Distribution Of Hollow Spheres Research Articles

Effect of particle size and distribution of hollow spheres on the compressive behavior of aluminum matrix syntactic foams

Effect of particle size and distribution of hollow spheres on the compressive behavior of aluminum matrix syntactic foams

Multiband Polarimetric Imaging of HR 4796A with the Gemini Planet Imager

Abstract HR4796A hosts a well-studied debris disk with a long history due to its high fractional luminosity and favorable inclination, which facilitate both unresolved and resolved observations. We present new J- and K 1-band images of the resolved debris disk HR4796A taken in the polarimetric mode of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). The polarized intensity features a strongly forward-scattered brightness distribution and is undetected at the far side of the disk. The total intensity is detected at all scattering angles and also exhibits a strong forward-scattering peak. We use a forward-modeled geometric disk in order to extract geometric parameters, polarized fraction, and total intensity scattering phase functions for these data as well as H-band data previously taken by GPI. We find the polarized phase function becomes increasingly more forward-scattering as wavelength increases. We fit Mie and distribution of hollow spheres (DHS) grain models to the extracted functions. We find that it is possible to generate a satisfactory model for the total intensity using a DHS model, but not with a Mie model. We find that no single grain population of DHS or Mie grains of arbitrary composition can simultaneously reproduce the polarized fraction and total intensity scattering phase functions, indicating the need for more sophisticated grain models.

Chromatic transit light curves of disintegrating rocky planets

Context. Kepler observations have revealed a class of short-period exoplanets, of which Kepler-1520 b is the prototype, which have comet-like dust tails thought to be the result of small, rocky planets losing mass. The shape and chromaticity of the transits constrain the properties of the dust particles originating from the planet’s surface, offering a unique opportunity to probe the composition and geophysics of rocky exoplanets. Aims. We aim to approximate the average Kepler long-cadence light curve of Kepler-1520 b and investigate how the optical thickness and transit cross section of a general dust tail can affect the observed wavelength dependence and depth of transit light curves. Methods. We developed a new 3D model that ejects sublimating particles from the planet surface to build up a dust tail, assuming it to be optically thin, and used 3D radiative transfer computations that fully treat scattering using the distribution of hollow spheres (DHS) method, to generate transit light curves between 0.45 and 2.5 μm. Results. We show that the transit depth is wavelength independent of optically thick tails, potentially explaining why only some observations indicate a wavelength dependence. From the 3D nature of our simulated tails, we show that their transit cross sections are related to the component of particle ejection velocity perpendicular to the planets orbital plane and use this to derive a minimum ejection velocity of 1.2 km s−1. To fit the average transit depth of Kepler-1520 b of 0.87%, we require a high dust mass-loss rate of 7−80 M⊕ Gyr−1 which implies planet lifetimes that may be inconsistent with the observed sample. Therefore, these mass loss rates should be considered to be upper limits.

Shape effects in scattering and absorption by randomly oriented particles small compared to the wavelength

We study the effects of particle shape on the absorption and scattering cross sections of randomly oriented particles in the Rayleigh domain, i.e. particles that are very small compared to the wavelength of radiation both inside and outside the particle. In particular, we investigate the validity of the so-called statistical approach. In this approach it is assumed that the scattering and absorption properties of irregularly shaped particles can be simulated by the average properties of a distribution of simple shapes. We depart from the assumption of homogeneous spherical particles in two ways: 1) by using various distributions of elongated and flattened homogeneous ellipsoids and spheroids, 2) by using a distribution of hollow spherical particles. We derive explicit formulas for the shape averaged scattering and absorption cross sections as functions of the refractive index for various distributions of particle shapes in the Rayleigh limit. We compare the absorption cross sections as functions of the refractive index of the various distributions with each other and with those of homogeneous spheres. We also study the effects of the distributions on the shapes of absorption spectra. We find that there is a strong similarity between the absorption spectra of distributions of various non-spherical homogeneous particles and a distribution of hollow spheres. We show that the positions of features in the shape averaged mass absorption coefficient as a function of wavelength of small ellipsoidal, spheroidal or hollow spherical crystalline forsterite particles coincide with those deduced from the spectral energy distributions of various astronomical sources and with measurements of the mass absorption coefficients of small particles. This is not the case when we use homogeneous spherical particles.