Tropidosteptes forestierae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Mirinae): a new species of Plant Bug injuring ornamental Florida Swampprivet, Forestiera segregata (Oleaceae), in South Florida

The mirine plant bug Tropidosteptes forestierae, new species (Hemiptera: Miridae) is described from Collier County, Florida, where it was found causing serious injury to an extensive ornamental hedge of Florida swampprivet, Forestiera segregata (Jacq.) Krug and Urb. (Oleaceae). Adult male and female, fifth instar, and egg are described. Color images of the adults, nymph, egg, and injury; scanning photomicrographs of selected adult structures; and illustrations of male genitalia are provided. A key to help distinguish the 16 species of Tropidosteptes known to occur in the southeastern United States is given

An inversion in the atmosphere of Titan

A very detailed greenhouse model derives a methane to hydrogen ratio of unity and a minimum surface pressure of 0.4 atm. Based on a surface gravity g = 140 cm sec/2, the minimum CH4 abundance is 30-40 km-A and the minimum H2 abundance varies from 15 to 85 km-A. A model of the atmosphere of Titan is proposed which seems to be consistent with observations and requires a much smaller CH4 abundance (of the order or 2 km-atm). Although no H2 is required, the presence of some H2 is readily accommodated. In this model, a temperature inversion exists in the atmosphere due to absorption of blue and ultraviolet solar radiation by small particles. The absorbed radiation is re-radiated by the dust and by molecules having long wavelength bands such as CH4 7.7 micrometer and ethane at 12.2 micrometer. The brightness temperature at 20 micrometer is primarily due to re-radiation by the dust

Study of an advanced transport airplane design concept known as Flatbed

The design concept and configuration of the Flatbed transport aircraft are presented. The Flatbed configuration combines into one frame, the ability to haul cargo, virtually unrestrained by cross sectional dimensions of the fuselage. The feasibility and capability of the Flatbed is discussed in depth

The luminosity function of Palomar 5 and its tidal tails

We present the main sequence luminosity function of the tidally disrupted globular cluster Palomar 5 and its tidal tails. For this work we analyzed imaging data obtained with the Wide Field Camera at the INT (La Palma) and data from the Wide Field Imager at the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope at La Silla down to a limiting magnitude of approximately 24.5 mag in B. Our results indicate that preferentially fainter stars were removed from the cluster so that the LF of the cluster's main body exhibits a significant degree of flattening compared to other GCs. This is attributed to its advanced dynamical evolution. The LF of the tails is, in turn, enhanced with faint, low-mass stars, which we interpret as a consequence of mass segregation in the cluster.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the conference "Satellites and tidal streams" held at La Palma, Canary Islands, May 26 - 30, 200

ν−K0\nu - K^0 Analogy, Dirac-Majorana Neutrino Duality and the Neutrino Oscillations

The intent of this paper is to convey a new primary physical idea of a Dirac-Majorana neutrino duality in relation to the topical problem of neutrino oscillations. In view of the new atmospheric, solar and the LSND neutrino oscillation data, the Pontecorvo $\nu - K^0$ oscillation analogy is generalized to the notion of neutrino duality with substantially different physical meaning ascribed to the long-baseline and the short-baseline neutrino oscillations. At the level of CP-invariance, the suggestion of dual neutrino properties defines the symmetric two-mixing-angle form of the widely discussed four-neutrino $(2+2)$-mixing scheme, as a result of the lepton charge conservation selection rule and a minimum of two Dirac neutrino fields. With neutrino duality, the two-doublet structure of the Majorana neutrino mass spectrum is a vestige of the two-Dirac-neutrino origin. The fine neutrino mass doublet structure is natural because it is produced by a lepton charge symmetry violating perturbation on a zero-approximation system of two twofold mass-degenerate Dirac neutrino-antineutrino pairs. A set of inferences related to the neutrino oscillation phenomenology in vacuum is considered.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX. Minor modifications, new references adde

Stringent constraint on the scalar-neutrino coupling constant from quintessential cosmology

An extremely light ($m_{\phi} \ll 10^{-33} {\rm eV}$), slowly-varying scalar field $\phi$ (quintessence) with a potential energy density as large as 60% of the critical density has been proposed as the origin of the accelerated expansion of the Universe at present. The interaction of this smoothly distributed component with another predominately smooth component, the cosmic neutrino background, is studied. The slow-roll approximation for generic $\phi$ potentials may then be used to obtain a limit on the scalar-neutrino coupling constant, found to be many orders of magnitude more stringent than the limits set by observations of neutrinos from SN 1987A. In addition, if quintessential theory allows for a violation of the equivalence principle in the sector of neutrinos, the current solar neutrino data can probe such a violation at the 10^{-10} level.Comment: 7 pages, MPLA in press, some parts disregarded and a footnote adde

Radial Color Gradients in K+A Galaxies in Distant Clusters of Galaxies

Galaxies in rich clusters with z $\gtrsim$ 0.3 are observed to have a higher fraction of photometrically blue galaxies than their nearby counterparts. This raises the important question of what environmental effects can cause the termination of star formation between z $\approx$ 0.3 and the present. The star formation may be truncated due to ram-pressure stripping, or the gas in the disk may be depleted by an episode of star formation caused by some external perturbation. To help resolve this issue, surface photometry was carried out for a total of 70 early-type galaxies in the cluster Cl1358+62, at z $\sim$ 0.33, using two-color images from the Hubble Archive. The galaxies were divided into two categories based on spectroscopic criteria: 24 are type K+A (e.g., strong Balmer lines, with no visible emission lines), while the remaining 46 are in the control sample with normal spectra. Radial color profiles were produced to see if the K+A galaxies show bluer nuclei in relation to their surrounding disks. Specifically, a linear gradient was fit to the radial color profile of each galaxy. We find that the K+A galaxies on average tend to have slightly bluer gradients towards the center than the normals. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample test has been applied to the two sets of color gradients. The result of the test indicates that there is only a $\sim$2% probability that the K+A and normal samples are drawn from the same parent distribution. There is a possible complication from a trend in the apparent magnitude vs. color gradient relation, but overall our results favor the centralized star formation scenario as an important process in the evolution of galaxies in dense clusters.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A