A Fast and Efficient Algorithm for Slater Determinant Updates in Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations

We present an efficient low-rank updating algorithm for updating the trial wavefunctions used in Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations. The algorithm is based on low-rank updating of the Slater determinants. In particular, the computational complexity of the algorithm is O(kN) during the k-th step compared with traditional algorithms that require O(N^2) computations, where N is the system size. For single determinant trial wavefunctions the new algorithm is faster than the traditional O(N^2) Sherman-Morrison algorithm for up to O(N) updates. For multideterminant configuration-interaction type trial wavefunctions of M+1 determinants, the new algorithm is significantly more efficient, saving both O(MN^2) work and O(MN^2) storage. The algorithm enables more accurate and significantly more efficient QMC calculations using configuration interaction type wavefunctions

Constraints Imposed by the Shape of Marine Magnetic Anomalies on the Magnetic Source

A two-layer source model for marine magnetic anomalies can accommodate several observations made on the shapes of anomalies in the Pacific and southeast Indian oceans. The layers are defined on the basis of cooling history and magnetic properties. The upper layer consists of rapidly cooled basalts, which acquire a strong magnetization near the ridge axis. This layer, with narrow transition zones, can account for the observed short polarity events. The lower layer consists of moderately magnetized, slowly cooled intrusive rocks in the lower oceanic crust. The transition zones in this layer are broad, sloping boundaries reflecting the delayed acquisition of magnetization with depth as, for example, along a sloping Curie point isotherm. The lower layer can account for a skewness discrepancy of 10°-15° in the observed skewness of some anomalies. It is shown that the upper layer has to contribute about three quarters of the total amplitude of magnetic anomalies in order for this model to simulate the observed shape of the anomalies. The model predicts that a deep drill hole located just to the older side of a reversal boundary in the upper part of the oceanic crust should encounter a magnetization polarity reversal within the lower oceanic crust

Ultrahigh Resolution Marine Magnetic Anomaly Profiles: A Record of Continuous Paleointensity Variations?

A distinctive pattern of small-scale marine magnetic anomalies (25-100 nT amplitude, 8-25 km wavelength: tiny wiggles) is superimposed on the more generally recognized seafloor spreading pattern between anomalies 24 and 27 in the Indian Ocean. By normalizing and stacking multiple profiles, it is demonstrated that this pattern of tiny wiggles is a high-resolution recording of paleodipole field behavior between chrons C24 and C27. The pattern of tiny wiggles between anomalies 26 and 27 is compared to an ultrafast spreading (82 mm/yr half rate) profile from the southeast Pacific where a similar signal is observed, confirming the paleodipole field origin of the anomalies. Two basic models are considered in which the tiny wiggles are attributed either to short polarity intervals or to paleointensity fluctuations. We conclude that tiny wiggles are most likely caused by paleointensity fluctuations of the dipole field and are a ubiquitous background signal to most fast spreading magnetic profiles. The implications of this study are that (1) tiny wiggles may provide information on the temporal evolution of the geomagnetic dynamo; (2) the small-scale anomalies observed in the Jurassic quiet zones may be due to paleointensity fluctuations; (3) tiny wiggles are potential time markers in large regions of uniform crustal polarity such as the Cretaceous quiet zones; and (4) much of the variance in anomaly profiles normally attributed to crustal emplacement processes, particularly at fast and ultrafast spreading rates, is actually due to intensity variations in the paleomagnetic field

A New Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale for the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic

We have constructed a magnetic polarity time scale for the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic based on an analysis of marine magnetic profiles from the world's ocean basins. This is the first time, since Heirtzler et al. (1968) published their time scale, that the relative widths of the magnetic polarity intervals for the entire Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic have been systematically determined from magnetic profiles. A composite geomagnetic polarity sequence was derived based primarily on data from the South Atlantic. Anomaly spacings in the South Atlantic were constrained by a combination of finite rotation poles and averages of stacked profiles. Fine-scale information was derived from magnetic profiles on faster spreading ridges in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and inserted into the South Atlantic sequence. Based on the assumption that spreading rates in the South Atlantic were smoothly varying but not necessarily constant, a time scale was generated by using a spline function to fit a set of nine age calibration points plus the zero-age ridge axis to the composite polarity sequence. The derived spreading history of the South Atlantic shows a regular variation in spreading rate, decreasing in the Late Cretaceous from a high of almost 70 mm/yr (full rate) at around anomaly 33-34 time to a low of about 30 mm/yr by anomaly 27 time in the early Paleocene, increasing to about 55 mm/yr by about anomaly 15 time in the late Eocene, and then gradually decreasing over the Oligocene and the Neogene to the recent rate of about 32 mm/yr. The new time scale has several significant differences from previous time scales. For example, chron C5n is ~0.5 m.y. older and chrons C9 through C24 are 2-3 m.y. younger than in the chronologies of Berggren et al. (1985b) and Harland et al. (1990). Additional small-scale anomalies (tiny wiggles) that represent either very short polarity intervals or intensity fluctuations of the dipole field have been identified from several intervals in the Cenozoic including a large number of tiny wiggles between anomalies 24 and 27. Spreading rates on several other ridges, including the Southeast Indian Ridge, the East Pacific Rise, the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, the Chile Ridge, the North Pacific, and the Central Atlantic, were analyzed in order to evaluate the accuracy of the new time scale. Globally synchronous variations in spreading rate that were previously observed around anomalies 20, 6C, and in the late Neogene have been eliminated. The new time scale helps to resolve events at the times of major plate reorganizations. For example, anomaly 3A (5.6 Ma) is now seen to be a time of sudden spreading rate changes in the Southeast Indian, Pacific-Antarctic, and Chile ridges and may correspond to the time of the change in Pacific absolute plate motion proposed by others. Spreading rates in the North Pacific became increasingly irregular in the Oligocene, culminating in a precipitous drop at anomaly 6C time

Paleomagnetism of the Front Range (Colorado) Morrison Formation and an alternative model of Late Jurassic North American apparent polar wander

A paleomagnetic study of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in the Front Range of central Colorado yields high-unblocking-temperature, dual-polarity magnetizations. With respect to known paleohorizontal, the inclinations (absolute mean = 57.3°, 95% confidence interval = 52.3° to 63.1°, N = 8 sites) pass tilt and reversal tests, whereas the dispersion in declinations can be attributed to apparent or real tectonic rotations and sedimentary processes. The site-centered colatitudinal locus of possible Front Range Morrison poles partially overlaps the "upper" pole, but it excludes the "lower" pole from the Morrison Formation on the Colorado Plateau as well as the 151 Ma Glance conglomerate pole from the Basin and Range province of southeastern Arizona. We offer various explanations for these disparities and suggest an alternative model of Late Jurassic North American apparent polar wander through ~70°N which is supported by Late Jurassic European poles (with positive stability tests) transferred to North American coordinates

Paleomagnetism of 122 Ma Plutons in New England and the Mid-Cretaceous Paleomagnetic Field in North America: True Polar Wander or Large-Scale Differential Mantle Motion?

A paleomagnetic study of Cretaceous White Mountains plutonic complexes in New Hampshire and Vermont yields high unblocking temperature, dual polarity magnetizations in different types of igneous rocks. The resulting pole position for three plutons (71.9° N, 187.4° E, A_95 = 6.9°, age = 122.5 Ma) agrees with previously published mid-Cretaceous poles for North America, which together give a mid-Cretaceous standstill reference pole slightly revised from Globerman and Irving [1988] at 71.2° N, 194.1° E (A_95 = 3.7°, N = 5 studies). We argue on the basis of the wide geographic distribution of these studies, the variety in tectonic settings and rock types, positive reversal tests, and an overall reversal pattern consistent with geomagnetic polarity time scales, that this mean pole represents the North American mid-Cretaceous reference field for nominally 36 m.y. (124 to 88 Ma). The standstill pole limits to within ±4°, the motion of the North American plate relative to the Earth's spin axis. During the same mid-Cretaceous interval, the New England hotspot track (124 Ma Monteregian Hills, 122.5-Ma Cretaceous White Mountains, and 103- to 84-Ma New England seamounts) requires 11°±4° of north-poleward motion of North America, in direct conflict with the paleomagnetic standstill. A similar (~13°) discrepancy is independently demonstrated between the spin axis and the Tristan da Cunha hotspot track on the African plate during the mid-Cretaceous interval. The hotspot/spin axis discrepancies ended by ~90 Ma when it is shown that both Atlantic hotspots agree with North American and African dipole paleolatitudes and present-day locations. Nondipole fields are an unlikely explanation of the uniform motion of these two widely separated hotspots with respect to the spin axis, leaving as possible interpretations true polar wander and large-scale (but differential) mantle motion. The southerly motion of the mid-Cretaceous Louisville hotspot relative to the spin axis is ostensively at odds with what would be predicted under the true polar wander interpretation and points to differential mantle kinematics. The motions of the three widely separated mid-Cretaceous hotspots with respect to the spin axis may be related to the recently proposed increase in global oceanic lithosphere production rates which gave rise to the mid-Cretaceous "superplume.

High-Latitude Paleomagnetic Poles from Middle Jurassic Plutons and Moat Volcanics in New England and the Controversy Regarding Jurassic Apparent Polar Wander for North America

A paleomagnetic study of Middle Jurassic plutonic and volcanic rocks in New England (White Mountains Magma Series) yields high-latitude pole positions for North America. High unblocking temperature, moderate to high coercivity magnetizations of normal polarity have been isolated in three plutons (White Mountains batholith, Mount Monadnock, and the Belknap Mountains; mean age ~169 Ma), but the mean pole (88.4°N, 82.1°E, A_95 = 6.1°) is not distinguishable from the geographic axis and therefore the hypothesis that the plutons have been contaminated by recent field overprints can not be rejected. However, a dual polarity, high unblocking temperature, and high coercivity magnetization isolated from the Moat volcanics (169 Ma, Rb-Sr age) was apparently acquired soon after caldera collapse and tilting, at about the time of intrusion and cooling of the Conway granite (reported ages K-Ar biotite, 168 Ma; zircon fission track, 163 Ma). The Moat volcanics pole position (78.7°N, 90.3°E, dp = 7.1°, dm = 10.2°) calculated using the mean magnetization direction of reversed polarity (the Cr component) falls at high latitude but is distinguishable from the spin axis. Moreover, published Middle Jurassic paleomagnetic poles from Gondwana (Africa, Australia, and East Antarctica) transferred to the North American reference frame also suggest a high-latitude Middle Jurassic pole position for North America, in agreement with the Moat volcanics pole. The new evidence for a Middle Jurassic loop to high latitudes in the North American apparent polar wander path conflicts by 15°-20° with some key published Jurassic reference poles (e.g., the Newark Trend N2 and the Corral Canyon poles) used to constrain current paleomagnetic Euler pole (PEP) apparent polar wander paths for the Jurassic. We suggest that a plausible explanation for the discrepancy is that the N2 and Corral Canyon magnetizations are in fact secondary and were acquired after tilting. The hypothesis that the North American apparent polar wander path ventured to high latitude in the Middle Jurassic requires further testing, however the results of this study already suggest that the path may be more complicated than that proposed by recently published PEP studies

Zinc-blende and wurtzite AlxGa1-xN bulk crystals grown by molecular beam epitaxy

There is a significant difference in the lattice parameters of GaN and AlN and for many device applications AlxGa1-xN substrates would be preferable to either GaN or AlN. We have studied the growth of free-standing zinc-blende and wurtzite AlxGa1-xN bulk crystals by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE). Thick (similar to 10 mu m) zinc-blende and wurtzite AlxGa1-xN films were grown by PA-MBE on 2-in. GaAs (0 0 1) and GaAs (1 1 1)B substrates respectively and were removed from the GaAs substrate after the growth. We demonstrate that free-standing zinc-blende and wurtzite AlxGa1-xN wafers can be achieved by PA-MBE for a wide range of Al compositions. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

LABOURING TOGETHER - COLLABORATIVE ALLIANCES IN MATERNITY CARE IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA: PROTOCOL OF A MIXED METHODS STUDY

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