Phantastes Chapter 19: The Innocent III

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) was an English poet whose work echoes the metaphysical wit of John Donne. The lines quoted are lines 5-8 of “The Innocent III” (1647)

Structural and dynamical properties of superfluid helium: a density functional approach

We present a novel density functional for liquid 4He, properly accounting for the static response function and the phonon-roton dispersion in the uniform liquid. The functional is used to study both structural and dynamical properties of superfluid helium in various geometries. The equilibrium properties of the free surface, droplets and films at zero temperature are calculated. Our predictions agree closely to the results of ab initio Monte Carlo calculations, when available. The introduction of a phenomenological velocity dependent interaction, which accounts for backflow effects, is discussed. The spectrum of the elementary excitations of the free surface and films is studied.Comment: 37 pages, REVTeX 3.0, figures on request at [email protected]

XBT Science: Assessment of Instrumental Biases and Errors

Expendable bathythermograph (XBT) data were the major component of the ocean temperature profile observations from the late 1960s through the early 2000s, and XBTs still continue to provide critical data to monitor surface and subsurface currents, meridional heat transport, and ocean heat content. Systematic errors have been identified in the XBT data, some of which originate from computing the depth in the profile using a theoretically and experimentally derived fall-rate equation (FRE). After in-depth studies of these biases and discussions held in several workshops dedicated to discussing XBT biases, the XBT science community met at the Fourth XBT Science Workshop and concluded that XBT biases consist of 1) errors in depth values due to the inadequacy of the probe motion description done by standard FRE and 2) independent pure temperature biases. The depth error and temperature bias are temperature dependent and may depend on the data acquisition and recording system. In addition, the depth bias also includes an offset term. Some biases affecting the XBT-derived temperature profiles vary with manufacturer/probe type and have been shown to be time dependent. Best practices for historical XBT data corrections, recommendations for future collection of metadata to accompany XBT data, impact of XBT biases on scientific applications, and challenges encountered are presented in this manuscript. Analysis of XBT data shows that, despite the existence of these biases, historical XBT data without bias corrections are still suitable for many scientific applications, and that bias-corrected data can be used for climate research

Measuring global ocean heat content to estimate the earth energy imbalance

The energy radiated by the Earth toward space does not compensate the incoming radiation from the Sun leading to a small positive energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere (0.4–1 Wm–2). This imbalance is coined Earth’s Energy Imbalance (EEI). It is mostly caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and is driving the current warming of the planet. Precise monitoring of EEI is critical to assess the current status of climate change and the future evolution of climate. But the monitoring of EEI is challenging as EEI is two orders of magnitude smaller than the radiation fluxes in and out of the Earth system. Over 93% of the excess energy that is gained by the Earth in response to the positive EEI accumulates into the ocean in the form of heat. This accumulation of heat can be tracked with the ocean observing system such that today, the monitoring of Ocean Heat Content (OHC) and its long-term change provide the most efficient approach to estimate EEI. In this community paper we review the current four state-of-the-art methods to estimate global OHC changes and evaluate their relevance to derive EEI estimates on different time scales. These four methods make use of: (1) direct observations of in situ temperature; (2) satellite-based measurements of the ocean surface net heat fluxes; (3) satellite-based estimates of the thermal expansion of the ocean and (4) ocean reanalyses that assimilate observations from both satellite and in situ instruments. For each method we review the potential and the uncertainty of the method to estimate global OHC changes. We also analyze gaps in the current capability of each method and identify ways of progress for the future to fulfill the requirements of EEI monitoring. Achieving the observation of EEI with sufficient accuracy will depend on merging the remote sensing techniques with in situ measurements of key variables as an integral part of the Ocean Observing System

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Carotid Baroreflex Activation: Past, Present, and Future

Electrical activation of the carotid baroreceptor system is an attractive therapy for the treatment of resistant hypertension. In the past, several attempts were made to directly activate the baroreceptor system in humans, but the method had to be restricted to a few selected patients. Adverse effects, the need for better electrical devices and better surgical techniques, and the lack of knowledge about long-term effects has greatly hampered developments in this area for many years. Recently, a new and promising device was evaluated in a multicenter feasibility trial, which showed a clinically and statistically significant reduction in office systolic blood pressure (>20 mm Hg). This reduction could be sustained for at least 2 years with an acceptable safety profile. In the future, this new device may stimulate further application of electrical activation of the carotid baroreflex in treatment-resistant hypertension

Critical analysis of the luminosity functions per galaxy type measured from redshift surveys

[ABRIDGED] I perform a detailed comparison of the shape of the optical luminosity functions as a function of galaxy class and filter, which have been obtained from redshift surveys with an effective depth ranging from z~0.01 to z~0.6. This analysis is based on the M* and alpha Schechter parameters. I provide complete tables of all the existing measurements, converted into the UBVRcIc Johnson-Cousins system wherever necessary. By using as reference the intrinsic luminosity functions per morphological type measured from local galaxy concentrations (Jerjen et al 1997), I establish that the variations in the luminosity functions from survey to survey and among the galaxy classes are related to the criteria for galaxy classification used in the surveys, as these determine the amount of mixing of the morphological types within a given class. When using a spectral classification with inaccurate spectrophotometric calibrations, the luminosity functions are biased by type contamination with a smooth variation from type to type poorly related to the intrinsic luminosity functions per morphological type. In the case of multi-fiber spectroscopy, galaxy classification based on rest-frame colors might then provide better estimates of the intrinsic luminosity functions. All the existing surveys fail to measure the Gaussian luminosity functions for Spiral galaxies. Most surveys based on visual morphological classification also have their E/S0 luminosity functions contaminated at the faint end, except for analyses based on either multi-slit spectroscopy or medium-filter spectrophotometry combined with CCD photometry. These contamination effects are presumably due to dwarf galaxies. Measuring reliable intrinsic luminosity functions will thus require a more coherent approach in separating the giant and dwarf galaxy types.Comment: 30 Pages, 7 color figures. A&A Latex macro. Published in A&