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Abstract Forward attractors, especially invariant ones, of non-autonomous and random dynamical systems have not been as well studied as pullback attractors. This is mainly due to the different role that time plays in each case. Pullback attractors involve convergence at each instant of current time as the initial data is pulled back to distant past, whereas forward attractors are concerned with what happens in the distant future. Moreover, if they exist, they need not be unique. In this paper, ideas introduced in Kloeden [20] for asymptotically invariant forward attracting sets of non-autonomous ODEs are generalized and extended to study strictly invariant forward attractors of non-autonomous random dynamical systems on metric spaces. These are formulated as processes that include the effects of both noise and deterministic time variation. It is shown that the random forward attractors, when they exist, can be constructed by a pullback argument inside a positively invariant set. However, this is only a necessary condition, so additional sufficiency conditions are also given. Since forward attractors need not exist in dissipative systems, an alternative object, specifically the closed union of the forward omega limit sets for each initial time of a forward absorbing set is investigated. It is shown to be asymptotically invariant under certain conditions, so looks more and more like an invariant attractor as conventionally understood. It resembles the Vishik uniform attractor, but need not attract uniformly in the initial times and does not even require the system to be defined in the distant past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Binaries are in vogue; many minor-planets like asteroids are being found to be binary or contact-binary systems. Even ternaries like 87 Sylvia have been discovered. The densities of these binaries are often estimated to be very low, and this, along with suspected accretionary origins, hints at a rubble interior. As in the case of fluid objects, a rubble-pile is unable to sustain all manners of spin, self-gravitation, and tidal interactions. This motivates the present study of the possible ellipsoidal shapes and mutual separations that members of a rubble-pile binary system may achieve. Conversely, knowledge of a granular binary’s shape and separation will constrain its internal structure – the ability of the binary’s members to sustain elongated shapes and/or maintain contact will hint at appreciable internal frictional strength. Because the binary’s members are allowed to be of comparable mass, the present investigation constitutes an extension of the second classical Darwin problem to granular aggregates. General equations defining the ellipsoidal rubble-pile binary system’s equilibrium are developed. These are then specialized to a pair of spin-locked, possibly unequal, prolate ellipsoidal granular aggregates aligned along their long axes. We observe that contact rubble-pile binaries can indeed exist. Further, depending on the binary’s geometry, an equilibrium contact binary’s members may, in fact, disrupt if separated. These results are applied to four suspected or known binaries: 216 Kleopatra, 25143 Itokawa, 624 Hektor and 90 Antiope. This exercise helps to bound the shapes and/or provide information about the interiors of these binaries. The binary’s interior will be modeled as a rigid-plastic, cohesionless material with a Drucker–Prager yield criterion. This rheology is a reasonable first model for rubble piles. We employ an approximate volume-averaging procedure that is based on the classical method of moments, and is an extension of the virial method (Chandrasekhar, S., 1969. Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT) to granular solid bodies. The present approach also helps us present an incrementally consistent approach to investigate the equilibrium shapes of fluid binaries, while highlighting the inconsistencies and errors inherent in the popular “Roche binary approximation”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We combine exponential sums, character sums and Fourier coefficients of automorphic forms to improve the best known upper bound for the lattice error term associated to rational ellipsoids. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A simple mechanical model is formulated to study the dynamics of rubble-pile asteroids, formed by the gravitational re-accumulation of fragments after the collisional breakup of a parent body. In this model, a rubble-pile consists of N interacting fragments represented by rigid ellipsoids, and the equations of motion explicitly incorporate the minimal degrees of freedom necessary to describe the attitude and rotational state of each fragment. In spite of its simplicity, our numerical examples indicate that the overall behavior of our model is in line with several known properties of collisional events, like the energy and angular momentum partition during high velocity impacts. Therefore, it may be considered as a well defined minimal model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper proposes a novel fruit firmness index c3 for solid ellipsoids with one long principal axis and two equal short principal axes. The firmness index c3 is dependent on the mass, density, and two natural frequencies of the lowest spherical modes (under free boundary conditions) moving along long and short axes, respectively. In fact, the new index c3 is a generalisation of the conventional firmness index for a sphere, because the two natural frequencies for an ellipsoid become equal for a sphere. This newly developed index extends the firmness estimation for fruits or vegetables from a spherical to an ellipsoidal shape. The formula was developed according to the following steps: (1) assign mode shape functions observed from a finite element model; (2) approximate the potential energy and kinetic energy over the whole volume; (3) apply Rayleigh''s quotient to determine natural frequencies in a simple form; and (4) deduce an appropriate mathematical equation relating firmness (equivalent to modulus of elasticity) with natural frequencies, mass, and density. Detailed derivations are provided, together with finite element models for verifications of the new firmness index. Satisfactory results from simulations show that the proposed formula is quite suitable for predicting the firmness of ellipsoidal fruits or vegetables. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]