydrodynamic model and the N-body simulations. Our isothermal and non-isothermal hydrodynamic model results with vanishing self-gravity compare very well with results of Latter & Ogilvie and Rein & Latter, respectively. In contrast, for rings with radial self-gravity we find that the wavelengths of saturated overstable waves settle close to the frequency minimum of the nonlinear dispersion relation, i.e. close to a state of vanishing group velocities of the waves. Good agreement is found between non-isothermal hydrodynamics and N-body simulations for moderate and strong radial self-gravity, while the largest deviations occur for weak self-gravity. The resulting saturation wavelengths of viscous overstability for moderate and strong self-gravity (100-300m) agree reasonably well with the length scales of axisymmetric periodic micro-structure in Saturn's inner A-ring and the B-ring, as found by Cassini.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2018

A Weakly Nonlinear Model for the Damping of Resonantly Forced Density Waves in Dense Planetary Rings

In this paper we address the stability of resonantly forced density waves in dense planetary rings. Already by Goldreich & Tremaine (1978) it has been argued that density waves might be unstable, depending on the relationship between the ring's viscosity and the surface mass density. In the recent paper Schmidt et al. (2016) we have pointed out that when - within a fluid description of the ring dynamics - the criterion for viscous overstability is satisfied, forced spiral density waves become unstable as well. In this case, linear theory fails to describe the damping, but nonlinearity of the underlying equations guarantees a finite amplitude and eventually a damping of the wave. We apply the multiple scale formalism to derive a weakly nonlinear damping relation from a hydrodynamical model. This relation describes the resonant excitation and nonlinear viscous damping of spiral density waves in a vertically integrated fluid disk with density dependent transport coefficients. The model consistently predicts density waves to be (linearly) unstable in a ring region where the conditions for viscous overstability are met. Sufficiently far away from the Lindblad resonance, the surface mass density perturbation is predicted to saturate to a constant value due to nonlinear viscous damping. The wave's damping lengths of the model depend on certain input parameters, such as the distance to the threshold for viscous overstability in parameter space and the ground state surface mass density.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2017

Hamiltonian Formulation and Perturbations for Dust Motion around Cometary Nuclei

In this paper we analyze the dynamical behavior of large dust grains in the vicinity of a cometary nucleus. To this end we consider the gravitational field of the irregularly shaped body, as well as its electric and magnetic fields. Without considering the effect of gas friction and solar radiation, we find that there exist grains which are static relative to the cometary nucleus; the positions of these grains are the stable equibria. There also exist grains in the stable periodic orbits close to the cometary nucleus. The grains in the stable equibria or the stable periodic orbits will not escape or impact on the surface of the cometary nucleus. The results are applicable for large charge dusts with small area-mass ratio which are near the cometary nucleus and far from the Solar. It is found that the resonant periodic orbit can be stable, and there exist stable non-resonant periodic orbits, stable resonant periodic orbits and unstable resonant periodic orbits in the potential field of cometary nuclei. The comet gravity force, solar gravity force, electric froce, magnetic force, solar radiation pressure, as well as the gas drag force are all considered to analyze the order of magnitude of these forces acting on the grains with different parameters. Let the distance of the dust grain relative to the mass centre of the cometary nucleus, the charge and the mass of the dust grain vary, respectively, fix other parameters, we clacluated the strengths of different forces.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2015

Size distribution of particles in Saturn's rings from aggregation and fragmentation

Saturn's rings consist of a huge number of water ice particles, with a tiny addition of rocky material. They form a flat disk, as the result of an interplay of angular momentum conservation and the steady loss of energy in dissipative inter-particle collisions. For particles in the size range from a few centimeters to a few meters, a power-law distribution of radii, $\sim r^{-q}$ with $q \approx 3$, has been inferred; for larger sizes, the distribution has a steep cutoff. It has been suggested that this size distribution may arise from a balance between aggregation and fragmentation of ring particles, yet neither the power-law dependence nor the upper size cutoff have been established on theoretical grounds. Here we propose a model for the particle size distribution that quantitatively explains the observations. In accordance with data, our model predicts the exponent $q$ to be constrained to the interval $2.75 \le q \le 3.5$. Also an exponential cutoff for larger particle sizes establishes naturally with the cutoff-radius being set by the relative frequency of aggregating and disruptive collisions. This cutoff is much smaller than the typical scale of micro-structures seen in Saturn's rings.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2006

Time delay in the Kuramoto model with bimodal frequency distribution

We investigate the effects of a time-delayed all-to-all coupling scheme in a large population of oscillators with natural frequencies following a bimodal distribution. The regions of parameter space corresponding to synchronized and incoherent solutions are obtained both numerically and analytically for particular frequency distributions. In particular we find that bimodality introduces a new time scale that results in a quasiperiodic disposition of the regions of incoherence.

nlin.AO↗

arXiv2001

Torsion Degrees of Freedom in the Regge Calculus as Dislocations on the Simplicial Lattice

Using the notion of a general conical defect, the Regge Calculus is generalized by allowing for dislocations on the simplicial lattice in addition to the usual disclinations. Since disclinations and dislocations correspond to curvature and torsion singularities, respectively, the method we propose provides a natural way of discretizing gravitational theories with torsion degrees of freedom like the Einstein-Cartan theory. A discrete version of the Einstein-Cartan action is given and field equations are derived, demanding stationarity of the action with respect to the discrete variables of the theory.

gr-qc↗