From ‘greenest government ever’ to ‘get rid of all the green crap’: David Cameron, the Conservatives and the environment

The environment was David Cameron’s signature issue underpinning his modernization agenda. In opposition the ‘Vote Blue, Go Green’ strategy had a positive impact on the party’s image: the environment operated as a valence issue in a period of raised public concern, particularly about climate change, and Cameron’s high-profile support contributed to the cross-party consensus that delivered radical change in climate policy. Although the Coalition government has implemented important environmental measures, the Conservatives have not enhanced their green credentials in government and Cameron has failed to provide strong leadership on the issue. Since 2010, climate change has to some extent been transformed into a positional issue. Conservative MPs, urged on by the right-wing press, have adopted an increasingly partisan approach to climate change, and opinion polls reveal clear partisan divisions on climate change amongst public opinion. As a positional issue climate change has become challenging for the Conservatives, showing them to be internally divided, rebellious and inclined to support producer interests. This article makes a contribution to our understanding of Conservative modernization, while also challenging the dominant assumption in the scholarly literature that the environment, particularly climate change, is a valence issue

Deep ROSAT-HRI observations of the NGC 1399/NGC 1404 region: morphology and structure of the X-ray halo

We present the analysis of a deep (167 ks) ROSAT HRI observation of the cD galaxy NGC 1399 in the Fornax cluster. Using both HRI and, at larger radii, archival PSPC data, we find that the radial behavior of the X-ray surface brightness profile is not consistent with a simple Beta model and suggests instead three distinct components. We use a multi-component bidimensional model to study in detail these three components that we identify respectively with the cooling flow region, the galactic and the cluster halo. From these data we derive a binding mass distribution in agreement with that suggested by optical dynamical indicators, with an inner core dominated by luminous matter and an extended dark halo differently distributed on galactic and cluster scales. The HRI data and a preliminary analysis of Chandra public data, allow us to detect significant density fluctuations in the halo. We discuss possible non-equilibrium scenarios to explain the hot halo structure, including tidal interactions with neighboring galaxies, ram stripping from the intra-cluster medium and merging events. In the innermost region of NGC 1399, the comparison between the X-ray and radio emission suggests that the radio emitting plasma is displacing and producing shocks in the hot X-ray emitting gas. We found that the NGC 1404 halo is well represented by a single symmetric Beta model and follows the stellar light profile within the inner 8 kpc. The mass distribution is similar to the `central' component of the NGC 1399 halo. At larger radii ram pressure stripping from the intra-cluster medium produces strong asymmetries in the gas distribution. Finally we discuss the properties of the point source population finding evidence of correlation between the source excess and NGC 1399.Comment: 34 pages in aastex5.0 format, including 28 B&W and 4 color figures. Uses LaTex packages: subfigure, lscape and psfig. Accepted for publication in ApJ. High resolution version can be found at: http://www.na.astro.it/~paolillo/publications.htm

Infrared study of the eta Chamaeleontis cluster and the longevity of circumstellar discs

We have analyzed JHKL observations of the stellar population of the ~9 Myr-old eta Chamaeleontis cluster. Using infrared (IR) colour-colour and colour-excess diagrams, we find the fraction of stellar systems with near-IR excess emission is 0.60 pm 0.13 (2_sigma). This results implies considerably longer disc lifetimes than found in some recent studies of other young stellar clusters. For the classical T Tauri (CTT) and weak-lined T Tauri (WTT) star population, we also find a strong correlation between the IR excess and H_alpha emission. The IR excesses of these stars indicate a wide range of star-disc activity; from a CTT star showing high levels of accretion, to CTT - WTT transition objects with evidence for some on-going accretion, and WTT stars with weak or absent IR excesses. Of the 15 known cluster members, 4 stars with IR excesses delta(K-L) > 0.4 mag are likely experiencing on-going accretion owing to strong or variable optical emission. The resulting accretion fraction (0.27 pm 0.13; 2_sigma) shows that the accretion phase, in addition to the discs themselves, can endure for at least ~10 Myr.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for MNRA

RINGO: a novel ring polarimeter for rapid GRB followup - art. no. 62695M

We describe the design and construction of a novel optical ring-polarimeter (RINGO) for the Liverpool Telescope. The instrument is designed for rapid (< 5 minutes) followup observations of Gamma Ray Bursts in order to measure the early time polarization and its evolution for the first time. Sensitivity calculations and data reduction procedures are described, and the results of on-sky commissioning presented. The instrument is now on the telescope and in routine use during GRB followup. © (2006) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering

Early Optical Polarization of a Gamma Ray Burst Afterglow

We report the optical polarization of a gamma ray burst (GRB) afterglow, obtained 203 seconds after the initial burst of gamma rays from GRB 060418, using a ring polarimeter on the robotic Liverpool Telescope. Our robust (2-sigma) upper limit on the percentage of polarization, less than 8%, coincides with the fireball deceleration time at the onset of the afterglow. The combination of the rate of decay of the optical brightness and the low polarization at this critical time constrains standard models of GRB ejecta, ruling out the presence of a large-scale ordered magnetic field in the emitting region.Comment: 8 pages including 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Science; published online 15 March 2007; 10.1126/science.113848

Modelling population structure in the context of urban land use change in Europe

Population structure and dynamics are important drivers of land use. In this article, we present the methods and outcomes of integrating population projections across multiple spatial scales with an urban growth model. By linking shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP)-specific national population projections to present-day population distributions at a sub-national scale, we describe a downscaling approach that provides input into a regional urban growth (RUG) model for Europe. The allocation of population acts as a key driver for residential urban demand especially in the SSP5-based scenario, and therefore regional (sub-national) urban growth. Sub-national population trends can deviate strongly from national averages stemming from current population age structures: this creates different urban land use patterns and demand for artificial surfaces. We see strong population dependence in the regional development of urban areas across Europe, and the effects caused by age structure and sub-national population dynamics

Symmetry-preserving matchings

In the literature, the matchings between spacetimes have been most of the times implicitly assumed to preserve some of the symmetries of the problem involved. But no definition for this kind of matching was given until recently. Loosely speaking, the matching hypersurface is restricted to be tangent to the orbits of a desired local group of symmetries admitted at both sides of the matching and thus admitted by the whole matched spacetime. This general definition is shown to lead to conditions on the properties of the preserved groups. First, the algebraic type of the preserved group must be kept at both sides of the matching hypersurface. Secondly, the orthogonal transivity of two-dimensional conformal (in particular isometry) groups is shown to be preserved (in a way made precise below) on the matching hypersurface. This result has in particular direct implications on the studies of axially symmetric isolated bodies in equilibrium in General Relativity, by making up the first condition that determines the suitability of convective interiors to be matched to vacuum exteriors. The definition and most of the results presented in this paper do not depend on the dimension of the manifolds involved nor the signature of the metric, and their applicability to other situations and other higher dimensional theories is manifest.Comment: LaTeX, 19 page

Stealth Branes

We discuss the brane world model of Dvali, Gabadadze and Porrati in which branes evolve in an infinite bulk and the brane curvature term is added to the action. If Z_2 symmetry between the two sides of the brane is not imposed, we show that the model admits the existence of "stealth branes" which follow the standard 4D internal evolution and have no gravitational effect on the bulk space. Stealth branes can nucleate spontaneosly in a Minkowski bulk. This process is described by the standard 4D quantum cosmology formalism with tunneling boundary conditions for the brane world wave function. The notorious ambiguity in the choice of boundary conditions is fixed in this case due to the presence of the embedding spacetime. We also point to some problematic aspects of models admitting stealth brane solutions.Comment: 24 pages; Final version, to appear in Phys. Rev. D. The discussion of "embeddability obstruction" is removed (thanks to Takahiro Tanaka who convinced us that there is no such obstruction

Kepler-47: A Transiting Circumbinary Multi-Planet System

We report the detection of Kepler-47, a system consisting of two planets orbiting around an eclipsing pair of stars. The inner and outer planets have radii 3.0 and 4.6 times that of the Earth, respectively. The binary star consists of a Sun-like star and a companion roughly one-third its size, orbiting each other every 7.45 days. With an orbital period of 49.5 days, eighteen transits of the inner planet have been observed, allowing a detailed characterization of its orbit and those of the stars. The outer planet's orbital period is 303.2 days, and although the planet is not Earth-like, it resides within the classical "habitable zone", where liquid water could exist on an Earth-like planet. With its two known planets, Kepler-47 establishes that close binary stars can host complete planetary systems.Comment: To appear on Science Express August 28, 11 pages, 3 figures, one table (main text), 56 pages, 28 figures, 10 table