We study the eeect of magnetic braking on the ambipolar-diiusion initiated formation and contraction of protostellar cores in axisymmetric, disklike, model molecular clouds. Magnetic braking rapidly enforces near corotation of the cloud with the background medium during the initial, ambipolar-diiusion controlled, quasistatic contraction. After a magnetically (and thermally) supercritical core f...

We present results from a numerical investigation of the localization of deformation in thin elastomeric spherical shells loaded by differently shaped indenters. Beyond a critical indentation, the deformation of the shell ceases to be axisymmetric and sharp structures of localized curvature form, referred to as “s-cones,” for “shell-cones.” We perform a series of numerical experiments to system...

In this talk we will show how the mechanical response of an elastic film is affected by subtle geometric properties of its mid-surface. The crucial role here is played by spaces of weakly regular (Sobolev) isometries or infinitesimal isometries. These are the deformations of the mid-surface preserving its metric up to a certain prescribed order of magnitude, and hence contributing to the stretc...

We investigate some simple finite element discretizations for the axisymmetric Laplace equation and the azimuthal component of the axisymmetric Maxwell equations as well as multigrid algorithms for these discretizations. Our analysis is targeted at simple model problems and our main result is that the standard V-cycle with point smoothing converges at a rate independent of the number of unknown...

We examine nonlinear oscillations of slender tori in the vicinity of black holes and compact stars. These tori represent useful probes of the complicated, nonlinear dynamics of real accretion disks and provide at least qualitative understanding of their oscillations. We demonstrate that epicyclic modes of such tori are weakly coupled due to the pressure and gravitational forces. We explore all ...

The Sun and the giant planets rotate and possess deep shells of convection. Some basic aspects of prototypical global convection have been studied with a laboratory model operated in the microgravity environment of Spacelab 3 that flew on the space shuttle Challenger in May 1985. This experiment studied thermally driven circulations within a rotating hemispherical shell of fluid across which ar...

We present a reconstruction of the mean axisymmetric azimuthal and meridional flows in the Derviche Tourneur Sodium installation in Grenoble liquid sodium experiment. The experimental device sets a spherical Couette flow enclosed between two concentric spherical shells where the inner sphere holds a strong dipolar magnet, which acts as a magnetic propeller when rotated. Measurements of the mean...

I argue that the behavior of the photospheric opacity in oxygen-rich (similar to solar abundance) upper asymptotic giant branch stars may cause these stars to substantially expand for a few thousand years. I term this process over-expansion. This may occur when the photospheric (effective) temperature drops to Tp ∼ 2900 K, and because the opacity sharply increases as temperature decreases down ...

New axisymmetric (2D) models for dust-driven winds of C-stars are presented which include hydrodynamics with radiation pressure on dust, equilibrium chemistry and time-dependent dust formation with coupled grey Monte Carlo radiative transfer. Considering the most simple case without stellar pulsation (hydrostatic inner boundary condition) these models reveal a more complex picture of the dust f...

Motivated by complex multi-fluid geometries currently being explored in fibre-device manufacturing, we study capillary instabilities in concentric cylindrical flows of N fluids with arbitrary viscosities, thicknesses, densities, and surface tensions in both the Stokes regime and for the full Navier–Stokes problem. Generalizing previous work by Tomotika (N = 2), Stone & Brenner (N = 3, equal vis...