6,366 research outputs found
Reconstruction of Solar Subsurfaces by Local Helioseismology
Local helioseismology has opened new frontiers in our quest for understanding
of the internal dynamics and dynamo on the Sun. Local helioseismology
reconstructs subsurface structures and flows by extracting coherent signals of
acoustic waves traveling through the interior and carrying information about
subsurface perturbations and flows, from stochastic oscillations observed on
the surface. The initial analysis of the subsurface flow maps reconstructed
from the 5 years of SDO/HMI data by time-distance helioseismology reveals the
great potential for studying and understanding of the dynamics of the quiet Sun
and active regions, and the evolution with the solar cycle. In particular, our
results show that the emergence and evolution of active regions are accompanied
by multi-scale flow patterns, and that the meridional flows display the
North-South asymmetry closely correlating with the magnetic activity. The
latitudinal variations of the meridional circulation speed, which are probably
related to the large-scale converging flows, are mostly confined in shallow
subsurface layers. Therefore, these variations do not necessarily affect the
magnetic flux transport. The North-South asymmetry is also pronounced in the
variations of the differential rotation ("torsional oscillations"). The
calculations of a proxy of the subsurface kinetic helicity density show that
the helicity does not vary during the solar cycle, and that supergranulation is
a likely source of the near-surface helicity.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, in "Cartography of the Sun and the Stars",
Editors: Rozelot, Jean-Pierre, Neiner, Corali
Radio pulses from cosmic ray air showers - Boosted Coulomb and Cherenkov fields
High-energy cosmic rays passing through the Earth's atmosphere produce
extensive showers whose charges emit radio frequency pulses. Despite the low
density of the Earth's atmosphere, this emission should be affected by the air
refractive index because the bulk of the shower particles move roughly at the
speed of radio waves, so that the retarded altitude of emission, the
relativistic boost and the emission pattern are modified. We consider in this
paper the contribution of the boosted Coulomb and the Cherenkov fields and
calculate analytically the spectrum using a very simplified model in order to
highlight the main properties. We find that typically the lower half of the
shower charge energy distribution produces a boosted Coulomb field, of
amplitude comparable to the levels measured and to those calculated previously
for synchrotron emission. Higher energy particles produce instead a
Cherenkov-like field, whose amplitude may be smaller because both the negative
charge excess and the separation between charges of opposite signs are small at
these energies.Comment: 10 figures - Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
Biases in the polarization position angles in the NVSS point source catalogue
We have examined the statistics of the polarization position angles
determined for point sources in the NRAO-VLA sky survey (NVSS) and find that
there is a statistically significant bias toward angles which are multiples of
45 degrees. The formal probability that the polarization angles are drawn from
a uniform distribution is exponentially small. When the sample of those NVSS
sources with polarizations detected with a signal to noise 3 is split
either around the median polarized flux density or the median fractional
polarization, the effect appears to be stronger for the more highly polarized
sources. Regions containing strong sources and regions at low galactic
latitudes are not responsible for the non-uniform distribution of position
angles. We identify CLEAN bias as the probable cause of the dominant effect,
coupled with small multiplicative and additive offsets on each of the Stokes
parameters. Our findings have implications for the extraction of science, such
as information concerning galactic magnetic fields, from large scale
polarization surveys
Impact of droop and scarf on the aerodynamic performance of compact aero-engine nacelles
Future turbofan engines will operate with larger engine bypass-ratios and lower specific thrust than current in-service architectures to reduce the specific fuel consumption. This will be achieved by increasing the fan diameter which will incur in an increment in nacelle size and a concomitant larger nacelle drag, weight and interaction effects with the airframe. Therefore, it is required to design compact nacelles which will not counteract the benefits obtained from the new engine cycles. Nacelle design is based on a set of aero-lines that in combination with droop and scarf result in a 3D design. Traditionally, this process was performed by the design of axisymmetric aero-lines. Nevertheless, there is an emerging need to carry out the design process for full 3D configurations to have a better understanding of the effect of droop and scarf angles on the nacelle drag characteristics. This paper presents a numerical method for the multi-objective optimisation of drooped and scarfed non-axisymmetric nacelle aero-engines. It uses intuitive Class Shape Tranformations (iCSTs) for the aero-engine geometry definition, multi-point aerodynamic simulation, a near-field nacelle drag extraction method and the NSGA-II genetic algorithm. The process has been employed to perform independent multi-objective optimisations of compact architectures at selected droop and scarf angle combinations. The multi-objective optimisation framework was successfully demonstrated for the new nacelle design challenge and the overall system was shown to enable the identification of the effects of droop and scarf on compact aero-engines. The proposed tool complements a set of technologies for the design, analysis and optimisation of future civil turbofans aiming at reduction of specific fuel consumption
Bounding biomass in the Fisher equation
The FKPP equation with a variable growth rate and advection by an
incompressible velocity field is considered as a model for plankton dispersed
by ocean currents. If the average growth rate is negative then the model has a
survival-extinction transition; the location of this transition in the
parameter space is constrained using variational arguments and delimited by
simulations. The statistical steady state reached when the system is in the
survival region of parameter space is characterized by integral constraints and
upper and lower bounds on the biomass and productivity that follow from
variational arguments and direct inequalities. In the limit of
zero-decorrelation time the velocity field is shown to act as Fickian diffusion
with an eddy diffusivity much larger than the molecular diffusivity and this
allows a one-dimensional model to predict the biomass, productivity and
extinction transitions. All results are illustrated with a simple growth and
stirring model.Comment: 32 Pages, 13 Figure
Evidence for variable selective pressures at MC1R
It is widely assumed that genes that influence variation in skin and hair pigmentation are under selection. To date,the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) is the only gene identified that explains substantial phenotypic variance inhuman pigmentation. Here we investigate MC1R polymorphism in several populations, for evidence of selection.We conclude that MC1R is under strong functional constraint in Africa, where any diversion from eumelanin production (black pigmentation) appears to be evolutionarily deleterious. Although many of the MC1R amino acid variants observed in non-African populations do affect MC1R function and contribute to high levels of MC1R diversity in Europeans, we found no evidence, in either the magnitude or the patterns of diversity, for its enhancement by selection; rather, our analyses show that levels of MC1R polymorphism simply reflect neutral expectations underrelaxation of strong functional constraint outside Africa
How universal is the fractional-quantum-Hall edge Luttinger liquid?
This article reports on our microscopic investigations of the edge of the
fractional quantum Hall state at filling factor . We show that the
interaction dependence of the wave function is well described in an
approximation that includes mixing with higher composite-fermion Landau levels
in the lowest order. We then proceed to calculate the equal time edge Green
function, which provides evidence that the Luttinger exponent characterizing
the decay of the Green function at long distances is interaction dependent. The
relevance of this result to tunneling experiments is discussed.Comment: 5 page
UVA-induced carbon-centered radicals in lightly pigmented cells detected using ESR spectroscopy
Ultraviolet-A and melanin are implicated in melanoma, but whether melanin in vivo screens or acts as a UVA photosensitiser is debated. Here, we investigate the effect of UVA-irradiation on non-pigmented, lightly and darkly pigmented melanocytes and melanoma cells using electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. Using the spin trap 5,5 Dimethyl-1-pyrroline N-oxide (DMPO), carbon adducts were detected in all cells. However, higher levels of carbon adducts were detected in lightly pigmented cells than in non-pigmented or darkly pigmented cells. Nevertheless, when melanin levels were artificially increased in lightly pigmented cells by incubation with L-Tyrosine, the levels of carbon adducts decreased significantly. Carbon adducts were also detected in UVA-irradiated melanin-free cell nuclei, DNA-melanin systems, and the nucleoside 2’-deoxyguanosine combined with melanin, whereas they were only weakly detected in irradiated synthetic melanin and not at all in irradiated 2’-deoxyguanosine. The similarity of these carbon adducts suggests they may be derived from nucleic acid– guanine – radicals. These observations suggest that melanin is not consistently a UVA screen against free-radical formation in pigmented cells, but may also act as a photosensitizer for the formation of nucleic acid radicals in addition to superoxide. The findings are important for our understanding of the mechanism of damage caused by the UVA component of sunlight in non-melanoma and melanoma cells, and hence the causes of skin cancer
On certain relationships between cosmological observables in the Einstein-Cartan gravity
We show that in the Einstein-Cartan gravity it is possible to obtain a
relation between Hubble's expansion and the global rotation (vorticity) of the
Universe. Gravitational coupling can be reduced to dimensionless quantity of
order unity, fixing the scalar mass density and the resulting negative
cosmological constant at spacelike infinity. Current estimates of the expansion
and rotation (see also astro-ph/9703082) of the Universe favour the massive
spinning particles as candidate particles for cold and hot dark matter. Nodland
and Ralston vorticity (Phys. Rev. Lett. 78 (1997) 3043) overestimates the value
favoured by the Einstein-Cartan gravity for three orders of magnitude.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX styl
A new constant-pressure molecular dynamics method for finite system
In this letter, by writing the volume as a function of coordinates of atoms,
we present a new constant-pressure molecular dynamics method with parameters
free. This method is specially appropriate for the finite system in which the
periodic boundary condition does not exist. Simulations on the carbon nanotube
and the Ni nanoparticle clearly demonstrate the validity of the method. By
using this method, one can easily obtain the equation of states for the finite
system under the external pressure.Comment: RevTex, 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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