CDS wide slit time-series of EUV coronal bright points

Wide slit (90" x 240" ) movies of four Extreme Ultraviolet coronal bright points (BPs) obtained with the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO) have been inspected. The wavelet analysis of the He I 584.34 Å, O V 629.73 Å and Mg VII/IX 368 Å time-series confirms the oscillating nature of the BPs, with periods ranging between 600 and 1100 s. In one case we detect periods as short as 236 s. We suggest that these oscillations are the same as those seen in the chromospheric network and that a fraction of the network bright points are most likely the cool footpoints of the loops comprising coronal bright points. These oscillations are interpreted in terms of global acoustic modes of the closed magnetic structures associated with BPs

NALNET book system: Cost benefit study

The goals of the NASA's library network system, NALNET, the functions of the current book system, the products and services of a book system required by NASA Center libraries, and the characteristics of a system that would best supply those products and services were assessed. Emphasis was placed on determining the most cost effective means of meeting NASA's requirements for an automated book system. Various operating modes were examined including the current STIMS file, the PUBFILE, developing software improvements for products as appropriate to the Center needs, and obtaining cataloging and products from the bibliographic utilities including at least OCLC, RLIN, BNA, and STIF. It is recommended that NALNET operate under the STIMS file mode and obtain cataloging and products from the bibliographic utilities. The recommendations are based on the premise that given the current state of the art in library automation it is not cost effective for NASA to maintain a full range of cataloging services on its own system. The bibliographic utilities can support higher quality systems with a greater range of services at a lower total cost

A Study of the Coronal Plasma in RS CVn binary systems

XMM-Newton has been performing comprehensive studies of X-ray bright RS CVn binaries in its Calibration and Guaranteed Time programs. We present results from ongoing investigations in the context of a systematic study of coronal emission from RS CVns. We concentrate in this paper on coronal abundances and investigate the abundance pattern in RS CVn binaries as a function of activity and average temperature. A transition from an Inverse First Ionization Potential (FIP) effect towards an absence of a clear trend is found in intermediately active RS CVn systems. This scheme corresponds well into the long-term evolution from an IFIP to a FIP effect found in solar analogs. We further study variations in the elemental abundances during a large flare.Comment: to appear in The Twelfth Cool Stars, Stellar Systems and the Sun, eds. A. Brown, T.R. Ayres, G.M. Harper, (Boulder: Univ. of Colorado), in pres

A Generalization of Levy\u27s Concentration-Variance Inequality

Sharp lower bounds are found for the concentration of a probability distribution as a function of the expectation of any given convex symmetric function φ. In the case φ(x)=(x-c)2, where c is the expected value of the distribution, these bounds yield the classical concentration-variance inequality of Lévy. An analogous sharp inequality is obtained in a similar linear search setting, where a sharp lower bound for the concentration is found as a function of the maximum probability swept out from a fixed starting point by a path of given length

Rotational Dynamics of Organic Cations in CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite

Methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) based solar cells have shown impressive power conversion efficiencies of above 20%. However, the microscopic mechanism of the high photovoltaic performance is yet to be fully understood. Particularly, the dynamics of CH3NH3+ cations and their impact on relevant processes such as charge recombination and exciton dissociation are still poorly understood. Here, using elastic and quasi-elastic neutron scattering techniques and group theoretical analysis, we studied rotational modes of the CH3NH3+ cation in CH3NH3PbI3. Our results show that, in the cubic (T > 327K) and tetragonal (165K < T < 327K) phases, the CH3NH3+ ions exhibit four-fold rotational symmetry of the C-N axis (C4) along with three-fold rotation around the C-N axis (C3), while in orthorhombic phase (T < 165K) only C3 rotation is present. Around room temperature, the characteristic relaxation times for the C4 rotation is found to be ps while for the C3 rotation ps. The -dependent rotational relaxation times were fitted with Arrhenius equations to obtain activation energies. Our data show a close correlation between the C4 rotational mode and the temperature dependent dielectric permittivity. Our findings on the rotational dynamics of CH3NH3+ and the associated dipole have important implications on understanding the low exciton binding energy and slow charge recombination rate in CH3NH3PbI3 which are directly relevant for the high solar cell performance

Identification of Electron Donor States in N-doped Carbon Nanotubes

Nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes have been synthesized using pyrolysis and characterized by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The doped nanotubes are all metallic and exhibit strong electron donor states near the Fermi level. Using tight-binding and ab initio calculations, we observe that pyridine-like N structures are responsible for the metallic behavior and the prominent features near the Fermi level. These electron rich structures are the first example of n-type nanotubes, which could pave the way to real molecular hetero-junction devices.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, revtex, submitted to PR

The Foundation Supernova Survey: Measuring Cosmological Parameters with Supernovae from a Single Telescope

Measurements of the dark energy equation-of-state parameter, $w$, have been limited by uncertainty in the selection effects and photometric calibration of $z<0.1$ Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). The Foundation Supernova Survey is designed to lower these uncertainties by creating a new sample of $z<0.1$ SNe Ia observed on the Pan-STARRS system. Here, we combine the Foundation sample with SNe from the Pan-STARRS Medium Deep Survey and measure cosmological parameters with 1,338 SNe from a single telescope and a single, well-calibrated photometric system. For the first time, both the low-$z$ and high-$z$ data are predominantly discovered by surveys that do not target pre-selected galaxies, reducing selection bias uncertainties. The $z>0.1$ data include 875 SNe without spectroscopic classifications and we show that we can robustly marginalize over CC SN contamination. We measure Foundation Hubble residuals to be fainter than the pre-existing low-$z$ Hubble residuals by $0.046 \pm 0.027$ mag (stat+sys). By combining the SN Ia data with cosmic microwave background constraints, we find $w=-0.938 \pm 0.053$, consistent with $\Lambda$CDM. With 463 spectroscopically classified SNe Ia alone, we measure $w=-0.933\pm0.061$. Using the more homogeneous and better-characterized Foundation sample gives a 55% reduction in the systematic uncertainty attributed to SN Ia sample selection biases. Although use of just a single photometric system at low and high redshift increases the impact of photometric calibration uncertainties in this analysis, previous low-$z$ samples may have correlated calibration uncertainties that were neglected in past studies. The full Foundation sample will observe up to 800 SNe to anchor the LSST and WFIRST Hubble diagrams.Comment: 30 pages, 17 figures, accepted by Ap