4,017 research outputs found
Level and length of cyclic solar activity during the Maunder minimum as deduced from the active day statistics
The Maunder minimum (MM) of greatly reduced solar activity took place in
1645-1715, but the exact level of sunspot activity is uncertain as based, to a
large extent, on historical generic statements of the absence of spots on the
Sun. Here we aim, using a conservative approach, to assess the level and length
of solar cycle during the Maunder minimum, on the basis of direct historical
records by astronomers of that time. A database of the active and inactive days
(days with and without recorded sunspots on the solar disc respectively) is
constructed for three models of different levels of conservatism (loose ML,
optimum MO and strict MS models) regarding generic no-spot records. We have
used the active day fraction to estimate the group sunspot number during the
MM. A clear cyclic variability is found throughout the MM with peaks at around
1655--1657, 1675, 1684 and 1705, and possibly 1666, with the active day
fraction not exceeding 0.2, 0.3 or 0.4 during the core MM, for the three
models. Estimated sunspot numbers are found very low in accordance with a grand
minimum of solar activity.
We have found, for the core MM (1650-1700), that: (1) A large fraction of
no-spot records, corresponding to the solar meridian observations, may be
unreliable in the conventional database. (2) The active day fraction remained
low (below 0.3-0.4) throughout the MM, indicating the low level of sunspot
activity. (3) The solar cycle appears clearly during the core MM. (4) The
length of the solar cycle during the core MM appears years, but there
is an uncertainty in that. (5) The magnitude of the sunspot cycle during MM is
assessed to be below 5-10 in sunspot numbers;
A hypothesis of the high solar cycles during the MM is not confirmed.Comment: Accepted to Astron. Astrophy
K^0-\bar{K}^0 mixing in the Standard Model from Nf=2+1+1 Twisted Mass Lattice QCD
We present preliminary results at {\beta} = 1.95 (a = 0.077 fm) on the first
unquenched N_f=2+1+1 lattice computation of the B_K parameter which controls
the neutral kaon oscillations in the Standard Model. Using N_f=2+1+1 maximally
twisted sea quarks and Osterwalder-Seiler valence quarks we achieve O(a)
improvement and a continuum-like renormalization pattern for the four-fermion
operator. Our results are extrapolated/interpolated to the physical
light/strange quark mass but not yet to the continuum limit. The computation of
the relevant renormalization constants is performed non perturbatively in the
RI'-MOM scheme using dedicated simulations with N_f=4 degenerate sea quark
flavours produced by the ETM collaboration.
We get B_K^{RGI} (a = 0.077) = 0.747(18), which when compared to our previous
unquenched N_f=2 determination and most of the existing results, suggests a
rather weak B_K^{RGI} dependence on the number of dynamical flavours. We are at
the moment analysing lattice data at two additional {\beta} values which will
allow us to perform an extrapolation to the continuum limit.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Proceedings of Lattice 2011, XXIX International
Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe, Californi
- …