Junda Chen — Page 2

arXiv2018

Distribution of velocity gradient orientations: Mapping magnetization with the Velocity Gradient Technique

Recent developments of the Velocity Gradient Technique (VGT) show that the velocity gradients provide a reliable tracing of magnetic field direction in turbulent plasmas. In this paper, we explore the ability of velocity gradients to measure the magnetization of interstellar medium. We demonstrate that the distribution of velocity gradient orientations provides a reliable estimation of the magnetization of the media. In particular, we determine the relation between Alfvenic Mach number $M_A$ in the range of $M_A \in [0.2,1.7]$ and properties of the velocity gradient distribution, namely, with the dispersion of velocity gradient orientation as well as with the peak to base ratio of the amplitudes. We apply our technique for a selected GALFA-HI region and find the results consistent with the expected behavior of $M_A$. Using 3D MHD simulations we successfully compare the results with our new measure of magnetization that is based on the dispersion of starlight polarization. We demonstrate that, combined with the velocity dispersion along the line of sight direction, our technique is capable to delivering the magnetic field strength. The new technique opens a way to measure magnetization using other gradient measures such as synchrotron intensity gradients (SIGs) and synchrotron polarization gradients (SPGs).

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Orbit configuration spaces of small covers and quasi-toric manifolds

In this article, we investigate the orbit configuration spaces of some equivariant closed manifolds over simple convex polytopes in toric topology, such as small covers, quasi-toric manifolds and (real) moment-angle manifolds; especially for the cases of small covers and quasi-toric manifolds. These kinds of orbit configuration spaces are all non-free and noncompact, but still built via simple convex polytopes. We obtain an explicit formula of Euler characteristic for orbit configuration spaces of small covers and quasi-toric manifolds in terms of the $h$-vector of a simple convex polytope. As a by-product of our method, we also obtain a formula of Euler characteristic for the classical configuration space, which generalizes the Félix-Thomas formula. In addition, we also study the homotopy type of such orbit configuration spaces. In particular, we determine an equivariant strong deformation retract of the orbit configuration space of 2 distinct orbit-points in a small cover or a quasi-toric manifold, which turns out that we are able to further study the algebraic topology of such an orbit configuration space by using the Mayer-Vietoris spectral sequence.

math.AT↗