Alexander S. Silbergleit

In this paper, we present a method to measure the frequency and the frequency change rate of a digital signal. This method consists of three consecutive algorithms: frequency interpolation, phase differencing, and a third algorithm specifically designed and tested by the authors. The succession of these three algorithms allowed a 5 parts in 10^10 resolution in frequency determination. The algorithm developed by the authors can be applied to a sampled scalar signal such that a model linking the harmonics of its main frequency to the underlying physical phenomenon is available. This method was developed in the framework of the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission. It was applied to the High Frequency (HF) component of GP-B's Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID) signal, whose main frequency fz is close to the spin frequency of the gyroscopes used in the experiment. A 30 nHz resolution in signal frequency and a 0.1 pHz/sec resolution in its decay rate were achieved out of a succession of 1.86 second-long stretches of signal sampled at 2200 Hz. This paper describes the underlying theory of the frequency measurement method as well as its application to GP-B's HF science signal.

To compensate for the non-gravitational orbital disturbances drag free satellites monitor and control their position with respect to a reference body enclosed inside their structure. The body, shielded from the environment, follows a free fall trajectory when its motion can be ideally considered decoupled from that of the spacecraft. Lessons learned from Gravity Probe B and the design of the Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle experiment strongly motivate the study of the force and torque between the reference body and the spacecraft due to uneven distributions of electrostatic potentials. Additional interest to that comes also from prospective space experiments as Microscope and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna.

We continue to study the effect of uneven voltage distribution on two close cylindrical conductors with parallel axes started in our papers [1] and [2], now to find the electrostatic torques. We calculate the electrostatic potential and energy to lowest order in the gap to cylinder radius ratio for an arbitrary relative rotation of the cylinders about their symmetry axis. By energy conservation, the axial torque, independent of the uniform voltage difference, is found as a derivative of the energy in the rotation angle. We also derive both the axial and slanting torques by the surface integration method: the torque vector is the integral over the cylinder surface of the cross product of the electrostatic force on a surface element and its position vector. The slanting torque consists of two parts: one coming from the interaction between the patch and the uniform voltages, and the other due to the patch interaction. General properties of the torques are described. A convenient model of a localized patch suggested in [2] is used to calculate the torques explicitly in terms of elementary functions. Based on this, we analyze in detail patch interaction for one pair of patches, namely, the torque dependence on the patch parameters (width and strength) and their mutual positions. The effect of the axial torque is then studied for the experimental conditions of the STEP mission.

We continue our study of patch effect (PE) for two close cylindrical conductors with parallel axes, slightly shifted against each other in the radial and by any length in the axial direction, started in [1], where the potential and energy in the gap were calculated to the second order in the small transverse shift, and to lowest order in the gap to cylinder radius ratio. Based on these results, here we derive and analyze PE force. It consists of three parts: the usual capacitor force due to the uniform potential difference, the one from the interaction between the voltage patches and the uniform voltage difference, and the force due to patch interaction, entirely independent of the uniform voltage. General formulas for these forces are found, and their general properties are described. A convenient model of a localized patch is then suggested that allows us to calculate all the forces in a closed elementary form. Using this, a detailed analysis of the patch interaction for one pair of patches is carried out, and the dependence of forces on the patch parameters (width and strength) and their mutual position is examined. We also give various estimates of the axial patch effect force important for the Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle (STEP), and recommend intensive pre-flight simulations employing our results.

We demonstrate that the corotation resonance affects only some non-axisymmetric g-mode oscillations of thin accretion disks, since it is located within their capture zones. Using a more general (weaker radial WKB approximation) formulation of the governing equations, such g-modes, treated as perfect fluid perturbations, are shown to formally diverge at the position of the corotation resonance. A small amount of viscosity adds a small imaginary part to the eigenfrequency which has been shown to induce a secular instability (mode growth) if it acts hydrodynamically. The g-mode corotation resonance divergence disappears, but the mode magnitude can remain largest at the place of the corotation resonance. For the known g-modes with moderate values of the radial mode number and axial mode number (and any vertical mode number), the corotation resonance lies well outside their trapping region (and inside the innermost stable circular orbit), so the observationally relevant modes are unaffected by the resonance. The axisymmetric g-mode has been seen by Reynolds & Miller in a recent inviscid hydrodynamic accretion disk global numerical simulation. We also point out that the g-mode eigenfrequencies are approximately proportional to m for axial mode numbers |m|>0.

We extend our investigation of the normal modes of small adiabatic oscillations of relativistic barotropic thin accretion disks to the inertial-pressure (p) modes. We focus here on the lowest frequency fundamental p-modes, those with no axial or vertical nodes in their distribution. Through a variety of analyses, we obtain closed-form expressions for the eigenfrequencies and eigenfunctions. These depend on the luminosity and viscosity parameter of the disk as well as the mass and angular momentum of the black hole via detailed formulae for the speed of sound. The effect of a torque on the inner edge of the disk is also included. We compare the p-mode properties to those of the g- and c-modes.