Astrophysics in 2006

The fastest pulsar and the slowest nova; the oldest galaxies and the youngest stars; the weirdest life forms and the commonest dwarfs; the highest energy particles and the lowest energy photons. These were some of the extremes of Astrophysics 2006. We attempt also to bring you updates on things of which there is currently only one (habitable planets, the Sun, and the Universe) and others of which there are always many, like meteors and molecules, black holes and binaries.     

Ti2AlNb基合金的ISM熔炼研究

讨论了Ti2AlNb基合金的熔炼特点,概括介绍了真空水冷铜坩埚感应凝壳熔炼的设备结构原理和工艺技术,结合Ti2AlNb基合金的熔炼实践,研究了合金元素的加入形式、熔炼室真空度对合金铸锭的均匀性以及合金中Al挥发烧损的影响规律。结果表明:采用水冷铜坩埚真空感应凝壳熔炼Ti2AlNb基合金,合金铸锭成分均匀性很好,随着熔炼工艺的不同,Al挥发烧损在5％～10％（质量分数）之间。     

D/H and Nearby Interstellar Cloud Structures

Analysis of UV spectra obtained with the HST, FUSE and other satellites provides a new understanding of the deuterium abundance in the local region of the galactic disk. The wide range of gas-phase D/H measurements obtained outside of the Local Bubble can now be explained as due to different amounts of deuterium depletion on carbonaceous grains. The total D/H ratio including deuterium in the gas and dust phases is at least 23 parts per million of hydrogen, which is providing a challenge to models of galactic chemical evolution. Analysis of HST and ground-based spectra of many lines of sight to stars within the Local Bubble have identified interstellar velocity components that are consistent with more than 15 velocity vectors. We have identified the structures of 15 nearby warm interstellar clouds on the basis of these velocity vectors and common temperatures and depletions. We estimate the distances and masses of these clouds and compare their locations with cold interstellar clouds.     

The Local Bubble and Interstellar Material Near the Sun

The properties of interstellar matter at the Sun are regulated by our location with respect to a void in the local matter distribution, known as the Local Bubble. The Local Bubble (LB) is bounded by associations of massive stars and fossil supernovae that have disrupted dense interstellar matter (ISM), driving low density intermediate velocity ISM into the void. The Sun appears to be located in one of these flows of low density material. This nearby interstellar matter, dubbed the Local Fluff, has a bulk velocity of ∼19 km s⁻¹ in the local standard of rest. The flow is coming from the direction of the gas and dust ring formed where the Loop I supernova remnant merges into the LB. Optical polarization data suggest that the local interstellar magnetic field lines are draped over the heliosphere. A longstanding discrepancy between the high thermal pressure of plasma filling the LB and low thermal pressures in the embedded Local Fluff cloudlets is partially mitigated when the ram pressure component parallel to the cloudlet flow direction is included.     

Oxygen line mapping of SN 1006 with Suzaku

SN 1006 is one of the supernova remnants (SNRs) with relatively low-temperature electrons, considering the young age of just 1000 years. We carried out SN 1006 mapping observations with the X-ray Imaging Spectrometers (XIS) and the Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) onboard Suzaku, the fifth Japanese X-ray satellite. Thanks to the excellent spectral resolution of XIS in the soft X-ray band, H-like and He-like oxygen emission lines were clearly detected, and we could make a map of the line intensity, and as well as a flux and the photon index of nonthermal component. We found that these parameters have spatial dependences from region to region in the SNR; the north region is bright in nonthermal, while dim in thermal; the east region is bright in both nonthermal and thermal; the inner region shows dim nonthermal and bright thermal emission. The photon index is the smallest in the north region.     

New evidence for strong non-thermal effects in Tycho’s supernova remnant

For the case of Tycho’s supernova remnant (SNR), we present the relation between the blast wave and contact discontinuity radii calculated within the nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in SNRs. It is demonstrated that these radii are confirmed by recently published Chandra measurements which show that the observed contact discontinuity radius is very close to the shock radius. Therefore a consistent explanation of these observations can be given in terms of efficient CR acceleration which makes the medium more compressible.     

The Distributed CO in Comet Halley

Examination of the spatial distribution of CO intensity of Comet Halley indicates that a large fraction of CO originates from the refractory organic component in the coma, rather than directly from the volatiles in the nucleus. Based on the fluffy aggregate interstellar dust comet model, we have estimated the upper limits of the total amount of CO provided by coma dust. The implications from the comparison of the predicted results with the observed value have been discussed. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

大飞机发动机自主研制影响因素分析

研制拥有自主知识产权的大飞机是国家的既定战略,发动机是大飞机的心脏,发动机的自主研制关系到具有自主知识产权大飞机的实现。通过对飞机企业、发动机企业的调查和相关文献的搜集,找出大飞机发动机自主研制的影响因素,利用解释结构模型法建立发动机自主研制影响因素的解释结构模型,再利用层次分析法计算出各个影响因素的权重,在此基础上分析了各因素的重要作用,并提出了提高这些制约因素的对策。     

Satellite selection methods for multi-constellation advanced RAIM

The increased number of potential threat modes under multi-constellation advanced receiver autonomy integrity monitoring (ARAIM) requires an increase in the number of subsets and a correspondingly high computational load. A new satellite selection method based on integrity support message (ISM) parameters is proposed and compared with GDOP-based selection. The performance was tested on five days of data measurements from 21 multi-global navigation satellite system experiment (MGEX) stations distributed around the world, as well as simulation using the broadcast ephemeris. The results show that the proposed ISM-based satellite selection method is highly compatible with the baseline ARAIM. This method could reduce the computational times by about 60–70% quickly, with minimising vertical protection level (VPL) loss, which was consistently within 1 m, even a reduced VPL value in some epochs, and resulting in an improved availability. The simulation results were similar to the MGEX data. It appears that the application of ISM-based satellite selection can effectively reduce computational burden with a minimal impact on availability.