15,822 research outputs found
Ediacaran Obduction of a Fore-Arc Ophiolite in SW Iberia: A Turning Point in the Evolving Geodynamic Setting of Peri- Gondwana
The Calzadilla Ophiolite is an ensemble of mafic and ultramafic rocks that represents the
transition between lower crust and upper mantle of a Cadomian (peri-Gondwanan) fore arc. Mapping and
structural analysis of the ophiolite demonstrates that it was obducted in latest Ediacaran times, because the
Ediacaran-Early Cambrian sedimentary series (Malcocinado Formation) discordantly covers it. The ophiolite
and emplacement-related structures are affected by Variscan deformation (Devonian-Carboniferous),
which includes SW verging overturned folds (D1) and thrusts (D2), upright folds (D3), extensional faults (D4),
and later faults (D5). These phases of deformation are explained in the context of Variscan tectonics as the
result of the progressive collision between Gondwana and Laurussia. Qualitative unstraining of Variscan
deformation reveals the primary geometry of Ediacaran-Cambrian structures and uncovers the generation of
east verging thrusts as responsible for the primary obduction of the Calzadilla Ophiolite. Restoration of
planar and linear structures associated with this event indicates an Ediacaran, east directed obduction of the
ophiolite, that is, emplacement of the Cadomian fore arc onto inner sections of the northern margin of
Gondwana. According to regional data, the obduction separates two extension-dominated stages in the
tectonic evolution of the African margin of northern Gondwana preserved in southern Europe. Preobduction
extension brought about the onset and widening of fore-arc and back-arc basins in the external part
of the continent, while postobduction extension facilitated the formation of extensional migmatitic domes,
an oceanward migration of back-arc spreading centers across peri-Gondwana, and the eventual opening
of a major basin such as the Rheic Ocean
Analysis and test of the central-blue-spot infall hallmark
The infall of material onto a protostar, in the case of optically thick line
emission, produces an asymmetry in the blue- and red-wing line emission. For an
angularly resolved emission, this translates in a blue central spot in the
first-order moment (intensity weighted velocity) map. An analytical expression
for the first-order moment intensity as a function of the projected distance
was derived, for the cases of infinite and finite infall radius. The effect of
a finite angular resolution, which requires the numerical convolution with the
beam, was also studied. This method was applied to existing data of several
star-forming regions, namely G31.41+0.31 HMC, B335, and LDN 1287, obtaining
good fits to the first-order moment intensity maps, and deriving values of the
central masses onto which the infall is taking place (G31.41+0.31 HMC: 70-120
; B335: 0.1 ; Guitar Core of LDN 1287: 4.8 ). The
central-blue-spot infall hallmark appears to be a robust and reliable indicator
of infall.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Statistical analysis of Ni nanowires breaking processes: a numerical simulation study
A statistical analysis of the breaking behavior of Ni nanowires is presented.
Using molecular dynamic simulations, we have determined the time evolution of
both the nanowire atomic structure and its minimum cross section (Sm(t)).
Accumulating thousands of independent breaking events, Sm histograms are built
and used to study the influence of the temperature, the crystalline stretching
direction and the initial nanowire size. The proportion of monomers, dimers and
more complex structures at the latest stages of the breaking process are
calculated, finding important differences among results obtained for different
nanowire orientations and sizes. Three main cases have been observed. (A) [111]
stretching direction and large nanowire sizes: the wire evolves from more
complex structures to monomers and dimers prior its rupture; well ordered
structures is presented during the breaking process. (B) Large nanowires
stretched along the [100] and [110] directions: the system mainly breaks from
complex structures (low probability of finding monomers and dimers), having
disordered regions during their breakage; at room temperature, a huge histogram
peak around Sm=5 appears, showing the presence of long staggered pentagonal Ni
wires with ...-5-1-5-... structure. (C) Initial wire size is small: strong size
effects independently on the temperature and stretching direction. Finally, the
local structure around monomers and dimmers do not depend on the stretching
direction. These configurations differ from those usually chosen in static
studies of conductance.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure
Fragmented condensation in Bose-Hubbard trimers with tunable tunnelling
We consider a Bose-Hubbard trimer, i.e. an ultracold Bose gas populating
three quantum states. The latter can be either different sites of a triple-well
potential or three internal states of the atoms. The bosons can tunnel between
different states with variable tunnelling strength between two of them. This
will allow us to study; i) different geometrical configurations, i.e. from a
closed triangle to three aligned wells and ii) a triangular configuration with
a -phase, i.e. by setting one of the tunnellings negative. By solving the
corresponding three-site Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian we obtain the ground state of
the system as a function of the trap topology. We characterise the different
ground states by means of the coherence and entanglement properties. For small
repulsive interactions, fragmented condensates are found for the -phase
case. These are found to be robust against small variations of the tunnelling
in the small interaction regime. A low-energy effective many-body Hamiltonian
restricted to the degenerate manifold provides a compelling description of the
-phase degeneration and explains the low-energy spectrum as excitations of
discrete semifluxon states
Tensorial perturbations in the bulk of inflating brane worlds
In this paper we consider the stability of some inflating brane-world models
in quantum cosmology. It is shown that whereas the singular model based on the
construction of inflating branes from Euclidean five-dimensional anti-de Sitter
space is unstable to tensorial cosmological perturbations in the bulk, the
nonsingular model which uses a five-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter
wormhole to construct the inflating branes is stable to these perturbations.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, to appear in Phys. Rev.
- …