504 research outputs found
Does the Sun shrink with increasing magnetic activity?
It has been demonstrated that frequencies of f-modes can be used to estimate
the solar radius to a good accuracy. These frequencies have been used to study
temporal variations in the solar radius with conflicting results. The variation
in f-mode frequencies is more complicated than what is assumed in these
studies. If a careful analysis is performed then it turns out that there is no
evidence for any variation in the solar radius.Comment: To appear in Astrophys.
How much do helioseismological inferences depend upon the assumed reference model?
We investigate systematic uncertainties in determining the profiles of the
solar sound speed, density, and adiabatic index by helioseismological
techniques. We find that rms uncertainties-averaged over the sun of ~ 0.2%-0.4%
are contributed to the sound speed profile by each of three sources: 1)the
choice of assumed reference model, 2) the width of the inversion kernel, and 3)
the measurements errors. The density profile is about an order of magnitude
less well determined by the helioseismological measurements. The profile of the
adiabatic index is determined to an accuracy of about 0.2% . We find that even
relatively crude reference models yield reasonably accurate solar parameters.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ . Related material at
http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jn
Structure of the near-surface layers of the Sun: asphericity and time variation
We present results on the structure of the near-surface layers of the Sun
obtained by inverting frequencies of high-degree solar modes from "ring
diagrams". We have results for eight epochs between June 1996 and October 2003.
The frequencies for each epoch were obtained from ring diagrams constructed
from MDI Dopplergrams spanning complete Carrington rotations. We find that
there is a substantial latitudinal variation of both sound speed and the
adiabatic index Gamma_1 in the outer 2% of the Sun. We find that both the
sound-speed and Gamma_1 profiles change with changes in the level of solar
activity. In addition, we also study differences between the northern and
southern hemispheres of the Sun and find a small asymmetry that appears to
reflect the difference in magnetic activity between the two hemispheres.Comment: To appear in ApJ (January 2007
Helioseismological Implications of Recent Solar Abundance Determinations
We show that standard solar models are in good agreement with the
helioseismologically determined sound speed and density as a function of solar
radius, the depth of the convective zone, and the surface helium abundance, as
long as those models do not incorporate the most recent heavy element abundance
determinations. However, sophisticated new analyses of the solar atmosphere
infer lower abundances of the lighter metals (like C, N, O, Ne, and Ar) than
the previously widely used surface abundances. We show that solar models that
include the lower heavy element abundances disagree with the solar profiles of
sound speed and density as well as the depth of the convective zone and the
helium abundance. The disagreements for models with the new abundances range
from factors of several to many times the quoted uncertainties in the
helioseismological measurements. The disagreements are at temperatures below
what is required for solar interior fusion reactions and therefore do not
significantly affect solar neutrino emission. If errors in thecalculated OPAL
opacities are solely responsible for the disagreements, then the corrections in
the opacity must extend from 2 times 10^6 K (R = 0.7R_Sun)to 5 times 10^6 K (R
= 0.4 R_Sun), with opacity increases of order 10%.Comment: ApJ in press; clarified Figure
Helioseismic analysis of the hydrogen partition function in the solar interior
The difference in the adiabatic gradient gamma_1 between inverted solar data
and solar models is analyzed. To obtain deeper insight into the issues of
plasma physics, the so-called ``intrinsic'' difference in gamma_1 is extracted,
that is, the difference due to the change in the equation of state alone. Our
method uses reference models based on two equations of state currently used in
solar modeling, the Mihalas-Hummer-Dappen (MHD) equation of state, and the OPAL
equation of state (developed at Livermore). Solar oscillation frequencies from
the SOI/MDI instrument on board the SOHO spacecraft during its first 144 days
in operation are used. Our results confirm the existence of a subtle effect of
the excited states in hydrogen that was previously studied only theoretically
(Nayfonov & Dappen 1998). The effect stems from internal partition function of
hydrogen, as used in the MHD equation of state. Although it is a pure-hydrogen
effect, it takes place in somewhat deeper layers of the Sun, where more than
90% of hydrogen is ionized, and where the second ionization zone of helium is
located. Therefore, the effect will have to be taken into account in reliable
helioseismic determinations of the astrophysically relevant helium-abundance of
the solar convection zone.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Revised version submitted to Ap
Our Sun. IV. The Standard Model and Helioseismology: Consequences of Uncertainties in Input Physics and in Observed Solar Parameters
Helioseismology provides a powerful tool to explore the deep interior of the
Sun: for example, the adiabatic sound speed can be inferred with an accuracy of
a few parts in 10,000. This has become a serious challenge to theoretical
models of the Sun. Therefore, we have undertaken a self-consistent, systematic
study of sources of uncertainties in the standard solar model, which must be
understood before the helioseismic observations can be used as constraints on
theory. We find that the largest uncertainty in the sound speed in the solar
interior, namely, 3 parts in 1000, arises from uncertainties in the observed
photospheric abundances of the elements; uncertainties of 1 part in 1000 arise
from (1) the 4% uncertainty in the OPAL opacities, (2) the 5% uncertainty in
the basic pp nuclear reaction rate, (3) the 15% uncertainty in the diffusion
constants for the gravitational settling of helium, and (4) the 50%
uncertainties in diffusion constants for the heavier elements. (Other
investigators have shown that similar uncertainties arise from uncertainties in
the interior equation of state and in rotation-induced turbulent mixing.) The
predicted pre-main-sequence solar lithium depletion is a factor of order 20 (an
order of magnitude larger than that predicted by earlier models that neglected
gravitational settling and used older opacities), and is uncertain by a factor
of 2. The predicted neutrino capture rate is uncertain by 30% for the Cl-37
experiment and by 3% for the Ga-71 experiments (not including uncertainties in
the capture cross sections), while the B-8 neutrino flux is uncertain by 30%.Comment: LaTeX, 38 pages (including 8 figures); ApJ, in press. Added
figures/color figurea available at
http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~boothroy/sun4.htm
An indomethacin sensitive suppressor factor released by macrophages of leprosy patients
Reduction in Fc receptor expression as assayed by 'erythrocyte' rosetting of macrophage cultures from long term treated lepromatous leprosy patients (bactereologically negative) was seen in the presence of viable Mycobacterium leprae. Macrophages with and without intracellular bacilli demonstrated this reduction. On the basis of this observation the conditioned medium of Mycobacterium leprae infected macrophage cultures of lepromatous patients, were tested on macrophages from normal individuals for [3H]-leucine incorporation and antigen specific physical interaction with lymphocytes. Both these parameters showed decreased values as compared to the controls which were not exposed to this conditioned medium. Lymphocyte transformation to Mycobacterium leprae in leucocyte cultures of normal individuals was also reduced in the presence of the conditioned medium from lepromatous patients' macrophages. The indication that this factor may be a prostaglandin was suggested by the observation that its synthesis was inhibited by indomethacin. Its importance in the non-specific depression in cell-mediated immunity seen in lepromatous patients is discussed
Experimental violation of a spin-1 Bell inequality using maximally-entangled four-photon states
We demonstrate the first experimental violation of a spin-1 Bell inequality.
The spin-1 inequality is a calculation based on the Clauser, Horne, Shimony and
Holt formalism. For entangled spin-1 particles the maximum quantum mechanical
prediction is 2.552 as opposed to a maximum of 2, predicted using local hidden
variables. We obtained an experimental value of 2.27 using the
four-photon state generated by pulsed, type-II, stimulated parametric
down-conversion. This is a violation of the spin-1 Bell inequality by more than
13 standard deviations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Revtex4. Problem with figures resolve
Dissolution of coccolithophorid calcite by microzooplankton and copepod grazing
International audienceIndependent of the ongoing acidification of surface seawater, the majority of the calcium carbonate produced in the pelagial is dissolved by natural processes above the lysocline. We investigate to what extent grazing and passage of coccolithophorids through the guts of copepods and the food vacuoles of microzooplankton contribute to calcite dissolution. In laboratory experiments where the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi was fed to the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis, the heterotrophic flagellate Oxyrrhis marina and the copepod Acartia tonsa, calcite dissolution rates of 45?55%, 37?53% and 5?22% of ingested calcite were found. We ascribe higher loss rates in microzooplankton food vacuoles as compared to copepod guts to the strongly acidic digestion and the individual packaging of algal cells. In further experiments, specific rates of calcification and calcite dissolution were also measured in natural populations during the PeECE III mesocosm study under differing ambient pCO2 concentrations. Microzooplankton grazing accounted for between 27 and 70% of the dynamic calcite stock being lost per day, with no measurable effect of CO2 treatment. These measured calcite dissolution rates indicate that dissolution of calcite in the guts of microzooplankton and copepods can account for the calcite losses calculated for the global ocean using budget and model estimates
Measurements of solar irradiance and effective temperature as a probe of solar interior magnetic fields
We argue that a variety of solar data suggest that the activity-cycle
timescale variability of the total irradiance, is produced by structural
adjustments of the solar interior. Assuming these adjustments are induced by
variations of internal magnetic fields, we use measurements of the total
irradiance and effective temperature over the period from 1978 to 1992, to
infer the magnitude and location of the magnetic field. Using an updated
stellar evolution model, which includes magnetic fields, we find that the
observations can be explained by fields whose peak values range from 120k to
2.3k gauss, located in the convection zone between 0.959R_{\sun} and
0.997R_{\sun}, respectively. The corresponding maximal radius changes, are 17
km when the magnetic field is located at 0.959R_{\sun} and 3 km when it is
located at 0.997R_{\sun}. At these depths, the parameter(defined by
, where and are the radius and luminosity)
ranges from 0.02 to 0.006. All these predictions are consistent with
helioseismology and recent measurements carried out by the MDI experiment on
SOHO.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Ap
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