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The formation pathways for gravitational-wave merger sources are predicted to include common envelope (CE) evolution. Observations of high-mass post-common envelope binaries suggest that energy transfer to the envelope during the CE phase must be highly efficient. In contrast, observations of low-mass post-CE binaries indicate that energy transfer during the CE phase must be highly inefficient. Convection, a process present in low-mass and high-mass stars naturally explains this dichotomy. Using observations of Wolf–Rayet binaries, we study the effects of convection and radiative losses on the predicted final separations of high-mass common envelopes. Despite robust convection in massive stars, the effect is minimal as the orbit decays well before convection can transport the liberated orbital energy to the surface. In low-mass systems, convective transport occurs faster then the orbit decays, allowing the system to radiatively cool, thereby lowering the efficiency. The inclusion of convection reproduces observations of low-mass and high-mass binaries and remains a necessary ingredient for determining outcomes of common envelopes.

 

Isla Santa Cruz is a volcanic island located in the central Galápagos Archipelago. The island’s northern and southern flanks are deformed by E–W-trending normal faults not observed on the younger Galápagos shields, and Santa Cruz lacks the large summit calderas that characterize those structures. To construct a chronology of volcanism and deformation on Santa Cruz, we employ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology of lavas and³He exposure dating of fault scarps from across the island. The combination of Ar–Ar dating with in situ-produced cosmogenic exposure age data provides a powerful tool to evaluate fault chronologies. The⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages indicate that the island has been volcanically active since at least 1.62 ± 0.030 Ma (2SD). Volcanism deposited lavas over the entire island until ~ 200 ka, when it became focused along an E–W-trending summit vent system; all dated lavas < 200 ka were emplaced on the southern flank. Structural observations suggest that the island has experienced two major faulting episodes. Crosscutting relationships of lavas indicate that north flank faults formed after 1.16 ± 0.070 Ma, but likely before 416 ± 36 ka, whereas the faults on the southern flank of the island initiated between 201 ± 37 and 32.6 ± 4.6 ka, based on³He exposure dating of fault surfaces. The data are consistent with a model wherein the northeastern faults are associated with regional extension owing to the young volcano’s location closer to the Galápagos Spreading Center at the time. The second phase of volcanism is contemporaneous with the formation of the southern faults. The expression of this younger, low-volume volcanic phase was likely related to the elongate island morphology established during earlier deformation. The complex feedback between tectonic and volcanic processes responsible for southward spreading along the southern flank likely generated persistent E-W-oriented magmatic intrusions. The formation of the Galápagos Transform Fault and sea-level fluctuations may be the primary causes of eruptive and deformational episodes on Santa Cruz.

 

Stand-alone devices for tactile speech reception serve a need as communication aids for persons with profound sensory impairments as well as in applications such as human-computer interfaces and remote communication when the normal auditory and visual channels are compromised or overloaded. The current research is concerned with perceptual evaluations of a phoneme-based tactile speech communication device in which a unique tactile code was assigned to each of the 24 consonants and 15 vowels of English. The tactile phonemic display was conveyed through an array of 24 tactors that stimulated the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the forearm. Experiments examined the recognition of individual words as a function of the inter-phoneme interval (Study 1) and two-word phrases as a function of the inter-word interval (Study 2). Following an average training period of 4.3 hrs on phoneme and word recognition tasks, mean scores for the recognition of individual words in Study 1 ranged from 87.7% correct to 74.3% correct as the inter-phoneme interval decreased from 300 to 0 ms. In Study 2, following an average of 2.5 hours of training on the two-word phrase task, both words in the phrase were identified with an accuracy of 75% correct using an inter-word interval of 1 sec and an inter-phoneme interval of 150 ms. Effective transmission rates achieved on this task were estimated to be on the order of 30 to 35 words/min. 

The formation channels and predicted populations of double white dwarfs (DWDs) are important because a subset will evolve to be gravitational-wave sources and/or progenitors of Type Ia supernovae. Given the observed population of short-period DWDs, we calculate the outcomes of common envelope (CE) evolution when convective effects are included. For each observed white dwarf (WD) in a DWD system, we identify all progenitor stars with an equivalent proto-WD core mass from a comprehensive suite of stellar evolution models. With the second observed WD as the companion, we calculate the conditions under which convection can accommodate the energy released as the orbit decays, including (if necessary) how much the envelope must spin-up during the CE phase. The predicted post-CE final separations closely track the observed DWD orbital parameter space, further strengthening the view that convection is a key ingredient in CE evolution.