tohuwabohu said:
After reading some of the transcripts I found it interesting to model the influence of the companion star on the solar system. This will include the Oort cloud traversal and interaction with the asteroids. If the N-body problem will be implemented satisfactorily, I intend to implement some of the ideas of the electric universe if applicable to the problem presented.
Hi Tohuwabohu,
This is a very interesting project you've undertaken. I'd urge you (if you haven't already) to look into the literature on Nemesis' orbital parameters and stability. Here's a link to an ADS search with some relevant papers:
_http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/basic_connect?qsearch=nemesis+orbital+stability&version=1
Here's Richard Muller's website on Nemesis:
_http://muller.lbl.gov/pages/lbl-nem.htm
The take-away is that he's adamant that a) the orbit will not be perfectly stable, however b) it is stable enough over the last few billion years to explain the 26 Myr extinction periodicity.
The page on the stability of the orbit contains this interesting little anecdote:
"Bailey goes on to characterize Hut's paper as "a near retraction"!!!! Hut considered his paper to be a vindication of the original Nemesis paper. He contacted Bailey to find out how Bailey could be so wrong in his understanding, and Bailey told Hut that he never wrote those words! "Near retraction" had been inserted by the editor at Nature!"
One wonders if the Nature editor was under some pressure to do what he could to discredit the work?
Now, as to EU concepts ... here, you're undertaking something quite large, I think, as these are difficult to work with, and the theory in general is still in very early stages, still far more qualitative that quantitative. Also, you must ask, what is it you hope to learn from the model?
With those caveats, here are some very quick notes I made on the subject:
Implementing EU ideas
- will probably need to go to 3D to do this, although perhaps 2D can work with some assumptions
- basic concept is that Nemesis interrupts Galactic current feeding the Sun, causing the Sun to discharge
- need to know:
o voltage drop between photosphere and heliopause
o electric field gradient within heliosphere
o magnitude and (ideally) direction of electric current into and out of the Sun
- none of these are known directly, however, educated guesses can be made based upon proxies e.g. magnetic measurements
- IBEX data => orientation of Galactic magnetic field + plasma density in the circumheliospheric region => with assumption that Galactic current is field-aligned, this gives direction + magnitude of the current outside the heliopause
- Electric field gradient within heliosphere: essentially unconstrained, however, a reasonable assumption is that the gradient is very low throughout the heliosphere, but quite steep inside the heliopause (i.e. a double layer).
- Current interruption will presumably happen only when Nemesis enters the heliosphere => Need to locate heliopause: when/where does Nemesis cross this region?
- Magnitude of disruption will depend upon Nemesis’ charge. This is wholly unconstrained.
- Electric star model: basically, a star is fed by a polar current column, and discharges through an equatorial current sheet. Heliospheric current sheet is well-constrained, but the polar column is undiscovered (no one’s bothered looking for it!), however its properties can be estimated by energy conservation requirements, roughly P_in = P_out, where P_out = (Solar luminosity) + (energy loss through current sheet).
- Precisely how much current is required to power the Sun can be estimated via either I = V/R, where V is the voltage drop between the heliopause and the photosphere, and R is the total resistance of the Sun; or via I = sqrt (P / R). Since V is wholly unconstrained, the latter equation is probably safest; however, need to calculate R, which is non-trivial, as it will depend on a) the resistivity of photospheric plasma and b) the geometry of the electric currents. Neither is known precisely, however a) can be calculated via MHD considerations (density and temperature of the plasma), and b) can be approximated by examining the magnetic topology. Of course, the magnetic field structure of the Sun is extremely complicated.
- The value of I obtained should of course be checked for plausibility against what is actually available in the circumheliospheric environment
- Of course, with I and R, V can also be calculated
- Once plausible values of I, R, V, and P have been obtained, can begin modeling the interaction, although this will necessitate assumptions about grad(E) (i.e. the double layer)
- Since the electric charge acquired by Nemesis while in interstellar space is unknown, multiple models would need to be run, trying out various values.
- Model could perhaps make the assumption that the solar luminosity will remain unchanged (as empirically, the Sun has not dimmed). Thus the main difference would be in the discharge rate of the Sun i.e. changes in the current sheet.
