1,720,969 research outputs found

    Kinetic axisymmetric gravitational equilibria in collisionless accretion disk plasmas.

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    A theoretical treatment is presented of kinetic equilibria in accretion discs around compact objects, for cases where the plasma can be considered as collisionless. The plasma is assumed to be axi-symmetric and to be acted on by gravitational and electromagnetic fields; in this paper, the particular case is considered where the magnetic field admits a family of toroidal magnetic surfaces, which are locally mutually-nested and closed. It is pointed out that there exist asymptotic kinetic equilibria represented by generalized bi-Maxwellian distribution functions and characterized by primarily toroidal differential rotation and temperature anisotropy. It is conjectured that kinetic equilibria of this type can exist which are able to sustain both toroidal and poloidal electric current densities, the latter being produced via finite Larmor-radius effects associated with the temperature anisotropy. This leads to the possibility of existence of a new kinetic effect - referred to here as a \textquotedblleft kinetic dynamo effect\textquotedblright\ - resulting in the self-generation of toroidal magnetic field even by a stationary plasma, without any net radial accretion flow being required. The conditions for these equilibria to occur, their basic theoretical features and their physical properties are all discussed in detail

    Global validity of the Master kinetic equation for hard-sphere systems

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    Following the recent establishment of an exact kinetic theory realized by the Master kinetic equation which describes the statistical behavior of the Boltzmann-Sinai Classical Dynamical System (CDS), in this paper the problem is posed of the construction of the related global existence and regularity theorems. For this purpose, based on the global prescription of the same CDS for arbitrary single- and multiplecollision events, first global existence is extablished for the N-body Liouville equation which is written in Lagrangian differential and integral forms. This permits to reach the proof of global existence both of generic N-body probability density functions (PDF) as well as of particular solutions which maximize the statistical Boltzmann-Shannon entropy and are factorized in terms of the corresponding 1-body PDF. The latter PDF is shown to be uniquely defined and to satisfy the Master kinetic equation globally in the extended 1-body phase space. Implications concerning the global validity of the asymptotic Boltzmann equation and Boltzmann H-theorem are discussed

    Absolute Stability of Axisymmetric Perturbations in Strongly Magnetized Collisionless Axisymmetric Accretion Disk Plasmas

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    This Letter presents a kinetic description of low-frequency and long-wavelength axisymmetric electromagnetic perturbations in nonrelativistic, strongly magnetized, and gravitationally bound axisymmetric accretion-disk plasmas in the collisionless regime. The analysis, carried out within the framework of the Vlasov-Maxwell description, relies on stationary kinetic solutions which allow for the simultaneous treatment of nonuniform fluid fields, stationary accretion flows, and temperature anisotropies. It is demonstrated that these stationary configurations are actually stable against axisymmetric kinetic instabilities of this type. As a fundamental consequence, this rules out the possibility of having the axisymmetric magnetorotational or thermal instabilities to arise in these systems

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods
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