5,473 research outputs found
Nonlinear correlations of daily temperature records over land
International audienceWe present a near global statistics on the correlation properties of daily temperature records. Data from terrestrial meteorological stations in the Global Daily Climatology Network are analyzed by means of detrended fluctuation analysis. Long-range temporal correlations extending up to several years are detected for each station. In order to reveal nonlinearity, we evaluated the magnitude of daily temperature changes (volatility) by the same method. The results clearly indicate the presence of nonlinearities in temperature time series, furthemore the geographic distribution of correlation exponents exhibits well defined clustering
A Population of Short-Period Variable Quasars from PTF as Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) at sub-parsec separations should be
common in galactic nuclei, as a result of frequent galaxy mergers.
Hydrodynamical simulations of circumbinary discs predict strong periodic
modulation of the mass accretion rate on time-scales comparable to the orbital
period of the binary. As a result, SMBHBs may be recognized by the periodic
modulation of their brightness. We conducted a statistical search for periodic
variability in a sample of 35,383 spectroscopically confirmed quasars in the
photometric database of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). We analysed
Lomb-Scargle periodograms and assessed the significance of our findings by
modeling each individual quasar's variability as a damped random walk (DRW). We
identified 50 quasars with significant periodicity beyond the DRW model,
typically with short periods of a few hundred days. We find 33 of these to
remain significant after a re-analysis of their periodograms including
additional optical data from the intermediate-PTF and the Catalina Real-Time
Transient Survey (CRTS). Assuming that the observed periods correspond to the
redshifted orbital periods of SMBHBs, we conclude that our findings are
consistent with a population of unequal-mass SMBHBs, with a typical mass ratio
as low as q = M2/M1 ~ 0.01.Comment: MNRAS (accepted), new section 4.
Fine structure of -excitons in multilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides
Reflectance and magneto-reflectance experiments together with theoretical
modelling based on the approach have been employed to study
the evolution of direct bandgap excitons in MoS layers with a thickness
ranging from mono- to trilayer. The extra excitonic resonances observed in
MoS multilayers emerge as a result of the hybridization of Bloch states of
each sub-layer due to the interlayer coupling. The properties of such excitons
in bi- and trilayers are classified by the symmetry of corresponding crystals.
The inter- and intralayer character of the reported excitonic resonances is
fingerprinted with the magneto-optical measurements: the excitonic -factors
of opposite sign and of different amplitude are revealed for these two types of
resonances. The parameters describing the strength of the spin-orbit
interaction are estimated for bi- and trilayer MoS.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure
Implementation of the 64-meter-diameter Antennas at the Deep Space Stations in Australia and Spain
The management and construction aspects of the Overseas 64-m Antenna Project in which two 64-m antennas were constructed at the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communications Complex in Australia, and at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Spain are described. With the completion of these antennas the Deep Space Network is equipped with three 64-m antennas spaced around the world to maintain continuous coverage of spacecraft operations. These antennas provide approximately a 7-db gain over the capabilities of the existing 26-m antenna nets. The report outlines the project organization and management, resource utilization, fabrication, quality assurance, and construction methods by which the project was successfully completed. Major problems and their solutions are described as well as recommendations for future projects
Strength and duration of perisomatic GABAergic inhibition depend on distance between synaptically connected cells
GABAergic perisoma-inhibiting fast-spiking interneurons (PIIs) effectively control the activity of large neuron populations by their wide axonal arborizations. It is generally assumed that the output of one PII to its target cells is strong and rapid. Here, we show that, unexpectedly, both strength and time course of PII-mediated perisomatic inhibition change with distance between synaptically connected partners in the rodent hippocampus. Synaptic signals become weaker due to lower contact numbers and decay more slowly with distance, very likely resulting from changes in GABAA receptor subunit composition. When distance-dependent synaptic inhibition is introduced to a rhythmically active neuronal network model, randomly driven principal cell assemblies are strongly synchronized by the PIIs, leading to higher precision in principal cell spike times than in a network with uniform synaptic inhibition
Probing and manipulating valley coherence of dark excitons in monolayer WSe
Monolayers of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides are
two-dimensional direct-gap systems which host tightly-bound excitons with an
internal degree of freedom corresponding to the valley of the constituting
carriers. Strong spin-orbit interaction and the resulting ordering of the
spin-split subbands in the valence and conduction bands makes the lowest-lying
excitons in WX (X~being S or Se) spin-forbidden and optically dark. With
polarization-resolved photoluminescence experiments performed on a WSe
monolayer encapsulated in a hexagonal boron nitride, we show how the intrinsic
exchange interaction in combination with the applied in-plane and/or
out-of-plane magnetic fields enables one to probe and manipulate the valley
degree of freedom of the dark excitons.Comment: Manuscript: 6 pages, 3 figures; SM: 6 pages, 5 figure
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