Probable detection of an eruptive filament from a superflare on a solar-type star

Solar flares are often accompanied by filament/prominence eruptions (~104 K and ~1010−11 cm−3), sometimes leading to coronal mass ejections that directly affect the Earth’s environment1,2. ‘Superflares’ are found on some active solar-type (G-type main-sequence) stars3–5, but the filament eruption–coronal mass ejection association has not been established. Here we show that our optical spectroscopic observation of the young solar-type star EK Draconis reveals evidence for a stellar filament eruption associated with a superflare. This superflare emitted a radiated energy of 2.0 × 1033 erg, and a blueshifted hydrogen absorption component with a high velocity of −510 km s−1 was observed shortly afterwards. The temporal changes in the spectra strongly resemble those of solar filament eruptions. Comparing this eruption with solar filament eruptions in terms of the length scale and velocity strongly suggests that a stellar coronal mass ejection occurred. The erupted filament mass of 1.1 × 1018 g is ten times larger than those of the largest solar coronal mass ejections. The massive filament eruption and an associated coronal mass ejection provide the opportunity to evaluate how they affect the environment of young exoplanets/the young Earth6 and stellar mass/angular momentum evolution7.

Radiative classical gravitational observables at $$ \mathcal{O} $$(G3) from scattering amplitudes

We compute classical gravitational observables for the scattering of two spinless black holes in general relativity and $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N =8 supergravity in the formalism of Kosower, Maybee, and O’Connell (KMOC). We focus on the gravitational impulse with radiation reaction and the radiated momentum in black hole scattering at $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (G3) to all orders in the velocity. These classical observables require the construction and evaluation of certain loop-level quantities which are greatly simplified by harnessing recent advances from scattering amplitudes and collider physics. In particular, we make use of generalized unitarity to construct the relevant loop integrands, employ reverse unitarity, the method of regions, integration-by-parts (IBP), and (canonical) differential equations to simplify and evaluate all loop and phase-space integrals to obtain the classical gravitational observables of interest to two-loop order. The KMOC formalism naturally incorporates radiation effects which enables us to explore these classical quantities beyond the conservative two-body dynamics. From the impulse and the radiated momentum, we extract the scattering angle and the radiated energy. Finally, we discuss universality of the impulse in the high-energy limit and the relation to the eikonal phase.

DIFFRACTION RADIATION OF PARTICLE PASSING BY IMPEDANCE WEDGE

The diffraction radiation field generated by the charged particle passing by the perfectly conductive or impedance wedge is considered. With perfect conductivity, the wedge rotation around the edge fixed along with the straight particle motion line, does not change the total radiated energy. When the motion to the edge is almost parallel to a face of wedge then an increase of impedance from zero increases the radiated energy.

Study on Evolution Mechanism of Structure-Type Rockburst: Insights from Discrete Element Modeling

Taking the “11.28” rockburst occurred in the Jinping II Hydropower Station as the engineering background, the evolution mechanism of structure-type rockburst was studied in detail based on the particle flow code. The results indicate that the failure mechanism of structure-type rockburst includes a tensile fracture induced by tangential compressive stress and a shear fracture caused by shear stress due to overburdened loadings and shear slip on the structural plane. In addition, it is found that the differences between structure-type rockburst and strainburst mainly include (a) the distribution of the local concentrated stress zone after excavation, (b) the evolution mechanism, and (c) the failure locations. Finally, the influence of four factors on the structure-type rockburst are explored. The results show that (1) when the friction coefficient is greater than 0.5, the effect of structural plane is weakened, and the rock near excavation tends to be intact, the structural-type rockburst intensity decreases; (2) the dissipated and radiated energy in structural-type rockburst reduces with rockmass heterogeneity m; (3) the lateral pressure coefficient has a significant effect on the intensity of deep rock failure, specifically in the form of the rapid growth in dissipative energy; (4) and the structural-type rockburst is more pronounced at a structural plane length near 90 mm.

The RAMONES Service for Rapid Assessment of Seismic Moment and Radiated Energy in Central Italy: Concepts, Capabilities, and Future Perspectives

We present Rapid Assessment of MOmeNt and Energy Service (RAMONES), a service for disseminating through a web interface, the estimates of seismic moment (M0) and radiated energy (ER) for earthquakes occurring in central Italy with local magnitudes above 1.7. The service is based on a fully-automatic procedure developed for downloading and processing open seismological data from the European Integrated Data Archive, Italian Civil Protection repository, and Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). In its actual configuration, RAMONES uses the seismic catalog generated through the event webservice of the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (compliant with International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks standards) to guide the data download. The concept of RAMONES is to estimate M0 and ER from features extracted directly from recordings, namely the S-wave peak displacement (PDS) and the integral of the squared velocity (IV2S) evaluated over the S-wave window at local distances. A data set composed of 6515 earthquakes recorded in central Italy between 2008 and 2018 was used to calibrate the attenuation models relating M0 to PDS and ER to IV2S, including station corrections. The calibration values for M0 and ER were extracted from the source spectra obtained by applying a decomposition approach to the Fourier amplitude spectra known as the generalized inversion technique. To test the capabilities of RAMONES, we validate the attenuation models by performing residual analysis over about 60 earthquakes occurring in 2019 that were used for the spectral decomposition analysis but not considered in the calibration phase. Since January 2020, a testing operational phase has been running, and RAMONES has analyzed about 800 earthquakes by September 2020. The distribution of the source parameters and their relevant scaling relationships are automatically computed and disseminated in the form of maps, parametric tables, figures, and reports available through the RAMONES web interface.

On the scale dependence in the dynamics of rupture

<p>Potential energy stored during the inter-seismic period by tectonic loading around faults can be released through earthquakes as radiated energy, heat and rupture energy. The latter is of first importance, since it controls both the nucleation and the propagation of the seismic rupture. On one side, the rupture energy estimated for natural earthquakes (also called Breakdown work) ranges between 1 J/m<sup>2</sup> and tens of MJ/m<sup>2</sup> for the largest events, and shows a clear slip dependence. On the other side, recent experimental studies highlighted that at the scale of the laboratory, rupture energy is a material property (energy required to break the fault interface), limited by an upper bound value corresponding to the rupture energy of the intact material (1 to 10 kJ/m<sup>2</sup>), independently of the size of the event, i.e. of the seismic slip.</p><p>To reconcile these contradictory observations, we performed stick-slip experiments, as an analog for earthquakes, in a bi-axial shear configuration. We analyzed the fault weakening during frictional rupture by accessing to the on-fault (1 mm away) stress-slip curve through strain-gauge array. We first estimated rupture energy by comparing the experimental strain with the theoretical predictions from both Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) and the Cohesive Zone Model (CZM). Secondly, we compared these values to the breakdown work obtained from the integration of the stress-slip curve. Our results showed that, at the scale of our experiments, fault weakening is divided into two stages; the first one, corresponding to an energy of few J/m<sup>2</sup>, coherent with the estimated rupture energy (by LEFM and CZM), and a long-tailed weakening corresponding to a larger energy not observable at the rupture tip.</p><p>Using a theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, we demonstrated that only the first weakening stage controls the nucleation and the dynamics of the rupture tip. The breakdown work induced by the long-tailed weakening can enhance slip during rupture propagation and can allow the rupture to overcome stress heterogeneity along the fault. Additionally, we showed that at a large scale of observation the dynamics of the rupture tip can become controlled by the breakdown work induced by the long-tailed weakening, leading to a larger stress singularity at the rupture tip which becomes less sensitive to stress perturbations. We suggest that while the onset of frictional motions is related to fracture, natural earthquakes propagation is driven by frictional weakening with increasing slip, explaining the large values of estimated breakdown work for natural earthquakes, as well as the scale dependence in the dynamics of rupture.</p>

Predicting laboratory earthquakes using machine learning

<p>The successful prediction of earthquakes is one of the holy grails in Earth Sciences. Traditional predictions use statistical information on recurrence intervals, but those predictions are not accurate enough. In a recent paper, a machine learning approach was proposed and applied to data of laboratory earthquakes. The machine learning algorithm utilizes continuous measurements of radiated energy through acoustic emissions and the authors were able to successfully predict the timing of laboratory earthquakes. Here, we reproduced their model which was applied to a gouge layer of glass beads and applied it to a data set obtained using a gouge layer of salt. In this salt experiment different load point velocities were set, leading to variable recurrence times. The machine learning technique we use is called random forest and uses the acoustic emissions during the interseismic period. The random forest model succeeds in making a relatively reliable prediction for both materials, also long before the earthquake. Apparently there is information in the data on the timing of the next earthquake throughout the experiment. For glass beads energy is gradually and increasingly released whereas for salt energy is only released during precursor activity, therefore the important features used in the prediction are different. We interpret the difference in results to be due to the different micromechanics of slip. The research shows that a machine learning approach can reveal the presence of information in the data on the timing of unstable slip events (earthquakes). Further research is needed to identify the responsible micromechanical processes which might be then be used to extrapolate to natural conditions.</p>

RADIATION OF CHARGE PASSING BY IMPEDANCE WEDGE

The diffraction radiation generated by a charge passing by a plasma wedge is considered in impedance approximation. In the perfect conductivity limit, the total radiated energy is not varying with the wedge rotation around the edge fixed along with the charge motion line. The impedance increase may lead to the total radiated energy increase, due to effective surface wave generation, when the charge motion to the edge is almost parallel to a face of wedge.

Array of stacked leaky-wave antennas in groove gap waveguide technology

The design of an array of stacked leaky-wave antennas in groove gap waveguide technology is presented in this work. The proposed array is formed by simply stacking a number of leaky-wave antennas one on top of the other and feeding all of them with uniform amplitude and phase. The inter-element distance is studied in order to avoid grating lobes and to maximize the directivity. A feeding network based on vertical coupling is designed, where the input port feeds the bottom element, and then the energy is equally coupled to the other elements. To obtain maximum directivity the phase is corrected at each element separately. The central frequency of the proposed design is 28 GHz. With this technique of stacking the elements a pencil beam is achieved, i.e. the radiated energy is focalized in the two main planes. The designed array with four elements achieves an enhancement of + 5 dB, reaching 24.5 dBi of directivity in comparison to 19.6 dBi of directivity of the single leaky-wave antenna made in this technology. A prototype is manufactured and measured and its results are presented and compared with the simulations.