A course of coordinated sciences: The structure of matter

Why Canonical Disks Cannot Produce Advection-dominated Flows

Using simple arguments we show that the canonical thin keplerian accretion disks cannot smoothly match any plain advection dominated flow (ADAF) model. By 'plain' ADAF model we mean the ones with zero cooling. The existence of sonic points in exact solutions is critical and imposes constraints that cannot be surpassed adopting 'reasonable' physical conditions at the hypothetical match point. Only the occurrence of new critical physical phenomena may produce a transition. We propose that exact advection models are a class of solutions which don't necessarily involve the standard thin cool disks and suggest a different scenario in which good ADAF solutions could eventually occur.

Psychophysical response to electrocutaneous stimulation.

A method is presented to determine a reliable stimulus-sensation relationship particularly suitable for electrocutaneous stimulation. An experimental intensity-discrimination curve was obtained through simple psychophysical comparison tasks, and sensory response was inferred from integration of a JND's density function. The psychophysical response resembles a power law, although departures cannot be described in terms of a unique exponent. An estimate of binary information capacity per electrode is also given as a feature of a stimulation procedure that preserves a low value of the size-intensity product.