Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology

About: Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology is a education organization based out in New York, New York, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Gravitational microlensing & Planetary system. The organization has 727 authors who have published 708 publications receiving 14082 citations. The organization is also known as: College of Aeronautics.

Spitzer parallax of OGLE-2015-BLG-0966 : a cold Neptune in the Galactic disk

Abstract: We report the detection of a cold Neptune mplanet = 21 ± 2 M⊕ orbiting a 0.38 M⊙ M dwarf lying 2.5–3.3 kpc toward the Galactic center as part of a campaign combining ground-based and Spitzer observations to measure the Galactic distribution of planets. This is the first time that the complex real-time protocols described by Yee et al., which aim to maximize planet sensitivity while maintaining sample integrity, have been carried out in practice. Multiple survey and follow up teams successfully combined their efforts within the framework of these protocols to detect this planet. This is the second planet in the Spitzer Galactic distribution sample. Both are in the near to mid-disk and are clearly not in the Galactic bulge.

Adaptive Neural Control for a Class of Pure-Feedback Nonlinear Systems via Dynamic Surface Technique

Abstract: This brief addresses the adaptive control problem for a class of pure-feedback systems with nonaffine functions possibly being nondifferentiable. Without using the mean value theorem, the difficulty of the control design for pure-feedback systems is overcome by modeling the nonaffine functions appropriately. With the help of neural network approximators, an adaptive neural controller is developed by combining the dynamic surface control (DSC) and minimal learning parameter (MLP) techniques. The key features of our approach are that, first, the restrictive assumptions on the partial derivative of nonaffine functions are removed, second, the DSC technique is used to avoid “the explosion of complexity” in the backstepping design, and the number of adaptive parameters is reduced significantly using the MLP technique, third, smooth robust compensators are employed to circumvent the influences of approximation errors and disturbances. Furthermore, it is proved that all the signals in the closed-loop system are semiglobal uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, the simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed method.

The Microlensing Event Rate and Optical Depth toward the Galactic Bulge from MOA-II

Abstract: We present measurements of the microlensing optical depth and event rate toward the Galactic Bulge (GB) based on two years of the MOA-II survey. This sample contains ~1000 microlensing events, with an Einstein radius crossing time of t E ≤ 200 days in 22 bulge fields covering ~42 deg2 between –5° < l < 10° and –7° < b < –1°. Our event rate and optical depth analysis uses 474 events with well-defined microlensing parameters. In the central fields with |l| < 5°, we find an event rate of Γ = [2.39 ± 1.1]e [0.60 ± 0.05](3 – |b|) × 10–5 star–1 yr–1 and an optical depth (for events with t E ≤ 200 days) of τ200 = [2.35 ± 0.18]e [0.51 ± 0.07](3 – |b|) × 10–6 for the 427 events, using all sources brighter than Is ≤ 20 mag. The distribution of observed fields is centered at (l, b) = (0.°38, –3.°72). We find that the event rate is maximized at low latitudes and a longitude of l 1°. For the 111 events in 3.2 deg2 of the central GB at |b| ≤ 3.°0 and 0.°0 ≤ l ≤ 2.°0, centered at (l, b) = (0.°97, –2.°26), we find star–1 yr–1 and . We also consider a red clump giant (RCG) star sample with Is < 17.5, and we find that the event rate for the RCG sample is slightly lower than but consistent with the all-source event rate. The main difference is the lack of long duration events in the RCG sample due to a known selection effect. Our results are consistent with previous optical depth measurements, but they are somewhat lower than previous all-source measurements, and slightly higher than previous RCG optical depth measurements. This suggests that the previously observed difference in optical depth measurements between all-source and RCG samples may largely be due to statistical fluctuations. These event rate measurements toward the central GB are necessary to predict the microlensing event rate and to optimize the survey fields in future space missions such as Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope.

Prediction of stiffness and stresses in z-fibre reinforced composite laminates

Abstract: The mechanical properties of z-pinned composite laminates were examined numerically. Finite element calculations have been performed to understand how the through-thickness reinforcement modifies the engineering elastic constants and local stress distributions. Solutions were found for four basic laminate stacking sequences, all having two percent volume fraction of z-fibres. For the stiffness analysis, a micro-mechanical finite element model was employed that was based on the actual geometric configuration of a z-pinned composite unit cell. The numerical results agreed very well with some published solutions. It showed that by adding 2% volume fraction of z-fibres, the through-thickness Young's modulus was increased by 22–35%. The reductions in the in-plane moduli were contained within 7–10%. The stress analysis showed that interlaminar stress distributions near a laminate free edge were significantly affected when z-fibres were placed within a characteristic distance of one z-fibre diameter from the free edge. Local z-fibres carried significant amount of interlaminar normal and shear stresses.