854 research outputs found
The time-like form factor of the nucleon and its consequences on the experiments with colliding electron-positron beams
Large Spatial Scale Variability in Bathyal Macrobenthos Abundance, Biomass, a- and b-Diversity along the Mediterranean Continental Margin
The large-scale deep-sea biodiversity distribution of the benthic fauna was explored in the Mediterranean Sea, which can beseen as a miniature model of the oceans of the world. Within the framework of the BIOFUN project (ââBiodiversity andEcosystem Functioning in Contrasting Southern European Deep-sea Environments: from viruses to megafaunaââ), weinvestigated the large spatial scale variability (over .1,000 km) of the bathyal macrofauna communities that inhabit theMediterranean basin, and their relationships with the environmental variables. The macrofauna abundance, biomass,community structure and functional diversity were analysed and the a-diversity and b-diversity were estimated across sixselected slope areas at different longitudes and along three main depths. The macrobenthic standing stock and a-diversitywere lower in the deep-sea sediments of the eastern Mediterranean basin, compared to the western and central basins. Themacrofaunal standing stock and diversity decreased significantly from the upper bathyal to the lower bathyal slope stations.The major changes in the community composition of the higher taxa and in the trophic (functional) structure occurred atdifferent longitudes, rather than at increasing water depth. For the b-diversity, very high dissimilarities emerged at all levels:(i) between basins; (ii) between slopes within the same basin; and (iii) between stations at different depths; this thereforedemonstrates the high macrofaunal diversity of the Mediterranean basins at large spatial scales. Overall, the food sources(i.e., quantity and quality) that characterised the west, central and eastern Mediterranean basins, as well as sediment grainsize, appear to influence the macrobenthic standing stock and the biodiversity along the different slope areas
Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) in the Marine Coastal Environment: Basic Concepts and Keystones from the Plankton Communities.
not availabl
Poly-essential and general Hyperelastic World (brane) models
This article provides a unified treatment of an extensive category of
non-linear classical field models whereby the universe is represented (perhaps
as a brane in a higher dimensional background) in terms of a structure of a
mathematically convenient type describable as hyperelastic, for which a
complete set of equations of motion is provided just by the energy-momentum
conservation law. Particular cases include those of a perfect fluid in
quintessential backgrounds of various kinds, as well as models of the elastic
solid kind that has been proposed to account for cosmic acceleration. It is
shown how an appropriately generalised Hadamard operator can be used to
construct a symplectic structure that controles the evolution of small
perturbations, and that provides a characteristic equation governing the
propagation of weak discontinuities of diverse (extrinsic and extrinsic) kinds.
The special case of a poly-essential model - the k-essential analogue of an
ordinary polytropic fluid - is examined and shown to be well behaved (like the
fluid) only if the pressure to density ratio is positive.Comment: 16 pages Latex, Contrib. to 10th Peyresq Pysics Meeting, June 2005:
Micro and Macro Structures of Spacetim
Correcting the extended-source calibration for the <i>Herschel</i>-SPIRE Fourier-transform spectrometer
We describe an update to the Herschel-Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) calibration for extended sources, which incorporates a correction for the frequency-dependent far-field feedhorn efficiency, ηff. This significant correction affects all FTS extended-source calibrated spectra in sparse or mapping mode, regardless of the spectral resolution. Line fluxes and continuum levels are underestimated by factors of 1.3â2 in thespectrometer long wavelength band (447â1018 GHz; 671â294 ÎŒm) and 1.4â1.5 in the spectrometer short wavelength band (944â1568 GHz; 318â191 ÎŒm). The correction was implemented in the FTS pipeline version 14.1 and has also been described in the SPIRE Handbook since 2017 February. Studies based on extended-source calibrated spectra produced prior to this pipeline version should be critically reconsidered using the current products available in the Herschel Science Archive. Once the extended-source calibrated spectra are corrected for ηff, the synthetic photometry and the broad-band intensities from SPIRE photometer maps agree within 2â4âperâcent â similar levels to the comparison of point-source calibrated spectra and photometry from point-source calibrated maps. The two calibration schemes for the FTS are now self-consistent: the conversion between the corrected extended-source and point-source calibrated spectra can be achieved with the beam solid angle and a gain correction that accounts for the diffraction loss
HerMES: Current Cosmic Infrared Background Estimates Can be Explained by Known Galaxies and their Faint Companions at z < 4
We report contributions to cosmic infrared background (CIB) intensities
originating from known galaxies and their faint companions at submillimeter
wavelengths. Using the publicly-available UltraVISTA catalog, and maps at 250,
350, and 500 {\mu}m from the \emph{Herschel} Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey
(HerMES), we perform a novel measurement that exploits the fact that
uncatalogued sources may bias stacked flux densities --- particularly if the
resolution of the image is poor --- and intentionally smooth the images before
stacking and summing intensities. By smoothing the maps we are capturing the
contribution of faint (undetected in K_S ~ 23.4) sources that are physically
associated, or correlated, with the detected sources. We find that the
cumulative CIB increases with increased smoothing, reaching 9.82 +- 0.78, 5.77
+- 0.43, and 2.32 +- 0.19 at 250, 350, and 500 {\mu}m
at 300 arcsec FWHM. This corresponds to a fraction of the fiducial CIB of 0.94
+- 0.23, 1.07 +- 0.31, and 0.97 +- 0.26 at 250, 350, and 500 {\mu}m, where the
uncertainties are dominated by those of the absolute CIB. We then propose, with
a simple model combining parametric descriptions for stacked flux densities and
stellar mass functions, that emission from galaxies with log(M/Msun) > 8.5 can
account for the most of the measured total intensities, and argue against
contributions from extended, diffuse emission. Finally, we discuss prospects
for future survey instruments to improve the estimates of the absolute CIB
levels, and observe any potentially remaining emission at z > 4.Comment: Accepted to ApJL. 6 Pages, 3 figure
Measurement of the Crab nebula polarization at 90 GHz as a calibrator for CMB experiments
CMB experiments aiming at a precise measurement of the CMB polarization, such
as the Planck satellite, need a strong polarized absolute calibrator on the sky
to accurately set the detectors polarization angle and the cross-polarization
leakage. As the most intense polarized source in the microwave sky at angular
scales of few arcminutes, the Crab nebula will be used for this purpose. Our
goal was to measure the Crab nebula polarization characteristics at 90 GHz with
unprecedented precision. The observations were carried out with the IRAM 30m
telescope employing the correlation polarimeter XPOL and using two orthogonally
polarized receivers. We processed the Stokes I, Q, and U maps from our
observations in order to compute the polarization angle and linear polarization
fraction. The first is almost constant in the region of maximum emission in
polarization with a mean value of alpha_Sky=152.1+/-0.3 deg in equatorial
coordinates, and the second is found to reach a maximum of Pi=30% for the most
polarized pixels. We find that a CMB experiment having a 5 arcmin circular beam
will see a mean polarization angle of alpha_Sky=149.9+/-0.2 deg and a mean
polarization fraction of Pi=8.8+/-0.2%.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 9 pages, 4 figure
Serendipitous detection of an overdensity of Herschel-SPIRE 250 micron sources south of MRC1138-26
We report the serendipitous detection of a significant overdensity of
Herschel-SPIRE 250 micron sources in the vicinity of MRC1138-26. We use an
adaptive kernel density estimate to quantify the significance, including a
comparison with other fields. The overdensity has a size of ~3.5-4' and stands
out at ~5sigma with respect to the background estimate. No features with
similar significance were found in four extragalactic control fields:
GOODS-North, Lockman, COSMOS and UDS. The chance of having a similar
overdensity in a field with the same number but randomly distributed sources is
less than 2%. The clump is also visible as a low surface brightness feature in
the Planck 857 GHz map. We detect 76 sources at 250 micron (with a
signal-to-noise ratio greater than 3), in a region of 4' radius; 43 of those
are above a flux density limit of 20 mJy. This is a factor of 3.6 in excess
over the average in the four control fields, considering only the sources above
20 mJy. We also find an excess in the number counts of sources with 250 micron
flux densities between 30 and 40 mJy, compared to deep extragalactic
blank-field number counts. Assuming a fixed dust temperature (30 K) and
emissivity (beta=1.5) a crude, blackbody-derived redshift distribution, zBB, of
the detected sources is significantly different from the distributions in the
control fields and exhibits a significant peak at zBB ~ 1.5, although the
actual peak redshift is highly degenerate with the temperature. We tentatively
suggest, based on zBB and the similar S250/S350 colours of the sources within
the peak, that a significant fraction of the sources in the clump may be at a
similar redshift. Since the overdensity lies ~7' south of the z=2.16 Spiderweb
protocluster MRC1138-26, an intriguing possibility (that is presently
unverifiable given the data in hand) is that it lies within the same
large-scale structure.(abridged)Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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