Spin-Stabilized Spacecrafts: Analytical Attitude Propagation Using Magnetic Torques

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Spin stabilized satellite's attitude propagation with quaternions

This paper presents a study of a modeling scheme for the spin stabilized satellites attitude, entirely developed in terms of quaternion parametrization. The analysis includes numerical propagation of the rotational motion equation, considering the influence of the following torques: aerodynamic, gravity gradient, residual magnetic, eddy currents and the one due to the Lorentz force. Applications are developed considering the Brazilian Spin Stabilized Satellites SCD1 and SCD2, which are quite appropriated for verification and comparison of the theory with the real data generated and processed by the INPE's Satellite Control Center (SCC). The results show that for SCD1 and SCD2 the influence of the eddy current torque is bigger than the others ones, not only due to the orbit altitude, but also to other specific satellites characteristics. The influence of the torque due to Lorentz force is smaller than the others ones because of the dimension and the electrical charges of the SCD1 and SCD2. In all performed tests the errors remained within the dispersion range specified for the attitude determination system of INPE's SCC. The results show the feasibility of using the quaternion attitude parametrization for modeling the satellite dynamics of spin stabilized satellites.

Tide-topography interaction along the eastern Brazilian shelf

In the Tropics, continental shelves governed by western boundary currents are considered to be among the least productive ocean margins in the world, unless eddy-induced shelf-edge upwelling becomes significant. The eastern Brazilian shelf in the Southwest Atlantic is one of these, and since the slight nutrient input from continental sources is extremely oligotrophic. It is characterized by complex bathymetry with the presence of shallow banks and seamounts. In this work, a full three-dimensional nonlinear primitive equation ocean model is used to demonstrate that the interaction of tidal currents and the bottom topography of the east Brazil continental shelf is capable of producing local upwelling of South Atlantic Central Water, bringing nutrients up from deep waters to the surface layer. Such upper layer enrichment is found to be of significance in increasing local primary productivity. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Waveshapes of continuing currents and properties of M-components in natural positive cloud-to-ground lightning

This work analyses the waveshapes of continuing currents and parameters of M-components in positive cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes through high-speed GPS synchronized videos. The dataset is composed of only long continuing currents (with duration longer than 40 ms) and was selected from more than 800 flashes recorded in Sao Jose dos Campos (45.864 degrees W, 23.215 degrees S) and Uruguaiana (29.806 degrees W, 57.005 degrees S) in Southeast and South of Brazil, respectively, during 2003 to 2007 summers. The videos are compared with data obtained by the Brazilian Lightning Location System (BrasilDAT) in order to determine the polarity of each flash and select only positive cases. There are only two studies of waveshapes of continuing currents in the literature. One is based on direct current measurements of triggered lightning, in which four different types of waveshapes were observed; and the other is based on measurements of luminosity variations in high-speed videos of CG negative lightning, in which besides the four types above mentioned two additional types were observed. The present work is an extension of the latter, using the same method but now applied to obtain the waveshapes of positive CG lightning. As far as the authors know, this is the first report on M-components in positive continuing currents. We also have used the luminosity-versus-time graphs to observe their occurrence and measure some parameters (duration, elapsed time and time between two successive M-components), whose statistics are presented and compared in detail to the data for negative flashes. We have plotted a histogram of the M-components elapsed time over the total duration of the continuing current for positive flashes, which presented an exponential decay (correlation coefficient: 0.83), similar to what has been observed for negative flashes. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experimental analysis of harmonic distortions in the excitation currents of double-excited three-phase transformers

This paper shows the results of experimental investigations of three-phase banks composed of single-phase transformers and three-phase three-limb core transformers under simultaneous alternating and direct current excitations, for several winding connections. Harmonic analysis of excitation currents for different de saturation levels is performed.

Noether and topological currents equivalence and soliton/particle correspondence in affine sl(2)((1)) Toda theory coupled to matter

A submodel of the so-called conformal affine Toda model coupled to the matter field (CATM) is defined such that its real Lagrangian has a positive-definite kinetic term for the Toda field and a usual kinetic term for the (Dirac) spinor field. After spontaneously broken the conformal symmetry by means of BRST analysis, we end up with an effective theory, the off-critical affine Toda model coupled to the matter (ATM). It is shown that the ATM model inherits the remarkable properties of the general CATM model such as the soliton solutions, the particle/soliton correspondence and the equivalence between the Noether and topological currents. The classical solitonic spectrum of the ATM model is also discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Flat currents in the classical AdS(5) x S-5 pure spinor superstring

It is proven that the classical pure spinor superstring in an AdS(5) X S-5 background has a flat current depending on a continuous parameter. This generalizes the recent result of Bena, et at. for the classical Green-Schwarz superstring.

Covariance properties and regularization of conserved currents in tetrad gravity

We discuss the properties of the gravitational energy-momentum 3-form within the tetrad formulation of general relativity theory. We derive the covariance properties of the quantities describing the energy-momentum content under Lorentz transformations of the tetrad. As an application, we consider the computation of the total energy (mass) of some exact solutions of Einstein's general relativity theory which describe compact sources with asymptotically flat spacetime geometry. As it is known, depending on the choice of tetrad frame, the formal total integral for such configurations may diverge. We propose a natural regularization method which yields finite values for the total energy-momentum of the system and demonstrate how it works on a number of explicit examples.

Angular momentum and energy-momentum densities as gauge currents

If we replace the general spacetime group of diffeomorphisms by transformations taking place in the tangent space, general relativity can be interpreted as a gauge theory, and in particular as a gauge theory for the Lorentz group. In this context, it is shown that the angular momentum and the energy-momentum tensors of a general matter field can be obtained from the invariance of the corresponding action integral under transformations taking place, not in spacetime, but in the tangent space, in which case they can be considered as gauge currents.

Conserved currents in gravitational models with quasi-invariant Lagrangians: Application to teleparallel gravity

Conservation laws in gravitational theories with diffeomorphism and local Lorentz symmetry are studied. Main attention is paid to the construction of conserved currents and charges associated with an arbitrary vector field that generates a diffeomorphism on the spacetime. We further generalize previous results for the case of gravitational models described by quasi-invariant Lagrangians, that is, Lagrangians that change by a total derivative under the action of the local Lorentz group. The general formalism is then applied to the teleparallel models, for which the energy and the angular momentum of a Kerr black hole are calculated. The subsequent analysis of the results obtained demonstrates the importance of the choice of the frame.

Search for flavor changing neutral currents in decays of top quarks

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Search for flavor changing neutral currents via quark-gluon couplings in single top quark production using 2.3 fb(-1) of p(p)over-bar collisions

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Quantization of the Proca field in the Rindler wedge and the interaction of uniformly accelerated currents with massive vector bosons from the Unruh thermal bath

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Search for same-sign top-quark pair production at root s=7 TeV and limits on flavour changing neutral currents in the top sector

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

FLAVOR-CHANGING NEUTRAL CURRENTS IN SU(3)L-CIRCLE-TIMES-U(1)Y MODELS

We consider flavor changing neutral current effects coming from the Z' exchange in 3-3-1 models. We show that the mass of this extra neutral vector boson may be less than 2 TeV and discuss the problem of quark family discrimination.