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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,117 records · Page 62

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NASA NTRS1974

Pitch-angle scattering of charged particles in a random magnetic field

A calculation is presented in terms of the pitch angle that determines the conditions under which a Fokker-Planck equation gives a reasonable approximation of the pitch-angle scattering of low rigidity particles to first order in a random magnetic field. The formulation shows that the correlation scale of the fluctuation of the magnetic field about its mean does not enter directly into the approximation. The calculation is carried out for transverse magnetic fluctuations for which the magnetic field magnitude is constant to the order considered.

Jokipii, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Propagation of transients in a random medium

The propagation of transient scalar waves in a three-dimensional random medium is considered. The analysis is based on the smoothing method. An integro-differential equation for the coherent (or average) wave is derived and solved for the case of a statistically homogeneous and isotropic medium and a delta-function source. This yields the coherent Green's function of the medium. It is found that the waveform of the coherent wave depends generally on the distance from the source measured in terms of a certain dimensionless parameter. Based on the magnitude of this parameter, three propagation zones, called the near zone, the far zone, and the intermediate zone, are defined.

Wenzel, A. R.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Tables of critical values for examining compositional non-randomness in proteins and nucleic acids

A binomially distributed statistic is defined to show whether or not the proportion of a particular amino acid in a protein deviates from random expectation. An analogous statistic is derived for nucleotides in nucleic acids. These new statistics are simply related to the classical chi-squared test. They explicitly account for the compositional fluctuations imposed by the finite length of proteins, and they are more accurate than previous tables.

Laird, M.↗

NASA NTRS1974

On the quadratic sampled-data regulator with unstable random disturbances

This paper is concerned with the design of a digital controller, optimizing a quadratic cost function, for a linear system subjected to plant disturbance. The disturbance is viewed as a Gaussian random process generated by a linear system which may be unstable. It is shown that the optimal control consists of the sum of two terms: the optimal control when no disturbance is present and a term depending on the estimates of the disturbance. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the convergence of the gain matrices is given.

Halyo, N.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Random coding strategies for minimum entropy

This paper proves that there exists a fixed random coding strategy for block coding a memoryless information source to achieve the absolute epsilon entropy of the source. That is, the strategy can be chosen independent of the block length. The principal new tool is an easy result on the semicontinuity of the relative entropy functional of one probability distribution with respect to another. The theorem generalizes a result from rate-distortion theory to the 'zero-infinity' case.

Posner, E. C.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Contouring randomly spaced data

Computer program using triangulation contouring technique contours data points too numerous to fit into rectangular grid. Using random access procedures, program can handle up to 56,000 data points and provides up to 20 contour intervals for multiple number of parameters.

Kibler, J. F.↗

NASA NTRS1975

The effect of adiabatic focusing upon charged particle propagation in random magnetic fields

Charged particles propagating along the diverging lines of force of a spatially inhomogeneous guiding field were considered as they are scattered by random fields. Their longitudinal transport is described in terms of the eigenfunctions of a Sturm-Liouville operator incorporating the effect of adiabatic focussing along with that of scattering. The relaxation times and characteristic velocities are graphed and tabulated. The particle density is evaluated as a function of space and time for two different regimes. In the first regime (relatively weak focussing), a diffusive mode of propagation is dominant but coherent modes are also dominant. In the second regime (strong focussing), diffusion does not occur and the propagation is purely coherent. This supercoherent mode corresponds exactly to the so-called scatter-free propagation of kilovolt solar flare electrons. On a larger scale, focussed transport provides an interpretation of many observed characteristics of extragalactic radio sources.

Earl, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Photoionization cross sections for atomic chlorine using an open-shell random phase approximation

The use of the Random Phase Approximation with Exchange (RPAE) for calculating partial and total photoionization cross sections and photoelectron angular distributions for open shell atoms is examined for atomic chlorine. Whereas the RPAE corrections in argon (Z=18) are large, it is found that those in chlorine (Z=17) are much smaller due to geometric factors. Hartree-Fock calculations with and without core relaxation are also presented. Sizable deviations from the close coupling results of Conneely are also found.

Starace, A. F.↗

NASA NTRS1975

The brightness temperature of a half-space random medium with nonuniform temperature profile

The problem of microwave thermal emission from a half-space random medium is solved. We consider a laminar structure which has a nonuniform temperature distribution in the vertical direction. A radiative transfer approach is applied. For constant absorption and scattering coefficients, the brightness temperature is determined by a simple closed-form formula. Physical interpretations and numerical results are illustrated and discussed for the various cases.

Tsang, L.↗

NASA NTRS1975

The effect of adiabatic focusing upon charged particle propagation in random magnetic fields

This paper describes the effects of strong adiabatic focusing in terms of eigenfunctions of an operator which incorporates both scattering by random fields and focusing by a spatially inhomogeneous guiding field. It is found that focused transport differs from rectilinear transport in the following ways: (1) the coherent velocity toward stronger fields is larger than that toward weaker fields; (2) coherent effects are more prominent relative to diffusive effects when focusing is present; and (3) initial anisotropies at injection have a minimal influence upon rectilinear transport but they have a pronounced effect on focused transport. These features explain certain well-known discrepancies between the diffusive picture and the observed profiles of solar particle events. In particular, they explain the so-called scatter-free propagation of kilovolt flare electrons.

Earl, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Random processes as a cause of the lunar asymmetry

The offset of the center of mass of the moon from its center of figure together with moment of inertia differences are explainable by a lunar crust of randomly varying thickness. The necessity of postulating a method of preferential material transport into a particular lunar hemisphere to explain the lunar asymmetry is eliminated.

Kobrick, M.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Microwave remote sensing of a two-layer random medium

A two-variable expansion technique is used to solve for the mean Green's. function from the Dyson equation under the nonlinear approximation. The Bethe-Salpeter equation then gives rise to a set of modified radiative transfer (MRT) equations which accommodate coherent effects essential to bounded media. It is found that the nonlinear approximation, instead of the more popular bilocal approximation, should be used for the case of bounded media. The two approximations yield identical results for unbounded media. The MRT equations are then solved for a two-layer random medium. The MRT equations give rise to simple and useful solutions which are applicable to both active and passive microwave remote sensing.

Tsang, L.↗

NASA NTRS1976

The effect of adiabatic focusing upon charged-particle propagation in random magnetic fields

The charged particles considered are scattered by random fields while they propagate along the diverging lines of force of a spatially inhomogeneous guiding field. Their longitudinal transport is described in terms of the eigenfunctions of a Sturm-Liouville operator which incorporates the effect of adiabatic focusing along with that of scattering. The relaxation times and characteristic velocities which appear in this matrix formulation of the transport problem are graphed and tabulated. Explicit formulas which describe the particle-density profile that results from a localized impulsive injection are derived for two different regimes. In the first regime, where focusing is relatively weak, a diffusive mode of propagation is dominant, but coherent modes are also present, and they become prominent as the intensity of focusing increases. In the second regime, where focusing is strong and where diffusion does not occur, the propagation is purely coherent. The existence of this supercoherent mode of particle transport opens up many possibilities for the interpretation of astrophysical phenomena.

Earl, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Approximate statistics of random vector magnitudes

Simple, rough approximations are presented for the mean and 99% values for random vectors of up to three independent elements. The accuracy of the provided approximate expressions has been investigated with the aid of Monte Carlo simulations involving 15 different combinations of the three statistical parameters. The results of this investigation are discussed.

Hagar, H., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Emissivity of half-space random media

Scattering of electromagnetic waves by a half-space random medium with three-dimensional correlation functions is studied with the Born approximation. The emissivity is calculated from a simple integral and is illustrated for various cases. The results are valid over a wavelength range smaller or larger than the correlation lengths.

Tsang, L.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Response of linear dynamic systems with random coefficients

Numerous models of physical systems contain parameters whose values are not known exactly. The physical and mathematical complexities arising in the prediction of the statistical behavior of such systems are discussed. Although the discussions are far from providing a satisfactory solution to such problems, they perhaps, by utilization of simple examples, will create a greater awareness of the statistical effect of random parameters.

Dickerson, J.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Sound radiation from randomly vibrating beams of finite circular cross section

The radiation of sound from vibrating cylindrical beams is analyzed based on the frequency of the beam vibrations and the physical characteristics of the beam and its surroundings. A statistical analysis of random beam vibrations allows this result to be independent of the boundary conditions at the ends of the beam. The acoustic power radiated by the beam can be determined from a knowledge of the frequency band vibration data without a knowledge of the individual modal vibration amplitudes. A practical example of the usefulness of this technique is provided by the application of the theoretical calculations to the prediction of the octave band acoustic power output of the picking sticks of an automatic textile loom. Calculations are made of the expected octave band sound pressure levels based on measured acceleration data. These theoretical levels are subsequently compared with actual sound pressure level measurements of loom noise.

Sutterlin, M. W.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Standard random number generation for MBASIC

A machine-independent algorithm is presented and analyzed for generating pseudorandom numbers suitable for the standard MBASIC system. The algorithm used is the polynomial congruential or linear recurrence modulo 2 method. Numbers, formed as nonoverlapping adjacent 28-bit words taken from the bit stream produced by the formula a sub m + 532 = a sub m + 37 + a sub m (modulo 2), do not repeat within the projected age of the solar system, show no ensemble correlation, exhibit uniform distribution of adjacent numbers up to 19 dimensions, and do not deviate from random runs-up and runs-down behavior.

Tausworthe, R. C.↗