Predicting Whole Forest Structure, Primary Productivity, and Biomass Density From Maximum Tree Size and Resource Limitations

In the face of uncertain biological response to climate change and the many critiques concerning model complexity it is increasingly important to develop predictive mechanistic frameworks that capture the dominant features of ecological communities and their dependencies on environmental factors. This is particularly important for critical global processes such as biomass changes, carbon export, and biogenic climate feedback. Past efforts have successfully understood a broad spectrum of plant and community traits across a range of biological diversity and body size, including tree size distributions and maximum tree height, from mechanical, hydrodynamic, and resource constraints. Recently it was shown that global scaling relationships for net primary productivity are correlated with local meteorology and the overall biomass density within a forest. Along with previous efforts, this highlights the connection between widely observed allometric relationships and predictive ecology. An emerging goal of ecological theory is to gain maximum predictive power with the least number of parameters. Here we show that the explicit dependence of such critical quantities can be systematically predicted knowing just the size of the largest tree. This is supported by data showing that forests converge to our predictions as they mature. Since maximum tree size can be calculated from local meteorology this provides a general framework for predicting the generic structure of forests from local environmental parameters thereby addressing a range of critical Earth-system questions.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, 1 Tabl

Affine maps of density matrices

For quantum systems described by finite matrices, linear and affine maps of matrices are shown to provide equivalent descriptions of evolution of density matrices for a subsystem caused by unitary Hamiltonian evolution in a larger system; an affine map can be replaced by a linear map, and a linear map can be replaced by an affine map. There may be significant advantage in using an affine map. The linear map is generally not completely positive, but the linear part of an equivalent affine map can be chosen to be completely positive and related in the simplest possible way to the unitary Hamiltonian evolution in the larger system.Comment: 4 pages, title changed, sentence added, reference update

Raman spectra of GexAsySe1−x−y glasses

Various Ge–As–Se glasses spanning a mean coordination number (MCN) from 2.2 to 2.94 have been investigated using differential scanning calorimetry and Raman spectroscopy. The glass transition temperature Tg was found to increase with increasing MCN, except for those glasses located within the nanoscale phase-separated region of the phase diagram. The evolution of Raman features at wavenumbers from 150 to 350 cm⁻¹ exhibits two transitionlike features. Merging of the 225 and 250 cm⁻¹ modes at MCN=2.5 is a symbol of the extinction of Se–Se bonds. Additionally, the appearance of two modes at 280–290 and 170 cm⁻¹ at MCN>2.7 come from the defect modes of ethanelike Ge₂Se₆/₂. The increase in the scattering from these defects is an important factor leading to enhanced optical loss in the glasses with high MCN.This research was partly supported by the Australian Research Council through its Centres of Excellence and Federation Fellow Programs

Quantum Phase Transitions in Josephson Junction Chains

We investigate the quantum phase transition in a one-dimensional chain of ultra-small superconducting grains, considering both the self- and junction capacitances. At zero temperature, the system is transformed into a two-dimensional system of classical vortices, where the junction capacitance introduces anisotropy in the interaction between vortices. This leads to the superconductor-insulator transition of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type, as the ratios of the Josephson coupling energy to the charging energies are varied. It is found that the junction capacitance plays a role similar to that of dissipation and tends to suppress quantum fluctuations; nevertheless the insulator region survives even for arbitrarily large values of the junction capacitance.Comment: REVTeX+5 EPS figures, To appear in PRB Rapid

Trends Prediction Using Social Diffusion Models

The importance of the ability of predict trends in social media has been growing rapidly in the past few years with the growing dominance of social media in our everyday's life. Whereas many works focus on the detection of anomalies in networks, there exist little theoretical work on the prediction of the likelihood of anomalous network pattern to globally spread and become "trends". In this work we present an analytic model the social diffusion dynamics of spreading network patterns. Our proposed method is based on information diffusion models, and is capable of predicting future trends based on the analysis of past social interactions between the community's members. We present an analytic lower bound for the probability that emerging trends would successful spread through the network. We demonstrate our model using two comprehensive social datasets - the "Friends and Family" experiment that was held in MIT for over a year, where the complete activity of 140 users was analyzed, and a financial dataset containing the complete activities of over 1.5 million members of the "eToro" social trading community.Comment: 6 Pages + Appendi

Orbiton-mediated multi-phonon scattering in La1−x_{1-x}Srx_xMnO3_3

We report on Raman scattering measurements of single crystalline La$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$MnO$_3$ ($x$=0, 0.06, 0.09 and 0.125), focusing on the high frequency regime. We observe multi-phonon scattering processes up to fourth-order which show distinct features: (i) anomalies in peak energy and its relative intensity and (ii) a pronounced temperature-, polarization-, and doping-dependence. These features suggest a mixed orbiton-phonon nature of the observed multi-phonon Raman spectra.Comment: 6pages, 6figures, submitted to PR

Study of CP Property of the Higgs at a Photon Collider using γγ→ttˉ→lX\gamma\gamma\to t\bar t\to l X

We study possible effects of CP violation in the Higgs sector on $t\bar t$ production at a $\gamma\gamma$-collider. These studies are performed in a model-independent way in terms of six form-factors $\{\Re(S_{\gamma}), \Im(S_{\gamma}), \Re(P_{\gamma}), \Im(P_{\gamma}), S_t, P_t\}$ which parametrize the CP mixing in the Higgs sector, and a strategy for their determination is developed. We observe that the angular distribution of the decay lepton from $t/\bar t$ produced in this process is independent of any CP violation in the $tbW$ vertex and hence best suited for studying CP mixing in the Higgs sector. Analytical expressions are obtained for the angular distribution of leptons in the c.m. frame of the two colliding photons for a general polarization state of the incoming photons. We construct combined asymmetries in the initial state lepton (photon) polarization and the final state lepton charge. They involve CP even ($x$'s) and odd ($y$'s) combinations of the mixing parameters. We study limits up to which the values of $x$ and $y$, with only two of them allowed to vary at a time, can be probed by measurements of these asymmetries, using circularly polarized photons. We use the numerical values of the asymmetries predicted by various models to discriminate among them. We show that this method can be sensitive to the loop-induced CP violation in the Higgs sector in the MSSM.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures added one referenc

Anomalous electronic Raman scattering in Na_xCoO_2 H_2O

Raman scattering experiments on Na_{x}CoO_2 yH_2O single crystals show a broad electronic continuum with a pronounced peak around 100 cm-1 and a cutoff at approximately 560 cm-1over a wide range of doping levels. The electronic Raman spectra in superconducting and non-superconducting samples are similar at room temperature, but evolve in markedly different ways with decreasing temperature. For superconducting samples, the low-energy spectral weight is depleted upon cooling below T* sim 150K, indicating a opening of a pseudogap that is not present in non-superconducting materials. Weak additional phonon modes observed below T* suggest that the pseudogap is associated with charge ordering.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, for further information see www.peter-lemmens.d