The Lidov-Kozai mechanism (Kozai 1962; Lidov 1962) allows a body to periodically exchange its eccentricity with inclination. It was first discussed in the framework of the quadrupolar secular restricted three-body problem, where the massless particle is the inner body, and later extended to the quadrupolar secular nonrestricted three body problem (Harrington 1969; Lidov & Ziglin 1976; Ferrer & ...

Abstract The present paper studies Ernst Mach’s experimental work with “spark waves” and other types of shock waves, which brought him to the 1887–88 famous schlieren photographs supersonic phenomena triggered by bullets shot at high speed. Against what it is traditionally argued, I show (1) that visualization attempts do not depend on his commitment any particular philosophical doctrine about ...

We have obtained infrared photometry for the soft x-ray transient GU Mus. We present J and Ks band light curves modeled with WD98, the newest version of the Wilson-Devinney light curve modeling code. Using detailed models for the expected ellipsoidal variations due to the non-spherical secondary star, we show that the most likely value for the orbital inclination is 54±1.5. This inclination ang...