Bounds on Bosonic Topcolor

We consider the phenomenology of models in which electroweak symmetry breaking is triggered by new strong dynamics affecting the third generation and is transmitted to the light fermions via a fundamental Higgs doublet. While similar in spirit to the old bosonic technicolor idea, such `bosonic topcolor' models are allowed by current phenomenological constraints, and may arise naturally in models with large extra dimensions. We study the parameter space of a minimal low-energy theory, including bounds from Higgs boson searches, precision electroweak parameters, and flavor changing neutral current processes. We show that the model can provide a contribution to D0-D0-bar mixing as large as the current experimental bound.Comment: 16 pages RevTeX, 3 Figure

Identification and analysis of large paleo-landslides at Mount Burnaby, British Columbia

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Geological Society of America via the DOI in this recordThis paper presents a multi-scale and multidisciplinary study of large, late Pleistocene or early Holocene slumps in Eocene sedimentary rocks at Mount Burnaby, just east of Vancouver, British Columbia (BC). Airborne LiDAR and field data were integrated into a GIS to understand the origin, kinematics, and subsequent history of the landslides. Products derived from the bare-earth LiDAR data include an engineering geomorphology map, shaded relief maps, and several LiDAR slope profiles. To understand the landslides better, we analyzed discontinuities and structural lineaments. The structure of the Eocene rocks underlying Mount Burnaby was compared with trends of local lineaments, and the shape of the coastline of Burrard Inlet and Indian Arm, and trends of regional faults and lineaments identified by previous researchers working in southwest BC. Two main joint systems likely played a key role in conditioning the north slope of Mount Burnaby for failure. The landslides probably happened during or soon after deglaciation of the area at the end of the Pleistocene on the steep north face of Mount Burnaby after a 200-m fall in relative sea level caused by glacio-isostatic uplift of the crust.We are grateful to BGC Engineering for its support of our research, and in particular acknowledge Alex Baumgard, who helped us secure LiDAR imagery and funding that allowed us to undertake the project. The research was supported with grants provided by Kinder Morgan Canada and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery Grants to ds and jjc)

Is the standard Higgs scalar elementary?

In the standard electroweak model, the measured top quark mass requires a sizeable Yukawa coupling to the fundamental scalar. This large coupling alone might induce a dynamical breaking of the electroweak symmetry as well as non-perturbative effects. If such is the case, even a standard Higgs scalar as light as 80 GeV should have a non-negligible $t \bar{t}$ component induced by the top condensate.Comment: 8 pages, Latex fil

A robust sar speckle tracking workflow for measuring and interpreting the 3d surface displacement of landslides

We present a workflow for investigating large, slow‐moving landslides which combines the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technique, GIS post‐processing, and airborne laser scanning (ALS), and apply it to Fels landslide in Alaska, US. First, we exploit a speckle tracking (ST) approach to derive the easting, northing, and vertical components of the displacement vectors across the rock slope for two five‐year windows, 2010–2015 and 2015–2020. Then, we perform post‐processing in a GIS environment to derive displacement magnitude, trend, and plunge maps of the landslide area. Finally, we compare the ST‐derived displacement data with structural lineament maps and profiles extracted from the ALS dataset. Relying on remotely sensed data, we estimate that the thickness of the slide mass is more than 100 m and displacements occur through a combination of slumping at the toe and planar sliding in the central and upper slope. Our approach provides information and interpretations that can assist in optimizing and planning fieldwork activities and site investigations at landslides in remote locations

Environmental Change in Garibaldi Provincial Park, Southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia

We are reconstructing Holocene environments in Garibaldi Provincial Park, in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia, by examining a diverse set of paleoenvironmental records, including tree-rings, lake sediments, glacial landforms, and photographs. This integrated study, in combination with previous research in adjacent areas, is providing a more detailed picture of past climate, vegetation, and glacier extent in Garibaldi Park than has heretofore been available. The data suggest recurrent, complex, and successively more extensive glacier advances during the last half of the Holocene, followed by dramatic warming, snow and ice loss, and a rise in treeline in the twentieth century. The multi-proxy approach used in this study is broadly applicable to other mountain areas. It yields more reliable and robust paleoenvironmental reconstructions than approaches based on only one or two types of data. RÉSUMÉ Nous travaillons à reconstituer les conditions environnementales holocènes dans le parc provincial Garibaldi, dans la région sud des montagnes côtières de la Colombie-Britannique, en étudiant divers ensembles de variables représentatives du paléoenvironnement, dont les anneaux de croissance des arbres, les sédiments lacustres, les formes des paysages glaciaires, et des photographies. La présente étude synoptique, combinée aux résultats des recherches sur des régions adjacentes, nous fournit une image plus détaillée du climat, de la végétation et de l'étendue glaciaire d'alors dans le parc Garibaldi. Les données permettent de penser que durant la dernière moitié de l'Holocène, les avancées glaciaires ont été récurrentes, complexes et de plus en plus étendues. Par la suite, il y a eu réchauffement spectaculaire, déperdition de neige et glace, ainsi qu'une élévation de latitude de la limite forestière au cours du XXe siècle. L'approche par combinaisons de variables représentatives utilisées dans la présente recherche peut être employée tel quel pour l'étude d'autres régions montagneuses. Les reconstitutions paléo-environnementales sont plus fiables et plus sûres que celles reposant sur un ou deux types de données

Timing and Cause of Water Level Fluctuations in Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory, Over the Past 5000 Years

We reconstructed late Holocene fluctuations of Kluane Lake in Yukon Territory from variations in bulk physical properties and carbon and nitrogen elemental and isotopic abundances in nine sediment cores. Fluctuations of Kluane Lake in the past were controlled by changes in climate and glaciers, which affected inflow of Slims and Duke rivers, the two largest sources of water flowing into the lake. Kluane Lake fluctuated within a narrow range, at levels about 25 m below the present datum, from about 5000 to 1300 cal yr BP. Low lake levels during this interval are probably due to southerly drainage of Kluane Lake to the Pacific Ocean, opposite the present northerly drainage to Bering Sea. Slims River, which today is the largest contributor of water to Kluane Lake, only rarely flowed into the lake during the period 5000 to 1300 cal yr BP. The lake rose 7–12 m between 1300 and 900 cal yr BP, reached its present level around AD 1650, and within a few decades had risen an additional 12 m. Shortly thereafter, the lake established a northern outlet and fell to near its present level

Geochemical Reconstruction of Late Holocene Drainage and Mixing in Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory

The level of Kluane Lake in southwest Yukon Territory, Canada, has fluctuated tens of metres during the late Holocene. Contributions of sediment from different watersheds in the basin over the past 5,000 years were inferred from the elemental geochemistry of Kluane Lake sediment cores. Elements associated with organic material and oxyhydroxides were used to reconstruct redox fluctuations in the hypolimnion of the lake. The data reveal complex relationships between climate and river discharge during the late Holocene. A period of influx of Duke River sediment coincides with a relatively warm climate around 1,300 years BP. Discharge of Slims River into Kluane Lake occurred when Kaskawulsh Glacier advanced to the present drainage divide separating flow to the Pacific Ocean via Kaskawulsh and Alsek rivers from flow to Bering Sea via tributaries of Yukon River. During periods when neither Duke nor Slims river discharged into Kluane Lake, the level of the lake was low and stable thermal stratification developed, with anoxic and eventually euxinic conditions in the hypolimnion

Preeruptive flow focussing in dikes feeding historical pillow ridges on the Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridges

Linear, hummocky pillow mound volcanism dominates at slow and intermediate spreading rate mid-ocean ridges. Volcanic hummocks are thought to be formed by low effusion rates or as a result of flow focussing during effusive fissure style eruptions in which the initial dike intercepts the seafloor and erupts along its entire length. In this study, high-resolution autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) bathymetry is used to accurately map the extents of four historical fissure eruptions of the Juan de Fuca and Gorda ridges: on the North Gorda, North Cleft, and CoAxial ridge segments. The four mapped eruptions take the form of pillow mounds, which are similar in both lithology and dimension to hummocks on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Pillow mounds may be isolated, or coalesce to form composite mounds, aligned as ridges or as clustered groups. In three of the four mapped sites, the eruptions were discontinuous along their lengths, with pillow mounds and composite mounds commonly separated by areas of older seafloor. This style of discontinuous eruption is inconsistent with typical en echelon fissure eruptions and is probably due to a mildly overpressured, fingering dike intersecting the seafloor along parts of its length

The centrosomal Deubiquitylase USP21 regulates Gli1 transcriptional activity and stability

USP21 is a centrosome-associated deubiquitylase (DUB) that has been implicated in the formation of primary cilia – crucial organelles for the regulation of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway in vertebrates. Here, we identify KCTD6 – a cullin-3 E3-ligase substrate adapter that has been previously linked to Hh signaling – as well as Gli1, the key transcription factor responsible for Hh signal amplification, as new interacting partners of USP21. We identify a cryptic structured protein interaction domain in KCTD6, which is predicted to have a similar fold to Smr domains. Importantly, we show that both depletion and overexpression of catalytically active USP21 suppress Gli1-dependent transcription. Gli proteins are negatively regulated through protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent phosphorylation. We provide evidence that USP21 recruits and stabilises Gli1 at the centrosome where it promotes its phosphorylation by PKA. By revealing an intriguing functional pairing between a spatially restricted deubiquitylase and a kinase, our study highlights the centrosome as an important hub for signal coordination

‘Boundary’: Mapping and Visualizing Climatically Changed Landscapes at Kaskawulsh Glacier and Kluane Lake, Yukon

This paper describes a collaboration between a visual artist and geoscientists, who together viewed the same rugged, high mountain landscape through different, yet complementary, lenses. We pair scientific mapping and historic comparative photography with a series of site-specific sculptural installations to interpret the dramatic geological changes that occurred at Kaskawulsh Glacier, Yukon, in the spring of 2016. In the summer of that year, artist K.A. Colorado accompanied geoscientists D.H. Shugar, J.J. Clague, and J.L. Best to the terminus of Kaskawulsh Glacier, as well as Kluane Lake downstream of the glacier, to document the landscape changes that occurred earlier in the year. The Boundary images were created as on-site, three-dimensional, artistic interpretations of the markedly changed boundaries that occurred as a result of climate-induced glacier retreat and the sudden subcontinental-scale reorganization of drainage. Both the scientific study conducted by the geomorphologists and the art installations created by the artist were performed simultaneously. The Boundary installation art project, together with satellite imagery and historical photographs, conveys the death of Slims River as a result of climate change