Advances in Astrophysics

3

Authors: Idan Ginsburg, Manasvi Lingam, Merrill Butler III

The cosmic web exhibits some striking similarities to that of an animal brain. Despite its tremendous size the cosmos is many orders of magnitude less efficient at computation than the brains residing in Earth’s biosphere. This shows just how information-rich life truly is.

10

Authors: H.D.S. Amaradasa, G.D.K. Mahanama, S.S. Abeywickrama, A.G.P.D. Alahakoon, K.P.S.C. Jayarathna, N.C. Wickramasinghe

The systematic detection and tracking of meteor streams and global fireball events potentially provide a dataset of immense importance to our understanding of passing objects. To this end hemispherical and wide field of view cameras are used in meteor observations with a synchronized network of cameras to record intricate details about meteor activities. In this research a hemispherical robotic camera unit named AWITC was designed to monitor meteors entering earth’s atmosphere near Sri Lanka. The unit consists of an astronomy camera with a Complementary Metal Oxide Sensor (CMOS), a fish eye lens, a single board computer, a storage device, internet connectivity and other sensors allowing it to function with minimum human supervision. The images are saved with record of time, date and temperature. The time of the computer can be updated from both internet and GPS connections. The unit has two enclosures for protecting the electronics from solar radiation and rain and all the main devices reside in the internal enclosure. Temperature and humidity sensors are included to monitor the ventilation in the enclosure. A five element YAGI Wi- Fi antenna was designed to extend the wireless connectivity of the unit. The obtained images are saved in the internal storage and a copy is sent to a sever computer. All the software used, are uniquely developed for the unit and the cohesion of hardware and software were tested. The camera unit functioned for eleven months continuously and captured a large number of meteor activities.

14

Authors: L.Barbieri, F. Talamucci

The calculus of apsidal precession frequencies of the planets is developed by means of a perturbation technique. A model of concentric rings (ring model), suitable for improving calculations, is introduced. Conclusive remarks concerning a comparison between the theoretical, the calculated and the observed data of the precession frequencies are performed.

10

Authors: A. Santhosh Kumar, N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, Godfrey Louis

Despite various proposals, no conclusive identification exists for the carriers of diffuse interstellar absorption bands DIBs and the UV extinction bump at 217.5 nm. The red rain cells of Kerala show strong absorption features near 216.5 nm and several weak absorption features in the wavelength region 400 to 900 nm which are superimposed on a broader blue-UV absorption peak. The red pigment extracted from the cells show strong peaks at 334 nm and 440 nm along with multitude of weak peaks. The measured absorption peaks are compared with that of DIBs and the UV bump. The higher peak widths for red cells in comparison with DIBs is attributed to the temperature difference between space environment and laboratory. Our results of the absorption spectra of red rain cells show significant correlation with the reported wavelengths of numerous DIBs and the UV extinction bump of the interstellar medium, thus showing that the red rain cells, which are of suspected extraterrestrial origin, is a plausible carrier of DIBs and the UV extinction bump.

14

Authors: Amy L. Potrzeba-Macrina, Igor G. Zurbenko

Solar activity has a well-known periodicity of approximately 10-11 years, an oscillation that was first observed in China several thousand years ago. The purpose of this paper is to explain the driving force behind this periodicity and to explain other periodicities inherent to solar activities. In science, spectral analysis is an essential tool used for the identification of periodicities that are natural to a given dataset. In this paper the authors use spectral analysis to investigate planetary gravitational periods to explain periodicities of sunspot numbers and to make conclusions about the driving force of the sunspot numbers and solar activity. Precise analysis of inherent periodicities provides the capability to predict future fluctuations in solar activities. The authors show clear evidence of long periodicities within sunspot numbers. The combination of several periodic components, while complex, remains perfectly predictable. The authors show that the long-term component of sunspot fluctuations is perfectly proportional to the total solar irradiation near Earth measured by satellites. While satellite measurements of the total solar irradiance cover a short time interval, sunspot numbers have been recorded for a long time and essentially have more value on the prediction of solar influence on Earth’s climate. This allows for the numerical evaluation of solar energy delivered to Earth. Numerical evaluations of fluctuations in solar energies delivered to Earth are an essential achievement for any climate change analysis. The removal of solar influences from long-term temperature data provides the opportunity to numerically identify the human impact on Earth’s climate. A better understanding and prediction of the Sun’s long oscillations may influence important predictions of climatic events and impact emergency preparedness.

5

Authors: Yuriy Zayko

The article gives the metric of the Schwarzschild black hole, consistent with the fact that the electromagnetic vacuum is unstable under its horizon. A similar metric was previously obtained in the author's work when studying the dynamics of a vortex. This metric is characterized by the absence of many familiar concepts intrinsic to hyperbolic space-time: light-like geodesics, light cone, etc. The thermodynamic aspect of this black hole model is also considered.

34

Authors: B. V. Alexeev

The existence in a bounded region of a self-consistent plasma object is established by the methods of non-local physics as a result of the solution of the Cauchy problem. The non-local theory is created for mathematical modeling of plasmoids and ball lightnings. The solitons have the character of the stable quantum objects in the self consistent electric field. Particularly these effects can be considered as explanation of the existence of lightning balls. The delivered theory demonstrates the great possibilities of the generalized quantum hydrodynamics in investigation of the quantum solitons. The theory leads to solitons as typical formations in the generalized quantum hydrodynamics. It is proved that all ball lightnings theories based on local description are wrong in principle.

5

Authors: N. C. Wickramasinghe, M. J. Rycroft, D.T. Wickramasinghe, E, J. Steele, Daryl. H. Wallis, Robert Temple, G. Tokoro, A.V. Syroeshkin, T.V. Grebennikova, O.S. Tsygankov

The discovery by Russian researchers (Grebennikova et al., 2018) of microorganisms on the exterior surface of the International Space Station (ISS) on several occasions between 2013 and 2017 may be interpreted as evidence supporting the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe theory of cometary panspermia. The homologies between the ISS-recovered genotypes and known terrestrial bacteria can be seen as evidence of co-evolution and gene transfers (HGT) within a biosphere that spans astronomical distances. On the one hand, the height of the ISS orbit at 400km can be argued as being too high for lofting surface microorganisms. However, there is a theory that purports to explain the possible transport of small particles from the troposphere into the lower stratosphere and ionosphere as a result of vortex motions as well as vertical flows (streamers), which are generated as a result of the development of the modulational instability in the ionospheric plasma. More research is needed to properly evaluate this proposal.

9

Authors: N. Ahmed, N. A. Chowdhury, A. Mannan, A. A. Mamun

The existence and the basic features of ion-acoustic (IA) envelope solitons in a selfgravitating degenerate quantum plasma system (SG-DQPS), containing inertial non-relativistically degenerate light and heavy ion species as well as inertialess non-relativistically degenerate positron and electron species, have been theoretically investigated by deriving the nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation. The NLS equation, which governs the dynamics of the IA waves, has disclosed the modulationally stable and unstable regions for the IA waves. The unstable region allows to generate bright envelope solitons which are modulationaly stable. It is found that the stability and the growth rate are dependent on the plasma parameters (like, mass and number density of the plasma species). The implications of our results in astronomical compact object (viz. white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, etc.) are briefly discussed.

13

Authors: G.Y. Smolkov

Natural changes in solar-terrestrial relations, including the global climate of the Earth, without taking into account all the factors of external influence on them, are still completely incomprehensible. In this connection, synchronous responses of the atmosphere layers of the Sun and all shells of the Earth, due to external influences on them in 1997-1998 were considered. The events and processes of these years have caused a temporary slowdown in global warming in 1998-2013.

4

Authors: N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, Michael J. Rycroft

The transport of electrically charged bacterial-sized dust particles from the stratosphere to the high ionosphere is discussed. With the maximum electric field associated with the Global Electric Circuit during both active thunderstorm and fair weather conditions, we show that electric forces are inadequate to overcome gravity in lofting dust particles from the stratosphere to heights of ~ 400 km in the ionosphere, where they have recently been discovered at the orbit of the International Space Station.

13

Authors: Foisal B. T. Siddiki, A. A. Mamun, M. R. Amin

The basic features of linear and nonlinear quantum electron-acoustic (QEA) waves in a degenerate quantum plasma (containing non-relativistically degenerate electrons, superthermal or κ-distributed electrons, and stationary ions) are theoretically investigated. The nonlinear Schödinger (NLS) equation is derived by employing the reductive perturbation method. The stationary solitonic solution of the NLS equation is obtained, and examined analytically as well as numerically to identify the basic features of the QEA envelope solitons. It has been found that the effects of the degeneracy and exchange/Bohm potentials of cold electrons, and superthermality of hot electrons significantly modify the basic properties of linear and nonlinear QEA waves. It is observed that the QEA waves are modulationally unstable for k < kc, where kc is the maximum (critical) value of the QEA wave number k below which the QEA waves are modulationally unstable), and that for k < kc the solution of the NLS equation gives rise to the bright envelope solitons, which are found to be localized in both spatial (ξ) and time (τ ) axes. It is also observed that as the spectral index κ is increased, the critical value of the wave number (amplitude of the QEA envelope bright solitons) decreases (increases). The implications of our results should be useful in understanding the localized electrostatic perturbation in solid density plasma produced by irradiating metals by intense laser, semiconductor devices, microelectronics, etc.

14

Authors: A. Paul, G. Mandal, A. A. Mamun, M. R. Amin

The modulation instability of a dust ion-acoustic (DIA) wave in a highly collisional dusty plasma is studied theoretically. In this investigation, effects of ionization, ion loss, and electron superthermality on the DIA wave are included. By employing the standard reductive perturbation technique, a modified-nonlinear Schödinger equation (mNLSE) is developed for the evolution of the slowly varying amplitude of the DIA wave. A detailed analysis of the linear and nonlinear dispersions of the DIA wave is presented. Relevant to some astrophysical objects with typical parameters, it is found that the DIA wave is modulationally unstable below a certain critical wavenumber. Effects of the electron superthermality as well as the ionization and ion loss in the wave dynamics are also studied. It is found that the electron superthermality has a significant effect on the nonlinearity as well as on the damping of the DIA wave. It is also found that the critical wavenumber for the modulation instability is highly dependent on the parameter κ, known as the spectral index of the electron superthermality. Numerical results on the linear and nonlinear dispersions of the DIA wave are described. A parameter study on the Rouge wave solution of the mNLSE is also presented.

37

Authors: Boris V. Alexeev

The theory of the matter movement in black holes (BH) in the frame of non – local quantum hydrodynamics (NLQHD) is considered. The theory corresponds to the limit case when the matter density tends to infinity when the theory of General Relativity is not applicable in principle. From calculations follow that NLQHD equations for the black holes have the solutions limited in space. The domain of the solution existence is limited by the event horizon where gravity tends to infinity. It was shown: 1) internal perturbations in BH lead to the appearance of the packets of the gravitational waves. 2) The width of the wave packet is inversely proportional to the magnitude of internal energy. 3) Increasing of the internal energy leads to the transformation of the mode of antigravity into the attraction regime. 4) A strong mutual influence of the gravitational, antigravitational and electromagnetic fields exists. The velocity of gravitational waves is more than the speed of light. The numerical calculations of the Cauchy problem are delivered.