IMac shuts down intermittently

I know this is already a topic but I'm posting it because (a) nobody seems to know why it's happening, (b) the suggested causes, such as overheating, not using heat paste etc do not apply in my case and (c) the mysterious shutdowns are happening at the same time as another problem, which is that my WD Thunderbolt Duo drive keeps disappearing from the desktop and I can't help wondering whether there's a connection somewhere there, or in fact a lack of connection.
My iMac is a month old, as is the thunderbolt cable and the thunderbolt drive. The thunderbelt drive is my Time Machine drive and I keep getting messages to tell me it can't be backed up. At the moment there's no sign of it on the desktop and time machine tells me that the back up is delayed, but when I look at the "About this Mac" and select thunderbolt it tells me the drive is connected and gives me its details. What's happening? Can there be loose connections that are affecting the power supply and the thunderbolt socket?

Have you called AppleCare, using your free 90-day support? They maybe best placed to help solve the problem and you should not be having to troubleshoot anything. That said, it is possible that there may be some incompatible software causing the problems.
When the machine shuts down is it a kernel panic - screen goes dark and you are presented with a multi-language box telling you to restart. If so, post the panic log on here and someone may have some ideas:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2546
You could also run the free EtreCheck and post the contents of its report on here. I'm not an expert at spotting possible causes of problems, but there are plenty here who are:
http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
Separately, although I haven't followed the info closely, there have been many reports about problems with WD drives and Mavericks. A bit of searching on here and Google may throw up more info.

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