1,227 research outputs found
Paleosols of the Oligocene of Nebraska
Prominent paleosol ( buried or fossil soil) complexes occur at the top of the middle Orella, upper Orella, lower Whitney, and upper Whitney in the Brule formation of Nebraska; and at the top of the Lower Oreodon, Middle Oreodon, Upper Oreodon, and Leptauchenia beds in the Brule deposits of South Dakota. These paleosols have regional distribution and appear to be of value in stratigraphic correlations. Major faunal breaks seem to coincide with important buried soil zones, thus indicating that certain paleosols actually represent unconformities. Some of the soils were developed on old land surfaces where deposition was practically at a standstill for long periods of time. Important valley-fills were associated with the soils which formed on the valley slopes and upland surfaces. Paleosols also are present in the Chadron formation of Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming. A very prominent paleosol complex (= Interior formation ) , probably of Eocene age, is present at the top of the Pierre shale (below the Chadron deposits) in Sioux County, Nebraska, and adjacent areas. Profile measurements and field study have demonstrated the complex nature of some of these ancient soil horizons
Tachyonic perturbations in AdS orbifolds
We show that scalar as well as vector and tensor metric perturbations in the
Randall-Sundrum II braneworld allow normalizable tachyonic modes, i.e.,
possible instabilities. These instabilities require nonvanishing initial
anisotropic stresses on the brane. We show with a specific example that within
the Randall-Sundrum II model, even though the tachyonic modes are excited, no
instability develops. We argue, however, that in the cosmological context
instabilities might in principle be present. We conjecture that the tachyonic
modes are due to the singularity of the orbifold construction. We illustrate
this with a simple but explicit toy model.Comment: 11 pages, matches published versio
On graviton production in braneworld cosmology
We study braneworlds in a five dimensional bulk, where cosmological expansion
is mimicked by motion through AdS. We show that the five dimensional
graviton reduces to the four dimensional one in the late time approximation of
such braneworlds. Inserting a fixed regulator brane far from the physical
brane, we investigate quantum graviton production due to the motion of the
brane. We show that the massive Kaluza-Klein modes decouple completely from the
massless mode and they are not generated at all in the limit where the
regulator brane position goes to infinity. In the low energy limit, the
massless four dimensional graviton obeys the usual 4d equation and is therefore
also not generated in a radiation-dominated universe.Comment: 9 pages, minor changes, references correcte
Repeated games for eikonal equations, integral curvature flows and non-linear parabolic integro-differential equations
The main purpose of this paper is to approximate several non-local evolution
equations by zero-sum repeated games in the spirit of the previous works of
Kohn and the second author (2006 and 2009): general fully non-linear parabolic
integro-differential equations on the one hand, and the integral curvature flow
of an interface (Imbert, 2008) on the other hand. In order to do so, we start
by constructing such a game for eikonal equations whose speed has a
non-constant sign. This provides a (discrete) deterministic control
interpretation of these evolution equations. In all our games, two players
choose positions successively, and their final payoff is determined by their
positions and additional parameters of choice. Because of the non-locality of
the problems approximated, by contrast with local problems, their choices have
to "collect" information far from their current position. For integral
curvature flows, players choose hypersurfaces in the whole space and positions
on these hypersurfaces. For parabolic integro-differential equations, players
choose smooth functions on the whole space
Practical private database queries based on a quantum key distribution protocol
Private queries allow a user Alice to learn an element of a database held by
a provider Bob without revealing which element she was interested in, while
limiting her information about the other elements. We propose to implement
private queries based on a quantum key distribution protocol, with changes only
in the classical post-processing of the key. This approach makes our scheme
both easy to implement and loss-tolerant. While unconditionally secure private
queries are known to be impossible, we argue that an interesting degree of
security can be achieved, relying on fundamental physical principles instead of
unverifiable security assumptions in order to protect both user and database.
We think that there is scope for such practical private queries to become
another remarkable application of quantum information in the footsteps of
quantum key distribution.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, new and improved version, clarified claims,
expanded security discussio
Relaxation times of kinetically constrained spin models with glassy dynamics
We analyze the density and size dependence of the relaxation time for
kinetically constrained spin systems. These have been proposed as models for
strong or fragile glasses and for systems undergoing jamming transitions. For
the one (FA1f) or two (FA2f) spin facilitated Fredrickson-Andersen model at any
density and for the Knight model below the critical density at which
the glass transition occurs, we show that the persistence and the spin-spin
time auto-correlation functions decay exponentially. This excludes the
stretched exponential relaxation which was derived by numerical simulations.
For FA2f in , we also prove a super-Arrhenius scaling of the form
. For FA1f in = we
rigorously prove the power law scalings recently derived in \cite{JMS} while in
we obtain upper and lower bounds consistent with findings therein.
Our results are based on a novel multi-scale approach which allows to analyze
in presence of kinetic constraints and to connect time-scales and
dynamical heterogeneities. The techniques are flexible enough to allow a
variety of constraints and can also be applied to conservative stochastic
lattice gases in presence of kinetic constraints.Comment: 4 page
Report from the Second International Symposium on Animal Genomics for Animal Health: Critical Needs, Challenges and Potential Solutions
The second International Symposium on Animal Genomics for Animal Health held in Paris, France 31 May-2 June, 2010, assembled more than 140 participants representing research organizations from 40 countries. The symposium included a roundtable discussion on critical needs, challenges and opportunities, and a forward look at the potential applications of animal genomics in animal health research. The aim of the roundtable discussion was to foster a dialogue between scientists working at the cutting edge of animal genomics research and animal health scientists. Importantly, stakeholders were included to provide input on priorities and the potential value of animal genomics to the animal health community. In an effort to facilitate the roundtable discussion, the organizers identified four priority areas to advance the use of genome-enabled technologies in animal health research. Contributions were obtained through open discussions and a questionnaire distributed at the start of the symposium. This report provides the outcome of the roundtable discussion for each of the four priority areas. For each priority, problems are identified, including potential solutions and recommendations. This report captures key points made by symposium participants during the roundtable discussion and serves as a roadmap to steer future research priorities in animal genomics research
Witnessing causal nonseparability
Our common understanding of the physical world deeply relies on the notion
that events are ordered with respect to some time parameter, with past events
serving as causes for future ones. Nonetheless, it was recently found that it
is possible to formulate quantum mechanics without any reference to a global
time or causal structure. The resulting framework includes new kinds of quantum
resources that allow performing tasks - in particular, the violation of causal
inequalities - which are impossible for events ordered according to a global
causal order. However, no physical implementation of such resources is known.
Here we show that a recently demonstrated resource for quantum computation -
the quantum switch - is a genuine example of "indefinite causal order". We do
this by introducing a new tool - the causal witness - which can detect the
causal nonseparability of any quantum resource that is incompatible with a
definite causal order. We show however that the quantum switch does not violate
any causal nequality.Comment: 15 + 12 pages, 5 figures. Published versio
Synthesis and characterization of novel efficient and thermally stable 2-aryl-5-dicyanovinylthiophenes and 5-aryl-5´-dicyanovinyl-2,2´-bithiophenes as potentially promising nonlinear optical (NLO) materials
Two series of dicyanovinyl-substituted compounds namely 2-aryl-5-dicyanovinyl-thiophenes 4 and 5-aryl-5´-dicyanovinyl-2,2´-bithiophenes 6 were synthesized through Knoevenagel condensation of the corresponding 2-aryl-5-formyl-thiophenes 3 and 5-aryl-5´-formyl-2,2´-bithiophene 5 precursors. On the other hand, precursors 3 were prepared through the Vilsmeier-Haack-Arnold reaction (VHA) starting from inexpensive and easily available precursors such as acetophenones. This method produced the title compounds in higher yields than the recently reported synthesis via Suzuki coupling of functionalized aryl boronic acids with 5-bromo-2-formyl-thiophene. Electrochemical studies and characterization of the optical (linear and nonlinear), and thermal properties for compounds 5-6 indicate that, good nonlinearity is complemented by exceptional thermal stability for chromophores 6, making them potential candidates for several optoelectronic applications such as solvatochromic probes and nonlinear optical materials.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PTDC/QUI/66251/2006, programa “Acções Integradas Luso-Francesas/CRUP-CP
Making a splash with water repellency
A 'splash' is usually heard when a solid body enters water at large velocity.
This phenomena originates from the formation of an air cavity resulting from
the complex transient dynamics of the free interface during the impact. The
classical picture of impacts on free surfaces relies solely on fluid inertia,
arguing that surface properties and viscous effects are negligible at
sufficiently large velocities. In strong contrast to this large-scale
hydrodynamic viewpoint, we demonstrate in this study that the wettability of
the impacting body is a key factor in determining the degree of splashing. This
unexpected result is illustrated in Fig.1: a large cavity is evident for an
impacting hydrophobic sphere (1.b), contrasting with the hydrophilic sphere's
impact under the very same conditions (1.a). This unforeseen fact is
furthermore embodied in the dependence of the threshold velocity for air
entrainment on the contact angle of the impacting body, as well as on the ratio
between the surface tension and fluid viscosity, thereby defining a critical
capillary velocity. As a paradigm, we show that superhydrophobic impacters make
a big 'splash' for any impact velocity. This novel understanding provides a new
perspective for impacts on free surfaces, and reveals that modifications of the
detailed nature of the surface -- involving physico-chemical aspects at the
nanometric scales -- provide an efficient and versatile strategy for
controlling the water entry of solid bodies at high velocity.Comment: accepted for publication in Nature Physic
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